LATEST ADDITIONS

Vote
The "Tapestry" Reveal!
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 02, 2022  |  47 comments
The music enthusiasts who ran the reissue label 4 Men With Beards appreciated the vinyl format, so they reissued 180 gram records in glossy gatefold jackets, thus producing physically desirable, attractive reissues. They were not at all concerned about “analog purity” or sound quality other than that the CD or file supplied by the licensing record label was the “official” source. 4 Men began reissuing these records at a time when little vinyl was being released by anyone.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Is The Kid A Mnesia Vinyl Set Worth Your Money?
Malachi Lui  |  Mar 01, 2022  |  12 comments
In November 2021, Radiohead combined their “twin albums” Kid A (October 2000) and Amnesiac (May 2001) with a previously unreleased outtakes collection, Kid Amnesiae, for the highly anticipated three-disc Kid A Mnesia. Several formats are available: US and EU standard weight 3LP pressings on black (standard) and red (limited) vinyl, a similar 3CD set, a Japanese 3CD featuring Amnesiac B-sides excluded from most other Kid A Mnesia releases, a Kid Amnesiette limited edition double cassette (also featuring those Amnesiac B-sides), and the sold-out “Scarry Book.” The latter, a super deluxe 3LP package, lacks the Amnesiac B-sides but features a 36-page large-format art book and the 3 LPs on 180g cream-colored vinyl.

Continue Reading »
FeaturesShort Cuts
Review Explosion: The Weeknd, Burial, Hikaru Utada, The Beatles, & Beach House
Malachi Lui  |  Feb 28, 2022  |  7 comments
(Review Explosion, curated by contributing editor Malachi Lui, is AnalogPlanet’s guide to notable recent releases and reissues. It focuses on the previous few months’ new releases for which we don’t have time or energy to cover more extensively.)

Continue Reading »
Interviews
Catching Up With Colin Hay
Bill Wright  |  Feb 28, 2022  |  3 comments
Everyone has that band or performer that represents in his or her life a particular time and place. Colin Hay for me is one of those artists.

It was the mid-80’s, and I was a college radio DJ at St. Mary’s College of California. These were the pre-Internet days, and in our lives music was the predominant force. CDs were slowly emerging, but vinyl was still king. We would spend long nights spinning records in the KSMC studio and discussing the artists on the air, while the rain beat quietly on the windows.

Continue Reading »
Features
Billy Byers—Impressions of Duke Ellington —Mercury PPS 6028—The Records You Didn’t Know You Needed #10
Joseph W. Washek  |  Feb 28, 2022  |  6 comments
Billy Byers (1927-1996) was an excellent jazz trombonist that today is probably best known for his all over the horn, hard-swinging solo on the title track of Frank Zappa’s The Grand Wazoo album. Although he was awarded a long solo by Zappa, a famously exacting taskmaster, and played in the bands of the no less demanding Buddy Rich and Benny Goodman, recorded as a sideman on many jazz dates and made two albums as a featured soloist, Byers after the late 1950s, mainly worked as an arranger, not as a player. Probably the choice of the rigors and travails of the life of a touring jazz musician or the frequent tedium of studio work had little appeal and he made a long and successful career for himself, writing arrangements for hundreds of jazz recordings, movies and television shows. Discogs lists three hundred and forty-one “Writing & Arrangement” credits for Byers.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Oscar Peterson's Aptly Titled A Time For Love  —The Oscar Peterson Quartet Live In Helsinki, 1987
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 28, 2022  |  6 comments
Oscar the entertainer, Oscar the speed demon, Oscar the classicist, Oscar the sensitive listener, Oscar the composer, Oscar the nimble improvisor. All the Oscars you know and love were onstage in Helsinki's Kulttuuritalo concert hall, November 17th, 1987 along with Joe Pass, Dave Young and Martin Drew for an evening of great entertainment and music making recorded by the Finnish Broadcasting Company.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Do You Need Spiritualized’s Let It Come Down Reissue?
Malachi Lui  |  Feb 25, 2022  |  4 comments
Four years after his addiction-and breakup-themed magnum opus Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, Spiritualized’s J Spaceman (Jason Pierce) reemerged with the band’s fourth album, 2001’s Let It Come Down. Greeted with high anticipation—and recently reissued as the final installment in Fat Possum’s Pierce-supervised Spaceman Reissue Program—Let It Come Down is now commonly seen as the moment when Spaceman lost the plot. “It all fell apart a little bit during this period,” he admits. Two decades later, Let It Come Down stands less as a great Spiritualized record and more as a product from the bygone era of expensive recording budgets and ample studio time.

Continue Reading »
Vote
Tapestry Mobile Fidelity One-Step Versus ORG Standard Pressing (Time Line Correction)
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 20, 2022  |  142 comments
Thanks to a reader's generosity I was sent a copy to audition of Mobile Fidelity's One-Step release of Carole King's Tapestry album. It's clear to me I'm on Mo-Fi's "bad dog" list. I've not been offered for review any of the company's turntables, phono preamps or cartridges. When I ask, I'm met with stone silence. Over the past few years I've gotten only one record for review (that was wrong and to Mobile Fidelity music side I must apologize. I've gotten more than a few records to review since I reviewed and raved about the One Step Monk's Dream in April of 2020. My timeline was stunted by "Covid compression". Actually more than a few records did show up after that and I apologize to Mobile Fidelity for getting the timeline wrong. It's been quite a while since I got a record from them but that's mostly because nothing's been released in some time. Though after I asked for a copy of Jeff Beck's Truth album I got a copy and gave it a well-deserved great review). This audio product review shunning can't be accidental. What did I do to be cut out of the equipment? I have no idea and it's none of my business.

So, thanks to a reader's generosity here's a comparison of "So Far Away" from Tapestry as a One-Step Mobile Fidelity release and the ORG edition from a few years back cut by Bernie Grundman and Chris Bellman. Both of these editions are at 45 rpm. I'm not going to foul the waters by giving you my take. At least not until the votes are in and perhaps not at all. Polls will be open for 1 week.

BTW: turntable was OMA K3, Frank Schröder K3 arm, Lyra Atlas Lambda SL cartridge, CH Precision P1/X1 phono preamp, Lynx HiLo A/D converter.

File "1"

File "2"

<i>Tapestry</i> Mobile Fidelity One-Step Versus ORG Standard Pressing (Time Line Correction)
"So Far Away" Version 1
37% (265 votes)
"So Far Away" Version 2
63% (454 votes)
Total votes: 719
Continue Reading »
Book ReviewsFeatures
You Have a Lovely Voice Paul, But Artie Has a Fine Voice
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 19, 2022  |  6 comments
Pushkin co-founder Malcolm Gladwell and his friend Bruce Headlam, co-founder of music podcast Broken Record (under the Pushkin umbrella, in which they share hosting with Rick Rubin), team up to converse with and attempt to “explain” Paul Simon’s genius in “Miracle and Wonder”, a lengthy, impeccably produced multi-chapter audio biography they rightly call a “book”.

Continue Reading »
Analog Gear NewsNews
Sumiko Debuts Wellfleet Moving Magnet Cartridge
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 14, 2022  |  8 comments
Sumiko today debuted the Wellfleet, a new high performance moving magnet cartridge featuring a nude elliptical stylus.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X