old JTHZ audio projects
Tribute To Vinyl
Julius Thyssen - Hens Zimmerman

Each last week of the month
JT or HZ will put his teeth in some dusty 12", 7" or LP
and create 1 new MP3 out of it !

4 special discotreats this time !
title(s): interpreter(s):


TAKIN' IT STRAIGHT (DUB)
6'00'' CORI JOSIAS
(Steve Barnacle,C. Josias) Produced by The Metropolis Team
12" B-side - 45 rpm CARRERE (P) 1983
BACKGROUND INFO:
This timeless masterpiece has been played and mixed to death (noise could not be removed more/better than this or it would overly damage the original quality, it has already been cleaned up a lot!). Vocals, lyrics and production are almost too good to be true in this classic collector's item. Remember Happy Station by Fun Fun? Well, consider the fact that the above re-mix and DUB-version by John Luongo were made a few months *before* Happy Station was released. This exclusive genuine disco original kicks ass!



SPACER 6'15'' SHEILA & B. DEVOTION
(B.Edwards,N.Rodgers) Produced by the CHIC organization
12" A-side - 45 rpm CARRERE (P) 1979
BACKGROUND INFO:
Thought Crying At The Discotheque was a good track? Think again, in this case there's no beatin' the real thing! There once was a band with lead-vocals by the french star Sheila guided by guitar-riffs coming from gold disco-duo Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers. This is still, we think, one of the most underestimated discotracks of the seventies. Dark sounding mixdown, unbeatable beauty, sheer perfection.



HOW LONG (extended) 5'35'' LIPPS, INC.
(P.Carrack) S.Greenberg,D.Rivkin,R.Dumas
12 inch Side 1 - 33 rpm CASABLANCA (p) 1980
BACKGROUND INFO:
One of the best disco covers the planet has ever known. Done in the same key as "Spacer" (above) by the way. The vinyl is a typical average Casablanca pressing, regrettably they weren't masters at mastering vinyl. Nonetheless, it *is* a 21 year old disc, so we can't really complain. And yes, the ending is really as hard-cut as the mp3 file shows. In the photo you see Cynthia Johnson (vocals) and David Rivkin (guitar). Singing in the back were Melanie Rosales and Ronnie Robbins, and Roger Dumas and Steven Greenberg did the synths, bass, drums, piano and programming. Top-voted track on this page off and on througout the year.


A REQUEST FOR
THE NEXT TRIBUTE TO VINYL?

WE ONLY DO TRACKS/VERSIONS NOT CLEARLY AVAILABLE ON CD
AND PREFER OLD DISCO/DANCE RELATED STUFF

Your entry suddenly disappeared from the list? This means:
  • The track/version you added has been encoded by us before! If you're lucky it's still available from the huge archive: CLICK HERE FOR FTP instructions
  • The track/version you added is WIDELY AVAILABLE ON CD.
    You can check this at cd-Europe, amazon or cd-links
  • We simply don't like or don't have the track you entered! Sometimes we search in local record stores and look for the requested vinyl. If we find it you're lucky ;-)
  • Somewhere during the last week of each month we pick the top voted track to encode, this entry logically disappears from the list. Previous votes on other entries are added (we never reset the vote-count).

    This is how we party :
    For this purpose we have a special bypass-connection in 1 of our studios, using a dedicated luxman RIAA amp ( MM SN-ratio 92dB, response 10Hz~22kHz within 0.4 dB, THD 0.01 % ) to achieve the highest possible quality without any loss or additional noise or hum. A fresh Nagaoka needle is used on our best record-player, with 2grams needlepressure on cleaned vinyl (although most vinyl-damage can't be undone...) Pure vinyl audio then goes to the analog inputs on a Gina24, and after checking and normalizing the WAV, it's being encoded using L.A.M.E. to a High Quality VBR MPEG Layer 3 audiofile. In case ticks from the vinyl are really too heavy we repair the wav-file a little first, but we like to keep it as original a copy as possible, including drop-outs and other sounds that were in the master(s).



    LEGAL STUFF:   According to international law MP3's are perfectly legal to download, provided you own a (legal) CD with the given music on it. However, the copyrighted music on this site is not being printed anymore or not on CD (yet), or the CD lacks the version available through this site. Maybe this page helps getting it released! The MP3 on this page is for promotional and preview purposes only. We are not responsible for any problems that may arise from the possession of the file; We make no money with this page here, it is simply a means of sharing our large and special vinyl record collection with DeeJays and friends. Please help support the artists, purchase the music you like!