At an event Technics hosted at parent company Panasonic's Newark, New Jersey headquarters September 17th, Technics Business Development Manager Bill Voss walked me through all of the new $3299 SL-1300G turntable's features and mechanical and physical attributes, comparing it to the $2199 SL-1200GR2 below and the $4299 SL-1200G above. This video should clear up any and all confusion about what stepping up from the 1200GR2 gets you and what stepping down from... Read More

The tenor saxophonist Chris Potter plays with such youthful zest, it’s startling to realize he’s been on the New York jazz scene for 35 years. He turned heads from the get-go, in 1989, at age 18, as sideman to trumpeter Red Rodney (who, in his youth 40 years earlier, had been sideman to Charlie Parker). Through the subsequent decades, Potter has played in bands led by (among many others) Paul Motian, Dave Holland, Dave Douglas, Pat Metheny, and, for a spell, Steely... Read More

I have an admission to make, in all the demonstrations of dCS products that I have attended none have inspired me to listen further. They have always sounded perfect but devoid of involvement. However, this product and by extension the need to investigate its various set up options has revealed that dCS DACs are distinctly better than I thought. And this is only the baby in the range.By most metrics dCS is the reigning brand in British digital electronics. No one else... Read More

On April 5, 1923, in Richmond, Indiana, in the studio of Gennett Records, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band made the first of thirty-seven recordings mixing African instrumental techniques and concepts of improvisation and rhythm with European notions of harmony, melody, and the virtuoso soloist, to create the template for the music we’ve been listening to for the last century. The Creole Jazz Band’s six recording sessions, all between April and December in 1923, made... Read More

Press release Oslo, Norway. September 2024 New Little Fwend P8/P10Mount for Rega turntables. No mass, no problem. Our Low model has always been very popular among the Rega-crowd since we started Little Fwend in 2016. When Roy Gandy decided to follow his “less (mass) is more”-philosophy even more aggressively on the P8, P10 and the new Naia and simply just replace less mass with nothing at all - fans of Little Fwend had a problem. We got countless emails from fwends... Read More

Sometimes you just have to stop what you are doing and do this. I've been listening to a now vintage Shure V15V Type VxMR moving magnet cartridge, long considered "really good", really "linear", really great tracking at 1 gram, really worthy of "respect" but never considered "really exciting" sounding, that now sounds spectacular!People were dumping these V15s at one time because replacement styli were no longer available.... Read More

‘The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums In Mono’ Spotlights Seven AlbumsReleased in America Between January 1964 & March 1965;180-gram Vinyl LPs Analog Cut from the Original Mono MastersLondon - September 12, 2024 – Originally compiled for U.S. release between January 1964 and March 1965 by Capitol Records and United Artists, seven Beatles albums have been analog cut for 180-gram audiophile vinyl from their original mono master tapes for global release on November 22 by... Read More

Jerome Sabbagh's latest offering opens with a simmering, slow cooker of a cover of Duke Ellington's groundbreaking "Prelude To A Kiss". Sabbagh takes the ballad at a halting, note by note pace that explores the unique melodic line's contours, while veteran drummer Al Foster does likewise, leaving gaping spaces in between minimalist cymbal and skin hits. Paced so slowly, it startles, then you realize it's actually strongly swinging on Joe... Read More

Patrick Leonard's new "prog rock" extravaganza It All Comes Down to Mood, released at the end of August is now on sale at www.acousticsounds.com, www.elusivedisc.com and at www.musicdirect.com. It's a double LP 180g vinyl set with cover art by Storm, which did DSOTM all those years ago, and features Tony Levin and John Patituchi on bass, plus Martin Barre, Ian Anderson many other greats and of course PL himself is a multi-instrumental keyboard wiz.... Read More

Though not a descendant from grunge’s Seattle headquarters, San Diego’s Stone Temple Pilots was a force to reckon with. Its take on the genre by emphasizing 70s-based hard rock with hints of psychedelia and jazz allowed it to protrude and distinguish itself from masses of flannel. The debut album, 1992’s Core, wove into grunge lore with four hit singles and sales in America alone of over 8 million copies. After its first worldwide tour and a hyped appearance on MTV’s... Read More

Michael Fremer has misplaced his 1974 pressing of Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe (’), so he got a friend to hook him up with a loaner. When we pulled out the dust sleeve: Great googly moogly!“Rick, I’m tierd [sic] of you putting me down all the time. You do’nt [sic] know how much you hurt me,” begins a ballpointed breakup screed, from one Nancy. Reader, it’s a rough one: “All I ever here [sic] from you is that I’m fat, and ugly … I’m sick of you calling me a slut … You have... Read More

On June 10th, 2019 Newvelle Records hosted an event at world famous Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs New Jersey where "reluctant/later bloomer" pianist Billy Lester performed for a small audience of friends, family and press. A film about Lester was also screened. The thumbnail photo is of Newville's co-founder and a pianist himself, Elan Mehler. The jazz label had just issued Lester's album From Scratch on vinyl, with Lester performing in a... Read More

The Technics turntable line-up can be confusing. Lots of models, lots of numbers and superficially they can look identical but they are not! A few days ago at IFA in Berlin, the company launched a variety of products including this new SL-1300G turntable. While it may appear to be a helping of "number salad", it's actually very significant product launch.Simply put, the new $3300 1300G combines the highly evolved ΔΣ Drive motor drive system introduced... Read More

While this is admittedly a simplification, Tone Poet Blue Note releases come in a few basic musical flavors: the "must have" ones that even non-jazz fans know by name, the great ones that when originally released couldn't find an audience but now are more popular and well-appreciated than ever, the head scratcher delayed release ones that have fans wondering how and why the label didn't issue them when originally recorded, and finally the delayed... Read More

Musical Surroundings today announced a MK II upgrade to its world-wide best selling Hana S cartridge series. The Mk II upgrade enhances both the line's musical performance and value. Master cartridge designer Masao Okada implements a new tapered Aluminum cantilever with increased rigidity, resulting in a remarkable improvement transferring groove modulation from vinyl record to the cartridge generator. The S Series Mk II features higher specified parts, advanced... Read More

In 1975, Brian Eno released Discreet Music, his first “conscious” ambient album. On the back cover, he wrote an essay that starts, “Since I have always preferred making plans to executing them, I have gravitated towards situations and systems that, once set into operation, could create music with little or no intervention on my part.” With an accompanying technical graph, he describes side A’s 32-minute title composition—a few looping melodies that alternate in and... Read More