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Ask Mr. H: ATC: Meridian, ATC and Harbeth SHL 5s

Hello Howard, I feel as though i know you although we have never met, having read your articles and comments for some time. Frankness and honesty is a quality i greatly admire. I’m a music and audio enthusiast of 40+ years. Won’t bore you with my hi fi history but in my sitting room is […]

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RACHEL FULLER: Music career

As an in-demand orchestrator, with her works recorded by the London Chamber Orchestra, Fuller met The Who’s Pete Townshend in 1996, becoming the arranger for his The Lifehouse Chronicles album and subsequent concerts at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre. With Townshend she co-wrote a song titled “It’s Not Enough” featured on The Who’s studio album Endless […]

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STRATHEARN: Their depressing story

Many will remember the British Leyland Motor Corporation, the nineteen seventies state owned purveyor of such automotive design masterpieces as the Morris Marina and Austin Allegro. A decade of industrial strife and dreadful quality ensured that BLMC’s dalliance with disaster was well publicised, but what many don’t know is that hi-fi had its very own […]

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BLUES: The 47 Best Blues Songs Of All Time

The great blues artists talked, the savviest rockers listened. Without the blues there’d be no rock’n’roll, but certain tracks were especially pivotal. Either they were famously covered, or the licks got borrowed, or they schooled the rockers in style and attitude. Many of the most influential blues songs reverberate to this day, and a few […]

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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Mark Bebbington on Vaughan Williams and the piano

The pianist Mark Bebbington continues his invaluable service to British music with a new album for Resonus that gathers together four rarities from Vaughan Williams’s output, ranging from the Piano Quintet of 1903 to the Fantasia on the ‘Old 104th’ Psalm Tune of 1949. Joined by members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for three of […]

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SPOTIFY: Normalization vs dynamic range compression

Have you ever wondered what the ‘Set the same volume level for all tracks’ option in Spotify is really doing?  No probably not, but I have. Googling didn’t help to find an answer to this question because some people say that it works by normalization and others say that it works by reducing the dynamic […]

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DAVID BOWIE: News

ALLMUSIC.COM The subtitle of Divine Symmetry is “The Journey to Hunky Dory” but it could’ve easily been “The Journey to David Bowie” as this 1971 album is where Bowie hit his stride. This four-disc set, accompanied by a lavish book, illustrates that this was no simple process. Coming off the crushing hard rock of The […]

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ORNETTE COLEMAN: News

ALLMUSIC.COM Ornette Coleman’s 1960s recordings for Blue Note are usually — and perhaps unjustly — de-emphasized when accounting for the enormity of his contribution to the evolution of jazz. The saxophonist recorded five albums under his own name: There are two volumes of At the “Golden Circle” Stockholm, The Empty Foxhole, Love Call, and New […]

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SPOTIFY: Pros and cons

If there’s one constant in the vast, ongoing, streaming music war, it’s this fact: Spotify is the big dog. Despite competition from the feature-rich Apple Music and the audiophile-friendly Tidal, Spotify remains the king of the hill due to its large catalog, collaborative playlists, podcasts, and numerous other attractive features. For these reasons and more, […]

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BRITTEN: Top 10 Sinfonia Recordings as chosen by Gramophone magazine

A diverse range of excellent recordings spanning a breadth of repertoire, reminding us just why the Britten Sinfonia is such a fine, not to mention versatile, ensemble, and sought after for the studio. Donizetti Il Paria Opera Rara / Britten Sinfonia / Sir Mark Elder cond (Opera Rara) ‘The music is splendid, well worth discovering…Shagimuratova […]

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PLAINSONG: News

ALLMUSIC.COM After leaving Fairport Convention in 1969, Iain Matthews strung together a journeyman’s career, touring and recording prolifically both as a solo artist and with his country-inflected folk-rock band Matthews Southern Comfort. Apart from a chart-topping cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” his efforts tended to be admired by critics but shunned by the mainstream. One […]

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TOM PETTY and THE HEARTBREAKERS: News

ALLMUSIC.COM Early in 1997, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers set up shop at the Fillmore in San Francisco, playing 20 consecutive concerts during a residency that amounted to their only live shows of the year. Being anchored in one spot paradoxically gave them the freedom to move, to not constrain themselves to their standard repertoire. […]

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HERMAN’S HERMITS: Why were they overshadowed by The Beatles in terms of popularity, despite having comparable levels of talent?

TOM RYUGO: Herman’s Hermits weren’t remotely close to the Beatles in terms of talent. Peter Noone himself said in an interview for “The History of Rock & Roll” miniseries “I couldn’t write songs like John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I’d look silly in the Gene Vincent look. So we just wrote good romantic music.” There […]

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