Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Stunning Recordings

Some recent favorites:

Fionn Regan - The End of History: Mostly finger-picking-style guitar, this kid has some SERIOUS talent. This album grabs you at about 3 seconds in, it's that good.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go: Pretty mellow, but lush, goes from sparse to huge crescendos even within a single song. Really nice male/female vocal harmonies as well.

Medeski, Martin and Wood - Tonic: 100% acoustic live recording of a fine jazz trio. Some of their improvised stuff won't be everyone's cup of tea, but when they get rolling they make some of the best live jazz I've ever heard. Because this one was recorded through mics on the stage and not through the board, you hear every stool creak and audience noise, and it sounds great in 5.1.

Harry Manx - Road Ragas: Some great live blues and a few ragas to get your groove on. There are a couple fantastic covers on this one, like BB King's "The Thrill is Gone".

I've been driving my local library crazy picking up a lot of the stuff recommended here, so thanks everyone!

The disc that I'll bring to your attention now is Ottorino Respighi's Roman Trilogy (Roman Festivals, Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome)by Batiz with the Royal Philharmonic, which should certainly be stunning to our members of Italian ancestry(plus Slavic, French and all other ancestries). From the violence of the Circus Games in Roman Festivals to the gentle beauty of The Fountain of Valle Giulia at Dawn in Fountains of Rome, this is terrific music in excellent sound, all available at a bargain price(e.g., $6.99 at Tower ).

If you're into instrumental music, give Nine Inch Nails Ghost's I-IV a try. It is very well recorded...and with this album they are changing the music industry.

http://ghosts.nin.com/

I'll second the "Ghosts" recommendation. First, I just had to support Trent Reznor, even though it's been years since I regularly listened to NIN: $5 for almost 2 hours worth of CD quality downloads? Let's see more of that! You can download the first set of tracks for free to get a taste.

And while a largely electronic recording may not exactly qualify as a "stunning recording" in the same sense as a recording of, say, an orchestral performance, it certainly does sound great - not overly compressed like so much contemporary music.

Reznor really improved upon the Radiohead download model - Radiohead only offered 160kbps mp3's, and the original recording is not all that great-sounding to begin with (although the songs, in and of themselves, are quite good, IMO).

John K

Do you like Respighi's Airs and Dances? I heard it once and think I should buy it now, but which one? I don't mind spending 12 or 14 USD for a really good version. Naxos version gets good reviews as well.

Sure Don, I like the Ancient Airs and Dances, especially the Bergamasca in the 2nd Suite. I like his Three Botticelli Pictures even more and would suggest that any disc that you get should include both. A bargain Respighi collection that I got some time ago includes both in excellent performances plus other items such as the Pines and Fountains(the Batiz disc suggested above is a bit better for Pines and Fountains and also includes Roman Festivals). You can get that 2-disc set for about $8.00 plus shipping from several sellers at Amazon .

I actually bought that disc at Borders yesterday, but am thinking of taking it back unopened - after listening to the samples on Amazon. Not my style I guess.

Thanks anyway, JohnK. Where to you type from, anyway? Just curious.

Don

I found a cheaper and well reviewed cd of Respighi's Airs and Dances at the cd store near my house - it is actually pretty good. I should just listen when JohnK recommends cds.

Then I picked up Respighi's Roman trilogy (2 parts of it) by Reiner - also good. The one he recommended seems, from reviews, to be just as good and is significantly cheaper.

Anymore recommendations? This is one of the main threads I check at the Axiom forums - since I like my M22s and don't see upgrading speakers anytime soon.

Respighi, Knopfler, what else am I missing out on?

Yes Don, you certainly should just listen to my recommendations(what about the Three Botticelli Pictures that I emphasized along with the Ancient Airs?). Just to start with, the Batiz Roman Trilogy that I suggested as a "stunner" is significantly better than the Reiner in both performance and sound, is cheaper, and of course includes all three compositions, which is an absolute necessity.

You're missing out on a whole bunch more of great music that's waiting for you out there at amazingly low prices. To be continued.

The Lopez-Cobos Ancient Airs cd also has the Botticelli Pictures on it.

But, I stand corrected.