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Reviews of Attainable Hi-Fi & Home-Theater Equipment

Most Popular Featured Releases

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 15 April 2013

The Next Day Columbia/ISO 8876546192 2
Format: CD

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In 2004, after suffering a heart attack while on tour, David Bowie made rare guest appearances onstage with other musicians, such as Arcade Fire, and helped out on a handful of recordings. For the most part, though, he laid low long enough that most of his fans assumed he’d retired. He’d earned it. After more than 30 years of image changes and musical experimentation, the most radical thing David Bowie could do was refuse to drag himself out for a nostalgia tour.

Read more: David Bowie: "The Next Day"

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 April 2013

Move Telarc International TEL-33814-02
Format: CD

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Move is Hiromi’s second disc with bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Simon Phillips, aka the Trio Project. Even with Hiromi’s acoustic piano dominating, Voice (2011), her first CD with this group, had more pronounced rock elements than her other jazz-trio recordings. Move continues that trend, and manages to balance even more deftly the muscle of rock music with the complexity of jazz improvisation.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 15 March 2013

Atoms for Peac XL Records XLCD583
Format: CD

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It’s uncommon to hear new music that stands out from the proverbial pack. Almost everything is derivative in some way or another, and for good reason. Different can mean provocative, but it almost always guarantees commercial failure. Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring provides perhaps the most illuminating example of this. During its very first performance, in Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the audience rioted in response to the avant-garde, thoroughly dissonant composition. Critics were equally unconvinced, one going so far as to label the forward-thinking piece “a laborious and puerile barbarity.” Tough crowd. Stravinsky, of course, would go on to achieve worldwide acclaim. Like so many mavericks, his unique compositions fell on conditioned ears and immutable minds that were unable to appreciate what he had to offer.

Read more: Yo La Tengo: "Fade"

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 February 2013

Piazzolla! Jazz Village/Harmonia Mundi JV 570007
Format: CD

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Argentine composer and bandoneón master Ástor Piazzolla introduced jazz and classical influences into the traditional tango and gained international fame, as well as the respect of other musicians. His appeal and ambitions crossed genres, and as a result he wrote for symphony orchestras as well as smaller groups. His music has been interpreted by musicians as disparate as Yo-Yo Ma and Gerry Mulligan, not to mention scores of Latin-American artists, and his extensive discography includes over 70 recordings and nearly 40 film soundtracks. Piazzolla claimed that Tango: Zero Hour, his 1986 recording with his Quinteto Tango Nuevo, was one of his best, and he was right. It’s probably his most popular disc in the US, and is as close to essential as music gets.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 15 January 2013

Lifehouse Almeria Geffen B 001778502
Format: CD

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Lifehouse’s breakout album, No Name Face, was released in 2000, when I was in 10th grade. I loved it. Their hit “Hanging By a Moment” was only the third song in history to have been named “No.1 Song of the Year” on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, despite never having actually reached No.1 in the magazine’s charts. I have no recollection of Lifehouse after No Name Face, primarily because I never bought any of their subsequent four albums. But with the release of Almería, I endeavored to reassociate myself with this Los Angeles-based rock band to see how they’d fared in the 12 years since.

Read more: Lifehouse: "Almería"

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 January 2013

Dulce et Decorum Est Michael J. Media
Format: CD

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Five Minneapolis musicians comprise the band War Poets, but Rex Haberman, a longtime songwriter with three discs to his credit, is at the center of the band’s debut album. Haberman wrote or cowrote all 17 songs on Dulce et Decorum Est. Even a casual listen, however, reveals how important collaboration was to this two-disc set. Matt Kirkwold and Jenny Case helped with some of the songwriting, and played, respectively, guitar and bass. Coproducers Kevin Bowe and Stephen McKnight also share a couple of bylines with Haberman, and play guitar.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 15 December 2012

Luka Bloom Compass CPS4586
Format: CD

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Luka Bloom was born Kevin Barry Moore in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, in 1955, and took his stage name after moving to the US in 1987. "Luka" was supposedly chosen for Suzanne Vega’s song of that title, while "Bloom" stems from the main character of James Joyce’s magnum opus, Ulysses. The folksy singer-songwriter has but a hint of his native accent in This New Morning, and it is an easy record in which to become immersed.

Details: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Featured Releases; Created: 01 December 2012

Live in Hollywood Concord Picante CPI-341110ADV
Format: CD

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Bandleader and conguero Poncho Sanchez signed with Concord Picante in 1982, after his boss at the time, vibraphonist Cal Tjader, recommended Sanchez to the label’s president. He has remained with Concord for 30 years, and Live in Hollywood is his 26th release for them. Sanchez had several chances to jump ship, but he’s stayed put, and this recording is his gift to Concord, his testament to his loyalty and theirs. Sanchez and his eight-piece band performed the music on this disc at the Hollywood & Highland Summer Concert Series, in July of this year, in front of an enthusiastic crowd.