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Change is Good- From Proto-Metal to Spiritual Jazz

September 30, 2019 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Change is Good- From Proto-Metal to Spiritual Jazz Spiritual jazz is something I started to focus on in just the last couple years. More recently, I’ve been writing pieces about obscure private or small label offbeat jazz- the material fits under various genre headings, including soul jazz, free jazz and other categories that aren’t always fully descriptive of the music.  This isn’t as much an editorial choice as it is a reflection of my recent listening interests: the level of musicianship is high, and the production quality is often good, in part because the performances... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, In Brief

Editor’s Note: Turntable Set Up Issues and a Forum?

April 18, 2019 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Editor’s Note:  Turntable Set Up Issues and a Forum? Turntable Set-Up Issues With the arrival of a new tonearm and tone arm pod, I’ve been juggling two tone arms, with the added mass of the arm support pods (each of which weighs about 30 lbs). Balancing this weight on the Minus K isolation platform is a little tricky. One basic step is optimizing arm position for ease of use and pivot to spindle distance. Other, more routine set up steps—alignment, null points, and anti-skate are par for the course. However, the lateral tracker doesn’t involve null points or anti-skate... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, In Brief

Fixing Certain Features on the Site

August 8, 2018 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Fixing Certain Features on the Site UPDATE: August, 2018  IF YOU ARE REGISTERING TO GET UPDATES AND/OR TO COMMENT AND DO NOT RECEIVE AN EMAIL FROM WORDPRESS TO VALIDATE YOUR REGISTRATION, PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM/JUNK MAIL. BREAKING NEWS: As of Friday, August 10, 2018, it looks like all functionality to the site, including Letter to the Editor and Comments, is fully operational. My thanks to Tom Ossa and his team. BH.   As this site has grown, I have tried to improve it, and add certain features. Alas, some of them don’t perform as intended and need to be reprogrammed. Some of... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials

Taking a Wider View On Your Listening Choices

March 12, 2018 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Taking a Wider View On Your Listening Choices If you take music seriously (and I’m not talking about pinky lifting pretension here)- you can take garage bands or punk as seriously as original Blue Notes, you know your taste. It is seldom dictated by the mainstream trends, marketing, or popular culture of the moment. Sometimes, popular music isn’t just fluff either and can prove enduring as well, see, e.g. “The Letter”. Chances are, you had some epiphany at some point- probably as a teenager—and recognized that there were certain things you liked, in preference to the music that... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, In Brief

Sonics vs. Music on LPs

August 26, 2017 by Bill Hart Leave a Comment

Sonics vs. Music on LPs     With apologies for the “click bait” title, I had an epiphany the other day playing the main system for a visitor. I usually try to find music that is both interesting and well recorded. There is no shortage of such records, but as I find myself plunging deeper down the rabbit hole of obscurities, lost bands and forgotten albums, I realized how much of a gap there in sound quality between some of these musical gems and the spectacular sound you get on the great audiophile quality records. Ideally, you’d get both— interesting music and lifelike... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, In Brief

Opening the Door to Comments!

December 1, 2016 by Bill Hart 2 Comments

Opening the Door to Comments!   When this site launched, it did not include any facility for user comments. I didn’t want to bother moderating comments, and had enough work just assembling content. But now, almost two years into publishing TheVinylPress, I’m willing to experiment a bit, so some articles will now include a comments feature. If you want to post a comment, you will have to register. (Registration and login links are at the bottom of the page in the “black bar”).  Initial comments may be put into a queue until you are validated as a user. And, at least... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, In Brief

From the Editor- Ian Anderson Interview

February 4, 2016 by Bill Hart

  I’m thrilled to publish an interview with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull on TheVinylPress. Anderson is a deeply reflective, articulate man who was willing to share some of his thoughts on his extraordinary style of music-making- particularly the early, seminal albums during a period of dramatic change in popular music– a transformation in which Anderson played a vital role. Anderson gives us a first hand perspective on this watershed period that reshaped popular music forever. We owe a debt of gratitude to this gifted and deservedly legendary composer and artist.  Here is the... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials

Canned Heat: In Depth

September 28, 2015 by Bill Hart

  I’m very pleased to publish three interrelated articles about Canned Heat, a blues band with a roster of incredible talent, and deep and significant roots in the rediscovery of the blues in the early ‘60s: a band that played the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock and is still “on the road” after 50 years. So much of what the band did in the late ‘60s is now taken for granted: driving rock boogie, the mix of country or rural blues with rock, a serious effort to preserve the elements of long forgotten blues motifs (including many eclectic and more obscure blues styles that were... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, In Brief

LISTENING TO RECORDED MUSIC: A RUMINATION

June 7, 2015 by Bill Hart

The Internet has democratized many things, including the ready availability of music and information about it. It has also changed how we listen to music: from hardware to software to new formats and delivery platforms. Despite my preference for things analog, I support these changes if only because they give artists (performers and songwriters) the ability to reach more audiences and hopefully, in the process, to make some return on their work.   One of the chief complaints about mass-market music delivery is that as technology has improved, sound quality (and consumer’s... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials, Features

From the U.K. to L.A.

June 1, 2015 by Bill Hart

  I’ve been dwelling on records made in the UK in the 60’s and early 70’s- especially the Vertigo Swirls and Island “pink labels.”  (Additional pieces on Island and Vertigo will be added along the way). But, given the “label” approach I’ve been taking here for some of the features, related reviews and essays, I thought it might be interesting to shift focus, from the UK to LA. This shift parallels what I perceive to be a shift in epicenter of the music business that took place from the late 60’s to the 70’s and beyond, as popular musical styles changed. And no... Read More

Filed Under: Editorials

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In Brief:

Milt Ward Virgo Reissue Coming from Frederiksberg

Although I don't have all the details yet, I have learned that Frederiksberg Records, a small, eclectic label from New York, is in the process of reissuing the hard to find (and even harder to pay for) jazz obscurity, Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum. You can find out more by keeping tabs on Frederiksberg's Bandcamp page, https://frederiksbergrecords.bandcamp.com   I'm told there is a bootleg out there so be careful. Frederiksberg is doing this project with the participation of the family of Milt Ward, which is to be applauded. Hopefully, this will give more access to a great jazz record at a reasonable price. The Roots album reissue from Frederiksberg (which is sold out on vinyl on the Frederiksberg Records bandcamp site) still appears to be available through some online retailers as a pre-order, so that's another one to jump on now if you can find it-- the original is extremely pricey and … [Read More...]

Clem Snide- Forever Just Beyond

Clem Snide- Forever Just Beyond With a name derived from a character in the same literary work as the band name so famously identified with the Walter Becker-Donald Fagen duo, Clem Snide has an extensive discography, typically cataloged as “alt country.” This latest release is the work of one of its founding members, Eef Barzelay, who was responsible for much of the songwriting and singing. According to his bio, Barzelay suffered some serious bumps in the road during the last decade, including a failing marriage and financial ruin. At the same time, he learned that Scott Avett was a fan and they found inspiration in each other, leading to this album- a collaboration of artistry where Avett and Barzelay share some writing credits and Avett produces. The result is a fresh, upbeat set of tunes that are appealing in their simplicity and refreshing in their sincerity. The band is first tier … [Read More...]

Muriel Grossmann- Reverence

Muriel Grossmann- Reverence Muriel Grossmann continues her quest for musical ascension on Reverence, which was released on vinyl in early December, 2019 on the RR Gems label as a 2 LP set. The compositions are Grossmann’s, and the band is much the same as the group of seasoned musicians with whom she has worked for some time (and detailed in the review of her Golden Rule), but for one notable exception: the addition of a keyboard player who brings that rich, woody Hammond B-3 sound to a series of compositions devoted to Africa. In some ways, Ms. Grossmann’s exploration of the roots of jazz deliberately eschews any superficial attempt to make African music. Instead, she draws inspiration from its influences, which are wide ranging and deep—you can hear rhythm and blues sounds mixed with more traditional African instrumentation and polyrhythms and come away with something that is both … [Read More...]

Stylus Life- StylusTimer

Stylus Life- StylusTimer Stylus life is a recurring question in audio discussions. Some serious attention was devoted to the subject here, in Mike Bodell’s “The Finish Line for Your Phono Stylus.” That article examined the issue from a number of perspectives, including early studies, claims by cartridge manufacturers and real-life experiences by users. It also generated a long, interesting thread on the Steve Hoffman forum that is worthwhile to read. The Hoffman thread also generated an experiment by Ray Parkhurst who documented the wear of a new stylus under certain controlled conditions, which included a microscopic examination of the stylus at various time intervals over long hours of repeated play. See https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-finish-line-for-your-phono-cartridge-stylus-wear-by-mike-bodell.842572/#post-21292730.   Whether you lean toward more optimistic … [Read More...]

Incoming! (More Interesting Records)

Incoming! (More Interesting Records)  An "interesting record" to me offers something unexpected, whether it is a fresh take on a recognized genre, or something that opens a new way of experiencing instruments in combination. It does not have to be "strange" or challenging to listen to; in fact, I'm a sucker for a good melodic hook and enjoy technical prowess as much as anybody, but there has got to be something "more"-- an intangible that differentiates the record from the millions of others to which we all have access.   As mentioned in a recent editorial, a lot of records come in and not all get written up. It’s not an editorial decision or any reflection of the music or sonics; I only have so much time, and I tend not to write short blurbs, but longer (some may say ‘too long’) reviews. My “incoming” piles continue to grow as I publish. This series of short capsules is meant to … [Read More...]

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