EMERSON, LAKE, & PALMER / TARKUS (ORIGINAL MASTER RECORDING) / Vinyl EMERSON, LAKE, & PALMER / TARKUS (ORIGINAL MASTER RECORDING)
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Tarkus (Mobile Fidelity 180g 33RPM LP)
Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Tarkus (1971) stands as one of progressive rock’s boldest statements — an audacious fusion of virtuosity, conceptual storytelling, and boundary-pushing production. Mastered at MoFi’s California studio and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, this numbered-edition 180g 33RPM LP presents the album with remarkable tonal depth, black backgrounds, and lifelike detail.
The nearly 21-minute title suite — a thrilling journey through war, evolution, and rebirth — remains a cornerstone of the genre, its shifting 10/8 and 5/4 time signatures and dramatic interplay between Keith Emerson’s Moog and Greg Lake’s vocals elevated by Carl Palmer’s explosive percussion. The album’s second side provides balance and wit with tracks like the honky-tonk “Jeremy Bender,” the jazz-inflected “Bitches Crystal,” and the spiritually charged “The Only Way (Hymn).”
Complemented by William Neal’s unforgettable armadillo-tank artwork, Tarkus captures ELP at their creative zenith — a definitive prog-rock statement presented here in true audiophile fidelity.