Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Various Artists (2009) -Eastern Standard Time
Artist: various
Album: Eastern Standard Time
Released: 2009
Quality: mp3 CBR 256
Size: 93 MB
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Flat Duo Jets (1998) -Lucky Eye
Artist: Flat Duo Jets
Album: Lucky Eye
Released: 1998
Quality: mp3 CBR 192
Size: 63 MB
After spending the prior 15 years recording lo-fi roots-rock albums, Flat Duo Jets were finally taken into a modern recording studio for 1998's LUCKY EYE. Produced by Scott Litt of R.E.M. fame and Chris Stamey of the db's, the Jets' major-label debut found the band's sound enhanced rather than subverted by the use of updated recording technology. The duo (Dexter Romweber and Crow) not only churned out traditional rockabilly ("Blues Wrapped Around My Head") and rollicking instrumental surf music ("Ludwiggin," "Virginia Surf") but ragtime-soaked songs of titles normal ("Hot Rod Baby") and absurd ("Sharks Flying In").
Throughout, Romweber's delivery bounces between a grating rasp ("String Along") and a romantic rumble ("Go This Way"). His cackling intro preceding the noirish instrumental "Creeping Invention" even brings to mind Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Crow's sole vocal performance is a pleasantly honeyed reading of the countrified "Little M." By far, the most inspirational contributions come from master cellist Suzie Katayama, whose gorgeous string arrangements take LUCKY EYE to another level, particularly on the instrumental "New York Studio 1959," a sweeping number reminiscent of Nelson Riddles' work. These orchestrations allow Romweber to play both the dashing crooner (the tango-influenced "Go This Way") and the beautiful loser ("Lonely Guy").
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Dino Saluzzi, Anthony Cox, David Friedman (1995) -Rios
Artist: Dino Saluzzi, Anthony Cox, David Friedman
Album: Rios
Released: 1995
Quality: lossless (FLAC tracks) / mp3 CBR 320
Size: 237 / 100 MB
Because Dino Saluzzi is an Argentine who plays the bandoneon, it is inevitable to compare him to Astor Piazolla. This comparison is unfair, however, because if Saluzzi is playing tango, it is so abstracted and transformed that we may as well just call it jazz. If a better comparison is sought it would be to another international jazz musician like Renaud Garcia-Fons.
On Rios, Saluzzi plays with American bassist Anthony Cox and American vibist and arranger David Friedman, a musician who's run the gamut from Yoko Ono to Disney soundtracks. Together they play an assortment of tunes by members of the group, about half of them Saluzzi's, plus the one cover "My One and Only Love." The numbers are thoughtful but not flashy. Friedman's "Penta y Uno" is largely a deconstruction of bossa nova and tango, featuring percussion as well as vibes. Cox's "Jad" uses weird effects from the instruments and the occasional Arabic motif to build up to a subdued bop frenzy. Other tracks are more straight-ahead combinations of the primary instruments. ~ Kurt Keefner
Monday, March 21, 2011
A Hawk & A Hacksaw (2011) -Cervantine
Artist: A Hawk & A Hacksaw
Album: Cervantine
Released: 2011
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 83 MB
Though so much of A Hawk and a Hacksaw's Balkan folk-inspired music is tied to a particular sound from a particular place, the passion they imbue into their performances seems to know no bounds. On Cervantine, their latest, Hacksaw principals Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost have expanded both their sound and their scope, expanding their sonic search further into southeastern Europe, making connections between what they've heard on their vast European travels and the sounds of their New Mexico home, transforming disparate (occasionally transcontinental) styles into something rich and rousing. Rooted as their music is to geography, the feelings A Hawk and a Hacksaw conjure on Cervantine are borderless. more info
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
16 Horsepower (1995) -Sackcloth'n'Ashes
Artist: 16 Horsepower
Album: Sackcloth’n’Ashes
Released: 1995
Quality: lossless (FLAC tracks) / mp3 CBR 320
Size: 292 / 100 MB
Driven by off-kilter fiddles, a bizarre sense of humor, and punk-inflected country-rock, 16 Horsepower's second album, Sackcloth 'n' Ashes, is a weirdly captivating listen. Nearly every song is a strange, backwoods fable, delivered with clever irony that never undercuts the essential, disturbing intentions of the songs. It's not for everybody, but for alt-country fans tired of Gram Parsons homages, Sackcloth 'n' Ashes is a welcome listen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Charlie Haden & Kenny Barron (1998) -Night & The City
Artist: Charlie Haden & Kenny Barron
Album: Night & The City
Released: 1998
Quality: lossless (FLAC tracks) / mp3 CBR 320
Size: 281 / 185 MB
The third in a series of Charlie Haden duet projects for Verve in the 1990s finds the increasingly nostalgia-minded bass player working New York City's Iridium jazz club with pianist Kenny Barron. Moreover, it is entirely possible that we are getting a skewed view of the gig; according to Haden, he and his co-producer wife Ruth tilted this album heavily in the direction of romantic ballads, eliminating the bebop and avant-garde numbers that the two may have also played at the club. Be that as it may, this is still a thoughtful, intensely musical, sometimes haunting set of performances, with Barron displaying a high level of lyrical sensitivity and Haden applying his massive tone sparingly. Most of the seven tracks are fantasias on well-known standards, although one of the most eloquent performances on the disc is Barron's playing on his own "Twilight Song." If Haden deliberately set out to create a single reflective mood, he certainly succeeded, although those coming to Haden for the first time through this and most of his other '90s CDs would never suspect that this man once played such a fire-breathing role in the jazz avant-garde.. ~ Richard S. Ginell
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Hyacinth House - 2 albums
Artist: Hyacinth House
Albums: Hyacinth House / Black Crow’s Country
Released: 2005 / 2008
Quality: mp3 VBR ~200
Size: 69 + 82 MB
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Various Artists (2011) -Pakistan Pop and Folk Instrumentals 1966-1976
Artist: various
Album: Pakistan Folk And Pop Instrumentals 1966-1976
Released: 2011
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 127 MB
Spending the greater part of the last decade assembling this masterpiece while tracking down most of the musicians in the process, Stuart Ellis of Radiodiffusion International has compiled a mind-blowing set of Pakistani instrumentals spanning the period between 1966 and 1976. It's all here: rock and roll beat, surf, folk traditional mixed with pop, film tunes, electric guitars, sitar and organ solos, brilliant percussion and arrangements crafted by the grooviest bands of the period: The Panthers, The Mods, The Bugs, The Blue Birds, The Abstracts, The Aay Jays, The Fore Thoughts, Nisar Bazmi, and Sohail Rana. Situated between Afghanistan, India and Iran, the collision of cultural influences in Pakistan gave birth to music that was, and still is, unlike anything heard anywhere else on the planet. By the late 1960s, previous restrictions on musical expression began to soften and bands that were playing American and British pop covers became popular in Karachi's burgeoning night club scene and at private dance parties. Long hair came into fashion among young men and hashish became the popular drug of choice on college campuses across Pakistan. Soon, hippies from both North America and Europe began flocking to Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. Very few of the bands that formed during this time actually got to record. Like their neighbors in India, the Pakistani record industry was more focused on releasing "filmi" music, which had just started to incorporate the electric guitar and electric sitar. Pakistan's musical revolution ended in June 1977 after a coup d'état and the establishment of a pure Islamic state governed by Sharia law. This marked the end of the "Swinging '70s" in Pakistan as night clubs and alcohol were banned throughout the country. Television and cinema, as well as popular music, were now subjected to government censorship. After the clamp-down, many Pakistani musicians left the country and moved to America, Canada and England. The audio quality here is top-notch, sourced straight from the original EMI Pakistan masters. ©
Monday, March 14, 2011
Various Artists (2011) - Sa-Re-Ga! (Psychedelic Funk Music In India 1970-1983)
Artist: various
Album: Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga! (Seminar: Aesthetic Expressions Of Psychedelic Funk Music In India 1970-1983
Released: 2011
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 165 MB
By the end of the 2000s, compilations of non-Western psychedelic music were becoming a dime-a-dozen propositions, while Bollywood compilations were getting even cheaper yet. Psych-Funk Sa-Re-Ga! Seminar outdoes the low expectations of both, stretching the boundaries of Bollywood exploitation music, and also featuring a set of '60s/'70s Indian pop at its finest, courtesy of producers extraordinary R.D. Burman and the brothers team known as Kalyanji Anandji (with multiple tracks each). Unlike most discs of this sort, the compilers at World Psychedelic Funk Classics are experts, well used to digging deep into the dustbins of history throughout Southeast Asia. Aptly, this collection is structured more like a film soundtrack than a run of singles, beginning with two scene-setting instrumentals (including a surfsploitation gem by a group called X'Lents) before splashing in with five tracks from the producers above in all their frenetic, chaotic multi-layered glory. True playback singers aren't common here (just Asha Bhosle on several tracks), but that serves the disc well; digging as deep as this, and providing a seminar on Bollywood soundtracks and the psychedelic scene around India during the '70s makes for a much more distinctive compilation. Highlights will vary from listener to listener based on whether your tastes lie in traditional Bollywood, psych-funk curios, or '60s exploitation (here courtesy of some remarkably garagey instrumentals), but shining above the pack are discoveries like Burman's "Freak Out Music" (which is exactly that), and Bappi Lahari's "Everybody Dance with Me" (reminiscent of "In A-Gadda-Da-Vida" gone Indian). ~ John BushSpin
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The Giljoteens - two albums
Artist: The Giljoteens
Album: Get A Head / Out Of Our Hands
Released: 2004 / 2007
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 87 + 57 MB
Sixties garage beat/punk is probably the best stuff ever produced. In the sixties rock'n'roll broke free from the 12 bar format. Riffs, bridges, big choruses etc was introduced for the first time. Everything after the sixties has been tagged and labelled to death, but back then it was just Rock'n'Roll! THE GILJOTEENS understand this better than most. Today when new music sounds dated almost the same second you hear it, it's refreshing to find that there are bands out go right to the roots for their influences. THE GILJOTEENS play garage punk, but they aren't simply a nostalgic retro act. Because where many bands like this are only about reproducing a sound and rely on covers from compilations like "Back From The Grave", THE GILJOTEENS also add the most important piece of them all - talent and a knack for writing killer originals! The melodic yet raw vocals, perfect in yer face attack of the drums, reverbed and sometimes fuzzed out twang of the guitar, the rolling bass and the great atmospheric farfisa organ all combine together to a great and original listening experience. Many sixties nuts often ask themselves "Why should I bother listening to a new garage band when there's so much good original stuff?" In the case of THE GILJOTEENS the answer is simple: Because it's fucking great!
Friday, March 11, 2011
GravelRoad - two albums
Artist: GravelRoad
Albums: Gravel Road / Shot The Devil
Released: 2004 / 2008
Quality: mp3 CBR 192 / CBR 320
Size: 157 MB
Imagine how you like yr blues. Do you like ‘em traditional (whatever that is)? Creepy and slidin’? Sweet? Heavy? Tough and shiney? Weird and wiggy? Brilliant and stoney? That’s how GravelRoad likes ‘em too. Seattle’s GravelRoad are deep blues fiends who have crawled through the vast black hole left by the deaths of Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside, been absorbed into the razor light shining from the ancient beacon of Mr.Fred McDowell and have smelt the bleached burnt rubber black top left in the shadow of ZZ Top‘s last ride through and back to Greenville and in turn fashioned their own entity and identity out of Mississippi rain, dirty warehouses, downtown last calls, beer stank basements and Capitol Hill Country Hi-Rises. Songs, freakouts, grooves, stomps, humps, knuckle draggers and dirty remixes about bad women, worse men, brand new babies,and trouble. Plenty of trouble. How do I like my blues? GravelRoad Style. more info
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Various Artists (2001) -Hillbilly Gospel 1948-1958
Artist: various
Album: Hillbilly Gospel 1948-1958
Released: 2001
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 137 MB
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Various Artists (2005) -Let's Get Drunk Again: Booze-Fuelled Blues, Bluegrass, Hillbilly and R'n'B from the 1920s-1950s
Artist: various
Album: Let’s Get Drunk Again: Booze-Fuelled Blues, Bluegrass, Hillbilly and R'n'B from the 1920s-1950s
Released: 2005
Quality: mp3 CBR 256
Size: 102 MB
Accurately subtitled "Booze-Fuelled Blues, Bluegrass, Hillbilly and R'n'B from the 1920s-1950s," this assembles 20 tracks taking various lyrical angles on that old demon alcohol. It's such a popular subject in pop music that one CD can't come close to including most of the songs dealing with the topic. However, Let's Get Drunk Again does have a well-selected, well-sequenced mixture of big and not-so-big names in various pre-rock American roots music styles. Among the biggest names are Louis Jordan ("Whiskey Do Your Stuff"), Robert Johnson ("Drunken Hearted Man"), Howlin' Wolf ("C.V. Vine"), and Bessie Smith ("The Gin House Blues"). Some important artists in early country music are also heard from, like the Dixon Brothers, J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers, and Charlie Poole. The late-'40s and early-'50s R&B/jump blues are the most entertaining selections, however, including one of the first major R&B hits that contained highly audible seeds of rock & roll (Stick McGhee's "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee," from 1949) and a lesser-known early-'50s jumper that illustrates the CD's theme as well as anything here (Jimmy Liggins' "Drunk"). Papa Lightfoot's "Wine, Women, Whiskey" is also something of an archetypal statement within this mini-genre, and is about as raw and gritty a mid-'50s electric blues performance as you'll hear (particularly in the vocal department, his singing sounding as if it's being processed through a rotary blade). It's a little too much harping on the same subject if you're not in the right mood, but this well-annotated disc is an impressive example of creative cross-licensing that combines variety and quality. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi
Various Artists (1991) -San Francisco Nights
Artist: various
Album: San Francisco Nights
Released: 1991
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 115 MB
While San Francisco Nights is a great sampler and place to find a few very rare artifacts, the overall album tends to be a bit confusing. The first dozen tracks move very smoothly and accurately trace the early origins of San Francisco rock, pop, and primordial psychedelia. The flow from early hits by the Beau Brummels ("Laugh, Laugh") and the We Five ("You Were on My Mind") to such rarities as the original (and superior) version of Country Joe & the Fish's earliest recording ("Bass Strings") is virtually seamless. Along the way, obscure gems such as the Vejtables' classic "I Still Love You" and the Great Society's original version of "Someone to Love" (later retitled "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane), as well as rare tracks by Sons of Champlin and the Mystery Trend fill in the gaps and provide the listener with the key missing links that lead to what eventually became known as the San Francisco Sound, if there was in fact such an animal. However, following these indie gems (many from the Autumn Records vaults), the inclusion of tracks such as Sly & the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music" and the Youngbloods' (who weren't even from the Bay Area) "Get Together" tend to take things out of context. Edsel Records' The Autumn Records Story contains many of the same tracks and makes the point a bit stronger. However, you'd be missing out on the Sons of Champlin's "Sing Me a Rainbow," which may be one of the great lost singles of the era, so it's a bit of a toss up, but in the end, this collection is still quite worthwhile. ~ Matthew Greenwald, allmusic.com
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
The Wildebeests (2009) -The Gnus Of Gnavarone
Artist: The Wildebeests
Album: The Gnus Of Gnavarone
Released: 2009
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 97 MB
The Wildebeests are something of a garage-rock supergroup, seeing as the group consists of John Gibbs, The Kaisers, Holly Golightly Band, The Masonics), Lenny Helsing (Thanes, Green Telescope) and, last but not least, Russ Wilkins (Pop Rivets, Milkshakes and Delmonas).
These three gits all cut their teeth playing raw beat music and generally causing an aural ruckus and have been doing so since before the likes of the Arctic Monkeys et al were born (which obviously means that they’re at least twice as good as any of those young whippernsappers!). When their paths crossed they found that they had the same old cranky, rusty equipment plus some new(ish) shiny tunes that they had accumulated along the way and, wah hey, the Wildebeests were born!
Finding themselves fuelled by enthusiasm, dunce caps and other ingredients, like finding out that they all shared the same attitudes and ideas when it came to what “making a right old honest bloody racket” was all about . . . thusly, The Wildebeests did verily go forth and bang, scrape, thump and twang. Could the world be their oyster? Nope. But this doesn’t deter them from jabbing a knife in its side and trying to prise it open.
These self-styled “Lairds of the Boss Racket” have been polluting the world’s ears for what seems like an eternity now, what with each member’s previous bands and with the sheer volume of recordings and gigs that they’ve seen fit to unleash upon an unsuspecting public. It is Dirty Water’s pleasure to release terrific gnu Wildebeests album The Gnus Of Gnavarone, recorded alongside the unparallelled lunacy of Jorge Explosion at his Circo Perrotti studio in Gijon, Spain. Dirty Water Records
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Various Artists (2003) -Blues Harp Heroes
Artist: various
Album: Blues Harp Heroes
Released: 20103
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 97 MB
Blues Harp Heroes is an excellent electric blues collection that dives deeply into the vaults of Cobra, Paula, Jewel, and Chief and comes up with 16 tracks from the '50s and '60s, including four unissued performances from Snooky Pryor ("Real Fine Boogie"), Sonny Boy Williamson ("Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket" and "Steady Rollin' Man"), and George "Wild Child" Butler ("Runnin' Drunk"). Even though a track like Junior Wells' "When the Cat's Gone the Mice Play" is an exact retread of his "Messin With the Kid," it's still unbeatable electric Chicago blues. One minor complaint: while Bill Dahl's liner notes are informative and well written, Fuel 2000 should include recording dates and years when possible on future releases. ~ Al Campbell, Rovi
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Various Artists (2010) -Hey Beach Girls: Female Surf 'n' Drag
Artist: various
Album: Hey Beach Girls: Female Surf 'n' Drag
Released: 2010
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 178 MB
It wasn’t just guys singing about surfboards and hot rods during the surf and drag boom in the early '60s; the girls were doing it, too, as this delightful 25-track compilation from Ace Records shows. Although nothing here was really ever more than a regional hit, these female singers and groups add a refreshing spin to a genre that puts a premium on motion and speed and expands love to include the sun, endless waves, and high-performance car engines. It adds up to a wonderful batch of rarities including Brian Wilson's production of “Pray for Surf” by the Honeys (who included Marilyn Rovell, Wilson's soon-to-be wife), “(Dance with The) Surfin’ Band” by Hal Blaine & the Young Cougars (drum legend Hal Blaine with the Blossoms on vocals), “Will You Love Me (Like You Did Last Summer)” by the Westwoods (Gracia Nitzsche singing an arrangement composed by her husband, Jack Nitzsche), a stomping “Drag Race Johnny” by Australia’s endearing Little Pattie, and the first ever effort by the great songwriting team of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, “Red Corvette,” which was billed to Ellie Gee & the Jets. Each of these sides is at least historically interesting, and if some, like a rare surf song from Motown Records, “Surfer Boy” by the Supremes, are conceptually improbable, each conjures up the sound and feel of an endless summer where it isn’t just the guys in motion. ~ Steve Leggett
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