RhoDeo 1908 Roots

Hello, those were the days when a plain singer could become a star, i guess a few decades ago people weren't bombarded with imagery whilst radio ruled, specially in the socalled 2nd world (latin america). These days today's artist would have a tough time to become a global star, which she undoubtely was during the last 3 decades of the last century, but then she was a persona non grata to the Fidel regime which automatically showered her with recognition by the communist hating US and it's submissive allys, a cold war star if there ever was one.



Today's artist was one of Latin music's most respected vocalists. A ten-time Grammy nominee, who sang only in her native Spanish language, received a Smithsonian Lifetime Achievement award, a National Medal of the Arts, and honorary doctorates from Yale University and the University of Miami. A street in Miami was even renamed in her honor, and her trademark orange, red, and white polka dot dress and shoes have been placed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute of Technology. The Hollywood Wax Museum includes a statue of the Cuba-born songstress. According to the European Jazz Network, she "commands her realm with a down-to-earth dignity unmistakably vibrant in her wide smile and striking pose.".....N'Joy

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Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born on October 21, 1925 in the diverse, working-class neighborhood of Santos Suárez in Havana, Cuba, the second of four children. Her father, Simón Cruz, was a railroad stoker and her mother, Catalina Alfonso was a homemaker who took care of an extended family. Celia was one of the eldest among fourteen children- brothers, sisters, and many cousins- she often had to put the younger ones to bed by singing them to sleep. While growing up in Cuba's diverse 1930s musical climate, Cruz listened to many musicians who influenced her adult career, including Fernando Collazo, Abelardo Barroso, Pablo Quevedo and Arsenio Rodríguez. Despite her father's opposition and the fact that she was Catholic, as a child Cruz learned Santería songs from her neighbor who practiced Santería.

As a teenager, her aunt took her and her cousin to cabarets to sing, but her father encouraged her to attend school in the hope she would become a teacher. After high school she attended the Normal School for Teachers in Havana with the intent of becoming a literature teacher. At the time being a singer was not viewed as an entirely respectable career. However, one of her teachers told her that as an entertainer she could earn in one day what most Cuban teachers earned in a month. Cruz's big break came in 1950 when Myrta Silva, the singer with Cuba's Sonora Matancera, returned to her native Puerto Rico. Since they were in need of a new singer, the band decided to give the young Celia Cruz a chance. She auditioned in June, and at the end of July she was asked to join as lead singer.[10] She won the support of Sonora's band leader, Rogelio Martínez, and went on to record hits such as "Yembe Laroco" and "Caramelo". Soon her name was bigger than the band's. During her 15 years with Sonora Matancera, she appeared in cameos in some Mexican films such as Rincón criollo (1950), Una gallega en La Habana (1955) and Amorcito corazón (1961), toured all over Latin America, and became a regular at Havana's famous Tropicana nightspot.

After Fidel Castro assumed control of Cuba in 1959, when the Sonora Matancera left Cuba to perform in Mexico in June 1960, they did not return. Cruz and her husband, Pedro Knight, were prohibited from returning to their homeland and became citizens of the United States. In 1965, Cruz left the group and in 1966, Cruz and Tito Puente began an association that would lead to eight albums for Tico Records. The albums were not as successful as expected. However, Puente and Cruz later joined the Vaya Records label. There, she joined accomplished pianist Larry Harlow and was soon headlining a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. Cruz's 1974 album with Johnny Pacheco, Celia y Johnny, was very successful, and Cruz soon found herself in a group named the Fania All-Stars, which was an ensemble of salsa musicians from every orchestra signed by the Fania label (owner of Vaya Records).

In 1976, she participated in a documentary film Salsa about the Latin culture, along with figures like Dolores del Río and Willie Colón. She also made three albums with Willie Colon (1977, 1981, 1987). With a voice described as operatic, Cruz moved through high and low pitches with an ease that belied her age, and her style improvising rhymed lyrics added a distinctive flavor to salsa. Her flamboyant costume, which included various colored wigs, tight sequined dresses, and very high heels, became so famous that one of them was acquired by the Smithsonian institution. During the 1980s, Cruz began to garner the international recognition that was her due, she made many tours in Latin America and Europe, doing multiple concerts and television shows wherever she went, and singing both with younger stars and stars of her own era. She began a crossover of sorts, when she participated in the 1988 feature film Salsa alongside Robby Draco Rosa.

In 1990, Cruz won a Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Performance – Ray Barretto & Celia Cruz – Ritmo en el Corazón. She later recorded an anniversary album with Sonora Matancera. In the same year, she was recipient of the Excellence Award at the 1990 Lo Nuestro Awards. In 1992, she starred with Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas in the film The Mambo Kings. Cruz's popularity reached its highest level after she appeared in the The Mambo Kings. Cruz also appeared in the film The Perez Family. She sang a duet version of "Loco de Amor," with David Byrne, in the Jonathan Demme movie Something Wild.In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Cruz the National Medal of Arts. In the same year, she was inducted into Billboards Latin Music Hall of Fame along with fellow Cuban musician Cachao López. In 1999, Cruz was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.Cruz continued to record and perform until sidelined by a brain tumor in 2002. While recovering from surgery to remove the tumor, she managed to make it in to the studio in early 2003 to record Regalo de Alma. Her surgery was only partially successful and she died July 16, 2003. The passing of the "Queen of Salsa" left a huge gap in Latin music, but also a remarkable catalog to document her reign.

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Although fans may have had high expectations for the first album recorded by Celia Cruz after she moved to one of the top labels in Latin music (Tico), Son con Guaguanco doesn't disappoint in the least. The record, produced by Al Santiago and featuring perhaps the best salsa band ever formed (the Alegre All Stars), positively sizzles with heat and energy. With tight arrangements, a crack group behind her, and no down-tempo material in sight, Cruz lets it all out, while the sections (brass, wind, percussion) follow her every move and inject more energy between the lines. Highlights include the opening "Bemba Colora," the title song, and "No Hay Manteca."

 Celia Cruz ‎- Son Con Guaguancó      (flac  213mb)

01 Bemba Colora 3:30
02 Son Con Guaguanco 2:45
03 Es La Humanidad 2:23
04 Lo Mismo Si, Que No 2:55
05 Oye Mi Consejo 2:45
06 Se Me Perdió La Cartera 2:30
07 Tremendo Guaguancó 3:07
08 Permíteme 2:30
09 No Hay Manteca 2:30
10 El Cohete 2:40
11 La Adivinanza 2:48
12 Amarra La Yegua 3:10

Celia Cruz ‎- Son Con Guaguancó    (ogg  94mb)

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Being so used to Celia Super Star, it's hard to believe that by 1974, she was definitely the older generation as far as the young idea was concerned. Then came this record, pairing the star of the parents and the star of the kids in a stroke of musical brilliance and marketing genius. The rest is history, except that this -- the first of the series -- was also the best.

Celia Cruz - Celia (& Johnny Pacheco)    (flac  292mb)

01 Quimbara 4:55
02 Toro Mata 5:38
03 Vieja Luna 3:12
04 El Paso Del Mulo 4:40
05 Tengo El Idde 4:59
06 Lo Tuyo Es Mental 3:12
07 Canto A La Habana 5:30
08 No Mercedes 4:16
09 El Tumbao Y Celia 4:51
10 El Pregon Del Pascador 5:03

Celia Cruz - Celia (& Johnny Pacheco)  (ogg    127mb)

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Just one year after their Celia & Johnny album produced the massive hit "Quimbara," Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco were back for Tremendo Caché. Nearly a ringer for its excellent predecessor, the album kicked off right with the heavily risque "Cucala," which Cruz pulled off with panache. The band is identical to that played on Celia & Johnny, with powerful arrangements coming from Pacheco, Bobby Valentín, and Pappo Lucca, among others. For those who feared a letdown from an album coming so soon after their first collaboration, Tremendo Caché was quite an achievement.

Celia Cruz - Tremendo Caché (with Johnny Pacheco)      (flac  230mb)

01 Cucala 3:48
02 Orizah Eh 4:15
03 Tres Dias De Carnaval 4:58
04 No Me Hables De Amor 3:19
05 Dime Si Llegue A Tiempo 3:49
06 La Sopa En Botella 5:08
07 De La Verdegue 3:00
08 Ni Hablar 3:11
09 Rico Changi 4:22
10 No Aguanto Mas 3:31

Celia Cruz - Tremendo Caché (with Johnny Pacheco)  (ogg  102mb)

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Introducing is far from Celia Cruz's debut; it was originally released in 1978, well into the Cuban-born superstar's third decade as one of the biggest stars in salsa. Her first album for the Fania label after a long and fruitful association with Tito Puente on the Tico label, this album shows that Cruz was still at the top of her game even without Puente's input. A strictly traditional salsa record with no period-specific elements to court the mainstream audience (no attempts at disco crossover, in other words), Introducing contains some of Cruz's most beloved songs, including feisty versions of standards like "Bemba Colora" and "Cucala," along with charming lesser-known tunes like "Historia de Una Rumba." By this point in her career, Celia Cruz knew exactly what she was all about, and so Introducing contains none of the sometimes-misguided pop cover versions of her earlier years. The album so straightforwardly arranged and recorded that it could have been recorded at any point in her career.

Celia Cruz - Introducing... Celia Cruz    (flac  414mb)

01 Quimbara 4:49
02 Soy Antillana 6:12
03 A Santa Barbara 3:27
04 Yerbero Moderno 4:35
05 Ritmo Tambor Y Flores 5:27
06 Sabroso Son Cubano 2:50
07 Bemba Colora 3:23
08 Me Voy Contigo 5:55
09 Cucala 3:45
10 Cuando Tu Me Quieras 2:26
11 Besitos De Coco 4:25
12 Berimbau 5:10
13 El Tumbao Y Celia 4:51
14 Historia De Una Rumba 5:30
15 Bombora Quina 2:43
16 Aye Mi Cuba 4:53

Celia Cruz - Introducing... Celia Cruz  (ogg  177mb)

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RhoDeo 1908 Aetix

Hello, music news of the day was undoubtedly the death of Mark Hollis (age 64), frontman of Talk Talk, admittedly he had fully retreated from the music scene since 1997 after the release of his solo album. Over the years the music of Talk Talk has become ever more sanctified, and its true, earlier today i listened to Spirit of Eden and 30 years later it remains a devastatingly beautiful album, in a way there was no where to go as their label EMI had proven to be run by short term profit nin com poops. Anyway the fade out continued with their last official album Laughing Stock and even after Mark Hollis released a solo album gave rise to the hope of a Talk Talk revival Hollis was clear that was not to be. In the end he had said everything there was to say. Thusfar it's unclear what caused his untimely death..

Here a link on Mark Hollis and Talk Talk career, I specially point out the video Its my Life (that got blocked by EMI) , because it shows what inspired Mark and the band, unfortunatly they were to far ahead of the times. Anyway it's a good read.Mark Hollis: reluctant pop star




Today's artists were one of the smartest -- and catchiest -- British pop bands to emerge from the punk and new wave explosion of the late '70s. From the tense, jerky riffs of their early singles to the lushly arranged, meticulous pop of their later albums, their music has always been driven by the hook-laden songwriting of guitarist Andy Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding. While popular success has eluded them in both Britain and America, the group has developed a devoted cult following in both countries that remains loyal over two decades after their first records......N-Joy

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Before the band finally settled on a name: XTC, the core duo of Andy Partridge (guitars & vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass & vocals) went through many band names in the previous 5 years,  Terry Chambers (drums) joined in 1973 and keyboard player Barry Andrews followed in 1976.  By this time (77), the punk rock movement was in full swing, and XTC had found their style, a unique brand of hyperactive pop mixed with funk, punk, ska, reggae, and art rock. That year they signed with Virgin and released their debut LP White Music in January 1978. White Music received favorable reviews and entered the British top 40, but lead single "Statue of Liberty" was banned by the BBC for making allegedly lewd references to the famous statue ("in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt")...yes 30 years ago those censorists assumed getting a hard on from a copper statue, or maybe it was to prevent young men getting the wrong idea and emigrate to the States..outrageous either way...
Their second effort Go2 came 8 months later, it had a limited edition bonus disc Go + (dub mixes of songs from the album). The title was inspired by the Japanese strategy game GO and the fact that it was their second album. In 1980 Andrews left to become one of Fripps League of gentlemen and afterwards went on to form Shriekback. He was replaced by guitarist and keyboardist Dave Gregory. With his arrival, the band scored their first charting single, Moulding's "Life Begins at the Hop". The loss of Andrews' distinctive keyboard playing started the band on a path towards a more traditional rock sound. The resulting album, Drums and Wires, contained the band's first big hit, "Making Plans for Nigel",  the album found the band branching out into more overtly political topics, culminating in the unhinged ranting of "Complicated Game", which became one of the band's most well-known non-hits. During this period, Partridge also further indulged his love of dub, releasing a solo LP in 1980 under the name 'Mr Partridge'. The album, Take Away/The Lure of Salvage, featured radical dub deconstructions of music from the preceding XTC albums.

Their 1980 LP, Black Sea spawned the hit singles "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" and "Generals and Majors". The last major hit of XTC's touring phase was "Senses Working Overtime", the first single from their double album English Settlement and a top 10 hit in 1982. At the peak of their popularity, the band embarked on a major tour, but Partridge suffered a mental breakdown on stage during one of the first concerts of the tour in Paris on March 18, 1982. Andy Partridge's breakdown, caused by the loss of his valium supply on which he become dependant since his teenager years, manifested itself as uncontrollable stage fright. the european and US tours were cancelled and since then, XTC have been exclusively a studio band, although they have given occasional live-to-air performances from radio stations, and a handful of TV appearances. Drummer Chambers was more or less forced to leave, left without the performances income and was never replaced as from then on this role would be taken on by hired session hands.

Mummer (83) saw Partridge cooling his heels with pastoral songs like "Love on a Farmboy's Wages", the band's next album took a noisy left turn. 1984's The Big Express, surprised both their record company and fans alike with its abrasive sound and became XTC's poorest seller to date . XTC responded with a project that was intended as a homage to 1960s pop and psychedelic music by groups such as the Beatles, The Byrds, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd and the Pretty Things and released 25'o clock a mini album under the name of The Dukes of Stratosphear, 2 years later they had another go and released a full album "Psonic Psunspot". 3 years after a compilation (Anthology) of those 2 albums was released under the colourfull title  Chips From The Chocolate Fireball (An Anthology),

In 1986, the band travelled to Todd Rundgren's studio-in-the-woods in Woodstock, New York to record Skylarking. Although the pairing of XTC and Rundgren was highly anticipated by fans, the sessions were less than enjoyable for the band. Rundgren had insisted that the band send him, in advance, demos of all the songs that they thought they might tackle for the record. When the band got to Woodstock, Rundgren had already worked out a running order for both the recording and sequence of the album itself. The two egos of Rundgren and Partridge clashed frequently during the recording of Skylarking . Yet the album earned critical accolades and sold well. The band's follow up, Oranges and Lemons, produced by Paul Fox, was their biggest seller yet, with thanks to the singles getting heavy airplay on MTV.

Their 1992 album, Nonsuch (named after Henry VIII's fabled palace), united them with famed UK producer Gus Dudgeon and drummer Dave Mattacks. In spite of the LP's success, soon after it was released a contractual dispute with their label, Virgin Records, saw XTC go "on strike" from 1992 through 1998, finally resulting in the termination of their contract. After leaving Virgin, Partridge had their accounts audited and it was discovered that the company had withheld substantial royalty payments from them(surprise ). The settlement of the accounts provided the group with much-needed cash flow, allowing Partridge and Moulding to install fully-equipped studios and work comfortably at home. They are now able to record the majority of their work themselves, they formed their own label, Idea Records, and embarked on the recording of the ambitious "Apple Venus" project, a collection of the best material written during the band's dispute with Virgin. This didnt go down as smoothly as expected as long time member, Dave Gregory,  left,  again because of loosing out financially, it caused some upheavel. The band's next record, Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) was the guitar-heavy collection Gregory would have preferred. In October 2005, the two albums were reissued together in the 4-CD Apple Box collection.

In November 2006, Partridge told several interviewers that Moulding no longer had any interest in writing, performing or even listening to music. Partridge has said he would not continue XTC without Moulding, and that therefore he has been forced to regard XTC "in the past tense," with no likelihood of a new project unless Moulding should have a change of heart. Partridge meanwhile jammed with Martin Barker and Barry Andrews (both Shriekback) and released a double CD under the name of Monstrance.

XTC's lack of commercial success isn't because their music isn't accessible -- their bright, occasionally melancholy, melodies flow with more grace than most bands -- it has more to do with the group constantly being out of step with the times. However, the band has left behind a remarkably rich and varied series of albums that make a convincing argument that XTC is the great lost pop band.

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Following Go 2, keyboardist Barry Andrews left XTC and, rather than finding a replacement keyboard player, the band opted to recruit another guitarist (who could also play keyboards), Dave Gregory. The album that followed the lineup change, Drums and Wires, marks a turning point for the band, with a more subdued set of songs that reflect an increasing songwriting proficiency. The aimless energy of the first two albums is focused into a cohesive statement with a distinctive voice that retains their clever humor, quirky wordplay, and decidedly British flavor. Musically, Drums and Wires, titled to reflect the big drum sound they developed for the album, is certainly driven by the powerful rhythms and angular, mainly minimalistic arrangements, but the addition of a second guitarist also allows for some inventive and interesting guitar work (the "wires") that made up for the lack of Andrews' odd flourishes -- the tension between the two sounds creates some truly inspired, nervy pop. Colin Moulding also comes into his own as a songwriter, penning XTC's first substantial hit, the new wave classic "Making Plans for Nigel."

XTC - Drums And Wires ( 386mb)

01 Making Plans For Nigel 4:14
02 Helicopter 3:55
03 Day In Day Out 3:08
04 When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty 3:22
05 Ten Feet Tall 3:17
06 Roads Girdle The Globe 4:51
07 Real By Reel 3:47
08 Millions 5:39
09 That Is The Way 2:57
10 Outside World 2:41
11 Scissor Man 4:00
12 Complicated Game 5:05
13 Life Begins At The Hop 3:49
14 Chain Of Command 2:34
15 Limelight 2:27

XTC - Drums And Wires (ogg  135mb)

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XTC continue on with the big drum sound of Drums and Wires, adding more polish and an even heavier-hitting approach for Black Sea -- their arrangements are fuller and they rock harder than ever before. Where Drums and Wires implied social commentary, Black Sea more directly addresses sociopolitical concerns, handling them not strictly in a theoretical sense, but rather showing a human response to the circumstances. Of course, the band's skewed outlook and mid-'60s pop sense keeps things from becoming too heavy -- included are some of their finest songs, like "Respectable Street," "Generals and Majors," and "Towers of London," as well as the thoroughly enjoyable pop fluff throwaway "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" to keep the mood light. All in all, there isn't a bad song in the bunch -- Black Sea is their most consistent album to date -- and although XTC always operated on the fringes, the album is their most commercial-sounding, fitting in perfectly with the new wave of the late '70s/early '80s. This 2001 remaster reissue adds three tracks -- "Smokeless Zone," "Don't Lose Your Temper," and "The Somnambulist" -- .

XTC - Black Sea ( 384mb)

01 Respectable Street 3:38
02 Generals And Majors 4:05
03 Living Through Another Cuba 4:44
04 Love At First Sight 3:08
05 Rocket From A Bottle 3:30
06 No Language In Our Lungs 4:53
07 Towers Of London 5:24
08 Paper And Iron (Notes And Coins) 4:17
09 Burning With Optimism's Flames 4:16
10 Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me) 3:57
11 Travels In Nihilon 7:04
12 Smokeless Zone 3:51
13 Don't Lose Your Temper 2:33
14 The Somnambulist 4:38

XTC - Black Sea (ogg  140mb)

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XTC took full advantage of their studio-bound status with The Big Express, creating their most painstakingly detailed, multi-layered, sonically dynamic album to date. The more upbeat material and brighter sound recall some of the band's earlier moments, but most of all, The Big Express signals a turning point for the band, setting the blueprint for their later approach -- a combination of studio perfection matched with impeccable songcraft that results in a thoroughly consistent and enjoyable album beginning to end. Skylarking, the album that followed, gets much more glory, and certainly its impact was greater (this one was virtually ignored), but really, The Big Express covers much of the same territory and is just as strong an album in many ways. [Three songs were added to the middle of the reissue -- "Red Brick Dream," "Washaway," and "Blue Overall" -- but they fit seamlessly into the complete picture.]

XTC - The Big Express ( 324mb)

01 Wake Up 4:40
02 All You Pretty Girls 3:40
03 Shake You Donkey Up 4:19
04 Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her 3:50
05 This World Over 5:37
06 The Everyday Story Of Smalltown 3:53
07 I Bought Myself A Liarbird 2:49
08 Reign Of Blows 3:27
09 You're The Wish You Are I Had 3:17
10 I Remember The Sun 3:10
11 Train Running Low On Soul Coal 5:19
12 Red Brick Dream 2:03
13 Wash Away 3:01
14 Blue Overall 4:33

XTC - The Big Express (ogg 130mb)

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Working with producer Todd Rundgren didn't necessarily bring XTC a sense of sonic cohesion -- after all, every record since English Settlement followed its own interior logic -- but it did help the group sharpen its focus, making Skylarking its tightest record since Drums and Wires. Ironically, Skylarking had little to do with new wave and everything to do with the lush, post-psychedelic pop of the Beatles and Beach Boys. Combining the charming pastoral feel of Mummer with the classicist English pop of The Big Express, XTC expand their signature sound by enhancing their intelligently melodic pop with graceful, lyrical arrangements and sweeping, detailed instrumentation. Rundgren may have devised the sequencing, helping the record feel like a song cycle even if it doesn't play like one, but what really impresses is the consistency and depth of Andy Partridge's and Colin Moulding's songs. Each song is a small gem, marrying sweet, catchy melodies to decidedly adult lyrical themes, from celebrations of love ("Grass") and marriage ("Big Day") to skepticism about maturation ("Earn Enough for Us") and religion ("Dear God"). Moulding's songs complement Partridge's songs better than before, and each writer is at a melodic and lyrical peak, which Rundgren helps convey with his supple production. The result is a pop masterpiece -- an album that has great ambitions and fulfills them with ease. The initial release of Skylarking didn't feature "Dear God," which was originally the B-side of "Grass." After "Dear God" became an unexpected hit, "Mermaid Smile" was pulled from the album so the hit single could be added.

XTC - Skylarking ( 277mb)

01 Summer's Cauldron 3:19
02 Grass 3:05
03 The Meeting Place 3:14
04 That's Really Super, Supergirl 3:21
05 Ballet For A Rainy Day 2:50
06 1000 Umbrellas 3:44
07 Season Cycle 3:21
08 Earn Enough For Us 2:54
09 Big Day 3:32
10 Another Satellite 4:16
11 Mermaid Smiled 2:26
12 The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul 3:24
13 Dying 2:31
14 Sacrificial Bonfire 3:49
15 Dear God 3:39

XTC - Skylarking (ogg 114mb)

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RhoDeo 1908 Omen 1

Hello, as i was scrolling thru my audio plays, my eye fell on Good Omens and when i did a duckduck first thing that caught my eye IMDB announcing an eagerly awaited mini series about A tale of the bungling of Armageddon, featuring an angel, a demon, an 11-year-old Antichrist, and a doom-saying witch, crazy stuff right in sync with the crazy Trump age, still a few months before it premieres end of May at Amazon, so why not get prepared and listen to what BBC radio 4 made of this....


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It is the coming of the End Times: the Apocalypse is near, and Final Judgement will soon descend upon the human species. This comes as a bit of bad news to the angel Aziraphale (who was the guardian of the Eastern Gate of Eden) and the demon Crowley (who, when he was originally named Crawly, was the serpent who tempted Eve to eat the apple), respectively the representatives of Heaven and Hell on Earth, as they have become used to living their cosy, comfortable lives and have, in a perverse way, taken a liking to humanity. As such, since they are good friends (despite ostensibly representing the polar opposites of Good and Evil), they decide to work together and keep an eye on the Antichrist, destined to be the son of a prominent American diplomat stationed in Britain, and thus ensure he grows up in a way that means he can never decide between Good and Evil, thereby postponing the end of the world.

In fact, Warlock, the child whom everyone thinks is the Anti-Christ, is a normal eleven-year-old boy. Due to the mishandling of several infants in the hospital, the real Anti-Christ is Adam Young, a charismatic and slightly otherworldly eleven-year-old living in Lower Tadfield, Oxfordshire, an idyllic town in Britain. Despite being the harbinger of the Apocalypse, he has lived a perfectly normal life as the son of typical English parents, and as a result has no idea of his true powers. He has three close friends - Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian - who collectively form a gang that is simply referred to as "Them" by the adults.

As the end of the world nears, Adam blissfully and naively uses his powers, changing the world to fit things he reads in a conspiracy theory magazine, such as raising the lost continent of Atlantis and causing Little Green Men to land on earth and deliver a message of goodwill and peace. In the meantime, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse assemble: War (a female war correspondent), Death (a biker), Famine (a dietician and fast-food tycoon), and Pollution (a young man--Pestilence having retired after the discovery of penicillin). The incredibly accurate (yet so highly specific as to be useless) prophecies of Agnes Nutter, 17th-century prophetess, are rapidly coming to pass.

Agnes Nutter was a witch in the 17th century and the only truly accurate prophet to have ever lived. She wrote a book called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, a collection of prophecies that did not sell very well because they were unspectacular, cryptic and all true. She, in fact, decided to publish it only so she could receive a free author's copy. This copy is passed down to her descendants, and is currently owned by her multi-great granddaughter Anathema Device. Agnes was burned at the stake by a mob; however, because she had foreseen her fiery end and had packed 80 pounds of gunpowder and 40 pounds of roofing nails into her petticoats, everyone who participated in the burning was killed instantly.

As the world descends into chaos, Adam attempts to split up the world between his gang. After realizing that by embracing absolute power, he will not be able to continue to grow up as a child in Lower Tadfield, Adam decides to stop the apocalypse.

Anathema, Newton Pulsifer (one of the two last members of the Witchfinder Army), Adam and his gang, Aziraphale and Crowley gather at a military base near Lower Tadfield to stop the Horsemen causing a nuclear war and ending the world. Adam's friends capture War, Pollution, and Famine. Just as Adam's father, the devil, seems to come and force the end of the world, Adam twists everything so his human father shows up instead, and everything is restored.

Gaiman and Pratchett had known each other since 1985. It was their own idea, not that of their publisher, to collaborate on a novel. According to Gaiman, he originally began the book as a parody of Richmal Crompton's William books, named William the Antichrist, but it gradually outgrew the original idea.
Pratchett and Gaiman planned the novel together over lengthy phone conversations, and shared their writing by mailing floppy disks (remember floppy disks?) back and forth.

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According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, the world will end on a Saturday. A Saturday quite soon,...

Events have been set in motion to bring about the End of Days. The armies of Good and Evil are gathering and making their way towards the sleepy English village of Lower Tadfield. The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pollution and Death - have been summoned from the corners of the earth and are assembling.

Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell and his assistant Newton Pulsifier are also en route to Tadfield to investigate some unusual phenomena in the area, while Anathema Device, descendent of prophetess and witch Agnes Nutter, tries to decipher her ancestor's cryptic predictions about exactly where the impending Apocalypse will take place.

Atlantis is rising, fish are falling from the sky; everything seems to be going to the Divine Plan. Everything that is but for the unlikely duo of an angel and a demon who are not all that keen on the prospect of the forthcoming Rapture. Aziraphale (once an angel in the Garden of Eden, but now running an antiquarian bookshop in London), and Crowley (formerly Eden's snake, now driving around London in shades and a vintage Bentley) have been living on Earth for several millennia and have become rather fond of the place. But if they are to stop Armageddon taking place they've got to find and kill the one who will the one bring about the apocalypse: the Antichrist himself.

There's just one small problem: someone seems to have mislaid him...


Dirk Maggs, best known for his adaptation of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, adapted and directed the radio dramatization along with producer Heather Larmour and, of course, Neil Gaiman himself.

Josie Lawrence as Agnes Nutter and Paterson Joseph as Famine, as well as Game of Thrones actor Clive Russell, Julia Deakin, Louise Brealey, Simon Jones, Arsher Ali, Phil Davis, and Mark Benton. The two lead roles of Aziraphale and Crowley will be voiced by Mark Heap (Spaced) and Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), respectively. And, on top of all that, we can expect to hear cameo appearances from both Pratchett and Gaiman themselves.


Gaiman and Pratchett - Good Omens - Episode 1 ( 28min mp3     33mb).


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previously



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RhoDeo 1908 Re Ups 178

Hello,


10 correct requests for this week, 1 cloudy re up, 3 too early , whatever another batch of 35 re-ups (11.7 gig)


These days i'm making an effort to re-up, it will satisfy a smaller number of people which means its likely the update will  expire relatively quickly again as its interest that keeps it live. Nevertheless here's your chance ... asks for re-up in the comments section at the page where the expired link resides, or it will be discarded by me. ....requests are satisfied on a first come first go basis. ...updates will be posted here remember to request from the page where the link died! To keep re-ups interesting to my regular visitors i will only re-up files that are at least 12 months old (the older the better as far as i am concerned), and please check the previous update request if it's less then a year old i won't re-up either.

Looka here , requests fulfilled up to February 19th !... N'Joy

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8x Wavetrain-7-7-7 NOW in Flac (A Certain Ratio - To Each And Everyone, Rip Rig & Panic - Attitude, This Heat - Deceit, Thomas Leer - Contradictions, Bill Nelson - Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam, still in ogg 400 Blows - '.....If I Kissed Her I'd Have To Kill Her First.....' , Hector Zazou - La Perversità, Bill Nelson - Sounding The Ritual Echo (Atmospheres For Dreaming))


3x Aetix Back In Flac (VA - Disco Not Disco 1, VA - Disco Not Disco 2, VA - Disco Not Disco 3)


4x Sundaze Back In Flac (PCO - Music from the Penguin Cafe, PCO - Penguin Cafe Orchestra,
PCO - Broadcasting From Home , PCO - Signs Of Life)


3x Roots Back in Flac (Funky Kingston - Reggae Grooves 68-74, Funky Kingston - Reggae Grooves 2 68-74, VA - Jamaica Funk (Funk And Soul 45's))


4x Aetix Back in Flac (Front Line Assembly - Corroded + Disorder, Front Line Assembly - Gashed Senses And Crossfire, Front Line Assembly - Caustic Grip, Front Line Assembly - EP's 88-90)


3x Aetix Back in Flac (Berlin - Pleasure Victim, Berlin - Love Life, Berlin - Count Three & Pray)



1x Roots NOW in flac (Rhythm & Sound & Tikiman - Showcase)



5x Japan Back in Flac (Shoukichi Kina - Peppermint Tea House, Audio Active - Happy Happer, Pizzicato 5 - Happy End Of The World, Cornelius - Fantasma , Boom Boom Satellites - 7 Ignitions )



3x Sundaze Back in Flac ( DeepChord Presents Echospace - Hash-Bar Loops, DeepChord Echospace - Spatialdimension, Soultek - Reflective)






cloudy files re-up

1x Sundaze Back in Flac ( Seefeel - (Ch-Vox) +StarethroughEP)



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Sundaze 1908

Hello, sometimes you come across an artist who despite having released some 40 albums often in collaboration, hasn't managed to create a website to promote his work. Not sure why one would sabotage ones career like that, but then he hasn't released anything these last 6 years and the website of the label he founded to release his work, Atmoworks has been defunct since too, to me all this shows a lack of understanding of marketing in the age of the internet. Pity, but then age 40 and not much to show for (money-wise) pressure mounts to secure a regular income....


Today's Artist introduces himself as a synthesist, drummer, electronic groove creator and sound sculptor. He mixes experimental sound sculpting with a hybrid of electronic and acoustic grooves. .......N'Joy

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Synthesist, drummer, sound sculptor and electronic groove creator, Peoria-Illinois-based "Vir Unis" (real name: John Strate-Hootman, 26 October 1969, Morton, IL, United States ) is a significant voice in the world of atmospheric / tribal / ambient music. With an emphasis on rhythm and pulse, underpinned by deep synthesizer textures, Vir Unis realizes music that moves between the organic intensity of ever evolving fractal grooves and the harmonic complexity of mist strewn sonic atmospheres. Co-founder of AtmoWorks

After performing as a drummer in various synth pop and new wave bands in the 1980's, he worked for several years in solitude developing atmospheric and experimental music via a simple analog 4-track cassette deck, one effects box, delay pedal, drum machine, and a synthesizer. Acquiring his first computer, Vir Unis was first introduced to digital recording via Sonic Foundry software in 1996. Realizing the vast potential that the digital realm offers the electronic musician, he quickly set about creating a new world of possibilities for himself, both atmospherically and rhythmically. Starting out as a drummer and percussionist, these kinds of software tools helped shape a lot of the ideas that he was developing in his mind, but could not produce with the audio tools of the time, given the limitations of magnetic tape. However, being based in this minimalist approach to creating music, he was accustomed to pushing the instruments that he had to the furthest point and beyond, thus creating an atmosphere in which the imagination could thrive in either the digital or analog world. Forging a new and experimental fusion of analog percussion sources and digital editing became the primary focus for the next several years. Combining these electronic grooves with the sonic and misty psychedelic atmospheres that he had been working on for the past decade seemed the perfect alchemy and the next level he had been seeking.

In the summer of 1998, Imaginarium was released. This was a collaboration album with Midwest duo Ma Ja Le and was produced by the legendary electronic music composer Steve Roach. This proved to be quite a fortuitous event for many reasons, but the main reason was a lasting collaboration between Roach and Unis, developing their ongoing exploration of fractal groove creation into what Roach has called "Elegant Futurism". Their first collaboration, Body Electric, was released on Projekt in February of 1999. Well received by both critics and listeners alike, Body Electric received much radio airplay nationwide and remained in the Airwaves and New Age Voice top ten for over 8 weeks. Later that year, Vir Unis released his first solo album, The Drift Inside, in November of 1999 on Minneapolis based label GreenHouse Music. Produced by Steve Roach and Vir Unis, The Drift Inside focused primarily on self-reflective inner space music. Being completely beatless, his first solo album offered a different side to the tribal and electronic groove albums with Steve Roach and Ma Ja Le. However, The Undivided Flow, his contribution to The Ambient Expanse (Mirage), did offer a glimpse at the music that was developed on The Drift Inside. He also contributed one track, Beneath the Hive, to GreenHouse Music's first compilation album, Convergent Evolution in 1999. The Drift Inside has received several highly charged and positive reviews. A favorite of many space music fans, it was #2 on the New Age Sampler Radio show for The Ambient Hour which broadcasts on 89.9 FM, WWSP from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. Vir Unis was also interviewed for their Millennium Featured Artist Series during this time. The Drift Inside was also featured in February 2000 on Hearts of Space program entitled "Luminosity".

Of music, Strate says, "I consider music to be a visual medium. Not just in imagining pictures while listening to music, but in a much more direct way. I see music when I listen to it. It creates patterns, textures, and all sorts of mandala like structures. In designing images on the computer, I try to capture the things I see in music. Painting, drawing, and computer aided design is all musical too. So, there's this sort of synesthesia that occurs naturally if you tune into it, and that's why a lot of artists are able to cross over into various mediums, because they all derive from the same source".

Vir Unis performed on 4 March 2000 at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia. This was his first concert ever on the east coast of the USA, second solo concert ever and demonstrated his talent for exploring, through music, the areas of space within and outside of the audience. A recording of this concert has been released via MP3.com.
Following the 4 March Gathering, Saul Stokes and Vir Unis performed their first collaboration live on the 03.05.00 broadcast of STAR'S END. Vir Unis + James JohnsonVir Unis returned to Philadelphia on 12 April 2003 to once again perform at The Gatherings Concert Series. Joining him was friend and collaborator, noted sonic explorer James Johnson. The duo presented live material in the vein of their recent release, Perimeter and its follow-up 3CD set, Perimeter 2 - released in Philadelphia on 12 April.

Among music composition and recording, Vir Unis has also been credited as a graphic designer for all his own solo albums, the cover artwork for Steve Roach's Midnight Moon (Projekt), and most recently, Blood Machine and the upcoming Sonic Foundry Vir Unis ACID Loop Library. Vir Unis has also musically contributed to Steve Roach's solo album, Light Fantastic (HOS/Fathom) as a guest artist, which earned Steve the AIIFM award for 1999, and also Roach's Serpant's Lair (Projekt), which was a collaboration album with percussionist Byron Metcalf. Always looking to keep the music and ideas fresh and evolving, Vir Unis is relentless in his search for new sounds, new grooves, and new worlds in which to create. Combing the various sources of acoustic and electronic sounds from the ground up into an analog and digital fractal stew and utilizing the latest software and hardware, Vir Unis' goal was nothing less than to create 100% original electro-psychedelic mind-body music.

2001 Interview

AV:  You started your musical career playing drums. Bearing in mind other synthesists like Klaus Schulze, Chris Franke started out on the same route, what made you change to synthesizers?

VU:  Actually, my brother had a Moog Rogue and a Prophet 600 and I remember being quite fascinated with the possibilities to create strange and alien sounds.  I didn't really care too much about conventional sounds and playing chops or recognized musical forms.  I was very intrigued with the idea that one could sculpt sound and the patterns could just keep changing infinitely. I liked synthesizers because they were their own instrument.  I despised the more featureless black box sample playback machines that were starting to come out.  They seemed to have more in common with a Stealth Bomber than they did a musical instrument!  I was way more intrigued by the analog synthesizers and all the blinking lights, sliders, faders, and knobs they had.  From there I started listening closely to some of the more atmospheric string sounds that a lot of New Wave pop bands were utilizing in their songs and recognizing how they sort of sprung from a lot of the early Brian Eno recordings and also stuff that David Sylvian and Richard Barbieri were doing with their band, Japan.  So I set out with really no concrete plans other than to just sit in front of the synth and just dream.

AV:  What exactly is a "fractal groove" in technical terms?

VU:  "Fractal grooves" are really a process born out of extracting rhythmic patterns from within patterns.  It's also an endless and infinite array of possibilities, so I was certainly fascinated with this concept when I first discovered how you could literally produce 30 different type of grooves from a single loop.  It's a matter of increasing complexity, taking one simple groove and pushing it through this process to create highly sophisticated and what Steve Roach calls "elegant futuristic" beats.  The idea is to create several varying degrees of a type of loop and blend them together in oscillating crossfades that create this sort of mandala like fractalization.  It gives that sort of psychedelic and liquid  lava lamp like flow to the grooves.

AV:  Can you remember the first electronic recording you heard and how it affected you?

VU:  I can't recall the exact title of the first electronic recording I heard.  But, I can recall first listening to space music in the mid eighties.  A girlfriend of mine had a tape she made of a program that I had just heard about called "Hearts of Space".  I remember how lush and mind expanding it sounded in comparison to the more upbeat electronic pop music that I was listening to and performing at the time.  It wasn't something that I listened to all the time or very much, for that matter, so when I did listen to it it was a unique and special event.  So this atmosphere of it being a special event started to develop.  It began to affect me slowly but deeply.  It really felt like the soundtrack to a dream, and increasingly I felt connected to it at a deeper level, as it felt like something that I had been searching for a long time.  Staying up late and listening to this music in a dark room became a favorite ritual over time.

AV:  How do you go about preparing for a concert? Is it a disciplined approach with hours of rehearsal or is a lot done on the spur of the moment in the concert hall?

VU:  My preparation for a concert is more psychological than anything else. Of course, I go through all the usual preparations of getting a few sounds programmed on the synthesizers and putting together backdrop atmospheres, although I prefer to mainly twist the music on the fly.  Mostly I tend to become very quiet, preferring little or no speech, and slowly start to focus on being in the moment and being carried by the current of the beats and sounds.  Usually this approach melts away the nervous energy that builds up preceding a performance.  Most of the shows that I've done recently have been based on improvisation.  You make yourself prepared emotionally and physically and the spirit will move you to create the right stuff.  This is something that makes the shows much more exhilarating, on the edge, and less of being a sound pilot/dj for the crowd. I definitely think it's much more interesting to see a performer moving and interacting with other musicians.  That's why a lot of my recent shows have been with others.

AV:  You have worked with Steve Roach on a number of albums now. What is the single most important thing you have learned from this veteran of the scene?

VU:  Actually, several things.  Integrity.  Grace.  Focus.  Dedication.  I've met very few people in this life as focused and dedicated to their craft as Steve Roach.  Time and time again he has blown me away with how deep his art flows.  This is a man who makes no compromises with the outer world, instead choosing to dive into the dark and bring back something profoundly human, rich, and enduring. It's a hero's quest, and working with him has only served to clarify my calling, my destiny.

AV:   Is there a single piece of musical equipment that you would just love to own?

VU:  I would love to own a top of the line Lexicon reverb.  It's pure space contained in a black box....

AV:  Have you ever been tempted to try and break into the mainstream music charts by releasing a commercial "pop" piece of music?

VU:  I come from a background of playing in bands that though they have been a bit on the unconventional side still created musical forms from the well of popular culture.  I did this for approximately 7 years, so I've had my fill to last a lifetime.  Since I've been on my own, it's been all about creating my own space.

AV:  A lot of your music is very reflective and spiritual. Do you have your own personal belief system or do you practice a faith that comes through with the music?

VU:  I don't practice any sort of organized religious doctrine.  I tend to shy away from the dogma that lies at the outer perimeter of religion and go immediately to it's essence which I feel connects all the world's ideologies and traditions.  I come from a Christian environment that had very little to do with the actual teachings of Christ, so the reflective and spiritual aspect of my music is really an attempt to get past these layers of cultural conditioning and dive deeper to the truth that lies inside.  I have a lot of beliefs and ideas that spring from a more eastern philosophy or approach to life, so I certainly have an affinity with Buddhism, Taoism, and Zen, but by no means am I a scholar of any these ways of life.  Essentially, my religion, if anything, is my music.

AV:  Beyond Perimeter what projects do you have in the works for next year that we might be looking for?

VU:  A collaboration with Saul Stokes should be finished by the end of the year.  This is titled "Thermal Transfer" and will be released on Hypnos' new affiliate label, Binary.  An official release date hasn't been scheduled yet, but it's expected to be out sometime around early February 2002.  It's really a nice mix of Saul's homemade synth style electronic music and my fractal groovescapes and atmospheres.  We've been working on it for about a year, so I'm really excited about seeing it finally come to life. I also have a solo album, tentatively titled "Mercury and Plastic" coming out sometime next year.  It's a continuation of Pulse n Atmo and a lot of the work that I've done with Steve Roach and James Johnson. A live disc from the Space For Music Festival that Interstitial and I performed at in Milwaukee last May will also be released sometime early in 2002.  We're hoping to encode it in 5.1 surround for a really expansive experience.  That will probably be released on my new artist direct label, "In The Bubble Music".

I also hope my long time collaboration with MJ Dawn, Steve Roach and Subatomic God will be finished.  It's taken a lot of twists and turns these past four years and I'm really anxious to see it finally finished.  Expect some real high energy and fast paced groovescapes on that one!  Other than that, James Johnson and I have been talking about releasing a live CD that would consist of tracks collected from our Fall 2001 shows that we're in the middle of right now. Also a collaboration with guitartist Chris Short, entitled Hub of The Mono Gods, may be finished sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2002.   Actually, despite this list of collaborations and solo projects, I really intended to relax some more next year, but the projects are already stacking up!

AV:  Do you have any plans for appearances for the balance of this year and into next year that have been finalized?

VU:  My next scheduled apprearance is Nov. 4th and 6th in Toronto, Canada for 1groove.com and The Ambient Ping.  The show at the Ambient Ping is actually a release party for "Perimeter" with James Johnson.  We'll be performing material from this album at both shows.  Other than those two concerts, nothing else is scheduled for the remainder of this year....At least, for now....

AV:  Lastly where do you see yourself in say ten years time?

VU:  It's hard to say.  All of us, in this world, are really on the edge of uncertainty.  The world really does spin on a dime, and who knows what will happen with any one of us.  Of course I have my personal hopes and aspirations that I work towards, but I really try to stay focused on the present and the immediate future.  In ten years time, I do know that I will be on the same path that I am now, but with hopefully a lot more insight, patience, respect, and compassion.  Other than just being alive and breathing, what more could I ask for?


Well i made an effort to tell you about the man, even if the net delivers very little on him, and now i guess here at Rho-Xs we have the best advertorial on him, hmmm someone should create a wiki page on him

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Vir Unis, with some help from Steve Roach, has managed to create a profound and chimerical recording. The Drift Inside, with its slowly evolving aural brilliance and kaleidoscopic melodic fragments, takes the listener for a deep journey into the mind's eyes and ears. This is another great Green House Music recording that takes you away just long enough to regroup and return revived. Vir Unis' impeccable blend of harmonic alchemy and provocative, illustrious soundscapes is a welcome contribution to ambient music, and clearly one of the genre's best offerings. Beyond being another great ambient recording, this disc clearly illustrates the intersection of gifted studio production and exceptional imagination. The Drift Inside is very representative of Vir Unis' more atmospheric ambient work, and quite comparable to his Aeonian Glow.

The Drift Inside consists of 12 electronic pieces, which proceed along at a slow, stately pace. There is no rhythm and only very minimal percussion. Each piece is a meditation on only one or two chords, with volume pulsing softer and louder, traced about by a slow kaleidoscope of electronic effects that come and go. The chords are beautifully chosen, some as tonal as Debussy, others microtonal and more dissonant. All are sunk in that ocean of reverb that is so characteristic of the school of Steve Roach. Roach himself does put in an appearance here and there, but this doesn't sound like imitation Roach. The first four pieces are especially powerful, seamlessly linked together, and the title cut, number 4, "The Drift Inside," is perhaps the best on the album.

As the title advertises, the album is meant to drift you into an inward, meditative, perhaps ecstatic mental state; it certainly works like that for me. The sensuous yet austere harmonies evoke moods of languid dreaming sunlight, or bracing interstellar darkness, or unearthly visionary landscapes. I highly recommend The Drift Inside for any astral travelling you may be planning to undertake.

 Vir Unis ‎- The Drift Inside (flac  370mb)

01 Currents Beneath The Shine 7:05
02 Hidden Streams 4:59
03 Leaving The Skin 7:02
04 The Drift Inside 5:25
05 Zero Ground 8:39
06 esonate & Glow 5:43
07 Crystal Eyes 8:13
08 In The Wake Of A Passing Thought 6:06
09 Adrift 5:34
10 Solar Plexus 3:02
11 Neuron Lights 5:30
12 Deepest Dream 5:26

Vir Unis ‎- The Drift Inside   (ogg  150mb)

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With Aeonian Glow, Vir Unis has created a recording that -- like his previous work, The Drift Inside -- no ambient/space/atmospheric music enthusiast should be without. Again like The Drift Inside, the production is of the absolutely highest audiophile quality -- a very stereophonic atmospheric recording that's as multi-dimensional as it is dynamic. Aeonian Glow is an album of surprisingly paradoxical qualities: dark yet expansive, sparse but possessing an inescapable warmth, cold precision blended seamlessly with organic sound textures. The atmosphere is frigid as any Nordic ambient, yet maintains a constant energy that would seem to defy that description. Shimmering, irresistibly mind-blowing synths against a backdrop of subtle nature and field recordings. The composition is far exceeding other artists, more like classical music taking ambient form. Attention never wanes thanks to clever arrangement which slowly builds listener anticipation and presents consistent emotional cues. This is one of those rare modern ambient albums that is really effective. Highly recommended for anyone that likes ambient music.

 Vir Unis - Aeonian Glow (A New Aeon)    (flac 427mb)

01 Glide 8:05
02 The Ghost Of Aeons 13:14
03 Indigo Light 13:53
04 Particle Path 4:47
05 A Night Of Passage 16:39
06 Flying Dream 10:33
07 Alien Machinery 8:00
08 Letting Go Of This Radiant Hive 16:17
09 A New Aeon 7:22

 Vir Unis - Aeonian Glow (A New Aeon)     (ogg  188 mb)

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A melancholy master-work of Vir Unis' work; recommended as a good place to start for any non-adept at Vir Unis' works. The album breaks away from the more popular pulse-beats -- that have plagued some of his earlier works -- and nears the boundary of starry sound-scapes by use of resonance and overtones (read as the "end effects" of instruments/sounds) making Primary Space definite "ambient" music. One may venture to say that Primary Space should have brought him more deserved attention and credibility.

Vir Unis - Primary Space - Early Works Vol. 2 (flac  328mb)

01 In The Core Of A Spinning Disc 6:02
02 Stochastic Entropies 6:31
03 The Red Queen Principle 5:44
04 A Number Of Recombinations 5:21
05 Dissolving At The Singularity 5:04
06 A Sense Of Light Travel 4:08
07 Micro Tunnels 1:52
08 Symmetry Of The Mirror 5:42
09 Cellular Automata 4:09
10 Primary Space 5:33
11 Shadows Drift 5:47
12 Growth Of Complexity 6:15
13 Dreaming Of Time 5:17
14 Infinite Curvature 4:54
15 Four Exposures To The Logos Laser 3:05

Vir Unis - Primary Space - Early Works Vol. 2 (ogg   154mb)

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Pulse-N-Atmo was a step in a different direction for Vir Unis, mostly thanks to a larger focus on modern music and a glazed percussive-heavy atmosphere. The change worked, not as effectively as hardcore enthusiasts would've liked, but with purpose, a little direction, and a significant amount of resourcefulness, riding that fine line between subtle exploration and a stylistic (and previously successful) safety net. "Mind Blink Bike Ride," for example, and its glitch-techno influences are in pleasant contrast to the familiar breezes of ambient and cool new-age synths. The inconsistency was jarring to some, conflicted to others, but one of the only satisfying choices Vir Unis could've made for a third outing that wasn't too innocuous or too unexpected and alienating.

Vir Unis - Pulse N Atmo (flac  404mb)

01 Ghost In The Bubble 6:23
02 Doppleganger 5:30
03 Spoon Bender 6:47
04 Black Locust Beach 4:26
05 Good Morning Blowfish 6:24
06 Mind Blink Bike Ride 5:49
07 Rinse 3:20
08 Alpha State 5:26
09 Logan 5:01
10 Tweak The Pulse 5:40
11 Transmission At Banner Marsh 4:40
12 We Are The Sun's Dream 10:40

Vir Unis - Pulse N Atmo (ogg   194mb)

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RhoDeo 1907 Grooves

Hello, most of you are aware that Iceland is a special place, fire and ice and just 300,000 humans making a living there, and yet they managed to give the world a number of global artists, it's not just Bjork but there is Johann Johansson, Sigur Ros and before all that there were Mezzoforte...



Today's Artists Eythor, Fridrik, Johann and Gulli were only fifteen and sixteen years old when they formed the band in Reykjavik 1977. The four teenage boys all loved playing their instruments and shared an interest in music, from heavy-rock to jazz-rock fusion and funk. Their enthusiasm and energy soon caught the attention of Icelandic recording executive Steinar Berg, who thought this could lead to something worthwhile and signed the band to his Icelandic label, Steinar hf, in 1979. After three albums of experimenting and developing their skills, the band travelled to London in 1982 to record what turned out to be the pivotal fourth album, Surprise, Surprise.  They teamed up with producer/engineer Geoff Calver, horn- & vocal arranger Chris Cameron and percussionist Luis Jardim, who helped the young Icelanders shape their style and create what became the unmistakable sound of Mezzoforte. Catchy melodies, strong grooves and exciting solos were the key elements. ....N Joy

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Until the arrival of the Sugarcubes, jazz fusion band Mezzoforte was Iceland’s best-known musical export. The group was formed in 1977 at a Reykjavik high school by Fridrik Karlsson (b. 24 April 1960; guitar), Eythór Gunnarsson (b. 9 September 1961; keyboards), Jóhann Ásmundsson (b. 30 March 1961; bass), and Gunnlaugur Briem (b. 8 September 1962; drums).

Mezzoforte was founded in 1977 by four 15-17 year old guys, Eyþór Gunnarsson, Friðrik Karlsson, Jóhann Ásmundsson and Gunnlaugur Briem.

Eyþór and Friðrik had been playing in a dance band together (they actually first met at a summer festival arranged by the Icelandic boy scouts in 1976) and Gulli and Jóhann had been playing together for a short while. What brought them all together was a shared interest in jazz and fusion music.

In the beginning they practiced playing songs by artists like Weather Report, Al di Meola, Chick Corea, Earth, Wind and Fire, George Duke, Jean Luc Ponti (they had a violinist in the band for some months) and other fusion bands. Pretty soon however they started writing some songs of their own, with Friðrik and Eyþór being the most active songwriters.

From early on it was obvious that both personally and musically they all fitted well together. They rehearsed for several hours a day, seven days a week and spent the rest of the time together going to the movies or listening to music. Having played in Reykjavík (mainly in high schools) for just over a year they were offered a recording contract with Steinar Records(later SPOR Records). Mezzoforte had actively started to write their own material and soon developed a unique sound, blending melodic harmonies with tight, funky, rhythm and unpredictable tempo changes. The band recorded their first album in Hljóðriti the only 24 track studio in Iceland at that time.

The first album simply called Mezzoforte was released in 1979 and is the first Icelandic fusion album.

In the following years the band made two additional albums and toured around Iceland. They also played in various dance and jazz bands, some of them were already full time musicians by the age of eighteen. The band was a five-piece band during the first years. Stefan S. Stefansson played saxophone on the first album, but left soon after the release of the album. Björn Thorarensen (keyboards) joined the band in 1979 and played on the second and third album. The band became well respected for their music and the members were in increased demand as session players, and backing band to vocalists. Some interest was also building up outside Iceland.

The second album Í hakanum, was made in the same studio in Iceland. When it came to making the third album the band and Steinar Berg Ísleifsson their record publisher wanted to make an album that would stand the test of a more international audience. They travelled to London, in the fall 1981 to make the album, under the direction of Simon Heyworth. Björn decided to leave Mezzoforte in 1982 to concentrate on his studies in computer sciences. Following his departure Kristinn Svavarsson (saxophones) who had been playing with the band for a while, formally joined the band.

The album Þvílíkt og annað eins was released in Iceland around Christmas time in 1981. Plans for release in the UK did not come through however and since the band was very actice in their songwriting at this time they ended up recording another album in London in 1982, without Þvílíkt og annað eins ever being released in its entity outside of Iceland. (The album will be released as a part of re-releasing all Mezzoforte albums in 1997)

1982-1984

In early 1982 the song Dreamland (Ferðin til draumalandsins) was released with Shooting Star from the second album as a double A-side single and did well on the club scene in the UK.

Having recorded their fourth album Surprise Surprise in London in 1982 the band found themselves standing at crossroads. The small Icelandic market was not enough to support a full time fusion band and the future did not look too positive. They played some concerts in Iceland, but the novelty of an instrumental band was wearing off and interest in funk and fusion music was diminshing with punk rock taking over the music scene. The band held a concert in one of Reykjaviks high scools in february 1983, to an audience of six people. This made them think seriously of breaking up the band.

It was therefore a big surprise when the song Garden Party from the Surprise Surprise album started to climb the British dance and pop charts and eventually found its way to number 17 on the british pop chart in the spring of 1983. Following this the band came internationally known. Garden Party made it into the pop charts in most European countries and suddenly the band was in big demand. The members moved with their families to England and spent the next years touring extensively around Europe and also toured Japan and other countries.

Having enjoyed the success of Garden Party and the Surprise Surprise album for only a few months, Mezzoforte started working on the followup album, their fifth studio album, Observations. Recording sessions were squeesed in between concerts and tours around the world, but despite a very busy schedule the recordings were finished in just two months. Nine songs were recorded for the album, but earlier in the year the band had recorded Rockall which was released as a single in June 1983. The album was first released in Iceland in December 1983 as Yfirsýn with Icelandic songtitles.

After the release of Observations, Mezzoforte toured Europe and Japan, playing more than 150 concerts in one year, including most major festivals, such as the North Sea festival in Holland and the Montreux Festival in Switzerland where the band headlined a concert with Passport, Steps Ahead and Spyro Gyra. Observations is the last Mezzoforte album to feature Kristinn Svavarsson on saxophones. While the rest of the band decided to stay in the UK, Kristinn went back to Iceland in the summer of 1984, having spent one year on the road while his family was living in London.

So now Mezzoforte was a four piece band. They had recorded five albums, made the charts in most European countries and played at more concerts and TV shows than anyone can remember. With their families back home in Iceland, the band was still living in England between tours.

During the late summer and fall 1984, the band recorded Rising in three different studios. This is the only album Mezzoforte made as a quartet, relying on just two other musicians to complete the musical picture on a couple of songs. The band was also taking more responsibility for producing the songs with Geoff Calver behind the mixing console.

For concerts the four Icelanders added musicians of several other nationalities performing as six or even seven-piece band during late 1984 and 1985. During that period they took a step into another musical direction adding lead vocals to the lineup.

1985-1989

No limits is the seventh studio album made by Mezzoforte. On this album made in 1985, two long time touring partners took part in the recordings. The dutch percussionist Jeroen De Rijk and the british saxophonist David O'Higgins played on a couple of songs. On this album Mezzoforte changes their musical course, recording three tracks with lead singer Noel McCalla. This album was produced by Nigel Wright who also wrote lyrics to a couple of songs. By this time the band had moved back to Iceland, but was as busy as ever touring around Europe with David O'Higgins and Noel McCalla. Mezzoforte started working on building their own recording studio in Iceland and this was the last time they went to England to make an album. A recording deal with BMG Ariola had secured the release of Mezzoforte albums in the USA and early 1987 the band started to make an album aimed at this new market. Enjoying the luxury of having their own studio available at all times the band spent endless time in the studio. A lot of time went into programming synthesizers and sequencers and in fact the band did not play much together or rehearse the songs before going into the studio. The only song on the album that the band recorded as a group is In a Word and that took only few hours to complete.

For additional producers they looked in two opposite directions. Two of the songs are produced and partially arranged by two Norwegians, Svein Dag Hauge and Rolf Graf. They were members of the group Lava a well known group in Norway, frequently backing Randy Crawford on her tours outside the US. Eythor Gunnarsson worked with Lava/Randy Crawford for some time and the saxophonist of Lava, Kåre Kolve later joined Mezzoforte.

The other producer Eric Phersing came from the United States. He had worked with several jazz/fusion artists in Los Angeles. Most of the recordings were done in Iceland but when it came to putting the finishing touches to the album the band went to Los Angeles where Ernie Watts and Steve Tavaglione added some saxophone lines to the songs. The Seawind horns played on three songs and Efrain Toro added some percussion.

In order to make the album sound more like US albums, the band got Erik Zobler to mix the album in Los Angeles. Zobler who is half Icelandic was at that time best known for his long time work with George Duke and his work on Michael Jacksons album BAD.

After two years of more or less continous work the album was finally released in 1989. It did not do as well as expected in the US market and the reaction in other parts of the world were disappointing for the band as well. So having played at concerts in Europe in 1989/90 and done some re-recordings for a compilation album (Fortissimos released in 1991) the band took a break to work on other projects and did not return to the recording studio as Mezzoforte until late 1993.

1990-1997

During this period Fridrik Karlsson made a solo album (Point Blank released 1990) featuring Mezzofortes members on some of the songs, they also worked with Eythor Gunnarssons wife Ellen Kristjánsdóttir and saxophonist Sigurður Flosason. Both these acts toured around Scandinavia in 1990-92 under various names. Friðrik and Jóhann joined the pop/dance band Stjórnin, and participated in the Eurovision Grand Prix Song Contest as Heart 2 Heart. Eyþór and Gulli started working with Bubbi Morthens, an Icelandic rock star, with Eyþór producing a couple of his albums.

The band had begun writing for a new album in early 1993 when they received an invitation to go to SE Asia to play at two jazz festivals in Indonesia and Malaysia in September 1993. By this time Kåre Kolve had become a member of the band. Coming straight off the tour, the band went to Puk Studios in Denmark to record a new album, before returning home to Iceland. This time the band produced the album by themselves and changed their working methods by recording most of the music "live" and using very few additional musicians. The album called Daybreak was released internationally in 1994. During 1994 the band toured in Norway and SE Asia adding Singapore to the list of countries. But most of the time was spent on other projects.

In January 1995 Mezzoforte started working on a new album and during that year spent much time writing and recording new material with a new saxophone player Óskar Guðjónsson The recordings were finished in December 1995 and the album called Monkey Fields was released in Central Europe in September 1996, in Scandinavia in December 1996/January 1997.

In 1996 Mezzoforte visited four countries for the first time, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in April and Bulgaria in December. The band played at the JakJazz festival in Indonesia for the third time and played some concerts in Iceland, one of which was recorded for Radio and Television. In early 1996 Frissi Karlsson moved to London to work as a session musician. He was soon offered to play on the soundtrack for the movie Evita. Later Gulli Briem joined Frissi in the studio and together they performed with Madonna on BBC´s Top of the Pops.

In 1997 the band will be touring in Europe, starting to work on a new album, working on a documentary TV program and several other projects.

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Mezzoforte was founded in 1977 by four 15-17 year old musicians: Friðrik Karlsson, Eyþór Gunnarsson, Jóhann Ásmundsson and Gunnlaugur Briem. What brought them together was a shared interest in jazz and fusion music. Having played in Reykjavík (mainly in high schools) for just over a year they were offered a recording contract with Steinar Records and recorded their first album in Hljóðriti, the only 24 track studio in Iceland at that time. Simply titled Mezzoforte, it is the first Icelandic fusion album. The band was a five-piece band during the first years, Stefán S. Stefánsson played saxophone on the first album, but left soon after the release of the album. The band became well respected for their music and the members were in increased demand as session players and backing band members to vocalists. Some interest was also building up outside Iceland.

 Mezzoforte - Mezzoforte (flac   195mb)

01 Kínahverfið (Chinatown) 4:56
02 Í Dagsins Önn (One day semester) 3:53
03 Kvöldstund Með Þér (Evening With You) 4:40
04 Þeir Settu Svip Á Bæinn (Dodge the town) 4:53
05 Fyrirkomulagið (Arrangements) 4:42
06 Gengið Á Jökulinn (Walk on the glacier) 4:36
07 Þegar Tangóinn Fékk Sér Nýjan Kjól ( When Tango Got A New Dress) 3:14
08 Sólroðinn (Reddened sun) 3:54

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Í Hakanum is the 1980 studio album of Mezzoforte on Steinar released in Iceland. The September 1981 UK release, titled Mezzoforte, had a different cover artwork, but – since their first album, released only in Iceland, was also called Mezzoforte – Í Hakanum was usually referred to as Octopus,[2] what became the title of the 1996 CD re-release. Though still in their teens, members of Mezzoforte were already working as session musicians in Iceland, playing in various bands and backing singers. After their debut album as a quartett, Bjorn Thorarensen joined Mezzoforte as a second keyboard player. Í Hakanum was the first Mezzoforte album, produced by Geoff Calver. Recordings took place at Hot Ice Studios in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland from mid August to mid October 1980 with some additional recordings and mixing in London’s Red Bus Studios in late October. The album features Kristinn Svavarsson on sax, who became a full member of the band in 1982.

Mezzoforte - Octopus (flac   199mb)

01 Humoresque / Gletta 3:41
02 Midnight Express / Miðnæturhraðlestin 3:35
03 Danger High Voltage / Háspenna Lifshætta 4:05
04 Octopus / Eftirsjá 5:31
05 Shooting Star / Stjörnuhrap 5:02
06 Northern Winds / Vindur Úr Suðri 5:32
07 Rendez-Vous / Fyrstu Kynni 5:57
08 Finale / Niðurlagið 2:29

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The songwriting formulas are 90% the responsibility of keyboards’ player Eythor Gurnasson – who was certainly well informed of the novelties of the golden age of keyboards – and guitar player Fridrik Karlson who alternated between acoustic and electrics but certainly favored George Benson post-mid seventies phase; at the end of the day the only track which stands out is, in spite of its Disco references, the group penned “Funk Suite No.1” when most of the above mentioned pitfalls are avoided, the guys indulge in some inflamed statements, the saxes soar,  the guitarist finally pugs his guitar into an effects pedal to add a much welcomed grit to his sound, an organ sound is at last discernible,  the percussions are able to run wild for a while and the gals’ mics are definitely off! However I’m strongly convinced we can assume that the several guests listed were also given free rein; with Louis Jardim and Eirikur Ingolfsson on percussions, Chris Hunter on alto and tenor saxes, Martin Dobson on tenor and Bill Eldridge and Stuart Brooks on trumpet I can only say that it was too little too late and that although that 80s spirit had irremediable infiltrated the inspirational cells of most everyone in the Bizz, they could have taken better advantage of the manpower at their disposal.

 Mezzoforte - Surprise,Surprise (flac   297mb)

01 Surprise 1:25
02 Garden Party 6:00
03 Gazing At The Clouds 6:30
04 Early Autumn 6:17
05 Action Man 4:58
06 Funk Suite No.1 5:49
07 Easy Jack 4:45
08 Fusion Blues 5:40
09 The Old Neighborhood 5:32
10 Surprise, Reprise 0:50

 Mezzoforte - Surprise,Surprise (ogg   120mb)

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Sprelllifandi / Live at the Dominion is a live album of the Icelandic funk / fusion band Mezzoforte from 1983. The registration from the Dominion Theater in London on 30 June 1983 has only been published in Iceland and in a limited edition in Japan.

 Mezzoforte - Sprelllifandi (flac   304mb)

01 Intro 1:05
02 Danger/High Voltage 4:29
03 Surprise 0:42
04 Gazing At The Clouds 6:40
05 Early Autumn 7:06
06 The Venue 4:43
07 Midnight Express 4:03
08 Garden Party 7:40
09 Surprise Surprise 5:52
10 Blue Ice 6:23

 Mezzoforte - Sprelllifandi (ogg   129mb)

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RhoDeo 1907 Roots

Hello,

Today's artists are less a band than an assemblage of some of Cuba's most renowned musical forces, whose performing careers had largely ended decades earlier with the rise of Fidel Castro. Recruiting the long-forgotten likes of singer Ibrahim Ferrer, guitarists/singers Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa, and pianist Rubén González, Ry Cooder entered Havana's Egrem Studios to record the album Buena Vista Social Club; the project was an unexpected commercial and critical smash, earning a Grammy and becoming the best-selling release of Cooder's long career. The international success generated a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music as a whole.....N'Joy

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Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996 to revive the music of pre-revolutionary Cuba. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the group after the homonymous members' club in the Buenavista quarter of Havana, a popular music venue in the 1940s. To showcase the popular styles of the time, such as son, bolero and danzón, they recruited a dozen veteran musicians, many of whom had been retired for many years.

The group's eponymous album was recorded in March 1996 and released in September 1997, quickly becoming an international success, which prompted the ensemble to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam and New York in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film for a documentary—also called Buena Vista Social Club—that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders' film was released in June 1999 to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards. This was followed up by a second documentary: Buena Vista Social Club: Adios in 2017.

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Shortly after returning from Havana to record the Buena Vista Social Club album, Ry Cooder began working with German film director Wim Wenders on the soundtrack to Wenders' film The End of Violence, the third such collaboration between the two artists. According to Wenders, it was an effort to force Cooder to focus on the project, "He always sort of looked in the distance and smiled, and I knew he was back in Havana."  Wenders filmed the recording sessions on the recently enhanced format Digital Video with the help of cinematographer Robert Müller, and then shot interviews with each "Buena Vista" ensemble member in different Havana locations. Wenders was also present to film the group's first performance with a full line-up in Amsterdam in April 1998 (two nights) and a second time in Carnegie Hall, New York City on 1 July 1998. The completed documentary was released on 17 September 1999, and included scenes in New York of the Cubans, some of whom had never left the island, window shopping and visiting tourist sites. According to Sight & Sound magazine, these scenes of "innocents abroad" were the film's most moving moments, as the contrasts between societies of Havana and New York become evident on the faces of the performers. Ferrer, from an impoverished background and staunchly anti consumerist, was shown describing the city as "beautiful" and finding the experience overwhelming. Upon completion of filming, Wenders felt that the film "didn't feel really like it was a documentary anymore. It felt like it was a true character piece".

The film became a box office success, grossing $23,002,182 worldwide. Critics were generally enthusiastic about the story and especially the music, although leading U.S. film critic Roger Ebert and the British Film Institute's Peter Curran felt that Wenders had lingered too long on Cooder during the performances; and the editing, which interspersed interviews with music, had disrupted the continuity of the songs. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature in 1999. It won best documentary at the European Film Awards and received seventeen other major accolades internationally.


Wim Wenders - Buena Vista Social Club    (avi  787mb)

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The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with stars from different musical genres. The "Buena Vista Social Club" name became an umbrella term to describe these performances and releases, and has been likened to a brand label that encapsulates Cuba's "musical golden age" between the 1930s and 1950s. The new success was fleeting for the most recognizable artists in the ensemble: Compay Segundo, Rubén González, and Ibrahim Ferrer, who died at the ages of ninety-five, eighty-four, and seventy-eight respectively; Compay Segundo and González in 2003, then Ferrer in 2005.

Several surviving members of the Buena Vista Social Club, such as veteran singer Omara Portuondo, trumpeter Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, laúd player Barbarito Torres and trombonist and conductor Jesús "Aguaje" Ramos currently tour worldwide, to popular acclaim, with new members such as singer Carlos Calunga and pianist Rolando Luna, as part of a 13-member band called Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club.


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The Cinco leyendas collection, made up of original records by Francisco Repilado (Compay Segundo), Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Eliades Ochoa and Rubén González, became the highest-selling Cuban record company in the world.  Legendary figures are full of Cuban music, and therefore on the basis of this title could have armed as many occasional quintets as wanted, but it happens, that these five were not taken at random, but between how much they have in common,  is the fact that they were the names that most managed to shine in the world of the album, after their invaluable contribution to the triumph achieved by what could be considered the most commercial of projects on Cuban music made in the last ten years, the Buena Vista  Social Club. This album gives us the possibility of being able to obtain, once and for all, five compilations made from selected themes of previously published anthologies about these great artists, which presupposes that it is musically "the best of the best," including extensive comments from  prestigious musicologists who are in charge of delving into the history of each of these figures and their significance within the Cuban musical context, which provides an interesting theoretical platform also published in two languages, to the seventy-four jewels that groups this elegant case.

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Born in the eastern town of Songo La Maya in 1946, Eliades Ochoa began playing guitar at the age of six, debuting at a very young age when improvising on the streets of Santiago de Cuba, until he became a member of the Oriental Quintet and  of the Septet Typical.  Recognized for his exceptional qualities as a guitarist, he received the offer in 1978 to direct the Cuarteto Patria, a group that, starting from his entry, would experience a new stage of development, starting a successful career of international presentations and record productions. In 1997 he was one of the participants in the project Buena Vista Social Club, which brought together great figures of Cuban music, achieving the Grammy award, which contributed to the international promotion of his work, which appears in the present  album a representative sample.

BVSC 1 - Eliades Ochoa      (flac  344mb)

01 El cuarto de Tula
02 Estoy hecho tierra
03 En casa de Pedro el Coj
04 Allí donde tú sabes
05 La culebra
06 Rita la Caimana
07 Que lío Compay Andrés
08 Alma de mujer
09 Mujer perjura
10 Qué te parece Cholito
12 La venganza del Perico
13 Entre flores
14 Beso discreto

BVSC 1 - Eliades Ochoa    (ogg  146mb)

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When the veteran defenders of traditional Cuban music with their acoustic formats became fashionable in the last decade of the nineties, they took an enormous advantage in the commercial order to the rest of the demonstrations;  One of the most undeniably sounding themes was the Chan Chan, which, showing an extreme simplicity and unequaled flavors, moved the entire planet in the voice of its composer, Francisco Repilado, the charismatic Compay Segundo.
 Born in Santiago on Siboney Beach, where he was born on November 18, 1907, he was a very young clarinetist from the Municipal Band of Santiago, at the same time that he gave free rein to his troubadour affiliation while simultaneously staying in it with his participation in different groups.  of traditional music.  In the thirties he settled in Havana, entering as a clarinetist in the Municipal Band of the capital under the direction of maestro Gonzalo Roig, which would follow his entry as a guitarist in the Hatuey Quartet of Justa García.  The clarinet was also used to form part of the Matamoros Ensemble, where he stayed for twelve years, and from 1942 he founded the duo Los Compadres with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, where he stayed until the month of September 1955, then  which founds the group Compay Segundo and their Boys who would accompany him for the rest of his life.  In 1997 he took part in the project Buena Vista Social Club, Grammy winning album, which served to turn his Chan Chan into a hymn, which he later had the opportunity to defend in the main stages of the world. The present album is a compilation of some of the most important themes within his repertoire, which give us the measure of his wonderful talent as a composer and the extraordinary Cubanness of his pen

BVSC 2 - Compay Segundo    (flac  281mb)

01. Saludos Compay
02. Chan chán
03. Voy pa' Mayarí
04. Anita
05. La mujer del peso
06. Sanluisera
07. Yo soy de monte Compay
08. Será cuando tú digas
09. Francisco Guayabal
10. Sigue el paso No. 1
11. A los barrios de Santiago
12. De Jatibonico a Bolondrón
13. Sigue el paso No. 2
14. Sigue el paso en la Nochebuena
15. María en la playa

BVSC 2 - Compay Segundo  (ogg    116mb)

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Ibrahím Ferrer started singing at the age of thirteen, with a group called Los Jóvenes del Son that was dedicated to entertain neighborhood parties, later joining different groups such as Wilson, Surprise and the Wonder of Beltrán, until  enter the legendary orchestra Chepín de Electo Rosell, with which he placed a lot of successes, among which the anthological one is montuno Bartolo's platanal.  In 1953 he joined the group of Pacho Alonso - years later baptized with the name of Los Bocucos - a group in which, starting in 1967, he became the lead singer, and in which he will continue until 1991. In 1997, he was invited to participate in the Buena Vista Social Club, and that same year he returned to the studios to record with the Afro Cuban All Stars orchestra the album All Cuba Like, which the Buena Vista Social title would follow shortly after.  Club presents Ibrahím Ferrer, his first solo album, nominated for the Latin Grammy, where Ibrahím won the title of "Revelation Artist" after sixty years of artistic career. Since then countless concerts were generated in countless countries, which would take him to the most important stages of the world, creating a great demand on his discography, most of which is treasured in the archives of the EGREM, serving as  base for the compilation of compilations like this one in which we can appreciate many of the themes that he turned into hits throughout his career

BVSC 3 - Ibrahim Ferrer    (flac  354mb)

01. El botellero
02. Como la piel canela
03. Fomento
04. Monte adentro
05. En qué parte de Cuba nació el son
06. Así es la vida Compay
07. Todavía me queda voz
08. El son de la santiaguera
09. Cucuruchito de coco
10. Esto se baila y se toca
12. Mi tonada montuna
13. Estoy seco y me quiero mojar
14. Mañana me voy pa' Sibanicú
15. El platanal de Bartolo

BVSC 3 - Ibrahim Ferrer  (ogg  136mb)

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Omara Portuondo is recognized as one of the main exponents of the "filin", a creative movement that was created in the late forties in the Cuban song.  Throughout his career he joined different groups such as the Conjunto Loquibambia Swing, the Musicabana group, the Orlando de la Rosa Quartet and the Anacaona orchestra;  but without a doubt the most important of all was the quartet Las D'Aida, organized by the pianist Aida Diestro, with whom he kept working for fifteen years, until in 1967 he separated and offered a concert at the Teatro  Amadeo Roldán, with whom he began a period of consolidation of his image, in which he completely won the favor of a national audience that witnessed the authentic appearance of an artist endorsed by his talent, which he admired not as  the fashion singer, but as the genuine personification of the Cuban song.
 A successful career of three decades full of foreign tours, participation in festivals and recordings was crowned with the triumph of the Buena Vista Social Club, making Omara one of the great legends of Cuban music with Ibrahím, Compay, Rubén and Eliades;  moment from which it began to appear in multiple compilations that sought to satisfy the appetite of an audience eager to find their recordings. The album that we are putting to your consideration aims to show us a part of so much good music sown throughout a lifetime, unsurpassedly performed by a singer who is a true diva of Cuban music.

BVSC 4 - Omara Portuondo    (flac  305mb)

01. Échale salsita
02. Lo que me queda por vivir
03. Mi son caliente
04. Vuela pena
05. Guitarra en son mayor
06. Nada para ti
07. Vieja luna
08. Te quería
09. Vale la pena vivir
10. Toda una vida
11. Eso no lo he dicho yo
12. Me acostumbré a estar sin ti
13. Y mucho más
14. Nosotros
15. Agua que cae del cielo

BVSC 4 - Omara Portuondo  (ogg  112mb)

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For more than sixty years, Rubén González was professionally linked with the elite of our popular music, until he became a member of the group of veterans who starred at the end of the last century in the adventure of the Buena Vista Social Club. His professional life began in the central region of the country as a musician of different orchestras until in 1941 he made the decision to move to the capital, quickly establishing himself among the most demanded pianists of that time.  He was a member of the ensembles of Arsenio Rodríguez and Kubavana by Alberto Ruiz, of the Senén Suárez group and the Riverside Orchestra, until he joined Enrique Jorrín's orchestra, in which he kept contributing his characteristic "tumbao" for more than  twenty five years.  Simultaneously he was part of the Cuban Cuban Nonto organized by the trombonist Pucho Escalante, with which he was able to unleash his passion as a jazz player.  His first record as a soloist is recorded in 1975 and is titled Indestructible, an album in which although it includes rich sonorous downloads that show his interpretative skills, he places greater emphasis on making a waste of expressiveness from his version of key titles within  from the repertoire of the filin.  In 1996 they invited him to be part of the cast of the Afrocuban All Stars for the recording of his album All Cuba Like, which was nominated for the Grammy Awards, followed by the classic Buenavista Social Club, with which came the opportunity to perform at  the most important international stages, also opening the doors for the appearance of his albums Introducing Rubén González y Chanchullo, edited in 2003 a few months before his death.  This album shows us a compilation of some of its main recordings through which we can get closer to the work of one of the great legends of Cuban culture.

BVSC 5 - Rubén González    (flac  223mb)

01 Yo te enseño Lola
02 Soplete
03 Préstame la bicicleta
04 Date una vueltecita
05 Ambrosio
06 La gloria eres tú
07 Noneto
08 Nuestra canción
09 Moby Dick
10 Todo aquel ayer
11 ¿De qué te quejas?
12 Mil congojas
13 Sancho
14 Ciudad oscura
15 Qué infelicidad

BVSC 5 - Rubén González  (ogg  105mb)

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