Album Reviews

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Album Reviews
The Moody Electronica of Apple Rabbits' "Oberkampf"
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 26, 2016
Jay Fisher, in his mid-forties is Apple Rabbits. He writes and arranges, sings, plays guitar, bass, piano, keyboards and percussion. He also likes to experiment with electronica. The strings and flutes on this record are real though, and very convincingly recorded .

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Album Reviews
Ravi Shankar's At Home Performance Led to The Concert For Bangladesh
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 01, 2016
This fascinating Record Store Day release last spring probably got lost in a crowd of LPs so you may have missed it. I did. it was recently sent to me for review by Northern Spy Records (NSPY).
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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Kult of Kogan Kontinues!
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 20, 2016
By now you know the drill: The Electric Recording Company finds a collectible and music-worthy title to reissue and does its fanatical-attention-to-details thing, both in the mastering from the original tape on a lovingly restored all-tube cutting system to a meticulously produced record sleeve and jacket that are in most ways difficult to distinguish from the original as described in previous ERC reviews.

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Album Reviews
Angel Olsen's "My Woman" Is Her
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 10, 2016
Angel Olsen's third album reminds me of Elvis Costello's first even though she's mostly vulnerable whereas Costello was angry and snarly. The similarity is in how both make fresh older rock conventions like power cords and '50s era rhythms.

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Album Reviews
2007 Never Before Released Jazz Album Made For These Times
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 11, 2016
According to the liner notes for this record that's guaranteed to knock you out in a good way, both musically and sonically, the aggregate known as "The CO-OP" began as an "ad-hoc" backing band for the Swedish singer-songwriter Malin Johansson, A/KA Blue Utopia. The more you search online for information about Ms. Johansson or Blue Utopia, the less you'll find, not that it really matters.

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Album Reviews
"A Capitol Christmas" Double LP From the Vaults Worth Owning
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 11, 2016
Producer/annotator Jay Landers has pulled from Capitol's rich vaults some of the label's best Christmas music that the label has issued as a double LP set complete with excellent liner notes (they are back.

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Album Reviews
Digging Into the Liturgy of the Phonograph's First Eleven Years
Tristram Lozaw  |  Dec 21, 2016
We make a seasonal exception to our vinyl-only review policy and publish Tristram Lozaw's review of the double Grammy Nominated (Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes) three CD plus harcover book set Waxing the Gospel: Mass Evangelism and the Phonograph, 1890-1900.

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Album Reviews
Taj Mahal's "Labor of Love" Is A Field Recording Your Ears Will Like and Your Heart Will Love
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 24, 2017
We think of "field recordings" as vital ancient musical history, primitively captured. These "field recordings" dating from the 1990s were recorded using a pair of Bruel & Kjaer 4165 microphones and B&K power supply, Cello preamp, Apogee 1000 ADC and a Nagra D digital recorder given by Mark Levinson (the man) to producer Timothy Duffy .

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Album Reviews
Erroll Garner's "Ready Take One" Turns Heads and Taps Toes
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 24, 2017
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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
"The Royal Ballet" Re-pressed And Immediately Sells Out!
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 25, 2017
Originally licensed in 1959 from British Decca and issued by RCA Victor in America on its lavish Soria series as LDS-6065, the "Gala Performances" performed by The Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Gardens conducted by Ernest Ansermet continues to draw new enthusiasts to what many consider one of legendary engineer Kenneth Wilkinson’s most spectacular recordings.

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Album Reviews
Judith Owen's "Somebody's Child" Will Move You
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 09, 2017
It doesn't slight to this well-produced, thoroughly engaging record to write that singer/songwriter/pianist/raconteur Judith Owen is best experienced live in concert.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Nick Culp's "The Culprit's Blues" Goes Back to The Future
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 14, 2017
You’ve probably seen or at least heard about Damien Chazelle’s musical “La La Land”, about a musician (Ryan Gosling) whose less than fully expressed mission was to “save jazz”. He brings his turntable and retro-record collection to Los Angeles where he lives in a crummy apartment and makes ends meet by playing in a piano bar.

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AAA Vinyl
The "Chirping Crickets" Is Rock'n'Roll's DNA
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 16, 2017
When The Crickets' "That'll Be the Day" exploded on the radio in 1957 and the absolutely geeky looking 21 year old Buddy Holly and group appeared December 1st on The Ed Sullivan Show, a generation of kids were moved the way the next one was by The Beatles. You didn't have to look like Elvis. Anyone could be a rock'n'roll star. In fact, "That'll Be the Day" was the first demo cut by The Quarrymen, the skiffle group that eventually morphed into The Beatles.

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Album Reviews
"Larry Young In Paris" From Resonance Records A Must Have
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 06, 2017
Over the past decade or so vinyl-loving jazz enthusiasts have been treated to a series of previously unreleased but significant recordings discovered under beds, in closets and in the vaults of European radio stations. Some were never before heard. Others were bootlegged from radio broadcasts

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Album Reviews
Sam Records Releases Thelonious Monk's "Les liaisons dangereuses 1960" For RSD 2017
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 18, 2017
Music composed for films is by definition precisely timed and intended to mirror or at least complement the on screen action. Of course that’s not always how its accomplished, especially when the hired musicians are not trained film composers.

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