LATEST ADDITIONS

Album Reviews
“Loss & Gain Are The Same:” Bladee & Mechatok’s Immersive Good Luck
Malachi Lui  |  Jul 02, 2021  |  6 comments
In 2014, Swedish cloud rap artist and Drain Gang collective leader Bladee (Benjamin Reichwald) emerged with the lo-fi cloud rap single “Into Dust.” The song’s shallow lyrics (“I’m gonna bleed in the club/I got weed in my lungs/I don’t need any love/I can’t feel when I’m drunk”) and rudimentary video (a sunglasses- and sweater-clad Bladee stumbling through a forest with “WHYY” superimposed over the footage) are often memed, though he’s shifted styles several times since then.

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News
Vinyl Me, Please Celebrates 50th "Classic" Album of the Month Release With A Truly Grand Prize
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 02, 2021  |  0 comments
Vinyl Me, Please, no doubt the most adventurous and prolific reissue label celebrates the release of Abbey Lincoln's It's Magic, its 50th "Classic" record of the month with an incredible contest.

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News
Jon Hassell 1937 – 2021
Dan Schwartz  |  Jul 01, 2021  |  7 comments
JFH.

Jon F..king Hassell.

That’s what (guitarist) Gregg Arreguin and I called him. I realize as I write this that it sounds like we were always annoyed with him – and we certainly were, at times – but actually we said it in order to build him up, to encourage him. As in, “Hey! You’re Jon Fucking Hassell! You don’t have to put up with this shit!”

Thirty years on, it’s even more true. The coverage of his death is worldwide – so many languages, so many obituaries. The reach of his voice, his music, his trumpet, is across generations and without borders, and I think fully as he intended. He did it.

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Album Reviews
Pikefruit's Inflorescence Reviewed + an Interview
Evan Toth  |  Jun 30, 2021  |  3 comments
Pikefruit - a duo (Alex and Nicole) from the Pacific Northwest that creates ethereal, electronic music - recently released a new album titled, Inflorescence. Iridescence? I know what that is. Fluorescent? I get that. Incandescent? Got it! But, inflorescence? I have to admit, even this English major was a bit stumped on that vocab word. Good old Webster’s was able to help out, of course: inflorescence is “the mode of development and arrangement of flowers on an axis” or “the budding and unfolding of blossoms.” As their first full-length reveals, Alex and Nicole are indeed blossoming.

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Album Reviews
Masabumi Kikuchi’s Virtuosic Swan Song Hanamichi Is Worth A Listen
Malachi Lui  |  Jun 30, 2021  |  6 comments
As jazz vinyl sees a great resurgence, new labels issuing archival material and recent recordings contribute to a now-overwhelming catalog of available records. Run by former ECM producer Sun Chung, Red Hook Records bills itself as “a place for encounters, where musicians have opportunities [to] carve new adventurous ways of creative wayfaring [and] dissolve musical boundaries.” Red Hook’s release focus and target audience remains unclear; not all jazz buyers are audiophiles, and not all audiophiles accept newer recordings. The label’s inaugural release is Hanamichi,
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News
Never Before Released Erroll Garner Recordings Coming From Octave Music and Mack Avenue Music Group
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 24, 2021  |  2 comments
The Erroll Garner Project in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh (where Octave Music in 2015 archived Garner’s physical assets) and in partnership with Mack Avenue Music Group celebrate what would have been Garner’s 100th birthday with three forthcoming vinyl releases due September 17th: Liberation in Swing: Centennial Collection is a Deluxe Limited Edition Box Set, Liberation in Swing: The Octave Records Story & Complete Symphony Hall Concert (Standard Edition Box Set) and Symphony Hall Concert (single 180g LP, CD and digital editions).

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Playback Accessory Reviews
Hart Audio Special Source Vinyl Super Cleaner Mk3
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 23, 2021  |  57 comments
The Hart Audio Special Source Vinyl Super Cleaner Mk3 is a wooden block to which is attached microfiber brush, which is a synthetic fiber finer than one denier or decitex/thread, having a diameter of less than ten micrometers. It's a mix of polyester, polyamide, and polypropylene.

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News
FRANK ZAPPA’S FINAL AMERICAN SHOW, ZAPPA ’88: THE LAST U.S. SHOW  OUT NOW VIA ZAPPA RECORDS/UMe
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 23, 2021  |  4 comments
LIVE CONCERT ALBUM ALSO INCLUDES PERFORMANCES FROM ADDITIONAL SHOWS FROM THE ’88 TOUR AND FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE OF “THE BEATLES MEDLEY”
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News
Numero Group Announces Pastor T.L. Barrett 5 LP Box Set In Standard and Deluxe Editions
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 23, 2021  |  1 comments
Numero Group is set to issue 5 LP box set and deluxe box set editions of Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir's I Shall Wear a Crown. You probably know some of this amazing music even if you think you don't.

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Features
The Records You Didn’t Know You Needed- - - #5:Charlie Byrd at The Village Vanguard—Offbeat 93008, Riverside 9452
Joseph W. Washek  |  Jun 22, 2021  |  12 comments
In June 2020, Analog Planet published my article on the great audio engineer, David Jones’ Living Legends Riverside recordings of Black Traditional Jazz in New Orleans during the last week of January 1961. While researching the article, by checking records in my collection I compiled a list of Riverside albums for which Jones had been credited or co-credited as engineer.

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