<B>Anouar Brahem: <I>The Astounding Eyes of Rita</I></B><BR>
Anouar Brahem, oud; Klaus Gesing, bass clarinet; Björn Meyer, bass; Khaled Yassine, darbouka, bendir<BR>
ECM 2075 (CD). 2009. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Stefano Amerio, eng. DDD. TT: 53:31<BR>
Performance ****<BR>
Sonics *****
Distribution and format chaos may reign, but the music prevails. What is your pick for <I>new</I> album of 2009 (no reissues please)?
<i>Where did I hide that Replacements record, dammit?</i>
Oh yeah: <a href="http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/2009/12/09/this-christmas-just-g… having a holiday sale.
A few things:
The face was different, but the look was familiar. It should have been. The $2395 Aria Mk.III is a close cousin to the Aria II that I'd hung around with for about two years. Same sense of style, same heart of tubes. CAL Audio apparently made it what it is today, from the ground up. They even designed its transport and transport-drive circuitry in-house (footnote 1). In a high-end world which has gone increasingly to separate digital processors, CAL has been, up till now, a conspicuous holdout. They've only recently introduced their first outboard converter, and have in the past argued in favor of the all-in-one player. Something about reduced jitter from all the timing circuits being under one roof.
<I>Stereophile</I> has released its 2009 "Products of the Year" (<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/features/istereophileis_products_of_2009/">a… to the website last week</A>). The reviewers and editors have made their choices, so what is yours?
I wonder if <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/not_not_fun/">Karen</a>, over at <a href="http://www.othermusic.com/index.cgi">Other Music</a>, has gotten around to listening to Sex Worker’s <i><a href="http://www.notnotfun.com/now.html">The Labor of Love</a></i>. I’d like to tell her about it. I probably wouldn’t tell her like this:
Have you read <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_way_we_listen_now/">that<…;, yet? Okay, now read this: “<a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/116282-reconsidering-the-revival-o… the Revival of Cassette Tape Culture</a>,” by PopMatters’ Calum Marsh.