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...

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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)

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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)

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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)

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