Back in the mid '60s, the popularity of The Monkees mystified many a maturing adolescent craving authenticity not just in music but in everything. According to a Wikipedia post then aspiring filmmaker Bob Rafelson developed "the initial idea" for The Monkees in 1962, well before Beatlemania arrived in America, and for that matter in the U.K. as well. The Wiki story doesn't make clear precisely what was "the initial idea", but whatever it... Read More

To a certain hopelessly romantic, jazz loving, vintage gear lusting, analog audiophile demographic, the jazz kissa has gravitational pull like a black hole. The traditional Japanese jazz listening café is, more often than not, a dark, comforting and sometimes quite messy space, stacked to the rafters with beautiful vintage American audio gear, vinyl records, well-worn wooden furniture, photos and posters, assortments of trinkets and memorabilia, and an offering of coffee, whisky, or whatever the jazz kissa master chooses to serve. A sanctuary for deep listening, the jazz kissa proudly and anachronistically stands as antithesis to disjointed modern music consumption, and to some aspects of the typical audiophile experience, like the sterile, brightly lit and decidedly non-cool vibe endured at most audio shows in hotels and convention centres.

(Press Release): New York, NY — October 2025 — To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Newvelle Records proudly presents the Newvelle Ten Collection, a curated series of five extraordinary vinyl releases from some of the most exciting voices in contemporary jazz. Each album in the collection pairs meticulous recording and production with striking original artwork by internationally acclaimed visual artist Ragnar Kjartansson, creating a unified experience of sound and... Read More

If you've ever longed for a "tube-like" sounding solid state phono stage in an ultra compact enclosure that could accommodate 2 arm/cartridges (one dedicated MM, 1 dedicated MM via single-ended RCA connections) with both RCA and balanced outputs, a full compliment of loading options and capable of accommodation an MC cartridge with as low as 0.04mV output (Audio Note owners rejoice!), priced at under $6,000 (as of last tariff review) then your and my... Read More

When you pick apart the College Rock era, it’s probably fair to say that it dawns in a feisty little college town 70 miles north of the capitol dome in Atlanta. For all that’s been written about the New Wave to Indie Rock handoff, the fertile scene in Athens, Georgia was one of the principal arteries feeding the transition in the U.S. Fellow scenesters Pylon got there first with their "Cool / Dub" 7" released in April 1980, but the thousand copies of... Read More

Intervention Records just announced a test pressing giveaway for its upcoming "Dance Album of Carl Perkins" release coming this December. Pre-order and you're automatically entered in the drawing for the TP, which is the very first one off the press!

Continuing this video series produced by Emil Berliner Studios that takes you behind-the-scenes of the Original Source Series. It's been just over two years since Deutsche Grammophon launched its series of AAA vinyl reissues mastered directly from the original 4 and 8-track master tapes of treasured recordings from its 1970s catalogue. In response to collectors' numerous questions concerning every aspect of this important audiophile reissue series, Rainer... Read More

It's been almost 20 years since guitarist/arranger Anthony Wilson released a nonet record. That one was Power of Nine (Groove Note GRV1035-1) and it's certainly highly recommended but that was then and this is now. And now is a very good time for Anthony Wilson. Over the past few years he's released a series of musically thoughtful and intriguing albums including Songs and Photographs and Frogtown. Worth checking out.Wilson is now back with a live nonet... Read More

This review has taken longer to write than EveAnna Manley took to finish the design and put Oasis into production and make it available to buy. That's a long time but she had an excuse. I have none. Well, there were reasons of scheduling, "stuff" happening, prior commitments etc. Her excuse was designing a new from the ground up phono preamp to replace the popular Chinook, though it uses basic circuitry found in all Manley phono preamps. When I visited... Read More

A tide was turning when the dawn of the 1980s coincided with the demise of the progressive rock genre and one of its godfathers, Yes. Punk and New Wave made old hat of everything musically that preceded it and MTV shifted the focus of the music industry to an artist’s image. As for Yes, fans found it hard to embrace the new lineup that integrated pop duo The Buggles, where vocalist Trevor Horn had to fill Jon Anderson’s hard-to-fill shoes. Their streak of crafting... Read More

Of course Art Pepper, 31 when this album was recorded, doesn't really "meet" the rhythm section on the January 19th, 1957 recording, which puts the alto saxophonist hard left channel and the rhythm section hard right with little but open subtle ambient space between the two. Bernie Grundman explains in the booklet accompanying Contemporary Analogue Productions UHQR titles that the passive board didn't feature a center panning pot so it resembles... Read More

“The Statue of Liberty said, ‘Come!’”—John Lennon, “New York City,” 1972It was sobering to stroll through the halls of the Brooklyn Museum last spring for Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm, which captured the Beatles’ culture-exploding first U.S. visit with unprecedented intimacy.Through McCartney’s lens, Lennon, peering at New York through his thick glasses, looks half-incredulous, half-haunted — the gleam of Beatlemania flashing in his eyes even... Read More

Last night at Innovative Audio in East Midtown NYC and The Audio Salon in Santa Monica, CA, Rhino launched a new reel-to-reel series under their High Fidelity banner. The first two titles are Yes’ The Yes Album and T. Rex’s Electric Warrior, each limited to 500 copies and retailing for $299.98 (a bundle with both sells for $569.98).Duplicated in real time from 1:1 flat master tape copies, the Rhino High Fidelity R2R tapes are 10.5” diameter, 15ips, 1/4” IEC reels on... Read More

Berlin, the city where I was born, grew up, and still live today, was divided for three decades. The Berlin Wall stood here, and the city was perhaps the most famous border between East and West. The Wall completely enclosed West Berlin, but also ran right through the middle of historic Berlin. The Wall separated not only the country and its people, but also its culture. Most of the theaters, opera houses, museums, and libraries were located in East Berlin, which was... Read More

This Thursday, Oct 9th from 7-9PM, The Audio Salon is honored to be hosting a reel-to-reel tape listening event. Join us for drinks and the world premier of the re-release of two amazing CLASSIC ROCK albums. Please RSVP to amickum@shorefire.com if you would like to attend. Read More

Deep Purple’s Mark II lineup of Blackmore/Lord/Paice/Gillan/Glover, strayed from the group’s psychedelic origins, adapting to the harder-rocking style of contemporaries like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, which became the pillars of what became heavy metal. Fueled by lengthy and dynamic improvisations, the group was an untamable force on the live stage, something that worked in favor of their reputation and against the notion that it would translate efficiently on... Read More

Okay, here's my sub mission: I'm spoiled. I have the original 11 track Virgin U.K. release (A2/B1) issued in haste and quickly corrected to the 12 track standard version. You want Steve Jones's snarling, fibrillating singular animal guitar (arguably the glue that holds the record together, created by reproducing his guitar part an octave down as explained in Chris Thomas's notes in this reissue) make your ears sizzle. You want Lydon/Rotten's... Read More

Contributing writer Evan Toth opened The Sharp Notes record store in the sprawling Garden State Plaza shopping center last month and on Saturday, October 4th held a grand opening celebration. It's the first new record store in the mall in at least 30 years. That one was Coconuts back when there was Bananas (still there in St. Pete), Coconuts, Peaches, Strawberries, Licorice Pizza, and other fruit cocktail record stores.The mall parking lots were filled so people... Read More