Jan 17, 2008

Alphabet Soup (14)

Hello, hello , hello Alphabet Soup, presents the knights that say Ni ! Ni Ni infact they stutter a little, but then it's no surprise then these guys are impressed by Ni colette and understandibly so she makes great music and with her wonderful voice she sings some great poetry aswell, bringing out her wonderful personality, so i guess those knights will never get passed Ni ! Nirvana's Kurt Cobain on the other hand collapsed under the weight of a teen spirit that raped him. Hmm, well doing heroin didnt help and having a crazy girlfriend certainly wasn't stabilizing, anyway In Utero (in the womb), may have suggested a regression to relative anonimity, but this attempt was foiled as it entered at no 1, later that year Nirvana recorded a great MTV Unplugged a few months before a shotgun answered Kurt Cobain's last question on this earth. The last band today has dropped of the radar deliberately, as they too were in danger of being overtaken by the acclaim of Neon Golden, fortunately they were working in and with several other bands and so Notwists members had plenty of modes to express their art, and even if they never release another Notwist album, with Shrink and Neon Golden they left us two timeless albums.

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Nicolette - Now Is Early (92 ^ 381mb)

Famously described as possessing a voice which sounded ‘like Billie Holiday on acid’, Nicolette was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and has lived in Nigeria, Switzerland, France, and Belgium. Nicolette’s convoluted musical journey began at an early age: picking up influences from her Nigerian father’s eclectic record collection of jazz, blues, gospel, classical and African music. Nicolette also learned the piano from childhood, but it was the late 1980s before she joined her first band, Calliope , based in Cardiff, Wales.

From here, she moved to London and in 1991, signed to the Shut Up And Dance label. Her music, although falling broadly into the field of electronica, is characterised by myriad influences, including, jazz, classical, blues, folk, and African This has resulted in a highly individualistic sound, she developed a highly sophisticated brand of breakbeat and hip-hop on “O Sinene” and “Single Minded People”. In 1992, the NOW IS EARLY was released attracting a small but devoted cult following. Produced by the renowned Shut Up And Dance crew, it was the first record to combine breakbeats with pop vocals, with a few jazzy ballads thrown in for good measure. More widespread success was foiled as the label collapsed, so the album remained unavailable until 1997 when it was reissued by K7.

Nicolette has released two more solo albums ( "Let no one live rentfree in your head" and Life Loves Us"), as well as a DJ mix album for the DJ-Kicks series, and featured on Massive Attack's 1994 Protection album. She has worked with a host of other distinguished collaborators in the electronic music field. In 1999 she set up her own record label, Early Records, to release interesting, quirky pop anthems. According to Nicolette, Early Records' music policy is: "innovative pop music." In 2007 Nicolette's cult hit "No Government" was remixed by Tocadisco and Makossa & Megablast and re-released. Currently she's in the studio working on a follow up to 2005's "Life Loves Us" album, to be released in 2008.



01 - No Government (2:02)
02 - Dove Song (4:55)
03 - Single Minded Vocal (3:09)
04 - I Woke Up... (4:46)
05 - Waking Up Remix (5:07)
06 - O Si Nene (5:56)
07 - It's Only To Be Expected (5:40)
08 - Wicked Mathematics (4:49)
09 - A Single Ring (2:09)
10 - School Of The World (5:24)
11 - Udi Egwu (6:29)
---Xs--
12 - No Government (Original Version) (5:30)
13 - Single Minded People (remix) (4:01)
14 - No Government In The Biosphere (7:53)

NICOLETTE:

Who am I?
I AM she to whom everything belongs.
I am she whose sexual energy flows freely and naturally and purely.
I am she who lives and breathes freely.
I am she who is utterly free.
I am she who flies at night and during the day should I so choose.
I am she who is always safe.
I am the indestructible and eternal.
I am love.
I am she who is in perfect health.
I am she who loves and enjoys being healthy.
I am she who can put her feet behind her head.
I am she who is endlessly supple.
I am she who loves endlessly and freely.
I am the uninhibited one.

These are just the first 14 lines , go over to her myspace to read the rest of what this remarkble woman shares, besides there's the accompanying music as well at Nicolette's Myspace

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Nirvana - In Utero (93 ^ 502mb)

Smells like teen spirit and all that jazz, rape me....he cried.

For 1993's In Utero, Nirvana brought in producer Steve Albini, well-known for his work on the Pixies album Surfer Rosa, bringing in Albini appeared to be a deliberate move on Nirvana's part to give the album a raw, less-polished sound. For example, one song on In Utero featuring long periods of shrill feedback noise was titled, ironically, Cobain insisted that Albini's sound was simply the one he had always wanted Nirvana to have: a "natural" recording without layers of studio trickery. The sessions with Albini were productive and notably quick, and the album was recorded and mixed in two weeks for a cost of $25,000.

Several weeks after the completion of the recording sessions, stories ran in the Chicago Tribune and Newsweek that quoted sources claiming DGC (their label) considered the album "unreleasable" .While the stories about DGC shelving the album were untrue, the band actually was unhappy with certain aspects of Albini's mixes. Specifically, they thought the bass levels were too low, and Cobain felt that "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" did not sound "perfect".[33] Longtime R.E.M. producer Scott Litt was called in to help remix those two songs, with Cobain adding additional instrumentation and backing vocals. In Utero debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart in September 1993, Nirvana didn't gone mainstream, however, the album lacked another Teen Spirit and thus did not achieve the same success as Nevermind.

In November 1993, Nirvana performed an exceptional set for MTV Unplugged. Early 94 they went on an european tour where Cobain ran into trouble with his health, ultimately the tour was cancelled , back home Cobain ran into heroin troubles again, he was convinced to check into drug rehabilitation. After less than a week in rehabilitation, Cobain climbed over the wall of the facility and took a plane back to Seattle. A week later, on Friday, April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head at his Seattle home, effectively dissolving Nirvana.



01 - Serve The Servants (3:34)
02 - Scentless Apprentice (3:47)
03 - Heart-Shaped Box (4:39)
04 - Rape Me (2:49)
05 - Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle (4:07)
06 - Dumb (2:29)
07 - Very Ape (1:55)
08 - Milk It (3:52)
09 - Pennyroyal Tea (3:36)
10 - Radio Friendly Unit Shifter (4:49)
11 - Tourette's (1:33)
12 - All Apologies (3:48)
13 - Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip (hidden) (7:33)
Bonus 2013
14 - Marigold (B-Side) 2:34
15 - Moist Vagina (2013 Mix) 3:33
16 - Sappy (2013 Mix) 3:26
17 - I Hate Myself And Want To Die (2013 Mix) 2:59
18 - Pennyroyal Tea (Scott Litt Mix) 3:35
19 - Heart Shaped Box (Original Steve Albini 1993 Mix) 4:41
20 - All Apologies (Original Steve Albini 1993 Mix) 3:52

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The Notwist - Neon Golden (02 ^ 256mb)

Beginning in Weilheim, Germany in the early 90s as a heavy metal outfit, Markus and Micha Acher, along with drummer Martin Messerschmid, released two albums filled with pounding drums and guitar solos (The Notwist and Nook) before almost abandoning it completely. However, with Nook, things had already started to change. Interests moved away from thudding power riffs and toward the direction of complex rhythms and structures. Even so, to listen to those albums now, most people would find it difficult to believe the same band made Neon Golden.

In the mid-90s, the Notwist finally got an American distributor with 12, on the now-defunct Zero Hour label. With that, they began to explore even more textures in their sound, enlisting Martin Gretschmann (aka Console) to help with production and add his special electronic touch. Resulting in a more poppy sound for the group (some might even call it indie rock), 12's beauty is startling from beginning to end. With Martin Console now in tow as a full-time member, Shrink was a huge step into the world of electronic music and sounded almost completely unlike anything else made at the time. Mixing rock and pop with free jazz, old-timey folk, jagged minimalist beats and just about anything else you could toss in, in short way ahead of its time. >>> Shrink

A decade into their career, the Notwist created a masterpiece by pulling the same trick they pulled on Shrink: mixing things that might not seem to fit together into a beautiful, seamless whole. They have an uncanny knack for allowing their compositions room to breathe, Neon Golden is replete with lush textured sounds, drifting (and occasionally driving) pulsations, and mesmerizing hypno-rhythms. Best album of 2002 for me, but then i see a lot of trains (wink).

Apparently a little intimidated from all the accolades they recieved for Neon Golden, they concentrated on Tied and Tickled Trio and by 2004 formed a group with Themselves named 13 & God, whose eponymous debut was released in 2005. Formally there hasn't been a follow-up to Neon Golden yet. Markus Acher, in addition to his work with The Notwist , 13 & God and TTT, works with the band Lali Puna, has released two albums under the name Sharon Stoned.Mecki Messerschmidt now also plays drums for the recently reformed Schweisser.



01 - One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand (3:15)
02 - Pilot (4:28)
03 - Pick Up The Phone (3:55)
04 - Trashing Days (3:24)
05 - This Room (4:45)
06 - Solitaire (3:29)
07 - One With The Freaks (3:38)
08 - Neon Golden (5:54)
09 - Off The Rail (3:27)
10 - Consequence (5:13)
---Xs---
11 - Pilot (Console remix) (4:58)

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6 comments:

  1. Thanks Rho!

    Baz.

    ReplyDelete
  2. love the notwist, thanks rho.. anth

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  3. In Utero by Nirvana is just an amazing album, it is my favorite of them, so full with amazing lyrics and explosive sounds, amazing record.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Please, can we have Nicolette back up

    ReplyDelete
  5. please reup the nirvana, nicolette and notwist cds
    thank you

    ReplyDelete