(This review originally appeared in Issue 5/6, Winter 1995/96. A 25th Anniversary double vinyl LP issued by Omnivore with new liner notes and three previously unissued outtakes is currently available—see clickthrough at page bottom).When I was a child, I had a middle-aged second cousin Sophie who lived in far away California. She came to visit one cold New York winter in the late 1950s, bearing crates of tissue wrapped oranges, and jellies and jams from a place with a... Read More

(This review originally appeared in Issue 7, Spring 1996.)It is at once comforting and depressing to hear a band of (relative) youngsters writing and performing songs, most of which could easily be dropped into a cassette tape compilation from the early 70s and segue way so smoothly you’d never know they were new. Since I choose comfort over depression every time, I’m enjoying the hell out of this set of alternative shitkicker music which gracefully slips and slides... Read More

(There are two reviews of this record published simultaneously, one by Michael Fremer and one by Malachi Lui, the two working independently, for a young and an "I was around then" perspective).Chris Frantz writes in the updated booklet packaged with this new double LP set of the difficulties involved in mounting the complicated, unique, never before (or since) seen stage show that the late Jonathan Demme so well captured in the film "Stop Making... Read More

Immortalized in Jonathan Demme’s 1984 film Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads’ 1983 tour was the theatrical rock tour that ended all theatrical rock tours before it and raised the standard for those following. Choreographed but natural, theatrical but not outlandish, designed but also not, the newly reissued Stop Making Sense still resonates in its societal commentary and continuing influence.

Here are notes on a selection from my favorite books on the history of recording technology, the history of the record business, and the interactions between recording technology, the record business, and the art of music. One example of what I mean by all that is, in the late 1920s, piezoelectric “crystal” microphones supplanted carbon microphones for radio broadcasting. Crystal microphones had a better signal-to-noise ratio than carbon microphones. Therefore, the... Read More

"Jazz Samba" wasn't the first Bossa Nova record released in The United States, and it wasn't called one, but it was, and upon its release in 1962 it broke open the Brazilian music floodgate. Within months of its release there was Bossa Nova everything. This record was also the first in a popular series of Creed Taylor produced Verve releases featuring on their covers Olga Albizu's abstract art. It was a winning formula.Recorded in a single day... Read More

Last Spring, 2023 Clearaudio, a company best known for it's turntables, tonearms, phono cartridges and record cleaning machines celebrated its 45th anniversary. Rather than mounting its usual large High End Munich main floor exhibit, the company chose to throw a big party before the show for its distributors around the world and for others who would normally have met with them at the High End show to do business. The cozy restaurant attached to the Inn in which... Read More

(Photo credit: Sarah Beastman Hamilton [Lebeast Photography of Vancouver, BC, Canada])Greece-based Agnew Analog, recently introduced the Agnew Analog Reference Instrument Type 612, a brand new disk mastering lathe, now available to order. It's the first new "from the ground up" lacquer cutting lathe to be introduced in since 1966 which is when Neumann introduced its VMS 66 (L.J. Scully began making them in the 1930s for 78rpm record manufacturing). The... Read More

(This review originally appeared in The Tracking Angle Magazine Issue 7, Spring 1996.)Bryan Ferry covering Gogi Grant’s dramatic “The Wayward Wind” has always been one of my musical dreams, but Neil Young does a more than adequate version to open this long neglected mid-80s Young country album. While he doesn’t bring the kind of “camp” to the tune Ferry could, he’s got the spirit right, with cascading strings (17 count ‘em pieces), Waylon Jennings on guitar, and Bela... Read More

Last May 1st, Tracking Angle published "The Onzow Zerodust Controversy Concludes Here" in which I thought we'd put the story forever to rest. I thought "everyone" would be satisfied by the instructions published there. Please read them using the above hyperlink.Later Onzo Labs' Akira Ishibashi requested that I remove the original photo we'd been using to show the residue left on the stylus, to one more representative of what WAM... Read More

You’ve never seen a cleaner Cadillac in your life. My 1985 Eldorado was triple black and it proudly boasted the “Biarritz” package which upgraded it with a stainless steel roof and extra plush leather seats. Even though it was over a decade old by the time I took ownership of the vehicle, you wouldn’t know it because of how carefully I cleaned and detailed it almost each and every weekend. In the summer evenings, with the Eldorado in showroom condition, a buddy or two... Read More

(Photo of Rainer Maillard at Emile Berliner Studios, 2019 by Michael Fremer)Tracking Angle invited DGG "Original Source" Series producer/mixer Rainer Maillard and cutting engineer Sidney C. Meyer to respond to Michael Johnson's review of the "second batch" of titles, specifically with the tracking issues he encountered on the Brahms The Piano Concertos disc.Mr. Maillard responded:With each cut we had to make decisions and thereby were forced... Read More

After chatting with the most affable Dave Nauber, CEO of T+A North America, I agreed to review the company’s flagship preamp, the P 3100 HV - fitted with an optional MC phono card. I told him I’m a tube guy and that listening to and writing about a modern, solid-state, German-made preamp from a company I knew almost nothing about was not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking fun review.Mr. Nauber remained calmly undaunted and said, "I’ll be shocked if... Read More

For Cecil Taylor, the word “jazz” didn’t represent the music’s rich historical and geographical lineage. The further he progressed, the more he distanced himself from such strict definition. And considering his music, why wouldn’t he? A classically-trained pianist who worshipped Ellington but also studied and admired Stockhausen and Xenakis, it took almost a decade before Taylor’s brilliance fully revealed itself in the studio. Yet even on his debut album, the 1956... Read More

On my previous endeavor, June of 2020 writer Jeff Flaim covered, and we discovered avant-garde trumpeter Jaimie Branch and her supercharged, trumpet, drum, bass, cello quartet: Lester St. Louis, cello, voice, flute, marimba, keyboard, Jason Ajemian, double bass, electric bass, voice, marimba, and Chad Taylor, drums, mbira, timpani , bells, marimba. What do you call this? Punk Rock improvisatory jazz? The off the charts energy level of beating drums, bass, churning... Read More

The press release from The Electric Recording Company: The eponymous album of Crosby, Stills & Nash marked the inaugural studio release by the renowned American folk rock supergroup. Unveiled byAtlantic Records in 1969, the album stands as a seminal masterpiece within the realms of folk rock and rock music genres. With David Crosby,Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash at its core, all of whom boasted prior affiliations with accomplished bands (Crosby with The Byrds,... Read More