I’ll tell you how I got into medieval era dance music similar to what’s on this record and on la Spagna: back in 1969 when I worked in the downstairs record store division of Minuteman in Harvard Square, a salesman named Duane who worked upstairs selling audio gear I could not at the time afford, insisted I buy a record on Deutsche Grammophone’s Archive Production label.

Thanks to an analogplanet.com reader I got a copy to review of the two LP deluxe edition of Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones Records 376-484-4).

The packaging is fine, including a real zipper, along with the original inner sleeves. The two records here are very well-pressed at GZ Media in the Czech Republic, though on Amazon there was plenty of bitching about noisy vinyl and even vinyl with glue balls (which strikes me as an appropriate addition to the cover's paper dick).

Originally released in 1980 on the Swedish BIS label, the double LP la Spagna XV-XVI-XVII Centuries became an instant, certified “audiophile classic”. It was on the late Harry Pearson’s “Super Disc” list since forever, with used copies regularly fetching upwards of $200.

The music can generally be described as “ancient dance music” of the XV, XVI and

A reader recently asked if analogplanet would review some “heavier” musical material. I pointed out that we reviewed Volto! and The Mars Volta, among other purveyors of heavy guitar-based grooves, but that we’re not locked into bands with volt references. I referenced the Polish prog-metal band Indukti