Various – The Complete Obscure Records Collection

Some of the records sound great and some sound like shit. It's about 1/2 and 1/2. I love the music, it's an amazing box set. To bad the label didn't try harder to make them all sound good.

As a concept, this is hard to beat: it absolutely delivers what it promises. The pressing quality of my copy is surprisingly good, with almost no surface noise nor distortion. I had original copies of Obscure 1, 2 and 4 and all of these sounded worse with Obscure 2 being especially annoying. Of course, the length of most sides is a problem as are the sometimes overlapping and /or clashing freqencies. I also think that a hardcover book would have been welcome, especially when you consider the price tag. But my main criticism is concerning the box - it is just not sturdy enough (main problem is the binding) so if you intend to play this music (or parts of it) fairly often you might be better off with the cd version.

It is a great set of discs, which were difficult to get already at the time of their original release.
And after half a century the music and sounds still stand the test of time.
Thus, this would be clearly a 5star score, but there are some annoying imperfections:
The design of box looks nice at first, but it makes the access to the individual LPs from the pile in box not very practical.
After carefully browsing once through the book, it shows already signs of use.
And the worst: the pressing quality is uneven, with a few vinyls not up to the level of the music.
Thus, “Discreet Music” is not discreet at all, not that hypnotic seductive sound of the original pressing, as the new pressing has in some moments rather harsh distorted high-pitch sounds reminding you of visits at the dentist.
Checked it against the release of 1978 (special OBS 3) of my collection, acquired at the time of the release, which is precise and clear, without any sound distortions!
Thus, this seems to be clearly a problem of the new pressing.
As I do not expect any solution for this imperfection by Dialogo, I have added simply my old copy to the set and put it into the box.
A method I will apply as well for others if required.

So, re the distortion discussed below, I got the 2018 ENOLP5 Virgin / UMC Discreet Music and the difference is night and day: there is terrible distortion on the dialogo press, and NONE on the Virgin / UMC press. Now, if dialogo are claiming distortion on the masters, where did the masters come from? In any case, it's a fatal flaw, and a dealbreaker. I'm going to see if I can return this set.

Having lived with it for a few weeks now, there is distortion, especially on Discreet Music. This only happens at the louder points, but is unquestionably there (obvs, I spent some time checking for issues with my system before posting this - there aren't any). Now, I owned none of the originals (!!) so don't have them to compare. I do however have a CD of Discreet Music which I have compared (Virgin Original Masters) and can confirm that it's not on the recording. Vinyl may be difficult to master however as this recording is very dynamic (the loud bits are *loud*) so to really get to the bottom of this I'll need to get the OG vinyl.

This box set is fantastic! This is the quietest vinyl I've heard in a long time. Dead quiet when nothing occurs, which is so important to all of the music within. David Toop mentioned in the liner book how crap the original pressings were. (As were the original sleeves. Gravity caused them to droop!) The sleeves here are sturdy and beautifully re-constructed. I will agree that the outer box needed to be constructed with more strength as animal_laminate mentioned below, but beyond that I'm over the moon. Well worth every cent!!

P.S. 6 of the 10 are available digitally from the label on Bandcamp as well. The Eno, Nyman, Penguin Café and Budd are controlled by Universal.

This is still available at retail price from Soundohm so there is no need to pay the inflated prices being asked by some sellers here.

I've added some pics of the linen box and the labels. My review: I think this is a fantastic box. It's a bold concept that's excellently realized. The pressings are flat, and sound very good. The record covers are perfectly adequate in my view, no more flimsy than others and certainly of good quality. There are high quality polylined inners. I have 2 slight criticisms, one about the box, and the other about the labels. The box, while well made, with terrific graphic design, has a soft card substrate and is not quite rigid enough. The box is like a solander in that the back, spine and front are oversized by about 2mm relative to the inner drawer which holds the records and booklet. But the front is a flap, rather then the full solander arrangement that cloth boxes often have (and which adds rigidity). As a result of lack of rigidity, when stored upright the box sags forward on the right onto its inner drawer base and the front cover is pushed up slightly and out, so won't quite close properly. This means that I'll be storing the contents separately. The other criticism is about the labels. While I am delighted that the design is a facsimile of the colour version of the original obscure label, the originals are white and red, but the dialogo labels have turned out more orange than red, with inconsistemt orange- / beige-toned backgrounds. Neither of these things is a dealbreaker by any means: precise control over production and results (especially colour grading) is of course challenging. All in all, while it's not totally and absolutely perfect, I rate this audacious, much-needed box very high: 9/10.

Absolutely stunning quality.
I am listening to Gavin Bryars - Jesus blood right now , hearing it for the first time.
now I heard it before in the version of A Winged Victory or the Sullen , many years ago , it made a lasting impression then and never found out what the original was until now

this box is the bomb - well made and well maintained from A to Z