I seem to be suffering a rash of records which I (and I could be getting this wrong, I'm sure someone will sort it if I have) would described as badly cut. Some people would say they're bad pressings but it seems to me the fault's not in the manufacturing process but in the mastering and cutting stage. And although I guess you could master them differently (e.g. to have less bass) you could also say you should get the sound right at the mastering then adjust the overall gain / signal strength (whatever) while cutting so the grooves can cope (= your stylus can cope with the resulting groove)? I don't think it's so much a problem of not enough space between the grooves as what happens on my decks (and on the deck in my local shop which has the weight set a bit heavier than I do) is that the needle gets launched right out of the groove and skips a mm or two (i.e. greater than the gap to the next groove even at a wide spacing).
Recent culprits that I can recall right now: Sutekh : Notes From Dr. Island on Souljazz, one side of this judders (i.e. the arm judders while playing it) away but is just about playable. Samurai Champloo : Way Of The Samurai 3xLP, expensive triple pack from Japan, I bought it as, while I could pass on some of it, I REALLY like about 1 track per vinyl, fortunately track A2 is not one of these as it's unplayable. Deepchord : The Coldest Season Pt.2 on Modern Love, again the A side of this is (for me anyway) unplayable. Unlike the one above it's the track I particularly like that I can't play so I just had to take it back to the shop (I think I'm liking Pt.3 of this series best anyway). What I can't understand is how the problems aren't noticed during the mastering / cutting process, if you see features on this (e.g. the one on D&M on my Berlin Digital DVD or there's one on one of those Slices DVDs) they're incredibly careful, trying the test pressing numerous times etc. OK D&M are amongst the best but surely nobody just "goes for it", turns out a faulty product and the label just accepts it?
