Alphabet Soup II (P)

Hello, in the Alphabet Soup there's no room for various artists so i continue from where i left off last time (O) to P. Fiirst up the band that made the seventies for many of us Pink Floyd before they treated us on Dark Side of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, the album that set them on that path was 1971's Meddle...20 years later the Pixies released what turned out to be their last album Tromp Le Monde...finally Porcupine Tree a band that continues to grow and release quality prog rock ever since their 92 debut...this here In Absentia was their first opus that broke out of their incrowd reputation, into the mainstream.

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Pink Floyd - Meddle ( 71 ^ 99mb)

Pink Floyd evolved from an earlier rock band, formed in 1964. When the band split up, some members — guitarists Rado "Bob" Klose and Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, and keyboardist and wind instrument player Richard Wright — formed a new band called "Tea Set". Blues and folk guitarist and vocalist Syd Barrett joined the band, with Waters moving to bass and Wright to full time keyboards. When The Tea Set found themselves on the same bill as another band with the same name, Barrett came up with the alternative name The Pink Floyd Sound, after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The Sound was dropped fairly quickly, but the definite article was still used regularly until 1970. The group's UK releases during the Syd Barrett era credited them as The Pink Floyd as did their first two U.S. singles. 1969's More and Ummagumma albums credit the band as Pink Floyd, produced by The Pink Floyd, while 1970's Atom Heart Mother credits the band as The Pink Floyd, produced by Pink Floyd. David Gilmour is known to have referred to the group as The Pink Floyd as late as 1984.

As their popularity increased, the band members formed Blackhill Enterprises in October 1966, a six-way business partnership with their managers, Peter Jenner and Andrew King,[13] issuing the singles "Arnold Layne" in March 1967 and "See Emily Play" in June 1967. "Arnold Layne" reached number 20 in the UK Singles Chart, and "See Emily Play" reached number 6, granting the band its first national TV appearance on Top of the Pops in July 1967. Released in August 1967, the band's debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, is today considered to be a prime example of British psychedelic music, and was generally well-received by critics at the time. The music reflected newer technologies in electronics through its prominent use of stereo panning, tape editing, echo effects and electric keyboards. As the band became more popular, the stresses of life on the road, pressure by the record company to produce hit singles, and a significant intake of psychedelic drugs took their toll on Barrett, whose mental health had been deteriorating for several months. In January 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band to carry out Barrett's playing and singing duties.

With Barrett's behaviour becoming less and less predictable, and his almost constant use of LSD, he became very unstable, occasionally staring into space while the rest of the band performed. The absent expression in his eyes inspired Waters' lyrics in 1975's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Now there's that look in your eyes/ Like black holes in the sky.' The band's live shows became increasingly ramshackle until, eventually, the other band members simply stopped taking him to the concerts. The last concert featuring Barrett was on 20 January 1968 on Hastings Pier. Once Barrett's departure was formalised in April 1968, producers Jenner and King decided to remain with him, and the six-way Blackhill partnership was dissolved. The band adopted Steve O'Rourke as manager, and he remained with Pink Floyd until his death in 2003. After recording two solo albums (The Madcap Laughs and Barrett) in 1970 (co-produced by and sometimes featuring Gilmour, Waters and Wright) to moderate success, Barrett went into seclusion. Again going by his given name, Roger, he eventually moved back to his native Cambridge and lived a quiet life there until his death on 7 July 2006.

As Barrett had been the lead singer during his era, Gilmour, Waters and Wright now split both songwriting and lead vocal duties. Waters mostly wrote low-key, jazzy melodies with dominant bass lines and complex, symbolic lyrics, Gilmour focused on guitar-driven blues jams, and Wright preferred melodic psychedelic keyboard-heavy numbers. Unlike Waters, Gilmour and Wright preferred tracks that had simple lyrics or that were purely instrumental. A Saucerful of Secrets was released in June 1968, reaching #9 in the UK and becoming the only Pink Floyd album not to chart in the U.S. Somewhat uneven due to Barrett's departure, the album still contained much of his psychedelic sound combined with the more experimental music that would be fully showcased on Ummagumma. Its centrepiece, the 12-minute title track, hinted at the epic, lengthy songs to come, but the album was poorly received by critics at the time.

Pink Floyd were then recruited by director Barbet Schroeder to produce a soundtrack for his film, More, which was premièred in May 1969. The music was released as a Floyd album in its own right, Soundtrack from the Film More. The next record, the double album Ummagumma, was a mix of live recordings and unchecked studio experimentation by the band members, with each member recording half a side of a vinyl record as a solo project. Though the album was realised as solo outings and a live set, it was originally intended as a purely avant-garde mixture of sounds from "found" instruments.The title is Cambridge slang for sexual intercourse. Atom Heart Mother (1970), the band's first recording with an orchestra, was a collaboration with avant-garde composer Ron Geesin. The name was a last minute decision by the band when they were inspired by a newspaper article about a woman who had given birth with a pacemaker. The use of noises, incidental sound effects and voice samples would thereafter be an important part of the band's sound. While Atom Heart Mother was considered a huge step back for the band at the time and is still considered one of its most inaccessible albums, it had the best chart performance for the band up to that time, reaching #1 in the UK

The band's sound was considerably more focused on Meddle (1971), with the 23-minute epic "Echoes" a smooth progressive rock song with extended guitar and keyboard solos and a long segue in the middle consisting largely of synthesised music produced on guitars, organs, and synths, along with backward wah pedal guitar sounding like samples of sea gulls or albatross and an entire whale song playing over the top, described by Waters as a "sonic poem". Meddle was considered by Nick Mason to be "the first real Pink Floyd album. Meddle also included the atmospheric "One of These Days", a concert favourite featuring Nick Mason's menacing one-line vocal ("One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces"), distorted and bluesy lap steel guitar, and a melody that at one point fades into a throbbing synthetic pulse quoting the theme tune of the cult classic science fiction television show Doctor Who.

Meddle was greeted both by critics and fans enthusiastically, and Pink Floyd were rewarded with a #3 album chart peak in the UK. Today, Meddle remains one of their most well-regarded albums, it set out the Pink Floyd path. The sound became polished and collaborative, with the philosophic lyrics and distinctive bass lines of Waters combining with the unique blues guitar style of Gilmour and Wright's haunting keyboard melodies...



01 - One Of These Days (5:51)
02 - A Pillow Of Winds (5:05)
03 - Fearless (6:02)
04 - San Tropez (3:38)
05 - Seamus (2:12)

06 - Echoes (23:25)

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Pixies - Trompe Le Monde (91 ^ 99mb)

The Pixies' history began when undergraduates Joey Santiago and Black Francis (born Charles Thompson IV) shared a room at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The two spent 1984 working in a warehouse, with Francis composing songs on his acoustic guitar and writing lyrics on the subway train. The pair formed a band in January 1985. Bassist Kim Deal joined Santiago and Francis two weeks later after responding to a classified advertisement Francis had placed, seeking a female bassist .

The band produced an 18 track demo at Fort Apache soon afterwards, known to fans as "The Purple Tape" because of the tape cover's purple background. The recording was funded by Francis' father at the cost of $1000 and took three days to record. The tape was released exclusively as a demo to interested parties, including Ivo Watts-Russell at 4AD and local promoter Ken Goes, who became the band's manager. Eight tracks from the Purple Tape were selected for the Come On Pilgrim EP, the band's first release. Come On Pilgrim showcased much of the Pixies' variety and set up the beginnings of many trends in their music. It includes two songs partly sung in Spanish ("Vamos" and "Isla de Encanta") and two songs that explicitly mention incest—"Nimrod's Son" and "The Holiday Song"

Pixies's first full-length album, Surfer Rosa. The album was recorded by Steve Albini , completed in a fortnight, and released in early 1988. Surfer Rosa gained the Pixies acclaim throughout the musical world; both Melody Maker and Sounds gave Surfer Rosa their "Album of the Year" award. After their critically acclaimed album, the band arrived in England to support Throwing Muses on the European "Sex and Death" tour—beginning at the Mean Fiddler in London. The tour also took them to the Netherlands, headlining the tour. Francis later recalled: "The first place I made it with the Pixies was in Holland."

the British producer, Gil Norton. Norton was to produce their second full album, Doolittle (provisionally titled Whore),[10] which was recorded in the last six weeks of 1988 and seen as a departure from the raw sound of Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa. Doolittle had a much cleaner sound. Like Surfer Rosa, Doolittle was acclaimed by fans and music critics alike. In 2003, the album was ranked number 226 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. After the Doolittle tour's final date in New York, the band was too exhausted and soon announced a hiatus.

During this time, Santiago travelled to the Grand Canyon to "find himself", and Lovering jetted off to Jamaica. Francis bought a yellow Cadillac and crossed America with his girlfriend . Kim Deal formed a new band, The Breeders, named after a band she had formed with her sister as a teenager, with Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses and bassist Josephine Wiggs of Perfect Disaster. Their debut album, Pod, was released later that year. After Doolittle, Francis began to limit Deal's contributions to the band and assert more control over the Pixies' output; the first three records had been partly written by Deal, but when Bossanova was released in 1990, all the original songs were by him.

The band continued to tour, and, break-up announcements notwithstanding, one more album was to follow. Trompe le Monde, released in 1991, still featured little creative input from Deal and was not as immediately well regarded as their first few albums. In the end, Trompe Le Monde expanded on the UFO and sci-fi themes (including a song on space travel, "Planet of Sound" and "Motorway to Roswell" about an alien vacation gone badThe album saw the band move in a more popular direction with songs as "Palace of the Brine" and "Trompe Le Monde". The songs "U-Mass" (sample (info)) and "Alec Eiffel" included the keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman—a move unthinkable in the band's Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa days. The album also featured a cover of "Head On" by The Jesus and Mary Chain. Trompe Le Monde was to be the Pixies' last studio album before their breakup.

Following the release of Trompe Le Monde, the band went on a sellout winter tour of the USA, culminating on a TV appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. They then embarked on an uncomfortable tour supporting fans U2 (on their Zoo TV tour) in 1992. However, tensions rose between band members, and, at the end of the year, the Pixies went on sabbatical and focused on separate projects. In early 1993, Francis announced in an interview to BBC Radio 5 that the band was finished. In late 2003 a press release from Black's publicist officially confirmed a reunion would occur in the spring of 2004. The folowing years theyd appear at festivals but a new album was not on the cards.



01 - Trompe Le Monde (1:47)
02 - Planet Of Sound (2:06)
03 - Alec Eiffel (2:50)
04 - The Sad Punk (2:59)
05 - Head On (2:14)
06 - U-Mass (3:00)
07 - Palace Of The Brine (1:34)
08 - Letter To Memphis (2:40)
09 - Bird Dream Of The Olympus Mons (2:48)
10 - Space (I Believe In) (4:18)
11 - Subbacultcha (2:09)
12 - Distance Equals Rate Times Time (1:24)
13 - Lovely Day (2:05)
14 - Motorway To Roswell (4:43)
15 - The Najavo Know (2:19)

16 - Rock Music (Live) (1:52)
17 - Hang Wire (Live) (2:01)
18 - Monkey Gone To Heaven (Live) (2:58)
19 - Isla De Encanta (Live) (1:46)

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Porcupine Tree - In Absentia ( 02 ^ 189mb)

Porcupine Tree was just Wilson at the start; born in London in 1967, having learned guitar and keyboards at a young age turning out to be a talented musical prodigy. 1987 saw the founding of both No-Man and Porcupine Tree, the latter actually starting as a joke between Wilson and a friend about a legendary lost '70s group. Elaborate discographies and other material were created à la Spinal Tap, while Wilson himself created a slew of music meant to be the band's lost recordings. The best tracks ended up at Porcupine Tree's real debut album on Delerium Records, On the Sunday of Life, in 1992. Those songs having been something of a nostalgia exercise, Wilson aimed for a more contemporary approach on his follow-up release -- the extended single "Voyage 34," with a clear debt to ambient techno jokesters the Orb.

Up the Downstair, Porcupine Tree's next full album, found Wilson coming fully into his own, creating a majestic, sweeping album that took the prog inspirations of the past fully into a realm of mysterious hush and beauty as much as full-on rock charge. Two collaborators on other projects, bassist Colin Edwin and keyboardist Richard Barbieri (Japan), guested on the album. Later that year, the two formally joined Porcupine Tree, along with drummer Chris Maitland, establishing a four-piece lineup. The first release by the new version of the group, The Sky Moves Sideways, was actually something of a transitional affair, a number of the songs still being Wilson solo compositions and performances.

The bandmembers themselves considered the quartet's true debut to be 1996's Signify, another stunning step forward of the Porcupine Tree sound with new highlights everywhere, including the epic blast of the title track itself. By this time, Porcupine Tree's reputation had spread throughout Europe and elsewhere, including an increasing cult following in America. A friendly parting from Delerium led Porcupine Tree to Snapper/K-Scope, which released 1999's Stupid Dream, notable for its stronger song focus and slightly more accessible feel all around. The band's reputation and fan base continued to grow, with another album, Lightbulb Sun, taking its bow in 2000. Porcupine Tree continued to tour and plan ahead for both new recordings and reissues of older, rarer material, the first of which surfaced in May 2001, titled Recordings.

Various unreleased cuts from the Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun sessions as well as a few B-sides were included. They spent the rest of the year putting together Stars Die: The Delerium Years '91-97, a box set that looks at their catalog from 1991 to 1997. Drummer Chris Maitland left the band in March of 2002, but luckily Gavin Harrison was available to take his place. A year later, In Absentia was released, the most accessible release to ever spew forth from the group. Rolling electronic percussion blends with simple and solid live drumming to provide an understated backbeat as perennial Tree leader Steven Wilson pastes his complicated pop over the proceedings. Wilson's ability to bury his layered vocals in mountains of spacy electric guitar without drowning out his fragile lyrics is still a valued feature of the music, and the rare moments of clarity that his vocals display are breathtaking in their power. In Absentia was followed by Warszawa and Deadwing in 2005. In 2007, the band released their ninth studio LP, a loose concept album with an underlying theme of escapism in the 21st century, aptly named Fear of a Blank Planet (not to be confused with the similarly titled Public Enemy classic).



01 - Blackest Eyes (4:23)
02 - Trains (5:56)
03 - Lips Of Ashes (4:39)
04 - The Sound Of Muzak (4:59)
05 - Gravity Eyelids (7:56)
06 - Wedding Nails (6:33)
07 - Prodigal (5:32)
08 - .3 (5:25)
09 - The Creator Has A Mastertape (5:21)
10 - Heartattack In A Layby (4:15)
11 - Strip The Soul (7:21)
12 - Collapse The Light Into Earth (5:54)

13 - Drown With Me (4:27)
14 - Chloroform (7:14)

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