With Love It To Death, Killer, School’s Out, and Billion Dollar Babies, The Alice Cooper group spent the first half of the 1970s cementing albums into the shock rock ethos. They found their niche by embracing the hard rock sounds from the motor city of Detroit, coupled with a stage show that included boa constrictors, chopped baby dolls, gallowses, and guillotines. Finding success after trial and flaw was a triumph, but, like all aspiring things, the cracks were... Read More

Last weekend's Florida Audio Expo was another successful show. Attendance was substantial—aided by heavy weekend rains, which is always good for hi-fi shows—and good industry participation, which was a combination of regional dealers and the smaller "indie" manufacturers, many of which also participate in the Capital Audio Fest and its Seattle cousin. However, also participating were some major, well-established and/or up and coming manufacturers. In... Read More

Perhaps the biggest reissue surprise in Analogue Productions’ Atlantic Records 75th anniversary partnership is Matchbox 20’s 1996 debut album Yourself Or Someone Like You. Yet the band maintains a more devoted fanbase than you might think, and this reissue is by far the best sounding edition of their diamond-certified debut.

Girls DO count. If you were able to plaster one of those hip Instagram filters over the titanic lore that hovers around Joy Division, you might just be able to make out another side of the Factory Records story. In fact a fair, full spectrum reading of the label that launched that iconic band would more accurately render it as a true indie success story - one built on a semi-fanatical vision in a semi-derelict city that imploded in a semi-brilliant fashion.Now Audrey... Read More

Opened just the other month, Technics' new café in downtown Kyoto is a minimalist space dedicated to the pleasure of listening to records on the company's latest and greatest equipment. Join us for a quick tour.

On July 18, 1951, Bill Broonzy got off a plane in Brussels, was met by a member of the Hot Club of France and began his first tour of Europe. A Black American guitar playing, self accompanied blues singer was a little understood novelty in Europe in 1951. Blues was considered by jazz critics and fans to be a primitive form of jazz that had flourished in the 1920s only to degenerate into a simplistic, sexually suggestive dance music. Very few Europeans, only those who... Read More

As expected right about now, the Record Store Day 2024 list is officially out. Amidst the usual gimmicks and barrel-scraping—the 371st reissue of Rumours, 3” Beatles records, or zoetrope picture discs of George Harrison, Blur, T. Rex, and Dio—is a solid smattering of releases sure to lure the RSD-jaded back into the Saturday morning line. This year it’s on April 20; I plan to line up for the first time since 2020. It'll be interesting to see if any specific... Read More

Continuing our coverage of this marvelous box set which gathers together a little piece of recording history, when conductor John Mauceri revived the legendary Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for a series of releases highlighting film music and musical theatre from Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.  This was an important chapter in the ongoing push to give film music and the American musical the respect and exposure they deserved in the catalogue, but didn’t always receive.  In Part 2 I review in more detail the discs contained in this timely reissue. (You can read Part 1 here, where I delve into the history of re-recordings of this often neglected repertoire on vinyl and CD, placing Mauceri’s recordings in context).

This marvelous box set gathers together a little piece of recording history, when conductor John Mauceri revived the legendary Hollywood Bowl Orchestra for a series of releases highlighting film music and musical theatre from Broadway, Hollywood, and beyond.  This was an important chapter in the ongoing push to give film music and the American musical the respect and exposure they deserved in the catalogue, but didn’t always receive.  In Part 1 I delve into the history of re-recordings of this often neglected repertoire on vinyl and CD, placing Mauceri’s recordings in context.  In Part 2, I review the contents of this timely reissue.

Rhino celebrates the 30th anniversary of Tina Turner's classic album "What's Love Got to Do With It" with a multi-format release including a 4 CD/1 DVD boxed set that includes the original album remastered on CD1, a collection of edits, remixes and acapella on CD2, and on CD3 and CD4 Turner’s 1993 Blockbuster Pavilion live show remastered plus the live performance on the DVD along with three music videos. The boxed set also includes a poster and a... Read More

Let's go directly to the sound because to wring something new from the music, especially to this audience, is a time waster. Play a half-dozen editions of Crosby, Stills & Nash and you'll hear six wildly different sonic presentations. Which is "correct"? There's no "artists intent" on this one, there are just different takes depending upon who's doing the mastering and pressing—and even then there are wild variations.... Read More

The new TechDAS Air Force 10 air bearing pivoted tonearm had its North American debut this past weekend, February 9th and 10th at The Audio Salon in Santa Monica, California. Store owner Maier Shadi's organization is also the North American TechDAS distributor. The two day event brought to the store customers from around the country and featured from Japan TechDAS International Sales executive Motofumi Hirata, Tsutomu Horikawa, the new Stella, Inc.CEO and Hajime... Read More

In his annotation for this 1969 Milestone release, Down Beat writer Alan Heineman makes a good case for why back then (and perhaps even now), the late Joe Henderson, whose sound, both sweet and gruff is instantly recognizable, was an underrated tenor saxophonist. No matter the reasons then, today he's far better appreciated as a leader and sideman on Blue Note albums (leader on five including Inner Urge, sideman on more than two dozen including Larry Young's... Read More

DS Audio importer Musical Surroundings today announced the debut at next week's Florida Audio Exp of the new "Master 3" set featuring the new Master 3 optical cartridge ($9500) featuring a Microridge stylus bonded to a unique square-section diamond cantilever. The new $18,000 Master 3 equalizer is a 50+ pound single box version of the Grand Master EQ featuring both single-ended RCA and balanced XLR outputs.The new Master 3 cartridge features Independent... Read More

AVM’s Ovation PH 8.3 vacuum tube-based phono preamplifier is among the most versatile, useful, and well-conceived phono preamps I’ve yet encountered. How’s that for an opening paragraph? As with all models in the Ovation 8 series, the PH 8.3’s output stage uses a matched pair of AVM’s 803T tube, which is a 12AX7, modified per AVM’s specifications, that helps produce, according to the company, “an unmistakably charming tube sound”. BTW "AVM" stands for Audio... Read More

Transitioning from the ‘70s to the ‘80s wasn’t easy for Ozzy Osbourne. The Birmingham-born vocalist found himself without a band when the members of Black Sabbath ousted him due to his heightened substance issues. Stuck in a drug-and-booze haze for three months at a Los Angeles hotel, salvation came in the form of his manager and future wife, Sharon Arden, who encouraged Osbourne to pursue a solo career. The impact of his first two solo albums, Blizzard of Ozz and... Read More