I'm running sound at a new DIY venue in Brooklyn called The LAB, and I snag some weird stuff. Here's a sample…
*******
Trevor Peterson arrived with a guitar and a bevy of pedals and samplers. With the help of adaptable computer music softwares like Ableton and Logic and popular hardware like the Roland SP-404SX or the Akai APC40, the combinations of technologies passing through the Lab morphs constantly.
Stereophile's Assistant Editor Stephen Mejias models the fresh produce
Are you curious to hear J. Gordon Holt's lecture on "Why Hi-Fi Experts Disagree"? Maybe you are yearning for Sam Tellig, the "Audio Anarchist" as identified in the liner notes, to whisper sweet nothings into your ear with his radio-friendly baritone while checking a 1kHz reference tone at 20dB. Or how would you like a dog named Ralph to howl at you while configuring your left and right speakers? All this and more can be found on Stereophile's Test CD 1, now available in the Stereophile eCommerce Store.
Today, Sony announced an end to production on all MiniDisc players. In a few years, MiniDisc production will cease as well. I know what you're asking yourself: "They still make those things?". But the MiniDisc was cool, if slightly deficient, and like many extinct formats, to some music lovers, it meant a lot.
I'm running sound at a new DIY venue in Brooklyn called The LAB, and occasionally I snag some good tunes. Here's a sample…
*******
Kashka is a Canadian synth-pop duo formed by vocalist/lyricist Kat Burns and synth programmer and multi-instrumentalist James Bunton. The pair arrived by way of Toronto with stacks of keyboards, drum machines, and a laptop. After a show of reverb-drenched harmonies and airy synth patches, Kat handed me a purple colored tape of their most recent album Vichada. A tape? I didn't quite understand.
“Dude, I have a huge stack of records you should probably take a look at, tons from Tía Viví, Dad, Mom, and Bobe. There’s probably some stuff in there you can take with you,” Alberto advised.
“It’s fine bro. We’re gonna go record shopping on Saturday.”
“Dude. Just look!”
“I’m good for now. Trust me.”
My brother should not have tickled the monster’s belly.
At its onset, screeching and chopped vocals, a melody cracked off like a piece of firewood from Crystal Castles "Pale Flesh" from their record (III), play catch up with with a deep rubber-band like bass pulse. Crystal Castles' shrieks echo of Lizzi Bougatsos tribal and petrified screams from Gang Gang Dance's Glass Jar, but as the snare guides you to the turnaround and into the verse, a crackling fire-pit of of diced synthesizers and reversed vocal loops, it becomes clear were dealing with something much more electro, something much more IDM-based than the primal screams indicated before.
With its asphalt black casework, divine symmetry, and two front-facing gold-capped passive radiators, the gently-curved TDK Life on Record Wireless boombox screams thick gold chains and Adidas track-suits, but its elegant layout and sleek lines keep the design from being retro. At Pepcom, three whisky-sodas deep, the pulsing passive radiators beckoned me. I know this is Stereophile, a magazine committed to stereo listening, but how could I say no to a boombox I could hold on my shoulder at a basketball game at the Parade Grounds and actually look like I fit in. Well, maybe not me, but the boombox for sure.
This past Wednesday (12/5/2012) at New York City’s In Living Stereo, a diverse crowd of music lovers and audiophiles congregated on the listening room’s floor for a chance to hear a few choice sides from the new Beatles LP remasters. Attendees overflowed from the listening room into the lobby where they waited in anticipation to sit on that floor and get a listen to the new LPs.
Show organizer Antonio De Leon (far left) and President of the Phillipines Benigno Aquino III (center) listen together.
At least 2,500 audiophiles attended the November HiFi Show at the luxurious Dusit Thani hotel in Manila, Philippines on November 10 and 11, 2012. The show featured thirty-nine exhibition rooms with a total of thirty plus dealers exhibiting products from across the globe.
Amidst the concrete bodegas and basketball court fences of Bushwick, there rests a blue-lit doorway hiding strange and warm sounds. A sustained piano, tinkling cymbals, and alien coos float across a colorful hall of books and busted boomboxes. A trumpet blasts and whizzes downwards as the bass plods on. What you hear is Attention Screen, a free-jazz-something super-group featuring budget loudspeaker specialist and all-around nice guy Bob Reina on the piano and special guest Stereophile Editor John “Entwistle” Atkinson on the electric bass. The show takes place at 8pm this Friday, November 30th at Goodbye Blue Monday (1087 Broadway) in Brooklyn, NY.