Mains
DIY
HiFi Cables
Power Supplies
Computer Audio
Vinyl Essentials
HiFi Equipment
Speakers
Headphones
Music
Standard vinyl is mastered from digital files, we leave that to others. Most of our titles are mastered from the original analogue tapes, the reason for this is simple, Sound Quality. You will find one of the UK’s widest selections of audiophile quality vinyl here at MCRU.
We stock titles from Mobile Fidelity Soundlabs (Mofi), Analogue Productions, Reference Recordings, Chasing the Dragon, Impex, Pure Pleasure, MA Recordings, Gearbox Records and more.
If you are serious about sound quality then you need to browse our vinyl selection.
A Tribute To Ella Fitzgerald – Clare Teal 180g Vinyl
Alan Parsons – I Robot – MoFi Ultradisc 180g 33RPM Vinyl Box Set
IN STOCK NOW!!
MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES: ULTRADISC ONE-STEP LP ELEVATES THE AUDIOPHILE STANDARD WHILE OFFERING ONE-FLIP CONVENIENCE Most audiophiles know Alan Parsons Project’s I Robot by heart. Engineered by Parsons after he performed the same duties on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the 1977 record reigns as a disc whose taut bass, crisp highs, clean production, and seemingly limitless dynamic range are matched only by the sensational prog-rock fare helmed by the keyboardist. Not surprisingly, it’s been issued myriad times. Can it be improved? Relish Mobile Fidelity’s stupendous UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM box set and the question becomes moot.
Alan Parsons – I Robot – MoFi Ultradisc 180g 45RPM 2LP Box Set
AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER
MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES: ULTRADISC ONE-STEP SET IS THE ULTIMATE ANALOG VERSION OF 1977 AUDIOPHILE STANDARD Audiophiles don’t need any introduction to the Alan Parsons Project’s I Robot. Engineered by Parsons after he performed the same duties on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, the 1977 record reigns as a disc whose taut bass, crisp highs, clean production, and seemingly limitless dynamic range are matched only by the sensational prog-rock fare helmed by the keyboardist. Not surprisingly, it’s been issued myriad times. Can it be improved? Relish Mobile Fidelity’s stupendous UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set and the question becomes irrelevant.
Alan Parsons Project – Eye in the Sky – MOFI 2 x 180g 45RPM Vinyl
IN STOCK NOW
You don’t need to be ‘Old & Wise’ to know this is an absolute essential!
Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s RTI pressed 180g 45RPM 2LP and hybrid SACD versions of Eye in the Sky feature succulent warmth, magnificent balance, low-end heft, and see-through transparency that take you into the studio with Parsons at Abbey Road Studios. Each note seems perfectly placed, every sequence painstakingly considered. Boasting front-to- back depth, concert-hall-level separation, realistic presence, and bang-on accuracy, the reissues illustrate the lasting importance of perfectionist-minded engineering and recording techniques. These releases will test the capabilities of the world’s finest stereo systems. There’s more information, more texture, more nuance— more of everything to be experienced. British progressive rock would never again sound so sophisticated, suave, or steady.
Alice Coltrane: Eternity – Speakers Corner 180g Vinyl
This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head.
When the brilliant saxophonist John Coltrane died in 1967, the core values of jazz music had long drawn him into the spiritual world (“A Love Supreme”, “Ascension”, “Meditations” etc.). His widow and final pianist followed in his footsteps. Alice Coltrane (1937–2007) sought after »cosmic sounds, higher dimensions, astral levels« – she had an important influence on the spiritualised, esoteric music scene of the 1970s.
Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare – Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 Series Hybrid Stereo SACD
Allen Toussaint Life, Love And Faith – Speakers Corner 180g Vinyl
This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head.
Allen Toussaint had it all around him – the voices and spirits of black music, rhythm ’n’ blues, funk and soul. He was born in New Orleans and grew up there, the birthplace of jazz. As from 1960, he worked as a record producer and an A&R man at Minit Records, an independent label, which was closely associated with the transformation of the New Orleans Sound. His compositions for fellow musicians landed them in the charts, he frequently participated by performing with them on the piano, and so became a connoisseur and master of all possible sounds.
Anne Bisson – Keys To My Heart 180g 45RPM One Step Vinyl
Anne Bisson Trio – Four Seasons In Jazz Live At Bernie’s – Direct to Disc Vinyl
Anthony Wilson – Hackensack West 180g 33RPM Cohearent Records Vinyl
Recorded by award-winning mastering engineer Kevin Gray’s record label.
Anthony Wilson’s Hackensack West is Cohearent Records’ follow-up to Kirsten Edkins’ Shapes & Sound album.
Produced by Joe Harley and recorded all-analogue/all-tube at Gray’s studio, Cohearent Recording, the AAA vinyl release is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI and housed in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket.
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – First Flight To Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings – Analogue Productions 180g Vinyl
A previously unreleased live recording of drum legend Art Blakey with a classic line-up of the Jazz Messengers, featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jymie Merritt. It was captured on January 14, 1961, at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo during the band’s first-ever tour of Japan. Co-produced by Zev Feldman and David Weiss, the audio was newly transferred from the original 1/4″ tape reels.
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Drum Suite – Impex Records 180g Vinyl
ART PEPPER + Eleven 180g Audiophile Vinyl
Throughout the 1950s, '60s and '70s, Lester Koenig's artist-friendly Los Angeles-based audiophile jazz label documented career-defining performances by some of modern jazz's most influential and accomplished improvisers, including Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Harold Land and Benny Golson. No musician is more closely identified with Contemporary than Pepper, whose cool tone and simmering lyricism made him one of the very few mid-century alto saxophonists to forge a path independent of bebop patriarch Charlie Parker's pervasive influence.
Produced by Koenig and recorded in 1959, Art Pepper +Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics is one of the saxophonist's masterpieces. Featuring brilliant arrangements by Marty Paich, the album elaborates on the lush but lithe sound introduced by the epochal Birth of the Cool sessions, which Miles Davis started to record almost exactly a decade earlier (like Birth, +Eleven kick offs with Denzil Best's "Move"). Surrounded by the cream of the LA scene, including fellow saxophone masters Herb Geller, Bill Perkins and Med Flory, Pepper brings all his scorching lyricism to a program of modern jazz standards by Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan and Sonny Rollins.
Arthur Fiedler / Boston Pops Orchestra – Chopin: Les Sylphides / Prokofieff: Love For Three Oranges – Analogue Productions 200g Vinyl
Bad Company – Bad Company – Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 Series 45 rpm 180g Vinyl
DUE SOON
From the wreckage of Free came Bad Company, the English hard rock supergroup fronted by singer Paul Rodgers and featuring his drummer bandmate Simon Kirke, Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, and King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, also managed Bad Company until 1982.
Barney Kessel, Ray Brown, and Shelly Manne – The Poll Winners – Acoustic Sounds Series
Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds are proud to announce the Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series, which begins with six album releases from the Contemporary Records catalog, celebrating 70 years of the legendary jazz label. The releases are supervised by Chad Kassem, CEO of Acoustic Sounds, the world’s largest source for audiophile recordings.
Each title, originally engineered by Roy DuNann and/or Howard Holzer, features all-analog mastering from the original tapes by legendary engineer Bernie Grundman (himself a former employee of the label), as well as unsurpassed audiophile pressing on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, presented in a Stoughton Printing old-style tip-on jacket.
The series highlights gems from Contemporary’s extraordinary catalog and features artists who both defined and expanded the sound of West Coast jazz.
.
Belanger & Bisson – Conversations Vinyl
The multi-talented pianist and vocalist Anne Bisson and cellist Vincent Belanger collaborate for an album of musical “Conversations”.
The album includes music composed by Belanger and Bisson along with Sylvie Massicote, Pierre Lenoir, David Chesky, Vincent’s uncle Marc Belanger, and Fung Sou. The variety of composers brings a variety of styles to the table including Chinese music (sung in Mandarin), jazz, Latin rhythms, Bossa Nova, and songs of relationships and lost loves
Benny Golson – Groovin’ with Golson (Stereo) – Analogue Productions 180g Vinyl
Benny Golson, who came to the attention of the jazz public with Tadd Dameron's band and Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra, was a member of the Jazztet — the group he had formed with Art Farmer — at the time of this recording. Farmer is not with him in this recording but another Jazztet-mate, trombonist Curtis Fuller, is. Although this session is not as structured as the three-horn efforts of the Jazztet, there is a balance between blowing and Golson's writing that makes for a felicitous blend, whether on Golson's own "My Blues House," Gene Krupa's old burner, "Drum/Boogie," or Jerome Kern's "Yesterdays." And with Art Blakey on drums things cook when they have to, and simmer at the right moments. With Curtis Fuller, Ray Bryant, Paul Chambers and Art Blakey.
Big John Patton – Let ‘Em Roll – Blue Note (Tone Poet) 180g Vinyl
On 1967's Schizophrenia Shorter arrived at the pinnacle of post-bop and gazed out at the horizons around him. A current of the avant-garde already coursed through his music and the next time he would enter the studio for Blue Note would be for his 1969 fusion exploration Super Nova. But in this moment, he produced one of his most complete and stylistically diverse artistic statements with a sextet of like-minded musical adventurers, including James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. The six-song set of original compositions includes several of Shorter's most enduring themes including the unforgettable groove of "Tom Thumb," the evocative "Go," and the beautiful ballad "Miyako," as well as Spaulding's churning piece "Kryptonite."
Bill Evans and Jim Hall – Undercurrent – Mofi Vinyl
Special Offer While Stocks Last
Diverse Set Encompasses Ballads, Waltzes, Hard-Swinging Bop
Bill Evans catapulted to the top of the jazz world in June 1961 after reeling off three straight masterpiece sessions at New York’s Village Vanguard with his trio. Yet the emotional highs came to a screeching halt shortly thereafter when bassist Scott LaFaro died in a car accident. Devastated, Evans refrained from playing for nearly a year. If not for an inspirational collaboration of tremendous creative outpouring, one wonders what fate may have befallen Evans. Undercurrent, the outcome of two studio sessions with guitarist Jim Hall, is that project.
Bill Evans At The Montreux Jazz Festival – Verve Reissue – 180G Vinyl
Winner of the 1969 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group!
As others have noted, this album occupies a unique place in the Bill Evans discography. It's the only album to document drummer Jack deJohnette's too-short stay in the trio. The trio's performance on this album won them the 1969 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group.
Bill Withers’ Greatest Hits 180g Mofi Vinyl
Bill Withers’ Smooth Soul Voice, Mellow Grooves, and Gospel Accents Inform Beloved Work: Booker T. Jones, Al Jackson, and Stephen Stills Among Guests.
A veritable template for British soul contemporaries like Sam Smith and an extension of the timeless fare explored by Van Morrison, Curtis Mayfield, and Al Green, Bill Withers’ Greatest Hits belongs in every music lover’s library.
Billie Holiday – All Or Nothing At All – Analogue Productions – 2 x 180g 45RPM Mono Vinyl
Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound
"...the third (Billie Holiday album) to receive the two-disc 45 RPM treatment by Analogue Productions. ... Billie sounds like she's at the microphone in your living room. The instruments are spread out between the speakers and there is plenty of depth. A pristine original has a bit more pronounced vocal sibilance and air, and this reissue smooths that out a bit. That aside, this is a fabulous reissue of essential music. Highest recommendation." — Recording = 9.5/10; Music = 10/10 — Dennis D. Davis, Hi-Fi +, Issue 95
Billie Holiday – Songs For Distingue Lovers – Analogue Productions 180g Stereo Vinyl
It is undeniable that Billie Holiday’s singing changed in her later years. Her voice darkened and shifted to a lower range. Her economy of means distilled her sound to its expressive essence — a kind of heightened speech. The classic LP Songs For Distingue Lovers has also deepened and become burnished with time. Maybe it’s that still-arresting word, “distingue”; maybe it’s that iconic, tinted image of Lady Day on the cover. But now that legendary LP, with the singer’s best studio work of the Fifties, is available through the Acoustic Sounds Series.
Billy Joel – 52nd Street 180g 45RPM 2LP Mofi Vinyl
Mainstream Perfection: Melodic Devices, Passionate Singing, Sophisticated Arrangements, Jazzy Backdrop Walk Down 52nd Street
Some artists embrace their success by repeating the steps that originally granted them fame. Billy Joel did the opposite, refusing to be contained by prescribed approaches or constrained by a given label. The follow-up to the breakthrough TI, 52nd Street further expands on its predecessor's bold production techniques and inventive arrangements, incorporating more sophisticated textures as well as reflecting a jazz edge gleaned from New York City's thriving club scene.
Billy Joel – Turnstiles Mofi SACD
Experience The Orchestral Sweep, Ravishing Poignancy Like Never Before
By 1976, Billy Joel had proven his merit as an auteur of California-based singer-songwriter pop-rock. On Turnstiles, the legend focuses his attention on more ambitious matters: Making an album whose scope and range dwarf that of his previous work, and shot his star into the stratosphere. Encompassing everything from urgent rock to soft pop and saloon fare, Turnstiles is a classic of major proportions. We have gone back to the original master tapes to present Joel's encompassing music the way it was always intended to be experienced: Intimate, detailed, expressive, warm. The record's widescreen sonics are at last properly cinematic, flush with colors, textures, and atmosphere.
Blood, Sweat and Tears – Blood, Sweat and Tears – Mofi Ultradisc 180g 45RPM 2LP Box Set
IN STOCK
Very Limited Availability
Don't call it a comeback. Not only did Blood, Sweat & Tears' eponymous album establish new precedents for musical fusion and record production upon release in late 1968, the quadruple-platinum set marked a new commercial beginning for a cross-cultural group nearly decimated months earlier when its prominent co-founder, Al Kooper, departed along with two other members. The resultant sophomore effort simply went on to top the charts for seven straight weeks, earn the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, spawn three successive Top 5 singles, and land the group a headlining slot at Woodstock. No wonder its reputation remains golden among listeners, particularly audiophiles, which have never experienced the hybrid fare in more vibrant fashion than on this collectible reissue.
Blue Mitchell Quintet – Down With It! – Blue Note Tone Poet Series 180g Vinyl
Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan MOFI 180g 45RPM Mono 2 LP Vinyl Offer
Special price while stocks last
Understated 1962 Debut Launched Immeasurably Influential Career: Inspired by Woody Guthrie and Blues Legends, Clearest Connection to Dylan's Purist Folk Roots
Made when mono was still king, Bob Dylan's self-titled 1962 debut is as understated of an entrance as any significant musician as ever made. Already well-versed in American roots music, Dylan simultaneously pays homage to tradition and extends it by putting his own stamp on classic material that metaphorically functions as the soil of our contemporary songs and styles. Free of ego, and performed with masterful conviction, Bob Dylan ranks with the debut efforts of similar artistic giants Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.
Bob Dylan – Good As I Been To You – 180g 33RPM Mofi SuperVinyl
BOB DYLAN’S FIRST SOLO ACOUSTIC ALBUM IN NEARLY 30 YEARS REMAINS AN OVERLOOKED GEM: GOOD AS I BEEN TO YOU SERVES AS A PRELUDE TO HIS CELEBRATED LATE-CAREER ARC
1/2" / 30 IPS analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Presented in Audiophile Sound for the First Time: Mobile Fidelity’s Numbered-Edition 180g SuperVinyl LP Plays with Riveting Detail
Bob Dylan – Nashville Skyline 180g 45RPM 2LP Mofi Vinyl
Hyper-Detailed 45RPM Version Allows You to Experience Dylan’s All-Time Cleanest Vocal Performances Like Never Before: Soft, Smooth Croon a Dramatic Change from His Past
For an artist whose career is flush with enigma, myth, and disguise, Nashville Skylinestill surprises more than almost any other Bob Dylan move more than four decades after its original release. Distinguished from every other Dylan album by virtue of the smooth vocal performances and simple ease, the 1969 record witnesses the icon’s full-on foray into country and trailblazing of the country-rock movement that followed. Cozy, charming, and warm, the rustic set remains for many hardcore fans the Bard’s most enjoyable effort. And most inimitable. The result of quitting smoking, Dylan’s voice is in pristine shape, nearly unidentifiable from the nasal wheeze and folk accents displayed on prior records.
