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Mark Smotroff on Muck Rack

Mark Smotroff

(He/Him)
San Francisco
As seen in: Flipboard, ECOUSTICS, Home Theater Review, Analog Planet, AudiophileReview.com
Covers:  I primarily write about music: rock, jazz, soul, r 'n b, pop, prog, blues, often from an audiophile perspective but not always. I sometimes cover film, entertainment technologies & industry issues.
Doesn't Cover: politics, heavy tech, enterprise, big data, b2b, etc.
Freelance Writer, Communications, Musician/Composer
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Mark Smotroff’s Journalist Portfolio

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Traversing The Phil Zone: The Late, Great Grateful Dead Co-Founder Phil Lesh's Brilliant Music Le...

Traversing The Phil Zone: The Late, Great Grateful Dead Co-Founder Phil Lesh's Brilliant Music Le...

Analog Planet — Phil Lesh, co-founding bassist of the Grateful Dead, sadly passed away at age 84 on October 25, 2024, and he will be remembered by millions of fans for the brilliant, inspiring music he made over the course of his incredible career.
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Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention's Previously Unreleased 180g 5LP Whisky A Go Go, 1968 Box ...

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention's Previously Unreleased 180g 5LP Whisky A Go Go, 1968 Box ...

Analog Planet — There are numerous reasons why music fans should be interested in a previously unreleased 5LP box set featuring an entire performance of Frank Zappa and his original Mothers of Invention band in full flight in the heart of the Los Angeles freak scene of the late-1960s.
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Round Robin Review: Your Ears Can't Go Wrong With UMe's Stellar AAA 180g 45rpm 2LP Set or the AAA...

Round Robin Review: Your Ears Can't Go Wrong With UMe's Stellar AAA 180g 45rpm 2LP Set or the AAA...

Analog Planet — Mike Mettler:That's right folks, don't touch that dial - it's another tag-team album review, just in time for that last-minute holiday push.
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Vince Guaraldi's Be My Valentine Charlie Brown First Time Soundtrack Review

Vince Guaraldi's Be My Valentine Charlie Brown First Time Soundtrack Review

ECOUSTICS — Lost late period Peanuts soundtrack sounds like a love letter from an old friend.
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Short Cuts, Vol. 20: Elemental's Motown Reissue Series Rolls On With 140g Virgin Vinyl Offerings ...

Short Cuts, Vol. 20: Elemental's Motown Reissue Series Rolls On With 140g Virgin Vinyl Offerings ...

Analog Planet — There is something incredibly compelling about Elemental Music and UMe's ongoing, affordably priced, and generally well-made reissue series of classic Motown titles. For those simply seeking clean, pristine, good-sounding representation of these vintage vinyl titles with perfect-condition covers - which aren't really that easy to find on the collectors market, truth be told, especially if you are looking for original editions - then these reissues hold a lot of potential appeal.
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Thelonious Monk: "Monk's Music" Mono Vinyl Reissue Review

Thelonious Monk: "Monk's Music" Mono Vinyl Reissue Review

ECOUSTICS — Craft Recordings Reissues Sought After 1957 Thelonious Monk Mono Mix In 180-gram Vinyl, All Analog Remastered Original Jazz Classics Series.
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Two Seminal Early 1970s John Cale LPs, Paris 1919 and The Academy in Peril, Benefit From Artist-A...

Two Seminal Early 1970s John Cale LPs, Paris 1919 and The Academy in Peril, Benefit From Artist-A...

Analog Planet — In the aftermath of leaving The Velvet Underground in 1968, the Welsh-born composer, musician, producer, and all-around avant-garde icon John Cale set sail on a new journey that took him from New York to Los Angeles.
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Elvis Costello Delivers a Pair of Royal Album Collaborations With T Bone Burnett: The First Is Th...

Elvis Costello Delivers a Pair of Royal Album Collaborations With T Bone Burnett: The First Is Th...

Analog Planet — I didn't have a new album from Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett on my 2024 checklist - but here we are enjoying an unexpected yet long overdue - and overall wonderful - brand-new self-titled 2LP set on New West by their alter-ego personas known as The Coward Brothers, as iconic a band-on-the-run (if you will) as there ever was.
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12 Best Surround Music Releases Of 2024: Quad, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos

12 Best Surround Music Releases Of 2024: Quad, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos

ECOUSTICS — From Bowie To Zappa, 2024 Was A Good Year For Immersive Dolby Atmos Music Releases On Blu-ray Disc.
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The Beatles' 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono 180g 8LP Box Set Offers All-Analog Updates That Will Appeal...

The Beatles' 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono 180g 8LP Box Set Offers All-Analog Updates That Will Appeal...

Analog Planet — In the Beatleverse, it is generally well known and quite accepted that the mono mixes of the early Beatles recordings are considered superior to the stereo counterparts for many reasons.
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Five Albums That Are Super Challenging To Find On Original Vinyl

Five Albums That Are Super Challenging To Find On Original Vinyl

ECOUSTICS — In these times of vinyl renaissance, here is a list of five albums that are still difficult to find.
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In Review: Pete Townshend's New Abbey Road Half-Speed-Mastered 180g Vinyl Series Revisits, Restor...

In Review: Pete Townshend's New Abbey Road Half-Speed-Mastered 180g Vinyl Series Revisits, Restor...

Analog Planet — As the 1980s gave way to the 1990s, legendary British Invasion songwriter, singer, guitarist, and all-around rock icon Pete Townshend of The Who was working hard, reinventing himself as something of a senior statesman clearly not ready to follow the directive of his iconic band's October 1965 breakout hit single, "My Generation."
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New Steven Wilson Dolby Atmos Remixes Of XTC's Skylarking and The Big Express Reviewed

New Steven Wilson Dolby Atmos Remixes Of XTC's Skylarking and The Big Express Reviewed

ECOUSTICS — New Atmos And 5.1 Surround Mixes Reinvent XTC's Smash 1986 hit Skylarking and 1984's The Big Express.
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Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' Transitional 1982 Album Long After Dark Deserves a Full Reassess...

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' Transitional 1982 Album Long After Dark Deserves a Full Reassess...

Analog Planet — Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' November 1982 LP on Backstreet/MCA, Long After Dark, was not exactly everyone's immediate favorite back in the day - this, despite it hitting the Top 10, going Gold, and giving birth to several Top 40 hit singles, including the synth-heavy smash "You Got Lucky."
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Halloween Spooktacular Round Robin Review of Frank Zappa's Apostrophe (') at 50: Our Collective R...

Halloween Spooktacular Round Robin Review of Frank Zappa's Apostrophe (') at 50: Our Collective R...

Analog Planet — Mike Mettler: If it's Halloween, then it must mean it's Frank Zappa time. As longtime Zappaphiliacs know, Frank had a long tradition of playing live shows on Halloween, and quite often in New York City - and many of those shows are available via official FZ recordings, and/or by other means.
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The dB's Jangle-Rich Sophomore Indie-Rock LP, Repercussion, Gets Long-Overdue First American Viny...

The dB's Jangle-Rich Sophomore Indie-Rock LP, Repercussion, Gets Long-Overdue First American Viny...

Analog Planet — There are probably many behind-the-scenes reasons why indie-rock/power-pop legends The dB's just could not get their first two albums released by an American record company back in the early 1980s. Whatever the cause or the case, that outright crime for fans of all things jangly power pop and indie rock has long been overdue for amending.
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Short Cuts, Vol. 17: A Fine Mixture of Gospel, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Dance, Pop, and Disco Can Be Fou...

Short Cuts, Vol. 17: A Fine Mixture of Gospel, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Dance, Pop, and Disco Can Be Fou...

Analog Planet — Many of my friends of recent vintage are often surprised to learn that I really do like and enjoy listening to new music, not just the wealth of classics from the past that I frequently review here on AP.
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Short Cuts, Vol. 17: A Fine Mixture of Gospel, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Dance, Pop, and Disco Can Be Fou...

Short Cuts, Vol. 17: A Fine Mixture of Gospel, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Dance, Pop, and Disco Can Be Fou...

Analog Planet — Many of my friends of recent vintage are often surprised to learn that I really do like and enjoy listening to new music, not just the wealth of classics from the past that I frequently review here on AP.
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Isaac Hayes' Benchmark 1969 LP Hot Buttered Soul Soars to New Soulsville Heights Thanks to 180g A...

Isaac Hayes' Benchmark 1969 LP Hot Buttered Soul Soars to New Soulsville Heights Thanks to 180g A...

Analog Planet — In the circles of soul music fans, Isaac Hayes' seminal June 1969 LP Hot Buttered Soul is well-known as a landmark recording, an album that helped break down conventions of what a hit soul recording could be.
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All-Analog Remaster of Legendary 1957 Sessions Comprising Craft Recordings' New 180g 1LP Edition ...

All-Analog Remaster of Legendary 1957 Sessions Comprising Craft Recordings' New 180g 1LP Edition ...

Analog Planet — Good news! Craft Recordings - the boutique vinyl arm of Concord Music, who control the catalogs of Fantasy, Riverside, Milestone, and many other related labels - has duly revived the Original Jazz Classics series as a brand imprint for the now times.
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George Harrison's All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary, Part 1: The High Resolution Stereo Remix...

George Harrison's All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary, Part 1: The High Resolution Stereo Remix...

AudiophileReview.com — Mark Smotroff takes a fresh look at an album he’s heard most of his life…
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Why Is It Important That Nina Simone's Little Girl Blue Has Been Reissued Globally? - Audiophile ...

Why Is It Important That Nina Simone's Little Girl Blue Has Been Reissued Globally? - Audiophile ...

AudiophileReview.com — Mark Smotroff looks at the big picture in appreciating a jazz classic’s legacy…
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Appreciating Jon Anderson's Olias Of Sunhillow in Quasi-Surround Sound - Audiophile Review

Appreciating Jon Anderson's Olias Of Sunhillow in Quasi-Surround Sound - Audiophile Review

AudiophileReview.com — Mark Smotroff finds himself pleasantly surprised…
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Changüí: The Sound Of Guantánamo, A Super Deluxe Boxed Set For Super Deluxe Music - Audiophile Re...

Changüí: The Sound Of Guantánamo, A Super Deluxe Boxed Set For Super Deluxe Music - Audiophile Re...

AudiophileReview.com — Mark Smotroff finds existential joy from a new music he’s never heard before…
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