Is there a difference between UK/European and US recordings? and I don’t mean a US or UK version of the same album I mean the recording source i.e. the master.

I buy a lot of albums by US artists one of the reasons I frequent this board so much I guess. But I find US artists recordings have a much more relaxed, open, less compressed sound where as UK recordings tend to compress the hell out of them, it’s sometimes like listening to am radio even on a half decent stereo. I’m not too up on the actual recording technique but I suppose the damage is done in the mastering to CD not the actual recording.

There are exceptions of course so I’m talking generally here, but just an observation. Anybody else find this?

Cheers
Mike