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SACD

Gerard Presencer – The Optimist (2001) [SACD / Linn Records – AKD 166]

adminJanuary 20, 2026 76 Views

Title: Gerard Presencer – The Optimist (2001)
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The first thing that hits you when you listen to this record is the extensive use of samples and drum rhythms one would expect in a dance record. This album is clearly a cross over between Jazz and Dance. Which is fine since it was done really well. The music can be a bit too much in your face at times, and I have been in the situation before were I decided to put it on but regretted it as soon as the first track began. Other times I love this record and tend to turn up the volume so far that I sure my neighbours aren’t happy that I’m living next to them. I’ve gotten both albums which were release by Gerard Presencer on SACD and I must admit I prefer this one. sa-cd.net

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1 min read

SACD

Gerard Presencer – Platypus (2000) [SACD / Linn Records – AKD 139]

adminJanuary 20, 2026 87 Views

Title: Gerard Presencer – Platypus (2000)
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Gerard Presencer’s recording debut as a leader is very impressive. He’s a virtuoso trumpeter but plays flugelhorn throughout this recording with four of the younger virtuosi from the London jazz scene. Here the normal grammar and syntax of jazz are permanently in evidence, the rhythm section of Cleyndert and Stacey is magnificent, and there are are fine solos from the leader, pianist Rebello and guitarist Parricelli. Presencer, who wrote seven of the pieces, already seems an accomplished composer and even his rearrangement of the eighth and last piece, Bobby Timmons’ Moanin’ (retitled Still Moanin’)is a highly imaginative, almost cubist deconstruction of the original. Presencer never forces his solos – he’s prepared to wait, but has plenty in reserve. All the performances are excellent, but Afterthought, with its moody resonances, passionate flugelhorn and eloquent guitar, is a gem.

In the early 1970s, different jazz artists had different ways of acknowledging funk and soul. Miles Davis, John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Larry Coryell, and Chick Corea’s Return to Forever played outright fusion; their music was an innovative, forward-thinking mixture of jazz, rock, and funk. But at Creed Taylor’s CTI Records, the electric jazz of Freddie Hubbard, Joe Farrell, and others wasn’t really fusion — CTI had more of a “post-bop meets funk and pop” outlook. And similarly, Gerard Presencer’s 1997 recording Platypus combines jazz and funk without being outright fusion; on this melodic CD, the flugelhornist sounds like a post-bopper who has started incorporating funk rhythms and using electric instruments. Presencer’s appealing tone is greatly influenced by Hubbard (with hints of Miles Davis), and original pieces like “In the Air” and “Still Moanin'” wouldn’t have been out of place on a CTI recording that Taylor produced in the early 1970s. Platypus (which employs Jason Rebello on keyboards, John Paricelli on guitar, Andrew Cleyndert on bass, and Jeremy Stacey on drums) isn’t innovative or remarkable, but it’s definitely enjoyable — and you have to admire the fact that Presencer wrote everything on the CD instead of inundating listeners with overdone standards.

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2 min read

SACD

Gerald Veasley – Velvet (2002) [SACD / Heads Up International – HUSA 9072]

adminJanuary 20, 2026 86 Views

Title: Gerald Veasley – Velvet (2002)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Take the best of ’70s R&B and funk and filter it through a contemporary sensibility, and you have Gerald Veasley’s Velvet. On the album, the Philly-born bassist acknowledged the styles that inspired him in his youth and added his own expressive bass voice to create a collection of tunes that hark back to a seminal period in urban music but reflect a modern perspective.

On Velvet, bass player extraordinaire Gerald Veasley is as smooth as the title of his sixth solo effort for the Heads Up label implies. After one listen, his audience will know that the soul he plays is legendary. Veasley blends a richly textured mix of urban funk, the Philly sound, and his unique bass perspectives to give listeners his rendition of the sounds and sensibilities of the neo-soul movement. Eleven new compositions either written or co-written by Gerald Veasley, “Home,” and the outstanding cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Let’s Do It Again” make a resounding statement about the rich tradition of soul, rhythm & blues, gospel, and funk that continues to endear generation after generation of music lovers to their very essence. Songs such as “Coup de Ville,” “Velvet,” “Summer Kiss,” and “It’s Alright (Tonight’s the Night)” conjure up the perfect snapshot of Veasley’s musical mindset, which was obviously inspired by real-life visuals. Even though Gerald Veasley is still in tune with the fan appreciation garnered by his previous releases, he has noticeably stepped away from the bass riffs and voicing used on many of them, especially those heard during his time with Grover Washington, Jr.. However, his dynamic six-string bass guitar work still allows ample room and space for the very vivid improvisations contributed by his accompanists. Nearly 15 guest musicians add their impressions and memorable moments to this great musical set that Gerald Veasley has filled with tender human emotion, matchless funk, and memorable entertainment experiences.

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2 min read

SACD

Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr – Handel: Organ Concertos Op.4 (2008) [SACD / Harmonia Mundi – HMU 807446]

adminJanuary 20, 2026 111 Views

Title: Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr – Handel: Organ Concertos Op.4 (2008)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The scholarly searchlight of indefatigable Richard Egarr now falls on the Handel Organ concertos. These have been astonishingly popular since their inception around 1733 as interlude entertainment in Handel’s lucrative series of oratorios. They were an immediate success. So much so, that even before Handel and his publisher had produced their first edition, a pirated publication was on sale – “spurious” and “mangled” though Handel considered it.
There are dozens of excellent recordings of these concertos, many of them by expert period ensembles. What makes this one different? Well, most strikingly Egar uses a small English portable or chamber organ with only four stops and the sweet tone that English organ builders preferred. “A box of recorders” as Egar so aptly puts it. Not only is this instrument very similar to the one which Handel would have had in the theatre, but it has been tuned in an unequal mean-tone system, as commonplace at the time. This gives it some frisson-making spicy harmonies when it strays into certain keys, an effect Handel was certainly using deliberately. A second point of departure is the ornamentation. Egar listened to a barrel organ of the period with cylinders which had been programmed by John Smith, Jnr, Handel’s assistant and companion for the last 30 years of the composer’s life. They included several of the Op.4 concertos, and he was amazed at the dense ornamentation, with hardly a note untouched. Egar thus practised to produce a natural extempore ornamentation in performances, varying them each time. The result is as delightful and revealing as it is startling at first hearing, if one is used to relatively ‘plain’ performances of the solo part. Given a sumptuous but well-focussed DSD recording by Harmonia Mundi USA, the AAM sounds like a much larger body, so rich is the sound, particularly in the bass. The 5.0 track provides a suitable resonance from St Jude’s Church in London, but avoids the “churchy” atmosphere of many other performances – these concertos were after all performed in a theatre. The strings in particular are never ascerbic or brittle, but quite italianate in sound. Handel made a special effort in scoring the continuo for this work: there is an archlute and guitar in addition to the bass, which itself, rather unusually, has its own part rather than duplicating the cellos at the octave. The recording thus provides a sonorous engine underlining the AAM’s lithe and lyrical strings and winds. Handel’s sixth concerto in B flat major is an adaptation of a former Harp Concerto (delightfully played in the original harp version by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra on their selection from the Organ Concertos – Handel: Organ Concertos – Christian Schmitt). Here, the so-called ‘Alexander’s Feast’ concerto, as scored for harp and lute in the autograph, but no lute part remains. Bill Carter, the archlute player, takes up a baroque guitar and duets with Egarr’s organ part, recalling what must have been a sensational effect for the oratorio audience. In addition, all the violins are muted, with the violas and bass group playing pizzicato. What a master of the orchestra Handel was! Egarr makes the most of this mystic atmosphere by taking the first movement’s delectable tune somewhat slower than normal, although the ear quickly adjusts. Even if you have other recordings of Op.4, including the beautifully restored Chorzempa/Schroeder set, this winningly idiomatic and novel account is highly desirable, in both the loving musicianship and its glowing sonic portrait. Copyright © 2008 John Miller and SA-CD.net

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4 min read

SACD

Gentle Giant – Octopus (1972) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2010] [SACD / Vertigo – UIGY-9057]

adminJanuary 15, 2026 100 Views

Title: Gentle Giant – Octopus (1972) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2010]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Features the 2010 DSD mastering based on Japanese original analog tape. Reissue features the high-fidelity SHM-SACD format (fully compatible with standard SACD player, but it does not play on standard CD players). DSD transferred by Manabu Matsumura. Returning to Gentle Giant’s fourth album after any kind of lengthy absence, it’s astonishing just how little Octopus has dated. Often written off at the time as a pale reflection of the truly gargantuan steps being taken by the likes of Jethro Tull and Barclay James Harvest, the band’s closest relatives in the tangled skein of period prog, Gentle Giant often seemed more notable for its album art than its music. Octopus, however, marries the two seamlessly, with the cover speaking for itself, of course. And the mood continues within, the deliciously convoluted opening “The Advent of Panurge” itself riding waves of sonic tentacles as Gary Green’s guitar shrieks short but so effective bursts around the thundering bass and, occasionally, churchy organ. Against the pulsating volume of the album’s heavier tracks – “Panurge” is joined by “A Cry for Everyone” – the band’s excursions into less excitable territory are never less than captivating. Twiddly though they are, the sometimes a cappella “Knots,” the lilting “Dog’s Life,” and the Yes-with-fiddles-ish “Raconteur Troubadour” all have moments of sublime sweetness, while the instrumental “The Boys in the Band” is a succession of quirky showcases for, indeed, all the boys. Occasionally arrangements do get overly cluttered – with each of the six bandmembers doubling up on at least three different instruments, there’s a distinct sense of overdubs for overdubbing’s sake. Follow the key instruments alone, however, and the soundscapes not only make perfect sense, but so do the flourishes and intrusions that rattle around. And the end result is an album that has withstood the test of time a lot better than anyone might have expected.

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2 min read

SACD

Genesis – Wind & Wuthering (1976) [Remastered Reissue 2007] [SACD / Virgin – 0946 385048 2 5]

adminJanuary 15, 2026 100 Views

Title: Genesis – Wind & Wuthering (1976) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Wind & Wuthering followed quickly on the heels of A Trick of the Tail and they’re very much cut from the same cloth, working the same English eccentric ground that was the group’s stock in trade since Trespass. But if A Trick of the Tail played like Genesis’ attempt at crafting a great Genesis record without Peter Gabriel, as a way of finding their footing as a quartet, Wind & Wuthering finds Genesis tentatively figuring out what their identity will be in this new phase of their career. The most obvious indication of this is Mike Rutherford’s “Your Own Special Way,” which is both the poppiest tune the group had cut and also the first that could qualify as a love song. It stands out on a record that is, apart from that, a standard Genesis record, but quite a good one in that regard.

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1 min read

SACD

Genesis – We Can’t Dance (1991) [Remastered Reissue 2007] [SACD / Virgin – 5099950384020]

adminJanuary 15, 2026 92 Views

Title: Genesis – We Can’t Dance (1991) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

After spending the 1980s moving in an increasingly pop-friendly direction, 1991’s We Can’t Dance marked a return to earlier aesthetics for Genesis. Edgier with more prominent guitars and live drums than on Invisible Touch, the record was the band’s strongest musical statement in over a decade. With “Driving the Last Spike” and the dark “Dreaming While You Sleep” the group revisited one of their forgotten strengths, telling extended stories. That’s not to say the album is a return to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or Trick of the Tail. Indeed, while there are several extended pieces on the record, there is none of the eccentricities, odd meters, or extended virtuoso solos of the band’s progressive heyday. The album’s closer, “Fading Lights,” comes the closest, featuring an outstanding instrumental mid-section. Unfortunately, the record also contains some gutless ballads and paeans for world understanding that sound miles away from any immediacy. However, the surprisingly gritty singles “No Son of Mine,” “Jesus He Knows Me,” and “I Can’t Dance” help make up for the album’s weaker moments.

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2 min read

SACD

Genesis – Trespass (1970) [Remastered Reissue 2007] [SACD / Charisma – 5099951954321]

adminJanuary 15, 2026 96 Views

Title: Genesis – Trespass (1970) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis’ first truly progressive album, and their first record for the Charisma label (although Trespass was released in America by ABC, which is how MCA came to have it), is important mostly as a formative effort. Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, and Michael Rutherford are here, but the guitarist is Anthony Phillips and the drummer is John Mayhew. Gabriel, Banks, Phillips, and Rutherford are responsible for the compositions, which are far more ambitious than the group’s earlier efforts (“Silent Sun,” etc.). Unfortunately, much of what is here is more interesting for what it points toward than what it actually does — the group reflects a peculiarly dramatic brand of progressive rock, very theatrical as music, but not very successful. The lyrics are complex enough but lack the unity and clarity that would make Genesis’ subsequent albums among the most interesting of prog rock efforts to analyze. Gabriel’s voice is very expressive but generally lacks power and confidence, while the conventional backup vocalizing by the others is wimpy, and Phillips’ playing is muted. Tony Banks’ keyboards are the dominant instruments, which isn’t that bad, but it isn’t the Genesis that everyone came to know. The soft, lyrical “Visions of Angels” and “Stagnation” are typical, gentle works by a band that later learned how to rock much harder. Only one of the songs here, “The Knife” — which rocks harder than anything else on Trespass and is easily the best track on the album — lasted in the group’s concert repertory past the next album.

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2 min read

SACD

Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (2xSACD, 1974) [Remastered Reissue 2007] [SACD / Virgin – 509995 1956325]

adminJanuary 15, 2026 100 Views

Title: Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (2xSACD, 1974) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Given all the overt literary references of Selling England by the Pound, along with their taste for epic suites such as “Supper’s Ready,” it was only a matter of time before Genesis attempted a full-fledged concept album, and 1974’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was a massive rock opera: the winding, wielding story of a Puerto Rican hustler name Rael making his way in New York City. Peter Gabriel made some tentative moves toward developing this story into a movie with William Friedkin but it never took off, perhaps it’s just as well; even with the lengthy libretto included with the album, the story never makes sense. But just because the story is rather impenetrable doesn’t mean that the album is as well, because it is a forceful, imaginative piece of work that showcases the original Genesis lineup at a peak. Even if the story is rather hard to piece together, the album is set up in a remarkable fashion, with the first LP being devoted to pop-oriented rock songs and the second being largely devoted to instrumentals. This means that The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway contains both Genesis’ most immediate music to date and its most elliptical. Depending on a listener’s taste, they may gravitate toward the first LP with its tight collection of ten rock songs, or the nightmarish landscapes of the second, where Rael descends into darkness and ultimately redemption (or so it would seem), but there’s little question that the first album is far more direct than the second and it contains a number of masterpieces, from the opening fanfare of the title song to the surging “In the Cage,” from the frightening “Back in NYC” to the soothing conclusion “The Carpet Crawlers.” In retrospect, this first LP plays a bit more like the first Gabriel solo album than the final Genesis album, but there’s also little question that the band helps form and shape this music (with Brian Eno adding extra coloring on occasion), while Genesis shines as a group shines on the impressionistic second half. In every way, it’s a considerable, lasting achievement and it’s little wonder that Peter Gabriel had to leave the band after this record: they had gone as far as they could go together, and could never top this extraordinary album.

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3 min read

SACD

Genesis – Selling England By The Pound (1973) [Remastered Reissue 2007] [SACD / Virgin – 50999 519559 2 2]

adminJanuary 15, 2026 97 Views

Title: Genesis – Selling England By The Pound (1973) [Remastered Reissue 2007]
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Genesis proved that they could rock on Foxtrot but on its follow-up Selling England by the Pound they didn’t follow this route, they returned to the English eccentricity of their first records, which wasn’t so much a retreat as a consolidation of powers. For even if this eight-track album has no one song that hits as hard as “Watcher of the Skies,” Genesis hasn’t sacrificed the newfound immediacy of Foxtrot: they’ve married it to their eccentricity, finding ways to infuse it into the delicate whimsy that’s been their calling card since the beginning. This, combined with many overt literary allusions — the Tolkeinisms of the title of “The Battle of Epping Forest” only being the most apparent — gives this album a storybook quality. It plays as a collection of short stories, fables, and fairy tales, and it is also a rock record, which naturally makes it quite extraordinary as a collection, but also as a set of individual songs. Genesis has never been as direct as they’ve been on the fanciful yet hook-driven “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” — apart from the fluttering flutes in the fade-out, it could easily be mistaken for a glam single — or as achingly fragile as on “More Fool Me,” sung by Phil Collins. It’s this delicate balance and how the album showcases the band’s narrative force on a small scale as well as large that makes this their arguable high-water mark.

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2 min read