10cc: ‘It was a tragedy we didn’t stay together’

They made some of the cleverest and most inventive music of the 70s, but split up at the height of their success. 10cc come together for the first time in 36 years to explain where it went wrong – writes Paul Lester. Forget the Stone Roses’ comeback and the mooted (and denied) Smiths reunion: another […]

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TALKING HEADS: Live Chicago 1978 (CD)

Great early years concert by New York’s Talking Heads, recorded at Park West, Chicago in 1978, just three years after their 1975 formation – a must for any fan! Tracks include ‘The Big Country’, ‘Stay Hungry’, ‘Artists Only’, ‘New Feeling’, ‘Don’t Worry About the Government’ & – of course – their first charting single ‘Psycho […]

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Jumping man

CONTENTMENT: Mental Tricks to stop overthinking about your system #3

TO READ THE BACK STORY: Please click https://www.hifianswers.com/2021/11/mental-tricks-to-stop-overthinking-about-your-system-1-of-11/ —//— SKILL #3 EMBRACING UNCERTAINTY When we don’t know something, we tend to fill in the blanks, often with garbage assumptions. Why? Many of us would rather be unhappy than uncertain and this is certainty true in our hobby! Garbage assumptions can take many forms, all infusing […]

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Whistle Down The Wind (CD) by Joan Baez

  Legendary singer, songwriter, activist and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joan Baez’ brand new album Whistle Down The Wind . Produced by three time Grammy Award winner Joe Henry and recorded over ten days of sessions in Los Angeles, Whistle Down The Wind gathers material by some of Baez’s favourite composers. Whistle […]

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TREES: A British folk rock band recording and touring throughout 1969, 1970 and 1971, reforming briefly to ….

Trees was a British folk rock band recording and touring throughout 1969, 1970 and 1971, reforming briefly to continue performing throughout 1972. Although the group met with little commercial success in their time, the reputation of the band has grown over the years, and underwent a renaissance in 2007 following Gnarls Barkley’s sampling of the […]

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Five things I discovered by avoiding music

By Trevor Cox Professor of Acoustic Engineering, University of Salford: In preparation for a BBC Radio 4 documentary, Giving up music for Lent, to be broadcast on Monday, I have been trying to avoid all music. This fast is not being done for religious reasons, instead it is about getting an insight into how the […]

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Jumping man

CONTENTMENT: Mental Tricks to stop overthinking about your system #2

TO READ THE BACK STORY: Please click https://www.hifianswers.com/2021/11/mental-tricks-to-stop-overthinking-about-your-system-1-of-11/ —//— SKILL #2 Recognise, acknowledge and embrace the fact that that overthinking and problem solving aren’t the same thing. Constantly ruminating and going over scenarios and possibilities before, during and after purchasing a piece of audio equipment – however costly – however highly regarded by marketeers (to […]

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PS AUDIO: What’s wrong with the status quo?

Paul McGowan writes: A recvent post suggested the perceived shift away from high-end audio was not what it appears.  That, in fact, it is a shift away from spending family resources on isolating the audio system – not the lack of desire for high-performance. We now have entire generations of music lovers who want music […]

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Tom Rush, Vivaldi, Bart & The Bedazzled

CDs and LPs; sometimes DVDs too. As editor I get advanced notification of music releases and so I’m sharing it. Primarily Blues, Jazz, Classic and Rock. I make no value judgements here i.e I am merely …. the conduit. Updated pretty much 24/7 HERE Thanks HP

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JACK WHITE: The romance of vinyl

From our archives Jack White has embarked on his first tour as a solo artist after having spent much of his career as member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. In Nashville, his adopted hometown, the musician has set up shop with his record label Third Man Records. There he not […]

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BARTÓK Violin Concerto No 2 LIGETI Violin Concerto

Gramophone write: Patricia Kopatchinskaja performs these three concertos by composers born in Hungary with her trademark panache and the recorded balance gives her all due prominence. The importance of the orchestral contribution can’t be denied, however, and there’s an impressive sense of common purpose and collaborative zeal throughout. Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto has long since […]

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Bohlender Graebener / Before Infinity Speaker founder Arnie Nudell’s unfortunate passing, he and I were …..

Paul McGowan: Before Infinity Speaker founder Arnie Nudell’s unfortunate passing, he and I were working on a new concept in loudspeakers, one based on the idea that it just might be possible to get closer to live orchestral sound levels than we have in the past. A full orchestra can hit peak levels as high […]

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