As you may know, some of us are NHS key workers and as a result we know health and well-being is so incredibly important.  More »

Following the release of never see last month, which among other accolades saw her making Pitchfork for the first time and further radio play across 6 Music, British-Finnish artist otta returns today with the restless soul and skewed melancholy of ‘sick inside’. More »

On September 25th, IDLES will release their anticipated third album – ‘Ultra Mono’ – via Partisan Records. More »

Earlier this year Toronto’s Hannah Georgas shared a pair of singles That Emotion” and “Same Mistakes” More »

This song is about androgynous and transgender people who surpass conventional binary paradigms of sex.  More »

My Beauty is a solo album from Dexys/Dexys Midnight Runners’ lead singer Kevin Rowland. Originally released in 1999 the album was mostly unfairly received by critics at the time, but in the years since has come to enjoy cult status. This reissue is the first time the album has been available on vinyl and CD with its originally intended tracklist. More »

Following a breakthrough 2019 for the band, Brighton’s FUR have been studiously working since the turn of the year on a host of new material, and made the decision to record pre-pandemic with James Skelly who, as well as his own work with The Coral, has recently produced two no.1 albums for Manchester’s Blossoms. More »

Australian-born, London-based songwriter, producer and composer Jackson Mico Milas, who rose to prominence with indie pop outfit the HIGH HIGHS and as a composer of numerous TV and film scores including Tim Minchin’s acclaimed Sky Atlantic drama Upright, will release his debut solo EP on 7th August.

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Rather than simply rolling up to the fabled crossroads of Blues lore, the Chicago-born, Nashville-based singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer JD Simo connects the missing link between Motown and Woodstock as he fuses fluid and fiery fretwork with vital and vulnerable vocals. More »

When Pillow Queens announced themselves in late 2019 with the soaring single Brothers, their bruising interpretation of mourning for a lost loved one immediately caught widespread attention. More »

Following the recent release of their BBC 6 Music playlisted single ‘Switching On’, today, Hull’s LIFE have shared a new remix of the same single by UK Top 10, Mercury Prize nominated Bristol band IDLES. The remix was premiered yesterday by NME.

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Overflowing with cosmic melodies and psychedelic warmth, ‘Run’ perfectly exemplifies Chiminyo’s unique playing style.

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Hifi Pig writer Ian Ringstead gives his views on the recent Copenhagen High-End Show 2019.

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iFi Audio say they are pleased to announce that Miles Roberts is joining the team as Business Development Manager EMEA on 1 July 2019.

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Welcome to the first of my reports from this year’s High End Munich show which took place from 9th to 12th of May at the brilliant MOC venue in Munich and featuring: TAD (Technical Audio Devices) Laboratories, Kii Audio, Technics, Octave, ATC, GATO and Emotiva, Audio Reference, Dan D’agostino, Absolute Sounds, Canton, DALI, AVM, Primare and inakustik, Accuton and Bugatti, JoSound and Axjets, Crystal Cables and Siltech, Vitus Audio, THRAX, Raidho/Scansonic, Joseph Audio and Alluxity and Weiss & PSI Audio.

Munich High End is always a packed event and this year was no exception with a great mix of industry people and music lovers alike. Whether you are a fan of streaming audio, vinyl, tubes/valves, solid state, full range speakers, horn loudspeakers…or even sports cars, there is going to be lots for you to see and hear at High End and we hope our coverage of the show gives you a feeling of being there to some extent.

As well as being very well attended, the show is also absolutely huge and you can kind of tell the people who are making their first visit to High End as they begin the day looking not a little dazed and confused – or perhaps that was the previous night’s beer intake.

We try to cover as much of the show as is physically possible but to get into every room, make notes and take pictures is impossible and this year we have been somewhat selective – but don’t worry as we will have reports from myself, Linette, Ian Ringstead and Janine Elliot, as well as a report from the HifiDeluxe show that takes place at the same time in Munich.

So, without further ado, here is my first report featuring: TAD (Technical Audio Devices) Laboratories, Kii Audio, Technics, Octave, ATC, GATO and Emotiva, Audio Reference, Dan D’agostino, Absolute Sounds, Canton, DALI, AVM, Primare and inakustik, Accuton and Bugatti, JoSound and Axjets, Crystal Cables and Siltech, Vitus Audio, THRAX, Raidho/Scansonic, Joseph Audio and Alluxity and Weiss & PSI Audio.

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Made in Italy and with an unusual aesthetic, the Mya speakers from Nime Audio certainly look the high-end part, but what do they sound like. Stuart Smith cocks an ear to these €12500 beauties. More »

Axpona 2019 took place at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center Schaumburg last weekend and Hifi Pig’s Ron Gruber was there for one of the days. Here we see a selection of photographs from the “biggest audio show in North America”.

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Hifi Pig have been going to the High-End show in Munich now for six years. The first couple of years we attended was a bit of an adventure as we took the overnight train from Paris – even getting to Gare l’Est Paris from rural Brittany is a bit of a hike and if you don’t have a cabin on the Paris to Munich stretch you end up “sleeping” on hard benches. The first year we did this we arrived at Munich bleary-eyed and having had only fitful sleep, dashed to the hotel we had booked and then straight to the MOC to cover the show, really not relishing the trip back a few days later. However, needs must and we knew that to be seen as a serious player on the International Hifi scene Hifi Pig needed to be represented at the show, though we were surprised that first year at just how many people actually knew us and read the site on a daily basis. More »

I was really pleased to receive a call from Italian brand Monrio a few months ago asking if we’d be interested in reviewing one of their amplifiers as I’d owned one of their preamplifiers many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Here we take a listen to the company’s MC 201 integrated amp with onboard USB DAC and costing £1600.

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John Scott is introduced to the DIMD PP10 and falls a little in love with a Latvian beauty.

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At a penny shy of £1000 the Airpulse A300 are an active loudspeaker with onboard amps and DAC. Alan McIntosh puts them through their paces. 

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We announced this on our newsletter a couple of weeks ago but now the winner of the Nord amplifier we had to give away at the recent Bristol Hifi Show has taken a snap for us.  More »

Costing £1000 the Blackwoods are the latest loudspeaker from Electricbeach and use an interesting driver layout. Ian Ringstead takes a listen.

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Coming from a land down-under (depending on where in the world you reside), Burson makes a wide range of relatively affordable products. Here Janine Elliot takes a listen to their tiny Bang amplifier. Does it offer good bang for its $499 (£599) bucks? 

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I can still remember the first time I saw Paul Carrack.  It was on Top Of The Pops way back in 1974 singing How Long with his band Ace.  It was their only hit but it has become something of a radio classic, the type of song that makes you stop whatever you’re doing and just listen.  Once How Long faded from the charts, Paul Carrack pretty much disappeared from view as well until he popped up fronting Squeeze’s 1981 hit Tempted, another song that has the power to stop me in my tracks when it turns up on the radio.   Carrack would carry on making the occasional appearance in the charts, most regularly with Mike and The Mechanics.  Between times, he’s been quietly plowing a blue-eyed soul furrow, releasing solo albums and co-writing a song that would appear on the Eagles multi-million selling album Hell Freezes Over. 

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