| Main Pressing plants Pennyroyal Tea Test pressings Collection |
| Hormoaning MVCG-17002 official versions | |||||||
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There are two versions of the Japanese Hormoaning CD. One with the text on the inserts written in blue, traditionally called the first pressing, and one with the text written in purple, traditionally called the second pressing. However, as we shall se, the color on the inserts have nothing to do with which pressing it is. There are also many counterfeits of the purple version with varying degrees of artwork quality both on the inserts and the disc. Counterfeit can easily be identified by the low printing quality. Most counterfeits contain too much yellow color on the inserts, and the text is blurry and too dark, especially the DGC logo on the back is often horrible. Text and logos on official discs are very sharp and thin compared to most counterfeit discs, which may have thick charachters. See sliver.it for info and images of typical counterfeits. Varying track numbering for the tracklist on the discs have been reported, 1, 2, 3 - 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 3 - 1, 5, 6. However, all official discs are properly numbered from one to six. The number 4 is badly printed though, and looks like a 1. You can see the remains of the 4 if you look closely. The best way to identify a genuine pressing is to look at the matrix codes. All counterfeits come with only MVCG-17002 (with or without the "-") or NIR 92-48922444 in the matrix code. The official Hormoaning CDs were pressed by Victor in Japan, and only by Victor. All official copies will then have one of the two following matrix codes: MVCG-17002-1- 1M 1 1 V MVCG-17002-1- 1M 1 2 V Notice only "1 1" is exchanged with "1 2". These numbers were added mechanically to the metal plates to keep track of the various metal parts. These numbers do not identify different pressings as in the standard sense, but that they are pressed with different stampers. They were probably pressed simultaneously on two different moulds, but note that the numbers do not identify any particular mould. The first number identifies the number of the mother created from the father, while the second identifies the number of the stamper created from the given mother. The numbers show that one mother was created, and two stampers were plated from it. As the matrices written by the LBR are identical, both variations were pressed with stampers processed from the same MGM. One could believe they were two different pressings as there are inserts with both blue and purple text, but both matrix variations have been found with both insert variations. There seems to be more blue inserts, so the purple inserts were probably a missprint, or an additional number of extra inserts printed. Last, the area around the spindle hole which is usually transparent is a bit blurry on official copies, in typical Victor fashion. There is also a promo version. The few spotted copies came with blue version artwork and "1 1 discs". "SAMPLE" and some Japanese text is added around the spindle hole, and a sample sticker is also attached to the back. All official copies should come with an obi, but remains of glue on some jewelcases and the absence of these remains on others may indicate that the obis were glued to the cases instead of being held in place by a plastic seal. Those cases without remains of glue may not have come with obis. All official copies also came with white CD trays, not black. Regarding the quantity, it now appears there are more blue titled inserts than purple. It always seemed to be the opposite way because of the huge number of purple counterfeits. It strengthens the theory that the purple titled inserts were just a few extra inserts printed, but I don't really know for sure if that is the reason for two different printings of inserts. Wikipedia reports that it charted as number 67 on the Official Japanese Album Charts, selling 22730 copies in five weeks. A MVCG-17002 only matrix version could be found in big chain stores in USA such as Best Buy and Circuit City in the mid nineties. These stores normally wouldn't sell unofficial items, and the quality of the inserts were better than most counterfeits. This makes some people think it is in fact an official copy. I agree that is it odd that a counterfeit has ended up in these big chain stores, but there are a few reasons to why they are in fact counterfeits. First, although the quality is good, it is inferior to the full matrix version artwork. Also, all discs released by DGC Japan are made by the same pressing plant, Victor, which always follows the standard matrix code setup as the full matrix versions do. There is no reason DGC Japan would use another plant in addition to the regular one for this release, when they never did for other Nirvana releases. Also, the "+ counterfeit" of the Pennyroyal Tea single were in fact sold by Newbury Comics, and that's not the only case of counterfeits/ pirates being sold by legitimate stores. Somehow these counterfeits sneaked into the distribution.
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 1. Blue front insert  2. Blue back insert  3. Blue obi  4. Blue DGC logo and credits detail  5. Purple front insert  6. Purple back insert  7. Disc  8. Track numbering on disc  9. Matrix variation 1  10. Matrix variation 2  11. Sticker and print on promo copies Thanks to Enrico Vincenzi (images 3, 9), Sebastian Sobotta (images 5-6), Guido Maria Muscelli, Ignacio Guerin (image 10), and Mike Bolton (image 11). | |||||||
| Main Pressing plants Pennyroyal Tea Test pressings Collection |