Punk rock is a subgenre of rock and roll with roots in garage rock, but it's generally faster and more aggressive than garage. Punk was a rebellion against the hippie culture's idealism and appearance. The flower children’s righteous idea of making the world a better place was met with the stark reality of the punks' world in disarray. New York, the birthplace of punk, was almost bankrupt in the early 70's and when the Sex Pistols appeared in England, unemployment was severe with well over a million people out of work. Crime and drugs were rampant in NYC; parks were littered with used syringes. England incurred inflation, oil shortages and strikes. So bell bottoms were out, replaced by tight pants and those beautiful long locks were gone, replaced by hair cut short, and even cut off as skinhead culture emerged.

Okay, this is "off topic" but a very cool compact about 1/2 pound gimbal for smart phones costing $239 was offered for review (I will buy it) so I said "why not"? It’s pocket sized, relatively flat, feature packed and includes useful software for iOS and Android.

The Electric Recording Company announced today it will be releasing John Coltrane's ground breaking 1959 Atlantic album Giant Steps cut from the original Atlantic master tape using a mono cutter head on its 1965 all tube Lyrec cutting system.

Dry dusting records before play is critical for both stylus and record longevity. New records come out of the jacket dusty because they are pressed in relatively dusty environments and in some cases spend a great deal of time stacked on spindles before being packed.

January 5, 2022, Las Vegas, NV, USA – "British hi-fi specialist Cambridge Audio has announced two new additions to its Alva turntable range: Alva TT V2 and Alva ST. Unveiled for the first time at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, the new Alva turntables build on the success of the highly acclaimed and innovative Alva TT – launched in 2019 as the world’s first aptX HD Bluetooth turntable – and are backed by over 50 years of Cambridge Audio’s expertise and experience in making great hi-fi for music lovers to enjoy. "

The Blakey was cut from 96/24 files according to Chris Bellman at BG Mastering for the surmised reason: the songs were on multiple tapes and the most expeditious way to produce cutting masters was to first digitize. The annotation wasn't clear but I don't think anyone was "trying to pull a fast one"._MF). It was Beatlemania when Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers landed at Haneda Airport, New Year’s Day, 1961. Of course, The Beatles hadn’t yet happened, but neither had Blakey and his group ever been greeted in America with the rousing enthusiasm they encountered both upon landing and during the series of shows in which they performed in Japan that month.

Any relationship between these parody capsules and real world songs is strictly intentional.

These five excellent vinyl releases from 2021 include a five LP box set and a double LP, so you really get TEN albums for the price of five! If that doesn’t make you want to read on, I give up—come on, I’m killing myself here! You’re driving me out of business! But seriously folks, on the topic of money—I buy all my own records, so please be assured that none of these are promo copies and these recommendations are my personal choices from the crop of 2021.

Unfortunately, we didn’t review in real time every important 2021 release; thankfully, there’s still time to catch up on essential missed albums, EPs, and singles. This is the second of two 2021 Catch-Up Explosions (read the first one here), featuring in alphabetical order 12 more releases.

Audiocon Los Angeles scheduled for January 14-16th at the Hyatt Regency, Newport Beach, CA today was officially postponed due to Covid Omicron.