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Ecstatic Peace!/Caroline Records CAROL015LP, $19.99 2-LPs Amazon.com For me there are two Sonic Youths. I really like one of them. They're edgy and noisy but still know how to create simple and concise indie-pop songs that really kick ass, songs like "Kool Thing" and "Bull in the Heather." They can even branch out and deliver... Read More »

As I write this review, Chicano Batman takes the stage in the blaring sun of the Coachella Valley for the second time—two years ago, some had commented on how absurd it seemed that this Los Angeles-based tropical soul band hadn't played the iconic festival. Now, on the heels of hearing their third full length album, Freedom... Read More »

Einsam Keit. Schumann Lieder. Mathias Goerne, baritone, Markus Hinterhäuser, piano. Harmonia Mundi HMM 902243.  Coming to Matthias Goerne without expectations, which I'll concede is almost impossible, we are struck by the unique combination of weight and lyricism in his voice. Paralleled by the same quality in the piano. The perfect baritone can do this but... Read More »

Same Room Records SSR030, double LP $25, double CD $20, download $15—robertsarazinblake.bandcamp.com Recitative is one of those albums you release after you've had your big breakthrough, after you've hit it big and now sales are guaranteed because everyone's watching to see what you'll do next. This is the album where you get the big budget,... Read More »

Bushmen of the Kalahari When We Were Free: Bushman Music of the Kalahari Rhythm is the prominent element of the music on these CDs: claps, rattles, single-stringed instruments with mouth or can as a resonator, thumb pianos. This is sad, passionate music. Some of it sounds like a collective expression of misery set to hypnotic, repetitive... Read More »

PIPKOV: Bulgarian Suite for Piano, Op. 2. HADJIEV: Melodic Etudes. VLADIGEROV: Bulgarian Songs and Dances, Op. 25. Victoria Terekiev, piano. Gega New GR 31.  TT: 48.14 Downloads: amazon.com (mp3); getlinksoundcloud.com (mp3, 128 kbps) The album's title, Wind from the East, momentarily misled me: I was expecting music from rather further east, perhaps on the order of the... Read More »

This time Brahms. Our musical guide John Marks, of The Tannhauser Gate (http://www.thetannhausergate.com), leads us into a recent recording of four symphonies by Brahms. Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in four of Brahms' compositions. John's reviews of worthy music is once again republished from TGG with pleasure here at Positive Feedback! The performances are brilliant, done... Read More »

In which our esteemed friend, John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate (www.thetannhausergate.com) introduces us to yet another worthy singer, she of a truly lovely voice, Camilla Tilling. I was not familiar with Ms. Tilling, but was very much taken by her fine performances on this recording by BIS.  As always, John is a sure guide to worthy... Read More »

Michael Rabinowitz, Uncharted Waters. Cats Paw Records, CPD-9855, CD $20 at https://www.jazzbassoonist.com/shop As a high-end audio importer and distributor, part of my job is to sit down and evaluate new products so that I can answer questions from dealers, retail customers, and the press. Yesterday I was doing exactly that, comparing a new entry-level digital... Read More »

Elgar, Symphony No. 2. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Onyx 4165. Elgar, Elgar, Elgar. What do American music lovers make of Elgar? Probably what the English make of Samuel Barber and of Copland's ballets. Each of our cultures has its romanticism and it is generally in our romanticisms that our cultures make their most characteristic, not... Read More »

Doug Munro and La Pompe Attack, The Harry Warren Songbook (GotMusic Records, GMR-1004, available at http://www.dougmunro.com, $15.99 CD) My first trip to an honest-to-goodness high-end audio store, one where I planned on making an actual purchase, happened way back in 1989 in downtown Philadelphia. (I lived there for almost a year, which now seems strange.) I... Read More »

Music@Menlo 'Live,' 2016 "Russian Reflections" . (8 discs), available separately or as a box set. www. musicatmenlo.org. If you share Music@Menlo's enthusiasm for nineteenth century music, this latest edition of their annual set of (summer 2016) festival recordings will please you. It features a large group of minor and minor major Russian composers (plus Tchaikovsky... Read More »

Tinariwen, Elwan (ANTI- 87467-1, 2-LP set $19.98 through Amazon) Reviewing contemporary music is often merely a matter of describing a hybrid. "Their music is a cross between Gwar and the first three Partridge Family LPs." "This latest album blends grindcore and dubstep with Texas swing." You can communicate the essence of a performer by mentioning two... Read More »

Eclipse: Chamber Music of Mischa Zupko. Wendy Warner, cello. Sang Me Lee, violin. Mischa Zupko, piano. Cedille CDR 90000168. Calling someone a "Chicago composer" as Cedille Records often does is probably not doing him a favor. It suggests limitations, local heroes. The fact is, in the case of Mischa Zupko (and cellist Wendy Warner who... Read More »

Back in the '80s, when I was in college, I tried very hard to get into jazz. Many of my music-loving friends had already discovered it, and they constantly told me that if I found the right entry point I would totally dig it. I tried and I tried but I just couldn't find the... Read More »

Remasters 2016 vol. 1 | vol. 3 | vol. 4 | vol. 24 | vol. 54 | vol. 63 COMPACT DISC | LONG PLAY Warner Music Poland sp. z o.o. Wytwórnia Polskie Nagrania [email protected] polskienagrania.com.pl  warnermusic.pl  The third meeting of High Fidelity readers with Polish Jazz Remasters (the so-called second "six", as the record label decided to launch... Read More »

The National's sixth album, Trouble Will Find Me, continues the Brooklyn-based band's streak of melancholy mellow, indie rock. It's reminiscent of the rhythms and monotone vocals of Joy Division and with the suffer-in-silence-like lyrics of The Smiths. "Don't Swallow The Cap" and "Graceless" are dead ringers for Joy Division songs. Singer Matt Berninger and band... Read More »

GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 (rev. Grieg and Grainger)*; Piano Concerto in B minor (fragments); EVJU: Piano Concerto in B minor (on fragments by Grieg)*; GRIEG: Two Songs (trans. Evju for solo piano). Carl Petersson, piano; *Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra/Kerry Stratton Grand Piano GP 689.  TT: 56.35 Downloads: prestoclassical.co.uk (320-kbps mp3, FLAC);... Read More »

Serge Prokofiev, Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1. Nos 2, 6, and 8. Alexander Melnikov, Harmonia Mundi HMC 902202. For those of us who find early twentieth century modernism one of the pinnacles, Prokofiev's piano concertos and piano sonatas are among its richest assets. What I have always found especially attractive in this music is a sense... Read More »