Fe, Esperanza, y Caridad
An altogether beautiful album. I selected <i>Fe, Esperanza, y Caridad</i> as one of my 2008 "Records to Die For." Fiol's version of the classic Cheo Marquetti tune, "Oriente," brings me straight to tears.
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El Secreto
The second of Fiol's solo efforts on Roberto Torres' SAR label, closing with the powerful classic, "Tiene Sabor."
La Ley de la Jungla
Fiol's final work for the SAR label offers a lighter sound.
Guaperia
Recorded in Union City, NJ, <i>Guaperia</i> features knockout tres guitar by Cesar Rivera.
De Cachete
Fiol's latest offering is available as a <a href="http://www.henryfiol.com/eng/download.html">free download</a>.
Henry Fiol's Complete Discography
<i>Siempre Ser Guajiro</i>, Saoco (1976; Mericana XMX144)<br>
Hafler Iris preamplifier
When <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11661">David Hafler</A> sold his Hafler and Acoustat companies to in-car audio manufacturer Rockford-Fosgate a year or so back, things went quiet for a while as the new owners made arrangements to transfer production of both brands to their Arizona facility and took stock of where their new acquisitions stood in the marketplace. Then, at the 1989 CES in Las Vegas, the company made a reasonably sized splash with the first in a new range of Hafler products intended to lift the brand out of the hobbyist-oriented identity it had, perhaps inadvertently, adopted in the last few years.
Hi! Let's hug.
<i>Where are my LPs? I need a hug.</i><br>
<b>—George Reisch, <i>Stereophile</i>, September 1997</b>
The Specter Haunting Pop Music
Sasha Frere-Jones has a fascinating <A HREF="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2008/06/09/080609crmu_mus…; in the June 9 <I>The New Yorker</I> about Antares's Auto-Tune software. In case you aren't familiar with it, Auto-Tune is pitch correction software that is used almost universally in contemporary pop recordings—sometimes just to "fix" an off note, increasingly frequently as an effect in its own right.
The Dispensable Criteria
My copy of Peter, Paul, & Mary's <i>Album 1700</i>, which I had bought many years ago for its Bonnie and Clyde album art, wasn't nearly as dusty as <i>Santana</i>. When I inspected it beneath a lamp, however, I noticed that it was covered by a sort of dull, gray film. The vinyl wasn't black. It was sickly. Indeed, this was one of my many albums that had suffered through the dark, dirty waters of a basement flood. Maybe two or three floods. Maybe four.