RhoDeo 1830 Roots

Hello,


Today's artist is a Venezuelan band that plays a blend of disco, acid jazz and funk mixed with Latin rhythms. In addition to releasing eleven critically acclaimed albums, the band is lauded internationally for their explosive, live shows, spanning nearly 60 countries. .... N'Joy

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A performance-oriented Latin dance band from Venezuela heavily indebted to funk and disco (with a dash of acid jazz), los Amigos Invisibles made a big splash in their homeland in 1995 with their debut album, A Typical and Autoctonal Venezuelan Dance Band, which featured odd Japanese animé-style artwork. Bandmembers Julio Briceño (vocals), José Luis Pardo (guitar, songwriting), Armando Figueredo (keyboards), Mauricio Arcas (raps), José Rafael Torres (bass), and Juan Manuel Roura (drums) supported their growing reputation with a series of underground dance parties at the mostly deserted clubs of Caracas.

In 1995, EMI released their debut album, A Typical and Autoctonal Venezuelan Dance Band, which was a huge success in their home country, enabling them to sell out clubs around Caracas for the next couple of years. In 1996, David Byrne's Luaka Bop record label signed the group after discovering a CD they had planted in a New York City record store. Shortly thereafter, they went into the studio to work on their sophomore record, The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera, which was released in 1998 and received accolades from press and musicians alike. Two years later and under the direction of famed producer Philip Steir, they released Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey into Space, which received a Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Latin Alternative Album" and a Latin Grammy in the category of "Best Rock Album." Following the success of this release, the band relocated to New York City and began work on their masterpiece, The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1, produced by "Little" Louie Vega of Masters at Work. Initially, the album was released in the UK and Japan through Long Lost Brothers Records, though a year later, Luaka Bop released the album in the US, resulting in another Latin Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Alternative Latin Album."

After ending their recording contract with Luaka Bop, Los Amigos Invisibles started their own label, Gozadera Records. The first release, Chill Out Venezuela, was a multiple-genre collection of Venezuelan artists, produced by Los Amigos Invisibles. For Gozadera's next release and the band's fifth studio album, they enlisted Dimitri from Paris to produce a collection of Venezuelan cover songs entitled, Super Pop Venezuela, which was initially offered in their native country only. In 2006, the album was released in the US, landing the band yet another Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Urban Latin Alternative Album."

After three years of anticipation, Los Amigos Invisibles released their album, Commercial, in a joint effort between Gozadera Records and Nacional Records. In an interview with America's National Public Radio, the band explained that the change in style was not by accident, nor was the decision to name the latest project Commercial. Rather, it is a tongue-in-cheek reference to band's former musical self. The release was a hit in Venezuela, debuting at #1 on the music charts. During the week of July 7, 2009, their song, "Vivire Para Ti" featuring Natalia Lafourcade, was offered as Single of the Week in the iTunes music store and in November 2009, Commercial won the Latin Grammy in the category of Best Alternative Music Album.

Following their Grammy win, 2010 saw festival appearances and shows throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In 2011, the band released Not So Commercial, an EP of outtakes from the Commercial album. This album was a nominee for the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop, Rock or Urban Album in 2012. In April 2013, Repeat After Me was released. This album received a Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Latin Alternative Album" and a Latin Grammy in the category of "Best Alternative Album", "Song of the year" and "Best Cover". In 2014, keyboardist Armando Figueredo and guitarist José Luis Pardo (Cheo) left the band. Both were original members. A year later, they released Acústico, a compilation of their greatest hits played in an acoustic style. 2017 saw the release of the album El Paradise. This was followed by a concert tour in the United States.


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Following a trio of increasingly embraced albums released by David Byrne's Luaka Bop label, Los Amigos Invisibles ventured off on their own for Superpop Venezuela, which they released independently on Gozadera Records. The album isn't a major departure from their past few -- musically, at least. As always, Los Amigos Invisibles careen wildly and freely through a fairly seamless set of sprawling disco-funk jams accented by Latin dance and house. They do so with a wink and a nod, exhibiting a gleeful sense of camp that has earned them a cult following. This is why the one notable departure here is unsurprising: rather than pen an album of their own songs, they've decided to interpret a set of covers, specifically a bunch of Venezuelan pop songs from the past few decades. Hence the album title. Chances are, most of these songs, if not all of them, will be unfamiliar -- assuming you're not well versed in Venezuelan pop, that is. Nonetheless, it's easy to tell that Los Amigos Invisibles had a field day interpreting these personal favorites. The campiness is apparent from the start, as the album opens with a beauty pageant anthem, "Miss Venezuela," and several performances are downright goofy. It's easy to feel party to the playfulness that just oozes from Superpop Venezuela, thanks in part to Dimitri from Paris, who produces the bulk of the album and who likewise traffics in campy music. His production, much like that of fellow disco-house mavens Masters at Work, who produced Los Amigos Invisibles' previous album, The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1, accentuates the nonstop dance party character so integral to this group's appeal. Indeed, Superpop Venezuela plays like one long, meandering disco-funk jam en español. This no doubt may present problems for listeners with short attention spans who need individual, unique, actual songs through which to index. Rather, Superpop Venezuela is intended for uninterrupted listening, an album you play while you're partying or getting prepared to go party. It can feel relatively slight because of that, granted, as there are few instantly memorable songs, but that doesn't lessen the appeal of Superpop Venezuela, which is arguably more fun than past Amigos Invisibles albums, if less impressive for its lack of actual songwriting.

Los Amigos Invisibles - SuperPop Venezuela   (flac  478mb)

01 Dame Tu Color 5:27
02 En El Cielo O En Tu Boca 4:09
03 Dime 3:40
04 El Humo Que Respiro Cuando Estoy Contigo 3:09
05 Nada Que Decir 3:25
06 Siente 3:40
07 Biicuaiiet 1:45
08 Vuelo Hasta Tus Piés 3:36
09 Guffi's Mix 1:44
10 Encántame 3:17
11 Pelusa 1:58
12 Dialecto Divino 4:37
13 Porno Song 6:13
14 En Dónde Está Lo Bello 4:11
15 Mauri's Mix 1:17
16 Acid Jazz De Las Mujeres Locas 3:19
17 Más Dulce 3:16
18 Boogaloo Pa' Los Panas 2:44
19 Vamonos 6:08
20 Ultima Pieza 0:31

Los Amigos Invisibles - SuperPop Venezuela (ogg   173mb )

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This is the first album Los Amigos Invisibles have released without naming their country of origin -- Venezuela -- in the title. Whether this, along with the title they did choose, implies they're aiming at a more universal audience than just those inclined to check out a South American disco-funk band, remains to be seen. The simple fact is, just about anyone who hears this album will like something about it. Their songs are melodic, funky as hell, and are pretty much guaranteed to get dancefloors pumping. Their retro '70s and very early-'80s grooves may seem campy at first glance, but this is no winking exercise like Deee-Lite or the Scissor Sisters. Los Amigos Invisibles are serious about getting the party going and keeping it going. "Vivire Para Ti" should immediately be incorporated into the repertoire of any self-respecting cruise-ship dance band, and they even sing in English on "In Luv with U." This album falls somewhere between the minimalist funk of Prince's hardest tracks and the lush disco appropriations of Daft Punk's Discovery; "In Luv with U" could easily have come off that album, while "Mentiras" features razor-sharp guitars and synth lines that are straight from the Paisley Park playbook. This is a killer summer album; throw it on and watch your neighbors get drunk and dance embarrassingly.

Los Amigos Invisibles - Commercial   (flac  345mb)

01 Güelcome 0:19
02 Ultra-Funk 3:39
03 Mi Linda 3:46
04 Sexy 3:24
05 Las Lycras Del Avila 3:02
06 Groupie 4:40
07 Otra Vez 6:21
08 Cachete A Cachete 4:48
09 Balada De Chusy 3:53
10 Asomacho 1:16
11 Ponerte En Cuatro 4:33
12 Mango Cool 2:54
13 Nerio Compra Contestadora 0:24
14 Quiero Desintegrar A Tu Novio 3:26
15 El Disco Anal 6:14
16 No Me Pagan 3:20
17 Cha-Chaborro 2:45
18 Aldemaro En Su Camaro 3:15
19 The New Sound Of The Venezuelan Gozadera 5:05

Los Amigos Invisibles - Commercial   (ogg  123mb)

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Repeat After Me is Los Amigos Invisibles' seventh recording overall, and their third for Nacional. While the band's "new gozadera" sound remains, the level of sophistication at work here was only hinted at on their previous two offerings for the label. The Venezuelan sextet combines grooves that push the envelope of songwriting, arranging, and production at every turn. While Commercial and Not So Commercial utilized inspirations from Daft Punk to Prince's Paisley Park, the inspirations on Repeat After Me reach back further -- toward the soulful funk of the mid- to late '70s, smooth disco, and Latin soul, with just enough lithe rock to expand the dynamics. "La Que Me Gusta"'s intro bassline is swiped straight from the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love," but the melody is less urgent, modern, warmer, a new breed of Latin soul. By contrast," "Sex Appeal" is pure wonky funk. "Río Porque No Fue un Sueño" melds Isley Brothers groove, Leroy Hutson's seductiveness, and Santana's guitar soloing circa Caravanserai and Welcome. With "Stay," a desperate, broken love song and the set's longest cut, the funk remains, but it's spacy, nocturnal, and emotive. The participation of the swinging trio Los Hermanoes Naturales on "Mostro" adds wild, scattershot gypsy jazz to the proceedings to boot. Throughout, the horn and string arrangements on some of the aforementioned cuts, or the fingerpopping -- not to mention hilarious -- "Reino Animal," expand the colorful palette of sounds and layered textures found on the set. Disco gets a real hearing on the largely instrumental "Robot Love" and the dancefloor banger "Invisible Love," near the album's end where the strings are straight out Barry White and the synths are pure Giorgio Moroder, all woven through this killer neo-Latin soul frame. Despite the obvious influential references, Los Amigos Invisibles are able to stretch and morph them into something completely their own. This is due in no small part to Julio Briceño's vocals. No matter the music's intensity, he manages to add this loose, laid-back feel to every utterance -- whether he is singing in Spanish or English -- that makes the party roll at a simmering heat. José Luis Pardo's production and mix are equal partners with the band in this creation. Together they make Repeat After Me another step up the creativity ladder for Los Amigos Invisibles.

 Los Amigos Invisibles - Repeat After Me   ( flac  332mb)

01 Intro 0:35
02 Arepa 3000 2:35
03 La Vecina 4:19
04 Qué Rico 4:00
05 Cuchi-Cuchi 3:44
06 Si Estuvieras Aquí 4:11
07 Masturbation Session 4:53
08 Mami Te Extraño 3:21
09 Mujer Policía 4:14
10 No Le Metas Mano 0:34
11 Amor 4:10
12 Pipi 2:11
13 El Barro 2:21
14 Domingo Echao 2:35
15 Piazo E' Perra 3:28
16 El Baile Del Sobón 3:28
18 Fonnovo 4:07
18 Caliente 6:57
19 Llegaste Tarde 4:41

   Los Amigos Invisibles - Repeat After Me (ogg  116mb)

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The Invisible Friends premiered their first acoustic album with the collaboration of Mónica Delgado,  Natalia Lafourcade, Alex Syntek, Jay de la Cueva (Moderatto), Venezuelan Mariana Vega, Gil Cerezo (Kinky), a Brazilian percussion group and a string quartet led by Venezuelan musician and arranger Álvaro Paiva were part of the guests of the new record production Acústico Live.  "They are hits from Los Amigos reversionadas and where we appeal to our Latin and Caribbean roots," José Rafael Torres El Catire, bassist of the group, said in an interview.  In this regard, he explained that in Acústico Live you will hear songs like Sexy in bolero format, Viviré para ti in bossanova, La que me gusta en raggae or Mentiras turned to bugalú.  "Our songs are a fusion of Anglo-Saxon rhythms with a lot of Latin rhythms, but for the album we take away the Saxon and we stay with the rest", decision taken to emphasize the importance of music made in Latin America, but never in order to give up the characteristic style of the band.  El Catire shared that this new album was made with "tirada" of having fun by adapting new rhythms to the melodies that were released from the 80s to the present day.  They emphasized that for this new mix of rhythms they invited music personalities that, according to the bassist, "are great friends of the band" and some of them had already participated with the group in previous productions, something that for El Catire helped when deciding  who would collaborate with the Venezuelans.  "Only the agenda of those we already knew was taken into account, as was the case with Jay de la Cueva, a musician we met on a radio show and where we declared ourselves mutual followers."  The group formed by Julio Briceño Chulius (voice and minor percussion instruments), Mauricio Arcas Maurimix (percussion, vocals and choirs), José Luis Pardón (guitar), Armando Figueredo Armandito (keyboard), Juan Manuel RouraMamel (drums and choirs) and José Rafael Torres El Catire (bass); is since 1991 a reference in Spanish-speaking rock, year when the band was consolidated and put on the popularity charts songs like Ponerte en cuatro or The Anal Disc, where the merger became patent and served as a hallmark of the group.

 Los Amigos Invisibles - Acustico Live   (flac  303mb)

01 Rico Pa' Goza 0:08
02 Comodón Johnson 4:22
03 Una Disco Llena 5:31
04 Venezuelan Zinga Son 2:30
05 Playa Azul 4:39
06 Ease Your Mind 5:27
07 Gerundio 5:21
08 Ojos Cerrando 2:24
09 Esto Es Lo Que Hay 6:19
10 Majunche 2:56
11 Mambo Chimbo 4:10
12 Diablo 4:23
13 Calne 4:12
14 Superfucker 5:39
15 Bruja 8:55

Los Amigos Invisibles - The Venezuelan Zinga Son Vol.1 (ogg  115mb)

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RhoDeo 1830 Separate Reality

Hello, The Tour  De France 2018 is done wone once again by the Sky Team, but not by their # 1 Chris Froome who came in third but by Geraint Thomas who's main task as # 2 was keeping Tom Dumoulin in cheque, that he did and more 3 times he sprinted away shortly before the finish giving him mountain stage wins and bonustime, together with Tom's bad luck in stage 5 which cost him 70 sec, in the end the difference was 111 sec over 3000km cycling. And the first Welsh man that wins The Tour became fact.

Over in Hungary the F1 was decided in the rain during qualifying when Hamilton gained the pole, the race was run in the dry and because overtaking is hard Vettel who had bad luck during his tire change, got stuck behind Bottas and Hamilton could go unbothered to his win, the Ferraris could never use their superior speed until Bottas tires were almost gone and Vettel and Raikonen could pass him, Ricciardo had to come from the back and overtook Bottas too, goes to show how good the Red Bull ran, alas not for Max who had a great start, overtook 2 cars but then out of the blue in lap 5, no more juice. Meanwhile birthday boy Alonso came in 8th.



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Essential reading for any deep thinker and open-minded person who has experienced "non-ordinary realities.".

A Separate Reality: Further Conversations With Don Juan is a book written by anthropologist/author Carlos Castaneda, published in 1971, concerning the events that took place during his apprenticeship with a Yaqui Indian Sorcerer, Don Juan Matus, between 1960 and 1965.

In the book Castaneda continues his description of his apprenticeship under the tutelage of Don Juan. As in his previous book, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Castaneda describes the experiences he has with Don Juan while under the influence of the psychotropic plants that Don Juan offered him, peyote (Lophophora williamsii) and a smokable mixture of what Castaneda believed to be, among other plants, dried mushroom of the genus Psilocybe. The main focus of the book centered on Don Juan's attempts at getting Carlos to See, a practice best described as, in Castaneda's own words, "perceiving energy directly as it flows through the universe".

The book contains an introduction, an epilogue and two separate parts. Part One, "The Preliminaries of 'Seeing'", describes his re-initiation into the apprenticeship from which he withdrew in late 1965, and also describes his introduction to another brujo (sorcerer) named Don Genaro. Part Two, "The Task of 'Seeing'", elaborates on the mental processes involved with Seeing, and begins with Castaneda realizing that the plants are a necessary tool to arrive at Seeing....... N Joy

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"Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it."




Carlos Castaneda - A Separate Reality 1 (mp3  42mb)

01 Carlos Castaneda - A Separate Reality - 01  45 :58


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previously

Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan 1 (mp3  46mb)
Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan 2 (mp3  55mb)
Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan 3 (mp3  55mb)

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Sundaze 1830

Hello,


Today's Artist is a longstanding leader in contemporary electronic music, composer and multi-instrumentalist,a onetime professional motorbike racer born 1955 in La Mesa, California,  drew on the beauty and power of the earth's landscapes to create lush, meditative soundscapes influential on the emergence of ambient and trance. Drawing from a vast, unique, deeply personal authenticity, his releases cover a wide range of dynamic styles all of which bear his signature voice. For 35 years the boundaries are constantly challenged in his work, ranging in style from pure floating spaces, analog sequencer music, primordial tribal, rhythmic ambient, dark ambient, long-form 'drift ambient,' and avant garde atonal ambient.....N'Joy

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A longstanding leader in contemporary electronic music, composer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Roach drew on the beauty and power of the Earth's landscapes to create lush, meditative soundscapes influential on the emergence of ambient and trance. Born in California in 1955, Roach -- inspired by the music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Vangelis -- taught himself to play synthesizer at the age of 20. Debuting in 1982 with the album Now, his early work was quite reminiscent of his inspirations, but with 1984's Structures from Silence, his music began taking enormous strides. The album's expansive and mysterious atmosphere was partly inspired by the natural beauty of the southwestern U.S. Subsequent works, including 1986's three-volume Quiet Music series honed Roach's approach, his dense, swirling textures and hypnotic rhythms akin to environmental sound sculptures.

In 1988, inspired by the Peter Weir film The Last Wave, Roach journeyed to the Australian outback, with field recordings of aboriginal life inspiring his acknowledged masterpiece, the double-album Dreamtime Return. A year later, he teamed with percussionist Michael Shrieve and guitarist David Torn for The Leaving Time, an experiment in ambient jazz. After relocating to the desert outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, Roach established his own recording studio, Timeroom. In the years to follow, he grew increasingly prolific, creating both as a solo artist and in tandem with acts including Robert Rich, Michael Stearns, Jorge Reyes, and Kevin Braheny -- in all, he recorded close to two-dozen major works in the '90s alone, all of them located at different points on the space-time continuum separating modern technology and primitive music.

His album roster from that decade includes Strata (1991), Artifacts (1994), Well of Souls (1995), Amplexus (1997), and Dust to Dust (1998). Early Man was released on Projekt in early 2001, followed by one of his many collaborations with Vidna Obmana, Innerzone. Throughout the remainder of the 2000s, Roach remained extremely prolific. His release schedule included the Projekt titles Trance Spirits (with Jeffrey Fayman) and the quadruple-disc Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces, Spirit Dome and Somewhere Else (with Obmana), Fever Dreams, Mantram, and Nada Terma (with Byron Metcalf and Mark Seelig), and the ongoing Immersion series, Arc of Passion, and Stream of Thought (with Erik Wøllo). He also self-released several titles on his own through Timeroom Editions.

Over the next decade, Roach would show no signs of slowing as he continued with a non-stop slew of new material under his own name, as well as collaborations and soundtrack work. Though new volumes of work appeared at a clip of more than three albums per year, standouts included more collaborations with Byron Metcalf, 2013's Future Flows, 2014's disparate releases of arid road trip music on The Desert Collection and ambient explorations of mortality and humanity on The Delicate Forever. Roach began constructing an extensive analog modular synthesizer system in 2014, and in 2015, the album Skeleton Keys was composed entirely using this setup. In 2016, Roach released two full-lengths with Robert Logan (the more rhythmic Biosonic and the serene drone album Second Nature), as well as solo efforts This Place to Be and Shadow of Time.

In concert, Steve creates transcendent electronic music emerging from an elemental instinctual mode. These events bring together an audience from around the country and as far away as Europe, all looking to experience the on-the-edge experience that erupts in the live setting. This makes Steve's concerts an entirely different experience from the recorded medium. With months of preparation absorbed into his system, evocative soundscapes blend with ecstatic rhythmic sections born from hands-on analog sound creation and sonic shapeshifting. The result is a direct transference of creative energy from the artist through his instruments out to the listener. Live performances are the place where Steve's music thrives, created at the leading edge of now.

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The cover of On This Planet offers two of the many faces of Earth. One is a craggy, misty place of eerie cold, the other a wind-worn ancient desertscape. Both extremes are intense and lonely, yet extremely inviting in their inhospitableness. It is like being drawn toward the knife. Challenging "dark ambient" composer Steve Roach asks you to experience his compositions loud. This is no unobtrusive sonic background, but a sound atlas to the nether regions. His creations are wrought with didgeridoo, clay pots and other varied percussion, synthesizers, conversation, and electronic respirations. This is a condensation of material developed for and through his 1997 tour. On the basis of the evidence presented here, listeners who missed the tour should rue the day they passed up any opportunities to witness it.

Steve Roach - On This Planet (flac 416mb)

01 Heart Of The Tempest 4:26
02 Journey Of One 3:38
03 The Nexus Place 7:05
04 Trilobite 3:33
05 Void Memory 4 5:36
06 Cloud Watching With The Toolmaker 5:41
07 The Ecstasy Of Travel 4:59
08 Remember It Now 10:36
09 A Darker Star 13:19
10 On This Planet 14:06

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Open, dusty spaces are familiar images in the musical world of Steve Roach, but he gives his favorite subject an entirely new twist on this 1998 collaboration with Roger King. Harking back to the ghosts of the Old West, this variation comes courtesy of the harmonica, an instrument new to Roach recordings. It is brought to the fore here, underpinned by King on various guitars and Roach's ever-present electronics. Roach and King drench their instruments in a healthy dosage of reverb, occasionally letting phrases drift off entirely. This technique imbues the music with the impression of viewing yellowed photographs of frontiersmen in a long-forgotten family album. A suite of songs beginning with "A Bigger Sky" and concluding with "First Sunrise" delves into a deeper space that fans will recognize, dissolving all ties with the physical realm by utilizing whispered voices and gradually inserting Roach's trademark rhythmic sequences. But it is the traditional instruments that truly stand out on this album, allowing the listener to imagine a time and place now relegated to myth. Roach once again proves himself a restless experimenter who consistently chooses talented collaborators who will enable him to expand both his own musical vision and that of his listeners.

Steve Roach (with Roger King) - Dust to Dust    (flac 327mb)

01 Gone West 7:27
02 A Daze Wage 6:13
03 A Bigger Sky 3:19
04 The Ribbon Rails Of Promise 10:53
05 First Sunrise 4:27
06 Lost And Forgotten 10:24
07 Snake Eyes 5:35
08 Rain And Creosote 5:32
09 Ghost Train 7:29

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Slow Heat is the ultimate in desert ambience. Steve Roach, the premier desert ambience artisan, created this long-form (71 minutes) piece in response to his own desert habitat in Tucson, AZ. The imagery of this music is incredible. It sounds like heat -- listeners will hear the shimmering of the desert sands. They will hear the cacti baking in the sun and they will hear themselves sweat. The imagery is visual, too. Roach's organics bring the soundscape to life. The desert is incredibly active, but the activity is slow. This piece evolves fittingly and slowly. There is no crescendo, only a languid buildup to a slow denouement. Roach remains on his own plane; his discs compare best to themselves. This disc is intended for continuous play and it is the natural follow-up to Western Spaces, Desert Solitaire, and Dust to Dust. It is also one of the Top Five ambient CDs ever.

Steve Roach - Slow Heat (flac  343mb)

01 Slow Heat 71:16

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This is another chapter in Steve Roach's on-going sound world projects, designed for continuous playback or with Dream Circle, Magnificent Void, and Slow Heat in a multiple-disc player. Over two years in the making, the five selections here are worlds unto themselves, though they are linked not only by their creator, but the passage of time, and the (dis)order they creator within the mind of the listener. All of them lie within the heart of the dreamer it would seem, or at least at the heart of Roach's dreams, envisioned or not. Roach has a gift for capturing in his pieces, the essence of moments he has not witnessed in the flesh. He captures a moment, its sense impression, and layers it deep within a pool of sound and space, knowing full well that the moment itself can never be "captured" by recording tape; it can only be represented. And it is with this information that Roach goes about the business of creating the five sound worlds on Atmospheric Conditions, gracing his trace images with ghostly presence and the touch of the sacred upon them. This is not ambient music to "chill out" to mindlessly, though you certainly could. This is a music that creates its own ambience, offers a world and its dimensions for the listener to meditate upon or conduct rituals to, whatever is instructive.

From the single movement "Underground Clouds Over a Secret Grotto" and its notions of vast enclosed spaces and spectral presences hovering above them to the two-movement work "In the Heart of Distant Horizons," who is to say those horizons aren't an extension, dimensionally of the vast enclosed space of the clouds and grotto? They certainly melt together as music, as sonic expanse, as shimmering heat in places where it is difficult to make out anything concretely.

As we move to the final work, the two-movement "Two Rivers Dreaming," we have come to the beginning of a Moebius strip and discovered the interconnectedness not only of these five sound worlds but their accompanying universes as well. This is a sonic architecture based on restraint and listening for languages to assert themselves in the space and time of creation. Design becomes secondary to the inaction of allowing the implications of those languages, those sounds, those very layers proposed as "moments" to enter into the body, into the heart and bloodstream before decisions are made as to what they are trying to say. And Roach is a wise man; he knows, that even after careful contemplation of his sources, he can only go by his intuition because no one has ever been here before. Ultimately, that's what separates Roach from the other electronic composers, he doesn't decide ahead of time what the end of an objective will be, he allows the information and materials collected in the quest for an answer to decide what he should and shouldn't know; therefore he goes deeper and wider without concerning himself about achieving a goal: he stops when he is asked to by the music itself. The circle -- like the photographs by Stu Jenks on the front and back of this recording illustrate -- doesn't just travel around once, nor does it travel in only one direction. To be continued.

Steve Roach - Atmospheric Conditions (flac 339mb)

01 Underground Clouds Over A Secret Grotto 22:32
02 In The Heart Of Distant Horizons 12:58
03 In The Heart Of Distant Horizons 10:30
04 Two Rivers Dreaming 14:59
05 Two Rivers Dreaming 12:11

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RhoDeo 1829 Grooves

Hello, get your ya ya's out Mick is 75 today, yeah well he's been keeping fit and probably riding his youngest one, Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger on his knee today. Bit of a posh name but then it's Sir Jagger these days with a befitting bank account. I suspect that he aims for 100 and he's well versed to reach that number and as patriarch of a great family, after all he has eight children with five women. He currently has five grandchildren, and became a great-grandfather on 19 May 2014, when Jade's daughter Assisi gave birth to a daughter. It's only Rock n Roll ....



Today's artist is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called "Brother Ray". He was often referred to as "The Genius". Charles was blind from the age of seven. He pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records. He also contributed to the integration of country music, rhythm and blues, and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records.In 2002, Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and number two on their November 2008 list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".... 'N Joy

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continued from last week

By late 1961, Charles had expanded his small road ensemble to a full-scale big band, partly as a response to increasing royalties and touring fees, becoming one of the few black artists to cross over into mainstream pop with such a level of creative control. This success, however, came to a momentary halt during a concert tour in November 1961, when a police search of Charles's hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana, led to the discovery of heroin in the medicine cabinet. The case was eventually dropped, as the search lacked a proper warrant by the police, and Charles soon returned to music.

In the early 1960s, whilst on the way from Louisiana to Oklahoma City, Charles faced a near-death experience when the pilot of his plane lost visibility, as snow and his failure to use the defroster caused the windshield of the plane to become completely covered in ice. The pilot made a few circles in the air before he was finally able to see through a small part of the windshield and land the plane. Charles placed a spiritual interpretation on the event, claiming that "something or someone which instruments cannot detect" was responsible for creating the small opening in the ice on the windshield which enabled the pilot to land the plane safely.

The 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and its sequel, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2, helped to bring country music into the musical mainstream. Charles's version of the Don Gibson song I Can't Stop Loving You topped the Pop chart for five weeks, stayed at number 1 on the R&B chart for ten weeks, and gave him his only number-one record in the UK. In 1962, he founded his own record label, Tangerine Records, which ABC-Paramount promoted and distributed. He had major pop hits in 1963 with "Busted" (US number 4) and Take These Chains from My Heart (US number 8).

In 1965, Charles's career was halted once more after he was arrested for a third time for possession of heroin. He agreed to go to rehab to avoid jail time and eventually kicked his habit at a clinic in Los Angeles. After spending a year on parole, Charles reappeared in the charts in 1966 with a series of hits composed with the fledgling team of Ashford & Simpson, including the dance number "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Let's Go Get Stoned", which became his first number-one R&B hit in several years. His cover version of "Crying Time", originally recorded by the country artist Buck Owens, reached number 6 on the pop chart and helped Charles win a Grammy Award the following March. In 1967, he had a top-twenty hit with another ballad, "Here We Go Again"

Charles's renewed chart success, however, proved to be short lived, and by the 1970s his music was rarely played on radio stations. The rise of psychedelic rock and harder forms of rock and R&B music had reduced Charles' radio appeal, as did his choosing to record pop standards and covers of contemporary rock and soul hits, since his earnings from owning his masters had taken away the motivation to write new material. Charles nonetheless continued to have an active recording career. Most of his recordings between 1968 and 1973 evoked strong reactions: people either liked them a lot or strongly disliked them. His 1972 album A Message from the People included his unique gospel-influenced version of "America the Beautiful" and a number of protest songs about poverty and civil rights. Charles was often criticized for his version of "America the Beautiful" because it was very drastically changed from the song's original version.

In 1974, Charles left ABC Records and recorded several albums on his own label, Crossover Records. A 1975 recording of Stevie Wonder's hit "Living for the City" later helped Charles win another Grammy. In 1977, he reunited with Ahmet Ertegün and re-signed to Atlantic Records, for which he recorded the album True to Life, remaining with his old label until 1980. However, the label had now begun to focus on rock acts, and some of their prominent soul artists, such as Aretha Franklin, were starting to be neglected. In November 1977 he appeared as the host of the NBC television show Saturday Night Live.

In April 1979, his version of "Georgia on My Mind" was proclaimed the state song of Georgia, and an emotional Charles performed the song on the floor of the state legislature. Although he had notably supported the American Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s, Charles was criticized for performing at the Sun City resort in South Africa in 1981, during an international boycott protesting that country's apartheid policy.

In 1983, Charles signed a contract with Columbia Records. He recorded a string of country albums and had hit singles in duets with singers such as George Jones, Chet Atkins, B. J. Thomas, Mickey Gilley, Hank Williams, Jr., Dee Dee Bridgewater ("Precious Thing") and his longtime friend Willie Nelson, with whom he recorded the number 1 country duet "Seven Spanish Angels".

Prior to the release of his first album for Warner, Would You Believe, Charles made a return to the R&B charts with a cover of the Brothers Johnson's "I'll Be Good to You", a duet with his lifelong friend Quincy Jones and the singer Chaka Khan, which hit number one on the R&B chart in 1990 and won Charles and Khan a Grammy for their duet. Prior to this, Charles returned to the pop charts with "Baby Grand", a duet with the singer Billy Joel. In 1989, he recorded a cover of the Southern All Stars' "Itoshi no Ellie" for a Japanese TV advertisement for the Suntory brand, releasing it in Japan as "Ellie My Love", where it reached number 3 on its Oricon chart.[37] In the same year he was a special guest at the Arena di Verona during the tour promoting Oro Incenso & Birra of the Italian singer Zucchero Fornaciari.

Charles's 1993 album, My World, became his first album in some time to reach the Billboard 200, whilst his cover of Leon Russell's "A Song for You" gave him a hit on the adult contemporary chart and his twelfth and final Grammy. By the beginning of the 1980s, Charles was reaching younger audiences in films and TV shows. In 1980, he appeared in The Blues Brothers. His version of "Night Time Is the Right Time" was played during The Cosby Show episode "Happy Anniversary", but he did not appear on the show.

In 1985, he appeared among a group of other musicians in the USA for Africa charity recording "We Are the World". His popularity increased among younger audiences in 1991 after he appeared in a series of Diet Pepsi television commercials, which featured him singing the catchphrase "You Got the Right One, Baby". Two more slickly produced adult contemporary albums followed, Strong Love Affair (1996) and Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again (2002); both failed to chart and were soon forgotten.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he made appearances on the television show Super Dave Osbourne in a series of vignettes in which he was somehow driving a car, often as Super Dave's chauffeur. During the sixth season of Designing Women, Charles sang "Georgia on My Mind" in place of the instrumental cover version which had been used in the previous five seasons. He also appeared in four episodes of the popular TV comedy The Nanny, playing Sammy in seasons 4 and 5 in 1997–98.

Charles performed at two US Presidential inaugurations: Ronald Reagan's second inauguration, in 1985, and Bill Clinton's first inauguration, in 1993. On October 28, 2001, several weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, Charles appeared during game 2 of the World Series, between the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees, and performed "America the Beautiful". In 2003, he headlined the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C., attended by President George W. Bush. In 2003, Charles performed "Georgia on My Mind" and "America the Beautiful" at a televised annual banquet of electronic media journalists held in Washington, D.C. His final public appearance was on April 30, 2004, at the dedication of his music studio as a historic landmark in Los Angeles.

In 2003, Charles had successful hip replacement surgery and was planning to go back on tour, until he began suffering from other ailments. He died at his home in Beverly Hills, California of complications resulting from acute liver disease, on June 10, 2004, aged 73, surrounded by family and friends. His funeral took place on June 18, 2004, at the First AME Church in Los Angeles with numerous musical figures in attendance. B. B. King, Glen Campbell, Stevie Wonder and Wynton Marsalis each played a tribute at the funeral.

Charles was married twice and had 12 children with ten different women. His first child, Evelyn, was born in 1949 to his companion, Louise Flowers, his youngest child, a son, Ryan, was born in 1987 to Mary Anne den Bok.

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Jazz producer Norman Granz convinced Ray to record George Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess”. Ray’s first choice for the role of Bess was Gladys Knight but contractual difficulties made it impossible, and Cleo Laine was selected to sing the role. Frank DeVol arranged the music and conducted the 78-piece orchestra. Great instrumental artists like Joe Sample, Lee Ritenour, Joe Pass and Ernie Watts are just some of the many gifted in the orchestra. The material is perfect for the performers, and they give it an effective, if unstudied, treatment.

Ray Charles and Cleo Laine - Porgy and Bess    (flac  336mb)

01 Summertime 6:13
02 My Man's Gone Now 4:40
03 A Woman Is A Sometime Thing 2:42
04 They Pass By Singin' 3:02
05 What You Want Wid Bess? 2:22
06 I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' 3:49
07 Buzzard Song 3:22
08 Bess, You Is My Woman 5:26
09 Oh, Doctor Jesus 2:11
10 Crab Man 1:45
11 Here Come De Honey Man 1:23
12 Strawberry Woman (Instrumental) 0:55
13 Strawberry Woman 1:17
14 It Ain't Necessarily So 4:15
15 There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York 3:21
16 I Loves You, Porgy 5:00
17 Oh, Bess, Oh Where's My Bess (Instrumental) 3:26
18 Oh, Bess, Oh Where's My Bess 3:34
19 Oh Lawd, I'm On My Way 3:18

Ray Charles and Cleo Laine - Porgy and Bess    (ogg   145mb)

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Mo Ostin, Warner Bros. Records longtime president, delighted in having the opportunity to finally record Ray Charles. Ray had already been working on tracks with composer Jimmy Lewis, and had found arranger-keyboardist Rich Cason to be his synthesizer guru, showing Ray how to get bass, drums, horns and hand claps out of the magic keyboards.The new use of synth brings in a contemporary sound. His voice retains its drama, intensity, and flair, but he's extending himself less and less (at least on album) and not finding the kind of material that his talents
.

Ray Charles - Would You Believe   (flac 243mb)

01 I'll Take Care Of You 3:59
02 Your Love Keeps Me Satisfied 3:37
03 Ellie, My Love 4:09
04 I Can't Get Enough 3:17
05 Let's Get Back Where We Left Off 4:12
06 Child Support, Alimony 3:45
07 Fresh Out Of Tears 3:21
08 Living Without You 4:39
09 Where's The Stairs ? 4:24
10 Leave Him ! 4:19

 Ray Charles - Would You Believe   (ogg  95mb)

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Once he signed to Warner Bros., Ray Charles adopted the '90s superstar schedule, releasing an album every three years. Strong Love Affair, the third of them (now on Quincy Jones's custom label, Qwest), is a self-production that finds Charles performing his usual mix of blues, R&B, and pop on a set of newly written songs. The material is serviceable, if generic, but what matters is Charles's typically expressive vocal performance. At 65, Charles may no longer be able to surprise us, but he doesn't seem ready to retire, and if new recordings from him risk redundancy and irrelevance, at their best they nevertheless can represent Charles as well as his earlier, revolutionary work. Strong Love Affair never tries to conform Charles to anything other than his eclectic self, and it never gets in his way.

Ray Charles - Strong Love Affair    (flac  329mb)

01 All She Wants To Do Is Love Me 4:15
02 Say No More 4:19
03 No Time To Waste Time 3:38
04 Angelina 4:06
05 Tell Me What You Want Me To Do 5:21
06 Strong Love Affair 4:08
07 Everybody's Handsome Child 3:56
08 Out Of My Life 4:25
09 The Fever 3:46
10 Separate Ways 4:07
11 I Need A Good Woman Bad 4:59
12 If You Give Me Your Heart 4:27

Ray Charles - Strong Love Affair  (ogg  120mb)

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Genius Loves Company is the last studio album Ray Charles completed before his death in June 2004. Prior to this, the last studio album he released was Strong Love Affair in 1996, which was a stab at modern pop, filled with new songs and given an adult contemporary sheen. It was not one of his most distinctive efforts, even when judged against his latter-day albums, and it disappeared not long after its release. Charles left Warner and, years later, signed with Concord, who released Genius Loves Company, which had a decidedly different approach than the all-modern Strong Love Affair. As the title acknowledges with a wink, this is a duets album, which may be a little commonplace as far as latter-day superstar albums go but is still a step up from his previous studio album since it puts Ray Charles in a comfortable, relaxed situation that plays to his strengths. Instead of trying to put Charles in a modern setting, producers John Burk and Phil Ramone (Burk helmed seven of the album's tracks, Ramone is responsible for the other five, and their work fits together seamlessly) go for a clean retro setting with a few guitars, synths, and a rhythm section, occasionally dressing it with an orchestra or some strings. In other words, apart from the glistening production, it's not far removed from any of Charles' crossover records from the '60s, and he's also given a strong set of songs, largely familiar pop classics, from "Fever" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" and "Crazy Love." His duet partners are fairly predictable -- classy newcomers like Norah Jones and Diana Krall, but also old stalwarts like Elton John, B.B. King, Johnny Mathis, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, and the ubiquitous Willie Nelson (who has never sounded older than he does here on "It Was a Very Good Year") -- but they're also reliable, never overshadowing Ray yet never shrinking in his shadow either; in short, it sounds more like a real duets album than most superstar duet records. The end result is modest, friendly, laid-back, and pleasing, one that remains faithful to Charles' music while sounding relatively fresh. It may not be weighty enough to be a career-capping masterpiece, but it's sweet enough to be an appropriate final album -- which is far more than can be said of Strong Love Affair, or any of the other albums he cut in the '80s or '90s for that matter.

Ray Charles - Genius Loves Company    (flac 378mb)

01 Here We Go Again with Norah Jones 3:59
02 Sweet Potato Pie with James Taylor 3:47
03 You Don't Know Me with Diana Krall 3:55
04 Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word with Elton John 3:59
05 Fever with Natalie Cole 3:30
06 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? with Bonnie Raitt 4:34
07 It Was A Very Good Year with Willie Nelson 4:59
08 Hey Girl with Michael McDonald 5:15
09 Sinner's Prayer with B.B. King 4:25
10 Heaven Help Us All with Gladys Knight 4:32
11 Over The Rainbow with Johnny Mathis 4:54
12 Crazy Love (Live) with Van Morrison 3:46

Ray Charles - Genius Loves Company  (ogg  142mb )

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Ray Sings, Basie Swings, huh? Hmm, well, yes and no. You see, the story goes something like this. In 2005, Concord Records exec John Burk, who produced Ray Charles' superb late-career, Grammy-winning Genius Loves Company, found a reel of tape simply labeled "Ray/Basie." Upon further analysis, it was determined that the 1973 recording featured Ray Charles backed by his own band -- Count Basie and his band had actually recorded earlier that day. Charles' vocal was exceptionally prominent in the mix and at first it was thought that this potentially momentous discovery would prove unable to bear fruit. But then Burk brainstormed and decided to bring the current Count Basie Orchestra -- whose leader died in 1984 -- into the studio to lay tracks behind Charles' vocals. So there's no Basie on Ray Sings, Basie Swings, but that's merely a technicality, because there is some great music. Charles was in fine form vocally on this mix of remakes of his early ABC-Paramount-era hits and then-recent material. The consecutive reworkings of "Busted," "Cryin' Time," and "I Can't Stop Loving You," three of his defining Top Ten hits of the early '60s, are given brassy, bluesy treatments here, and standards ranging from Oscar Hammerstein II's "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" to the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road" are transformed in Charles' hands. The set-closing "Georgia on My Mind," as close to a signature song as Charles had, is given a tender, minimalist reading, but the track preceding it, "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma," picked up from the folk-pop singer Melanie, is quite possibly the album's highlight. It's appeared on other Ray Charles compilations before, but the gospelized, testifyin' version featured here has got to be the liveliest take on that song anyone's ever devised. So, yeah, there's no Count Basie to be found here, but his namesake orchestra does him proud. For one of those postmortem studio patch jobs that owes as much to technology as talent, it's a fine addition to the Ray Charles oeuvre, as long as one can get past the semi-false advertising of its title.

Ray Charles and Count Basie Orchestra  Ray Sings Basie Swings      (flac  264mb)

01 Oh, What A Beautiful Morning 4:36
02 Let The Good Times Roll 2:57
03 How Long Has This Been Going On? 6:19
04 Every Saturday Night 4:06
05 Busted 2:34
06 Crying Time 3:53
07 I Can't Stop Loving You 4:02
08 Come Live With Me 4:10
09 Feel So Bad 4:10
10 The Long And Winding Road 4:03
11 Look What They've Done To My Song 2:50
12 Georgia On My Mind 4:41

Ray Charles and Count Basie Orchestra  Ray Sings Basie Swings  (ogg  111mb)

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RhoDeo 1829 Aetix

Hello,


Today's artists are a Los Angeles based post-punk trio active in the mid to late 1980s. The lineup consisted of Chris Manecke (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Kevin Dolan (drums) and John Blake (bass). They specialized in reverb heavy, synth driven post-punk songs..... ..............N'Joy

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Most people will recognize Abecedarians from their single 80’s hit called “Smiling Monarchs.” The original band formed in 1983 in Los Angeles and consisted of Chris Manecke (guitar, vocals, keyboards), John Blake (bass), and Kevin Dolan (drums). “Smiling Monarchs” was mixed by Bernard Sumner of New Order and released on Factory Records. The New Order influence is apparent in the prominent use of synthesizer, the magnitude of which is not heard in any of the band’s subsequent recordings. This debut track became instantly popular and is featured on many 80’s various artist collections.

Abecedarians have roots in both post-punk and atmospheric 4AD pop, much like the Joy Division/New Order axis. The group first appeared along with fellow Southern Californian bands Jane's Addiction and Kommunity Fk on the Scream compilation, signing to England's Factory label for the single "Smiling Monarchs" in 1985. Abecedarians moved to Caroline one year later for debut album Eureka, and Ab-CD Resin followed in 1988. Two compilations have since been released: The Other Side of the Fence (which collects unavailable early demo tracks on a 10" record) and Ab-CD Resin, which is the album to get considering it collects virtually all of Eureka and Ab-CD Resin, plus the Factory single.
The Abecedarians sound is characterized by lead-man Manecke's deep, rich and distinctive vocal delivery and idiosyncratic lyrics; along with guitarwork that swims in a gravy-like sea of reverb. the rhythm section is a sturdy, restrained anchor for the atmospherics their songs swim in, with the occassional synth part thrown into the mix for good measure. The band would alternate between more upbeat, poppy, synth-driven post-punk and slower, sludgier, and decidedly stranger dirgelike material. although they made a couple of great pop songs, it's the latter category of their material i find the most intriguing.
Their first official release was the 12" single "Smiling Monarchs" on Factory. One of the few American bands to be featured by the label, the single was even mixed by Bernard Sumner of New Order. This is probably why it leans so heavily towards a NO-style sound, and is in fact a bit uncharacteristic of the band. the single has highly processed guitar, and makes them out to be a synth-pop group. it has few of the characterisitics that made them special and unique, and i personally find it a bit grating, even. tragic, really, given the profile it could have given them. they would then go on to release a couple of records on Caroline, make the scattered compilation appearance, and in the ensuing years slowly but surely peter out.



Abecedarians moved to Caroline one year later for their debut EP Eureka.  Resin followed in 1987. Two compilations have since been released: AB-CD (1988), which is a collection of nearly all of Eureka and Resin, plus the Factory single “Smiling Monarchs,” and The Other Side of the Fence (which includes unavailable early demo tracks).

Beyond “Smiling Monarchs,” the band had a unique, spare sound that was both genuine and endearing. Chris Manecke’s understated vocals, churning guitar, and accompanying earnest rhythm licks via John Blake’s chugging bass and Kevin Dolan’s thrumming drum kit made the band’s sound larger than a mere trio, yet refreshingly raw á la garage rock. The lyrics are dark, yet delivered in a way that makes the listener think perhaps the intention is more ironic than morose. There’s no denying Abecedarians’ post-punk roots.

 Abecedarians recordings are rare and very hard to get. I have heard from John Blake that a box set is planned for release. No date has been set, but I know that such a release will make a lot of Abecedarians fans very happy. It has been a long wait for those wishing to replace lovingly worn vinyl with updated audio tracks. Here’s hoping the long wait will soon be over.

   
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The Abecedarians' first full record wore its British influences heavily on its sleeve, so it's no wonder the band had already released a single on Factory Records -- at times, you get the feeling that all three members listened to nothing but Closer and maybe some A Certain Ratio and Crispy Ambulance material when they were first forming the band. Far from being simply copycats, though, the trio brought in a stark emotional and musical sensibility to the realm of American indie-rock of the time, avoiding either post-R.E.M. jangle or incipient punk-grunge snottiness. If anything, their peers were the likes of American Music Club and Thin White Rope, though Eureka's lengthy tracks doesn't quite reach as high as either of those two bands at their finest. Guitarist/vocalist Chris Manecke takes understandable center stage; his stringwork unsurprisingly relies heavily on digital reverb, though that isn't used as a fig leaf to cover inadequacies, as his sharp slashing on songs like "Ghost" demonstrates. As a vocalist, the Ian Curtis/Bernard Sumner style of flat projection is a clear model for Manecke, but so is the quiet intensity of the Comsat Angels' Stephen Fellows and the Sound's Adrian Borland's empathetic passion, making for an attractive overall combination. The crisp interplay of drummer Kevin Dolan and bassist John Blake (the latter of whom throws in some [at times] surprisingly funky fretless work) makes for the perfect counterpart to Manecke. Picking out highlights is a bit hard -- Eureka is consistently strong throughout -- but there are some definite breathtaking moments. "Soil" blends a relentless drive that calls to mind late-'70s Bowie with some truly haunting guitar lines, while the instrumental "The Other Side of the Fence" adds piano and synthesizer to a slightly gentler arrangement to set a definite sense of downbeat mood, much like Joy Division's "The Eternal."

Abecedarians - Eureka (flac  529mb)

01 Ghosts  6:39
02 Soil 7:00
03 Beneath The City Of The Hedonistic Bohemians 4:40
04 I Glide 7:29
05 Mice & Coconut Tree 4:59
06 Misery Of Cities 5:49
07 Smiling Monarchs 6:48
08 Benway's Carnival 5:12
09 Switch 4:52
10 Other Side Of The Fence 4:09
11 They Said Tomorrow 5:09
12 Wildflower 4:19
13 John's Pop 3:15
14 Spaghetti Western 5:55

Abecedarians - Eureka     (ogg  181mb)

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"A little more conventionally rocking than the spare impact of Eureka, Resin maintains the same level of punch and post-punk emotionalism which characterizes the Abecedarians' sound, resulting in another miniclassic to go alongside the earlier record. At a few points, Manecke's lyrics don't quite connect as they should -- while the delivery of "Dinner" is marvelous, as is the nervous crawl of the music, the lyrical combination of religion, sex and food is a bit tortured as the song progresses. This said, it's all about the general ambience to begin with, and on that level the Abecedarians are again flawless, bringing a haunting darkness to just about everything they do. Though the bandmembers work with a different engineer here than any of the three which helped on Eureka, the basic sound of the band remains almost exactly the same, a testament to how clear the trio was about its music. In a neat development, a little bit of humor creeps into things as well on Resin. The self-explanatory "Spaghetti Western," with Manecke delivering a great Morricone impersonation on guitar while archly singing about sheriffs shooting down best friends and waiting for the hangman's noose -- it's clearly not meant to be taken seriously, and helps in considering the rest of the album with a slightly lighter eye as well, especially considering other tracks are called "Sufferin' Tarnation (Surf Western)" and "Where Whitie Ain't Allowed," an instrumental aside from the movie sample which provides the title. It isn't all fun and games, though, and on songs like the forceful "Press Escape," where the sly computer metaphor of the title hints at the wracked lyrics and strong music of the track, the Abecedarians come into a power all their own.

Abecedarians - Resin  (flac  264mb)
 
01 Dinner 4:48
02 Spaghetti Western 6:24
03 Where Whitie Ain't Allowed 3:52
04 Wild Flowers Grow From the Trash 4;19
05 Press Escape 5:00
06 Laugh at Yourself 3:36
07 Sufferin' Tarnation 3:16
08 Panic in Needle Park 6:51

Abecedarians - Resin     (ogg  93mb)

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This 2x10" vinyl was released in a numbered edition of 1750 copies. Quite rare then and in more ways than one. the only american band to be signed by the Manchester based Factory Records label this release comprises of early demos (from '83-'85) It's the the best of the genre with a deep post-punk mood coupled with a west-coast groove. This split personality manifests itself in a variety of unique ways from the driving rythmns, twangy guitars and snaking bass-lines of post-punk to the ethereal vocal delivery and unorthodox compositions of the new-wave, never forgetting the easy groove that places this band as pure los angelenos. the schizophrenia also translates into the nature of the songs (i guess being a collection of demos a cohesive thread was never likely to run through the compilation) we have moody stuff, happy stuff, dancy stuff, groovy stuff, hard stuff, soft stuff, transatlantic stuff, eastern stuff, we get all kinds of instrumentation from drum machines and synths to real drums and guitars and exotic instruments - all handled in refreshing ways. This collection is all over the place then but i think that is why i like it and if you are looking to check out this band this album would be the perfect place to start as a fan of new wave and post punk this release stands comparison with the best of the genre with a deep post-punk mood coupled with a west-coast groove. This split personality manifests itself in a variety of unique ways from the driving rythmns, twangy guitars and snaking bass-lines of post-punk to the ethereal vocal delivery and unorthodox compositions of the new-wave, never forgetting the easy groove that places this band as pure los angelenos. the schizophrenia also translates into the nature of the songs (i guess being a collection of demos a cohesive thread was never likely to run through the compilation) we have moody stuff, happy stuff, dancy stuff, groovy stuff, hard stuff, soft stuff, transatlantic stuff, eastern stuff, we get all kinds of instrumentation from drum machines and synths to real drums and guitars and exotic instruments - all handled in refreshing ways. this collection is all over the place then but i think that is why i like it and if you are looking to check out this band this album would be the perfect place to start.

 Abecedarians - The Other Side Of The Fence   (flac  315mb)

01 Beneath the City of the Hedonistic Bohemians 4:41
02 Ghosts 5:57
03 John's Pop 3:10
04 Come On 4:43
05 Classic 3:32
06 Spaghetti Western 5:51
07 Switch 4:51
08 Where's Karen 2:35
09 Soil 6:08
10 The Other Side of the Fence 3:57
11 Wildflower 4:15
12 They Said Tomorrow 5:21

 Abecedarians - The Other Side Of The Fence    (ogg   125mb)

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Something very rare, compiled from a collection of unknown gen cassette tapes and very likely the first representation of this Orange County, California based new wave act on Dime. Although not an obscure band, Abecedarians had a very strong local following, they are best known for two things: the Factory Records 12" single "Smiling Monarchs"; and the total unavailability of their entire back catelogue. Smiling Monarchs is a big nod to 1983-period New Order with a remarkable resemblance to NO's Your Silent Face. By sheer coincidence, the final Factory release of the single was produced by New Order singer, Bernard Sumner. I prefer the demo version included here.

On the whole the band's sound leans more towards other UK acts such as Modern English and B-Movie. However on the more instrumental tracks, such as the Mardis Gras recordings, influences such as Brian Eno and, at times, the Durutti Column are all too evident. In their time, Abecedarians released just one single, Smiling Monarchs, one EP, Eureka and one studio album, Resin. Since their break-up in 1988, two compilations of their work, AB-CD and The Other Side of the Fence have been made available. All of these are long deleted and currently fetch silly money (in excess of $100) on various auction sites.

Abecedarians - Demo Recordings 1983 - 1988 (flac  607mb)

01. Wildflower
02. They Said Tomorrow
Final versions of these tracks eventually found their way on to 'The Other Side of the Fence' compilation.
1984 Factory Demos
03 Smiling Monarchs
04. Benways Carnival
1985 Mardis Gras Demos
05. Mardis Gras
06. untitled
07. untitled
1985 Live
08. Pipe Dream
November 1985 - Eureka Demos
09. Beneath the City of the Hedonistic Bohemians
10. Surf Western
11. The Misery of Cities
12. untitled
13. Hip Hip Hooray
1987 Resin Demos
14. Laugh at Yourself
15. Surf Western
16. Dinner
17. untitled
1988 The Last Demos
18. untitled
19. Lift off
20. untitled
21. untitled
22. Brand New Song
23. untitled
24. untitled
25. Money

 Abecedarians - Demo Recordings 1983 - 1988     (ogg  231 mb)

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.

RhoDeo 1829 Roots

Hello,


Today's artist is a Venezuelan band that plays a blend of disco, acid jazz and funk mixed with Latin rhythms. In addition to releasing eleven critically acclaimed albums, the band is lauded internationally for their explosive, live shows, spanning nearly 60 countries. .... N'Joy

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A performance-oriented Latin dance band from Venezuela heavily indebted to funk and disco (with a dash of acid jazz), los Amigos Invisibles made a big splash in their homeland in 1995 with their debut album, A Typical and Autoctonal Venezuelan Dance Band, which featured odd Japanese animé-style artwork. Bandmembers Julio Briceño (vocals), José Luis Pardo (guitar, songwriting), Armando Figueredo (keyboards), Mauricio Arcas (raps), José Rafael Torres (bass), and Juan Manuel Roura (drums) supported their growing reputation with a series of underground dance parties at the mostly deserted clubs of Caracas.

In 1995, EMI released their debut album, A Typical and Autoctonal Venezuelan Dance Band, which was a huge success in their home country, enabling them to sell out clubs around Caracas for the next couple of years. In 1996, David Byrne's Luaka Bop record label signed the group after discovering a CD they had planted in a New York City record store. Shortly thereafter, they went into the studio to work on their sophomore record, The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera, which was released in 1998 and received accolades from press and musicians alike. Two years later and under the direction of famed producer Philip Steir, they released Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey into Space, which received a Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Latin Alternative Album" and a Latin Grammy in the category of "Best Rock Album." Following the success of this release, the band relocated to New York City and began work on their masterpiece, The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1, produced by "Little" Louie Vega of Masters at Work. Initially, the album was released in the UK and Japan through Long Lost Brothers Records, though a year later, Luaka Bop released the album in the US, resulting in another Latin Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Alternative Latin Album."

After ending their recording contract with Luaka Bop, Los Amigos Invisibles started their own label, Gozadera Records. The first release, Chill Out Venezuela, was a multiple-genre collection of Venezuelan artists, produced by Los Amigos Invisibles. For Gozadera's next release and the band's fifth studio album, they enlisted Dimitri from Paris to produce a collection of Venezuelan cover songs entitled, Super Pop Venezuela, which was initially offered in their native country only. In 2006, the album was released in the US, landing the band yet another Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Urban Latin Alternative Album."

After three years of anticipation, Los Amigos Invisibles released their album, Commercial, in a joint effort between Gozadera Records and Nacional Records. In an interview with America's National Public Radio, the band explained that the change in style was not by accident, nor was the decision to name the latest project Commercial. Rather, it is a tongue-in-cheek reference to band's former musical self. The release was a hit in Venezuela, debuting at #1 on the music charts. During the week of July 7, 2009, their song, "Vivire Para Ti" featuring Natalia Lafourcade, was offered as Single of the Week in the iTunes music store and in November 2009, Commercial won the Latin Grammy in the category of Best Alternative Music Album.

Following their Grammy win, 2010 saw festival appearances and shows throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In 2011, the band released Not So Commercial, an EP of outtakes from the Commercial album. This album was a nominee for the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop, Rock or Urban Album in 2012. In April 2013, Repeat After Me was released. This album received a Grammy nomination in the category of "Best Latin Alternative Album" and a Latin Grammy in the category of "Best Alternative Album", "Song of the year" and "Best Cover". In 2014, keyboardist Armando Figueredo and guitarist José Luis Pardo (Cheo) left the band. Both were original members. A year later, they released Acústico, a compilation of their greatest hits played in an acoustic style. 2017 saw the release of the album El Paradise. This was followed by a concert tour in the United States.


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This Venezuelan funky acid jazz ensemble delivers some of the most groovy and fun music you can run into these days. Granted it's in Spanish, you only need to have ears in order to enjoy their work. With "A Typical & Autoctonal Venezuelan Dance Band", their debut album, they deliver 20 songs loaded with beats that remind of a blend between Santana and Steely Dan. Highlights of the album are: the opening track ("Dame Tu Color"), "Dime", "Nada que decir", "Vuelo Hasta Tus Pies" (along with "Guffi's Mix", which it blends with seamlessly) and the impossible-to-ignore "Boogaloo Pa' Los Panas" (which throws the album into a Salsa loop that is closer to Fania All Stars than anything else). All through the album you can find bits and pieces that serve as a starting point for some of the Amigos' best known recordings, which would be found in following works after they were discovered by David Byrne who signed them to this label, Luaka Bop.

Los Amigos Invisibles - A Typical & Autoctonal Venezueland Dance Band     (flac  495mb)

01 Dame Tu Color 5:27
02 En El Cielo O En Tu Boca 4:09
03 Dime 3:40
04 El Humo Que Respiro Cuando Estoy Contigo 3:09
05 Nada Que Decir 3:25
06 Siente 3:40
07 Biicuaiiet 1:45
08 Vuelo Hasta Tus Piés 3:36
09 Guffi's Mix 1:44
10 Encántame 3:17
11 Pelusa 1:58
12 Dialecto Divino 4:37
13 Porno Song 6:13
14 En Dónde Está Lo Bello 4:11
15 Mauri's Mix 1:17
16 Acid Jazz De Las Mujeres Locas 3:19
17 Más Dulce 3:16
18 Boogaloo Pa' Los Panas 2:44
19 Vamonos 6:08
20 Ultima Pieza 0:31

Los Amigos Invisibles - A Typical & Autoctonal Venezueland Dance Band   (ogg   172mb )

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The Invisible Friends (LAI) is a Venezuelan band that has been called on many occasions as "Latin Funk" or "Acid Jazz", beyond the labels that said the drummer Juan Manuel Roura ("Mamel") said  that the LAI music they categorized as "music made to dance", in the second album of the invisible "The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera" is the song that is probably the first true and great success of LAI, "Ponerte En Cuatro", remembered by many for the" bunny "and the" cowgirl girl ".

Listeners tired of hearing Latin dance music riddled with drum machines and cheap synthesizers will be enchanted by The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera, as los Amigos Invisibles are fully committed to playing all their own instruments. And they do so quite well, turning in a series of infectious, good-spirited Latin funk/jazz/disco jams that sound undeniably Latin but also, true to the title, quite modern.

Los Amigos Invisibles - The New Sound Of The Venezuelan Gozadera   (flac  447mb)

01 Güelcome 0:19
02 Ultra-Funk 3:39
03 Mi Linda 3:46
04 Sexy 3:24
05 Las Lycras Del Avila 3:02
06 Groupie 4:40
07 Otra Vez 6:21
08 Cachete A Cachete 4:48
09 Balada De Chusy 3:53
10 Asomacho 1:16
11 Ponerte En Cuatro 4:33
12 Mango Cool 2:54
13 Nerio Compra Contestadora 0:24
14 Quiero Desintegrar A Tu Novio 3:26
15 El Disco Anal 6:14
16 No Me Pagan 3:20
17 Cha-Chaborro 2:45
18 Aldemaro En Su Camaro 3:15
19 The New Sound Of The Venezuelan Gozadera 5:05

Los Amigos Invisibles - The New Sound Of The Venezuelan Gozadera   (ogg  169mb)

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Perhaps even better than their debut American release, Arepa 3000 proves that los Amigos Invisibles have an unlimited number of musical rabbits to pull out of their hats. This band from Venezuela manages to infuse all of their songs with a funky Latin flavor while tromping through swanky lounges, disco halls, and the occasional horse race. Named after a common Venezuelan food, this band serves up a tasty buffet of sound. It's no wonder they've found themselves on David Byrne's prestigious world label Luaka Bop, which seems to find the best music, regardless of ethnic markings, from around the world.

Los Amigos Invisiblesare quite possibly the greatest funk band ! They can be funkier than George Clinton, more bossa nova than Antonio Carlos Jobim, more housier than most house music producers, & their music will also range from salsa, to pop, to disco. Most of their lyrics are very perverted, but at the same time, they can be very comical. Cool stuff. Even if you don't speak Spanish...

 Los Amigos Invisibles - Arepa 3000 (A Venezuelan Journey Into Space)   ( flac  426mb)

01 Intro 0:35
02 Arepa 3000 2:35
03 La Vecina 4:19
04 Qué Rico 4:00
05 Cuchi-Cuchi 3:44
06 Si Estuvieras Aquí 4:11
07 Masturbation Session 4:53
08 Mami Te Extraño 3:21
09 Mujer Policía 4:14
10 No Le Metas Mano 0:34
11 Amor 4:10
12 Pipi 2:11
13 El Barro 2:21
14 Domingo Echao 2:35
15 Piazo E' Perra 3:28
16 El Baile Del Sobón 3:28
18 Fonnovo 4:07
18 Caliente 6:57
19 Llegaste Tarde 4:41

   Los Amigos Invisibles - Arepa 3000 (ogg  154mb)

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Some things are absolutely certain. No matter how cold and endless the winter may seem, summer will eventually come, and with it a plethora of Latin-tinged dance grooves designed for chill days on the beach and hot nights in the club. The Venezuelan six-piece Los Amigos Invisibles know this, which is probably why on their third album they left the worldbeat cul-de-sac of David Byrne's Luka Bop label in favor of the less internationally specific realm of house music, teaming up with Nuyorican dons Masters at Work to produce The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1. But fortunately for the group, Louie Vega and Kenny Dope refuse to just rub them down with house grooves and send them on their way. In fact, contrary to what most folks would expect from an album bearing the iconic MAW logo, most of the tracks here are light-footed Latin numbers, with "Esto Es Lo Que Hay" and "Calne" sounding like pure traditional music played overhead in your corner pupusaria. But the boys do groove ahead on "Ease Your Mind" and "Una Disco Llena," which might have you believing these beats were made with samplers, rather than the real thing. Blending original roots with big-city beats, Los Amigos Invisibles already have their thongs (the sandals) on.

 Los Amigos Invisibles - The Venezuelan Zinga Son Vol.1   (flac  499mb)

01 Rico Pa' Goza 0:08
02 Comodón Johnson 4:22
03 Una Disco Llena 5:31
04 Venezuelan Zinga Son 2:30
05 Playa Azul 4:39
06 Ease Your Mind 5:27
07 Gerundio 5:21
08 Ojos Cerrando 2:24
09 Esto Es Lo Que Hay 6:19
10 Majunche 2:56
11 Mambo Chimbo 4:10
12 Diablo 4:23
13 Calne 4:12
14 Superfucker 5:39
15 Bruja 8:55

Los Amigos Invisibles - The Venezuelan Zinga Son Vol.1 (ogg  160mb)

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RhoDeo 1829 Teachings 3

Hello, the curse holds Vettel can't win his home grand prix, he was leading and in total command but then all of a sudden he was off the track and into the barrier, a little weather god had struck. Meanwhile the car sea had opened for Hamilton and he took the 25 points. Bottas, Raikonen and Verstappen followed the Red Bull lacked speed and he couldn't really bother Raikonen.






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Essential reading for any deep thinker and open-minded person who has experienced "non-ordinary realities.".

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge was published by the University of California Press in 1968 as a work of anthropology, though many critics contend that it is a work of fiction. It was written by Carlos Castaneda and submitted as his Master’s thesis in the school of Anthropology. It purports to document the events that took place during an apprenticeship with a self-proclaimed Yaqui Indian Sorcerer, don Juan Matus from Sonora, Mexico between 1960 and 1965.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section, The Teachings, is a first person narrative that documents Castaneda's initial interactions with don Juan. He speaks of his encounters with Mescalito (a teaching spirit inhabiting all peyote plants), divination with lizards and flying using the "yerba del diablo" (lit. "Devil's Weed"; Jimson weed), and turning into a blackbird using "humito" (lit. "Little smoke"; a smoked powder containing Psilocybe mexicana). The second, A Structural Analysis, is an attempt, Castaneda says, at "disclos[ing] the internal cohesion and the cogency of don Juan’s Teachings."......'N Joy

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"Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary.

This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.


Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it."




Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan 3 (mp3  55mb)

3 The Teachings of Don Juan part 14-19  60 :01
bonus epub
Carlos Castaneda-The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

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previously

Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan 1 (mp3  46mb)
Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan 2 (mp3  55mb)

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