Uncovering The Real Fakes At Last Pt. 2
Alright! As previously mentioned, I wanted to continue building up our “database” of known forgeries offering both descriptions and pictures to help thwart future rip-off attempts as well as provide a reference for would-be buyers (new collectors in particular, but I’m sure those of us that prefer factory pressed silver will all benefit).
As an aside, basically all of my examples will be Floyd-related at this time as that is the nature of my collector experience for the most part, but by no means should these “revealing” articles be limited to this alone, so I do encourage everyone to contribute their own expertise and evidence over time.
Again, I must stress that on one hand, as a fan and musician myself, the music is what really matters in the end, and given the widespread availability of material in a plethora of formats, these articles might not make a difference to the most devout listener – however, for the serious collectors, archivists, and those who want the highest possible quality, genuine factory-pressed silver on the original labels, this reference “database” will be indispensable.
Also, I strongly recommend any new collector take the time to read through the older post that essentially is a tutorial in differentiating a real silver disc from a CDR first for the basics.
Now, in this edition, despite my preference for silver pressings as well as this site’s overall focus, we’ll take a look at some genuine Ayanami Pro-CDR releases from Asia and once again some fake versions originating from South America (and by no means am I ever suggesting all the fakes originate from there, nor that there aren’t some valuable contributions from there either – I’m simply documenting what I know to be forged, and focusing especially on items related to recent listings on eBay, etc.)
Here, we have a counterfeit CDR pressing of Ayanami-221 “Live At Technical College”:
Now this one, unlike the high-grade “faux Sirenes” documented in part 1 of this editorial, bears ALL of the hallmarks of a homemade reproduction: fuzzy and dull one-sided inserts, the discs themselves have the green tint inherent to CDR burns, and they have the black inked code in the clear center circles of the discs. Additionally, these have some really strange selections for printing on the discs’ faces; a half “man in the moon” on one disc, and an old Buffalo Indian Nickel motif on the other! Bizarre!
I’ve seen others that surely came from the same forger with a variety of geometric shapes or currency motifs – basically in all cases having absolutely no relation to the contents of the discs themselves. One of these has the following printed over the black inked matrix: “IPC Base B. UG 48X 80 min. Industria Argentina ” which is why I suspect the origin of these fake Ayanamis is also South American (despite procuring them from a US-based eBay seller).
Now, let’s take a look at a genuine Ayanami Pro-CDR release “Rainbow Day 1” (Ayanami-212):
I know these pics are far from hi-res, and I’ll work on upgrading these along with the rest in the future, but it should be immediately apparent that the inserts are double-sided, the printing is professional on regular matte CD stock, the discs themselves though CDR, have matrix numbers burned into the center silver ring, and the title/catalog number appear in a font Ayanami commonly use. All the genuine Ayanami releases I’ve seen have most of these traits in common.
I know the fact that these are CDRs either way make this a bit of a “grey area” to begin with, but there IS a difference from a quality, professional pressing vs. some cheap burn anyone could do on their home PC!
It pains me to say that I’ve just watched a couple of the fake Ayanamis sell for far more than a brand new silver disc just in the last 48 hours, and obviously, I’ve ended up with a couple frauds myself…but I figure I’m making lemonade out of lemons here, right?
Once again, the music contained within does appear to be what it’s supposed to be, and in that regard, I can’t complain. That being said, if I wanted a homemade CDR of any gig, I’d download it and burn it myself you know?
Anyway, I wanted to include some information and evidence on fake Blue Cafe, STTP, and others in Part 2 here, but I’m going to wait a week for some new arrivals here so that I am able to compare the exact same titles against each other, and I will in fact update this post to reflect that as soon as possible.
I’m going to cut back on the background info a bit on the next installments and focus more on the visual evidence, so as to cover more labels at once.
But, as these Ayanamis and Sirenes are near and dear to my heart, I figure they can stand alone for now.
Again, anyone that wants to contribute other bands, labels, information, please do so…any contributions will be appreciated and are undoubtedly useful to countless others! Cheers!
Update: I mentioned some other “designs” found on some other fake Ayanami discs being sold regularly on eBay, and thought it would be a good idea to include a couple additional examples here.
Since the cover and inserts are typically scans of the original Ayanami releases, there’s no sense including those here so I’ll focus on the actual discs themselves.
The forgery will appear on the left, while the genuine article is on the right.
Bath (Ayanami-142):
At Free Concert 1971 (Ayanami-190):
As you can see, there’s not even a vague resemblence and the fakes are quite absurd to be honest, almost funny (unless you paid a large sum for one).
Remember, the forgeries also do not have 2-sided inserts and upon close examination, it’s clear the covers are scanned/printed cheaply, whereas the real Ayanami releases are obviously professionally done.
Cheers!
Plomerus, July 5th, 2008
3 Comments
There was a wise reply in Part 1 of this thread that suggested making copies of CDR items on some of the ultra-high quality CDR’s available now as well – which can come in handy for those of us that like to listen to music in the car (and haven’t gotten “hip” to iPods and so forth yet). Plus, most burning programs offer the option of making more than 1 copy, so just like back in the vinyl days, a single play for the purpose of making a copy will help preserve the original item and still give you something to jam in the car or wherever. Of course an external hard drive or two is a wise suggestion as well, and frankly, it’s not a bad idea to have a plethora of back-ups for favorite shows!
i’ve bought several pink floyd and led zeppelin cdrs from “Argentina” via ebay over the years. paid too much for cdrs, IMO. anyway, so far, none of them have “gone bad” or stop playing/won’t copy, but i’m currently starting to find them & archive them to a hard drive, since at least 1-2% of my older cdrs have stopped playing/will not copy
Lets see… I’ve got these:
as factory pressed “clones” of original discs on the same or similar labels. Generally the artwork is ‘fuzzy’ despite the factory pressed nature of the disc (I believe most of these were issued in the late 90’s early 00’s as opposed to recently):
Beck Quodlibet BQ001 (original B-DAT-025)
Black Sabbath War Pigs Great Dane GDR CD 9119
Black Sabbath Welcome To the Electric Funeral Metal Maniacs MM 001
Jane’s Addiction Live and Profane! Totonka CD PRO 1 AND 2
Led Zeppelin Tribute To Johnny Kidd And The Pirates Prontomagic Recordings
Led Zeppelin Live In Dallas TDOLZ Vol.14 0033
Pixies The B-Side File 3rd Edition
Rage Against The Machine Justify Those That Die Kiss The Stone KTS 178
Ramones Gabba Gabba Hey (Fuck The Grind) Aulica A.119
Sex Pistols Kill the hippies Big Music BIG 046
Smashing Pumpkins Mayonaise Dream KTS 261
Smashing Pumpkins Twilight moonraker 039
Smashing Pumpkins 17 seconds Mégaphone CDX 1596420 MPH
Smith, Patti Live At CBGB’s The Swingin’ Pig TSP-CD-211-2
Velvet Underground The First Night Aulica A.2151
Who Pure Rock Theatre Hiwatt 1996 Eclectic Reissue No. 9603
It’s also important to note multiple pressings by the “same label” such as the Nirvana series “Outcesticide” or “Yellow Dog” and “Kiss The Stone” repressings.