Our take on the latest music releases, from classic reissues to new artists.
REVIEWED BY Geoff Stanfield
When I saw the list of artists' albums and songs that LA based multi-instrumentalist/producer and songwriter Nate Mercereau has contributed to I had to take his new release for a spin. He has worked with Jay-Z, Rhye, Leon Bridges, Lizzo and Shawn Mendes to name a few.
His new release, Joy...
REVIEWED BY Geoff Stanfield
You are floating in space. In fact, you may already be dead. The view is incredible. Heavenly. You can see all the way back to the beginning of time. Beautiful light from distant galaxies and stars that died millions of years ago. But what’s that? A leak in your suit, temperature regulation is...
REVIEWED BY John Baccigaluppi
This is an album of beautifully composed, arranged and recorded chamber music mixing elements of electronic music with traditional orchestral instruments and arrangements but it's also a love letter to a studio. That studio is the Saal 3 'chamber music' complex at Funkhaus in East...
REVIEWED BY Tom Fine
Recorded at the Carmel, California, Sunset Center with a single Altec mic onto an Ampex 600 full-track tape deck on September 16, 1955, this concert became one of the best sellers in the Columbia jazz catalog. The recording was not ordered or planned by the record company. Sound contractor Jim...
REVIEWED BY Larry Crane
This four-CD box set includes 42 live performances by the legendary Velvets at the San Francisco club, The Matrix, in late 1969. Some of the material was on 1974's venerable 1969: The Velvet Underground Live; though these are new mixes. And while several "performances" overlap with...
REVIEWED BY Larry Crane
Dave Pearce's first album in 15 years consists of processed electric guitar performances recorded at home, live to tape and CD-R. Textures abound, sometimes jarring or noisy, but more often sedate and beautiful. It's a trippy listen, and I wanted to know more about how he recorded this...
REVIEWED BY Larry Crane
Unlike the late Grant McLennan, his former partner in the Go-Betweens, Robert Forster [Tape Op #14], has never been the most prolific of songwriters. But for us dedicated fans of his unique work, even a seven year wait between albums is worth it when the songs are as strong as this, his sixth solo...
REVIEWED BY Larry Crane
From the viewpoint of mid-2015, there seems to be nothing at all special about a songwriter and some musicians traipsing down into a rented basement and recording run-throughs of new material and some cover songs. But if it was 48 years ago, the place was Woodstock, NY, in a house nicknamed Big...
REVIEWED BY Larry Crane
Game Theory was one of Northern California's most exciting groups. Band leader and songwriter/guitarist Scott Miller may have been influenced by Elvis Costello and The Beatles, but his take on literate pop music is all his own. Even from the beginning the guitar, bass, lyrics, and...
After hearing an advance stream of Stop Time, I asked our contributor, Jon Regen, to recount how his new album came to be, and what it was like to work with producer Mitchell Froom [Tape Op # 10]. I think the direction that Mitchell took the album in was totally appropriate; it's great to hear...
REVIEWED BY Thomas Fine
The Boss's first seven Columbia albums are included in this eight CD box, newly remastered and packaged in miniature LP covers (also available as an LP or Mastered for iTunes). Mastering ace Bob Ludwig [see page 54] worked from original master media. For the masters that were on analog tape,...