Into The Groove (20)

Hello, Into the Groove goes P-funk today, Dr Funkenstein please ..

By the time his on-the-move family settled in New Jersey during the early '50s, George Clinton (b. July 22, 1941) became interested in doo wop, which was just beginning to explode in the New York-metro area. Basing his group on Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, Clinton formed the Parliaments in 1955 with a lineup that gradually shifted to include Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins, Grady Thomas, Raymond Davis, and Calvin Simon. Based out of a barbershop backroom where Clinton straightened hair, the Parliaments released only two singles during the next ten years, but frequent trips to Detroit during the mid-'60s -- where Clinton began working as a songwriter and producer -- eventually paid off their investment.

After finding a hit with the 1967 single "(I Wanna) Testify," the Parliaments ran into trouble with Revilot Records and refused to record any new material. Instead of waiting for a settlement, Clinton decided to record the same band under a new name: Funkadelic. Founded in 1968, the group began life as a smoke screen, claiming as its only members the Parliaments' backing band -- guitarist Eddie Hazel, bassist Billy Nelson, rhythm guitarist Lucius "Tawl" Ross, drummer Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood, and organist Mickey Atkins -- but in truth including Clinton and the rest of the former Parliaments lineup. Revilot folded not long after, with the label's existing contracts sold to Atlantic; By 1970, George Clinton had regained the rights to the Parliaments name: he then signed the entire Funkadelic lineup to Invictus Records as Parliament. The group released one album -- 1970's Osmium -- and scored a number 30 hit, "The Breakdown," on the R&B charts in 1971. With Funkadelic firing on all cylinders, however, Clinton decided to discontinue Parliament (the name, not the band) for the time being.

Though keyboard player Bernie Worrell had played on the original Funkadelic album, his first credit with the conglomeration appeared on Funkadelic's second album, 1970's Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow. Clinton and Worrell had known each other since the New Jersey barbershop days, and Worrell soon became the most crucial cog in the P-Funk machine, working on arrangements and production for virtually all later Parliament/Funkadelic releases. His strict upbringing and classical training, as well as the boom in synthesizer technology during the early '70s, gave him the tools to create the synth runs and horn arrangements that later trademarked the P-Funk sound. Two years after the addition of Worrell, P-Funk added its second most famed contributor, Bootsy Collins. The muscular, throbbing bass line of Collins had already been featured in James Brown's backing band (the J.B.'s) along with his brother, guitarist Catfish Collins. Bootsy and Catfish were playing in a Detroit band when George Clinton saw and hired them.

Funkadelic released five albums from 1970 through early 1974, and consistently hit the lower reaches of the R&B charts, but the collective pulled up stakes later in 1974 and began recording as Parliament. Signing with the Casablanca label, Parliament's "Up for the Down Stroke" appeared in mid-1974 and reflected a more mainstream approach than Funkadelic, with funky horn arrangements reminiscent of James Brown and a live feel that recalls contemporary work by Kool & the Gang. It became the biggest hit yet for the Parliament/Funkadelic congregation. "Testify," a revamped version of the Parliaments' 1967 hit, also charted in 1974. One year later, Chocolate City continued Parliament's success. Clinton & co. ushered in 1976 with the third Parliament LP in as many years: Mothership Connection. Arguably the peak of Parliament's power, the album made number 13 on the pop charts and went platinum, sparked by three hit singles: "P. Funk , "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker ", and "Star Child". In addition to Bootsy Collins, the album featured two other James Brown refugees: horn legends Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley. Just six months after the release of Mothership Connection, Clinton had another Parliament album in the can, The Clones of Doctor Funkenstein.

Several internal squabbles during 1977 apparently didn't phase Clinton at all; the following year proved to be the most successful in Parliament's history. In January, "Flash Light" -- from the Parliament album Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome -- became the collective's first number one hit. It topped the R&B charts for three weeks. The LP became Parliament's second platinum album. Early in 1979, Parliament hit number one yet again with "Aqua Boogie," from its eighth album, Motor-Booty Affair. The album became the group's fifth consecutive album to go gold or better. Parliament's ninth album, Gloryhallastoopid (Or Pin the Tale on the Funky), was released later in 1979 and showed a bit of a slip in the previously unstoppable Clinton machine. Clinton began to be weighed down that year by legal difficulties arising from Polygram's acquisition of Casablanca. Jettisoning both the Parliament and Funkadelic names (but not the musicians), Clinton began his solo career with 1982's Computer Games. He and many former Parliament/Funkadelic members continued to tour and record during the '80s as the P-Funk All Stars, but the decade's disdain of everything to do with the '70s resulted in the neglect of critical and commercial opinion for the world's biggest funk band, especially one which in part had spawned the sound of disco. During the early '90s, the rise of funk-inspired rap (courtesy of Digital Underground, Dr. Dre, and Warren G.) and funk rock (Primus and Red Hot Chili Peppers) re-established the status of Clinton & co., one of the most important forces in the recent history of black music.

While Funkadelic pursued band-format psychedelic rock, Parliament engaged in a funk free-for-all, blending influences from the godfathers (James Brown and Sly Stone) with freaky costumes and themes inspired by '60s acid culture and science fiction. From its 1970 inception until Clinton's dissolving of Parliament in 1980, the band hit the R&B Top Ten several times but truly excelled in two other areas: large-selling, effective album statements and the most dazzling, extravagant live show in the business. In an era when Philly soul continued the slick sounds of establishment-approved R&B, Parliament scared off more white listeners than it courted.

Bernie Worrell, Reunald "Renny" Jones, Eddie Hazel, Maceo Parker, Walter "Junie" Morrison, Bootsy Collins, Jerome Brailey, George Clinton, Gary "Muddbone" Cooper, Ray Davis, Ron Ford, Ramon Tiki Fulwood, Rick Gardner, Glen Goins, Michael Hampton, Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins, Tyrone Lampkin, Cordell Mosson, Lucius Tawl Ross, Garry Shider, Dawn Silva, Calvin Simon, Grady Thomas, Greg Thomas, Jeanette "Baby" Washington, Fred Wesley, Debbie Wright, Shirley Hayden, Billy "Bass" Nelson, Larry Heckstall, Robert "P-Nut" Johnson, Prakash John.


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Parliament - The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein ( 76 ^ 230mb)

Come 1976, and Parliament got up to its usual tricks, the opening backwards-masked vocal weirdness plus sci-fi scenarios in the "Prelude," where "funk is its own reward." With Bernie Worrell and Fred Wesley splitting the horn arrangements and Clinton and Bootsy Collins taking care of the rest, the result is a concept album of sorts you can dance to. The clones get up and do their thing . Given Clinton and company's sheer work rate, something likely had to give and this is one of the stress points. There are a couple of stronger songs -- "I've Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body)" is classic slow jam territory. Not exactly Barry White, but hearing Parliament tone it down just enough pays off, especially with Worrell's drowsy, sensuous horn charts. "Funkin' for Fun," meanwhile, brings the album to a strong, lively end, with just enough in the call-and-response vocals and horns to spark some extra energy into the proceedings.



01 - Prelude (1:39)
02 - Gamin' On Ya (2:58)
03 - Dr.Funkenstein (5:39)
04 - Children Of Production (3:53)
05 - Getten' To Know You (5:11)

06 - Do That Stuff (4:44)
07 - Everything Is On The One (3:42)
08 - I've Been Watching You (Move Your Sexy Body) (5:50)
09 - Funkin' For Fun (5:49)

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George Clinton - Computer Games (82 ^ 351mb)

The mastermind of the Parliament/Funkadelic collective during the 1970s, George Clinton broke up both bands by 1981 and began recording solo albums, occasionally performing live with his former bandmates as the P.Funk All-Stars. By 1980, George Clinton had begon to be weighed down by legal difficulties arising from Polygram's acquisition of Parliament's label, Casablanca. Jettisoning both the Parliament and Funkadelic names (but not the musicians), Clinton signed to Capitol in 1982 both as a solo act and as the P.Funk All-Stars.

Computer Games, his solo debut, is actually only solo in its billing, however, as the album features several of the core P-Funk musicians with whom Clinton had collaborated in years past, most notably Bootsy Collins, Gary Shider, Fred Wesley, and Walter "Junie" Morrison. All the same, Clinton is clearly in the spotlight throughout Computer Games, and his vocal performances are as wacky and charming as ever, especially on the album's two hit singles, "Atomic Dog" and "Loopzilla." From a musical standpoint, there's a heavy emphasis here on synthesizers and drum machines, considerably more so than on any previous P-Funk effort. This was partly because of the times, for it was the early '80s, after all, but also partly because of the smaller stable of musicians on hand. Whatever the reason, Computer Games marks a sharp break from Clinton's past in many ways, and though it was a tremendously successful rebirth, with "Atomic Dog" topping the R&B chart and eventually becoming immortalized by hip-hop postmodernists, in an unfortunate twist of fate this debut effort also ended up marking the zenith of his solo career, as he would progressively stumble creatively in subsequent years.

Clinton stayed on Capitol for three more years, releasing three studio albums and frequently charting singles -- "Nubian Nut," "Last Dance," "Do Fries Go With That Shake" -- in the R&B Top 40. During much of the three-year period from 1986 to 1989, Clinton became embroiled in legal difficulties (resulting from the myriad royalty problems latent during the '70s with recordings of over 40 musicians for four labels under three names). Also problematic during the latter half of the '80s was Clinton's disintegrating reputation as a true forefather of rock; by the end of the decade, however, a generation of rappers reared on P-Funk were beginning to name check him.

In 1989, Clinton signed a contract with Prince's Paisley Park label and released his fifth solo studio album, The Cinderella Theory. After one more LP for Paisley Park (Hey Man, Smell My Finger), Clinton signed with Sony 550. His first release, 1996's T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. ("the awesome power of a fully operational mothership"), reunited the funk pioneer with several of his Parliament/Funkadelic comrades from the '70s. Clinton's Greatest Funkin' Hits (1996) teamed old P-Funk hits with new-school rappers such as Digital Underground, Ice Cube, and Q-Tip.



01 - Get Dressed (3:37)
02 - Man's Best Friend / Loopzilla (12:51)
03 - Pot Sharing Tots (3:34)
04- Computer Games (6:37)
05 - Atomic Dog (4:39)
06 - Free Alternations (4:09)
07- One Fun At A Time (4:22)
bonus
08 - Atomic Dog (Special Atomic Mix) (10:00)

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Parliament - Funked Up: The Very Best Of (02, 79min ^ 192mb)

Funked Up features a crisp, booming remastered sound, this is both the place to start for beginners and a welcome place to revisit for the coverted. Yet, always check out the original albums the songs came from, but this is a fantastic listen from beginning to end. Get funked!



Parliament - Funked Up ( ^ 533mb)

01 - Up For The Down Stroke (3:27)
02 - All Your Goodies Are Gone (5:06)
03 - Ride On (3:37)
04 - Chocolate City (5:39)
05 - Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) (5:48)
06 - P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up) (7:43)
07 - Mothership Connection (Star Child) (3:16)
08 - Do That Stuff (4:50)
09 - Dr. Funkenstein (5:47)
10 - Let's Take It To The Stage (Live) (5:11)
11 - Fantasy Is Reality (5:58)
12 - Bop Gun (Endangered Species) (3:42)
13 - Flash Light (5:50)
14 - Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop) (4:29)
15 - Theme From The Black Hole (4:40)
16 - Agony Of Defeet (4:25)

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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 !

Alphabet Soup (20)

Hello, it's Alphabet Soup day again and nearing Z, however today it's T Time. First slot is reserved for the Tubes their debut album has remained a favourite of mine over the many years that have gone by since it's release 32 years ago. The exuberant Malaguena Salerosa , the mad What Do You Want From Life ( a titanic unsinkable waterbed ?) and the desperate White Punks on Dope. A classic album the energy of which..so present in their big live shows was largely lost on the pre-video audience. These guys went almost broke on the cost of their shows.. ..That didn't happen to Thin White Rope , however they too were inspired by the dark side of american culture, failure, desperation, and hopelessness. Twin guitar attack, feedback and lyrics that unsettle...Finally a band that over the years has acquired a strong cult following, not withstanding the fact their four albums all went multiplatinum.The packaging of their albums, the strange videos and some of their members are deep into the metaphysical...more counter culture. All this from a band that called itself Tool (as a metaphor for a big dick)

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The Tubes - The Tubes ( 75 ^ 95mb)

The beginnings of the group originate in Phoenix, Arizona in the late '60s, where guitarist Bill Spooner, keyboardist Vince Welnick and bassist Rick Anderson formed as the Beans. After moving to San Francisco in 1972, the Beans recruited guitarist Roger Steen and drummer Prairie Prince, and later became the Tubes with the addition of Michael Cotten on keyboards and former roadie Fee Waybill on lead vocals. Over the course of the next few years, the Tubes earned a devoted cult following on the strength of Spooner's parodic songs and the group's surreal live shows, which featured Waybill adopting a variety of personas including the "crippled Nazi" Dr. Strangekiss, country singer Hugh Heifer and Quay Lewd, a drug-addled British pop star.

After signing to A&M in 1975, they released their self-titled debut, produced by Al Kooper, this album by the notorious San Francisco group is best known for the blazing anthem "White Punks on Dope." Although the Tubes' raison d'être was their shock-rock stage dynamic, Bill Spooner, Fee Waybill, and company could, on occasion, deliver some offbeat pop splendor. A good example is the song "Haloes," co-written with Kooper, a tough power pop jewel that sounds like Todd Rundgren colliding with Roxy Music. Also of note is "Boy Crazy," which shows off Spooner's guitar skills. Kooper's production is faultless, as are the horn and string arrangements by Dominic Frontiere. In the end transferring the manic energy and theatrical complexity of their live set onto record didn't come off, however, the single "White Punks on Dope" became a minor hit and a radio staple. The 76 follow up album , Young And Rich, suffered much the same fate. The Tubes were ahead of their time..the videoformat would undoubtely have done their presence much good.

After 1977's failed concept record The Tubes Now, the group toured England, where a series of banned performances made them a media sensation. However, during the recording of the concert LP What Do You Want From Live? Waybill broke his leg onstage while acting out his punk character Johnny Bugger; the remainder of the tour was cancelled, and with it died the band's chart momentum. After returning to the U.S., they recruited producer Todd Rundgren and recorded 1979's Remote Control, a concept album exploring the influence of television, good reviews but it met a similar commercial fate as its predecessors. The Tubes choreographed stage productions were expensive to produce, however, and while they earned the band a reputation for being one of the most entertaining live acts of all time, by the early 1980s they found themselves short of money. Their proposed fifth album, the self-produced Suffer for Sound, was rejected by A&M Records, who dumped the band instead, finishing out its contract with the oddities collection T.R.A.S.H. (Tubes Rarities and Smash Hits).

After signing to Capitol, they recorded 1981's Completion Backwards Principle, an album based on an actual sales training instruction manual; both "Talk to You Later" and "Don't Want to Wait Anymore" earned significant radio play, and the LP became the Tubes' first Top 40 hit. Thanks to its provocative video, the single "She's a Beauty" reached the Top Ten, and pushed the 1983 LP Outside/Inside into the Top 20 Albums chart. The band teamed up with Rundgren once again for 1985's Love Bomb, a flop that led Capitol to drop the band just as it was going on tour in support of the album, a tour that would leave the band a half million dollars in debt, forcing them to play low-budget gigs for a year to pay off their debts. After which the Tubes disbanded, and Welnick later joined the Grateful Dead. In 1993, the Tubes reunited; consisting of Waybill, Steen, Anderson, Prince and new keyboardist Gary Cambra, they toured the U.S. and Europe before releasing a new LP, Genius of America, in 1996. In 2000, the Tubes embarked on another extensive tour, issuing the greatest-hits-live album Tubes World Tour to commemorate the event.



01 - Up From The Deep (4:27)
02 - Haloes (4:49)
03 - Space Baby (4:22)
04 - Malaguena Salerosa (3:48)

05 - Mondo Bondage (4:28)
06 - What Do You Want From Life (3:59)
07 - Boy Crazy (4:07)
08 - White Punks On Dope (6:41)

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Thin White Rope - Sack Full Of Silver (90 ^ 99mb)

Taking their name from William S. Burroughs' euphemism for ejaculation, Thin White Rope was founded in Davis, California in 1984; although the time and place of their formation aligned them with both the Paisley Underground and roots-rock movements, the group quickly staked out its own musical territory, divining their own unique brand of dark, surreal desert-rock. Thin White Rope was largely based on singer/songwriter/guitarist Guy Kyser and guitarist Roger Kunkel, with a changing line-up of drummers and bass guitarists. It was noted for its twin guitar attack, innovative use of feedback structures and Guy Kyser's harsh, tightly-coiled vocals and unsettling lyrics .

While Thin White Rope's 1985 debut Exploring the Axis flirted with neo-psychedelia, the 1987 follow-up Moonhead upped the ante by allowing the desperation of Kyser's lyrics to take full command of the music: unrelentingly grim and harrowingly provocative, the album's best songs "Crawl Piss Freeze" and "If Those Tears" were postcards from the edge. Following the addition of new bassist John von Feldt, 1988's In the Spanish Cave continued along the same path, albeit with a renewed sense of humor and more oblique wordplay.

Though garnering little notice stateside, Thin White Rope earned a solid fanbase in Europe, and even became the first American independent-label act to tour the Soviet Union. 1990's Sack Full of Silver, a collection of songs written while on tour abroad. Sack Full of Silver is, in many ways, one of Thin White Rope's most fully realized sets, blending the group's early alt-psychedelic influences and a growing taste for dusty Americana flavors. Sack Full of Silver is defined by the voice of Guy Kyser: the aural equivalent of the flat, parched, endless landscape an environment where failure, desperation, and hopelessness are common currency, adding up one's losses and moving on feels like a great victory. "The Ghost" catches its subject in the moment before that turning point, looking ahead as a life of loss begins to flood in. Revealing that they are working within a wider frame of reference, the group adapt Can's "Yoo Doo Right," distilling the original's 20 minutes into a compact, bursting rock number.

1991's T W R released The Ruby Sea, a dense, atmospheric work highlighted by the riveting "Clown Song." It proved to be Thin White Rope's studio swan song: in 1992 the band split, and while most of the players continued performing in various musical projects, Kyser devoted himself to a career as a botanist. The posthumous The One That Got Away 6-28-92 Ghent, a two-disc live set recorded in Belgium peppered with odd covers of Lee and Nancy's "Some Velvet Morning," Bob Dylan's "Outlaw Blues" and Hawkwind's "Silver Machine," appeared in 1993; Spoor, a collection of demos, remixes and rare tracks, followed two years later.



01 - Hidden Lands (3:00)
02 - Sack Full Of Silver (2:09)
03 - Yoo Doo Right (6:01)
04 - The Napkin Song (1:28)
05 - Americana/The Ghost (8:15)
06 - The Ghost (3:42)
07 - Whirling Dervish (5:36)
08 - Diesel Man (3:40)
09 - On The Floe (4:51)

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Tool - Ænima (96 ^ 171mb)

During the 1980s, each of the future members of Tool moved to Los Angeles. Both Paul D'Amour and Adam Jones wanted to enter the film industry, while Maynard James Keenan found employment remodeling pet stores after having studied visual arts in Michigan.Danny Carey performed as a drummer for Green Jellÿ and played in the Los Angeles area with Pigmy Love Circus. The Keenan and Jones eventually met in 89 and started jamming, gradually extending via friends, playing sessions, the name came about Keenan explains "Tool is exactly what it sounds like: It's a big dick. It's a wrench.... we are... your tool; use us as a catalyst in your process of finding out whatever it is you need to find out, or whatever it is you're trying to achieve."

After only a few gigs, the band was approached by record companies,and only three months into their career they signed a record deal with Zoo Entertainment. In March 1992, Zoo published the band's first effort, Opiate. Described by the band as "slam and bang" heavy metal and the "hardest sounding" six songs they had written to that point, the EP included the singles "Hush" and "Opiate". The band's first music video, "Hush", promoted their dissenting views about the then-prominent Parents Music Resource Center and its advocacy of the censorship of music. The video featured the band members naked with their genitalia covered by parental advisory stickers and their mouths covered by duct tape.
Tool's greatest breakthrough was to introduce dark, vaguely underground metal to the preening pretentiousness of art rock. Or maybe it was introducing the self-absorbed pretension of art rock to the wearing grind of post-thrash metal -- the order really doesn't matter. Even with their post-punk influences, they executed their music with the ponderous, anti-song aesthetic of prog rock, alternating between long, detailed instrumental interludes and tuneless, pseudo-meaningful lyrical rants conveying the strangled, oppressive angst of alternative rock in their songs.

It landed Tool a slot on the third Lollapalooza tour in 1993, which helped their first full-length debut album, Undertow, rocket into platinum status. The single "Sober" became a hit single by March 1994 and won the band Billboard's "Best Video By A New Artist" award for the accompanying stop motion music video. With the follow-up single "Prison Sex", the band again became the target of censorship. The song's lyrics and video dealt with child abuse, which sparked controversial reactions.

In September 1995, the band entered the studios to record their second album. At that time Tool experienced its only lineup change to date, with bassist D'Amour leaving the band amicably to pursue other projects. Justin Chancellor, a member of former tourmates Peach, came on board, and recording of the already-begun Ænima continued. The band enlisted the help of producer David Bottrill, who had produced some of King Crimson's albums while Jones collaborated with Cam de Leon to create Ænima's Grammy-nominated artwork. Tool are conceptually innovative with every minute detail of their art, sonically, the band has never sounded tighter. Long exploratory passages are unleashed with amazing precision, detail, and clarity, which only complements the aggressive, abrasive shorter pieces on the album. There is no compromise from any member of the band, with each of them discovering the dynamics of his respective instrument and pushing the physical capabilities to the limit. Topics such as the philosophies of Bill Hicks (eloquently eulogized in the packaging), evolution and genetics, and false martyrdom will fly over the heads of casual listeners. But those listening closely will discover a special treat: a catalyst encouraging them to discover a world around them to which they otherwise might have been blind.

By the time the band delivered their belated follow-up, Ænima, in 1996, alternative rock had lost its grip on the mainstream of America, and their audience had shaped up as essentially metal-oriented, which meant that the group and the record didn't capture as big an audience as their first album, despite debuting at number two on the charts. After a co-headlining slot with Korn on Lollapalooza '97 wrapped up, Tool remained on the road, supporting Ænima until well into the next year.

During their usual extended hiatus between albums, Maynard James Keenan decided to use his downtime productively by forming a side project, dubbed A Perfect Circle. The band's 2000 debut, Mer de Noms, was a surprise hit, while their ensuing tour was a sold-out success as well. With Tool breakup rumors swirling, the band put the speculation to rest by re-entering the recording studio and issuing the stopgap B-sides/DVD set Salival late the same year. Finally, May 2001 saw the release of Tool's third full-length release, Lateralus, which debuted at the number one position on the Billboard album chart and became the band's biggest hit. They received their second Grammy Award for the best metal performance of 2001 for the song "Schism". Extensive touring throughout 2001 and 2002 supported Lateralus and included a personal highlight for the band: a 10-show joint mini-tour with King Crimson in August 2001.

After the obligatory several-year sabbatical to pursue other projects, the group returned with another chart-topper, 10,000 Days, in 2006. It debuted at the top spots of various international charts. 10,000 Days sold 564,000 copies in its opening week in the US and was number one on the Billboard 200 charts. However, 10,000 Days was received less favorably by critics than its predecessor Lateralus had been. After the release of 10,000 Days, a tour kicked off at Coachella on April 30, 2006. The touring schedule was similar to the Lateralus tour of 2001.

Meanwhile, "Vicarious" was a nominee for Best Hard Rock Performance and 10,000 Days won Best Recording Package at the 49th Grammy Awards. In an interview conducted in May 2007, Justin Chancellor stated that the band would probably continue their tour until early 2008 and then "take some time off". He qualified this statement by adding that the band has already written new material and would surely release another album at some point down the road. A possible project until a next album is to make a "band movie".



01 - Stinkfist (5:11)
02 - Eulogy (8:29)
03 - H. (6:07)
04 - Useful Idiot (0:39)
05 - Forty Six & 2 (6:03)
06 - Message To Harry Manback (1:53)
07 - Hooker With A Penis (4:34)
08 - Intermission (0:56)
09 - Jimmy (5:24)
10 - Die Eier Von Satan (2:17)
11 - Pushit (9:56)
12 - Cesaro Summability (1:26)
13 - Ænema (6:40)
14 - (-) Ions (4:00)
15 - Third Eye (13:47)

a lite Ænima perhaps ?

Tool - Ænima (96, 77min 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 !

Eight-X (20)

Hello, it's midweek, time to recall the Eight-X , a time that saw an explosion in musical creativity coupled with new media, the video clip. A time when things were still somewhat structured , surveyable and niches had little depth. How different these days, every week hundreds of albums are thrown in the now global mix, the production costs have dropped sharply, the money is in the marketing and thus there the decisions are made, a proces that started in the eighties btw. For my first band of the day, things started as they did back then, a single, get picked up by an indie label, make an album, tour get recognised/credit and the bandwagons running at least as long as the mutual synergy is percieved to last, a decade is a long time Echo and The Bunnymen just about got there. Never mega but big enough , here's the first album thats set them on their path, its rather short (32min), later versions added 2 tracks but this is the first release, anyway as they say, short but sweet. ...Second up ..Landscape a band with more history than i thought, as they toured the circuit since 75 but got in the picture after placing synths in focus, after their first album did nada, with their second they even scored a hit the frivolous einstein a gogo, well it got balanced by the second single Norman Bates which showered them with some serious credibility, even if the title of the album makes me wonder, From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars ... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus, now i can live with Tea Rooms on Mars but Hell Holes of Uranus ? Venus would have been much more applicable.... Finally China Crises ..seriously sweet...but after this album Working With Fire & Steel, commercially things glided south, still they managed a little tour last year to celebrate 25 years of China Crises even if they didnt release anything anymore during the second half of that period, i guess they rode the Eight-X wave... 

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 Echo and The Bunnymen - Crocodiles (80 ^ 465mb)

 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. His highlights are legion, whether it's the hooky opening chime of "Rescue" or the exchanges of sound and silence in "Happy Death Men." Meanwhile, the Pattinson/De Freitas rhythm section stakes its own claim for greatness, the former's bass driving yet almost seductive, the latter's percussion constantly shifting rhythms and styles while never leaving the central beat the song to die. Then there's McCulloch himself, and while the imagery can be cryptic, the delivery soars, even while his semi-wail conjures up, as on the nervy, edgy picture of addiction "Villiers Terrace," Brisk, wasting not a note and burning with barely controlled energy, Crocodiles remains a classic. 

 

01 Going Up 4:02
02 Stars Are Stars 2:48
03 Pride 2:41
04 Monkeys 2:49
05 Crocodiles 2:41
06 Rescue 4:29
07 Villiers Terrace 2:47
08 Pictures On My Wall 2:55
09 All That Jazz 2:48
10 Happy Death Men 5:00
Bonus Tracks
11 Do It Clean 2:49
12 Read It In Books 2:34
13 Simple Stuff 2:38
14 Villiers Terrace (Early Version) 3:08
15 Pride (Early Version) 2:54
16 Simple Stuff (Early Version) 2:37
Shine So Hard EP
17 Crocodiles (Live) 5:09
18 Zimbo (Live) 3:36
19 All That Jazz (Live) 2:53
20 Over The Wall (Live) 5:28

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 Landscape - From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars ... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus (81 376mb)

After leaving the soft rock band Easy Street, Richard Burgess formed a slick synth pop/jazz group called Landscape in 1975. In addition to Burgess, who sang and played drums, Landscape included Andy Pask (bass), Chris Heaton (keyboards), John Walters (keyboards, woodwinds), and Pete Thomas (trombone, keyboards). After building a following through touring, the band released its self-titled debut in 1980, which sold rather poorly. 1981's From the Tea-Rooms of Mars...to the Hell-Holes of Uranus firmly accented synthesizers as the focus of Landscape's sound, and they scored a Top Five U.K. hit with "Einstein A-Go-Go," as well as a Top 40 follow-up with "Norman Bates." It's an odd timepiece of a time in which synth pop was just about to begin a meteoric ascendancy, not as contrived as the most notorious synth pop recordings of the early '80s, nor was it emotionally engaging rock. Instead, it was rather dry, arch, and arty, emphasizing irony over emotion. It's too glossy and detached for its own good, but it does have a knowing, as well as a bit of jazzy lounge ambience. Actually, "Norman Bates," though far less known than "Einstein a Go-Go," is the most memorable song; its laconic, even-tempered computer-textured vocal pronouncements -- "my name is Norman Bates, I'm just a normal guy" -- come off as fairly chilling in their matter-of-fact disingenuousness. 1982's Manhattan Boogie-Woogie was the group's most danceable effort, but failed to deliver a hit. By the following year, the lineup had been pared down to a trio, released a couple of singles under the moniker of Landscape III, but didnt dent the charts and the band broke up for good in 1984. Burgess meanwhile had already begun a successful production career, working with artists like Spandau Ballet, Living in a Box, Visage, and King.   

01 - European Man (4:17)
02 - Shake The West Awake (3:20)
03 - Computer Person (2:55)
04 - Alpine Tragedy (1:37)
----- Sisters (3:17)
05 - Face Of The 80's (3:23)
06 - New Religion (3:09)

07 - Einstein A Go-Go (3:05)
08 - Norman Bates (5:25)
09 - The Doll's House (5:22)
10 - From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars ... To The Hell Holes Of Uranus (7:20)
----- "Beguine"
----- "Mambo"
----- "Tango"

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 China Crisis - Working With Fire And Steel (Possible Pop Songs Volume Two) (83 ^ 316mb )

 China Crisis was inspired by similar sources but injected their pop songs with occasional political commentary and bluesy, reggae rhythms. Mostly a duo of vocalist/keyboard player Gary Daly and guitarist Eddie Lundon, the group formed in 1979 near Liverpool. The first China Crisis single, "African and White," didn't appear until 1982, but it was quickly picked up by Virgin and made the British charts. Realizing they needed a proper band, Daly and Lundon recruited bassist Gazza Johnson and drummer Kevin Wilkinson, and recorded their debut album Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms. Another single, Christian, made UK #12 in early 1983 and brought them to national prominence. By this time, Reilly had left but was still credited on the sleeve as a guest on the single along with new member Steve Levy (oboe/saxophone) The album peaked at #21. During this period the band toured supporting Simple Minds. The second album, Working With Fire & Steel : Possible Pop Songs - Volume 2 was released in November 1983. This was regarded as a more consistent effort, with standout tracks being 'Tragedy and Mystery', 'Hanna Hanna' and the upbeat title track, Working With Fire & Steel, which became a hit single in Australia . The album was a Top 20 success in the UK, and China Crisis spent 1984-1985 making their biggest chart run, beginning with their one and only UK Top 10 hit single, Wishful Thinking. Their third album, Flaunt The Imperfection, was produced by the sympathetic Walter Becker (of Steely Dan fame) and reached #9 in the UK charts in May 1985. According to the album credits, China Crisis was now officially a quintet consisting of Daly, Lundon, Johnson, Wilkinson, and Becker. However, Becker never appeared with the band and the subsequent tour featured new keyboardist Brian McNeil. Johnson was now credited as co-writer with Daly and Lundon. In 1986, the band returned with the lower-key What Price Paradise, the key tracks being the epic Arizona Sky, the bouncy pop of 'June Bride', and the unusual 'The Understudy'. All the band were now credited as songwriters. A second single from the album, Best Kept Secret, made UK #36 in early 1987. It was to be the band's final Top 40 hit single. The five-piece band worked with Becker once more on 1989's Diary Of A Hollow Horse, which earned critical acclaim though little commercial success. Becker acted as the producer of most of the album's tracks, but this time was not credited as an official band member. The band's last studio album, Warped By Success, was released in 1994 following the band's parting of ways with the Virgin label and produced their final UK Top 100 single, Everyday The Same. The band was now listed as comprising Daly, Lundon, producer terry Adams and engineer Mark Phythian. In 1995 they released a live unplugged album and video entitled Acoustically Yours, which proved to be their recording swansong. Despite the stylistic deviations, China Crisis maintained their distinctive sound through their albums in the 1980s and '1990s. Since 1992 there have been four compilations albums of their work for the UK/US markets and three live DVDs. China Crisis toured the UK during January and February 2007 as part of their 25th Anniversary.

  

 

01 - Working With Fire And Steel (3:35)
02 - When The Piper Calls (3:59)
03 - Hanna Hanna (3:25)
04 - Animals In Jungles (3:34)
05 - Here Comes A Raincloud (4:16)
06 - Wishful Thinking (4:36)
07 - Tragedy And Mystery (3:58)
08 - Papua (3:32)
09 - The Gates Of Door To Door (4:11)
10 - The Soul Awakening (4:26)

11 - Working With Fire And Steel (Fire And Steel Mix) 5:02

12 - Hanna Hanna (Extended Mix) 5:16

 

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Around the World (20)

Hello, Around the World continues the Medieval theme, with the second Mittelalter ( Medieval ) Special from Sonic Seducer, and was last weeks theme Tristan Und Isolde, today it's the Cantus Buranus, madefamous by Orffs clasical interpretation 100 years ago, but obviously these songs were far older and Corvus Corax were well poised to bring these songs into the here and now but with the instruments of the time. It was a big project and its available on DVD aswell.

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Corvus Corax - Cantus Buranus (05 ^ 353mb)

Corvus Corax was formed in 1989 by Castus Rabensang, Win (Venustus) and Meister Selbfried ("Master Selfpeace"). The band often uses bagpipes as the solo instrument, their live performances attract attention with bizarre look of the musicians being reminiscent of ancient Greek myths: half-naked, dressed in unusual clothes, wearing different ancient-like decorations, often tattooed. Today the band consists of eight members: Ardor vom Venushügel ("Ardor from the Venusmount"), Castus Rabensang, Patrick der Kalauer ("Patrick the groaner"), Harmann der Drescher ("Harmann the thrasher"), Hatz ("hunt"), Jordon Finus, Teufel and Wim (Venustus). In May 2005 Meister Selbfried, one of the Corvus Corax founders and the researcher of medieval music, decided to cease his active musicianship and to dedicate himself mostly to managing the Corvus Corax' own label Pica Records.His place in the line-up was taken by Jordon Finus in 2006.

Because medieval music theory was dominated by ecclesiastics, it is often difficult to determine from the existent manuscripts exactly how the secular (popular) music of the day sounded. Corvus Corax draws on a number of sources to try to make their music as authentic as possible: they have used documents that "condemn profane music" as an indicator as to what the music might have sounded like. The profane music of the day was often accompanied by a droning bass tone similar to that generated by the bourdon stop on an organ, which is provided in Corvus Corax's case by the drones on their bagpipes. An inkling as to the harmonies used is found in a song by Walter von der Vogelweide, in which he calls for the song to be played "the old way", meaning harmonising with thirds. At the time, the third was considered an awkward, ugly interval by the sacred musician — like the tritone, or diabolus in musica — but it was a common interval in folk music.

Between 89 and 2005 they released 11 albums, toured Europe, 11 weeks in Japan livened up every Medieval Market and socalled Knight's Tournaments, wrote film music, researched music and build instruments. I guess most of us missed all that and their old albums aren't easy to come by and Medieval Markets seem beyond the imagination of the Councils around here.

In 2005 Corvus Corax started the ambitious project "Cantus Buranus": a full-length opera set to the original Carmina Burana manuscript lyrics. The music for the opera was fully composed by the band and had no connection with the famous work by Carl Orff. It was performed with symphonic orchestra, choir and medieval ensemble, combining traditional symphonism with medieval minstrel-like melodies. The project included a CD recording, a DVD, as well as live performances. A live CD and DVD recording of Cantus Buranus was released in March 2006.

After having played all over Europe, Jordan and Japan, finally, supporting the release there of a compilation of Corvus Corax , previous 11 albums, 2005 saw their debut concerts in the USA. The band performed four sets on each of four different days in mid-October, not far from Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. By 2006 they released Venus Vina Musica on both sides of the atlantic simultanously. 2007 saw the release of a remastered greatests "Kaltenberg Anno MMVII".



01 - Fortuna (4:12)
02 - Florent Omnes (5:47)
03 - Dulcissima (5:01)
04 - Lingua Mendax (5:02)
05 - Rustica Puella (4:19)
06 - Nummus (3:34)
07 - Curritur (4:21)
08 - Sol Solo (4:25)
09 - Venus (4:52)
10 - O Langueo (4:11)
11 - Ergo Bibamus (6:00)

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VA - Middleages Special II (Sonic Seducer ) (03 ^ 363mb)

A few months later after the overwhelming positive respons they released a Medievil Special II .This came as a second freebie cd of a Goth / EBM /Iindustrial magazine, Sonic Seducer. As meantioned last week i bought it for several years, until my eyes refused all that small print (so much copy there ), well i have reading glasses now. An excellent magazine with a monthly bonusdisc and sometimes two, like this Mittelalter (medievil) special. A perfect showcase for bands you likely have never heard of.

For those that read German, i can point you to their excellent website, the subscription cost is remarkably low for what you get each month, check it out. Sonic Seducer



01 - Haggard - All'Inizio De La Morte (5:01)
02 - Schandmaul - Tyrann (3:47)
03 - Adaro - Wer Alten Weibern Traut (4:17)
04 - Estampie - Avolgente (4:52)
05 - Faun - Ne Alduj El (5:16)
06 - Saltatio Mortis - Dädalus (4:08)
07 - Varius Coloribus - Steinjung (4:26)
08 - Corvus Corax - Suam Elle Ires (3:09)
09 - Voluptatis Causa - Hexezirkel (2:38)
10 - Van Langen & Des Teufels Lockvögel - A.V.L.L. (3:34)
11 - Ohrenpeyn - Skudrinkanischer Remix (5:04)
12 - Nerthus - Battle Song (5:36)

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Don't panic ! (20)

Hello, last week The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy entered it's Quandary Phase here's a recap of fit 19:

Arthur discovers that the entry for "Earth" in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which formerly had been edited down to "Mostly Harmless," has been replaced, with Ford's original full version. They head towards Earth independently, Arthur arriving first. After landing in a field in Somerset, Arthur tries to hike a lift to Cottington, to see if his house still exists. Along the way, he meets Rob McKenna, a man who complains about the rain, before realising he has hitched a lift the wrong way. He gets out, and gets a lift with Russell, whose sister, Fenchurch, is out cold on a back seat of the car. Arthur is instantly smitten, and asks about her. Russell claims that she is mad, and has been ever since "the hallucinations" — the Vogon Constructor Fleet.

On the Constructor Fleet, a junior crew member notices that Earth has re-appeared. He is overridden by the captain, Jeltz, who declares that he saw it destroyed himself.Meanwhile, Ford is stuck in a bar with a large bill, which he avoids paying by promising to write an entry for the bar in the Guide. On the streets, he is asked by a hooker whether he is "rich", and says that he might be — being owed several years back pay for writing two words. He shows the two words .. "Mostly Harmless" .. to the hooker, and is shocked to see the guide updating this to his full entry. He decides to go to Earth himself.

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THHGTTG - Fit 20

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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 !

Sundaze (20)

Hello, Sundaze is not ready with Tuxedomoon yet, after last weeks (meta) physical Inside Out there's some more older work from the global villagers, i hope it will entice you to check out their later works and if you get the chance, make sure you get to see them live..

Futuristic and romantic, lyrical and visionary, electronic and acoustic, with its drum machines, saxophones, wailing violins and haunted vocals, American but very European...

After releasing a string of albums on CramBoy (the imprint they set up with Brussels-based label Crammed Discs), the band stopped recording together in 1988, and the various members pursued solo careers, becoming as disparate geographically as sonically, with Steven Brown (vocals, keyboard & saxophone) living in Mexico, Peter Principle (bass, electronics) in New York, Blaine L. Reininger (vocals, violin, guitar) in Greece, and Luc Van Lieshout (trumpet) & Bruce Geduldig (films/visuals) in Brussels.

Many years later, Tuxedomoon got back together to write and record the awesome "Cabin In The Sky" album (2004), which found them in absolute top form, as romantic, rebellious and boundlessly imaginative as they ever were. "Cabin" featured contributions by a carefully hand-picked selection of guests such as Tarwater, Tortoise's John McEntire, Nouvelle Vague's Marc Collin and DJ Hell.
Shortly after finishing "Cabin In The Sky", Tuxedomoon traveled back to San Francisco, the band's birthplace, in order to start writing material for their next album. But the local atmosphere had unexpected effects on them, and drove them to record a series of "spontaneous compositions" instead, which soon formed the basis of a side project entitled "Bardo Hotel Soundtrack" loosely connected to Brion Gysin’s novel ‘The Bardo Hotel’ set in the Paris hotel where he and William Burroughs invented the radical cut-up/fold-in technique. Both "Cabin…" and "Bardo Hotel…" were warmly welcomed, and a wildly eclectic array of references sprang from the pens of reviewers trying to describe Tuxedomoon's music.

If anything, these two recent albums revealed that Tuxedomoon were never connected to a particular period: they had become '80s cult figures simply because that's the period in which they happened to develop and rise to fame… but the band have always been evolving in their own space, and their music is as relevant and fresh today as it was then. An impression to be further strengthened by their latest album "Vapour Trails", which is bound to appeal equally to fans of, say, contemporary cutting-edge avant-rock, electronica and jazz. To celebrate the band's 30th anniversary, Crammed has released a limited-edition boxed set entitled 77o7 tm, which will include the new album along with a CD of previously-unreleased archives, a DVD containing 160 minutes of rare or previously-unreleased videos, and a live CD recorded in early 2007.

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Tuxedomoon - Holy wars ( 85 ^ 279mb)

"Holy Wars" was recorded in 1985 whileTuxedomoon are at the peak of their popularity in Europe. Blaine Reininger has left the band, and is replaced by Dutch trumpet and harmonica player Luc van Lieshout. Nevertheless TM produce a mature album which gets released all around the world , and becomes their best-seller. Right from the confident opener "The Waltz" the stage is set for some of the most poignant and moving songs "Some Guys", "In a Manner of Speaking", "Bonjour Tristesse", "Holy Wars"), aswell as the introduction of new instrumental colours (van Lieshout) Among other subjects, the lyrics are about wandering in the new European megapolis: Wim Wenders recognizes some of his own obsessions, and uses "Some Guys" in the opening scenes of "The Sky Above Berlin".



01 - The Waltz (5:12)
02 - St. John (4:33)
03 - Bonjour Tristesse (5:28)
04 - Hugging The Earth (4:02)
05 - In A Manner Of Speaking (3:30)
06 - Some Guys (4:58)
07 - Holy Wars (6:44)
08 - Watching The Blood Flow (5:10)
09 - Egypt (4:57)
10 - Soma (5:42)

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Tuxedomoon - You (87 ^ 243mb)

TM's last studio album, "You" was recorded in 87. Winston Tong has gone missing for two years, and has been replaced by young multi-instrumentist Ivan Georgiev. A strange, tortured album, cabaret, jazz-noir, off beat and desoriented yet humorous and intelligent.With hindsight it announced the end of the band. It contains great moments: the epic "Never-ending Story", "You", "Boxman" (a series of short dialogues based on the writings of Japanese writer Abe Kobo), etc.
It would be 17 years before Tuxedomoon got back together again to record "Cabin In The Sky".



01 - Roman P. (3:20)
02 - The Train (4:33)
03 - 2000 (5:13)
04 - Never Ending Story (7:40)
05 - Stockholm (3:23)
06 - Boxman (Mr. Niles) (2:23)
07 - Spirits & Ghosts (7:42)
08 - Boxman (The City) (2:24)
09 - You (5:38)
10 - Boxman (Home) (2:29)

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Tuxedomoon - Ten years in one night - live (88, 74 min ^ 420mb)

After the release of Pinheads on the move a compilation of early singles, rehearsals, live recordings and other rarities. It made sense to round of and celebrate the 10th anniversary of Tuxedomoon with an official live album. The vinyl and later 2cd version contains 3 more tracks. It Includes all of their classics, as performed by the line-up of Steven Brown, Blaine L.Reininger, Winston Tong, Peter Principle, Pul Zahl, BruceGedulding, Luc Van Lieshout and Ivan Georgiev.



01 - Michael's Theme (2:04)
02 - Burning Trumpet (6:40)
03 - The Waltz (5:13)
04 - In A Manner Of Speaking (3:10)
05 - The Cage (4:46)
06 - Everything You Want (5:49)
07 - Courante Marocaine (7:20)
08 - Litebulb Overkill (2:48)
09 - Desire (7:05)
10 - Nervous Guy (4:09)
11 - Pinheads On The Move (6:24)
12 - No Tears (8:12)
13 - In Heaven (3:34)
14 - Nazca (4:58)

Tuxedomoon - Ten years in one night - live (88, 74 min * 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 !

Rhotation (20) Into BPM

Hello, Saturday and that means Into BPM, today's beats still ring...First off, Plump DJ's..i spent a lot of time searching for the Plump Night Out cd..even in my defunkts drawer..(i never throw a disk away). Nothing ! I suspect it will rematerialise again later, well Eargasm was where it should be, so it's the second Plump DJ's cd today, not as stunning a surprise as the first, but still a good dance album. Second up are Freeform Five, i could find the reason for Five apart from the obvious alliteration (FFF) which works with Four (number of bandmembers) aswell, but i guess it shows the perfectionism as FF4 doesnt roll aswell as FF5. Those who' ve heard of them were likely as impressed with their 'Beau Mot Plage' (99) remix as i was. Well the Misch Mash double album showcase their skills very well . Unfortunately they haven't been that productive since 99, that is beside lot's of remixes and DJ ing, latter is an obvious drain of energy for a creative man like band leader Pillai, who's talents go beyond the dancefloor. But then he's still a decade away from a midlife crises.

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Plump DJs - Eargasm (03 ^ 444mb)

Plump DJs Lee Rous and Andy Gardner are responsible for one of the fattest sounds of the new millennium, a throwback fusion of acid house and electro-shock heard all over Britain's dancefloors, as well as Levi's commercials and Sony PlayStation games. Working out of their Laboratoire Plump studio in deepest, darkest Soho, the duo perfected its style with early singles "The Push" and "No Way". Remixes followed for Orbital, BT, Freestylers, and Elektronauts. The next year, they released their first album A Plump Night Out its singles "The Push/Remember My Name". The album stayed in the top position of DJ magazine breakbeats chart for three weeks.Soon after they were approached by dance music culture magazine, Mixmag, to mix one of their cover CD's. The mix, titled Elastic Breaks, featured the Februari 2001 edition. May 2001 they released a two CD mix compilation called Urban Underground, late 2002 they were asked to make another mix for well-known super club Fabric, which resulted in the release of Fabriclive 08 in February 2003.

They released their second artist album, Eargasm, on July 7, 2003. It featured collaborations with Gary Numan, Eddie Bo and Louise Robinson (Formally Rhodes) of Lamb. Surpass their debut album it didn't obviously working with guests demanded more seriousness. Following the release of Eargasm, they established a quarterly night club night of the same name at Fabric in London after the popularity of their FabricLive mix CD. On 4 July 2005, they released Saturday Night Lotion. It is considered their third artist album, due to the sheer number of original productions included on it. Soon after the release of Saturday Night Lotion, they were called upon to precide over the mixing duties of Mixmag's 'Breakbeat Annual 2005' which was to be included in their upcoming November issue.They are one of the few breakbeat acts to have songs that have broken in to more mainstream radio programs. In addition to producing, they have toured outside the UK to DJ at breaks events around the world.2007 they released two singles "Mad Cow" and "System Addict / Doppler" both released on Finger Lickin .



01 - Creepshow (6:11)
02 - Weighed Down (5:04)
03 - The Funk Hits The Fan (Feat.Eddie Bo)(5:30)
04 - In Stereo (3:06)
05 - The Gate (8:06)
06 - Morning Sun (Feat.Lou Robinson) (4:52)
07 - Mantra (7:22)
08 - Pray For You (Feat.Gary Numan) (5:18)
09 - Something Going On (4:20)
10 - Contact Double Zero (5:48)
11 - How Much Is Enough (5:47)
12 - Cry Wolf (6:55)
13 - Tilt (4:50)

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Freeform Five - Misch Masch 

Freeform Five has four members: lynchpin producer, multi-instrumentalist and chief songwriter Anu Pillai and vocalists Cabba, Tamara Barnett-Herrin and Nick Decosemo.

Perhaps more than anything else, it was the much admired and oft-compiled re-fashioning of Isolee's 'Beau Mot Plage' from minimal techno gem into Brazilian-acid-funk-Key-Of-Life house belter that alerted many to the fact that Freeform Five was no ordinary production outfit. 'Beau Mot Plage' featured no less than 11 musicians, and the vocal stylings of moonlighting journalist Nick Decosemo, the second primary number in Freeform Five's fluid configuration.

Pals for years, they met in the sixth form at school in Newcastle. Anu and Nick found common ground in music, forging a friendship over the three Ps: Prince, P-Funk All Stars and, perversely, the Pixies. So Anu and Nick formed their first band. Playing a timely stew of Funkadelic and Stone Roses. But then Nick headed off to college in Scotland while Anu stayed in Newcastle to do an art foundation and put his record collection to good use with his first DJ residency - Friday nights at the (then) Riverside club. By chance, up in Dundee, Nick and two of his new friends, Gary and Roy, were about to attempt something similar with a night called The Spaceship. Gary is now a bonafide rock star with Snow Patrol and Roy is now better known to millions as bootleg mash-up pioneer Freelance Hellraiser.

Anu also left heading for Cambridge 'to DJ and do a degree on the side'. At the same time another Cambridge student, Tamara, was having similar extra-curricular experiences, discovering the joys of dancing around like a loon to house music. The two didn’t really get to know each other until after they left. 'After Cambridge I was searching. ..and then I bumped into Anu and the rest is history'. At this stage Anu was working in music full time – on commercial soundtrack work by day and his own house productions and remixes by night. Keeping a constant lookout for new vocal talent was his way of investing in his future. 'I had an idea for a song, 'Break Me', when Nick dropped into the studio. I got him to sing the chorus as a dummy vocal track to work with, but on playback it sounded great so I thought 'Fuck it! I’m keeping it'.'

The final piece of the jigsaw was another chance meeting, another post-acid house musical vagrant and another exotic background. 'I was born in London,' Cabba begins. 'But via Sierra Leone ended up in Australia when I was eight. Part of a hip hop crew in Melbourne, but then Howard country drove him back to his place of birth, London, seeking out the electronic scene here. He met Anu at a party. who helped him straighten out his life. As for Anu; it made sense with the range of music to have three different voices for it. It's been a kind of haphazard process, but at the end, with Cabba joining it all just fell into place.'

The 2004 debut album “Strangest Things” is an inspired mix of Prince, Blondie and Kraftwerk (thrown into the acid house blender). They also had a series of vinyl-only releases including "Perspex Sex", "Electromagnetic" and "Eeeeaaooww". Anu’s DJ mix albums Bisous Bisous II 2006 and Misch Masch ( 2005) .Where he follows Tiefschwarz's 'Misch Masch' with a glorious mix of disco, dancehall, new wave, electro, techno and Italo. And as a bonus a cd with Freeform remixes, many of them much sought after.

No More Conversations was re-released in 2007 along with new remixes by Mylo, Fedde Le Grand, Mason, Switch and Subliminal Kid. Anu has also written with other artists such as The Glimmers, Mylo, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Richard X and Shinichi Osawa.Freeform Five continue with dj gigs and live performances at clubs like Fabric(London), Manumission(Ibiza), Week End(Berlin), Razz(Barcelona), Paris Paris(Paris), Lux(Lisbon), plus dates in Scandinavia, America and Japan.



Freeform Five - Misch Masch (05, 77min ^ 531mb)

01 - Plant Life - The Last Song (3:04)
02 - Freeform Five - Electromagnetic (Freeform Reform Dub Featuring Lyric L) (3:04)
03 - Breakwater - Release The Beast (1:41)
04 - Freeform Five - Losing My Control (A Cappella Featuring Lateef) (1:49)
05 - Comateens - Get Off My Case (Dub) (1:03)
06 - Skatta - All The Ladies Looking Naughty (0:16)
07 - Kango's Stein Massiv - Eddik (2:07)
08 - Freeform Five - Perspex Sex (Maurice Fulton Remix A Cappella) (1:15)
09 - Impossible Dreamers - Spin (3:08)
10 - Funkadelic - In The Cabin Of My Uncle Jam (0:37)
11 - Mr. Vegas - Pull Up (A Cappella) (2:00)
12 - Punks Jump Up - Be You (Beep Beep) (3:52)
13 - Wax - The Crocodile (1:16)
14 - Freeform Five - Eeeeaaooww (A Cappella Featuring Bounty Killer) (3:36)
15 - Jean Winner - Alive And Kicking (DJ Naughty Remix) (3:43)
16 - Franz & Shape - Countach (1:29)
17 - Freeform Five - Break Me (Jackson Remix) (2:58)
18 - Freeform Five - What Do I Want From You? (Paul Woolford Remix) (5:50)
19 - Simian Mobile Disco - Piggy In The Middle (2:14)
20 - Pink Grease - The Pink G.R.EASE (3:11)
21 - Soulwax - NY Excuse (3:49)
22 - Daan - Housewife (2:13)
23 - Diplo - Newsflash (3:27)
24 - Freeform Five - No More Conversations (Richard X Remix) (3:41)
25 - Seymour Bits - You Must Be The Bass (2:42)
26 - Roman Flügel - Geht's Noch? (2:00)
27 - Aphex Twin - Windowlicker (4:36)
28 - Lindstrøm - I Feel Space (6:20)

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Freeform Five - Misch Masch 2 (flac ^ 486mb)

01 - Isolée - Beau Mot Plage (Freeform Reform Part I & II) (10:37)
02 - Annie - The Greatest Hit (Freeform Reform Vocal) (8:23)
03 - X-Press 2 ( Feat. David Byrne) - Lazy (Freeform Reform Vocal) (10:07)
04 - Elton John - Are You Ready For Love (Freeform Reform Vocal) (9:52)
05 - N*E*R*D - Lapdance (Freeform Reform Vocal) (8:47)
06 - Mylo - Musclecar (Freeform Reform Vocal) (7:20)
07 - Felix Da Housecat - Rocket Ride (Freeform Reform Vocal) (7:23)
08 - Alter Ego - Beat The Bush (Freeform Reform Vocal) (6:02)
09 - Isolée - Brazil.com (Freeform RIO-LHR-TXL-BOM Reform) (6:17)

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Alphabet Soup (19)

Hello Alphabet Soup day again, and we've arrived at the letter which ever since i can remember has occupied the most room in the shop racks. Why those bands choose a name that starts with S ...beats me, call yourselves Quivver and you stand out and are easily found, but no they like to delve under S....i'm open to suggestions as to why this is, to me its like shooting yourself in the foot. So we are at S and as i said so much choice.
Now i wanted to have another seventies title and i kinda tossed between Slade and Spirit, latter won , i'm just more into metaphysical these days. Turns out with Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus i had an absolute classic in my hand, one that imprinted many an artist over the years, it's that good. Researching i found out about Randy California's nick (given to him by Jimi Hendrix) and his tragic/heroic death saving his son but drowning himself, his body never found, but his Spirit sure lives on. Next up Stone Roses, admittedly later i had second thoughts, this band was so hyped and went about with a nasty attitude. So why did i pick them, well for one they no longer exist. The first album has some strong moments and for the brits led a revival of british bands from the indie into the mainstream and yes i danced to that 'pyrite' track too....Sneaker Pimps my third choice today have released several good albums, their first with a female singer (Kelli Ali) who voices the attractions and detachments that inner city life brings. Sometimes painful, sexdriven, dissapointments... maybe the neuroticisms are more easily taken coming from a woman , but when Sneaker Pimps sacked her, Chris Corner showed he could voice those agony's aswell, admittely with some more testosteron. Becoming X comes with some miXes added.

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Spirit - Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus (70 ^ 98 mb)

Spirit was a highly regarded rock band that achieved modest commercial success, charting 11 albums in the U.S. between 1968 and 1977. Founded in Los Angeles in 1967 by musicians who had a mixture of rock, pop, folk, blues, classical, and jazz backgrounds, and who ranged in age from 16 to 44, the group had an eclectic musical style in keeping with the early days of progressive rock; they were as likely to play a folk ballad featuring fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a jazz instrumental full of imaginative improvisation, or a driving rhythm tune dominated by acid rock electric guitar playing. The diverse tastes of the original quintet produced a hybrid style that delighted a core audience of fans but proved too wide-ranging to attract a mass following, and at the same time the musicians' acknowledged talents brought them other opportunities that led to the breakup of the original lineup after four years and four albums, then kept them from committing fully to regroupings as their music began to be recognized in later years. While two bandmembers, singer/guitarist Randy California (Randolph Craig Wolfe) and drummer Ed Cassidy, maintained the Spirit name, the others came and went as their schedules allowed, such that the group never fulfilled its early promise, although, as a vehicle for California's songwriting and guitar playing, it continued to produce worthwhile music until his death.

Spirit's self-titled debut album, which was released in January 1968. Spurred by the single "Mechanical World," which had some regional success, the LP entered the Billboard chart in April and spent more than six months there, peaking in the Top 40 in September. Spirit toured extensively while working on their second album and preparing a score for French director Jacques Demy's film Model Shop (January 1969), in which they also appeared. The second album, The Family That Plays Together, followed in December 1968. With the hit single spurring sales, it peaked at number 22 in March 1969. With the accelerated schedules typical of record releases in the 1960s, Spirit had to have another album ready quickly, and Clear appeared in July 1969. The album led off with the California/Ferguson composition "Dark Eyed Woman," the LP also contained material written for the Model Shop score that, not surprisingly, sounded like background music. Clear was a disappointment after the success of The Family That Plays Together, peaking at number 55 in October. In December, the band released a one-off single, California's "1984," and it gave early indications of becoming a hit, rising to number 69 by March 1970 before radio became resistant to its ominous lyrics, which referred to the dystopian novel of the same name by George Orwell. Sessions for the fourth album commenced in April 1970, but they were interrupted when California suffered a fractured skull due to a fall from a horse and spent a month in the hospital. Ultimately it took six months to complete the LP, released as Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus in November.

Although Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus has the reputation of being Spirit's most far-out album, it actually contains the most disciplined songwriting and playing of the original lineup, cutting back on some of the drifting and offering some of their more melodic tunes. This loosely-based, sci-fi concept album is a diverse yet cohesive effort, and long considered by fans, critics and musicians alike to be one of the finest albums ever recorded.[citation needed] The album's second song is the keynote track "Nature's Way", the most notable hit (along with "I've Got a Line on You") the band would ever produce. "Mr. Skin" also became a hit single in the U.S., three years after the album's release. The album also includes several other lesser-known tunes which are considered to have had an impact on the genre of experimental rock in the United States.

Spirit toured in support of the album during the winter and spring of 1971, but Epic failed to break a successful single from the LP.. Ferguson and Andes, frustrated at the band's lack of broad commercial success, quit Spirit to form a new band, Jo Jo Gunne, with Matt Andes and drummer Curly Smith. Initially, Spirit hired bassist John Arliss and played as a quartet. Then, California quit to launch a solo career. Remaining members Cassidy and Locke brought in two new musicians, brothers Al Staehely (bass) and Chris Staehely (guitar), and in November they began recording a new Spirit album. It appeared in February 1972 under the title Feedback. When Cassidy left the band, followed by Locke, the Staehely brothers brought in a drummer and briefly toured as Spirit. They didn't get away with that for long, but it was easy to see why promoters were interested in having a Spirit band on the road, no matter who was in it. Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, though off the charts, had become an FM radio favorite and a perennial seller (it would be certified as a gold record in 1976), and Epic re-released The Family That Plays Together, which reentered the charts in July 1972.

Cassidy traveled to Hawaii and got back in touch with California. Joined by Mark Andes, who had left Jo Jo Gunne, they began playing dates by September 1974; Locke also performed with them at the start of 1975, but neither he nor Andes stayed permanently. They recorded an album that they shopped, signing to Mercury Records, which released the double LP Spirit of '76 in May 1975, they quickly followed in October with Son of Spirit, another modest seller. For Farther Along, released in June 1976, they were again joined by Andes and Locke, as well as Matt Andes. Future Games (A Magical Kahauna Dream), the fourth Spirit album on Mercury, released in January 1977, found California standing alone and bare-chested on the front and back covers, and he played all the instruments on the record. Sales again were modest, and the Mercury contract expired. The band toured as a quartet including Locke and Knight, then carried on as a trio when Locke dropped out again. In March 1978, the group toured Europe, and their show at the Rainbow Theatre in London on March 11 was recorded for a live album. The LP appeared that fall on different record labels and in different configurations in different countries.

By the end of 1982, the quintet did re-form. In the interim since 1976, Ferguson had enjoyed a successful solo career including the Top Ten hit "Thunder Island" and was moving into film soundtrack work; Andes had joined Heart; and Locke had joined Nazareth. Nevertheless, they reunited with California and Cassidy to make a live-in-the-studio recording at the A&M Soundstage in Hollywood that included re-recordings of old Spirit favorites and a few new songs. The album was shopped around and eventually sold to Mercury, which released it in March 1984 in the U.K. under the title The Thirteenth Dream. It appeared that summer in the U.S. renamed Spirit of '84, and the band played a few dates on the West Coast to promote it, but their various commitments made the reunion short-lived. California and Cassidy then recruited keyboard player Scott Monahan and bass player Dave Waterbury and continued to tour into 1985. That spring, California released his third solo album, Restless, again only in Europe, and toured the continent under his own name to promote it. But by late summer, Spirit was again on the road as part of a package tour of '60s acts raising money for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.

California and Cassidy continued to lead configurations of Spirit over the next few years. After California participated in I.R.S. Records' Night of the Guitar tour, the label signed Spirit for a new album, and Rapture in the Chambers appeared in April 1989 with California, Cassidy, and Locke listed as the bandmembers and Mark Andes, who played bass on two cuts, credited as a guest artist. A year later, Spirit released another new album, Tent of Miracles, on its own Dolphin label with a lineup consisting of California, Cassidy, and Mike Nile. By now, the band had become an established U.S. club act that also undertook yearly tours of Europe. California and Cassidy continued to lead other configurations as Spirit for the next five years, releasing Live at La Paloma in 1995 and completing California Blues in 1996.

On January 2, 1997, California was swimming with his family off the coast of Molokai, HI, when he and his 12-year-old son Quinn were caught in a riptide. California succeeded in pushing his son to shore, but he was swept out to sea, and his body was never recovered. Randy California's death meant the end of Spirit, of course, although the indefatigable Cassidy, by now in his seventies, toured with a band called Spirit Revisited. More than 25 years after its original 1970 release, the 1996 re-issue of Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus brought the creation back to life. Remastered and featuring previously unreleased material, it rekindled an interest in the unorthodox and innovative band. So how did this classic sound back then ? When working on it (descratching), i understood how come this album got such a status, sure there are some obvious seventies elements but the work is daring and inventive and if anything a musicians staple..well worth a listen.



01 - Prelude - Nothin' To Hide (3:41)
02 - Nature's Way (2:29)
03 - Animal Zoo (3:20)
04 - Love Has Found A Way (2:42)
05 - Why Can't I Be Free (1:03)
06 - Mr. Skin (3:49)

07 - Space Child (3:25)
08 - When I Touch You (5:35)
09 - Street Worm (3:40)
10 - Life Has Just Begun (3:29)
11 - Morning Will Come (2:49)
12 - Soldier (2:42)

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Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (89 ^ 139mb)

The Stone Roses emerged from the remains of English Rose, a Manchester-based band formed by schoolmates John Squire (guitar) and Ian Brown (vocals). In 1985, the Stone Roses officially formed, as Squire and Brown added drummer Reni (born Alan John Wren), guitarist Andy Couzens, and bassist Pete Garner. The group began playing warehouses around Manchester, cultivating a dedicated following rather quickly. Around this time, the group was a cross between classic British '60s guitar pop and heavy metal, with touches of goth rock. Couzens left the group in 1987, followed shortly afterward by Garner, he was replaced by Mani (born Gary Mounfield) and the group recorded its first single, "So Young," which went unnoticed.. At the end of 1987, the Stone Roses released their second single, "Sally Cinnamon," a hook-laden, ringing guitar pop song. By the fall of 1988, the band secured a contract with Silvertone Records and released "Elephant Stone", shortly after the Stone Roses' bandwagon took off in earnest. In early 1989, the group was playing sold-out gigs across Manchester and London. In May, the Stone Roses released their eponymous debut album, which demonstrated not only a predilection for '60s guitar hooks, but also a contemporary acid house rhythmic sensibility. The Stone Roses received rave reviews and soon a crop of similar-sounding bands appeared in the U.K. By the end of the summer, the Stone Roses were perceived as leading a wave of bands that fused rock & roll and acid house culture. "She Bangs the Drums," the third single pulled from the debut, became the group's first hitsingle at the end of the summer. In November, the group had its first Top Ten hit with "Fool's Gold" By the end of the year, the hype around The Stone Roses had them selling out large theaters in the U.K.

For the first half of 1990, re-releases of the band's earlier singles clogged the charts. The Stone Roses organized their own festival at Spike Island in Widnes. The concert drew over 30,000 people and would prove to be their last concert in England for five years. After Spike Island, the Stone Roses became embroiled in a vicious legal battle with Silvertone Records.The group wanted to leave the label but Silvertone took out a court injunction against the group, preventing them from releasing any new material. For the next two years, the band fought Silvertone Records while they allegedly prepared the follow-up to their debut album. However, the Stone Roses did next to nothing as the court case rolled on. In the meantime, several major record labels began negotiating with the band in secret. In March of 1991, the lawsuit went to court. Two months later, the Stone Roses won their case against Silvertone and signed a multi-million deal with Geffen Records.

For the next three years, the Stone Roses worked sporadically on their second album, leaving behind scores of uncompleted tapes. During these years, the group kept a low-profile in the press but that wasn't to preserve the mystique -- they simply weren't doing much of anything besides watching football. Finally, in the spring of 1994, Geffen demanded that the group finish the album and the band complied, completing the record. Second Coming received mixed reviews and only spent a few weeks in the Top Ten. The Stone Roses planned an international tour in early 1995 to support the album, but the plans kept unraveling at the last minute. Before they could set out on tour, Reni left the band, leaving the group without a drummer. He was replaced by Robbie Maddix, who had previously played in Rebel MC. After Maddix joined the band, they embarked on a short American tour at the conclusion of which John Squire broke his collar bone in a bike accident. Squire's accident forced them to cancel a headlining spot at the 25th Glastonbury Festival, which would have been their first concert in the U.K. in five years. As Squire recuperated, the Stone Roses continued to sink in popularity and respect.

The Stone Roses added a keyboardist to the lineup prior to their U.K. tour at the end of 1995 -- it was the first British tour since 1990. In the spring of 1996, John Squire announced that he was leaving the band he founded in order to form a new, more active band. The Stone Roses announced their intention to carry on with a new guitarist, but by October of that year the group was finished. Squire's new band, Seahorses, released its debut album in June 1997, while Brown released his solo debut, Unfinished Monkey Business, early in 1998. With hindsight The Stone Roses brought dance music to an audience that was previously obsessed with droning guitars, while it revived the concept of classic pop songwriting, and the repercussions of its achievement could be heard throughout the '90s, even if the Stone Roses could never achieve this level of achievement again. Unsurprising perhaps as the british music press had hyped them into the stellar regions, and the band started to believe they were, and so it all went up in smoke. In jan 2006 and NME poll had it listed as the best album ever by a british band..duh . Well i guess that says more about the herd mentality of the average NME reader (and writer) who just loves to believe the hype..



01 - I Wanna Be Adored (4:52)
02 - She Bangs The Drums (3:42)
03 - Elephant Stone (3:01)
04 - Waterfall (4:37)
05 - Don't Stop (5:17)
06 - Bye Bye Bad Man (4:00)
07 - Elizabeth My Dear (0:59)
08 - (Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister (3:25)
09 - Made Of Stone (4:10)
10 - Shoot You Down (4:10)
11 - This Is The One (4:58)
12 - I Am The Resurection (8:12)
13 - Fools Gold (9:53)

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Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X ( 96 ^ 98 mb)

Sneaker Pimps pursued a trancelike but edgy sound, highlighted by Kelli Dayton's soulful vocals. While Dayton was the focal point, Chris Corner (guitar) and Liam Howe (keyboards) are the band's leaders, writing all of the songs and producing the records. Howe and Corner had been playing in bands since the early '90s, to no success. After seeing Dayton sing with a pub band in 1995, they convinced her to join the fledgling Sneaker Pimps, who had taken their name from an article the Beastie Boys published in their Grand Royale magazine about a man they hired to track down classic sneakers.

Sneaker Pimps released their first single, "Tesko Suicide," in May of 1996, and it was greeted with positive reviews in the U.K. music press. Becoming X, the group's debut, was released in August and became a critical success, with Q magazine naming it one of the best albums of the year. Becoming X creates an airy, urban atmosphere, and while the record begins to unravel toward the end, it is an exciting, entrancing listen. After the first album, the band felt that demos for second album (on which Corner provided the guide vocals) better suited his voice, especially in regard to the more raw, personal quality of the lyrics. Combined with the fear of being identified with the fad for trip-hop acts, Dayton was asked to leave the group, and Corner became the singer. Without a doubt, Kelli Ali’s (Dayton) vocals were the highlight of the Sneaker Pimps’ debut album. in 2003 she released TIGERMOUTH. Her solo, eschews the languorous trip-hop of her former bandmates for a more electronic pop rock-based sound. It was followed a year later by the Psychic Cat album.

The sound of the follow up album, Splinter, was a great change from their first album. Most notably it was a darker sound which favored acoustic guitars and dark lyrics. Many fans consider the album to widely underrated with poor sales and very little media or critical attention. Their Third album Bloodsport again with strong lyrics failed to im-press, the intensity obviously didnt connect with the frivolous press, and for the serious music press they were in the wrong music niche.

Chris Corner started a solo musical project IAMX . Consisting of highly dark, erotic, 1980s-influenced electro, the debut album Kiss + Swallow was released in 2004. IAMX' second album, The Alternative was released in April 2006. Corner has repeatedly said that IAMX is very different to his actual, real-life personality and is a kind of quasi "act". Whether an act or not, IAMX's music is primarily concerned with subjects such as outlandish sex, death, narcotic intoxication, bisexuality, obsession, alienation and vague allusions to politics. Corner currently lives in Berlin where he has found "the spirit to care less about the music industry and take an independent route" Currently the Sneaker Pimps are recording material for an untitled fourth album, having shelved a number of songs previewed live during 2003, and having recruited a new, yet unknown, female singer.


01 - Low Place Like Home (4:37)
02 - Tesko Suicide (3:44)
03 - 6 Underground (3:48)
04 - Becoming X (4:14)
05 - Spin Spin Sugar (3:34)
06 - Post-Modern Sleaze (3:29)
07 - Waterbaby (4:10)
08 - Roll On (4:27)
09 - Wasted Early Sunday Morning (4:27)
10 - Walking Zero (4:31)
11 - How Do (5:01)

--Xs-- Sneaker Pimps - Becoming miXes ( ^ 63mb)

12 - Spin Spin Sugar (Armand's Dark Garage Mix) (5:30)
13 - 6 Underground (Perfecto Mix) (6:05)
14 - Tesko Suicide (Americruiser Mix) (3:52)
15 - Roll On (Fold Mix) (4:56)
16 - 6 Underground (The Umbrellas Of Ladywell Mix #2) (4:06)
17 - Post-Modern Sleaze (Flight From Nashville) (3:28)

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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 !

Eight-X (19)

Hello, Eight-X on air and i got some great vinyls here. Fischer-Z rode the first New Wave crest with fast edgy tracks and a manic sounding singer, ironically their first hit was a rather calm track. John Watts wrote it with his father in mind, who for decennia rode the train into London everyday, The Worker. Fischer-Z/Watts has soldiered on releasing several good albums along the way, still i picked their first for today....New Musik, currently on my speakers, is an awesome band that got shunned by the marketing bums that sell faces, great lyrics and great sound too..considering were talking 1980 here. The league of their own didnt become them, a pity, well those that wonder what im on about, just download the album, and i'm sure some of you will look out for the remastered version which has been released 3 years ago, great driving music too. ...Pig Bag said it all at once and in their beginning, with hindsight they stumbled over that brand new bag. All those joggers and sportschool jumpers messed up their image..wink. When their second album fell to the wayside they folded. This album , a compilation of sorts was released shortly after....Finally The System who sidetracked themselves by doing all the wrong things, unfortunately on the latter part of this album aswell, but as i had ripped it already i add it today as an add on ...

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Fischer-Z - Word Salad (79 ^ 225mb)

Fronted by the enigmatic John Watts (vocals/guitar), Fischer-Z leaped onto the music scene in 1979 with their quirky debut album, Word Salad. This quartet (also featuring Steve Skolnick on keyboards, Steve Liddle on drums and David Graham on bass) played a rough-and-tumble form of new wave with art-pop and prog-rock leanings. Watts' vocals were extremely distinctive and touchingly manic vocal range irritated some but was entirely original. Their debut didn't set the charts on fire, they did score a few minor hits with "The Worker" and "First Impressions (Pretty Paracetamol)". Their second album, 1980's Going Deaf for a Living, was a far more cohesive effort, less prog-rock and more melodic than their debut. It even contained a bona-fide hit in "So Long" which even drifted over to the U.S. and garnered impressive radio play.

By the time Red Skies Over Paradise was released in 1981, Skolnick was gone and Watts' musical vision was more direct and less arty than before. Although European sales for this album were FZ's strongest yet, it was passed up for release in the U.S.Realising that his musical vision belonged to him and only him, Watts chose to end FZ on a high note and continue as a solo artist. Watts released One More Twist in 1982 then the slickly produced The Iceberg Model the following year, neither living up to the huge sales of the last FZ album.

Reforming Fischer-Z in 1987, FZ hit big in Europe and Australia with the single "The Perfect Day" and the album Reveal. Though the album sounded nothing like the Fischer-Z of old, Watts took his finely tuned talents and presented them to a much wider audience. Fish's Head (1989) was more of the same, albeit a bit heavier. With yet another line-up change, Watts and FZ released the absolutely stunning Destination Paradise in 1992. This touching and beautiful album featured more acoustic guitars than ever before and focused on Watts' songwriting skills and passionate, earthy vocals (which had dropped an octave or so since their debut). Trying to capitalise on the success of Destination Paradise, FZ quickly issued the rougher Kamikaze Shirt in 1993, mixing their softer side with an edge (and, in some cases, a dance beat). Two years later, FZ issued Stream, a close second to Destination Paradise as FZ's finest.

Realising he was at another crossroad, Watts laid FZ to rest again and began pursuing his solo career in earnest. His first solo album under his 'new' monicker, JM Watts, 1997's Thirteen Stories High, continued where Stream left off. With a new solo album due in late 1998 or early 1999,"Bigbeat Poetry". In 2003 he released Ether an ad hoc multimedia roadtrip. It was released later in different form under the Fischer-Z moniker aswell. No news since, whether FZ are gone for good or just on sabbatical, Watts undoubtedly keeps observing and writing songs. The worker soldiers on....



01 - Pretty Paracetamol (3:55)
02 - Acrobats (2:39)
03 - The Worker (3:32)
04 - Spiders (1:41)
05 - Remember Russia (3:25)
06 - The French Let Her (3:16)
07 - Lies (3:55)
08 - Wax Dolls (2:44)
09 - Headlines (3:22)
10 - Nice To Know (2:49)
11 - Billy And The Motorway Police (2:10)
12 - Lemmings (2:58)

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New Musik - Anywhere (81 ^434mb)

New Musik were one of the first British groups to come out with a sound that successfully combined synths and "real" instruments.That said, their near-total lack of commercial acceptance is one of the great mysteries of early-'80s pop. Their music, rooted in classic pop songwriting but with a forward-looking interest in shiny electronics, is both instantly accessible and coolly forbidding. This dichotomy is most clearly expressed in the split between group leader Tony Mansfield's melodies, which are hummable, welcoming, and often quite bouncy, and his alienated lyrics.

New Musik formed in 1977, growing out of a casual band of south London school friends who jammed together under the name End of the World; singer and guitarist Mansfield, keyboardist Nick Straker, and bassist Tony Hibbert drafted drummer Phil Towner, who had played on the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star." Rather than hotly pursue a record deal, the newly christened New Musik wisely chose to hone their craft first. Working during down times at a south London studio where Mansfield was informally employed as a session musician and apprentice engineer, the foursome recorded most of what would become their first two albums before approaching the British label GTO Records with the finished master tapes. However, before GTO released the first New Musik single, "Straight Lines," in August 1979, Straker had left for a fusion-oriented solocareer. He was replaced by Clive Gates.

This new lineup completed New Musik's debut album, From A to B, released in April of 1980. Several Singles were taken from it with "Living By Numbers" scoring the best. Early 81 saw the release of from A to B part two "Anywhere", though Mansfield 's production skills obviously had grown, the album unexpectedly didn't do that well. My take on that, looking at the gatefold sleeve..they look like a progband, which they certainly weren't. With hindsight it could be said they lacked a niche, and the broadsky countries, where their music should have done well, didn't pick them up.

After Anywhere's disappointing commercial performance in the U.K., New Musik went through a period of turmoil. Hibbert and Towner both left the band, leaving Mansfield and Gates to record the third and final New Musik album as a duo with a hired drummer. Unlike From A to B and Anywhere, which blended synthesizers with acoustic guitars, live percussion, and other classic pop elements, Warp is almost entirely electronic. One of the first albums to be recorded primarily with digital samplers and emulators, Warp sounds a bit more dated than the first two New Musik albums, but the songs, among the most lyrically pessimistic of the band's career, are quite strong. New Musik split after this album, as Mansfield's sideline career as a producer started taking more of his time. Through the first half of the '80s, Mansfield produced hit singles for Naked Eyes, Mari Wilson, the B-52s, After the Fire, and others.



01 - They All Run After The Carving Knife (5:51)
02 - Areas (4:09)
03 - Churches (4:52)
04 - This World Of Walter (2:54)
05 - Luxury (3:45)
06 - While You Wait (5:01)
07 - Changing Minds (4:51)
08 - Peace (5:11)
09 - Design (3:41)
10 - Traps (4:00)
11 - Division (4:18)
12 - Back To Room One (4:11)
Bonus
13 - The Office
14 - From The Village
15 - Guitars

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Pigbag - Favourite Things ( 83 ^ 99mb)

Pigbag was started by Chris Hamlyn in Cheltenham in late 1980. He recruited multi-instrumentalist Roger Freeman, along with Chris Lee (trumpet) and James Johnstone (guitar / alto sax). Later Drew "Chip" Carpenter (drums) and Mark Smith (bass) both old school mates of James and former members of his previous band Hardware, were recruited for informal rehearsals.Simon Underwood, previously of The Pop Group was invited to join, along with his old friend and tenor sax player Ollie Moore. Simon's connections with manager Dick O'Dell landed their first gig, supporting The Slits at Bristol's Romeo and Juliets. Based on the crowd's enthusiastic response to a 20 minute performance of their first song, O'Dell invited them to record the track for his label Y Records the very next day.

Their first single, "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag", was released in 1981 on Dick O'Dell's Y Records, taking inspiration for the title (if not the music) from James Brown's "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag". The instrumental release quickly became an underground dance hit, selling many thousands of copies and appearing high in the independent charts. Feeling that he had created and lost control of a 'monster' with too many egos to contend with, Hamlyn abandoned the band. April 1982 saw the release of their first album "Dr. Heckle & Mr Jive", which was massively successful topping the indie charts for several weeks. A major college tour followed in the spring which put a lot of stress on the band, particularly Roger Freeman, he left(turning up later in Dr. Calculus).

A new lineup, including Brian Nevill and Oscar Verden went on a tour of the UK, Europe, New York and Japan. New York vocalist Angela Jaeger, previously of The Drowning Craze, joined for the next LP, "Lend An Ear," recorded in late summer 1982. In 1983, Angela and Simon Underwood were married at Hammersmith Registry Office with notables from the music scene in attendance.
A single, "Hit The 'O' Deck" and the album "Lend An Ear" were released in 1983, followed by a final tour of UK and Europe. Poorpoor critical reception to the new direction and internal differences, led to the Pigbag split in June 1983, with Angela, James and Simon forming Instinct.



01 - Getting Up (3:15)
02 - Six Of One (4:27)
03 - Hit The 'O' Deck (3:51)
04 - Sunny Day (12inch) (7:12)
05 - One Way Ticket To Cubesville (1:54)
06 - Brazil Nuts (4:28)
07 - The Big Bean (12inch) (4:59)
08 - Wriggling (4:45)
09 - Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag (12inch) (5:51)

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The System - Logic (83 ^ 78mb)

The System members Bob Wilson (Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals), Dave Caroll (Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals) and Bob Lamb ( Percussion, Keyboards, Vocals), latter responsible for the production here aswell. All three were part of the Steve Gibbons band and recorded 4 successful albums with him in the second part of the seventies. This album despite it's futuristic sleeve and inlay design and suggestive name Logic isn't a synthesizer pop album. It has some great tracks but towards the end(after track 5) i get the feeling some members pushed thru their own songs, all of a sudden a couple of blues pubrock songs bash thru..most odd. The choice of label Romantik Records forbodes cheesiness, well they choose the wrong name aswell as vocalist/guitarist Mic Murphy and keyboardist David Frank founded a The System in 1982 in New York. Google turned up no more on this The System and i suspect they split under a cloud. Apart from a discog member giving it 5 stars, a US ebay seller asking 98 dollar for it, in France 5 euros would have satisfied the ebay seller. Which goes to show how important research is before buying anything. Well as i ripped it already, i put it up as an extra today.



01 - Your Love (Will Stay In My Heart) (4:15)
02 - Jenny (4:03)
03 - Vampirella (3:40)
04 - Almost Grown (5:55)

05 - Pendy! You're In Some Awful Danger (4:36)
06 - Styletto (3:21)
07 - Sixty Watt Pearl (2:04)
08 - All Of Us Sinners (4:00)
09 - Feather In The Dust (3:50)

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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 !