After dominating the UK music scene in 2021 with her epic, bombastic LP “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert”, Little Simz (real name Simbi Ajikawo) wasted no time in returning with another magnificent expression of her partnership with producer Inflo. While her latest LP “No Thank You” was released on streaming services in December 2022, the physical formats, including a range of vinyl variants, finally surfaced in mid-June 2023.Before turning to the exceptional Little... Read More

Michael Johnson's third and final video report from Pacific Audio Festival 2023 in Seattle, WA June 23-25th. Read More

Barbra Streisand has garnered virtually every accolade, tribute, award, and honor it’s possible for a great popular artist to get: ten Grammys, nine Golden Globes, five Emmys, two Oscars, and a Tony, not to mention four Peabody Awards, the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts, and France’s Légion d'honneur. Her albums have been reshuffled, remastered, and reconfigured with almost... Read More

I did not line up for Record Store Day this year. I’d respond in disbelief if you told me that five years ago, but it’s true: RSD, once a tactic to lure customers into record shops during the iTunes era, has now become a full-scale shitshow in an already booming vinyl market. In 2023, you don’t need to remind the kids to go to record shops; a new Taylor Swift release does the trick.

1971 was a mammoth year for the Alice Cooper group (not to be confused with the group’s frontman who would eventually go solo). After delving into Los Angeles-tinged psychedelic freakouts with their first two albums, Pretties for You and Easy Action, the group relocated to the Metro Detroit city of Pontiac, Michigan. Within the area that embraced the harder driving sounds of The Stooges and MC5, the band was able to hone in on a straightforward hard rock sound. This... Read More

What do you get when you combine acoustic singer-songwriter qualities with the electronic and infectious beat of the dancefloor? You might find something similar to the German duo of childhood friends, Clemens Rehbein and Phillipp Dausch who go by the moniker Milky Chance. This review may be your introduction to the band—if so, then Willkommen!—but Milky Chance have existed for about a decade and have just released their seventh full-length, Living in a Haze on their... Read More

The oldest and most respected of all classical music record companies, Deutsche Grammophon, has turned to analogue and vinyl technology to remaster gems from its 1970s catalogue. In the process it has redefined its sonic history and legacy, and pointed the way forward for the other classical music majors like Decca, Warner-EMI, and Sony-Columbia to do justice to the incomparable gems in their back catalogues. We examine how Deutsche Grammophon tackled this challenging project, and review the first four records in what will be an ongoing series of releases in the months ahead.

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.

At the Pacific Audio Festival, Michael Trochalakis gets a video scoop for Tracking Angle at the Kirmuss Audio booth. First Michael describes his experience getting a prized record restored by Charles Kirmuss and then Kirmuss turns the microphone over to Ari Crane, Heritage Auctions' Director of Vinyl Acquisitions. If you'd like to contact Mr. Crane, here's his email address: AriC@HA.com. You'll want to watch this video for sure! Read More

Michael Johnson returns with Pacific Audio Fest day two coverage. Lead photo is J. Sikora Reference turntable. YouTube "thumbnail" image is of Origin Live Sovereign. Read More

Blue Note and Jack White's Third Man Records have partnered on a series of Detroit-themed releases from the Blue Note catalog chosen by Detroit native Don Was. In a highly unusual move for the label, the original master tapes were supplied to Third Man for cutting at Third Man where the records are also being pressed.Thad Jones Detroit-New York Junction and Donald Byrd Electric Byrd will be available on July 21, followed by Elvin Jones Genesis and Kenny Cox and... Read More

In December 2020, a little over two years before he passed away this March at age 71 due to rectal cancer, Ryuichi Sakamoto played his Yamaha piano in a room with 48 cameras for Todd Eckert’s mixed reality production studio Tin Drum. “There is, in reality, a virtual me. This virtual me will not age, and will continue to play the piano for years, decades, centuries,” Sakamoto said in the press release. The result is KAGAMI, a “new kind of concert” premiering at The Shed at Hudson Yards, NYC until July 2nd before starting this week at the Manchester International Festival and next year traveling to the Sydney Opera House and Tennessee’s Big Ears Festival next year.

Josh Smith records the epic inner struggle between music and hatred, which provides the backdrop to his review of the late Republican operative's infamous vanity project.

Regrettably I had to skip this year's Pacific Audio Fest though I'd originally intended to go. I had too much work to do and I was too far behind. Fortunately contributing writer Michael "Poetry in Plastic" Johnson volunteered to shoot video coverage for us. This video is his day one coverage.Johnson hasn't contributed much lately because he was busy with his doctorate, which he now has. It's in music, which is not surprising since... Read More

If we set our musical Wayback Machines to 1976 what do we find dominating the radio landscape? ABBA had two of their biggest singles that year, “Dancing Queen” and “Fernando” and Queen was king with “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now” was a monster hit, as was Elton John and Kiki Dee’s, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. If there is one commonality between those five songs, it’s the slick and glossy - perhaps even hedonistic - production values. For better... Read More