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Imagine this, it is 1986, your girlfriend/boyfriend has been kidnapped, people out there are trying to kill you, and you can only rely on yourself for protection. So you jump into your red and black Trans AM, with your black leather jacket and gloves, with nothing but vengeful intent to rescue and redeem your name.... Read More »

Recondite is a master of smooth grooves. 2013's Hinterland was/is a superb compilation of intelligent electronic music that's ideal for just chillin' and listening, or thumpin' the bass in your whip on the way to the city lookin' for some debauchery. Recondites' sound is now. And believe me, I know that sentence sucks. It's pretentious,... Read More »

Phoenix in Flight. Orchestra: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Kirk Trevor. Clarinetist: Richard Stoltzman. Navona Records CD NV801 This month seemed as though many of the releases I received were featuring very pleasant beautiful music and a great deal of it is on the first listed recording by Navona records. These are not the most... Read More »

Schubert, Winterreise. Matthias Goerne, baritone. Christoph Eschenbach, piano. Schubert Edition, No. 9. Harmonia Mundi. HMC 902107. Schubert's Winterreise can bring to mind Haydn's Seven Last Words (for string quarter or chamber orchestra), another hour plus long work focussing essentially on one mood, desolation. The challenge is how to sustain musical interest for that long without... Read More »

Some records, I find, are best described as a sonic journey, a whole, rather than dissecting each track (though, admittedly, I'll be doing some of that), as Caribous' Our Love rarely got stopped while playing on any system I cranked it on! Now, the challenge here, is going to be describing the wonderful variety in... Read More »

David Roth - Will You Come Home Stockfisch SFR 357.8079.1, 2 x 180 g 45 rpm LP The tradition of Stockfisch LP releases goes back to the 1990s. On a 2006 compilation album, the record label claims that vinyl has been its passion for 14 years. Sara K.'s 2003 album Water Falls and a compilation... Read More »

Perla Barocca. Early Italian Masterpieces. Rachel Podger, violin. Harpsichord, organ, and therobo accompaniment. Channel Classics. CCSA 36014. CD/SACD. After the rich, close harmonies of the renaissance and before the fastidious counterpoint of the baroque, there was...early baroque? I write often in this column about the fascinations of transitions in the arts. We glibly describe them... Read More »

When the Beatles' digital remasters came out a few years ago on CD (and the higher-resolution 24-bit FLACs loaded onto the USB Apple version), a whole lot of people hoped for a full-blown analogue remastering for release on LP, but alas, it was not to be. When the stereo LPs finally arrived about a year... Read More »

Analog Pearls, Volume 1 Cover Stockfisch Enters the Remastered SACD/DSD Market Some of our readers are familiar with Stockfisch Records. It's a small independent record label based in Germany that was initially known for their recordings of folk music starting in the mid 1970's. More recently, they have gained attention for their Super Audio CD... Read More »

SCHUMANN: Kerner Lieder, Op. 35; Lenau Lieder und Requiem, Op. 90; Liederkreis, Op. 39. Darren Chase, baritone; Sergey Schepkin, piano. Arabesque Recordings Z6852 (download only). TT: 79.12. Darren Chase's Schumann program has a great deal to offer. The baritone has a firm, compact voice that takes on a brighter colour as it ascends. The head... Read More »

John Harbison, String Trio; Four Songs of Solitude [for solo violin]; Songs Americans Love to Sing [flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano]. Members of Camerata Pacifica. Harmonia Mundi HMC 907619. Much in the spirit of Bach's Musical Offering, American composer John Harbison's (1938) String Trio (2013) does not give itself up easily. It shares the... Read More »

The weight of expectations must be huge for Thom Yorke. I mean, not only is he the front-man for Radiohead, but he's got deep commitments musically in a couple of different areas at once. His side projects: The freshmen solo LP Eraser, has garnered critical acclaim world-wide. Atoms for Peace; his band with Red Hot... Read More »

The movement of reference-grade reference tapes to DSD for downloading continues apace. One of the industry leaders in this regard is High Definition Tape Transfers. Bob Witrak at HDTT, who had been working previously in high-resolution PCM, is setting a very high bar for both the quality and quantity of his DSD downloads. If you... Read More »

Mastered from the original 1970s era analog tapes and pressed in Germany on beautiful 180 gram vinyl (and also released on CD), ECM's Re:Solutions series brings to light recordings by vibraphonist Gary Burton, saxophonist Sam Rivers, bassist Miroslav Vitous, and the duo of guitarists John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner. Some of these recordings have been... Read More »

Antonin Dvorak, Symphony No.8. Leos Janacek. Jenufa Symphonic Suite. Orchestra: Pittsburg Symphony. Conductor: Manfred Honeck. Reference Recordings #FR-710SACD Hybrid It is truly nice to have the Pittsburg symphony back again after some previous delays. The orchestra has a great history supporting it that is not known well outside of the Pittsburg area; the full range... Read More »

I love it when an albums' sound is so fresh and mysterious it challenges my ability to classify it. My dear friend and editor Dave Clark recommended Fhloston Paradigm's The Phoenix, knowing my taste (and his) for experimental electronic music. I would definitely call The Phoenix experimental. However, I'm not sure if this record is in fact 'electronic'. It... Read More »

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, Island/Victor Entertainment VICP-78001 (1970/2014) TARKUS, Island/Victor Entertainment VICP-78002 (1971/2014) PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION, Island/Victor Entertainment VICP-78003 (1971/2014) Platinum SHM-CD is the newest and best CD pressing technology. I have no doubt about that. Although its advantage over "regular" XRCD and K2 HD releases differs from title to title, even the smallest difference... Read More »

Eno & Hyde have never missed as far as I'm concerned. That's a true rarity. Actually, I can't think of any other cooperative artists projects that have been consistent in holding my attention on every record like these gents have. Every studio album of theirs I've discovered, even a few live bits are all something... Read More »

Blu-ray recordings may be video, audio or most commonly video plus audio. If the video is a distraction turn it off though I would suggest watching the video at least once; at times it can be interesting or entertaining. Naxos is again following up with more high definition (Blu-ray) audio only releases. For many listeners... Read More »