What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XIII)
Posted by: Richard Dane on 01 January 2017
2017 has arrived today, so time to start this thread afresh.
Last year's thread can be found here;
NFG posted:Some fine guitar work here & nice recording
Why? bought on a recomendation in this forum & just wanted to say thank you again who ever posted.
I don't think it was me on this occasion, but I'd recommend this anytime. It's a brilliant album - great music, great musicians, great recording.
Prety low as a resolution. Otherwise good selection of smooth jazz tunes especially for background music.
UK 1980s vinyl. A nice mellow end to the musical evening:
Glastonbury ............ Royal Blood pounding it out at the mo'............. erm, LOUD, obviously. 
A perennial favourite. One of DMB's more adventurous releases including the great Bela Fleck on banjo and vocals by Alanis Morissette.
Not so fast, I cannot keep up with your postings during garden work and other stuff 
A really enjoyable thread.
Espen Berg- I know him well actually, but don`t let that stop you from listening. On his way up towards the stars such as Tord Gustavson.
Here`s an example
Clive B posted:NFG posted:Some fine guitar work here & nice recording
Why? bought on a recomendation in this forum & just wanted to say thank you again who ever posted.
I don't think it was me on this occasion, but I'd recommend this anytime. It's a brilliant album - great music, great musicians, great recording.
As NigelB noted t'other day. This thread is a really useful resource for finding new, great music that you don't already know and the more 'votes' come in for an album the stronger becomes the compulsion for others to check it out. Your positive comment adds to that force for this album. It's well worthwhile in this case for sure.
The Kandace Springs album (NigelB amongst many backers) is an example for me. I put that in my Spotify favourites a month or so ago on the strength of several enthusiastic votes here. I liked the opening track immediately, but the rest I could initially take or leave. Going back to it a few times has definitely made the rest of it stick and my CD copy is due to arrive tomorrow. I thank you all!
btw, if you like great acoustic guitar, albeit a solo, less combustible style I'd recommend this very strongly
I swear, if I could only have 100 songs in my collection, Tears of a Clown would be one of them.
Gotta love a pop tune with a faggoto in it...as far as I know it might be the only one!
Good video of Smokey telling the story of the track here:
And a GREAT version of it off Live from Daryl's - band really cooks:
Features the late Hall & Oates (excellent) bassist Tom "T-Bone" Wolk on acoustic guitar.
Bert Schurink posted:bunter posted:
Radiohead OK Computer remaster. Not done a comparison with the CD in terms of the mix but I can confirm that the rerelease sounds less harshly compressed than the original CD. In fact the hi res download sounds really good to me.
The 24/96 download is significantly cheaper from Qobuz than it is from Radiohead's own website or HDtracks if you ar ethinking of picking it up.
I always buy these type of albums from Qobuz. With my sublime thing it's always significantly cheaper...
Saw this review...
Music/response: Radiohead OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997-2017
by John H. DarkoJohn H. Darko
about 15 hours ago
Arriving at a music store near you today, once again, is Radiohead’s decade- and career-defining OK Computer. Retitled for its 20th anniversary, OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997-2017 is loaded with extra material, all fully remastered.
OKNOTOK is available as a 3LP or 2CD edition, as well as a deluxe box set (shipping in July), with the extra disc containing eight album-era b-sides and three previously unreleased cuts.
For those wanting a soft format, a hi-res PCM 24bit/96kHz download of OKNOTOK is available from HDTracks (here). Price: US$19.98. Those with access to the Qobuz store can save a little coin and snag that very same hi-res PCM download for €11.99 (here) where, interestingly, it is also cheaper than Amazon.de’s €16.99 pricing for the 2CD (here).
The 3LP set is yours for US$35 from Amazon.com (here) or €28 over at Amazon.de (here). However, we might want to leave our “vinyl purity” arguments at the door as it’s highly likely that OKNOTOK was pressed using the 24bit/96kHz digital file.
As we know, it’s not the format that maketh the listening experience but the mastering job.
“Remastered from the original analogue tapes,” reads the blurb on the vinyl edition’s blue cover sticker — words that might cause even the average fan to hotfoot it to the checkout.
Hold up.
Those hoping that OKNOTOK might improve on the original CD’s dynamic range score of DR7 should prepare to feel (ahem) let down. According to the Dynamic Range database (here), the OKNOTOK remaster also clocks in at DR7.
Eagle-eyes will point to vinyl as one way of securing a better result. Both the 2008 and 2016 represses score the same as the original pressing: DR10.
I purchased the 3LP set and the hi-res download but my first listen to OKNOTOK came via Spotify; even there, with iPhone 6S Plus, AudioQuest DragonFly Black and Campfire Audio Andromeda IEMs, it’s easy to hear how this new version sounds more detailed and better separated. In other words, better.
Whatever.
The above commentary is loaded with audiophile masturbation. We almost never hear OK Computer at audio shows or at in-store demos. And despite being first released in 1997, it’d still look downright contemporary were it to feature amongst the traditional audiophile press’ vast oceans of jazz and classical coverage (TONEAudio excepted).
No – you buy OKNOTOK because it defies expectations to sound as good as it always did; because it’s a life-changing listening experience; because “Fitter Happier” fills you with dread; because “No Surprises” gives you goosebumps every time; because Stanley Donwood’s artwork seemed to transcend the format; because you cannot help but play air guitar to “Paranoid Android”‘s livelier sections; because “Palo Alto” is one heck of a b-side; because your mate reckons “Pearly” is even better; because you’ve been waiting twenty years to hear “Man of War” laid down beyond its bootleg form as “Big Ideas (Don’t Get Any)”.
In other words, you dig OKNOTOK because, like me, you’re a Music-First Audiophile™ – and you are resigned to the fact that whatever takes place in the recording/mastering studio will always be beyond your control.
Further information: OKNOTOK
Bach - Brandenburg Concertos
Bert Schurink posted:Bert Schurink posted:bunter posted:
Radiohead OK Computer remaster. Not done a comparison with the CD in terms of the mix but I can confirm that the rerelease sounds less harshly compressed than the original CD. In fact the hi res download sounds really good to me.
The 24/96 download is significantly cheaper from Qobuz than it is from Radiohead's own website or HDtracks if you ar ethinking of picking it up.
I always buy these type of albums from Qobuz. With my sublime thing it's always significantly cheaper...
Saw this review...
Music/response: Radiohead OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997-2017
by John H. DarkoJohn H. Darko
about 15 hours agoArriving at a music store near you today, once again, is Radiohead’s decade- and career-defining OK Computer. Retitled for its 20th anniversary, OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997-2017 is loaded with extra material, all fully remastered.
OKNOTOK is available as a 3LP or 2CD edition, as well as a deluxe box set (shipping in July), with the extra disc containing eight album-era b-sides and three previously unreleased cuts.
For those wanting a soft format, a hi-res PCM 24bit/96kHz download of OKNOTOK is available from HDTracks (here). Price: US$19.98. Those with access to the Qobuz store can save a little coin and snag that very same hi-res PCM download for €11.99 (here) where, interestingly, it is also cheaper than Amazon.de’s €16.99 pricing for the 2CD (here).
The 3LP set is yours for US$35 from Amazon.com (here) or €28 over at Amazon.de (here). However, we might want to leave our “vinyl purity” arguments at the door as it’s highly likely that OKNOTOK was pressed using the 24bit/96kHz digital file.
As we know, it’s not the format that maketh the listening experience but the mastering job.
“Remastered from the original analogue tapes,” reads the blurb on the vinyl edition’s blue cover sticker — words that might cause even the average fan to hotfoot it to the checkout.
Hold up.
Those hoping that OKNOTOK might improve on the original CD’s dynamic range score of DR7 should prepare to feel (ahem) let down. According to the Dynamic Range database (here), the OKNOTOK remaster also clocks in at DR7.
Eagle-eyes will point to vinyl as one way of securing a better result. Both the 2008 and 2016 represses score the same as the original pressing: DR10.
I purchased the 3LP set and the hi-res download but my first listen to OKNOTOK came via Spotify; even there, with iPhone 6S Plus, AudioQuest DragonFly Black and Campfire Audio Andromeda IEMs, it’s easy to hear how this new version sounds more detailed and better separated. In other words, better.
Whatever.
The above commentary is loaded with audiophile masturbation. We almost never hear OK Computer at audio shows or at in-store demos. And despite being first released in 1997, it’d still look downright contemporary were it to feature amongst the traditional audiophile press’ vast oceans of jazz and classical coverage (TONEAudio excepted).
No – you buy OKNOTOK because it defies expectations to sound as good as it always did; because it’s a life-changing listening experience; because “Fitter Happier” fills you with dread; because “No Surprises” gives you goosebumps every time; because Stanley Donwood’s artwork seemed to transcend the format; because you cannot help but play air guitar to “Paranoid Android”‘s livelier sections; because “Palo Alto” is one heck of a b-side; because your mate reckons “Pearly” is even better; because you’ve been waiting twenty years to hear “Man of War” laid down beyond its bootleg form as “Big Ideas (Don’t Get Any)”.
In other words, you dig OKNOTOK because, like me, you’re a Music-First Audiophile™ – and you are resigned to the fact that whatever takes place in the recording/mastering studio will always be beyond your control.
Further information: OKNOTOK
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the dynamic range was about the same as the CD release. My limited experience with mastering sound for video clearly shows that different compressors can sound very different and can be applied in a lot of different ways to achieve the same level of compression. Presumably digital DR compression technology has moved on a bit since 1997? The remaster does seem to me to be less fatiguing to listen to, which is great as I have always liked the music a lot but not enjoyed the sound so much.
Because I'm heading over to Manchester today...
This is a new one for me, it's very good indeed, if you like this sort of thing.
Just out. Very good indeed.
Spiritual jazz at a bargain £1 from Bandcamp.
David Russell - Plays Bach.
From allmusic.com
As David Russell demonstrates, Bach, who wrote no music for the guitar, sounds like a guitarist's composer. Not only does Bach's lute music translate well into the related but distinct sonic world of the guitar, but even transcriptions of music for other instruments -- including violin, cello, and keyboard -- sound quite authentic in the hands of a virtuoso guitarist. While the reason for this may be the abstract quality of Bach's music, it should be pointed out that it takes a special kind of guitarist to deliver an authentic, convincing performance of Bach. Russell is among those who know how to play Bach. Thoughtful, subtle, elegantly expressive, and stylistically accurate, Russell's playing ingeniously adapts the characteristic sonority of the guitar to the technical and interpretive demand of Bach's music. A fine example of Russell's ability to capture the complex and profound spirit of Bach's music is his authoritative performance of the astonishing chaconne from his own transcription of the Partita for solo violin in D minor. Russell's performance fully reveals the lyricism, passion, and spiritual depth of the chaconne. The Partita is an opulent work and Russell approaches each movement as a distinct stylistic challenge, intuitively responding to the spirit and atmosphere of each dance movement. Equally impressive is Russell's rendition of an arrangement of the Lute Suite No. 4, which is Bach's transcription of his luminous Partita for violin in E major. In fact, it is tempting to say that Russell's scintillating playing, particularly in the first movement, approximates the sonic brilliance of the original. This album includes the Prelude, Allegro & Fugue for lute played with exquisite taste, as well as chorales from two well-known cantatas: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme and Jesus bleibeit meine Freude, widely known as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.
Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark?
Following last night's mental set at Glasto, this just had to be done ............... brilliant!
Every year at Glastonbury, one act steals the entire weekend ............... could be favourites for this year, IMHO.
Jeroen20 posted:David Russell - Plays Bach.
From allmusic.com
As David Russell demonstrates, Bach, who wrote no music for the guitar, sounds like a guitarist's composer. Not only does Bach's lute music translate well into the related but distinct sonic world of the guitar, but even transcriptions of music for other instruments -- including violin, cello, and keyboard -- sound quite authentic in the hands of a virtuoso guitarist. While the reason for this may be the abstract quality of Bach's music, it should be pointed out that it takes a special kind of guitarist to deliver an authentic, convincing performance of Bach. Russell is among those who know how to play Bach. Thoughtful, subtle, elegantly expressive, and stylistically accurate, Russell's playing ingeniously adapts the characteristic sonority of the guitar to the technical and interpretive demand of Bach's music. A fine example of Russell's ability to capture the complex and profound spirit of Bach's music is his authoritative performance of the astonishing chaconne from his own transcription of the Partita for solo violin in D minor. Russell's performance fully reveals the lyricism, passion, and spiritual depth of the chaconne. The Partita is an opulent work and Russell approaches each movement as a distinct stylistic challenge, intuitively responding to the spirit and atmosphere of each dance movement. Equally impressive is Russell's rendition of an arrangement of the Lute Suite No. 4, which is Bach's transcription of his luminous Partita for violin in E major. In fact, it is tempting to say that Russell's scintillating playing, particularly in the first movement, approximates the sonic brilliance of the original. This album includes the Prelude, Allegro & Fugue for lute played with exquisite taste, as well as chorales from two well-known cantatas: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme and Jesus bleibeit meine Freude, widely known as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.
This album has become a firm favourite at Castle Vlad - David Russell is a fantastic musician. Very highly recommended for classical guitar enthusiasts.