January 16th, 2025
Evacuating my Life in Records - In 15 Minutes... PART 1 Choices and Reflections from the Los Angeles Wildfires of 2025 By: Mark Ward
As the LA Fire Tyger Roars, I decide which music to save that has accompanied me across 50 years and two continents...
Beyond the seriousness of this moment, you might call this an impromptu tour through some of the highlights of my record collection: a diversion in harrowing times. Part 1 focuses on my classical records; Part 2 on my rock, jazz and film music titles.
Read More Comments: 7January 15th, 2025
Rudy Van Gelder Records Gary Davis "One of the Last of a Long Line of Religious Street Singers" a stirring record that surely influenced more commercial folksters By: Michael FremerIf you're expecting a primitive "field recording" you'll be disappointed by this influential set performed by the sixty four year old ordained minister and recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, August 24th, 1960 at his then year old Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studio. Twenty numbers recorded in three hours, with the exception of one, all first takes. twelve of which are on this record.The annotation by Larry Cohn suggests that "Pure Religion is... Read More
Comments: 5January 12th, 2025
Modern Marvel of Miniature Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Delivers Exceptional Sound and Feature Set this bud's for you By: Michael FremerTechnics introduced these new $299.00 earbuds early last December to a group of editors, journalists and influencers at a Kyoto, Japan press event. The big launch was earlier this week at CES. Other than me and I think a writer from What Hi-Fi in the U.K. the "audiophile press" was absent. I travel a lot —I am a million miler on United and I always bring music and headphones. I've got multiple pairs of small "in ear" models from various... Read More
Comments: 18January 10th, 2025
Technics Launched the Truly Exceptional Sounding EAH-AZ100 Earbuds at CES January 7th, But I Heard Them In Japan December 4th! Embargo Lifted—Now I Can share the experience By: Michael FremerOn January 7th at this year's CES Technics introduced the EAH-AZ100 flagship Bluetooth earbuds but I got to experience them a month earlier in Japan. When the invite arrived in my inbox I really didn't know what to make of it. Earbuds? Me? Japan? Sign an NDA? Sure, but was Technics really flying me to Japan for a headphone launch? Until I got there I thought maybe the trip was really about a new top end turntable and they were just making sure I didn't... Read More
Comments: 2January 10th, 2025
Rhino High Fidelity Series Rocks Out Twice With Television's "Adventure" and Faces' "Ooh La La" double rock release is break from the label's typical rock/jazz coupling By: Tracking AnglePRESS RELEASE: (January 10, 2025 - Los Angeles, CA) Rhino High Fidelity (Rhino Hi-Fi) cranks up the volume again on its series of acclaimed limited-edition, high-end vinyl reissues by revitalizing and re-energizing two more rock classics! New Rhino Hi-Fi versions of Television’s pivotal sophomore LP Adventure and Faces’ fourth full-length album, Ooh La La, will be available today, exclusively at Rhino.com and internationally at select WMG stores. Each release is... Read More
Comments: 3January 8th, 2025
The ampsandsound Yellowstone Vacuum Tube Preamplifier—A Geyser Spew of Musical Greatness includes MM/MC input and remote control volume/mute By: Michael FremerReviewing, or judging the sound of audio gear at hi-fi shows is a fool's errand. I've written that before and I'll never stop writing it as long as some reviewers insist upon doing so in lousy sounding hotel rooms, I don't care the size. Sometimes good sound does happen and of course it should be pointed out and lauded and there are some exhibitors who know how to work around bad acoustics and bad electricity to achieve acceptable sound (High Water... Read More
Comments: 9January 8th, 2025
Donny Hathaway's Self-Titled Second LP Reissued at 45 rpm in Atlantic 75 series By: Joseph W. Washek1971 was a pivotal year for R&B/soul music. Stevie Wonder's Where I'm Coming From was released in April. Marvin Gaye's What's Going On was released in May. Maggot Brain by Funkadelic was released in July, Curtis Mayfield's Curtis in September, and Sly's There's a Riot Goin’ On in November. All of these albums were entirely composed of original music and expressed the disappointment, despair, and anger of young Black people living... Read More
Comments: 4January 8th, 2025
A Journey to Satori: 53 Years In The Making A deep dive on Flower Travellin' Band and their 1971 breakout psych classic By: Michael JohnsonIn 2019 Yuya Uchida, the father of rock & roll in Japan, passed away at age 79. Uchida was not an instrumentalist, and he never found fame as a singer, but his fingerprint was on much of the guitar-driven music infecting Japan from the late 1950s through the early 1970s. After a brief career releasing some early Elvis-inspired rock and roll singles at the dawn of the 60s, his passion was reinvigorated when the Beatles came to Tokyo in 1966 to perform five nights... Read More
Comments: 4January 6th, 2025
Acoustic Sounds Unveils Definitive Ultra High Quality Record Vinyl Reissue of Steely Dan's "Katy Lied" Available now for pre-order, release date of 1/31 By: Tracking Angle
Press release: [Jan. 6, 2025] — Acoustic Sounds announces their latest high quality reissue, Steely Dan’s groundbreaking fourth studio album, Katy Lied. This gold-selling classic, originally released in 1975, has been meticulously remastered for an Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR) reissue, the pinnacle of vinyl craftsmanship. Available on January 31st, 2025, and available for pre-order HERE, the release is the latest installment of Acoustic Sounds' ongoing series, which has featured releases from Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy a Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, The Royal Scam, Aja and Gaucho since September 2022. “This could be the best vinyl record I’ve ever heard,” said Bob Lefsetz, on Acoustic Sounds’ UHQR edition of Can’t Buy a Thrill. “This is rarefied air. Not only is this a classic album that has stood the test of time, this is not the vinyl you see in your clothing store, not even in your record store.
Read More Comments: 27January 6th, 2025
The Velvet Underground Strived for Hits on “Loaded” Analogue Productions’ reissue is "loaded" with sonic sweetness By: Dylan PegginOf all the '60s era artists that expanded their craft to unfathomable heights, The Velvet Underground was arguably the most adventurous. Few if any other contemporaries sought to work in unorthodox approaches to both instrumentation (drones, detuned guitars, and distortion) and subject matter (drug use, S&M, and prostitution). These approaches appear prominently on their first two albums, The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat. A key... Read More
Comments: 2January 6th, 2025
Bill Evans' Best Studio Album The 1961 "Explorations" gets its best vinyl treatment By: Fred KaplanThe trio of pianist Bill Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Paul Motian is one of the most influential in jazz, yet the group laid down just three recording sessions over an 18-month period from December 1959 till June 1961--two studio sets (which formed two separate albums, Portrait in Jazz and Explorations) and one live date (spread out over two albums, Waltz for Debby and Sunday Afternoon at the Village Vanguard). The live albums, which rank as the best... Read More
Comments: 7January 4th, 2025
A Little Touch of L.C. Franke in The Night? though a collection of winning originals, not covers By: Michael FremerReading the press release while listening to this effervescent, ornately orchestrated instantly likable set of new, yet nostalgic tunes, it wasn't surprising to discover that modern day "crooner" L.C. Franke's musical roots at least for this record were anchored in his grandmother Elsie's "dusty" record collection (crooner in quotes because his singing style is more straightforward, though the tunes and arrangements could be used by... Read More
Comments: 0December 31st, 2024
007 for the Holidays: The John Barry - James Bond Soundtracks PART 2 “Do you expect me to talk?” -- “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to groove…” By: Mark Ward
With due apologies to Auric Goldfinger as he leered over Sean Connery about to have the family jewels melted by a laser beam, we continue our holiday stroll down Vinyl (and occasionally CD) Memory Lane and through the used bins for some choice Bondian music picks: original soundtracks and compilation albums, all featuring the indelible music of John Barry. (You can read Part 1 of this survey here).
Read More Comments: 5December 30th, 2024
A Front Row Seat at the Corner of Forlorn and Regret With Gillian Welch and David Rawlings in "you are there" spectacularly natural sound By: Michael FremerRarely does regret sound so affirming, loss so found, emptiness so filling, distance so near and dated so au courant as do those dark sentiments on this collection of woe filled songs that though relentlessly morose, somehow bring to the listener peace and resolve.Though the Welch/Rawlings musical style remains fixed in mountain balladry and many of the themes are timeless, there's modernity too in "Hashtag"—an unrelentingly down road song about chasing... Read More
Comments: 25December 29th, 2024
007 for the Holidays: The John Barry - James Bond Soundtracks PART 1 “Do you expect me to talk?” -- “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to groove…” By: Mark Ward
With due apologies to Auric Goldfinger as he leered over Sean Connery about to have the family jewels melted by a laser beam, let’s take a holiday stroll down Vinyl (and occasionally CD) Memory Lane and through the used bins for some choice Bondian music picks: original soundtracks and compilation albums, all featuring the indelible music of John Barry.
Read More Comments: 8