July 5, 2015

Playlist Week of 2015-07-04


* Buxtehude: Seven Sonatas, Op.1 (Holloway/ter Linden/Mortensen) (NAXOS CD)
* Stockhausen: Hymnen (WDR) (DG 2LP)
* Morton Subotnick: The Wild Bull (Nonesuch LP)
* Eric Siday: The Ultra Sonic Perception (Dual Planet LP)
* Eric Siday: Sounds of Now (Dual Planet LP)
* McCoy Tyner: Trident (Milestone LP)
* McCoy Tyner: Atlantis (Milestone 2LP)
* Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny: Beyond The Missouri Sky (Verve CD)
* Tony Williams Lifetime: Ego (Polydor LP)
* New Tony Williams Lifetime: Believe It (Columbia LP)
* Leroy Jenkins: Space Minds, New Worlds, Survival of America (Tomato LP)
* Cecil Taylor: Air (Candid CD)
* Dorothy Ashby: Afro-Harping (Cadet/Verve CD)
* Jay Richford & Gary Stevan: Feelings (Carsello/Golden Pavilion LP)
* John McLaughlin With The One Truth Band: Electric Dreams (Columbia LP)
* Collin Walcott: Cloud Dance (ECM LP)
* Denny Heines: Every Island (Silver Wave LP)
* Free Flight: Soaring (Palo Alto Jazz LP)
* Iasos: Inter-Dimensional Music Through Iasos (Unity LP)
* Kamasi Washington: The Epic (Blowfly 3CD)
* John Fahey & His Orchestra: After The Ball (Reprise LP)
* The Pentangle: Cruel Sister (Reprise LP)
* The Pentangle: Solomon’s Seal (Reprise LP)
* John Renbourn: Faro Annie (Reprise LP)
* Bert Jansch: Heartbreak (Hannibal LP)
* Shelby Lynne: I Am Shelby Lynne (Rounder CD)
* Shelby Lynne: I Can’t Imagine (Rounder CD)
* Tomorrow: Tomorrow (Parlophone LP)
* The Gods: Genesis (Parlophone LP)
* Rainbow Ffolly: Sallies Fforth (Parlophone LP)
* Tim Buckley: Blue Afternoon (Straight/Warner Bros. LP)
* Tim Buckley: Starsailor (Straight/Warner Bros. LP)
* Tim Buckley: Greetings From L.A. (Straight/Warner Bros. LP)
* Roy Harper: HQ (Harvest LP)
* Goblin: Goblin Rebirth (Relapse LP)
* Klaatu: Klaatu (Capitol LP)
* Japan: Tin Drum (Virgin LP)
* Japan: Exorcizing Ghosts (Virgin 2LP)
* X: 4th of July/Positively 4th Street (Elektra 7”)
* Die Kreuzen: Cows and Beer (Beer City 7”EP)
* Die Kreuzen: Gone Away/Different Ways (Touch & Go 7”)
* Die Kreuzen: Pink Flag/Land of Treason (Touch & Go 7”)
* Die Kreuzen: Century Days (Touch & Go LP)
* Guided By Voices: Do The Collapse (TVT CD)
* Opeth: Watershed (Roadrunner 2LP)
* Agalloch: Of Stone, Wind, & Pillor (Dammerung Arts EP)
* Syd Arthur: On And On (Harvest LP)
* Syd Arthur: Sound Mirror (Harvest LP)
* Ecstatic Vision: Sonic Praise (Relapse LP)

=iPod/iTunes
=car


Commentary:

As y'all know, I brought a ton of vinyl records back with me from Colorado -- which meant a lot of time spent cleaning and spinning this week.

I've had my Nitty Gritty record cleaning machine for over twenty years now, and have been tweaking my procedures ever since. After all, it is my belief that a record can never be too clean. This time, I tried a new fluid in my arsenal of solutions: Plus Enzyme Cleaner from Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs.

I had gotten fairly good results with the Nitty Gritty fluids, but some records remained unreasonably noisy and, sometimes the needle would jump the groove, even though  there were no scratches visible on the surface of the vinyl. So, I decided to see if this would help.

Unlike most fluids, the enzyme solution is allowed to sit on the record for up to five minutes before vacuuming off (followed by a round of Mobile Fidelity Pure Record Rinse). Much to my amazement, crackles and pops disappeared and formerly skippy records played back flawlessly. This treatment also worked miracles on problematic new pressings. Hooray!

Those of you with vacuum-based record cleaning machines really should check out the Plus Enzyme Cleaner. It could turn your trash into treasure!

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