Tom Kerstens headlines brand new London venue.

You may have noticed that this month's B&W Music Club artist is the hugely talented classical guitarist Tom Kerstens. As Artistic Director of the International Guitar Foundation, Tom has been asked to curate one of the first festivals at the brand new venue King's Place on Regent's Canal in London.

As the first purpose built arts venue to be built in London since the Barbican, this is a hugely exciting prospect. Home to two world class orchestras as well as the Guardian/Observer, the building's public launch, on October 1, will be marked by a five-day festival of music, film, sculpture, paintings, food and drink.
Tom will be playing with G Plus on the 28th October in the glorious Hall One - a 450 seat concert hall lined in 500 year old Black Oak - and is definitely not to be missed. Have a listen to him here and then book your ticket! Read more

Let's get organised!

It appears that sound lovers aren't taking bad sound quality lying down. Metallica fans have put up a petition to get their new album, Death Magnetic, remixed. Add your name to the 12,000 who've already signed up.


If you care about music but not about Metallica (which is probably an oxymoron anyway) you can sign up to the estimable Charles Dye's organisation Turn Me Up! who are fighting for the right for artists to be able to release dynamic recordings. Read more

PS3 offers consolation for dynamics-deprived Metallica fans

New technology is often blamed for ruining sound quality, with downloads getting a particularly rough ride. But now it seems the latest gadgets are striking a blow for audio purity, at least when it comes to the new Metallica album Death Magnetic.

According to MusicRadar the version available for download for the PlayStation 3 game Guitar Hero is actually less compressed than the CD release. It seems as though the constant desire to make music sound one louder than anyone else has led to a more compressed and clipped mastering job, and Metallica’s army of fans are already demanding a re-mastered release.

And if you can’t quite believe your ears, then there’s a more technical explanation on Mastering Engineer Ian Shepherd’s blog
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