Music Reviews: Vinyl

A defining musical moment for me was sitting down with high school friends after hitting Blockbuster and watching Scorsese's concert epic "The Last Waltz." Of course, my favorite moment was witnessing a visibly gacked out Neil Young amble onto the stage and slide into "Helpless" and watching Danko and Robertson searching the skies for those birds flying across the sky. But when Joni appears, she is truly resplendent cradling a beautiful old... Read More

Hailing from the Great White Northern city of Toronto, Rush was one of those bands that never grandfathered themselves into one specific style. Whether it was the ‘Canadian Zeppelin’ aesthetic of their early years, crafting side-long progressive epics well into the ‘70s, or streamlining into the ‘80s with more commercial approaches, the group grew alongside their devoted audience. By 1984, the indicators of Rush’s musical evolution became more radical. Synthesizers... Read More

You license a title at 45rpm (because that's what's offered) and then the licensor releases it at 33 1/3 around the same time. These things happen. And they happen with greater frequency now. Now that vinyl has become a "thing". There was a time that the labels really didn't care much about the format and freely licensed titles to the reissue labels like Classic Records, Acoustic Sounds and the others. And they let the tapes out of the vaults.... Read More

Like its namesake, it appears that the movie "Abandoned Heights" will also be abandoned or already has been. It's been listed as being in "pre-production" on IMDB since 2022, but no matter! If Jack Bruce could write a "Theme for an Imaginary Western", it's not a problem for John McLaughlin to write an entire film score for a movie he's never seen and perhaps will never will see. Usually film scores are written to picture,... Read More

For any readers who are pressed for time - buy this record. The only category of readers who should think twice are ‘people who do not like Autechre’, and the parallel category of ‘people who do not like acoustic guitar music’, because Autechre Guitar is precisely that, nothing more, nothing less. If you have no money right now, begin saving, otherwise, buy this now. If you have a few moments, and you would like to know why you should own this remarkable LP - read... Read More

It's been almost forty years since the late summer of 1988 release of this ethereal, ambient/experimental studio creation—the follow up to Talk Talk's two million seller The Colour of Spring—that flopped commercially but resulted in an almost cult-like following of fans who for decades have spread the word about its intense, almost hypnotically musical powers. The Colour of Spring's commercial success gave the group's leader Mark Hollis the... Read More

If you'd told me my original Artisan Sound mastered Pitman pressing was up on Discogs for around $700, I'd not believe you until I looked to confirm. But it is. Not that anyone will ever buy it for such a price, but still! After listening to the new KG mastered Rhino High Fidelity reissue, I have to ask "why"? Why would you pay that much for a record that sounds distant and from the wide open spaces when you could have this for $40 bucks and with... Read More

Two years ago in this space, I reviewed an album by Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Open Me, a Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit. It was, and is, a terrific album (I scored it 9 for music, 11 for sound) by an all-too-neglected composer-arranger-percussionist who’s been active for a half century and still having a merry, spiritually rich time of it.Now comes a follow-up of sorts, Let the Spirit Out, on the same label (Spiritmuse Records, based in... Read More

If you’ve bought a Morrissey ticket anytime since 2012, there’s statistically a 30% chance he will cancel the show, often with little notice. This could be for any number of reasons: he’s sick or exhausted, or the venue didn’t meet his list of demands (such as removing all meat products from the premises), or he somehow has financial difficulties getting there (even when the show has sold well), or he just doesn’t feel like performing and would rather sit at the hotel... Read More

MQA is a plot to take over and ruin your music and make the devious and power hungry villain Bob Stuart wealthy. Maybe run the world. The reaction to MQA borders on that level of hysteria and for now it's kind of shut down or on hiatus (Lenbrook owns it) but the first demo of it I heard at a CES some years ago was unforgettable and made me a believer even if a later demo I attended with Rick Rubin made him a skeptic or worse and that surprised me.Keith... Read More

Tracking Angle welcomes veteran music journalist Wayne Robins. I met Wayne last November through our mutual friend Frank Doris at the Technica House preview of "Studio Confidential" . A few months later this David Forman album arrived and included in Joe Hagan's eye popping annotation was an advertisement for Forman's first album that unlike this one, was released. Wayne Robins' quote was one of the three in the ad, so who better to review this first issue than Robins? Read on! Robins' nimble story telling about the history of this record will drop the proverbial jaw.

Johnny Cash's recording career begins here in Sam Phillips' Sun Studios on this record originally released October, 1957 and ends with his American Recordings series of six albums produced by Rick Rubin between 1994 and 2010. This one featuring "I Walk the Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues" and the Rubin produced albums, are essential. In between were recordings and performances of varying quality on Columbia and Mercury. If you're only... Read More

By 1968 Warner Brothers/Reprise Records was like Elektra Records. You could pretty much buy whatever the label was releasing and you'd get high quality production, sound and music—accent on "pretty much". You were always taking a chance buying the unknown and you might not end up liking the music, but the odds were with you. Fans of Them's "Gloria" and "Here Comes the Night" and of Van Morrison's Bang Records hit single... Read More

The core lineup of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers changed regularly, but 1964 brought more drastic changes than usual. On trumpet, Freddie Hubbard had joined the Messengers on 1962’s Mosaic; he stayed until March 1964, when Lee Morgan returned. In September, tenor sax player and musical director Wayne Shorter left to join what became Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet. Pianist Cedar Walton and bassist Reggie Workman followed in their departures, and trombonist Curtis... Read More

Don’t ask how because I don’t know how. But the day after Christmas, I came into possession of a piece of the Grande Ballroom.I'm afraid to touch this thing, for fear it will crumble any more. Honestly, I’m afraid to look at it. It sounds like woo-woo nonsense, but it’s got such intense energy that when I opened the box, I sat on the floor and cried. It felt like opening a tomb. Wrapped in plastic and packing tape like the body of a Lynchian sacrificial lamb was... Read More

Emerging from the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, Silversun Pickups were the ultimate 1990s throwback, embodying a sound that’s best described as ‘Smashing Pumpkins meets My Bloody Valentine.’ The alternative rock revival of the mid-2000s was perfect timing for their inception, where playing “Lazy Eye” on Guitar Hero or noticing “Little Lover’s So Polite” on the soundtrack of Jennifer’s Body turned unsuspecting teenagers into curious fans (myself included).... Read More

A detailed account of this history-making recording session and review of the resulting record includes a personal reflection from engineer Rainer Maillard about working with Pletnev.

It’s funny to think of old, professor-type dudes in internet slop echo-chambers dictating what supposedly is and isn’t “rock-and-roll,” when age is antithetical to the “rock-and-roll” ideal itself. When Grace Slick retired from music, she declared, “All rock-and-rollers over the age of fifty look stupid and should retire.” Grace’s statement is faced with an immediate conundrum: the aging rock star. If these guys really look as dumb as she says they do on their... Read More