Whats on your turntable tonight?

Nothing, the power has been off for two days. Withdrawl symptoms getting close to DT level.

WOW! Dexter Gordon's "Dexter Calling" 45 rpm reissue from the Blue Note reissue series by Hoffman and Gray produced by Analogue Productions and Music Matters. This piece of vinyl is simply phenomenol! Blue Note 4083-45.

Did you see that the first two records in the Music Matters series are now sold out? The mail order retailers who still have a few copies have already increased their prices. When these are gone, they will never be seen again.
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Haydn, Cello Concertos, Orchestra da Camera Roma Classica with Rocci Filippini, cello - Fone 008-45 "Club of 496"

I've been listening to several of these limited issue Fone recordings on vinyl and I continue to be impressed by them, particularly the 45 rpm issues. The recordings are all analog, minimally miked (with tube microphones), no electronic manipulation, and capture the instruments very accurately and naturally. The pressings themselves are one-step masterings, meaning that the lacquer is used to create the stamper directly, destroying the lacquer in the process, so only a limited number of LPs can be pressed from each lacquer. What this typically allows is even greater transparency to the finished LP because two intervening mold/plating steps (father and mother) have been eliminated. For the Club of 496 series, Fone presses only 496 records from each stamper. To make more LPs, a new mastering and new lacquer is required (which may or may not happen).

This particular LP has a lot of high frequency energy which sounds like it comes from the acoustically very live, and resonant, recording venue. Once attuned to that balance, the instrumental timbre sounds spot on to these ears, with a marvelously resolved cello that is very forward in the soundstage, but not unpleasantly so. The performances are top drawer, with excellent work by cellist Filippini.

After listening to these Fone LPs and the various Music Matters 45 rpm Blue Note reissues, my wife observed that they made many of our other LPs sound "cotton-y" - her expression for a bit of veiling over the sound. And that is very true: these LPs sound very transparent and alive. Quite a joy to hear.
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Anton Webern Boulez box set volume 4

Brahms, Piano Concerto No 2, Reiner/CSO/Gilels, RCA LSC 2219 (Cisco reissue - disappointing sonics, not my ideal performance)

Neil Young, Greatest Hits, Reprise 48935 (Classic Records reissue - worth the price of admission)

Thunderbolt Pagoda, st, Mutant Music MMLP025 (Worthy LP. See the post by Atmasphere)
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