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New Music: Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Sleep Dealer”

Photo: Replica.

Yes! The first track from Oneohtrix Point Never’s upcoming Mexican Summer release, Replica, is now available for our listening pleasure. Simultaneously playful and sensual, the track is called “Sleep Dealer” and showcases Daniel Lopatin’s knack for combining electronic and human sounds in distinct and curious fashion. I love it! If “Sleep Dealer” is any indication of what Replica has to offer&#151and I believe it is&#151we are in for a treat.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Sleep Dealer by Mexican Summer

Remember what the press release said:…

Kuzma 4Point tonearm

No one has ever accused Franc Kuzma of designing glamorous audio jewelry. His turntables and tonearms are industrial-strength examples of engineering know-how and machining excellence. But to those who appreciate such things, his products are truly beautiful, even if they're not adorned with chrome, wood, and sleekly polished surfaces. And if looking at the 4Point tonearm ($6500) in pebbly Darth Vader black doesn't get your analog juices flowing, perhaps its innovative design will. But first, this message:

Whatever the design of a tonearm, there will be practical problems. The problem…

Kuzma 4Point tonearm Page 2

Imagine a unipivot bearing: a polished point sitting in a cup. In VPI's JMW Memorial tonearm, the cup is in the arm's pivot housing; the point is part of the arm base. In Graham Engineering's Phantom arm, these positions are inverted. Kuzma's ingenious design for the 4Point features a shelved horizontal bearing sleeve (a vertical post) that rotates in a unipivot-like cup, and a polished point that permits lateral movement of the arm. The arm doesn't tip over, though: enclosed in and attached to the bearing sleeve is a second point, at 90° to the first, that contacts a polished surface on an…

Kuzma 4Point tonearm Page 3

I also realized how fortuitous it was for Dr. Christian Feickert that I used the 4Point with his Blackbird turntable, reviewed in this month's "Analog Corner." No wonder, when I told Feickert that I planned to pair the products for that review, that his reaction was something like "Oh boy!"

Rather than remove the Ortofon A90 cartridge from the Cobra, I decided to return the Lyra Titan i to service after a lengthy break. I had high expectations, because I know the Lyra's sound so well.

Those expectations were exceeded. The 4Point had an immediacy, a transparency, and an…

Kuzma 4Point tonearm Follow-Up

Follow-Up from October 2011 (Vol.34 No.10):

I reviewed Kuzma's 4Point tonearm in September (p.99) and concluded "while I'm hesitant to call anything 'the best'. . . I can definitely say that the Kuzma 4Point produced the best performance from the Lyra Titan i that I've ever heard from it in my system: the best tracking, the best tonal balance, the best imaging, the best (and most remarkable) cleanness of vocal sibilants." However, when I compared the $6500 Kuzma with my long-term reference tonearm, the Continuum Audio Labs Cobra ($16,995), the latter was fitted with the Ortofon A90…

Kuzma 4Point tonearm Associated Equipment

Sidebar 1: Associated Equipment

Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, Cobra, & Castellon turntable, tonearm, & stand; Graham Engineering Phantom II tonearm; Ortofon A90, Lyra Titan i, Miyajima Labs Kansui cartridges.
Digital Sources: Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player–DAC, BPT-modified Alesis Masterlink hard-disk recorder, Sooloos music server, Pure Music software.
Preamplification: darTZeel NHB-18NS, Ypsilon PST-100 preamplifiers; Ypsilon VPS-100 phono preamplifier.
Power Amplifier: Soulution 710.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties MAXX 3.
…

Kuzma 4Point tonearm Specifications

Sidebar 2: Specifications

Description: Pivoted tonearm with four-point bearing system.
Dimensions: Effective length: 11" (280mm). Pivot to spindle: 10.3" (264mm). Overhang: 0.6" (16mm). Total weight: 3.63 lbs (1.65kg). Effective mass: 0.4oz (13gm).
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: 091.
Price: $6500. Approximate number of dealers: 10.
Manufacturer: Kuzma Ltd., Hotemaze 17/a, SI-4205 Preddvor, Slovenia. Tel: (386) 4-253-54-50. Fax: (386) 4-253-54-54. Web: www.kuzma.si. US distributor: Elite AV Distribution, 1027 N. Orange Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038. Tel: (323) 466-9694,…

New Music: Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Sleep Dealer”

Photo: Replica.

I love it! If “Sleep Dealer” is any indication of what Replica has to offer&#151and I think it is&#151we are in for a treat.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Sleep Dealer by Mexican Summer

Remember what the press release…

Wardell Quezergue

They’re invisible. The person you never see onstage. The essential unseen force that even hardcore music fans have never heard of. In all music, arrangers are the secret weapon who never get the credit they deserve; the difference between material that works and promising ideas that never quite make it. The really good ones have the otherworldly skill of being able to hear music arranged at different tempos, in different keys, with different instrumentation in the heads. Somehow they instinctively know what a certain piece of music would sound like with strings, or horns or background vocals…

New Music: Comet Gain’s “Clang of the Concrete Swans”

I’ve been enjoying Comet Gain’s upcoming album, Howl of the Lonely Crowd, 13 songs and 42 minutes of intelligent, heartfelt, poetic rock and soul&#151timeless, honest, and inspiring.

The album’s opening track, “Clang of the Concrete Swans,” is like something from Springsteen’s Born to Run, as it urges:

Find the forever in what you’re thinking
Find the forever in who you’re kissing
Escape, escape, escape into your dream
Escape, escape, escape right out of here

Howl of the Lonely Crowd will be available on October 4th from What’s Your…