Fat Jon – Samurai Champloo Music Record - Departure

2024 reissue purchased from lightintheattic. Sounds fantastic, clear, faithful, and beautiful.

I have the 2024 reissue. It sounds stellar, quiet, and as others have mentioned, the bass and drums sound incredible.

This thing sounds unbelievable. Everything is so clear and airy but the drums really punch hard. Amazing pressing. Definitely in the shortlist of the best sounding records I've ever owned.

This release was very well done, and I mean the whole of these Samurai Champloo series.
All records getting the vinyl-space they deserve, not overcrowding.
The music here is just phenomenal, lovely balance and punch, excellent mastering.

The Samurai Champloo 3xLP coloured releases which popped up a while ago had some skipping issues on a few tracks, none on these releases! (Though to be fair, if you set your needle and anti-skate properly, you can omit those skips -speaking from personal experience. Easily do-able but takes a little time)

It's somewhat odd at times hearing only one of the artists per side, instead of more a story-like performance given in the 3xLP release, though it also gives you more of a set listening environment for longer.

All in all a must to own albeit you're a fan of the series, or just just jazzy hip hop in general!

, the price is higher because Japan releases use virgin vinyl -which imho is totally worth it (and would wish some other artists/labels would look into doing too for that matter.)

I was a bit bummed when I bought this at Tower Records assuming it was the same price as the other Nujabes records I bought and not nearly double but as soon as I got home and played this, I was instantly transported to being a kid and watching Champloo on Adult Swim. Blows my bootlegs out of the water and worth every cent.

Really great record. Have listened for many versions of Battlecry and Aruarian Dance, including the CD but this is by far the best in my opinion. Mastering gives percussions and strings more depth than the CD version or others online.

Immediately I can hear a clear and open soundstage and almost no surface noise. Sometimes you just know that a master was mixed/pressed for vinyl and this one is one of those pressings. I feel like you take a gamble with a lot of new releases and end up getting a really dull sounding digital master just pressed on vinyl for the sake of having it physical. And then sometimes you have intentional pressings. The low beat on Aruarian Dance actually sounds like a bass drum from a drum set. The 13 year old version of me is satisfied. Too bad the track list is slightly different from the original CD release, I'm sure there's a licensing thing going on, happens all the time over there.

What a wonderful record, poly lined sleeves and a high quality Japanese pressing.

The track with the vocals, though produced by Nujabes, is so out of place... sandwiched between all the goodness that is Nujabes and Fat Jon. Really hope the future re-releases don't include it.

shoutouts to playasia for fucking me over by inexplicably cancelling my preorder for both this and impression. never buying from them again after this. had to appease a scalper on ebay to get them in the end, but that's okay because samurai champloo and it's soundtrack mean too much for me to care about whatever price i may have to pay for them.

also jin is best boi.