Gal Costa – Gal Costa

brilliant sound - highly recommended pressing for us ordinary people as the original mono records in great shape cost a fortune

This release is a mystery. All signs are pointing to it being an unofficial release from Europe (EU stores are listing it as a "Japanese import" but the one or two JP stores stocking it also list it as an import). There's no official Yashima Disc page. I have a few boots but this is the first one I have where even the runout etchings barely have anything.

But the most stupefying thing is that it sounds really damn good. Completely smokes the lossless stream on Apple Music. If you can't get the Polysom reissue, this will do nicely.

Sounds clean but thin. Possibly from a consumer digital source. The music is great, though. I'd have to compare to an early pressing to know what's a limitation of the recording and what's missing in this master. Certainly not up to the quality of contemporary Brazilian reissues by Mr. Bongo or Third Man. Still happy to have it in my collection.

Is this (and other polysom reissues from around this time) sourced from original tapes ?

Great, dynamic sounding pressing! No background noice. Nice reproduction of original cover artwork. Recomended!

Just a heads up: The Stereo Mix in here sounds great.
I don't know about the 2015 vinyl remaster onwards, I can't talk about those, but the CD and streaming versions have an AWFUL stereo mixing. Sebastiana is probably its biggest victim with the drums completely isolated to the right while everything else happens on the left, like the instruments had an argument prior mixing and decided they don't want get mixed up with drum's bullshit anymore? Jokes aside, it's a mess.

I don't know what happened to make them stop using it on future releases but what I do know is that this is probably the definitive stereo mix of this album. Everything sounds balanced and natural - I can hear new instruments in Não Identificado and I'm not exaggerating. Instruments leak from one side of the stereo to the other and you could fool someone into believing this album have always been in Stereo because the mixing is just that good.
I really, really hope these new vinyls use the same master as this one and I feel bad for those annoyed at the terrible stereo mixing on their CD and Spotify versions.

This is an incredible sounding pressing. Vinyl is beautiful looking and completely dead silent. Sounds like it came from the original masters too.

Top Notch Pressing! Bought through Juno, and sounds spotless! Can’t think of any issues! Absolute liquid magic! Bonus track on this pressing too.

My copy is not fold out cover it’s a ‘normal’ non-gatefold sleeve. But everything else matches this pressing including the etched runout number.

Obligatory "I prefer the mono of this album and wish the reissue were in mono" but I'm starting to think that's not even possible. Now that that's out of the way, the Polysom reissue sounds fantastic! Strongly recommend for anyone trying to avoid an album that's getting more and more pricey each year.