A new Radiohead album was released by the band:

The King of Limbs

Last night we heard the uncompressed WAV file burnt on to a black CD at 10X speed. We played it on both the Audio Note CDT-5 transport with the Fifth Element DAC, as well as the Emm Labs XDS1 CD player. Both digital front ends were going through the Audio Note M9 Phono and Audio Note Ongaku into the Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers.

The MUSIC

There are 8 songs for a total of about 38 minutes. They are a pretty direct descendant of their last album ‘In Rainbows’. Most of the songs have the recent signature Radiohead sound vis-a-vis an evident extreme attention to the detail of every single note and sound.

There is with a lot of stuff going on in these songs. creating an enveloping sonic ocean that, for me, appeals to the heart in equal proportions to the mind. The last song was a little different from the others – sounding a lot like Cocteau Twins but with the addition of a drum machine.

We liked it quite a bit, although it was much too short.

The SOUND

With all the evidence that CDs burnt from LPs and Reel-to-reel tapes can sound better than commercial CDs, I had wondered before I heard this whether this CD burnt directly from the WAV files directly from Radiohead might sound better than the typical commercial Radiohead CD.

In my opinion, this CD did not sound better than the typical Radiohead commercial CD. We need to do more back and forth listening, and I will update this if my opinion changes, but this CD is more reflective of the CD quality of, say, circa 1997-99. Plenty good for listening to – and enjoying – but not outstanding [for example, things like soundstage depth and harmonic purity were just average… actually a little below average].

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I’ve watched this movie a few times in the past, but just recently found that I had somehow purchased the DVD in a bargain bin so watched it again, twice, just this week.

I really like this movie, for both the flavor of the early 70s and the music: mostly Led Zepplin, Neil Young, Elton John, and some Yes, Dylan and Jimi, etc. The way people grip and throw around their vinyl in this movie is atrocious, but at least they play music. Back in the day, that is what kids did – play music. They visited their friends houses and played LPs. I Have No Idea what kids do these days when they get together, but they rarely have anything on which to play music bigger than a cigarette pack, so I do not think they play music.

Cameron Crowe [Jerry McGuire] wrote and directed this movie. It is about a young teen who interviews rock stars for the Rolling Stone magazine in the early to mid 70’s. Apparently this is semi-autobiographical. Cameron Crowe’s actual articles are here, which he wrote, mostly for the Rolling Stone, starting when he was 15 years old:

Cameron Crowe: 1972-1978 Rock & Roll Mega-Band Interviews

It makes for fascinating reading.

JIENAT ‘Mira’

Been meaning to post about this for way too long.

More to come on this SACD & blu-ray music disc combo with some amazing sound and music:

96/24 DSD Stereo + 5.1 SACD
92/24 Stereo + 5.1 Blu-Ray
Blu-Ray Video

Picture forthcoming – but the music itself is, well, here in the U.S. it sounds much like Native American chanting. But unlike Native American chanting that we heard in Santa Fe last August at Indian Market, say, which is filled with anguish and regret – the music on the disc is full of mirth and joy and is quite playful.

Just about everyone who hears it asks where they can get one [even though Neli insists on playing the ‘dog barking song’ – which is really not that weird or funny – nor is it representative – I think she likes to see all the expressions on people’s faces]. The fact that so many different kinds of people [including us by the way!] like this disc speaks well of the music.

The sound is excellent as well. This is fairly complex music – and the liner notes describe to what lengths the recording engineers went through to get it right. A lot of emphasis has been also on the 5.1 surround aspect of the recording – which we were not able to experience. Similarly with the blu-ray music disc – my blu-ray setup is probably better than most but the bar is so low [and comparing it to what I normally listen to thru that system – Comcast Digital Cable TV, the BEST example of why we need anti-trust laws that one could imagine – the bar is just so very, very low. Well, I should probably listen to it there anyway. TBD.]

If you are like us – and have / enjoy a lot of different kinds of music and are always looking for something that is not the same old derivative this or that – and yet at the same time is very very high quality sound – then you need this.