Hello, as regular visitors you know what to expect....some more Fila Brazillia but not their own work but their musical vision expressed under other monikers but still from Hull, today a more ambient side that named itself after a tourist attraction in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, England, Heights of Abraham. Amongst the attractions in the park, which has been open since Victorian times, are cavern and mine tours. There are also views of the dramatic scenery of the valley of the River Derwent. I guess what follows here could be considered inspired and by Heights of Abraham. Topped up by what was a rarity at the time, a Slovenian release orchestrated by Steve Cobby who recognized Zadar looked enough like Hull to feel right at home as he spun his compilation......
Today's Artists are Hull-based duo Fila Brazillia is the most popular and acclaimed of the noted Pork Recordings stable. Formed in 1990 by producers Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry, Fila followed Cobby's association with Ashley & Jackson, a moderately successful pop/dance group signed to Big Life! that went belly up as the label began demanding more and more pop and less dance. Returning to his native Hull from Manchester, Cobby met DJ/dabbler Dave Pork, and the two forged a creative alliance. Hooking up with McSherry to form Fila, the group's first 12", "The Mermaid," was released that same year on Pork's fledgling imprint (formed, actually, specifically for the occasion), gaining instant acclaim among DJs and headphonauts alike for its innovative fusion of funk, dub, house, hip-hop, and acid jazz.........N Joy
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Fila Brazillia followed their debut single with a string of full-length releases (Old Codes, New Chaos, Maim That Tune, and Black Market Gardening among them), which were instrumental in building Pork's reputation as one of the most consistent and respected of England's vast ocean of underground breakbeat/trip-hop labels. Later releases integrated elements of pop and drum'n'bass on a number of tracks. Fila's rep also translated into a number of acclaimed remixes, including Lamb's "Cotton Wool," the Orb's "Toxygene," and DJ Food's "Freedom" (over a dozen of which were featured on the 2000 collection Brazilification). During the new millennium, the duo released the mix album Another Late Night in 2001 and the studio effort Jump Leads early the following year. After two years of recording inactivity, in 2004 the duo released a pair of production albums (The Life and Times of Phoebus Brumal and Dicks), plus another mix album (Another Fine Mess). In addition to Fila, Cobby is also an active member of other Pork stable acts such as Solid Doctor (his solo guise) and Heights of Abraham, both of which have released a number of full-length recordings.
Their early albums were released on Pork Recordings, also based in Hull: Old Codes New Chaos, Maim That Tune, Mess, Black Market Gardening, Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight and Power Clown. After creating their own music label with Sim Lister, Twentythree Records, they released further albums A Touch of Cloth, Jump Leads, The Life And Times of Phoebus Brumal, Dicks and Retrospective. They have also released two DJ mix albums, Another Late Night: Fila Brazillia, for Azuli Records' "Another Late Night" series, and Another Fine Mess: Fila Brazillia, and two collections of remixes: Brazilification and B2.
Their collaborations include working with Harold Budd and Bill Nelson to release Three White Roses & A Budd (Twentythree Records, 2002). They co-produced the first Twilight Singers LP Twilight as Played by The Twilight Singers with Greg Dulli in 2001. Cobby and McSherry have produced more than 70 remixes for artists including Black Uhuru, Busta Rhymes, DJ Food, Lamb, Radiohead and The Orb. Bill Hicks, the controversial American stand-up comedian, satirist and social critic, "appears" on Fila Brazillia's album Maim That Tune (1996) and the album is dedicated to Hicks.
Their music has made its mark both on small-screen blockbusters (such as CSI and Sex and the City) and cult cinema films such as Dogtown and Z-Boys, Riding Giants and Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, a 2006 documentary about the New York Cosmos soccer team. One of their better-known songs, A Zed and two L's, appears on Jam, a black comedy sketch show by British satirist Chris Morris. Their song "Here Comes Pissy Willy" from the Power Clown album featured as the theme to the James Whale Show on Talk Radio in the late 1990s.
After releasing their Retrospective album in 2006, Cobby and McSherry quietly ended their longtime partnership. Currently, McSherry is a lecturer in Audio Production at the University of Lincoln.
Cobby went on in late 2006 to form Steel Tiger Records with Sim Lister. Over the course of 2007, the label saw various digital releases by J*S*T*A*R*S (Cobby and Lister), Peacecorps (Cobby and guitarist Rich Arthurs) and by The Cutler (Cobby and ex-head of Pork Recordings David "Porky" Brennand). The first formal album by The Cutler on Steel Tiger Records was released on 7 July 2008, and the most recent "Everything Is Touching Everything Else" (Steel Tiger Records ST016, 10 June 2013) – with vocals by Isobel Helen, Archie Heselwood, Andrew Taylor and Little Glitches – distributed by Kudos Records Ltd.
In 2013 Steve Cobby provided the soundtrack for the Hull 'UK City of Culture 2017' bid film - 'This City Belongs to Everyone', produced by Nova Studios - on 20 November 2013 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, was announced as the winning City, and so as UK City of Culture 2017.
After a 16 year hiatus, on 6 March 2020, the band returned with the release of the MMXX EP.
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The Heights of Abraham is an electronica collaboration based in Sheffield and Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire in North-East England. Formed in the mid-1990s by Steve Cobby, Sim Lister and Jake Harries, they play electronica, ambient techno, and chill out. Formed in 1992 their debut releases (Tides EP and Humidity LP) came in 1992 on the ambient-downtempo label Pork Recordings (also based in Hull). With David McSherry; who forms Fila Brazilia with Cobby; Cobby and Lister created their own music label, Twentythree Records. Their album Electric Hush was voted one of the Top 20 Dance Albums of 1995 by dance and club-culture magazine, Mixmag.
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Terribly underrated and nearly forgotten, the Heights of Abraham's Humidity is a classic trip-hop album that never really got its due. And that's a pity, since the band comprises of one half of Fila Brazillia and vocalist Jake Harries. "Still Waiting" is an absolutely gorgeous track, and, to this day, I still sing along with it when I hear it. "Sportif" is a wonderfully, bouncy mid-tempo track, while "In the Cold" takes us back to romance. "Love Flows Down" becomes an ethereal track, but "10.55" returns things to earth with a humorous spoken word riff on a small town. And the final track, "Tides," ebbs and flows like the real thing, if instead of water, you had electro. Listen to this album and keep the spirit alive.
Heights Of Abraham - Humidity (flac 236mb)
01 Still Waiting 5:04
02 Humidity Rising 5:05
03 Sportif 7:19
04 In The Cold 5:29
05 Sunshine 5:53
06 Love Flows Down 4:03
07 10:55 3:42
08 All The Time In The World 5:02
09 Tides 8:59
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Steve Cobby, Jake Harries and Sim Lister: together as 'Heights of Abraham' they've produced some of the most beautiful grooves you could imagine. Think of Frankie Knuckles' 'Your Love', add it to Galaxy 2 Galaxy's 'Hi Tech Jazz' and lay it all over Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy' and you're getting close. We're talking heart-breaking stuff here. Jake's voice is distinctive - a truly angelic set of vocal chords which are plucked with consummate ease. Check out 'Dolphins' for some musical medicine to relieve the ills of today. And, it's not just the vocals; the instrumentation is as good as you'll hear anywhere. Delve into 'High Time' to find out how to really use a 303 or look no further than 'Boogie Heights' for a lesson in 120bpm dance tracks. Without the rules. To put it bluntly, this is one of the most outstanding albums of the year and what's more, it was made in the UK.
Heights Of Abraham - Electric Hush (flac 371mb)
01 The Cleric 6:43
02 Boogie Heights 6:44
03 High Time 10:31
04 Dolphins 3:51
05 What's The Number? 6:50
06 Olive Branching 9:32
07 E.V.A. 10:30
08 700 Channels 7:07
09 Sunyatta 6:51
10 Make Love 8:39
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"Two Thousand Six" has already turned out to be quite a year, and here, it's even more so turned out to be quite a CD! Downtempo production team Heights of Abrahams (Steve Cobby--1/2 of Fila Brazillia--and Sim Lister, along with breathy vocalist Jake Harries) have crafted a melange of dark, yet easily-accessible and chilled left-field tracks sure to please any crowd. Full of organic grooves that shimmer with sizzling, sax solos and haunting guitar riffs, Cobb and Lister manage to get inside your mind and soul. Their songs are warm, hypnotic and slow-burning providing the appropriate ambiance for any occassion, whether it's a social gathering, or love making. This one comes Highly Recommended.
After a long absence, Heights of Abraham returns and gets back to the heart of what made trip-hop such a popular genre: quiet, shuffling beats, soft, seductive vocals. "Intruder," the opening track, showcases this amply. But there's more to them than just that: the electro-funk of "Striplight" has a certain sleaziness to it. Little hints of jazz come filtering through on "Open Source," which sounds as if it could have come off of an earlier Heights of Abraham album -- a good thing, if case you were wondering -- and "As the Night Descended" has whispers of Fila Brazillia, circa _Mess._ There's a sultriness to "Blackout," a paean to failures of the power grid, and a dreaminess in "Western Edge." The exceedingly pleasant "Alt.Wakiki" sounds like the perfect antidote to a tough day anywhere. And "Everybody Knows" takes us back to the start. This album is a beautiful return to form for Heights of Abraham, proving that some things never go out of style.
Heights of Abraham - Two Thousand and Six (flac 322mb)
01 Intruder 4:35
02 Striplight 4:50
03 Bay Systems 5:00
04 Open Source 4:43
05 As The Night Descended 5:46
06 Blackout 4:40
07 Western Edge 3:15
08 Silver Waltzers 7:01
09 New World City 5:06
10 Alt. Wakiki 5:07
11 Everybody Knows 4:45
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It was 1978 and the great mind embodied in the fragile body of Brian Eno is releasing Ambient No.1: Music for Airports and with this heinous act begins a genre called ambient music.
Twenty-six years later, drummer UB40 arrives in Zadar and discovers a neglected space called "Garden" in the very heart of the city. As befits a rotten capitalist, he immediately buys it and from it " The Garden " is born ; the worst chillout space in this part of the Adriatic, where your heart rate drops to a single digit with a cocktail.
On Friday, May 27, on the day of the grand opening of The Garden in Zadar for the 2005 season, the world promotion of the music compilation " The Garden Compilation Vol.1 " took place. The stylistic or genre definition of “The Garden” compilation could most easily be compared to lounge compilations, which were affirmed through the famous “Caffe Del Mare” project. Also, the special significance of this compilation lies in the fact that it is the first licensed club compilation of a domestic publisher (Menart) with foreign performers.
It is the first in a series of compilations composed of performers who performed in The Garden in the '04 season, and special guests that evening will be DJ Steve Cobby (Fila Brazillia) who is responsible for the mix compilation, and DJ Beige (Momma Gravy), the author of the song "Driffkicker", inspired by his last year's stay in Zadar. By the way, the compilation itself is composed of 12 songs by artists such as K-Tee Kennedy & Jbuzz (Ger), Dub Specimen (UK), J * S * T * A * R * S (UK), Heights Of Abraham (UK), G .Corp (UK), Fila Brazillia (UK), Momma Gravy (UK).
The presentation at The Garden was scheduled as a presentation of the project to local and national audiences, while the world distribution of the album starts in the fall. The graphic design of the CD was designed by British visual creative Serge Seidlitz, credited with the recognizable The Garden logo.
The Garden Compilation 1 - Mixed by Steve Cobby (flac 303mb)
01 K-Tee Kennedy - Black Bike 2:46
02 Fila Brazillia - Furball Shindig 2:36
03 J*S*T*A*R*S* - Loose Nuke Threat 4:42
04 Momma Gravy - You Really Are 6:24
05 K-Tee Kennedy - Black Powder 5:15
06 Dub Specimen - Journey 3:42
07 Momma Gravy - Blu String Pudding 5:11
08 Momma Gravy - Driffkicker 6:16
09 Heights Of Abraham - Everybody Knows 4:47
10 Dub Specimen - Old Skool 3:29
11 Fila Brazillia - Sugarplum Hairnet 1:39
12 G. Corp Meets The Mighty Tree - Wish U Were Here 4:48
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Today's Artists are Hull-based duo Fila Brazillia is the most popular and acclaimed of the noted Pork Recordings stable. Formed in 1990 by producers Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry, Fila followed Cobby's association with Ashley & Jackson, a moderately successful pop/dance group signed to Big Life! that went belly up as the label began demanding more and more pop and less dance. Returning to his native Hull from Manchester, Cobby met DJ/dabbler Dave Pork, and the two forged a creative alliance. Hooking up with McSherry to form Fila, the group's first 12", "The Mermaid," was released that same year on Pork's fledgling imprint (formed, actually, specifically for the occasion), gaining instant acclaim among DJs and headphonauts alike for its innovative fusion of funk, dub, house, hip-hop, and acid jazz.........N Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Fila Brazillia followed their debut single with a string of full-length releases (Old Codes, New Chaos, Maim That Tune, and Black Market Gardening among them), which were instrumental in building Pork's reputation as one of the most consistent and respected of England's vast ocean of underground breakbeat/trip-hop labels. Later releases integrated elements of pop and drum'n'bass on a number of tracks. Fila's rep also translated into a number of acclaimed remixes, including Lamb's "Cotton Wool," the Orb's "Toxygene," and DJ Food's "Freedom" (over a dozen of which were featured on the 2000 collection Brazilification). During the new millennium, the duo released the mix album Another Late Night in 2001 and the studio effort Jump Leads early the following year. After two years of recording inactivity, in 2004 the duo released a pair of production albums (The Life and Times of Phoebus Brumal and Dicks), plus another mix album (Another Fine Mess). In addition to Fila, Cobby is also an active member of other Pork stable acts such as Solid Doctor (his solo guise) and Heights of Abraham, both of which have released a number of full-length recordings.
Their early albums were released on Pork Recordings, also based in Hull: Old Codes New Chaos, Maim That Tune, Mess, Black Market Gardening, Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight and Power Clown. After creating their own music label with Sim Lister, Twentythree Records, they released further albums A Touch of Cloth, Jump Leads, The Life And Times of Phoebus Brumal, Dicks and Retrospective. They have also released two DJ mix albums, Another Late Night: Fila Brazillia, for Azuli Records' "Another Late Night" series, and Another Fine Mess: Fila Brazillia, and two collections of remixes: Brazilification and B2.
Their collaborations include working with Harold Budd and Bill Nelson to release Three White Roses & A Budd (Twentythree Records, 2002). They co-produced the first Twilight Singers LP Twilight as Played by The Twilight Singers with Greg Dulli in 2001. Cobby and McSherry have produced more than 70 remixes for artists including Black Uhuru, Busta Rhymes, DJ Food, Lamb, Radiohead and The Orb. Bill Hicks, the controversial American stand-up comedian, satirist and social critic, "appears" on Fila Brazillia's album Maim That Tune (1996) and the album is dedicated to Hicks.
Their music has made its mark both on small-screen blockbusters (such as CSI and Sex and the City) and cult cinema films such as Dogtown and Z-Boys, Riding Giants and Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, a 2006 documentary about the New York Cosmos soccer team. One of their better-known songs, A Zed and two L's, appears on Jam, a black comedy sketch show by British satirist Chris Morris. Their song "Here Comes Pissy Willy" from the Power Clown album featured as the theme to the James Whale Show on Talk Radio in the late 1990s.
After releasing their Retrospective album in 2006, Cobby and McSherry quietly ended their longtime partnership. Currently, McSherry is a lecturer in Audio Production at the University of Lincoln.
Cobby went on in late 2006 to form Steel Tiger Records with Sim Lister. Over the course of 2007, the label saw various digital releases by J*S*T*A*R*S (Cobby and Lister), Peacecorps (Cobby and guitarist Rich Arthurs) and by The Cutler (Cobby and ex-head of Pork Recordings David "Porky" Brennand). The first formal album by The Cutler on Steel Tiger Records was released on 7 July 2008, and the most recent "Everything Is Touching Everything Else" (Steel Tiger Records ST016, 10 June 2013) – with vocals by Isobel Helen, Archie Heselwood, Andrew Taylor and Little Glitches – distributed by Kudos Records Ltd.
In 2013 Steve Cobby provided the soundtrack for the Hull 'UK City of Culture 2017' bid film - 'This City Belongs to Everyone', produced by Nova Studios - on 20 November 2013 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, was announced as the winning City, and so as UK City of Culture 2017.
After a 16 year hiatus, on 6 March 2020, the band returned with the release of the MMXX EP.
xxxxx
The Heights of Abraham is an electronica collaboration based in Sheffield and Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire in North-East England. Formed in the mid-1990s by Steve Cobby, Sim Lister and Jake Harries, they play electronica, ambient techno, and chill out. Formed in 1992 their debut releases (Tides EP and Humidity LP) came in 1992 on the ambient-downtempo label Pork Recordings (also based in Hull). With David McSherry; who forms Fila Brazilia with Cobby; Cobby and Lister created their own music label, Twentythree Records. Their album Electric Hush was voted one of the Top 20 Dance Albums of 1995 by dance and club-culture magazine, Mixmag.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Terribly underrated and nearly forgotten, the Heights of Abraham's Humidity is a classic trip-hop album that never really got its due. And that's a pity, since the band comprises of one half of Fila Brazillia and vocalist Jake Harries. "Still Waiting" is an absolutely gorgeous track, and, to this day, I still sing along with it when I hear it. "Sportif" is a wonderfully, bouncy mid-tempo track, while "In the Cold" takes us back to romance. "Love Flows Down" becomes an ethereal track, but "10.55" returns things to earth with a humorous spoken word riff on a small town. And the final track, "Tides," ebbs and flows like the real thing, if instead of water, you had electro. Listen to this album and keep the spirit alive.
Heights Of Abraham - Humidity (flac 236mb)
01 Still Waiting 5:04
02 Humidity Rising 5:05
03 Sportif 7:19
04 In The Cold 5:29
05 Sunshine 5:53
06 Love Flows Down 4:03
07 10:55 3:42
08 All The Time In The World 5:02
09 Tides 8:59
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Steve Cobby, Jake Harries and Sim Lister: together as 'Heights of Abraham' they've produced some of the most beautiful grooves you could imagine. Think of Frankie Knuckles' 'Your Love', add it to Galaxy 2 Galaxy's 'Hi Tech Jazz' and lay it all over Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy' and you're getting close. We're talking heart-breaking stuff here. Jake's voice is distinctive - a truly angelic set of vocal chords which are plucked with consummate ease. Check out 'Dolphins' for some musical medicine to relieve the ills of today. And, it's not just the vocals; the instrumentation is as good as you'll hear anywhere. Delve into 'High Time' to find out how to really use a 303 or look no further than 'Boogie Heights' for a lesson in 120bpm dance tracks. Without the rules. To put it bluntly, this is one of the most outstanding albums of the year and what's more, it was made in the UK.
Heights Of Abraham - Electric Hush (flac 371mb)
01 The Cleric 6:43
02 Boogie Heights 6:44
03 High Time 10:31
04 Dolphins 3:51
05 What's The Number? 6:50
06 Olive Branching 9:32
07 E.V.A. 10:30
08 700 Channels 7:07
09 Sunyatta 6:51
10 Make Love 8:39
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
"Two Thousand Six" has already turned out to be quite a year, and here, it's even more so turned out to be quite a CD! Downtempo production team Heights of Abrahams (Steve Cobby--1/2 of Fila Brazillia--and Sim Lister, along with breathy vocalist Jake Harries) have crafted a melange of dark, yet easily-accessible and chilled left-field tracks sure to please any crowd. Full of organic grooves that shimmer with sizzling, sax solos and haunting guitar riffs, Cobb and Lister manage to get inside your mind and soul. Their songs are warm, hypnotic and slow-burning providing the appropriate ambiance for any occassion, whether it's a social gathering, or love making. This one comes Highly Recommended.
After a long absence, Heights of Abraham returns and gets back to the heart of what made trip-hop such a popular genre: quiet, shuffling beats, soft, seductive vocals. "Intruder," the opening track, showcases this amply. But there's more to them than just that: the electro-funk of "Striplight" has a certain sleaziness to it. Little hints of jazz come filtering through on "Open Source," which sounds as if it could have come off of an earlier Heights of Abraham album -- a good thing, if case you were wondering -- and "As the Night Descended" has whispers of Fila Brazillia, circa _Mess._ There's a sultriness to "Blackout," a paean to failures of the power grid, and a dreaminess in "Western Edge." The exceedingly pleasant "Alt.Wakiki" sounds like the perfect antidote to a tough day anywhere. And "Everybody Knows" takes us back to the start. This album is a beautiful return to form for Heights of Abraham, proving that some things never go out of style.
Heights of Abraham - Two Thousand and Six (flac 322mb)
01 Intruder 4:35
02 Striplight 4:50
03 Bay Systems 5:00
04 Open Source 4:43
05 As The Night Descended 5:46
06 Blackout 4:40
07 Western Edge 3:15
08 Silver Waltzers 7:01
09 New World City 5:06
10 Alt. Wakiki 5:07
11 Everybody Knows 4:45
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
It was 1978 and the great mind embodied in the fragile body of Brian Eno is releasing Ambient No.1: Music for Airports and with this heinous act begins a genre called ambient music.
Twenty-six years later, drummer UB40 arrives in Zadar and discovers a neglected space called "Garden" in the very heart of the city. As befits a rotten capitalist, he immediately buys it and from it " The Garden " is born ; the worst chillout space in this part of the Adriatic, where your heart rate drops to a single digit with a cocktail.
On Friday, May 27, on the day of the grand opening of The Garden in Zadar for the 2005 season, the world promotion of the music compilation " The Garden Compilation Vol.1 " took place. The stylistic or genre definition of “The Garden” compilation could most easily be compared to lounge compilations, which were affirmed through the famous “Caffe Del Mare” project. Also, the special significance of this compilation lies in the fact that it is the first licensed club compilation of a domestic publisher (Menart) with foreign performers.
It is the first in a series of compilations composed of performers who performed in The Garden in the '04 season, and special guests that evening will be DJ Steve Cobby (Fila Brazillia) who is responsible for the mix compilation, and DJ Beige (Momma Gravy), the author of the song "Driffkicker", inspired by his last year's stay in Zadar. By the way, the compilation itself is composed of 12 songs by artists such as K-Tee Kennedy & Jbuzz (Ger), Dub Specimen (UK), J * S * T * A * R * S (UK), Heights Of Abraham (UK), G .Corp (UK), Fila Brazillia (UK), Momma Gravy (UK).
The presentation at The Garden was scheduled as a presentation of the project to local and national audiences, while the world distribution of the album starts in the fall. The graphic design of the CD was designed by British visual creative Serge Seidlitz, credited with the recognizable The Garden logo.
The Garden Compilation 1 - Mixed by Steve Cobby (flac 303mb)
01 K-Tee Kennedy - Black Bike 2:46
02 Fila Brazillia - Furball Shindig 2:36
03 J*S*T*A*R*S* - Loose Nuke Threat 4:42
04 Momma Gravy - You Really Are 6:24
05 K-Tee Kennedy - Black Powder 5:15
06 Dub Specimen - Journey 3:42
07 Momma Gravy - Blu String Pudding 5:11
08 Momma Gravy - Driffkicker 6:16
09 Heights Of Abraham - Everybody Knows 4:47
10 Dub Specimen - Old Skool 3:29
11 Fila Brazillia - Sugarplum Hairnet 1:39
12 G. Corp Meets The Mighty Tree - Wish U Were Here 4:48
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