(Review Explosion is a new AnalogPlanet feature covering recent releases for which we either don’t have sufficient time to fully explore, or that are not worthy of it. Curated by AnalogPlanet contributing editor Malachi Lui, Review Explosion will focus on the previous few weeks' new releases as well as archival titles and reissues.)
I have been assured by co-producer Guy Hayden that this 45rpm box was cut directly from TAPE and that whatever transfers were done (hence the credit) was done as they were for the AAA mono album box, to use as a reference before actual cutting in order to preserve the tapes.
Cleveland, Ohio based Gotta Groove Records pressing plant just sent out an e-survey to its customer base and invite analogPlanet readers to toss in their $29.99 or two-cents. They've already received 2400 responses in a little over a day.
Though you could argue that Bayou Country containing "Proud Mary" and "Born on the Bayou" was a better album, I'm going with Green River as a stronger, more consistent overall album (you remember albums, don't you?), which also had some hits like "Bad Moon Rising" (with it's refrain "there's a bathroom on the right"), "Lodi", which at the time made me wonder why Fogerty was writing about New Jersey and of course the title tune. In retrospect, despite the New Orleans musical setting, much of what Fogerty wrote was about his life growing up in Berkeley, Calfornia. But I digress.
How the original single LP of cellist Fournier and pianist Gulda performing Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in D (Deutsche Gramophon SLPM 138 083) ended up in my collection isn’t clear to me but I can narrow it down to either my college Beethoven symphony music appreciation class professor, or to Duane, the classical music expert at Minuteman Records in Harvard Square.
Here’s more proof that sound quality—or its factual representation—is no longer on the radar screen of the mainstream press. I recently sent this letter to the Wall Street Journal’s corrections editor:
“Sarah McBride’s assertion in today’s lead story that satellite radio offers ‘higher quality sound’ than FM radio is demonstrably incorrect. This is not a matter of opinion. While satellite radio is ‘digital,’ it is a highly compressed digital format. . . . I believe were you to speak with the chief engineer at Sirius or XM, and were they to be honest and candid, they would agree too that while satellite radio is a fantastic innovation and offers ‘noise free’ sound, FM offers demonstrably better sound than current satellite technology provides. I know if you spoke with the chief engineer at WGBH in Boston or [W]FMT in Chicago, they’d tell you the same thing.
Excel Audio invites everyone to join us Saturday, November 23rd, 6-9 PM to experience Wilson Audio’s latest triumph the Chronosonic XVX. We will be showcasing the XVX’s driven by D’Agostino electronics with digital by dCS and vinyl played on the Clearaudio Statement. Special guests include Dan D’Agostino, Jesse Luna from DCS, and Garth Leerer from Musical Surroundings.
The Beatles The Singles Collection arrived the other day and it was opened with great anticipation and the embedded YouTube video was quickly produced in a single take before listening to a note. As you'll see when you watch, the packaging is "top shelf" and imaginative and Kevin Howlett's booklet notes are illuminating and useful. Using original artwork from around the world was a nice touch that every Beatles fan with appreciate!
In 1964 while working for Canada’s National Film Board (NFB), filmmaker Gilles Groulx set out to make a documentary about winter, but instead used his then $75,000 budget to create Le chat dans le sac (English: The Cat In The Bag), an art house film about two lovers in early-mid ‘60s Montreal. An avid jazz fan as well, Groulx (through Jimmy Garrison) contacted John Coltrane to soundtrack the film. Coltrane agreed, and Groulx supervised the session at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs, NJ studio. Instead of composing new material for the film (which he hadn’t seen), Coltrane, at Groulx’s request, re-recorded some of his older compositions such as “Naima” and “Village Blues,” after which Groulx, master tape in hand, drove back up to Montreal.
On Friday evening November 22nd at Audio Advisors, West Palm Beach, Florida, Wilson Audio Specialties' Peter McGrath will present a demonstration of the WAMM Master Chronosonic loudspeaker with the WAMM Master Subsonic Subwoofers using some of his own superb recordings—some readers might not know that McGrath has had a long career as a recording engineer, including for Harmonia Mundi among other labels.