ECM - still among the most vibrant and relevant labels:

 ECM after 3 decades still manages to keep itself relevant and interesting, even exciting. Many ECM titles end up being my most anticipated, and while I tend to veer away from some of the more 'atmospheric' titles (as in, slow, new age-y, moody as a genre type shit), there are some very cutting edge titles being released. You can find out about Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek ECM's on Amazon, I'm interested in some you probably haven't heard about - and should.

Andy Sheppard's Trio Libero is not surprisingly a trio record. Unlike the previous ECM 'Movements In Colour', which is a masterpiece where the case for tablas replacing drums is most persuasive, Trio Libero is more vague and less grounded, hampered ECM giving Sheppard a sound-space like Garbarek records - big, lots of echo, hollow - that doesn't suit the music.

Sheppard is a great player and Movements In Colour is essential in any collection. Trio Libero is a miss.

On the other hand, Tord Gustavsen's "The Well" is a fine European record that, well, doesn't swing in the New York sense, but swings hard in it's European Classical way. Tore Brunborg is here on tenor, and he's no Garbarek, thankfully. He's a full throated jazz player, without any pretensions. Gustavsen plays chamber jazz, yet shows blues and even gospel harmonies and runs within that framework. The music is a classic quartet, inspired, on the ground (albeit Norwegian ground, not American) and is among the best working groups on the current scene. Highly recommended.

Billy Hart keeps on working, and here comes a quartet with the tenor of Mark Turner (who does another ECM band called Fly which is truly awful), the piano of Ethan Iverson, and the fine bass of Ben Street. This working band has recorded previously for High Note (the ultrafine "Quartet") and this new CD, "All Our Reasons", is very fine also. Hart is one of the great drummers, or perhaps more accurately up with Elvin as one of the great 'cymbals' players, and he is the driving presence here, along with Street. Turner plays his best in front of Hart. A good, recommendable CD.

At the other spectrum, Masabumi Kikuchi is little known outside Japan, where his 1980's "Susto" was a minor fusion hit. He did a fair bit of respected acoustic work for Three Blind Mice, and after being under the radar for far too long, arrives with "Sunrise', a trio record featuring the great Paul Motian in one of his last sessions. And a great one it is - Motian comes full circle here from his Bill Evans era, with the great abstract player Kikuchi drawing bold tone poems and once both abstract and familiar, this will no doubt be acclaimed as one of the best jazz records of the year.

And what's great about ECM - their new release schedule shows even more highly anticipate-able recordings due in May. Stay tuned.

Record Store Day 2012 - my take...

Another Record Store Day comes and goes. Mixed feelings - it's a massive gouge, plenty of overpriced 45's and stuff that really is of marginal value and couldn't be sold other than on a promotional day like this. Some things of value, some hidden gems. But overall, there is little that would be missed if it never came out, yet, the flipside is that RSD puts a huge amount of profit into indie retailers pockets (and, sadly, Ebay record scalpers) and as that helps sustain retailers that often struggle financially and are swimming upstream against the tide, I can't complain and jump in there happily with my hand in my pocket.

I picked up most of the Sundazed singles. Sonically they are outstanding, musically, The Blues Project is awesome and the B-side is even better than the A-side, the Beefheart is good but pretty early, inessential and not fully formed Beefheart, The Byrds is well done but inessential, the Chocolate Watch Band and Blues Magoos are essential and are stompers. The Gene Clark is really a Byrds thing and is really good. The Paul Revere is missable.

The Mastodon/Flaming Lips single is excellent, the Mastodon/Feist less so, mostly due to the rather lightweight Feist, not helped by a really shitty pressing. The non-album B-side to the Paul Weller single is a great track, very worth having. Less so the B to the Springsteen single. Blitzen Trapper return with a good 45 offering, the Black Angels single is not really all that great, although the RaRaRiot split is. And so it goes...all the way to the two Small Faces singles, which are simply stupendous sounding, coming as analog cuts from true, long unused original masters - Tin Soldier has never sounded so good. The Clash London Calling 45 is rather poor value, the 2012 remix is no great revelation, and the instrumental version on the B-side a curiosity at best.

The revelatory 45 set of RSD 2012 comes from Light in The Attic, following last year's excellent Wheedle's Groove box with this years Flipside Of Stax box, a great set of long forgotten, yet absolutely revelatory Stax and Volt singles, beautifully pressed and presented with original labels and a very high quality booklet, containing a rare current interview with founders Jim Stewart and Al Bell. Should still be very easy to get a copy at your local.

The major box set of RSD 2012 must be the Tomahawk box. I haven't listened to Mit Gas in many years, awesome a record though it is, and here on vinyl it, and the other two Tomahawks albums in the set, sounds fabulous and is a good pressing. I got mine for under $50, a true bargain for 3 LPs. This is what makes Record Store Day worthwhile.

Picked up Spot the Pigeon, the Genesis EP on Audio Fidelity. Sounds really amazing, and the songs are good - very good actually, in ways better than anything on Wind & Wuthering, the sessions they come from. At the same time, I can hear why they weren't included on Wind & Wuthering - they don't fit that album conceptually, and would have made it a much different record. Lyrically they are at times inconsistent, but overall, great stuff and indicative of a stronger direction Genesis could have taken as they were concurrently heading in a poppier direction.

Seem that the 'hot' title this RSD was the Phish 3 LP set. I had it in my hands, and was tempted, even though I have never been able to 'get' Phish. Nice looking package though, but I passed - probably could have recouped a lot of my RSD investment by selling it on Ebay, but I never want to be one of those people.

I did get the usual Grateful Dead offering, though, well done and fairly priced, this time it is a continuation of the '72 live series, a single disc containing one performance of Dark Star spread over two sides, intelligently cut to be a continuous experience. Very good sounding, pressed at RTI in not their top quality, very worthwhile to Dark Star aficionados.

Likewise, mclusky's Do Dallas is one of those under the radar RSD treats - this is a seminal underground record, punkish, punchy, off beat and very lyrically offbeat, makes God Save The Queen sound like a stupid pop record. One to get.

Dinosaur Jr's Electronic Anthology is a marginal pressing that takes a bit of work to get quiet, these reworking of Dinosaur Jr tracks is actually very good and this is a record worth having.

Vanguard reissue Joan Baez (Farewell Angelina) and This Is Buddy Guy, both seminal records, both sounding very good and well pressed.

Sony brings out Forever Miles, an anthology of tracks from the various Miles CD box sets that have never appeared on vinyl before. I was going to pass, but got roped in by the interesting track selection, I'm glad I did as it is really very good, sounds pretty good, and is well pressed. Worth seeking out a copy.

The Flaming Lips are kind of a RSD staple, and "The Flaming Lips and Heady Fweinds" is a two LP set of tracks from various collaboration over the past year and a bit. 4 of the tracks have been previously issued on 12" 45's, the rest are new to this set, making it very worthwhile if your head is into where the Lips are these days, which is further out there than ever into 4:20 day territory, I love it and this is a great RSD release. Should be super easy to find for cheap as tons of these were pressed - don't buy on Ebay unless you are one of the dumber members of the 1%.

A few other odds & ends, like a Velvet Underground "Loaded" on pink vinyl that sounds ok, but not super, the source material is not great to begin with. Haven't been able to track down what looks to be an awesome Steven Wilson record.

That's it until the more dubious side of RSD hits on Black Friday.

Have we talked about Music Matters and Blue Note lately?

It's been awhile since I rounded up the Music Matters Blue Note series. Sadly, it appears to be coming to an end - or hopefully at best a hiatus. I have no 'inside knowledge' here, but I have to guess that sales are tough in the desperate U.S economic climate, and the highly conservative American jazz tastes, given that the market for these titles remains stuck in old folks who really know little of the music, likely make a well curated series that is putting out the quality titles, rather than just the old warhorses financially difficult. That is a real crime, and hopefully it can be corrected so this essential series - one that has such massive cultural and historical significance in preserving music so central to jazz - can be resumed.

 Let's get caught up. First, Wayne Shorter. Can't get enough Wayne Shorter! The Soothsayer is a title that languished in the BN vault for over a decade, and never really got the respect it deserves. It's a prime slice of where Shorter was heading in the mid 60's, pointing to records like Schizophrenia and to a lesser extent The All Seeing Eye, yet with a glance backwards to Speak No Evil. Spaulding is hot as he always is, the under-rated journeyman who was an unsung backbone collaborator. Tyner and Hubbard are solid, and Carter's bass is creative and rock solid. Tony Williams is Tony Williams. The sound, another Kevin Gray remastering, is exceptional as always in this series. Not an essential Shorter title, rather, here Music Matters brings an unexpected, and delicious surprise. Jazz is about being surprised, right?

But this month brings Shorter's "Adams Apple", and gang, if you need to sell your car, or do a few shifts at McDonalds in the drive-thru, or whatever you need to do, GET THIS ONE - ADAM'S APPLE. Here's the story. I got a bunch of titles shipped to me, and without really looking at them, I played a bunch straight through, right out of the box. Last title I cued up I thought was a Dexter Gordon title (i really was not paying attention that night). All of a sudden, this tenor comes out of the speakers - big, strong, vibrant, powerful. I just about jumped up - a 'WTF' type of moment. I knew the opening of Adam's Apple like the sound of my kids' voices. But...not like this. The SOUND - this is what Music Matters is all about. Shorter's tenor was THERE - in three dimensions - that big Otto Link 11* monstrous big, dry, harmonically rich sound. Then Joe Chambers comes in, laying down the thunder, and Herbie, and Reggie Workman's bass - solid, big, filling the room.

I was awestruck by Elvin Jones' "Genesis" on Music Matters - the sound on that one, and the music, is revelatory (and if you don't have Genesis, you are sick, and need to fix that fast). Adams Apple is that good. Like I said - sell your body on the street if you have to, get the money, buy it. While you still can.

And while you're at it - get JACKIE McLEAN's "One Step Beyond", it is an essential Blue Note record. One day, archaeologists and musicologists will dig up this Music Matters reissue and study it for it's cultural impact. When this was recorded, Crescent and Ornette were the forward direction, and McLean was embracing the new direction, aided by Grachan Moncur, and the young Tony Williams. This is one of the best Tony Williams records. Moncur is huge, warm, splitting tones and heading out, while staying tonally in the pocket. Bobby Hutcherson is here given the tone he really had, but was never heard on record before Music Matters - a warmly metallic, percussive, 'hitting' sound, bell like, amazing. I felt earlier in the MM series that, when Hoffman was involved, that Jackie's tone wasn't presented as authentically as possible - that Hoffman predilection to smooth things out, turn down the treble, and make exciting edgy music sound like smooth jazz. Kevin Grey doesn't make that mistake, and gets McLean's tone dead right - that tart, slightly off key tonality and hard edge full of emotion. Get this one. Beautiful.

 I haven't considered Art Blakey's "Like Someone In Love" one of the essential Blakey Blue Notes, and I continue to press for Blakey masterpieces like "Mosaic" and "Buhaina's Delight" above this one. But I have to admit, hearing it on Music Matters drives it up in my estimation - way up. This is exactly what is so RIGHT about the Music Matters series - bringing out titles that are unexpected, off the main track, deserving of re-evaluation, unlikely to GET re-evaluated unless a group like Music Matters have the balls to do it. Hearing it on Music Matters, it is a worthy title, a prime example of just how good the Morgan- Shorter front line lead Blakey band of this era could be.

 If you haven't got McCoy Tyner's "The Real McCoy", get it now while you still can. Imagine the Classic Coltrane Quartet, with Joe Henderson out front subbing for Coltrane, and Ron Carter on bass. Historically, Carter's bass was way down in the mix and wimpy, lacking impact. Not so here. Carter with Elvin is a driving force, and that big, fat Carter sound, with it's big sustained notes and swooping glisses, is pumping here for really the first time. Henderson's tone, which in reality was never that big but was tightly focused and controlled (he used a Selmer C* rubber mouthpiece with a small chamber typically used by classical players) is right out front here and glorious. These tunes have entered into the modern repertoire as virtual standards. No relevant jazz collection can be without The Real McCoy.

And speaking of Joe Henderson, and essential sessions and virtual modern standards, don't overlook Kenny Dorham's "Una Mas" on Music Matters. Una Mas, the title track, is now a standard, yet the original remains definitive. Dorham remains criminally under-appreciated. He is the link between Clifford Jordan and Woody Shaw, has both phenomenal technique and a rich, unique tone - and was a terrific forward looking improviser with deep soulfulness. Henderson was always at a peak, inspired by playing with his mentor Dorham. Una Mas is a side long soulful piece of latin tinged soulful jazz. Music Matters makes it so rhythmically tuneful and propulsive it can raise the dead. Beautiful, dancing in the head. Essential.

Lastly, bringing this post full circle, if you want Music Matters to continue past the final two titles announced for May, there is ONLY ONE WAY TO DO IT. And it involves putting the pocketbook together with the passion, and getting back to some of those titles you passed on, and getting yourself back to the adventure of the unexpected. Here are a few that ARE essential - both sonic highlights of the series, and musical highpoints off the warhorse beat. Pick SIX, call Music Matters, order them, and show you care about the music:

1. ELVIN JONES - Genesis.
2. SAM RIVERS - Fuschia Swing Song
3. ANDREW HILL - Point Of Departure
4. JOE HENDERSON - Inner Urge
5. DONALD BYRD - Byrd In Hand
6. DEXTER GORDON - Getting Around
7. BOBBY HUTCHERSON - Happenings
8. LEE MORGAN - Tomcat
9. JACKIE McLEAN - Destination Out
10. DONALD BYRD - The Catwalk
11. JOE HENDERSON - Our Thing
12. ART BLAKEY - Indestructible

And a hint about what's coming up in May!

I have a Test Pressing of Grant Green's STREET OF DREAMS - and let's just say, that if this series is going out, it's going out with such a big bang that creationists and going to be blasted back into the Stone Age! Preorder this one before it's too, late, and please - pick out a few of the titles listed above to keep the excitement going!

Reissue of the decade (so far!) !!

Yes, that is no understatement! This is a totally out of the blue, unheralded, under the radar reissue of a virtually unknown and long forgotten masterpiece - Martha Bass (mother of Fontella Bass) "I'm So Grateful", a 1966 record of gospel done in the real R&B, blues shouting deep down style that is the real, real deal. Martha Bass is a singer that makes Mahalia Jackson come across like a gospel Streisand. There really are no words for this record - it comes like a shot out of the dark, a glorious and inspirational music that grabs you deep down, gets you up with feet moving, and never lets go. Sounding very good on this reissue, including both stereo and mono mixes, this simply cannot be missed. Work a little, find it, get it. The world today is populated by lame ass black singers who are little more than auto tune poseurs, or bottom feeding porn posturers. This is the real thing.

A few recent Jazz titles you should check out!

 The Aum Fidelity label continues to impress with the finest of modern improvised American music, and it has two new titles you must hear. The Darius Jones Quartet "Book Of Mae'Bul" is the last of a trilogy, the best, and shows what jazz is, can be, and should be in the 21st century. It is quite unique, with overtones of A Love Supreme, Marion Brown, Tchachi, and Ornette, but really, if you are looking for the 1960's here, it is a wrong approach to the music. Now we have, walking the planet, musicians who came up after those giants, who absorbed their work as well as what was around them of their generation, who have created a new and compelling acoustic statement. Less of a screechfest than his previous work, Book Of Mae'Bul is challenging, magnificent, cleansing and looks forward while acknowledging where it came from. Highly recommended.

Even more compelling is the new CD from the great pianist Eri Yamamoto, "The Next Page", and here Eri Yamamoto builds on an already very impressive body of recorded work on Aum Fidelity, a working trio that has been together for long enough to be able to go to new places, here particularly there are more gospelish and blues based overtones and a refreshingly open organic approach making this a new height in Yamamoto's discography. It's one that I have listened to, and will listen to many times. Bill Evans is long gone. Now we are fortunate to be living in a era where for the crop around today Evans may have been one of several starting points, but where Jarrett, Tyner, Zawinul, and even the many great European pianists of the last 30 years have been absorbed together with other genres into what is still trio jazz, but of the moment. This is not to be missed.

 The United States continues to churn out an endless stream of hot looking young white female (so-called) jazz singers with the same old tired standards repertoire, all featuring languid, breathy vocals that are virtually elevator music for the Starbucks crowd. But in France, the real centre of innovative jazz today, that is not the case. There are many exciting and innovative instrumentalists and vocalists who aren't selling to the grandad market, but are pushing boundaries and expectations. Here is a new CD from Mina Agossi "Red Eyes" which features the great Archie Shepp on a couple of tracks. Shepp, of course, is rarely heard from these days - his embouchure is known to be shot, and the 'Fire Musc' days are long behind him. Or...maybe not. He plays a fiery tenor here on two tracks, obviously inspired by the artistry around him. And he also plays a mean bluesy piano, and sings. It's great to hear Shepp in 2012, yet, the stars here are Agossi and the music (Shepp and Agossi take on Hendrix' Red House!) which is smoking hot. Not a smooth ballads throwback, Agossi takes on contemporary songs, her own stuff, and out of the way material with a fabulous backing band - and a voice that is awesome, deep, blues at the bottom, the real soul, and a real feeling. This ain't no Diana Krall, thankfully, and sure isn't any Jacintha or Allyson. A killer record that should not be missed.

And to round things out - have you ever considered what the clarinet could be in jazz is the preconceptions of the instrument as a Dixieland or Swing era instrument were cast off? The answer is with Arun Ghosh, and the two CD's here - Primal Odyssey and Northern Namste, are the prime evidence. But you have to toss off another preconception - that of British Jazz. Ghosh places the clarinet into a potent new world context here, into a turbulent and potent world mix. It's a steaming hot mix, one that takes in very exotic places and a point of view that Ellington, Radiohead, Weather Report, Jef Gilson and others all come from the same DNA. This isn't a head/solos/head type of jazz, it's large ensemble music that weaves threads on many levels and tells stories. Fabulous music.

Following up on that ORG Music - Black Lion reissue series

Announcement this past week about the ORG Music Black Lion reissue series that I wrote about last fall, and it confirms everything that I said previously about it. It's a total sham.

First, it is now clear that Hoffman's involvement is simply to plaster his name on it so it can be promoted to the hapless lemmings on his forum. Hoffman is listed as an "EQ consultant", which in truth is all Hoffman has ever been - he can't actually remaster anything, becuase he has neither the mastering engineer skill set or the mastering studio to do so. All he ever does is dwiddle the EQ while someone else - lately Steve Marsh, or previously Kevin Gray, does the actual remastering and/or cutting.

In some cases, Hoffman does nothing at all, but charges a fee (I understand $500 a title) to lease his name to the credits - a bald practice to sell product to his forum lemmings, another Stockholm Syndrome practice. I'll bet that is the case with the ORG Black Lion series.

I have previously expressed my opinion that the Black Lion catalog is for the most part hardly a candidate for an expensive reissue project. It consists of less than prime material by artists recording with pickup European musicians of less than stellar calibre, in ok sound, during a period typically past the prime of the artists in question.

Now, with the announcement of the titles, that is all confirmed.

First, there is a title claimed to be by Miles Davis, "Boppin The Blues". This title is not a Miles Davis recording at all, it features a young Miles as part of a backup band behing two vocalists, in less than inspiring 1940's performances. It's not a Miles session at all. It would be tough to sell more than a handful of budget price CD's of this material, let alone a preium vinyl reissue. On musical grounds, it's pretty bad. Yet here it is, and to add to the manipulativeness of the whole thing, the new cover art shows a late 1950's era Miles rather than a photo appropriate to the vintage of the material.

The same is true of the cover art for most others. The Thelonious Monk material has a picture of Monk in his 1950's prime, yet the late career material on the ORG/Black Lion was recorded by the goateed Monk with  a butt hanging out of his mouth. Obviously, this material is being aimed straight at the Hoffmanites who for the most part can't get out of 1950's bop. The Ben Webster title shows a late 40's image of Ben, yet the material is from the end of his career, mid 60's.

All very manipulative, even dishonest.

The Duke Ellington title might be worthwhile, although in truth this is material not of the same calibre as his major label stuff from the same era. Ditto for the Dexter Gordon, which is not bad stuff even though there is far better Dexter screaming for reissue.

It's LIMITED! It's on 45RPM! It's NUMBERED! There's a DELUXE edition! There's even a DIECUT EXCLUSIVE BOX to house them in!

Very exciting. I say take a pass and demand integrity and musical relevance from companies like ORG Music.

Stupid thread of the year on Hoffman's Idiot board:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=271587

Live and in your face on the Hoffman vanity board - a lively discussion of mini-LP CD packaging.

Started by moron of the year "TarnishedEars", and appropriate moniker if there ever was one:

"The things that I dislike about this style of packaging include:
1) It doesn't fit inside of precisely spaced CD-Racks.
2) It is virtually impossible to remove a disk from the inner sleeve without getting finger-prints all over it.
3) The packaging just seems like it was deliberately created to be disposable.
4) The fold-outs wear unevenly.
5) Covers wear poorly when inserted into a shelf of CDs.
6) After you've spent 2 minutes removing the first set of finger-prints that you put on the disk when taking it out, you then put a whole new set on the disk when you attempt to replace it into the sleeve.

Seriously: Has anyone even figured-out how to remove a disk from a MoFi sleeve without getting finger-prints all over the disk yet? "

Yes, dimwit, I have! Just take it out by gently pulling on the RICE PAPER INNER SLEEVE you frigging' moron. Just like an LP - have you ever taken an LP out of its inner sleeve without getting fingerprints all over it? Yes indeed, I learned that by grade 6.

Doesn't fit inside of your pretty, precisely spaced CD racks? GET OVER IT. See your doctor about obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Covers wear poorly when inserted into a shelf of CD's? Hey Dumbo, did you not put your record covers into outer sleeves when you were doing vinyl back in the day?

I have to admit, though, in the Wal-Mart mentality and bottom feeding culture that permeates Hoffman land, I'm not surprised that the Andy From Mayberry and Fred Flintstone types have a problem with their clumsy mitts and a mini-LP package.

Let's look at some other bon mots from the Hoffmanites:

From Jay F., the freak side of Hoffman - "+1. I loathe, hate, and detest them. They seem to have been created for people who don't actually listen to them." So what do you do with them, Jay, if not listen? Are there CD's for listening and some for other than listening?

KeithH, who looks strangely like pedophile harborer Joe Paterno, says "Mini-LP sleeves look nice but are not practical." What's not practical? They take up less space. That alone makes them much more practical.


"Holy Diver", who clearly has delusions of deification, says "The packaging is OK, but most mini LP masterings are wasted beyond belief." Really? Tell that to Mobile Fidelity. Stupid, this imbecile hasn't even heard many I guess. But...he has an opinion!

Rburly, who is a very pretty and chesty blonde, shows her blondness: "I took out an original CD pressing from the mid-80s and found the jewel case to feel very sturdy and hefty with the CD inside. I wish CD makers would go back to the original style. They feel practically bullet-proof. It's probably why I seek out original pressings unless another pressing is generally agreed to be the best pressing."
So...you buy a CD specifically because it has a jewel case...not because of sound quality...what a Hoffmanite!

"I am also not a fan. I've developed a way of removing the disc from the sleeve without getting fingerprints on it, but every time I do it, I'm annoyed that I have to do something special."

Wow - this rocket scientist has actually developed a special way of taking a CD out of a sleeve! He should be teaching a university course. 

MrBritt, who is usually just another dumb Hoffman lemming, actually posts exactly the right information on getting a CD out of a mini-LP package - which really, not even a child of modest intelligence could not do easily (my 7 year old does it all the time), and the Fred Flintstones are all over him.

Worst of which is the ever self-important Kevin Bresnahan, who has been laughed off just about every other corner of the Internet for his pompous mis-information:  "

With the RVG CDs from Japan (in glossy mini-LPs), if you squeeze the edge to spread open the mouth the mini-LP, it doesn't work because the CD stops you. On top of that, if you do manage to get the front and back covers to bow and bit and do get your fingers (more likely fingernails) in there, you've probably damaged the mini-LP sleeve permanently."

Actually, the Japanese RVG Blue Notes came in nice mini-LP sleeves that were not tight fitting at all, a little shake would cause the round bottom inner to slide out easily. 

"Not really sure why MoFi abandoned lift locks in favor of mini-LP." - Hoffman Hero "Say It Right" has been around the internet for years but obviously thinks he can get everything he needs from Daddy Hoff. The Lift Locks are no longer manufactured, as when MOFI originally shut down, their main customer evaporated. Besides, those cases were notoriously delicate and broke easily, which would drive Huffmanites bonkers.

"Bluesky" from Florida proves the decline of Western civilization, at least the American intellectually decline: "It especially bumbs me out that you can't read what CD it is when it's in the CD rack." Bumbs...new word! Brilliant! Get glasses, asshole, you are an old fucker and you need 'em. I can read them just fine, thanks. YOU are the problem, not the package. 

Really, the Hoffman board has long been about whiners and sycophants who come together to get validation for their obsessive compulsive issues. A group of crybabies who come across like a bunch of petulant little girls. But this is well beyond their waste of bandwidth complaining about shipping times and cracked jewel cases. It's really sick.

Bresnahan says "The jewel case was invented to properly hold a CD in a way that makes it easy to get out without damaging it." And a number of other Hoffmanites say that the proper case for a CD is one where the disc does not touch the package at all, and where the disc can be removed without fingers touching the playing surface. 

In fact, the only case that remotely comes close to those specifications is the Lift-Lock case most typically found on pre-Music Direct Mobile Fidelity discs, and old DCC gold discs. It is almost impossible to keep any contact away from the playing surface when picking up a disc from a jewel case - the fingers inevitably must tough the outer edge of the playing surface. The disc is not free from contact with the jewel case either, and jewel cases break easily, hubs are easily broken and floating teeth from the hub can easily scratch the playing surface, and overall, the jewel case is not that sturdy. Doesn't look too good over time either - gets pretty scuffed up.

So what it boils down to on this topic at Hoffman is that the mini-LP detractors can be grouped into two types - Fred Flintstone guys who are too clumsy to get a disc out of a rice paper inner sleeve, and obsessive dainty types who fret about their Best Buy CD racks not being suitable for mini-LP sleeves.

It's a strange world out there, as we watch the decline of Western civilization unfold at the Hoffman board.