September 26th, 2023
A Very Different Kind of "Power Trio" even more provocative percussion?By: Michael Fremer
Since forming in 2003 the Avant-garde improvisational jazz trio Zen Widow has produced three albums for the Italian objet-a label. This is their fourth. Label founder Gianni Gebbia is the group's Bb soprano saxophonist. Matthew Goodheart plays piano as well as something called a transducer actuated gong. The percussionist who has a great deal to say on this record is Garth Powell. Yes, that Garth Powell, which is why upon hearing about this record I quipped... Read More
September 26th, 2023
Aaron Diehl Tackles Mary Lou Williams' Long-Lost Masterpiece The full jazz-orchestral "Zodiac Suite" re-created for the first time since 1946By: Fred Kaplan
Aaron Diehl & the Knights’ Zodiac Suite may be the most important album of the year, but because “important” is such a wearying word, implying obligation and cryptic boredom, I should quickly add that it’s also an album of joy, swing, and surprise.It is the first complete, professional recording of Mary Lou Williams’ orchestral-jazz composition of that title, and therein lies a story.Williams, who died in 1981 at the age of 71, was a pianist and composer who... Read More
September 24th, 2023
Aphex Twin's Latest EP Augments Your Reality "Blackbox Life Recorder" has an AR App - but you need the vinyl to use itBy: Mark Dawes
There will be some Tracking Angle readers for whom Aphex Twin needs no introduction; and others will prefer not just an introduction, but a lengthy and detailed explanation. Explaining Aphex Twin is a very difficult notion. Genres are not sufficient to define his music, but electronic production is central to his modus operandi. If you enjoy the kind of splattering, gritty breakbeat riot represented by “Come To Daddy”, then you will know him well already. If you have... Read More
September 23rd, 2023
Craft Does the "One Step" With Monk small batch "Brilliant Corners" limited to 4000 gives more buyers a chance to get oneBy: Michael Fremer
It could be a violent musical shock for a young jazz enthusiast in the early 1960s to discover 1957's "brilliant corners" after being introduced to Thelonious Monk on one of his later Columbia albums like 1963's "Criss-Cross". I speak from personal experience.I'd bought Criss-Cross when it was first released. It was my first Monk album. I knew nothing about Monk but I liked his name. I thought it and Monk were pretty wild. The record... Read More
September 23rd, 2023
"Tubular Bells" 50th Anniversary Edition Miles Showell cuts at 1/2 speed from a digital masterBy: Michael Fremer
The late British jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill famously referred to this record as "Tubercular Balls"—and that's before he knew that his first name was short for "laughing out loud". For many reasons this album was and remains a phenomenon. Nineteen year old Mike Oldfield had already been in and out of many bands. He'd been a folkie with his sister Sally in a group called Sallyangie, the 'angie' part taken from the Bert Jansch... Read More
September 22nd, 2023
Monk in Mono Has It All – Even The Bass "Monk's Music" reissue by The Electric Recording Company shows why mono is the way to go with this classic.By: Jan Omdahl
Monk's Music by the Thelonious Monk Septet was recorded in 1957, simultaneously in mono and stereo. A new mono reissue showcases the importance of microphone placement and recording methodology.
Read MoreSeptember 20th, 2023
The First "Heavy Rocks" still Rocks Third Man Records reissues for the first time ever on vinyl Boris's 2002 fuzz metal masterpieceBy: Michael Johnson
Being a fan of Japanese Sludge/Doom/Stoner/Drone/Psych/Pop-Metal power trio Boris can be exhausting, especially if you’re a record collector. Since forming in 1992 these industry veterans have racked up 29 full-length studio albums alone, not even including their dozen or so collaborative albums and countless extended plays. Having casually heard this band mentioned by friends who were enthusiasts of punk and metal over the years, sometime in 2012 or 2013 I found... Read More
September 14th, 2023
Mingus Box Set of His 1970s Atlantic Recordings Is A Treasure Trove And A Mixed Bag 8 LP set highlights the later Atlantic output of the great bassist, composer and arranger.By: Jan Omdahl
Charles Mingus’ format as a deeply spiritual, playfully inventive and stylistically uninhibited composer, bassist and bandleader is very much in evidence on Changes: The Complete 1970s Atlantic Recordings, an 8 LP (or 7 CD) box set of his late-era recordings for the label.
September 12th, 2023
Molly Tuttle Follows Up A Grammy-Winner With "City Of Gold" Guitarist, singer and songwriter wades deeper into bluegrass on her fifth recording.By: Craig Havighurst
Bluegrass is enjoying one of its cyclical surges of artistry and audience, with Molly Tuttle in the vanguard. She and Billy Strings have become the first ascendant acoustic guitar stars in years, while carving out band identities as distinct and transformative as Alison Krauss and Union Station in the 90s or J.D. Crowe and the New South in the 70s. She’s won numerous bluegrass awards and a Grammy before age 30. In a golden time, Tuttle is a golden girl from the Golden State with her second album in 16 months, aptly titled City of Gold.
Read MoreSeptember 11th, 2023
The Doors’ Early Legacy Endures with “Live at The Matrix 1967: The Original Masters” The crown jewel of early Doors live recordings finally released in their entiretyBy: Dylan Peggin
Located at 3138 Fillmore Street, The Matrix was the hub of the “San Francisco sound” in the late 1960s. The pizza parlor turned nightclubs was spearheaded by the members of Jefferson Airplane in 1965, who became the default house band. Whether it was Big Brother and the Holding Company, Steve Miller Band, or Quicksilver Messenger Service, spectators that attended shows at the Matrix witnessed Bay Area bands in a loose environment that was a far cry from Bill Graham’s grandiose Fillmore West.
Read MoreSeptember 5th, 2023
Three Hours of Hypnotic Bliss: Laraaji’s ‘Segue To Infinity’ Numero’s 4LP box set collects the zither master’s early recordingsBy: Malachi Lui
As listeners and reissue labels contextualize new age music in the broader history of ambient music, probably the biggest resurgence has been that of Laraaji, the zither master who’s worked with Brian Eno, Haruomi Hosono, and Bill Laswell, and who also leads laughter meditation workshops. Now, Numero Group presents Segue To Infinity, a recently released 4LP box set encompassing his first LP, 1978’s Celestial Vibration, and three discs of recently discovered recordings from the same time.
Read MoreSeptember 1st, 2023
"Stop Making Sense" Gets Re-Mastered and Issued-in-Full on Limited Edition Double LP Set for the first time you get the full live concert set list (on vinyl), but what about the sound?By: Michael Fremer
(There are two reviews of this record published simultaneously, one by Michael Fremer and one by Malachi Lui, the two working independently, for a young and an "I was around then" perspective).Chris Frantz writes in the updated booklet packaged with this new double LP set of the difficulties involved in mounting the complicated, unique, never before (or since) seen stage show that the late Jonathan Demme so well captured in the film "Stop Making... Read More
September 1st, 2023
Talking Heads’ Complete "Stop Making Sense", Finally Released On Vinyl same as it ever was…By: Malachi Lui
Immortalized in Jonathan Demme’s 1984 film Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads’ 1983 tour was the theatrical rock tour that ended all theatrical rock tours before it and raised the standard for those following. Choreographed but natural, theatrical but not outlandish, designed but also not, the newly reissued Stop Making Sense still resonates in its societal commentary and continuing influence.
Read MoreAugust 31st, 2023
Which "Jazz Samba" Sounds Best? if ever there was a "belongs in every collection" record, this classic is oneBy: Michael Fremer
"Jazz Samba" wasn't the first Bossa Nova record released in The United States, and it wasn't called one, but it was, and upon its release in 1962 it broke open the Brazilian music floodgate. Within months of its release there was Bossa Nova everything. This record was also the first in a popular series of Creed Taylor produced Verve releases featuring on their covers Olga Albizu's abstract art. It was a winning formula.Recorded in a single day... Read More
August 29th, 2023
Neil Young's Long-Neglected Mid-80s Country Album From the archives: Mobile Fidelity's ANADISQ 200 reissue of Neil Young's 'Old Ways'By: Michael Fremer
(This review originally appeared in The Tracking Angle Magazine Issue 7, Spring 1996.)Bryan Ferry covering Gogi Grant’s dramatic “The Wayward Wind” has always been one of my musical dreams, but Neil Young does a more than adequate version to open this long neglected mid-80s Young country album. While he doesn’t bring the kind of “camp” to the tune Ferry could, he’s got the spirit right, with cascading strings (17 count ‘em pieces), Waylon Jennings on guitar, and Bela... Read More