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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
A Dream of a One Step Monk's Dream  From Mo-Fi
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 30, 2020  |  22 comments
If you're saying Monk's creative juices had begun to dry up by the time he signed with Columbia Records and released this 1963 label debut album you'll get no argument from me. But Monk, all of 46 when this was recorded, had a secret weapon: his rock'n'roll band of the hard-blowing Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, John Ore on bass and Frankie Dunlop on drums.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald Performed By Clare Teal Recorded Direct-to-Disc
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 26, 2016  |  15 comments
Recording direct-to-disk is difficult enough. The entire side has to be cut in one long take. Consider a big band vocal album like this, which has four songs per side. The orchestra and singer have to be ready as soon as the cutting stylus hits the lacquer and then they have to perform flawlessly on each track, pausing but a few seconds between songs.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Add It Up: Craft Recordings Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Violent Femmes’ Seminal Self-Titled 1983 Debut With Limited-Edition Box Set Featuring 180g AAA Version of Original LP, Two LPs of Demos and Of-Era Live Material, and a 45 to Boot
Mark Smotroff  |  Feb 16, 2024  |  4 comments

Craft Recordings’ new four-disc 40th anniversary deluxe edition box set celebrating the timeless, self-titled April 1983 debut LP from Violent Femmes, Milwaukee’s pioneering folk-punk trio, has as its centerpiece an AAA version of the original LP along with one additional LP full of demos and another LP with choice of-era live material, plus a bonus 7-inch single. Read Mark Smotroff’s review of this near-undefinable, infectious slab of post-new-wave, post-punk classic combined with a sizable collection of bonus material all adds up to a worthwhile analog spinning-and-listening investment. . .

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AAA VinylNews
All-Analog Reissues of Early Reprise-Era Fleetwood Mac LPs Coming From Rhino
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 23, 2020  |  14 comments
Rhino will release on September 4th two new early Fleetwood Mac box sets: an 8 CD set Fleetwood Mac 1969-1974 that includes 7 studio albums plus an unreleased 1974 concert, and two versions of an all analog 4 LP+ 7" single set cut from the original master tapes by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

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AAA VinylNews
Analog Spark To Reissue from The Three Track Master Bernstein's "Rhapsody in Blue"/"An American In Paris"
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 26, 2016  |  7 comments
Analog Spark, a Razor and Tie imprint headed by Mark Piro just announced some great upcoming AAA releases headlined by the iconic Bernstein/NYP recording of "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris" cut by Ryan K. Smith using for the first time the original three track master tape.

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AAA VinylAlbum ReviewsFeaturesReview Explosion
AnalogPlanet’s Top LPs of 2023
Mike Mettler, Mark Smotroff  |  Dec 30, 2023  |  14 comments

Looks like another year has gone by with a seemingly endless release-cycle parade consisting of scores of brand-new LPs from both known artists and untested newcomers alike, along with a myriad of archival vinyl reissues and overstuffed box sets galore — a good number of them presented in the much-preferred AAA form to boot. With the calendar set to turn over to 2024 any day now, that means it’s high time to assess the best of what we’ve heard on wax during the past 12 months. Read on to see AP editor Mike Mettler and chief LP reviewer Mark Smotroff’s respective lists of the top archival and new LP releases of 2023. . .

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AAA VinylNews
Analogue Productions Launches 25,000 Copy UHQR Miles Davis Kind of Blue
Michael Fremer  |  May 03, 2021  |  102 comments
It's the best selling jazz album ever, one of the most influential too, arguably the one that produced a shift from riffing on chord based tunes to modal excursions that gave musicians newfound improvisational freedom. Cynics and the selfish will react to yet another Kind of Blue reissue by claiming that "everyone" already owns a copy but of course that's not true. And no one owns a 200 gram UHQR Clarity vinyl copy pressed one at a time on a manual Finebuilt press.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Analogue Productions Presents a 200 Gram, Clarity Vinyl UHQR Are You Experienced
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 25, 2022  |  49 comments
The original British pressing of Are You Experienced? (Track 612 001) was a tepid looking and sounding monophonic affair and despite the label’s name, the jacket didn’t list the tracks, nor did the front offer the band’s name.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Analogue Productions Unleashes the Funk on Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters
Simon Guile  |  Aug 18, 2021  |  14 comments
With a career spanning more than six decades, Herbie Hancock is one of the most treasured names in jazz. From his early days with Blue Note, to his last release (2010’s The Imagine Project), there are more than a few of his impressive 46 albums that people consider to be favourites. My personal favourite however, is the fusion classic, 1973’s Headhunters.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Andrew Hill's Passing Ships  Sure to Please, Both Musically and Sonically
Michael Fremer  |  May 30, 2021  |  10 comments
Some people collect Tone Poet Blue Note reissues the way some people amass baseball cards. I know more than a few Tone Poet enthusiasts who, after buying one, had a Bert Lahr Lay’s potato chip moment and couldn’t stop buying them—at least until they encountered the late pianist/composer/arranger Andrew Hill’s Blue Note debut Black Fire (ST-84151/B0029975-01).

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
AudioNautes Reissues Chesky Classic O Magnum Mysterium
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 19, 2020  |  4 comments
What better time than now for the all-analog resurrection of this Chesky classic? Easter is three weeks away (though “Oh Great Mystery” is really about Christmas) and home lock down in a dreary time is here now.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Bach Starker Suites For Unaccompanied Cello Complete Is The Perfect Self-Quarantining Companion
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 03, 2020  |  53 comments
What better time than during a period of self-isolation and social distancing could there be to explore Bach’s “Suites For Unaccompanied Cello”? Arguably, there’s no finer recorded performances than the ones Janos Starker performed for Mercury Records April 15 and 17, 1963, September 7-8, 1965 and December 21-22, 1965 (though some may prefer other performances by Casals, Rostropovich, Yo-Yo-Ma, etc.). I'm not here to argue with you. The finest version of these historic recordings, is without a doubt, this latest one from Analogue Productions and the sound is unassailable.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
BBC Late Junction Sessions: "Unpopular Music"
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 03, 2018  |  0 comments
Step away from your predictable audiophile fare and consider this double 45rpm LP set from the U.K.'s Gearbox Records of artists you've mostly never heard of playing music you've probably never heard either.

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AAA VinylNews
Bernie Grundman Cuts Lacquers For Vanessa Fernandez's "When the Levee Breaks"
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 04, 2016  |  18 comments
Lacquer cutting began Wednesday, Feb. 3rd for When the Levee Breaks Vanessa Fernandez's sophomore "triple A" Groove Note album.

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AAA Vinyl
Bernstein's "Rhapsody in Blue"/ "An American In Paris" Sourced From Three Track Master
Michael Fremer  |  May 11, 2016  |  8 comments
Taking a break from High End Munich coverage of which there's a lot more, brings me to Analog Spark's recent reissue of Bernstein Conducts Rhapsody in Blue/American In Paris (Columbia MS 6091).

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