Paul Messenger
MASSIVE ATTACK: Blue Lines
Wild Bunch WBRCD1, Virgin 7 86228 2 (CD, also originally released on LP). 1991. Massive Attack, Jonny Dollar, prods., mix. ADD TT: 45:09 Today's dance-music genres seem to be becoming increasingly ephemeral, disposable, and self-referential, but Massive Attack's handful of albums provide a soundtrack to the 1990s that stand out as beacons of class and originality. Usually referred too as "trip-hop," MA's music has only a passing resemblance to hip-hop, rap, big beat, drum'n'bass, and other dance styles. Smooth, subtle, and fundamentally…
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Wes Phillips
IAN TYSON: Old Corrals and Sagebrush & Other Cowboy Culture Classics
Bear Family BCD 15437 (CD). 1989. Ian Tyson, prod.; Richard Harrow, eng. AAD. TT: 69:05 Ian Tyson has produced the classic cowboy record here. His renditions of "Leaving Cheyenne" and "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo" sound definitive, but the disc's true strength lies in Tyson's own songs about life as a working rancher in the West today (which he is), as well as some well-chosen covers on the same subject. The West Tyson sings of is defined by hard work and low wages, and his love of the land and of the lore…
IAN TYSON: Old Corrals and Sagebrush & Other Cowboy Culture Classics
Bear Family BCD 15437 (CD). 1989. Ian Tyson, prod.; Richard Harrow, eng. AAD. TT: 69:05 Ian Tyson has produced the classic cowboy record here. His renditions of "Leaving Cheyenne" and "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo" sound definitive, but the disc's true strength lies in Tyson's own songs about life as a working rancher in the West today (which he is), as well as some well-chosen covers on the same subject. The West Tyson sings of is defined by hard work and low wages, and his love of the land and of the lore…
Kalman Rubinson
MAHLER: Symphony 9
With Commentary Disc by Benjamin Zander
Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra
Telarc 3CD-80527 (CD). 1999. Robert Woods, David St. George, prods.; Adam Philip, eng. DDD. TT: 87:02 (Commentary disc: 76:42) While there's still a lot of time left, this magnificent recording is an appropriate millennial nominee for "R2D4." First, the Ninth is Mahler's final completed symphonic statement on fate and human existence, and, at the end of his century, there is not yet a more trenchant musical commentary. Second, this recording represents the first…
MAHLER: Symphony 9
With Commentary Disc by Benjamin Zander
Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra
Telarc 3CD-80527 (CD). 1999. Robert Woods, David St. George, prods.; Adam Philip, eng. DDD. TT: 87:02 (Commentary disc: 76:42) While there's still a lot of time left, this magnificent recording is an appropriate millennial nominee for "R2D4." First, the Ninth is Mahler's final completed symphonic statement on fate and human existence, and, at the end of his century, there is not yet a more trenchant musical commentary. Second, this recording represents the first…
"Art is the only political power," the artist Joseph Beuys once said. If only it were true. Often, when power is wielded against an entire people with enough brutality and efficiency, it reduces the culture to a sickening silence, leaving room only for state-sponsored propaganda. Think of the Soviet Union under Stalin, or Germany during the Third Reich. But in other, rarer cases, repression is met with an efflorescence of great art, like a charred field welling up in a riot of wildflowers. Consider what happened in Brazil.
In 1964, that country's armed forces overthrew the leftist…
Holst: The Planets
Cheetham Fraillon: Earth
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, soprano; Upper Voices of the MSO Chorus; Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Jaime Martín
Melbourne Symphony MSO0003 (CD). 2025. Ingo Petry, prod.; Alex Stinson, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Cheetham Fraillon: Earth
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, soprano; Upper Voices of the MSO Chorus; Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Jaime Martín
Melbourne Symphony MSO0003 (CD). 2025. Ingo Petry, prod.; Alex Stinson, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Years ago, Hyperion released a Planets that added Colin Matthews's "Pluto, " absent from Holst's suite. Since then, alas, Pluto was demoted. Now the Melbourne Symphony has issued its own Planets—distributed through a partnership with LSO Live—appending an "Earth" movement composed by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon…
Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens
Linda May Han Oh, bass; Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet; Tyshawn Sorey, drums
Biophilia. 2025. Linda May Han Oh, prod.; Aaron Nevezie, Todd Carder, David Darlington, engs.
Performance **** Sonics *****
Linda May Han Oh, bass; Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet; Tyshawn Sorey, drums
Biophilia. 2025. Linda May Han Oh, prod.; Aaron Nevezie, Todd Carder, David Darlington, engs.
Performance **** Sonics *****
It is no small accomplishment for a bassist to draw attention away from a trumpeter and a drummer, especially young luminaries like Ambrose Akinmusire and Tyshawn Sorey. But Linda May Han Oh is special. Her purposefulness imbues every note with magnitude, and her attack makes the instrument sound 10' tall, strung with tiger gut. Only a few bassists…
In 1976 Stereophile stablemate Hi-Fi News & Record Review released Quadrafile. Created by then deputy editor Mike Thorne, this limited edition, 2-LP set featured a selection of recordings encoded with the four rival Quadraphonic systems: SQ, QS, CD-4 and UD-4. For more information see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrafile and discogs.com/release/8335618-Various-Quadrafile-Four-Speakers-Four-Systems-Four-Sides.
As much as I love my stereo system and listening to music through two speakers, some recordings just can't be bound by the limits of stereophony. For instance, Carl Orff's epic…
Pulp: More
Rough Trade RT0541LP (2025). James Ford, prod.; Matt Colton, Animesh Ravel, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Rough Trade RT0541LP (2025). James Ford, prod.; Matt Colton, Animesh Ravel, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Too often, a once-loved band or musician resurfaces after a lengthy time away and releases an album that leans on nostalgia, trading on a wellspring of happy fan memory. Twenty-four years after their last album, Pulp has released More. It doesn't fit the pattern. Indeed, on hearing it, all I can say, is: Wow!
It's not that it's a massive departure from the Pulp of Different Class (1995). The songs are similar in that they are stories of standard…
Robin Trower photo by Blackham Images
Five decades later, even dedicated fans of former Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower have had to admit that they appreciate his solo albums for more than just his guitar gluttony. To be sure, For Earth Below's title track and his other blues-rock jams, obviously influenced by both the tone and approach of Jimi Hendrix, are foundational for today's stoner-rock subgenre. But while Trower wrote the tunes and is the headliner on all his solo albums, including a new 50th anniversary reissue of For Earth Below on Chrysalis Records, time has shown that the…
Although I have very much appreciated how the best floorstanding loudspeakers have performed in my various listening rooms over the decades, I have always been most comfortable with relatively small two-way standmounts. Back in the early 1980s, I got musically moving sound from a pair of Rogers LS3/5a's, which I still own, followed by Celestion SL6s, SL600s, and SL700s, and for the longest time a pair of Bowers & Wilkins John Bowers Silver Signatures. For the past decade, when not reviewing loudspeakers, I've been using either original KEF LS50s or GoldenEar BRXes as my daily drivers.…