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Van Der Graaf Generator - Still Life (76 ^ 99 mb)
The band first formed in 1967 while its members were studying at Manchester University. The three-piece was comprised of Peter Hammill (guitar and vocals), Nick Pearne (organ) and Chris Judge Smith (drums and wind instruments). On the basis of a demo, this blues- and jazz-influenced first incarnation were offered a recording contract with Mercury Records, which only the 19-year old Hammill signed. In 1968, Pearne was replaced by Hugh Banton. The band were able to secure Tony Stratton-Smith as a full-time manager. Through him, the band acquired a bass guitar player, Keith Ian Ellis. Drummer Guy Evans joined not too long afterwards. This line-up recorded a series of demos for Mercury, before releasing a single ("People You Were Going To" b/w "Firebrand") on Polydor Records. The single was withdrawn under pressure from Mercury, since it violated Hammill's contract as a solo artist.VDGG broke up in early 1969 with Mercury's refusal to let Hammill out of his solo contract and the band's unwillingness to sign under the "harsh" terms to which Hammill had agreed.
In July 1969, Hammill went to record his first solo album, Banton, Evans, and Ellis joined him as session musicians. Through a deal worked out by their manager, Hammill's intended solo album, The Aerosol Grey Machine, was released by Mercury under the VDGG's name in return for releasing Hammill from his solo contract. A new sound was established, leaving behind the psychedelic influence of The Aerosol Grey Machine in favour of darker textures influenced by jazz and classical music. The Least We Can Do... was well received, and was swiftly followed by H to He, Who Am the Only One. Potter left mid-way through that recording, and the band decided to carry on without a bass guitarist, with Banton on hand and feet bass pedals.
The Hammill/Banton/Jackson/Evans quartet that resulted from H to He is now considered the 'classic' line-up, and went on to record Pawn Hearts, which is considered by many to be their finest work. The album proved highly successful in Italy, topping the chart there for 12 weeks. The band toured extensively from 1970 to 1972, but a lack of support from the record company and possibly also financial difficulties caused the band to implode and Hammill left to pursue a solo career.
Hammill's split with the group was amicable, and Banton, Jackson and Evans, among others, all contributed to his solo work at various times. By 1975 the band were ready to work with each other again, the sessions were produced by the band themselves, and displayed a more streamlined sound. VDGG released Godbluff starting off a trio of new albums that were recorded in just 12 months. The second step on the mid-'70s comeback trail, Still Life, saw Peter Hammill attempting to meld the introspective and the cosmic throughout, though this did not stop him from taking a dead run at a grandiose concept or two -- the consequences of immortality on the title track, and the grand fate of humanity on the epic "Childlike Faith in Childhood's End." The theme of humane cooperation informs the opening "Pilgrims," while "La Rossa" is an epic tale of desire fulfilled .The true highlight, however, is the beautiful, pensive "My Room (Waiting for Wonderland)," with its echoes of imagination and loss. The last record the classic line up produced was World Record, first Banton and then Jackson departed. It would be 30 years before they would release another VDGG record together.
Nic Potter returned, and in a typically eccentric move Banton was replaced by a violinist, Graham Smith (formerly of Charisma folk-rock band String Driven Thing). This line-up produced the album The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome. The band also shortened its name to Van der Graaf. Charles Dickie then joined the band on cello for live work, documented on the live album Vital. By the time Vital was released, in the summer of 1978, the band had already split.
Banton, Jackson and Evans all made occasional appearances on Hammill's solo albums following the 1978 split, and the classic line-up also played occasionally together. In 2003, Banton, Jackson, and Evans joined with Hammill to perform the song "Still Life" at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Following the Queen Elizabeth Hall performance, discussions between the band members led to writing and rehearsal of new material in mid-2004. A double CD, Present, containing this material was released in April 2005. A reunion concert took place at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 6 May 2005, ( released as "Real Time" in 2007), it was followed by several European dates in the summer and autumn of 2005. A new album by VDDGG, "Trisector " is expected to be released this month (march 08).
01 - Pilgrims (7:13)
02 - Still Life (7:24)
03 - La Rossa (9:52)
04 - My Room (Waiting For Wonderland) (8:03)
05 - Childlike Faith In Childhood's End (12:24)
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Vaughn Combo - Beautiful Thing (87 ^ 95mb)
Ben Vaughn is known more these days for television soundtrack work and some work as a rock historian, in the 1980s, however, he was fronting a wicked little rock band that captured the timeless, glorious quality of the Jersey/Philly sound from the ‘60s with white boy soul, pop hooks, catchy lyrics, and garage rock, the Ben Vaughn Combo. Vaughn understands its wild, rebellious nature whether it’s conveyed in a nasty electric guitar lick or the rhythms of a conga drum. It’s more than an attitude. It’s a groove Alas they never recorded an album that truly reflected their wigged-out, unpredictable live shows.
Beautiful Thing was the second Combo album and the most subdued, musically. Paradoxical as it was to the band’s live show, the songs are among Vaughn’s best and most memorable. The title track,”Beautiful Thing,” is a restrained performance of a song that sounds like it could take off in concert, “Jerry Lewis In France,” was the song that got the most attention at the time of the album’s release, It’s one of those lyrical metaphors that Vaughn is so adept at. He trots out a lineup of comparisons from American popular culture history, the joy expressed is palpable in Vaughn’s vocals, even as deadpan as they start out, when he concludes the song in an extended, shouted riff and harmonica outro, rendering what could have been a bookish cliche instead as a sentimental love song. Vaughn wrote 11 out of the dozen songs here, sings, plays lead guitar, harmonica and produced this effort that bathes in the joy of listening to the radio as a kid and remembering the pleasures summoned forth.Now that this, his best album, has just been reissued, perhaps some other clueless collegiate type will discover Vaughn’s magical mixture of hipster cool and retro rock ‘n’ roll schooling for themselves.
Vaughn lives in Venice, California these days, and he has been busy with revisiting his back catalog on albums such as Vaugh Sings Vaughn, vol. 1 & 2. You can check out more history and credits on his Myspace page, with new music and another video clip or two. After years in television work, it seems like Vaughn is getting back to the basics of making his back-to-basics rock ‘n’ roll, and that’s definitely a beautiful thing.....
01 - Jerry Lewis in France (4:01)
02 - Clothes Don't Make the Man (3:20)
03 - Beautiful Thing (3:18)
04 - North Wind Blew (4:10)
05 - Shingaling with Me (4:15)
06 - Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (2:27)
07 - She's a Real Scream (2:03)
08 - Big House with a Yard (2:24)
09 - On the Rebound (3:15)
10 - Good Woman Is Hard to Find (3:31)
11 - Desert Boots (1:26)
12 - Apology Line (4:56)
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Die Verbannten Kinder Evas - In Darkness Let Me Dwell (99
Die Verbannten Kinder Evas ("The Exiled Children of Eve".) was formed by Richard Ledere and Michael Gregor (member of his other project "summoning") . It was Michael who found this German line, that means "the banished children of eve", in a renaissance booklet while searching for new lyrics for one of their songs. The name was not supposed to contain some special message, it was just chosen because it suited well to the mood of the music.
In March 1995 the first album of DVKE was released, and it received good reactions.Soon after the release Michael left to concentrate on Summoning, so the band at that time consisted of two people only Richard and Julia. At this time Richard got in contact "oliver falk" what started the label "MOSrecords" and decided to change the label, in the hope for a better distribution. The second album "Come Heavy Sleep" saw the light in September 1997 , it was less "heavy", a more classic and orchestra orientated and much more professionally done. Lyrics were taken from "Percy Bysshe Shelley", the English romatic poet of 19th century. The reactions on "Come Heavy Sleep" were quite different, from "quite boring" to "highlight of the year". But sometime after the release the relations between Richard and Oliver were disturbed and thus the decision to change label was taken once again.
This time it was the Austrian label "Napalm Records", under which "Summoning" was releasing its albums since the debut in 1995. And the changes in the line-up took place once more. Julia was replaced by the new singer "Tania Borsky" who has got a voice much stronger and more in the classical style. The third album ("In Darkness Let Me Dwell") came out 22-11-99. It's less classical and polyphony, more darkwave , it concentrates more on vocals. All high parts were sung by Tania. This time the lyrics are taken from "Percy Shelly" and "John Dowland". By the way, in the beginning this album was supposed to be called"The Spirit of Solitude" (poem title of shelly), but later, when Dowland's lyrics were included the name was changed.
After that album singer Tania lost interest and fell away Richard had to search for a new singer, things didnt work out with the replacement singer and DVKE was put on hold and he returned to "Summoning" that was also already delayed for a very long time cause of all those problems with DVKE. After the new "Summoning" album was released he got in contact with "Christina", a singer from Greece that was a fan of DVKE. Richard heard one of her tracks and immediately decided to make the recording with her, she flew to Vienna and in only 3 days recorded all songs. Finally "Dusk And Void Became Alive" had been finished after a unintentional pause of 7 years.
1 - Intro (4:21)
2 - Brief Even As Bright (7:04)
3 - On A Faded Violet (6:56)
4 - Overpast (6:09)
5 - Cease Sorrows Now (6:59)
6 - In Darkness Let Me Dwell (7:02)
7 - Shall I Strive? (5:58)
8 - Arise From Dreams Of Thee (6:12)
9 - From Silent Night (7:18)
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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 !
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