Mark Smotroff

2 weeks ago | analogplanet.com | Mark Smotroff

Elton John & Brandi Carlile Collaborative Who Believes in Angels? LP Is a Somewhat Surprising SQ Winner on Tri-Color Vinyl By now you’ve probably heard the news that Elton John has paired up with Americana crossover phenomenon Brandi Carlile on their fine new Top 10 LP Who Believes in Angels?, which was released by Rocket/EMI on April 4, 2025. Given all the advance hype, we suspect some of you fence-sitters are probably wondering how the album actually sounds on vinyl.

3 weeks ago | ecoustics.com | Mark Smotroff

Two highly sought after, deeply collectible, early Miles Davis LPs have just received the audiophile spa reissue treatment from Craft Recordings’ Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series: 1957’s Walkin’ and 1955’s The Musing Of Miles. These all-analog (AAA) reissues were cut directly from the original master tapes, both recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, NJ, and meticulously remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.

3 weeks ago | ecoustics.com | Mark Smotroff

Record Store Day (RSD) 2025 may be over (well, until Black Friday/RSD later this year), but you can still find plenty of special editions in the racks of your favorite shops and online. Here’s a quick round-up of a few I snagged—mostly happy with my picks, but there’s one I’m still hunting for! If you can’t track these down locally, look for them on Amazon. Colemine Records (affiliated with Cincinnati’s Plaid Room Records store) has championed independent new modern vintage soul music since 2007.

3 weeks ago | analogplanet.com | Mark Smotroff

Original Soundtracks 1 by Passengers (a.k.a. Brian Eno and U2) Is a Must-Own 180g 2LP Recycled Black Vinyl 30th Anniversary Record Store Day Release One of the more under-the-radar releases that I didn’t see or hear many people talking about pre-Record Store Day 2025 (which occurred last Saturday, April 12, 2025) is the 30th anniversary 180g 2LP vinyl reissue of Passengers’ Original Soundtracks 1, a 1995 collaboration between U2 and their then-producer Brian Eno.

1 month ago | ecoustics.com | Mark Smotroff

An exciting development from the crossroads of jazz, television and animation is the recent series of releases from Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP), masterminds behind the iconic Peanuts TV specials of the 1960s through the ‘70s. Music for these programs was created by jazz legend Vince Guaraldi, yet by and large he capped off his commercially-released output in 1970.