Album of the Evening

[Paul R]

Mike Oldfield: Ommadawn. A wild album chock full of Celtic instruments that seem to jump out at you and stand in the room. Endlessly fascinating depth and detail. 1975 recording, third album from Oldfield.

 

Cream: Goodbye. The 3rd album from Cream, and I believe it was released in 1969, a few months after Cream disbanded. Three tracks are live, and three were made in the studio. If you have not heard it, get it. Perhaps the best album ever from Cream.

 

-Paul

 

 

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

 

 

Artist: Queens of the Stone Age

Album: Songs for the Deaf

 

 

 

[Erwin S]

Artist: The Rolling Stones

Album: It's Only Rock'n Roll (1974)

 

A great example of why there's no subsititute for playing complete albums. Last song is the best: Fingerprint File.

 

BTW: them Stone Ager Queens is indeed one of the best rock bands of the modern era. Energy levels are sky high...

 

[barrows]

Mazzy Star

 

So That Tonight I Might See

 

[firedog]

By coincidence I also listened to it Thursday night

 

Barry, I have a remaster from 2003;don't know the source; I think it sounds good.

 

[barrows]

love classic Yes. I think the 2003 version would be the Rhino re-master series (does it have bonus tracks?). I really need to get MoFi's version of this album, their work on Fragile is excellent.

Note that all recent re-masters from Mobile Fidelity are done to DSD, including the Gold CD releases. Maybe someday we will be able to get our hands on the DSD files (would require serious rights to MoFi from the "owners" of the music). It will be interesting to see what happens as more DACs are released that can handle DSD via USB...

 

[Glennboy]

Disintegration - the cure

The courage of others - midlake

Lossless

Nice

 

[jerico]

Glennboy - great choices! Disintegration is one of my favorites. I've always hoped for a nice crisp remaster. Mine sounds kind of muddy, though I love it anyway. Midlake is awesome too. Ever listened to John Grant?

 

On now:

 

Artist: Neil Young

Album: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

 

On deck:

 

Artist: Kenny Garrett

Album: Triology

 

 

 

[kumakuma]

Artist: Herbie Mann

 

Album: Caminho De Casa

 

[goldsdad]

Anouar Brahem

The Astounding Eyes of Rita

 

 

[bdiament]

First, "Everybody Loves A Happy Ending".

Now, "The Seeds of Love".

 

Best regards,

Barry

www.soundkeeperrecordings.com

www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

 

[Glennboy]

Everybody knows... Is my favourite Neil young record - nice choice

I've not heard John grant, good album of his?

 

If an artist cannot make a decent album then I guess they are not really worth listening to.

Just my opinion (which is right)

 

[REShaman]

My wife was back on the massage table tonight and I DJ for her which keeps the massage therapist glued to the table as she truly enjoys the music as she works on my wife. Jun Fukamachi At Steinway (Take 2) DXD CD, followed by HDtrack download Easy Living Ella accompanied by the great Joe Pass. Bridge Over Troubled Water for a night cap. I purchased dBPoweramp after conveniently forgetting it was a Windows program. Also purchased XLD and converted the Simon/Garfunkel CD to AIFF easily. Read the threads here first, hoping the quality is equal to dBPoweramp as I do not care to boot up Win7 via VMWare often, the program never gets the CD/DVD writer(s) easily to work as in Snow Leopard. Also downloaded Fidelia basic/advanced to compare, finding it quite acceptable, but notice I make my way back to Amarra and PM.

Notice different recordings/files sound better played through one program or another and appreciate having the selection available. Wonder if that is the experience of others.

Listening/playing more music than I ever have these days. Everyone in the room notices the change in music delivery and SQ with extreme delight.

Best,

Richard

 

[TimArruda]

The Horace Silver Quintet - The Tokyo Blues

 

[j.SoundLabs]

Rome - DJ Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi

 

[RankStranger]

The Harrow and the Harvest.

 

[jerico]

...recorded his album "Queen of Denmark" with Midlake. I quite like it, though it is a bit lusher in style than Midlake.

 

"Eyeopener" this morning:

 

Artist: Nick Lowe

Album: The Convincer

 

[firedog]

Artist: Art Pepper

Album: Meets the Rhythm Section

 

1. First of all,a truly great album in terms of music. Beautiful and fun to listen to. A good intro to Jazz for those who think they don't like it. If you don't like this, you really don't like Jazz.

 

2. Album was made by Art Pepper, lead sax, with the rhythm section from Miles Davis' band at the time (Jan 1957): Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums).

 

Pepper had never played with the rhythm section before they met in the studio. I wouldn't be surprised if they had never even met personally. In spite of this, they made the album in 5 hours, which included composing and recording 2 new tunes on the spot.

 

One of many examples of what talented jazz musicians can do - the power of improvisation, when it's in the right hands.

 

3. In spite of being from 1957, the sound is great. Even the CD sounds live and "analogue". Sounds like they are playing in your room. The only hint that it is an old recording is a slight lack of very extreme highs and lows, but that takes nothing away from the great sound and enjoyment of the recording. Just sounds like music.

 

My Jazz collection includes a lot of recordings from the 1955-1965 era on albums like Fantasy and Blue Note. With few exceptions, they are some of the best sounding recordings I own.

 

My guess is that this is due to several factors:

a)small groups 3-8 instruments;

b)few people involved other than the musicians, an engineer, and a producer (who often ran his own small label);

c)engineer and producer who were fanatics about the music and getting the sound "right" - and knew how to mike and record;

d)recordings were basically live performances and recorded straight to tape, with little done to these tapes afterwards - just the minimum necessary needed to produce a master for the record pressing.

 

[davidovada]

Artist: Petra Magoni e Ferruccio Spinetti

Album: Musica Nuda

 

Listening to this just makes me happy. I'm about to throw some triple-cut pork chops on the grill and open a bottle of sparkling rosato given to me by the butcher. Have I mentioned before how much I love living in Italy?

 

 

 

[agentsmith]

Leftfield Leftism

 

[kumakuma]

Great choice! One of my favorite Horace Silver albums.

 

[TimArruda]

It was the first Horace Silver album I bought, and it is still my favorite.

 

[kumakuma]

For me, it's a close race between this and Cape Verdean Blues.

 

[bikemig]

Goldsdad: I've really been enjoying Anouar Brahem as well. I love this as well, Night Song, Ketil Bjørnstad. It's really more classical than jazz but a perfect CD for an evening.

 

[goldsdad]

@bikemig

I enjoy all Anouar Brahem albums. Thanks for the Night Song suggestion. An ideal title, considering this thread.

 

@mwheelerk

All three of Munu’s ECM albums are excellent. An earlier solo album It’s About Time, released 1999, is at Amazon. Check the samples - nothing like his ECM releases. Just as well it’s not my kind of music - $135 plus shipping.