Matthew Halsall – Colour Yes

UPDATE: I was able to get a replacement copy that was much better than the first one. Not 100% perfect, but again, much better. The download card also worked properly this time. I was able to get the full album as a FLAC download rather than just one song.

The music here is first rate and I appreciate the effort Gondwana has put into these reissues. Unfortunately Optimal's pressing plant QC continues to be horrible and frustrating. They really need to figure things out over there. If I was running a label I'd just use another plant. No excuses for this stuff.

There is significant noise across A2, a loud pop on C1, then nonfill and stitching across the second half of D2. Will try another copy and update, but this was pretty disappointing.

Note also: there is something wrong with the provided download card as I only got one song rather than the full album. Not sure what happened there.

Absolutely stunning audio. Completely noise free pressing that lets the audio shine. Perfect weight, not sure if its 180g, seems more like 140 which is better IMO. The dark green is visually a truly awesome colour in my opinion; looks gorgeous on the turntable against the vivid labels. The whole packaging is very well done. The care and attention Gondwana put into their output is consistently one of the best out there.