This article is an account of an LP record listening session at the Melbourne Audio Club in 2020.
I’m not really interested in the expensive audio devices, but I’m very interested in the comments about how recordings were and are made, criticising the shift to close-mic’d over-processed ‘hi-fi’ sound. The extensive highly informative comments begin at tracks 13/14, and reference Neil Young, Keith Richards, and Sam Cooke talking about how they recorded.
The Temples of Sound book about 15 of the great recording studios is an exciting find for me. Written by Jim Cogan and William Clark, it explores the history of legendary recording studios in the United States, taking readers on a journey through the most influential studios in American popular music, from the late 1940s to the late 1970s.
The selection of tracks listened to that evening is also very interesting, and I was directed to a couple of new-to-me artists and albums.
88 Basie St, Pablo 2310-901
Gounod, Funeral March of a Marionette, RCA Victor LSC-2449
The Cruel Sea, High Plains Drifter, Indigo 0625-1
Rickie Lee Jones, Easy Money, WEA Musik WB 56628
Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, The Thrill is Gone, MFSL 2-430
Keb Mo, Every Morning, MFSL 1-357
Debussy Iberia, RCA Victor LSC-2222
Balalika Favourites, Fantasy on Two Folk Songs, Mercury SR90310
Jennifer Warnes, The Hunter, Somewhere Somebody, Private Music 211974
Nina Simone, Little Girl Blue, Not Now Music NOT2LP156
Ray Charles and Betty Carter, Baby Its Cold Outside, DCC LPZ-2005
Yello Baby, Rubberbandman, Mercury LC0268
Michael Hedges, Aerial Boundaries, Wyndham Hill WH-1032
Grace Jones, Love is the Drug, Island Records 90064-1
Belafonte Sings the Blues, Losing Hand, RCA Victor LSP-1972
Dire Straits, Love Over Gold, Private Investigations, Phonogram 6359-109
http://melbourneaudioclub.org.au/gm2020.htm#feb20
Music & Hi-fi Appreciations 