Minnie Riperton – Come To My Garden

A frustrating album because word is the tapes are lost. I've tried it on vinyl and was disappointed. USA 70s pressing quality wasn't always the best and you're dealing with fairly delicate music here. The CD and digital versions I've heard were all obvious needledrops and varying degrees of bad.

Maybe one day a safety copy of the tape will resurface...

I've recently listened to five digital versions of this album: the 2002 Sanctuary reissue and several FLAC downloads (one distributed by Capitol Catalog Mkt, another by HHO and a third, "digitally remastered" version by Essential Media Group) as well as this Airac release, and I have to agree with Brandon (brandosoul). Compared with the Sanctuary (not exactly bad, but muffled, with a good deal of dynamic range lost in an effort, I suppose, to reduce surface noise) and the download versions (which either reminded me of cassette tapes or had been pushed into hisssing sssibilance), this Airac release sounds clear, with good instrument separation and reasonable dynamics (DR10). Yoshiro Kuzumaki, who mastered the CD, clearly knew what he was doing and probably started with a pristine vinyl copy. So if, like me, you doubt how many copies of the 1970 release can have survived the past 50-odd years in mint condition and whether the original vinyl itself was mastered all that well, you may want to settle for this one: it's close enough to make you forget that it too is a needle drop.

My copy has matrix ending in /C both sides. Will I enter it as a different release ?

Sadly my copy of Side A is off centre so it’s going back to the store I purchased from. Side B was fine and sounded pretty damn good, but my Denon 103R MC cartridge just couldn’t cope with that off centred Side A and it sounded dreadful. Looking at the comments I’m hoping mine is a one-off problem and not a whole batch pressed, as everyone else doesn’t seem to have this problem too?

Sounds fantastic to my ears. Flat, quiet and nuanced pressing of an extraordinary album.

This release ----Matrix / Runout (Side A): JXS-7011-A
Matrix / Runout (Side B): JXS-7011-B
I bought in 1974 as a cut-out ,in The Village ,N.Y.C ,for $1.99 sealed ,
this pressing in particular of mine has a few bubbles in the vinyl . It depends on what cartridge I use effects play. This matrix is an original vintage reissue pressing.

This album is during the time she was with The Rotary Connection. This is pure Minnie. Wrapped in Stepney's arrangements.
This is Pre- E,W,F. This is pre -Wonderlove . Historical , read the credits for Black Music .

This release ----Matrix / Runout (Side A): JXS-7011-A
Matrix / Runout (Side B): JXS-7011-B
I bought in 1974 as a cut-out ,in The Village ,N.Y.C ,for $1.99 sealed ,
this pressing in particular of mine has a few bubbles in the vinyl . It depends on what cartridge I use effects play.

This album is during the time she was with The Rotary Connection. This is pure Minnie. Wrapped in Stepney's arrangements.
This is Pre- E,W,F. This is pre -Wonderlove . Historical , read the credits for Black Music .

Is this a re-issue?
I think this the first UK issue on vinyl.

Def digital because on “close your eyes to remember” at about 24 seconds it glitches just like it does on the digitally remastered album on Apple Music BUT it’s still a beautiful color and sounds pretty damn good for the 20$ I paid !! RIP to the OG song bird <3

Este tipo de prensados son los que desprestigian el sonido del vinilo, seguramente han cogido un cd de calidad mediocre y con eso han hecho el master. Siempre hay gente que se aprovecha y dada la alta demanda de estas maravillas de los 70 parece que cualquier cosa se puede vender. Querida Minnie buscaré una copia que haga honor a tu enorme talento.