Sundaze (15)

Hello SunDaze is still lingering in Clusterworld, today some solo-albums, Roedelius especially has been active and has released 30+ soloalbums over the years, here are tow of his early ones. Moebius to released some solo work, though solo..he seems more comfortable working with someone to bounce ideas off.. enjoy..

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Roedelius - Selbstportrait I (soft music) ( 79 ^ 199mb)

Selbstportrait was recorded by Roedelius during various Cluster sessions between 1973 and 1977, so the music actually predates the two previously released solo albums: Durch Die Wüste and Jardin Au Fou. Selbstportrait was recorded during the quiet hours when working with Cluster, Harmonia and Eno. All this material was spread over 3 albums, this the first "Selbstportrait" (Selfportrait) is picked by Roedelius on the basis of entertaining, commercial dare i say, as creating interest would enable the release of "Selbstportrait II & III". He used the Farfisa VIP 600 and a drum and echo tool by Excholette and recorded it all on a Revox A 77, first generation hi-end electronic tools. The music came about spontanously, impressed by the land scape , a lazy sunny afternoon, pastoral images filled with the sound of nightingales and frogs all impressed Roedelius to open up and inspire him in the quiet hours to create this musik



01 - In Liebe Dein (with love)(3:41)
02 - Girlande (3:43)
03 - Inselmoos (5:37)
04 - Fabelwein (4:58)
05 - Prinzregent (5:41)
06 - Kamee (3:34)
07 - Herold (3:54)
08 - Halmharfe (3:20)
09 - Arcona (5:01)
05 - Staunen Im Fjord (3:28)
06 - Minne (2:06)


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Roedelius - Jardin Au Fou (79 ^ 157mb)

Jardin Au Fou was recorded from April through July, 1978 at Paragon Studios in Berlin, Germany. It was produced by former Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann and released by the French label Egg in 1979.
A circus in the parc, Jardin Au Fou a garden of whimsy and odd delight, it is simple melodious keyboard music whose character is imbued with unexpected chord progressions that don't resolve in traditional ways, a naive rhythmic sense, and melodic lines that go where you least expect. Jardin Au Fou was the first of a series of albums where Roedelius ventured firmly into ambient music.

Note; The French record label Jardin Au Fou named themselves after this Roedelius album.



01 - Fou Fou (3:59)
02 - Toujours (2:56)
03 - Rue Fortune (2:21)
04 - Balsam (2:16)
05 - Café Central (3:34)
06 - Le Jardin (4:28)
07 - Gloria Dolores (4:11)
08 - Étoiles (3:51)
09 - Schöne Welt (4:45)
10 - Final (0:46)

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Moebius and Beerbohm - Double Cut ( 84 ^ 204mb)

From his early work with the pioneering Krautrock band Cluster to his later solo recordings, Dieter Moebius remained one of the most innovative and prolific voices in contemporary electronic music, anticipating movements from ambient to techno years before the fact. Moebius studied art in Brussels and Berlin and met there Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler (Tangerine Dream). They founded a band Kluster in 1969. After the departure of Schnitzler, they changed their name to Cluster. Later Moebius and Roedelius founded the band Harmonia with Michael Rother (Neu!), which also collaborated with Brian Eno.

Roedelius and Moebius subsequently worked with Eno on 1977's Cluster and Eno and 1979's After the Heat as well; in the wake of 1981's Curiosum, however, they dissolved Cluster, with both pursuing solo endeavors.
Moebius' first subsequent effort was 1981's Material, a second collaboration with Plank (his proper solo debut, Rastakraut Pasta, had appeared two years earlier); together, they produced some of the most experimental recordings of their respective careers, creating harsh mutant soundscapes which over time gave way to the proto-ambient textures of 1986's En Route, their final work before Plank's untimely death. Concurrently Moebius also teamed with Gerd Beerbohm for 1982's Strange Music and 1983's Double Cut, both explorations of pure noise; meanwhile, with the solo album Tonspuren (also from 1983), Moebius clearly anticipated the emergence of techno. Apart from teaming with Karl Renzeihuasen in the duo Ersatz, during the early '90s he also reunited with Roedelius to revive Cluster.



1 - Minimotion (6:58)
2 - Hydrogen (3:33)
3 - Narkose (6:37)
4 - Doppelschnitt (21:44)

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

Into The Groove (14)

Hello, Into The Groove takes a dip into the jazzdance world, in fact what i have here is almost 4 hours of party music, Blue Break Beats album is an excellent warmer, it has plenty of recognition moments and elements to move the head or hips to, by the time you put on " It's Jazz Thing" dancing is almost ineveitable, 70 min later when you spin Verve remixed, the latin house of willy Bobo will keep those feet moving, but time is moving on , people get tipsy and sentimental, and when your girlfriend starts singing along with " Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby " you know it's time to chill out and thats what you get. Seriously these albums do nicely at a small party at home or as background in a bar. Whatever there's plenty to compile your own set here.. Have yourself a great friday evening/night.

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VA - Blue Break Beats (92, 79min 447mb)

The music on Blue Break Beats dates from the late '60s and early '70s, when a large portion of Blue Note's soul-jazz artists began experimenting with funk and rock, creating dense electric fusions that concentrated on rhythm, not improvisation. None of this music has ever received much critical praise from jazz purists, but in the late '80s and early '90s, scores of hip-hop and dance DJs discovered these old records and began sampling the original tracks to use in new rap and dance songs. By the early '90s, this jazz-rap-funk fusion had become hip, which led Blue Note to assemble the Blue Break Beats compilations. All of the tracks feature multi-layered percussion, organs, and guitars. The deep funky grooves should appeal to appeal to fans of contemporary funk and rap, or rock-influenced soul-jazz.



01 - Richard "Groove" Holmes - Grooving With Mr. G (4:14)
02 - Grant Green - Sookie, Sookie (11:05)
03 - Lou Donaldson - Who's Making Love (6:45)
04 - Donald Byrd - Weasil (9:01)
05 - Eddie Henderson - Kudu (6:07)
06 - Bobbi Humphrey - Harlem River Drive (7:51)
07 - Jimmy McGriff - Blue Juice (5:03)
08 - Grant Green - The Final Comedown (3:28)
09 - Lou Donaldson - Turtle Walk (7:54)
10 - Three Sounds - Your Love Is Too Much (2:43)
11 - Donald Byrd - Black Jack (6:18)
12 - Herbie Hancock - Olilloqui Valley (8:26)

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VA - It's a Jazz Thing 2 ( 93, 70min. 420mb)

As a response to the dominating acid/house dancefloor dominance, The Jazz/rare groove scene started, playing funkier material, and opening up to rappers. DJ Gilles Peterson called this funky style Acid Jazz and the jazzdance movement was revived, purists lost ground and new artists found a platform to take the music , experiment and fuse the old with new technology. This is a compilation by Graham B an english jazzdance DJ who settled in Amsterdam in the late eighties.



01 - Brecker Brothers ft. Veera - Big Idea (4:43)
02 - Guru & Donald Byrd - Loungin (Jazz not Jazz mix) (3:45)
03 - Donald Byrd - Street Lady (5:39)
04 - Cymballistic - Blues for Sarah (4:42)
05 - US3 - Cantaloop (3:41)
06 - Mangu - La Playa (Pomo short mix) (4:25)
07 - Soon(e) MC - Sur le Boulevard du Rhythm' Funky (3:59)
08 - New Concept - What's Mine and What's Yours (4:47)
09 - Ronny Jordan ft. Dana Bryant - The Jackal (7:03)
10 - Grant Green - A Walk in the Night (6:44)
11 - Greg Osby - The Gutterman (4:08)
12 - Phillip Bent - World is a Ghetto (3:17)
13 - Take 4 - First Take (4:33)
14 - Ronny Jordan - So What (5:07)
15 - Corduroy ft. Sherine - Something in my Eye (3:22)

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VA - Verve Remixed 1 (02, 69min 161mb)

Verve Remixed tackles serious classics from the canon of vocal jazz, focusing especially on female vocalists: Billie Holiday (two songs), Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Carmen McRae, and Shirley Horn. As is nearly always the case with tributes or remix albums, the results are mixed; several productions triumph in either equalling or enhancing the intent of the original, but too often a complex arrangement of a pop standard is trampled by insistence on a constant groove, whether it's of downtempo or more clubby house origin. Well that is if you know the original, which is likely not the case, and thus the best soul / jazz artists from the Verve heyday, mixed with plentiful amounts of deep house and downtempo by some of the best remixers around result in this album to chill out after the beats clubbed your ears, or just like that on a sunny afternoon .



VA - Verve Remixed 1 ( ^ 436mb)

01 - Willie Bobo - Spanish Grease (Dorfmeister Con Madrid De Los Austrias Muga Reserva Mix) (7:23)
02 - Carmen McRae - How Long Has This Been Going On? (MJ Cole Remix) (4:56)
03 - Astrud Gilberto - Who Needs Forever? (Thievery Corporation Remix) (4:11)
04 - Dinah Washington - Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby? (Rae & Christian Remix) (4:57)
05 - Nina Simone - Feelin' Good (Joe Claussell Remix) (6:03)
06 - Shirley Horn - Return To Paradise (Mark De Clive-Lowe Remix) (5:52)
07 - Ella Fitzgerald - Wait 'Till You See Him (De-Phazz Remix) (3:51)
08 - Billie Holiday - Don't Explain (dZihan And Kamien Remix) (4:49)
09 - Nina Simone - See-Line Woman (Masters At Work Remix) (10:04)
10 - Sarah Vaughan - Summertime (UFO Remix) (6:49)
11 - Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit (Tricky Remix) (3:18)
12 - Tony Scott - Hare Krishna (King Britt Funke Mix) (6:57)

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

Alphabet Soup (14)

Hello, hello , hello Alphabet Soup, presents the knights that say Ni ! Ni Ni infact they stutter a little, but then it's no surprise then these guys are impressed by Ni colette and understandibly so she makes great music and with her wonderful voice she sings some great poetry aswell, bringing out her wonderful personality, so i guess those knights will never get passed Ni ! Nirvana's Kurt Cobain on the other hand collapsed under the weight of a teen spirit that raped him. Hmm, well doing heroin didnt help and having a crazy girlfriend certainly wasn't stabilizing, anyway In Utero (in the womb), may have suggested a regression to relative anonimity, but this attempt was foiled as it entered at no 1, later that year Nirvana recorded a great MTV Unplugged a few months before a shotgun answered Kurt Cobain's last question on this earth. The last band today has dropped of the radar deliberately, as they too were in danger of being overtaken by the acclaim of Neon Golden, fortunately they were working in and with several other bands and so Notwists members had plenty of modes to express their art, and even if they never release another Notwist album, with Shrink and Neon Golden they left us two timeless albums.

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Nicolette - Now Is Early (92 ^ 381mb)

Famously described as possessing a voice which sounded ‘like Billie Holiday on acid’, Nicolette was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and has lived in Nigeria, Switzerland, France, and Belgium. Nicolette’s convoluted musical journey began at an early age: picking up influences from her Nigerian father’s eclectic record collection of jazz, blues, gospel, classical and African music. Nicolette also learned the piano from childhood, but it was the late 1980s before she joined her first band, Calliope , based in Cardiff, Wales.

From here, she moved to London and in 1991, signed to the Shut Up And Dance label. Her music, although falling broadly into the field of electronica, is characterised by myriad influences, including, jazz, classical, blues, folk, and African This has resulted in a highly individualistic sound, she developed a highly sophisticated brand of breakbeat and hip-hop on “O Sinene” and “Single Minded People”. In 1992, the NOW IS EARLY was released attracting a small but devoted cult following. Produced by the renowned Shut Up And Dance crew, it was the first record to combine breakbeats with pop vocals, with a few jazzy ballads thrown in for good measure. More widespread success was foiled as the label collapsed, so the album remained unavailable until 1997 when it was reissued by K7.

Nicolette has released two more solo albums ( "Let no one live rentfree in your head" and Life Loves Us"), as well as a DJ mix album for the DJ-Kicks series, and featured on Massive Attack's 1994 Protection album. She has worked with a host of other distinguished collaborators in the electronic music field. In 1999 she set up her own record label, Early Records, to release interesting, quirky pop anthems. According to Nicolette, Early Records' music policy is: "innovative pop music." In 2007 Nicolette's cult hit "No Government" was remixed by Tocadisco and Makossa & Megablast and re-released. Currently she's in the studio working on a follow up to 2005's "Life Loves Us" album, to be released in 2008.



01 - No Government (2:02)
02 - Dove Song (4:55)
03 - Single Minded Vocal (3:09)
04 - I Woke Up... (4:46)
05 - Waking Up Remix (5:07)
06 - O Si Nene (5:56)
07 - It's Only To Be Expected (5:40)
08 - Wicked Mathematics (4:49)
09 - A Single Ring (2:09)
10 - School Of The World (5:24)
11 - Udi Egwu (6:29)
---Xs--
12 - No Government (Original Version) (5:30)
13 - Single Minded People (remix) (4:01)
14 - No Government In The Biosphere (7:53)

NICOLETTE:

Who am I?
I AM she to whom everything belongs.
I am she whose sexual energy flows freely and naturally and purely.
I am she who lives and breathes freely.
I am she who is utterly free.
I am she who flies at night and during the day should I so choose.
I am she who is always safe.
I am the indestructible and eternal.
I am love.
I am she who is in perfect health.
I am she who loves and enjoys being healthy.
I am she who can put her feet behind her head.
I am she who is endlessly supple.
I am she who loves endlessly and freely.
I am the uninhibited one.

These are just the first 14 lines , go over to her myspace to read the rest of what this remarkble woman shares, besides there's the accompanying music as well at Nicolette's Myspace

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Nirvana - In Utero (93 ^ 502mb)

Smells like teen spirit and all that jazz, rape me....he cried.

For 1993's In Utero, Nirvana brought in producer Steve Albini, well-known for his work on the Pixies album Surfer Rosa, bringing in Albini appeared to be a deliberate move on Nirvana's part to give the album a raw, less-polished sound. For example, one song on In Utero featuring long periods of shrill feedback noise was titled, ironically, Cobain insisted that Albini's sound was simply the one he had always wanted Nirvana to have: a "natural" recording without layers of studio trickery. The sessions with Albini were productive and notably quick, and the album was recorded and mixed in two weeks for a cost of $25,000.

Several weeks after the completion of the recording sessions, stories ran in the Chicago Tribune and Newsweek that quoted sources claiming DGC (their label) considered the album "unreleasable" .While the stories about DGC shelving the album were untrue, the band actually was unhappy with certain aspects of Albini's mixes. Specifically, they thought the bass levels were too low, and Cobain felt that "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" did not sound "perfect".[33] Longtime R.E.M. producer Scott Litt was called in to help remix those two songs, with Cobain adding additional instrumentation and backing vocals. In Utero debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart in September 1993, Nirvana didn't gone mainstream, however, the album lacked another Teen Spirit and thus did not achieve the same success as Nevermind.

In November 1993, Nirvana performed an exceptional set for MTV Unplugged. Early 94 they went on an european tour where Cobain ran into trouble with his health, ultimately the tour was cancelled , back home Cobain ran into heroin troubles again, he was convinced to check into drug rehabilitation. After less than a week in rehabilitation, Cobain climbed over the wall of the facility and took a plane back to Seattle. A week later, on Friday, April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head at his Seattle home, effectively dissolving Nirvana.



01 - Serve The Servants (3:34)
02 - Scentless Apprentice (3:47)
03 - Heart-Shaped Box (4:39)
04 - Rape Me (2:49)
05 - Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle (4:07)
06 - Dumb (2:29)
07 - Very Ape (1:55)
08 - Milk It (3:52)
09 - Pennyroyal Tea (3:36)
10 - Radio Friendly Unit Shifter (4:49)
11 - Tourette's (1:33)
12 - All Apologies (3:48)
13 - Gallons Of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip (hidden) (7:33)
Bonus 2013
14 - Marigold (B-Side) 2:34
15 - Moist Vagina (2013 Mix) 3:33
16 - Sappy (2013 Mix) 3:26
17 - I Hate Myself And Want To Die (2013 Mix) 2:59
18 - Pennyroyal Tea (Scott Litt Mix) 3:35
19 - Heart Shaped Box (Original Steve Albini 1993 Mix) 4:41
20 - All Apologies (Original Steve Albini 1993 Mix) 3:52

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The Notwist - Neon Golden (02 ^ 256mb)

Beginning in Weilheim, Germany in the early 90s as a heavy metal outfit, Markus and Micha Acher, along with drummer Martin Messerschmid, released two albums filled with pounding drums and guitar solos (The Notwist and Nook) before almost abandoning it completely. However, with Nook, things had already started to change. Interests moved away from thudding power riffs and toward the direction of complex rhythms and structures. Even so, to listen to those albums now, most people would find it difficult to believe the same band made Neon Golden.

In the mid-90s, the Notwist finally got an American distributor with 12, on the now-defunct Zero Hour label. With that, they began to explore even more textures in their sound, enlisting Martin Gretschmann (aka Console) to help with production and add his special electronic touch. Resulting in a more poppy sound for the group (some might even call it indie rock), 12's beauty is startling from beginning to end. With Martin Console now in tow as a full-time member, Shrink was a huge step into the world of electronic music and sounded almost completely unlike anything else made at the time. Mixing rock and pop with free jazz, old-timey folk, jagged minimalist beats and just about anything else you could toss in, in short way ahead of its time. >>> Shrink

A decade into their career, the Notwist created a masterpiece by pulling the same trick they pulled on Shrink: mixing things that might not seem to fit together into a beautiful, seamless whole. They have an uncanny knack for allowing their compositions room to breathe, Neon Golden is replete with lush textured sounds, drifting (and occasionally driving) pulsations, and mesmerizing hypno-rhythms. Best album of 2002 for me, but then i see a lot of trains (wink).

Apparently a little intimidated from all the accolades they recieved for Neon Golden, they concentrated on Tied and Tickled Trio and by 2004 formed a group with Themselves named 13 & God, whose eponymous debut was released in 2005. Formally there hasn't been a follow-up to Neon Golden yet. Markus Acher, in addition to his work with The Notwist , 13 & God and TTT, works with the band Lali Puna, has released two albums under the name Sharon Stoned.Mecki Messerschmidt now also plays drums for the recently reformed Schweisser.



01 - One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand (3:15)
02 - Pilot (4:28)
03 - Pick Up The Phone (3:55)
04 - Trashing Days (3:24)
05 - This Room (4:45)
06 - Solitaire (3:29)
07 - One With The Freaks (3:38)
08 - Neon Golden (5:54)
09 - Off The Rail (3:27)
10 - Consequence (5:13)
---Xs---
11 - Pilot (Console remix) (4:58)

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Eight-X (14)

Hello distinguised guests, today we have another round of Eight-X. Three works from those days when we still had a curtain, today the russians are all over the place, and a ruble sounds much more funky than a dollar. Bauhaus named itself after a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts that operated from 1919 to 1933. The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius, it's style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design, absolutely nothing gothic about it . But then their first subject, Bela Lugosi , the man who had played Dracula and frightened the thirties public which had been into all things ' undead ' for the preceding years, specially after WO I. Vampires still sell, anyway Bauhaus' first single stayed in the indie charts for 2 years, it set them up for a short but succesful span of four albums in 4 years after which Bauhaus became undead only to be revived 14 years later. Torch Song, my second offering was another strange choice for the bands name as a torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, where one party is either oblivious to the existence of the other, or where one party has moved on. Not much of that going on one their debut album Wish Thing, there 's too much emphasis on high production values for that, in fact the feel of the album is futuristic, which gets all to clear on their Star Trek..Prepare to energise....a real torch song artist likely would have lamented..beam me up scotty... Anyway my third band of today is the surprisingly unforgotten It's Immaterial, they made just two albums of which the second one flopped..undeservedly.The debut album made the idea behind the band's name clear " Life's Hard And Then You Die " This of cause was rather counter the prevailing and rising high of the late eighties, never the less they scored some hits, my favourite starts like this " everybody defines space in their own way, mostly by using barricades" great track and dry wit, well its available in two vibes.... And btw feel free to comment, the world is still a beautiful place even if so many of us forget or worse ignore it.

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Bauhaus - In The Flat Field Extended (80 , 77 min ^ 183mb)

Bauhaus formed in 1978 in Northampton, England. Guitarist/vocalist Daniel Ash, bassist/vocalist David J (born David Jay Haskins), and drummer Kevin Haskins had played together as a trio called the Craze before forming Bauhaus with vocalist Peter Murphy. Originally, the band was called Bauhaus 1919 after the German art movement; by 1979, they had dropped the 1919 from their name.

In August of 1979, the group released their debut single, "Bela Lugosi's Dead," on the independent record label Small Wonder Records. Although it did not make the pop charts, it became the de facto goth rock anthem, staying in the U.K. independent charts for years. Three months later, the group signed with Beggars Banquet's subsidiary label, 4AD. The group's second single, "Dark Entries," was released in January 1980. Following their first European tour, Bauhaus released their third single, "Terror Couple Kill Colonel," in the summer of that year, which became a hit on the indie charts.

After touring America for the first time in September, the group released a version of T. Rex's "Telegram Sam." In October, they released their debut album, In the Flat Field, which reached number one on the independent charts In October 81.
Few debut albums ever arrived so nearly perfectly formed; that In the Flat Field practically single-handedly invented what remains for many as the stereotype of goth music -- wracked, at times spindly vocals about despair and desolation of many kinds, sung over mysterious and moody music -- demonstrates the sui generis power of both the band and its work. This said, perhaps the best thing about the album isn't what it's supposed to sound like, but what it actually does -- an awesomely powerful, glam-inspired rock band firing on all fours, capable of restraint and complete overdrive both, fronted by a charismatic, storming frontman. In the Flat Field propelled Bauhaus' career with a near-perfect bang.

They released their second album, Mask, which revealed a more ambitious musical direction; the new direction, which featured elements of metal and electronic sonic textures, made the music more accessible without abandoning the dark, foreboding core of their music. Mask was a commercial success. Fall 82, the group had a hit with their version of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust." The success of the single propelled their third album, The Sky's Gone Out on the album charts.

Murphy contracted pneumonia at the beginning of 1983, which prevented him from participating in the recording sessions for Bauhaus' fourth album, Burning From the Inside. Consequently, the record featured substantial contributions from Ash and J, who both pursued more personal and atmospheric directions. After Murphy recovered, the band toured Japan and then returned to the U.K. to promote the summer release of Burning From the Inside. The album was another hit, yet in July, Bauhaus split up.

After Bauhaus' breakup, Murphy formed Dali's Car with Japan's Mick Karn and then pursued a solo career. Ash continued with Tones on Tail, a project he began in 1981; Kevin Haskins also joined the band after Bauhaus' split. J made some solo records and joined the Jazz Butcher briefly. Ash, Haskins, and J formed Love and Rockets in 1985 after a proposed Bauhaus reunion fell apart because Peter Murphy wasn't interested in the project. More than a decade later, however, with the careers of both Love and Rockets and Peter Murphy at a standstill, Bauhaus re-formed for several live dates in Los Angeles, mounting a full-blown tour in 1998; the two-disc Gotham documented the reunited group's performance at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom.

After being together for six weeks, Bauhaus entered a studio for the first time at Beck Studios in Wellingborough to record a demo. The band recorded five songs and one of the tracks from the session, the over-nine-minute-long "Bela Lugosi's Dead", was released as the group's debut single in August 1979 on Small Wonder Records. The single stayed on the British independent charts for two years. Way to go and it certainly deserves a place on this extended Flat Field as it ' foreshadows' the preceding and following 4 AD singles of the In The Flat Field album.

Tracks 1, 15: originally released in January 1980 on 7" single AXIS 3 Dark Entries.
Tracks 2 to 10: originally released in November 1980 on LP as CAD 13 In The Flat Field.
Tracks 11, 12, 17: originally released in October 1980 on 12" Single as AD 17T Telegram Sam.
Tracks 13,14: originally released in June 1980 on 7" Single as AD 7 Terror Couple Kill Colonel.
Track 16: originally released in December 1982 as a 7" flexi-disc A God In An Alcove free with Flexipop magazine.



Bauhaus - In The Flat Field Extended (80 ^ 432mb)

01 - Bela Lugosi's Dead (9:39)
02 - Boys (3:11)

03 - Dark Entries (3:51)
04 - Double Dare (4
05 - In The Flat Field (4:59)
06 - God In An Alcove (4:08)
07 - Dive (2:11)
08 - Spy In The Cab (4:28)
09 - Small Talk Stinks (3:33)
10 - St. Vitus Dance (3:29)
11 - Stigmata Martyr (3:41)
12 - Nerves (7:04)
13 - Telegram Sam (2:08)
14 - Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores (5:31)
15 - Terror Couple Kill Colonel (4:22)
16 - Scopes (1:28)
17 - Untitled (1:24)
18 - A God In An Alcove (4:08)
19 - Crowds (3:13)

Synchronicity...news just in about a new Bauhaus album

“I come with this darkness and go away white.”

‘Go Away White’ was recorded in 18 days at Zircon Skye in Ojai, with singer Peter Murphy, bassist David J, guitarist Daniel Ash, and drummer Kevin Haskins playing together as a band in one room, taking first takes as final cuts. So, a new record but apparently a final one, the band having decided to release it as a posthumous swan song.To be released on March 4th, 2008 worldwide.

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Torch Song - Wish Thing (84 ^ 96mb)

Torch Song was a British synthpop and dance band of the early 1980s consisting of William Orbit, Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert. In 1985, Grant left to pursue other projects and long-time friend Rico Conning officially joined the group. After the release of 'Exhibit A' in 1987, Torch Song as a group was put on the back-burner while William concentrated on solo work, he recorded several largely instrumental solo albums under the name Strange Cargo which features vocals by Beth Orton, Laurie Mayer and Joe Frank. He has also produced and remixed songs by numerous other artists. He continued to write with both Laurie and Rico and in 1995 they released the ambient 'Toward the Unknown Region.'

Wish Thing was Torch Song's first album, released, the track "Prepare to Energize" was a surprise dance-floor hit, being played in nightclubs and discos as well as appearing in the 1984 Tom Hanks movie Bachelor Party.



01 - Don't Look Now (6:45)
02 - Telepathy (4:19)
03 - Ode To Billy Joe (4:12)
04 - Another Place (4:01)
05 - Prepare To Energize (5:08)
06 - Tattered Dress (4:44)
07 - Sweet Thing (4:46)
08 - You Said You Were Coming (3:26)
09 - Water Clock Secrets (2:03)

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It's Immaterial - Life's Hard And Then You Die (86 ^ 388mb)

It's Immaterial were formed by three former members of Yachts - John Campbell, vocals, Martin Dempsey, guitar, and Henry Priestman, keyboards - in addition to Paul Barlow, drums. By 1984, the band had been reduced to a duo - Campbell and Jarvis Whitehead, guitar and keyboards, who joined in 1982.

It's Immaterial has qualities that can't be discerned from one listen, at least on the band's debut album, Life's Hard and Then You Die. Patience is really needed to let this record's oddball hooks kick in. Musically, the album is all over the place -- new wave, country, blues, folk, and synth pop. Somehow the smorgasbord of styles works, because the bandmembers aren't being eclectic just for the sake of it; they simply have a wide canvas, keeping the album fresh from beginning to end. When Campbell talks, it isn't because he can't sing; the man has a lovely voice, especially during the transcendent chorus of "Space. It's Immaterial manages to stay focused, never allowing its genre-bending to veer out of control. "Like much of Life's Hard and Then You Die, it grows on the listener. When "Festival Time" erupts into total chaos -- pulsating keyboards, brazen horns, samples of horses, operatic voices -- it sounds like a mess at first, but repeated spins reveal how well crafted it is.



01 - Driving Away From Home (Jim's Tune) (4:12)
02 - Happy Talk (5:29)
03 - Rope (3:38)
04 - The Better Idea (5:41)
05 - Space (3:57)
06 - The Sweet Life (4:39)
07 - Festival Time (3:52)
08 - Ed's Funky Dinner (3:09)
09 - Hang On Sleepy Town (4:20)
10 - Lullaby (6:24)
11 - Washing The Air (5:29)
12 - Ed's Funky Diner The Keinholz Caper) (5:53)
13 - Driving Away From Home (I Mean After All It's Only 'Dead Man's Curve') (6:30)

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

Around The World, (14)

Hello, Around The World finds itself in southern Spain today, Andalusia to be precise, and that means flamenco, gypsy style.

Flamenco was born towards the end of the 800-year Arab rule in Spain and during the Spanish inquisition, serving as a voice of protest and hope for the populations that were being subjugated at the time, including Christians, Arabs, Jews and the Gypsies. Flamenco thrived as a cultural and emotional expression, traditionally harnessing the deep sadness and suffering of a people who had been repressed for centuries. Many of the earliest flamenco songs are said to have been dark and profound in nature, concentrating on events such as bloody encounters, violent death, love and love betrayed, displacement, incarceration, sickness and loss. The cantaores (singers) would voice these experiences through cante, concentrating on communicating and evoking the same experiences and emotions within the listener.

The cante flamenco (flamenco song) is one of the three main components within the expression of flamenco, along with toque (playing the flamenco guitar) and baile (dance). Foreigners generally mistake the flamenco dance as being the essence of flamenco, however it is the cante which actuates the soul of this complex musical and cultural tradition. Originally flamenco was composed purely of cante with the accompaniment of palmas (hand clapping) and knuckle-rapping percussion, and it was not until the 19th century that the toque had been gradually added to the cante. The Gitanos have been fundamental in maintaining this art form, but they have an oral culture. Their folk songs were passed on to new generations by repeated performances in their social community.

Flamenco is expressed through the toque -- the playing of the flamenco guitar, the cante (singing), and the baile (dancing)
The flamenco guitar (and the very similar classical guitar) is a descendent from the lute. The first guitars are thought to have originated in Spain in the 15th century. The traditional flamenco guitar is made of Spanish cypress and spruce, and is lighter in weight and a bit smaller than a classical guitar, to give the output a 'sharper' sound.
The heart of flamenco is the song (cante). Although to the uninitiated, flamenco seems totally extemporaneous, these cantes (songs) and bailes (dances) follow strict musical and poetic rules. The verses (coplas) of these songs often are beautiful and concise poems, and the style of the flamenco copla was often imitated by Andalucian poets
El baile flamenco is a highly-expressive solo dance, known for its emotional sweeping of the arms and rhythmic stomping of the feet. While flamenco dancers (bailaores and bailaoras) invest a considerable amount of study and practice into their art form, the dances are not choreographed, but are improvised along the palo or rhythm. In addition to the percussion provided by the heels and balls of the feet striking the floor, castanets are sometimes held in the hands and clicked together rapidly to the rhythm of the music. Sometimes, folding fans are used for visual effect.

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Fiesta Gitana da Silva - Viva Jaleo ( 92 ^ 99mb)

The jaleo is an essential and complicated element of the flamenco, consisting of hand-clapping, fingersnapping, the accentuation of the rhythm by stamping the feet clacking the tongue, tapping the guitar and crying out exclamations as accompaniments to song and dance. The communal singing of a song with the accompaniment of the above mentioned is often placed between the solo performances of the artists to intensify the mood. The jaleo is in itself an extremely diffecult art form. The hand -clapping is especially complicated and it's almost exclusively the gypsies that command the technique of the ' palmas' . These Jaleodores aren't necessarrily solo artists themselves but they are greatly appreciated in a flamenco performance.



01 - Ritmo de Fiesta Gitana
02 - Jaleo, Todo el cuadro
03 - Tientos gitanos, Cante y baile- La Gitanilla
04 - Jaleo, Todo el cuadro
05 - Fandangos del desafio, Cante- Miguel Maya, El Moro, Patro Soto
06 - Alegrias, Baile- Curro Velez, Cante- Miguel Maya
07 - Verdiales, Baile- Antonio el de Valdepenas, Coralilo de Sevilla, Isabel Romero, Antonia de Triana...
08 - Bulerias, Baile- La Gitanilla, Cante- El Moro
09 - Jaleo, Todo el cuadro
10 - Tanguillo de Triana, Baile- Antonio el de Valdepenas, Antonia de Triana
11 - Farruca, Baile- Curro Velez
12 - Terminal de Fiesta, Todo el cuadro

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Fiesta Gitana da Silva - Duende del Flamenco ( 92 * 99mb)

The meaning of duende as in tener duende (having duende) is a rarely-explained concept in Spanish art, particularly flamenco, having to do with emotion, expression and authenticity. In fact, tener duende can be loosely translated as having soul.

Where the Muse brings golden inspiration, Duende brings blood. The Muse speaks of life, yet Duende sings of death. Duende is not inspiration, Duende is a struggle, a dark force, having very little to do with outer beauty, a struggle present in the artist's soul, the struggle of knowing that death is imminent. It is this knowledge of death that awaits and the despair that stems from it that produce Duende, and Duende will then color the artist's work with gut-wrenching authenticity, painful hues and tones that produce strong, vibrant art.

01 - Seguiriyas (8:24)
02 - Tarantos (18:02)
03 - Caracoles (6:31)
04 - Soleares y La Cana ( 9:18)
05 - Saeta (3:09)
06 - Saeta Martinete (2:39)
07 - Martinete (6:53)

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

Don't Panic ! , (14)

Hello, don't panic ! Here's the next episode of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy's tertiary phase, but first a recap of last weeks fit 13;

Arthur wakes up in a cave on pre-historic Earth (thus ignoring the events of the Secondary Phase), on the day, four years after he last saw Ford Prefect, that Ford arrives back. Ford carries news that he has detected disturbances in the "space-time wash", and that they might be able to escape. The disturbance turns out to be a Chesterfield sofa, which materialises in a field. They chase the sofa as it runs off, and then are transported elsewhere.

Zaphod and Trillian are on the Heart of Gold, without Marvin. Zaphod is extremely hungover, and upset that Trillian is dismissing the events of The Secondary Phase as a "psychotic episode". Trillian wishes to do something and is getting increasingly annoyed at Zaphod. After preparing a fabulous meal, and Zaphod still refusing to come out of the bathroom, she teleports away, telling the ship to "transport me the hell out of Zaphod Beeblebrox's life."

Meanwhile, Marvin is on a swamp on Squornshellous Zeta, conversing with the native life-forms, mattresses. He is circling around and around on one leg, while his artificial (i.e. replacement) leg is stuck in the swamp.

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THHGTTG - Fit 14

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Sundaze, (14)

Hello, SunDaze presents today the third cluster of Cluster, last week i focussed on Harmonia (= Cluster+ Michael Rother). This week i have the album they made after Rother temporarily left to concentrate on Neu ! again .The results were released as the 1974 Cluster LP Zuckerzeit, a watershed of electronic pop midway between Cluster, Neu! and Kraftwerk (the latter just about to explode with their own Autobahn LP). The next year it was time for Harmonia again releasing De Luxe(75).

After the release of Deluxe Harmonia went back to the studio with a new fourth member: Brian Eno. Clearly Eno had been very impressed with both Musik von Harmonia and Zuckerzeit and had joined Harmonia on tour once, jamming with the group at The Fabrik in Hamburg. The studio album which followed, Tracks and Traces was recorded in 1976 but was not released until 1997. After Rother left again Eno continued collaboration with Moebius and Roedelius in 1977, when Sky Records released Cluster & Eno. The trio also recorded After the Heat two years later . Not even a decade yet this completes my first 3 clusters of Cluster and friends, nine great albums that set the ambient road ahead, albums where new techniques were employed and the limits of the then analog technology were explored.

Obviously this was not the end of the Cluster story, in fact 6 weeks ago -as Harmonia - they played a gig in Berlin, and inbetween 1979 and 2007 they've released a number of good (solo) albums, but as we know things never get as exiting as in those days we explore.. be it music or a lover....

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Cluster - Zuckerzeit (74 ^ 221mb)

An unexpected jump from the extended kosmische jams of Cluster 71 into uncharted territory that signaled their direction for years to come, Zuckerzeit presented a vision of electronic pop, fusing the duo's haunted melodic sense with crisp, scratchy drum programs that provided a grounded focus to all those synthesizer warbles. Oddly, the ten short tracks have separate composer credits (five each), leading to the assumption that Roedelius handled more evocative synthesizer lines ("Hollywood," "Rosa") while Moebius pushed the group into experimental ground ("Rote Riki," "Caramba").



01 - Hollywood (4:40)
02 - Caramel (3:00)
03 - Rote Riki (6:10)
04 - Rosa (4:08)
05 - Caramba (3:55)
06 - Fotschi Tong (4:15)
07 - James (3:18)
08 - Marzipan (3:15)
09 - Rotor (2:38)
10 - Heiße Lippen (2:20)

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Harmonia and Eno - Tracks and Traces (76 ^ 221mb)

Recorded in 1976 but for whatever reason not released until 20 years later, Tracks & Traces is a fascinating release not merely for Eno's participation but for the hints of music that would become mainstream in the future. Indeed, opening cut "Vamos Companeros" has an intense guitar line from Rother that in its nervous, choppy way suggests everything from Wire to Bauhaus, not to mention Eno's own noted production clients, Bowie, Talking Heads and U2. Having already created two excellent albums, the core Harmonia trio was easily placed to whip up a third, with Eno the wild-card factor who turned out to be a perfect addition. While contributing some lyrics and singing at a time when he was steering away firmly from both in his own solo work, most of the time Eno lets the band speak for themselves musically, most notably adding snaky, quietly threatening basslines. Compositions range from the lengthy to just fragments, and while it feels at points more like a collection of sessions than necessarily a complete stand-alone album conceived as such, the end results are still well-worth hearing.



1 - Vamos Companeros (4:32)
2 - By the Riverside (9:31)
3 - Luneburg Heath (4:53)
4 - Sometimes in Autumn (15:49)
5 - Weird Dream (6:39)
6 - Almost (5:28)
7 - Les Demoiselles (3:59)
8 - When Shade Was Born (1:30)
9 - Trace (1:31)

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Cluster and Eno (77 ^ 150mb)

Brian Eno's first collaboration with Cluster, the best of this album's instrumental pieces are too emotionally rich to waste as mere background music, evoking feelings of hesitancy and regret that rescue the music from mere vapid prettiness. "Wehrmut" is an ethereal synth piece with the pace slowed to a tantalizing crawl. "Steinsame" features a treated guitar playing a slow figure over a dark, almost funereal synth melody. "Schöne Hände" uses watery synth effects to highlight a shivery rhythm pattern. Other pieces dispense with moody atmospherics altogether. While not the unqualified success of their 1978 collaboration After the Heat, Cluster & Eno remains an important album. Along with Eno's 1978 Music for Films, these works helped define the depth and promise of ambient music.



1 - Ho Renomo (5:10)
2 - Schöne Hände (3:00)
3 - Steinsame (4:20)
4 - Wehrmut (5:00)
5 - Mit Simaen (1:30)
6 - Selange (3:30)
7 - Die Bunge (3:50)
8 - One (6:00)
9 - Für Luise (3:50)

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Rhotation, (14) Into BPM

Hello, Into BPM again today. Starting off the 14th Rhotation are 3 groups that found their musical footing in other succesful acts, in a way they are split offs that have become successful in their own right, no mean feat i should think. Eat Static broke away from Ozric Tentacles to persue that 303 beat hypnotising the rave scene of the day, they threw in some alien/ X-files vibe and went with it..to this day. The Aloof came forth from Sabres of Paradise, first a single here and there until the whole project solidified in 1994 with the release of their first album, Cover The Crime, it was recieved well and they released several more until 2000 afterwhich things have gotten rather quiet around them. Lastly The Grid, Dave Ball of cause was the musical brain behind Soft Cell..still is, and with the Grid he scored some more points, with the help of partner, Richard Norris, featuring on this album are friend Robert Fripp aswell as future ' Propellorhead' Alex Gifford.

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Eat Static - Implant (94 Flac 426mb)

Although most often associated with the psychedelic trance genre, the band actually span almost all forms of dance music, including trance, techno, gabber, drum and bass, and breakbeat. As such they are well-compared to other hard-to-categorise children of the British rave scene, like The Prodigy, Underworld, Orbital, Aphex Twin and Leftfield.

Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton met as drummer and keyboard player (respectively) for the Ozric Tentacles, a long-standing psychedelic "space-rock" band from Somerset. Although the Ozric Tentacles incorporated elements of electronic music, Pepler and Hinton were drawn towards the rave-oriented dance music. In 1988 they collaborated on a project under the name of Wooden Baby which hinted at early rave and techno sounds as well as numerous other styles, and by 1990, the project had evolved into Eat Static. The duo toured in parallel with the Ozric Tentacles for several years until 1994, when they left the band to pursue Eat Static full-time. Pepler and Hinton are often joined in the studio by Eat Static's invisible third member Steve Everitt.

Their first album release, Abduction, immediately established the extra-terrestrial/U.F.O. obsession which is a running motif in their samples, track and album titles, and release artwork. The band's name is taken from a sample (as found on the track Eat Static) from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Implant, their second album, opens floatingly, but then the 303 rhythms and keyboards kick in , and let the progressive house unwind, quick and kicking, with vibes abound. The overall air of spacey samples and sonics at once give the band its identity fusing ambient/new age traces with sharp, slamming beats using differing drum styles and loops aiming for an almost tribal-level of experience before shooting up and out even higher halfway through.

A year later they compiled to EP's into their 3rd album Epsylon(95) , followed by , Science of the Gods(97) showing a sharper, darker techy sound compared to the more organic feel of the previous work. In 98 they released a live album B-world, a collection of various live performances recorded across the UK. Decadance (99) a round up of out takes , before releasing Crash and Burn (2000). With In The Nude (2001) Eat Static recovered some ground but the music scene was moving away from them, still they've kept going and last year they released De-classified, " dedicated to the memory of John Peel, a true maverick and a lover of all music wacky'n weird... You will be sorely missed."



1 - Survivors (7:44)
2 - Abnormal Interference (8:24)
3 - Implant (10:03)
4 - Dzhopa Dream (8:17)
5 - Panspermia (8:02)
6 - Area 51 (Nucleonic Mix) (9:24)
7 - Cydonia (9:00)
8 - Uforic Undulance (10:25)


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The Aloof - Cover The Crime  ( 94 Flac 476mb)

The Aloof were a British rock/electronica supergroup, mixing electronic and dance elements with dub influences. They formed as a strictly dance squad and only later added a vocalist and employed tighter song structures. The band began in 1990 when DJ Dean Thatcher and producer Jagz Kooner (also a member of Andrew Weatherall's Sabres of Paradise) issued the single "Never Get out of the Boat" . By the following year, the duo added vocalist Ricky Barrow and programmer Gary Burns (also with the Sabres) and recorded several singles. The Aloof got fed up with the burnt-out house scene and decided to become a true live band. Adding drummer Richard Thair (later with Red Snapper) in 1993, the expanded quintet set up their own label, Flaw Records, and released Cover the Crime in 1994. The album was well recieved, and earned the Aloof a contract with East West, which reissued the LP in 1995 and also released their second album Sinking one year later. The group played several festivals during the summer of 1996, and watched their single "One Night Stand" reach the British Top 30 late that year. The album Seeking Pleasure followed in 1998, though the group was dropped from East West after weak sales and a shake-up in the label's dance division. Kooner left soon after, and the Aloof moved to Screaming Target Records for 1999's This Constant Chase for Thrills. Not much has been heard of them since, though their myspace has 4 new tracks and lists 2007 line up: Ricky Barrow, Dean Thatcher, Richard Thaid, David Stone and Nick Avinit , i guess that means they are still out there making music.



1 - Cover The Crime (11:35)
2 - Circumstances (7:57)
3 - Society (9:21)
4 - Religion (11:54)
5 - Mind (11:24)
6 - Excursion 94 (4:37)
7 - Victim (Version) (7:10)
8 - Too High (7:43)

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The Grid - Evolver (94 Flac 418mb)

The Grid formed after Richard Norris met Dave Ball in 1987 during the recording of 'Jack The Tab', one of the UK's first Acid House albums. The album was co-produced by Norris and Genesis P.Orridge. The Grid had their first success with the debut single, Floatation in 1990. They went on to release a string of singles and three albums ('Electric Head', '456' and 'Evolver') and a compilation ('Music For Dancing'). Their 1994 single Swamp Thing, was widely popular and sold a million copies. The Grid's 1994 album Evolver, which contained the Swamp Thing single, reached number fourteen in the UK album charts. Other hits by The Grid include Texas Cowboys, Rollercoaster and Flotation. The band took a break in 1995. Contrary to popular belief, The Grid never actually split up, they just mutually agreed to put the act "on ice" so they could both pursue individual music interests they felt would help them to expand musically & that would eventually enhance The Grid in the long term when they decided to continue with the act.

Richard Norris went away and formed The Droyds which went on to remix the likes of Perry Farrell, Black Grape. His electronic band the Droyds have remixed Ladytron, Client and Armand Van Helden amongst others. He has also just finished writing the official biography of Paul Oakenfold which wass published by Bantam Press on 24th Sept 2007. Dave Ball reformed Soft Cell with Marc Almond (another act that has never officially split up) and released a new album on Cooking Vinyl Records, Cruelty Without Beauty, to critical acclaim as well as a live version of classic Soft Cell material and new tracks. Currently he is remastering/remixing a Soft Cell compilation, "Heat" .

By 2005 the pair were back together , as it happens The Grid just released a new single in late 2007 entitled Put Your Hands Together .. A 2nd single is planned along with a new album to follow in 2008 entitled Doppelganger.



01- Wake Up (7:53)
02 - Rollercoaster ( Voc.Susannah Melvoin) (6:34)
03 - Swamp Thing (6:41)
04 - Throb (5:04)
05 - Rise ( Voc.Donna Gardier )(6:07)
06 - Shapes Of Sleep (6:44)
07 - Higher Peaks (6:11)
08 - Texas Cowboys (5:51)
09 - Spin Cycle (5:31)
10 - Golden Dawn (8:35)

The Grid - Evolver (94 ^ 147mb)

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

Into The Groove, (13)

Hello, Into The Groove looks at sisters doin it for themselves in the seventies. Not withstanding their gospel background they made it into the soul/funk limelight. The Pointer Sisters were different by their own design, music, look and feel and they were respected for it. Phase II in the 80's and things went even better commercially , family wise things went less rosy. That can not be said of the Staple Singers, dad kept his girls together, though Mavis released a number of albums by herself. Ann Peebles has a great voice, not only that she wrote part of her own reportoire, with her collegue and later husband, Don Bryant, I can't stand the rain..ring a bell ? She was D Memphis soul diva, Peebles released a number of commercially successful and critically well received albums throughout the 1970s, until the rise of disco music in the late 1970s took her music out of the limelight. Here 2 of those albums, packaged as one download or seperately with a higher bitrate.

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Pointer Sisters - Live At The Opera House (74, 71:46 ^ 163mb)

As children the girls (Anita, Bonnie, June and Ruth) were encouraged to sing gospel music by their parents Reverend Elton and Mrs Sarah Pointer, but in their household they were told rock and roll and the blues were "the devil's music". After leaving school it was Bonnie who sought a show business career, and she convinced June to join her to form a duo, "Pointers, A Pair". Shortly after this, Anita quit her job to join the group. They began touring and performing and provided backing vocals. The sisters were signed to a recording deal with Atlantic Records in 1971. The resulting singles failed to win an audience but the sisters were enjoying themselves, and the temptation to join them finally overwhelmed Ruth. Before they began to record their first album, the trio had become a quartet, in which afterwards they signed with David Rubinson's Blue Thumb record label. Upon signing, they agreed that they did not want to follow the current trend of pop music, but wanted to create an original sound that combined jazz, scat and be-bop music. In searching for a visual style they used their experience to assemble a collection of vintage 1940s clothes from various thrift shops, that would comprise their costumes and give them the distinctive look they were searching for.

Their self titled first album, was released in 1973 and received positive reviews, with the group being lauded for their versatility and originality. The first single from it, a funk cover of "Yes We Can Can", reached number 11 on the pop charts, their second single was a cover of Willie Dixon's Blues stomper "Wang Dang Doodle". It reached the R&B top 40 and the group's thrift shop style began to catch on with fans.

The following year they released their second album titled That's a Plenty. It continued in the jazz and be-bop style of its predecessor but provided one exception that caused a great deal of interest. The song "Fairytale" written by Anita and Bonnie was a country song, and reached number 13 on the pop charts, and number 37 on the country charts, subsequently the group was invited to Nashville, Tennessee where they achieved the rare distinction of becoming the first black female singers to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.Their third album, and arguably best, was released in 1975. Steppin' produced their Grammy-nominated number one R&B single, "How Long (Betcha Got a Chick on the Side)", which was later sampled by female rap icons Salt 'N' Pepa a decade later. They also scored another R&B hit from the album with "Going Down Slowly", a further Allen Toussaint cover, and in 1976 appeared in the classic blaxploitation film Car Wash.Their last album as a quartet was the Jazz/Funk album Having a Party, released in 1977. The group fell apart, Bonnie went solo the remaining three came back together a year later to start off the second and highly succesful phase of their career with a Springsteen cover, Fire.

This 1974 offering presents the multi-faceted talents of the Pointer Sisters in a live setting with a full orchestra under the direction of the ladies concertmaster and keyboardist Tom Salisbury. They were the very first pop act given permission to do their proverbial thang at the San Francisco Opera House, which they did on April 21, 1974. While the entire program provides an ample spotlight for the siblings' remarkable vocal prowess, the show commences with a lengthy (seven-plus-minute) instrumental "Overture: Prelude to Islandia." Once they hit the stage the real action begins, led off by a suitably hypersonic reading of Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts." The extended ensemble adds a further dynamic quality to the hot-steppin' bop revival. Hearing the vocalists pull off the performance with such aplomb is a treat for those familiar with the Sisters' similarly blistering take fromthe Sisters' mercurial delivery is a fast and furious ride and the quartet certainly seem to be having a good time bringing it to life. The moody "Black Coffee" is a highlight, as the emotive torch ballad is given a scintillating workout that easily outshines the studio version. The latter half of Live at the Opera House (1974) is notably grittier with a rousing cover of Willie Dixon's "Wang Dang Doodle" that simmers into a churnin' hunk of burnin' blues.Saving the best for last, the Allen Toussaint classic "Yes We Can Can" is a funk free-for-all that prominently features the Sisters' usual quartet of Tom Salisbury (piano/organ/clavinet), Gaylord Birch (drums/percussion), John Neumann (bass) and Chris Michie (guitar). The jam linking to "Love in Them There Hills" climaxes with the Sisters wailing into a faultless a cappella ending. Live at the Opera House is by all accounts and measures an essential entry from the Pointer Sisters in their prime.



01 - Overture (Prelude To Islandia) (7:24)
02 - Walk-on (1:01)
03 - Salt Peanuts (4:17)
04 - Shaky Flat Blues (5:09)
05 - Fairytale (4:18)
06 - Cloudburst (2:42)
07 - Jada (5:38)
08 - Black Coffee (5:43)
09 - Let It Be Me (4:16)
10 - Hands Up / Wang Dang Doodle (5:15)
11 - Old Songs (Medley) (That's A Plenty / Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen) (6:44)
12 - Steam Heat (3:55)
13 - Yes We Can Can (5:57)
14 - Love In Them There Hills (9:27)

diet version
Pointer Sisters - Live At The Opera House (74, 71:46 * 99mb)

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The Staple Singers - Be What You Are (74 ^ 99mb)

The Staples' story goes all the way back to 1915 when patriarch Roebuck Staples entered the world. Roebuck quickly became adept as a solo blues guitarist, entertaining at local dances and picnics. He moved to Chicago in 41 and a decade later Pops Staples (as he had become known) presented two of his daughters, Cleotha and Mavis, and his one son, Pervis, in front of a church audience, and the Staple Singers were born. The Staples recorded in an older, slightly archaic, deeply Southern spiritual style , Pops and Mavis Staples shared lead vocal chores, with most records underpinned by Pops' heavily reverbed Mississippi cotton-patch guitar.

In 1968 the Staples signed with Memphis-based Stax. The first two albums, Soul Folk in Action and We'll Get Over, were produced by Steve Cropper and backed by Booker T. & the MG's. The Staples were now singing entirely contemporary "message" songs. In 1970 Pervis Staples left and was replaced by sister Yvonne Staples. Even more significantly, Al Bell took over production chores, and things got decidedly funky. Starting with "Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)" and "I'll Take You There," the Staples counted 12 chart hits at Stax. When Stax encountered financial problems, Curtis Mayfield signed the Staples to his Curtom label and produced a number one hit in "Let's Do It Again." The Staples went on to continued chart success, albeit less spectacularly, with Warner, through 1979. One more album followed on 20th Century Fox in 1981. After a three-year hiatus, they signed a two-album deal with Private I and hit the R&B charts five more times, once with an unlikely cover of Talking Heads' "Slippery People (club)" Pops passed away on December 19, 2000, shortly after suffering a concussion due to a fall in his home



01 - Be What You Are (4:58)
02 - If You're Ready (Come Go With Me) (4:24)
03 - Love Comes In All Colors (4:37)
04 - Tellin' Lies (4:06)
05 - Touch A Hand, Make A Friend (3:45)
06 - Drown Yourself (4:34)
07 - I Ain't Raisin' No Sand (6:29)
08 - Grandma's Hands (2:39)
09 - Bridges Instead Of Walls (4:00)
10 - I'm On Your Side (3:53)
11 - That's What Friends Are For (4:05)
12 - Heaven (3:32)

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Ann Peebles - If This Is Heaven + The Handwriting Is On The Wall ( 77/79 * 97mb)

Ann Peebles (born April 27, 1947, in St. Louis, Missouri) is an internationally acclaimed singer and songwriter best known for her popular Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label.
Peebles was discovered as a talent by Gene "Bowlegs" Miller of Hi Records during a 1968 trip to sit in singing with him at a Memphis, Tennessee, nightclub. A popular local bandleader, Miller was known for also helping other musicians, such as members of the Hi Rhythm Section, get their starts in the Memphis music industry. He brought her to Hi house producer Willie Mitchell for a tryout. Mitchell, immediately offered Peebles a contract; she was still shy of her 21st birthday.

Mitchell teamed Peebles with singer and house songwriter Don Bryant, seeking a bit more seasoning in her R&B phrasing. Peebles and Bryant soon began writing together, and would also end up dating in 1972 and married in 1974. 1973's I Can't Stand the Rain, which many critics still regard as her finest work. "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" was a decent-sized hit, and the brilliant title cut -- written by Peebles, Bryant, and disc jockey Bernard Miller -- became her biggest hit, peaking at number six R&B and famously becoming a favorite of John Lennon. Peebles released a number of commercially successful and critically well received albums produced by Willie Mitchell on Hi Records throughout the 1970s, until the rise of disco music in the late 1970s took her music out of the limelight.

By 1977, straight-ahead Southern soul had stopped selling in big numbers and disco had taken over the R&B market, and like many of her peers, soul diva Ann Peebles tried to make the best of matters by turning up the groove quotient on her album of that year, If This Is Heaven. Peebles, one of the best and most underrated soul songbirds of the 1970s, had already demonstrated she could work wonders with a dance-friendly track on her previous set, 1975's Tellin' It, and If This Is Heaven's first two cuts, "A Good Day for Lovin'" and the title number, find her and producer Willie Mitchell leaning toward disco while still leaving a taste of their classic-style Memphis groove in the mix, Peebles still sings her tales of love both good and bad with the passion, force, and clarity that made her a legend.

If This Is Heaven, Ann Peebles' 1977 attempt to merge her Southern soul influences with the disco grooves that were dominating the airwaves and the charts, proved to be a commercial disappointment, for her next album, Peebles and longtime producer Willie Mitchell took a grand step backwards. Released in 1979, The Handwriting Is on the Wall boasted some high-powered funk backdrops, but for the most part the album finds Peebles taking on a set of straight-ahead soul numbers in which she was usually either taking a man away from some woman who didn't know how to hold on to him, or was warning the ladies why they should stay away from her significant other. Willie Mitchell pairs Peebles up with some full-bodied soul and funk arrangements for these songs, and while unfortunately most of the great Hi Rhythm Section were unavailable for this record, the players on board do fine work, even if the groove lacks the ineffable touch of Peebles' finest work. The Handwriting Is on the Wall was Ann Peebles' last album for Hi, and the last new set she would release until 1988, but it captures one of the great R&B singers of the 1970s doing what she does best, and here she bows out on a high point.



Ann Peebles - If This Is Heaven (77 ^ 70mb)

01- If This Is Heaven (3:07)
02 - A Good Day For Lovin' (2:49)
03 - I'm So Thankful (4:01)
04 - Being Here With You (2:31)
05 - Boy I Gotta Have You (2:44)
06 - When I'm In Your Arms (3:03)
07 - You Gonna Make Me Cry (4:36)
08 - Games (2:59)
09 - Lovin' You Without Love (2:59)
10 - It Must Be Love (2:50)



Ann Peebles - The Handwriting Is On The Wall (79 ^ 74mb)

11 - Old Man With Young Ideas (3:06)
12 - Bip Bam Thank You Mam (3:09)
13 - The Handwriting Is On The Wall (3:16)
14 - I Didn't Take Your Man (3:59)
15 - You've Got The Papers (I've Got The Man) (2:49)
16 - Lookin' For A Lovin' (3:00)
17 - You're What I Need (But More Than I Can Stand) (2:59)
18 - Livin' In, Livin' Out (2:48)
19 - If I Can't See You (4:00)
20 - Let Your Love Light Shine (3:46)

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

Alphabet Soup, (13) M

Hello it's Alphabet Soup day again, mmm, what to pick and then after settling on the artists which album, with Mono it was easy they just made the one. With Masters of Reality it was a bit more difficult, i have all but one and even when their first really hit home and brought them into the limelight, for me the second album Sunrise On The Sufferbus proved more of a winner, it's less agitated, more loose and assertive, the 42 min pass very quickly.. With MC 900 Ft Jesus its different, he made just 3 albums, i got all three and they are all rather different in nature, i choose the middle one as it combines the elements of his first and last and is a gem musically and textually, although MC 900ft maybe overdoing it here and there, but then his first " Hell with the lid off " is lyrically pleasently disturbed. Anyway after the success of the If i only had a brain single, someone/thing got to him (Oral Roberts devotees ?) because nothing has been heard of him since.

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Masters Of Reality - Sunrise On The Sufferbus ( 92 ^ 289mb)

Led by singer/guitarist Chris Goss, Masters of Reality were something of an anomaly on the late-'80s/early-'90s rock scene, playing a strongly Cream- and Zeppelin-influenced brand of hard rock with modern touches. Their original members included bassist Googe, guitarist Tim Harrington, and drummer Vinnie Ludovico. Goss broke up the band shortly after their well-received, self-titled debut album in 1989; he reformed the group as a trio a few years later with Googe and legendary ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker.

On the one hand it must have seemed like a perversely appropriate gesture on the part of Chris Goss. Having received a variety of comparisons to Cream after Masters of Reality's first album came out, thanks in large part to Goss' vocal resemblance to Jack Bruce, none other than legendary British drummer and Cream veteran Ginger Baker took over the sticks on the group's sophomore effort. Far from being mere wish-fulfillment, though, Baker's abilities help supercharge the mighty and underrated Sunrise on the Sufferbus to a higher level. Baker's lost none of his power -- indeed, arguably he hasn't sounded this good in years, showing flash and flair while never replicating, say, the drum-solo mistakes of "Toad" -- while both Goss and Googe have their instruments like men possessed. Goss' singing still has hints of Bruce, as well as Neil Young, but doesn't just replicate -- while the band's production as a whole brings out the immediacy of the songs. The emphasis on calmer efforts like the dreamy string-and-keyboard drenched "100 Years" and the enjoyable, steady lope of "Rolling Green" provide a fine contrast to the amped-up kickers.

However, Masters of Reality never quite fit into prevailing hard rock trends, and they remained a well-kept secret to most of the listening public. In hindsight, their retro obsessions and warm, spacious guitar sound set a clear precedent for the '90s stoner rock movement; while the Masters' less metallic sound wouldn't have been a perfect stylistic fit, the link was reinforced by Goss' acclaimed production work on three of the four Kyuss albums. Those records helped pave the way for a new career in production for Goss, and Masters of Reality went on hiatus for several years. Goss reunited with Googe in 1997, adding guitarist Brendan McNichol and drummer Victor Indrizzo for a series of live dates that resulted in the album How High the Moon: Live at the Viper Room. An all-new studio album titled Welcome to the Western Lodge was released in Europe in 1999, followed by Deep in the hole (2001) , a European tour live album Flak 'n Flight (2002) and a collection of more folksy left overs " Give us Barabass" (04)



01 - She Got Me (When She Got Her Dress On) (2:47)
02 - J.B. Witchdance (3:37)
03 - Jody Sings (3:03)
04 - Rolling Green (3:42)
05 - Ants In The Kitchen (3:22)
06 - V.H.V. (4:22)
07 - Bicycle (0:48)
08 - 100 Years (Of Tears In The Wind) (4:06)
09 - T.U.S.A. (3:00)
10 - Tilt-A-Whirl (3:43)
11 - Rabbit One (3:33)
12 - Madonna (0:38)
13 - Gimme Water (2:23)
14 - The Moon In Your Pocket (3:29

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MC 900 Ft Jesus - Welcome To My Dream (91 ^ 268mb)

Taking the name MC 900 Ft. Jesus from an Oral Roberts'* sermon, the Dallas native Mark Griffin began recording in the late ' 80s. MC 900 Ft. Jesus' first records were bracing fusions of hip-hop, industrial, and spoken word, with hints of jazz. He became a favorite on college radio with his 1990 debut, Hell With the Lid Off, and 1991's Welcome to My Dream. Griffin seems to be able to get inside the American psyche and write these wonderful, incredibly well-observed lyrics; and then marries them to old-skool beats and layers of synth. At first listen you might believe that you're listening to hip-pop; but then you rapidly realise that everything he does is a little bit tongue-in-cheek.

Welcome To My Dream, the follow-up to Hell With the Lid Off is darker, less cartoonish, and far more influenced by funk and jazz than before (if it weren't for the slightly whiny vocals over top of the opening cut, you might mistake the backing track for something from Miles Davis' fusion period). In a lot of ways, Welcome to My Dream was a precursor to trip-hop, layering hip-hop beats over jazzy breaks and dream-like instrumentation. Tracks like "Killer Inside Me" and "Adventures in Failure" as backing tracks are killer and the delivery of the rhymes are top-notch, alas textually a bit silly, in the sense that jokes ware off after repeated listening. That's a shame because there are some great tracks here, like the arsonists confessional "The City Sleeps'" and the paranoiac nightdrive "Falling Elevators." As before on Hell With the Lid Off , DJ Zero scratches with aplomb.

After laying low for a couple years, MC 900 Ft. Jesus returned with his most popular record to date in 1994, One Step Ahead of the Spider. Featuring the hit single "If I Only Had a Brain," the record was calmer than his earlier work, incorporating more elements of jazz and funk; it was a hit on both alternative radio and MTV, nevertheless he never established much more than a cult following, and has completely disappeared from the radar since.

*Oral Roberts became a traveling faith healer after dropping out of college, he made a name for himself with a mobile big tent that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs, and where he shouted at petitioners who did not respond to his healing. In 1977 Roberts claimed to have a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center and the hospital would be a success. He founded Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1963, stating he was obeying a command from God. The university was chartered in 1963 and received its first students in 1965. Students were required to sign an honor code pledging not to drink, smoke, dance, party, or engage in premarital sex. Oral Roberts is retired now after a very succesful career as a televangelist. Btw the Rio Christ The Redeemer statue which made it into the seven wonders of the world list is just 130 ft, merely a seventh what the faith healer saw, well visions can be deceptive in the ' out there' .



1 - Falling Elevators (6:46)
2 - Killer Inside Me (4:08)
3 - Adventures In Failure (5:45)
4 - The City Sleeps (5:32)
5 - O-Zone (4:33)
6 - Hearing Voices In One's Head (5:54)
7 - Dali's Handgun (4:40)
8 - Dancing Barefoot (4:31)

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Mono - Formica Blues (97 ^ 322mb)

Influenced by cool jazz,' 60s pop and classic film-soundtracks, the trip-hop duo Mono formed around vocalist Siobhan De Maré and producer Martin Virgo, in mid-1996. Caught like many other mid-'90s male instrumentalist/female singer duos, Mono deftly stays clear of the trip-hop conundrum for the most part with Formica Blues. Certainly there was a certain shared sense of cinematic drama and haunting gloom that informs plenty of songs -- consider the Get Carter-sampling "Silicone," while "The Outsider" has an emotional directness Beth Gibbons would be proud of. The fact that lead single "Life in Mono" samples John Barry and works with breakbeats didn't necessarily help Mono stand out more, but then they work with a variety of English, American, and continental musical inspirations, and as such are able to find a balance between a particular style and a wide number of variations. The use of David Sylvian's "Approaching Silence" to signal the start of "Penguin Freud" works very well, however the highlight is probably "Playboys," with both a full-bodied beat and a halfway-to-industrial instrumental break to recommend it, while the combination of de Maré's voice and subtle orchestration really hits the spot.

In 1998, the use of "Life in Mono" in the soundtrack, trailers, and end credits of the film adaptation of Great Expectations (after Robert De Niro, who was working on the film, heard the song)[4] brought greater exposure for the song than ever before, they sogned a U.S. deal with Mercury Records, and went on their only concert tour, by 2000 they'd broken up. Siobhan De Maré now sings for Violet Indiana featuring Robin Guthrie of the group Cocteau Twins; Violet Indiana has released a number of singles, two albums and a singles collection. More recently, de Maré also founded Pearl Dust, a music management company.Virgo joined International Love Corporation, an unsigned rock band promoted through MySpace and CD Baby, as keyboardist.



01 - Life In Mono (4:45)
02 - Silicone (4:49)
03 - Slimcea Girl (3:50)
04 - The Outsider (5:09)
05 - Disney Town (4:08)
06 - The Blind Man (6:38)
07 - High Life (4:15)
08 - Playboys (6:40)
09 - Penguin Freud (6:19)
10 - Hello Cleveland! (6:34)

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Mono - Formica Blues Bonus (398mb)

11 Slimcea Girl (Aloof Remix) 7:44
12 Silicone (Les Rythmes Digitales Remix) 5:07
13 Slimcea Girl (Fat Boy Vocal) 5:30
14 High Life (Next Century Short Dub) 7:17
15 Silicone (Mr. Scruff Remix) 4:51
16 Life In Mono (Propellerheads-Sweat Band Mix) 6:35
17 Slimcea Girl (Sol Brothers London Dub Remix) 7:59
18 High Life (187 Lockdown Low Life Dub) 6:10
19 Life In Mono (Banana Republic Urban Dub) 6:22
20  High Life (Natural Born Chillers Vocal Mix) 6:07


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Eight-X, (13)

Eight-X, yeah right more nostalgia and i start right off with a Broken Heart, big sound, love can be such a pain, seriously i enjoyed ripping this one hadnt heard it for almost 3 decades, still some great tracks on it. Last week a commenter asked for Kissing The Pink, well i would have come to it but why wait to comply with a wish for that rare Big Man Restless clubmix, anyway the band should have done better, but never really managed to really bubble up and above. Something that had come naturally to my last artist today. He had some big advantages..being tall and blond and smart, if that wasn' t enough he has a beautiful voice aswell...yes thats one part of the story, his stagefright kept him from performing and later expanded to a dislike with the marketing-music industry, after Cupid And Psyche 85, to date he released just 3 albums, but then Wales has such a beautiful countryside..

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The Babys - Broken Heart (77 ^ 244mb)

The Babys consisted of vocalist/bassist John Waite, guitarist Wally Stocker, former Spontaneous Combustion and Strider drummer Tony Brock, and keyboardist/guitarist Mike Corby, who was replaced by Jonathan Cain in 1978; bassist Ricky Phillips also joined later on. Overshadowed by the punk and new wave movement in their native U.K., the band concentrated on the American market and did score two Top 20 singles with "Isn't It Time" and "Every Time I Think of You." After a rather meager start with their second album the band found a sympathetic producer this time out in Ron Nevison.He gives the band a sharp, precise recording that fully brings out their power while balancing out the heavier elements of their sound with sophisticated orchestrations that broaden their sound into a cinematic realm. The Babys live up to this ambitious style of production by stepping up to the plate with a collection of songs that are tight, catchy, and full of rock & roll conviction. The end result is an album that is a quantum leap forward from their first album in every way. Broken Heart is undoubtedly the crown jewel in the Babys' catalog and a worthwhile listen for any fan of big-production AOR rock ( adult orientated rock ? how about those adolescent girls ?).

1978 was a difficult year of transition for the Babys: The group parted ways with founding member Michael Corby during sessions for their new album, and the remaining members finished the album only to have their record company reject it in its initial form. The final result Head First surpassed "Broken Neart" in the quality of the cover , but the album was a mish mash and rather poor compared to it's grand predecessor. After 1980's Union Jacks, the Babys' future didn't look so bright anymore and the group disbanded in 1981. A shoddy anthology was released on cd in 89 but why they havent released Broken Heart , beats me, it could do with a shiny remaster. Well you can try it here , don't be put off by that cheesy cover, im sure they would have posed naked with their dicks in a sock if the man from the record company had told them.



01 - Wrong Or Right (3:25)
02 - Give Me Your Love (3:33)
03 - Isn't It Time (4:00)
04 - And If You Could See Me Fly (2:50)
05 - The Golden Mile (4:55)
06 - Broken Heart (3:01)
07 - I'm Falling (3:53)
08 - Rescue Me (3:49)
09 - Silver Dreams (2:59)
10 - A Piece Of The Action (4:24)
--Xs--
11 - Everytime i Think Of You (4:01)

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Kissing The Pink - Naked ( 83 Flac 411mb)

Kissing the Pink was formed in 1980 at the Royal College of Music in London, England. All of the members lived together in the same house in North London. Comprised of Nick Whitecross (vocals, guitars), Jon Kingsley Hall (keyboards, vocals), Peter Barnett (bass, violin, vocals), Simon Aldridge (guitars, vocals), Stephen Cusack (drums, vocals), George Stewart (keyboards, vocals), and Josephine Wells (saxophone, vocals). Their first single was "Don't Hide in the Shadows", made with Martin Hannett, but it wasn't until they signed with Magnet Records that they began to get any airplay. They recorded their first album in AIR studios with producer Colin Thurston, Kissing the Pink had wanted Brian Eno to produce the album but Magnet thought Thurston would make a more commercial impact. Kissing the Pink released their first album, Naked, in 1983.
The album, Naked, didn't sell a lot of copies but was a favourite with the college crowd, the sheer variety of songs on the album made the album too hard to classify, and thus it was largely ignored.

The self produced and much more consistant follow-up album , What Noise, didn't make much of a splash either, so by 1986 they were at the mercy of their label. Kissing the Pink shortened their name to KTP and recorded their most successful LP, Certain Things Are Likely. More commercial than any of their previous efforts, Certain Things Are Likely was Kissing the Pink's concession to their label Magnet's demand for a chart smash. The hits never really came, except that the title track reached number one on the Billboard dance charts; moreover, the single "One Step" went to number one in Italy. In 1988, KTP became Kissing the Pink once again. The group released Sugarland in 1993. After that, the band cut their roster to Whitecross, Hall, and Stewart, doing mainly production work for other artists.



01 - The Last Film (3:24)
02 - Frightened In France (3:25)
03 - Watching Their Eyes (3:14)
04 - Love Lasts Forever (5:33)
05 - All For You (3:52)
06 - The Last Film (Hymn Version) (3:04)
07 - Big Man Restless (3:44)
08 - Desert Song (3:21)
09 - Broken Body (2:41)
10 - Maybe This Day (3:34)
11 - In Awe Of Industry (3:14)
12 - Mr. Blunt (2:55)
Kissing The Pink
13 - Watching Their Eyes 3:15
14 - Maybe This Day 3:37
15 - Big Man Restless 6:09
16 - Love Lasts Forever (7" Mix) 3:37
17 - We Are Your Family 5:55

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Scritti Politti - Cupid and Psyche (85 Flac 376mb)

Few figures in pop music can claim Gartside's distinctive credentials: an artist who began in London's subcutaneous underground in the late '70s but ultimately rose to the top of the U.K. pop charts, a serious devotee of linguistic structuralism who can hold his own in a conversation with his friend, arch deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, and a handsome, dreamy-eyed gentleman who has, in the opinion of one critic, "a voice that's eternally 14 years old" yet nonetheless stands six foot six. Through the Young Communist League he met future Scritti Politti bassist Nial Jinks, at Leeds Art College he made the acquaintance of Scritti's future drummer, Tom Morley. In June 1978 Gartside and Morley dropped out of school and took up a flat in London, and Gartside invited Jinks to come out and join them.

At this stage, Scritti Politti's sound was scrappy, taut, and forthrightly experimental in style, utilizing abrupt changes, rhythmic displacements, and gritty and discordant harmonies tempered by Gartside's sweet vocalizing of impenetrably obscure lyrics, vaguely political in sense but temporal and abstract in meaning. Rough Trade released the 12" EP 4 A-Sides and a four-track single of Scritti Politti's second Peel Session. The band was then added to a U.K. tour featuring Gang of Four and Joy Division, but Gartside was consumed by stage fright and anxiety, leading to his first heart attack at age 23. After completing the tour, Gartside decided to take a year off from music and returned to South Wales to refresh himself.

When Gartside returned, it was a with a new Scritti Politti sound, a demo track, "The Sweetest Girl," was issued on a giveaway cassette with an issue of NME, and it soon proved extremely popular in England. While the finished single of "The Sweetest Girl" did not appear for several months, sapping some of the momentum gained by the pre-release, the follow-up album, Songs to Remember, was issued to considerable critical acclaim in September 1981. The album made it to number one on the U.K. independent album chart and number six on the main U.K. pop chart. By this time, however, the band had fallen apart, and the last original member, drummer Tom Morley, departed that November.

Gartside spent some time in New York, and met David Gamson, who in turn introduced him to the drummer from Material, Fred Maher. They began to record as Scritti Politti in 1983 in sessions produced by Nile Rodgers, but Gartside decided, rightly, that Rough Trade didn't have the kind of budget that could support the type of pop music that he was then interested in pursuing. With Gartside and Rough Trade parting ways, the Rodgers-produced sessions never saw the light of day. After negotiating with various labels, he finally settled on an offer made by Virgin. Then Gartside, Gamson, and Maher began slowly recording the group of singles that ultimately made up Cupid & Psyche 85.

Cupid & Psyche 85, released in June of 1985, was a landmark album in many respects. No prior pop album had integrated the techniques of sampling and sequencing to such a great degree, and the technology of that time was both expensive to use and barely up to the task Scritti Politti demanded of it. Gartside's typically high-flown verbiage was as evident here as anywhere, but you didn't need to understand what he sang in order to enjoy the music. Certain songs are dialogues between Gartside and a female singer; as such, "A Little Knowledge" is a rare pop song that retains the characteristics of a mini-tragedy. Likewise, the bonus track of "Flesh and Blood," featuring Jamaican rapper Ann Swinton, sounds remarkably fresh and contemporary 20 years on. But the big hits from Cupid & Psyche 85 were "Wood Beez" and "The Word Girl" in the U.K., and "The Perfect Way" in the U.S., which reached number 11 in the Billboard Hot 100 and got heavy rotation on MTV. Not many albums from smack in the middle of the "Big '80s" can be said to possess the quality of timelessness, but Cupid & Psyche 85 most certainly does.

Scritti Politti returned in 1988 with a new album, Provision, of which the intended hit, "Boom! There She Was," featured the talents of the late Roger Troutman. Provision found favor in the U.K., but had no effect whatsoever in the U.S., and worse, Gartside was personally unhappy with the album. Disgusted with music as a whole, Gartside dropped from sight again, and this time he did so for nearly a decade.
Released in 1999, Anomie & Bonhomie marked Gartside and Scritti Politti's return to music, and it shows that he had by no means lost touch with current trends, working with rappers Mos Def and Jimahl and extending the Scritti Politti compass to include a full-blown hip-hop sound. It was a fine comeback effort, but received only a lukewarm response from the public. White Bread Black Beer, recorded entirely by Gartside, followed seven years later and had the benefit of closely tailing a wave of newfound interest in his career.



01 - The Word Girl (4:24)
02 - Small Talk (3:39)
03 - Absolute (4:25)
04 - A Little Knowledge (5:01)
05 - Don't Work That Hard (3:59)
06 - Perfect Way (4:43)
07 - Lover To Fall (4:12)
08 - Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) (4:48)
09 - Hypnotize (3:34)
10 - Flesh and Blood (5:35)
11 - Absolute (Version) (6:11)
12 - Wood Beez (Version) (5:56)
13 - Hypnotize (Version) (6:35)

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