Eleven days ago, we lost another good one. Karl Wallinger, the visionary bandleader, singer, songwriter, composer, and all-around sonic Svengali of the alt-pop-leaning British collective known as World Party, sadly passed away on March 10, 2024, at the still young age of 66. In a recently unearthed, previously unpublished interview with AP editor Mike Mettler from 2012, Wallinger discussed the importance of how to properly sequence song cycles on LPs, why he once wanted to open his own record store, and his early proclivity for listening to progressive artists like Yes, Pink Floyd, and ELP on vinyl — plus, he shows us, on video, his unique DIY double-tracking vocal technique. . .

While we have indeed been focused on featuring more reasonably priced gear here on AP of late, we do still want to recognize some higher-end, high-caliber products as well — besides, we love looking at aspirational gear as much as most audiophiles do, you know? With that in mind, we turn our lens onto the Nagra Reference turntable, a truly high-end model if ever there was. Read on to see all the specs and features that make this table worthy of joining Nagra’s impressive Reference line — and, oh yeah, to also find out what its not-so-insignificant SRP happens to be. . .

While I was rereading our most recent Table Toppers feature over the weekend and saw the brief mention of a Nottingham Analogue Spacedeck turntable, I wanted to circle back and find out more about this admittedly heavy-duty table. Read on to see what the Spacedeck entails and what else this cosmically nomenclature-inclined British company has to offer. . .

In the circles of soul music fans, Isaac Hayes’ seminal June 1969 LP Hot Buttered Soul is well-known as a landmark recording, an album that helped break down conventions of what a hit soul recording could be. This four-song album originally went gold on the Enterprise label, but Craft Recordings just may have taken Hot Buttered Soul to new aural heights with their recently released AAA Small Batch 180g 1LP edition. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if the Small Batch version of this seminal soul LP belongs in your collection, STAT. . .

As much as we truly love reviewing, admiring, reporting on, and listening to high-end turntables, we also have a duty to inform the AP audience about more affordable options for the newbies and budding audiophiles amongst us — and that leads right into today’s subject, the Majority Moto turntable. Read on to see more about the feature set of the Bluetooth-enabled Moto table, and find out how affordable it actually is. . .

The more vinyl the merrier, as the saying goes — or at least, that’s how it goes with us analog lovers. Relative to that, we’ve just gotten word that Metal 2000, an Italian company, is launching their new Futura vinyl record press, something that’s sure to help increase manufacturing options for a number of potential LP-pressing clients. Read on to see Metal 2000’s philosophy behind the Futura, and how it does what it does. . .

If there’s a musician who’s taking better advantage of that figurative Dorian Gray picture on their wall than singer/songwriter/guitarist Dion DiMucci, we haven’t met them. The eternal Bronx-born Wanderer is still going strong at age 84, having issued three all-new 180g 2LP sets in the past four years. The most recent of which is Girl Friends, a four-sided, 12-track affair that celebrates Dion’s collaborative spirit and spark with a plethora of female artists, and it was just released by Keeping The Blues Alive this past Friday, March 8. In a recent Zoom interview with AP editor Mike Mettler, Dion discussed why he sequences his LPs like a live show, how “The Wanderer” is one of his definitive “bragging rights” songs, and why he’s considering resurrecting some of his personal favorite songs from years past on vinyl. . .

Plangent Processes is again at the center of a pair of new Grateful Dead reissues that were released by Rhino back in January: a) July 1977’s Top 30 hit LP Terrapin Station and July 1987’s Top 10 smash In the Dark — and now we’re finally getting around to reviewing them here together. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if either or both of these new LP editions of Terrapin Station and In the Dark — supervised and produced by noted Dead archivist David Lemieux, and mastered for vinyl by David Glasser — belong in your collection. . .

Clearaudio sure have a notable signature style when it comes to their high-end turntables, and they’ve just announced a special edition of their Concept Signature table — redubbed more simply as the Signature turntable — that has been made both specifically and exclusively for the U.S. market, and it will be distributed stateside by Musical Surroundings. Read on to see what Clearaudio’s Q2-arriving stateside Signature table has to offer. . .

Lenco and turntable expertise go hand in hand — and now, the venerable Swiss manufacturer is poised to reinforce that fact with the flagship entry in their Expertise line, the LBT-345WA turntable. Read on to see more of the specs and features for the new LBT-345WA table. . .