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Rhino Entertainment and Warner are aiming to Start Your Ear Off Right in 2025 with 26 limited edition LP reissues and releases. The current group of albums in the series includes a varied mix of 180 gram, clear vinyl 140 gram, and cool colored-vinyl 140 gram LPs. Start Your Ear Off Right encompasses a diverse... Read More »

Since downsizing 5 years ago and leaving behind my LPs and vinyl playback equipment, I have gradually built a new digital music library. At Dr. David's request, I shared this traumatic journey in several articles titled Yes, There Really is Music After Vinyl, the first of which you can find HERE. Today, most new additions... Read More »

The title of this posting says it all. The Rhino High Fidelity Series continues to amaze! These limited numbered edition 33 rpm LP reissues are all pressed on super quiet 180-gram vinyl pressings from Optima in Germany. They offer the coolest high gloss, heavy weight gatefold "tip-on" style jackets and each has a custom designed... Read More »

High Definition Tape Transfers continues to make available excellent new releases of classic albums. Here are a few recent arrivals that have been brightening my days. Frank Sinatra, Only the Lonely. HDTT 1958 2025 (DXD, DSD256) HERE Only the Lonely is one of Frank Sinatra's most iconic albums, released in 1958 by Capitol Records. Known... Read More »

You have to applaud Grover Biery and his team at Because Sound Matters for giving us something different in the world of audiophile LP reissues. Grover has reached out and delivered on the unexpected, which includes new One-Step titles from Linkin Park, Green Day, K.D. Lang, and even The Flaming Lips (in the near future).... Read More »

AC Records is the brainchild of jazz drummer, composer, arranger, and producer Adam Czerwiński. He's been performing in the jazz world as a leader and sideman for over forty years now, and has provided the rhythmic foundation from behind the drum kit for a myriad of famous and respected musicians. Among them, notable jazz artists... Read More »

Craft Recordings continues their reboot of the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series with another heavy-hitting 180 gram LP reissue, Thelonious Monk's 1957 release, Monk's Music (Riverside Records). Monk's Music is a cornerstone from his middle period on Riverside Records, and features an all-star lineup of some of the greatest players in jazz, including John Coltrane,... Read More »

Craft Recordings has just released the latest installment in their premium Small Batch audiophile LP series with a reissue of the Bill Evans Trio's classic 1961 sophomore effort, Explorations. The album would mark the final studio session with Evans' classic trio that featured Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums, and would come... Read More »

I was fascinated recently by Sound Liaison's 2024 remastering of their excellent 2012 album Thousand Shades of Blue by Carmen Gomes Inc. In this new release, Thousand Shades of Blue Revisited, recording engineer Frans de Rond and producer Peter Bjornild went back to the original 96kHz 24-bit recorded tracks and applied everything they'd learned the... Read More »

Floyd Cramer (1933-1997) was one of the most prolific studio musicians who ever sat on a piano bench. During the early 60s he was a key member of Nashville's A-team of musicians who backed famous singers, such as Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Roy Orbison, Jimmy Dean, The Everly Brothers, and Jim Reeves. And... Read More »

An Affirmation of the Concept of Grace I can already envision the angry Comments: Herr Doktor Marks: We hereby award you the Prize for the Most Completely Outrageous Clickbait Trash-Post of the Week! I reply: Nicht so schnell! Please read my headline carefully. I am not claiming that the Grateful Dead were a "Christian" rock band,... Read More »

I'm catching up... honestly I am. There are many wonderful albums to talk about, more than I can cover in one article. But, I'll make a start and then add more in a later article. Today, I want to visit several terrific Pure DSD256 recordings from Eudora, Hunnia, and Yarlung. Plus some outstanding high resolution... Read More »

Mogwai, The Bad Fire Mogwai is a cosmic band. With the fires finally subsiding in Los Angeles County; The Bad Fire is aptly, and unfortunately titled. Utterly coincidental (we don't want to spark even more conspiracy theories here—the world needs that like we all need holes in our heads)—but isn't that one of the most... Read More »

Mahler Symphony No. 9 in D major, Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra. HDTT 1961 2024 (DSD256, DXD) HERE Some performances are so culturally significant that they require special notice when a superb new release becomes available. Such is the case with this 2024 reissue from HDTT of the classic account of Mahler's Ninth Symphony recorded... Read More »

I've been on a bit of an audio hiatus these past few months, but that hasn't meant I wasn't paying attention to the many excellent albums Bob Witrak has been releasing over that time. Those of you who have read some of my other writing know with what great respect I hold Bob's work at... Read More »

Passos Brasileiros, Toomai String Quintet, with assisting artists. Tocanta Media (CD).  53 minutes. Pascoal: Garrote. Villa-Lobos: Saudades das Selvas Brasilieras 1-2; Chôros 5 ("Alma Brasileira"). Gonzaga: Passos no Choro. Freire: Mamulengo; Espiral; Turbulenta; Pintou um Grilo. Nascimento: Cais. Gil: Domingo no Parque. Nogueira: Bachianinha 1. Lara: Força da Imaginação/Sonho Meu. As in their 2018 début... Read More »

We've all bought albums for the hit song that we heard on the radio, or for that one incredible sounding demo cut we heard at an audio show. Because of this, vinyl nuts, like me, who've been collecting records for decades, always wind up owning lots of albums that have only one good cut. I... Read More »

Recording engineer Bert van der Wolf's releases are eagerly awaited in our household. The reason is a combination of three factors: (1) the audio quality he achieves is easily in the top ranks of what is possible today, and he's constantly pushing the envelope to achieve even better sound; (2) I like his choice of... Read More »

Impex Records continues to honor the legacy of celebrated guitarist Al Di Meola with a new 180 gram LP reissue of his 1977 jazz fusion classic, Elegant Gypsy. The album sold a half-million units in the year of its release, peaking at the number 5 position on Billboard's jazz album charts while earning Guitar Player... Read More »