A reappraisal of Low's Christmas (1999) and Double Negative (2018). In memory of singer Mimi Parker (1967-2022), who died in November.

Saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh recently recorded "Vintage", a new all-analog jazz album with Kenny Barron, Joe Martin and Johnathan Blake, tracked to 30 IPS multitrack tape at Oktaven Audio, mixed to a custom, completely restored 1/2" 30 IPS Ampex 351 tube deck. Ryan Streber engineered at Oktaven, Pete Rende mixed at Brooklyn Recording.darTZeel's Hervé Delétraz recently came on board the project as the vinyl edition's Executive... Read More

Kyoto’s four-piece, all-female, Japanese punk sensation Otoboke Beaver are probably the most talented live band I have witnessed in years. My favourite rhythm section in punk rock? No doubt about it, with Hiro-Chan’s bass effortlessly interlocking with the incredible drumming of Kahokiss. Is Kahokiss the best drummer I have ever seen? No question - she can stop and start on a pinhead and hammer out multiple time-signatures in one song at a tempo and force that... Read More

This Thursday, December 15th from 4PM until 8:30PM at a special event hosted by Maier Shadi at The Audio Salon at The Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue (Gallery F1) Santa Monica, California 90404, I will be be talking about my 60 years of record collecting and offering tips on what to look for and what to avoid when buying records, both new and used. Especially used. It will be more of a conceptual discussion rather than a list of what you should buy and own,... Read More

Santa Monica, December 12, 2022 – To celebrate the holiday season and support charities making a difference in communities around the world, Universal Music Group today launched the Music 4 Good charity auction in partnership with Charitybuzz, offering exclusive items and experiences provided by some of the world’s most beloved artists and renowned record labels. Proceeds from the auction will benefit organizations including World Central Kitchen, Planned Parenthood,... Read More

The speculation below re digital is wrong. Patrick Milligan commented on an unboxing video that it’s from tape. I stand corrected and sorry I didn’t see obscure unboxing video. However, I stand by my sound comments. These records don’t sound great compared to previously released versions and the compression is noticeable and unwelcomed. Compared to nothing I’m sure they will sound okay. And glad they are cut from tape.The four albums in this box document an artist on... Read More

In 2008 Thorens commissioned Analogue Productions to create a 3 LP package celebrating the company's 125th anniversary. The resulting limited edition set—with songs selected from titles that had either been produced by or licensed by Analogue Productions— quickly sold out and now fetches big dollars on Discogs. The least expensive copy listed as I write this is at $170.00. The top price paid was over $400. Now Analogue Productions has repurposed the package,... Read More

Since its founding in 1949 by Frank McIntosh the company that bears his name has flirted with non-electronic analog gear, but only rarely did it produce any, though of course for decades records and to a lesser degree pre-recorded tapes were the primary sources of music. McIntosh produced its first AM-FM tuner, the MR55 in 1957 and later became well known for its MR67, MR71, MR77 and MR78 tuners, the latter two designed by Richard Modafferi, who was a Senior Engineer... Read More

Lori Lieberman performs this set of standards without a "net"—no reverb bath, or any kind of cover. Singing directly and closely "on mic" where there's no room for error she delivers her finest vocal performances on record backed by Matt Rollings on keyboards (piano and B3), Lyle Workman on guitars, David Piltch on upright bass and Victor Indrizzo on drums.Lieberman produced the record with Rollings, a player in Lyle Lovett's Large Band... Read More

Fed up with tight set lists and arena tour tedium, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers pitched its musical tent January, 1997 at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium for a two week residency. The Fillmore put 10 shows on sale—box office sale and pickup only— not sure how it would do. It was an immediate sell-out. More show dates followed until there were 20 sell-out shows between January 10 and February 7.

My main job is national-security columnist for Slate. Every December since joining, back in 2002, my editors have indulged me to write a piece on the year’s best jazz albums. Here’s a link to this year’s column, which, as usual, includes a mini-essay about each album and a sound clip of an entire track. Most of these I’ve reviewed either for Tracking Angle (those designated with an asterisk *) or for Stereophile when I was a staffer there (marked with two asterisks **). I should also note that most of these albums sound very good (the Jamal and Waldron sound good); a few (#1, 2, 3, and 5) sound superb.

Press release: Following the registration deadline for the HIGH END 2023 on 30th November 2022, the company HIGH END SOCIETY Service GmbH is pleased to announce that the international audio show is yet again fully booked. According to the event organiser, the demand for the popular atrium rooms in particular far exceeded the capacities available. The continued interest in the event among exhibitors is extremely positive and demonstrates how trade shows will continue... Read More

You have to log into your Sirius/XM account and then you can hear: "...decades of Neil’s classics, tracks from his new World Record LP, and songs from his recently released Harvest 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition featuring outtakes, demos, alternate versions and live tracks."The "Harvest" link takes you to where you can order the deluxe bundle for $149.00. The most interesting thing there is a previously unseen two hour 1971 documentary film shot... Read More

Jan Omdahl is the author of a new book in Norwegian on «Afric Pepperbird» by the Jan Garabrek Quartet, an early ECM jazz touchstone. The book is being considered for publication in English. This excerpt chronicles Jan’s attempts to convince his reclusive namesake to talk to him, ending up instead with Garbarek’s personal collection of test pressings. 

(This review, written by Carl E. Baugher, originally appeared in Issue 7, Spring 1996.)P is Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers), Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhand), Bill Carter and Sal Jenco. Also, as it says on the back of the LP jacket, “P is a land, not a liquid or a fruit.” Uh, ok. Not by any means the discordant thrash you might expect from this Gibby-led bunch, this quirky, curious album is consistently engaging, with a wide range of musical variety and coarse, crude... Read More

I saw Miles Davis’ pop-rock band a half dozen times in the 1980s and loved the music each time. The concert-recordings from that period—"Miles Live Around the World" and the relevant discs from the 20-CD "Complete Miles Davis at Montreux", both released posthumously on Warner Brothers—were also wondrous, a departure from his discography (as every new phase of his was from the phase before) but still ranking high. His famous covers of Michael... Read More