artist: Grateful Dead This title is not currently available on Amazon album: American Beauty format: DualDisc (16-bit Audio CD; Advanced Resolution 96Khz and 24-bit 5.1 Surround Sound DVD-A) label: Rhino Records release year: 2004 performance: 10 sound: 8.5 special features: Exclusive Video Interviews with Mickey Hart and Bob Weir; Photo Gallery; Song Lyrics reviewed by: Jeff Fish How do you review an album that’s 35 years old (really?!?), has worldwide appeal and is generally thought of as the best studio album by one of rock’s greatest acts? Well, I’m about to do it …

artist: Poncho Sanchez function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); album: Poncho at Montreux format: DualDisc label: Concord/Silverline release year: 2004 performance: 8.5 sound 9 reviewed by: Jerry Del Colliano Ask anyone who is into 5.1 surround sound what they are passionate about and they will rant, rave and even drool about the audio experience. Ask a record producer or mixing engineer and they talk about having their box of crayons upgraded from the little 16 pack to the big 64 box with the sharpener in the back. Everyone loves music in surround. The problem arises when you start building your collection and realize there simply isn’t that much music mixed for surround, even to this day. Early adopters of music in surround latched onto the critically acclaimed “Buena Vista Social Club” DVD-Audio disc, but since then, there simply hasn’t been much that adds to that genre. That is until now.

artist: Bob Marley and the Wailers function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close();<br> album: Soul Rebels format: DualDisc label: Silverline release year: 2004 performance: 7.5 sound 5 reviewed by: Charles Andrews This is not new music from the Rasta Prophet, and I say that of necessity because even though Bob Marley’s been gone 23 years, there’s no telling what might pop up tomorrow. L.A. Marley authority Roger Steffens co-produced a triple-triple-double CD release on the JAD label a few years back (three more were subsequently added) of individual tracks that were unheard outside Jamaica. Marley sang and played and composed nearly every waking moment, it seems, and if he wasn’t recording it, someone else was. Steffens’ JAD material (now sadly out of print) was stunningly revelatory in its consistent superb quality of material. While most top artists’ earlier work is something they hide from, Marley had a creative wellspring that was not only continuous but potent.

Silverline performance 8 sound 8 1st released 2001 released 2004 Thank you, Jane, for the absolutely gorgeous album – how often can you say that? – and the accompanying moral dilemma. There’s not much to pick apart and analyze here, though pick a bit I must (it’s my job), because when you listen many, many, many times, as any good reviewer should (but few do), you start to notice little things on the tenth time through that you didn’t catch before and, by the twentieth listen, you may have a completely different opinion than your first impression.

artist: Josh One function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> album: Narrow Path format: DualDisc label: Myutopia Records release year: 2005 performance: 7 sound 8 reviewed by: Dan MacIntosh Josh One is the producer and arranger of this diverse musical collection. And since he is also a DJ, Narrow Path is naturally a dance music project. But what puts him a few hot steps ahead of the dance crowd is how he incorporates a wide variety of instruments into his mixes, and the way he matches the right vocalists to his songs. This is just as much listening music as it is dance music.