February 15th, 2025
The Original Source Does Mahler on Steroids Herbert von Karajan and the BPO Conquer All in this stunning Recording, one of the conductor’s very best By: Mark Ward
Batch #7 of the Original Source Series of AAA vinyl reissues concludes with one of the gems of the 70s DG catalogue in a stunning sonic refresh, courtesy of Emil Berliner Studios, mastered and cut directly from multiple 8-track master tapes. Don’t miss this one - even if you do not normally buy classical.
Read More Comments: 0February 14th, 2025
The Original Source Goes Blue Eroticism and Violent Passion get Super Charged in this Reissue from the Boston Symphony and Claudio Abbado By: Mark Ward
Batch #7 of DG’s Original Source vinyl reissues, mastered and cut directly from 4-track master tapes at Emil Berliner Studios, gets up close and personal in Scriabin’s masterpiece of sensual overload, and Tchaikovsky’s evergreen ode to forbidden love.
Read More Comments: 17February 13th, 2025
Fillmore Street Little Woodstar Composer Sasha Matson's latest album contains a new piece and an early one, substantially revised (includes interviews with producers John Atkinson and Joe Harley) By: Paul Seydor
These two new works, "Fillmore Street" and "Little Wordstar", scored for jazz orchestra and studio orchestra respectively, recall people places of personal significance to the composer and reference ecological themes of climate change, global warming, and endangered species.
Read More Comments: 0February 13th, 2025
Ortofon Announces the New $5499 MC 90x—an Update of the Classic A90! One's here for review and I can't wait to install it By: Michael FremerOrtofon celebrated its 90th birthday with the release of the now legendary and truly revolutionary MC A90—the first cartridge to use SLM (Selective Laser Melt) technology to build up from metallic powder (stainless steel for the MC A90) a cartridge body shape that would have been impossible to "machine away" from a block of stainless steel, aluminum or other materials. The shape was about self-damping and resonance control, not to create a fanciful... Read More
Comments: 5February 12th, 2025
Bags & Trane......Milt Jackson & John Coltrane Reissued at 45 rpm in Atlantic 75 series By: Joseph W. WashekOn January 15, 1959, when John Coltrane recorded the album Bags & Trane at Atlantic Studios in New York City with Milt Jackson, he was nearly at the end of the sideman-apprentice stage of his career. For two years, he had been playing with the Miles Davis Quintet/Sextet, one of the most successful groups in jazz. His time with Miles had been controversial. Part of jazz's audience and its critical establishment were never happy with the innovative nature of... Read More
Comments: 2February 11th, 2025
Ray Charles’ ‘Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music’: Sorry, Stick With The Original DYNAMIC COMPRESSION DOES NO FAVORS FOR THE GRAMMY HALL OF FAME-WINNING CLASSIC By: Morgan EnosAs a record, Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music holds up just fine. But as an idea? It may be one of the most beautiful we ever had.The story is a familiar one, as far the American musical mythos is concerned: Back in 1962, at the flashpoint of the civil rights movement, Charles recorded 12 standbys originally by Hank Williams (“You Win Again,” “Hey, Good Lookin’,”) Don Gibson (“I Can’t Stop Loving You”), and other luminaries of the tradition.Six... Read More
Comments: 9February 11th, 2025
Is Less More? This Electric Recording Company Reissue Had a Listening Buddy Convinced ERC reissue of Lightnin' Hopkins' «Goin' Away» goes head to head with Analogue Productions' version By: Jan Omdahl
The Electric Recording Company (UK) release of Lightning Hopkins' «Goin' Away», recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in 1963, is not the kind of reissue that will impress all audiophiles. Other, far cheaper versions have more dynamics and a more brightly lit soundstage. But the ERC version is a very convincing, and very expensive, time machine.
Read More Comments: 18February 10th, 2025
Musical Surroundings Hires Industry Veteran Chris Thompson As Service and Product Manager customer support and product repairs are critical, yet importer/distributors often shortchange or ignore both By: Tracking AngleOakland, CA. Feb. 10, 2025—Musical Surroundings is excited to announce the appointment of Chris Thompson as Service and Product Manager. Chris was the Quality Control and Special Projects Manager at Parasound in San Francisco for 11 years. One of Chris’ many responsibilities was developing and supporting the Parasound line of John Curl designed phono stages.Moving across the bay to Oakland, Chris now works with Mike Yee, designer of the Musical Surroundings’ Phonomena... Read More
Comments: 1February 9th, 2025
The Grand Mozart Tradition Restored Karl Böhm’s seminal way with Mozart’s final masterpiece receives the Original Source refresh By: Mark Ward
Batch #7 of the Original Source Series from Deutsche Grammophon turns to a long established classic of the DG catalogue. Karl Böhm was the great Mozartian of his age, and his many recordings of the composer's orchestral, choral and operatic music have been mainstays for decades. Remastered and recut directly from the 4-track master tapes, this handsome reissue casts Böhm's account in a new sonic light.
Read More Comments: 9February 9th, 2025
Jason Palmer Live in Brooklyn The fiery trumpeter fronts a top-notch quartet in an intimate room By: Fred KaplanJason Palmer isn’t as well-known as he should be, perhaps because he’s lived and taught in Boston for the last 20 years or so, whereas jazz, to the extent it’s promoted at all, tends to be New York-centric. He’s a trumpeter at once fiery and smooth-toned, dexterous and contemplative, equally emotive and virtuosic with chromatic flurries and balladic whole notes.He's in high demand when he’s not teaching at Berklee and the New England Conservatory, having... Read More
Comments: 0February 8th, 2025
Got Warped Records? The AFI FLAT.DUO Promises to Flatten and "Relax" Them it works! By: Michael FremerGot warped records? Warped records are a problem, though I have to say I really don't get too many of them. In fact, finding a warped record to flatten was not that easy for me. Finally one came along as a gift—a 180g Japan-pressed reissue of Happy End's Kazamachi Roman. Sometimes warped records come directly from the factory as a result of insufficient cooling time, but many a well-pressed record warps as a result of bad handling by the usual suspects:... Read More
Comments: 12February 7th, 2025
Mack Avenue Music Group & Strata-East Announce AAA Strata-East Reissue Series I'm onboard as "Audiophile Liaison" By: Michael FremerMack Avenue Music Group announced last month its partnership with Strata-East Records, the influential jazz label known for artistic freedom and high production standards founded in 1970 by Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell. The series will be released over time on AAA vinyl cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, pressed on 180g RTI vinyl and deluxe laminated gatefold packaged— paper on cardboard— by Dorado. Strata-East: The Legacy Begins—a digital-only anthology... Read More
Comments: 18February 7th, 2025
Winter Dreams and Youthful Fire: Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Tchaikovsky for the Original Source The Young Conductor makes his Mark in a forever Benchmark Recording By: Mark Ward
Batch #7 of the Original Source deluxe vinyl reissue series from Deutsche Grammophon (all mastered and cut DIRECTLY from 4 and 8-track master tapes by Emil Berliner Studios) kicks off with an established catalogue classic. The young firebrand conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, protégé of Leonard Bernstein, made his mark early with a series of acclaimed recordings for DG in the 1970s, and this Tchaikovsky 1st - at the time a work that was rarely recorded - may be the most celebrated of them all.
Read More Comments: 22February 6th, 2025
A Visit to Kevin Gray's Cohearent Recording Studio inspired by RVG's Hackensack home studio By: Michael FremerWhile in California last week working on a project for Mack Avenue Records (more about that soon) I visited Kevin Gray's Cohearent Mastering. That interview related to the Mack Avenue Records project will appear soon but for now, while at Kevin's I asked to see his home-based recording studio, inspired by Rudy Van Gelder's Prospect Avenue, Hackensack home studio in use until he moved in 1959 to the big one in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. He obliged. It's... Read More
Comments: 2February 6th, 2025
Analogue Productions and the Marley Family Announce Massive UHQR, SACD and Reel To Reel Bob Marley Catalog Reissue Series a major score for AP and Bob Marley fans! By: Tracking Angle
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February 5th, 2025
Joe Nino-Hernes' Digitally Sourced "Katy Lied" Says "Re-do Them All!" all of the lower cost digitally remastered Dan albums should have sounded this good By: Michael FremerUntil Katy Lied, the "commercial" $29.99 Steely Dan reissues were cut using Bernie Grundman mastered digital files. All of the previous Dan albums therefore should have sonically resembled the UHQR 45rpm versions issued by Analogue Productions. None did. All sounded D.O.A. They were cut by a lesser known, let's say "second tier" Long Island, N.Y. based mastering engineer. Was the problem the quality of his cutting system? After all, a lacquer... Read More
Comments: 19February 5th, 2025
From Roundabouts to The Sunrise - The Tale of Yes’ “Fragile”; the perfect pressing of a prog rock classic By: Dylan PegginBy 1971, Yes had became synonymous with "progressive rock". After executing an array of rearranged covers and hybrids of blues and jazz on its first two albums (Yes and Time and a Word), the release of The Yes Album laid down the foundation for the group's “golden run”, which ran up until the mid-1970s. Tracks like “Yours Is No Disgrace,” “Starship Trooper,” and “I’ve Seen All Good People” were quick to become repertoire staples of their now 50+ year... Read More
Comments: 7