The Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976) {MFSL 1-204} 24-bit/96 kHz Vinyl Rip 
Posted By : Dr. Robert | Date : 26 Oct 2010 19:06:12 |


The Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/96kHz | FLAC (5% Recovery) | m3u, no cue or log | Full LP Artwork
740 MB (24/96)| RS + HF | Prog Rock | 1976
Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs - MFSL 1-294 (1994)
Half-Speed Mastered ~ 200 gram *anadisq 200*

	
Tales of Mystery and Imagination is the debut album by the progressive rock group The Alan Parsons Project, released in 1976. The album's avant-garde soundscapes kept it from being a blockbuster, but the interesting lyrical and musical themes — retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe — attracted a small audience. The title of the album is taken from a popular title for Poe's macabre tales of the same name, Tales of Mystery & Imagination, first published in 1908 and many times since under this name. Critical reaction to the album was often mixed; for example, Rolling Stones Billy Altman concluded that it mostly failed at reproducing Poe's tension and macabre fear, ending by claiming that *devotees of Gothic literature will have to wait for someone with more of the macabre in their blood for a truer musical reading of Poes often terrifying works*.

This album was released in the U.K. originally with a different name. Simply called The Alan Parsons Project, it was successful enough to achieve gold status but later that year the same album was released under the name of Tales of Mystery and Imagination.

The Raven features actor Leonard Whiting on lead vocals, with Alan Parsons performing vocals through an EMI vocoder. According to the albums liner notes, The Raven was the first rock song ever to feature a digital vocoder.

The Prelude of The Fall of the House of Usher, although uncredited, is based on the opera fragment La chute de la maison Usher by Claude Debussy which was composed in 1908-1917.

Tales of Mystery and Imagination peaked at #38 on Billboards Pop Albums chart. (The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether peaked at #37 on the Pop Singles chart.

The original version of the album was available for several years on vinyl and cassette, but was not immediately available on CD. This was due in part to Parsons desire to rework some tracks. In 1987, Parsons completely remixed the album, including additional guitar passages and narration (by Orson Welles) as well as updating the production style to include heavy reverb and the gated drum sound of the 80s. The CD notes that Welles never met Parsons or Eric Woolfson, but sent a tape to them of the performance shortly after the album was manufactured in 1976. In 1994 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) released the original 1976 version on LP and CD (UDCD-606), making the original available digitally for the first time. In 2007, a Deluxe Edition released by Universal Music included both the 1976 and the 1987 versions remastered by Alan Parsons during 2006 with eight additional bonus tracks.

In July, 2010, the album was named as one of Classic Rock magazines *50 Albums That Built Prog Rock*.
	


Track Listing

1. A Dream Within A Dream [instrumental] – 4:14
2. The Raven – 3:57 (ft. Leonard Whiting on lead vocals, Alan Parsons lead vocal through an EMI vocoder)
3. The Tell-Tale Heart – 4:38 (ft. Arthur Brown)
4. The Cask of Amontillado – 4:33 (ft. John Miles)
5. (The System Of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether – 4:20 (ft. John Miles and Jack Harris)
6. The Fall of the House of Usher [instrumental] - 16:10
1. Prelude – 7:02
2. Arrival – 2:39
3. Intermezzo – 1:00
4. Pavane – 4:36
5. Fall – 0:51
7. To One in Paradise – 4:46 (ft. Terry Sylvester on lead vocals, backing vocals by Eric Woolfson)


Released: May 1976 (US), June 1976 (UK)
Recorded: July 1975 - January 1976, Abbey Road Studios, Mama Jos, Kingsway Hall
Genre: Progressive rock, art rock
Length: 40:46
Label: 20th Century (US), Charisma (UK)
Producer: Alan Parsons



Vinyl Ripping Notes

24-bit / 96kHz Vinyl Rip by Dr. Robert
November 2010

Nitty Gritty RCM 1.5
Technics SL-1200MK2 Turntable with KAB Fluid Damping and KAB record grip
Ortofon 2M Black cartridge
Pro-Ject Tube Box SE II Preamp
Tascam US-144 external USB 2.0 Audiointerface
Bias Peak LE 6 recording software
iZotope RX Advanced 1.21 for Redbook conversion
xACT 1.71 for Redbook SBE correction

RCM - TT - Ortofon 2M Blk - Tube Box preamp - ADC - Mac Pro Dual Xeon - Peak LE @ 24/96 - analyze (no clipping, no DC Bias offset, each side maximized to -0.3 dB) -
split into individual Tracks - Click Repair 3.02 used in Manual Mode, 30 Rev, Pitch Protection, X2 - FLAC encoded Level 5 with XLD Version 20100518 (120.3)

All de-clicking software used in full manual mode to preserve musical transients.

No music was harmed in the making of this vinyl rip.

No silence been removed, please burn gapless to match original track layout.