LATEST ADDITIONS

Those of us needing sturdy wall-mount options for our turntables always have to look quite carefully at shelving-gear specs to ensure these products are truly capable of accommodating the weight of our favored ’tables. To that end, Pangea Audio has upped the ante with their just-announced Turntable Wall Mounted Premier SE Shelf MKII. Read on to see if the new Premier SE Shelf MKII might suit your own particular turntable-shelving needs. . .

Welcome to our second installment of Review Explosion Short Cuts! Here in Vol. 2, we tackle three more LP releases worthy of your attention: 1) Billy Joel’s Live At The Great American Music Hall, 1975, a 2LP RSD 2023 title that had proven somewhat elusive to obtain until recently; 2) the 20th anniversary 2LP reissue of acclaimed soul giant Solomon Burke’s Grammy-winning 2002 album Don’t Give Up on Me; and 3) Blood Harmony, the latest 1LP release from Larkin Poe, those great blues-rockin’ guitar-slingin’ sisters of Southern origin. Read Mark Smotroff’s triple-play review to get the full scoop on all three of these highly recommended LPs. . .

313 is officially in the LP house. To wit: Third Man Records and Blue Note Records have just announced their new 313 Series Partnership, which will showcase five Detroit-themed albums from the Blue Note catalog — a combo of vintage and long-lost titles from Thad Jones, Donald Byrd, Elvin Jones, Kenny Cox and The Contemporary Jazz Quintet, and Grant Green — all of them specially chosen for re-release by Blue Note Records President Don Was. Read on to find out more about the content of these five fine 180g LPs that have been newly remastered from the original tapes at Third Man’s Detroit mastering and pressing facility, and when they’ll be released accordingly. . .

For the first time in many decades, XTC’s October 1978 sophomore album Go 2 is available again on vinyl, this time as a limited-edition 200g 2LP set via Ape House that includes the ever-elusive companion Go+ EP of dub remixes on its own disc. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why this new, expanded edition of Go 2 is worth both the time and listening investment. . .