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Tag Archives: Audiophile Music

World News

Do You Need Brian Eno’s Film Music 1976 – 2020 On Vinyl?

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

I have been listening to Brian Eno’s music for a long long time now, first getting into his music in the late ‘70s when vinyl was pretty much the only avenue for good sound quality. Cassettes were happening then, of course, but for the most part pre-recorded magnetic tape editions were ultimately inferior sounding to LPs. 

Eno’s first four albums were more or less rock recordings so they generally fared well on vinyl. As I got deeper into his music, particularly digging into his ambient releases, I soon found there were potential sonic issues because of the limitations of the medium at the time.

Vinyl quality was suffering at the time due to the oil crisis in the late 1970s and by the early 1980s; many labels were challenged and cutting corners, so quality controls suffered.

Thus an ambient leaning recording with long held notes and quiet passages could easily be ruined by surface noise and — most annoying to me — off center pressings. 

 
I started seeking out imported pressings which were more expensive and elusive at the time. Right around that time, the CD happened and suddenly one of my main concerns became a moot issue, so I started getting Eno’s music on primarily on that platform. 

I think the last one I had on vinyl was a promo copy of Music For Films  (not the super rare one) and it was disappointing at the time.

So I didn’t look back really considering Eno’s music on vinyl much until the recent Abbey Road half speed mastered editions (some of which I’ve reviewed here and here and here). When I learned that a new collection of Brian Eno Film Music 1976 – 2020was coming out on vinyl, I was compelled to check it out. 

The pressing is on thick, dark, black vinyl that is dead quiet and the pressings are perfect. Given that these are recordings made over a 40-plus year period, there is a remarkable level of consistency from track to track, some likely made digitally and others in the analogue domain.

So kudos again to Abbey Road mastering engineer Miles Showell for paying attention to those “little details” which matter and are actually a very big deal. 

Perhaps part of why Brian Eno Film Music 1976 – 2020 also works so well as a vinyl listening experience is that it is a combination of ambient musics and themes as well as vocal-driven pieces. So as an album listening experience it never gets remotely monotonous or same-y.  It also saves you from having to buy all those individual soundtracks!

Some of these tracks I never owned before, such as “Under” from the Cool World soundtrack and his beautiful and plaintive country-western-flavored cover of William Bell’s soul hit “You Don’t Miss Your Water” from Married To The Mob.  And now you don’t have to own the Dune soundtrack just to get one Eno track there, “Prophecy Theme” (the rest of the original album is by Toto actually!).

This has been a very happy listening experience for me as the music sounds rich and full. And it brings us up to date with pulsing gems like “Reasonable Question” from last year’s We Are As Gods a film I hope to see about former Merry Prankster and influential environmentalist Stewart Brand and his Whole Earth Catalog. 

Brian Eno Film Music 1976 – 2020 features seven previously unreleased tracks. 

So, for example, I noticed that “Late Evening In Jersey” from 1995’s Heat was not listed on the original soundtrack. It is a lovely track that sounds especially good with its very natural sounding acoustic cymbal and snare drum work dancing above a haunting organ, synthesizer pulses and very ambient low bass booms.

Audiophiles note: possible demo disc material here.

Going back to the question I posed in the headline above, I think the answer is  a resounding: yes, you do need this one on vinyl.  Whether you are an established fan or new to his music, Brian Eno Film Music 1976 – 2020 is a great overview that works as a fine listening experience in its own right. 

World News

Are Super Limited Editions Vexing The Vinyl-verse?

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

I get it…

Times are tough and everybody is struggling to make a buck and a dime… and vinyl is a hot and highly visible commodity these days… But I fear there is a tipping point where short term profit motives may undermine the industry over the long-haul.

I’ll stop vague-blogging and zero in on what seems to be upsetting many vinyl collecting fans. I’m talking about the “limited edition” release concept which has escalated to fairly ridiculous levels.

I’m talking about rare albums which are reissued as special colored vinyl editions or on super duper, uber-audiophile versions… or special web exclusive sets…. or a previously unreleased concert or studio recording by a famous artist… These kinds of releases have become almost events unto themselves. And if you are a marketer of these products, you are probably excited about that factor. However, if you are the consumer, the excitement may be waning…

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m OK with having these special versions.  In fact, I like them, especially when issued around the time of Record Store Day which helps to drive fans into the stores and ultimately helps keep the retail infrastructure afloat… When the process works it can be fun. I’m good with that level of exclusivity as it gives fans a fair chance to get their hands on a copy — especially if enough copies are manufactured — this is a key thing, folks. 

But it doesn’t always work that way and in these pandemic times many labels have taken to leveraging the Internet to sell these special editions… and this is where the problems seem to be creeping in… For example, in recent years there have been a number of fine specialized, niche audiophile boutique labels popping up which have been doing some great work generally. These labels (some backed by major label entities) are offering affordably priced high quality editions which is indeed helping to inspire new generations of collectors and music fans. It is allowing them to experience classic recordings that have long been out of reach for most people due to high prices — and relative rarity — on the collectors resale market.

Those things are all good, as they say… Blue Note Tone Poet and Verve Acoustic Sounds… heck, even basic Mobile Fidelity’s limited edition runs are popular but I haven’t really heard any significant grumbling. Most people seem to be able to get what they want without too much hassle. I even purchased a recent reissue of a popular MoFi edition which sold out initially, Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach’s Painted From Memory. I even wrote about that experience (click here to read it)

But then you have new technologies driving development of even more specialized and more limited edition releases such as Mobile Fidelity’s Ultradisc One-Step pressings. These releases often put classic albums out as two LP sets, spinning at 45 RPM and charging more than $100 per set. Typically, these albums seem to sell out quickly. Perhaps too quickly. Concord Music’s Craft Recordings label has started a similar series — called “Small Batch” — that is already upsetting many fans because many fans can not get their hands on them. They sell out on pre-order. Several people have grumbled to me about these and others, in part prompting this thought piece.

The reason for the vinyl fan upset is similar to the reason that concert goers get mad at ticket scalpers: they feel like they are getting the short shrift, burned even. Many true fans of their favorite artists are not able to get through on the pre-orders because of circumstance or lack of sophisticated online buying strategies.  

I have heard speculation from some people that “bots” are snapping up the titles before the fans. Apparently this was an issue in the sneaker collecting market (click here for an old article on Wired exploring this).  I’ve heard stories that this kind of thing is going on in the video games universe as well. And the “flippers” (as they are known in collecting circles) seem to be putting them up on places like eBay and Discogs at enormously inflated prices. Don’t believe me?  Click here for eBay and here for Discogs. 

This process is seemingly self defeating. Sure, the labels make a bit more on each sale but they are also LOSING money because the flippers are making as much if not more in the aftermarket resale. Are extra wealthy collectors willing to pay those premium prices for the convenience or just to be in that exclusive group who get the albums first (ie. bragging rights)?

Copies of the recently released Small Batch version of John Coltrane’s Lush Life are up on eBay for upwards of $700! (click here for a recent search on that) and they begin on Discogs at $500 going up from there (click here for that search).  Mobile Fidelity’s One Step series releases are also seemingly fetching some coin there (click here for a recent search). The copies of Santana’s Abraxas on that disc format begin at $800 and go upwards on Discogs (and they go way up!!). 

And this issue is not just limited to these super high end editions. Paul McCartney’s new half-speed mastered edition of RAM has already sold out on pre-order on his website! And yes, people are already offering them for double that amount on eBay (click here for a recent search)

As I wasn’t able to get one of the Record Store Day half speed mastered edition of Sir Paul’s first solo album, this latest process was more upsetting than it needed to be. And I hear you cynics in the back row saying “awww… boo hoo…” These are “first world” problems, I know. (I did ultimately find a way to pre-order RAM online from an independent record store in Grass Valley, California!). 

If this process makes me, a lifetime music collector, feel crummy, I can imagine younger collectors getting discouraged. And that is ultimately what bothers me. It shouldn’t be this difficult. I wouldn’t be surprised if limited editions from Billie Eilish or Doja Cat or whomever are also hard to come by…  At least Billie is selling her posable dolls at Target so hopefully fans can get them there… I’ve read online and heard from some friends that Bowie fans have been going through vinyl collector gyrations lately as well.

Is it any wonder that streaming music services thrive, many shafting artists out of proper royalties due to low pay out structures? 

Again, I think these super special editions are at their root a good thing. That isn’t the problem here. The issue is that the industry is not serving the marketplace well, and it seems to be priming a secondary market for price-gouging flippers.  

The industry should consider the impact it may have over the long-haul. I know that’s easier said than done because for many executives if they don’t make their numbers they get laid off. 

But if everybody takes that short term profit center attitude, there may not be much of an industry left…

World News

Vinyl Moon Record Club Curates Multi-artist Mixtape Listening Experiences

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

I have long loved sampler albums and I’m happy to have learned in recent years that the form seems to be making a comeback. Click on the highlighted labels here for my reviews of recent compilations by Numero Group, Jazz Dispensary and Colemine Records.

Sampler albums are nothing new. In the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, labels promoted up-and-coming artists through these collections, some even thematically linked.  In the late ’60s Warner Brothers raised the bar with its innovative “Loss Leaders” mail-order-only series of two-LP collections (which only cost about $2 a piece!). These were often very creative affairs with clever artwork and thoughtful programming / curating done by none other than Barret Hansen (aka Dr. Demento!). Other labels tried this but Warner’s definitely cracked the code on these things, continuing into the 90s — via their hip Sire Records’ subsidiary, then run by 415 Records founder Howie Klein — with creative collections like the Just Say Yes series of CDs.

Fast forward to present times, I’ve often thought that it’d be cool to do a vinyl sampler of unknown new artists, kind of like the many collections put out on CD back in the 90s when the indie music universe exploded. Even those were largely un-curated listening affairs, fun but typically random collections of tracks which didn’t always hold together.

Enter Vinyl Moon, a newer record club I only recently learned about that has been successfully doing just this for the past five years, issuing curated thematic and beautifully produced mixtape type collections on vinyl. During the last year, subscriptions to their service have more than doubled! 

Vinyl Moon sent me a couple of their collections to check out and largely I am quite impressed with what they are doing.

First, they look stunning, the packaging is exemplary and of very high quality.  Each LP features beautiful original design by one specific artist that relates to the music inside. You get profiles of all the bands and musicians on the collections with contact information should you want to explore more of their music.

Artist driven, and global in scope, remarkably enough audio wise, these albums sound surprisingly consistent all things considered. There is no doubt in my mind that these are modern digitally produced tracks but the mastering is very good so there is consistency from track to track. The producers paid close attention to detailing so there aren’t lots of harsh edges getting in the way of the tunes.  

All the albums are on lovely colored vinyl variants which for the most part sound good. As you know from my articles on that topic, there can be sonic anomalies depending on how intensely patterned the albums are. These albums I heard are generally quiet and well centered. Only one of them displaying some brief noises a few times across one album side, but it was no kind of deal breaker for me. 

Following is a look at each of the albums. 

Odd Party

Curating mixed tapes is two edged sword. In the quest to create a unified vibe musically and thematically, there is the danger the album could grow boring and same sounding. Additionally, many artists working from home studios are using similar drum programming sequencers, loops and such which can create a too-familiar sound. It is a two-edged sword.

Here, the artists are cut from similar cloth, yet sequenced carefully so it plays well end to end like an “actual album” and not just a random collection of tracks. Tracks on this album often remind me of Toro Y Moi, Ra Ra Riot and The Helio Sequence (all good touchstones, mind you!).  

All of Side A holds together especially well, kicking off with one of my favorite tracks here, “Brother,” by Tommaso from Chicago. Germany’s Georgisound breaks things up a bit with the haunting guitar-and-beats instrumental “Dias.”  Los Angeles’ Melpo Mene delivers a great side closer “Wrong At Last” (which sounds kind of like a lost track by The Helio Sequence)

The cover art by London’s Marija Tiurina is especially inviting, with windows and doors giving a sparkling peek into the fabulous odd world inside the album’s gatefold cover. This cover reminds me of some street artists I’ve seen around San Francisco, notably Sirron Norris (click here) who paints these kaleidoscopic cartoon universes that are a wonder.  Here, Tiurina spins that concept through an Heironymous Bosch lens and the result is trippy fun!

And that is part of the point in this series, to give subscribers a fun and compelling viewing and listening experience.

The Long Run

My favorite of the two, this album has more of an epic feel to it, crafted amidst the pandemic. It tells a story of a sort of adventure story for a hero, no doubt enhanced by visual artist Shane Cluskey’s quite stunning illustrations which remind me of no less than Gerald Scarfe by way of Edward Gorey. You get a beautiful full color comic book (8” x 8”) as well. 

Stand out songs for me include “As You Healed / The Guide” by Nashville artist Vian Izak which feels like what might happen if Zach Condon from Beirut was collaborating with Ra Ra Riot’s Wes Miles. 

This album seems to have more diversity of sounds including guitars and pianos. An acoustic flavored song like “Perfect Passions” by Benedikt (which includes an Accordion and horns, again, echoes of Beirut here). Opening track “Evergreen” by Bootstraps (aka writer Jordan Beckett who has written for Grey’s Anatomy and Power Rangers among others) is a piano based modern pop rock track mining classic songwriting forms and loop based constructs and driving it a haunting wistful vocal. Joel Ansett’s “Through” has a moody feel, a slight more soulful take on a songwriting flavor The Flaming Lips explored on some of their early 00s albums…

Many riches to explore here…

I think Vinyl Moon is on to something here, offering a platform for newer artists while creating a distinct series of albums that stand on their own. They’ve been around for 5 years or so and are on release #64 already so clearly there is a groundswell of support for albums like this.  

I hope they’ll send me more releases to review. I’m enjoying this series.

World News

Nickel Creek Live at The Fox Theater, Oakland On 180-gram Vinyl

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Nickel Creek is an amazing trio of musicians who went on a performing hiatus at a peak in their career, apparently due to the the rigors of touring from what I’ve read on line and to expand their musical horizons. It is understandable, as they had pretty much been on the road since they were teens. 

Thus I unfortunately never got a chance to see the group in concert. So it was especially exciting to learn that they were issuing a live album from their last tour in 2014, recorded right here where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.   

I pre-ordered my copy right away and it finally arrived recently. It was worth the wait.  The milky coke bottle green vinyl is quiet and well centered. Not surprisingly, the music contained on the discs is rich and rewarding. 

I would not be surprised if this album was recorded digitally so it has a crisp modern acoustic sound, yet there are no real harsh edges getting in the way. 

Live at the Fox Theatre was recorded on May 19, 2014 and it is one of those great live recordings which captures the essence of the band on stage as well as some of the feel of the theater. The instruments are close mic’d so there is plenty of detail on the acoustic bass, mandolins and guitars. The trio’s vocal blend is gorgeous and it just underscores what brilliant musicians they are being able to pull off this complex music in a concert setting — live without a net.

Make no mistake, Nickel Creek may be acoustic and rooted in bluegrass traditions but their music is closer to Prog Rock by way of early Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  And on Live at the Fox Theatre you get to hear this unfold across four luscious sides. 

There are spine tingling moments through out. One of the earliest comes at the intro to the second song, “Scotch and Chocolate,” with it’s haunting slow mandolin and violin introduction which gives way to a rollicking high speed drive this side of foggy mountain (no breakdowns reported on the mountainside).

Of course, Live at the Fox Theatre delivers many fan favorites and those tunes shine with in-the-moment joy including “The Lighthouse’s Tale,” “The Fox” and “When You Come Back Down.” 

Amazingly enough for a band whose albums tend to sell out (and some become fast collector’s items!), Live at the Fox Theatre is still available from the band’s website so you should get your order in soon if you want a  copy. It is not available on the streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal but their other albums are. It is however available in digital form via the band’s Bandcamp page (download and streaming, click here to jump to that)

If you are interested in how their studio albums faire on vinyl, please click here to read my recent review of their reissues on colored vinyl.  

There are many riches to explore here from this tremendous modern progressive acoustic band. If you are a fan you need this. If you are curious about what Nickel Creek is about, this might not be a bad place to start…

Here is some fan footage from the show which sounds remarkably good.

World News

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band Delivers Hopeful Dance Songs For Hard Times

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

I first got introduced to Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band a few years back when the stars aligned. Almost at the same time, both a good friend and a noted music industry publicist started telling me about them. 

The latter sent me their CD thinking I might enjoy it and he was right! They eventually sent me the vinyl version of the album to review which you can read by clicking here.

I’ve been keeping loose tabs on what the good Reverend Peyton and his Big Damn Band have been up to and I was excited when I heard that they were putting out a new album crafted during the pandemic. It is called, appropriately, Dance Songs For Hard Times. 

Before I get to all that I should explain that this Big Damn Band is actually a tight trio, featuring Peyton’s lead guitar and vocals. “Washboard Breezy Peyton” delivers backing vocals, percussion and plays the washboard while the two get bedrock support from drummer, percussionist and vocalist Max Senteney.

Peyton himself plays bad-ass, gut-bucket barrelhouse blues guitar which alone would be enough to captivate many guitar fanatics.  But he sings with a piercing voice that falls somewhere between old time blues greats from the 20-50s and punk blues legends like Gary Floyd (The Dicks, Sister Double Happiness, Black Kali Ma) and maybe even a little bit of Jello Biafra (i.e. The Dead Kennedys).

One of the big distinctions I’ve discovered as I’ve been picking up more of the Reverend’s albums – – and I’ve been surprised just how many of them there are! – – is that he can write a good tune, bottom line.

Don’t go into this expecting a lot of groundbreaking “new” music in terms of genre busting and crossover and such. No, this band is steeped in the grand tradition of open-tuned slide guitar driven blues and R&B with a little bit of  punk attitude and occasional mayhem thrown in for good measure.

In a word: this music is fun!

I keep on coming back to the melodies and hooks and this new album has tons of them.  Two of my favorites on the new album, Dance Songs For Hard Times, are happily also early video releases for the group.

The fun “Ways & Means” is perfect for these times where everyone is trying to make ends meet somehow. “Too Cool To Dance” resonated with me as I was admittedly once one of those nervous wallflowers at clubs and dances afraid to dance and missing many chances (because I was trying to be cool but in actuality I was not feeling remotely cool enough to make it out on the dance floor. Lessons learned!). 

Dance Songs For Hard Times does have some poignant moments of reflection such as the beautiful “No Tellin’ When” which explores the fears of not seeing our family and friends during this pandemic nightmare. 

As I have found with past albums by Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, the recording quality on Dance Songs For Hard Times is very good and appropriate for the music. 

Reading between the lines on the liner notes — which says “this album was recorded live to tape with supreme joy” — it seems quite possible that was made at least in part in the analog domain if not totally. It was recorded at Sputnik Sound, a studio which is outfitted with much vintage gear, so that is great to know about this attention to detail employed to deliver a sound true to the music. 

Produced by four time Grammy winner Vance Powell, there is clearly some strong musical DNA beneath creation of this album.  Accordingly, Dance Songs For Hard Times has a nice rich feel on vinyl — which is dark, thick, well centered and dead quiet, a nice pressing — in particular. The CD sounds great in the car if you still have a player there.  

Dance Songs For Hard Times will be out soon so you should pick it up. A fun and inspiring album finding light amidst the strum und drang of 21st Century life.

World News

Reconsidering Lynyrd Skynyrd: Live at Knebworth, England 1976, Blu-ray

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

I see now where I screwed up as a mid-1970s teenager in my appreciation for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Then, “Southern Rock” was almost as big as Prog Rock and Disco (maybe even bigger depending on who you talk to). The kings of the genre were The Allman Brothers Band, and The Marshall Tucker band came up quickly in the ranks as a very popular number two, both prototypes for what later got labeled as “jam bands” in the ‘80s and ‘90s. 

I like both of those bands a real lot, and grew up with them because one of my older brothers was into them, I will admit.

But then this band called Lynyrd Skynyrd happened and everybody was saying that they were the best “Southern Rock” band. Clutching my cherished copy of The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East, I bristled and ignored Skynyrd as much as a teenager could at the time — which means that even if you didn’t own the albums you heard their music everywhere on the radio, at parties, even as walk-in music at other concerts.  

Skynyrd was huge!

Of course, after the tragic plane crash just as they were beginning their ascent to superstardom, I never had an opportunity to give them a second chance, to see them live in concert, to really find out what they were all about. 

None the less, Skynyrd’s hits have set up shop in the back of my mind and in recent years I’ve actually picked up a bunch of their albums. I now appreciate them for what they were: a really solid rock ‘n’ roll band, not really a so-called “Southern Rock” band.

This is never more in evidence than on the great new Blu-ray disc that is coming out soon from Eagle rock entertainment: Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76.  

The Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker Band’s brand of Southern Rock was a heady brew of jazz-inspired country-fried blues rock with a major emphasis on improvisation over long jams. 

Lynyrd Skynyrd is pretty much a straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll boogie band (albeit a really tight one!).  They were a big band delivering a rich-but-rootsy wall of classic rock sound — drums, bass and keyboards plus three guitarists and matching backing vocals on stage. Their power is palpable, no doubt. They were a very very tight live band. 

There’s not a lot of slide guitar playing, nor a lot of deep blues and there’s almost no improvisation going on — the solos are great but clearly well crafted and mapped out.

In this fine concert video, lead singer Ronnie Van Zant looks at times a bit unsure of how to handle the giant stage and the massive audience there at the Knebworth Festival, grabbing the microphone stand in awkward rock star poses. But any of his uneasiness is made up for with a strong vocal delivery and — again — the three guitar assault which was a force to be reckoned with.

The other bedrock of this band is the drummer Artemus Pyle who really kick some serious booty driving the sound of this group. 

These guys were tight and well scripted. They knew all their licks, hooks and riffs — so there’s no room for anybody to drop out in creating their big sound. 

The audio on this Blu-ray Disc is generally excellent, presented at 48 kHz and 24-bits in DTS HD Master Audio surround sound. The 5.1 mix is perfectly acceptable for a live concert experience like this with a good sense of ambience and crowd feel. Not surprisingly, most of the music is centered up front and center with a nice stereo separation.

After watching  Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76, more than ever I see this group as more of an Americana roots rock band not unlike Northern California’s Creedence Clearwater Revival by way of English groups like Foghat, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After and maybe even Humble Pie. 

They knew how to write some good tunes and they knew how to rock.

There are some exceptions. On Jimmy Rodgers’ “T For Texas” they fall into an Allman’s sound as the song (and arrangement) is very much like “One Way Out.” As soon as the slide guitar kicks in, Van Zant delivers a remarkable Greg Allman-esque performance.  

“Free Bird” of course is another song featuring the slide guitar and it was later dedicated to Duane Allman and Allman’s original bassist Berry Oakley (both of whom were killed in separate motorcycle accidents about one year apart in the early 1970s).

It’s really interesting watching the very English crowd embracing all this American essence of the period — it could have been a festival stage in the U.S.

The video quality on Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76 is excellent for a live recording made in 1976. This looks like it was captured on early video tape, so the resolution is what it is —all things considered, even on my trusty old 1080p Panasonic plasma TV it looks pretty darn great. If you’re playing it on a 4K TV it may look a bit more fuzzy (upscaling may help). 

Anyhow, if you are a deep Skynyrd fan, you’ll probably want Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76 as it is nice and reasonably priced package. The CD is great too for those times when you just want to hear the music. It also includes a relatively recent documentary film If I Leave Here Tomorrow which I have not had a chance to watch yet as of this writing (but plan to soon!).

Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76 is about as close as many of us will get to understanding what this great band was like live in concert.  Worth checking out.

World News

Cecil Holmes’ Soulful Surround Sounds on Quadrophonic SACD

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Two years ago at a flea market I found a curious record that looked like one of many records riding the coat-tails of so-called “Blaxploitation” films and mining the bland-but-lucrative easy listening music market (Percy Faith, Arthur Fiedler’s Boston Pops, Henry Mancini, The Living Strings, etc.). The Black Motion Picture Experience was credited to a group I’d never heard of called The Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds. It has turned out to be the most interesting of the genre which I’ve found so far, in part because of the back story I’ve just recently learned about.  

I’ve recently begun collecting — and reviewing — Quadraphonic SACDs being reissued by Dutton Vocalion out of England. I ordered several initially from them directly (but I see you can order many of these from Amazon, so poke around if you are looking for them — click on the title anywhere in this article and you’ll jump there).  Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised to find The Black Motion Picture Experience by The Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds as a featured Quad SACD release! 

Apparently Cecil’s albums had been issued on Quadrophonic 8-track Cartridges and Reel To Reel tapes back in the day. Who knew?

I ordered it right away and in general I’m not disappointed at all as it’s really quite fun hearing this music getting very deluxe treatment for which it clearly was built.  Cecil Holmes’ The Black Motion Picture Experience is produced with some heavies of the studio world (including an ascending Randy Brecker and Motown “Funk Brother” Bob Babbitt) so it grooves more than many standard faire easy listening records of this type. 

Cecil’s albums have been sampled by many modern artists including Mos Def, Brand Nubian, Ice Cube and even Rakim (as in Eric B. and…). Click here to jump to a recent search on WhoSampled, a terrific, fascinating website which helps people backwards engineer the DNA of current recordings to find the music’s roots. 

I think it is important to point out that Cecil Holmes was a very successful African-American record industry executive at the time — I knew there had to be an interesting backstory behind this curious album! From the liner notes and on the Dutton Vocalion website we learn: 

“This reissue comprises two albums fronted by music industry mogul Cecil Holmes. After a stint at the Casablanca label, where he was National Vice President and Manager of R&B Operations, he joined CBS Records in the early ’80s. As the label’s Vice President of Black Music A&R, he would spend the next ten years shaping the careers of Michael Jackson and Luther Vandross, overseeing Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing comeback and unwittingly ushering in the second coming of the boy band era when he gave New Kids On The Block their first recording contract in 1986. But before all of that, he’d been with the New York-based Buddah Records, where his acumen as an A&R man had earned him multiple industry awards and numerous gold records; he’d also been instrumental in signing Gladys Knight & The Pips and had shepherded the careers of leading artists including The Isley Brothers, Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions.”

So, Cecil had the background which led to the root idea for this album, aiming to beat the easy listening soft sounds producers to the punch with his own album of Soul and R ‘n B hits of the day. The Black Motion Picture Experience was apparently quite successful. There was an established market for this type of album, but Cecil brought his own vision to the project. That said, I own collections such as Joe Renzetti’s and Wes Farrell’s The Soultown Symphony (Sounds of Detroit) and numerous albums by The Soulful Strings (with the great Charles Stepney) which put out numerous albums on Cadet Records between 1966 and 1971. Soul Strings and a Funky Horn (1968) is another I found recently on the Solid State Records label. And then there are numerous soul strings knockoffs on budget labels.  

That said, Holmes may well have been the first African American producer of a session like this. Accordingly, this album has the right feel to make it work and hold up as a good listening experience today.  Holmes brought in Tony Camillo — who had driven hit sessions for no less than Gladys Knight and the Pips’ Grammy winning “Midnight Train to Georgia” — to shape these sessions.

So how does The Black Motion Picture Experience SACD sound? I think it is wonderful! The Stereo layer sounds very much like the LP mix, appropriately warm but plenty clear.  

The Quad mix is fun! For example, opening track “Across 110th Avenue” features bass and horns in the rear channels while guitars and drums somehow keep the rhythm clicking up front.

The mix design switches up a bit for “Slaughter,” putting some percussion and effects in the back. Holmes’ version of the early Michael Jackson hit “Ben” is one of my favorites here with strings in the back and lead-line flutes up front. The cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” is also super sexy, putting the saxophone behind you and the core rhythm section up front.

I did not spend much time comparing/contrastig the second album on the disc — Cecil’s follow on release, Music For Soulful Lovers — as my copy of that LP is horribly off center. So the SACD is a huge improvement for me even just listening to the Stereo mix and the Quad mix has a similar vibe to the earlier album. However, be forewarned that this other music is even more easy listening-leaning — it is kind of like if Barry White consciously made elevator music for a medical building. But, hey, that is ok. As you can see from the cover, this was intended as background music!

Here’s something extra crazy: you can even find The Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds’ The Black Motion Picture Experience on Qobuz (click here) in 96 kHz, 24-bit Hi Res and on Tidal in CD quality (click here)!

But if you want to hear the Quadrophonic experience — if you have a home theater system set up that can play multi-channel surround sound from SACDs — you should pick up this Dutton Vocalion edition. 

World News

Feeling The Natural Joy Of Brazil’s Airto On Real Gone Vinyl

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Some of you may know that I’ve been going on a deeper dive into the music of Brazilian master musicians Hermeto Pascoal and Sivuca (click on their names to read recent reviews).

As I dig down into their catalogs I’m discovering that these musicians were part of a universe of players back in the day who seemed to help each other out as they moved forward in their careers. 

Along the way in the past few weeks I learned that Real Gone Music had reissued two of Brazilian percussion great Airto’s earliest albums which originally appeared in America on the Buddah Records label and are now significant collector’s pieces. I’ve never seen either of these albums out in the wilds.

As I dug into my research I learned that both Hermeto Pascoal and Sivuca as well as Flora Purim were on these albums! So, I made a mental note to track copies down soon.

The very next day at Amoeba Music I found a brand new copy of that first Airto album, Natural Feelings, on sale!

Score!

Natural Feelings is a pretty amazing recording which crosses boundaries from Bossa Nova to the more out and experimental sides of jazz fusion which was just just beginning to emerge at that time. The music even gets a bit psychedelic. 

Natural Feelings is thus a bit of a trip and it works really well. Hermeto plays organ, piano, harpsichord and flute, Sivuca is on guitar and bassist Ron Carter brings up the low end.

“Terror” feels like a cross between Miles Davis’ more outside musics from the period and some of Frank Zappa’s work on Uncle Meat and Burnt Weeny Sandwich. 

Like many of you I first knew of Airto from his 70s albums on the CTI label as well as a multitude of appearances on other artists records including Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Paul Desmond, Gato Barbieri, Mickey Hart, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Hubert Laws and many others. The man was busy, with a capitol B!

So how does Natural Feelings sound? 

All in all, its quite wonderful.  The vinyl is dark, quiet, reasonably thick and well centered. I do suspect it might made be from a digital source. I mean… it stands to reason…. what is the likelihood that these original master tapes would be sent to a boutique reissue label doing a small run of 500 copies (if the tapes even exist anymore)?  

But just the fact that Natural Feelings has been reissued at all is a wonderful thing.  So, sure,  there is a bit of that compressed-but-crisp high end going on here but nothing horrible that makes the music unlistenable. Just don’t come into this expecting buckets of analog warmth. For that reason, I’ll continue to try to track down original pressings. 

This version still sounds a bit richer than the CD quality streams on Tidal and Qobuz (click the service names to jump to those versions if you have subscriptions).

The cover art on Natural Feelings features trippy snippets of a work by Dutch surrealist painter Heironymous Bosch and it looks quite nice all things considered. I like that the folks at Real Gone Records attempted to make the labels appear close to period-accurate by mimicking the quasi-tie-dye background look/feel of the classic Buddah Records label.  

All in all, this is a timeless sounding Latin jazz fusion session that is full of joy and… well…. Natural Feelings.  It even includes Hermeto’s beautiful song “The Tunnel” which Sivuca also covered on his 1973 album on Vanguard Records. 

Community, love, musicians all supporting one another in free spirited music unconstrained by conventions of time and place. That is a vibe I can groove on.  Natural Feelings, indeed. 

World News

Is Fleet Foxes’ Shore Really Released Now That It Is Out On Vinyl?

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Last Fall, one of my favorite 21st century bands, Fleet Foxes, dropped a pleasant surprise on it’s fans with a new album pre-released in the digital domain. Shore was a much needed sonic elixir amidst the dark of the pandemic. Beauty and solace dancing hand in hand with fear and uncertainty, presented at a time when our world was escalating into madness and fear. It felt just right then… and it still feels right today…

Previously, I reviewed Shore based on the digital streams on Tidal and Qobuz which you can read by clicking here. My positive feelings towards this album have not changed – if anything they’ve grown over the course of the last six months as the music has worked its way into the back spaces of my mind much in the way that its predecessor, Crack Up, did in 2017 (my favorite album that year, by the way)

Along the way the band offered a pre-order for Shore on vinyl which I promptly put my dibs in. The album was supposed to arrive a couple months ago but things were delayed as is the case of most new releases these days given the pandemic scenario.

We all have to just be patient…

Now, maybe its just my bias towards physical media, but one thing was gnawing at me in the back of my head: the album didn’t feel quite “real” without knowing that a physical version of it had been released. So finally getting Shore “in hand” was almost a sign of relief and release.  (fanboy thoughts: ‘Yes…. At last its here… yes… its a real album!’)

The good news is that Shore on vinyl was worth the wait. My special edition on ocean blue colored vinyl arrived a few days ago and while the pressing is not perfect, I’m generally not disappointed. In fact, I’m overall quite happy and even at times elated! The album is mostly dead quiet even though it’s on translucent teal blue vinyl (I’ve noticed that clear vinyl variants can sound harsher than opaque colors).  The record sounds quite warm and rich even when you turn up the volume on your amplifier. 

I did find two nits to pick, however. One annoyance for me is that one disc is pressed a little off center. Why this matters has to do with the kind of music Fleet Foxes has produced here: soaring SMiLEs of instruments including pianos and horns, big strumming acoustic guitar feel flows, underlying cool cool chordal waters and ambient surf’s up soundscapes. Shore is the kind of music where even a little bit of wavering can create audible tonal fluctuations. I admit that this is not a big deal for many people but to me it is important. It is also evidence on just how I’ve internalized this music to where I can notice the differences when they happen.  

On side two there were a couple very very brief groove distortion sounds that came through but they were so subtle I really shouldn’t even make a point of calling them out… but… well… I guess I have a responsibility to be honest to you, Dear Readers, as much as to myself. 

Those little dings aside, in generally I’m happy how the album sounds on vinyl. Shore is one of those albums you can enjoy at full volume or softly on a lazy sunny afternoon.

Maybe I’m reading too much between the lines but this new version of Shore makes me wonder if the whole album was crafted with vinyl in mind (vs. the streams on Tidal and Qobuz). One could I argue that I just like the sound of vinyl but I think they had to work some wizardry making this a consistent great sounding record given it was made in three different studios in New York — including Jimi Hendrix’ legendary Electric Lady Studios — as well as one in Paris! So, kudos to recording/mixing engineer Beatriz Artola (Adele, Ce Lo Green, Tegan & Sarah, Ryan Adams, etc.) and mastering engineer Joe Laporta (the latter of Sterling Sound).  

I still can’t get over a track like “Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman” (second to last song on Side 3) which simultaneously channels David Crosby’s title track from the second CSNY album Deja Vu and any number of songs by Beirut and Philip Glass and David Byrne’s Knee Plays and… well… you get the idea. 

It is a pulsing, mesmerizing, shimmering, horns ’n sparkling guitars collision that works together to form a quite perfect pop symphony. 

The cover art on Shore is also a pleasant surprise as it works beautifully as a full sized album. As a tiny digital JPEG we see on streaming services and online retailers, it doesn’t work quite so well. But in its large format glory, the patterned cross hatching of sea foam against an isolated beach is haunting.

It is a lovely package, as detailed on Fleet Foxes’ website: 

“Shore arrives on vinyl as a 2xLP set encased in an Old Style Double Gatefold Jacket with black polybags and 24”x24” poster insert, printed at Stoughton Printing Company. Side D features an etching of fifteen hand drawn flora by visual artist Dino Matt, each tied to one of the album’s fifteen songs. The album’s cover, front and back, showcases artwork by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Hamaya and design by Benjamin Tousley with Robin Pecknold.”

This is also one of those three-sided albums that doesn’t feel like you are missing anything by not having a fourth side. It feels just right. And the fourth side with its lovely art etchings is really a perfect complement to the music. 

Looking forward, I hope that someday Fleet Foxes’ leader Robin Pecknold would remix all their albums into surround sound… that would be some kinda sonic bliss I suspect… 

I noticed on the cover of Shore that there is some cryptic wording which says “IV. Rising Phase.” While it could simply be a notation that this is Fleet Foxes fourth album, it’s vagueness reminds me of the sort of hints Robert Fripp (King Crimson) would drop in liner notes (and interviews), talking about his “Drive to 1981” and such…

That said, I look forward to Phase V of Fleet Foxes’ journey…

World News

The Frank Zappa Documentary Part II: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack On CD

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

In part one of my review series we explored the new Blu-ray edition of the Alex Winter’s terrific new documentary about Frank Zappa which is simply titled Zappa. If you missed that story, please click here to jump to it. 

For those of you who like soundtracks, rejoice knowing that there is one available for this fine new movie named after its namesake. Zappa has been streaming for a while on all the popular services including Qobuz and Tidal. You can click here for my review of it based on the streams and you should read it as it does go into a bunch of detail on things you can expect to hear.  

For those of you who prefer “physical media” — and who might want to buy the album to help support future archive releases (that is how this process typically works, folks) — now you can get the album on a three compact disc collection. 

I have found the Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack quite handy and intriguing as a listening experience in its own right. It is particularly useful as it now allows me to hear the music on different devices beyond my computer including my car– yes I still have a CD player in my car! It sounds great as CDs go and sounds particularly good in the car, must say. 

One of the details I have come to recognize and appreciate about this release is that it is genuinely an “original soundtrack” and usually that means it includes incidental music from the film. This is an important distinction for the hardcore Zappa fan to come to grips with as this is not really intended as purely another “Vault” release even though it is created from materials in the Vault.  

Got that?

So, this set includes a significant amount of incidental music created not by Frank Zappa. The album includes 26 original score cues newly composed by John Frizzell to support the connecting dramatic intercut scenes which helped tell the story.

Initially, I will admit that I was a little bit miffed about this as a Zappa fan most of my adult life. But as I got deeper into listening to the Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack via this new physical album — I began to appreciate Frizzell’s work for what it is and how it helps achieve the intent of the film: to use Zappa’s archival footage to tell a narrative story about his personal life as a composer. 

Prior to writing this I watched the documentary for a third time including and could see and hear how these musical cues are essential ingredients towards the film’s success.

Stepping  outside my Zappa “fan boy’ mindset, I stopped to consider why they didn’t “just” use Frank’s own music for this purpose. Well, first, it would have been a Herculean — if not impossible — task to find appropriate music from Zappa’s vast catalog to fit the vibe of each scene in just that right way. It probably could have been done, no doubt, but it probably would’ve added three or more years onto the project I would suspect.  

That notion aside, having this sort of Eno-esque, ambient under-scoring for the storytelling scenes helps to lift Zappa beyond the typical rock documentaries that I’ve seen. Hearing this other non-Zappa music actually gives your mind a breather to focus your attention on the underlying story. Accordingly, the soundtrack pieces have very specific titles such as “Frank’s Library,” “Greeting Cards” and “Frank Goes To Jail.”

Zappa (the film) has a very clear intention to tell the story about what Frank’s life was about from Frank’s perspective, not necessarily rehashing many of the stories that have already been told elsewhere. It is important for people who have never heard Zappa before to understand this broader perspective. 

As Gail Zappa says in the film: ‘he’s a composer.’

Ok, so there’s only one more element left this in this rollout of the Zappa Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: the upcoming five LP vinyl box set of the as well as two-disc incarnations. As soon as we get our hands on a copy of that we’ll sure to give you an update!

So stay tuned Zappa fans as there’s more fun to come regarding this wonderful documentary experience.

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