Quad LP/Tape Poll Riperton, Minnie: Perfect Angel [SQ/Q8]

[steelydave]

Released in August 1974, Perfect Angel was Minnie Riperton's debut for Epic Records, after five albums as part of the Rotary Connection and a failed solo LP on GRT Records in 1971. Co-produced by Stevie Wonder (under the alias 'El Toro Negro') and Riperton's husband Richard Rudolph, the album features a host of Wonder's Wonderlove bandmates along with engineering/synth-programming collaborators Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff. The album would go on to be an R&B #1 hit and spawn the pop chart-topper Lovin' You. The quad mix of the album wasn't released until almost a year later, in May 1975 presumably on the chart strength of its stereo counterpart.



Epic EQ 32561 [SQ LP] EAQ 32561 [Dolby Q8]
Discogs links: LP / Q8
Wiki page for the album: Perfect Angel

Quad mix engineered by Dick Bogert, quad sound and remix supervision by Warren Vincent

Side 1

1. Reasons
2. It's So Nice (To See Old Friends)
3. Take a Little Trip
4. Seeing You This Way
5. The Edge of a Dream

Side 2

1. Perfect Angel
2. Every Time He Comes Around
3. Lovin' You
4. Our Lives

 

[ar surround]

Question: How often does she employ that ultra high pitch voice that she uses on Lovin‘ You? Some really good singers hit frequencies / tones at time that don’t appeal to me. Oh crap...earworm alert!!!

 

[fredblue]

Question: How often does she employ that ultra high pitch voice that she uses on Lovin‘ You? Some really good singers hit frequencies / tones at time that don’t appeal to me. Oh crap...earworm alert!!!

she hits 1 or 2 very high notes on tracks 1-4 on side 1 and 2 & 3 on Side 2.

so pretty much on all of the record.. but its not like she does it all the time or does it to excess, when she does pull it out of the bag in a song its often a beautiful flourish at the end and it just works like a kind of musical punctuation point climax!

i totally love this album and the Quad mix is wonderful (bass rear left, some but not all drum parts in rear right) with cool surround-y stuff going on at all times to superb effect.

one of my all-time favourite Quads, a "10".

 

[fredblue]

as a footnote, i'd say hang onto your SQ LPs and Q8s for now, as Universal have the rights to this one in the UK and recently released a Deluxe Edition (no Quad included, naturally.. ) i reckon the chances of DV doing the Quad on Surround SACD anytime soon feel pretty slim but i'd love to be proven wrong, its a seriously underappreciated Quad gem that deserves a new lease on life.

 

[admsh]

I'm finding a lot of items on ebay with the right numbers, but they don't seem to be the quad releases. Do the stereo and quad have the same catalogue number? Here's one example.

If anyone might be willing to share or trade a conversion, I'd be the happiest man alive

 

[fredblue]

I'm finding a lot of items on ebay with the right numbers, but they don't seem to be the quad releases. Do the stereo and quad have the same catalogue number? Here's one example.

If anyone might be willing to share or trade a conversion, I'd be the happiest man alive

Epic Quad LPs catalogue number prefixes are either EQ or PEQ (they added a "P" after the 1974 $1 price hike) in this case the catalogue number is EQ 32561.

PM anytime for more info on trades, etc

 

[gvl_guy]

I'm finding a lot of items on ebay with the right numbers, but they don't seem to be the quad releases. Do the stereo and quad have the same catalogue number? Here's one example.

If anyone might be willing to share or trade a conversion, I'd be the happiest man alive

I don't see anything in that listing that would indicate that's a quadraphonic album. (Maybe the seller changed something since you posted this?) Be aware, that sometimes people will post a quad album, then post another album for sale and just copy the traits/"item details" from the first record. I've seen a number of things listed as quadraphonic that were not.

Also, be aware that sometimes the sleeve and record don't match. I've purchased items on eBay and Discogs where the sleeve was a quad sleeve and the record inside was not. Most of the time, I guess over the years, the records got mixed up. (A Steely Dan Quad cover and a German stereo pressing inside.) But in some cases I think the record manufacturers we're using up old record sleeves and sticking a stereo copy in it. I have one Miracles album that's like that.

What I do now is make sure to see a picture of the album cover and the album label before I purchase anything.

 

[sjcorne]

I'm impressed with the sound quality of this SQ LP, it doesn't seem to exhibit the brightness and inner-groove distortion issues that many later-era CBS quad pressings suffer from. That being said I think I prefer the music on Adventures In Paradise, though I was pleasantly surprised to find quasi-rock songs like "Reasons" and "Every Time He Comes Around" on here. The big hit "Lovin' You" actually seems a bit out-of-place compared to the style of the rest of the album.

The extreme seperation in the quad mix is evident even on the decoded SQ LP. It's a fun listen, but does sound rather unbalanced to me at times. Lead guitar is typically locked in rear right, with bass guitar in rear left. Drums are reduced to mono and can appear in either a front or back corner, depending on the song. Backing vocals are sometimes isolated in the rears, yet at other times appear upfront with Minnie's lead. The loud guitar blasts from the right rear speaker do tend to cause an annoying 'pumping' effect on my Tate decoder, where the sound rapidly shifts between front and rear. Same issue with the vocals in front center, especially when she's doing a vibrato-type thing. The Surround Master SQ decoding mitigates most of the issues, though at the cost of some front-to-back seperation. I've attached rear channel samples from the same passage in "Reasons" below, one from the Tate-decoded SQ LP and the other from the Q8. It's shame that Sony doesn't control the rights to either Minnie Riperton quad title, otherwise we would certainly have seen a D-V SACD reissue or Dolby Audio streaming release by now.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I really like this one, it's got Stevie Wonder credited all over the place (alias - El Toro Negro) with some arranging also (again as alias - Wonderlove.)
Lots of Stevie's Harmonica in the song "Our Lives" - Rear Right.

I've only heard the SQ so far, so need to check out the Q8.

It seems to me some of the guitar movement front to rear is baked into the mixing.

I'm going with a 9 on this one.

Here's some credits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Angel

 

[barfle]

I don't see anything in that listing that would indicate that's a quadraphonic album. (Maybe the seller changed something since you posted this?) Be aware, that sometimes people will post a quad album, then post another album for sale and just copy the traits/"item details" from the first record. I've seen a number of things listed as quadraphonic that were not.

Also, be aware that sometimes the sleeve and record don't match. I've purchased items on eBay and Discogs where the sleeve was a quad sleeve and the record inside was not. Most of the time, I guess over the years, the records got mixed up. (A Steely Dan Quad cover and a German stereo pressing inside.) But in some cases I think the record manufacturers we're using up old record sleeves and sticking a stereo copy in it. I have one Miracles album that's like that.

What I do now is make sure to see a picture of the album cover and the album label before I purchase anything.

I’m pretty. sure one of the PDQ Bach albums has a “Stereo/Quad” label on the cover, but the record doesn’t indicate quad unless it is. Burned twice on that one.