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August 2018

A Blu-ray Gem from Criterion

The Criterion Collection 939
Format: Blu-ray

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Released in 1946 in the UK as A Matter of Life and Death and in the US as Stairway to Heaven, this postwar film is a unique jewel of cinema that operates on many different levels and succeeds on all of them. Its creators, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who together wrote, produced, and directed it, had been approached by Jack Beddington, head of the UK Ministry of Information’s film commission, to make a movie that would soothe the frayed feelings between the UK and the US at the end of World War II. This genius partnership came up with A Matter of Life and Death, which, below its surface of romantic comedy, explores more serious matters.

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August 2018

Canadian Vincent Bélanger is a world-class cellist whose debut album, Là, was released in 2011. On Là is a haunting rendition of “Amazing Grace” in which Bélanger makes his cello sound like a hornpipe. In May 2018, we were able to meet with Vincent in Antwerp, Belgium, where he played the song for us and described how he creates this unique sound. (To contact Vincent directly, e-mail vincent.belanger@audionotemusic.co.uk.)

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August 2018

Do you get tired of reading reviews with namby-pamby recommendations that sound as if the writers have worked full time to ensure that they can find a way out of their statements at a later date? It happens all the time in the world of wine criticism (my other job). For example: “This wine has a pleasing aroma of stewed plums and candied lychees with a hint of leather and Tellicherry black peppers. Rating 88.” What does that mean?

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August 2018

Yep Roc 2587
Format: CD

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Scratch the surface of Americana music -- the top layer that includes Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, and Jason Isbell -- and you’ll find dozens of performers whose career paths have seldom-if-ever taken them to soft-seat concert halls. These are the hardcore singer-songwriters who spend most of each year driving up and down American highways to beer joints, small venues, and the occasional festival. Better-known musicians may cite them as core influences and industry treasures, but chances are the average fan doesn’t know a thing about them.

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July 2018

A Different Kind of Vampire Film

Arrow Video AV-152-TM
Format: Blu-ray

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Have you ever thought of Christopher Walken as a vampire, or of vampirism as an allegory for addiction? Renegade director Abel Ferrara, best known for Bad Lieutenant, had the idea back in 1995 when he created The Addiction, a black-and-white cult favorite.

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July 2018

Canada’s Cowboy Junkies recorded the groundbreaking The Trinity Session in November 1987, then released it in November 1988 to worldwide acclaim. Produced and engineered by Peter J. Moore, The Trinity Session was recorded with a single Calrec microphone and a modified Beta videotape player converted into a digital audio recorder. In Part 1 of our series exploring the making of The Trinity Session, Cowboy Junkies drummer Peter Timmins and Peter J. Moore talk about what it was like to record The Trinity Session in the Church of the Holy Trinity, which is located in downtown Toronto, and describe how the church became an instrumental part of the sound of the album.

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July 2018

By the early 1970s, rock music was firmly established as a cultural force, and the influx of cash from increased album sales gave record companies incentive to try new things. It was a time when musicians beyond category, such as Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, could have recording contracts with a major label. The ambition of bands both famous and obscure over the previous five years had opened the minds of listeners to all kinds of possibilities, and that willingness to permit and encourage experimentation extended to pop music of all genres. Stevie Wonder, to choose just one example, released some of his most ambitious and groundbreaking recordings in the early ’70s.

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July 2018

Andorfin ANDRF-007
Format: 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC download

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The world is now so hyperconnected that only those of a certain age can recall a time when essentially any commercially released music was not available at our fingertips. The world still held untapped discoveries, and it was up to stalwart explorers like ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax to open our ears to unknown possibilities by bringing obscure artists into the light.

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June 2018

The Criterion Collection Tries to Resurrect Frank Borzage on BD

The Criterion Collection 921
Format: Blu-ray

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I seldom listen to music when driving my little bright-red 2008 Toyota Yaris. There, old-time radio is king, and for the past month I’ve been listening to The Chase and Sanborn Hour, with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. This variety show, broadcast from 1929 to 1948, ran the gamut from humor to drama to pop song to opera arias sung in their original languages. From 1937 to 1939 the show was hosted by Nelson Eddy, but listening today, I wonder what all the excitement was about: Eddy bleats his top notes, shamelessly ruins bonbons from Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, and sings the most racially insensitive rendition of “Shortnin’ Bread” ever. One day, when Eddy was on vacation, he was replaced by baritone Donald Dickson, whose voice was worthy of the Metropolitan Opera -- where, indeed, Dickson sang in the mid- to late 1940s.

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June 2018

Legacy 19075827252
Format: CD

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Here’s the thing: Willie Nelson is 85 years old, and I’ve given up on him making another Red Headed Stranger. That’s okay; one album like that 1975 genre-defying masterpiece surpasses what most musicians accomplish in a lifetime -- even one as long and productive as Nelson has lived.

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