December 10th, 2024
Rhino Entertainment Launches Rhino Reserves— Another New AAA Premium Vinyl Series First Up: Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights" & Eddie Hazel's "Games, Dames, And Guitar Thangs"By: Tracking Angle
(December 10, 2024 - Los Angeles, CA) Rhino Entertainment is proud to announce the launch of a new audiophile vinyl series, Rhino Reserves, offering legendary albums on 180-gram premium-quality black vinyl. Ensuring the highest audio quality, Rhino Reserve will be pressed locally at Fidelity Record Pressing’s brand-new plant in Oxnard, CA, and cut by renowned mastering engineer Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. For these inaugural releases, however, the lacquers... Read More
December 9th, 2024
Analogue Productions Unveils ‘Birth Of The Blue’ at All Blues NYC Japanese kissa-style listening experienceBy: Malachi Lui
This past Wednesday (December, 4) at Tribeca listening bar All Blues, Analogue Productions’ Chad Kassem, reissue supervisor Steve Berkowitz, and jazz scholar Ashley Kahn presented Birth Of The Blue, the new compilation of the Miles Davis Sextet’s May 26, 1958 session. Recorded almost a year before Kind Of Blue and featuring the same lineup—Miles, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb—this set of four songs has never seen its... Read More
November 29th, 2024
A Blah RSD Black Friday Still Produces a Few Gems for jazz fans anywayBy: Michael Fremer
A relatively lackluster set of RSD Black Friday offerings had me staying home. There were a few interesting items but nothing that had me running to the store, especially pre-dawn to wait on line. Your reaction may have differed and for all I know you are reading this standing on line at your favorite record store. These three were sent my way, so of course I listened.Resonance HLP-9074The Sun Ra Arkestra played Warsaw while I was there covering last October's... Read More
November 22nd, 2024
Blue Note Releases Never Before Released "Forces of Nature: Live at Slug's" McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson with Henry Grimes and Jack DeJohnetterBy: Tracking Angle
Blue Note Records has released Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’, a never-before-issued live recording of jazz legends McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson leading a stellar quartet with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Jack DeJohnette at the hallowed lost NYC jazz shrine, Slugs' Saloon, in 1966. The release was produced by Zev Feldman with Jack and Lydia DeJohnette, and is available now on 2-LP, 2-CD, and digital formats. Tyner and Henderson had been forging a strong... Read More
November 20th, 2024
The Beatles 1964 US Albums In Mono Box Opening I didn't bother with lighting or makeup so I could scoop the bitter trolls! lolBy: Michael Fremer
The box set arrived about an hour ago and I got right on it and shot this box opening video. Honestly, more interesting is the second embedded video with Kevin Reeves and Pat Kraus showing the tapes and the cutting process along with some of the ideas that went into the new cuts. The tape box notes show that bass was seriously cut for the original records as was some top end splashy cymbal stuff.What wasn't clear from the video is what they did for these new... Read More
November 15th, 2024
Andover Audio Updates and Upgrades Spinbase with Spinbase 2 greater connectivity options, more inputs among the enhanced user friendlinessBy: Tracking Angle
November 13, 2024—Boston-based Andover Audio is proud to announce the launch of the SpinBase 2, the next evolution of its award-winning turntable-speaker system (the turntable is not included). Maintaining the clean, classic design of the original SpinBase, the new model dials up the aesthetic with heathered fabric wrap and Andover’s iconic main control knob. This compact and clever design blends convenience with high-quality sound and ease of setup and use,... Read More
November 13th, 2024
Bill Evans's "Explorations" Is Next Craft "Small Batch" One-Step Release arriving December 13th, limited to 2500 copiesBy: Tracking Angle
Los Angeles, CA (November 13, 2024)—Craft Recordings is proud to unveil the next installment in its acclaimed Small Batch series—a meticulously crafted reissue of Bill Evans Trio’s final studio LP, Explorations. Arriving December 13, Explorations marks the series’ seventh installment, which has previously spotlighted jazz luminaries such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. Strictly limited to 2,500 pressings worldwide and available to pre-order today,... Read More
November 13th, 2024
"Birth of the Blue"—First Recording Session with the "Kind of Blue" band Released by Acoustic Sounds! mastered AAA from a new 30IPS 1/4" stereo master tape sourced from 3 track master!By: Tracking Angle
November 13th, 2024 – Analogue Productions, the world leader in high quality vinyl production, is thrilled to announce the December 13 release of Birth of the Blue, a collection documenting the transformative first session in 1958 by the same band that would go on to record Kind of Blue - the one of the greatest and greatest-selling jazz album of all time - the following year. Featuring Davis’ legendary sextet - John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul... Read More
November 12th, 2024
Blue Note Launches Tone Poet Society Subscription Service + 2025 Tone Poet Titles! ACCLAIMED SERIES OF DEFINITIVE ALL-ANALOG 180g VINYL REISSUES PRODUCED BY JOE HARLEY & MASTERED BY KEVIN GRAY FROM ORIGINAL MASTER TAPESBy: Tracking Angle
Blue Note Records has announced the launch of the Tone Poet Society, a new subscription service dedicated to the legendary jazz label’s Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series. Blue Note has also announced the 2025 line-up of the acclaimed series which is produced by the “Tone Poet” Joe Harley and features definitive all-analog, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues that are mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio, manufactured at RTI, and... Read More
October 31st, 2024
Bob Ludwig's Led Zeppelin II Test Pressing Goes to Heritage Auction! bidding starts November 4thBy: Michael Fremer
By now everyone reading this knows the story of Bob Ludwig's first cut of Led Zeppelin II. Bob put everything on the tape in the grooves and Atlantic released it. The story goes a copy went to Ahmet Ertegun's niece and it wouldn't play on her kiddie phonograph. Fearing it wouldn't play on the average teenagers's turntable either, Atlantic issued a recall and it was re-cut by someone at Atlantic Studios with bass attenuated and dynamics... Read More
October 31st, 2024
Wrensilva's "The Standard" Balances Form With Function An Up Close Sneak Peek of Wrensilva's Console Unit at An NYC Pop-Up at The Hotel ChelseaBy: Evan Toth
Good design rests upon - and often wrestles with - the timeless ideals of form vs. function. It’s an age old debate that grapples between the way an item actually works against the way it looks. Architecture, automotive design, and - of course - the hifi industry all create products bragging fantastic looks, but do they always excel at doing the thing that they were designed to do?Once upon a time, during a period between newsprint and television - and way way before... Read More
October 31st, 2024
WFMU Record Fair Tomorrow (Friday, November 1st) and Saturday—Meet Me There! Record Fair returns to the Metropolitan Pavilion ManhattanBy: Michael Fremer
WFMU's annual and always fabulous record fair returns this year to the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan after a one year detour to the Knock Down Center in Maspeth, Queens where parking was absolutely impossible and public transportation is poor (nice space for a record fair "tho" and a decent concert venue too).The Metro Pavilion's address is 125 West 18th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues. Visit the FMU website for more details.Hours:Friday:... Read More
October 23rd, 2024
Ruudy 6 Records Signs New Distribution Deal for Patrick Leonard's "It All Comes Down to Mood" Acoustic Sounds will now handle worldwide distributionBy: Tracking Angle
Patrick Leonard's acclaimed album It All Comes Down to Mood will now be distributed by Acoustic Sounds. Record retailers who tried to re-order the record from the previous distributor were told 'we're out" rather than "there's a new distributor," which only compounded the issues that lead to the distribution change.The album has so far received rave reviews in Goldmine and Germany's MINT Magazine, plus another in the next issue... Read More
October 23rd, 2024
Matthew Sweet Suffers Debilitating Stroke While On Tour Intervention Records Team reaches out to fans for supportBy: Tracking Angle
Just in from Intervention Records:
It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastating news that our longtime friend and musical inspiration, Matthew Sweet, suffered a debilitating stroke this past week while on tour in Toronto. What was meant to be a national celebration of his music has been tragically interrupted by this unforeseen event, forcing Matthew off the road and into a long and uncertain path to recovery.
Read MoreOctober 15th, 2024
Pro-Ject AS and CA Manufacturer's Comment Pro-Ject CEO Heinz Lichtenegger and an engineer respond to the reviewsBy: Tracking Angle
Mr. Lichtenegger's comment:"You mentioned that you were able to hear some resonances on the armtube. The AS version's aluminum tube design has typical aluminium resonance behaviour. Actually, the more sophisticated arm is the CA version of the premium series— the one piece carbon version)."This one is a carbon/aluminum design and so is way better damped than either a solely aluminum or solely carbon fiber. This construction and conical shape... Read More
October 12th, 2024
"Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision" More Hendrix From Experience Hendrix and Sony/Legacy sorry this is late--was travelingBy: Michael Fremer
Friday, October 4 – Today marks the release of "Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision" by Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. in partnership with Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment. This deluxe box set available on 3CD/1 Blu-ray, or 5LP/1 Blu-ray includes the feature-length documentary of the same name, plus 39 tracks (38 previously unreleased) that were recorded by the new-look Jimi Hendrix Experience (Billy Cox on bass, Mitch... Read More
October 9th, 2024
The Doors Are Still Open—and in 2025 Will Continue to "Break on Through" 60th anniversary celebration kicks off with Rhino High Fidelity AAA box set!By: Michael Fremer
"The Doors is 60 years old. Jim and Ray are gone, Densmore and Krieger are still with us and the group's power, led by Jim Morrison's grip on the imaginations of repeat generations of alienated youth, continues full strength. Rhino and Doors management led by Jeff Jampol, CEO of JAM Management plan a 2025 year long celebration starting with an all new AAA edition of a very familiar looking faux lizardskin box set that was originally issued in 2008... Read More
September 28th, 2024
Neil Young's Essential "On the Beach" 50th Anniversary Reissue Coming AAA November 8th Cut by Chris Bellman directly from the original master tapes, RTI for N.A., R.I. for R.O.W.By: Tracking Angle
Released in 1974, 50 years ago, Neil's 5th studio album, and the one following Harvest is among his most revered and musically enduring albums. Musicians on the album included Crazy Horse's rhythm section Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums), along with other key players Ben Keith, Tim Drummond, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Rusty Kershaw, David Crosby, Graham Nash and George Whitsell (The Rockets). Sessions were held at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch in... Read More