Rhovacation

Hello, Rho-Xs will be taking a short holiday break, in the meantime i'm sure, if you'd track back, you'll find plenty of interesting stuff you weren't in the mood for earlier...then there's the simple fact that taking in(not just downloading) the amount of music that, on this blog alone, comes around everyweek (about 18 titles) is too much..even for a semi-professional.....Now i started the audioplay of William Gibson's Neuromancer last monday, and i see no reason to leave the fans hanging upon Rho-Xs return, so you'll get the concluding part 2 here today...

Finally i gladly give way here to a movie that's made some inroads into public awareness, though not nearly enough yet. Big media owners dont like it, so their editors silence anyone mentioning it. In the movie/documentairy Zeitgeist images and music were put together in a powerful and artistic way, it assures the 2 hours it takes to tell the story pass quickly. It's an essentiel movie if you want to grasp what has been and is going on in our world. Our world where once again the drums of war and destruction are sounded loudly by the same deluded materialists. They will stop at nothing now there hand is out in the open, counting on the gullible and ignorant for support. Dont be one those, enlighten them. This movie is a good place to start gaining some understanding. Make a difference ! 25 $ buys you 6 dvd's to distribute among friends and family..this will amount to much more than ranting at a blog or demonstrating at a rally.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

William Gibson - Neuromancer pt 2 ( 57:38, 33mb)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****



Zeitgeist was first released on June 26, 2007 and topped the Google video charts most viewed videos. It's been translated into many languages and is distributed officially via Google Video, BitTorrent, aswell being obtainable on DVD. Zeitgeist won the top award of Best Feature Documentary/Artivist Spirit at the 4th Annual Artivists Awards in 2008 in Hollywood, CA. An upcoming sequel has been announced for October 2008.

The film starts with a speech by Chögyam Trungpa about spirituality, followed by a series of musically synchronized clips of war and explosions. It quotes Jordan Maxwell's Inner World of the Occult, criticizing religious institutions, governments, and the banking cartels who "have misled [the people] away from the true and divine presence in the universe."

Part I: The Greatest Story Ever Told
Part I evaluates the historicity of the Bible. In furtherance of the Jesus myth hypothesis, this part argues that the historical Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid, and that the Bible is based on astrological principles documented by many ancient civilizations, especially pertaining to the movement of the sun through the sky and stars.

Part II: All the World's a Stage
Part II of the documentary claims 9/11 was engineered to generate mass fear, justify going to war with Afghanistan and Iraq, to remove civil liberties from the general public, and to make more money for the people in power.

Part III: Don't Mind the Men Behind the Curtain
Part III shows how powerful bankers have been conspiring for world domination and increased power while the rich of society have been using their wealth to increase financial panic and foster a consolidation of independent competing banks. It explores war profiteering by banking cartels and defense and military contractors. It describes the goal of these bankers as world power over a chipped public.

*****
Zeitgeist, produced by Peter Joseph, was created as a nonprofit expression to inspire people to start looking at the world from a more critical perspective and to understand that very often things are not what the population at large think they are. The information in Zeitgeist was established over a year long period of research and the current Source page on the site lists the basic sources used / referenced and the developing Interactive Transcript includes exact source references and further information. A Q & A page is also developped.



View online
ZEITGEIST movie ( 122min)

Order

ZEITGEIST , The Movie DVD, Full Resolution Remastered Version - Price 5 $+ 2$ P&P

*****

2nd august UPDATE

I've recoded and split the movie into its 3 original parts for easy download, parts 2 and 3 give you an idea on whats currently going on, part 1 in my opinion is essential to understand what has controlled the masses these last millenia , and why the illuminate, who know all that whats been portrayed in part 1, feel and act so superior towards the sheep. Just 40 min ..and its not that new btw in 88 PBS broadcast The Naked Truth 110min, which goes more into depth on this subject. Whatever, you owe it to yourself to be aware, and free your mind from the lies.

Zeitgeist the movie part 1 ( 40 min, AVI 85mb) (Christians take note !)

Zeitgeist the movie part 2 ( 34 min, AVI 69mb) (all the world's a stage)

Zeitgeist the movie part 3 ( 48 min, AVI 106mb (bankers bank for themselves, vampires that will bleed you dry)

Or Torrrent Download for free
ZEITGEIST - Final Edition ( 701mb -XVID (640 x 480) Torrent DL)

Click above link and select "Save to Disk" or "Open with Bittorent"( if / when you have the program installed).

Using the BITTORENT File Transfer Medium:
The medium of file transfer being utilized here is known as "Bittorrent", which requires a separate program. You can download the program Here . It is recommended you install this program first, and then download the "Torrent reference file" above. Once you have the program installed, you can open the Torrent file you have downloaded, and it will begin the transfer.The file will be downloaded to a folder specified by the program.

Also- You will need the XVID CODEC to play the file.

*****

The world is OUR oyster.

*****

Into The Groove (39)

Hello, Into the Groove, finishes the Laswell week with three expressions of his collision funk....Material, the avant-garde downtown ensemble organized around bassist him and keyboardist Michael Beinhorn was where Laswell first showed his talents....15 years later he played in and produced Praxis, combining metal and funk into a fusion that embodies his credo “Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted”... a year later he worked with a whole body of artists, again producing a clash between the P-funk of yesteryear and the artists that he worked with previously, in Praxis, Material and others , the result Funkcronomicon.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Material - Temporary Music (1979-1981)    (flac 378mb)

One of the most high-profile projects of the endlessly prolific bassist and producer Bill Laswell, Material pioneered a groundbreaking fusion of jazz, funk, and punk that also incorporated elements of hip-hop and world music well before either's entrance into the mass cultural consciousness. Formed in 1979, the first Material lineup consisted of Laswell, multi-instrumentalist Michael Beinhorn, and drummer Fred Maher, all three staples of the downtown New York City underground music scene. After Material's debut LP under their own name, Temporary Music, the group's ranks swelled to include figures ranging from Sonny Sharrock to Henry Threadgill to Fred Frith, additions which yielded 1981's superb Memory Serves.

Their next album "One Down" marked a distinct shift in sound, the edgy experimentalism that characterized their earlier efforts is downplayed here in favor of funk and disco tunes delivered with less weirdness. Laswell is a master of funk bass, and with guests like drummer Yogi Horton, guitarist Nile Rodgers and singers Nona Hendryx and Whitney Houston (just before she became a superstar on her own), he didn't really have much chance to go wrong. Laswell finally reassembled the troops in 1989 to record the atmospheric Seven Souls, which spotlighted the spoken word performances of the legendary William S. Burroughs. 1991's The Third Power brought the group back to its soulful roots, with guests including Herbie Hancock, Sly & Robbie, Maceo Parker, and the Jungle Brothers; after 1994's Hallucination Engine, another four-year hiatus preceded the release of the remix collection The Road to the Western Lands. Intonarumori followed in 1999.

Temporary Music 1 (12") (1 - 4 recorded 23 to 25 July 1979) at Eddy Offord's Studio, Woodstock, New York.
Discourse / Slow Murder (7") (5 & 6 recorded March 1980).
Temporary Music Compilation (LP) ( 7 -10 recorded 25 & 26 September 1980) at Lindon Studio, Pennsylvania.
American Songs (12") ( 11 & 12 recorded 1981).



01 - O. A. O. (4:43)
02 - White Man (7:40)
03 - On Sadism (5:04)
04 - Process/ Motion (4:34)
05 - Discourse (4:05)
06 - Slow Murder (3:59)
07 - Secret Life (5:45)
08 - Reduction (5:30)
09 - Heritage (3:33)
10 - Dark Things (5:10)
11 - Detached (5:02)
12 - Ciquiri (6:22)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Praxis - Metatron (94 ^ 248mb)

Praxis is the name of an ever-changing Bill Laswell musical project. Praxis combines elements of different musical genres such as funk, jazz, hip-hop and heavy metal into highly improvised music. First appearing in 1992 with the critically acclaimed Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis), Buckethead, Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell and Brain have defined the direction of the band over the last 15 years. Between the influence of Laswell and Buckethead, Praxis's musical experimentation in both studio, street and live settings have combined elements of mid-70’s Funkadelic & Miles Davis, hip-hop’s more avant-garde leanings, and Last Exit's ferocious yet organic jazz/metal aesthetic. Many of these experiments defined (and in some sense, invented) diverse, eclectic, and freeform genres including avant-garde, heavy metal, funk and jazz-fusion.

For the third manifestation of Praxis, Metatron, Laswell returned from the cut-and-paste trash metal of the second album, Sacrifist, to a band approach, as on the first, Transmutation. Concentrating on the core band of Buckethead, Brain and himself, he created an album which is close in spirit to the first one, but covers very different ground, and is also much weirder. Throughout the album, Buckethead is awe-inspiring, playing not only with lightning speed and enormous precision, but also with dangerous intensity. The production, however, is the record's second star: there are interesting sounds abound (drilling sounds, oscillators, wind etc.), and each track (and virtually every guitar part) has a sonic identity of its own. Metatron is an incredible album (although beginners should start with Transmutation) and easily one of Buckethead's best showcases.



01 - Wake The Dead (3:41)
02 - Skull Crack (We Are Not Sick Men) (5:16)
03 - Meta-Matic (2:30)
04 - Cathedral Space (Soft Hail Of Electrons) (1:20)
05 - Turbine (2:36)
06 - Vacuum-Mass (1:01)
07 - Cannibal (Heart Shape Of The Iron Blade) (3:07)
08 - Inferno/Heatseeker/Exploded Heart (9:21)
09 - Warm Time Machine/Low End Transmission/Over The Foaming Deep (4:14)
10 - Double Vision (3:11)
11 - Armed (Tsa Agent #5) (2:16)
12 - Warcraft (Bruce Lee's Black Hour Of Chaos) (3:07)
13 - Triad (The Saw Is Family) (3:13)
14 - Space After (The Conciousness That Dances And Kills) (2:54)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Axiom Funk - Funkcronomicon (95)

This album features heavy participation from various members of Parliament-Funkadelic, to the point where "Funkcronomicon" could be considered a fully fledged P-Funk album. The album features what may be Pedro Bell's last authentic artistic renderings, as well as P-Funk guitarist Eddie Hazel's last recordings. Funkcronomicon is comprised of newly recorded tracks, as well as tracks that have been featured on other Bill Laswell productions.

So who's aboard ?
Bill Laswell , Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar , Aiyb Dieng , Anton Fier , Bernie Worrell, Herbie Hancock, J.D. Parron, Bootsy Collins , George Clinton, Nicky Skopelitis , Garry Shider , Michael Hampton, Buckethead, Maceo Parker , Sly Stone, Menace, Eddie Hazel and more...



Axiom Funk - Funkcronomicon (^ 276mb)

01 - Order Within The Universe (3:17)
02 - Under The Influence (5:45)
03 - If 6 Was 9 (6:00)
04 - Orbitron Attack (12:29)
05 - Cosmic Slop (5:16)
06 - Free-Bass (Godzillatron Cush) (5:43)
07 - Tell The World (3:53)
08 - Pray My Soul (5:08)

Axiom Funk - Funkcronomicon (^ 240mb)

09 - Hideous Mutant Freekz (7:25)
10 - Sax Machine (7:47)
11 - Animal Behavior (7:09)
12 - Trumpets And Violins, Violins (3:38)
13 - Telling Time (4:57)
14 - Jungle Free-Bass (5:38)
15 - Blackout (3:44)
16 - Sacred To The Pain (4:54)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****
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 II (M)

Hello, more Alphabet Soup today Mmm. The seventies space cowboy is up first, after scoring a megahit with The Joker, Steve Miller had the means to take it easy and record his classic Fly Like an Eagle at his new ranch. It turned out a very fruitful time as he recorded his two most succesful albums there, basicly in one go, even if Book of Dreams was released a year later....Psychospacerock visionaries Monster Magnet spent much of the 1990s struggling against the prejudices imposed upon image and sound by the alternative rock critics. In the meantime, Monster Magnet still managed to become one of the most successful and influential bands associated with the so-called underground "stoner rock" scene. And yet, their influences span much further than that scene's foundations in '70s hard rock and metal, delving into space rock, psychedelia, and beyond. Dopes to Infinity deserved much more credit than it got..convince yourself....Finally Mecano a dutch band who's early eighties work i posted 18 months ago (see Eurotour-stage 12), they were shocked out of their slumber 4 years ago after the brutal murder of a friend, they took up their pen again and recorded a new album, Snake Tales For Dragon, they quickly found out they had still fans out there, specially in Greece and France. Last year they released another album "Those Revolutianairy Days" .....

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Steve Miller - Fly Like An Eagle (76 flac 364mb)

Miller was born( October 5, 1943) to Dr George "Sonny" Miller, a pathologist, jazz enthusiast, hat salesman and amateur recording engineer, and Bertha, a jazz-influenced singer. In 1950, the family moved to Dallas, Texas. His first guitar chords were taught to him when he was five years old by his godfather Les Paul, pioneer of the electric guitar and multitrack recording. Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford were regular visitors at the Miller house and Dr Miller's father was best man at their wedding. Les Paul encouraged young Miller to use his prodigious talents, and much of Miller's success has been attributed to Paul's tutelage.

While at highschool, Miller formed his first band, The Marksmen. Miller taught classmate Royce Scaggs — better known later by his nickname Boz — guitar chords so that he could join the band. Miller graduated in 1961 and later, while attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Miller formed The Ardells. Scaggs joined the Ardells the next year; and Ben Sidran became the band's keyboardist the year after. After attending the University of Copenhagen in Denmark for a semester in his senior year, he dropped out six credit hours shy of a literature degree. Upon his return to the United States, Miller moved to Chicago where he immersed himself in the city's blues scene, teaming with Barry Goldberg for two years. He then moved to San Francisco and formed the first incarnation of the Steve Miller Blues Band, featuring guitarist James "Curly" Cooke, bassist Lonnie Turner, and drummer Tim Davis. The band built a local following through a series of free concerts and backed Chuck Berry in 1967 at a Fillmore date later released as a live album. Scaggs moved to San Francisco later that year and replaced Cooke in time to play the Monterey Pop Festival; it was the first of many personnel changes. Capitol signed the group as the Steve Miller Band following the festival.

In 1968 they released an album, Children of the Future, the first in a series of discs rooted solidly in the psychedelic blues style that then dominated the San Francisco scene. The group followed the release of their second album, Sailor, with a series of high-quality albums ( Brave New World, Your Saving Grace and Number 5) with similar chart placements followed. Miller remained a popular artist, but pop radio failed to pick up on any of his material at this time, even though tracks like "Space Cowboy" and "Brave New World" had become FM rock staples.with the albums Brave New World, Your Saving Grace and Number 5. In this first period Miller established his personae of the "Gangster of Love" (from Sailor) and the "Space Cowboy" (from Brave New World), which were reused in later works. In 1972, Miller recorded the album Recall the Beginning, A Journey from Eden, in which a third persona, "Maurice," was introduced in the tune "Enter Maurice." Things began to look bleak for Miller when he broke his neck in a car accident and subsequently developed hepatitis, which put him out of commission for most of 1972 and early 1973.

Miller spent his recuperation time reinventing himself as a blues-influenced pop-rocker, writing compact, melodic, catchy songs. This approach was introduced on his 1973 LP The Joker and was an instant success, with the album going platinum and the title track hitting number one on the pop charts. Now an established star, Miller elected to take three years off. He purchased a farm and built his own recording studio, at which he crafted the wildly successful albums Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams at approximately the same time. Fly Like an Eagle was released in 1976 and eclipsed its predecessor in terms of quality and sales in spite of the long downtime in between. Fly Like an Eagle is where Miller took flight, creating his definitive slice of space blues, stylish, trippy, plus a detailed atmospheric production where everything fits. It gave Miller his second number one hit with "Rock'n Me," plus several other hitsingles. Book Of Dreams (77) flac 235mb was almost as successful, selling over three million copies and producing several hits as well.

On the heels of this massive success, Miller took a long hiatus from recording and touring, emerging in 1981 with Circle of Love, an ambitious album possibly intended to appease critics of his new style. Sales were disappointing, however, and in 1982 he returned to the pop formula with another hit album, Abracadabra. The title track gave him his third number one single and proved to be his last major commercial success. A series of collections, live albums and attempts to find a new style appeared in 1984 (Italian X-Rays), 1986 (Living in the 20th Century and 1988 (Born 2B Blue), none of these albums were consistent enough to be critically or commercially successful, after 1993's effort, Wide River, Miller gave up producing records altogether.

Millers popularity fueled very successful concert tours throughout the 80s and 90s, often with large numbers of younger people being present at the concerts. Miller would often headline shows with other classic rock acts and played a variety of his music including a good selection of his blues work dating from the late 60s. Prior to the start of his 2007 tour it has been revealed that a new studio album titled Loose Tether is being recorded.



01 - Space Intro (1:15)
02 - Fly Like An Eagle (4:42)
03 - Wild Mountain Honey (4:50)
04 - Serenade (3:10)
05 - Dance, Dance, Dance (2:16)
06 - Mercury Blues (3:43)

07 - Take The Money And Run (2:48)
08 - Rock 'N Me (3:05)
09 - You Send Me (2:40)
10 - Blue Odyssey (1:00)
11 - Sweet Maree (4:16)
12 - The Window (4:19)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Monster Magnet - Dopes To Infinity (95 flac 436mb)

New Jersey native Dave Wyndorf was already a rock & roll veteran by the time he formed Monster Magnet in 1989, having cut his teeth with little-known punk band Shrapnel (also featuring future punk producer Daniel Rey on guitars) in the late '70s before retiring from music altogether. But, after teaching himself guitar, Wyndorf began assembling Monster Magnet with a handful of fellow New Jersey natives, vocalist Tim Cronin, guitarist John McBain, bassist Joe Callandra, and drummer Jon Kleiman. Fusing their metal, punk, space rock, and psychedelic influences, the band developed a sludgy, feedback-heavy hard rock sound that helped them stand out from the era's burgeoning retro-rock movement. In 1989, Monster Magnet released two demo cassettes: Forget About Life, I'm High on Dope and I'm Stoned, What Ya Gonna Do About It?. The band's first "official" release was a 6 track self-titled EP from Glitterhouse Records of Germany. After which Wyndorf assumed all vocal responsibilities, while Cronin retreated to a behind the scenes "conceptual consultant" position.

In the meantime, Monster Magnet had signed with independent label Caroline Records in 1992, and recorded their first full-length album: the very impressive, uniquely dark psychedelic masterpiece Spine of God. The productive sessions also yielded a number of extensive space rock jams that would later be issued as the Tab album in 1993. A support tour with the fast-rising Soundgarden also helped attract powerhouse A&M Records, but even as they prepared to sign with the label, Wyndorf had a serious falling-out with guitarist McBain, who was soon replaced by Ed Mundell. 1993's Superjudge proved to be a stellar major-label debut. Unfortunately, the group's retro-rock image had become highly unfashionable at the time, arriving at the height of the post-Nirvana grunge boom, and the album sold poorly.

Dopes to Infinity (1995), the follow-up record, was more accessible, and had a hit single in "Negasonic Teenage Warhead", which benefitted from a music video showing Dave Wyndorf travelling through Outer Space that received rotation on MTV. Dopes to Infinity is about as far apart from Superjudge as the original Siamese twins were to each other. Wyndorf's singing is a touch crisper in the mix this time out, while the guitar playing is even more powerfully direct and epic amidst all the space-out swirl and rockets to the moon. It's the secret weapon of the album as a whole, turning Monster Magnet's gift for the large scale into something that's almost uplifting, often connecting with a listener instead of dominating one. Still, the record was not the success the band had hoped for, partly because other innovative tracks like "Dead Christmas" and the title track, received little or no airplay. In the end the album sold only slightly better than its predecessor.

After the Dopes to Infinity tour, Wyndorf moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in order to begin working on Powertrip (1998), a breakthrough hit that earned the band a gold certification. Powertrip saw the band departing from its usual lo-fi, stoner metal fare, and enter into an era with a more hard rock-type sound. Guitarist Phil Cavaino joined the band in 1998. "Space Lord", the first single, was a major radio hit and the band went on tour with bands like Aerosmith, Metallica, Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson. Powertrip channeled all of Sin City's vice, greed, and sex into its hedonistic but surprisingly accessible tracks. Monster Magnet then embarked on a marathon two-year world tour, both as a headliner and as support . By the year 2000, the band had contributed the track "Silver Future" to the Heavy Metal 2000 soundtrack and completed work on their fifth album, God Says No, released in Europe in October. But their new American record label, Interscope (which had swallowed A&M in a hostile takeover the year before) inexplicably fussed and messed with the album before finally releasing it domestically in April 2001. Ultimately Monster Magnet found themselves rudely dropped.

Monster Magnet duly reunited for a short North American tour in early 2002 and, a year later, a new deal with the German SPV label was announced. Recorded in late 2003, the group's sixth full-length album, 2004's Monolithic Baby!, would be recorded with a new rhythm section, these being bassist Jim Baglino and drummer Bob Pantella. In 2005, Phil Caivano left the band amicably, and the rest of the group started recording in L.A. with producer Matt Hyde. A followup to Monolithic Baby! was expected in March 2006 to coincide with their European Tour, along with rereleases of Spine of God and Tab, both featuring new artwork and liner notes, however the tour and album release did not go ahead. On February 27, 2006 Dave Wyndorf overdosed on prescription drugs. In 2007, it was announced that Monster Magnet would release a new album, 4-Way Diablo, which had been put back for a year because of Wyndorf's overdose. It was released later that year. Later in 2007, another greatest hits collection, 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Monster Magnet, was released.



01 - Dopes To Infinity (5:43)
02 - Negasonic Teenage Warhead (4:28)
03 - Look To Your Orb For The Warning (6:32)
04 - All Friends And Kingdom Come (5:38)
05 - Ego, The Living Planet (5:07)
06 - Blow 'Em Off (3:51)
07 - Third Alternative (8:33)
08 - I Control, I Fly (3:18)
09 - King Of Mars (4:33)
10 - Dead Christmas (3:54)
11 - Theme From "Masterburner" (5:06)
12 - Vertigo (11:15)

diet version

Monster Magnet - Dopes To Infinity ( * 99mb)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Mecano - Snake Tales For Dragon     (FLAC 527mb) !

The story of Mecano starts with a painting, made in 1977 by founder Dirk Polak after finding an old booklet belonging to a Meccano construction box, as fabricated and sold in the thirties.While scanning the booklet, Dirk was struck by a vision of a world built out of Meccano, in painting, sculpture and even lyrics and music.

The examples in the instruction booklet set Dirk to paint his Meccano figures, surrounded by surrealistic landscapes and interiors. In those days punk was booming and Dirk thought it was time to start a band and together with Pieter Kooyman and a few hired guns he recorded Face Cover Face, b/w Fools as Mecano Ltd. for the “No Fun” label. But Dirk wanted a real band and so he asked Ton Lebbink to be the drummer. Ton, immediately introduced the brothers Tejo and Cor Bolten, who also worked at Paradiso, Tejo as floor-manager and Cor, the band was formed in the blink of an eye. Another advantage of Ton and the Bolten brothers, beside their musical abilities, was that they had unlimited acces to Paradiso, the best rehearsing place a band could think of and they started experimenting and putting the music together, mainly based on the ideas of Dirk and the Bolten brothers.

Emerging from the punk-era, Mecano is best described as new wave, adding poetry and remarkable arrangements, colored with unusual guitar harmonies, converting into an ashtonishing eclectric blend. Early 1980 newly founded Torso Records had released the mini-lp Untitled and in that same year Subtitled (see Eurotour-stage 12), both nowadays reaching high prices amongst collectors . After that the band split up, to be reunited in 1982 without Ton Lebbink and Pieter Kooyman and a smaller size Mecano started recording Autoportrait, which came out early ‘83 and on which Pieter Kooyman is present on Suggestive Sleep and To Life's Reunion.

Mecano released, The Half Inch Universe, a double cd containing their remastered eighties work with some unreleased (live) material in 2002. But then after 22 years of comparative silence Mecano released 'Snake Tales for Dragon 'in 2005 . For a long time, Tejo Bolten had felt the will to start Mecano again… there was a mission to fulfill and it was unfinished. Sadly, it was the murder of the Dutch film director Theo van Gogh in 2004 by a radical Islamist who had felt offended by the artist’s stance. This loss triggered singer Dirk Polak a promise upon his dead body that he would sing again. In January 2005 Tejo Bolten and Dirk Polak, brought their music and lyrics to another level with the release of the album 'Snake Tales for Dragon'. As a metaphore of the Meccano toy found years ago “for the engineer of tomorrow”, Tejo and Dirk reassembled the parts of the original structure and began to build a whole new story for Mecano. They presented it along with older material in Athens, Greece where they are rather popular, the following year at the capital’s long-running annual Rockwave Festival.

Fall 2007 Mecano released “Those Revolutionary Days”, a continuation of the album Autoportrait. According to the band, its new album was conceived as “the scenario for nostalgia enlightened with a modern vision.” Mecano shares with the audience a reacting to society instead of assuming a passive attitude towards it. The extraordinary voice of their music communicate many important messages for all to listen. A voice that comes through the ages, to speak of truth and justice, and hope.



01 - Intro / Dustry Soul (5:13)
02 - Treasure Lost And Found (4:01)
03 - Drag On (5:13)
04 - Excluded From The Heart (3:19)
05 - Saint Of Sorrow (4:54)
06 - Love You One In A Million (4:09)
07 - November 2 (5:40)
08 - Painted Words (5:08)
09 - Clarity I Guess (5:03)
10 - Le Chant Du Cygne Du Serpent (6:50)
11 - New Skin (5:50)
special bonus
12 - Love You One In A Million (xxxxl remix)

 (24:12)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****
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 (39)

Hello, Eight-X calling , a bit different in style then usually as all three albums are produced by the same man, Bill Laswell. Well, I have posted other productions of him here, these three rather work well together, as i noticed listening to them back to back last night. First up Herbie Hancock completely overhauling his sound and conquering MTV with his most radical step forward guided by Laswell. It shocked his old fans but the album was a commercial success and got Laswell into the spotlights....Not something my next artist is very keen on, Toshinori Kondo i guess being Japanese there's just too much 'zen' in his blood. The album , in Laswell style crosses over the jazz of the trumpetplayer Kondo into the synth rock arena, Sakamoto seems to be hovering in the background aswell (couldnt find Neo Geo produced by Laswell)....finally P.I.L. or Lydon Ltd because as he states himself: " Album was almost like a solo album, I worked alone with a new bunch of people." Considering the troubles with the band before and after, Album was a success, some thought it a betrayel having real musicians but again Laswell manages to create a great album setting off Lydon's raw singing with powerful musicality.....

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Herbie Hancock - Future Shock (83 ^ 95mb)

Herbie Hancock will always be one of the most revered and controversial figures in jazz -- just as his employer/mentor Miles Davis was when he was alive. Unlike Miles, who pressed ahead relentlessly and never looked back until near the very end, Hancock has cut a zigzagging forward path, shuttling between almost every development in electronic and acoustic jazz and R&B over the last third of the 20th century. Though grounded in Bill Evans and able to absorb blues, funk, gospel, and even modern classical influences, Hancock's piano and keyboard voices are entirely his own, with their own urbane harmonic and complex, earthy rhythmic signatures -- and young pianists cop his licks constantly. Having studied engineering and professing to love gadgets and buttons, Hancock was perfectly suited for the electronic age; he was one of the earliest champions of the Rhodes electric piano and Hohner clavinet and would field an ever-growing collection of synthesizers and computers on his electric dates. Yet his love for the grand piano never waned, and despite his peripatetic activities all around the musical map, his piano style continues to evolve into tougher, ever-more-complex forms. He is as much at home trading riffs with a smoking funk band as he is communing with a world-class post-bop rhythm section -- and that drives purists on both sides of the fence up the wall.

Having taken up the piano at age seven, Hancock quickly became known as a prodigy, soloing in the first movement of a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony at the age of 11. After studies at Grinnell College, Hancock was invited by Donald Byrd in 1961 to join his group in New York City, and before long, Blue Note offered him a solo contract. In May 1963, Miles Davis asked him to join his band and he remained there for five years, greatly influencing Miles' evolving direction, loosening up his own style, and upon Miles' suggestion, converting to the Rhodes electric piano.

Having left the Davis band in 1968, Hancock recorded an elegant funk album, Fat Albert Rotunda, and in 1969 formed a sextet that evolved into one of the most exciting, forward-looking jazz-rock groups of the era. Now deeply immersed in electronics, Hancock added the synthesizer of Patrick Gleeson to his Echoplexed, fuzz-wah-pedaled electric piano and clavinet, and the recordings became spacier and more complex rhythmically and structurally, creating its own corner of the avant-garde. The next step, then, was a terrific funk group whose first album, Head Hunters, with its Sly Stone-influenced hit single, "Chameleon," became the biggest-selling jazz LP up to that time. Now handling all of the synthesizers himself, Hancock's heavily rhythmic comping often became part of the rhythm section, leavened by interludes of the old urbane harmonies.

Hancock recorded several electric albums of mostly superior quality in the '70s, followed by a wrong turn into disco around the decade's end. Hancock continued his chameleonic ways in the '80s, completely overhauling his sound and conquering MTV with his most radical step forward since the sextet days. He brought in Bill Laswell of Material as producer, along with Grand Mixer D.ST on turntables -- and the immediate result was "Rockit," which makes quite a post-industrial metallic racket. Frankly, the whole record is an enigma; for all of its dehumanized, mechanized textures and rigid rhythms, it has a vitality and sense of humor that make it difficult to turn off. Moreover, Herbie can't help but inject a subversive funk element when he comps along to the techno beat -- and yes, some real, honest-to-goodness jazz licks on a grand piano show up in the middle of "Auto Drive.".

He launched an exciting partnership with Gambian kora virtuoso Foday Musa Suso that culminated in the swinging 1986 live album Jazz Africa; doing film scores; and playing festivals and tours with the Marsalis brothers, George Benson, Michael Brecker, and many others. After his 1988 techno-pop album, Perfect Machine, Hancock left Columbia (his label since 1973), made a deal with PolyGram in 1994 to record jazz for Verve and release pop albums on Mercury. Well into a youthful middle age, Hancock's curiosity, versatility, and capacity for growth showed no signs of fading, and in 1998 he issued Gershwin's World. His curiosity with the fusion of electronic music and jazz continued with 2001's Future 2 Future, but he also continued to explore the future of straight-ahead contemporary jazz with 2005's Possibilities. An intiguing album of jazz treatments of Joni Mitchell compositions, called River: The Joni Letters, was released in 2007.



01 - Rockit (5:22)
02 - Future Shock (8:02)
03 - TFS (5:15)
04 - Earth Beat (5:10)
05 - Autodrive (6:25)
06 - Rough (6:57)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Toshinori Kondo & IMA - Konton ( 86 ^ 82mb)

Of course, like many avant-garde experimenters and musical iconoclasts, Kondo's early musical influences were largely straight-ahead jazz, especially hard bop. Indeed, the name of his college band, the Funky Beaters, fairly reeks of hard bop attitude. Such was the atmosphere during this artist's college days, when an enormous upheaval took place in the society, fueled on by the radicalism of the '60s. Within the spirit of this music, he developed his own frame of reference which was more strongly influenced by his upbringing and religious studies than any particular musical influences. His father had been a shipbuilder, and this man's combination of bouts of hard work and total relaxation became something of a philosophical view. "Is great: doing nothing" and "Best part: no meaning" were typical summations of the Kondo world view during an era when his mastery of English was still rudimentary.

He played with both British guitarist Derek Bailey and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy prior to his New York sojourn, and continued straddling the fence between conventional jazz collaborations and the outer fringes of free playing through his varied New York relationships. Back in Japan, Kondo formed his own quartet, International Music Activities (IMA), (Tristan Honsinger on cello, Peter Kowald on bass, Sabu Toyozumi on drums) . They released What Are You Talking About? (may 1983 ). Taihen (march 1984) backed the trumpet with the rock format of guitar-drum-bass. Metal Position (april 1985) used a similar setting with the addition of Haruo Togashi's synthesizer and piano. Konton (1986) featured a line-up of trumpet, keyboards, guitar and drums. His proximity to rock music was confirmed by the EP China Boogie (december 1984 ), featuring Bill Laswell, Anton Fier, Fred Frith, etc. The aforementioned return to Japan and great economic success eventually led to a decision to relocate to Amsterdam, where his profile became every bit as low as the Tokyo persona had been extravagantly widespread. Only a handful of Dutch musicians know how to contact him when he is in Holland, and he has made absolutely no effort to become involved in that country's heavily competitive jazz scene; and he is certainly the first immigrant to Holland about which that could be said.

In the early part of the new millennium, he was approached by the Dalai Lama about organizing an international peace festival in Hiroshima, an event that finally took place in 2002. Kondo continues to be a visionary spirit whose late '90s recordings in both free jazz and electronica have attracted an entirely new audience.



1 - Sundown (5:24)
2 - Yami (5:39)
3 - Y.U. (6:14)

4 - Sandswitch (5:41)
5 - YoYoYo (4:34)
6 - Gan (7:41)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Public Image Ltd. - Compact Disc (now in Flac  258mb)

Following the Sex Pistols' breakup in 1978, Lydon approached Jah Wobble ( John Wardle) about forming a band together. The pair had been friends since attending the same school in the early 1970s, and had sometimes played music together during the final days of the Sex Pistols. Both had similarly broad musical tastes, and were avid fans of reggae and world music. Lydon also approached guitarist Keith Levene, with whom he had toured in mid-1976, while Levene was a member of The Clash. Jim Walker, a Canadian student newly arrived in the UK, was recruited on drums, after answering an ad placed in Melody Maker.

PiL began rehearsing together in May 1978, although the band was still unnamed. In July 1978, Lydon officially named the band "Public Image" (the "Ltd." was added several months later). PiL debuted in October 1978 with "Public Image", a song written while Lydon was still a member of Sex Pistols. The single was well received and reached number 9 on the UK charts. In preparing their debut album, Public Image, the band spent their recording budget well before the record was completed. As a result, the final album comprised eight tracks of varying sound quality, half of which were written and recorded in a rush after the money had run out. The album was considered groundbreaking on its release in December 1978. Grounded in heavy dub reggae, Wobble's bass tone was called "impossibly deep" by contemporary reviews. Levene's sharp guitar sound, played on an aluminium Veleno guitar, was to become widely imitated.

The album Metal Box (1979) was a more focused effort. In addition to the drugs and disorganization that were the normal condition of the band, Jim Walker had quit from general disillusionment, making way for a series of drummers. Metal Box was originally released as three untitled 12-inch records packaged in a metal film canister (later reissued as 2LP set, Second Edition), and features the band's trademark hypnotic dub reggae bass lines, glassy, arpeggiated guitar, and bleak, paranoid, stream of consciousness vocals.

The third album, not released in the U.S., was the live Paris au Printemps (1980). Lydon and Levene, plus hired musicians, made up the group by that time. Martin Atkins, who had initially joined at the tail end of the Metal Box sessions was re-recruited to drum on Flowers of Romance, an album considered much stranger and more difficult than the already strange Metal Box. Levene had by then largely abandoned guitar in favour of synthesizer. Levene being incapacitated on heroin much of the time -- had to leave. The aborted fourth album recorded in 1982, was later released by Levene as Commercial Zone. Lydon and Atkins claim Levene stole the master tapes. In 1983, PiL scored its biggest U.K. hit, when "This Is Not a Love Song" , by this time, PIL was a vehicle for John Lydon. Atkins stayed on through a live album, Live in Tokyo -- in which PiL consisted of him, Lydon, and a band of session musicians -- and left in 1984, following the release of This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get.

Anyone's first thousand guesses as to who Lydon would work with next couldn't possibly come close, as the unlisted credits for Album read as a motley crew of established musicians who literally have no business being anywhere near Lydon, let alone in a studio with him or with one another. Well, maybe that made perfect sense, given Lydon's ability to baffle. Bill Laswell--whom he worked with in Time Zone the year before--produced and played bass, which isn't too much of a stretch. But Steve Vai, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Ginger Baker ? With its emphasis on big guitars and big drums, Album was written off by some as PiL going stadium rock, but others remarked that Lydon's confrontational lyrics and caterwaul vocals, and the abundance of Eastern-style melodies, helped steer this album away from the realm of conventional 80s metal. The album is rife with surprising and very effective musical flourishes: never is this more evident than on the closing "Ease," a beautiful, monumental mood/rock piece with synth, sitar, didgeridoo and a Steve Vai guitar solo.

In the liner notes of PiL's Plastic Box compilation (1999), John Lydon remarked that "In some ways . Obviously the most important person was Bill Laswell. But it was during the recording of this album in New York that Miles Davis came into the studio while I was singing, stood behind me and started playing. Later he said that I sang like he played the trumpet, which is still the best thing anyone's ever said to me. To be complimented by the likes of him was special. Funnily enough we didn't use him..."

PiL released Happy? in 1987, and during the spring of 1988 performed throughout the United States as part of the INXS Kick tour. The album was less well received by critics than its immediate predecessor, but still produced the classic single "Seattle" In 1989, PiL toured with New Order and The Sugarcubes as "The Monsters of Alternative Rock". PiL's ninth album, 9, appeared earlier that year. The album was produced by Stephen Hague, Eric "ET" Thorngren, the band, and not as planned by Vigin, Bill Laswell. In 1990, PiL released the compilation album The Greatest Hits, So Far. The band's last album to date, 1991's That What Is Not, saw Atkins also returning to play on the recorded album, but did not remain for the subsequent tour. Lydon disbanded the group a year later after Virgin records refused to pay for the tour supporting the album, and Lydon had to pay for it out of his own pocket. After completing his memoirs in late 1993, Lydon decided to put an end to PiL and pursue a solo career. In 1997 he released a solo album, Psycho's Path.



1 - F.F.F. (5:31)
2 - Rise (6:06)
3 - Fishing (5:19)
4 - Round (4:26)
5 - Bags (5:27)
6 - Home (5:50)
7 - Ease (8:12)

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

Around The World (39)

Hello, as announced sunday more Bill Laswell connected today, and it doesnt get closer then this next artist, Mrs Laswell, though at the time this album was recorded she was still single...You could say that working together on this album sparked their flame...need i say more ? Its a great album from a great singer with a beautiful voice....don't miss it.
***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Ejigayehu “Gigi” Shibabaw - Gigi (01 ^ 145mb)

Gigi Shibabaw was born and raised amid a family of ten in the north-west Ethiopia, a small town called Chagni. Surrounded by music she grew up singing in the Ethiopian Church, which is actually not allowed for women, but there was a priest who taught Ejigayehu how to sing the songs.Her early determination to become a singer put her at odds with her father, but she never wavered, leaving home for Nairobi (Kenya) before returning after a few tears to Addis Ababa (Ethiopian capital) as a singer and songwriter of instant note. Cast in a French theatre production of the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, which featured an all-Ethiopian ensemble, Gigi toured East and South Africa, and eventually France, where she was invited to perform at a Paris World Music Festival. Seeing the world stage as her true home, Gigi relocated to San Fransisco at age 24, where she recorded two albums for the Ethiopian expatriate community, which attracted the attention of Palm Pictures owner Chris Blackwell (formerly Island records). At his request, Bill Laswell, well versed in african music since the mid-eighties, oversaw Ethiopian singer Gigi’s debut release for Palm Pictures. Supplementing Gigi’s multilingual, Ethiopian rooted vocals with a vast array of well respected musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Laswell himself, the result was a fusion of contemporary and traditional sounds. The stunning release was a critical success internationally, though it generated some controversy in her home country for such a radical break with Ethiopian popular music. Meanwhile Laswell and Gigi had related strongly, became romantically involved and subsequently married. 
 
This release was soon followed by Illuminated Audio, where Laswell returns to the original Gigi tapes and lays down entirely new tracks ! on top of loops of the old songs. The result is a lovely ambient groove-pop album but more a Laswell album. 2003 saw the release of Zion Roots, under the band name Abyssinia Infinite. Bill Laswell played guitar and keyboard (instead of his usual bass), and several of Gigi's family members contributed vocals. The album was a return to a mainly acoustic sound for Gigi, incorporating instruments such as the krar and the tabla. The track "Gole" is in Agewña, the language of Gigi's father's village. Gigi's voice may be heard in the Hollywood film Beyond Borders (2003), in which Angelina Jolie portrays an aid worker during the 1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia. She released her sixth album, Gold and Wax on Palm Pictures, in 2006. Where husband/producer Bill Laswell brings together musicians from Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, including Bernie Worrell, Karsh Kale, Ustad Sultan Khan, Buckethead, Midival Punditz, and original Swinging Addis saxophonist Moges Habte. 



01 - Gud Fella (5:35)
02 - Mengedegna (5:33)
03 - Tew Ante Sew (4:20)
04 - Abay (5:18)
05 - Bale Washintu (5:35)
06 - Guramayle (4:27)
07 - Sew Argen (5:16)
08 - Aynama (5:05)
09 - Kahn (3:47)
10 - Zomaye (4:00)
11 - Abet Wubet (4:07)
12 - Nafeken (5:23)
13 - Adwa (5:02)

diet version

Ejigayehu “Gigi” Shibabaw - Gigi ( 01 * 99mb)

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

Neuromancer (1)

Hello, last week Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was concluded, time then for a new play and classic aswell be it with a very different futuristic worldview, one that some say has even shaped the past decade with the rise of the internet and movies such as the matrix. The author is William Gibson the man who coined the phrase cyberspace in 82, and stunned the sci-fi world with his debut novel, Neuromancer (84). In 2002 BBC world broadcast this radioplay adaptation, a movie has thusfar not surfaced, perhaps the story is too complex to dumbdown to the Hollywoodlevel, and have anything meaningful left. Still the rumour is a movie will be released next year..we'll see..or not. For now you'll have to make do with this two part almost hour long radioplay adaptation...

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, notable for being the most famous early cyberpunk novel and winner of the science-fiction "triple crown"—the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It is among the most-honored works of science fiction in recent history, and appeared on Time magazine's list of 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide.The novel has had significant linguistic influence, popularizing such terms as cyberspace and ICE. Gibson himself coined the term "cyberspace" in his novelette "Burning Chrome", published in 1982 by Omni magazine. It was only through its use in Neuromancer, however, that the term Cyberspace gained enough recognition to become the de facto term for the World Wide Web during the 1990s.

It was Gibson's first novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. The novel tells the story of a washed-up computer hacker hired by a mysterious employer to work on the ultimate hack. Gibson explores artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, and multinational corporations overpowering the traditional nation-state long before these ideas entered popular culture. The concept of cyberspace makes its first appearance, with Gibson inventing the word to describe "a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions."




William Gibson - Neuromancer pt 1 ( 57:15 33mb)


***** ***** ***** ***** *****
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 (39)

Hello, Sundaze continues with the final part on Bill Laswell 's ambience. No reason to sulk about that, because Rhotation 39 will be a Bill Laswell week of sorts, Around The World, Eight-X and Into The Groove will all revolve around this creative music genius.

*****
Continued from last week

With Palm Pictures slowly moving into film and away from music with the changing landscape of the industry, Laswell lost a major supporter of his more high-concept albums as well as the Axiom imprint. Under Palm’s umbrella, though, four highly regarded albums and a DVD set were released. Of those releases there was a DVD set, a studio release and a live 2-disc set from Tabla Beat Science. At the request of Chris Blackwell, Laswell oversaw Ethiopian singer Gigi’s debut release for Palm Pictures. Supplementing Gigi’s multilingual, Ethiopian rooted vocals with a vast array of well respected musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Laswell himself, they created a strong release that was very well-received. Laswell and Gigi also became romantically involved and were later married. She has figured in a number of his releases and concerts over the years, and he has produced further outings by Gigi such as her Abyssinia Infinite grouping and her second solo release for Palm, Gold & Wax.

Laswell founded a second label imprint as a critical proving ground for radically new, and in fact revolutionary, sound. Innerhythmic is a label conceived as an alternative outlet for musicians from a variety of different backgrounds, dedicated to exploring the recombinant possibilities of music. With a scope of influence that welcomes the traditional and “trance” rhythms of far-flung cultures as openly as the hip-hop, dub, jungle, jazz, funk and electronic cyber-styles emanating from the DJ underground and beyond, the label stands out as an active realization of the “collage system” - a system where entirely new forms can emerge almost at will from fusions of the familiar, an ecstatic journey into known and unknown worlds of sound.
1999 saw the first release (Eraldo Bernocchi and Toshinori Kondo’s Charged project) on Innerythmic. After a brief inactive period, the label re-started again in earnest in 2001, releasing over the next few years a slew of innovative albums from the likes Nicky Skopelitis/Raoul Bjorkenheim, James Blood Ulmer, Shine and Gonervill among others.

Though touching on the realm of drum n bass in the ‘90s with his Oscillations releases and the compilation Submerged: Tetragramaton, the last few years have seen Laswell step up his work in this area. Starting with Brutal Calling, a hard drum n bass release with OHM Resistance label owner Submerged, a series of releases and live dates have cropped up. Laswell’s new project in this vein is Method of Defiance. The first release focused on the core of Laswell and Submerged once again (with contributions from Toshinori Kondo and Guy Licata) but the recent Inamorata stretched the concept out, pairing Laswell’s bass with a different combination of respected jazz and world musicians and drum n bass producers on each track. Artists like Herbie Hancock, John Zorn, Pharoah Sanders, Nils Petter Molvaer, Toshinori Kondo and Buckethead

Along with frequent live dates around the world with Method of Defiance, Material, Painkiller and the reformed in the late ‘90s Massacre (with This Heat’s Charles Hayward now in the drummchair) Laswell still makes numerous trips to Japan each year for various recordings and live dates, including his ongoing Tokyo Rotation mini-festivals at the Shinjuku Pit-Inn. In 2004, Laswell signed a multi-album label deal with the Sanctuary Records group. The deal spawned his new label, Nagual. Through Sanctuary's earlier acquisition of the seminal reggae label Trojan, Laswell now had access to the Jamaican label's sizeable back catalog. Picking some of his favorite cuts and remixing them, Laswell issued the Trojan-sourced Dub Massive: Chapter One and Chapter Two in May 2005.

In 2005, Laswell was invited to appear on the PBS series Soundstage. The show featured a host of the musicians he has played with over the years including incarnations of his Praxis and Tabla Beat Science projects. Though Laswell mixed the show in 5.1, to date no DVD or official recording has been released.

The New York-based producer, bassist and visionary is responsible for some of the most interesting and influential recordings of the last 20 years. But unlike other sonic architects, he has no rulebook or pre-defined codes. The range of Bill Laswell’s music has demanded a new openness from musician and listener alike, and through his work points of congruence between genres have become clearer and we now have new hybrid forms to reckon with. “Hitting people on a real level and trying to lift their awareness up a notch or two, to get them to think beyond the conventionally held beliefs that certain musics only work in certain ways. That’s the driving force behind most of what I do, and if it means sacrificing notoriety and acceptance for freedom, creativity and integrity, I’ll do it every time.”


***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Bill Laswell - Dub Chamber 3 (00 flac 273mb)

Laswell's grounding in reggae is evident in every note he plays, and his mystical, experimental production style has always been heavily influenced by such dubmasters as King Tubby, Scientist, and Lee "Scratch" Perry. The third volume in his Sacred System trilogy (called, confusingly, Dub Chamber 3) is more muscular than some of his other dubwise excursions, and although there's not much here to challenge the mind, the dreamy flavor of this music is consistently fortified by sturdy beats and Laswell's inimitably tasty basslines. The album consists of four long tracks; on all of them, he's joined by guitarist Nicky Skopelitis, and two of them also feature the playing of Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, whose treated trumpet gives everything a beautiful, eerie sheen. Other guests include bassist Jah Wobble, percussionist Karsh Kale, and pianist Craig Taborn.



1 - Beyond The Zero (9:09)
2 - Cybotron (9:27)
3 - Devil Syndrome (11:53)
4 - A Screaming Comes Across The Sky (17:34)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Bill Laswell / Sacred System - Book Of Exit : Dub Chamber 4 (02 flac 232mb)

While the previous "Dub Chamber" releases leaned more toward Jamaican-style dub music, with instruments dropping in and out and plenty of reverb and delay, this is altogether a different beat, in large part due to the vocals of Ethiopian singer Gigi. And what Laswell, Gigi, drummer/tabla player Karsh Kale, and percussionist Aiyb Dieng end up with is really ambient dub -- something lighter and more flowing because it adapts itself to the vocals. And Gigi is in excellent form, possibly better than on her own debut, whether on "Ethiopia" or the memorable, beautiful and ethereal "Jerusalem,". Laswell's light hand at the controls works subtly -- shifts happen gradually, making for a sense of movement and focus about the pieces. This dub chamber is a place worth exploring....



1 - Ethiopia (Voc.Gigi) (6:14)
2 - Lower Ground (7:34)
3 - Shashamani (7:29)
4 - Bati (Voc.Gigi) (7:47)
5 - Land Of Look Behind (6:45)
6 - Jerusalem (12:29)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Bill Laswell - Version 2 Version - A Dub Transmission (04 flac 317mb)

Version 2 Version: A Dub Transmission finds the veteran bassist/producer offering yet another dose of his intriguing neo-dub experimentation. Instead of giving an exact replica of grooves from dub's classic era, Laswell combines dub with modern electronica and takes it to a trippy, hypnotic, atmospheric place -- a place where the reggae beat interacts with ambient club/dance grooves. Version 2 Version doesn't cater to dub purists by any means, but then, Laswell is known for shaking things up, which is why his vision of dubwise is experimental rather than traditional.



1 - Dystopia (8:39)
2 - Simulacra (8:55)
3 - Space-Time Paradox (8:43)
4 - Babylon Site (6:18)
5 - Night City (8:57)
6 - System Malfunction (9:43)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****
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 (39) Into BPM

Hello, it's Rhotation 39 this week and Into BPM today is all about remixes. Some people dislike remixes, i'm not one of them, in fact i like the concept of remixes. Obviously it does not always turn out well, but then often it enhances the power of a track, giving it more life. The albums here are all remixes of one artist and these showcase were remixers can go with material. With Blondie they had a hard time as the tracks had all been big hits, some previously remixed in early eighties dance fashion, coming up with a real innovative view turned out diffecult for most, and dare i say i got the impression the label that hired them wasnt that interested in spending money either....How different the attitude towards Sarah McLachlan's remixed album, here a successful crossover to trancemusic was achieved, triggered by the success of a previous single with trance band Delerium and specially thru the remix by trancemaster Tiesto. It clearly inspired the other remixers to give it their best shot aswell....Laibach have a name when it comes to reworking old material, which gave the remixers all the room to take out all registers and make this remix collection well worth the time...Reinventing James Brown can be dangerous and when this album came to market a month after his death it got largely ignored by the press and public. A pity because there's really good remix work at hand and i think had he lived single success would have been on the cards. It was not to be, despite the outstanding work that left the hardest working man in showbusiness right in the middle.....

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Blondie - Beautiful - The Remix Album (95 ^ 504mb)

In the early 1970s, Chris Stein moved to New York City and, inspired by the New York Dolls, aimed to join a similar band. He joined The Stilettos in 1973 as their guitarist and formed a romantic relationship with the band's vocalist, Deborah Harry. A former waitress and Playboy Bunny. Stein and Harry formed a new band with drummer Billy O'Connor and bassist Fred Smith. By 1975, Smith and O'Connor had left, and the line-up was Stein and Harry plus drummer Clem Burke, keyboard player Jimmy Destri and bass player Gary Valentine. Originally billed as Angel and the Snake the band renamed themselves Blondie in late 1975. They became regulars at New York's Club 51, Max's Kansas City and CBGB. Blondie got their first record deal with Private Stock Records in the mid-'70s and released their debut album Blondie in 1976

In August 77, Chrysalis Records bought their contract from Private Stock and in October reissued Blondie and released the second album, Plastic Letters. Blondie expanded to a sextet in November with the addition of bassist Nigel Harrison (born in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, England), as Infante switched to guitar. Plastic Letters was promoted extensively throughout Europe and Asia by Chrysalis Records. The album's first single, "Denis", was a cover version of Randy and the Rainbows' 1963 hit. It reached number two on the British singles charts, while both the album and its second single, "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear", reached the British top ten. That chart success, along with a successful 1978 UK tour, made Blondie one of the first American new wave bands to achieve mainstream success in the United Kingdom.

Parallel Lines, Blondie's third album, was produced by Mike Chapman. Its first two singles were "Picture This" and "Hanging on the Telephone". "Heart of Glass" was their first U.S. hit. It was a reworking of a rock song that the group had performed since its formation, but updated with strong elements of disco music. Clem Burke later said the revamped version was inspired partly by Kraftwerk and partly by the Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive". Heart of Glass became a popular worldwide success. Selling more than one million copies and garnering major airplay, the single reached number one in many countries including the U.S., where, for the most part, Blondie had previously been considered an "underground" band. The song was accompanied by a music video that showcased Deborah Harry's hard-edged and playfully sexual persona, and she began to attain a celebrity status that set her apart from the other band members, who were largely ignored by the media, and thereby laid the groundwork for Blondie's demise......

Their fourth album, Eat to the Beat, was well received by critics as a suitable follow-up to Parallel Lines, but in the U.S. it failed to achieve the same level of success. In the UK, the single "Atomic" reached number one, "Dreaming" number two, and "Union City Blue" was another top 20 hit, while in the U.S. their singles did not chart as strongly.

Meanwhile, Harry was collaborating with German disco producer Giorgio Moroder on "Call Me," the theme from the movie American Gigolo. It became Blondie's second transatlantic chart-topper. Blondie's fifth album, Autoamerican, was released in November 1980, and its first single was the reggae-cover "The Tide Is High," which went to number one in the U.S. and U.K. The second single was the rap-oriented "Rapture," which topped the U.S. pop charts and went Top Ten in the U.K. But the band's eclectic style reflected a diminished participation by its members -- Infante sued, charging that he wasn't being used on the records, though he settled and stayed in the lineup.

In 1981, the members of Blondie worked on individual projects, notably Harry's gold-selling solo album, KooKoo. The Best of Blondie was released in the fall of the year. The Hunter, Blondie's sixth album, was released in May 1982, preceded by the single "Island of Lost Souls," a Top 40 hit in the U.S. and U.K. "War Child" also became a Top 40 hit in the U.K., but The Hunter was a commercial disappointment. At the same time, Stein became seriously ill with the genetic disease pemphigus. As a result, Blondie broke up in October 1982, with Deborah Harry launching a part-time solo career while caring for Stein, who eventually recovered.

In the nineties EMI and Chrysalis Records cashed in some more and released several compilations and collections of remixed versions of some of their biggest hits. One of which is Beautiful, a rather ironic title when at the time 95, Debbie was rather volumunous. The remixes on the album which was re-released in a slightly different order and tracklisting are rather inconsistant, Blondie deserved better i think.

In 1998, the original lineup of Harry, Stein, Destri, and Burke reunited to tour Europe, their first series of dates in 16 years; a new LP, No Exit, followed early the next year. After more touring, this was followed by another album the dissapointing, The Curse of Blondie, in 2003, and a DVD of the Live by Request program from A&E was released in 2004. In 2006, Blondie celebrated their 30th anniversary with induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the release of Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision, a best-of collection that contained all their classic videos as well. This week they kicked off a new world tour at the amphitheatre in Ra'anana, Israel.



01 - Union City Blues (Diddy's Power And Passion Mix) (8:34)
02 - Dreaming (Utah Saints Mix) (6:21)
03 - Rapture (K-Klassic Radio Mix) (4:21)
04 - Heart Of Glass (Diddy's Adorable Illusion Mix) (7:26)
05 - Sunday Girl (Hardly Handbag Mix) (7:35)
06 - Call Me (Debbie Does Dallas) (6:19)
07 - Atomic (Diddy's 12" Mix) (6:50)
08 - The Tide Is High (Sand Dollar Mix) (7:04)
09 - Hanging On The Telephone (Blu Peter Nose Bleed Handbag Mix) (6:10)
10 - Fade Away & Radiate (Black Dog 108BPM Mix) (5:18)
11 - Dreaming (The Sub-Urban Dream Mix) (5:57)
12 - Atomic (Armand's Short Circuit Mix) (5:07)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Sarah McLachlan - Remixed( 01 ^ 485mb)

Sarah McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968, and adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. McLachlan signed to Nettwerk in 87 before having written a single song.This prompted her to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. There she recorded the first of her albums, Touch, in 1988, which received both critical and commercial success and included the hit song "Vox". Her 1991 album, Solace, was her mainstream breakthrough in Canada, spawning the hit singles "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into the Fire". 1994's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was an immediate smash hit in Canada. From her Nettwerk connection, her piano version of the song "Possession" was included on the first Due South soundtrack in 1996. Over the next two years, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy quietly became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the charts in a number of countries.

McLachlan returned in 1997 with Surfacing, her best selling album to date. Earning her two Grammy awards and four Junos, the album has since sold over 11 million copies worldwide and brought her much international success. Still in the spotlight from the album, McLachlan launched the highly popular Lilith Fair tour. It brought together 2 million people over its three-year history and raised more than $7 million for charities. It was the most successful all-female music festival in history. In 1997, McLachlan co-wrote and provided guest vocals on the Delerium song "Silence" for their album Karma . This song achieved a massive amount of top 40 airplay when released as a single in late 2000. 1999's multi-platinum Mirrorball chronicled McLachlan's performances on that tour and was her first live release.

In 2001 she released a trance-remix album, certainly not the style of music McLachlan is known for, but it would reach a new audience demographic that can at the very least appreciate her gorgeous voice. Once McLachlan's vocals are introduced to these generic trance-dance pieces, there's no mistaking what songs they are from, since verse and chorus are left mostly intact., The DJs work hard to give more dynamics to her ethereal, waif-like voice, lifted from four different albums' worth of material. In 2003, after a short hiatus from the business, she put out the successful Afterglow, followed by the live CD/DVD Afterglow Live. The album eventually went four-times platinum, the DVD double platinum, and McLachlan continued to tour through 2005.



01 - Fear (Hybrid's Super Collider Mix edit) (6:48)
02 - Sweet Surrender (DJ Tiësto Mix) (7:03)
03 - Angel (Dusted Remix) (5:29)
04 - I Love You (BT Mix) (9:00)
05 - Silence (DJ Tiësto's In Search Of Sunrise Remix) (11:31)
06 - Black (William Orbit Mix) (6:58)
07 - Possession (Rabbit In The Moon Mix) (5:52)
08 - Hold On (BT Mix) (7:43)
09 - Plenty (Fade Mix) (10:23)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Laibach - Anthems Remix ( 04 ^ 538mb)

I posted Anthems one two days ago and as announced then here's the other. The two descriptors Laibach dislike the most -- Teutonic and Wagnerian -- best describe the Slovenian band for newcomers, but as Anthems displays, they're much more than that. The second disc of remixes is the real treat for the faithful, rounding up hard to find 12"s and offering a fractured, aggressive, and even more menacing view of the band. Smart choices like Umek, Richie Hawtin, and Philipp Erb strip the music down to the bare essentials and Detroit the heck out of the tunes. Sounding unlike any of the other remixes but just as welcome, the mysteriously named Kraftbach rip apart "Geburt Einer Nation" with equal parts smirk and scowl and enough robotic bleeping to make you think a Ralf or Florian were involved. For an impossible-to-compile band, Anthems is as good as it gets and fully justifies itself.





01 - Das Spiel Ist Aus (Ouroborots Mix) (4:06)
02 - Liewerk - 3.Oktober (Kraftbach Mix) (4:21)
03 - Wir Tanzen Ado Hynkel (Zeta Reticula Remix) (5:39)
04 - Final Countdown (Beyond The Infinite Juno Reactor Mix) (7:38)
05 - God Is God (Optical Vocal Mix) (5:44)
06 - War (Ultraviolence Meets Hitman Mix) (6:19)
07 - God Is God (Diabolig Mix) (3:36)
08 - Final Countdown (Mark Stent Alternate Mix) (5:48)
09 - Wirtschaft Ist Tot (Late Night Mix) (5:23)
10 - Jesus Christ Superstar (Random Logic Mix) (6:22)*
11 - Wirtschaft Ist Tot (R. Hawtin Hardcore Noise Mix) (5:18)
12 - Brat Moj (Random Logic Mix) (5:10)
13 - Smrt Za Smrt (Octex Mix) (7:02)
14 - Wat (iTurk Mix) (5:29)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

James Brown - Dynamite X (07 ^ 366mb)

In 2006, a select group of international producers, musicians and DJs set out to pay tribute to "Soul Brother Number One." For once "The Hardest Working Man In Show Business" was able to kick back and let others do the work. Unfortunately upon release jan 07 JB passed the peas for the last time and all nostalgic attention was on his great body of work, remixes were close to sacrelige. Hence this collection of fascinating remixes of James Brown's classic hits got largely snubbed..understandible at the time but undeservedly. The variety of approaches in these reworkings is outstanding; each artist explores his own personal "James Brown cosmos" and leaves behind an exceptional musical fingerprint. Still "Soul Brother Number One." rose above it all "It's got to be funky!"...and it is.



01 - Sex Machine (Readymade Jazz Defector Remix) (5:37)
02 - Give It Up Or Turn It Lose (Dzihan & Kamien Remix) (4:02)
03 - Call Me Superbad (Cay Taylan Remix) (5:01)
04 - Give It Up Or Turn It Loose (Fantasista Re-Formation) (4:19)
05 - Funky Drummer (Listen To The Muro Mix) (4:35)
06 - Cold Sweat (Captain Funk Dry Mix) (4:02)
07 - Sunny (Funk Master Jb Vs Funk Master Js Hardboiled Remix) (5:24)
08 - Soul Power (Jungle Funk Mix) (4:35)
09 - Get On The Good Foot (Mr Drunk Remix) (5:46)
10 - Soul Power (Co Fusion Mix) (4:08)
11 - Call Me Superbad (Cornelius Rework) (6:16)

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

Into The Groove (38)

Hello, Into the groove spotlight today are CHIC. Their commercial career hasn't been that long, but what they did in the late seventies got everybody moving. This impact on the music scene was expanded into the eighties with highly succcesful productionwork.In addition to refining a relatively minimalist take on the disco sound, they helped to inspire other artists to forge their own sound. Edwards died age 43 ..practically on stage..of pneumonia..only the good die young. Well my vinyl was beyond ripping..too freaked out..fortunately a few years ago an excellent 2 disk compilation came out..the party goes on..

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

CHIC - The Definitive Groove Collection (154min ^ 298mb)

Rodgers and Edwards first met in 1970, when both were jazz-trained musicians fresh out of high school. Edwards had attended New York's High School for the Performing Arts and was working in a Bronx post office at the time, while Rodgers' early career also included stints in the folk group New World Rising and the Apollo Theater house orchestra. Around 1972, Rodgers and Edwards formed a jazz-rock fusion group called the Big Apple Band. Despite interest in their demos, they could not get a record contract, and so they moonlighted as a backup band, touring behind smooth soul vocal group New York City after they broke up, the Big Apple Band hit the road with Carol Douglas for a few months, before Rodgers and Edwards decided to make a go of it on their own toward the end of 1976. At first they switched their aspirations from fusion to new wave, briefly performing as Allah & the Knife Wielding Punks, but quickly settled into dance music. They enlisted onetime LaBelle drummer Tony Thompson and changed their name to Chic in summer 1977 so as to avoid confusion with Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band (who'd just hit big with "A Fifth of Beethoven"). 

The trio needed a singer to front the band. That singer was Norma Jean Wright, who sang lead on their demo single "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" they shopped it around to several major record companies, all of which (obviously) declined it. The small Buddah label finally released it as a 12" in late 1977, and as its club popularity exploded, Atlantic stepped in, signed the group, and re-released the single on a wider basis. "Dance, Dance, Dance" hit the Top Ten, peaking at number six, and made Chic one of the hottest new groups in disco. The self-titled album (1977) was an immediate success and sent Chic out on the road. They performed as a quartet until February 1978, but Rodgers and Edwards thought that their live performances would improve both in sound and visuals if they added another girl to front the band. Wright suggested her friend Luci Martin, who became a member in late winter/early spring of 1978.

Right after the sessions ended for its debut album, the band members began to work on Wright's self-titled debut solo album Norma Jean, released in 1978. To facilitate Wright's solo career, the band had agreed to sign her to a separate contract and label. Unfortunately the legalities of this contract eventually forced Wright to leave the band in mid-1978, she was replaced by Alfa Anderson, who had been on back up vocals on the band’s debut album. In late 1978, the band released C'est Chic, containing one of its best-known tracks, "Le Freak". The famous refrain "Aaa, freak out".That single was a massive success, topping the US charts and selling over 6 million copies. It is still the biggest-ever selling single ever of Atlantic's parent company, Warner Music. Follow-up "I Want Your Love" reached number seven, cementing the group's new star status, and C'est Chic became one of the rare disco albums to go platinum.

1979's Risqué was another solidly constructed LP that also went platinum, partly on the strength of Chic's second number one pop hit, "Good Times." "Good Times" may not have equaled the blockbuster sales figures of "Le Freak," but it was the band's most imitated track: Queen's number one hit "Another One Bites the Dust" was a clear rewrite, and the Sugarhill Gang lifted the instrumental backing track wholesale for the first commercial rap single, "Rapper's Delight," marking the first of many times that Chic grooves would be recycled into hip-hop records.

At the same time, Edwards and Rodgers composed, arranged, performed, and produced many influential disco and R&B records for both established artists and one-hit wonders, including Sister Sledge's albums We Are Family (1979) and Love Somebody Today (1980); Sheila and B. Devotion's "Spacer"; Diana Ross's 1980 album diana, Carly Simon's "Why" and Deborah Harry's debut solo album, Kookoo.

The disco fad was fading rapidly by that point, and 1980's Real People failed to go gold despite another solid performance by the band. Changing tastes put an end to Chic's heyday. Take It Off (1981), Tongue in Chic (1982) and Believer (1983) all suffered the same fate, with diminishing creative and commercial returns, and Rodgers and Edwards disbanded the group in 1983. Later that year, both recorded solo LPs that sank without a trace. Hungry for acceptance and respect in the rock mainstream both Rodgers and Edwards sought out high-profile production and session work over the rest of the decade. Rodgers produced blockbuster albums like David Bowie's Let's Dance, Madonna's Like a Virgin, and Mick Jagger's She's the Boss. Edwards wasn't as prolific as a producer, but did join the one-off supergroup the Power Station along with Tony Thompson as well as Robert Palmer and members of avowed Chic fans Duran Duran; he later produced Palmer's commercial breakthrough, Riptide. Edwards also worked with Rod Stewart (Out of Order), Jody Watley, and Tina Turner, while Rodgers' other credits include the Thompson Twins, the Vaughan Brothers, INXS, and the B-52's' comeback Cosmic Thing.

After a 1992 birthday party where Rodgers, Edwards, Paul Shaffer, and Anton Fig played old Chic hits to rapturous response, Rodgers and Edwards organized a reunion of the old band. They recorded new material—a single, "Chic Mystique" (remixed by Masters at Work) and subsequent album Chic-Ism, both of which charted—and played live all over the world, to great audience and critical acclaim. In 1996 Nile Rodgers was named JT Superproducer of the Year in Japan, and was invited to perform there with Chic in April of that year. Just before the concert at the Budokan Arena in Tokyo, Edwards fell ill, but despite Rodgers' insistence, he refused to cancel the gig. He managed to perform but had to be helped at times. After the concert he retired to his hotel room where he was later found dead by Rodgers. The cause of death was ruled to be pneumonia. Rodgers and CHIC continue to perform to venues worldwide.



CHIC - Groove Collection I

01 - Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) (8:21)
02 - Everybody Dance (6:42)
03 - Strike Up The Band (4:34)
04 - Le Freak (5:31)
05 - Savoir Faire (5:04)
06 - Chic Cheer (4:44)
07 - At Last I Am Free (7:13)
08 - I Want Your Love (6:56)

CHIC - Groove Collection II

09 - Good Times (8:15)
10 - My Forbidden Lover (4:42)
11 - What About Me (4:13)
12 - My Feet Keep Dancing (6:41)
13 - Chip Off The Old Block (5:00)
14 - Rebels Are We (3:21)
15 - Real People (3:45)
16 - Will You Cry (When You Hear This Song) (4:09)
17 - 26 (4:06)
18 - You Can't Do It Alone (4:47)
19 - Stage Fright (3:39)

CHIC - Groove Collection III

20 - Just Out Of Reach (3:47)
21 - Flash Back (4:29)
22 - Your Love Is Cancelled (4:16)
23 - Soup For One (5:36)
24 - When You Love Someone (5:09)
25 - Hangin' (3:38)
26 - Give Me The Lovin' (3:32)
27 - Believer (5:07)
28 - You Are Beautiful (4:37)
29 - Chic Mystique (6:39)
30 - Your Love (5:57)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

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 II (L)

Hello, Alphabet Soup is on L today , and this time that spells..one of if not the biggest rock act of the seventies, Led Zeppelin, they racked in billions for the industry..selling 300,000,000 million albums worldwide and they achieved this on their own terms..not that those A & R clowns ever got that into their skulls busy as these are 'making' artists. I decided on Physical Graffity, a double album because the eight tracks extended beyond the length of a conventional album, and therefor included several unreleased songs which had been recorded during the sessions for previous Led Zeppelin albums.....Lamb fused trip hop with drum & bass and it worked out very well: classy, detached, and cool -- downtempo and ambient-ish electro-jazz....Finally Laibach, controversial EBM they kept up a style like no other, unhindered by western sensetivities and A & R clowns....Anthems is a good compilation of their work, i will post the remixes version coming saturday...

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti ( 75, 82 min. ^ 194mb)

The beginnings of Led Zeppelin can be traced back to the The Yardbirds, after Jimmy Page joined them in 1966 to play bass guitar. Shortly after, Page switched from bass to second lead guitar, creating a dual-lead guitar line up with Jeff Beck. Following the departure of Beck, Page wanted to form a supergroup with himself and Beck on guitars, and The Who's rhythm section—drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle. That group never formed, although Page, Beck and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Beck's Bolero"(see Singles time). The recording session also included bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, who told Page that he would be interested in collaborating with him on future projects.

In the summer of 1968, the Yardbirds' Keith Relf and James McCarty left the band, leaving Page and bassist Chris Dreja with the rights to the name, as well as the obligation of fulfilling an upcoming fall tour. Page set out to find a replacement vocalist and drummer. Initially, he wanted to enlist singer Terry Reid who turned him dopwn but suggested that Page contact Robert Plant, who was asked to join the band in August of 1968, the same month Chris Dreja dropped out of the new project. Following Dreja's departure, John Paul Jones joined the group as its bassist. Plant recommended that Page hire John Bonham, the drummer for Plant's old band, the Band of Joy, who by September, agreed to join the band. Performing under the name the New Yardbirds, the band fulfilled the Yardbirds' previously booked engagements in late September 1968. The following month, they recorded their debut album in just under 30 hours. Also in October, the group switched its name to Led Zeppelin. Their name was derived from a remark John Entwistle made about a playing a bad gig "going down like a lead zeppelin" the 'a' in Lead was dropped at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant- e presto. Grant meanwhile had secured a great contract with all artistic freedom and a huge advance (for the time) 200,000 $ from Atlantic records, eager to expand to the UK. They signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them, largely on the recommendation of the white queen of soul, Dusty Springfield.

Led Zeppelin's eponymous debut album was released on 12 January 1969, during their first US tour. The album's blend of blues, folk and eastern influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the creation of heavy metal music. However, Plant has commented that it is unfair for people to typecast the band as heavy metal, since about a third of their music was acoustic. In their first year, Led Zeppelin managed to complete four US and four UK concert tours, and release their second album, entitled Led Zeppelin II. Recorded almost entirely on the road at various North American recording studios, the second album was an even greater success than the first and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK. Following the album's release, Led Zeppelin completed several more tours of the United States. Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire.Many of these shows have been preserved as Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings. For the composition of their third album, Led Zeppelin III, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, in 1970. The result was a more acoustic sound strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music, it revealed the band's versatility. This rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with many critics and fans surprised at the turn taken by the band away from the primarily electric compositions of the first two albums. The album's opening track, "Immigrant Song", was released in November 1970 by Atlantic Records as a single against the band's wishes.

Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released on 8 November 1971 with several songs referencing elements of J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings, which was popular at the time. There was no indication of a title or band name on the original cover, but on the LP label four symbols were printed. The band was motivated to undertake this initiative by their disdain for the media, which labelled them as hyped and overrated. In response, they released the album with no indication of who they were in order to prove that the music could sell itself. The album is variously referred to as Four Symbols and The Fourth Album which further refined the band's unique formula of combining earthy, acoustic elements with heavy metal and blues emphases.

 Led Zeppelin's next album, Houses of the Holy, was released in 1973. It featured further experimentation, with longer tracks and expanded use of synthesisers and mellotron orchestration. The song "Houses of the Holy" does not appear on its namesake album, even though it was recorded at the same time as other songs on the album; it eventually made its way onto the 1975 album Physical Graffiti. The striking orange album cover of Houses of the Holy features images of nude children climbing up the Giant's Causeway (in County Antrim, Northern Ireland). Although the children are not depicted from the front, this was highly controversial at the time of the album's release, and in some areas, such as the "Bible Belt" and Spain, the record was banned. The album topped the charts, and Led Zeppelin's subsequent concert tour of the United States in 1973 broke records for attendance, as they consistently filled large auditoriums and stadiums

In 1974, Led Zeppelin took a break from touring and launched their own record label, Swan Song, named after one of only five Led Zeppelin songs which the band never released commercially February 1975 saw the release of Led Zeppelin's first double album, Physical Graffiti, which was their first release on the Swan Song Records label. It consisted of fifteen songs, eight of which were recorded at Headley Grange in 1974, and the remainder being tracks previously recorded but not released on earlier albums. ( "Bron-Yr-Aur" was recorded in July 1970 for Led Zeppelin III. "Night Flight" and "Boogie with Stu" and "Down by the Seaside" recorded for Led Zeppelin IV. "The Rover" and "Black Country Woman" and "Houses of the Holy" were recorded May 1972.)

In August 1975, Robert Plant and his wife Maureen were involved in a serious car crash while on holiday in Rhodes, Greece. It was during this forced hiatus that much of the material for their next album, Presence, was written.Released in March 1976, the album marked a change in the Led Zeppelin sound towards more straightforward, guitar-based jams, departing from the acoustic ballads and intricate arrangements featured on their previous albums. Though it was a platinum seller, Presence received mixed responses from critics and fans. Despite the original criticisms, Jimmy Page has called Presence his favourite album, and its opening track "Achilles Last Stand" (sample (info)) his favourite Led Zeppelin song. Later that year they finally completed the concert film The Song Remains The Same, and the soundtrack album of the film. It would be the only official live document of the group available.

In 1977, Led Zeppelin embarked on another major concert tour of North America. Though profitable financially, the tour was beset with off-stage problems. The second Oakland concert would prove to be the band's final live appearance in the United States. After the performance, news came that Plant's five year old son, Karac, had died from a stomach virus. The rest of the tour was immediately cancelled. December 1978 saw the group recording again, this time at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The resultant album was In Through the Out Door, which exhibited a degree of sonic experimentation that again drew mixed reactions from critics. Nevertheless, the band still commanded legions of loyal fans, and the album easily reached #1 in the UK and the U.S.

In August 1979, after two warm-up shows in Copenhagen, Led Zeppelin headlined two concerts at the Knebworth music festival, where crowds of close to 120,000 witnessed the return of the band. However, Robert Plant was not eager to tour full-time again, and even considered leaving Led Zeppelin. He was persuaded to stay by Peter Grant.On 24 September 1980, John Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King to attend rehearsals at Bray Studios for the upcoming tour of the United States, the band's first since 1977. He continued to drink heavily when he arrived at the studio. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. Benji LeFevre and John Paul Jones found Bonham dead the next morning, he was 32 years old. The cause of death was asphyxiation from vomit, the subsequent autopsy found no other drugs in Bonham's body, alcoholism that had plagued the drummer since his earliest days with the band ultimately led to his death. The remaining members decided to disband ,they issued a press statement on 4 December 1980 confirming that the band would not continue without Bonham. "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.

In 1994, Page and Plant reunited in the form of a 90 minute "UnLedded" MTV project. They released an album called "No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded", which featured some reworked Zeppelin songs, and embarked on a world tour the following year. On 10 December 2007 the surviving members of Led Zeppelin reunited for a one-off benefit concert held in memory of Atlantic Records executive Ahmet Ertegün, with Jason Bonham taking up his late father's place on drums. It was announced on 12 September 2007 by promoter Harvey Goldsmith in a press conference. The concert was to help raise money for the Ahmet Ertegün Education Fund, which pays for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey. Earlier this year Jimmy Page revealed that he is prepared to embark upon a world tour with Led Zeppelin, but due to Robert Plant's tour commitments with Alison Krauss, such plans will not be announced until at least September....



Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti ( ^ 265mb )

01 - Custard Pie (4:11)
02 - The Rover (5:35)
03 - In My Time Of Dying (11:01)
04 - Houses Of The Holy (4:02)
05 - Trampled Under Foot (5:35)
06 - Kashmir (8:26)

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti -2 (^ 275mb)

07 - In The Light (8:48)
08 - Bron-Yr-Aur (2:06)
09 - Down By The Seaside (5:15)
10 - Ten Years Gone (6:27)
11 - Night Flight (3:35)
12 - The Wanton Song (4:07)
13 - Boogie With Stu (3:53)
14 - Black Country Woman (4:25)
15 - Sick Again (4:40)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Lamb - Lamb (96 ^ 392mb)

Although getting their start in Manchester, Lamb are more commonly associated with the Bristol-based trip hop sound that was popular during the nineties. Aside from trip hop, their musical style is a distinctive mixture of jazz, dub, breaks and drum and bass, with a strong vocal element and, in their later works especially, some acoustic influences. Lamb's core members were Andy Barlow and Louise Rhodes, although the band subsequently expanded to include bassist Jon Thorne, Icelandic guitarist Oddur Mar Runnarson, and Danish drummer Nikolaj Bjerre. London-based string trio Chi 2 Strings and trumpet player Kevin Davy were frequent guest musicians.

Lamb's self-titled debut released in the fall of 1996 to widespread acclaim. Like the previous singles, much of Lamb explores song-oriented deployments of jungle, but the album also adds elements of downtempo and ambient-ish electro-jazz as well. Second album Fear of Fours appeared in 1999, and consolidated the band's appeal with forward-thinking electronica listeners. Another inventive record, What Sound, landed in 2001. Between Darkness and Wonder followed in 2003. These three albums and a cache of singles over the next eight years, culminated in the release of a greatest hits album, "Best Kept Secrets", in June 2004. Lamb performed what was billed as their final live appearance at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in September 2004.

Lamb had a number one hit with "Gabriel," the lead single from 2001's What Sound in Portugal . By far, their best-known track to date is "Gorecki," from their eponymous debut album. The song is inspired by Henryk Górecki's Third Symphony, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Part of the lyrics to Gorecki were used by Baz Luhrmann for some of Satine's final lines in Moulin Rouge!, and the track is rumoured to have been covered by Nicole Kidman. It has also been used in a tv advert for the world famous Irish drink Guinness.




01 - Lusty (4:09)
02 - God Bless (5:54)
03 - Cotton Wool (5:07)
04 - Trans Fatty Acid (7:37)
05 - Zero (5:31)
06 - Merge (5:44)
07 - Gold (5:40)
08 - Closer (3:57)
09 - Gorecki (6:30)
10 - Feela (6:40)
11 - Cotton Wool (Fila Brazilia Mix) (8:23)

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Laibach - Anthems (04 * 570mb)

Formed the same year longtime Yugoslavian leader Marshall Josip Broz Tito died, Laibach started activity in 1980 in the industrial coal-mining town of Trbovlje in the center of what is now Slovenia. They took their name from the nearby city Ljubljana = Laibach in German. Their first performance was canceled by authorities for their controversial use of symbols, and military service kept them away from performing until June of 1981. The Laibach/Last Few Days cassette from 1983 was the group's first proper release, and cassettes from labels like Staal Tapes and Skuk followed. Milan Fras joined as vocalist, and his distinctive growl and grim stare still makes him the group's most recognizable member.

Laibach has frequently been accused of both far left and far right political stances due to their use of uniforms and totalitarian-style aesthetics and also due to the Wagnerian influence found in some of their music, notably the thunder in "Sympathy for the Devil (Time for a Change)" and releases such as Macbeth. Laibach joined the likeminded artist collective Irwin and theater group Scipion Nasice Sisters to form the organization Neue Slowenische Kunst, or NSK in 84. NSK became involved in the group's concerts and Irwin's artwork would often be displayed at venues. The group's debut studio album, which also featured the cross only, was released in 1985. Some early Laibach albums were pure industrial, with hard industrial percussions, heavy rhythms, and roaring vocals. Later in the mid-80s, the Laibach sound became more richly layered with samples from classical music—including from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. The band began their tradition of cover songs in 1987 with the album Opus Dei, where their sound was changed again to take on a more pop sound with classic pop structures

Wax Trax! in America and Mute in the U.K. gave 1987's Opus Dei Laibach's first widely available release. Included were bizarre thumping cover versions of Queen's "One Vision" and one-hit wonder Opus' "Life Is Life," and videos of both were shown on MTV. A worldwide tour followed, and Laibach was invited by John Peel to do a Peel Session and Michael Clark commissioned the group to provide music for his dance company. The idea of covering pop music in Wagnerian style was expanded on 1988's Sympathy for the Devil EP, which included multiple versions of the Rolling Stones' classic, and Let It Be, which reproduced the whole of the Beatles' album, minus the title track. Released in 1992, Kapital fully embraced minimal techno and focused on the growth of capitalism in Eastern Europe.

A return to the bombastic cover versions was heard on the war-focused NATO as the former Yugoslavia fell apart. The NATO world tour was documented on the limited-edition CD and video box set Occupied Europe NATO in 1996, the same year the band released the religious-themed and cover version-filled Jesus Christ Superstars. That album's live show toured the world on and off until the release of 2003's WAT, a return to techno and the band's first pop album to contain primarily self-penned material in a while. The 2004 compilation Anthems featured two CDs: one compiling singles, the other remixes. Volk from late 2006 reimagined national anthems from around the world. May this year they've released Laibachkunstderfuge...taking on Bach..



01 - Das Spiel Ist Aus ( iTurk Remix) (3:17)
02 - Tanz Mit Laibach (4:17)
03 - Final Countdown (5:39)
04 - Alle Gegen Alle (3:53)
05 - Wirtschaft Ist Tot (3:46)
06 - God Is God (3:43)
07 - In The Army Now (4:31)
08 - Get Back (4:23)
09 - Sympathy For The Devil (5:43)
10 - Leben Heisst Leben (5:27)
11 - Geburt Einer Nation (4:21)
12 - Opus Dei (5:02)
13 - Die Liebe (Edit) (3:52)
14 - Panorama (4:52)
15 - Drzava (4:20)
16 - Brat Moj (6:03)
17 - Mama Leone (4:51)

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