Margo Guryan – Take A Picture

I posted this on burntable (captured on my MOTU M4) so you can hear clips. This exact pressing in hi-res (on my Rega Planar 3 with a Elys 2) just enter the drop id in the search box 11292382 – any advice or requests are welcomed

Given the limitations of the original recording, this sounds stellar and alive! Well done.

My copy has two "side 1" identical labels but I don't find any other release mentioning this mispress.

Doing some A/B tests with a folded version of the stereo mix, this is 100% a fold-down. That said, I absolutely love the way this record sounds, likely mainly due to Kevin Gray's mastering. Approach with this in mind.

Doing some A/B tests with a folded version of the stereo mix, this is 100% a fold-down. That said, I absolutely love the way this record sounds, likely mainly due to Kevin Gray's mastering. Approach with this in mind.

Pink-ish color on my copy and lightly transparent. Differs a little from the red VMP copy

This is a glorious sounding pressing. Flat, quiet etc. God bless Kevin Gray!

Even if this is a fold-down, which seems to be unproven, this is quite a nice sounding record. Feel totally satisfied having this and 29 Demos (of which I actually prefer to Take A Picture.)

I think this is a wonderful sounding press. Bold and punchy mono mix, with Margo’s vocals shining at the front. From what I can tell this mono reissue is limited so get it while you can!

This is not really the strongest sounding record.
It could in part be due to the recording but I suspect much comes down to the decision to source from Mono. Perhaps the mix is just lame or its a simple fold, either way the mastering is most likely not the issue given Kevins involvement. The source claims could in general also be questionable given Sundazeds sneaky name inclusion on the spine.
By no means is it terrible and the most important thing to remember is to crank the volume a lot, Im talking 50% louder than your average record to get a real effect going. Performances besides Margos voice sound small and laid back otherwise, but even then, very dry and less than idealized compared to the reverbing vocals.
Someday I might get a Stereo version to compare against, for now this is fine.
Luckily the pressing quality is good enough for the most part and the quiet cut doesnt suffer too much with noise or crackles.

Equipment Used:
Technics SL-1210GR Turntable
Paratrace tipped Nagaoka MP-200 Cartridge
Cyrus 2 Amplifier
System Fidelity SF-3050 Tower Speakers