Choice Cuts: The Incredibly Rare Debut Album From Raw Material

The self-titled album from Raw Material is an incredibly Rare 1970 UK first press 7-track stereo vinyl LP on a rough textured Evolution label, the debut album from the little known long-haired Londoners, a proto-prog grail with collectors worldwide now looking to own a copy.

In terms of the cover condition, this is a one previous owner example that was bought from new at the time of release. Not many copies sold at all it seems in 1970 with severe lack of promotion, but its previous owner just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The sleeve remains Excellent to Near Mint, as it was kept in a plastic cover all its life – both panels remain exceptionally clean with no writing & there are few signs of shelfwear. So far, so good.

The heavyweight vinyl remains nice & clean & is strictly graded GOOD. Its previous owner appears to have played the record only a small handful of times, however, this copy of the vinyl has suffered from some heat wear damage both sides. This can be seen when the vinyl is held to the light. Heat damage is a common occurence with records of a certain age, usually found with vinyl rescued from far hotter climates than old blighty, the likely story is that our previous owner left the vinyl a little too near a hot pipe in the loft… What ever the case, the good news is that both sides play through without jumps or heavy clicks & the vinyl remains flat. The production is already on the fairly lo-fi end of the scale but the music shines through just fine – what there is as a result is a soft wave sound in the background during playback on each rotation of the disc for the first ten minutes or so either side. If you can live with this, you have a decent collection filler that’s half the price of an original copy when found in better condition, that’s if you can find one…

This example should still please the collector, & would certainly look fantastic as a show piece, but do bear in mind the vinyl is far from mint.

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