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AAA VinylBeatlesNews
Ringo Starr's No. 0000001 Copy of "The Beatles" On the Auction Block
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 10, 2015  |  16 comments
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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Round Robin Review: Your Ears Can’t Go Wrong With UMe’s Stellar AAA 180g 45rpm 2LP Set or the AAA 180g 45rpm-and-33 1/3rpm Combo 3LP Limited Edition Honoring the 50th Anniversary of Frank Zappa’s Over-Nite Sensation
Mike Mettler, Mark Smotroff, Ken Micallef  |  Dec 22, 2023  |  6 comments

That’s right folks, don’t touch that dial — it’s another tag-team album review, just in time for that last-minute holiday push. This time around, AP editor Mike Mettler, along with ace reviewers Mark Smotroff and Ken Micallef, are combining forces to proffer a three-man review of the new 50th anniversary 180g AAA 2LP 45rpm edition of Frank Zappa’s top-shelf September 1973 release, Over-Nite Sensation, an album all three of us regard with great affinity. We also review the limited-edition 3LP version of ONS too, which contains an extra LP of bonus tracks. Read on to see how this Zappa-loving triumvirate of Mike, Mark, and Ken get reety-awrighty with their analysis of a stone-cold classic LP in its new 45rpm incarnation. . .

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AAA VinylNews
Run Out Groove Releasing Kevin Gray Cut AAA More of The Monkees
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 19, 2021  |  31 comments
Run Out Groove Records Announce today the upcoming release of More of The Monkees (Deluxe Edition) cut by Kevin Gray and Andrew Sandoval from the original analog tapes, complete with gatefold "tip on" jacket, expanded to a double LP with the addition of "debut vinyl" rarities.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Saft, Swallow, Previte and.... Iggy Pop?
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 04, 2017  |  5 comments
Pianist Jamie Saft's trio recorded a well-received, sonically superb 2014 album called New Standard. If you need a group or individual backgrounder, please hit that hyperlink.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Sam Records Reissues Miles Davis's "ascenseur pour l’échafaud" Soundtrack in its Original 10" Format
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 18, 2016  |  18 comments
Best known to American Miles Davis fans as side one of the twelve inch Columbia Records LP release Jazz Track (CL1268), Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (“Elevator to the Scaffold”), the jazz soundtrack to the Louis Malle film was originally released in France in 1958 on the Fontana label as a 10” LP.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Samantha Crain's Hardscrapple Tales Mesmerize
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 12, 2015  |  13 comments
The golden gatefold cover art of Samantha Crain's Under Branch & Thorn & Tree makes clear that this is not a collection of "good times" tunes, but one is still left unprepared for the relentlessly bleak stories of betrayal, despair and desolation Crain delivers in an often pain-wracked voice that's somehow wrapped in a soothing, mesmerizing balm.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Sibelius Piano Trio Performs "The Korppoo Trio"
Michael Leser Johnson  |  Mar 20, 2022  |  5 comments
Grammy award winning Yarlung Records out of Los Angeles California has been releasing classical music albums on CD, LP, and R2R tape since as far back as 2006, but they had somehow managed to escape my radar. Better late than never, as they possess all the ingredients necessary to delight readers of this website; including a dedication to minimalist analog recording techniques, and the curation of the finest up-and-coming classical talent working today. This label is run by people (primarily producer and engineer Bob Attiyeh) who care deeply about classical music, and are connected to first rate performers, particularly those who orbit the many concert halls of the greater Los Angeles area. In addition to running a record label, Yarlung also has an associated nonprofit called Yarlung Artists which focuses on getting promising new artists started on their touring career.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Singaporean Black Funk Surprise
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 08, 2014  |  15 comments
31 year old Singapore-based vocalist Vanessa Fernandez is well known at home as a former member of hip-hop group Urban Xchange, known later as Parking Lot Pimp. That was more than a decade ago. More recently she's been the disc jockey "Vandetta" or "Miss Vandetta" on Mediacorp Radio's 987FM.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Smetana's "Má Vlast" Direct-to-Disc Produces A Sonic and Musical Spectacular
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 17, 2020  |  16 comments
“I have to admit that this (D2D) recording technique was completely unknown to me before. When I ultimately realized what it entailed, I had mixed feelings at first.” So admitted Jakub Hrusa, the Bamberg Symphony’s 39 year old Czech-born conductor, who joined the orchestra in 2016. Based on the stunning musical and sonic results it was well worth whatever trepidation resulted from the decision to proceed with the recording of Czech-born Bedrich Smetana, which took place July 2th/26th, 2019 in Bamberg, Germany’s Joseph-Keilberth-Saal concert hall. (please forgive the lack of proper accents over the names).

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AAA Vinyl
Son House’s “Father of Folk Blues” Provides A Uniquely Intimate Listening Experience
Malachi Lui  |  Mar 28, 2019  |  15 comments
Despite recording a handful of legendary Paramount Records sides in 1930, Eddie James “Son” House, Jr. vanished after his rediscovery in August 1941 by Alan Lomax. His recordings gained stature over the ensuing decades, which in 1964 lead Dick Waterman, Nick Perls, and Phil Spiro on a mission to find House. They eventually located him that June in Rochester, New York, approximately 1,000 miles from his origins in the Mississippi Delta. Following his migration, House worked as a New York Central Railroad porter, killed a man in self-defense, and perhaps most importantly in the context of this review, put down his Dobro after the death of close friend and fellow bluesman Willie Brown. However, the younger generation’s enthusiasm for House’s original recordings reinvigorated his desire to play, which he then did for the first time in seven or eight (according to the liner notes) years.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Stealers Wheel's Eponymous Debut Still Provides Dark Pleasures
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 03, 2015  |  7 comments
Gerry Rafferty has long been under-appreciated. Oh, sure, "Stuck in the Middle" was an unlikely hit when first released by A&M in 1972 and later found its way into Quentin Tarrantino's "Reservoir Dogs" where the bouncy, anthemic, Dylanesque record company exec knock reached a new audience.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Steely Dan’s 200g 45rpm 2LP Aja Is the Pride of the Analogue Productions UHQR Neighborhood
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 18, 2023  |  12 comments

Aja is the fourth (and first non-sequential) entry in Analogue Productions' comprehensive 200g 45rpm 2LP Steely Dan UHQR reissue series — and it’s possibly the most anticipated of them all. Does the UHQR edition of Aja stack up favorably with and/or sound better than the previous LP editions from the label likes of ABC, Mobile Fidelity, and Cisco? Read AP editor Mike Mettler’s in-depth review to find out if the Aja UHQR is worth every bit of those cool 1,500 dime dances it’ll run you tp pick it up (a.k.a. $150, in normal dollars parlance). . .

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Steely Dan’s AAA Analogue Productions 200g 45rpm 2LP Pretzel Logic Tackles a Few Twists and Turns to Find Its Way Toward Upholding the UHQR Standard
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 10, 2023  |  21 comments

Pretzel Logic, the third entry in Analogue Productions' comprehensive all-analog 200g 45rpm 2LP Steely Dan UHQR reissue series, is indeed a bit of a different sonic animal than its predecessors, Can’t Buy a Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy. That’s due in no small part to SD co-founders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen wanting the album to have more of a first-call studio musician feel to it overall. Read AP editor Mike Mettler’s in-depth review to find out if the Pretzel Logic UHQR is the kind of record you want on your phonograph. . .

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AAA Vinyl
Technics SL-1200G Versus Continuum Caliburn And SAT Arm--File Identities Revealed
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 11, 2017  |  40 comments
The file labels were not reversed in this story!

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AAA VinylNews
Ten LP Kinks Mono Box Cut by Kevin Gray From Original Analog Masters
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 18, 2016  |  27 comments
A "Kinks in Mono" box set is due for release overseas shortly and in America on December 16th.

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