Music Matters, Steve & Claus and why deadwax doesn't lie.

A kind reader flipped me a couple of links this week that I found somewhat disturbing.

http://www.stevehoffman.info/disc-musicmatters.html#

This is a link to a "fansite" set up by a minion named Claus, who seems to have some strange kind of hero worship thing going on. It is a  listing of all the Music Matters titles Hoffman claims to have mastered.

It lists 77 titles as having been mastered by The Mullet.

Completely false. Hoffman mastered 38 officially, and I have counted it myself. I have them. Easy to tell from the deadwax.

Since this has come to light, Hoffman has taken down the discography on his own website that made similar claims.

But the deadwax doesn't lie. The deadwax has Hoffman's initials in 38 titles. No more. Everything else has the 'KG' initials in the deadwax,and that's who mastered them - Kevin Gray.

Why does Hoffman make false claims? Who knows. Pathological, most likely. Or - more simple. Music Matters is the hottest reissue series going, and has been for some years. It single handedly raised the bar on reissues, not only in sound, but in presentation as well, forcing others - most notable Chad Kassem's Analogue Producions - to up their game, stop ripping off customers, and meet the new standard. No more lame double LP's in single covers so cheaply made the glue falls apart before they even get unwrapped. No more wussy Hoffman sound. No more dubious sources. It happened because of Music Matters.

So that is why Hoffman wants to claim he did more than double the number he really did. He wants to take credit for the best reissue series of the vinyl revival. The guy doesn't exactly get a lot of work, after all.

Some of those titles claimed to have been mastered by Hoffman not only never were released, they were never even mastered. That's how comical these guys are.

Looking at the Hoffman board, my earlier post previewing the 2015 Music Matters releases caused a few guys some angst, as it clearly attributes the mastering to Gray, some angrily stating that the only reason they ever bought MM was because of Hoffman. These guys aren't bright enough to realize that Hoffman hasn't done a MM titles for years. Dumber than that - they take 'buy by the label' to an extreme, valuing their hero fixation on a minor mastering consultant over the music and the sound. Amazing.

I sometimes get emails from Hoffman acolytes attacking me for the scorn I heap on their guru. Fact is, it is stuff like this - taking credit for other people's work - that makes me want to keep on exposing this insufferable egotist.

Fact is - Hoffman mastered 38 Music Matters titles. They got better after he was dumped, and they even went back and redid some of those 38 and made 'em even better.