Until recently, I have considered LaserVision video discs as a rather dubious medium for serious music reproduction. The only review I had read about it by a critical listener (Harry Pearson in <I>The Absolute Sound</I>) was I singularly unenthusiastic, and since I had not heard one myself, I was inclined to take his word for it.

Until recently, I have considered LaserVision video discs as a rather dubious medium for serious music reproduction. The only review I had read about it by a critical listener (Harry Pearson in <I>The Absolute Sound</I>) was I singularly unenthusiastic, and since I had not heard one myself, I was inclined to take his word for it.

Toward the end of 2009, I read a lot about Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, an 18-piece big band, and its debut CD, <I>Infernal Machines</I>, which was showing up on several best-of-the-year lists. But I never received a copy of the album and couldn’t figure out how to contact the label, New Amsterdam. Finally, I <I>bought</I> a copy from Downtown Music, a terrific alt-jazz record store in Manhattan, and, it turns out, the excitement is justified.