June 28th, 2025
Death and Resurrection - The Original Source Offers a Glimpse of Heaven Mahler’s Epic Second Symphony Finds New Sonic IlluminationBy: Mark Ward
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?
Read MoreJune 27th, 2025
"In the Pocket" Straight Ahead Jazz Caught on Tape at Cohearent Recording a "Hackensack West" winnerBy: Michael Fremer
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
June 25th, 2025
Steely Dan Not Yacht Rock! UHQR "Royal Scam" Makes That Clear! Donald's "Go f*ck yourself" to "Yacht Rock" doc producer fully justifiedBy: Michael Fremer
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
June 24th, 2025
Foreigner Doubled Their Recipe for Success on “Double Vision” This pressing is a “hot blooded” experience!By: Dylan Peggin
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
June 19th, 2025
Curtis Prints Set the Scene For This Eclectic Jazz Set Featuring Cheek, Bill Frisell, Tony Scherr and Rudy Royston recorded to tape by James Farber at Power Station NYCBy: Michael Fremer
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
June 19th, 2025
Battle of the Sonic Blockbusters - The Original Source Goes Nuclear Prokofiev with Abbado vs. Reiner Living Stereo vs. Dorati Mercury Living Presence… Who wins?By: Mark Ward
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…?
Read MoreJune 18th, 2025
No, Not The Movie: The Grateful Dead Sling 6-LP “The Music Never Stopped” Compilation One of the least likely people to “get on the bus” buys a ticket, in the form of Rhino’s 6-LP “highlights” compilation.By: Abigail Devoe
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
June 18th, 2025
David Murray Soars with the Birds The great tenor saxman nabs his first major label in 50 yearsBy: Fred Kaplan
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
June 12th, 2025
The Freight Offloads A Musical Fusion on “Tales of Maybe” An electrifying debut album from Boston’s up-and-coming rockersBy: Dylan Peggin
Boston, a city rooted in rock and roll lore, has served as home base for giants like Aerosmith, The Cars, The J. Geils Band, and of course the aptly named Boston. The Freight is one of the more noteworthy groups on the city’s growing up-and-coming artists roster. The foursome formed in 2020 has an ever increasing New England following and for two consecutive years was nominated for "Rock Act of the Year" by the New England Music Awards. The group has... Read More
June 11th, 2025
"Exodus" at 45rpm, Pressed UHQR Produces an Explosive Mix so many mediocre Bob Marley & The Wailer reissues...this is not one of them!By: Michael Fremer
The joke lede was going to be "This is one double 45 UHQR no one is going to complain about having to get up and turn over 3 extra times because once it starts, listeners are not going to be able, or want to sit down!" But that opener's dead because within a few seconds of where I started (side 3's "Jammin'") sitting down and listening became mandatory! More than a few still born Bob Marley & The Wailers reissues have been... Read More
June 11th, 2025
Chopin for the Ages - The Original Source does Pollini Proud A Catalogue Benchmark is given a Formidable Sonic RefreshBy: Mark Ward
Take a deep dive into what it takes to achieve superb piano sound on record, from the way an instrument is voiced to how it is recorded. The great Italian virtuoso Maurizio Pollini set down this iconic set of Chopin’s Polonaises in 1976, and with this stellar reissue Emil Berliner Studios have once more set the bar at its highest level for bringing lifelike sound into your listening room.
Read MoreJune 10th, 2025
Van Halen's "Fair Warning" Gets the Mofi One-Step Treatment Spoiler Alert: Michael Anthony is in Van Halen!By: Brian Fisher
It’s funny. When you have a large record collection, people always want to hear the obscure, professorial selections when dropping by for an impromptu listening party. And I’m into that for sure. But there has always been a part of my brain that thinks, “Let’s just crack a beer (or several) and listen to Fair Warning!” The problem, as many of you already know, is that Van Halen always sounded way better played over a crappy car stereo or blasting out of Radio Shack... Read More
June 9th, 2025
Rhino Reserve Series' "Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul" Is the One to Have mono mix is definitiveBy: Michael Fremer
Rhino Records' new Reserve series, sold direct from the Rhino online store are cut from original master tapes by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in Oxnard, CA. Most are not in the sonic realm of the "High Fidelity" series but most musically surely are, including this one, which can be ordered now but drops this June 27th.They cost $31.98, which, when taking inflation into account, means these sell for... Read More
June 5th, 2025
Apocalypse and Transcendence at the End of Time - Messiaen’s Vision Transfigured by the Original Source Emil Berliner Studios remasters a chamber music classic, and the result is one of the strongest entries in DG’s AAA vinyl reissue seriesBy: Mark Ward
This is no ordinary record. The Quartet for the End of Time is unlike anything else out there, in any genre, given a compelling performance by an ensemble led by one of the giants of classical music, Daniel Barenboim. In its Original Source reissue, this becomes not only a riveting, and very moving, musical experience, but a sonic roller coaster that will reveal every virtue and flaw of your sound system. It may not be an orchestral blockbuster, but this is the record to take to hi-fi shows and see whether what they’re selling cuts the mustard. I also explain why this might be the record for those of you who are more reticent about exploring classical music.
Read MoreJune 3rd, 2025
On “Till The Morning” Brian D’Addario Takes a Load Off the eldest lemon twig's debut solo albumBy: Dylan Peggin
When discussing music some Boomers are quick to pull the “music was better in the 1960s” card. It’s a clichéd and cringy statement, but the decade’s musical impact is undeniable. It’s astounding to imagine an audience that welcomed boundary-pushing innovations by artists that dominated the decade, though what they really did was draw from influences that date back centuries. The fact that those bodies of work transcend decades and generations to touch both new artists... Read More
May 30th, 2025
The BBB is Not Your Grandfather's Big Band But "Number One Son" Was Recorded Like It Was! live at Frank's studio to Studer A827 24 track, mixed at 30 IPS to 1/2" tape on Ampex ATR-100By: Michael Fremer
Recording a big band album live to analog tape in the studio Frank Sinatra had Bill Putnam build for him when he started Reprise Records, then Western Recorders, now East/West, engineered by Steve Genewick--long time Al Schmitt associate (etc.)--and mixed to 1/2" tape at 30 IPS on an Ampex ATR-100 at The Village Studios and then lacquer cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from that tape two months later is no guarantee of great sound. Well, come on, unless... Read More
May 29th, 2025
Titanic Beethoven from Sviatoslav Richter Restored to Catalogue “The Lost Tapes” brings us previously unreleased recordings of the great Russian virtuoso performing “live” in his primeBy: Mark Ward
Deutsche Grammophon mines its archives for an extraordinary sequence of live performances from 1965 by one of its most revered artists, carefully restored and beautifully packaged. This is Beethoven for the Ages…
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