Kuzma at Whetstone Audio

This weekend I stopped by to visit Brian DiFrank at Whetstone Audio, and in the months since I've last seen him he has added several new product lines. Of these, the most interesting is Kuzma, a Slovenian turntable/tonearm company that makes some of the best-sounding and attractive designs in the world. We had a chance to sit down with the Stogi S/Stabi 'table and arm combination, which used the Zu DL-103 cartridge (another new addition to Whetstone, and the cartridge I use on my Rega P3-24). As you can see from the pics, the Kuzma was mated to Leben tubed amplification, and the speakers were the DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 9s, I speaker I once reviewed and had in my system for several months.

While we talked, Brian kept the volume on the low side, but that didn't keep the sound of the Kuzma from shining through. That's one of the things I love about good tubed amplification--it sounds great, even at low volumes. The Stabi/Stogi sounded solid, warm and relaxed as it coursed through some of Brian's favorite funk tracks. Even with its minimalist, plinth-less design, the Kuzma looks as beautiful as it sounds and is almost jewel-like up close.

You may be wondering about the wooden table the turntable is sitting on; it's certainly gorgeous as well. These are custom-made by a friend of Brian's, and I have to admit that I want one. They're not cheap, but the craftsmanship is extraordinary, and while they are not specifically designed for audio gear they do work well, a serendipitous discovery made by Brian.

If you would like more information about Kuzma or these wooden tables, contact Brian directly at 512-784-8282.

Wilco's The Whole Love on LP

Listening to Wilco's new album, The Whole Love, for the first time is like listening to their 2002 masterpiece, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, for the first time. It's unexpected, considering what has come before it, and it's unbelievably great. That's not to say that the two albums are similar, because they're not. But after spending some time with The Whole Love, you probably will feel the same sense of elation (as long as you're a Wilco fan), and you'll know that this is a group that will continue to confound and surpass our expectations with each new release.

By now it's clearly evident that Wilco makes two types of albums: on one side you have the simple, back-to-their roots releases (Sky Blue Sky, Wilco (the Album)) that stress their strengths as musicians and their ability to play somewhat straight yet unique songs in the now faded "No Depression" mold, and then you have the fully experimental mode (the two albums I mentioned in the first paragraph, along with 2004's A Ghost Is Born) that bend and shuffle this band's talents into something strange and almost confrontational. From the first song, "Art of Almost," you'll wonder what happened to the old Wilco; with its distinct electronica structure and climactic wild freak-out, you'll think you're hearing the latest Radiohead album with Jeff Tweedy as lead vocalist. My first reaction was "Is this Wilco's Kid A?" It is and it isn't.

What follows, fortunately, is all Wilco, but skewed in a way that comforts you in the way their last two albums didn't, especially in the confident way it shows that Tweedy and Co. are still willing to push the envelope. In "I Might," the album's first single and the song that immediately follows "Art of Almost", you'll hear a tight beat that will remind you of songs like "Heavy Metal Drummer" and "Camera" while adding a farfisa organ that steps backward into '60s psychedelia. From there the album shifts to and fro from gentle, acoustic ballads to full-fledged rock-outs (such as the slightly abrasive yet assertive "Standing O"). "Capital City" will amuse you with its old-fashioned feel which isn't too far removed in spirit from those clever little ditties Freddie Mercury used to insert into old Queen albums, but its unique instrumentation--a Wilco trademark--takes it a step further and exhilirates more than it amuses.

The Whole Love ends as auspiciously as it begins, but in another totally susprising way. Wilco isn't afraid of including long, epic songs (as A Ghost Is Born clearly demonstrated), and here you get the 12-minute plus "One Sunday Morning." But this isn't epic in the prog-rock sense, it's a gentle, acoustic epic that floats out of a rather quiet and relaxed riff (reflecting the title) and becomes diffused and expansive between the many, many verses. It's calming in the same way as Yo La Tengo's "Night Falls on Hoboken" from And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, but instead of a long, calculated degeneration into noise it keeps snapping back into focus.

So what version of The Whole Love should you buy? I obviously opted for the LP version, which adds a pleasant cover of "Sometimes It Happens" as a coda. (The regular CD version stops at "One Sunday Morning".) A deluxe version of the CD adds a bonus disc that contains four more songs, including Nick Lowe's "I Love My Label." Then again, when you buy the LP the regular CD is included in the price, just like Wilco did with Wilco (the Album). That way you can compare the sound of the CD and the LP directly. For the record (no pun intended), I felt that the CD had better bass, but the LP had more presence. The LP pressing, unfortunately, was a bit noisy and was cursed with surface noise, which is unforgiveable considering it cost me nearly thirty bucks. So I say buy 'em all if you're completist.

This has definitely been a great year for my favorite bands--Fleet Foxes, TV on the Radio and now Wilco have made 2011 more than a bit special. If you love Wilco but were slightly put off by the rather ordinary feel of their last couple of releases, The Whole Love will take you back to the astonishment you felt with YHF. Then again, it's all preference, as I did note one music critic compare this unfavorably to their "landmark" album Wilco (the Album)--different strokes, y'all. But for me it's the album of the year, along with Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues, one I'll keep coming back to whenever I feel bored with the fancy, indistinct direction alternative music's taken over the last couple of years.

2011 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest

Right now I'm getting ready to attend the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, which will be held October 14-16 at the Denver Marriott Tech Center in Denver, Colorado. I've only been to RMAF once before, in 2008, but it was one of my favorite audio shows of all time. The vibe is friendly there since it's mostly consumers attending, and this show has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Nearly everyone I know in the audio industry will be there.

Since I will be an exhibitor (representing Colleen Cardas Imports) and not a member of the press, I probably won't be able to offer the usual show reports. I will, however, keep my eyes open for anything cool. If you want to stop by and say hello, I'll be in Room 1102 along with AudioEvo.org, Sonicweld loudspeakers, Positive Feedback Online, Locus Designs, Blackbird Audio/Gallery and MIT Cables.

For more information on RMAF, click here.

Black Pussy's On Blonde...on CD

Strike #1: You name your band Black Pussy. Now I'm no puritan and can cuss a blue streak when properly motivated, but I'm starting to feel numb from the recent trend of naming your band something outrageous and offensive just to get noticed. It's like all those bands with F-bombs as part of their names. It seems as puerile and sophomoric as an afternoon of Bubba the Love Sponge on Sirius--it's just relentless after a while, and it's made even worse by journeymen music critics who line up to review the album because they get a cheap thrill from dropping said F-bombs on the printed page. I'm not even going to tell you what happened when I Googled "Black Pussy on Blonde," either--I just wanted to get the scoop on this band for y'all, and I didn't need to see all that, well, stuff.

Strike #2: You start your album with the sound of a massive bong hit. Great, let's just throw On Blonde on the stack with my unopened Kottonmouth Kings CDs and every other band who manages to put the word "weed" in every song title. I wanna smoke weed every day of my life, every day of my life, every day of my life. Got it. Next. Even the cover of the CD has a little icon in the corner majestic stating that the whole affair was recorded in STONERSOUND.

Strike #3: Well, that's the thing...strike #3 never comes. Black Pussy's On Blonde is actually pretty cool. It's a retro sound that's a little hard to define, '70s hard rock on the cusp of punk, and I can probably best describe it like this: When I was a teenager in the late '70s, we were secretly enthralled with the coming of so-called punk rock, but it was a different type of punk than we think of now. True hardcore was still underground, and the stuff we thought was so different--the "new" wave--was simply tighter and faster rock without the 12-minute guitar solos. Black Pussy's sound, in other words, fits in with an afternoon orgy of Ramones, the Runaways, the Stooges and maybe even a little Kiss. It's simple, it's tight and it doesn't give an F-bomb.

Heck, even that bong hit in the beginning eventually justifies itself. That's because the first song, "Marijuana," isn't a celebratory ode to pot. When the chorus kicks in--she wants your, she wants your, she wants your...MARIJUANA!--it's downright funny, especially if you knew that particular girl back in the day. (Hi, Carmen!) When Black Pussy gently shifts their musical palette from song to song, a move so subtle and pure you'll probably miss it, it's only to add a cowbell (or a wood block; this is pretty lo-fi stuff) or maybe switch vocalists. The purpose here is to loudly declare that self-important lyrics and pretty melodies have no place in true rock and roll, and that's it.

So today's lesson is not to judge a CD by its cover, or a band by its name. Or maybe the lesson is not to cuss or you'll get your mouth washed out with soap. Either way, On Blonde reminds me of a friend I had back when I was in college. When a band met his approval, he said they "rocked amply." You've heard it here from the Vinyl Ananchronist: Black Pussy rocks amply. Now look that up in Google.

Wilco's "The Whole Love" on LP...What a Deal!

When Wilco's The Wilco Album came out on LP a couple of years ago, I was duly impressed when I discovered that they included the CD version as well. Well, I just picked up The Whole Love on LP at Waterloo Records a couple of hours ago, I was thrilled that they did it again!

But you also get a handy dandy nylon bag from Epitaph Records and a Wilco poster as well. Plus, the new album is a 2-LP set. I'm not sure if it's a 180 gram pressing or not, but it feels pretty close. I'll have a full review up in a few days--hopefully before I head to Denver for RMAF. I also have CD reviews for Black Pussy (yep, that's their name, and they're pretty good) and Beneath Wind and Waves from Non-etre.

New Vinyl Anachronist column up at Perfect Sound Forever

The latest issue of Perfect Sound Forever is now online, which includes my 82nd installment of the Vinyl Anachronist. This column is about high-end audio dealers, and how their marketplace has changed in the last few years. It also asks audiophiles to take a hard look in the mirror and decide if we're really still "enjoying the music" like we used to.

You can read it here.

And don't forget to read the rest of PSF as well!

Do You Have Any Female Vocals?: Halie Loren on CD

"Just say no to Diana Krall at audio shows."

I said this as a joke on my Facebook page a few weeks ago, and I took a little flak for it. Hey, what do you have against Mrs. Costello? She's awesome! I love her stuff!

Well, I'm always a sucker for a good old-fashioned backlash, and I have to admit that I've tired of hearing DK in every single friggin' room when I attend the audio trade shows. As an exhibitor at the recent AXPONA Show in New York City, I watched as two middle-aged gentlemen got up and left my room after they were told we didn't have any Diana Krall to play. What, no Diana? Youse guys suck! Finally, someone in our room fetched some Krall, and all was well in Audiophile Land. But I had to leave the room after a while. I just didn't get it.

I don't really dislike Diana Krall that much, and I may be overstating my case here. A couple of years ago I reviewed two of her ORG reissues on LP and I had to admit that the sound quality was utterly stupendous. She's a skilled pianist, she has good taste in music and she's downright beautiful. I hate to bring up the latter, but I suspect it's part of the reason why so many middle-aged men are smitten with her "musical" charms. I guess my main objection is her aloof, too-cool-for-school vibe which sometimes comes off as emotionally detached from the material. It's almost as if she's watching her Rolex as she's playing. She rushes through some of the songs as if she can't wait to get to the part where everyone applauds wildly. (This also reminds me of why I don't like Sarah MacLachlan's singing; if Krall sounds hurried, then Sarah sounds as if she's going to take a big giant nap as soon as she finishes the last note of the song.)

On a broader scale, female vocals are a necessity in the world of audiophiles. If they aren't asking for Krall, then they're asking for female vocals in general. They don't want to hear the rare Three Blind Mice LPs I have. They don't want to hear Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington play "Duke's Place." They want to hear Patricia Barber. Or Eva Cassidy. Or Jacintha. Or even (my God) Celine Dion. I mean, why not someone interesting like Holly Cole? Or how about Zooey Deschanel doing an amazing country-and-western cover of "I Should Have Known Better"? Or how about Halie Loren?

Halie who, you ask? That's my point. Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio sent me three of her CDs my way in the hopes that I would spread the word about her. Dan thinks she deserves to be better known, and when talks about music, I listen. As an unapologetic music snob, I find it hard to be impressed with other people's taste in music, but Dan seems to know what I'm going to like before I even like it. When I visited him in August, he played a rare and pristine pressing of the extended version of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone' by the Temptations. It wouldn't have been my first choice for the evening, but by the time it was over I was hooked and I had to have it. I'm still looking for it. Damn, that was good.

All in all, Dan sent me three of her CDs: the 2001 live album Stages and the two studio albums They Oughta Write a Song (2008) and After Dark (2010). Dan also told me she has another album on the way. She also has a 2006 debut album titled Full Circle and a series of digital downloads called Summer Fruit. She hails from Eugene, Oregon, and she's been performing since she was ten. She's big in Japan, as they say, but she's still trying to make an equally strong impression here in the states. Dan is certainly doing his part to make that happen.

So what makes Halie Loren special? First of all, we have to get the standard female vocalist prerequisites out of the way. Yes, she's gorgeous. It shouldn't matter, but it's exceptionally nice to look at her CD covers while you're listening to her music. Second, her albums feature spectacular sound quality. My only caveat is the sound of the audience on the Stages CD: it sounds distant, detached and two-dimensional, which detracts from the overall immediacy of the performance. But I'm nitpicking here; deep down I don't really care if the applause sounds muted, even if it's so contained that it sounds like the laugh track on an old episode of M*A*S*H. As long as Halie and her band sounds great--and they do--that's what's important.

Most importantly, Halie stands out in the way she commits to the song. I read her press bio, which said something about her reputation of "knowing her way around a song," and I have to concur. She connects emotionally to each line in the same way Sinatra often did. You hear the feelings behind the words and you almost see her facial expressions as she breathes in and out between the verses. In other words, she's the anti-Krall, the polar opposite of aloof. There's something amazingly alive about that, and it's slightly intoxicating.

She also has superb tastes in not only the individual songs, but the entire album sequence. Who else would mix a slow, bluesy "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" with a sultry standard such as "Cry Me a River"? How about a double feature of "La Vie en Rose" and "Ode to Billie Joe"? Or "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Summertime" (not to mention a lovely "Autumn Leaves")? As diverse as the songs are, she manages to make them fit together like puzzle pieces through the singular power of her emotional convictions. It's breathtaking and also breathtakingly sexy.

She also surrounds herself with stellar musicians. Matt Treder, who co-produces many of her albums with her, plays the piano with grace while matching his singer's penchant for directness and honesty. You'll also hear strong contributions from such musicians as Jim Ferguson and Mark Schneider (bass), Brian West (drums), Dale Bradley (cello), Chris Ward and Jack Jezzro (guitar) and many others.

I'm going to take these CDs with me to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in a couple of weeks, and whenever someone asks "do you have any female vocals?" I'll have a definite answer. It won't be Mrs. Costello, either. Inwardly I'll yell "Death before Diana!" Outwardly I'll say, "How about some Halie Loren instead?"