Although this website is designed along the lines of a traditional newspaper rather than an Internet chat board, thoughtful comment and criticism are not just welcomed-they are essential its purpose: a better understanding of music available on LP that doesn’t enjoy wide recognition. We are fortunate to live in an era where a number of record companies and third parties have released (or re-released) many important recordings on vinyl. But there are just as many, perhaps more, which, for various reasons, have not benefitted from high quality reissues, or were released and largely forgotten or simply missed a larger audience for a multitude of reasons.
Those are the records that most interest me- mining the past (and occasionally, the present) for those jewels that deserve to be heard. Some of these records are well known to collectors, but the price of admission is steep and no quality reissue exists. (I will endeavor to find a less dear pressing made at around the same time and where possible, compare them to the uber-pressing). In other cases, the record is simply overlooked- easy enough to find cheaply if you know what to look for. In many cases we are dealing with used vinyl which inevitably leads to record cleaning, one of the other areas of interest here.
I am hardly an arbiter of taste- some of what I’m sharing in these pages was re-discovered by me years after I bypassed or ignored a particular artist or record. I’m not adverse to the wealth of remasters now available from a number of sources, but, for the most part, these are already well-covered in the audio press and typically, are records that already enjoy recognition and an established market. I see little need to tread over well-tilled ground. Likewise, you won’t find traditional equipment or accessory reviews here because readers are already well served on that front.
I hope you find something here that makes it worth your while. Your thoughts, comments and criticism can be addressed to me via the Letters to the Editor button at the top of this section.