Grachan Moncur III – Evolution

Funny story: I bought this mint, sealed in Aug 2023.
First time I put it on I quickly came across some loud, jarring, abrasive electrical buzzing sounds on A1.
Came on here and found loads of people with the same issue - bummer!
For some reason I'd waited months to listen to it, so was past my "right to return" period.
I haven't heard many bad pressing defects on new records before, but these were easily the weirdest and worst I've come across.
Put it back on the shelf, never listened to it again until tonight.
Couldn't what the issues were, but thought I'd remind myself how bad it was and if there were any listenable tracks.
Just finished playing A1 through twice and... there were zero issues! None! It was a beautiful sounding record.

I don't know how, I don't know why, but I'm posting here in case this record is somehow very sensitive to setup conditions (anti-skate, cartridge alignment, fluff on the needle - I dunno) that cause the playback issues to manifest?!

Don't get me wrong, if it ever does what it did the first time I played it then it's an issue with the pressing in my opinion - especially as so many seemed to have it - but thought I'd post in case anyone more knowledgeable could shed some light on it, or if it might help any other owners out.

Very weird!

I just came here as I’m listening to the record I bought upon release. It’s perfect. An absolute sonic orgasm. Beautifully presented with spacious staging and wonderful detail. Not a hint of distortion or surface noise whatsoever. It just doesn’t get any better than this. Of course the album itself is a jazz masterpiece.

Finally, I have a good copy. This is the third one though. I got the first awful one around the release date. The second six months after that one but it was probably from the same batch. And yes, one year later after the release date, I can finally enjoy this album. Yes, this is what happens when quality control is neglected in favor of quantity. Great sound and adventurous music that is worthy of your time and attention.

After one year, I purchased record #3 and the current production run is flawless. Plus, BN seems to have lowered price, at least in you can buy the record for under 15€. This is a definitive piece of bargain, and as I wrote earlier, the sound is spectacular. Grab one while you can.

This is a beautiful jazz album from 1964 and sounds great. Here we have another Rudy Van Gelder recording and we can really enjoy the music. I was wondering how will Lee Morgan adapt to free jazz and he did it perfect. This is a jazz beauty.

Great free jazz addition to my collection, and one I've been longing to add for some time. Given the comments on the pressing quality in this thread, I have to say my copy's sound quality (purchased unsealed in fall 2023) is excellent. For this reason and others' comments, I'd agree with the hypothesis that the first batch may have had unfortunate quality issues, so perhaps don't pick this one up used without being able to listen to it.

My pressing plays pretty much perfect with very little noise. I heard a couple light pops but to my ears this pressing is right on. One of my favorite 60s Blue Note albums!

Terrible pressing with distortion (loud squacking noise). Totally unacceptable to have these kinds of pressing errors.

A little distorsion on side A for me. Side 2 is flawless.

Has few issues on 1st track (clipping, non fill). But other than that - very good. Bought on Amazon for a "few pennies". So for that price all the defects are not so important...