Doug MacLeod – Break the Chain (2LPs, 45RPM, Reference Recordings)

Doug MacLeod continues his exploration of the human condition on his third album with “Prof” Keith O. Johnson for Reference Recordings. Break The Chain contains twelve specially composed, very personal and at the same time universal songs. The title track, written and recorded with his son Jesse, describes the vicious circle of domestic violence and the possibilities of breaking out of it – a topic that affects MacLeod himself. Break The Chain was recorded at Skywalker Studios and put on tape with no overdubs or effects. Because as the singer says: “This is music played by humans for humans. So there’s no scrubbin ‘with over-dubbin’, no fixin ‘in the mixin’, and no pitch control on the console.” So when a chair is moved or MacLeod takes a deep breath to sing, we are meant to hear it. These are very personal songs, played in a personal atmosphere. He is accompanied by bassist Denny Croy, drummer Jimi Bott and percussionist Oliver Brown. 180-gram or 200-gram compression – a question that is not that easy For identical titles from Reference Recordings, there are covers labeled 180 g that contain LPs that weigh around 200 g, and vice versa. This is due to the fact that the commissioned pressing plants QRT and RTI in the USA specify a 10 percent tolerance for weight on the one hand and then occasionally simply get the orders mixed up. In terms of sound, the pressings do not differ. Please: Do not call Sieveking Sound so that someone goes out and unpacks an LP especially for you and puts it on the scales!