Michael Fremer

Album Reviews
Wes Montgomery In Your Room "Smokin' At The Half Note"
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 19, 2013  |  5 comments
Only side one was actually recorded live at New York's now shuttered Half Note back in June of 1965; the other side was taped during an Autumn studio date at Van Gelder's place in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. The Kelly Trio, which included Jimmy Cobb and Paul Chambers — the rest of Miles Davis' former rhythm section — is joined by one of the world's most original jazz guitarist, the late Wes Montgomery, on a smooth set that goes down easy both because of the straight-ahead swing of the playing and Van Gelder's superb recording. The live side captures Montgomery's rich sound better than any other recording I've ever heard, and the studio side is only down a notch from that.
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News
Jersey Guitar Mafia Alert!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 12, 2013  |  5 comments
Here's a chance for those living in the New York metropolitan area to see a live performance of four guitar greats playing their musical heritage at a New Jersey Italian restaurant. Too bad James Gandolfini passed away because I bet he'd be there.

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Album Reviews
Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" Is Retro-Disco Ear Candy
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 10, 2013  |  32 comments
Escaping The Doors' "Light My Fire" was impossible throughout 1967's "Summer of Love". Likewise, unless you shuttered yourself indoors throughout this year's "Summer of Blah" you simply couldn't avoid Daft Punk's break out hit "Get Lucky" culled from the unlikely number eight spot in the album's thirteen song sequence.

What do I mean by "Summer of Blah"? Is this not the most, compliant, passive, drippy, "blah" generation to come down the pike in decades?

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Album Reviews
The Two New* Rolling Stones Box Sets: Deal or No Deal? Part I
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 10, 2013  |  9 comments
As you know, digital is "perfect", so it shall remain a mystery why Part 1 of the Rolling Stones Box Set feature originally published on musicangle.com in 2011 got lost in the conversion to analogplanet.com. Part II made it. The omission was discovered recently when a reader asked about the recent ABKCO individual clear vinyl reissues. He was told to read the two part story because according to ABKCO, the new clear vinyl reissues were sourced from the files that produced the box set's excellent results, but of course Part 1 was nowhere to be found on the site. So belatedly, here it is.-Ed.
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News
22,000 Records On Sale at the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archive of Recorded Sound August 8-10th
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 08, 2013  |  9 comments
Vinyl fans began lining up at 8:00AM in front of the Lincoln Center Plaza home of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for a 22,000 LP sale. The records were culled from the collection of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archive of Recorded Sound.
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Turntable Reviews
Origin Live Resolution Mk3 Turntable and Illustrious Mk3C Tone Arm Still Captivates
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 05, 2013  |  12 comments
U.K. based Origin Live has been building its iconoclastic line of turntables and tone arms for decades now and though its American visibility remains relatively low, it has managed to attract a small but enthusiastic and growing consumer fan base .

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Analog Corner
Analog Corner #44
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 02, 2013  |  7 comments
I literally dropped everything when Rega's new Planar 25 turntable arrived a few weeks ago. I'd heard the 'table compared with the Planar 3 at designer Roy Gandy's house when I visited Rega last fall—see "Analog Corner" in the January '99 Stereophile—and was anxious to audition it in my own system and tell you what I heard.
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Set-Up Tips
Tri-Planar Tonearm Owner Alert!
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2013  |  28 comments
Back in the fall of 2008 I attend an audio show in Trondheim, Norway where I presented two turntable set-up seminars. The show organizers procured for me a Tri-Planar tonearm mounted on a turntable, the brand of which I forget.

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Capital AudioFest 2013
Good Sound For Under $6000 From A System Comprised of Unfamiliar Gear
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 30, 2013  |  6 comments
I've chosen to limit coverage to Cap Fest analog gear, but there was plenty of good sound at the show and plenty of awful sound too. I'll skip the awful and the great, making an exception for the Odyssey Audio room. The gentleman responsible, Klaus Bunge, is an industry veteran I've known for decades. He helped establish in America, the high price, high performance Symphonic Line brand.

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Capital AudioFest 2013
Analog Instruments Limited's Siggwan 12 Tonearm From New Zealand
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 30, 2013  |  0 comments
The "cult of tonearm" grows, particularly with but not limited to wooden arms. I'd heard of but never seen in person one of James Grant's tonearms (Analog Instruments Limited.
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