NewsTodd Rundgren’s Utopia coloured vinyl
Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and RA reissued
Music on Vinyl continue with their Todd Rundgren reissue campaign with Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and RA scheduled for limited coloured vinyl reissues in January.
Utopia was Rundgren venturing into prog-rock and the keyboard heavy band went on to produce ten studio albums in as many years (Disco Jets remained unreleased until 2001).
Todd Rundgren’s Utopia was the debut album in 1974 but by 1976’s RA they were simply known as Utopia.
Like the previous vinyl reissues these new pressings are limited to 1000 units. Todd Rundgren’s Utopia is pressed on 180g blue ‘marbled’ vinyl, while RA comes as a ‘sun’ coloured (mix of yellow and orange) 180g vinyl pressing. The latter also includes an insert.
Both titles will be issued on 10 January 2020. These can be pre-ordered from the SDE shop using this link, or the buttons below.
Todd Rundgren’s Utopia limited coloured vinyl LP
SIDE A
- Utopia (14.18)
- Freak Parade (10.14)
- Freedom Fighters (4.04)
SIDE B
- The Ikon (30.22)
RA limited coloured vinyl LP
SIDE A
- Overture/(Instrumental) Communion With The Sun
- Magic Dragon Theatre
- Jealousy
- Eternal Love
- Sunburst Finish
SIDE B
- Hiroshima
- Singring And The Glass Guitar
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I took Todd’s advice in the 70s and recorded the LP to tape. Because Initiation plays back at a lower level than a typical LP, I raised the input level of the signal going into the tape deck to match the output level of a typical LP. This did allow the tape to playback considerably louder than the LP, just as Todd said it would. However, the loss of fidelity from the copy process and the addition of tape hiss made me just want to listen to the record.
I did this again in the digital era, recording the LP to a 24-bit digital file. With no loss of fidelity due to the recording process, no additional noise, and the added ability to remove all the pops and clicks, the result is fantastic.
I have a copy of the Blue Utopia LP… It’s not effected at all cause the source was digital rather then analog I’m not sure of Rhino DMM mastering how that worked maybe similar . Just not like the original issues with Bearsville’s copy.
Why ie every damn record coming out on color vinyl now… This is becoming a joke
Totally agree. And it’s not as if any great care is being taken to ensure the quality is of a high standard either. A prime example of this is the lauded white vinyl edition of Heaven 17’s Penthouse and Pavement, released earlier this year. The volume is ridiculously low and the original closed loop runout of the last track has been reduced to a fadeout. I actually bought a used copy of the original.
Odd about the comment regarding sound quality given that Robert ‘Bob’ Ludwig mastered Todd Rundgren’s Utopia…his mastering letters RL are in the deadwax.
The Initiation LP had the note about taping it to cassette to avoid loss of sound reproduction . None of Todds LP’s sounded stellar to begin with , and in the mid 70’s we didnt really care much about all that . We were hippies , not amateur recording engineers / experts :) I can vouch for some incredible music on the TR’s Utopia LP tho !
Yes, most of us were playing records on a radiogram, dansette, or £30 record player from Boots.
Ra, ra, ra ordered…
Thanks Michael!
Oh, I get it. I am going to have to order this elsewhere since you do not sell to those in the U.S. Right?
We ship worldwide.
I still have that album. There were sound quality and a tracking issues with the LP, at least with my copy. I recall that very few others tried cramming so much music onto an LP side after that. The intent was years ahead of the technology.
Each side of “Todd Rundgren’s Utopia” is just about 30 minutes long. I didn’t think that was possible back in the early 70s without a serious drop in sound quality. Since I’m not a big Rundgren fan, I’ve never heard this album; was that an issue?
Todd had at least one other album which came it at around 60 minutes – Initiation. If I remember correctly there’s a note on the cover regarding the sound quality due to the playing time, to the effect, you may get better results if you tape the album first onto cassette. A Wizard, A True Star can’t be far off 60 minutes total either.
Taping from the vinyl would never improve the sound quality, makes no sense. If the sound is affected by the length of the songs compacted into a restrictive space, how is taping going to extract and expand the diminished sounds, surely the taping process wouldn’t be able to do that?
The taping was mentioned so that you would play the cassette or tape. The quality of the lp is affected if you play it too much.
The point about recording it onto tape was that the grooves on the LP were so tight that it was muffled. The note on the album said that if you taped it, you could play the tape more loudly. Nobody I knew could work out how this was supposed to make a difference.
The note also said something along the lines of using a brand new stylus because a worn one would damage the narrow grooves. All in all, it wasn’t one of Todd’s brighter ideas. I knew one person who had a copy & it skipped all over the place. Personally, I didn’t buy it until it came out on CD – Why would you spend money on an LP with these sorts of issues?