Soft Machine – Bundles

A mark changed as the lead guitar suddenly comes along and crash the party. It is maybe not so surprising that The Soft Machine stopped naming their albums by numbers, to underline that transition.

While this 2022 remaster sounds clean and crisp, why issue it in Redbook CD quality?
C'mon Qobuz, I am 100% certain that this was not remastered at 16-Bit / 44.1-kHz CD quality!

Well, i partially agree that this pressing lacks some treble spark but i think is more of a laid back presentation, everything else plays smooth with plenty of low notes and good imaging... But when you compare to the Esoteric CD reissue, this one shows that the original LP mastering should have been better. As they did later in Softs wich is greatly mastered by Harry T Moss in Abbey Road.

If you want to hear Bundles with meat on the bone, pick up this George Peckham pressing. Just a genius-level cut of this record that gives it the character that was missing from the original UK.

Good pressing and correct sounding (not audiophile off course) ... No complaints, but... The mix seems almost mono... It's Hard to hear any Channel separation, isn't it? The Discogs description says that it's stereo...
I guess that the original recording might sound very similar from that point of view..

Picked this new pres at my local record shop yesterday and was then concerned when I read some of the comments below. Opened mine today and just played. Perfectly flat, immaculate vinyl and superb sound quality. Excellent. Sorry others have had issues.

The first copy that I bought had big scratches near the end of face A that made a big pop sound. Brought it back to the store for an exchange. The second one, same thing but lighter and doesn’t make a sound. Big scratches on the runout groove. Face B is flawless

Sorry to hear you got a bad copy, rjcola27. I guess I was lucky then: Mine plays perfectly fine and sounds great - I am glad to have this one finally on vinyl.

Located on side one, on the area of the record where the piano and acoustic guitar is, there is a faint, swirl like scratch that covers this entire part of the record. The pop created by this scratch is so loud, it totally ruins this part of the recording. A reminder to never again buy a record from overseas. The hassle / cost to return it to Burning Shed will probably not be worth it. Oh well. Lesson learned. I hope others have better luck than I had.

the second cd was previously issued as British Tour ‘75: https://discogs.sitiodesbloquea.com/release/1700637-Soft-Machine-British-Tour-75