Last night, 75,000 people in Cardiff got a big surprise: Oasis actually went on stage and played a full, two-hour gig.

Sure, that’s what was supposed to happen according to the tickets we all paid too much for (mine was £200 for the back left corner of the middle bowl), but there wasn’t much evidence that it’d seriously come to fruition. Liam and Noel Gallagher uncharacteristically did zero press, and only a couple photo shoots from which most of the results look composited. They’ve barely spent any time in the same room with each other. Announcing a reunion tour doesn’t mean that they’ve mended their relationship, and I half-expected to fly across the ocean and find that the notoriously combustible brothers had broken up again.

To peer through the lens of one of Elliott Smith’s key influences for a moment: everyone knows when an artist has made their Rubber Soul, White Album, or Let It Be. Rubber Souls are transitional — exotic, quixotic dispatches from early creative growth spurts. White Albums are post-genre, post-everything info dumps — essentially kits that dare you to build your own record. As for a band’s eventual demise, Let It Bes show the writing on the wall. And then there’s Sgt.... Read More

Los Angeles, CA (June 25, 2025) – Craft Recordings announces the latest titles in its acclaimed Original Jazz Classics series, which revisits celebrated, seminal and rare jazz albums. Upcoming reissues include Kenny Burrell’s Kenny Burrell; Kenny Drew’s Kenny Drew Trio; Frank Wess, John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette, Mal Waldron, Doug Watkins and Arthur Taylor’s Wheelin’ and Dealin’ and Sonny Criss’ Sonny’s Dream. Lacquers were cut AAA from the original tapes by Kevin... Read More

This riveting psychodrama in music remains one of Mahler’s most compelling and challenging creations, demanding the ultimate from performers and engineers alike. Joining the ranks of two previous Mahler outings from the Original Source (Karajan’s traversals of Symphonies 5 and 6), how does Abbado’s “Resurrection” fare?

Canadian saxophonist Cory Weeds first came to my attention as the reissue producer of a remarkable Charles Tolliver Music Inc double LP, Live at the Captain's Cabin (Reel to Real RTRLP 014) a limited to 500 edition released for last Fall's Record Store Day "Black Friday".Cohearent Audio's Kevin Gray had mastered several Reel to Real releases for Weeds (but for an "s" that could sound transactional) but until his granddaughter Amber... Read More

In a Tracking Angle review in March of this year, I called Philharmonic Audio’s Balanced-Mode-Radiator (BMR) Monitor loudspeaker “The Loudspeaker Bargain of the Century—at Least So Far.” (And I am so glad that I put that weasel-y little derrière-covering qualifier in.) That's in the context of, in my 2023 Tracking Angle review of Bricasti’s M3 Digital-to-Analog Converter, I called Solen Electronique’s fully-assembled SB Acoustics Sasandu Tx Finale three-way (with double woofers) loudspeaker “the Audio Bargain of this Century—so far.” And now, I announce a NEW Loudspeaker Bargain of the Century. As Shakespeare wrote:

Men were deceivers, ever.
One foot in sea, and one on shore.
To one thing, constant, never.

Terry Audio's Marshall Terry decided to open a Kissa bar in Austin, Texas. We decided to give Marshall some free publicity and invite Austinites to check out the place and report back. Mr. Terry writes to introduce himself, "Maker of mastering studio equipment, used by my pal Dave (McNair), also the folks at Sterling Sound, Metropolis in the UK, Bernie Becker, so many others..."Main Roomrest of main roomMr. Terry has thrown down the Kissa bar gauntlet:... Read More

(press release): Originally released on Decca in 1963 Ansermet’s interpretation is a model of clarity, control, and refined grandeur, emphasising balance and transparency over sheer spectacle, bringing out the symphony’s architectural elegance. The famous organ entries are noble and dignified rather than overwhelming, blending seamlessly into the orchestral texture. Ansermet resists the temptation to rush or overindulge in romantic excess, allowing the thematic... Read More

Definitely watch the Yacht Rock doc on HBO Max even if just the concept of the non-existent genre makes you seasick. It's a fun watch and it ties together the musicians who played in so many studio bands cobbled together to make smooth-rock. Plus Toto. The doc producer cast a wide net. Steely Dan got caught up in it not because of the music, but because Fagen and Becker recruited so many of these nimble-fingered (and voiced) studio cats to play on their... Read More

The 22-year-old Spanish virtuoso inaugurates her new association with the Yellow Label in triumphant performances the greatest of all violin concertos, where she is joined by the conductor Manfred Honneck, and some of the most treacherously difficult music ever written for solo violin.

I believe most hi-fi consumers and professionals hop scotch (my term) in the pursuit of audio nirvana. The reasons are, by and large, obvious: Upgrade neurosis coupled with a strong dose of financial considerations. This has been my story going back to my first audio purchase in 1968. I would listen to my system for a certain period of time and then decide which unit (turntable, cartridge, receiver, amp, preamp, speakers) would get the next upgrade. Back in the early... Read More

Within a musical climate dominated by disco on the charts and airwaves, Foreigner became the poster boys of ‘corporate rock’ in the mid-1970s. A varied career of session work led guitarist Mick Jones to create an entity that reflected his musical vision of commercially viable headknocking rock. The cross-nationality of the group’s American (Lou Gramm, Ed Gagliardi, Al Greenwood) and British (Mick Jones, Dennis Elliott, Ian McDonald) members cleverly lent itself to the... Read More

On a pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn, an unassuming brick structure sits opposite the drab monstrosity that is the Amazon fulfillment center. Among other things, that brick building houses Resolution A/V, an impressive operation that’s much more than a normal hi-fi dealer. In addition to two showrooms on the edges of their second floor warehouse space, Resolution has several workrooms for diagnosing and repairing vintage gear, as well as designing top-end smart home A/V... Read More

Nature, ecology and jazz have been getting together lately. Last year there was Wadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myer's Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens and this year, David Murray Quartet's Birdly Serenade and now Chris Cheek's leisurely jazz paddle down a deceptively lazy river with the scene set by a vintage, iconic Edward S. Curtis print on the jacket front and a desert trek Curtis photo on the rear. What does it... Read More

Claudio Abbado’s searing album of orchestral showpieces by the great Russian composer Serge Prokofiev gets the Original Source AAA makeover, and immediately comes into competition with two long-established audiophile classics:  Fritz Reiner’s Lieutenant Kijé on RCA Living Stereo, and Antal Dorati’s Scythian Suite on Mercury Living Presence.  How do they compare as performances and sonic spectaculars…?

Aside from American Beauty, I’d always seen the Grateful Dead as the worst American rock-and-roll had to offer. Oversaturated, meandering, and uber-merchandised. To me, they weren’t so much a band as they were a brand. It wasn’t until a recent dive into avant-psych statement Anthem of the Sun that I “got it.” Suddenly, I was able to see past the tie-dye and bleary-eyed, syrupy-sweet nostalgia. I’d finally struck gold; the feeling I’d always heard about from Dead... Read More

It’s only taken 50 years for David Murray to record an album for a major label, but here it is: Birdly Serenade, laid down with his current (and sizzling) quartet, on Impulse, which is owned by Universal Music Group—one of the “Big Three,” along with Sony and Warner, and thus about as major as they come.Murray, born and raised in Oakland, was just 20 when, in 1975, he left Pomona College for New York and made an instant splash on the downtown loft scene, the... Read More