Alphabet Soup (21)

Hello, Alphabet Soup reached U today, now U will understand that i won't be plugging U too, they have plenty of shelfspace. In line with previous soups i start off with a seventies band. At the time they were called a supergroup on the basis the members had done their thing in King Crimson, in fact it was the refusal, at that time, by Fripp to revive Crimson that led to the forming of U.K, ironically after they folded in 80, Fripp did revive King Crimson with Bruford on board. Whilst Yes man Wakeman was nixed by his label, ex Roxy Music Eddie Jobson stepped up to the plate and U.K. was born. Maybe there were too many captains on the ship, because despite good reviews of their albums and live shows and even a classic hit, Rendezvous 6.02, it was all over by early 1980...Uncle Green delivered a number of indie albums that finally led to a major showing interest, they responded by delivering their best album, alas for them the timing was lousy as the Seattle grunge scene took all the limelight, frustrated they folded....Finally Urban Dance Squad the hard hitting rock, rap and scratch band claim they started this particular crossover format that in years to come would be incorperated by many bands. Persona Non Grata is a hardhitting thrill that won't let you sit still..

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U.K. - U.K. (78 ^ 99mb)

In September 1976, singer/bassist John Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford, alumni of King Crimson, worked on forming a band with Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman. The project was nixed by Wakeman's label.Determined to work together, Bruford and Wetton next asked guitarist Robert Fripp to reform King Crimson which Fripp had disbanded in 1974. When Fripp declined, Bruford and Wetton decided that each would bring in a musician of his choice to formulate a band. Wetton brought in keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson, whom Wetton knew from his work with Roxy Music in 1976 . Bruford recruited guitarist Allan Holdsworth (formerly of Soft Machine and Gong) who had played guitar on his 1978 début solo album, Feels Good to Me. U.K. released its self-titled debut album in 1978, capturing the attention of progressive-rock and jazz-fusion fans, as did the band's supporting tour. Refusing to capitalise on its former glory by drawing from King Crimson's back catalogue, the quartet fleshed out its stage repertoire with what amounted to an entire second album (half of which would appear on Danger Money, the other half on Bruford's One Of A Kind').'

The debut album from amalgamated progsters has the edge over both Danger Money and Night After Night because of the synthesis of melody and rhythm that is inflicted through nearly every one of the eight tracks. Jobson's work with the electric violin and assorted synthesizers adds to an already profound astuteness carried by Wetton. Former Yes and Genesis drummer Bill Bruford is just as important behind the kit, making his presence felt on numbers like "Thirty Years" and "Nevermore." Without carrying the same rhythms or cadences through each song, U.K. implements some differentiation into their music, straying from the sometimes over-the-top musicianship that occurs with the gathering of such an elite bunch. All three of U.K.'s albums are enjoyable, but the debut sports the most interest, since it spotlights their remarkable fit as a band for the first time.

At the conclusion of the two lengthy American tours (June-October 1978), Holdsworth and Bruford left the group to form Bruford, leaving keyboardist Jobson as the band's leader. U.K. didn't hire another guitarist, but they did have Terry Bozzio replace Bruford. The new lineup of U.K. released Danger Money in 1979 and followed the album with a tour. Once the tour was completed, the group broke up. The posthumous live album Night After Night was released shortly afterward. Following the disbandment of U.K., Eddie Jobson became a member of Jethro Tull, Terry Bozzio formed Missing Persons, and John Wetton formed Asia with fellow progressive rock stars Steve Howe, Carl Palmer, and Geoffrey Downes... The trio recorded the album Danger Money, released in March 1979, and spent much of that year touring North America as opening act for Jethro Tull. A live album, Night After Night, was recorded in Japan that Spring and released in September. Following a final European tour in December 1979, and in spite of plans to record a new studio album in America in March 1980, U.K. disbanded.



01 - In The Dead Of The Night (5:32)
02 - By The Light Of Day (4:33)
03 - Presto Vivace And Reprise (2:56)
04 - Thirty Years (7:53)

05 - Alaska (4:34)
06 - Time To Kill (4:58)
07 - Nevermore (8:04)
08 - Mental Medication (7:11)


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Uncle Green - Book of Bad Thoughts (92 ^ 99mb)

A jangly Southern power pop band in the classic mold, Atlanta-based Uncle Green featured vocalists/guitarists/songwriters Matt Brown and Jeff Jensen, bassist Bill Decker, and drummer Pete McDade. Formed when some of its members were just 15, Uncle Green debuted with two albums for the small New Vision label (1987's Get It Together and 1988's 15 Dryden), but didn't truly hit their stride until signing with the indie DB. Produced by Brendan O'Brien, 1989's You was a major step forward, finding Brown and Jensen both perfecting their voices as lyricists and their senses of craft and structure as tunesmiths.

Having won a contract with Atlantic on the strength of 1991's What an Experiment His Head Was, the Atlanta band traveled to California with longtime producer Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Matthew Sweet) and returned with a full-fledged rock album, complete with shimmering guitars, raunchy grooves, and crisp production. Lyrically, Book Of Bad Thoughts finds songwriters Matt Brown and Jeff Jensen less concerned with turning a cute, ironic phrase than fully exploring the experience of love/hate relationships. Book is roughly a concept record about cheating lovers.

Book of Bad Thoughts remained a little-heard gem -- a '90s rock record of the highest order. Unfortunately, despite radio's greater receptivity to Uncle Green's style of music, the record failed to catch on with a wider alternative audience; after Atlantic ditched them, the group wound up disbanding in 1994. However, they immediately regrouped -- with the exact same lineup -- as the slightly more alt-rock-sounding 3 Lb. Thrill; they signed to O'Brien's Sony subsidiary 57 and recorded one album, Vulture, in 1995.



01 - I Know All About You
02 - I Don't Wanna Know About It 3:53
03 - Wake up Now 4:11
04 - Look into the Light 3:52
05 - Bellingham 3:46
06 - She's Storing It Up 4:29
07 - Your'e Getting into It 3:09
08 - In Good Time 3:23
09 - He Woke up Naked 3:32
10 - The Blue Light 3:43
11 - A Good Man 3:55
12 - I Always Knew You'd Come to Me 4:43

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Urban Dance Squad - Persona Non Grata (94 ^ 99mb)

The Amsterdam-based rock/rap collective Urban Dance Squad began in 1986, playing and jamming together on an informal basis. There, something revolutionary, new, and exciting was going on: the live strength of drums, bass, guitar, with added elements from hip hop: rap and scratch. What was happening was so different that a name for it still had yet to be invented. Twenty years later, the sound that UDS stumbled across is one of the most potent contemporary genres in the musical spectrum and is copied all over the world. The non-committal character of a jam session soon grew into the fixed form of a close group; Rudeboy Remington - Vocals, Tres Manos - Guitar, Sil - Bass, Magic Stick - Drums and DNA (DoNotAsk) - Turntables. UDS’s first two years were pretty chaotic. The band appeared on a series of club performances, strategic supporting performances , well-chosen radio and TV performances and 'special events' . In this 'obscure' period - there was no record yet, UDS swept the New Music Seminar NY (summer 1989) off its feet.

The money made in these two years of playing live was used by UDS to finance the recording of the first album: Mental Floss for the Globe. The album was recorded at ICP in Brussels in the spring of 1989 with the help of Jean-Marie Aerts (of Belgian band TC Matic). In August 1989, the ready-made mixed tapes were offered and eventually UDS signed with Ariola/BMG.
Mental Floss for the Globe was a major success and receives universal critical acclaim. It is an unprecedented combination of rock, rap, funk, ska, hip hop, soul, trash, reggae, and acoustic sounds. A true melting pot of what used to be traditionally separate musical styles, full of rhythmic and tonal boobytraps.

The group spent another year touring constantly, and released their second album Life 'n Perspective of a Genuine Crossover in 1991. This album, Life 'n Perspectives of a Genuine Crossover, was once again recorded at ICP, Brussels, and released in the autumn of 1991. Musically speaking this album was a more extreme and even more kaleidoscopic sequel to Mental Floss for the Globe. While press and audience did their utmost to invent all kinds of superlatives, the record company, unable to pigeonhole/market them combined with the lack of an obvious hit, American Arista stopped promoting the album. In September 1992, UDS broke with Ariola/BMG and locked itself into the rehearsal room to write new material. While on touring Europe spring 93, DJ DNA decided to leave the band. In the summer of 1993, UDS, now a 4-piece band, played an impressive set at a new major festival: Lowlands, this gig was the direct reason for Virgin to sign the band in the autumn of 1993.

In May 1994 Persona Non Grata was released. In contrast to the first two albums, Persona Non Grata was an album without overdubs. Upon release, it was an immediate success in Europe. "Demagogue," the album's opener and centerpiece, became a club hit, and is an utterly bracing concoction of raw-throated rap and spare, bright metal guitar, all underlaid with minimalist funk drums. That formula remains basically unaltered throughout the rest of the album. Again, the band bombarded the European club scene with a continuous series of shows and many festivals were visited in the summer.

In January 1996 recordings start on the fourth album, Planet Ultra. May 1996 Phil Nicolo (producer of Persona Non Grata) is called in for the final mix. The enigmatic album Planet Ultra seemed to puzzle the press, but unperturbed by their evasive reaction the band hit the road, knowing there has always been a vast and solid fanbase waiting out there. The tour that followed from early October 1996 sees the band in all the familiar places in Europe. One leg of the tour also takes the band to 'new territories', like Prague, and Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Impressed by the overwhelmingly warm reception UDS spends two unforgettable days in this city that was craving for live music after four years of political and economic embargo during the wars that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The band plays two sold-out shows and UDS decide to release the recordings of the first show as its first bootleg album, called Beograd Live. The album contains 21 songs, mixed directly to two-track without overdubs.

An official press release on April 6, 1997 announces the renewed collaborating of the five original founding UDS members, meaning that DNA rejoined the band. They decide on a retro-tour as in small venues, no roadies, obviously there were the big festival gigs aswell. UDS are contacted by Triple XXX that will rerelease their remastered albums topped with a live bonus disc in the years that follow. Their final album, Artantica, is released in the spring of 1999. A long summer of European clubs and festivals follows, in which UDS visits the large European festivals. The last concert of this tour at Axion Beach Rock on July 17, 1999, later proves to have been the very last UDS gig. When on February 2, 2000 Tres Manos announces that he is to leave the Urban Dance Squad, the band decides to fold. Six years later they came together to support their compilation album The Singles Collection( 2006), and performed at the 2006 editions of the Dutch Lowlands festival and Pukkelpop in Belgium.



01 - Demagogue (4:14)
02 - Good Grief! (4:31)
03 - No Honestly! (3:28)
04 - Alienated (5:18)
05 - Candy Strip Exp (4:51)
06 - Self Sufficient Snake (5:29)
07 - (Some) Chit Chat (5:07)
08 - Burnt Up Cigarette (4:09)
09 - Self Styled (3:17)
10 - Mugshot (3:14)
11 - Hangout (3:39)
12 - Downer (9:38)

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