Know Your CDs

Know Your CDs

Does everyone know how many times Nobita asked Doraemon for a time machine? If I were him, I would go for once and be gone for a hundred years. While the machine itself does not exist, the concept of time travel could exist in different forms such as photographs, houses, movies and music.

In my opinion, music is the most affordable time machine that most of us can enjoy, I started collecting cassette tapes in 2020, the first one I bought was Nirvana MTV Unplugged, the one where Kurt sings while wearing a cardigan and Novoselic played the accordion. MTV was peak. Then I bought a couple more albums that I heard like Beatles, Oasis and even Suicidal Tendencies. But, my collecting has to stop because my radio was broken, and now those tapes are only sitting in a New Balance box.

MTV Unplugged in New York (1994) on cassette.

Like I said in my previous article, collecting physical media is fun. It’s eternal as long as you can maintain and store it in a proper place. In 2024, I bought Steely Dan’s Aja on CD. There are two reasons why. One is because I had a musical awakening after diving into Steely Dan’s discography, and I realized that my ASUS laptop has a disc tray.

As of today, I have about 20 CDs sitting beside my stack of books. Most of them are Steely Dan, Miles Davis and John Coltrane albums. While I prefer to buy them straight from the store like in Blok M Square or Pasar Santa, I had to buy some through online marketplace. Luckily, it’s quite easy to find your favourite albums through e-commerce, just be specific, train your eyes, and you might find it. For example, I got Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic in Shopee for less than Rp150,000 rupiah. Can you imagine finding an underrated masterpiece below the market price?

When it comes to collecting, I only buy studio albums, not a compilations except Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool, which is still on my wishlist. The next question is, while buying something from the internet, how come I know if it’s a genuine release? What if it’s a fake one like the album cover does not match the music? Yeah, I’ve been there and done that a couple times. So, here’s something that I do before buying CDs.

Discogs website.

A friend of mine once told me that there’s a website called Discogs. He said that I could find any album I want, but instead of that, I found other advantages of the website. I could do some fact-checking on every CD, cassette and vinyl that I encounter. Bingo. A car has a VIN or chassis number; a CD has its own identifying code depending on the label that released it.

Miles Davis’s Milestones (1958) on CD.

Allow me to take an example from my copy of Miles Davis’s Milestones. As you can see, on its plain silver-colored disc, there is some writings on it. The code “CK 40837” is the CD’s catalog number. A good seller could show you the disc or simply write it on the description, but if you don’t see any of it, don’t be afraid to ask. Try to enter the code through Discogs, you could also search it on Google or Chatgpt for the summarized version.

Discogs website.

Above is the result that matches the Milestones CD version that I have. Printed in the US, released in 1988 with matching Columbia Jazz Series artwork and back cover. Trust me, you only need the code number to verify the authenticity. In Indonesia, it’s pretty easy to get a US printed CD because US-printed CDs are the most common. But, the design are less elaborate, an usual booklet and plain silver disc layout. The US version has more raw and analogue sound compared to more cleaner sound of European and Japanese releases.

A US pressing of Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage on CD.

A European pressing sits in the middle, while most of them were produced in Austria or Germany, the average CD could cost around RP150,000 to RP250,000. Is it worth it? Yes. Most of them have coloured disc, a booklet full of retrospective reviews and previously unseen photographs of the band members, and you shouldn’t worry about how good the sound is. Then there’s Japan, some people say it’s the most coveted, is it true? Yes. A Japanese CD release is a gem.

A Japan release of Miles Davis’s Ascenseur pour l’echafaud on CD.

I had the privilege of getting my hands on Miles Davis’s soundtrack for Louis Malle’s debut Elevator to the Gallows (1958), Bill Evans & Jim Hall’s Undercurrent and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Stone Flower. All of these were made in Japan, and they tend to have more idealistic disc layout and an OBI strip. You can find out why music fans adore OBI strips. Other countries such as Canada, France, the Netherlands, South Korea and Indonesia also produce CDs, but I don’t have any that were released under each one of the countries. If you have more money in the pocket, the EU and Japan are your best bets.

Ascenseur pour l’echafaud on CD with an OBI strip.

I hope this essay could help anyone who wants to “nerd out” with their CDs. I found myself a little too crazy over details about something more practical than a vinyl. Well, I think that’s all.

I love music.