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Reviews of Attainable Hi-Fi & Home-Theater Equipment

Most Popular Featured Releases

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 January 2018

ABKCO/Polydor B0027711-02
Format: CD

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“Long before ‘The Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band in the World’ became a reality,” Richard Havers writes in his liner note for the Rolling Stones’ On Air, “this was a band playing the music they loved so much -- Blues, R&B, and even Country music.” The deluxe two-disc set includes 32 tracks from broadcasts the Stones made for BBC Radio between 1963 and 1965. (A single-disc version comprises 18 tracks.) At the end of that time, they were more than a band with an uncanny command of American music -- they were making music as exciting and as transformative as the records that had inspired them.

Read more: The Rolling Stones: "On Air"

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 15 December 2017

A&C Productions A+C144
Format: CD

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On October 17, 2017, Gord Downie, lead singer of The Tragically Hip, died at the age of 53. Three days later, Canada’s CTV broadcast Long Time Running, a documentary of the band’s final tour. In 2016 Downie had learned that he had inoperable brain cancer, and the band quickly scheduled 15 shows for July and August. One of the most moving sections of the film shows Downie before each show, hugging and lightly kissing on the lips each of his fellow band members and the crew. It was his way of showing them how much he loved them, and how important they were to him.

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 December 2017

ECM 2534
Format: CD

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I first heard of English jazz musician Django Bates when he was a member of Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, in which he played keyboards, English horn, and trumpet. Bates was with Earthworks from 1986 until 1993, but during that period also made recordings with the British big band Loose Tubes and as leader of Human Chain. His extensive discography since then includes appearances on ECM as a sideman; The Study of Touch is his first recording for the label as a leader.

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 November 2017

Constellation CST126
Format: CD

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Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Montreal-based musical collective, established in 1994, that has to its credit six studio albums and an EP. The group’s press releases give their music a strong political context, and their newest album, Luciferian Towers, is no exception. The new album’s webpage includes descriptions of the ideas behind each of its four tracks as well as a list of demands, the latter including a request that “the expert fuckers who broke this world never get to speak again.” Regardless of which side you’re on, anyone with a knowledge of recent political history can support that statement.

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 15 November 2017

Fonograf/Capitol B002716202
Format: CD

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Beck’s last album, Morning Phase (2014), was subdued, reminiscent in some ways of his Sea Change (2002), but more hopeful. Beck rarely repeats himself, so it’s not surprising that Colors is different from its predecessor, and its upbeat bounce makes it different from any other Beck album. His songcraft makes it still recognizably Beck, and the lyrics sometimes carry a more complex message than the music suggests, but the swirling keyboards and shiny guitars give it the sheen and sweetness of hard candy.

Read more: Gary Peacock: "Tangents"

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 October 2017

Wincraft Music/Thirty Tigers WM002
Format: CD

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Steve Winwood’s tenth solo album is a two-CD collection of live performances by his current band that reaches back through a career that began in 1963, when he joined the Spencer Davis Group at age 15. Four years later he cofounded Traffic, and in 1977 went on to a highly successful solo career. Greatest Hits Live touches on all phases of his years in music, and brings new, fresh takes to his best-known songs.

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 15 September 2017

MPS 0211965MSW
Format: LP

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Alphonse Mouzon, who died last year at age 68, was a jazz drummer and record-label owner who played on Weather Report’s first album, and appeared on recordings by Larry Coryell, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and many others. He had recorded four LPs as a leader for Blue Note when the German label MPS released Virtue in 1976, and he returned to MPS two years later with In Search of a Dream.

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 September 2017

Columbia 88985447852
Format: CD

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Arcade Fire’s fifth album, Everything Now, follows a gap of four years since Reflektor, which brought in LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy as coproducer and upped the quotients of dance beats and electronics. At more than 85 minutes, Reflektor was too long -- even favorable reviews called out its length and lack of stylistic focus. Still, it was a typically ambitious outing for a band that’s never been content to simply repeat a formula.

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 15 August 2017

Parlophone/Warner Bros. 561025-2
Format: CD

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Paul Weller’s consistency throughout his 13 studio recordings over the last 25 years is remarkable. He set high standards with the Jam, the band he fronted from 1972 to 1982, but his solo career embodies the restless experimentation and curiosity that marked his next band, the Style Council.