Louis Barfe
His Master’s Voice
Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music
By Greg Milner
Granta Books 416pp £20 order from our bookshop
In his 1950s radio series, the American satirist Stan Freberg portrayed a hi-fi nut called Herman Horne. In his pursuit of perfect audio, Horne counselled moving out of one's main dwelling in order to exploit its acoustic capabilities fully. The true range of sounds could only be enjoyed ‘as you and your wife sit of an evening, shivering in the garage, listening to your house’.
Funny then, funny now, but there are people who are quite willing to spend the price of a house on hi-fi. In Perfecting Sound Forever, Greg Milner meets one such creature: highly respected reviewer Michael Fremer, whose $90,000 Caliburn turntable has baffled even the makers of dark-matter detectors.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It soon becomes clear that what we have in our hands (or, given its hefty 600-odd pages, on our desks) is a peculiar kind of haunted-house drama.'
Patrick McCabe's 'Poguemahone' is 'ambitious and disturbing', says @funesdamemorius.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/it-started-with-a-kiss
'This is entertainment of the highest class.'
@NJCooper_crime reviews new thrillers by Mick Herron, Kassandra Montag, @LVaughanwrites, @AuthorSJBolton, @ajaychow, @tombradby, @SaraParetsky, @writejemmawayne & @GillianMAuthor.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/may-2022-crime-round-up
'The day Simon and I Vespa-d from Daunt to Daunt to John Sandoe to Hatchards to Goldsboro, places where many of the booksellers have become my friends over the years, was the one with the high puffy clouds, the very strong breeze, the cool-warm sunlight.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/temple-of-vespa