Analogue Productions US Schallplatten & CDs

Review: The prolific and influential John Coltrane comitted many a seminal recording to vinyl across his career. His 1961 work My Favourite Things is one such album and it now gets a special new pressing as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of Atlantic Records. The landmark album came from the same sessions as Coltrane Plays The Blues (1962) and Coltrane's Sound (1964), but marked something of a shift in his career. His playing is exploratory and innovative, unforced and naturally stylistic across gems like 'Everytime We Say Goodbye' and more.

Review: Released in 1960, Giant Steps was a watershed album for John Coltrane, solidifying the saxophone legend's reputation as one of the most influential and innovative musicians in jazz history, as well as delivering jazz to an increasingly mainstream audience, while garnering significant critical acclaim. Although this was John Coltrane's debut for Atlantic, he was concurrently performing and recording with Miles Davis. Within the space of less than three weeks, Coltrane would complete his work with Davis and company on another genre-defining disc, Kind Of Blue, before commencing his efforts on this one. Coltrane (tenor sax) is flanked here by essentially two different trios. Recording commenced in early May of 1959 with a pair of sessions that featured Tommy Flanagan (piano) and Art Taylor (drums), as well as Paul Chambers - who was the only bandmember other than Coltrane to have performed on every date. When recording resumed in December of that year, Wynton Kelly (piano) and Jimmy Cobb (drums) were instated, replicating the alternate non-Bill Evans lineup featured on 'Freddie The Freeloader' on Kind of Blue, sans Miles Davis of course. At the heart of these recordings, however, is the laser-beam focus of Coltrane's tenor solos.

Review: As part of Atlantic Records' 75th Anniversary celebration, the label has launched an extensive year-long vinyl series featuring 90 releases spanning the entire history of the company, from its earliest days until the present. Of these emerges this latest reissue of Crosby, Stills & Nash's self-titled debut album, first released on the label all the way back in 1969. The album features some of CSN's most well known and iconic songs; 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,' 'Marrakesh Express,' 'Guinnevere,' 'Wooden Ships,' 'Helplessly Hoping' and 'Long Time Gone.' This album saw a shift in sound to what was popular at the time - blues based rock - opting for a more folk rock, and sometimes jazz-based sound. It would lay the foundations for the California Sound that would be popularised out of Laurel Canyon in the '70s. Artists such as The Eagles, Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac would take inspiration from the sound of this record.

Review: The debut solo album by David Crosby of Crosby, Stills & Nash fame, If I Could Only Remember My Name is an ironic title for an artist first striking out on their commercial own. But despite its faux-amnesiac title, this freak-folk opus is actually a striking claim to, not a loss of, personal musical identity. Following the success of 1970's Deja Vu with Stills & Nash, Crosby sought to expound on that album's methodology - hard psychedelic drugs, brushes with insanity, copious studio time - to produce a crisp, profound and multifaceted vision on the intersection of blues, folk and collective music-making, with every legend from Neil Young to Joni Mitchell to Graham Nash in tow. The highlight has to be, above all, 'Tamalpais High (At About 3)'.

Review: The classic 1977 album Aja by Steely Dan gets a deluxe reissue treatment from Analogue Productions, reminding us once more of its stellar jazz-inspired arrangements, complex harmonies, and impeccable composition. Known affectionately as a 'studio is an instrument' album, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were meticulous and uncompromising at the time of its crafting. It's for these reasons alone that Aja remains a masterpiece, in which titles such as Peg, Deacon Blues and Josie resounding again with blues-pop-rocky flair.