Michael Fremer

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Album Reviews
The Wonderful Sounds of Male Vocals
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 27, 2020  |  12 comments
Analogue Productions returns with another in its very popular “Wonderful Sounds” series that began with a Christmas compilation and followed up in 2018 with a female vocalist assemblage.

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Munich 2022
The World's Best High-End Munich 2022 Analog Coverage
Michael Fremer  |  May 28, 2022  |  First Published: May 28, 2022  |  14 comments
The Kuzma Safir tonearm

Explosive worldwide vinyl record sales growth over the past few years produced a powerful response from the audio industry, based on what was on display at Munich High End 2022. A profusion of new turntables, tonearms, phono preamps and accessories spread throughout the sprawling 28,000m2 MOC Event Center made difficult covering it all even with four days available to do it.

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Record Cleaning Machine Reviews
The World's Best Record Cleaning Machine?
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 02, 2012  |  52 comments
Getting a review sample of this unique ultrasonic record cleaning machine took years because apparently the small German manufacturer could not keep up with demand. I’ve heard from a few sources that reliability was not high during those early days but that now that’s been sorted out as has manufacturing capacity.

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Beatles
The World's Greatest Artists Sing The Songs of Paul McCartney: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 23, 2014  |  19 comments
The producer Ralph Sall had an idea ten years ago or so: why not get some of the greatest musical talents of our time to pay tribute to Sir Paul McCartney by having them cover his songs? What could possibly go wrong?

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Can I Have My Money Back?
The Worst Print Ad Ever Created? (Not the One Pictured Below This Headline)
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 15, 2013  |  42 comments
Look at this print ad for the Manila Hi-Fi Show I recently attended. It is a model of clarity, good taste and communicates effectively the event. Do you agree?
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News
The Yorkshire Building Society Gets It!
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 21, 2017  |  First Published: Sep 21, 2017  |  9 comments
What else needs to be said?
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Album Reviews
Thelonious Monk Plays Just For You
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 06, 2012  |  11 comments
You can tell me yours, but my first encounter with Thelonious Monk was the 1963 Columbia album Criss-Cross(CS 8838). I'd given up on rock'n'roll, which had become all Fabian and Frankie Avalon-ed out and new musical adventures of a more adult nature were in order for this high-schooler.

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Album Reviews
Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings (Mastering Info Update)
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 14, 2017  |  8 comments
In his annotation for Riverside’s 1966 reissue of the 1961 Jazzland original single LP release Monk & Coltrane (RS 390) critic Ira Gitler (who is credited for inventing the expression “sheets of sound” to describe the note cluster technique Coltrane devised during his short time playing with Monk) writes “Coltrane’s talent, set in such a fertile environment, bloomed like a hibiscus.”

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Album Reviews
There's Nothing Warm and Fuzzy About These Animals
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 01, 2003  |  1 comments

The Welsh group’s latest album is a sprawling, densely packed ambitious affair, filled with bouncy/sludgy ‘60’s pop melodic vistas that often sink into mysterious, dark, twisted musical and violent lyrical undergrowth. Lead singer Gruff Rhys’s chocolate-coated vocals are the perfect foil for the fatalistic, slyly rendered subject matter: the war in Iraq, war in general, pollution, petro-chemical mayhem, and even a song seemingly about two pet turtles named Venus and Serena (“Flushing meadows down the stream/Living life as though it’s a dream”). All of it is delivered lightly dusted with tuneful confectioner’s sugar.

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Album Reviews
There's Still Time To Get This For Christmas!
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 01, 2007  |  0 comments

This year's (2006) showing of this 1965 animated special drew a huge audience. I don't have the numbers but I think it beat everything in its time slot.

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