<B>NEKO CASE: <I>Fox Confessor Brings the Flood</I></B><BR>
Anti 86777 (CD). 2006. Neko Case, Darryl Neudorf, prods.; Craig Schumacher, Chris Schultz, engs. AAD. TT: 34:55<BR>
Performance ****½<BR>
Sonics ****
It's the ultimate talent show each year, and I don't think you'll find a bigger collection of musical firepower under one roof (Live 8 was outdoors after all): Paul McCartney, U2, Madonna, Gorillaz, Mariah Carey, Coldplay, Linkin Park, Sly Stone, Herbie Hancock, and on and on.
The fourth round of RCA Red Seal Living Stereo hybrid SACD/CDs hit the literal and virtual shelves on February 7. [<I>Kalman Rubinson wrote about the first batch <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/1104mitr/">here</A>.—E…;] Remastered from the original two- and three-channel master tapes using the DSD process, these 10 new SACDs present the material exactly as it was recorded, without equalization, filtering, or other tampering.
It's been quieter than usual.
"i used to be a queen in<BR>egypt and will likely be one again. . . ."
"Cover your ears, there she goes again."
Remember when the writing about music was as great as the music itself? Even when I violently disagreed with Bangs (his review of David Bromberg's first album, for instance), he wrote so hard and hot, I had to respect that it was <I>his</I> opinion and not just the music critics' party line. When he loved something, he conveyed what it was he loved better than just about anybody. (Except perhaps for Ian MacDonald, but that was the subject of a post yesterday.)
<I>Big Rock Candy Mountain</I> is a big, beautiful blog, filled with wonderful writing about music (mostly) and full of MP3 links pertinent to the posts. I love the post for February 8, "Strange Revival," which links to Fern Jones' fabulous cover of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Strange Things Happening Every Day," which has to be the most joyous report of the impending end times I have ever heard.
J10 Scull passes along this hard hitting <I>Radar</I> investigation that involves two potheads, two small children, and a primate researcher.
Richard Taylor analyzed a selection of Pollock's paintings and found them
"composed of distinct fractal patterns," even though Pollock was working long before the science of fractals was refined. Now pattern analyses may prove critical in determining the authenticity of 32 possible Pollocks.