Today, January 29, 2021, Awesome Tapes From Africa is releasing Nahawa Doumbia’s Kanawa, new music from one of Mali’s greatest singers, an uplifting melding of contemporary Malian pop, traditional instrumentation and rhythms, and socially conscious lyrics. Bandcamp made it an album of the day. This one is special to me, because over 10 years ago, I remastered Nahawa Doumbia’s La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 3, the first release on the Awesome Tapes label. I still remember unsleeving the vinyl and dropping the needle to digitize that LP. And here I am, a decade later, listening to her new music! In between, I’ve mastered and remastered every release from Awesome Tapes, truly the honor of a lifetime. On that note, check out Teno Afrika’s Amapiano Selections and DJ Black Low’s Uwami, both dropping soon, both mastered by me.

Other records that passed through my mastering studio this winter: Elska’s transporting, sometimes haunting lullabies on Leden, recorded at the Park Church Co-Op Cathedral in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and mixed by my longtime pal and collaborator Ted Young. Hear Me Calling, a sweet and moody EP by Coloradan Jess Parsons, produced by Mark Anderson. Some sunny bangers from my friends in Hawaii at Aloha Got Soul: Aura’s absolutely fiery “When The Feeling’s Right” backed with “Stop” and Mike Kahikina’s Hawaii’s Beautiful, digitized and remastered from the original tapes. I love this quote from Kahikina, pulled from the AGS website: “I was hoping to be a modern Hawaiian Bob Dylan, one man band kine, playing my guitar and singing about the issues.”

If social distancing has you missing the clubs, I urge you to turn out the lights and turn up Occurrence’s Privacy Invaders / Dead Sleep Best, which are a sneak preview of a full length dropping soon. Then sink into Even Gods Can Die’s Universus, mixed by Robert Kirby.

Bay Area synthesizer legend and electronic composer Pauline Anna Strom recorded her first new music in three decades, and I was graced with mastering duties. Angel Tears In Sunlight comes out next month on RVNG. Sadly, Pauline passed away in December at age 74. The New York Times posted her obituary yesterday. This record is just incredible, and I urge you all to take some time to listen and to watch this beautiful visual representation of “Marking Time,” directed by Victoria Keddie and Scott Kiernan of E.S.P. TV.

In between mastering duties, I’ve been reformatting analog tapes, cassettes and DATs for the Kitchen Sisters, the Arhoolie Foundation, and the Freight & Salvage coffeehouse and reveling in the time travel that is audio preservation.

With that, I wish you all a happy new year and go back to declicking this LP that will soon be transformed into a gorgeous reissue which I’ll write about when I get around to it in another six months.

As we edge into October, month seven of sheltering-in-place, I have been reflecting on my listening habits and how they’ve helped me cope. Here’s what I’ve been listening to (for pleasure, not for work!):

March / April: The initial shock of the shutdown left me unmoored, overwhelmed, uneasy, but also a little bit invigorated. I was watching Killing Eve and therefore listening to Unloved on repeat.

May: Things got dark. I listened to a lot of Vatican Shadow, Prurient, Sunn o)).

June: Spinning from fear, rage, and the imbalance of a massive workload and two kids with nothing to do, I turned to Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s Temple. Then I jettisoned music altogether and binged three podcasts produced by Q Code: Borrasca, The Left Right Game and Blackout.

July: Things got weird. I bought roller skates and found myself listening to the Xanadu soundtrack more than I probably should have, unironically jamming to Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra. And, yes, I listened to Taylor Swift’s folklore a bunch too, though I tell you, I always skipped the irritating duet with Bon Iver.

August: My metal phase. Slayer’s Reign In Blood, Metallica’s Ride the Lightning on heavy rotation, then this four-part compilation of electronic, noise, ambient, experimental, industrial music from over 40 countries, curated and released by Syrphe, benefiting the people of Lebanon in the wake of the disaster in Beirut.

September: What did I listen to in September? I can’t remember. I think I was working…

What have you been listening to?

I am writing this surrounded by boxes of reel-to-reel tapes, LPs, 45s, cassettes, DATs and one MiniDisc. It’s organizing day, and I am packing up some items to return to their owners. I always enjoy the physical stuff - the smell, the feel, the look. I assume most mastering engineers are hyper-sensitive to sensory input (aren’t we??), and I definitely FEEL the aura of physical recording media when I’m working on it. I feel useful, informative stuff, like when a tape’s tension isn’t right, or when an LP might benefit from a tonearm adjustment for a better quality transfer. But I also feel the spirit of the recording, the people who gathered in a room and loaded up a tape and hit record. I don’t mean to get all spiritual with you. To be honest, this is coming stream of consciousness. But as we are all sequestered in our homes during the COVID-19 shutdown, it seems relevant to talk about our relationship to the STUFF we work on and how it informs our practice.

All of which is to say, I love the stuff. I love working with physical media and immersing myself in the full sensory experience. And I am grateful to be able to continue my work in my home studio, with my trusty ATR-102 and my loyal dog by my side.

A few recent mastering projects:

I have been working with producer/engineer Reto Peter and Flipsyde, and the songs they are creating together are so powerful! Full album coming soon…

Erroll Garner’s Gemini was selected to be Vinyl Me Please’s Classic Record of the Month for May. You can read more about the digitizing and remastering process in this article, which highlights the brilliant work done by Jamie Howarth and John Chester of Plangent Processes. I adore working with them and with producer Peter Lockhart on the Erroll Garner Reissue series out on Mack Avenue. Total dream team!

If you need to be transported to a sunnier place, please dig into this sunny reissue by Liz Damon’s Orient Express, out on Aloha Got Soul. I got to restored and remaster this one from original vinyl, and you know it had me out of my seat and dancing in the studio.

Equally transporting, Peter Davison’s 1980 debut album Music On The Way, which I lovingly restored from original tapes, and which was released by Light In The Attic. Peter and I also share a love of classic cars, it turns out!

I have to give a massive shoutout to the talented Matthew McNeal, who endured a hell of a year and transformed it into his deeply personal, emotionally moving album, Good Grief. Ted Young produced, engineered and mixed, and we all worked so well together I can’t wait to do it again!

Outside the studio (back when there was an outside the studio), I’m still rolling tapes for the Harry Oster collection at the Arhoolie Foundation (miss you guys!) and helping radio producers The Kitchen Sisters prepare their audio collection (over 10,000 items and counting!) for digitization and preservation. I had a blast teaching Mastering and Media Preparation at SAE this spring, even when we had to move our classes online. And, most recently, I’ve got something fun cooking with the Great 78 Project at the Internet Archive. More on that soon…

Finally, I am honored to have been elected as President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy. My term begins in June, and I am genuinely looking forward to leading our chapter. MusiCares has been mobilizing to help musicians and music creators impacted by COVID-19, so if you are in need, contact them, and if you can donate to help replenish their funds, please do.

As always, be well and stay in touch!