LATEST ADDITIONS

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 02, 2021  |  5 comments
Pro-Ject just announced a pair of low cost MM/MC phono preamps and a pair of sophisticated "record cleaning arms" and in the press release re-launched the $1999 Phono Box RS2.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 02, 2021  |  13 comments
Blue Note Records announces the 2021 Tone Poet Audiophile Reissue Series release schedule. Produced by Joe Harley, these are all-analog (where original recording was to analog tape), 180g audiophile vinyl reissues mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tapes. RTI presses in Camarillo, California (where no one these days is relaxing) and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “old style” Gatefold Tip-On jackets.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2021  |  3 comments
The Nels Cline Singers doesn’t have a singer. The free jazz ensemble doesn’t even have a sewing machine. There you have it! Two! Two! Two jokes in one! A novelty name, yes, but the septet’s eclectic, shape-shifting music is serious musical business, though also as much fun as you might expect if you know bassist Trevor Dunn’s old group Mr. Bungle, which in 1990 started out as a death metal band, then a pseudo ska band and by 1991 into one sufficiently eclectic to draw the attention of John Zorn who produced its debut album.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 29, 2021  |  53 comments
(Press release): Charles Lloyd & The Marvels have released “Ramblin’,” a rollicking version of Ornette Coleman’s tune which is the first single from the legendary saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Charles Lloyd’s forthcoming album Tone Poem out March 12 on Blue Note Records. The vinyl edition of the album will be the first new release to be featured as part of the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Series with the vinyl supervised by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray, pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe Stoughton Printing gatefold tip-on jacket. Fittingly, it was Lloyd who first dubbed Harley the “Tone Poet.” Tone Poem is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and digital download.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 28, 2021  |  17 comments
At Making Vinyl Hollywood, 2019 Austria-based PHONOCUT demonstrated a still in development all-analog based home vinyl cutting system that uses blank vinyl (not lacquer) discs. At 4:52 in the embedded video at the above link you can watch the compact system cut a record and learn more about it.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 27, 2021  |  60 comments
“Do we really need yet another version of Patricia Barber’s café blue? was my reaction upon hearing about IMPEX Records’ new $125 “One-Step” edition of this more than a quarter century old (1994) Premonition release.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 26, 2021  |  8 comments
When NFL Films approached RTI (Record Technology Incorporated, Camarillo, CA) to shoot some pressing plant footage, RTI owner Don MacInnis had no idea for what the league might want the images.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 26, 2021  |  16 comments
This limited to 1000 copies lavishly packaged "one-step" edition of John Coltrane's Lush Life sold out shortly after it was announced. Did you miss anything? If it's a favorite, probably. I hesitated to review it, much like I don't review The Electric Recording Company's limited editions that almost immediately sell out upon release announcement, but given Craft's uneven release history (unlike that of ERC), a review seems appropriate.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 21, 2021  |  2 comments
Patrick Higgins’ 2016 album Bachanalia —a sonically adventurous compilation of Bach compositions transcribed for guitar—provided smooth and familiar musical sailing compared to this recently released double LP of challenging, provocative Avant garde chamber music.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 21, 2021  |  25 comments
My two best Christmas presents. One was the record weight pictured above. Chris Stinchfeld of 1441 Engraving in Brunswick, Georgia wrote “Michael, I love your videos and would like to send you a gift.” How thoughtful and generous was that? He took the time to duplicate the AnalogPlanet logo and put it on a well-machined, attractive record weight. But I think even Chris would agree that the correspondences below from Sava Dimitrov, a young man in Bulgaria is as good a gift as one could get.

Pages

X