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MUSICREVIEWS<br />
HIGH RESOLUTION DOWNLOADS<br />
Harry Belafonte<br />
An Evening With<br />
Belafonte/Makeba<br />
Ray LaMontagne<br />
Ouroboros<br />
DEMO DISCS<br />
Doug Graham, sales<br />
director at Naim Audio,<br />
reveals the music he<br />
uses to demo the<br />
company’s products<br />
FLAC 24-bit/96kHz hdtracks.co.uk FLAC 24-bit/96kHz hdtracks.co.uk<br />
THIS GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING album,<br />
originally released in 1965, is a proper studio<br />
album, made in collaboration with South<br />
African singer Miriam Makeba. It's an<br />
extraordinary collection of songs, fusing<br />
Belafonte's infectious Calypso numbers with<br />
Makeba's traditional South African songs. The<br />
fact that this is a hi-res version gives each track<br />
real clarity and depth, which delivers a joyous<br />
listening experience. PH<br />
LAMONTAGNE HAS BROKEN down this<br />
album into eight songs. The first part, or four<br />
songs, are heavier than we've come to expect<br />
from LaMontagne – full of sweeping, dusky<br />
fuzzed-out soundscapes, all infused with his<br />
trademark, breathy vocals. The second half –<br />
starting with the too-twee Another Day, goes on<br />
a much more mellow journey. And, of course,<br />
this ambitious album benefits hugely from<br />
being a hi-res recording. PH<br />
Accademia Bizantina<br />
Haydn Symphonies 78, 79, 80 and 81<br />
Ottavio Dantone (conductor)<br />
Grateful Dead<br />
Terrapin Station<br />
This is something that<br />
I go back to time and<br />
time again. Fantastic<br />
arrangement, guitar<br />
noodling and riffs.<br />
Sweet vocals too. If you<br />
like West Coast rock<br />
this is just perfect.<br />
Tom Waits<br />
Mule Variations<br />
Not ‘music for<br />
hi-fi‘ for most<br />
commentators.<br />
Wrong. It’s just a<br />
different approach<br />
to how things can<br />
sound. Tom Waits is<br />
scary. Scarily good.<br />
2 CDs Decca<br />
A lively sound, with clean<br />
articulate strings and crisp<br />
low horns – what's not to like?<br />
FOUR RARELY RECORDED Haydn symphonies<br />
make for an interesting and highly entertaining<br />
disc. Accademia Bizantina play on original<br />
instruments and make a lively sound, with clean<br />
articulate strings and some crisp low horns. Decca<br />
claims these are the first recordings of these works<br />
to employ period forces, and the symphonies<br />
are among those omitted from Christopher<br />
Hogwood’s incomplete L’Oiseau Lyre cycle, which<br />
stopped at 77. Clean immediate sound, with<br />
excellent clarity and detail, makes this is a good<br />
release. It’s just a pity it isn’t the start of a new<br />
complete cycle from these forces! JH<br />
David Bowie<br />
Black Tie<br />
White Noise<br />
A mixed bag, but in<br />
my experience there<br />
is always something<br />
great in a Bowie<br />
album. Don’t Let Me<br />
Down & Down is a<br />
real stand out.<br />
Lambchop<br />
Is A Woman<br />
Kurt Wagner can’t<br />
sing, but that’s not the<br />
point. It’s storytelling<br />
that makes no sense<br />
but somehow impacts<br />
heavily and you don’t<br />
think about lyrics. It's<br />
just part of the music.<br />
Xiayin Wang<br />
Tchaikovsky/<br />
Khachaturian piano<br />
concertos<br />
BLU-RAY DVD<br />
The Who<br />
Live at Shea Stadium 1982<br />
Bernard Herrmann<br />
Twisted Nerve Original<br />
Motion Picture<br />
Soundtrack<br />
Blu-ray<br />
Eagle Vision<br />
SACD<br />
Chandos<br />
WANG PLAYS ENTHUSIASTICALLY and gives<br />
a brilliant festive account of this ebullient<br />
warm-hearted work. Her playing is powerful and<br />
full-blooded, but not bombastic, and the recording<br />
produces a beautifully clear natural sound that<br />
avoids tonal hardness and congestion. The<br />
Khachaturian concerto is a fairly loud bombastic<br />
piece, but once again Wang and Oundjian seem to<br />
avoid the worst excesses. The slow movement –<br />
featuring an instrument called a flexatone – creates<br />
a wonderful effect that simply has to be heard. The<br />
SACD recording is excellent – refined and detailed<br />
– while sounding smooth, natural, and dynamic. JH<br />
It’s a shock to see Pete<br />
Townshend with a quiff<br />
wearing new romantic attire in<br />
the sort of video quality that<br />
cut it in 520P but looks crude<br />
today. He still looks miserable<br />
though, barely scrapes a smile<br />
over a long set. But the band in its longest-lived<br />
lineup are in top form, belting out the classics<br />
alongside contemporary numbers and proving<br />
to a rain-soaked crowd that they still had the<br />
power. The sound is appealingly unpolished<br />
with restrained use of compression and a<br />
natural balance that sounds real even if crowd<br />
noise is well down in the mix. JK<br />
180g vinyl<br />
Stylotone<br />
THE PROBLEM WITH Twisted Nerve is that once<br />
you've heard it you won't be able to get it out of<br />
your head for the rest of the day. The rising/falling<br />
whistling motive that Quentin Tarantino 'borrowed'<br />
for Kill Bill is so damn catchy that you'll be whistling<br />
it to yourself long after you've put the record away.<br />
The soundtrack includes a mix of more traditional<br />
orchestral scene-setting fair along with a jazz<br />
version of the catchy ditty that sounds just<br />
fantastic – making a decent low-end vital to enjoy<br />
those menacing cellos and kettle drums.<br />
A beautifully put together package from this new<br />
UK label specialising in classic soundtracks. JDW<br />
MAY 2016 101
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