Steely Dan UHQR Series

Music Reviews: Vinyl

November 28th, 2022

Newvelle Records Co-Founder, Pianist Elan Mehler Steps Out of the Producer's Booth

thoughtful, late night listening

By: Michael Fremer

With eleven previous album releases to his credit as leader, recording with some of the best known names in contemporary jazz, it's not as if Elan Mehler is new to this, but if you didn't know and relied solely on his very personal annotation, you might think otherwise.He dedicates the album—the music—to his late mother who was a religious adventurer and traveler who he describes as "a mystic" whose collection of Sufi Mystical Islamic texts he... Read More

genre Jazz format Vinyl

November 28th, 2022

Goat's "World Music" Re-Issued

A 10th Anniversary Reissue Re-Mastered At Abbey Road

By: Mark Dawes

The mythology that has been purposefully built up around Goat is sparse but compelling. An anonymous masked voodoo collective playing psychedelic afrobeat-tinged rock, from a village called Korpilombolo in northern Sweden? It’s a nice yarn, and whether it is true or not seems irrelevant when the potency of the music itself blows away the need for a good origin story. (It turns out they actually are from northern Sweden.) If you have seen Goat perform live, you will... Read More

November 27th, 2022

"Thriller" Ala Mobile Fidelity

The 40K One-Step Is a Mixed Sonic Bag

By: Michael Fremer

Trackingangle's purchased at retail copy of MoFi's "Thriller" arrived just the other day, but editor Michael Fremer was well-prepared for the review, having served as an expert witness in Quincy Jones's lawsuit against the estate of Michael Jackson. He'd spent a lot of time listening to the trio of Q produced Jackson albums.

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genre Pop Pop Rock format Vinyl

November 23rd, 2022

A Nondescript Album of ‘Christmas Songs’

The various artists LP ‘Christmas Songs’ lives up to the name, but how good is it?

By: Malachi Lui

Last year, when I reviewed the Yen Records holiday LP "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", a reader recommended another Japanese Christmas LP, simply titled 'Christmas Songs.' Released in 2010 by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Commmons label, 'Christmas Songs' is a various artists LP of then-new recordings mostly of Christmas standards by a diverse range of artists, among them all three members of Yellow Magic Orchestra (albeit on separate tracks).... Read More

genre Pop format Vinyl

November 21st, 2022

UHQR “Rastaman Vibration” Gets the Riddim Right!

Only around 300 copies remain of this limited to 3500 copies release

By: Michael Fremer

By the time “Rastaman Vibration” was released in 1976, Bob Marley had already released seven albums, the first four of which had limited distribution outside of Jamaica. “Catch a Fire,” his first for Island, released in 1973 with the famous Zippo lighter flip up jacket, was a big deal in American reggae-loving outposts like Boston, where the 1972 low budget film “The Harder They Come” starring Jimmy Cliff had been a major sensation running throughout the summer of... Read More

genre Other Reggae format DVD Vinyl

November 20th, 2022

"Revolver" Remix Makes Strong Case For Original Mono Mix

says as much in the indispensible hard covered book

By: Michael Fremer

"Welcome Klaus! Come have a listen", George Martin invited. "You can sit in my chair," he said to Klaus Voorman, bassist, artist and long time friend of The Beatles. This and other excerpts from Voorman's graphic novel birth of an icon REVOLVER tells the story of how and what moved Voorman to draw the now iconic, possibly influenced by Aubrey Beardsley pen and ink black and white cover—visually a polar opposite of Rubber Soul's inviting... Read More

genre Rock Psychedelic Rock format Vinyl