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My Physics Teacher Was a New York Record Producer and I Had No Idea
Tom Fleming  |  Aug 06, 2020  |  34 comments
I grew up and went to school in Hereford in the 1980s and 90s - a small, old, and averagely average rural English cathedral city with a bit of a leftie/peacenik 'muesli belt' that definitely included my family. Since a few biggish musicians or bands have had some connection with the town over the years, maybe also because of its hippy side and its proximity to the legendary Rockfield Studios (just down the road near Monmouth), the Herefordshire of my youth seemed to be full of people with tenuous and exaggerated claims of involvement with the music business. Anyone who had ever helped the band that became The Pretenders to unload their van (all of them except the American Chrissie Hynde were local, but had long since fled), played bagpipes on a Mike Oldfield album (he briefly lived just inside the county at the height of his fame) or soldered a jack plug for Mott The Hoople's keyboard player dined out on it for years. It was all a bit tedious and you learned not to be particularly impressed.

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News
Rhino To Release September 18th Coltrane's Giant Steps 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition on 2 LPs
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 06, 2020  |  32 comments
AnalogPlanet readers need to introduction to this groundbreaking album, Coltrane's first for Atlantic recorded shortly after his participation in Kind of Blue. The packaging and presentation are "first class" and include a booklet with new, never before seen photos and an essay by jazz historian Ashley Kahn. The jacket and label art replicate the original's.

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AAA VinylShort Cuts
Direct-to-Disc Vinyl Explosion!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 05, 2020  |  25 comments
(Review Explosion is usually a recurring AnalogPlanet feature covering recent releases for which we either don’t have sufficient time to fully explore, or that are not worthy of it. Normally curated by AnalogPlanet contributing editor Malachi Lui, this particular Review Explosion has been hijacked by AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer and covers in capsule form Direct-to-Disc releases).

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Analog Gear News
Hana introduces Umami Red MC Cartridge
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 04, 2020  |  14 comments
Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda-san officially coined the term "Umami" in 1908, defining it as a very pleasing or delicious flavor on the palette, a synergistic effect resulting in higher taste intensity.

From the Musical Surroundings press release:

"When Hana decided to create a high-end cartridge, Master cartridge designer Masao Okada-san applied the concept of Umami combining brilliant materials and classic Japanese techniques with modern audio engineering."

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Set-Up Accessory ReviewsSet-Up Tips
WAM Engineering's New, Improved WallySkater V2.1
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 02, 2020  |  47 comments
Skating, a pivoted tonearm’s tendency to “skate” towards the record center is real, is not created by “centripetal force” and is not best ignored because compensating for it somehow worsens sonic performance.

If you do not apply some kind of skating counterforce, the stylus will ride the inner groove throughout the record side, producing uneven record and stylus wear. And it can’t possibly improve record playback sound.

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Interviews
Meet Randy Thornton, Walt Disney Records’ Supervising Producer and Musical Historian
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 31, 2020  |  2 comments
Annette Funicello’s The Doors connection, Walt Disney’s role in creating famed Sunset Sound Recorders and 15 year old Ron Howard’s role in “The Haunted Mansion” Record album released when the Disneyland attraction first opened are only a few among the many fascinating items gleaned from my interview with Randy Thornton, long-time Walt Disney Records Supervising Producer and Musical Historian.

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Album Reviews
Brian Wilson's And Van Dyke Parks' Orange Crate Art  Makes Vinyl Debut
Evan Toth  |  Jul 30, 2020  |  5 comments
This year, Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’ 1994 project, Orange Crate Art, turns 25 years old. To celebrate, Omnivore Records has reissued and remastered the album and brought attention and care to a somewhat disremembered historical artifact created by two musical luminaries. Of note, Omnivore’s campaign is the first time this album has been released on vinyl.

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Analog Corner
Analog Corner #123
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 29, 2020  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2005  |  15 comments
Hagerman UFO (no longer available)
Record weights and clamps cause a sonic difference that’s difficult neither to hear nor to explain. A stylus coursing through the grooves stamped on a slab of vinyl releases a tremendous amount of mechanical energy, some of which does not exit the system as it’s supposed to: up the cantilever. Instead, it gets reflected back into the vinyl, where it can cause the record to resonate unless it’s damped in some way. There is also potential vibrational energy coming the other way—from the tonearm, the motor, and the bearing—but the better your arm and turntable, the more likely that the problem that needs solving is that of vibrations coursing through that thin slab of vinyl.

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News
Lou Reed's Raw, Essential New York   Gets Rhino Deluxe Reissue Treatment
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 29, 2020  |  20 comments
Lou Reed's Sire Records debut New York first released in 1989 gets the deluxe Rhino treatment in a new box set scheduled for September 25th release. The original was a gold record-selling, Grammy nominated album with the memorable "Dirty Boulevard" a #1 hit on the Modern Rock charts.

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News
Pat Metheny's 11 LP ECM Album Catalog Available For Streaming and Downloading July 31st
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 28, 2020  |  9 comments
This just in: Pat Metheny’s complete ECM catalog of 11 albums, which includes Bright Size Life, Offramp, and 80/81, will be available for the first time on July 31st as high-resolution masters for download and streaming.

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