Monthly Archives: November 2013

Review: Nicola Conte – Jet Sounds (Bossa Per Due)

Have you ever had the impression that someone had gotten into your hip dad’s basement and started thumbing through his old record collection from the 1960s? If so, that might have been Nicola Conte sneaking in the side door, and leaving with a few armfuls of those scratchy old LPs.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s, and from the time I was three years old, I was spinning records on the Admiral hi-fi in the basement.  My parents’ tastes ran the gamut–we had the old A&M stuff, quite a few by Mancini, some cha-cha and mambo records, some assorted jazz and easy listening, and a smattering of Bossa Nova.  Listening to Conte’s debut album, Jet Sounds, I hear plenty of echoes of the past, reminiscent of what I used to stack up on the Admiral’s woefully overstressed record changer. 

Conte is a classically trained jazz musician, producer and DJ, hailing from Italy. His name has appeared on many remix compilations over the years.  This album is comprised of samples of existing recordings, used as a base on which he layers additional instruments and vocals.  While I am not familiar with many of the samples, one of which stood out immediately for me is “Mambo De Los Dandies”.  Having grown up with Mancini’s soundtrack to Charade, I have “Mambo Parisienne” embedded in my genetic code, and hearing that familiar percussion intro, sped up slightly and turned into a completely different tune, is a treat!  It is quite a manic little mambo, layered with an organ and sax, with brass punctuating throughout.  

The other tracks are no less of a joy.  The one “hit” on this album is “Bossa Per Due,” used in a commercial for the Acura CL back around 2001.  This swirling Bossa has a breezy attitude that is infectious.  This is similarly carried over to “Forma 2000”, another energetic Bossa with a syncopated organ figure throughout, where “Il Cerchio Rosso” takes Bossa into a swingin’ 60s easy listening style.  The title track takes the Bossa Nova into more of a big band territory, and “The In Samba” cops the frantic guitar lick from the Stan Getz/Cal Tjader “Ginza Samba”.  “Dossier Omega” and “Missione a Bombay” both sound as though they are lifted out of a globetrotting James Brown, with the Indian-flavored sitar and tabla.  “Jazz Pour Dadine” also has that Italian cinematic feel to it.

There are many colors throughout this disc, and the many layers may take a few listens to fully “get” the music.  But it is worth it!  This recording is, simply put, fun!  And interesting enough that its many layers give plenty to discover on subsequent listens.  This is one album I wish I’d discovered a dozen years ago when it was still new.  Highly recommended!

Note: this album was released in some countries under the Bossa Per Due title, with a rearranged track order.  The 2-LP vinyl release of Jet Sounds also has a rearranged track order, yet two of my favorite tracks are omitted–“The In Samba” and “Mambo De Los Dandies”.  (It really makes no sense, as two of the sides do not even clock in at 15 minutes.)

 

Disturbing Trend: Universal’s Digital Watermark

While I am not opposed to copyright owners protecting their works, I am opposed when it does so in an obviously intrusive and destructive manner. Sony’s big fiasco from several years ago was to install a rootkit on a computer, whenever you inserted one of their CDs into your computer’s CD-ROM drive. Universal has something new up its sleeve, and it is in my opinion, even worse.

For over a year now or maybe more, Universal has been watermarking digital downloads. Not only is it audible in lossless downloads, it can even be heard in lossy MP3 downloads, paid downloads through services like Amazon and iTunes, on Internet radio services such as Pandora and Spotify, and even over FM radio when sourced from a digital file. The audibility is such that it is placed right into the most sensitive range of our hearing (1,000 to 3,600 Hz), and that removal of the watermarking within that range will result in further distortion in the altered file. The more technical details can be read elsewhere online, and I will link to them below.

Due to the nature of how it sounds, many have placed the blame for the poor sound on lossy MP3 compression (which is sonically the worst-sounding lossy compression out there). But in the past several months, many have been finding that even lossless files don’t sound quite right. I am currently researching to find out if CDs are affected, as well as the high-quality HDTracks downloads that are growing in popularity.

This blog has samples posted of the watermarking, including a comparison between a watermarked and an unmolested file, and a “difference” file to cancel out the music and demonstrate only the watermarking signal.  It also gives more of a technical explanation of how it works.  The Hydrogenaudio forums has had an ongoing thread about it, and even the EFF has had a say in it.  This is no small issue.

Consumers like us are screwed. A large corporation once against harms the large majority of honest consumers to go after the scant few who pirate the files through illegal downloads. To those of us who value quality sound, it is an insult to us to provide such an obviously defective “product” to us, and have the gall to charge a non-refundable full price for it.

It is further proof of how the industry “experts” who recommended this watermarking are of the same breed who have already run the recording industry into the ground and made the industry what it is today: a shambles. I also feel for those working at the labels, including the artists whose creations are being destroyed by watermarking, who have to live with the fallout.

For now, I do not recommend buying any Universal downloads released from 2012 onward, and I advise questioning the quality of any CD, SACD or HDTracks download until we can verify that these versions are unmolested. If we are expected to pay full price for our purchasing dollars, we demand full quality along with it.

Join our discussion at A&M Corner Forum; click the Discuss link below.

The Walker CJ55 “Phoenix Edition”

Phoenix Edition?  Yep, the Walker has once again risen from the dead.  The new belt arrived on Halloween, of all days, and I promptly moved the arm and cartridge from the Denon back to the Walker. I managed to get things dialed in within an hour, and was able to spin some vinyl later in the evening.

This is where things get weird. As you may recall, the problems I had with the Walker were speed related–not only did it always run too fast, it also had stability issues, and wavered constantly.  Piano music was a torture to listen to, as were any sustained notes.  I was at wit’s end.  Even with the Music Hall belt I borrowed, the speed would waver–the belt was a bit too narrow and would occasionally “hop” up and down within the pulley.

Here is what is supposedly an original replacement belt for the Walker CJ55.  But is it?  Any other belt I had always had some slippage to it.  This one doesn’t.  There is a groan as the turntable starts rotating, and then it locks on fairly quick.  My other belts never did this.  The tension of the belt is also higher than the other “official” belts I got from the importer–my motor mount modification would not be needed.  So far, so good–I’m liking this belt.

So far, the pitch seems like it is not wavering as much.  I still think I hear it wavering, but it could be all in my head.  But this is where the weirdness kicks in.  The turntable always ran fast.  Playing back my new setup, it seemed like the sound was dragging a bit.  I found a strobe online, which I printed out.  Turns out the turntable was now rotating too slowly!  Mmmm, OK.  I took off my rubber band fix from the subplatter, and tried it again.  Now, the speed is just about perfect!  If it is a hair off, I am not noticing it.

A quick summary then.  The original belt slipped and wavered, and the speed ran too fast.  A new belt from the importer did the same.  The Music Hall belt wavered because it was too narrow and sometimes hopped up and down within the pulley; the platter still ran too fast.  This new belt has the best grip, stays in place, and doesn’t seem to waver…and the speed is now perfect??

I just don’t get it.

My stylus is just about worn, so it is not too easy to give a good listen to this setup again.  I will follow up my listening comments in my next installment.