Producer/Engineers Jared Sacks and Daan van Aalst have pooled their expertise in music production and recording in very high resolution audio. Their goal is to put together the best system for recording and reproducing music at the highest quality with recordings in the new DSD 256fs (quad rate DSD) format, although 8 Ensembles is available in DSD 256, 128 and 64. It’s the […]
Not new by any stretch of the imagination and an album that will be familiar to many I’m sure, but this version on Naxos and downloaded in 128FS DSD… all 7.8 Gig of it … zipped!… is really rather worth talking about.
John Scott delves into his collection and pulls out The Yes Album, the bands third album. “The Yes Album was not their biggest selling album and it may not be their best – quite often though, I think it is – but it represents a time when they were still defining their style and before […]
In 2014 Andy Bell, for it is he of Erasure fame, made an unexpected, and some would say brave career move when he launched his electro-acoustic cabaret show ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’. Before Bell started to write the next installation of his cabaret (Torsten The Beautiful Libertine) he and songwriters Barney Ashton-Bullock and Christopher Frost […]
Punkers of a certain age will be well aware of Penetration (for it is they) and their classic debut single “Don’t Dictate”. The band hail from the North East of England and played with most of the big names of the heyday of punk and so it is with a good deal of relish that […]
Having recorded his first solo album Fish Rising while still a member of Gong, Steve Hillage wasted little time in recording a follow up after his departure from the band in 1976. Decamping with partner Miquette Giraudy to Todd Rundgren’s studio near Woodstock in New York State, the resulting album, L, was something of a […]
I remember the 2 Tone explosion well and The Bodysnatchers’ Let’s Do Rocksteady is very much a part of that memory. Rhoda Dakar joined The Bodysnatchers in 1979 after Shane McGowan introduced her to bassist Nicky Summers and after their second gig the band signed to UK record label 2 Tone. Gigs alongside Madness, The […]
I first became aware of The Bird and The Bee through their 2009 album Rayguns Are Not Just The Future, an enjoyable collection of dance pop songs. Much as I liked the album, I eventually forgot all about the band until I discovered their new album Recreational Love. In my defence, the band haven’t exactly […]
Dust On The Nettles is a glorious trundle through the British underground folk scene between 1967 and 1972 and as a record of the “scene” it is difficult to think of a collection better suited to chronicle this interesting (and very British) musical movement.
John Scott dusts off his copy of Love’s Forever Changes album. “Forever Changes was reputedly named from a story that Lee had heard about a friend of a friend who had broken up with his girlfriend. “
OK, hands up, cards on the table….I’m a huge Neil Young fan and genuinely can’t think of a record he’s made that I don’t love, even the much maligned Trans really does it for me and I reckon Daft Punk et al may well have been taking a listen to that particular record…then again perhaps […]
Hands up, this is the first time I’ve come across this sixty six year old “stalwart” of the rock-blues industry, but apparently he’s responsible for founding New Zealand’s La De Das and Australia’s The Party Boys. Missing Borich out of my music may well have been a bit of a mistake!!
New Born City is the follow up to McCullagh’s 2013 North South Divide record and has been out in the UK since early May. The record is produced by John Power (Cast) and includes the singles Towerland Lullaby, Box Of Tricks and She’s Calling. McCullagh says he influences include Donovan, Bolan, Weller and Johnny Cash […]
I first came across Jens-Uwe Beyer with one of his tracks on the excellent Pop Ambient series on Kompakt and The Emissary marks the artists first full length outing under his own name.
Classic Albums, John Scott takes a look at that perennial favourite Astral Weeks by Van (The Man) Morrsison…
Released in June “Before This World” is Taylor’s seventeenth studio album and represents the artist’s first album of original material since “October Road” of 2002 – for that reason alone it represents something quite interesting and I imagine partly why it was a Billboard number one album in the States. Broadly speaking the tracks herein […]
Jazz funk is not a genre I’ve explored a great deal but this album suggests it may well be having a bit of a deeper delve… Idris Muhammad was born Leo Morris in New Orleans in 1939 and says that he’s a “natural drummer” whose gift came from the “Creator”. He made his recording debut […]
Croatian Cacija fled that war torn land in the early 90s to seek safety with his family in Frankfurt, Germany where aged just six he began professional music lessons and received a degree in classical piano from the city’s conservatoire. Cajica gained both a Bachelors and a Masters Degree at the Kunstuniversitat in Graz, Austria […]
It seems that nearly all the new music I’ve been listening to lately has had a distinctly retro feel. None more so than Coming Home by Leon Bridges. Twenty six year old Bridges from Fort Worth, Texas had been working as a dishwasher but due to chance meeting with Austin Jenkins from psych-rock band White […]
A nice release, this, from the ever-reliable 4AD label. Pixx is a new signing – and it’s immediately obvious why she’s piqued 4AD’s interest. The music will please both 4AD purists and listeners new to the label. Pixx is a pseudonym for 19 year old Hannah Rodgers from London. I’ve been intrigued by comments which […]
Let’s start at the beginning – Max Richter is one of my favourite post-classical composers who you might say has literally been around the block. He currently records on the German classical label Deutsche Grammophon, but many of his earlier releases were via the imprint ‘130701’, an offshoot of the indie label FatCat Records, one-time […]
This is the second outing in about a year from Christopher J Connelly (Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Sons Of The Silent Age) and Jason C Novak (Acumen Nation, DJ?, Acucrack, Czar) and can be summed up in one word (pretty much) BRUTAL !!!
30 year old Nikki Lane caused a bit of a fuss when she said she wanted to be the next First Lady of outlaw country. Some over-sensitive country fans misinterpreted this as her suggesting that she actually was the next First Lady. “On one of my first interviews, someone asked me who I would like […]
Aside from the music itself, one thing that popular music culture has always provided is a home for people – both artists and fans – who don’t fit elsewhere in the world. Ezra Furman is a cross dressing, bisexual, depressive, observant Jew. If you happen not to be a cross-dressing, bisexual, depressive, observant Jew but […]
What do you think of when you think of New Zealand? Sheep perhaps? – the country has 7 sheep for every human inhabitant. Hobbits maybe? – Peter Jackson’s Tolkien adaptations have made the islands practically synonymous with Middle Earth. The Haka? – The Maori war dance is famous for striking terror in the hearts of […]
If I told you that this album is recorded by a 26 year old male from Glasgow, you probably wouldn’t believe me. That’s because – putting Chris Duncan’s geographical origins to one side for a moment – ‘Architect’ sounds like it might have been recorded at some point during the sixties. It’s so far away […]
Judith Owen describes her latest album, her 10th studio release, as “a love letter to Laurel Canyon”. In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles was home to several members of the Californian rock music community. Joni Mitchell lived there and David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash first met in […]
Dave Pen and Mike Bird formed BirdPen while sharing a flat in their hometown of Southampton. Self-releasing a handful of well-received EPs, the duo went on to release their debut Album On/Off/Safety/Danger in 2009. Evolving and honing their sound, new album In The Company Of Imaginary Friends, their third, harnesses subtle melodies to evoke widescreen […]
