Carbon Based Lifeforms – Hydroponic Garden

No problems with my copy. BLOOD149 Black. Sounds great. Classic album. 10/10.

Goodness 149R is impressive. The bass is so low and rich. This is a fantastic pressing of a amazing album.

Palms are sweating even now when I put the last 3 tracks on, loudly ofc. The mind just can't forget the memories years ago, still vivid experience, good fucking times. Thank you CBL!

My copy doesn't have a barcode anywhere, does that make it a different release? Also, the cover picture is much darker, nowhere near as purple as the submitted image.

Not a good pressing, lots of noise. Did improve a bit with cleaning. Records are very warped

For what it's worth, my copy sounds great, even side C and D, which is where you will hear the most noise if you are going to hear noise because these songs are the quietist of the album.

Yeah, side c with a lot of pops and surface noise

Amazing sounding pressing, and the quality of everything else is superb as well.

There have been a number of complaints about noisy vinyl for the first editions of Carbon Based Lifeforms albums which came out in 2016. I got all the 2nd vinyl issues of "Hydroponic Garden", "World of Sleepers", "Interloper" and "Derelicts" which were pressed the year after, 2017. All on black vinyl. These all have the -R suffix, as in BLOOD 149R. Normally I am a strictly first edition kind of person (as these invariably sound better than reissues, especially if the original tape is analogue), but these second pressings are perfect - flat and quiet - nary a click or pop on any of them. So if your BLOOD 149 first pressing is noisy, the 2017 BLOOD 149R is quiet in my experience.
I would say that the sound of these masterings is good if not spectacular. There is a tendency for a rather grainy treble and some midrange harshness, especially on sampled vocals. On the positive side, the soundstage is large and bass depth is impressive.
Luckily, the music more than compensates for these slight sonic shortcomings. There is a lovely gentleness to these floaty meditations that, if they eschew the complexity of Shpongle or Elysium, nevertheless have a harmony that is direct and appealing. These albums are classics of psybient.

Great album!!! No issues with the pressing as previous poster mentioned. My first Carbon Based Lifeforms album and loving it. 2 LP black version.