Jun 12, 2008

Alphabet Soup (I)

Hello, Alphabet Soup, meets the I , which doesnt offer the widest of choice but these next albums have it in them nevertheless. 77 was a busy year for Iggy Pop , he released no less then 3 albums that year, Kill City , rapped up his Stooges time. Bowie acted again as a real buddy for the Jean Genie, they wrote and recorded two albums together, ive posted The Idiot in Rhotation 6 , but Iggy never stays introverted for long and with Lust For Life he blew anyone away after the droning of Massproduction (finaltrack the idiot). The passenger turned out to become another classic ( oops how about that for a B-side).....Irish' Into Paradise loved Echo & The Bunnymen, maybe thats why they asked initial labelmates The Sound-frontman Adrian Borland to produce their first and second album. The result a cross between U2 and the Sound , though at the time U2 had moved on soundwise.. Well they left some great music but by 93 dissolved, however they did score some great points...Finally Interpol...Why is it that the lemming musicpress always drools over bands from New York, five years ago i saw them perform and i wondered is this for real..the Joy Division touch, but the guys didnt even look a band, i got the impression there were four bands on stage that jammed..most odd, too my surprise none of the reviews i've read mentions 9/11, this event -to me at least- lies at the basis of the density and gloom of Turn on the Bright Lights, sublimated aggression.....

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Iggy Pop - Lust For Life (77 ^ 281mb)

James Newell Osterberg, Jr. (born April 21, 1947), better known by his stage name Iggy Pop. Iggy Pop began his music career as a drummer in different high school bands in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One band was the Iguanas, where he acquired the name Iggy.After he dropped out of the University of Michigan James moved to Chicago to learn more about blues. Inspired by Chicago blues as well as bands like The Sonics and The MC5, he formed the Psychedelic Stooges and began calling himself Iggy. The seeds of Pop's stage persona were sown when Pop saw The Doors perform in 1967 at the University of Michigan. Pop was amazed by the stage antics and antagonism displayed by singer Jim Morrison, who's extreme behavior inspired the young Pop to push the boundaries of stage performance. Later, while inventing the stage-dive in Detroit,rolling around in broken glass, exposing himself to the crowd, and vomiting on stage, among many other exploits, Iggy himself would inspire others. The Stooges' first two albums, The Stooges, produced by John Cale, and Fun House, sold poorly. Iggy meanwhile got hooked on heroin and the band collapsed.

David Bowie helped to rejuvenate Iggy Pop's career by producing an album with him. The recording sessions produced the punk rock landmark Raw Power, in 1973. Still Iggy's drug problem persisted. The Stooges' last show ended in a fight between the band and a group of bikers, documented on the album Metallic K.O.. Drug abuse put his career on hold for a couple of years. After the second breakup of the Stooges, Iggy Pop made some recordings with James Williamson, but these were not released until 1977 (as Kill City). Iggy was unable to control his drug use and checked himself into a mental institution to try to clean up. Bowie was one of his few visitors there, and he continued to support his friend and collaborator. In 1976, Bowie took him along as his companion on the Station to Station tour. Bowie and Iggy Pop relocated to West Berlin to wean themselves off their addictions.

Although issued after Low, the opening installment of Bowie's so-called "Berlin Trilogy", the pair began writing and recording songs for The Idiot in mid-1976, before Bowie started work on his own album. As such, The Idiot has been claimed as heralding the unofficial beginning of Bowie's Berlin period, being compared particularly to Low and "Heroes" in its electronic effects, treated instrument sounds, introspective lyrics and overall mood. A departure from the hard rock of his former band The Stooges, The Idiot is regarded by critics as one of Pop’s best works, to lessen the confusion Pop quickly released a follow up..again with Bowie's writing in the wings, Lust For Life, it spawned two of his biggest hits, the titletrack and The Passenger.

The Lust for Life sessions took place soon after the completion of a concert tour in support of the The Idiot album, the tour ending on 16 April 1977.[Pop has stated, "David and I had determined that we would record that album very quickly, which we wrote, recorded, and mixed in eight days, and because we had done it so quickly, we had a lot of money left over from the advance, which we split." The singer slept little during its making. Lust for Life is generally considered to be more of an Iggy Pop record than the Bowie-dominated The Idiot, being less experimental musically and having more of a rock and roll flavor. However some of its themes were similarly dark, as in "The Passenger", one of Pop’s "most haunting" tracks, inspired by a Jim Morrison poem that saw "modern life as a journey by car". It has been covered by Nick Cave, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Michael Hutchence. Ultimately Iggy Pop managed to channel the aggressive power of his work with the Stooges with the intelligence and perception of The Idiot, and the result was the best of both worlds; smart, funny, edgy, and hard-rocking....



01 - Lust For Life (5:07)
02 - Sixteen (2:22)
03 - Some Weird Sin (3:36)
04 - The Passenger (4:37)
05 - Tonight (3:33)

06 - Success (4:20)
07 - Turn Blue (6:48)
08 - Neighborhood Threat (3:21)
09 - Fall In Love With Me (6:24)

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Into Paradise - Churchtown (91 ^ 282mb)

Into Paradise were a group from Dublin, Ireland whose influences included Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen. They formed in 1986 as 'Backwards into Paradise', and released their debut EP 'Blue Light' in 1989 on the independent label Setanta. Soon after came the EP 'Change' and the band's first full-length album, 'Under the Water'. During this period they became notorious for gigs which often ended with fighting between bandmembers.

The group's debut, released in 1990 and produced by ex-Sound frontman Adrian Borland, found Into Paradise--singer/guitarist Dave Long, guitarist/keyboardist James Eadie, bassist Rachel Tighe and drummer Ronan Clarke--owing a heavy debt to the Bunnymen's landmark 1980 LP, Crocodiles. The shame was that a few genuinely good tracks got buried in the band's attempt at homage. However, someone kicked Into Paradise firmly in the collective rear just in time for the release of Churchtown the following year--the group sounded newly-energized on uptempo, "Churchtown" is just a straight forward rock album - nothing really fancy with this one however the songs are just incredible. Singer Dave Long spills his heart out over the 12 tracks , "Rain Comes Down" blasts your bloody speakers off the wall. Produced again by Borland, Churchtown showed off a large-scale dramatic sweep, augmented by consistently strong, attractive melodies.

The band followed that triumph with a pair of U.K.-only EPs--Down All The Days (1992) and For No One (1993)--before disappearing from view shortly afterwards.
The eight-song, 33-minute Down All the Days is by far Into Paradise's best and most consistent effort. The tighter format is a big plus, letting the quartet avoid the filler that dotted its first two releases. "Sleep," the invitingly atmospheric centerpiece, continues the band's tradition of hooking plaintively beautiful tunes to the direst of lyrics — in this case, Long's self-doubt over a hopeless affair. The seven-track For No One covers no new ground ("Letting Go," "Don't Let Me Down," "Move Over," "Move Up, Move Out")



01 - Rain Come Down (3:48)
02 - Burns My Skin (3:45)
03 - Yesterday's Men (3:55)
04 - I'm Still Waiting (3:07)
05 - Winter (4:32)
06 - Bring Me Up (3:12)
07 - All Down From Here (2:52)
08 - Angel (4:04)
09 - Dreaming (3:23)
10 - Dive (3:24)
11 - Tears In Your Eyes (2:57)
12 - Gently Falls (4:32)

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Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights (02 ^ 322mb)

The roots of the band stem from New York University, where all of the original line-up were students. Guitarist Daniel Kessler, eager to start a band, met drummer Greg Drudy on campus, Carlos Dengler ( bass) in a history class and ran into Paul Banks, remembered them meeting in Paris and asked him to become lead singer. In 2000, after releasing the Fukd I.D. #3 EP, Greg Drudy left the band, and Kessler recruited Sam Fogarino, whom he knew through Fogarino’s job at a local vintage clothing store. After self-releasing several EPs between 1998 - 2001, in early 2002 the band signed to indie label Matador, an independent label famous for breaking highly respected bands such as Pavement. The first release, a self-titled EP containing rerecorded versions of PDA and NYC was released June 2002 to widespread critical acclaim in the indie music scene, which built anticipation for the full-length album.

They didnt have to wait long, 11 weeks later Turn on the Bright Lights was released in August, again on Matador, and is widely considered one of the best albums of that year, it even became Pitchfork Media's "Album of the Year." Though much of Turn on the Bright Lights plays on the heady solemnity of post-punk-meets-modern-isolation, there are songs that toy with other influences. The gripping "PDA", burns with the intelligent rage so characteristic of The Fall; "The New" has the bruising emotion of Echo & the Bunnymen. And the album ends with "Leif Erikson", which, like its Viking namesake, sails the album toward the serene potential of another world. The album turned out to be what modern followers of post-punk have been waiting for. It is the album that makes all the hub-bub about the New York City music scene justified; it is the album that makes the time we're living through feel like an era rather than a haphazard, disconnected series of events. Interpol absorbed several decades of great music and produced something familiar, yet fresh and new.

The band regrouped in late 2003 to begin sessions for the follow-up album, again decamping to Tarquin Studios to record. On September 28, 2004, Antics was released on Matador. The album achieved far greater commercial success than Turn on the Bright Lights, perhaps due to the lighter, more accessible arrangements and bigger hooks. Though Interpol couldn't be expected to surpass their previous heights, the band has wisely ignored a shortsighted perception of their career which dictates that where Bright Lights was an audacious plunge from a great height, Antics is the crucial landing. And so Antics garnered much critical acclaim again and was once more a popular choice on critics' Top 10 lists for 2004 Interpol toured once again after the release of the album, playing more dates than ever before and at bigger venues, the tour stretched on for almost 18 months..

Interpols third album arrives belatedly on the back of persistent rumours of a split and a reportedly 'tempestuous genesis'. In the interim, drummer Sam Fogarino started a new band, the Setting Suns, with Adam Franklin of Nineties shoegazing outfit Swervedriver, while newly mustachioed bassist Carlos D was recently seen on a Guardian website blog rhapsodising about the 'gorgeous and irresistible power' of symphony orchestras. All of which could have made for a distracted-sounding major label debut from a band verging on the kind of superstardom you feel should have been theirs years ago. Our Love to Admire was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village and The Magic Shop Studios in New York City and released July 10, 2007 on Capitol Records.

Happily, that 'tempestuous genesis' sounds like a storm in a teacup - Our Love to Admire fleshes out the dark edges of Interpol's sound to create a polished, muscular-sounding record that teems with life and bristling potency. It was the first time they have included keyboards in the arrangements from the start of the songwriting process. As a result, the album is more atmospheric and diverse than its predecessors. That might come as a disappointment to those who enjoyed the brittle existentialism of the first record, but it makes for an electrifying listen in its own right. Still the reviews turned out a mixed bag.



01 - Untitled (3:56)
02 - Obstacle 1 (4:11)
03 - NYC (4:19)
04 - PDA (4:59)
05 - Say Hello To the Angels (4:28)
06 - Hands Away (3:05)
07 - Obstacle 2 (3:47)
08 - Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down (6:27)
09 - Roland (3:35)
10 - The New (6:07)
11 - Leif Erikson (4:00)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 11, 2008

Eight-X (35)

Hello, another Eight-X, so whats cooking..well two new names to the blog, starter Echo & The Bunnymen has passed the Eight-X gate 3 months ago with ther debut album and today with their third, Porcupine ..im not sure if they felt besieged by predators, or reviewers after their second album fell somewhat thru the cracks, whatever with Porcupine they established themselves...Second a Dutch band Nasmak who had been lauded (but not payed) the years before and when they put in all they had learned music-technically they were shunned by the (arty farty)avantgarde, still Silhoutte is a good album, Japan folded as they couldnt follow up on 81 Tin Drum, Nasmak here lacks David Sylvian.....Finally, the Tin Tin Twin detectives they had a string of hits in the early/mid eighties with surprisng unassuming music but with in general good percussive work. Five million people got Into The Gap, this overcrowding caused main man Tom Bailey a nervous breakdown when he was working on the follow up ("will it fit ?, will it fit ?) And yet, The Thompson Twins made their mark and went their own way ....

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Echo And The Bunnymen - Porcupine (83 ^ 521mb)

The Bunnymen grew out of the Crucial Three, a late-'70s trio featuring vocalist Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie, and Julian Cope. Cope and Wylie left the group by the end of 1977, forming the Teardrop Explodes and Wah!, respectively. McCulloch met guitarist Will Sergeant in the summer of 1978 and the pair began recording demos with a drum machine that the duo called "Echo." Adding bassist Les Pattinson, the band made its live debut at the Liverpool club Eric's at the end of 1978, calling itself Echo & the Bunnymen. In March of 1979, the group released its first single, "Pictures on My Wall"/"Read It in Books," on the local Zoo record label. The single and their popular live performances led to a contract with Korova. After signing the contract, the group discarded the drum machine, adding drummer Pete de Freitas.

Their debut album, Crocodile, was produced by The Chameleons and Ian Broudie. Echo's brilliant, often harrowing debut album beginning with the dramatic, building climb of "Going Up," at once showcases four individual players sure of their own gifts and their ability to bring it all together to make things more than the sum of their parts. Will Sergeant in particular is a revelation -- plays the electric guitar as just that, electric not acoustic, dedicated to finding out what can be done with it while never using it as an excuse to bend frets.

The group's third album, Porcupine, is a solid outing, a noticeably better listen than its predecessor, Heaven Up Here. Songs are intriguing and elaborate, often featuring swooping, howling melodic lines. Arrangements here owe a lot to 1960s psychedelia and feature lots of reverb, washed textures, intricate production touches, and altered guitar sounds. Ian McCulloch's vocals are yearning, soaring, and hyper-expressive here, almost to the point of being histrionic, most notably on "Clay," "Ripeness," and the title track. Driving bass and drums lend the songs urgency and keep the music from collapsing into self-indulgence.

With their 4th album Ocean Rain came not only critical succeess and sales , it started off a rut, big trouble with Warner(label)when they finally did come together again Pete de Freitas had left the band, but later returned and everything was rerecorded. in the end the epynomous album had taken 3 years. It was unsurprisingly not that well recieved, by now it was 1987. A year later McCulloch quit the band in 1988 and de Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident in mid-1989. The remaining members werent really able to resurrect the band... In 1994 McCulloch and Sergeant began working together again under the name Electrafixion; in 1997 Pattinson rejoined the duo, meaning the three surviving members of the original Bunnymen lineup were now working together again. Rather than continue as Electrafixion, the trio resurrected the Echo & the Bunnymen name and released the album Evergreen (1997) and since What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? (1999), Flowers (2001) and Siberia (2005). Ian McCulloch has announced The Fountain as the title of the new Echo & the Bunnyman album due in 2008.



01 - The Cutter (3:50)
02 - Back Of Love (3:13)
03 - My White Devil (4:38)
04 - Clay (4:08)
05 - Porcupine (5:46)

06 - Heads Will Roll (3:29)
07 - Ripeness (4:42)
08 - Higher Hell (4:57)
09 - Gods Will Be Gods (5:21)
10 - In Bluer Skies (4:16)
Bonus
11 - Fuel 4:05
12 - The Cutter (Alternate Version) 4:08
13 - My White Devil (Alternate Version) 5:03
14 - Porcupine (Alternate Version) 4:04
15 - Ripeness (Alternate Version) 4:42
16 - Gods Will Be Gods (Alternate Version) 5:31
17 - Never Stop (Discotheque) 4:45


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Nasmak - Silhouette (83 ^ 216mb)

Nasmak and friends were from the South of the country Nuenen,near Philips's researchlabs and headquarters (at the time) they were interested in repetitive structures, but their music was less harsh and mechanical, more fluid and danceable. Initially in 78 they sang in dutch and were called Nasmaak (after taste) They dropped the dutch and an a and so Nasmak came about. Their first record (on Plurex) Nasmak Plus Instruments/Instruments Plus Nasmak(1980), was hailed by John Peel as the best continental record of the year. Nasmak was the first Dutch band to do a Peel session. They combined traditional gitar/bass/drums with Truus de Groot, playing the unpredictable 'crackling box' noise(s)and tapes, yes bit of an art band..from the provence no less...Well their efforts were well recieved national aswell as international. All members had their own side-projects, such as + Instruments (Truus de Groot with varying personnel including Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth)

In 81 Truus de Groot leaves for New York, where she, together with drummer David Linton en gitarist Lee Renaldo , further develops her band + Instruments. Nasmak goes on and they release two double cassettes Indecent Exposure 1 & 2 (Music For Brass, Woodwinds, Drums & Violins) en Indecent Exposure 3 & 4 (The Smell Remains). In 82 they release 4ourclicks, an original and hypnotic album which gets rave reviews.

Their third album, Duel (83) is more melodic and less well recieved, Joop van Brakel (gitar) left shortly before the release. On their fourth and final album, Silhoutte, Nasmak tried a more smoother sound, the end result was certainly not bad. it dissapointed their hard core fans who had them down as avant garde..but that dont pay any bills. It's true certainly looking back that the influence of Talking Heads and specially Japan loomed large over this album, but hey so what! They had come a long way in just 6 years and after the promotour in 84 it was all over for Nasmak. ..Were it not for the internet..hefty prices are payed for their rareties like this 81 Flexi



01 - Visions (3:34)
02 - Walk Away (3:35)
03 - Air (4:35)
04 - Disturbance (3:48)
05 - Silhouette (3:59)

06 - Crystal Clear (3:45)
07 - Don't Be Anxious (4:02)
08 - Below (3:41)
09 - Believe In Woman (4:09)
10 - Womb (3:39)

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Thompson Twins - Into The Gap   (84 ^ 472mb)

The Thompson Twins was formed 1977 in Sheffield, England by three friends - Tom Bailey (bass), Pete Dodd (vocals and guitar) and John Roog (guitar). The name came from the twin detecives in HergĂ©'s comic book series "Adventures of Tintin". In 1979 they moved to London with very little money, they lived as squatters in Lillieshall Road, London. Future Thompson Twins' member Alannah Currie lived in another squat in the same street — which is how she met Bailey.Drummer Chris Bell replaced "Pod" Podgorski who had decided to stay in the north. Early 1980 Tom Bailey took over lead vocals from Pete Dodd. .
By 1981, the line-up was Bailey, Dodd, Roog and three new members: Chris Bell on drums, Joe Leeway on congas and percussion, and Jane Shorter on saxophone. This line-up recorded the first Thompson Twins album A Product of ... (Participation). Currie, who had been hanging out with the band for a few years, played and sang on the first album, but was not yet a full member.

March 1982 they released the album ''Set'' - produced by Steve Lillywhite - and the single ''In The Name Of Love''. Which becomes one of the biggest US dance songs of the decade, spending five weeks topping the Billboard charts. Now as a three-piece, the new Thompson Twins released their first album in February 1983. ''Quick Step And Side Kick'' (''Side Kicks'' in North America) - produced by Alex Sadkin. They release "Lies" and "Love On Your Side", which became the band's first UK Top 10 single, followed with "We Are Detective" (another Top 10 UK hit) and "Watching".

At the end of 1983, a new single, "Hold Me Now", was released. A simple love song with gentle guitar lines, it marked a clear break from the Thompson Twins' previously dance-oriented sound. The song was an international chart success, peaking at number three in the US and becoming their biggest American hit, and also hitting number four in their native UK. In January 1984 they released their second album as a threesome, ''Into The Gap'', which produced the additional hits ''Doctor! Doctor!'', ''You Take Me Up'' and ''Sister Of Mercy''. By the end of 1984 ''Into The Gap'' sold over 5,000,000 copies worldwide.

Tom collapses from nervous exhaustion producing the follow-up LP and the album and tour is post-poned and Nile Rodgers is brought in to help finish the job. September 1985 finally sees the release of ''Here's To Future Days''. It contains the hits ''Don't Mess With Doctor Dream'', ''Lay Your Hands On Me'' and ''King For A Day''. Upon finishing the world tour in early 1986, Joe Leeway leaves the Thompson Twins to pursue a solo career. Thompson Twins now became the duo their name had always implied. After doing the title track to the movie sountrack for ''Nothing In Common'', The Thompson Twins release their first album as a duo in 1987, ''Close To The Bone''. The single ''Get That Love'' was a top 40 hit.

Bailey and Currie had been romantically involved since 1980, and had their first child eight years later. The Twins signed a record deal with Warner Bros and in October 1989 the fruits of this labour produce the album ''Big Trash'' with the hit ''Sugar Daddy''. In September 1991, Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie released an album titled ''Queer''. Masquerading as ''Feedback Max'' in the U.K., the first single ''Come Inside'' reached #1 in the Dance Charts before people discovered that ''Feedback Max'' was actually the Twins in disguise. In 1993 the Twins finally formally disbanded, and Bailey and Currie teamed up with engineer Keith Fernley to forge a new musical direction under the name of ''Babble''. Babble's first album, entitled ''The Stone'', is a mixture of tribal, trance and ambient music. Then they also released a second album named ''Ether''.

In 1999, Bailey produced and played keyboards on the hit album "Mix" by the New Zealand band Stellar, and won the "producer of the year" award at the New Zealand equivalent of the Grammys. He has also arranged soundtracks and has provided instrumental music for several films. In the mid 1990s, Currie gave up the music business to set up her own glass-casting studio in Auckland. After her sister died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Currie founded a group in New Zealand called "Mothers Against Genetic-Engineering in Food and the Environment" (also known as MADGE) which soon had thousands of members. Bailey and Currie split up in 2003, and are now divorced. They both left New Zealand and live separately in Britain, but are still close friends.



01 - Doctor! Doctor! (4:33)
02- You Take Me Up (4:20)
03 - Day After Day (3:43)
04 - Sister Of Mercy (5:00)
05 - No Peace For The Wicked (4:00)
06 - The Gap (4:39)
07 - Hold Me Now (4:40)
08 - Storm On The Sea (5:22)
09 - Who Can Stop The Rain (5:36)
The Cassette Remixes
10 - Leopard Ray 3:19
11 - Doctor! Doctor !7:50
12 - Panic Station (Day After Day) 4:43
13 - Down Tools 4:23
14 - Hold Me Now 9:45
15 - Funeral Dance (No Peace For The Wicked) 3:14

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 10, 2008

Around The World (35)

Hello, Around the Worldmusics goes back, way back into time..., not sure how to classify this..its been around for more than a 1000 years and supposedly not that much has changed after Charlemagne and the Pope, in a cynical division of absolute power, made it compulsary and punishable by death to sing any other way. These days one can do anything with it, and it worked wonders as background music to erotica...well there's no beats here and the experts argue about the rhythm-if any, make your own noise with it...

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Gregorian chant is a form of monophonic liturgical chant of Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services. This vast repertory of chants is the oldest music known as it is the first repertory to have been adequately notated in the 10th century. In general, the chants were learnt by the viva voce method, that is by following the given example orally, which took many years of experience in the Schola Cantorum. Gregorian chant originated in Monastic life, in which singing the 'Divine Service' nine times a day at the proper hours was upheld according to the Rule of St. Benedict. Singing psalms made up a large part of the life in a monastic community, while a smaller group and soloists sang the chants. In its long history Gregorian Chant has been subjected to many gradual changes.

Gregorian chant was organized, codified, and notated mainly in the Frankish lands of western and central Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries, with later additions and redactions, but the texts and many of the melodies have antecedents going back several centuries earlier. The chant bearing Gregory I 's name arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman and Gallican chant and that at that time the attribution to the Pope was a 'marketing ruse' to invest it with a pedigree of Holy Inspiration in efforts to create one liturgic protocol that would be practised throughout the entire Empire. One Empire, one Church, one Chant - imposing Unity was a central issue in Carolingian days. It appeared in a remarkably uniform state across Europe within a short time. Charlemagne, once elevated to Holy Roman Emperor, aggressively spread Gregorian chant throughout his empire to consolidate religious and secular power, requiring the clergy to use the new repertory on pain of death. From English and German sources, Gregorian chant spread north to Scandinavia, Iceland and Finland. In 885, Pope Stephen V banned the Slavonic liturgy, leading to the ascendancy of Gregorian chant in Eastern Catholic lands including Poland, Moravia, Slovakia, and Austria.

Gregorian chants are organized into eight modes. Typical melodic features include characteristic incipits and cadences, the use of reciting tones around which the other notes of the melody revolve, and a vocabulary of musical motifs woven together through a process called centonization to create families of related chants. Gregorian chant was traditionally sung by choirs of men and boys in churches, or by women and men of religious orders in their chapels. It is the music of the Roman Rite, performed in the Mass and the monastic Office. Although Gregorian chant is no longer obligatory, the Roman Catholic Church still officially considers it the music most suitable for worship

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Schola Cantotum - Gregorian Chant (94 ^ 141mb)



01 - Requiem Mass - Introitus (1:57)
02 - Requiem Mass - Kyrie (1:43)
03 - Requiem Mass - Graduale (3:04)
04 - Requiem Mass - Tractus (2:22)
05 - Requiem Mass - Sequentia (5:31)
06 - Requiem Mass - Offertorium (3:47)
07 - Requiem Mass - Sanctus (0:48)
08 - Requiem Mass - Agnus Dei (0:46)
09 - Requiem Mass - Communio (0:48)
10 - Hymns From Office Of The Dead - Invatorium (5:18)
11 - Hymns From Office Of The Dead - Responsorium (3:05)
12 - Hymns From Office Of The Dead - Canticum Zachariae (4:10)
13 - Hymns From Office Of The Dead - Responsorium (5:22)
14 - Hymns From Office Of The Dead - Antifoon (1:02)
15 - Passiontide - Hymne (1:03)
16 - Passiontide - Responsorium (2:30)
17 - Passiontide - Graduale (2:35)
18 - Passiontide - Communio (1:11 )
19 - Passiontide - Improperia (5:37)
20 - White Sunday Mass - Introitus (3:23)
21 - White Sunday Mass - Kyrie I (1:59)
22 - White Sunday Mass - Gloria I (3:10)
23 - White Sunday Mass - Alleluia (1:34)
24 - White Sunday Mass - Alleluia. (1:58)
25 - White Sunday Mass - Sequentia (2:28)
26 - White Sunday Mass - Offertorium (1:39)
27 - White Sunday Mass - Sanctus I (1:20)
28 - White Sunday Mass - Agnus Dei I (1:18)
29 - White Sunday Mass - Communio (1:04)

Schola Cantotum - Gegorian Chant (94 * 99mb)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 9, 2008

Foundation (7)

Hello, the penultimate episode of Foundation coming up, but first..

Still under the guise of a refugee clown, the Mule travels with the Darells, along with psychologist Ebling Mis, to the Great Library of Trantor. The Darells and Mis seek to contact the Second Foundation, which they believe will be able to defeat the Mule. The Mule, on the other hand, wishes to know the location of the Second Foundation so that he can use the First Foundation's technology to destroy it.

While at the Great Library, the Mule surreptitiously stimulates Ebling Mis's mind, allowing him to make powerful insights. Unfortunately for Mis, the Mule's actions cause his health to deteriorate very quickly. As Mis lies dying, he tells Toran, Bayta, and the Mule that he knows where the Second Foundation is. Just before he reveals the Second Foundation's location, however, Bayta kills him. (Bayta had shortly before realized that the renegade clown was actually the Mule, and killed Mis to prevent him from revealing the Second Foundation's whereabouts to the Mule.) Defeated, the Mule leaves the Darells on Trantor to reign over the Foundation and the rest of his new empire. Bayta tells the Mule that while the First Foundation was made to master physical sciences, the Second Foundation was centered on the science of psychology and mentalics; in a sense, Seldon did predict the Mule, or at least, anticipated that something unexpected like the Mule might happen, and set up the Second Foundation as a direct countermeasure to a hypothetical individual with mental or telepathic powers like the Mule. The Mule admits that had he found out where the Second Foundation was from Mis, he would have destroyed it before they could develop a counter-strategy, but now he doesn't know where it is, and the Second Foundation has been bought enough time to develop a counter-strategy to the Mule. Now that the Mule has conquered the Foundation (as well as the pathetic remnants of the Galactic Empire) he stands as the most powerful force in the galaxy, as he is the sole controller of nuclear technologies and weapons; the Second Foundation is the only real threat to his eventual rule over the entire galaxy. The Mule promises that he will find the Second Foundation, while Bayta asserts that he will not have enough time before the Second Foundation reacts.

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Foundation Trilogy 7 (The Mule Finds) (39mb)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 8, 2008

Sundaze (35)

Hello, another Sundaze coming up and today there's something special brewing, yes you're going on a trip...... a roadtrip, thru the Outback, the wide open skies, the scorching heat, unnumourable stars in the chilled night expanse. Mysterious movers thru the lands, singing of Dreamtime....Steve Roach returned to this world with this album....

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Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return ( 88, 130min ^ 299mb)

Roach a onetime professional motorbike racer born in California in 1955, -- inspired by the music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Vangelis -- taught himself to play synthesizer at the age of 20 Seven years later he debuted with the album Now, his early work was quite reminiscent of his inspirations, but with 1984's Structures from Silence his music began taking enormous strides, the album's expansive and mysterious atmosphere inspired directly by the the beauty and power of the earth's landscapes to create lush, meditative soundscapes influential on the emergence of ambient and trance. Subsequent works including 1986's three-volume Quiet Music series honed Roach's approach, his dense, swirling textures and hypnotic rhythms akin to environmental sound sculptures.

In 1988, inspired by the Peter Weir film The Last Wave, Roach journeyed to the Australian outback, with field recordings of aboriginal life inspiring his acknowledged masterpiece, the double-album Dreamtime Return. Which is certainly one of the most important ambient releases of the last 30 years and most likely Roach's strongest and most representative work. Dreamtime Return's effortless fusion of tribal and electronic instrumentation is ageless and doesn't sound at all dated. Each track blends seamlessly into the next and though this album is epic to say the least, it never becomes boring, static, or saccharine. The Aboriginal elements are tasteful and never exploitative like so many faux ethnic ambient and psy-trance releases from the early to mid-nineties.

After relocating to the desert outskirts of Tuscon, Arizona, Roach established his own recording studio, Timeroom, and in the years to follow grew increasingly prolific, creating both as a solo artist and in tandem with acts including Robert Rich, Michael Stearns, Jorge Reyes and Kevin Braheny -- in all, close to two dozen major works in the 1990s alone, all of them located at different points on the space-time continuum separating modern technology and primitive music. His album roster from that decade includes: Strata (1991), Artifacts (1994), Well of Souls (1995), Amplexus (1997), and Dust to Dust (1998). Early Man was released on Projekt in early 2001, followed by one of his many collaborations with Vidna Obmana. His ability to create organic time-altering soundscapes reached a high point on the 2003 four-CD opus Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces, and has continued since 2006 in his prodigious Immersion series. Recent releases Possible Planet and New Life Dreaming show a return to a more open, breathing sound.




Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return I ( 88 ^ 313mb)

01 - Towards The Dream (7:09)
02 - The Continent (4:49)
03 - Songline (3:10)
04 - Airtribe Meets The Dream Ghost (7:00)
05 - A Circular Ceremony (11:20)
06 - The Other Side (13:16)
07 - Magnificent Gallery (6:11)
08 - Truth In Passing (8:44)
09 - Australian Dawn (The Quiet Earth Cries Inside) (6:17)


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Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return II ( 88 ^ 272mb)

10 - Looking For Safety (31:21)
11 - Through A Strong Eye (6:50)
12 - The Ancient Day (6:05)
13 - Red Twilight With The Old Ones (9:53)
14 - The Return (8:33)


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Jun 6, 2008

Into the Groove (34)

Hello, last week at Into The Groove , the focus was on the first contender for the title Queen Of Soul, Etta James. However, todays Queen gets at least as many if not more votes, Aretha Franklin. Daughter of a Baptist minister, singing gospels in church came naturally, giving birth to two sons before the age of sixteen must have raised some eyebrows. However it didnt derail her singing career, in fact she packed up and went to New York to persue a singing career away from the gospel..Not that the first women to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had success come easy, in fact it took another six years and a label change for her to land her first big hit, Respect...indeed. From then on things went crescendo...some meager years in the late seventies and early eighties before she scored some global hits in a row. She was the first black woman to appear on the cover of Time magazine...doesall that make her the Queen of Soul ? Hmmm, having at thing against flying doesn't help and dare i say she failed as godmother to Whitney Houston, and didnt experience the highs and lows that an drug addicted Etta James all conquered, so on the basis of all that my vote goes to Etta. Today however is about Aretha , 43 tracks .... a 2,5 hours compilation of her hits..."What you want, baby i got it...."

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Franklin was born on March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee to the Rev. C. L. Franklin, a Baptist minister, and Barbara Siggers Franklin. Aretha's parents had a troubled relationship and they separated when Aretha was six. Her mother died of a heart attack when she was ten. Adept at the piano as well as having a gifted voice, Franklin became a child prodigy. With her sisters Carolyn and Erma (both of whom would also have recording careers), she sang at the Detroit church of her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, while growing up in the 1950s. By the age of fourteen, she signed a record deal with Checker Records, where her father recorded his sermons and gospel vocal recordings and issued The Gospel Soul of Aretha Franklin in 1956.

Teenage pregnancies derailed Franklin's gospel career but despite having two children by the time she was 17, Franklin left Detroit for New York aged 18 in search of fame and fortune, leaving her sons in the care of their grandmother. Instead of performing gospel and inspired by the successes of idols Dinah Washington and Sam Cooke, Aretha decided to secure herself a deal as a pop artist, she signed with Columbia Records in 1960. Her recordings during that time reflected a jazz influence inspired by Washington and moved away from her gospel roots. Franklin initially scored a few hits on Columbia , however, by the end of 1966, with little commercial success in six years with Columbia and desperate for a sound, she accepted an offer to sign with Atlantic Records. According to Franklin years later, "they made me sit down on the piano and the hits came."

In 1967 Franklin issued her first Atlantic single, "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)", a blues ballad that introduced listeners to her gospel style. Her next single, "Respect", firmly launched Franklin to superstardom. Written and originally recorded by Otis Redding, Franklin's feminist version of the song became her signature tune for life hitting #1 on both the R&B and the Pop charts and helping her Atlantic debut album, I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, reach million-seller status. Much of that success is due to producer Jerry Wexler, who finally unleashed the soulful intensity so long kept under wraps during her Columbia tenure. In early 1968 Franklin won her first two Grammies (for "Respect"), including the first Grammy awarded in the "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" category, she went on to win it eight times in a row.

By the end of the 1960s, Franklin's position as The Queen of Soul was firmly established. Her albums were also hot sellers; one in particular, 1972's Amazing Grace, eventually sold over two million US copies. By 1975, however, with the expanding exposure of Disco and the popularity of fellow Atlantic artist Roberta Flack, relations between Franklin and Atlantic Records were starting to strain. As a result, Aretha was recording poor material such as 1975's listless You album, and her record sales declined dramatically. Her later period Atlantic albums including Sweet Passion, Almighty Fire and La Diva were critical as well as sales failures and to top it off Franklin owed major debts to the IRS for failure to pay back taxes. Her recording contract with Atlantic ran out at the end of 1979 and neither Aretha nor the company had any desire to renew it. On June 10, 1979, Franklin's minister father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, was seriously wounded during what was said to be an attempted robbery at his Linwood Avenue home in Detroit, leaving him in a comatose state in which he remained until he died in the summer of 1984.

In 1980, Franklin's career was given a much-needed boost thanks to a cameo appearance on The Blues Brothers, singing Think as Mrs. Matt Murphy. That same year, Clive Davis signed Aretha to his Arista Records. It was the spectacular 1982 album, Jump To It, produced by longtime admirer Luther Vandross, and the title-track 45 that gave Aretha renewed R&B chart-topping and pop success.The album enjoyed a long run at #1 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart, it won an American Music Award, was nominated for a Grammy and was certified Gold in early 1983 . The following year Franklin and Vandross collaborated again on the disappointing Get It Right. But in 1985, Franklin's sound was commercialized into a glossy pop sound on , Who's Zoomin' Who?. Yielding smash hits like the Motown-influenced "Freeway of Love" , the title track and her duet with rock duo Eurythmics, "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves", the album became the first Platinum certification of Aretha's entire career, reintroducing her sound to a younger generation of fans.

In 1986, Franklin did nearly as well with an album simply titled Aretha which yielded her first number-one pop single in two decades with the George Michael duet, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)". The album is noteworthy for the striking cover which was Andy Warhol's last work before his death. When Aretha was taken out of print, it had sold over nine million copies worldwide. Aretha returned to gospel in 1987 with her album One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism which was recorded live at her New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit. However, the disc was a far cry from her 1972 effort Amazing Grace and had middling sales. Subsequent follow-ups such as 1989's Through The Storm and 1991's What You See Is What You Sweat sold poorly and failed to produce any major mainstream hits. Her career got a slight boost in 1993 when she scored a dance-club hit with "Deeper Love" off the Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit soundtrack. In 1994, she scored another hit with the Babyface-produced ballad, "Willing To Forgive" which hit the Top 5 of Billboard's R&B chart and #26 on the Hot 100.

Franklin returned to prominence with her 1998 album, A Rose Is Still A Rose. The album's mixture of urban contemporary, hip-hop soul and soul was a departure from Franklin's previous material. The title track, produced by Lauryn Hill, gave her a smash hit on the R&B and Pop charts and earned a gold single while the album was certified gold also, the first time since 1986's Aretha that any of the singer's albums went gold. Since, Franklin has continued recording if only sporadically. Her most recent release was 2003's So Damn Happy, which included the Grammy-winning track "Wonderful". Shortly after its release, Franklin left Arista Records after twenty-three years with the company. She has since started her own label, Aretha Records, and plans to issue her long-promised new album, A Woman Falling Out Of Love in 2008.


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Aretha Franklin - The Very Best Of Aretha Franklin - Respect ( 03, 155min. ^ 299mb)

An amazing number of Aretha compilations have been released , more then 60 this millenium (7,5 years), more then the 36 years before that put together....ah yes every music exec is trying to make some money of Aretha . I wonder if any of them ever donated some money to institutions that support teenage mothers, respect ? i doubt it...



Aretha Franklin - The Very Best Of 1 (^99mb)

01 - Respect (2:24)
02 - Think (2:16)
03 - Spanish Harlem (3:29)
04 - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (2:44)
05 - I Say A Little Prayer (3:32)
06 - Son Of A Preacher Man (3:16)
07 - I Never Loved A Man (2:49)
08 - Chain Of Fools (2:46)
09 - Don't Play That Song (2:58)
10 - Angel (4:27)
11 - Border Song (Holy Moses) (3:19)
12 - Rock Steady (3:11)
13 - See Saw (2:43)
14 - The House That Jack Built (2:18)
15 - Oh No Not My Baby (2:50)
16 - Until You Come Back To Me (3:24)
17 - Good Times (2:05)

Aretha Franklin - The Very Best Of 2 (^99mb)

18 - Since You've Been Gone (2:22)
19 - You're All I Need To Get By (3:34)
20 - Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing (3:47)
21 - Do Right Woman - Do Right Man (3:12)
22 - Share Your Love With Me (3:18)
23 - Something He Can Feel (6:14)
24 - Ain't No Way (4:13)
25 - Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves (4:14)
26 - I Knew You Were Waiting (4:00)
27 - Through The Storm (4:20)
28 - Love All The Hurt Away (4:07)
29 - Willing To Forgive (4:08)
30 - Let It Be (3:28)*

Aretha Franklin - The Very Best Of 3 (^99mb)

31- Never Let Me Go (2:51)
32 - Night Time Is The Right Time (4:45)
33 - Call Me (3:52)
34 - Drown In My Tears (4:03)
35 - People Get Ready (3:41)
36 - My Song (3:29)
37 - Dark End Of The Street (4:39)
38 - Today I Sing The Blues (4:21)
39 - A Rose Is Still A Rose (3:58)
40 - Who's Zoomin' Who? (4:41)
41 - Freeway Of Love (4:10)
42 - Day Dreaming (3:56)
43 - Bridge Over Troubled Water (5:34)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 5, 2008

Alphabet Soup (H)

Hello, Alphabet Soup serves up H today. That means seventies icon Steve Harley, who sadly tended to overplay his hand when he let Cockney Rebel mk I go, even if he landed his biggest hit after that. Oh well such is life, overcompensating uncertainties can get in the way. ...next up a Dutch band from The Hague, Hallo Venray. Singer/guitarist Henk Koorn was told he sounded like Neil Young , it took him a decade to live record an album with Young covers and only because he was doing a side project with the partyband Supertroopers doing ABBA covers. To rap that all up his other sideproject Dakota Love Beach (great name) released a heavy psychedelic rock album, fin de siecle activities i would think. Anyway the one here is their breakthrough album in the Netherlands with the obstinate title, The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets !.......Finally The Hidden Camera's from Canada displaying their assertive gayness with a great indie album..


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Steve Harley and The Cockney Rebel - Best of ( 72min.^ 462mb)

Steve Harley (born Steven Nice, 27 February 1951), grew up in London's New Cross area. He was stricken with polio at age two and spent the better part of his adolescence in and out of hospitals. After trying his hand at journalism, his musical career began in the late 1960s when he was busking (with John Crocker) and performing his own songs, some of which were later recorded by him and the band. The original Cockney Rebel was formed when Harley hooked up with his former folk music partner, John Crocker (fiddle / mandolin / guitar) in 1972. They auditioned drummer Stuart Elliott, bassist Paul Jeffreys, and keyboardist Milton Reame-James. They were signed to EMI after playing just five gigs. Their first single "Sebastian", a soaring rock epic ballad, was an immediate success in Europe, though failed to score in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album, The Human Menagerie, was released in 1973 to critical acclaim

Harley regarded the band as little more than accompaniment to his own agenda, and already there were signs that things would not last, despite having a big hit with their second single, "Judy Teen". What followed was the album The Psychomodo, an adventurous and ambitious production which showed that there was real talent in the group. A second single from the album, "Mr. Soft", was also a big hit. The band was voted the "Most Outstanding New Act" of 1974. By this time the problems within the band had already reached a head, and all the musicians, with the exception of Stuart Elliott, quit at the end of a highly successful UK tour.

In 1974, the third album, The Best Years of Our Lives was made, produced by Alan Parsons. This included the track "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" which would go on to be a UK Number one single and the band's biggest selling hit. Steve Harley followed up with an even more ambitious and artsy outing. Unfortunately, Timeless Flight neglects the strong pop hooks, much of Timeless Flight finds Harley getting bogged down in deliberately impenetrable wordplay and songs that, despite slick arrangements, are rather hookless. With the next album , Love's a Prima Donna, he regained some ground as it launched a Top Ten hit with the Beatles' cover "Here Comes the Sun." .But in the wake of 1977's Face to Face -- A Live Recording, Harley again disbanded Cockney Rebel and relocated to the U.S., recording the better part of Hobo With a Grin in Los Angeles before returning to Britain. 1979's The Candidate failed to restore his commercial lustre even when the Tamla Motown-inspired single "Freedom's Prisoner" was recieved well and bubbled just under the UK Top 40. Harley began touring again with his old Cockney Rebel songs in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Harley has released several solo albums since – Yes You Can in 1992, Poetic Justice in 1996.When his recording of "Mr. Soft" experienced a rebirth thanks to its use in a television commercial, Harley assembled a hits collection of the same name. Soon after he formed a new incarnation of Cockney Rebel and regularly toured into the following decade. 1999's Stripped to Bare Bones documents an acoustic set recorded the year previous. Yes You Can was re-issued in summer 2000.
Most recently, in 2005, The Quality of Mercy came out, the first since the 1970s to be released with the Cockney Rebel name.

Sad factoid, Cockney Rebel's original bass player, Paul Avron Jeffreys and his bride were among the victims on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, they were on their honeymoon.



01 - Make Me Smile - Come Up And See Me (4:01)
02 - Love - Compared With You (4:21)
03 - Judy Teen (3:41)
04 - Mr. Raffles - Man, It Was Mean (4:34)
05 - Mr. Soft (3:20)
06 - Sebastian (6:56)
07 - That's My Life In Your Hands (3:49)
08 - Here Comes The Sun (2:57)
09 - All Men Are Hungry (4:47)
10 - Roll The Dice (3:26)
11 - The Best Years Of Our Lives (5:45)
12 - Star For A Week - Dino (4:37)
13 - Rain In Venice (4:51)
14 - The Last Time I Saw You (5:38)
15 - Psychomodo (4:04)
16 - Irresistable - Remix (5:12)

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Hallo Venray - The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets! (91 ^ 282mb)

Hallo Venray is founded in 1987 by Henk Koorn and Anno Houwing, soon after Dim Veldhuisen(drums) and Peter Konings (bass) joined, initially they sang in Dutch but that changed with the changing of the gitar guards, Toon Moerland stepped in, and in this line up they release the debut album You Don’t Hit a Guy With Glasses On in 1989. The following year the next album King is released. It is with the band’s third record The More I Laugh, The Hornier Due Gets that the band gets their due. Released in 1992 this album receives a lot of airplay on the Dutch national radio stations. The band tours extensively in their home country, with Pinkpop ( a 60,000 people festival) as crowning achievement.

A Million Planes to Fly (1993), the band’s fourth record builds on this success. The band plays a number of international shows. In 94 an acoustic radio session is released.In 1995 the band’s popularity has waned and the album Merry-Go-Round fails to live up to the success of the two previous albums. Two years later Hallo Venray releases a self-titled album. This album shows off a more modern sound with samples and electronic instruments. After this album the band becomes less active. In 1998 drummer Dim Veldhuizen leaves, he is replaced by Henk Jonkers.

1999 they release a livealbum with Neil Young covers, Roll Another Number'. The group’s members dedicate their time to side projects in the following years (Supertroopers and Dakota Love Beach each release an album and tour). But with 2001’s album I’m Not a Senseless Person, At Least I Don’t Want To Be Hallo Venray returns and sounds as vital as ever. Two years later they release a live album recorded in Rotterdam, Gallons & Gasoline. That year the band signs with Excelsior Recordings. Together with that label’s staff producer Frans Hagenaars, the band initiates recordings in November 2003. Two years later this results in the release of Vegetables and Fruit. The cd is presented in Paradiso, Amsterdam on January 23. This show lauds in an extensive club tour through the Netherlands. Currently they're recording a new album.



01 - The Summer Is Gone (2:36)
02 - Slow Change (4:03)
03 - Not So Long (4:41)
04 - Mr. Bigshot (2:42)
05 - Tuck, The Man (7:03)
06 - Eugene (4:21)
07 - Be Someone (4:52)
08 - The Heart And The Soul (5:08)
09 - The Road (4:37)
10 - Japanese Cars (1:36)
11 - Las Vegas (6:49)

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Hidden Cameras - The Smell Of Our Own ( 03 ^270mb)

Fronted by singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, the band consists of a varying roster of musicians who play what Gibb once described as "gay church folk music". A mix of queer politics, explicit sexuality, symphonic indie pop, and theatrical spectacle that borders on the religious. The band's first album was released independently in 2001 on EvilEvil, Ecce Homo -- a collection of four-track demos introduced a stripped-down version of the Hidden Cameras' witty, acoustic-based songwriting, which drew comparisons to the Magnetic Fields and Belle & Sebastian.

Ecce Homo also caught the ear of Rough Trade, whose signing of Gibb made the Hidden Cameras the first Canadian artist on the label in its 25-year history. Meanwhile, the group's elaborate live performances, which include up to 30 go-go dancers, strippers, and musicians, as well as videos, projected lyrics, and heavy audience participation, won the group a widespread and devoted following in Canada.

2003's Rough Trade debut, The Smell of Our Own, reflected some of the group's more elaborate sound more so than Ecce Homo did and spread the Hidden Cameras' subversively catchy music further afield. Joel Gibb and company not only celebrate sex and its accompanying smells and stains, but inflate them to divine status on their second album. This album brings back indie music's libido, which is certainly worth something; it's also possible that if the Cameras' music sounded as radical as its lyrics are, it wouldn't be nearly as well-received.

In 2004, they released their third album, Mississauga Goddam (Toronto suburb of Gibb's youth), on Rough Trade and also on EvilEvil in Canada. Their EP, The arms of his 'ill' , was released by California label Absolutely Kosher Records in the same year, and features jacket art specially created by Paul P. and G.B. Jones. Awoo, their 2006 recording was released on Rough Trade in Europe, EvilEvil in Canada and, in the U.S., on the Arts & Crafts label. The Hidden Cameras are featured on the soundtrack of the John Cameron Mitchell film Shortbus, which premiered in 2006.



01 - Golden Streams (4:29)
02 - Ban Marriage (4:20)
03 - A Miracle (2:56)
04 - The Animals Of Prey (4:05)
05 - Smells Like Happiness (3:09)
06 - Day Is Dawning (5:08)
07 - Boys Of Melody (5:01)
08 - Shame (5:28)
09 - Breathe On It (2:53)
10 - The Man That I Am With My Man (4:38)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 4, 2008

Eight-X (34)

Hello, Eight-X time again and today we have 3 solo artists (in name). First off a lady that was noted by me because of her John Cougar cover , i need a lover and years later Love is a Battlefield before researching i had no idea she had been so successful in the States, which makes me an European as she hasn't been such an item over here. I bought the album recently as now and then i scour for eighties vinyl again these days ( how come i wonder). In The Heat Of The Night is a pretty potent rock album of its time...Captain Sensible Lifestyles brings back the fun and satire to the everincreasing weightyness of the surviving first generation punk/wave bands , his own The Damned being one of them. Serious but light hearted, btw in 2006 he's formed The Blah ! Party, aiming to "give all politicians a kick up the jacksie"... .. finally Billy Idol with a string of eighties hits, after his first band, Generation X, collapsed, he did very well until his relationship with Perry Lister ended shortly after the birth of their son....The eighties were over and when he released Cyberpunk, inspired by computers / networks when revalidating from a motorbicycle crash , he was dropped from the MTV rostrum that had championed him for a decade..a close call with death after an OD in 94 and Billy disappeared from the limelight In 2001 a greatest hits album was released that unexpectedly sold very well , it led to Idol's first new album in nearly twelve years, Devil's Playground.

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Pat Benatar - In The Heat Of The Night ( 79 ^ 249mb)

Born Patricia Andrzejewski on January 10, 1953, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the singer was raised in the nearby town of Lindenhurst on Long Island, NY. After graduating in 1971 Pat Andrzejewski married her high school sweetheart Dennis Benatar that same year and took his name. Benatar began singing regularly in the New York City area by the '70s, where she was signed by Chrysalis Records. Backed by a stellar band led by guitarist Neil Geraldo that provided the perfect accompaniment that was able to effortlessly alternate between rockers and ballads. Benatar divorced in 1979 and married band leader/lead guitarist Neil Giraldo February 20, 1982.

Her single "Heartbreaker" was released in late 1979 and was an immediate hit, climbing to #23 in the U.S. Her debut LP, In the Heat of the Night, was even more successful, reaching #12 and establishing Benatar as a new force in rock. It solidified her place in a class of women who were taking the rock world by storm in the late '70s. In the Heat of the Night was an album that obviously had its share of filler, but the one-two punch of "Heartbreaker" and the John Cougar Mellencamp classic "I Need a Lover" leading off the album made enough of a statement to put her on the pop charts. The remainder of the album packs enough grit and solid songwriting (especially the Blondie-esque "So Sincere") that it remains an impressive debut and foreshadows a glimpse of great things to come.

1980's Crimes of Passion, more than delivered on the debut's promise and it's often considered to be the finest recording of her career. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was her first single to break the U.S. Top 10 and eventually sold more than four million copies in the United States . The album reached U.S. #2 in January 1981 and a month later, Benatar won her first Grammy Award for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1980. Benatar's first (and as yet only) U.S. chart-topper was the LP Precious Time, released in August 1981. It was also her first to chart in the UK. The album's lead single, "Fire and Ice", was another big hit and would win Benatar her second Grammy Award, this time for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1981.Get Nervous was released in late 1982. The album was another smash, reaching US #4, and the single, Shadows of the Night, would garner Benatar yet another Grammy, again for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1982. By 1983, Benatar had established a reputation for singing about "tough" subject matters, best exemplified by one of the biggest hits of her career, "Love Is a Battlefield" , released in December 1983. By then her sound had mellowed from hard rock to more atmospheric pop, obviously she picked up her fourth consecutive Grammy for it.

After all that exposure 1984's Tropico didnt reach platinum and neither did, 1985's Seven the Hard Way, and 1988's Wide Awake in Dreamland. By the end of the decade, it appeared as though Benatar had fallen of the face of the Earth as the hits seemed to dry up. During the 1990s Pat Benatar released 3 original albums. "True Love" was a jump blues record, released in 1991 and featured the blues band Roomful of Blues, backing up Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo and Myron Grombacher. The album reached gold status without any radio airplay . "Gravity's Rainbow" was released in 1993 and was a return to the AOR genre. "Everybody Lay Down" was released as a single to rock radio and went all the way to #3. Chrysalis was sold to EMI records and Pat Benatar had become pregnant , it was the last album recorded for Chrysalis records.

"Innamorata" was released in 1997 on the CMC International record label. A single video was produced for "Strawberry Wine(Life is Sweet)". In August 2003, Benatar returned to recording with Go (Vanguard), it revisited the arena rock/MOR sound that had defined Benatar's career, and was accompanied by an extensive tour. Although billed as a solo artist, Benatar recorded and toured with a consistent set of band members over most of her career, who contributed greatly to the writing and producing of songs



01 - Heartbreaker (3:24)
02 - I Need A Lover (3:25)
03 - If You Think You Know How To Love Me (4:16)
04 - In The Heat Of The Night (5:15)
05 - My Clone Sleeps Alone (3:22)

06 - We Live For Love (3:52)
07 - Rated X (3:13)
08 - Don't Let It Show (3:57
09 - No You Don't (3:15)
10 - So Sincere (3:23)
--Xs
11 - Love is a Battlefield (5:23) ( ' 83)

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Captain Sensible - Sensible Lifestyles ( flac 432mb)

Captain Sensible (born Raymond Burns, 24 April 1954) grew up in Croydon, England, his signature headwear is a red beret. Originally a member of the Johnny Moped band, Sensible joined The Damned in 1976 on the suggestion of his work colleague Rat Scabies, the band's drummer, filling a number of positions during his tenure (including bassist, lead guitarist and keyboardist), and eventually becoming the band's main songwriter following the departure of Brian James. He left in the 1980s to concentrate on solo projects, but rejoined in 1996 after Scabies left, and co-wrote Grave Disorder, the band's first new studio album for 12 years, in 2001. He continues to tour with the band today.

In the early 1980s, Captain Sensible was signed to A&M as a solo artist, and he had a number one British hit with the old musical number "Happy Talk." He followed it up with an original, "Glad It's All Over," an anti-war song about the Falklands; for a time, he was also hooked up with Robyn Hitchcock. By this time, his status as a member of the Damned made him a regular topic of coverage in the British music press, and he became well-known for various beliefs, including devoted vegetarianism and an opposition to war, which he presented in bitingly satirical fashion. Captain Sensible proved more charming than any other veteran of the punk scene. His vegetarian-oriented single "Wot" was a success, and over the next few years, he recorded a series of albums, Power of Love, Revolution Now, and The Universe of Geoffrey Brown, that were good sellers and critical favorites, though only in England . He and his band -- Paul Gray on bass, Malcolm Dixon on organ and synthesizer, and Garrie Dreadful on drums -- became famous for their live shows, which were spiced by the Captain's savage wit. In 1994, he released Live at the Milky Way, the best album of his solo career and one of the finest live albums of the era. .

Previously a member of the Green Party, in 2006 Sensible formed the Blah! Party, for which he continues to serve as leader. An avowed "protest party" aiming to "give all politicians a kick up the jacksie", it entered into a sponsorship deal with Seabrook Crisps in September 2006.



01 - Rough Justice (5:29)
02 - Revolution Now (4:21)
03 - Jet Boy Jet Girl (3:24)
04 - A Riot on Eastbourne River (4:51)
05 - The Kamikaze Millionaire (5:27)
06 - Smash It Up (3:01)
07 - Happy Talk (3:27)
08 - Can You Hear Me (4:03)
09 - A Sporting Life (3:29)
10 - Wot (5:49)
11 - Smash It Up Pt. 4 (3:04)
12 - I Get So Excited (3:54)
13 - Street of Shame (3:58)
14 - So Far Out (6:28)
15 - Glad It's All Over (3:37)

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Billy Idol - Greatest Hits ( flac 488mb)

William ( 11/30 55) was the first child born to Bill and Joan Broad, shortly after the family moved to Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York. The Broads returned to England after four years of living in the United States. He enrolled at Sussex University and took classes in English and Philosophy in September 1975. He soon immersed in the upcoming punkscene and became part of a Sex Pistols fan club called the Bromley Contingent. A year later and he quit school for a career in music. When thinking about a stage name he remembered a teachers sneer.."Billy is idle" into Billy Idol. In 1976, Idol and Tony James formed a band with John Towe and started playing shows. The band was named after the 1965 book Generation X. The band became a big deal throughout London and eventually record companies started showing up at shows. Generation X was an image-conscious band. They were more about the image than they were about the music. They signed to Chrysalis Records in 1977, even though Generation X took a lot of punk elements and added them into their sound and image, they were often seen as being too "commercial." Meanwhile they were the first punk band to appear on the BBC's "Top of the Pops" program. The band was on the rise, touring in countries like Japan.

By 1981, the band shortened their name to simply "Gen X" and released the single "Dancing With Myself" in the UK. It failed to become the big hit the band was waiting for. The new album was called Kiss Me Deadly. In 1980, the band embarked on a short but successful UK tour to promote the album. Generation X couldn't hold itself together and the members soon parted ways. Producer Keith Forsey and Bill Aucoin took hold of Billy Idol's career and quickly moved him to New York in hopes of capturing an American audience.The punk era had come and gone, and "New Wave" was taking over. Idol issued the 1981 EP Don't Stop (a cover of Tommy James' '60s hit "Mony Mony" and a pair of remixed Generation X tracks), which helped the singer score another record deal with his former band's label, Chrysalis. Idol was introduced to Steve Stevens by manager Bill Aucoin they hit it off, and Idol issued a self-titled debut in July of 1982. A pair of eye-catching videos for the tracks "White Wedding" and "Dancing With Myself" (the latter a remake of a Generation X composition) scored major air time on MTV.

In 1983, "Dancing With Myself" was released in the U.S. in an effort to introduce Idol to American audiences not yet as familiar with him. It was played in heavy rotation on MTV for six months. The "Dancing With Myself" video sparked a whole new era of feature film directors that would try their hand at directing music videos. Idol's second LP, Rebel Yell (1983) was a blockbuster success, and established his superstar status in the United States and in Canada with hits like "Eyes Without a Face", "Flesh For Fantasy", and the title cut; Idol also became very popular in Europe thanks to this album and its singles, particularly in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and later in his native UK.

But with massive success came its many distractions, which prevented Idol from issuing a new studio album until three years after Rebel Yell. 1987's Whiplash Smile was another sizeable hit on the strength of such hits as "To Be a Lover" and "Sweet Sixteen," but failed to live up to the lofty expectations set by his previous releases. Steve Stevens parted ways with Idol after Whiplash Smile. He claims that Idol's music was getting too synthesised and sequenced. Idol ran into trouble when he was busted by undercover police in New York City for carrying crack cocaine. Lister and Idol wanted to get "clean" ( heroin and cocaine), and start a new life, the two decided it would be best to move from New York to LA. When longtime girlfriend Perry Lister gave birth to their son, "Willem Wolfe Broad" Idol was still seeing other women ( the Hollywood nightlife), and even obtained a second house for his affairs. Lister eventually left Idol in favor of a normal life.

In 1989, following his breakup with Lister, Idol found his way to Thailand and let it all hang out...a quarter of a million dollars later he was thru dancing with himself again and went back to work on Charmed Life, a title undoubtely inspired by him surviving a serious motorcycle crash without lasting troubles. Against his doctors' orders, Idol decided to tour behind the Charmed Life album. Billy could be seen walking with a cane onstage. He got his personal jewellery maker, "Robin the Hammer" to customise a silver gauntlet for him. The gauntlet has "La Vie Enchantee" etched in the wrist. Robin also designed a large cross/knife necklace that can be seen in the "Cradle of Love" video.

In 1993, Idol released Cyberpunk, which fell on deaf ears. Music had changed in 1993, and a lot of the bands that were popular in the eighties were now being pushed to the wayside in favour of the new "Seattle" movement. Cyberpunk is considered to be ahead of its time by many people, and very experimental ( technobeats) for the US market. The inclusion of multimedia software as a special feature was unheard of when Idol first included the Billy Idol's Cyberpunk diskette.Nevertheless, the album tanked. Meanwhile, Idol was knee deep in drug addiction, resulting in another close brush with death when he overdosed and had to be treated in a Los Angeles hospital in 1994. After the incident, Idol realised that his children would never forgive him for dying of a drug overdose, and he began to focus more on fatherhood. Idol has never admitted that he is totally off drugs, just that he has his habit under control.

Idol returned to the popular eye in 1998, when he played himself in The Wedding Singer, an Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore 80s romantic comedy, where "White Wedding" was used as the title track. In 2001, Idol reunited with guitarist Steve Stevens to write and record a new album. Idol and Stevens started touring, which generated a lot of attention. A Greatest Hits CD was issued in 2001. The album also includes a live acoustic version of "Rebel Yell" which is taken from a performance at L.A. station KROQ's 1993 Acoustic Christmas concert. EMI expected the Greatest Hits album to sell around 100,000 copies. The album eventually sold over 1,000,000 copies and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 18, 2005.



01 - Dancing With Myself (4:50)
02 - Mony Mony (5:01)
03 - Hot In The City (3:33)
04 - White Wedding (Part 1) (4:12)
05 - Rebel Yell (4:46)
06 - Eyes Without A Face (4:57)
07 - Flesh For Fantasy (4:37)
08 - Catch My Fall (3:41)
09 - To Be A Lover (3:52)
10 - Don't Need A Gun (Single Edit) (5:23)
11 - Sweet Sixteen (4:14)
12 - Cradle Of Love (4:38)
13 - L.A. Woman (Single Edit) (4:03)
14 - Shock To The System (3:36)
15 - Rebel Yell (Live And Acoustic) (5:35)

Lite Billy (-14)
Billy Idol - Greatest Hits ( * 99mb)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 3, 2008

Around The World (34)

Hello, today at Around the World the last in the Millenium Classics series, Opera Treasures, in a way filmmusic avant la lettre. Specially Verdi worked from a story line..called libretto in operalingo. Certainly with known stories this extended the reach as not everyone was able to see the imagery at an opera performance , the music was much more accessable. Mostly italian opera here, obviously they couldnt leave Mozart out, but Wagner was apperently a bit too much for the EMI compilers of this series, maybe i get back to him later....I havent seen much comments on the classics, though DL numbers have been satisfying, so if you'd like more, post a message.... i spilt this DL as Massmirror still seems sketchy..

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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (10-10 1813 ) was born in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the DĂ©partement Taro which was a part of the French Empire after the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. Verdi went to Milan when he was twenty to continue his studies and he took private lessons in counterpoint while attending operatic performances , as well as concerts of, specifically, German music. Returning to Busseto, he became town music master and, with the support of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and music lover who had long supported Verdi's musical ambitions in Milan, Verdi gave his first public performance at Barezzi’s home in 1830. Because he loved Verdi’s music, Barezzi invited Verdi to be his daughter Margherita's music teacher and the two soon fell deeply in love. They were married in 1836 and Margherita gave birth to two children, both of whom died in infancy, followed by Margherita herself in 1840.

The production of his first opera, Oberto, by Milan's La Scala, achieved a degree of success, after which Bartolomeo Merelli, an impresario with La Scala, offered Verdi a contract for two more works.It was while he worked on his second opera, Un giorno di regno, that Verdi's wife and children died. The opera was a flop and Verdi was close to throw in the towel. However, Merelli persuaded him to write Nabucco in 1842 and its opening performance made Verdi famous. A large number of operas followed in the decade after 1843, a period which Verdi was to describe as his "galley years". These included his I Lombardi in 1843 and Ernani in 1844.For some, the most original and important opera that Verdi wrote is Macbeth in 1847. For the first time, Verdi attempted an opera without a love story, breaking a basic convention in 19th Century Italian opera. In 1847, I Lombardi, revised and renamed Jerusalem, was produced by the Paris Opera. As the "galley years" were drawing to a close, Verdi created one of his greatest masterpieces, Rigoletto which premiered in Venice in 1851. Based on a play by Victor Hugo (Le roi s'amuse), the libretto had to undergo substantial revisions in order to satisfy the epoch's censorship, and the composer was on the verge of giving it all up a number of times. The opera quickly became a great success.

There followed the second and third of the three major operas of Verdi's "middle period": in 1853 Il Trovatore was produced in Rome and La traviata in Venice. The latter was based on Alexandre Dumas, fils' play The Lady of the Camellias.Between 1855 and 1867 an outpouring of great Verdi operas were to follow, among them such repertory staples as Un ballo in maschera (1859), La forza del destino (commissioned by the Imperial Theatre of Saint Petersburg for 1861 . Aida, is sometimes thought to have been commissioned for the celebration of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, but, Verdi initially turned the commission down until he heard it would be offered to Richard Wagner. As there was little love between them Verdi accepted the commission, it inspired Verdi to write his grand opera, Aida.

During the following years Verdi worked on revising some of his earlier scores. Otello, based on William Shakespeare's play, with a libretto written by the younger composer of Mefistofele, Arrigo Boito, premiered in Milan in 1887. Its music is "continuous" and cannot easily be divided into separate "numbers" to be performed in concert. Verdi's last opera, Falstaff, whose libretto was also by Boito, was based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor and Victor Hugo's subsequent translation. It was an international success and is one of the supreme comic operas which shows Verdi's genius as a contrapuntist. While staying at a hotel in Milan, Verdi had a stroke, he died on January 27, 1901. Arturo Toscanini conducted the vast forces of combined orchestras and choirs comprised of musicians from throughout Italy, at the State Funeral for Verdi in Milan, following the composer's death in 1901. To date, it remains the largest public assembly of any event, in the history of Italy.

Verdi was one of the first composers who insisted on patiently seeking out plots to suit his particular talents. Working closely with his librettists and well aware that dramatic expression was his forte, he made certain that the initial work upon which the libretto was based was stripped of all "unnecessary" detail and "superfluous" participants, and only characters brimming with passion and scenes rich in drama remained. Many of his operas, especially the later ones from 1851 onwards are a staple of the standard repertoire. No composer of Italian opera has managed to match Verdi's popularity, perhaps with the exception of Giacomo Puccini.

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Puccini was born December 22, 1858 in Lucca,Tuscany, into a family with five generations of musical history behind them. His father died when he was five years old, and he was sent to study with his uncle Fortunato Magi, who considered him to be a poor and undisciplined student. Later, Puccini took the position of church organist and choir master in Lucca, but it was not until he saw a performance of Verdi's Aida that he became inspired to be an opera composer.

In 1880, with the help of a relative and a grant, Puccini enrolled in the Milan Conservatory to study composition with Amilcare Ponchielli and Antonio Bazzini. In the same year, at the age of 21, he composed the Messa, which marks the culmination of his family's long association with church music in his native Lucca. While studying at the Conservatory, Puccini obtained a libretto from Ferdinando Fontana and entered a competition for a one-act opera in 1882. Although he did not win, Le Villi was later staged in 1884 and it caught the attention of Giulio Ricordi, who commissioned a second opera, Edgar, in 1889.

From 1891 onwards, Puccini spent most of his time at Torre del Lago, 15 miles from Lucca situated between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Lake Massaciuccoli. By 1900 he had acquired land and built a villa on the lake, now known as the "Villa Museo Puccini". He lived there until 1921.

Manon Lescaut (1893), his third opera, was his first great success. It launched his remarkable relationship with the librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, who collaborated with him on his next three operas, which became his three most famous and most performed operas. La Bohème (1896) is considered one of his best works as well as one of the most romantic operas ever composed. It is arguably today's most popular opera. Tosca (1900) was arguably Puccini's first foray into verismo, the realistic depiction of many facets of real life including violence. Madama Butterfly (1904) was initially greeted with great hostility (mostly organised by his rivals) but, after some reworking, became another of his most successful operas.

After 1904, compositions were less frequent. Following his passion for driving fast cars, Puccini was nearly killed in a major accident in 1903. However, Puccini completed La Fanciulla del West in 1910 and finished the score of La Rondine in 1917.In 1918, Il Trittico premiered in New York. This work is composed of three one-act operas, of the three, Gianni Schicchi has remained the most popular, containing the popular O Mio Babbino Caro.

Puccini began to complain of chronic sore throats towards the end of 1923. A diagnosis of throat cancer led his doctors to recommend a new and experimental radiation therapy treatment, which was being offered in Brussels. Puccini died there on November 29, 1924, from complications from the treatment. Turandot, his final opera, was left unfinished; and the last two scenes were completed by Franco Alfano based on the composer's sketches.

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Millenium Classics - Opera Treasures (99, 76min ^ 174mb)



Millenium Classics - Opera Treasures (^ 88mb)

01 - G.Verdi - Nabucco-Va pensiero (Act III)-Chrus of the Hebrew Slaves) (5:28)
02 - G.Bizet - Les pecheurs de perles-Au fond du temple saint (Act I) (5:25)
03 - Lakme - Viens, Mallika (Fllower duet) (Act I) (5:56)
04 - G.Bizet - Carmen-Vortre toast (Air du Toreador) (5:25)
05 - W.A.Mozart - Die Zauberflot-Der Vogelfanger bin ich ja (Akt I) (2:53)
06 - W.A.Mozart - Die Zauberflot-Der holle Rache (Akt I) (2:59)
07 - W.A.Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro, K.492-Voi che sapete (Atto II) (2:58)
08 - P.Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana-Regina coeli (7:07)

Millenium Classics - Opera Treasures 2 ( ^ 86mb)

09 - G.A.Rossini - II Barbiere di Siviglia-Largo al factotum (Atto I) (4:50)
10 - G.Puccini - Tosca - Vissi d'arte (Atoo II) (3:06)
11 - G.Puccini - Tosca-E lucevan le stelle (Atto III) (3:23)
12 - G.Verdi - Rigoletto-La donna e mobile (Atto III) (2:23)
13 - G.Verdi - La Traviata-Brindisi-Libiamo ne'liete calici (Atto I) (3:08)
14 - V.Bellini - Norma-Sediziose voci..Casta Diva (Atto I) (9:56)
15 - G.Puccini - Turandot-Nessun dorma (Atto III) (3:22)
16 - G.Verdi - Aida-Gloria all'Egittto (Atto II) (7:34)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 2, 2008

Foundation (VI)

Hello, it seems Massmirror redistribution has gone wrong lately, im working on it (re-upping) ..sigh. Well, at The Foundation they have bigger problems with "The Mule' ....

last week...

In response to the internal corruption on the Foundation, roughly 30 outer planets belonging to the Foundation who have become wealthy on their own through extensive trade begin to plan a civil war. The Independent Traders are gearing up for a war to secede from the Foundation. In addition to this internal corruption, an external threat arises in the form of a mysterious man who is known only as the Mule. The Mule (whose real name is never revealed) is a mental freak, and possesses the ability to sense and manipulate the emotions of others. He uses this ability to take over the independent systems bordering the Foundation, and has them wage a war against it.

While his vassals prosecute the war, the Mule travels under the guise of a refugee clown named "Magnifico Giganticus," with Foundation citizens Toran and Bayta Darell to different worlds of the Foundation. He uses his abilities to undermine the Foundation's war effort by spreading despair and destroying morale. In the end, the Foundation falls without much of a fight at all. As the Mule was advancing, the Foundation leadership complacently assumed that Seldon predicted his attack, and that even though the Mule was inexorably winning, the scheduled hologram crisis message appearance of Hari Seldon would tell them how to win (just as Bel Riose had seemed impossible to defeat, yet was "defeated" by Seldon's predictions). However, when Seldon's crisis tape plays they are shocked to discover that the crisis Seldon predicted was a civil war between the Foundation and the Independent Traders, and makes no mention of the Mule whatsoever. Several representatives of the Independent Traders in attendance explain that they were going to start a civil war of secession, but stopped when the Mule started his invasion: Seldon didn't predict the Mule. When the Mule's ships soon afterwards appear over Terminus, the Foundation surrenders with little fight. The Trader worlds, however, fight a losing war of attrition.

Still under the guise of a refugee clown, the Mule travels with the Darells, along with psychologist Ebling Mis, to the Great Library of Trantor. The Darells and Mis seek to contact the Second Foundation, which they believe will be able to defeat the Mule. The Mule, on the other hand, wishes to know the location of the Second Foundation so that he can use the First Foundation's technology to destroy it....

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Foundation VI - Flight From The Mule (37mb)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

Jun 1, 2008

Sundaze (34)

Hello, up for some more Sundaze ? Just the two today but to pick a winner here would be hard, both excellent albums, electronics with emotion and contemplation. DNTEL was an unexpected stunner when it came out 6 years ago...secondly
Kettel 's open, involving, beautiful electronic music. As i said both great Sundaze albums.

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Dntel - Life Is Full Of Possibilities (01 ^131mb)

Housed behind an entirely appropriate title, Life Is Full Of Possibilities is a gorgeous, mostly ambient journey into moody, poetic electronic sounds. Dntel (aka Jimmy Tamborello) produces music that merges the worlds of indie rock and electronica. Tamborello was formerly a guitarist in the emocore group Strictly Ballroom and also a member of techno-poppers Figurine. In addition, he has done time in the SoCal groups Further and the Tyde. Tamborello originally started working as Dntel in 1994. Tracks he produced between 1995-1997 were released on the Phthalo label in 1999 as Early Works for Me If It Works for You. This was followed by the 2000 release of an EP that had been recorded back in 1994 called Something Always Goes Wrong. The melancholy, often haunting, and electronica-heavy effort Life Is Full of Possibilities arrived in 2002 on Plug Research Records. It featured contributions from Chris Gunst (Beachwood Sparks, ex-Strictly Ballroom), Rachel Haden (that dog.), and Benjamin Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), among others.

The debut album of Dntel (aka Jimmy Tamborello) is a gorgeous, mostly ambient journey into moody, poetic electronic sounds. Though Life Is Full of Possibilities is centered on clicks & cuts, textured sound washes, and cut-and-paste electronic dynamics, Dntel's music contains such pristine melodies and is so effective in its stimulation of one's emotions that it makes for a refreshing, fascinating hour of music. Brittle, subtle, full of surprises, and disarming in its ability to set moods.

Jimmy Tamborello has been releasing under different monikers with others, he moved to Sub Pop -- also home of his other very successful project, the Postal Service -- for Dntel's 2007 album Dumb Luck, which featured Gibbard, Jenny Lewis, Conor Oberst, and many other indie stars.



01 - Umbrella (4:43)
02 - Anywhere Anyone (4:37)
03 - Pillowcase (3:30)
04 - Fear Of Corners (5:26)
05 - Suddenly Is Sooner Than You Think (5:43)
06 - Life Is Full Of Possibilities (6:30)
07 - Why I'm So Unhappy (7:00)
08 - Fireworks (6:48)
09 - (This Is) The Dream Of Evan And Chan (5:44)
10 - Last Songs (4:42)

lite
Dntel - Life Is Full Of Possibilities (* 99mb)

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Kettel - Volleyed Iron (04 ^99mb)

Kettel is Reimer Eising (born 1982), a self-described "elixir-brewing, camping-loving and musicmaking sorcerer-to-be." He is well-known for his playful, spontaneous melodies and organic folk sounds similar to Aphex Twin and Plaid. His tools just a pc with soundcard, keyboard, MIDI-keyboard and controller, a turntable and a mic. What comes out is a combination of downtempo beats , hovering synthesizers and acoustic instruments turned into little melodies. Kettel's releases on the Planet Mu-label ( Mike Paradinas µ-Ziq, Kid Spatula , Aphex Twin) and the Kracfive label(US) has build him some international fame. He has also collaborated on several projects of various remixes and compilations. Kettel frequently performs in the Netherlands and abroad, the Japananese seem to have taken a particular liking to his work.

"Volleyed Iron" finds Reimer piecing together easily his finest release to date, a glowing warm ambient album .Piecing together shards of found sounds and field recordings, the organic textures that underlay these pieces, display incredible warmth and sheer beauty Open, involving, beautiful electronic music with slivers of violin, piano and broken and dusty old samples. He's released several albums Dreim, Cenny Crush, Smiling Little Cow (2002), Look at this (2003), Volleyed Iron (2004), Through Friendly Waters (2005) My Dogon (2006) , Whisper Me Wishes (2007) and Myam James Part 1(2008) in short, plenty to follow up on if you like his music.



01 - A French Composer (4:37)
02 - America Video (5:54)
03 - Did We Orient? (2:50)
04 - Electrician And Adventurer (1:34)
05 - Four Eyes At A Gate (2:33)
06 - Sorry, But We Don't Hear You (3:59)
07 - Teeth, Wait (3:57)
08 - Clock.exe (2:37)
09 - Ureterp, July (2:12)
10 - Hondsvot (1:40)
11 - Machine Planet (8:00)
12 - Wim Hoffman (8:44)
13 - Little Duck, When Is Our Day? (4:11)
14 - Tomorrow? (4:32)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !