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Recently I made my first LP purchase. Note the careful wording: ‘my first LP purchase’… I do own two crates worth of vinyl that I acquired without any money changing hands. And truthfully, I ordered it – but have yet to receive it. No problem, though, because the indie label from which I purchased it also game me an mp3  (for immediate gratification) and CD of the same album. So what drove me to make the purchase? The fact that it was 17 bucks for the 180-gram LP and CD was nice (though shipping was kinda pricey), but really it was because it was cool music. I’m not sure Adrienne agrees (about the cool part – or even the music part!) but it’s her loss! What’s the music, you ask?

Colin Stetson is a bass saxophonist (no, it’s not a trick lens in the above photo that makes the sax look huge – it really is!) that has crazy extended skills – meaning doing non-saxophonic stuff on the saxophone. Feel free to check out some you-tubage of Colin, but they don’t represent the new album – which was recorded in single takes (no overdubs), but using up to 25 microphones placed all over a huge space – everything from on his body to far away, then mixed to create the sound portrait you get on the album. It really is magical. Perfect for listening late at night in the dark when you’re alone. Which granted, probably doesn’t happen to any of us too much. But this music makes it nice when it does.