That is how she looks at me. Every time. We don’t have anything to do with each other anymore.
She just farted.
Wasn’t sure.
I think Al was right about mine but yours is getting pretty darn close.
I just downloaded from Headphone Dust the Steven Wilson 2015 album Hand. Cannot. Erase. and its several choices of mixes. It also features demo versions, alternates, etc. I don’t normally listen much to that stuff - I assume that the artist, producer, etc. chose what they considered the best for the main album, but once in a while I’ll check some of that out. In this case, because I think the album is THAT innovative, I might do more. But as far as audio quality, it is incredible - probably couldn’t tell the difference vs. its streamed version on Qobuz, but I do like directly compensating Steven. One thing I noticed in previewing some of his other albums is how different each one is from the others. The best artists do this, even to the point of different approaches to soundstage, imaging, etc.
I very much hope you’ll enjoy it. Specifically to Hand. Cannot. Erase - It’s a masterpiece, artistically and production-level, and a painfully-tragic commentary (hopefully, turned into a reflective-stance on ourselves) on our lives in post-modern culture/society. Self-inflicted.
Indeed, Steven Wilson is one of those artists who Create rather than Entertain, therefore ongoing change and development is core to all of his albums. He keeps surprising me, being emotionally evocative and intellectually stimulating, whether I like or not a particular album of his. An invitation into a meaningful relationship, where a complex spectrum of emotions and thoughts (rather than a unidimensional one, such as idealized/hated) emerges between oneself and the other.
If you decide to proceed deeper into Steven’s discography, I highly recommend The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories). Alan Parsons was responsible for its production. The instrumental versions are magical.
Wow, you sure captured (and then some) Steven Wilson’s contributions to the art of music and recording. I wonder if there has ever been anyone as good at the recording arts (engineering, mixing) as at creating and performing? Every so often, I’ll see the artist listed as “engineer” in the credits, but I can think of almost.none where there wasn’t another engineer listed. One exception is Jacob Collier (maybe this is a British phenomenon?) where on his 2016 album In My Room, he did literally everything - played all instruments, sang all vocals, engineered, produced. I’m sure there’s someone who’s done this in their garage, but a major artist? Alan Parsons maybe.
One thing I got a chuckle out of when I mentioned listing “engineer” in the credits, back when I was in the recording and video industry (this was back when video was done on this stuff called tape), people would come in and show their “demo reel,” which would have these amazing productions on them. “You DID that?” I’d ask. “Well, not entirely - I was on the production team.” I’d ask, “And what did you do?” “Delivered coffee.” OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it sure wasn’t producer or director.
There was a related joke that went around: a guy died and was met at the Pearly Gates by Saint Peter. I’m assuming you’d like to be in heaven," Peter said, “but first you should have a look at hell to see whether you might rather go there.” The guy shrugged and went into the decision room where he could see hell through a window. It was filled with great looking people having a wonderful time on the beach, eating gourmet food, listening to high-end stereos (I just added that part). “Gosh,” the guy said, “I don’t think I need to decide - that’s exactly the way I’d like to spend eternity.” He signs the necessary papers, then goes into hell, only to find that it’s horrible, fire (hot as hell of course), endless suffering, the usual things associated with hell. At one point he complains to another guy, telling him what happened. “Oh,” the other guy replies, “that was the demo reel.”
Sunday is my day to do some vinyl - just a dumb tradition I started a few years ago. So this past Sunday, I decided to check out the 2nd half of the Radiohead album A Moon Shaped Pool. Then it occurred to me - this topic - nobody has mentioned Radiohead once, one of the most commonly-mentioned audiophile-centric groups ever. I’ve seen several references to OK Computer being the best recording from an audiophile standpoint since DSOTM. I don’t agree, but I’m also not a huge fan of Radiohead from a musical standpoint. But I saw something about this new pressing of Moon Shaped Pool and decided to give it a listen. It really does have a kind of presence I can’t describe anyone else having - maybe Steven Wilson to some degree. The track that really stood out for me was “Glass Eyes” - a great mix of modern and traditional audio put together.
Jon, not sure what renderer you use, but it is there on Qobuz.
Tricycle, Flim & The BB’s - Qobuz https://share.google/X3tEI5kRxbGKlcpp3
I use BubbleUpNP & also have trouble finding albums if I don’t search exactly the way Qobuz has it, e.g. “Flim and the BBs” v. “Flim & the BB’s”.
I find Radiohead’s OK Computer spinoff “Amnesiac” a better recording sonically, and maybe even artistically. Anyway, it’s all good.
Flim and the BBs were a twin cities group and recorded their first mainstream recording, Tricycle, on a prototype 3M digital recorder. The machine was long ago moth-balled, yet Tricycle was released numerous times subsequently in better and better formats. Not sure how they did that, but it sounds like a great topic for a boring article or documentary that all of us would love! 
I have all the DMP discs.
Me too.
My fave was Big Notes.
Neon here.
Thanks. Yeah, this has happened many times where I do a search one way on Qobuz consistent with the way I normally do searches, and it doesn’t find it, then try another stupider way and it finds it.
Thanks for the recommendation - I’ll give Amnesiac a listen and see if it connects better with me.
One genre we haven’t discussed is classical, or as my jazz-aficionado friend calls it to give it a bit more modern inclusiveness: concert music. I was going to joke and suggest some 19th-Century composers who would be more associated with high-end audio, but I have actually read - and I’m qualified, having done 2 years of graduate study in musicology - that there were composers who insisted their music be played in halls with better acoustics. But I guess it wasn’t until the 20th Century that we might find high-end audio recording focused composers. I have read that certain conductors like Leonard Bernstein, Herbert van Karajan, Georg Solti, Zubin Meta, Pierre Boulez, etc. were very interested in the quality of recordings. And there are certainly classical-focused labels like Telarc who got their name on the audiophile map. I’m thinking Steve Reich and Philip Glass might qualify as “go-to” for higher-end audio.
Others?