Good Things Come in Big Packages- Sammy Miller and the Congregation Big band style jazz probably reached its peak in popularity before WWII.Sammy Miller and the Congregation aim to bring it back, with a few surprises, a laugh and an impressive, tuneful display of musicianship. If Sammy & Company prove anything, it’s that what we think of as “big band” music is an archetype and does not represent the music itself: vibrant, full of soul, life, blues and joy, with lots of space between the different instruments, offering an interplay of sounds that are immensely satisfying. I used... Read More

A History of Ultrasonic Record Cleaning   Despite the attention paid to ultrasonic record cleaning in the last few years, including the various DIY efforts that have broadened its appeal due to lower cost (as well as providing a more flexible feature set than some of the commercial entries), little has been said about the history of ultrasonic cleaning for records. Mike Bodell changes that with a paper entitled  “The Curious Case Of Record Cleaning In The Quest For Sonic Perfection” which is being published here for the first time. Mike, who has both a science and business... Read More

Psych Folk   Soon to be published here is the first in a series of articles, essays and interviews about psych or “freak folk.” This sub-genre, which was borne out of the folk revival of the ‘60s, had many progenitors and its influence is even stronger now in contemporary works from a range of artists, including Meg Baird, now associated with the hard psych band Heron Oblivion. I’m not a stickler for genre classifications; to the contrary, during the period when this music was first being created, boundaries were crossed and genres were pretty much ignored, which is one of the... Read More

The Vinyl Press Goes Digital!   Not for all purposes, all the time, but I resisted the pull of digital media in my main system until now. Why? I didn’t have a very good impression of the sound of CD when it was first introduced. Although I was aware of the improvements wrought by better players, DACs and hi-res, I succeeded in ignoring the audiophile digital side, until now. Why the change? Many of the reissues of rare old albums are taken from digital copies of the master tapes; though I like “all analog,” it simply isn’t realistic if you want to have access to a broader array of... Read More

Two from Ramseur: National Reserve and Ruen Brothers   I like the folks at Ramsuer Records- Dolph Ramseur has tapped into something special in his release of a diverse array of music that has one common attribute: it’s genuine. From Ramseur’s much needed reissue of Josh at Midnight  to the recent release from the Steep Canyon Rangers, Ramseur is mining various veins of music that don’t seem to share much in terms of genre or style. But, that word “genuine,” probably much overused these days to hype all kinds of stuff, is probably the best way to describe it. The two... Read More

Incoming: Atomic Rooster Death Walks Behind You     Soon to be published, a closer look (listen) to Atomic Rooster’s Death Walks Behind You, a “heavy” album from a band that grew out of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and originally included Carl Palmer on drums (who left the band to join ELP before this album was recorded) and Vincent Crane. Crane’s  keyboard work is sorely overlooked—the organ sounds are majestic, dark and gothic in an almost classical sense. Crane’s piano work is also stunning- the sense of weight and tone is a magnificent counterpoint to the... Read More

Fixing Certain Features on the Site 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 this is owed to custom programming when the site was set up to give it a particular “look” as well as interoperability issues between WordPress and the large commercial hosting service I had been using from inception.  My team of IT support folks are working on various tasks now, including: fixes to the Letters to the Editor function (I know some of you have written and those... Read More