Jefferson Airplane / The CD Vinyl Replica Collection / 9CD box set

Culture Factory are to release three ‘CD Vinyl Replica Collection’ box sets later this month including this nine-CD collection featuring psychedelic rockers Jefferson Airplane.

The label is well known for its vinyl replica CD releases and over the years they’ve reissued catalogue albums from artists such as Robert Palmer, Donna Summer, The Stranglers and Suzanne Vega.

The Jefferson Airplane box will be released alongside sets from Quicksilver Messenger Service and Hot Tuna and will feature all seven studio albums of the original era and two live sets:

• • Takes Off (1966)
• • Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
• • After Bathing at Baxter’s (1967)
• • Crown Of Creation (1968)
• • Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969, live)
• • Volunteers (1969)
• • Bark (1971)
• • Long John Silver (1972)
• • Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (1973, live)

The 12″ x 12″ numbered box is a limited edition of 1000 worldwide, with Culture Factory rather over egging the pudding with “Special release for Fans & Collectors only: Ultra Deluxe Set!”

There is no doubt that their vinyl replicas are excellent and really look the part with the black-finish discs and reproduced record label. It’s fair to say that they are probably the best I’ve seen outside of Japan. So for example, in this set, the Bark cardboard jacket comes in a custom-made re-creation of the brown paper grocery bag (with J.A. logo) that housed the original LP, and the Long John Silver ‘paper sleeve’ features the original photo of cigars and the song lyrics, and its printed, folded, perforated cardboard ‘sheath’ can be assembled into a mini-cigar box, just like the original release.

Despite the groovy packaging, the jury is out on some of the label’s remastering, with the Culture Factory version of Robert Palmer‘s Some People Can Do What They Like described as “dreadful” when we asked a professional audio engineer to examine it two years ago.

Culture Factory also continue to say this about their CDs: “remastered sound is 96 kHz/24-bit high definition”. This is rather meaningless and fairly misleading since a CD is limited to 44.1 kHz / 16 bit and no standard CD isn’t capable of delivering ‘high-definition’ sound. They presumably mean the source tapes are transferred to 96 kHz/24-bit high definition digital files which are then remastered and used to produce the CDs. Why not say that then?!

Each box comes with a 1′ x 2′ tour poster designed exclusively for these sets by Dennis Loren, along with an LP-sized 28-page booklet featuring extensive liner notes by Richie Unterberger, rare photos, memorabilia and a reproduction of the original LP artwork in 12-inch format.

The Jefferson Airplane CD Vinyl Replica Collection is released on 17 December 2015. Similar sets from Hot Tuna and Quicksilver Messenger Service also available.

• • UK Pre-order: The CD Vinyl Replica Collection
• • USA Pre-order: The CD Vinyl Replica Collection
• • CANADA Pre-order: The CD Vinyl Replica Collection
• • GERMANY Pre-order: The CD Vinyl Replica Collection
• • FRANCE Pre-order: The CD Vinyl Replica Collection
• • ITALY Pre-order: The CD Vinyl Replica Collection

Disc: 1
1. The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil
2. A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly
3. Young Girl Sunday Blues Martha
4. Wild Tyme
5. The Last Wall of the Castle
6. Rejoyce
7. Watch Her Ride
8. Spare Chaynge
9. Two Heads
10. Won’t You Try/Saturday Afternoon

Disc: 2
1. Have You Seen the Saucers
2. Feel So Good
3. Crown of Creation
4. When the Earth Moves Again
5. Milk Train
6. Trial By Fire
7. Twilight Double Leader

Disc: 3
1. When the Earth Moves Again
2. Feel So Good
3. Crazy Miranda
4. Pretty As You Feel
5. Wild Turkey
6. Law Man
7. Rock and Roll Island
8. Third Week in the Chelsea
9. Never Argue with a German If You’re Tired or European Song
10. Thunk
11. War Movie

Disc: 4
1. Clergy
2. 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds
3. Somebody to Love
4. Fat Angel
5. Rock Me Baby
6. The Other Side of This Life
7. It’s No Secret
8. Plastic Fantastic Lover
9. Turn Out the Lights
10. Bear Melt

Disc: 5
1. Lather
2. In Time
3. Triad
4. Star Track
5. Share a Little Joke
6. Chushingura
7. If You Feel
8. Crown of Creation
9. Ice Cream Phoenix
10. Greasy Heart
11. The House at Pooneil Corners

Disc: 6
1. Long John Silver
2. Aerie (Gang of Eagles)
3. Twilight Double Leader
4. Milk Train
5. The Son of Jesus
6. Easter?
7. Trial By Fire
8. Alexander the Medium
9. Eat Starch Mom

Disc: 7
1. She Has Funny Cars
2. Somebody to Love
3. My Best Friend
4. Today
5. Comin’ Back to Me
6. 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds
7. D.C.B.A.-25
8. How Do You Feel
9. Embryonic Journey
10. White Rabbit
11. Plastic Fantastic Lover

Disc: 8
1. Blues from An Airplane
2. Let Me in
3. Bringing Me Down
4. It’s No Secret
5. Tobacco Road
6. Come Up the Years
7. Run Around
8. Let’s Get Together
9. Don’t Slip Away
10. Chauffeur Blues
11. And I Like It

Disc: 9
1. We Can Be Together
2. Good Shepherd
3. The Farm
4. Hey Frederick
5. Turn My Life Down
6. Wooden Ships
7. Eskimo Blue Day
8. A Song for All Seasons
9. Meadowlands
10. Volunteers