Do you sometimes feel like we’re living in an alternate universe? After all, alternate realities and parallel universes are not uncommon concepts in pop culture, let alone physics – just watch the Netflix series Dark or DC Comics’ “Crisis on Infinite Earths” or read Ray Bradbury’s short story “A Sound of Thunder,” which gave birth to the phrase “the butterfly effect.” But we’re not really living in the Matrix, or a changed history created by meddling with the time stream...are we?
I am certain of one thing – time travel does exist. All we have to do is put on a record like Giant Steps or Songs for Swingin’ Lovers or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or The Fame, and we can be transported back to the time when the album was recorded and our memories of when we first heard the music. Any time we want.
Reminder: our Name That Column Contest runs through October 31. We’ll be running a new column about PS Audio’s Octave Records label, and we need a name. (For now it’s “The Column to be Named Later.”) The winner will receive a 16 x 24 photo on canvas of Copper photographer James Schrimpf’s photo of musicians Dale Watson and Chris Crepps, used as Issue 105’s Parting Shot.
Please submit your suggestions for the column name to letters@psaudio.com.
In this issue: Anne E. Johnson gets into Otis Redding and his deep soul, and free-jazz trailblazer Sam Rivers. Tom Methans isn’t with the band. We interview MartinLogan and Eikon Audio founder Gayle Sanders, and the Audio Engineering Society’s Gary Gottlieb. Roy Hall takes a trip to Copenhagen and one of the world’s greatest restaurants. Todd Rundgren’s Nearly Human album changes Ray Chelstowski’s life. We have an inside look at Octave Records’ new release, Temporary Circumstances by Clandestine Amigo. Rudy Radelic digs The Mavericks’ En Español.
J.I. Agnew asks: how hi would you like your fi? Jay Jay French revisits the Grateful Dead’s Workingman’s Dead on its 50th anniversary. Rich Isaacs revives some unusual cover versions in the latest installment of “Complete Recovery.” Steven Bryan Bieler knows what it’s like to be cool. Ken Sander goes one step beyond with Madness and the Go-Go’s. Tom Gibbs finds great new music and reissues from John Coltrane, Cat Stevens/Yusuf, Thelonious Monk and Gillan Welch. Reader Adrian Wu’s audio journey takes him to the present. We conclude the issue with hittin’ the note, spending money and socially distancing.
