OPTONICA: SM-4646. Possibly, just possibly a great sounding ‘also ran’

Launched by Sharp in 1975, Optonica was to Sharp’s high-end audio display, much like Technics was to Panasonic. Becoming really visible in ’76/77, Optonica however came up just a bit too late to get a firm grasp on a market that was about to slide down after 1978…   If Optonica is well remembered for […]

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CAMBRIDGE AUDIO / DacMagic 200M : News

DAVID PRICE: Cambridge Audio’s new DacMagic 200 is a textbook example of how to do an affordable modern digital-to-analogue converter. Sonically it’s refined and expansive, with plenty of detail and an enjoyably musical nature. Technically it’s highly accomplished with fine functionality and decent connectivity. Overall then, it’s been carefully designed for the widest possible appeal […]

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WEBERN: Appreciating Anton Webern

A disciple of Schoenberg, Webern’s music has exercised a tremendous influence on contemporary composers, especially Boulez and Stockhausen. The son of an aristocratic mining engineer (Webern dropped the nobiliary ‘von’ when Austria became a republic after the First World War), it was while he was a student at the University of Vienna that he was […]

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JAN GARBAREK: Dansere (3CD)

A welcome return to the ECM catalogue – in a specially priced 3-CD box set in the label’s Old & New Masters Edition series – for three of the most striking of the early recordings which Jan Garbarek made for the label in the 1970s. In different but related ways Sart (1971), Witchi-Tai-To (1973) and […]

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TONY MICELI: Interview

Victor L. Schermer writes:  Tony Miceli is a long-time master vibraphonist who, until a few short years ago, was relatively unknown outside of the Philadelphia area, when he started getting requests to perform and teach all over the world. Now, he is in demand in Ireland, South Korea, Argentina, and Australia, not to mention New […]

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RAMONES: The Broadcast Collection ‘77 – ‘95 (9CD Clamshell Box with 24 Page Full Colour Booklet)

We are told: 9CD Clamshell Box with 24 Page Full Colour Booklet The entire original WNEW, KSAN, WBUF, Triple J, WLIR, El Dorado 100.3 & Rock ‘N; Pop 106.3 Radio Broadcasts Covering live performances from New York, San Francisco, Sydney, Montevideo & Buenos Aires. Professionally re-mastered with background liners and rare archival photos. 9 CDs […]

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Quill

KAYLA TAYLOR: In Conversation

SUSAN FRANCES: Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Kayla Taylor is a southern gal who, when it comes to torch songs and jazz standards, can sing with the best and surpass them.  Her new CD ‘You’d Be Surprised’ is the follow up to her 2005 release ‘A Night at Pacific & Vine’ and features a sophisticated array […]

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Henry Mccullough – Live At Rockpalast (CD+DVD)

This is the first and only solo Rockpalast appearance by the Irish singer-guitarist and legendary Grease Bandmember who backed Joe Cocker at Woodstock in 1969 and Paul McCartney (as an original member of Wings) inthe Seventies.He has also played with Sweeney’s Men, Spooky Tooth and Eire Apparent, and contributed spoken word to PinkFloyd’s ‘Dark Side […]

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StereOpus magazine – what happened?

Gentlemen. Do any of you remember this 1970s US-based magazine? Any idea what happened to it? Thanks. Audiophile print magazine published and edited by Thomas J. Norton & based in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, USA. Started out in 1975 and was advertised as a quarterly magazine, it primarily featured reviews of high end equipment with […]

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BLUES-ROCK: The six most overlooked Blues-Rock guitarists?

Reverend Keith A. Gordon / ThoughtCo writes: Let be honest here, shall we? Blues-rock fretburners like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan typically receive all the love while other talented guitarists are too often forced to wait in line to gather up whatever crumbs of critical acclaim remain. These skilled musicians bring plenty […]

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