News

The day before he received the L.A. & Orange County Audio Society's Founder's Award in early December of 2018, AnalogPlanet Editor Michael Fremer sat down for a lengthy interview with film maker Ben Williams (who remained off-camera). Williams calls it a "guest monologue".

On April 13, Record Store Day is back for its 12th year with over 500 releases only available at independent record stores. This year’s list is arguably the best one since I’ve been attending RSD starting in 2014 (at age 8!), with fewer picture disc and colored vinyl re-hashings of common material and seemingly more unique items. Here are some highlights from the list:

Talk Talk's Mark Hollis (center in photo) has died at age 64 after a "short illness". Readers unfamiliar with the group's astonishing later albums and who lump the group in with late '70s synth bands might not understand why this is news but those who know Hollis's later Talk Talk albums Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock surely do. Hollis later released a self-titled solo album recorded with two microphones that ends with two minutes of tape hiss.

English-French avant pop band Stereolab recently announced an extensive reissue series of seven of their albums, starting with 1993’s Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements and its 1994 follow-up Mars Audiac Quintet via Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks and Warp Records. Similar to last year’s reissues of Stereolab’s Switched On compilations, the albums are digitally remastered from the original ½” analog tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and supervised by Stereolab’s Tim Gane. These first two reissues will come out on May 2. Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Dots & Loops, and Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night will be reissued in August while Sound-Dust and Margerine Eclipse arrive in November. Each album comes with a bonus disc of alternate takes, demos, and unreleased mixes.

Here's the first in a series of videos Ben Williams produced and edited over the weekend's festivities last November 30th through December 2nd as the L.A. & Orange County Audio Society celebrated its 25th anniversary and presented its Founder's Award to AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer.