Jul 14, 2009 H2O S/T - The Investigation Part 2

Quick update. I got an email from Marcus asking if I ever listened to the record. I said that I didn't think I needed to listen to it cause the grooves matched up, and therefore I was 100% sure it was the H2O s/t. He then replied with a lengthy email stating a few reasons why I should listen to it. Now a few of them I had thought of, and ruled out. Like for instance, it could be a mistake and then a recut of the plate. I thought this could be possible, but I also figured they would not make 2 plates unless they had to. Which meant that trutone would still have included their own stamp on the first one. He then mentioned the track layout could be different. This I thought of as well, but once again all the grooves matched up so I was sure it was the same track layout. But then he mentioned something that I completely missed. What if Blackout got the record mastered and pressed by someone, listened to the tests, and decided to go to someone else cause these guys had no clue what they were doing. I had to hand it to him on this one, that's a super smart, totally plausible theory. So with that possibility in mind, I spent an hour reviewing the true first press and the test press. And after an hour of back and forth flip flopping of the records I can say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the test press sounds like complete shit compared to the first press. Granted I know where the first press has been since birth. I know no one has played it but me. I also know it's a heavier pressing than the test press. But the test press sounds distorted and muffled. It doesn't pop like the first press. They're different quality, no doubt about it. So what does this mean? Nothing other than the Marcus theory is still alive, and I now have a new possible ending to this story, it was suppose to be the S/T test press, but it was shot down by Blackout. That would of course be my favorite ending to the investigation.

p.s. I sent an email to the ebay seller like 4 days ago and haven't gotten a response. I sent Bill(blackout) an email about it this afternoon and I also contacted some people about H2O email addresses. So that's it for now. Hopefully by the end of the week I can nail the origin of this thing down. *fingers crossed*