LATEST ADDITIONS

Musician, composer, singer, and producer Zach Condon has somehow found a way to mesh the sounds of pump organs, real acoustic horn sections, ukuleles, drum machines, world-beat oriented percussion, and synthesizers into a distinctive blend that is immediately identifiable as the group called Beirut — a sound that bears a genuinely international flair processed through adventuresome recording situations. Read on to find out why ace reviewer Mark Smotroff feels Beirut’s new album Hadsel may be Condon’s most complete statement to date and why it’s so well-suited to spinning it again and again on vinyl. . .

The Starman takes to the skies yet again — or rather, he’s taking another spin (or three) on our turntables. To that end, Parlophone has just announced the release of David Bowie’s Waiting in the Sky (Before the Starman Came to Earth) as a Record Store Day LP exclusive on April 20. Read on to find out about the source material and to see how the Waiting tracklisting differs from that of Bowie’s seminal 1972 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars album. . .

Les McCann — the noted pianist/singer/composer who passed away at age 88 on December 29, 2023, just before the new year arrived — enjoyed a long, celebrated career that began in the late 1950s and continued well into the 21st century. We celebrate his legacy by taking a look at Never a Dull Moment! – Live From Coast to Coast 1966-1967, a 180g 3LP set released on Record Store Day back in November comprised of many dynamic, galvanizing live tracks culled from of-era performances in Seattle and New York City. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why Never a Dull Moment truly lives up to its name. . .

While CES 2024 rolls on, we wanted to take some time to tip our collective analog hat to Music Hall — the brainchild of noted product designer Roy Hall — a company that has been making sweet music, er, sweet gear for us all since 1998. Back in December 2023, the company announced a change in ownership — a new venture named Turntable USA, who plan to uphold Music Hall’s reputation for making high-quality products. Read on to see how we honor the company’s 25-year-plus legacy and what’s to come with our look at what Music Hall’s penultimate MMF-9.3 SE turntable has to offer right here, right now. . .