Top 10 must-have CDs, part 2
This is Part 2 of a list of my favorite sounding CDs of late, in no particular order. My preference is for realistic-sounding recordings, recordings that allow the band to sound "live." And sure, I still like a lot of recordings that are heavily processed, but I wouldn't by any stretch use them to "test" the naturalness of a speaker.
The first half of the top 10 CD list appeared in the previous Audiophiliac.
A different kind of heavy metal music.
Savage Aural Hotbed, "Wreckquiem"
Talk about heavy metal, Savage Aural Hotbed is a (mostly) industrial percussion group. They rhythmically hit, scrape, or smash pipes, barrels, tenor and baritone snorkelhorns, electric power tools, and drums. I love SAH records for their dense textures and searing dynamics and this new one will give your system an aerobic workout while dazzling your ears with its mesmerizing charms.
Ms. Cash at her best
Rosanne Cash, "10 Song Demo"
OK, this one's from 1996, but it's withstood the test of time. True to the title, it's just Cash accompanied by a small group of players, Production is minimal, so if your system is good enough the music can sound very, very real. The music's a perfect 10.
Jazz that'll rock your world
Gerald Clayton, "Two-Shade"
Clayton's nimble piano trio delivers hard-driving pieces and explosive improvisations that'll push your hi-fi to the limit. The piano, bass, and drums balance is, musically and sonically, as good as it gets. It may be Clayton's trio, but it's a band of equals. The stereo image is set back, behind the plane of my speakers, so it doesn't have the claustrophobic, up close perspective of most contemporary jazz recordings.
New blues for a new century
Bob Brozman, "Post-Industrial Blues"
Bob Brozman is a monster guitar and string player. His updated blues is of our time, but rooted in the tradition. Sonically, Post is a wonder, exquisitely detailed and spacious, and Brozman's odd humor on the Doors' classic, "People Are Strange" is deliciously weird.
One of the best solo piano recordings ever
Dick Hyman, "Thinking About Bix"
Pianist Dick Hyman was thinking about legendary jazz musician, Bix Beiderbecke when he made this CD. The tunes are old, but the joy of the music is timeless. This is a good a solo piano record as I've heard, with life-like dynamics and totally natural timbre. Superb!
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
How about some Mahler?
Then again, Steve probably gets a lot of free CD's from indie labels. So he probably has access to a lot more stuff than the rest of us.
And enough with Dark Side. Meddle is a far more aurally interesting Floyd experience.
How about Kate Bush, Hounds of Love? It is beautifully produced and packs an array of textures into one LP. A hifi needs to be able to reproduce the quiet chanting choir, the pounding percussion, the Irish folk, the sampled voices/helicopters/whispering german ghosts not to mention her own three-octave vocal range.
Leftfield, Leftism? Possibly the best example of house/electronica, well produced and will really test the ability of a hifi to go LOUD, the Johnny Rotten vocal'd Open Up makes most hifis shrink away in horror. Madonnas Vogue also puts a hifi to the test, slick, layered, bass-heavy and meticulous production by Shep Pettibone makes it one challenging piece of electronic music.
One of the better recordings for Bachs Suite for Cello? It should sound as though there is a single cello player sitting in between your speakers and the range and texture of a cello is perfect for testing the capability of a hifi, the bass needs to be clear and crisp and closely in synch with the mid and high range (it almost always sounds hideous on a sub-sat system).
Dark Side of the Moon? Come on, I'm trying to be a little more current the 1970s classics that everybody already knows about. The point of the list was to turn you onto comparatively new stuff that sounds exceptional. Who knows, you might even like some of it if you listened to it. That's not such a hard thing to do. Unfortunately most mainstream music is dynamically compressed and sounds just plain bad.
All 3 are killer albums, and would push any good system. Gabriel's CD has many layers that the sound system would have to separate. The system would also have to be able to handle the full spectrum of guitar sounds that Joe gets out of his guitars. And finally, if the system were to be able to make Eddie's distortion sound clear and not "muddy" (which it certainly isn't), then THAT'S a quality system for an audiophile.
Calling it "10 CDs that are an audiophiles dream and will put your sound system to the test" would have been more accurate. One's musical taste can't be thrust on someone else (thus the great t-shirt from The Onion that reads simply "Your favorite band sucks.")
If you had just put a few CDs on the list about which you said the music wasn't your thing but the sound was fantastic that'd be one thing, but this is a personal top 10, something YOU must have, but that most of the rest of us will pass on and be none the poorer for it.
I know THE SHAME!! But I thought some of the Metallica HD stuff was really cool, and while I love me some Wagner ? I don?t want to listen to Whiny Chick Music Volume 34 ? no matter how HD it sounds!
>Dark Side of the Moon? Come on, I'm trying to be a little more current the 1970s classics that everybody already knows about. The point of the list was to turn you onto comparatively new stuff that sounds exceptional. Who knows, you might even like some of it if you listened to it. That's not such a hard thing to do. Unfortunately most mainstream music is dynamically compressed and sounds just plain bad.
Why did you post this dreck as a reply to me? I never said Roseanne Cash and Elvis Not The Pelvis were esoteric. Nor did I refer to The Dark Side of the Moon. As far as turning us on to comparatively new stuff, you didn't title your list "Here are some things I find interesting that maybe you will too;" you called it "must haves." The jury says NOT, so say we all. Patch up your amour propre and get on with reprinting manufacturer's press releases.
- by bathyscaaf August 17, 2009 4:07 PM PDT
- Weird. I loved watching Savage Aural Hotbed in MPLS back in the late 80s early 90s. Sometimes they would pop up randomly in their jumpsuits and caps, pull a bunch of plastic drums and metal bits out of their van and just start playing on a sidewalk. I only have their 1st album, "Cold is the Absense of Heat" and they hadn't managed to record the percussion in a way that really put across the sound of three people hitting different drums at the same time. Nice to hear they are still around. Nice guys, good music.
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