A great article by Anne E. Johnson in Stereophile. There was a time when audiophiles only listened to "audiophile records". This is no longer the case. Thankfully so. But there are vast, vast territories not yet reached. It is time to break barriers.
This article is healthy and refreshing. And a nice list. I miss Fontaines D.C. and Joanna Newsom and Nine Inch Nails and Om and many more. And especially many more albums produced by the amazing Steve Albini.
Of course no list is complete. But this is definitely a leap forward. And Stereophile is undeniably at the forefront here. They deserve an award as the best audiophile magazine for musical taste, at least in pop/rock. I remember the late Art Dudley using Joanna Newsom's Ys to assess equipment performance in his column. And Michael Fremer recommending Jesus Lizard - also produced by the amazing Steve Albini. And John Atkinson using Nine Inch Nails and Bill Laswell in his reviews, not to mention Herb Reichert who has great taste in music.
Maybe this is also a "generation" thing. People my age grew up on indie, alternative and even underground stuff. Now that we're getting older we're also in power, and we get to decide, we do the reviews, we do the demos and hi-fi shows and so on. And the world becomes a more diverse, if not altogether better place.
My personal recommendation for today is Fontaines D.C.'s cover of The Velvet Underground's The Black Angel's Death Song, in the posthumous remake of The V.U. & Nico produced by the late Hal Willner (one of the greatest producers of all time). A link between the different generations of independent music. Declare independence! Yes, there's also a silly song by Bjork with that title. Have fun! That is the key.
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