The search for is not snobbery; it is sanity. This album is a physical object disguised as a recording. The crushing weight of Part I, the jazz-fusion breakdown of Part III, the sheer manic joy of Yamanaka’s scream in Part IV—these are not meant to be heard through Bluetooth earbuds on a crowded train.
The original 1971 master tapes of Satori are dynamic nightmares for audio engineers. The recording features extreme transients—Yamanaka’s voice goes from a whisper to a scream in a millisecond; the crash cymbal on Part III has a decay that lasts nearly eight seconds. When you convert that to MP3 (even 320kbps), the algorithm throws away the "inaudible" frequencies. Flower Travellin-- Band - Satori -1971- -FLAC-
Joe Yamanaka (who passed away in 2011) once said, "We wanted to make music that felt like wind blowing through a temple." The wind is there. But you need FLAC to feel it moving your hair. The search for is not snobbery; it is sanity