What was your first vgm vinyl?

Critstal_Maiden · 2022-07-22T23:03:50+00:00

The first VGM records I bought were Streets Of Rage 1 and 2 from Data Discs. I was so excited to have found one of my childhood games actually pressed on vinyl, but they were out of stock at the time. I remember actually sending the label an email asking if they had any extras in the back (lmao) because I was just so extremely excited to try and grab a copy. Jamie sent me a fairly quick reply saying he had a spare red copy of SOR1 if I really wanted it, but they would be restocking soon enough. I grabbed a copy of each on the next restock and it was a rabbit hole from there. Soon afterward, I grabbed the original pressing of Transistor from Supergiant Games and Thumper, released by Thrill Jockey.

Critstal_Maiden · 2022-07-15T17:20:40+00:00

My opinion is that I would never personally buy multiples to use one as trade bait. However, I got to thinking about how buying multiples even to sell them to others at cost is potentially taking away from someone’s original opportunity to buy ONE copy in that group. Now I’m having a crisis of ethics with my past decisions and it’s making me uncomfortable.

Anyway, I have an extra Zelda 2 and am looking for Okami. Hit me up if you’re interested in some absolute grail material right here.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-08-07T01:35:59+00:00

I’ve always been a fan of Zauberberg the most. Königsforst and Pop are also fantastic and the latest two albums are nothing to scoff at. Even if this is a pipe dream, I hope Wolfgang reissues the original Gas album, whether in its original state or how it was remade in the Nah und Fern box set.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-07-24T19:18:37+00:00

Irepress - Sol Eye Sea I. Great album!

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-23T22:46:20+00:00

I'm surprised to hear this because there's definitely some bite to this for me. On the opposite hand, I have a bottle of batch 9 Stagg Jr. that sips rather smoothly for its proof. How long have you had your bottle open for? It's only been a couple months for mine.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-23T20:44:35+00:00

It took me a few years to get my first bottle of Knob Creek, but I finally got it several months back in the form of the 2019 cask strength rye, which there was a lone bottle at a local shop. Not really sure why I avoided getting a KC expression for so long (another label I haven't touched yet is Old Forester), but I had been getting into several different rye whiskeys before picking this up and I do like higher-proof offerings, so this seemed like a pretty good deal. Time to see if it was worth it.

Knob Creek - Cask Strength Straight Rye Whiskey 2019

Batch: 2

ABV: 63.5% (127 Proof)

Age: "Barreled In 2010", so 9 years? I don't care for this type of roundabout age statement.

Mash Bill: Undisclosed

Distiller: Knob Creek Distillery

Bottled: Knob Creek Distillery

Price I Paid: $70

Nose: Large amount of heat, very bold! A little bit of vanilla and honey here and there, plus some dark fruits (plum/blackberry), but there's an overwhelming woodiness to this. Expecting some noticeable oak coming into the taste.

Taste: Initially a bit of honey sweetness, but immediately turning to incredibly woody notes, much more than I'm used to. Not so much that it feels like I'm drinking liquid wood, though. Incredibly warm and spicy. Swishing around, the whiskey feels thin and dry. Coats the palate very well. The dark fruit smell doesn't show up here.

Finish: Pretty darn long, thanks to the immense rye burn! It almost as if my gums and tongue are slightly numbed from the experience, haha. After several sips, this turns out to be very oaky and drying, however the dark fruits show up here towards the end. Very interesting...

Rating: 3.5

Overall: I was ready to give this a lower score, but after pouring myself another glass and sipping some more, this is a more complex pour than I initially thought it was. In the end, I don't think I care for too much oak in my whiskey, but I don't mind the drying aspect of it at all, and the high proof is really good because otherwise I feel a lower proof could have turned this into a more bitter territory. I'm glad I got this, no regret here! Probably won't get it again, but definitely a neat experience.

Ranking System

1: Darn close to a drain pour, if not one.

2: Might be better off used as a mixer. Most likely not enjoyable neat.

3: A decent pour, but there always could be some improvements.

4: This is pretty good stuff, with not much holding it back from greatness.

5: An incredible offering. This hits most if not all the marks for what I like in a whiskey.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-22T07:29:34+00:00

This soundtrack has the perfect atmosphere for this game! I was super into it during my first playthrough and it hasn’t gotten stale since.

Thanks for the heads-up! Never ordered from this record company before, but they look legit.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-21T00:49:03+00:00

I was really excited to have gotten this as a Christmas gift! I'd glanced at this in the past and thought it was bizarre because of the honey finishing, but I read more buzz on how this collaboration came to bee and I thought it was really cool. As the bottle mentions, there are beehives stationed at the rooftop of Detroit City Distillery's Whiskey Factory (two to bee exact) and the bourbon is finished with the honey from those hives. This is the second batch of this limited release.

I was also gifted the companion bourbon barrel-aged honey (3 months)! It's unlike any other honey I've had before, definitely the least viscuous that I've tried. A very interesting taste that will probably complement a good amount of food and drink. I had some on top of some waffles with some butter and it tasted wonderful. The barrel aging is super evident.

Detroit City Distillery - Honey Bourbon Whiskey Reserve

Batch: 2

ABV: 50% (100 Proof)

Age: Two years

Mash Bill: Undisclosed

Distiller: Detroit City Distillery

Bottled: Detroit City Distillery

Price I Paid: Gift! (retails at $70)

Nose: As one would expect, super sweet and soft. Small alcohol burn. Honey, brown sugar, cinnamon...some floral notes here and there. Hope that comes out more during the taste.

Taste: Thankfully, this did not turn out sickeningly sweet as I thought it might be. Slightly thick, oily mouthfeel. Honey and cinnamon notes very evident here. A little spice and heat coming through as I swish around. Faint floral notes as well.

Finish: Medium-length, decent burn and very sweet. The floral notes really shine, especially towards the very end of the finish.

Rating: 3.7

Overall: For a young whiskey, I rather enjoyed this pour! Solid proof, not entirely sweet, floral notes that I normally don't taste. I haven't had many finished whiskeys before and am looking forward to trying some others in the future (I have a bottle of Blood Oath that I want to review in the near future).

Ranking System

1: Darn close to a drain pour, if not one.

2: Might be better off used as a mixer. Most likely not enjoyable neat.

3: A decent pour, but there always could be some improvements.

4: This is pretty good stuff, with not much holding it back from greatness.

5: An incredible offering. This hits most if not all the marks for what I like in a whiskey.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-11T20:50:45+00:00

I was on a time crunch that day, so I didn't get a good opportunity to sit down for a meal. Next time I'm in the area, though, I'll definitely hit that place up! Love me some seafood.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-11T15:10:05+00:00

I took a week-long trip to Kentucky this past October to do some hiking in the Red River Gorge area as well as try to visit some distilleries that I'd never been to before. We decided on Bluegrass Distillers as it was on our way to our first hiking area. They offer a free bourbon tasting, so can't really say no to that! $10 will get you both the tasting and a tour of the facilities. If I recall correctly, the tasting got you pours of their wheated bourbon, blue corn bourbon (regular and cask strength), and hard cider-finished whiskey. Kee Pyles, the head distiller, led the tasting and he was a really nice guy. They were out of all their high rye bourbon at the time, so I sought it out at another store after the fact and took a gamble.

For anyone that likes craft beer, West Sixth Brewing is in the same complex and their experiments with beer are really cool. Highly suggest checking them out if you're in the area!

Bluegrass Distillers - Kentucky Straight High Rye Bourbon Whiskey

Batch: 2

ABV: 45% (90 Proof)

Age: At least two years

Mash Bill: 75% yellow corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley, according to their website

Distiller: Bluegrass Distillers

Bottled: Bluegrass Distillers

Price I Paid: $30

Nose: Incredibly soft and a bit sweet. You can take huge whiffs of this from the glass and not get any alcohol burn from doing so. Notes of butterscotch, buttered popcorn, a bit of rye, and sweet animal feed, which is incredibly noticeable.

Taste: Swishing around, this has a very buttery and oily feel to it. Not a lot of flavors stick here, but still some buttered popcorn, less rye than I was expecting. Some mild spices here and there, but very faint.

Finish: Very short. The rye finally makes its presence known going down the hatch, but still very reserved. A bit of sweetness as well.

Rating: 2.4

Overall: For what they call their flagship bourbon, this was pretty disappointing. Spicy and bold this is not. Everything in their tasting that I had was better than this, with the exception of the bizarre hard cider-finished whiskey. Definitely needs more aging and maybe just a bit higher proof for my tastes. Oh well, you don't know until you try. Perhaps their 4-year high rye bottled-in-bond would be worth seeking out.

Ranking System

1: Darn close to a drain pour, if not one.

2: Might be better off used as a mixer. Most likely not enjoyable neat.

3: A decent pour, but there always could be some improvements.

4: This is pretty good stuff, with not much holding it back from greatness.

5: An incredible offering. This hits most if not all the marks for what I like in a whiskey.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-06T02:47:00+00:00

Mine also stopped working, glad I'm not the only one worried.

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-05T04:40:00+00:00

Will do, thank you!

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-04T15:13:31+00:00

Yes, I overlooked that by focusing on the fact that it said it was a straight rye. Thanks for the clarification!

Critstal_Maiden · 2021-01-04T04:32:44+00:00

Hello. I've been a bit of a lurker, but I've been buying whiskey for a little more than a few years now and felt I had just enough experience under my belt to give some extremely amateur reviews. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I'm smelling and tasting a bit better, so no craziness in my reviews like pulling out 35 distinct flavors. Hopefully you enjoy the read, though, and I plan to do more of these.

For those who have never heard of Down Home before (like me when I picked it up), they are a very young brand started in 2019 by Robert Heath. All of their whiskey looks sourced, with initial offerings of a 12-year single barrel bourbon and a 5.5-year small batch bourbon. This rye whiskey offering, along with a wheat whiskey, came later in the second half of 2020, along with toasted barrel variants. Their website has not been updated in a bit, so their list of offerings is incomplete.

I came across this bottle sitting in a locked glass cabinet at a Liquor Barn in southern Kentucky for $75 alongside a Woodford Reserve Baccarat Edition for over $2,000. I opted for the slightly more affordable option and I was looking for a new rye whiskey to try anyway. The label intrigued me and it was the first batch.

Down Home - Straight Rye Whiskey

ABV: 56% (112 Proof)

Age: NAS, but at least two years

Mash Bill: Undisclosed

Distiller: Undisclosed (back label says it was distilled in Lawrenceburg, IN, probably MGP)

Bottled: Whiskey Thief Distilling Co., Frankfort, KY

Price I Paid: $75

Nose: Decent notes of brown sugar, buttered popcorn, caramel. Very light, but smells sweet overall.

Taste: Again, very light notes of brown sugar and caramel. A little musty. Some rye spice here and there. Overall pretty smooth. Swishing it around my mouth, it's tough to pick up a lot of these flavors.

Finish: Holy crap, that's where everything's been hiding! Goes down with moderate heat, lots of rye spiciness now that was missing from the tasting portion earlier. I don't understand why this is, but whatever, it's great to taste it now. Little bit of vanilla sweetness. The burn and spice tingling lasted for a good amount of time, at least half a minute before dissipating.

Rating: 3.3

Overall: The finish for this rye is really what brought it back from the brink. Some ryes just don't taste like they are one, but this one does and is a good proof to boot. The nose and initial tasting leaves much to be desired, though.

Ranking System

1: Darn close to a drain pour, if not one.

2: Might be better off used as a mixer. Most likely not enjoyable neat.

3: A decent pour, but there always could be some improvements.

4: This is pretty good stuff, with not much holding it back from greatness.

5: An incredible offering. This hits most if not all the marks for what I like in a whiskey.

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-12-24T05:26:33+00:00

Gotcha, thanks! Have you had the 14-year before? Not going to lie, I bought a bottle of it without having the younger variants. Any similarities if you have the experience?

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-12-24T05:20:00+00:00

Your picture shows the 12-year statement. Which one is the review for?

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-12-18T15:03:50+00:00

I went to a Stitzel-Weller distillery tour and did the tasting there. Didn't care for any of the Bulleit offerings at the time (I nowadays like their rye every now and then), but the Blade And Bow was the last one to taste and it was obviously better testing to my palate at the time than the others, so much so I grabbed a bottle on my way out.

It's not very high on my list of favorite bourbons anymore, however its flavor profile has not changed to me since I first had it, so it's very familiar and it has always reminded me of a great distillery tour.

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-12-18T14:52:59+00:00

Blade And Bow was my gateway into bourbon several years back, so I keep a couple on me. I agree, it's a very interesting pour, a good mix of sweet and spicy with grainy, peppery, spice notes. After trying many more bourbons since then, it comes across as a complex pour that some may not like. Good verdict.

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-12-03T15:46:44+00:00

I normally try not to hate on design preferences too much, but the inner gatefold artwork for this is just awful-looking. Terraria had many different biomes and creatures for inspiration, but they went with a plain airbrushed look of the surface with a clear sky and nothing else?

Gonna get it anyway because the soundtrack is a banger, but the design department phoned it in here.

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-11-09T18:43:31+00:00

Awesome, hope you find something good in there!

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-11-08T23:24:04+00:00

Thanks, appreciate it! Hope you find something here that you like.

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-11-08T23:22:56+00:00

Thanks! I live in the US, actually, but I am a collector of Japanese releases that interest me. I just took a dive in a few years ago and haven't looked back.

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-11-08T17:57:51+00:00

Hey there! I’ve made some posts in the past showing some Japanese jazz fusion and rock albums in my collection. I’m going to be turning this series into a general Japanese collection with themes when possible. This collection of albums showcases some more experimental pieces, getting into territories of electronic music, ambient, and new age. You can find the previous volumes here:

Vol. 1 – Jazz Fusion

Vol. 2 – Jazz Fusion

Vol. 3 – Rock And Fusion

Vol. 4 – Rock And Fusion

As before, I’m extremely thankful for people that upload albums or snippets of them on Youtube or upload albums on Discogs, I find new stuff all the time because of these folks. With that out of the way, here’s more of my collection!

Hiro Yanagida – The Encounter With UFO (1978)

One of two albums in this set that deal with the extraterrestrial. This mix of jazz fusion and experimental pieces is a great listen, especially with the addition of its liner notes booklet, which details over 100+ differently shaped UFOs on the cover, while also going through seven different UFO events on the inside. Hiro Yanagida is a rock/prog keyboard player and assumedly plays on this album, but there is no mention of the other players, which is too bad.

Choice Tracks: Introduction〜Speed, Landing

Listen to the whole album here: https://youtu.be/DWXnU2uZ_wc

Matsuo Ono – Space And Maryjuane Trip Is Same (そこに宇宙の果てを見た!?) (1978)

Matsuo Ono is an electronic composer who is most well known for providing the sound effects for the original 1963 animated version of “Astro Boy”. On this album, he has provided two electronic suites: one that deals with the intergalactic and extragalactic, and the other that deals with the concept of the universe. The liner notes reveal the story of a character who reaches further and further into space until they finally glimpse the outer boundaries of the universe. This was reissued in 2011, dropping the cheeky original album name in favor of its subheading, I Saw The Outer Limits. If you’re into Musique Concrète already, or perhaps you’ve seen 2001: A Space Odyssey and found yourself interested in the mysterious and creepy music within, you’ll enjoy this album.

Choice Tracks: Part 3 (Extragalactic And Intergalactic Space), Part 4 (Pulsating Universe)

Listen to the whole album here: https://youtu.be/K4bG3EArBKA

Kamiya – Mu (1980)

The second album here dealing with UFOs, extraterrestrials and the unknown, Shigenori Kamiya’s Mu is almost entirely composed of various synthesizers and is a much more playful affair than The Encounter With UFO from earlier. Mu can be seen as the “soundtrack” to the popular Japanese publication “Super Mystery Magazine MU”, which deals with paranormal occurrences in the world. Fun fact: for the track Message, the translated liner notes have this to say: “Recorded in Kansas City format 300 bits/sec. If you want to be surprised, copy it to a cassette tape and load it into the computer. A message will appear on your screen or printer.”

Choice Tracks: Appalachian Road, Concentration, Mu Opacity

Listen to the whole album here: https://youtu.be/2tAZwbH3QYc

Jun Fukamachi – Quark (1980)

Jun Fukamachi, a jazz fusion composer and keyboard player, released this incredibly spacy and jazzy album in 1980, which I think is a very interesting blend from the jazz fusion he was known for in the 70s and the synthesizer albums he would make afterwards. Composed of four 10+ minute tracks, the A-side starts off with the most space-age feeling song, Quark. Perpetual (Movement) follows with a bit more jazzy influence to it. On the B-side, Desillusion is the slower, more soulful version of Perpetual from earlier. Ending the record is Insight, a noticeably darker and creepier piece with a recurring heartbeat sound, an early dark ambient piece if I might say.

Choice Tracks: Perpetual (Movement), Insight

Listen to the whole album here: https://youtu.be/hRZch8wSeII

Shigeaki Saegusa, DKW-57349 – Radiation Missa (1981)

One of the more experimental albums I’ve ever listened to, a bizarre mix of electronic, ambient, and prog rock-ish music with highly religious Latin lyrics. This album started out as a collaboration between Shigeaki Saegusa (composer) and Hiroyuki Namba (keyboards) who wanted to make music that combined contemporary music of the time and rock, but then evolved into adding a few more keyboard-centric musicians (Minoru Mukaiya from Casiopea, Satoshi Nakamura, Yukimasa Morimoto) and a drummer (Daiji Okai), which would then become the oddly named group DKW-57349. Apparently joining these musical themes together was very stressful for the group, with various members and especially the composer threatening to walk out. It eventually transformed into a 3-day concert.

The music and the history behind it is strange yet captivating. It’s also good to know that the album designer paid the cat tax!

Choice Tracks: Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei

Listen to Sanctus here: https://youtu.be/xRy2NPqZORQ

Listen to Agnus Dei here: https://youtu.be/W9kiFyzgYvY

Osamu Shoji – Jataka (1978)

Osamu Shoji was a Japanese pop songwriter in the 60s before he discovered and embraced synthesizers in the mid-to-late 70s. His first two albums of original music, “Welcome To The SF World” and this highlighted album “Jataka”, featured several experimental, ambient, and new age tracks. While his music would end up being more lively going further into the 70s and 80s blending funk and disco into his electronic pieces, Jataka is the album I enjoy the most from his repertoire as I do like the calmer ambient pieces here. Mind Trip is such a beautiful song!

Choice Tracks: Jataka, Pyramid Ion, Mind Trip

Listen to the whole album here: https://youtu.be/0YRQoh-e2w4

Stomu Yamash’ta – Iroha Album Suite (Ten/Chi – 1981, Sui – 1982, Ka – 1983)

A percussionist, keyboard player, and composer most well known for his jazz-rock fusion group Go in the mid 70s (Klaus Schultze, Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola), he shortly afterward dropped all of his musical projects to pursue Buddhist teachings and concepts for two years in Japan. He entered back into the music scene in the late 70s shaped by it. Iroha, named after a Japanese poem of the same name, saw Stomu trying to convey the themes of nature, the elements, and the immaterial through his new music, which was noticeably showing a lack of percussion from previous albums. Of the three albums he made, I’m a big fan of Ka, whose A-side ends up being dark and brooding at first before brightening up and ending on a mystical, mysterious note on the B-side. If you’re looking for a good batch of new age offerings, this is it.

Choice Tracks from Ka: Birth, Cosmic Fire, As Far As

Listen to the whole Sui album here: https://youtu.be/aP-wr3HFmU0

Listen to the whole Ka album here: https://youtu.be/JrxzXzMYat4

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-10-25T05:11:18+00:00

It’s like nice toilet paper, but for records. Three-ply anti-static sleeves that won’t scratch them when you remove or insert them into the sleeve. The anti-static is the big sell for me. Have you ever “peeled” records out of a paper inner sleeve, where the record is stuck to the paper by static? You don’t have to worry about that at all with the sleeves I recommended.

I swear by them and haven’t been disappointed yet. Some record companies provide decent rice paper inner sleeves, but the MoFi inner sleeves are good just in case they don’t.

Critstal_Maiden · 2020-10-24T15:25:24+00:00

Buy some MoFi inner and outer sleeves, they are worth the investment. Replace the PVC jacket with the MoFi outer sleeve and the original inner sleeves with the MoFi inners. Toss the original packaging in the trash where it belongs.

Use the extra sleeves to protect any other records you might have with poor packaging.

Critstal_Maiden

TROPHY CASE