I wasn't really intending to buy anything. I still need to flesh out a few dozen missing titles from my old collection that have eluded me, but the spreadsheet where I keep all that data is a mess and needs to be properly sorted before it will be of any on-the-go use to me.
First off, I was shocked—shocked, I tell you—at the price of new vinyl: $19.99~49.99. Seriously? I realize it's making a comeback and there are still precious few pressing plants in operation, but still. $39.99 for Madonna's latest?
Thankfully, the bins were overflowing with even more used vinyl at a very reasonable price point of $2.99~5.99. Buying used is always a crap shoot because of the nature of the medium, however. You can visually inspect the records, but you can never tell how much actual gunk is hiding in the grooves until you play them.
While browsing, I ran across the above gem, Isao Tomita's 1978 Bermuda Triangle on coral vinyl. It had no inner liner so I knew it was probably going to be a very noisy disk, but there was no way I was going to let this slip through my hands—especially when it was on that fabulous colored vinyl!
I owned this new (also on coral) back in 1978. You've got to remember that at that time electronic music in general was still something very new and the sound very modern. I was a huge Tomita fan, having fallen in love his application of electronic instruments to classical masterpieces. This particular disk, however, was strictly of his own composition, and while it brings back a lot of good memories of that period in my life, parts of it sound very dated. A little STAR WARS here, a little E.T. The Extraterrestrial there, and some Prokofiev and Sibelius thrown in for good measure.
And as I feared, the record is very noisy, ironically sending me off on a search for a digital copy…
I too enjoyed Tomita.
The very first time I really imbibed alcohol was junior year college. I had homemade british ale while Tomita played in the background. to this day I think of being tipsy when I hear his Pictures at an Exhibition.