It is hard to imagine it now, but for jazz musicians in the 1960s, wanting to play the music of The Beatles could result in being ostracized by your peers. So it was a bold move by folks like Wes Montgomery making a Beatles album, but his career was being pushed in a pop-jazz direction [...]
Tag Archives: Music
Grab a Free Low Latency Yamaha DX-7 Synth Emulator for Android
One of the key limiting factors for me in terms of integrating Android in my life was the lack of viable music apps … which in turn was due to the lack of a low-latency music infrastructure baked into the OS. While those issues haven’t been resolved, at this year’s Google I/O conference there was [...]
Samsung Giving Away Jay-Z’s New Album, But Will It Buy Him #1 in Sales?
In the rap and hip-hop world, few artists loom as large as Jay-Z. Emerging in 1996 with a blockbuster debut that was as successful critically as it was commercially, he seemed to fade for a few years before emerging with the excellent ‘The Blueprint’. Then some more mediocre minor releases before what he claimed would [...]
Looking Back at John Scofield’s UberJam as He Prepares to Launch the Sequel
How often do we hear about an album getting a real ‘sequel’? Well, actually it has become a bit of ‘a thing’ in rap in recent years, but for the most part the results show it is an ill-advised trend at best. And Meatloaf started with a classic and ended up with a second sequel [...]
AmpliTube Gets New ‘Studio’ Interface in Major Update – Hands-On Review
Along with the original iRig, IK Multimedia delivered AmpliTube, a high quality guitar amplifier and effects chain simulator. It all started simply enough, with a few effects and amp simulators and a solid sound that made it a great ‘practice amp’ in much the way the RockMan worked for musicians in the early 80s. Since [...]
Who Wins and Who Loses with Apple’s iTunes Radio Announcement?
At the WWDC keynote, Apple announced the revamped music player app for iOS 7 and along with it iTunes Radio. While you can check out the press release for the full details, suffice to say that this is more of an ‘internet radio’ like Pandora than an ‘on demand’ service such as Spotify. Obviously there [...]
Tap: Book of Angels, Vol. 20 – Pat Metheny Plays the Music of John Zorn
If I was to make a list of musical artists whose stuff I enjoy and who have influenced me through the decades, two names that would certainly be on the list are Pat Metheny and John Zorn. I have followed Metheny since the late 70s and have enjoyed most of his group and solo works; [...]
Check Out the New Nine Inch Nails Song ‘Come Back Haunted’
Nine Inch Nails is back! Trent Reznor’s ‘band’ (he is the only official member) has been making industrial rock for 25 years now, and each release has had something of interest. Most reknowned for their work in the 1990s such as ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ and ‘Downward Spiral’, Reznor also created the music and effects for [...]
Jon Wirtz Tourist Review – A Great Collection of Disparate Compositions
Back in 2010 Jon Wirtz impressed me and many others with his debut recording ‘Sea Level, featuring mature solo piano work that evoked comparisons to reknowned pianists such as Keith Jarrett, Vijay Iyer and Matthew Shipp. Now he has returned with his ‘Nuskool’ trio on an album of strong and diverse compositions called ‘Tourist’. The [...]
IK Multimedia iRig HD Guitar Interface for iOS Review
A few years ago a little company based out of Italy released a neat little accessory for the iPhone and iPad called ‘iRig’, and an app that went along with it called AmpliTube. Travis reviewed it here. Since then we have covered loads of ‘pro-sumer’ grade hardware and software from IK Multimedia. Now they are [...]
Sonos Controller Updated to Version 4.1 – Tweaks and Improvements You’ll Appreciate
I love my Sonos system. I love it enough that I have a Sonos component in just about every room of the house. I love it enough that I purchased a PLAYBAR as soon as the product was announced (our review is forthcoming), and I added a Sonos SUB a few days after that. The [...]
FL Studio Mobile Gets Android Support – Hands-on Review
OK, I will admit to being almost entirely negative about the state of music production apps on the Android platform. Much of this centers on one absolute reality – iOS has core audio services built-in that take care of things for developers, whereas on Android not only is there a lack of such services, the [...]
IK Multimedia iKlip Studio for iPad Mini Review
Just about a year ago, I reviewed the original iKlip Studio. It was a simple and short review, and for good reason – the iKlip was simplistic and direct in design, solid in build and materials, and well executed. Back at CES 2013, IK Multimedia announced they were building an iKlip for the iPad Mini. [...]
Google Launches Spotify-like ‘Google Play Music All Access’
For a couple of years or more, there has been constant speculation about when we would see an ‘iRadio’ service from Apple, with some more reasonable speculation that by capitulating to streaming price demands they might have something by this June. Google has also been rumored to be working on a similar service, though more [...]
Stream Daft Punk’s New Album “Random Access Memories” on iTunes This Week!
My son is a HUGE Daft Punk fan, something he got as part of his introduction into the electronica world – courtesy of me. The group is one of the most influential in electronic pop, with people like Skrillex and Deadmau5 owing them a huge debt. The last recording they released was the soundtrack for [...]
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