Oh Mr Amazon, with this cheap box set / bargain item, etc...

woof: You are very welcome and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

xxp Can you provide examples of this complacency? Or is it just a question of Amazon's prices being consistently lower? Because if it's the latter then there are structural reasons for this that can't simply be blamed on laziness or complacency.

oh wow if i had £18 that i wasnae going to waste on rum :\

I have lots of sympathy for small record stores, but in here Internet distribution had sadly already done its damage before I even started ordering stuff from Amazon. Most of the records I order from there are the sort of stuff no record store in Helsinki has sold in years, so I feel no guilt over that. The local and more obscure stuff I still get from local stores, as well as used records.

Another Mahler bargain on Amazon is the Tennstedt box. 16 CDs for 16 squids as of right now and rumoured to be one of the best cycles.

Here it is: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Klaus-Tennstedt-Complete-Mahler-Recordings/dp/B004OGDW4M/

fuggit i am treating myself to the Mahler next payday if it's still that price. also it will be good to give a shoeing to lazy complacent independent retailers.

stickin' it to that lazy old man

they should get on their bikes and look for customers

Noted independent record store devotee Norman Tebbit

Mary Portas vs ILM up in here!

Looks like that Tennstedt box sticks to the symphonies, so if you want yr Kindertotenlieder etc then go for the EMI box instead.

Can anyone recommend one of the Sibelius Symphonies boxes? I have a couple of Rattle discs but wouldn't mind a complete set.

I was kinda wondering: why are these classical box sets selling for so much lower price than box sets in most other genres? Is it because they don't have to pay royalties for the composers? On the other hand, many/most of them feature a lot more players than your typical pop/rock record... Do these performers get any royalties from records sold?

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk looks half decent although no doubt they are struggling to compete with Amazon prices.

This is the Sibelius bargain of the minute: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sibelius-Complete-Symphonies-Tapiola-Finlandia/dp/B0091JQH2Q/

look at that lazy website tho, they shd get rid of all that content nonsense and concentrate on bunging me tax-exempt CDs from the Channel Islands hand-packaged by children

Presto is great. Fast delivery and often cheaper than Amazon. One of the better examples of a well-curated online shop.

Cheers OG - looks like promising.

ShariVari xp: agree, that's where the competition needs to be. Constructive answer in amongst mounds of misplaced student union sarcasm.

personally I wasn't being sarcastic, but thanks.

For a Sibelius box (and yay we are talking about my other favorite composer now) I would give the slight edge to this older EMI set. The symphonies here are with the Helsinki SO and recorded in the 80s rather than the 70s (but the digital sound picture is not bad in the way a lot of early-digital stuff can be, and the Helsinki are great and there are no dud interpretations) plus you get 4 and a half discs of the equally important tone poems, theatrical incidental music, and myth-based cantatas:

http://www.amazon.com/Sibelius-Complete-Symphonies-Tone-Poems/dp/B00005MIZT/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1359736483&sr=8-5&keywords=sibelius+berglund

More compact, beautifully recorded in 70s analog, and brought off with tons of personality is this set of the symphonies and a few tone poems with Colin Davis and the Boston SO. Davis' later Sibelius recordings with the London SO are not near this level:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sibelius-Symphonies-Boston-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B007CW2FFM/ref=sr_1_39?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1359736428&sr=1-39

For the two Mahler sets discussed above, I would DEFINITELY opt for the mixed-conductor Klemperer/Barbirolli/Rattle set rather than the all-Tennstedt one. I know the idea of a whole cycle in one conductor's interpretations is seductive but with Mahler's symphonies there simply is no one conductor who's gotten all nine (or ten) right.

cant wait for the scott walker boxset.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scott-Collection-1967-1970-Walker/dp/B00BCOL5YS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1369336963&sr=1-1&keywords=scott+walker

have held back from buying any of his 60s solo albums knowing that a boxset like this would at some point be sorted out.

seems that labels are totally going for this now.

in recent months i have seen (and left unloved) : motorhead, uriah heap, van halen, eagles, type o negative, sepultra, rob zombie (!!!) ..

personally i love this as it means i get the whole set of the good stuff in one go ..

hence why the scott walker is one of this years most anticipated purchases for me as i know it will hit so many spots for me.

there's a 5cd bowie set featuring the 3 berlin-era cds and the double Stage(?) for little or no money too (£12):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zeit-77-79-David-Bowie/dp/B00BQ8ZWO4/

oh yes .. saw that the other day ..

having recently just bought the complete set of limited bowie japanese mini vinyl editions from a friend i let this one go ..

and yes .. the complete set : space oddity -> never let me down

my friend had no idea he had the lot, until he checked at which point i offered over the odds as they are just gorgeous.

original inserts (where applicable), original inner sleeve notes, original gatefolds etc ..

just gorgeous ..

anyways .. back to the cheap seat bargains that i normally involve myself with ..

this as well (as been out a while)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Official-Release-Series-Discs-1-4/dp/B0081QZJ6A/ref=sr_1_4

first 4 neil young albums for £12

That Bowie Berlin box, are those all in jewel cases in a card slipcase or something? Sounds like it from the product reviews. My vinyl of this stuff is oh so scratchy now.

jewel cases with a cheap cardboard thing ..
nothing new/special ..

oh, and i got that neil young set. my first intro to the young catalogue.
reaction : 'oooh now i get it .. '

THESE ARE ALL VERY GOOD, BEWARE LOW AND HEROES ARE BOTH HALF INSTRUMENTAL.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=original%20album%20series&sprefix=origina%3B%2Caps%2C

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51q8BbSNwHL.jpg

Packaging is the usual cheap box with no booklet or notes or anything, but I just got this for £13 or something ^^^

I posted that link again here btw as I assumed most wouldnt be reading the funk listening club thread, Ordered the Slave and Curtis Mayfield sets.
Theres loads more I'd want tho like the Warren Zevon, Chic, Dr John etc

The Zevon is pucker.

Yves Nat Beethoven sonata cycle and much more. V. good.

1930-1956: Comp Recordings
http://amazon.ca/dp/B000BS6Y74

Nat's is a really really great Beethoven cycle. Def recommended by me.

Hey man I am still awaiting your Brendel breakdown! Eagerly would be an exaggeration, but still interested in a remotely optimistic fashion. ;-)

Ha I forgot anyone had actually expressed interest in that. Will totally do.

It's weird trawling through those Original Album Series boxsets and bumping into so many multi-album major label artists who I just have no effing clue about

e.g. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61G59g%2Ba0cL._SY355_.jpg

who the fuuh are pooh

wait is the first album on that box really called poohlover?

what a...

Also they completely messed up in not calling the third one Poohmerang.

Pooh is an Italian pop band formed in 1966 in Bologna. They are referred to in the plural as I Pooh (the Pooh).

snigger

More like poomeringue amirite?

oh man I need that Ribeiro box

everybody does! tbh i wasn't really all that familiar with her beforehand - so glad i took a punt on it cos it's right up my street, especially Paix

xposts yeah, I remember Record Collector doing an article on them, except it was in the April edition that year, and I just assumed it was an AFJoke.

Still, Vol 2, yeah?