Oh Mr Amazon, with this cheap box set / bargain item, etc...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Catalogue-Numbered-Limited-Edition/dp/B007P5U2GU/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_4

The 'New' Kraftwerk box set (the black one, commemmorative of the MOMA appearances, apart from that the same as the white box)

£64 post free in the UK,

I got one!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=townes+van+zandt+texas+troubadour&sprefix=townes%2Cpopular%2C226

Just got this Townes Van Zandt boxset - works out at £1.25 per album.

12 quid for a 5CD box set of Tangerine Dream just before they went crap:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Virgin-Years-Tangerine-Dream/dp/B007DKNEI0

Just bumped into this (was not looking for cheap boxes, but hey..)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Complete-Album-Collection-Byrds/dp/B005APT8A8/ref=pd_rhf_dp_shvl1

13 cd box set of The Byrds, £28

Wasn't there already a thread for this purpose?

The one I know was for Fopp, in-shop.

Another one of Fantagraphics' Krazy & Ignatz volumes is $6 today. (1931-32)

Damn, I forget if I have that one or not...

http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Day-Complete-Columbia-Golden/dp/B0029XIWCY/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1335803002&sr=8-9

10 Billie Holiday discs for $30 shipped.

Miles Davis: 20 Classic Albums (10CD) for £15.92, or only £11.24 on marketplace http://www.amazon.co.uk/Miles-Davis-Classic-Albums-10CD/dp/B004UVCOZ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1335808036&sr=1-1

lol, i've talked to someone who has bought a few of those supercheap "XX Classic Albums" and he described the sound thusly: "as though it was recorded by holding a cell phone up to a youtube rip"
which is probably an exaggeration, but it made me think twice about buying 'em.

the billie holiday and byrds boxes are amazing deals though. i assume the sound is fine there.

I own the Billie box and it sounds fine.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Albums-Collection-Electric-Orchestra/dp/B005LTDPJI/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1335816749&sr=1-8

perfection in a box

as for the sound = the discs are the recent remasters with extra tracks etc and sound amazing ..

I want that one.

Why doesn't the American Amazon offer these things?

they've got it: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Albums-Collection-Elo/dp/B005LTDPJI
maybe not quite as cheap (from the dealers) but still a deal.

good.

its f*ckin' fantastic.

So, I went for The Byrds box, despite myself.

So, I went for The Byrds box, despite myself.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 09:21 (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so did i today.

not picked up anything by the byrds before, and rather than cherry picking decided that at this price/deal, no point in umm and arr'ing and got the lot.

so far i'm well chuffed.

like the ELO boxset the sound is brilliant as the discs are the most recent remasters with extra tracks etc.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0075LTOR2/ref=s9_simh_gw_p15_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0QMGFXM2HYPQVNG95GAK&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=317819927&pf_rd_i=468294

another month, another cheap boxset.
heavyweight cardboard covers + 2 cds of extras (remixes/singles/b-sides etc) all for £55
the remastering is amazing.
makes me glad i never picked up any of the individual albums

Most of these are even better deals for US people -- that Roxy Music one is $81, which would be... 51 pounds?

its clearly a new direction after the recent overpriced deluxe boxsets that the labels are now exploring.
this year alone i have got the byrds, elo, simple minds, neil young, bruce springsteen, roxy music catalogues.
if they had done them up a la pink floyd, beatles et al, then i would never have bothered.
in fact i do wonder if emi will re-release the floyd material in a more slimmed down/budget style.
i much prefer this simple approach of just the albums in a nice box like they have with kraftwerk.

Miles Davis: 20 Classic Albums, 10 CDs for 14 quid:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Miles-Davis-Classic-Albums-10CD/dp/B004UVCOZ4

The Real Bob Dylan, 3CDs for a fiver:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Bob-Dylan/dp/B0096YP8G2

Some of the out-of-copyright things released by those Real Gone people look amazing - I'm excited by the thought of the Ernest Tubb and Stanley Brothers ones, and would be by the George Jones and Faron young ones if I didn't have big chunks of those already.

If I was in the market for jazz I'd be hoovering up tons of those - the Coltrane Prestige one looks insanely good value.

xpost

Dubious abt the Miles box - it's all the out-of-copyright stuff (some of it v early and not absolutely terrific) and has been digitally remastered (from what source?) Obv it's still a tremendous bargain, but you can get the legit releases, often w/ gd bonus tracks and sleevenotes, for next to nothing these days, anyway.

Coltrane Prestige one looks insanely good value

A lot of those recs are p routine hard bop albs, tbh.

I agree with that up to a point, Ward, though some of these at <£1 per LP, are even closer to nothing than next-to-nothing.

You'd assume they were mastered from previous CD reissues, right? I mean, given that the company making them will be cutting every possible cost as far as they can, that would be the cheapest way of doing it.

xpost - I'm not the man to discuss the quality of Coltrane records, really, having been off The Jazz for may years now, but when I was interested in Coltrane the hard bop stuff was the stuff I liked best. I realise what a disgusting savage that makes me, but sometimes you just have to live with these things.

I'm with Tim, actually; Prestige-era Coltrane is a hell of a lot more fun to listen to than furrowed-brow, voice-of-God-through-the-horn Impulse!-era Coltrane.

The Real Bob Dylan, 3CDs for a fiver:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Bob-Dylan/dp/B0096YP8G2

That's ... crazy! Not 'out-of-copyright' stuff, but Sony/CBS

I mean, I have enough Dylan, so won't be. But, still..

I think Amazon credits you with a £1 music download when you spend that £5 too.

There's a lot of artists in the CBS "The real..." series, and they are often in HMV's "Two for £10" offer. There's a Johnny Cash set which compiles 6 of his early 60s LPs, a Miles Davis that includes 5 late 50s / early 60s LPs, the Dylan one is slightly different as it's a good overview of his career rather than a compilation of existing albums. There are similar sets for RCA acts too, I picked up a 3 CD Elvis set which concentrated on his 50s output for £3 in Sainsburys last year.

Any notable classical boxes worth buying on the cheap?

Almost certainly. What periods/composers are you interested in?

Interested in anything baroque or impressionist.

The huge Debussy Edition released by DG/Universal not long ago is full of good stuff, very good choices taken from the DG/Decca/Philips catalogues.

Last year's giant EMI box of Delius is a great deal too.

On the 'impressionist' tip.

Harmonia Mundi UK is flogging this great box for a mere 15 quids: http://www.amazon.co.uk/La-Musique-Lumières-Music-Enlightenment/dp/B005BZBY1I/

Includes the full recording of Rene Jacobs' great Figaro amongst others.

I make knowing these box bargains my business. Craftily watching the listings on various sites has netted me the incredible Scarlatti Scott Ross box for 30 notes or so amongst other deals. A very good tool for this is the excellently-named pricenoia.com

Oh and that Debussy Edition Jon mentioned really is worth every penny.

If you need to be sold on the Mozart (which was 30 quid retail on its own when released): http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/09/figaro_netrebko.html

Sorry to geek out over pricing but the Debussy is now 32 quids on Amazon UK - cheapest I've ever seen it.

Thanks for the tip, I ordered the Debussy comp. Love everything by him that I've heard, and that's a ridiculous price.

Tuomas, you should post your thoughts on one of the classical threads as you work your way through it!

I dunno, coming from a dance/electronic music background, I don't think I'm well versed to talk about classical music. I only own a handful of classical records, and I've only seen a few concerts (plus a few operas)... All I know is that I've really liked every Debussy recording I've heard; to me, there's something airy and beautifully simple in that stuff that I've not heard in earlier, more "complex" and frilly classical music I heard (which I do also appreciate, but not probably enough to get buy an 18 CD box set).

Heard, heard, heard, I should find new words!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Debussy-Edition-Claude-Achille/dp/B00742LLKU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359673052&sr=8-1&keywords=debussy+box

Hope this is the same. Just ordered it! Thanks for the tip.

the so called "classic" 10cc albums ..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Album-Selection-Ten-Cc/dp/B009GWHUS8/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1359675088&sr=1-3

brilliant stuff ..

xpost yes that's the same set.

Pretty excited!

all i want is a killing joke boxset ...
is that really too much to ask for ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Classic-Albums-Dances-Night-Boxed/dp/B0093LKOGM/

;-)

not good enough.

want a nice boxset with all the classic emi/virgin era albums in replica cardboard sleeves a la elo/byrds/simple minds etc ..

its surely only a matter of time ..

Thanks for the heads-up on the enlightenment box CtC - seems insanely good value + is just the sort of thing I feel like I want to spend some time with now, find out something new.

This Stravinsky box is definitely worth a look: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Works-Igor-Stravinsky/dp/B000PTYUQG/

Anyway, I thought we were all meant to be boycotting Amazon.

Why?

In Britain, a lot of anger lately over their tax-dodging:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/03/amazon-google-starbucks-tax-avoidance

Plus the usual more general issues - squeeze on smaller merchants, emerging monopoly, bad terms offered to affiliates, publishers, authors etc

Not worth trying the "we" thing here.

Tax issues may be one reason to feel slightly peeved at Amazon (I don't myself but understand why others might) but the rest of it appears to be the usual denial routine.

None of the "smaller merchants" will admit to themselves that they are rubbish; it makes them feel better to bleat about an "emerging monopoly" rather than get off their backsides and restructure their business and their attitude (the latter especially important) so that they can offer decent competition to Amazon, rather than waiting for someone to come and drop a succession of fifty-quid notes through their front door.

i'm all for crushing capitalists of any size but i think economies of scale might make it not v. straightforward to "compete" with hulking sales behemoths? i dunno, economics is shit to me

xp Not sure how those smaller merchants are supposed to compete with the combination of Amazon's relentless squeezing of suppliers and shall we say "favourable" tax arrangements. I think it's perfectly legitimate to expect a more level playing field, and Amazon are becoming a monopoly provider if not de jure then certainly de facto. How would you suggest small providers "restructure their businesses" to be able to compete in these circumstances? Redundancies all round?

The book industry should maybe look at what happened to HMV and how all the indie record shops in London have survived, which seems a complete inversion of the David/Goliath competition set-up. Doing it on an unequal playing field is possible, even if sometimes you have to wait for Goliath to trip up.

I would say that small providers need to stop being lazy and complacent, learn about running a business and stop regarding their little independent shop as a display of their own collection.

The EMI Mahler box is pretty good. The complete works on 16 CDs for only £18, all good recordings and conducted by Klemperer, Rattle, Barbirolli etc. Packaging is minimal but attractive nonetheless:

www.amazon.co.uk/Gustav-Mahler-Complete-Works-Anniversary/dp/B003D0ZNWY/

woof: You are very welcome and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

xxp Can you provide examples of this complacency? Or is it just a question of Amazon's prices being consistently lower? Because if it's the latter then there are structural reasons for this that can't simply be blamed on laziness or complacency.

oh wow if i had £18 that i wasnae going to waste on rum :\

I have lots of sympathy for small record stores, but in here Internet distribution had sadly already done its damage before I even started ordering stuff from Amazon. Most of the records I order from there are the sort of stuff no record store in Helsinki has sold in years, so I feel no guilt over that. The local and more obscure stuff I still get from local stores, as well as used records.

Another Mahler bargain on Amazon is the Tennstedt box. 16 CDs for 16 squids as of right now and rumoured to be one of the best cycles.

Here it is: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Klaus-Tennstedt-Complete-Mahler-Recordings/dp/B004OGDW4M/

fuggit i am treating myself to the Mahler next payday if it's still that price. also it will be good to give a shoeing to lazy complacent independent retailers.

stickin' it to that lazy old man

they should get on their bikes and look for customers

Noted independent record store devotee Norman Tebbit

Mary Portas vs ILM up in here!

Looks like that Tennstedt box sticks to the symphonies, so if you want yr Kindertotenlieder etc then go for the EMI box instead.

Can anyone recommend one of the Sibelius Symphonies boxes? I have a couple of Rattle discs but wouldn't mind a complete set.

I was kinda wondering: why are these classical box sets selling for so much lower price than box sets in most other genres? Is it because they don't have to pay royalties for the composers? On the other hand, many/most of them feature a lot more players than your typical pop/rock record... Do these performers get any royalties from records sold?

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk looks half decent although no doubt they are struggling to compete with Amazon prices.

This is the Sibelius bargain of the minute: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sibelius-Complete-Symphonies-Tapiola-Finlandia/dp/B0091JQH2Q/

look at that lazy website tho, they shd get rid of all that content nonsense and concentrate on bunging me tax-exempt CDs from the Channel Islands hand-packaged by children

Presto is great. Fast delivery and often cheaper than Amazon. One of the better examples of a well-curated online shop.

Cheers OG - looks like promising.

ShariVari xp: agree, that's where the competition needs to be. Constructive answer in amongst mounds of misplaced student union sarcasm.

personally I wasn't being sarcastic, but thanks.

For a Sibelius box (and yay we are talking about my other favorite composer now) I would give the slight edge to this older EMI set. The symphonies here are with the Helsinki SO and recorded in the 80s rather than the 70s (but the digital sound picture is not bad in the way a lot of early-digital stuff can be, and the Helsinki are great and there are no dud interpretations) plus you get 4 and a half discs of the equally important tone poems, theatrical incidental music, and myth-based cantatas:

http://www.amazon.com/Sibelius-Complete-Symphonies-Tone-Poems/dp/B00005MIZT/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1359736483&sr=8-5&keywords=sibelius+berglund

More compact, beautifully recorded in 70s analog, and brought off with tons of personality is this set of the symphonies and a few tone poems with Colin Davis and the Boston SO. Davis' later Sibelius recordings with the London SO are not near this level:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sibelius-Symphonies-Boston-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B007CW2FFM/ref=sr_1_39?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1359736428&sr=1-39

For the two Mahler sets discussed above, I would DEFINITELY opt for the mixed-conductor Klemperer/Barbirolli/Rattle set rather than the all-Tennstedt one. I know the idea of a whole cycle in one conductor's interpretations is seductive but with Mahler's symphonies there simply is no one conductor who's gotten all nine (or ten) right.

cant wait for the scott walker boxset.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scott-Collection-1967-1970-Walker/dp/B00BCOL5YS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1369336963&sr=1-1&keywords=scott+walker

have held back from buying any of his 60s solo albums knowing that a boxset like this would at some point be sorted out.

seems that labels are totally going for this now.

in recent months i have seen (and left unloved) : motorhead, uriah heap, van halen, eagles, type o negative, sepultra, rob zombie (!!!) ..

personally i love this as it means i get the whole set of the good stuff in one go ..

hence why the scott walker is one of this years most anticipated purchases for me as i know it will hit so many spots for me.

there's a 5cd bowie set featuring the 3 berlin-era cds and the double Stage(?) for little or no money too (£12):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zeit-77-79-David-Bowie/dp/B00BQ8ZWO4/

oh yes .. saw that the other day ..

having recently just bought the complete set of limited bowie japanese mini vinyl editions from a friend i let this one go ..

and yes .. the complete set : space oddity -> never let me down

my friend had no idea he had the lot, until he checked at which point i offered over the odds as they are just gorgeous.

original inserts (where applicable), original inner sleeve notes, original gatefolds etc ..

just gorgeous ..

anyways .. back to the cheap seat bargains that i normally involve myself with ..

this as well (as been out a while)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Official-Release-Series-Discs-1-4/dp/B0081QZJ6A/ref=sr_1_4

first 4 neil young albums for £12

That Bowie Berlin box, are those all in jewel cases in a card slipcase or something? Sounds like it from the product reviews. My vinyl of this stuff is oh so scratchy now.

jewel cases with a cheap cardboard thing ..
nothing new/special ..

oh, and i got that neil young set. my first intro to the young catalogue.
reaction : 'oooh now i get it .. '

THESE ARE ALL VERY GOOD, BEWARE LOW AND HEROES ARE BOTH HALF INSTRUMENTAL.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=original%20album%20series&sprefix=origina%3B%2Caps%2C

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51q8BbSNwHL.jpg

Packaging is the usual cheap box with no booklet or notes or anything, but I just got this for £13 or something ^^^

I posted that link again here btw as I assumed most wouldnt be reading the funk listening club thread, Ordered the Slave and Curtis Mayfield sets.
Theres loads more I'd want tho like the Warren Zevon, Chic, Dr John etc

The Zevon is pucker.

Yves Nat Beethoven sonata cycle and much more. V. good.

1930-1956: Comp Recordings
http://amazon.ca/dp/B000BS6Y74

Nat's is a really really great Beethoven cycle. Def recommended by me.

Hey man I am still awaiting your Brendel breakdown! Eagerly would be an exaggeration, but still interested in a remotely optimistic fashion. ;-)

Ha I forgot anyone had actually expressed interest in that. Will totally do.

It's weird trawling through those Original Album Series boxsets and bumping into so many multi-album major label artists who I just have no effing clue about

e.g. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61G59g%2Ba0cL._SY355_.jpg

who the fuuh are pooh

wait is the first album on that box really called poohlover?

what a...

Also they completely messed up in not calling the third one Poohmerang.

Pooh is an Italian pop band formed in 1966 in Bologna. They are referred to in the plural as I Pooh (the Pooh).

snigger

More like poomeringue amirite?

oh man I need that Ribeiro box

everybody does! tbh i wasn't really all that familiar with her beforehand - so glad i took a punt on it cos it's right up my street, especially Paix

xposts yeah, I remember Record Collector doing an article on them, except it was in the April edition that year, and I just assumed it was an AFJoke.

Still, Vol 2, yeah?

oh man I need that Ribeiro box

It's a must have

There are 3 volumes of Pooh box sets and counting!

What I want to know is when is will they do one of these things for 70s Battiato? Maybe they have already?

Yeah, and let's have a Heldon one (or two) as well

^ amen to that

thought these boxes looked a bit cheap and nasty but Pooh has just changed my mind

I think some of those comps obscure to you are simply bands that were/are big locally, and the releases were meant mostly for the local market. For example, the Finnish branch of Warner has put out some "Original Album Series" comps for Finnish artists that probably no one knows outside of here.

NickB - Mr. Amazon can help you with your need for Battiato:
http://www.amazon.com/Gli-Album-Dautore-Franco-Battiato/dp/B003RDZ836/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1378394285&sr=1-5&keywords=battiato+box

Oh right, thanks! Fleurs 3 seems like a very out of place inclusion on there - 5 consecutive classic 70s albums and then a 2002 "collection of covers of Italian love songs"

The Shadows - The Early Years: 1959-1966

This 6CD collection includes every studio title recorded by the group from their very first efforts in early 1959, right up to the very end of 1966....

you bought it?

Tom is this worth buying? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Original-Album-Electric-Prunes/dp/B00DDVPXPK/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1378993339&sr=1-1&keywords=original+album+series

Well, I'm not Tom, but I have two of those albums for real, and I'm looking at this going hmmm...

umm last 2 albums : 'produced by david hassinger '

seems to contradict : http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Warner-Reprise-Recordings-Electric/dp/B000LP5DC4/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1378993642&sr=8-22&keywords=david+axelrod

hmmm I will hold off until someone says I should get it then (would have to wait til end of month anyway)

hah
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Original-Album-Classics-City-Rollers/dp/B00BBQD5FO/ref=sr_1_32?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1378995125&sr=1-32&keywords=original+album+series

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-1921652-1252675494.jpeg

It depends on what you define as "Producer", really.

xpost but then again: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oh-Yes-We-Can-Love/dp/tracks/B00EJU8ZZ4/ref=dp_tracks_all_1#disc_1

i've got that axelrod/electric prunes compilation, it is fantastic

yeah, the warners double cd set is fantastic.

the remastering brings out the depth, and the instrumentals are worthy of entry fee alone.

that boxset of prunes will probably not be using the remastered editions (something i have found with a few of these cheap-n-easy boxsets).

re hassinger vs axelrod : well, a little quick research reveals that hassinger 'owned' the electric prunes name, so i guess he can do what he likes re credits.

suspect that this is at the root of a lot of the chaos that surrounded the prunes.

Ry Cooder 11CD box set for 26 quid:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/1970-1987-Album-Box-Set-Cooder/dp/B00F8OV4HQ

Any particularly good new classical / opera box sets released in the last few months? I have an eye on the second RCA Living Stereo box but that's not out until February.

I like to keep an eye on the Amazon warehouse website with a search on VINYL as that often throws up new releases that might have a bent corner or slight damage to the cover, its all covered by amazon guarantee and eligible for free shipping, and most of the stuff I have got has had little difference from the new version, only it's at least 30% off.

Just bought the Royksopp Late Night Tales on double 180g vinyl for £9.50.

previously they had a few of the Pink Floyd vinyl remasters going cheap that I picked up.

Picked up the 14-disc box set of all Leontyne Price's arias and duets on RCA for £23, which is great value.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leontyne-Price-Complete-Album-Collection/dp/B005D4Y6TY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388851784&sr=8-1&keywords=leontyne+price

Tempted by the 70-disc Callas but i know there would be some chaff on there.

That Price set looks lovely!

Have been eyeing up this Britten box for ages, maybe this year I'll do the deed and actually buy it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Benjamin-Britten-The-Collectors-Edition/dp/B001EOOC3W

There is a 66 disc complete works box too, but that might be overdoing it somewhat

Complete Britten decca is a can't lose proposition IMO. There is sooo much great stuff outside the operas.

This year's various composer Decca Sound - The Analogue Era box has a bunch of my favorite shit in it too.

Most of the recordings Britten himself conducted/oversaw/played on are on Decca, right? Am I a rockist in thinking that the versions where Britten and/or Peter Pears were involved are the definite ones? How do the EMI versions compare to those?

xp the Complete Decca box is £182. Think that might be a little out of my range.

3 of 52 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars SHAME TO DECCA HIGH FLER, 1 Sep 2013
By
Mr. M. Beebeejaun (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?)
This review is from: Britten: The Complete Works (Audio CD)
This box set that should be an essential collection to all Britten fan has been let down by profit grabbing by Decca by proving libretto and translation but not work in the english language and what about those who do not speak english. Some of the opera that sung in English is difficult to understand as it might be well sung in Italian,even ENO proveide subtitle for their opera.Held your head in shame and will they learn the lesson,no,how matter how much it cost we should be given the choice.Decca is outdated and gone pass their sell out date.I thanks all those whose say what a shame.I got a lot of box set but will keep it for the libreto but will not part my money for this set,do not talk of what you can not do and you are like gas man and we have to wait all day to repair our gas cooker.We are living in an age of computer.Decca should give the opportunity us the option whether we want the complete Libretto and I am willing to pay extra.I have many opera of Britten and they all have libretto. I keep all what I have and give the set a miss.I hope all fans of Britten should voice their complain to Decca or universal so that in future they will not repeat the same mistake.If you want to make money buy this limited edition now and in 2 years you could sell £800 or more.No positve comments,is it British music lovers just grin and bear and it is better to have this set at all cost. I wonder if all vocal works of Britten were in French then Decca will have no choice.I CAN NOT LISTERN TO ANY OPERA OF BRITTEN WITHOUT THE lIBRETO INORDER TO GET THE FULL BENEFIT.US Joshua Tree has the words of songs even they sing in English.What me listening to this,you must be joking,pass the brandy old boy.......23rd of November 2013:With some hesitation I bought this and will arrive tomorrow.This is a limited edition and I will sell it when it will be out of stock.Is this a investment or open and listen to it....Well if it is so overated and limited edition and there are plenty of box set available so it is not selling that well to compare it with Bach cantata by Gardiner box which is also a limited edition

Whenever I see a great Amazon review like that, I always check out the user's other reviews, and it's always just one besides the rant: 5 stars for a pickled onion grater or something.

No idea how long this will last but you can get the 35 disc EMI Verdi opera collection (Muti, von Karajan, Serafin, etc) for £10.99.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Verdi-Great-Operas-Roberto-Alagna/dp/B00A4AI17A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393096158&sr=8-1&keywords=Verdi+great+operas

just bought that, ty!

Went for it, man I dunno why beyond the obvious..

done :)

£32 now

the verdi box turned up here today. minimal packaging and no librettos or plot summaries or anything much, so maybe i'd feel hard done by if i'd spent thirty odd quid on it, but for a tenner i'm happy enough

You can find librettos online though, I'm sure

I'm thrilled with the box, even though the packaging is on the minimal side. Sixteen complete operas and the Callas Rigoletto or Birgit Nilsson Aida would be more than worth the outlay on their own. I'll keep an eye out to see if it dips in price again.

i'm assuming it was an error tbh, it's now listed at £45. kind of thinking about splurging on a wagner box - really been enjoying dipping in and out of 'tristan' and 'parsifal' of late, feel like it's time to go deep.

Get (can't remember author's name) Wagner Without Fear to go with it. Despite the very unpromising title it's a super great intro to wagners world/walkthrough of the operas. He also wrote Verdi With a Vengeance which is the same kind of deal and equally great.

Cool - have ordered! Was actually looking at the million different Wagner books on Amazon yesterday, so that recommendation really helps.

Didn't think Verdi was really for me but have been enjoying the heck out of Aida. Have less that no idea wtf is going on at this stage but all in good time I guess.

Henri Dutilleux 5CD box on Erato for eleven quid:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orchestral-Piano-Chamber-Masterworks-Dutilleux/dp/B008BT1060/

Another bare-bones box set but great recordings:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Works-Igor-Stravinsky/dp/B000PTYUQG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395693836&sr=8-1&keywords=Stravinsky

22 discs of Stravinsky for a fraction over £20.

. For this price you would expect 'average' versions of Stravinsky's major works. What you get [not made clear on the box] are 22 CD's made up of all the stereo recordings made for Columbia by the composer himself; a few works directed by Robert Craft with Stravinsky in the studio; and a handful of vintage recordings of works not remade in stereo by the composer.

very cheap on Amazon.us too

http://www.amazon.com/Works-Igor-Stravinsky/dp/B000PTYUQG/

^^^ that set is fantastic and everybody needs a copy of that in their lives. have actually been hammering symphony of psalms off that in the last few days, so good

That's at least the 2nd time they've put that set on deep discount at both the UK and US sites -- I got it in 2011 and it's worth the investment imo.

If that Sony boxed set of 25 discs of Stravinsky music for the price, basically, of a single album is still available then I strongly recommend it - it is so much stuff for so little money. And mostly conducted by Stravinsky himself.

― The New Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, June 14, 2011 9:14 AM (2 years ago)

Hmm.... it's on Amazon UK for 30 quid. Sounds quite tempting - what's the sound quality like?

― sam500, Tuesday, June 14, 2011 9:21 AM (2 years ago)

what had totally passed me by until now are the series of single artist black saint/soul jazz boxes that "cam jazz"(?) have been putting out. totally going to buy the shit out of these two as soon as pay day comes:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CyI5TzJdL._SY355_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mhi0RtidL._SY300_.jpg

and yeah, they're old news too, but still...

be careful btw of all those similar collections of jazz/pop/rock/soul/folk on the "Real Gone." those are mostly effectively boots and are often mastered from vinyl.

"Real Gone" LABEL I mean

also it's a weird and wonderful world where i can buy a huge Muhal Richard Abrams box set for $30

anyone care to recommend one or two of the other ones? I mean I know a lot of this stuff but I'm having a hard time choosing

oh man, there's a lester bowie set too! y'all about to make me lose my wallet.

The Soul Note/Black Saint boxes are legit, but unfortunately they don't contain the original CDs' liner notes.

The Real Gone sets are, I believe, European releases taking advantage of lapsed copyright. I have the Art Blakey "19 albums" set which sounds fine, but I've read that other sets don't sound so great.

The Steve Lacy and Andrew Cyrille boxes look great too, but I can't say I've heard a note of the music therein xps

I can't recommend the Dixon set highly enough; all the albums are great, but Vade Mecum (I & II) was an absolute game-changer in this music.

Good to hear! Aiieee, there's a Threadgill set too.

The Cyrille set has two of his brilliant records with Jimmy Lyons -- Nuba (with Jeanne Lee) and Something In Return -- but frustratingly doesn't include the third, Burnt Offering. Still, those two records are hard to come by these days, so the box is still the way to go.

anyone heard the julius hemphill albums on his box?

maybe we should all pitch in for the whole lot and do a trading tree

ha, i think i lack the basic dedication for that

I've got that Braxton box, it's great (although the packaging is fairly shoddy but what do you expect etc etc)

is the box bigger than it needs to be? i hate that.

I have a few of those Black Saint/Soul Note boxes. I recommend the Threadgill, the Dixon (don't have the box but I own the individual CDs and they're life-changing), and the David Murray Octets. I also own the Muhal Richard Abrams one but I don't like his music as much as I thought I would when I ordered it (I was basically taking a chance). Worth noting that the Cyrille box has two albums by Maono, his band with David S. Ware and trumpeter Ted Daniel. Those are both killers.

Oh, and the boxes are small clamshells with slimline sleeves inside. Small and minimal.

12 Art Pepper albums for $6.99.

Is it just me, or is the price of new CDs on Amazon skyrocketing lately?

Wagner Great Recordings is currently going for under £12 on Marketplace. Most of the selections aren't exactly the definitive versions but it does include the full Janowski Ring which will set you back more than the cost of the 40-disc set on its own.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Wagner-Great-Recordings-R/dp/B00A2JTEHY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419152996&sr=8-1&keywords=wagner+great+recordings

Presto have a sale that will bring a lot of the big boxes down to Amazonish prices until mid-Jan, for anyone that prefers to buy from independents.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/boxsets.php

I remember when Amazon had Amazon-ish prices...

(The recent Herzog box is now approaching 60 quid, up from 42)

(Sorry, forgot this was ilm)

Decent cuts to classical box sets this week:

60 CD Vivarte collection for £35, down from £50:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vivarte-Collection-Various-Artists/dp/B00AOTZ156/ref=pd_sim_m_h__8?ie=UTF8&refRID=14A236F743TT9R6F9KNQ

27 disc Rameau opera box for £26, down from £38.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rameau-Opera-Collection-J-P/dp/B00KYMJ4H4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421262148&sr=8-1&keywords=rameau

55 disc Archiv Produktion anniversary box set at £60, down from £77

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Archiv-Produktion-1947-2013-Celebration-Excellence/dp/B00BCSBU4E/ref=pd_sim_m_h__6?ie=UTF8&refRID=14A236F743TT9R6F9KNQ

55 CD Mercury Living Presence box at £49, down from £70 - £90

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mercury-Living-Presence-Vol-2-Decca/dp/B00B7364H2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421262156&sr=8-1&keywords=living+presence

54 disc Decca Sound down from £90 to £53:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Decca-Sound-The-Analogue-Years/dp/B00E0H8KAQ/ref=pd_sim_m_h__42?ie=UTF8&refRID=0ZSZGN8XSQG7J9FN5FE0

bargain classical boxes that i'm permanently on the verge of pulling the trigger on:

misuko uchida - mozart piano sonatas
maria lettberg - scriabin complete solo piano works
sergiu celibidache - symphonies box
gyorgy ligeti - clear or cloudy: complete recordings on deutsche grammophon

Ligeti box IMO.

Decca Sound The Analogue Years is fucking fantastic but you MUST have a taste for warhorses or at least an openness to acquiring a taste for warhorses.

Gah! I didn't even know about that Ligeti box! Fuuuuck...rrrg...yeah, probably just gonna go ahead and get that one.

whenever i see these crazy budget-priced massive box sets i sort of weep inside for that guy who spent 50 years and a million bucks putting together an impeccable collection of classical music on vinyl and CD and now it's like "oh i have your entire collection for a week's wages."

Even the first wave of box sets were ridiculously expensive. The Toscanini box was $2100 in 1991, adjusted for inflation. Now it's $120.

yeah, most of these end up being like $2–$4/disc. which is roughly what you might have paid in the 1950s for a LP.

someone should go back in time and give all those classical collectors a break. "here's all of mahler's symphonies with bruno walter conducting. no, don't thank me, it was no trouble at all. really."

17 disc Oistrakh set for £19.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001ASVXSE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3ENYW8WV04AUU&coliid=IRJXNNY4C2SXO

Jake Thackray collection down below £12:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jake-Box-EMI-Recordings-1967-1976/dp/B000F0UVC2/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1421620893&sr=1-3&keywords=jake+thackray

No excuses for not buying the latter.

Sixteen disc complete Mahler for £13 and change.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/music/dp/B003D0ZNWY/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1436212992&sr=1-6

That's the Warner emi one? Pretty good classic to dud ratio. Worth it imo.

This one is less than £14 for 10 discs:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Masterworks-20th-Century-Various/dp/B00TQNMCDU/

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81tcXdEBJbL._SL1500_.jpg

i feel bad for classical music that labels almost literally cannot give it away

Went for that one, ra.

Ah, nice one, Nick!

And this one is £14.10 for 14 discs:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71e2IuiuWTL._SL1417_.jpghttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yl4C5veaL.jpg

crazy days!

oops link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Messiaen-100th-Anniversary-Box-Set/dp/B001DCQJUO/

Not the world's biggest Messiaen fan tbh but fill yer boots Olly fans!

Olly Stans

olly stans resting on their laurels

man that messiaen cover is trippy!

Emi Messiaen box is basically older, golden age of stereo era recordings (though French emi sound quality not always so golden) whereas the dg box is digital era cosmopolitan technical wizardry renditions. Both worth having. I prefer analog sound for the ravishing colors of the orchestral stuff tbf

i was once wandering around avignon and bumped into a conservatory named after mr. messiaen. had no idea it existed. i was rather moved, actually.

Lesser known early 20th cent brit Arthur Bliss 5CD set for £4 new via Dodax:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Composers-Arthur-Bliss/dp/B0056H0R3C/

^ I have about 3/5ths of that on vinyl and it's great stuff

what does his music sound like? (i know, dumb question, but...)

Kind of Debussy-ish, Delius/Holst school of English pastoralism iirc

18 disc Delius collection for under £15. About half what it was when I added it to my wish list.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005RXKKQO?keywords=Delius&qid=1437327538&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3

If that is the delius emi box, it is extremely desirable, probably the best of all those emi composer boxes. I have most of its contents individually but I still want it.

I've been meaning to get a box set of Sibelius's symphonies, preferably one that doesn't cost too much, because I'm not really familiar with his music at all. But there are so many different reasonably priced boxes I don't know which one to buy... There's Karajan, Barbirolli, two different cycles by Berglund (one with Bournemouth Sinfonietta, one with the Helsinki Symphony Orchestra), Vänskä, Saari, Storgårds, Ashkenazy, Colin Davis, etc. I'm not a nationalist so I don't think this music needs to be interpreted by a Finnish conductor (though Berglund, Vänskä, and Storgårds all seem to get a fair amount of praise), so I'm not sure where to begin. Can anyone (Jon?) recommend a good "starter box" for Sibelius?

Yeah, there was a wave of Sibelius boxes timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of his birth (that sort of thing seems to be a driving factor in box set releases, hence a wave of Nielsen boxes this year too). I don't really know enough to have an opinion on this, but Berglund/Bournemouth are always a powerful force in my experience.

Berglund Bournemouth is indeed a good choice. Beautiful late analog production. The 1980s berglund cycle (the other box) has a lot of important music besides the symphonies but is not quite as well recorded. Plus I think that box is out of print now so you'd have to get it second hand.

The Berglund/Bournemouth box is what I was considering first (it's also one of the cheapest box sets available), but since it's an older recording, I wasn't so sure about the sound quality. (Some 1960s and early 70s British classical records that I have have a tinny and thin sound that I don't like.) But since you say it sounds good, I guess I'll go for that one.

The sound picture is more smooth and creamy. Not as close miked sounding as emi barbirolli recordings (nb I love close miking)

Fuck! So glad I looked at this thread!

First time I ever looked at a complete classical collection it was a 120 disc Bach collection and I just assumed all these guys would have similarly massive collections, but looking at those Mahler, Delius and Sibelius boxes, wow, I can actually do this. The world appears quite a bit nicer.

Do these kind of boxes get sold at regular music shops?

Not in nyc. There are no stores here where one can buy new classical CDs anymore. If you still have virgin and hmv over there they might stock things like this.

Fopp is awful for classical music. Not sure if HMV still exists any more but they were better in their flagship branches. The prices of these sets are all over the place so online is probably your best bet.

I add tonnes of stuff to my Amazon wishlist and just use the "items with price drops" function to check for bargains. Almost everything gets reduced by 20% - 25% at some point and some sets come down by 40% or 50%.

If you aren't keen on Amazon, Presto Classical is a really good alternative - more expensive, typically, but an excellent selection and they have fairly frequent sales.

Definitely using amazon but I'm going into town today and I'll have a look in hmv. There used to be a good specialist classical store but unsurprisingly it shut down several years ago, I only ever bought one thing there (a Bach organ best of), wish I'd gotten more.

If town happens to be London, Harold Moore's on Gt Marlborough St is still going strong.

If you're in (or near) Edinburgh - McAlister Matheson http://www.mmmusic.co.uk/ is a classical music specialist store.

Glasgow. I'm back now.
I looked around Fopp for a while and the classical section wasn't clearly visible and then I forgot about it, but from the last times I looked it was very small.
Mono has a small bunch of modern classical.
HMV has a surprisingly large classical section (their metal section surprised me too), loads of Classical FM cds of old masters, only a few box sets but nothing much over 4 discs. Mostly stuff for beginners I guess; I shouldn't complain because I'm a beginner but I'm just a sucker for huge collections and omnibuses. I'm guessing this store has a fairly big selection because most if not all the other similar music shops except Fopp have shut down. I'll probably return here again for the metal.

Quite sad to notice that a lot of these music and book shops have noticeably dwindled in their selection, even within the past year. Really wonder how it will look in two years.

Classical sections are usually the dwindled-est, too. Maybe 1/8 of one side of an aisle if you're lucky

Borders & Tower used to be great for jazz, reggae, classical, blues , (funk & soul& Tower too) in Glasgow.

HMV had a full aisle of classical.

I'm pretty sure the big tall Virgin that became Zaavi that became HMV had a large room of classical.

I've been griping in various threads about box sets not including bonus tracks, even when they could easily fit on. King Diamond and Jethro Tull in particular but I've been put off so many rock band box sets because of this.
Yes - Studio Albums 69-87 and the two big Tangerine Dream box sets are some of the only exceptions I've seen to this.
I didn't get the Tangerine Dream sets because the albums are spread across discs, this isn't an issue on mp3 but it's a pain changing cds during an album and it spoiled the Bongwater collection for me slightly.
Any more good box sets for keeping all the extra stuff?

I think the BOC box has all the bonus tracks that came out on the remastered single discs of the first 5 albums. Would have been amazing if we could have had new bonus tracks for the albums that were newly remastered for the box, especially Fire of Unknown Origin and Cultosaurus Erectus, but oh well.

Picked up the Messiaen box - thanks for the heads up.

17 disc Oistrakh set for £14

http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Oistrakh-The-Complete-Recordings/dp/B001ASVXSE/ref=pd_sim_15_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=03ZA2H3M0JPGRW800RRC

Will deliver when back in stock.

Hohoho! Bought the Sibelius, Delius and Mahler boxes but hesitated for now on the Wagner.

Add a Debussy box and you have my holy quartet of composers born in the early 1860s (the wave to beat all waves IMO)

Is there a similar box for him?

There were the usual competing anniversary boxes during his centenary year. I don't remember if emi did one. The Sony one wasn't very good. I seem to recall the UMG was the one to get.

late to this conversation but I order classical from arkiv, they're great: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/main.jsp

we had a store in town with an actually quite good classical section but they changed hands this year and the classical's gone.

Arkiv has the Solti Ring Cycle in its latest remastering on sale for 37 bucks, or at least they did a few days ago.

I bought this Deutsche Grammofon 17CD Debussy Box when it came out, and I think it's pretty excellent. Though admittedly I don't too many other Debussy discs to compare it to, Jon can probably tell how this recordings compare to others?

"I don't own too many other Debussy discs"

The Sony Debussy has some really good Boulez stuff but the piano music is probably covered better elsewhere.

Not that it isn't very good.

Yeah it's the piano stuff on the Sony that sorta let it down, the Boulez Columbia stuff is awes

Sun Ra, "Four Classic Albums", under a tenner: Jazz By Sun Ra / Supersonic Jazz / Jazz In Silhouette / The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra plus bonus CD of ludicrous 50s singles

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Classic-Albums-Audio-Sun/dp/B007VA1YE8/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1437943894&sr=1-5

Ha, I've just noticed Cecil Taylor, SEVEN Classic Albums, £6.80!!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B1D6XJW?keywords=cecil%20taylor&qid=1437944296&ref_=sr_1_5&s=music&sr=1-5

Albums:
Jazz Advance (1956)
At Newport (1958)
Looking Ahead (1959)
Stereo Drive (Hard Driving Jazz) (1959)
Love For Sale (1959)
The World Of Cecil Taylor (1960)
New York City R & B (with Buell Neidinger) (1961)

You're better off with this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Collection-1956-1962-Cecil-Taylor/dp/B00JWS9I9U

Jazz Advance
At Newport
Looking Ahead
Stereo Drive
Love For Sale
The World Of Cecil Taylor
New York City R&B
Into The Hot
Live At Cafe Montmartre

The Cafe Montmartre disc is crucial.

This is a lot of Tchaikovsky for £28, though possibly more than i would ever want:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-Edition-Various-Artists/dp/B00FP45TT8/ref=pd_sim_15_43?ie=UTF8&refRID=01X5AFNH7YVFD64BCNPA

Faure Edition for £16 is very good value:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faur%C3%A9-Various/dp/B00EZCVEPY/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1438082094&sr=1-1&keywords=faure+edition

Do read reviews when it comes to Brilliant Classics box sets, they are all over the map when it comes to performance and recording quality. That Faure one does look great! I've heard good things about a lot of those recordings in their former incarnations.

Other Brilliant boxes that are strongly rec'd:

Complete Shostakovich symphonies - Barshai
Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Friedrich Gulda
Complete Haydn String Quartets - Buchberger Qtet

i only know faure's requiem and the pavanne. hows the rest of his stuff?

i mostly know the chamber music. a mysterious reserve cloaking a volcanic inner radiance?

the other cecil taylor is twice the price

and both are missing a track from at least one album

a mysterious reserve cloaking a volcanic inner radiance?

ha, sounds good to me!

Faure is one of my favourites, but it's kinda hard to pin him down. Often quite romantic, but never corny, and even though he's best known (I think?) for serene, straightforwardly melodic works, there's a lot of proto-modernist anxiety in his works too, especially the later ones.

I don't know about the quality of the the Brilliant Classics set (like Jon said, it's a budget label with a lot of variance in quality, though some of their comps are quite good), but these two Erato boxes are quite fantastic, and they'll provide you with pretty much all of his chamber music you'll ever need:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oeuvres-Pour-Piano-Collard-Rigutto/dp/B000V1Z0H6

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faur%C3%A9-Musique-Chambre-Various-Artists/dp/B0040UEIA4

Like with most French composers of his era, the piano and chamber music forms the most essential part of his oeuvre, but there are a few orchestral works you should check out too, like the aforementioned Pavane and, especially, the Requiem - it's pretty much my favourite classical requiem of all time. There are a kazillion recordings of it, but this Philippe Herreweghe one is my favourite.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faur%C3%A9-Requiem-Messe-p%C3%AAcheurs-Gabriel/dp/B000027O2A

It's a recording of the earlier, more stripped-down version of the Requiem from 1893, which I think sounds more sublime than the later revised version, which is the one that usually gets performed and recorded.

This British recording of the Requiem from last year is really good too:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faure-Requiem-Choir-College-Cambridge/dp/B00L5J4Q5K

The recording quality on it is excellent, the sound is so lovely and intimate. And if you have SACD player and surround speakers, you get a nice 5.1 mix, though (like all hybrid SACDs) the disc plays in regular CD players as well.

Thanks tuomas!

I think the first of those two erato sets is also part of the brilliant box

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LOrgue-Francais-Marie-Claire-Alain/dp/B00M8AQZFO

This is not the cheapest of box sets, but I've been long fascinated with French organ music, so this 18CD Erato set is like manna to me! First of all, Marie-Claire Alain is pretty much the best classical organist I've come across, and the breadth of this set is pretty amazing: Couperin, Marchand, Saint-Saëns, Franck, Widor, Faure, Duruflé, Poulenc, Jehan Alain (Marie-Claire's brother who died in WWII), Messiaen... Out of these, I've only owned the Messiaen and the Duruflé/Alain sets before, so I can't wait to get to hear the rest!

Sorry, it's 22 CDs, not 18.

That sounds awesome.

Hello thread. This Ornette box is ridiculously cheap (and the mastering is great): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ornette-Coleman-Complete-Atlantic-Recordings/dp/B00RC9WLAO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438934587&sr=8-1&keywords=ornette+coleman

Slight warning with thaht version of the Ornette deal, it's being fulfilled from Amazon somewhere in Europe so P+p is higher. But still may be cheaper than elsewhere. Beauty Is A Rare Thing after all.

Not sure what is on that that hadn't been released on the lps yet. But I think it is basically everything they recorded for Atlantic so is pretty comprehensive. Spread across 5 discs.

Six discs, actually. I've owned that box since '93, and while the music is superb, be advised that the tracks appear in recording session order, not album order; if you want to hear the original albums, you'll have to create them as iTunes playlists or re-tag them after importing, or whatever. That said, there's basically a full CD's worth of bonus tracks, some of which are fantastic ("I Heard It Over The Radio" is my favorite). To me, that's an every-home-should-have-one item.

Thanks for the heads up on that one chinaski!

I've never listened to any Coleman but that box set is too good a price to pass up as my introduction. Thanks!

'Box set' might be overcooking it slightly but £5 for this great Nina Simone live trilogy is peanuts http://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Trilogy-Nina-Simone/dp/B00D7W7330/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439239070&sr=8-1&keywords=Nina+simone+live+trilogy

This thread b costin me money.

Ornette and the "20th Cent" boxes, lately.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91WX0K3DHeL._SL1500_.jpg

^ this thing is £8 at the moment, but what the heck are those records? I only know the obvious one

Parzival are more prog-folk than krautrock imo. La Dusseldorf's Silver Cloud is really lovely. That Gift album is pretty cool - kind of heavy pysch overlapping with kraut.

I have the idea that Message sound like early Genesis in my head but idk if that's right. I don't know the Asterix.

Parzival is rubbish, haven't heard the rest, £8 for a La Dusseldorf album, can no doubt get it cheaper.

... I mean, obv. I've heard the La D LP that is.

I quite like Parzival. I do have a high tolerance for European prog-folk though.

Still, that Krautrock eh? Great stuff.

it is tremendously clunky marketing isn't it? really ugly design too

Asterix is pre-Lucifer's Friend, dual male vocalist heavy rock stuff, Deep/Heep vibes. I like it but that's no surprise.

I think Message are one of the seeming legions of German bands that liked Nektar a lot.

Gift album's pretty good German hard but psychy rock, the song "Drugs" is great.

it is tremendously clunky marketing isn't it? really ugly design too

But Wait! There's More...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81gTGRt8SuL._SL1464_.jpg

Yes, those well-know Grunge outfits Soul Coughing & Uncle Tupelo are included in this overview!

Yeah seems there are some odd inclusions in a number of those sets, I think the Punk USA was just reviewed in Record Collector saying similar.
BUt there have been some great ones. The Tim Buckley one has Blue Afternoon which has otherwise been unavailable on cd for years.
& the Terry Reid has River which makes that widely available.
I think there was an Alice cooper taht had some of teh early lps in it, definitely including Love It To Death

I think those are the same series, but I think there area couple of labels running similar series at the moment.
Also not sure what it means in terms of remastering.

Yeah, I have that early Alice Cooper one, one of the best certainly.

that grunge set looks particularly revolting even though i actually like a couple of those bands. reckon you could probably get all the original cds in that grunge set for about £0.01 each, so who would buy it i just don't know.

thnx gott punch for german rock knowledge btw

The single-artist ones can be great - there's a 3CD one that has the remastered versions of the Sisters of Mercy albums, bonus tracks and all, for $10. I just bought that last night, along with a 5CD set by Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. Overall I have about 20 of these sets - the Warners versions look like the ones above; the Sony ones are called Original Album Classics. Universal has no equivalent as far as I know, which seems weird to me, 'cause they've definitely got a catalog worth exploiting.

Some of them have been yanked off the market: there was a Prince one with 1999, Purple Rain, Parade, Lovesexy and Diamonds and Pearls that's hard to get hold of, and a Tom Waits one with his first five Asylum albums that's even rarer.

there's a 5cd Sisters box with the two compilations as well for £10.

bunnymen and mary chain too, if i didn't already have multiple copies of all of those already.

Oh yeah, the Mary Chain one.

I have at least two of all the albums in that one, but Psychocandy I've got the UK original CD, an american one, the "Times" freebie and the multi-disc deluxe edition. Then again, if it was a tenner or something..

there's a 5cd Sisters box with the two compilations as well for £10.

Yeah, but that one uses the older masters and doesn't have the bonus tracks.

I'm kinda looking at the J&MC one.

There are some bands I'm surprised don't have budget sets like these, like the Ramones (first four albums and It's Alive would be great) and Talking Heads (first five albums)...

Some of those would be "too good" to do.

It basically comes down to "up to 2 major albums, and the rest minor ones"

(none of the bunnymen, the j&mc or the bauhaus, byrds and monkees boxes i have contain any minor albums, they are strictly chronological with occasional added compilations)

bigger question for me is why the bunnymen and mary chain ones exist. isn't there a market for the original lps sold individually? (i guess not)

That's what I mean by "minor" - Whereas "Honey's Dead" might struggle to sell on its own, piggybacking it with "Psychocandy" plus 3 others makes it more attractive.

Of course, the idea of "Minor" albums is in the eye of the beholder. The Fall had "Wonderful/Frightening" and "This Nations" as extended box sets, the other Beggars Banquet albums got boxed together.

And of course, the J&MC albums all got to be 2CD+DVD sets in the end.

Finding it odd that the Ornette box set still refers to To Whom Who Keeps A Record as only being previously available in Japan when it was presumably on the earlier version of this box. Which was a couple of decades back wasn't it?

bigger question for me is why the bunnymen and mary chain ones exist. isn't there a market for the original lps sold individually? (i guess not)

― koogs, Tuesday, August 11, 2015 2:10 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bunnymen are avaialble as both as far as I can see. I have the extended cds of the individual lps. Local HMV also has 2 variations on Ocean Rain, the extended single disc I HAVE AND A 2CD with a live set as bonus disc.

There is a Sire years box set of The Ramones too but I guess it is about twice the price one of these sets of their early years would be.

Universal has no equivalent as far as I know, which seems weird to me, 'cause they've definitely got a catalog worth exploiting.

They actually do, but their series--called "Five Classic Albums"--is kinda sucky. They mix albums and comps. For instance, the Kiss one has the debut, Dressed To Kill, Destroyer, Rock & Roll Over, and their 2oth Century Masters set: and Marvin Gaye's is What's Going On, Marvin Gaye Live!, I Want You, and two 20th Century Masters collections (one for the '60s, the other on the '70s).

I started a thread about these things last year: Hey Physical Media Lovers! Original Album Classics, Original Album Series (Budget Mini-LP Album Box Sets): Search & Destroy

Any drawbacks to the Catherine Ribeiro box? Missing bonus tracks or something like that?

It sounded pretty quiet so I don't know if it was remastered. Don't remember bonus tracks or liner notes.

Pity the Echo & the Bunnymen one doesn't have bonus tracks or I'd probably have gone for that one.

Aren't the individual discs all pretty cheap anyway?

There's also the Crystal Days box set, if that's still available

I got the Happy Mondays one recently, five albums (one live), nothing missing from the Factory Years.

(apart from a compilation of singles/b-sides/strays, which doesn't exist as such)

Bridget St John - Dandelion Albums & BBC Recordings Collection.

Discovered and nurtured by the late, great John Peel, Bridget St John was one of the UKs leading folk voices of the late 60s and early 70s. This comprehensive box set includes the three sensational albums recorded for Peels Dandelion label, plus live recordings and recordings made for the BBC between 1968 and 1972. Albums are packaged in mini LP sleeve replicas and booklet includes memorabilia, sleevenote etc. BBC material includes songs unavailable elsewhere and collaborations with Kevin Ayers. 66 tracks spread across four discs " great value! Compiled with the approval of Bridget herself, this is a must for any collector of UK folk.

Any drawbacks to the Catherine Ribeiro box? Missing bonus tracks or something like that?

I don't believe so - I've only had the Spalax reissues before and those never had bonus tracks as far as I can remember.

You mean the Alpes set, right? If there's a solo CR box I don't know anything about that.

Yeah the Alpes box.

Yeah I picked that up because there were two I couldn't find - I'm pretty happy with it, other than the standard complaints about little cardboard sleeves.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-RCA-Sony-Album-Collection/dp/B00J1XNMDO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452599929&sr=8-1&keywords=abbado

39 discs of Abbado for £26, including full versions of Il Viaggio A Reims, Simon Boccanegra and Boris Gudonov is good vfm.

Three Dylan CDs for three quid:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0096YP8G2

the Siouxsie And The Banshees boxset thats out tomorrow - ordered : £13 for 6 remastered albums - no extra tracks.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B012UW6A0O/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B012UW6A0O&linkCode=as2&tag=superdeluxeed-21

quite looking forward to hearing this.

just bought this 4 CD tom petty live thing for $10 http://www.amazon.com/Live-Anthology-4-CD/dp/B002P4VUNU/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1454003594&sr=1-1&keywords=tom+petty+live

That set made me turn from a guy who liked Tom Petty to a man with a Petty problem.

I dig the cover of that Siouxsie box, which is a rarity for those things.

well i never.
was about to mention the cover.
most of these cheap-n-cheerful boxes just have mini pics of the albums.
not often they have special artwork.

Thanks for the heads up on that Petty live set. That's a great price.

http://www.francemusique.fr/sites/default/files/styles/image_ppale_full/public/asset/images/2015/11/dutilleux_centenary.jpg

Recent Erato Dutilleux box is ~£15 at the moment. Annoyingly for me there is some overlap with the previous Erato box, but this includes stuff like the DG Hannigan/Salonen 'Correspondances'. Looks very similar to the DG box but that's about three times as expensive - not sure exactly how they compare.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dutilleux-Centenary-Various-Artists/dp/B014E89QBW/

Kind of surprised they didn't airbrush out the cigarette in his hand, but then again he lived to the age of 97 so

Bought this over the weekend:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RMBmfgdOL.jpg

It doesn't include the album Moon Germs, so I had to grab that separately. Still, wound up getting six albums for $35; that's not bad.

There's a new 'Five Classic Albums' bargain box for Scott Walker coming out on the 8th. (Scott 1 through 4 + Til The Band Comes In). What I would like to figure out is if it uses the remasterings from the box set of a couple years ago, which I don't like and don't want, or the individually released remasterings from around 2000 or so, which sound way better to me. I have Boy Child and Scotts 3 and 4 from that series but wouldn't mind sweeping the other ones up if those are the remasterings the new 5 Albums box uses. But I'm defaulting to the assumption it uses the most recent ones.

Prince Blu Ray Movie collection is sold out in US atm

> There's a new 'Five Classic Albums' bargain box for Scott Walker...
> What I would like to figure out is if it uses the remasterings from the box set of a couple years ago, which I don't like

i have this. how can i tell which version it is.

it is Universal though. are they still using their audible watermarking? (oh apparently it doesn't affect cds)

cddb has just identified Scott 4 as "[RM 2000]" which i take to mean "Remastered 2000", but i'm not sure i trust cddb given that it didn't know Scott 3.

The recent remasters have a noticeably narrower soundstage than the prior remasters to my ears... I guess you would need to have both to compare in order to know which they used for the new set. There were no telltale bonus tracks to either edition.

Bought an 11CD box of Shostakovich symphonies this week for $45.

Got my eye on Fields Of Nephilim, Steve Hackett, Devin Townsend and Rick Wakeman boxes. There's some Hawnwind boxes but there's not much in them.

Hawkwind

Interesting to see that that American troubadour Townes Van Zandt set is going through some sources fro about £12 again. I don't think it was last time I looked. Had half thought about it for my brother's girlfriend last Xmas.
Good set anyway.
& somebody's talking about it at the top of the thread.

15 CDs of Springsteen 1978 radio shows for 20 quid is insane.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-1978-Radio-Broadcasts-Box/dp/B0182RI9A0/

Or £16 , apparently.

I mean, Bruce seems an OK bloke but I don't really dig his oev. Who else b available?

dear mark g, is the solo 'b' in your post a polite version of 'bloody' ?

'Who else has radio / live box sets available for prices along these lines?'

dear mark g : xx

sorry i was being an arse.

Jonathan Richman, maybe?

I don't know why he comes to mind..

New Model Army - Original Album Series has really shot up in price. Left it on my wishlist assuming it would stay cheap.

Not sure if this is a temporary error but you can get the 33 disc DG Strauss complete operas for £11 atm.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Strauss-Complete-Operas-box/dp/B00G4PV0H2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1491690898&sr=1-1&keywords=strauss+complete+operas

That is quite a deal - it's $117 in the US. But I don't need any Strauss operas at the moment.

Anton Webern: Complete Works: Op. 1 - Op. 31 (3CD box set) (Boulez et al) £7.27

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anton-Webern-Complete-Works-Op/dp/B00EC0VW3S

I recently got The Ligeti Project (5CDs) for £9.99 but it's gone up to £15.99 in the interim >:(

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00N9JCAQQ?tag=shtv.uk-21

Captain Beefheart, Sun Zoom Spark, 4 Lp box set, £22

Wow. That's a fantastic set at an even better price.

I find these days you need to buy deluxe reissue CDs really fast because they go out of print and all of a sudden go from being $8.99 from ZOverstocks to $59.99 from a third party. Like, that's going to happen with the recent batch of Saint Etienne deluxe reissue CDs, I can feel it.

Didn't it already? Those St. Etienne 2CDs were straight reissues of the 2CDs from a few years back, IIRC.

Xpost true, I had to run to get that Scott Walker set a couple years ago. It's out as a cheaper thing now, but hey.

Still there, UK Daytime dudes..

Not Amazon, but this is an amazing price for this.

https://www.zoom.co.uk/product/the_1966_live_recordings_bob_dylan_box_set_cd

and if I didn't already have most of them would be tempted by this box set of Doors CDs for £13:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0052FG750?tag=ho01f-21

That Dylan one has changed to £100 now (from £23 yesterday), it must have been a mistake. Sold out as well.

Well, I'm expecting mine...

I'm a cheap CD fan, but somehow I can't bring my snobby self to buy one of those "album series" sets.

Sometimes it's the only way a label can afford to keep some albums on-catalogue

I'm a cheap CD fan, but somehow I can't bring my snobby self to buy one of those "album series" sets

I have, like, two dozen of them, and am at the point where I kinda resent artists who have enough albums on one label to qualify, but don't have cheapo catalog boxes. Like, fuck you, Prong, your albums are not worthy of individual purchase this far down the line, but I would buy a 5CD box of your old stuff in a heartbeat.

all my CDs go in big ol wallet / case things anyway (barring the ones that have exceptionally cool packaging) so the bargain sets are perfect for me

I adore those box sets. I'm still listening to all the ones I bought 3-4 years ago. Just started my Delius box set too.

Agree with Unperson. Really hate it when they don't include bonus tracks, I held off from the King Diamond box set for that reason. So many great bands could have a great little box set.

Did anyone here get their 1966 live box from Zoom?

What about you guys? The Dylan one..

No, I guess...

I lurk here. Hi. I got it, stated price, in 2 days. Contact them maybe?

Yeah, got mine too.

I did contact them, they did say they ran out of stock but I could keep my order on-file for when they get some more in.

They seemed sincere enough, but I'm doubting. I'll give it a couple of months..

.. Just got here, hray!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BOB-DYLAN-Bootleg-Vols-VINYL/dp/B01N06NL1R

The first Bob Dylan "Bootleg" series, Vols 1-3 (actually five LPs - no me neither) = £23

£45

It was £23 when I clicked on the link. Must have been a mistake. You snooze, you lose!

Yeah there's the trace of that deal at the bottom of this page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_17?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=bob+dylan+bootleg+series&sprefix=bob+dylan+bootleg%2Cpopular%2C365&crid=136KSJEGRIMZO but it seems to have gone up in ten minutes.

Ah well. I got one.

Not Amazon, but Cherry Red have a 20% off box sets sale on at the moment -

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/our-christmas-sales-start-now-get-20-off-selected-box-sets-vinyl/

I got Close To The Noise Floor, which is early UK industrial and electronic post-punk - there's also a European box and they are releasing a US one next year which I'm looking forward to.

Also got Alien Sex Fiend first 4 albums and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry discography (apparently this fixes the horrible mastering issues from the previous RLYL box set, and has everything not just the 1st 2 albums and singles, although tbh I only really like the 1st 2 albums and singles) so it's a goth Christmas for me. Got Alternative TV 77-80, Cock Sparrer 77-87 and Membranes discography. I haven't bought much music lately so I splurged a bit.

That RLYL box is really good. I was totally unfamiliar and became kind of a fan:

https://burningambulance.com/2017/02/20/red-lorry-yellow-lorry/

Hmm I see there's still some tracks sourced from crackly records, I read somewhere else that wasn't the case on this box, oh well. Your review makes me want to listen to the 3rd album again anyway, I think I only listened to it once and it didn't grab me.

That Alternative TV box was long overdue. There's some great pogo punk and even better mind-warping stuff in there!

the RLYL masters in question were lost in a fire, IIRC

11 CDs of Boulez conducting Schoenberg for 15 quid:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Schoenberg-Opere-Orchestrali-11-CD/dp/B00AK3X3U6/

Lagavulin for £40 (in a box) for Prime Day.

They (seem to) have Can live in Brighton, lp version, £15 or thereabouts..

Thought I'd tell yer cuz I like yer.

Didn't know about this thread. I've bought a bunch of these:

https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=eight+classic+albums&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Discontinued ones can be expensive, but all the ones I've ordered--Stanley Brothers, Lightnin' Hopkins, etc.--have been under $15.

Mark, cheers for the tip! :)

Here's hoping!

Complete works of Maurice Ravel, 21 CDs, $36: https://www.amazon.com/Ravel-Complete-RAVEL-COMPLETE-WORKS/dp/B08B7LNDSN/
Messiaen edition, 25 CDs, $52: https://www.amazon.com/Olivier-Messiaen-20th-Anniversary/dp/B06X16D4V9/
Ligeti: Masterworks - 9 CDs, $30 (this is the "Ligeti Edition" set in bare-bones packaging): https://www.amazon.com/Masterworks-Various/dp/B07MCW81MK/

Note that the Ligeti set doesn't include several essential pieces, so get the "Ligeti Project" 5-CD set also.

Can - Live in Brighton

I've only seen a vinyl version that is a three lp, gold vinyl box.

It's now down to £13 on Amazon

.. Which means, because I plumped for it on Friday night, I'm guaranteed this lower price.

Unless they sack it...

One possibly cautionary thing to note about that Can set: all the reviews for that release appear to be for the Stuttgart set. I mention this because if you take advantage of this loophole (and I might), you may end up with Stuttgart instead

Well, that's fine too

Same, I only have Stuttgart on CD as the LP was way too expensive at the time for me.

If the Brighton set on vinyl doesnt come then I'll be happy for the stuttgart set and will just buy the Brighton CD

As a result of limited availability for the order release of the Live In Brighton 1975 [VINYL], we've cancelled the item from the following order and you haven't been charged:

As a gesture of goodwill we've applied a Gift Card in the amount of £3 to your account. You can use this towards a future order on the…

Yeah, sigh…

cunts. They made a mistake. Shops have to honour mistakes.

They don't, not really...

Shops here did. Trading standards. My dad was a manager of a shop for decades. They had to honour it. Online companies get treated differently from brick & mortar shops.

Well, let's say you find a Can Brighton priced at £13 in a shop. You take it to the counter, they say ah no that's a mistake it's £40. That's allowed under trading standards.

Well, let's say you find a Can Brighton priced at £13 in a shop. You take it to the counter, they say ah no that's a mistake it's £40. That's allowed under trading standards.

really !?
have things changed ?
many many years ago (i.e. about 30), i was with a friend who spotted Bowie Stage 2lp set for a couple of quid - way cheaper than it should have been, so he picked it up and took to the counter.
he was told it was mispriced etc etc.
but my friend stood his ground and said he would only pay what the price on the label.
pretty sure they relented and he got it for the label price.

When I worked in a record shop in the 90s, the manager refused a customer wanting to buy a mispriced item. He maintained that prices displayed are an "invitation to treat" (there's a Wikipedia page on it) which means it's an invitation to the customer to make an offer, not a binding offer that the shop has to honour.

as i said, my experience was a long time ago, so, it is more than likely that the rules have changed since then.
i have never had the opportunity to test such a situation.

that said, i once picked up a Young Gods second hand cd in a non-charity shop ..
thought it said £5 on the label.
bloke puts it through at £35.
i question it with a look of total bafflement.
he shows me the label.
i look a LOT closer, and sure enough there is a VERY faint 3 next to the 5.
needless to say i told him to shove it (politely of course ... ), i aint paying that.
he then did the discogs thing.
yeah, i paid a fiver.
however, that was for a second hand cd and someone clearly trying it on with folks that dont care re ££ (tis that type of shop).

The rules haven't changed its just that shops understand them now.

I had a similar back in ooh 1989 or so, a mispriced album and a staff member who absolutely knew he didn't have to sell it. Tbf, I didn't really want it, certainly not at full price...

Xpost yeah it's all subject to negotiation

I found a reel to reel tape of Smiley Smile a few years ago for £6 - the guy said "I know who priced this... and he's a cunt" but he let me have it anyway

11 CDs of the complete Bob Marley & the Wailers for €13 from Amazon Germany (plus p&p, obv):

https://www.amazon.de/Bob-Marley-Wailers/dp/B08JZK6FN5

Yeah, I got one about a year or so ago. There were a bunch of box sets I jumped at but not played as yet. The others were the Prince 1999 set, and ‘every showaddywaddy single on separate cds plus two’

Just grabbed the Deluxe Edition of Lou Reed’s New York for $35ish on Amazon US—seemed like a steal for three CDs, a DVD, and a double LP.

The Garth Brooks 7xLP set was $15 with Free Shipping a month ago. I picked it up, because, what the fuck why not? You know they're losing money on this. It's now up to $133. what the fuck? are they selling any at that price?

Do they absorb the loss. Just remembering that supermarkets pass it on to the actual producer like a reduction is passed onto the manufacturer not the point of sale. Not sure that's bad with a mainstream corporation but an indie firm may not be best served by it.
Also had somebody run through how little one made by selling marketplace with Amazon a couple of months back. Which was a bit of a downer since it was something I had bought a lot from. Better to go direct to seller elsewhere it seems where possible.

Amazon UK currently seem to be offering import copies of The Avant-Garde series box set for £20? Says it will take about a month to arrive, but at that price I can wait.

Knew it had to be too good to be true:

Sorry, this item can't be delivered to your selected address. Learn more. You may either change the delivery address or delete the item from your order.

ugh Paul, that's weird because it actually espatches from Amazon US. but if you look up the item on the US website, it's $195(!)

anyway, seemed rude not to order it, thanks WF!

Yes thanks WF. This is available in my local independent for £90. I’ll spend the money there on other stuff I’m sure.

that's weird because it actually espatches from Amazon US

I noticed that, too. I was going to order two! I may have it shipped to a friend over there. Even if it then costs them $30 to mail it to me, I'd still be saving a lot. Very tempted.

Awesome, thank you thank you thank you Detective Lucerne! By the way when I was searching for this the fucking Rolling Stones new album kept appearing at the top of the search, wtf's up with that?

Not to kill anyone's buzz, but a few people on the h0ffman boards have reported going for that £20 deal and receiving something completely different in the post, normally an album called Between Here & Lost by Love and Death. The box set seems to be scarce already – it was listed as available on the DG webstore the other day, but has now gone out of stock again. I would advise interested parties to snap it up wherever they see it.

haha oh shit

Interesting anagram, when I searched for this box set earlier today on Amazon US, the second result was that Love and Death album, but the attached photo was of this box set.

I'm still an Avant-garde Box Set half full kind of punter, but apologies if I've steered ppl the wrong way. At least we will be able to start an authoritative thread on Between Here & Lost by Love and Death.

well worth the gamble i think, and easy to get a refund if it is the wrong thing

love and death are christian metal btw, but they also do a devo cover on that album...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPS-IlxHOQs

I'm just hoping I don't end up with the new Rolling Stones album.

Ah, looks like it got fixed. Or sold out...

My order for the Avant Garde boxset ordered on October 20th is due to show up by Thursday. It hasn't been dispatched yet though, which makes me wonder if I will get one. Any lucky receivers?

Exactly the same for me. Due to arrive on Thursday, not yet despatched.

Ditto. Given up on it tbh.

We've been done up like a kipper, lads.

Just had an email from Amazon telling me my Avant Garde box set has been dispatched and is due to arrive Jan 5th.

... wow, I'll go and check my order.

... "We'll e-mail you when available."

... ffs

UPS delivered my parcel early, while I was down south for Christmas, so yesterday I had to collect it from a newsagent in Govan. My heart sank when I saw the packing note - Between Here & Lost (10th Anniversary Edition) Love And Death Audio CD - then rose when I saw the yellow Deutsche Grammophon logo peeking out - success! A mint condition Avantgarde series box set still in its shrink-wrap. I savoured the unseemly elation of a really good score - and hope others who ordered experience the same.

Didn't know this until I read the sleeve notes: "Three Stockhausen albums, which were part of the original Avantgarde series, have not been included in this edition as we respect the preference of the Stockhausen estate to abstain from such re-release." Huh, what a rip-off :-)

Fuckin' Stockhausen estate

I bought a house in the Stockhausen estate

Amazon have emailed me to say they've cancelled the order. Cnuts.

Ach, me too though tbh I could do with the money right now

I could do with the Avant Garde box set right now.

Sorry to hear this. I can only think I got my order in slightly ahead of yours - or was lucky enough to land a sympathetic picking+packing elf.

I was thankfully able to order it when sales were first announced last fall

Me too, ordered it as soon as it was announced and had no problems receiving it.

Yes well done but you weren’t trying to get it for twenty quid on Amazon

Bingo

https://www.classicselectworld.com/products/bach-cantatas-the-harmonia-mundi-years-philippe-herreweghe-17-cds

17 CDs of Herreweghe Bach cantatas for $27 + $5 shipping.

I have to admit I don't own it, but there's an early electronic music compilation on Amazon.co.uk, Electronic Music: It Started Here..., which has two CDs and costs £13.52. It has fifty tracks and runs for almost two and a half hours. It could be a pile of cack. It seems to have been assembled by this chap, who specialises in reissue compilations:
https://www.discogs.com/artist/2081670-Oli-Hemingway

Clicking through the recommendations brings me to Soul Jazz Records' multi-volume Deutsche Elektronische Musik series, which frustratingly seems to be mostly out of print on CD. It strikes me that CD is the ideal format for bulk-buying a lot of diverse music because of course a vinyl enthusiast would prefer the original albums.

the Electronic Music cd is the usual suspects, lots of overlap with things like the Ohm box or the two double Forbidden Planets cds (both of which were < a tenner when i bought them, 2012ish)

Yes, it's good but not exactly a bargain.

Neil Young: Citizen Kane Jr. Blues Bootleg Series CD for $3.91 US.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T1ZQHFV?psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

Thanks!

FOPP used to sell that Electronic Music: It Started Here comp for well under a fiver.

I was delighted to find the archival 'Blue' Gene Tyranny six CD set Degrees Of Freedom Found at £5.95 including postage but that went back up after I purchased. Pricing is quite erratic for some items so it may come down again.

Now that is a bargain!

There are a couple of really cheap Jane Birkin sets, one live, one of albums, twenty-odd CDs in each, around £30-40 on Amazon France.

The 5CD deluxe edition of Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol.16: Springtime In New York (1980–1985) is 66% off at $47.88.

xp no disrespect to the divine miss B, but one has to imagine that it’s the last hurrah of sufficiently wide appeal for such collections

I occasionally check in on the Hoffman forums thread dedicated to that massive (44 cds) Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons box just to see how they're doing with such a glut of stuff.

Working my way through the Nilsson RCA box.