THE BEATLES/ABBEY ROAD LM-2315 (-70) TAIWAN

 

The hunt for odd variations of classic albums sometimes takes me to strange places. This Taiwanese I've seen listed as "unofficial release" and I usually don't go for those as they tend to have subpar audio, but this was a surprise. Looking at the cheapish sleeve quality and reading the somewhat odd lyric display on rear (shown below) you don't expect much, yet the vinyl is something else. Matrices have the UK 1st issue stamps - YEX 749-2 and YEX 750-1. Both sides also have hand etched LM 2315 plus a couple of Chinese signs I can't dechiffer.  Anyway the press is error-free and the audio excellent. Comparing with a UK 1st they come out exactly the same...at least to my ears. Don't know about the other Taiwanese label issues, but in this case it's positively made from UK matrices. I've compared the stamps and they match exactly. So just dismissing this release as "unofficial" doesn't fit. In that case how on earth did they get hold of the original UK molds? If You know more about this - please comment and tell! This Liming Record issue had label as shown here in a cover consisting of thin paper sheets covered in plastic with "lyrics" on rear.   (BÄ*) (LGÅ) (ÄZÄ*)