LATEST ADDITIONS

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."

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.

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.

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.