Audio = Ground Zero

The Dilemma with Earbuds

Jabra and Axel Grell’s debut

My transition to wireless earbuds happened organically as my collection of wired EarPods that come free with the purchase of various gadgets eventually gave up the ghost. However, in an ever expanding growing market of options, finding an affordable suitable product can be a daunting task – especially if you are looking for the convenience of Air Pods and a stylish yet discreet design without the price tag.

Important factors include but are not limited to a good fit with customized and moulded tips, impedance, i.e. the measure of opposition a circuit provides to a current, the way electric signals are morphed into acoustic signals the frequency response aligned with the kind of music one prefers and the potency of drivers, which boost trebles, bass and mids. 

Depending on what you use your earbuds for, you would also want to consider sound isolation, noise cancellation and sweat / dust resistance.

For my day-to-day and the daily commute, the Jabra Elite 75t with their small size and Hear Through feature prove to be a great option as they work with a range of devices and support AAC in terms of high-quality Bluetooth codecs, which is greatly compatible with my iPhone.

Extremely lightweight in nature and equipped with touch-sensitive playback controls and  tiny microphones on the sides, the initial pairing process of the Jabra Elite 75t is almost as easy as pairing Air Pods despite the fact that they lack the Apple chip. An added benefit is that they can be paired to up to two smartphones simultaneously.

I really dig the Elite 75t’s performance in the durability department as they weather both rain and sweat with performance not suffering when being exposed to the elements.

Design-wise, the Jabra Elite 75t bids including the black USB-C charging case, which magnetically clicks with the buds, look sleek and thought has gone into their slightly curved section, which aids in making them a comfortable fit. The fact that they come with three sizes of ear tips helps to further customise and adjust fit.

Glitches I have often encountered with ear buds are based in the connectivity department, which has so far not been the case with the Elite 75t with only a the odd occasional stutter  resolving itself every now and then. The complementary Jabra Sound+ app can be used to tweak and finetune EQ settings to align with your preferences and sensitivities, which fits in nicely with the active noise cancelling upgrade and the useful Hear Through functionality, which with the iota of amplification it provides helps to stay alert and aware of what is going on around you.

As far as battery life is concerned, the Elite 75t earbuds give you almost eight hours of constant playback, backed by the charging case offering close to thirty, which is fairly impressive and superior to many other brands.

Now, a major gripe I usually have with earbuds, no matter the brand, is that they pop out while running. Working out at the gym is fine, however, once I go for longer runs, having to readjust my earbuds every other minute irks the shit out of me. So far, I have retreated to using head ties to keep them in place, which result in me channelling the flair of Hong Kong Phooey.

Another issue I face with most ear buds while running is that they do not always perform when a call comes in that needs to be taken.

Jabra’s tiny Elite 7 Active earphones were the first exercise-friendly ones that actually had a more consistent fit. Waterproof, dust resistant and equipped with outer panel button controls, these earpieces are easy to operate even after 10km in sweltering heat.  Depending on the volume level, the battery lasts on good days slightly over eight hours, with the case giving a backup of another twenty-two.
   
A value add is the noise cancelling functionality, which works pretty well with low frequencies and which can be adjusted via the respective app, which can also be used to finetune the Hear-Through function that I use most of the time to remain awareness of my surroundings while running.

As far as sound is concerned, I am impressed by the powerful crispness, richness and the subtleties that can be dialled in via the EQ. Same goes for phone calls, as the microphones do a fantastic job when it comes to rejecting environmental noise.

Now, the ebbs and flows of the pandemic and its implications means that more than ever most of us have the opportunity to work from the confines of one’s abode, for which the right gear proves essential to avoid frustrations during Skype, Microsoft Teams and Zoom calls.

After quite a bit of trial and error, I invested in a the Jabra Speak 750 speakerphone and while it might sound redundant in this day and age, it proved to be a worthwhile move: Once connected to your computer or phone via Bluetooth, this little stylishly looking gadget amplifies in- and output via omnidirectional microphones and noise cancelling capabilities, which enables to maintain a solid and nuanced two-way conversation instead of a walkie talkie one.

Needless to say, it can also be used to play music and in that department, I find it to be performing better than most portable speakers.

Grell Audio – Axel Grell’s debut

With the wireless headphone space becoming more crowded by the minute and established brands endeavouring to up the ante of their offerings, it is always interesting to see new players coming to the table and see what they have to offer.

Now, not that Axel Grell and his accomplishments in the world of audio is actually an unknown entity devoid of a strong heritage with him founder having coined innovations at Sennheiser before setting up his own shop, but I have so far not had the pleasure of experiencing any of his products first-hand, so I was intrigued as to what his very first own release, i.e. the TWS/1 earbuds, could do.

With the earbuds and charging case being aesthetically pleasing in appearance as opposed to the deliberately understated and reduced outer packaging, with quite a bit of metal and using plastic parts only where needed for the largely circular design, with its nice, thought through touches it invokes a premium feel from the get go.

The fact that the streamlined design fits well with minimal interference, is one of the major factors I appreciate about it, as no matter the functionality, if earbuds pop out all the time I do not feel like using them.

In terms of battery life and charging antics, The TWS/1 finds itself in familiar territory by offering a max of six hours per charge, accompanied by a charging case offering four full charges.

With a myriad of quality brands operating in the $250+ zone with their true wireless offerings, it was interesting to see that Grell positions its TWS/1s in the low premium <$200 price segment, without sacrificing sound quality or other premium features that have become standard over the last couple of years. 

In terms of sound quality, the default setting do a pretty good job at conveying punchy sound and with Grell having partnered up with the third party SoundID, an app can be used to finetune settings to align further with your audio preferences via offering soundbites examples that one can pick and choose from to create your own customised profile, things can be calibrated expertly.

TWS/1 comes with both Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency modes but also offers  an innovative new feature that is not standard with other brands, i.e. Noise Annoyance Reduction (NAR) mode to subdue lower-frequency noises which complements the Active Noise cancelling feature, which is a great concept, fantastic addition and one that I hope Grell will endeavour to finetune further going forward as it aids with receiving clearer, borderline lossless phone calls as well.

Another interesting feature is the mono listening mode, i.e. the flexibility to listen to audio on just one earbud to maintain an awareness of space.

Given all of the aforementioned factors, with its debut, German minimalist industrial design and meticulous attention to detail, Grell has instantaneously positioned itself firmly on the forefront of affordable high-quality technological premium offerings that remains accessible for a mainstream audience, yet with its richness, transparency and clarity of its acoustic output should appeal to audiophile aficionados alike.

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images from company websites

Ottolonghi Test Kitchen – Shelf Love

Penguin Books

Yotam Ottolenghi and his crew that form the collective known as Ottolenghi Test Kitchen is not merely a household name when it comes to chefs infiltrating family homes with their cookbooks and has a faithful cultlike following, but each constituent of the team contributes an idiosyncratic facet resulting in the whole being bigger than the sum of the individual contributions might suggest.

The opulently illustrated flexibound book aims at capturing the DNA of Ottolenghi, i.e. the elevation of homecooking with their inventive, delectable recipes, the collection of which serve as a reference point to a vegetable driven, zingy cuisine that is largely informed by Middle Eastern traditions.

Indexed in a way that allows quick access to a range of themed sections, the book does not exclusively cater to vegetarians, but also sheds light on meat-based dishes, with chapters ranging from intricate compositions that can be combined to create veritable feasts as well as ones that can be whipped up with staples in less than an hour.

As the name suggests, the focus of the recipes is set on ingredients that can commonly be found on the back of pantry shelves and on using them intuitively while bending rules and adding your own touches, which I find immensely helpful especially in situations when one has to retreat to whatever is left in the freezer along with odds and ends in the vegetable section of your fridge.

Being not exactly the most accomplished and patient chef myself when hunger strikes, I recommend to peruse the wide array of recipes ahead of time to identify preferred and highlight the more practicable options, as it can be quite difficult to choose where to start from. This is where the space to jot down your own notes comes in handy.

Unlike previous Ottolenghi cookbooks, Shelf Love is not intended to merely end up as a colourful display on the coffee table but to be used on a regular basis in the kitchen to add flavour and inspiration to loosen up the ordeal that the daily preparation of meals sometimes can be.

An ideal entry point for hobby cooks looking for ways to cut waste as well as Ottolenghi aficionados that are interested in what forms the foundation of the  much fabled about Test Kitchen’s more intricate creations.

Sticky Fingers

Enmore Theatre

Sydney, Australia

February 5, 2022

It has been five decades since Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers was incepted and as far as their discography is concerned, I deem it to be one of their four masterpieces that really mattered. 

If the designation that was attributed to the Stones regarding being one of the greatest rock’n roll bands ever held in any water, it is epitomized with their records that were released in this era as they not only sonically document the zeitgeist and transition from a relative innocent band of the 1960as to the valley of hedonism only to be spat out in in the mid-1970s to lick their wounds. 

Essentially, Sticky Fingers is one of the Stones’ most consistent and densest albums as far as the hits-to-duds ratio is concerned and the peak of the Richards-Jagger songwriting partnership upping the ante by celebrating their hard-hitting appreciation for blues, R&B and even country with an unprecedented lyrical filthiness, aesthetically all nicely wrapped up in packaging conceptualized by Andy Warhol.

Given the aforementioned, it is needless to say when I learned about some of Australia’s most iconic trailblazers in the realm of rock, i.e. Text Perkins, Tim Rogers, Adalita and Phil Jamieson backed by a band the individual constituents of which read like the who-is-who of virtuosi, announcing that they would team up to interpret and pay homage to the Stones by getting their fingers sticky to perform the album in its entirety in all its beauty and darkness, framed by some of the Stones’ classics.

The two-chaptered live incarnation of what already sounded fantastic on paper did not disappoint: 

Without merely covering, imitating or replicating the respective tracks, each of the protagonists added their own idiosyncratic flair and swagger to the wasted and weary beauty of the original album, thereby creating an immensely enjoyable evening for all parties involved, most prominently an audience that revelled in the contemporary translation of a fifty year old landmark in good music and accomplished ode to raw and sleazy rock’n roll.

I can only hope that it will be considered by all protagonists involved to convene to celebrate other classic albums that inspired them to channel their alchemy in the realm of rock’n roll with similar fervour.

The Formative Years – Karl-Heinz Stille

As a prepubescent on my quest for interesting new underground music, I was lucky enough to find someone who had been there from the very start, done that and was open enough to graciously let me pick his brain to push me in the right direction by not only gaining me access to the finer things of punk rock but contextualising my explorations with his benign guidance.

I vividly remember roughing up my voice by intently smoking the Thin White Duke’s favourites, i.e. Gitanes cigarettes, before our phone conversations to irritate my vocal chords in a feeble attempt to sound older and more seasoned than I was. 

Karl-Heinz Stille was patient enough to answer my cold call and share knowledge in an open and honest fashion, without there ever being a concrete incentive for him.

The fact that he had a keen sense of humour, shared a Yellow Pages sized print out of his collection and suffered my requests to invest countless hours into curating and compiling mixtapes for me did not hurt either as it provided me with insights I would otherwise not have had access to.

It might have been the fact that we both shared a common background in terms of having grown up in rural regions where one had to actively look for exciting pastime activities beyond what was offered by the local small-minded club culture, paired with the experience of music becoming the gateway to alternative and intriguing concepts, which spawned a lifelong thirst to find a sonic equivalent to one’s longings.

I remember first picking up the phone because I had lapped up Kalle’s tape compilations, which he had released under the moniker “Vollsuff”, accompanied by his idiosyncratic drawings. 

He also had a split 7” out with his band FOH and had just started to release his fantastic fanzine "Think!?!", a unique endeavour which deliberately broke with all conventions and stereotypes punk rock fanzines were confined by in a bid to challenge the status quo with humour and push the envelope in every direction.

In my youthful mind there was no doubt that this man was a renaissance man and interactions with him proved that I was not wrong. It turned out that he was not merely the epitome of the Do It Yourself credo, but was also smart, open minded and generous to a fault.

Kalle went on to found his own label, i.e. Crime Records, to unearth unreleased treasures, designed a myriad of artworks for records, took photographs and documented each show he went to, released two books and eventually went on to write for literally every slightly relevant punk rock publication in Germany (Plot, ZAP, Ox, etc.) as the unpretentious elder statesman of German punk rock royalty. Via his countless extracurricular activities, he continues to infuse punk rock culture with some of the more interesting unofficial releases, with the common denominator being a level of attention to detail that remains unrivalled.

While our interactions ebbed and flowed over the years, I never ceased to check in on Kalle’s emissions, which was never a not rewarding experience as he always effortlessly proved to be relevant, at times brutally honest, level headed and fuelled by an indelible passion and care for interesting music without being confined to musical styles or resorting to preaching in an elitist manner about his eclectic tastes.

Thus Let Us Drink Beer

Rocky Ridge and La Sirène

With craft beer brewing booming and having become a veritable business model, it is not further wondrous that operations that started out independently eventually had to rely on outside investments to then have their DNA diluted and mainstreamed by the respective shareholders.

Named after the natural outcrop of ironstone that pervades their estate, Rocky Ridge Brewery is an example par excellence for the opposite, i.e. an independent, family-owned business that has organically grown from humble beginnings within the confines of a farmhouse to the thriving business that keeps pumping out innovative and envelope-pushing creations based on their credo that everything “they brew, they grow”, yet enhanced by cutting edge brewing technology and the brewery’s focus firmly set on sustainable and local practices.

While there are quite a few Australian craft beer breweries that manage to incorporate some of the aforementioned aspects into their operations, the way that Rock Ridge channels its alchemy by accomplishing to incorporate all of them is unrivalled. This might be one of the reasons why there is no shortage of willing collaborators, the joint ventures with which keep things interesting as it allows for Rocky Ridge to experiment with ingredients that they do not grow themselves.

The fact that Rocky Ridge has consistently pumped out quality brews since its inceptions four years ago, many of which sell out within days and are seldomly even making it to the shelves on the East coast of Australia only add to the appeal.

If I had to pinpoint a signature Rocky Ridge release, it would be the Ace IPA as it proudly features the uniquely florally complex citrus, grapefruit and citrus flavour profile of the Flinders hop variety from Western Australia’s South Western region.

Harbouring more than a mere weak spot for IPAs, sampling Rocky Ridge’s line-up of hopped out varieties proves to be sheer delight, take for example El Diablo which based on a melange of Mosaic, El Dorado and Citra hops is an example par excellence for a well-calibrated East Coast IPA flavour profile centred around ripe fruit notes.

The West Coast equivalent would be Magic Man, which I fancy quite a bit due to its pronounced Nelson Sauvin, Rakau and Strata bitter- and maltiness, which is juxtaposed by facets of fruity flavours and a bold, reverberating finish, making it an ideal companion for a boilermaker with a heavily peated Islay whisky.

An interesting Pilsner variant I have so far not had, is Rocky Ridge’s experiment with maturing their Pilsner in an ex-Cognac foeder vessel for two months. The result is even more nuanced than the sum of the individual ingredients would have you think, culminating in delicate vanilla and oaky highlights, which shine against a backdrop of the yeasty Pilsner characteristics.

However, my favourite Rocky Ridge so far must be Danny’s Home: With 12% ABV a veritable heavyweight in the realm of IIPAs that proves to be dangerously moreish with its idiosyncratic mix of stone fruity and refreshingly tarty nuances that dance on a stage of delightfully resinous hops, only to be rounded out by a lingering bitterness which culminates in a citrus and mango heavy counterpoint. 

Lip-smackingly delicious in nature, what I have tasted form Rocky Ridge has assured that I won’t be able to make it past any of their future IPAs, especially when they enter IIPA territory.

La Sirène 

We have covered La Sirène as part of this series before, however, the fact that the Victorian specialists in Farmhouse, Saisons and Wild Ales have not only not slowed down but accelerated their microbiologically brewing alchemy in pumping out a diverse array of exquisite new interpretations of their trademark style, warrants another dedicated instalment.

With the name being an obvious nod to the French speaking part of Southern Belgium and local practices in the realm of creating a distinct style of ales, La Sirène has refined its own unique formula with the common denominator between their creations being that each is immensely recognisable, not unlike regional wine varieties.

La Sirène’s portfolio and one-off limited releases are ever expanding without ever running danger of creating ales that are not merely highly enjoyable but thought-provoking in that one feels inspired by the characteristics imbued by La Sirène’s immediate environment, including but not limited to the barrels used, the strains of air-borne yeasts and bacteria.

Artisanal in every aspect and with sustainability being a priority, La Sirène’s signature move is that all of their hand-bottled ales have been fermented openly, to then age in barrels where not only more fermentation is spurned but where they are aged, before being further refined in Premium French oak barrels sourced from local Victorian wineries. 

The fact that their wild ales are presented in Champagne bottles, which encourages the development of creamy mousse via a refermentation technique reminiscent of the Methode Champenoise, results in what has become yet another trademark of La Sirène, i.e. the creamy mousse that materializes as a crown on their poured emissions.

La Sirène’s attention to detail when it comes to packaging and elegant artwork rounds out the drinking experience of their nectar in the aesthetic department and it should not come as a surprise that not merely beer and ale lovers are falling prey to the alluring call of the siren, but also fine-dining restaurants in a bid to complement their culinary creations.

Recent favourites of La Sirène’s range include Biere de Cerise. An annual release in nature, this beauty is based on the Solera method, i.e. barrels that had the Barrel Aged Cherry Wild Ale doing its magic with whole Guigne D’Annonay and Marasca Cherries cherries are only ever partly emptied to then be topped up with fresh beer and fresh cherries. Fluctuating seasonal Victorian temperatures then help to extract the most out of each cherry.

Merely typing this evokes a Pavlovian response. 

Yum.

Another favourite is  La Sirène’s Chardonnay grape based collaboration with Bannockburn Vineyards in Geelong, i.e. Convergence 2021, which resulted in a wonderful hybrid between the winery’s trademark local microflora and La Sirène’s airborne culture. The result is an example par excellence in merging a wild ale with oaky Chardonnay characteristics.

With a name like Supernaturally things are bound to be interesting: Based on the abundance of fruit resulting from Victoria’s extensive lockdowns, La Sirène joined forces with local growers to handpick peaches and plums for the creation of two unique oak-aged wild ales, which could not be juicier and refreshingly acidic in nature.

Talking of acidity – if that is your jam you cannot go past La Sirène’s Cuvee De Bois: Based on a wild ale, fermented Victorian Chardonnay grapes are added, resulting in a well-calibrated mineral heavy wild ale ode to the beauty that is Chardonnay from the Geelong region.

Unfortunately I missed out with La Sirène’s collaboration with Starward Distillery but hope that they will revisit the project in the future.