LATEST ADDITIONS

Tim Jarman,  |  Jul 29, 2024
hfnvintageSmallest of a four-strong range of innovative MFB (Motional Feedback) loudspeakers, Philips’ AH585 was in production from 1972-82. How does it fare today?

The Philips Motional Feedback (MFB) loudspeaker has been mentioned a number of times in these pages over recent years. The company achieved considerable success with both its first- and second-generation models, including the 22RH544, but in the UK at least, the third generation is less commonly encountered. The AH585 seen here is the smallest of three consumer speakers, the others being the similar but larger AH586 and the three-way AH587.

Andrew Everard  |  Jul 28, 2024
This month we review and test releases from: Ralph Towner with Glen Moore, Skinny Lister, Jeff Babko, Tim Lefebvre, Mark Guiliana, Notilus, Hilary Gardner
Peter Quantrill  |  Jul 28, 2024
This month we review: Majeski, O’Neill, Dalayman, LSO/Rattle, Leonskaja, Lucerne SO/Sanderling, Magnificat/Philip Cave, BBC Concert Orch/Rebecca Miller
Steve Harris  |  Jul 28, 2024
This month we review: Charles Lloyd, John Etheridge, Liv Andrea, and Radhika de Saram
Mike Barnes  |  Jul 28, 2024
This month we review: The Bevis Frond, Ty Segall, Sheherazaad
Ken Kessler  |  Jul 28, 2024
This month we review: Steely Dan, Marshall Crenshaw, Garrett T. Willie, and The Who
Ken Kessler  |  Jul 28, 2024
This month we review: Miles Davis, Jethro Tull, Penny Arkade, Silverstein
Johnny Sharp  |  Jul 28, 2024
Topping the UK charts upon its 1981 release, the Sheffield band’s debut album melded string arrangements with disco and funk, plus some Trevor Horn production magic. The result? Ten peerless pop tunes that looked at love through a cinematic lens...

Like a lot of bright, shiny things, ABC and their defining debut album, The Lexicon Of Love, were created out of something a good deal less glamorous. The grim-up-north narrative that is wheeled out as a backdrop to so much provincial punk and post-punk can be overstated, but there’s no doubt that when Stephen Singleton and Mark White’s avant-garde electronic outfit Vice Versa morphed into ABC with help from former fanzine writer turned frontman Martin Fry, they wanted to offer an escapist vision of pop for trying, recessionary times. They also rejected old school approaches to music-making.

Steve Sutherland  |  Jul 28, 2024
This 1989 classic, now remastered on 180g vinyl, riffed on computer technology and James Joyce’s Ulysses on its way to No 2 in the charts. Steve Sutherland listens in.

It’s October 1989 and we’re chatting with Kate Bush on the occasion of the release of her sixth LP, The Sensual World. This is an album that not only sounds utterly sumptuous but, looking back on it now, appears to predict the spiritual and social upheaval we’re entering today with the growth of artificial intelligence.

Peter Quantrill  |  Jul 28, 2024
A simple Quaker hymn is the key to a classic mid-century ballet, says Peter Quantrill, as he surveys recordings of both the chamber original and the orchestral suite.

The Gift To Be Simple’, an old Shaker tune quoted and developed throughout Appalachian Spring, could be the motto for a major part of Copland’s work. Copland could write hard-edged pieces with the best of them, and did so especially at the beginning and end of his career with works such as the Vitebsk piano trio of 1928 and the magnificent orchestral Inscape (1967). By contrast, his famous scores of the 1930s and ’40s develop an aesthetic of simplicity and accessibility exemplified by Appalachian Spring, which he composed for the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham.

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