P-VINE Records recently announced it is re-issuing Clifford Jordan’s four Mapleshade albums on CD and vinyl. This is the first time any of these recordings have been released in Japan or have ever been available on vinyl. Older readers will most likely be familiar with both Mapleshade and these recordings, produced and engineered by the late Pierre Sprey. Please hit that hyperlink because I suspect many who knew about these records and Pierre, had no idea about his... Read More

My thesis is that music written for the ensemble of two violins, one viola, and one cello constitutes the musical art form that most nearly approaches perfection, both in its past achievements and its present possibilities. The greatest minds and most perceptive dispositions find in the literature and performance of string-quartet music an endlessly self-renewing source of wonder and delight. The string quartet is a most felicitous meeting of potential and realization.

Film music specialist LaLaLand Records continues its series of comprehensive 007 reissues with the score that set the musical template for the entire series.  Take a deep dive into the story behind the creation of this iconic piece of 60s pop culture, and a detailed assessment of this important restoration and reissue.  Barry, Bassey and Bond - nobody does it better…

Roy Thomas Baker, one of the rock era's most successful producer/engineers, best known for producing Queen's first five albums, as well as the first four albums by The Cars, died at age of 78 at his home in Lake Havasu City, AZ on April 12 his family just revealed. Cause of death not known. (Photo credit: Jimmy Steinfeldt)Baker's best known production, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" released in 1975 is currently the most streamed song... Read More

Some of the most glorious moments in music history owe to a glitch in the mainframe — those fleeting, thrilling ruptures where the real shit breaks through. Case in point: Cadence Records, and its short-lived but seismic sister label, Candid Records.From 1952 to 1964, Cadence mostly trafficked in vanilla fare — Andy Williams’ supper club ballads, the Everly Brothers’ clean-cut harmonies, the Chordettes trilling “Mr. Sandman” and “Lollipop.” There were outliers, sure:... Read More

AXPONA 2025 Video 4 has plenty of analog but it also spotlights the miniaturization trend on display—at least among a few companies. In the Sound Organization room (Rega, Chord importers) you'll see the new miniature Chord Suzi modular system featuring a very small yet powerful stereo amplifier into which you can plug a preamp, or a DAC or a phono preamp total size that of shoe box. Sound Org also showed the new Rega Mercury preamp and Solis power amp—as Rega... Read More

(Yesterday's Press release): April 17, 2025 – (Los Angeles, CA) – For Neil Young, music and film have always had a very long and close relationship. Not long after the rock & roll master started making records, he turned to the movie camera. Coastal: The Soundtrack is a live solo recording and companion piece to the filmed, Daryl Hannah-directed tour documentary recorded during Young's 2023 Coastal solo tour. Coastal: The Soundtrack album is available... Read More

The beautiful J. Sikora turntable shown in the thumbnail below is not included in this video (it was featured in Video 1) but it's too beautiful to not feature so here it is. Video 3 isn't the final Tracking Angle video shot at AXPONA 2025. There's at least one more, perhaps 2. This video begins with the "exploded" version of Mo-Fi Electronics MasterDeck turntable. Designer Allen Perkins is on hand to explain what's been revealed in... Read More

It may not be Halloween, but it’s always a frighteningly good time to discuss the Zombies— the UK-based rock band from the late 1960s that wrote and recorded seminal music that helped define the sound of those golden year—not the brain dead ghouls found skulking around after dark in your local cemetery. The Zombies found early success then found maintaining chart magic challenging.Formed in St. Alban’s in 1961, the band’s core group during their chat-topping days... Read More

The second of who knows how many videos it will take to cover AXPONA 2025 includes big news about the return of Koetsu cartridges, the world premier of the Alieno Phono Preamp from Italy, premiers of SME's new Model 8 and Model 35 turntables, the new Thales Reference turntable and Phono preamplifier American premiers, the first American presentation of the Supatrac Nighthawk tonearm and Revox's B77 MkIII and the special Alice Cooper model.This video also... Read More

With Sonic Presence microphones around my ears I dove into AXPONA 2025 expecting to capture binaural sound in every room. Unfortunately, Shure's Motiv app that worked beautifully at FLAX didn't work at all at AXPONA. Could have been an iPhone upgrade but with so many rooms to visit there was no time to find out!AXPONA 2025 was an extremely well-attended show. It was crowded all three days from morning through closing. The demographic skewed younger and there... Read More

If my previous Tracking Angle review — on the new Pharoah Sanders Izipho Zam reissue — framed Strata-East within so-called spiritual jazz, this trio of new vinyl pressings should shake loose any such pigeonholing.(That’s the storied, forward-thinking jazz label, founded by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell in 1971, whose new affiliation with Mack Avenue produced that Izipho Zam (My Gifts) reissue — read all about it. As the newly partnered... Read More

Los Angeles, CA (April 9, 2025) – Craft Recordings announces six new reissues from Original Jazz Classics (OJC), the audiophile series celebrating critically lauded, fan-adored seminal jazz albums. The latest installment features newly remastered editions of Bill Evans’ Interplay and Moon Beams, Lee Morgan’s Here’s Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter’s Introducing Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson’s Gone With Golson, and Ken McIntyre & Eric Dolphy’s Looking Ahead. Spanning the... Read More

Here are the final six (of a total of a dozen) choral settings of extraordinary value, most of them unaccompanied (a-cappella). The settings are from Medieval times to our era, but are not necessarily in chronological order.

The Qobuz playlist is here: https://play.qobuz.com/playlist/25258347

Tracking Angle wants to add a few equipment reviewers to our already impressive writer roster. Published experience is not required, though it would be helpful. When I began writing for The Absolute Sound in 1986 it was as a music reviewer/editor but I wanted to review equipment. The late, legendary Harry Pearson was willing to give me a chance so he sent a pair of inexpensive Siefert Research bookshelf loudspeakers for review and over the next few months the... Read More

Here are the first six (of a total of a dozen) choral settings of extraordinary value, most of them unaccompanied (a-cappella). The settings are from Medieval times to our era, but are not necessarily in chronological order.

The Qobuz playlist is here: https://play.qobuz.com/playlist/25258347

The Southwest Audio Fest returned to Dallas, hosted at the beautiful Hotel Anatole . Both media representatives and manufacturers I spoke with were looking forward to a repeat of last year's successful SWAF, which I reported on here. Overall, show organizers Lou Hinkley and Gary Gill have been successful in their efforts, and they announced that the SWAF will return in 2026, albeit with a significant change in date format. Instead of the usual Friday through... Read More

Today, the audiophile market is a goldmine for vinyl consumers. Whether it's Analogue Productions’ commemoration of Atlantic Records’ 75th anniversary or WMG’s Because Sound Matters venture, the pressings these and other companies are releasing have, for the most part, set a new sonic standard for timeless albums— in some cases outdoing originals. Reissue specialist Rhino Records, which it could be argued started the vinyl reissue ball rolling in the late... Read More