Karate – Karate

I find this remaster rather flat and lifeless and it lacks the punch of the original.

Pressing crackles and to be fair the original cd sounds better than this

I had both the original UK vinyl and cd.

Great sound, no surface noise and nice vinyl color. Strangely there's hardly any lead in grooves on my copy. There's a sliver of space to drop the stylus on before the music kicks in. Looks like too much got trimmed off.

Punchy, clear analog sound and a gorgeous color to boot. Another perfect Numero reissue.

I recognize my special weakness for this band. In its day I had the original vinyl, but unfortunately lost over the years, so I can't make an objective comparison of this pressing with respect to its predecessor. However, it sounds frankly good to me. Not as quiet as it would be desirable, but Karate is not a band that deserves that either. The encounter, or transition, between the last pigtails of punk and hardcore rage with ages typical of jazz and miscellaneous influences of all kinds.

Polyvinyl had/have some copies left at this moment, so I ordered it. After reading some comments I hope the sound is good enough.

my orange swirl copy sounds great, low surface noise big and dynamic, im impressed and relieved after reading these reviews

I agree with adeadhum_echoed. This is probably the worst pressing of a record that I have ever heard. Surface noise from start to finish means I'd always go back to my CD if I wanted to listen to this record. Such a disappointment after waiting for such a long time to own this on vinyl. Purchase at your own risk.

I've had a chance to compare this new press with my original green southern records press.

This new one is slightly quieter and more compressed with a narrower Soundstage. It seems slightly more mid range focused with neither the crisp highs or the full bottom of the original press.

All that said, this is not a bad pressing at all. The difference I'm pointing out is only maybe 10-15%.

I agree with a previous commenter, you really gotta crank this one up.

A noisy press and quiet mastering make this release a major disappointment. Even on “loud” parts of songs, the surface noise still peeks through because of how loud you have to crank it to get to a good level. If the other presses don’t suffer from the same issues (I fully expect the mastering to be consistent across all variants) I’ll probably be going with a black copy soon and selling this one. The mastering is dynamic enough when it counts though.

EDIT 3/24: my initial criticisms may have been a touch harsh. Listening again today and I am happy with the actual sound of the record. It’s still noisier than I’d prefer but I think 2 years of further dialing in my setup is yielding more forgiving results with regards to surface noise (not many records these days sound “bad” through my table unless they’re thrashed). Loud sections are very enjoyable and it doesn’t feel like the music is fighting with its physical medium to come to the forefront as much as I . Would still recommend a different variant if the black is quieter.