A. Hammer Mastering

10/25/2023

Happy Birthday Tompkins Square Records!

TODAY is Tompkins Square's 18th Birthday ! Listen : https://tinyurl.com/4dbp4373

10/07/2023

A whole bunch of great records recently mastered here at A. Hammer Mastering are available for Bandcamp Friday over at the Tompkins Square page!

Of particular interest is a free preview track from the upcoming debut album from Muireann Bradley, a young blues, ragtime, roots and folk guitarist and singer based in Ballybofey in County Donegal Ireland. Tompkins Square actually signed her when she was 13, but because of Covid and just “growing up", the process of recording took place over three years. She will be 17 in December.

Her debut album I KEPT THESE OLD BLUES will be released worldwide on cassette, LP and CD December 8th, 2023. Today, we released her take on "Richland Woman Blues" on every digital platform Link in the first comment), as well as an album PRE-ORDER over at BandCamp.

It's bandcamp Friday ! A great moment to buy something, old or new. https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/music

09/29/2023

Today!

One more studio will be opening their doors this Friday for SF Studio Crawl: is a professional mastering studio for CD, Digital Distribution and Vinyl.

More info at https://aessf.org/event/san-francisco-studio-crawl-2023/

08/19/2023

Read about the making of Junk Parlor's ALL MAGIC, NO LOGIC great new album mastered here at A. Hammer!

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind "Hungry for Love" and the story it tells? Hungry for Love is the mood of soul-searching debauchery that comes with wandering late at night from bar to bar. It's the contrast between urban neon lights against a clear and dark starry sky. The in

08/17/2023

Celebrating Bola Sete's centennial!

The 3-cd set SAMBA IN SEATTLE that we mastered here at A. Hammer for Tompkins Square Records in 2021 (★ ★ ★ ★ - MOJO !) is available here:
https://tinyurl.com/26n5zvwe

The late guitarist, who would have just turned 100, blew the minds of Carlos Santana, John Fahey and more with his hypnotic technique and expansive creative vision

06/16/2023

Live streaming listening party right now- the 5-CD retrospective box set RICK DEITRICK: THE UNGUITARIST from Tompkins Square records, mastered here at A. Hammer. Join in and enjoy one of the most individual voices in acoustic guitar of the last few decades!

Join Tompkins Square for a free listening party to celebrate 'The Unguitarist : Complete Works 1969-2022’. First time doing this, but we’ll discuss the box and give away free vinyl and download codes to various Tompkins Square releases, if all goes well. “The cohesion of sound and mood over 50...

05/31/2023

Came across this very fun interview I did 7 years ago for Matt Boudreau's Working Class Audio Podcast. There's a lot of good information here about why mastering matters, and what goals you should be looking to achieve from you mastering session. Thanks for listening!

Working Class Audio Session #076 with Gary Hobish!!! ITUNES | iHEARTRADIO | YOUTUBE | GOOGLE | SOUNDCLOUD Gary Hobish brings over 30 years of experience as a professional recording engineer/producer to A. Hammer Mastering which he runs out of Secret Studios in San Francisco. He started as an ass...

04/20/2023

Had a ball remastering this 2006 session featuring NRBQ Headquarters co-founders Steve Ferguson and Terry Adams, coming in a few weeks from Omnivore Recordings, here at A. Hammer. Includes a couple of remixes and 4 previously unavailable tracks!

LOUISVILLE SLUGGERS coming MAY 12

 Terry Adams and Steve Ferguson (NRBQ’s original guitarist) reunited and recorded LOUISVILLE SLUGGERS in 2006. It will be reissued with bonus tracks by Omnivore Recordings on 5/12!

★ Tom Ardolino - drums ★ Liner notes by Donn Adams.
★ Front cover photo by Jeff Benko
★ remastered by Gary Hobish with 17 tracks.

Pre- order here! - free postcard with another photo from Mr Benko.
http://www.nrbq.com/store_cds.html

photo by Fuzzy

03/30/2023

Proudly remastered by Gary Hobish here at A. Hammer!

03/18/2023

RELEASED TODAY:

UNDER AN ENDLESS SKY- Moskowitz and the United States of Alchemy (Moskowitz, electronic composer Francesco Paolo Paladino, and writer Luca Chino Ferrari).

A brand new album from the singer and lyricist of the legendary avant-garde band The United States Of America, whose sole 1968 album is widely acknowledged as a visionary psychedelic classic.

Proud and honored to have mastered this important new recording at A. Hammer Mastering for Tompkins Square Records.

7 track album

01/05/2023

Happy NRBQ Headquarters’ TIDDLYWINKS reissue announcement day!

Coming January 27 from Omnivore Recordings and happily remastered by Gary Hobish here at A. Hammer Mastering!

http://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/tiddlywinks/

12/12/2022

Well, I can certainly say we’ve been hang a good time at A. Hammer Mastering for a while, thanks to NRBQ Headquarters and Omnivore Recordings!

12/07/2022

Mastered here at A. Hammer and produced by Zev Feldman (who also produced the other two in the list!!!), Tompkins Square's MAL WALDRON: SEARCHING IN GRENOBLE 2CD live set is #3/3 Best Historical Jazz Albums of '22 via Slate.com!

"...fiery originals and romantic ballads, capturing the riveting full range of his styles."

Plus the best historical releases.

10/26/2022

On the A. Hammer Mastering Vinyl QC Turntable this morning: the long-in-gestation remastering of Rocksteady icon Derrick Morgan's DEVELOPMENT, one of his very best records yet nearly impossible to find. Sutro Park Records head David Katznelson describes the process behind this release in his Substack column, The Signal at https://oakiedog.substack.com/p/send-a-little-rain-and-make-it-sound?s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

10/22/2022

Mastered by Gary Hobish at A. Hammer Mastering!

8 track album

09/02/2022

Though it appropriate to post "Summer's End" from Little Gems' debut album here for Labor Day weekend (and also on Bandcamp Friday, where all sales proceeds go directly to the artists).

Super proud to have mastered this outstanding album here at A. Hammer!

from the album Little Gems

08/30/2022

Congratulations to Erik Ian Walker on the release of THE KISSES REDUX, mastered here at A. Hammer!

"The Kisses Redux (2022) features a complete reworking of the title track, The Kisses. The first movement, in particular, is now recorded with real cellos, string bass and piano, retaining Cameron Ember's gorgeous vocals (everything else is new!). The first movement is also now complete, as earlier versions of the piece had edited out the final 2 minutes of it.
The 2nd movement has been re-mixed (no new instruments recorded), the 3rd movement, the dark passage part of the piece, makes its first appearance ever, as it was not included in the original release in 1999.
The 4th movement has also been re-mixed, with all parts intact from the original, but without the scary 90's reverbs."

8 track album

08/16/2022

Mal Waldron would have been 97 today. Tompkins Square will release a previously unheard 2CD live set on Sept 23. NYC jazz powerhouse WBGO has a preview.

Extraordinarily proud to have mastered this Zev Feldman / Josh Rosenthal- produced project here at A. Hammer Mastering.

Have a first taste of Mal Waldron's 'Searching in Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert,' due out on Tompkins Square Records on Sept. 23.

08/13/2022

Tompkins Square's newest entry in the incredible IMAGINATIONAL ANTHEMS series is Contemporary Album Of The Month at The Guardian! Proudly mastered here at A. Hammer Mastering!

A nine-track survey compiled by Nashville-based player Luke Schneider shows the many faces of this drowsy, languid instrument

06/16/2022

A great deep dive (from Bandcamp) on Tompkins Square's long running acoustic guitar series. I've had the honor of mastering many of these here at A. Hammer including the new Vol XI, a pedal steel comp built by Luke Schneider, which is out on cassette right now (other formats coming soon.)

On the advent of its 10th installment, we look back on the acclaimed guitar anthology.

06/08/2022

Here's an update from David Katznelson's (Birdman Records, Harte Recordings, Reboot) newsletter, The Signal on a couple of projects we’ve had simmering on the stove for a while here at A. Hammer- the much-needed remaster of Rocksteady icon Derrick Morgan’s DEVELOPMENT, and a collection of blue-eyed soul singer Roy Head’s singles for the Backbeat label.

“Heaven was a lovely, unspoiled Earth-like world; what Earth might have been like if men had treated her with compassion instead of lust.”― Joe Haldeman