LATEST ADDITIONS

Michael Fremer  |  Mar 08, 2014  |  13 comments
The opening wash of gorgeously recorded massed strings might just paralyze you. "Who arranged those? " you might say to yourself but before you could scour the liner notes you hear familiar Sea Change-like guitar strums and you melt.

Michael Fremer  |  Mar 06, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  59 comments
Investors in U-Turn’s Kickstarter-funded Orbit turntable get more than their money’s worth in this remarkably well-designed record player manufactured in Woburn, Massachusetts.

One can only imagine why the principles chose the name U-turn™, but I’d like to think it means a reversal of direction from the low resolution MP3 digital hell into which a generation or two has been led, back to high resolution vinyl heaven.

Michael Fremer  |  Mar 06, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  7 comments
Yesterday I visited my friend and veteran disc jockey/on-air personality Paul Cavalconte to hang out and to "tweak" the Simon Yorke turntable he bought from me back in 2006 (story forthcoming). These days he's producing from his home a radio show that streams on The Progressive Radio Network (it's not a political show).

Michael Fremer  |  Mar 04, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  4 comments
Chanteuse extraordinaire Lyn Stanley was at New York's Avatar Studios (formerly The Power Station) recording songs for her next album Potions, which will consist of '50s era covers. Most distinguished recording engineer/producer Al Schmitt was at the board and yes, the big Studer 24 track you see in the picture was rolling.

Michael Fremer  |  Mar 02, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  38 comments
Looking for a good digital stylus force gauge? Once upon time one from Winds cost $800 and was good only to a single digit. Today they can be had good to 3 decimal points for as little as $79 like this Audio Additive by Musicdirect®. Like most today it is made in China.

Michael Fremer  |  Mar 01, 2014  |  10 comments
Nothing Los Lobos recorded previous to 1992’s Kiko could have prepared anyone for this piece of sustained, surreal brilliance. Dreamlike sonic vistas, ominous lyrical horizons, mysterious musical crevices, and spring-like rhythmic compressions and extensions combine to create a dayglo, funhouse-like environment filled with familiar, but oddly drawn musical elements.
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 28, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  5 comments
Made in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA, using where possible American parts, designer Bill Hutchins’ LKV Research Phono 2-SB has the kind of Japanese corporate name that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 27, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  53 comments
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Blue Note Records, the label will be reissuing in 2014 100 classic Blue Notes on 180 gram vinyl beginning with five on March 25th: Art Blakey's Free For All, Coltrane's Blue Train, Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch, Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil and Larry Young's Unity.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 25, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  8 comments
You say you don't want to spend hundreds on an original LSC-1806 "Living Stereo" or LSC-1817 or $1500 on the Soria box set LDS-6065? That's understandable. By the numbers: LSC-1806 is the 1954 stereo spectacular "Also Sprach Zarathustra" with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony. Of course RCA couldn't issue it on vinyl in 1954, though it did issue it in stereo on reel to reel tape well before the vinyl, which didn't get released until 1960.

Michael Fremer  |  Feb 24, 2014  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  19 comments
We screwed up publishing the "records in the dumpster in front of Academy Records" news item. Yes, we confirmed that the records were there but that's not the real story according to Academy owner Mike Davis who was rightfully pissed. We apologize profusely for our error.

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