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Audiophile Donovan

By Michael Jones

June 2006

Sundazed have released the 1966 classic album on an 180g audiophile LP

Stoyteller has been released as an audiophile LP, with a bonus 12" 45 with four big Donovan hits

The first release of Storyteller was on a hybrid SACD

Donovan: Sunshine Superman

Sundazed LP

Donovan changed the public’s perception of him with the title track, from an acoustic guitar folkie to a psychedelic 60s artist. Released in 1966, the Sunshine Superman album is arguably the best of his 1960s albums and one that stands up to repeated listening today.

Sundazed may claim that their LPs are faithful recreations of the originals, but they’re not. The original LPs weren’t produced on thick 180g virgin vinyl, which is dead flat and quiet. Nor did the original LPs receive the obsessive care that Bob Irwin’s team at Sundazed can pay to their reissues.

So why would you want to buy this LP when the album is readily available on CD, including a recent remaster with bonus tracks? The reason is sound.

Thanks to AudioEnz forum member Maxgate I was able to borrow an older CD of this album and the latest remaster. Despite having a touch of the “electronics” about it and quite audible tape hiss, the early Epic CD wasn’t too bad. Certainly, there were signs that the original recording could have been something good.

The recent remastered CD, in contrast, was a mess. Despite (or perhaps because of) all the latest mastering technology at the Abbey Road Mastering Studio (not to be confused with the recording studio) the remaster sounds far worse than the original CD and (especially) the Sundazed LP.

All of the tracks sound heavily processed, with the original life in the music being removed. On several tracks it’s as if a blanket had been thrown over the speakers, or as if Donovan and musicians were playing into a vacuum. Donovan’s vocal timbre is altered and instruments sound muted. The blame for this can be firmly laid at the door of mastering engineer Peter Mew, who has a well deserved reputation for imposing such a sound on just about any music he gets his hands on. The title track sounds particularly bad, as if the sole criterion for “goodness” was the complete absence of tape hiss, no matter what the processing might do to the music.

The contrast to the Sundazed LP is remarkable. The Sundazed effort blossoms from the speakers, with a natural quality to the voice and the vast array of instruments used. It’s easily the best sounding issue of Sunshine Superman that I’ve come across.

There’s only one caveat in my praise for the Sundazed LP. While the vinyl is super quiet, there were three loud “pops” caused by foreign objects apparently embedded in the vinyl. Cleaning on my Nitty Gritty didn’t help; neither did my more (ahem) manual methods. Given Sundazed has a great reputation for quality, I assume that this is just a bad sample that came my way.

Donovan: Storyteller (Hybrid SACD and LP)

Audio Fidelity

Storyteller is an unusual Donovan compilation, in that it concentrates on the singles and album tacks that Donovan recorded for Pye records in 1965. That might not sound like much, but Donovan released two LPs and a handful of singles in that time. As a bonus, Storyteller also includes four later singles released on Epic in 1966 and 1968.

Outside of a couple of songs (Catch The Wind and Universal Soldier) it’s possible that most of the Pye material will be unfamiliar to the more casual Donovan listener. Don’t be put off – this is hugely enjoyable acoustic guitar, folk-based and sometimes jazzy music.

And don’t be put off that all of the Pye tracks are in mono (there’s still a misperception that “mono” somehow equals “inferior”). There’s a “you are there” quality to the recordings that you’ll be hard pressed to find in almost any recording from the past twenty years.

Storyteller also includes four hits (in stereo) from the latter Epic era. Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow and Hurdy Gurdy Man are deservedly regarded as classics from the 1960s. As for Atlantis, well I can only assume that Donovan and his team were consuming too many recreational pharmaceuticals to realise just how naff this song was. And still is.

The Hybrid SACD (which can be played on all CD players) contains 14 songs, 10 of which are from the Pye year. It sounds superb, whether playing the CD or SACD layer. The SACD came out in 2003, while the vinyl version, produced in co-operation with MS Music, was released last year. Audio Fidelity use the careful and obsessive Steve Hoffman for mastering their discs, and it shows in the sound quality.

The LP has several advantages over the SACD. For a start is gets rid of the awful cover that makes the SACD look like an escapee from the budget bins (I hate to think how many sales this could have cost Audio Fidelity). The LP simply feels like a quality product, over which much care has been taken. The thick cardboard, better artwork and printing make me nostalgic for the days before CD.

Inside the cover are two slabs of vinyl. The first contains the Pye songs from the SACD, with the addition of the album version of Colours (the single version, found on the SACD, is also included). The second slab of vinyl is a four-track 12-inch 45! The four Epic songs are spread over the two sides.

The pressing quality is superb. The slabs of vinyl are dead quiet and the music bursts forth in an engaging manner.

Neither Sunshine Superman on Sundazed or Storyteller have any distribution is New Zealand. To buy them you’ll have to try an overseas mail-order outlet such as Elusive Disc.