John Lennon's raw, jarring solo debut album first released December 11, 1970 gets the 50th anniversary treatment in a multi-release series coming this April 16th. For those experiencing the album when it was first released 50 years ago, it was at first an ugly shock to hear a former Beatle (the phrase "former Beatle" was to fans shocking enough) bare his soul and express his personal anguish and pain, while simultaneously declaring "the dream" (whatever it was) "over".
New York D.J. Murray Kaufman, a/k/a "Murray the K", a/k/a "The Fifth Beatle" in the early 1960s presented raucous all-star rock and soul shows at Brooklyn's fabulous Fox Theater. After a 56 year absence Murray's TV special "It's What's Happening Baby" returns to the airwaves in a newly restored from the original video and audiotape presentation, featuring Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, The Miracles, Herman's Hermits, The Righteous Brothers, The Ronettes, The Temptations, Johnny Rivers and Marvin Gaye, among others!
Excrutiatingly tuneful (I mean that in a most positive way) Scottish rock band Travis's 1997 debut album Good Feeling returns to vinyl for the first time in decades April 2nd, via Craft Recordings. The packaging duplicated the original independiente release with lacquers cut at Metropolis Studios, London, though at this time the source has not been provided (working on it).
Audio Intelligent recently introduced "Ultra-Low Foaming Formula No.27" enzymatic record cleaning fluid designed specifically for vacuum-type cleaning machines that include a fluid dispensing feature.
Those who can’t tour, release. That’s what Neil Young has been up to. The latest in his ongoing 2021 series of archival releases is the just announced Young Shakespeare set for March 26th release. It’s a previously unreleased January 22nd, 1971 solo acoustic show recorded at the Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, Connecticut, mixed from the original 50 year old master tapes “in the highest possible resolution”.
I Can See Your House From Here, originally released in 1994, is an outlier in the Tone Poet series, the bulk of which are past Blue Note titles, that for whatever reason or reasons, the label originally shelved only to release years later in limited production, and/or titles not released by other jazz audiophile outfits like Analogue Productions, Music Matters and Classic Records. The series also includes titles on Pacific Jazz, Solid State and a few other labels now under the Blue Note umbrella.
The music of Foo Fighters is never a far cry from the band’s influences. That’s true with their 2021 release, Medicine At Midnight: an album that throws into a melting pot their rock tendencies, disco roots, and funk fascinations. If this sounds interesting to you, that’s because it is.
"Making Vinyl" today announced its "2020 Packaging Awards" at a crisply executed "virtual ceremony" that you can (and should) watch. The entrants were dazzling as you will see. The larger "canvas" provided by vinyl records has attracted a crop of extremely creating artists (though there were also awards for CD and cassette packaging).
George Harrison would have turned 78 today but this George Harrison themed Pro-Ject turntable spins at 33 1/3 and 45. It's a special edition Essential III featuring stainless steel bearing, aluminum pulley, new DC motor speee controller, acrylic platter, 8.6" one piece aluminum tonearm featuring sapphire bearings and an Ortofon OM10 cartridge.
Over the last 40 years, Giulio Cesare Ricci’s Fonè record label has been slowly churning out limited audiophile “one stage” (the same basic process as MoFi’s one-step) records using an all-analog chain. These Pallas-pressed recordings of classical, jazz and various other types of acoustic music are limited to 496 copies each. Why 496 specifically? Because Ricci is fond of the number, that’s all. Fonè is clearly a labor of passion and love for Ricci as he not only runs the label, but serves as his own recording and mastering engineer.