Idles – Ultra Mono

I read that it sounds great, that's not real at all... comparing it to records that sounds really good (goat JL, surfer Rosa for example) it's clear that the sound is far from good. yes the basses are there, but they are poorly defined, the rest, dynamics, presence, etc. is a crap. Bad, muddy, pressing. The vinyl looks handsome and the CD has good material and sounds good. The paper is thin but not terrible. 3 stars considering the CD and the music itself

Oh my God!!! This shit sounds so fuckin good!!!! Great mastering!! Full punchy bass & drums!

This is now back in stock on RT website after selling out on preorder long before release day. Surely “limited to 1500” was an understatement. Probably more like 3000.

There is no such thing as ‘narrow stereo’ a recording is either made in stereo or mono, a wide stereo image is only achieved by either the placement of microphones in the studio and/or the mixing. More importantly, was the album actually recorded in mono or is it merely a ‘fold down’ mix of the stereo????

To stop the debate over wether the RT version and the clear ‘mono’ version are BOTH mono, can someone please post the matrix information for both albums.......

There's a thread on the Mono / Stereo issue here ... https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/830082?page=1#8250315

I've mailed Rough Trade, who've confirmed with Partisan (who confirmed with the pressing house and the band) that the cut on the RT and Vortex versions are in "narrow stereo" i.e. different from the Mono version and the black / deluxe versions.

I compared the limited Rough Trade pressing to the clear mono version, the download and a Spotify stream and can confirm that the RT pressing is monaural, not stereo.

Just bought one off rough trades website. Grab one while you can.

Just been to rough trade (Notts) to pick up my order. They still have this on the shelf (or they did!)

This well-crafted album is very fine to listen to, especially when you have angrily stormed up to your room after your mam has made you eat something you did not want to (like Jamie Oliver's cheesy cabbage & potato mash). However I do have a small gripe. And that is, the album itself is called "Ultra Mono" yet it is all recorded in stereo. If you listen closely, you will hear that the sound will often pan across the speakers, driving different audio signals through the left and right channels. This is NOT mono, and someone should have pointed this out to Joe Talbot and his friends before they incorrectly called the album "Ultra Mono". They should have called it "Ultra Stereo"!!

Thank goodness I ordered from Rough Trade, the bonus CD is better than Ultra Mono by far. Lot of bands I’ve never listened to, definitely going to check out more of their stuff. KFG