Hello,

Today's artists are an English post-punk/new wave band, originally formed in Hornsey, London in 1978. The original line-up consisted of Indian-born lead singer and principal songwriter Bid (real name Ganesh Seshadri), Canadian guitarist Lester Square (real name Thomas W.B. Hardy), drummer John D. Haney and bass guitarist Charlie X. The band went through several bassists in the next few years, including Jeremy Harrington, Simon Croft and Andy Warren they broke up in 85 then reunited in 90, broke up again by 98 and then a decade later re united, currently a more stable stuation sees them releasing albums again, but this here is about their debut on the scene in the Aetix..  ......N'Joy

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When the British art school punk band the B-Sides changed their name and direction to become Adam & the Ants, guitarist/vocalist Bid and guitarist Lester Square opted out to form their own group, the Monochrome Set. Founded in London in 1978, the band (also comprising ex-Gloria Mundi and Mean Street bassist Jeremy Harrington and former Art Attacks drummer J.D. Crowe) was quickly snapped up by the Rough Trade label, and during 1979 issued three singles -- "He's Frank,""Eine Symphonie des Grauens," and its signature number, "Monochrome Set" -- all completely different in content and stylistic approach.

Strange Boutique After former B-Sides bassist Andy Warren grew tired of life in Adam & the Ants, he rejoined bandmates Bid and Square, replacing Harrington. In 1980, the Monochrome Set released their debut album, the cabaret-flavored Strange Boutique, followed later that year by the singles "405 Lines" and "Apocalypso" as well as another, more accessible full-length effort, Love Zombies. Complete with new guitarist Foz, keyboardist Caroline Booth, and drummer Nick Wesolowski, they returned in 1982 with a cleaner, more melodic sound on the LP Eligible Bachelors; "The Jet Set Junta," a satiric jab at the Falklands Islands conflict, became a significant hit the next year. The compilation Volume, Contrast, Brilliance: Sessions & Singles, Vol. 1 also appeared in 1983.

Following the departure of Square, the Monochrome Set veered even closer to light pop fare on singles like 1985's "Jacob's Ladder"; the sound subsequently crystallized on the nostalgically themed LP The Lost Weekend. When the record met with a dismal commercial response, the group disbanded, only to re-form in 1989 around the nucleus of Bid, Square, and Warren along with new keyboardist Orson Presence. The 1990 album Dante's Casino did little to raise the Monochrome Set's chart visibility, but the band soldiered on, releasing Charade in 1993, Misere in 1994, and Trinity Road in 1995. They broke up in 1998 while Bid formed a new band, Scarlet's Well. In 2011, members of the Well joined a reunited Monochrome Set, which also featured Bid, Square, and Warren. Signed to the Disquo Bleu label, the band released Platinum Coils in 2012 and Super Plastic City in 2013. Spaces Everywhere (2015) found them on their new home of Tapete Records, the label that a year later would release Volume, Contrast, Brilliance: Unreleased & Rare, Vol. 2, a sequel to their 1983 set. The group stuck with Tapete for its next album, 2016's Cosmonaut, which featured Bid playing all the guitars due to the departure of Square. The band also welcomed John Paul Moran back on keyboards. Mike Slocombe, who had previously been in the band in 1990 and played on the Dante's Casino album, joined the band in September 2016, replacing Steve Brummel on drums.


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Monochrome Set's debut album for Virgin followed the indie success of their singles "Alphaville,""Eine Symphonie Des Grauens," and "The Monochrome Set." By the time it was scheduled, Andy Warren (ex-Adam & the Ants) had replaced Jeremy Harrington on bass, and the lineup was completed by guitarist Lester Square (also ex-Ants), Indian-born vocalist/guitarist Bid, and former Art Attacks drummer J.D. Haney. Although it can't quite match Eligible Bachelors for songwriting, there are a number of superb, non-single album tracks that make this an essential purchase for fans -- especially "Ici les Enfants,""The Puerto Rican Fence Climber," and "The Lighter Side of Dating." Amid the austerity of post-punk England, and before we became awash with irony and archness, we needed a band who could raise their eyebrows and smirk at it all without ever being condescending (or maybe only a little bit condescending).



Monochrome Set - Strange Boutique (flac  230mb)


01 The Monochrome Set (I Presume) 5:13
02 The Lighter Side Of Dating 2:45
03 Espresso 3:14
04 The Puerto Rican Fence Climber 3:00
05 Tomorrow Will Be Too Long 3:00
06 Martians Go Home 2:04
07 Love Goes Down The Drain 2:29
08 Ici Les Enfants 3:09
09 The Etcetera Stroll 4:42
10 Goodbye Joe 2:43
11 The Strange Boutique 3:12

Monochrome Set - Strange Boutique  (ogg  95mb)

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One of the classic, undiscovered albums of the early '80s, Eligible Bachelors is a tour de force of wit and musical imagination. It features some of the funniest songs ever committed to vinyl, kicking off with "Jet Set Junta," which, alongside bookend song "The Ruling Class," pillories the neuroses of the wealthy. "The Mating Game" is also deeply amusing as a cad's cynical guide to the opposite sex, with lyrics like, "Blond, brunette or redhead, black, yellow or white/They taste the same, in the mating game." But it's not all jokes. "The Midas Touch" is an exquisite slice of whimsy riding a near-perfect guitar riff, with an emotional reach that shames most peers of songwriter Bid. Whether or not the rear cover testimonial from Andy Warhol is genuine, the Monochrome Set had released an age-defining record here. It's a shame nobody else knew about it.



Monochrome Set - Eligible Bachelors (flac  262mb)

01 The Jet Set Junta 2:03
02 I'll Scry Instead 2:50
03 On The 13th Day 3:06
04 Cloud 10 3:30
05 The Mating Game 3:20
06 March Of The Eligible Bachelors 3:01
07 The Devil Rides Out 3:02
08 Fun For All The Family 3:45
09 The Midas Touch 4:53
10 The Ruling Class 2:45
11 The Great Barrier Riff 3:39

Monochrome Set - Eligible Bachelors  (ogg  85mb)

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The Monochrome Set's curtain call before Bid launched a haphazard solo career, Lost Weekend offers "Jacob's Ladder," which was almost a hit single (heck, there was even a video). It was not to be, however, despite the move to Warners' subsidiary Blanco y Negro. The irony of the Monochrome Set was that they were always a small-budget band working on the most regal material. Still, there are several more great songs here, the best including "Letter from Viola,""Cargo," and "Wallflower" (also a single).



Monochrome Set - The Lost Weekend (flac 292mb)

01 Jacob's Ladder 2:58
02 Sugarplum 3:42
03 Cargo 3:43
04 Take Foz 3:13
05 Letter From Viola 4:33
06 Don't Touch 3:28
07 The Twitch 2:22
08 Wallflower 3:40
09 Starry Nowhere 3:49
10 Boom Boom 2:05
11 Cowboy Country 4:52
Bonus Tracks
12 Andiamo 3:13
13 Big Ben Bongo 3:17
14 Le Boom Boom 2:09
15 Yo, Ho, Ho And Three Bottles Of Wine 4:54
16 Wallflower (Saloon Bar Mix) 3:27

Monochrome Set - The Lost Weekend   (ogg  117mb)

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For all of the many sterling qualities the Monochrome Set exhibited over the years -- and truly, they were one of the most consistently enjoyable bands of the U.K. indie pop scene during their periods of activity, circa 1978-1985 and 1990-1995 -- they were absolutely maddening about their compilations. For one thing, the band released nine proper studio albums in their two incarnations, from 1980's Strange Boutique to 1995's Trinity Road, but more than half again that number of compilations have been released since the first, 1982's grab-bag of BBC radio sessions, early singles, and unreleased tracks Volume Contrast Brilliance. Many of these have mashed together re-recorded versions of familiar Monochrome Set songs (with no indication of their provenance) with outtakes, B-side rarities, and unexpected gems that have appeared nowhere else, but there has never been a truly comprehensive collection of Monochrome Set singles. Frankly, it seems highly unlikely that there ever will be one, because Virgin Records maintains control of the group's first two albums, Strange Boutique and 1981's Love Zombies, while Cherry Red has the reins to the rest of the catalog, barring 1985's misbegotten The Lost Weekend, a release for Warner Brothers' Blanco y Negro label that tried to turn the defiantly quirky group into mainstream pop stars. 1997's double-disc Chaps got past this problem by having the mid-'90s lineup of the band re-record the Virgin and Warner Brothers era material; it's simpler to just buy either Colour Transmission or Tomorrow Will Be Too Long: The Very Best of the Monochrome Set, either of which contains both Virgin albums in their entirety, and to ignore The Lost Weekend. With those caveats aside, 2008's The Independent Singles Collection is, at last, Cherry Red's attempt to make sense of the Monochrome Set's non-LP catalog. Lacking the rights to the Virgin and Warner Brothers material, The Independent Singles Collection therefore doesn't have gems like 1980's gorgeously spooky "Goodbye Joe" or 1985's "Wallflower" (the one gem from that era), nor does it contain any of singer/primary songwriter Bid's solo singles released during the group's late-'80s hiatus. But it does finally gather in one place the A- and B-sides of all of the band's independently released singles, from "He's Frank" (in both its original version from their 1978 debut single and the superior 1979 remake "He's Frank (Slight Return)") to 1995's "Kissy Kissy." This includes comparative rarities like the original single recording of 1982's "The Jet Set Junta," a different version than the more familiar take that has appeared on most previous compilations, including Volume Contrast Brilliance, and a number of lesser known flip sides that showcase the band's more experimental side. If someone was only planning to buy one Monochrome Set compilation, this should be the one.



Monochrome Set - Independent Singles Collection (flac 511mb)

01 He's Frank 2:37
02 Alphaville 2:56
03 Eine Symphonie Des Grauens 2:22
04 Lester Leaps In 2:38
05 The Monochrome Set 2:19
06 Mr Bizarro 3:31
07 He's Frank (Slight Return) 2:41
08 Silicon Carne 3:29
09 Fallout 2:55
10 The Mating Game 3:20
11 J.D.H.A.N.E.Y. 3:21
12 Cast A Long Shadow 3:20
13 The Bridge 3:06
14 The Jet Set Junta 2:03
15 Love Goes Down The Drain 2:41
16 Killing Dave 4:24
17 House Of God (Live) 3:42
18 Sweet Death 2:19
19 Forever Young 3:14
20 Hurting You 4:19
21 Little Noises 4:04
22 I Love Lambeth 3:45
23 Kissy Kissy 3:45
24 All Over 3:26
25 Closing Time 3:26

Monochrome Set - Independent Singles Collection  (ogg  189mb)

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Hello, a memorable day for Mick Jagger fathering another son with his 29 year old current girlfriend, can't get no satisfaction hmmmm...

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

Looka here another batch of 19 re-ups, requests fullfilled up to December 8th. There's much more to be had here. My tip here randomly pick an archive date and move up or down a few pages to older or newer posts, browse what you get there and maybe you'll find something of your liking or it may triggers a memory of what you'd really want and then do a search  ...N' Joy

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6x wavetrain-4th-wagon Back in Flac ( Pylon - Gyrate Plus, Comsat Angels - Fiction, Comsat Angels - Land, Second Layer - World Of Rubber, still in ogg The Empty Quarter - The Empty Quarter + Delerium, B-Movie - Nowhere Girl EP)


3x Aetix Back in Flac ( The Gun Club - Fire of Love, The Gun Club - Miami , The Gun Club - The Las Vegas Story)


3x Aetix Back in Flac (Felt - Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty, Felt - The Splendour Of Fear, Felt - The Strange Idols Pattern And Other Short Stories, Felt - Ignite The Seven Cannons)


4x Aetix Back In Flac (Throbbing Gristle ‎– Kreeme Horn, Throbbing Gristle - 2nd Annual Report, Throbbing Gristle - D.o.A. The Third And Final Report, Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats)


3x Aetix Back in Flac (Anne Clark - Joined Up Writing + The Sitting Room, Anne Clark - Pressure Points, Anne Clark - Hopeless Cases, Anne Clark - Changing Places)


The Earth got kissed goodbye by Greg Lake who died of cancer yesterday, he was the man whose voice introduced the world to  King Crimson and as if that ain't enough he introduced us to  Emerson, Lake & Palmer too . This here are three special uploads in honor of Greg Lake, the 21st Century Schizoid 'Lucky' Man who died yesterday.  He gave us this most enduring seasonal greeting too about how Christmas had deteriorated and was in danger of becoming yet another victim of crass corporate financial exploitation I Believe in Father Christmas



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Hello,

Today's artists are an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, Latin and African. They are one of the most successful bands of all time. Rolling Stone Magazine described them as "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and declared that the band "changed the sound of black pop" All month at Grooves..... ..... N'joy

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Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the most musically accomplished, critically acclaimed, and commercially popular funk bands of the '70s. Conceived by drummer, bandleader, songwriter, kalimba player, and occasional vocalist Maurice White, EWF's all-encompassing musical vision used funk as its foundation, but also incorporated jazz, smooth soul, gospel, pop, rock & roll, psychedelia, blues, folk, African music, and, later on, disco. Lead singer Philip Bailey gave EWF an extra dimension with his talent for crooning sentimental ballads in addition to funk workouts; behind him, the band could harmonize like a smooth Motown group, work a simmering groove like the J.B.'s, or improvise like a jazz fusion outfit. Plus, their stage shows were often just as elaborate and dynamic as George Clinton's P-Funk empire. More than just versatility for its own sake, EWF's eclecticism was part of a broader concept informed by a cosmic, mystical spirituality and an uplifting positivity the likes of which hadn't been seen since the early days of Sly & the Family Stone. Tying it all together was the accomplished songwriting of Maurice White, whose intricate, unpredictable arrangements and firm grasp of hooks and structure made EWF one of the tightest bands in funk when they wanted to be. Not everything they tried worked, but at their best, Earth, Wind & Fire seemingly took all that came before them and wrapped it up into one dizzying, spectacular package.


White founded Earth, Wind & Fire in Chicago in 1969. He had previously honed his chops as a session drummer for Chess Records, where he played on songs by the likes of Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, and Etta James, among others. In 1967, he'd replaced Redd Holt in the popular jazz group the Ramsey Lewis Trio, where he was introduced to the kalimba, an African thumb piano he would use extensively in future projects. In 1969, he left Lewis' group to form a songwriting partnership with keyboardist Don Whitehead and singer Wade Flemons. This quickly evolved into a band dubbed the Salty Peppers, which signed with Capitol and scored a regional hit with "La La Time." When a follow-up flopped, White decided to move to Los Angeles, and took most of the band with him; he also renamed them Earth, Wind & Fire, after the three elements in his astrological charts. By the time White convinced his brother, bassist Verdine White, to join him on the West Coast in 1970, the lineup consisted of Whitehead, Flemons, female singer Sherry Scott, guitarist Michael Beal, tenor saxophonist Chet Washington, trombonist Alex Thomas, and percussionist Yackov Ben Israel. This aggregate signed a new deal with Warner Bros. and issued its self-titled debut album in late 1970. Many critics found it intriguing and ambitious, much like its 1971 follow-up, The Need of Love, but neither attracted much commercial attention despite a growing following on college campuses and a high-profile gig performing the soundtrack to Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking black independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.

Last Days and Time Dissatisfied with the results, White dismantled the first version of EWF in 1972, retaining only brother Verdine. He built a new lineup with female vocalist Jessica Cleaves, flute/sax player Ronnie Laws, guitarist Roland Bautista, keyboardist Larry Dunn, and percussionist Ralph Johnson; the most important new addition, however, was singer Philip Bailey, recruited from a Denver R&B band called Friends & Love. After seeing the group open for John Sebastian in New York, Clive Davis signed them to CBS, where they debuted in 1972 with Last Days and Time. Further personnel changes ensued; Laws and Bautista were gone by year's end, replaced by reedman Andrew Woolfolk and guitarists Al McKay and Johnny Graham. It was then that EWF truly began to hit their stride. 1973's Head to the Sky (Cleaves' last album with the group) significantly broadened their cult following, and the 1974 follow-up, Open Our Eyes, was their first genuine hit. It marked their first collaboration with producer, arranger, and sometime-songwriting collaborator Charles Stepney, who helped streamline their sound for wider acceptance; it also featured another White brother, Fred, brought in as a second drummer. The single "Mighty Mighty" became EWF's first Top Ten hit on the R&B charts, although pop radio shied away from its black-pride subtext, and the minor hit "Kalimba Story" brought Maurice White's infatuation with African sounds to the airwaves. Open Our Eyes went gold, setting the stage for the band's blockbuster breakthrough.

That's the Way of the World In 1975, EWF completed work on another movie soundtrack, this time to a music-biz drama called That's the Way of the World. Not optimistic about the film's commercial prospects, the group rushed out their soundtrack album of the same name (unlike Sweet Sweetback, they composed all the music themselves) in advance. The film flopped, but the album took off; its lead single, the love-and-encouragement anthem "Shining Star," shot to the top of both the R&B and pop charts, making Earth, Wind & Fire mainstream stars; it later won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group. The album also hit number one on both the pop and R&B charts, and went double platinum; its title track went Top Five on the R&B side, and it also contained Bailey's signature ballad in the album cut "Reasons." White used the new income to develop EWF's live show into a lavish, effects-filled extravaganza, which eventually grew to include stunts designed by magician Doug Henning. The band was also augmented by a regular horn section, the Phoenix Horns, headed by saxophonist Don Myrick. Their emerging concert experience was chronicled later that year on the double-LP set Gratitude, which became their second straight number one album and featured one side of new studio tracks. Of those, "Sing a Song" reached the pop Top Ten and the R&B Top Five, and the ballad "Can't Hide Love" and the title track were also successful.

Spirit Sadly, during the 1976 sessions for EWF's next studio album, Spirit, Charles Stepney died suddenly of a heart attack. Maurice White took over the arranging chores, but the Stepney-produced "Getaway" managed to top the R&B charts posthumously. Spirit naturally performed well on the charts, topping out at number two. In the meantime, White was taking a hand in producing other acts; in addition to working with his old boss Ramsey Lewis, he helped kickstart the careers of the Emotions and Deniece Williams. 1977's All n' All was another strong effort that charted at number three and spawned the R&B smashes "Fantasy" and the chart-topping "Serpentine Fire"; meanwhile, the Emotions topped the pop charts with the White-helmed smash "Best of My Love." The following year, White founded his own label, ARC, and EWF appeared in the mostly disastrous film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, turning in a fine cover of the Beatles'"Got to Get You Into My Life" that became their first Top Ten pop hit since "Sing a Song." Released before year's end, The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 produced another Top Ten hit (and R&B number one) in the newly recorded "September."

1979's I Am contained EWF's most explicit nod to disco, a smash collaboration with the Emotions called "Boogie Wonderland" that climbed into the Top Ten. The ballad "After the Love Has Gone" did even better, falling one spot short of the top. Although I Am became EWF's sixth straight multi-platinum album, there were signs that the group's explosion of creativity over the past few years was beginning to wane. 1980's Faces broke that string, after which guitarist McKay departed. While 1981's Raise brought them a Top Five hit and R&B chart-topper in "Let's Groove," an overall decline in consistency was becoming apparent. By the time EWF issued its next album, 1983's Powerlight, ARC had folded, and the Phoenix Horns had been cut loose to save money. After the lackluster Electric Universe appeared at the end of the year, White disbanded the group to simply take a break. In the meantime, Verdine White became a producer and video director, while Philip Bailey embarked on a solo career and scored a pop smash with the Phil Collins duet "Easy Lover." Collins also made frequent use of the Phoenix Horns on his '80s records, both solo and with Genesis.

Bailey reunited with the White brothers, plus Andrew Woolfolk, Ralph Johnson, and new guitarist Sheldon Reynolds, in 1987 for the album Touch the World. It was surprisingly successful, producing two R&B smashes in "Thinking of You" and the number one "System of Survival." Released in 1990, Heritage was a forced attempt to contemporize the group's sound, with guest appearances from Sly Stone and MC Hammer; its failure led to the end of the group's relationship with Columbia. They returned on Reprise with the more traditional-sounding Millennium in 1993, but were dropped when the record failed to recapture their commercial standing despite a Grammy nomination for "Sunday Morning"; tragedy struck that year when onetime horn leader Don Myrick was murdered in Los Angeles. Bailey and the White brothers returned once again in 1997 on the small Pyramid label with In the Name of Love.

After 2003's The Promise, a mix of new material and fresh looks at classics, the group realigned with several top-shelf adult contemporary artists and released 2005's Illumination, which featured a collaboration with smooth jazz juggernaut Kenny G. The album was Grammy-nominated in the category of Best R&B Album. Earth, Wind & Fire continued to tour and made a show-opening appearance on American Idol's Idol Gives Back show in 2007. Three years later, Maurice and Verdine White, Bailey, Dunn, and McKay were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The band released Now, Then & Forever, their first album in five years, in 2013. Three years later, on February 3, 2016, Maurice White died from the effects of Parkinson's disease at his home in Los Angeles; he was 74 years old.


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Finally, after almost half a decade of serious dues-paying, Earth, Wind & Fire took off commercially with its fifth album, Open Our Eyes. EWF had been delivering great albums since 1971, but it wasn't until 1974 that the public proved genuinely receptive to Maurice White's mystical and unorthodox take on soul and funk. No longer would EWF enjoy only a small cult following. Thanks to treasures like "Kalimba Song," the gritty funk smoker "Mighty Mighty," and the unforgettable "Devotion," Open Our Eyes became EWF's first gold album and went to the top of the R&B charts. It's also interesting to note that with this album, singer Jessica Cleaves was gone, resulting in the first time EWF had an all-male lineup.



Earth Wind & Fire - Open Our Eyes   (flac  249mb)


01 Mighty Mighty 3:03
02 Devotion 4:50
03 Fair But So Uncool 3:40
04 Feelin' Blue 4:28
05 Kalimba Story 4:03
06 Drum Song 5:10
07 Tee Nine Chee Bit 3:45
08 Spasmodic Movements 1:51
09 Rabbit Seed 0:32
10 Caribou 3:26
11 Open Our Eyes 5:05

Earth Wind & Fire - Open Our Eyes  (ogg    97mb)

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Earth, Wind & Fire has delivered more than its share of excellent albums, but if a person could own only one EWF release, the logical choice would be That's the Way of the World, which was the band's best album as well as its best-selling. Open Our Eyes had been a major hit and sold over half-a-million units, but it was World that established EWF as major-league, multi-platinum superstars. Fueled by gems ranging from the sweaty funk of "Shining Star" and "Yearnin' Learnin'" to the gorgeous ballad "Reasons" and the unforgettable title song, EWF's sixth album sold at least five-million units. And some of the tracks that weren't major hits, such as the exuberant "Happy Feelin'" and the gospel-influenced "See the Light," are equally powerful. There are no dull moments on World, one of the strongest albums of the '70s and EWF's crowning achievement.



Earth Wind & Fire - That's The Way Of The World  (flac  259mb)

01 Shining Star 2:50
02 That's The Way Of The World 5:45
03 Happy Feelin' 3:16
04 All About Love 5:30
05 Yearnin' Learnin' 3:41
06 Reasons 4:53
07 Africano 5:10
08 See The Light 5:30

Earth Wind & Fire - That's The Way Of The World (ogg   97mb)

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With That's the Way of the World having made Earth, Wind & Fire one of the best-selling soul bands of the 1970s, Maurice White and co. had no problem filling large arenas. As dynamic as EWF was on-stage, it's a shame that there isn't more documentation of the band's live show. Only one live EWF album was released by a major label in America, the superb Gratitude. First a two-LP set and later reissued on CD, Gratitude brilliantly captures the excitement EWF generated on-stage at its creative peak. Neither hardcore EWF devotees nor more casual listeners should deprive themselves of the joys of the live versions of "Shining Star" and "Yearnin' Learnin'." Maurice White is magnificent throughout, and Philip Bailey truly soars on extended versions of "Reasons" (which boasts a memorable alto sax solo by guest Don Myrick) and "Devotion." The album also introduced some excellent new studio songs, including the haunting "Can't Hide Love" and the uplifting "Sing a Song." One could nitpick and wish for live versions of "Evil,""Keep Your Head to the Sky," and "Kalimba Song," but the bottom line is that Gratitude is one of EWF's finest accomplishments.



Earth Wind & Fire - Gratitude (flac 478mb)

01 Introduction By MC Perry Jones 0:22
02 Africano/Power 5:56
03 Yearnin' Learnin' 4:16
04 Devotion 4:53
05 Sun Goddess 7:54
06 Reasons 8:23
07 Sing A Message To You 1:19
08 Shining Star 4:55
09 New World Symphony 9:28
10 Interlude #1 0:15
11 Sunshine 4:16
12 Sing A Song 3:23
13 Gratitude 3:27
14 Celebrate 3:06
15 Interlude #2 0:27
16 Can't Hide Love 4:10

Earth Wind & Fire - Gratitude (ogg   167mb)

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With That's the Way of the World having enjoyed multi-platinum success, Earth, Wind & Fire had a lot to live up to when the time came for another studio project. And the soul powerhouse didn't let anyone down (either commercially or creatively) on the outstanding Spirit, which boasted hits ranging from the optimistic "On Your Face" and the passionate funk classic "Getaway" to the poetic ballad "Imagination." Philip Bailey is as charismatic as ever on "Imagination" and the gorgeous title song. Maurice White's message and vision (an interesting blend of Afro-American Christianity and Eastern philosophy) was as positive and uplifting as ever, and as always, EWF expressed this positivity without being Pollyanna-ish or corny. And even if one didn't take EWF's calls for unity, hard work, self-respect, and faith in God to heart, they had no problem with their solid grooves.



Earth Wind & Fire - Spirit   (flac 254mb)

01 Getaway 3:47
02 On Your Face 4:34
03 Imagination 5:17
04 Spirit 3:12
05 Saturday Nite 4:03
06 Earth, Wind & Fire 4:41
07 Departure 0:27
08 Biyo 3:38
09 Burnin' Bush 6:48

Earth Wind & Fire - Spirit (ogg 94mb)

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Hello,

Today's artists are a British nu jazz and electronic music group, created in 1999 by Jason Swinscoe. The group is signed to independent record label Ninja Tune. The group's sound, in both live and studio contexts, employs a live band which improvises along with a turntablist and electronic elements such as samples provided by Swinscoe. In their studio releases Swinscoe will often remix the live source material to produce a combination of live jazz improvisation with electronica, such that it is difficult to tell where the improvisation ends and the production begins......N'Joy

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The brilliantly named Cinematic Orchestra is led by composer/programmer/multi-instrumentalist Jason Swinscoe, who formed his first group, Crabladder, in 1990 as an art student at Cardiff College. Crabladder's fusion of jazz and hardcore punk elements with experimental rhythms inspired Swinscoe to further explore the possibilities of sampling, and by the time of the group's demise in the mid-'90s, he was DJ'ing at various clubs and pirate radio stations in the U.K.

The music he recorded on his own at the time melded '60s and '70s jazz, orchestral soundtracks, rhythm loops, and live instrumentation into genre-defying compositions, as reflected on his contribution to Ninja Tune's 1997 Ninja Cuts 3 collection and his remixes of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Coldcut tracks. The Cinematic Orchestra built on this musical blueprint, letting a group of live musicians improvise over sampled percussion or basslines. The Orchestra included saxophonist/pianist Tom Chant, bassist Phil France, and drummer Daniel Howard, who also recorded the Channel One Suite and Diabolus EPs for Ninja Tune with Swinscoe.

Their debut album, Motion, was released in 1999. The critical success of that album led to them being asked to perform at the Director's Guild Awards ceremony for the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to film director Stanley Kubrick. The band were asked by the organisers of the Porto European City of Culture 2001 festival to write a new score to Dziga Vertov's classic 1929 Soviet Union silent film Man with a Movie Camera, to be performed live in accompaniment with a showing of the film. The work differed from the band's usual compositions due to its live performance, ruling out the post production work that was present on Motion. The Cinematic Orchestra toured with the work and later released it on an album of the same name. Many of the compositions originally created for Man with a Movie Camera were later adapted from live form (adding in vocal tracks and electronic elements, among other changes) for their next album, Every Day. It reached #54 in the UK Albums Chart in May 2002.

In 2006, The Cinematic Orchestra created a cover version of the Radiohead song "Exit Music (For a Film)" that appeared on an album titled Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads. In this piece the band slowed down the tempo of the original, divided the timbre into four sections beginning with saxophone, to the classical guitar, to the electric guitar, ending the piece with the same simple acoustic guitar rhythm as the original version.

The Cinematic Orchestra released the album Ma Fleur on 7 May 2007. Several songs feature Patrick Watson, Fontella Bass, or Lou Rhodes on vocals, with Rhodes and Watson sharing vocals on one song. The Cinematic Orchestra recorded the soundtrack to the Disneynature film The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, released in France on 15 December 2008 (orig. as Les ailes pourpres: Le mystère des flamants). The score was produced by the band and Steve McLaughlin. The score was performed live with the London Metropolitan Orchestra at The Union Chapel, Islington on 17 September 2009 and won the award for best original score at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Wyoming, USA on 1 October 2009.

Ninja Tune invited The Cinematic Orchestra to perform at the twentieth anniversary gala performance of the label at the Royal Albert Hall in November 2010. In 2011, The Cinematic Orchestra commissioned a series of compositions for avant-garde short films that were performed at the Barbican Centre under the auspices of its curating a series entitled "In Motion", (also featuring Dorian Concept with saxophonist Tom Chant, Grey Reverend, and Austin Peralta), and it subsequently released the album In Motion #1 in 2012.

On 20 October 2016, The Cinematic Orchestra released a new song from their upcoming album. The title of the song is "To Believe" featuring singer Moses Sumney. The group have also announced a tour, including shows with Thundercat, Gilles Peterson, Jameszoo, and others

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Whether to categorize Motion as a jazz or electronica album is an intriguing conundrum, because it truly turns out to be a combination of both musical forms, and it is an unequivocally brilliant combination, at that. British arranger/programmer J. Swinscoe -- who virtually is the Cinematic Orchestra -- gathered samples of drum grooves, basslines, and melodies from various recordings and artists that have inspired and influenced him (spaghetti-western composer Ennio Morricone and Roy Budd's spy film scores, '60s and '70s jazz and soundtrack scores from musicians such as Elvin Jones, Eric Dolphy, Andre Previn, David Rose, and John Morris). He then presented the samples that he had collected to a group of musicians, the core of which consisted of Tom Chant (soprano sax, electric and acoustic piano), Jamie Coleman (trumpet, flugelhorn), Phil France (bass), and T. Daniel Howard (drums), to learn and then improvise. Those tracks, in turn, were sampled and rearranged by Swinscoe on computer to create the tracks that make up this first Cinematic Orchestra album.

The album bears all of the atmospheric hallmarks of ambient electronica, as well as Swinscoe's soundtrack inspirations and all the improvisational energy of jazz. Most of the songs are built with wave upon wave of repeated loops and instrumental phrases that work into a groove. Yet it feels at any moment as if the music is about to explode, like a steam whistle boiling to its screaming point. On "One to the Big Sea," for example, the same four-note bassline plays over and over with the same ride cymbal rhythm, but instead of seeming rote or mechanical, the riff just seems to continually bubble up and throb, slowly building anticipation and pressure. When a looped piano riff and horn charts enter the music, the juxtaposition seems almost jarring; yet, as they continue to repeat, in turn, atop the bass and cymbals, you can't help but feel that you're waiting for another dramatic leap, which eventually comes by way of the song's cornerstone: a thrilling drum solo. Each song is just as accomplished in its own way, so expertly arranged by Swinscoe that the impression of both structure and improvisation is created, while never sounding for a moment anything less than organic. The music is constructed piece by piece until it is a seamless whole that lives and breathes on its own merits, much like the soundscapes of DJ Shadow. Regardless of how they were made, though, the songs on Motion are by turns eerie, lush, edgy, expansive, gritty, intensely powerful, and gorgeous. Sometimes an album comes along that forces you to reconfigure and re-evaluate all of the assumptions you had previously made about music in order to realize how vast and endless the possibilities are; this is one of those albums.



The Cinematic Orchestra - Motion   (flac  273mb)

01 Durian 7:00
02 Ode To The Big Sea 5:42
03 Night Of The Iguana 13:21
04 Channel 1 Suite 5:50
05 Bluebirds 5:06
06 And Relax! 4:55
07 Diabolus 9:15

The Cinematic Orchestra - Motion    (ogg  97mb)

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Featuring a mix of jazz charts, DJ culture touches, and soundtrack-level layers of sound, Cinematic Orchestra's Remixes 1998-2000 includes seven reconfigurations of electronica gems from the likes of Kenji Eno, DJ Krust, and Piero Umilani. Atop their own core sound of bass, drums, and keyboards, the band deftly mixes in samples from the original tracks. The result is a loose-sounding mix of lengthy wide-screen pieces, which conjure up thoughts of Henry Mancini, John Barry, Jah Wobble, DJ Spooky, Herbie Hancock, and King Tubby. An albumfor the sophisticated electronica fan.



The Cinematic Orchestra - Remixes 98-00 (flac  276mb)

01 Faze Action - Moving Cities (The Cinematic Orchestra Remix Extended Version) 7:50
02 The Cinematic Orchestra - Channel One Suite (Tom Tyler Remix) 5:15
03 Kenji Eno - The Fear Theme (The Cinematic Orchestra's Re-interpretation) 5:48
04 Les Gammas - Guauanco (The Cinematic Orchestra's Extended Version) 7:35
05 Piero Umiliani - Panoramica (The Cinematic Orchestra Remix)6:27
06 Nils Petter Molvær - Vilderness (The Cinematic Orchestra Remix) 6:21
07 DJ Krust - Re-Arrange (The Cinematic Orchestra Remix) 9:48

The Cinematic Orchestra - Remixes 98-00    (ogg 100mb)

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With Every Day, Cinematic Orchestra move beyond the electro-jazz fusion of their debut to make a record more natural, more paced, and, surprisingly, better than the justly hyped Motion. J Swinscoe is more the arranger/conductor here than the producer, but of course, there's little need for samples or effects with such an accomplished band sharing the burden. For the opener "All That You Give," Swinscoe and Co., plus harp player Rhodri Davies, spend a few minutes delicately paving the way for a deeply felt vocal by soul hero Fontella Bass. "Burn Out" is a lush, meditative track with a pleasantly ambling solo from Phil France on electric piano, a few appropriately cinematic-sounding horns, an age-old vocal sample, and occasional creaking static phasing through. Bass returns for another splendid track ("Evolution"), and the mighty Roots Manuva appears on a magisterial, spoken-word quasi-autobiography, "All Things to All Men." Except for a pair of detours into highly programmed "broken beat" production, Every Day is a textured, acoustic work; Cinematic Orchestra take their time setting up these songs -- of the seven tracks, four last over nine minutes. The sounds and styles heard may not be revolutionary, but instead of simply pushing stylistic boundaries, Cinematic Orchestra display a real gift in making emotional, artistic music.



The Cinematic Orchestra - Everyday  (flac  388mb)

01 All That You Give 6:40
02 Burn Out 9:30
03 Flite 6:30
04 Evolution 6:30
05 Man With The Movie Camera 9:15
06 All Things To All Men 11:10
07 Everyday 10:00

The Cinematic Orchestra - Everyday  (ogg  139mb)

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It was just a matter of time before the Cinematic Orchestra received a commission for a film score, but this 2003 release actually dates from 1999. The genesis of Man With a Movie Camera lies in the selection committee of a Portuguese film festival, which asked Cinematic Orchestra to score their re-airing of Dziga Vertov's 1929 film of the same name, a silent Soviet documentary focused on a day in the life of an average worker. Performed live by the orchestra, Man With a Movie Camera doesn't allow J Swinscoe to indulge in his usual post-production magic, but it is a surprisingly adept score, with occasional bursts of on-the-one jazz-funk wailing to break it up. (Pity the poor comrade who's soundtracked 70 years later with a hyper-speed Pretty Purdie-type drum solo and some old-school-rap samples in the background.) Scattered moments of brilliance abound, and at one point, someone on sax comes up with a brilliant foghorn recreation. The cinematic material lies in '70s astral jazz, with evocative, tremulous work from soprano sax and violin. Some passages have a baffling, you-had-to-be-there quality.



The Cinematic Orchestra - Man With A Movie Camera  (flac  333mb)

01 The Projectionist 0:06
02 Melody 0:20
03 Dawn 4:00
04 The Awakening Of A Woman (Burnout) 10:20
05 Reel Life (Evolution II) 6:58
06 Postlude 1:45
07 Evolution (Versao Portuense) 5:47
08 Work It! (Man With The Movie Camera) 8:06
09 Voyage 0:22
10 Odessa 2:05
11 Theme De Yoyo 2:20
12 The Magician 2:26
13 Theme Reprise 2:53
14 Yoyo Waltz 1:17
15 Drunken Tune 4:50
16 The Animated Tripod 1:12
17 All Things 6:06

The Cinematic Orchestra - Man With A Movie Camera    (ogg  128mb)

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Hello, Christmas is quickly closing in on us, a lot of money is being spent to fill the emptiness experienced in the previous year, the industry does everything to equate buying with happiness, never more so then during these days, and peace remains an illusion. We need to grasp "the Meaning of Life , make yours an insightful Christmas...


Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) were a British surreal comedy group who created the sketch comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus, which first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four seasons. The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and impact, including touring stage shows, films, numerous albums, several books, and a stage musical. The group's influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. ..N'Joy

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Fusing the topical satire of David Frost with the surreal outlandishness of The Goon Show, the Monty Python's Flying Circus troupe formed in England in 1969. Comprised of British performers John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman, along with American animator Terry Gilliam, the group emerged as an international cult phenomenon, honing its singular blend of broad slapstick, edgy black comedy, and social commentary in a string of successful television programs, films, and albums.


After meeting during a taping of the British children's series Do Not Adjust Your Set, the Pythons officially took shape in May 1969 when the BBC contracted the group to produce its own 13-week program. Monty Python's Flying Circus, a weekly sketch comedy series, premiered that October; after becoming a major hit throughout Europe, the troupe recorded 1970's Monty Python's Flying Circus LP, a set of new performances of television material recorded in front of a live audience (including their legendary "dead parrot" sketch, "The Pet Shop"). Their film debut, And Now for Something Completely Different -- a collection of highlights from the series -- followed in 1971.

Another Monty Python Record, released in the U.K. in 1971, made its American debut the following year; for most U.S. fans, the album was their first exposure to the troupe -- the BBC series did not begin appearing on public television outlets for several more months. After 1972's Monty Python's Previous Record, a mixture of original routines and TV material featuring "Eric the Half a Bee,""The Argument Clinic," and "Embarrassment/A Bed-Time Book," the group issued 1973's Matching Tie and Handkerchief, which featured a "trick track" gimmick whereby the second side contained separate grooves both featuring entirely different material; playing randomly depending upon where the needle dropped, the gimmick effectively created a "side three."
A 1973 British tour yielded Live at Drury Lane, released in 1974 to coincide with the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail; the movie's companion record, The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a reprise of screen material along with new skits, did not appear until the next year. After 1976's Live! At City Center, a long hiatus followed before the group reunited for the 1979 feature and soundtrack Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album appeared in 1980, followed by the 1982 concert film Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The 1983 feature Monty Python's the Meaning of Life was the last official group project, although the troupe members subsequently reunited on occasion; most famously, Cleese and Palin teamed in the hit comedy A Fish Called Wanda, while Gilliam's directorial efforts like Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen all prominently featured other Python alumni. Sadly, Graham Chapman died of cancer on October 4, 1989.


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Unlike most comedy releases, the soundtrack of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is an appealing audio souvenir that doesn't get stale after listening to it a few times, because of the incredibly catchy and satirical songs from the film, which are all included: "The Meaning of Life,""Galaxy Song,""Accountancy Shanty,""The Not Noel Coward Song,""Christmas in Heaven," and "Every Sperm Is Sacred." Also interspersed with the music are dialogue snippets from the film involving, but not limited to, a wafer-thin mint, the machine that goes PING, a drill sergeant marching up and down the square, six philosophic fish, live organ transplants, and, of course, the meaning of life.


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with

Eric Idle
Graham Chapman
John Cleese
Michael Palin
Terry Gilliam
Terry Jones


801 Meaning of Life (flac  237mb)


Monty Python's Meaning Of Life (Side 1)25:21

Introduction
Fish Introduction
The Meaning Of Life Song
Birth
Birth Link/Frying Eggs
Catholics/Every Sperm Is Sacred
Protestant Couple
Adventures Of Martin Luther
Sex Education
Trench Warfare
The Great Tea Of 1914-18
Fish Link

Monty Python's Meaning Of Life (Side 2)27:54

Terry Gilliam's Intro
Accountancy Shanty
Zulu Wars
Link
The Dungeon Restaurant
Link/Live Organ Transplants
The Galaxy Song
The Not Noel Coward (Penis) Song
Mr. Creosote
The Grim Reaper
Christmas In Heaven
Dedication (To Fish)

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Previously

101 Another Monty Python Record (flac  212mb)
201 Monty Python's Previous Record (flac  194mb)
301 Matching Tie and Handkerchief (flac  159mb)
401 Live at Drury Lane (flac  275mb)
501 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (flac  191mb)
601 Contractual Obligation Album (flac  190mb)
701 Life of Brian (flac  231mb)

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Hello,

The music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history, Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as samba, bossa nova, MPB, sertanejo, pagode, tropicalia, choro, maracatu, embolada (coco de repente), mangue bit, funk carioca (in Brazil simply known as Funk), frevo, forró, axé, brega, lambada, and Brazilian versions of foreign musical genres, such as Brazilian rock and rap.


Today's artist is was born Astrud Evangelina Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro. She married João Gilberto in 1959 and emigrated to the United States in 1963, residing in the U.S. from that time. Astrud and João divorced in the mid-1960s and she began a relationship with her musical partner, American jazz saxophone player Stan Getz.... N'Joy

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The honey-toned chanteuse on the surprise Brazilian crossover hit "The Girl From Ipanema," Astrud Gilberto parlayed her previously unscheduled appearance (and professional singing debut) on the song into a lengthy career that resulted in nearly a dozen albums for Verve and a successful performing career that lasted into the '90s. Though her appearance at the studio to record "The Girl From Ipanema" was due only to her husband João, one of the most famed Brazilian artists of the century, Gilberto's singular, quavery tone and undisguised naïveté propelled the song into the charts and influenced a variety of sources in worldwide pop music.

Born in Bahia, Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro at an early age. She'd had no professional musical experience of any kind until 1963, the year of her visit to New York with her husband, João Gilberto, in a recording session headed by Stan Getz. Getz had already recorded several albums influenced by Brazilian rhythms, and Verve teamed him with the cream of Brazilian music, Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, for his next album. Producer Creed Taylor wanted a few English vocals for maximum crossover potential, and as it turned out, Astrud was the only Brazilian present with any grasp of the language. After her husband laid down his Portuguese vocals for the first verse of his and Jobim's composition, "The Girl From Ipanema," Astrud provided a hesitant, heavily accented second verse in English.

Not even credited on the resulting LP, Getz/Gilberto, Astrud finally gained fame over a year later, when "The Girl From Ipanema" became a number five hit in mid-1964. The album became the best-selling jazz album up to that point, and made Gilberto a star across America. Before the end of the year, Verve capitalized on the smash with the release of Getz Au Go Go, featuring a Getz live date with Gilberto's vocals added later. Her first actual solo album, The Astrud Gilberto Album, was released in May 1965. Though it barely missed the Top 40, the LP's blend of Brazilian classics and ballad standards proving quite infectious with easy listening audiences.

Though she never returned to the pop charts in America, Verve proved to be quite understanding for Astrud Gilberto's career, pairing her with ace arranger Gil Evans for 1966's Look to the Rainbow and Brazilian organist/arranger Walter Wanderley for the dreamy A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness, released later that year. She remained a huge pop star in Brazil for the rest of the 1960s and '70s, but gradually disappeared in America after her final album for Verve in 1969. In 1971, she released a lone album for CTI (with Stanley Turrentine) but was mostly forgotten in the U.S. until 1984, when "Girl From Ipanema" recharted in Britain on the tails of a neo-bossa craze. Gilberto gained worldwide distribution for 1987's Astrud Gilberto Plus the James Last Orchestra and 2002's Jungle.

Gilberto received the Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992, and was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1996, she contributed to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization, performing the song "Desafinado" along with George Michael. Although she did not officially retire, Gilberto announced in 2002, that she was taking "indefinite time off" from public performances.


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Two years after her underrated album on CTI Records, Astrud Gilberto's follow-up is her first attempt to be taken seriously, not as a singer -- she had that covered -- but as a songwriter, at a time when simply singing standards was seen as lacking. Her four songs on this ten-song album show she has a way with a melody, though obviously influenced by countrymen Milton Nascimento and Jorge Ben, and her producer Eumir Deodato. "Gingele" and "Zigy Zigy Za" are exactly the kind of riff-based tropicalismo that Ben and company were making popular around this time. "Take It Easy My Brother Charlie" is probably her best song here (covered over 20 years later by Kahimi Karie), though it is Ben who often gets the writing credit (here it's listed as Gilberto and associate producer David Jordan). Very few concessions are made to America; only "Daybreak (Walking Out of Yesterday)" comes from the pop world, with instrumentation and sound coming from south of the equator.



Astrud Gilberto - Now (flac 190mb)

01 Zigy Zigy Za 4:02
02 Make Love To Me 3:15
03 Baiao 2:55
04 Touching You 3:40
05 Gingele 4:00
06 Take It Easy My Brother Charlie 3:15
07 Where Have You Been? 3:00
08 General Da Banda 3:35
09 Bridges 3:45
10 Daybreak 2:45

      (ogg  mb)

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Despite her limitations, Astrud Gilberto is always nice to listen to, impersonating the whole bossa nova craze. Here she is accompanied by a the famous Japanese trombone player, Shigeharu Mukai as well as a lot of jazz or fusion musicians (Jorge Dalto is very good on the piano); The production is a bit 80s, but only by moments. Once it's cranked up in the you'll enjoy a great jazz album.



Astrud Gilberto, Shigeharu Mukai - So & So, Mukai Meets Gilberto   (flac  216mb)

01 Champagne & Caviar 3:38
02 Velas 5:39
03 Nos Dois 4:07
04 Berimbau 5:17
05 Miracle Of The Fishes 3:21
06 Terrafirme 5:25
07 Keep On Riding 5:15
08 Hold Me 3:56

Astrud Gilberto, Shigeharu Mukai - So & So, Mukai Meets Gilberto    (ogg   90mb)

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This collaboration with James Last and his orchestra is Astrud Gilberto's finest moment, an absolutely wonderful piece of music. The lush, eclectic instrumentation is complemented by her singing, sometimes criticized as being pretty but plain, unrangy, and without depth. On this recording, she retains a subdued aura but certainly shows versatility, jazziness, and occasionally passion, if not intensity. But blending, not dominant, vocals are needed for this lovely music, and it is the instrumentation that is more captivating.
Two Brazilian Bossa Nova standards are included: the bright and cheerful "Samba do Soho" and the dry "Agua de Beber." But there is much more. The best song is the precious "Listen to Your Heart," an exquisitely textured composition by Ron Last. A radiant xylophone-driven motif is complemented by other beautiful instrumentation and very pretty male/female harmonic vocals, to fabulous effect, lovely and a bit haunting. Closely behind is "With Love (When They Turn on the Light)" (co-authors: James and Ron Last), similar in character. Other superb tracks are the dreamy "Moonrain," with its lush, sensuous string arrangements (and woodwinds), and Duke Ellington's "Caravan," in which Astrud keeps up well with a jazzy, sexy, syncopated beat with unusual accents, punctuated by horn solos, all in all giving the song a sort of mideastern flavor. In a similar mideastern vein is "Saci," with a little faster, more-normal-style jazz beat, excellent sax soloing, and one of two songs Astrud (here male accompanied) sings in Portugese. All these songs compare favorably with the classic Bossa Nova standards for which she is renowned, this is a magnificent and essential addition for anyone who has fallen under the soothing spell of Astrud Gilberto.



Astrud Gilberto, James Last Orchestra - Plus   (flac  287mb)

01 Samba Do Soho 3:03
02 I'm Nothin' Without You 4:22
03 Champagne And Caviar 3:20
04 Listen To Your Heart 4:30
05 Moonrain 3:22
06 Caravan 3:45
07 Amor E Som 3:35
08 Saci 5:28
09 Forgive Me 4:23
10 With Love (When They Turn On The Light) 3:14
11 Agua De Beber 3:43

Astrud Gilberto, James Last Orchestra - Plus     (ogg  110mb)

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When Astrud Gilberto turned 60 in 2000, the Brazilian singer was still best known for her early-'60s bossa nova recordings with Stan Getz. And there is no reason why those recordings shouldn't be celebrated; they are classic examples of Brazilian jazz. But at the same time, those who think Gilberto should devote every moment of the day to Antonio Carlos Jobim standards sell her short. There is more to Gilberto than "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Corcovado," and on Jungle her own songs are a top priority. Gilberto, in fact, wrote or co-wrote ten of the 12 tunes on this CD, which was recorded in Philadelphia during the summer of 2001 (when she was 61) and released by Magya Productions (a small label based in the Philly suburb of Bala Cynwyd, PA) the following year. Jungle isn't strictly bossa nova, but it is a solid collection of Brazilian pop and Brazilian jazz -- and Gilberto demonstrates that she can still be a charming, expressive vocalist on originals that range from the sensuous ballad "Dancing" (a vocal duet with singer Mark Lambert) to the playful "Pink House" and the salsa-tinged "É Só Me Pedir" (which successfully combines Afro-Cuban and Brazilian elements). Meanwhile, "Rebola, Bola" is a funky, exuberant number that contains some Portuguese-language rapping by vocalist Magrus. Some American hip-hop enthusiasts might have a hard time picturing an artist rapping in Portuguese, but in fact, hip-hop has been big in Brazil since the '80s -- and that country is full of talented MCs who rap in Portuguese exclusively. Another high point of Jungle (which Gilberto has been selling on her official website) is her samba-minded interpretation of Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love." But original material dominates on this album, which is a welcome addition to the singer's catalog.



Astrud Gilberto - Jungle (flac  321mb)

01 Jungle (Xango) 4:09
02 E So Me Pedir 5:06
03 Ocean Dreams 4:33
04 In Spite Of The Odds 4:47
05 Xaxado Do Safado 3:43
06 Cómo Fue 3:43
07 Red Umbrella 3:54
08 Rebola, Bola 4:27
09 Dancing 4:30
10 Pink House 3:14
11 Inner Song 3:50
12 The Look Of Love 5:15

Astrud Gilberto - Jungle  (ogg 119mb)

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Hello,

Today's artists are a folk rock band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England, with Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Spiddal, New York and Findhorn serving as homes for the group. They have explored a number of different styles, but their music is mainly a mix of Celtic folk music with rock and roll. They dissolved in 1993 when Scott departed to pursue a solo career. They reformed in 2000, and continue to release albums and tour worldwide...  ......N'Joy

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Led by the literate singer/songwriter Mike Scott, the group's sole constant member, the mercurial Waterboys formed in London in 1981. Born December 14, 1958, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Scott first became involved in music as the creator of the fanzine Jungleland and later played in a series of local punk outfits. After college, where he studied English and philosophy, Scott and his band, Another Pretty Face, moved to London; following the group's breakup, he formed the Waterboys, so named after a line in the Lou Reed song "The Kids" but wholly appropriate given Scott's recurring lyrical fascination with sea imagery.

A newspaper advertisement calling for musicians led to a response from multi-instrumentalist Anthony Thistlethwaite; along with drummer Kevin Wilkinson, the Waterboys issued their self-titled debut in 1983. Keyboardist Karl Wallinger and trumpeter Roddy Lorimer joined for the 1984 follow-up, A Pagan Place, which expanded the group's rich, dramatic sound while further exploring Scott's interest in spirituality. With 1985's This Is the Sea, the Waterboys reached an early peak; a majestic, ambitious record, it earned the group a significant hit with the single "The Whole of the Moon."

However, after the album's release, Wallinger departed to form World Party, which prompted Scott and Thistlethwaite to relocate to Ireland and begin with a clean slate. When the Waterboys returned in 1988 with the acclaimed Fisherman's Blues, they were joined by traditional Irish players like fiddler Steve Wickham, drummer Dave Ruffy, keyboardist Guy Chambers, and bassist Marco Weissman, resulting in a stripped-down, folky sound that was continued on 1990's Room to Roam.

In 1991, Scott moved to New York without Thistlethwaite or any other bandmembers; the release of 1993's Dream Harder, cut with session musicians, marked a return to an electric, more rock-oriented sound. Soon Scott moved back to Scotland, where he began a lengthy stay at a spiritual commune; there he recorded the folk-tinged Bring 'Em All In under his own name, apparently putting the Waterboys to rest for good. On July 17, 1999, drummer Kevin Wilkinson committed suicide in his countryside home in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, just prior to jetting off on an American tour with Howard Jones. Wilkinson, who had also worked with Squeeze, China Crisis, Bonnie Raitt, and the Proclaimers, was a member of the Waterboys since their 1983 self-titled effort.

A Rock in the Weary Land Good fortune was in the wings, for Mike Scott resurrected the Waterboys name in 2000. Rock in the Weary Land marked the band's first release in seven years. Thistlethwaite and Wickham would return to the group, and tours across the world would prove successful. Fisherman's Blues, Pt. 2, an album featuring previously unavailable material from the Fisherman's Blues sessions, appeared in summer 2002. Scott returned to the studio for 2003's Universal Hall, followed by Book of Lightning in 2007.

In a Special Place (The Piano Demos for This Is The Sea) After a couple of years of touring and time off, Scott assembled and released a compilation of unreleased songs from the Waterboys This Is the Sea sessions entitled In a Special Place in 2011, and also published a book entitled, Kiss the Wind: A Waterboy's Adventures in Music. He and bassist Scott Arciero also assembled a new version of the Waterboys -- Wickham (fiddle), Katie Kim (vocals), James Hallawell (keyboards), Kate St John (sax, oboe), Blaise Margail (trombone), Ralph Salmins (drums), Sarah Allen (flute), and Joe Chester (guitar) -- who began performing together in late 2010 and early 2011. In March they entered a studio to commence recording a new album. An Appointment with Mr. Yeats, a collection of new songs whose lyrics were taken from the poems of William Butler Yeats. The sessions were completed in June. The album was released in Europe in the early fall on Proper, and in the United States in early 2012. In January of 2015, the Waterboys released Modern Blues. The album was recorded in Nashville, produced by Scott and mixed by Bob Clearmountain.


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On their second album, A Pagan Place, the Waterboys turn Celtic folk-rock into a monumental fusion of Van Morrison's poetry, arena rock, and Phil Spector's monolithic wall of sound. It was the first Waterboys record with Karl Wallinger as part of the band and also includes Roddy Lorimer's first trumpet solo for the band on the track "A Pagan Place". The album shares a title with the book A Pagan Place, written by Irish novelist Edna O'Brien. According to a post at the official Waterboys forum, Mike Scott, who chose the album name, has never read the book, and neither the album nor the title track share any other similarities with the novel..A Pagan Place expanded The Waterboys' treatment of spiritual themes beyond the Christian beliefs of "December" from The Waterboys. "A Church Not Made With Hands" is an ode to a woman who "is everywhere and no place / Her church not made with hands".Both "All the Things She Gave Me" and "The Thrill is Gone" discuss the end of a romantic relationship. "Rags" and "Somebody Might Wave Back" discuss despair and optimism in loneliness. Scott's songwriting has been criticized as being overly introspective, and all four tracks contain some element of self-reflection. "The Big Music" was released as a single, and became a descriptor of the sound of the album. A Pagan Place was reissued in 2002 by Chrysalis Records, having been remastered. The reissue included both new tracks from the recording sessions for both A Pagan Place and from The Waterboys, along with extended versions of tracks from the original release.



The Waterboys - A Pagan Place (flac  535mb)

01 Church Not Made With Hands 6:02
02 All The Things She Gave Me (Unedited) 5:32
03 The Thrill Is Gone (Unedited) 5:30
04 Rags 5:20
05 Some Of My Best Friends Are Trains 6:01
06 Somebody Might Wave Back 2:43
07 The Big Music 4:46
08 Red Army Blues 8:03
09 A Pagan Place 5:14
Bonus
10 The Late Train To Heaven (Rockfield Mix) 3:30
11 Love That Kills (Instrumental) 6:20
12 The Madness Is Here Again 3:59
13 Cathy 2:35
14 Down Through The Dark Streets 9:03

The Waterboys - A Pagan Place  (ogg  183mb)

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This Is the Sea, released in September 1985, is the third The Waterboys album, and the last of their "Big Music" albums. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment", it was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom charts, peaking at number 37. Themes of the album include spirituality ("Spirit", "The Pan Within"), romantic love ("Trumpets"), and English politics ("Old England"), while the album's eponymous single ("This Is The Sea") utilizes the allusion of the flowing river as a life affirming recognition of constant renewal and regeneration. Steve Wickham makes his Waterboys recording debut playing violin on 'The Pan Within' and subsequently joined the band, appearing on the video of "The Whole of the Moon". This Is the Sea is the last album with contributions from Karl Wallinger, who left the group to form his own band, World Party. Mike Scott, the album's principal songwriter and leader of The Waterboys, describes This Is the Sea as "the record on which I achieved all my youthful musical ambitions", "the final, fully realised expression of the early Waterboys sound".  A remastered and expanded version was released in 2004, with a second CD of material from the album's singles, and unreleased tracks from the This Is the Sea recording sessions.The album cover is a photograph taken by Lynn Goldsmith.



The Waterboys - This Is the Sea (flac  308mb)

01 Don't Bang The Drum 6:44
02 The Whole Of The Moon 5:01
03 Spirit 1:48
04 The Pan Within 6:11
05 Medicine Bow 2:44
06 Old England 5:30
07 Be My Enemy 4:15
08 Trumpets 3:34
09 This Is The Sea 6:28

The Waterboys - This Is the Sea  (ogg  107mb)

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The Waterboys - This Is the Sea Additional Recordings (flac  409mb)

01 Beverly Penn 5:38
02 Sleek White Schooner 3:44
03 Medicine Bow (Full Length) 5:44
04 Medicine Jack 4:11
05 High Far Soon 2:05
06 Even The Trees Are Dancing 4:27
07 Towers Open Fire 4:34
08 This Is The Sea (Live) 5:53
09 Then You Hold Me 4:56
10 Spirit (Full Length) 4:11
11 Miracle 1:14
12 I Am Not Here 0:22
13 Sweet Thing 7:11
14 The Waves 6:38

The Waterboys - This Is the Sea Additional Recordings  (ogg  150mb)

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Mike Scott had been pursuing his grandiose "big music" since he founded the Waterboys, so it came as a shock when he scaled back the group's sound for the Irish and English folk of Fisherman's Blues. Although the arena-rock influences have been toned down, Scott's vision is no less sweeping or romantic, making even the simplest songs on Fisherman's Blues feel like epics. Nevertheless, the album is the Waterboys' warmest and most rewarding record, boasting a handful of fine songs ("And a Bang on the Ear," the ominous "We Will Not Be Lovers,""Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?," and the title track), as well as a surprisingly successful cover of Van Morrison's breathtaking "Sweet Thing." Fisherman's Blues was reissued in 2006 with a bonus disc containing fourteen outtakes, alternate versions and late-night studio jams. The re-mastered original included extended versions of "And a Bang on the Ear" and "World Party."



The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues (flac 396mb)

01 Fisherman's Blues 4:23
02 We Will Not Be Lovers 7:01
03 Strange Boat 3:07
04 World Party 5:27
05 Sweet Thing 7:10
06 Jimmy Hickey's Waltz 2:05
07 And A Bang On The Ear 9:13
08 Has Anybody Here Seen Hank? 3:16
09 When Will We Be Married? 2:57
10 When Ye Go Away 3:42
11 Dunford's Fancy 1:02
12 The Stolen Child 6:50
13 This Land Is Your Land 0:55

The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues  (ogg  141mb)

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The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues Bonus (flac 392mb)

01 Carolan's Welcome 2:48
02 Killing My Heart 3:52
03 You In The Sky 5:46
04 When Will We Be Married? 2:38
05 Nobody 'Cept You 3:03
06 Fisherman's Blues 5:48
07 Girl Of The North Country 4:24
08 Lonesome And A Long Way From Home 3:04
09 If I Can't Have You 3:30
10 Rattle My Bones And Shiver My Soul 2:38
11 Let Me Feel Holy Again 6:10
12 Meet Me At The Station 3:22
13 The Good Ship Sirius 0:42
14 Soon As I Get Home 12:03

The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues Bonus  (ogg  139mb)

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Hello,

Today's artists are an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, Latin and African. They are one of the most successful bands of all time. Rolling Stone Magazine described them as "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and declared that the band "changed the sound of black pop" All month at Grooves..... ..... N'joy

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Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the most musically accomplished, critically acclaimed, and commercially popular funk bands of the '70s. Conceived by drummer, bandleader, songwriter, kalimba player, and occasional vocalist Maurice White, EWF's all-encompassing musical vision used funk as its foundation, but also incorporated jazz, smooth soul, gospel, pop, rock & roll, psychedelia, blues, folk, African music, and, later on, disco. Lead singer Philip Bailey gave EWF an extra dimension with his talent for crooning sentimental ballads in addition to funk workouts; behind him, the band could harmonize like a smooth Motown group, work a simmering groove like the J.B.'s, or improvise like a jazz fusion outfit. Plus, their stage shows were often just as elaborate and dynamic as George Clinton's P-Funk empire. More than just versatility for its own sake, EWF's eclecticism was part of a broader concept informed by a cosmic, mystical spirituality and an uplifting positivity the likes of which hadn't been seen since the early days of Sly & the Family Stone. Tying it all together was the accomplished songwriting of Maurice White, whose intricate, unpredictable arrangements and firm grasp of hooks and structure made EWF one of the tightest bands in funk when they wanted to be. Not everything they tried worked, but at their best, Earth, Wind & Fire seemingly took all that came before them and wrapped it up into one dizzying, spectacular package.

White founded Earth, Wind & Fire in Chicago in 1969. He had previously honed his chops as a session drummer for Chess Records, where he played on songs by the likes of Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, and Etta James, among others. In 1967, he'd replaced Redd Holt in the popular jazz group the Ramsey Lewis Trio, where he was introduced to the kalimba, an African thumb piano he would use extensively in future projects. In 1969, he left Lewis' group to form a songwriting partnership with keyboardist Don Whitehead and singer Wade Flemons. This quickly evolved into a band dubbed the Salty Peppers, which signed with Capitol and scored a regional hit with "La La Time." When a follow-up flopped, White decided to move to Los Angeles, and took most of the band with him; he also renamed them Earth, Wind & Fire, after the three elements in his astrological charts. By the time White convinced his brother, bassist Verdine White, to join him on the West Coast in 1970, the lineup consisted of Whitehead, Flemons, female singer Sherry Scott, guitarist Michael Beal, tenor saxophonist Chet Washington, trombonist Alex Thomas, and percussionist Yackov Ben Israel. This aggregate signed a new deal with Warner Bros. and issued its self-titled debut album in late 1970. Many critics found it intriguing and ambitious, much like its 1971 follow-up, The Need of Love, but neither attracted much commercial attention despite a growing following on college campuses and a high-profile gig performing the soundtrack to Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking black independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.

Last Days and Time Dissatisfied with the results, White dismantled the first version of EWF in 1972, retaining only brother Verdine. He built a new lineup with female vocalist Jessica Cleaves, flute/sax player Ronnie Laws, guitarist Roland Bautista, keyboardist Larry Dunn, and percussionist Ralph Johnson; the most important new addition, however, was singer Philip Bailey, recruited from a Denver R&B band called Friends & Love. After seeing the group open for John Sebastian in New York, Clive Davis signed them to CBS, where they debuted in 1972 with Last Days and Time. Further personnel changes ensued; Laws and Bautista were gone by year's end, replaced by reedman Andrew Woolfolk and guitarists Al McKay and Johnny Graham. It was then that EWF truly began to hit their stride. 1973's Head to the Sky (Cleaves' last album with the group) significantly broadened their cult following, and the 1974 follow-up, Open Our Eyes, was their first genuine hit. It marked their first collaboration with producer, arranger, and sometime-songwriting collaborator Charles Stepney, who helped streamline their sound for wider acceptance; it also featured another White brother, Fred, brought in as a second drummer. The single "Mighty Mighty" became EWF's first Top Ten hit on the R&B charts, although pop radio shied away from its black-pride subtext, and the minor hit "Kalimba Story" brought Maurice White's infatuation with African sounds to the airwaves. Open Our Eyes went gold, setting the stage for the band's blockbuster breakthrough.

That's the Way of the World In 1975, EWF completed work on another movie soundtrack, this time to a music-biz drama called That's the Way of the World. Not optimistic about the film's commercial prospects, the group rushed out their soundtrack album of the same name (unlike Sweet Sweetback, they composed all the music themselves) in advance. The film flopped, but the album took off; its lead single, the love-and-encouragement anthem "Shining Star," shot to the top of both the R&B and pop charts, making Earth, Wind & Fire mainstream stars; it later won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group. The album also hit number one on both the pop and R&B charts, and went double platinum; its title track went Top Five on the R&B side, and it also contained Bailey's signature ballad in the album cut "Reasons." White used the new income to develop EWF's live show into a lavish, effects-filled extravaganza, which eventually grew to include stunts designed by magician Doug Henning. The band was also augmented by a regular horn section, the Phoenix Horns, headed by saxophonist Don Myrick. Their emerging concert experience was chronicled later that year on the double-LP set Gratitude, which became their second straight number one album and featured one side of new studio tracks. Of those, "Sing a Song" reached the pop Top Ten and the R&B Top Five, and the ballad "Can't Hide Love" and the title track were also successful.

Spirit Sadly, during the 1976 sessions for EWF's next studio album, Spirit, Charles Stepney died suddenly of a heart attack. Maurice White took over the arranging chores, but the Stepney-produced "Getaway" managed to top the R&B charts posthumously. Spirit naturally performed well on the charts, topping out at number two. In the meantime, White was taking a hand in producing other acts; in addition to working with his old boss Ramsey Lewis, he helped kickstart the careers of the Emotions and Deniece Williams. 1977's All n' All was another strong effort that charted at number three and spawned the R&B smashes "Fantasy" and the chart-topping "Serpentine Fire"; meanwhile, the Emotions topped the pop charts with the White-helmed smash "Best of My Love." The following year, White founded his own label, ARC, and EWF appeared in the mostly disastrous film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, turning in a fine cover of the Beatles'"Got to Get You Into My Life" that became their first Top Ten pop hit since "Sing a Song." Released before year's end, The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 produced another Top Ten hit (and R&B number one) in the newly recorded "September."

1979's I Am contained EWF's most explicit nod to disco, a smash collaboration with the Emotions called "Boogie Wonderland" that climbed into the Top Ten. The ballad "After the Love Has Gone" did even better, falling one spot short of the top. Although I Am became EWF's sixth straight multi-platinum album, there were signs that the group's explosion of creativity over the past few years was beginning to wane. 1980's Faces broke that string, after which guitarist McKay departed. While 1981's Raise brought them a Top Five hit and R&B chart-topper in "Let's Groove," an overall decline in consistency was becoming apparent. By the time EWF issued its next album, 1983's Powerlight, ARC had folded, and the Phoenix Horns had been cut loose to save money. After the lackluster Electric Universe appeared at the end of the year, White disbanded the group to simply take a break. In the meantime, Verdine White became a producer and video director, while Philip Bailey embarked on a solo career and scored a pop smash with the Phil Collins duet "Easy Lover." Collins also made frequent use of the Phoenix Horns on his '80s records, both solo and with Genesis.

Bailey reunited with the White brothers, plus Andrew Woolfolk, Ralph Johnson, and new guitarist Sheldon Reynolds, in 1987 for the album Touch the World. It was surprisingly successful, producing two R&B smashes in "Thinking of You" and the number one "System of Survival." Released in 1990, Heritage was a forced attempt to contemporize the group's sound, with guest appearances from Sly Stone and MC Hammer; its failure led to the end of the group's relationship with Columbia. They returned on Reprise with the more traditional-sounding Millennium in 1993, but were dropped when the record failed to recapture their commercial standing despite a Grammy nomination for "Sunday Morning"; tragedy struck that year when onetime horn leader Don Myrick was murdered in Los Angeles. Bailey and the White brothers returned once again in 1997 on the small Pyramid label with In the Name of Love.

After 2003's The Promise, a mix of new material and fresh looks at classics, the group realigned with several top-shelf adult contemporary artists and released 2005's Illumination, which featured a collaboration with smooth jazz juggernaut Kenny G. The album was Grammy-nominated in the category of Best R&B Album. Earth, Wind & Fire continued to tour and made a show-opening appearance on American Idol's Idol Gives Back show in 2007. Three years later, Maurice and Verdine White, Bailey, Dunn, and McKay were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The band released Now, Then & Forever, their first album in five years, in 2013. Three years later, on February 3, 2016, Maurice White died from the effects of Parkinson's disease at his home in Los Angeles; he was 74 years old.


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Earth, Wind & Fire's artistic and commercial winning streak continued with its ninth album, All 'N All, the diverse jewel that spawned major hits like "Serpentine Fire" and the dreamy "Fantasy." Whether the visionary soul men are tearing into the hardest of funk on "Jupiter" or the most sentimental of ballads on "I'll Write a Song for You" (which boasts one of Philip Bailey's many soaring, five-star performances), All 'N All was a highly rewarding addition to EWF's catalog. Because EWF had such a clean-cut image and fared so well among pop audiences, some may have forgotten just how sweaty its funk could be. But "Jupiter" -- like "Mighty, Mighty,""Shining Star," and "Getaway" -- underscores the fact that EWF delivered some of the most intense and gutsy funk of the 1970s.



Earth Wind & Fire - All 'N All   (flac  249mb)

01 Serpentine Fire 3:51
02 Fantasy 4:38
03 In The Market Place (Interlude) 0:43
04 Jupiter 3:55
05 Love's Holiday 5:43
06 Brazilian Rhyme (Interlude) 1:20
07 I'll Write A Song For You 5:23
08 Magic Mind 3:39
09 Runnin' 6:45
10 Brazilian Rhyme (Interlude) 1:20
11 Be Ever Wonderful 5:08

Earth Wind & Fire - All 'N All  (ogg    97mb)

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Disco was at the height of its popularity in 1979, when Earth, Wind & Fire responded with its most disco-influenced single ever, the glossy and infectious "Boogie Wonderland." Up to that point, EWF had pretty much ignored disco, and when the band finally acknowledged the style, the soulsters weren't about to inundate listeners with it. "Boogie Wonderland" (which features the Emotions, a female group for whom Maurice White had been producing major hits) isn't representative of I Am on the whole. From the hit ballad "After the Love Has Gone" to the exuberant "Let My Feelings Flow," I Am isn't a radical departure from its predecessor, All 'n All.



Earth Wind & Fire - I Am  (flac  274mb)

01 In The Stone 4:48
02 Can't Let Go 3:29
03 After The Love Is Gone 4:31
04 Let Your Feelings Show 5:22
05 Boogie Wonderland 4:49
06 Star 4:26
07 Wait 3:39
08 Rock That 3:07
09 You And I 2:58

Earth Wind & Fire - I Am (ogg   97mb)

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Although they were catching more flak from critics for an alleged obsession with sociopolitical commentary and quasi-mystical references, R&B audiences hadn't yet tired of Earth, Wind & Fire. Faces is the tenth studio album, a double-LP released in 1980 on ARC/Columbia Records. The album reached number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard Black and Pop albums charts. It has been certified gold in the US by the RIAA. In a 2007 interview when asked which EWF album is his favorite Earth, Wind & Fire leader Maurice White replied "Probably Faces because we were really in tune, playing together and it gave us the opportunity to explore new areas". If you're an EWF fan, and have not heard "Faces", you have missed out. If you're a purist who can't get enough of big horn riffs (the type that Tower of Power copied time and again) and lyrics that are actually meaningful, uplifting and purposeful, this album will fill the bill, hands down.



Earth Wind & Fire - Faces (flac 464mb)

01 Let Me Talk 4:08
02 Turn It Into Something Good 4:10
03 Pride 4:11
04 You 5:10
05 Sparkle 3:50
06 Back On The Road 3:33
07 Song In My Heart 4:17
08 You Went Away 4:24
09 And Love Goes On 4:05
10 Sailaway 4:37
11 Take It To The Sky 3:50
12 Win Or Lose 3:53
13 Share Your Love 3:17
14 In Time 4:13
15 Faces 8:02

Earth Wind & Fire - Faces (ogg   164mb)

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This album marked the 10th year of Maurice's dream and it was a decade that saw many changes both musically and socially. But one thing remained the same, Earth, Wind and Fire was electrifing us with incredible music that helped to shape our lives in a unique way. They just made you feel a little happier about life and helped get you through many bad days. This was the first album recorded after the departure of Al Mckay and it was kind of a reunion album for his replacement who'd been the one he'd replaced back in 1973, Roland Bautista. It's was like Roland had never truly left and they picked up right were they left off after the "Last Days And Times" album.

They had another number one hit with "Let's Groove" which started the album off and continued to amaze us with the likes of "Evolution Orange", "You're A Winner" (which has some of the funkiest horn arrangements ever for the Phoneix Horns) & one of my personal favorites "Wanna Be With You". This edition also has a longer and sweeter version of the instrumental interlude "Kalimba Tree". This would be the last in a string of albums that solidified their greatness. After this, they would have other good albums with good songs, but this was the band at their height and this was when music truly was more than just throwing something together to get out and make money.



Earth Wind & Fire - Raise !  (flac 277mb)

01 Let's Groove 5:36
02 Lady Sun 3:39
03 My Love 4:33
04 Evolution Orange 4:37
05 Kalimba Tree 0:25
06 You Are A Winner 4:09
07 I've Had Enough 4:34
08 Wanna Be With You 4:35
09 The Changing Times 5:36

Earth Wind & Fire - Raise! (ogg 99mb)

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Hello,

Today's artists are a British nu jazz and electronic music group, created in 1999 by Jason Swinscoe. The group is signed to independent record label Ninja Tune. The group's sound, in both live and studio contexts, employs a live band which improvises along with a turntablist and electronic elements such as samples provided by Swinscoe. In their studio releases Swinscoe will often remix the live source material to produce a combination of live jazz improvisation with electronica, such that it is difficult to tell where the improvisation ends and the production begins......N'Joy

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The brilliantly named Cinematic Orchestra is led by composer/programmer/multi-instrumentalist Jason Swinscoe, who formed his first group, Crabladder, in 1990 as an art student at Cardiff College. Crabladder's fusion of jazz and hardcore punk elements with experimental rhythms inspired Swinscoe to further explore the possibilities of sampling, and by the time of the group's demise in the mid-'90s, he was DJ'ing at various clubs and pirate radio stations in the U.K.

The music he recorded on his own at the time melded '60s and '70s jazz, orchestral soundtracks, rhythm loops, and live instrumentation into genre-defying compositions, as reflected on his contribution to Ninja Tune's 1997 Ninja Cuts 3 collection and his remixes of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Coldcut tracks. The Cinematic Orchestra built on this musical blueprint, letting a group of live musicians improvise over sampled percussion or basslines. The Orchestra included saxophonist/pianist Tom Chant, bassist Phil France, and drummer Daniel Howard, who also recorded the Channel One Suite and Diabolus EPs for Ninja Tune with Swinscoe.

Their debut album, Motion, was released in 1999. The critical success of that album led to them being asked to perform at the Director's Guild Awards ceremony for the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to film director Stanley Kubrick. The band were asked by the organisers of the Porto European City of Culture 2001 festival to write a new score to Dziga Vertov's classic 1929 Soviet Union silent film Man with a Movie Camera, to be performed live in accompaniment with a showing of the film. The work differed from the band's usual compositions due to its live performance, ruling out the post production work that was present on Motion. The Cinematic Orchestra toured with the work and later released it on an album of the same name. Many of the compositions originally created for Man with a Movie Camera were later adapted from live form (adding in vocal tracks and electronic elements, among other changes) for their next album, Every Day. It reached #54 in the UK Albums Chart in May 2002.

In 2006, The Cinematic Orchestra created a cover version of the Radiohead song "Exit Music (For a Film)" that appeared on an album titled Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads. In this piece the band slowed down the tempo of the original, divided the timbre into four sections beginning with saxophone, to the classical guitar, to the electric guitar, ending the piece with the same simple acoustic guitar rhythm as the original version.

The Cinematic Orchestra released the album Ma Fleur on 7 May 2007. Several songs feature Patrick Watson, Fontella Bass, or Lou Rhodes on vocals, with Rhodes and Watson sharing vocals on one song. The Cinematic Orchestra recorded the soundtrack to the Disneynature film The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, released in France on 15 December 2008 (orig. as Les ailes pourpres: Le mystère des flamants). The score was produced by the band and Steve McLaughlin. The score was performed live with the London Metropolitan Orchestra at The Union Chapel, Islington on 17 September 2009 and won the award for best original score at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Wyoming, USA on 1 October 2009.

Ninja Tune invited The Cinematic Orchestra to perform at the twentieth anniversary gala performance of the label at the Royal Albert Hall in November 2010. In 2011, The Cinematic Orchestra commissioned a series of compositions for avant-garde short films that were performed at the Barbican Centre under the auspices of its curating a series entitled "In Motion", (also featuring Dorian Concept with saxophonist Tom Chant, Grey Reverend, and Austin Peralta), and it subsequently released the album In Motion #1 in 2012.

On 20 October 2016, The Cinematic Orchestra released a new song from their upcoming album. The title of the song is "To Believe" featuring singer Moses Sumney. The group have also announced a tour, including shows with Thundercat, Gilles Peterson, Jameszoo, and others

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Not long after Every Day's release, Swinscoe began writing music for another Cinematic LP, but in another direction from where he'd gone previously. This was a series of quiet, contemplative instrumentals, with Rhodes keyboards and reedy clarinets, simply begging for a narrative (call them orchestrations for cinema). With scripts for each supplied by a friend -- each track got its own story, together comprising different scenes from a single life -- and a series of unpeopled photographs supplied by Maya Hayuk, Cinematic Orchestra had the narrative they needed for their invisible soundtrack. The results form an intensely affecting record, but one whose monochromatic format unfortunately serves no large purpose; when every song attempts to become a mini-masterpiece of melodrama, patience grows thin. Swinscoe tells us that he wanted to record an album where "leaving the spaces as empty as possible was paramount," but he can hardly complain if we choose to leave him the space to himself.



The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur  (flac  267mb)

01 To Build A Home 5:58
02 Familiar Ground 4:33
03 Child Song 5:11
04 Music Box 5:01
05 Prelude 2:40
06 As The Stars Fall 5:51
07 Into You 2:59
08 Ma Fleur 4:06
09 Breathe 6:26
10 That Home 1:41
11 Time & Space 8:34

The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur    (ogg  108mb)

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As a venue, the Royal Albert Hall in London is the stuff of legend. It is so elegant it inspires greatness in performers no matter the discipline, as well as rapt and supportive attentiveness in audiences. Some of its past performers have included Frank Sinatra, a double bill by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan, to name a few. It therefore goes without saying that the weight on Cinematic Orchestra mastermind Jason Swinscoe to pull off something grand for a recording and video document of this CO performance was considerable. In order to accomplish this feat, he swelled the ranks of his group to over 40 members, including the entire 24-piece Heritage Orchestra! Vocalists Heidi Vogel, Lou Rhodes, and Grey Reverend are all present to reprise their roles from various selections on studio recordings. Original Cinematic Orchestra turntablist PC returned to the fold for the evening as well. The sound is as lush, lively, and beautiful as one could possibly imagine. Vogel's performance on the set opener, "All That You Give" (it originally appeared on 2002's Every Day), is just gorgeous. After Swinscoe announces her with a beautiful string intro, her soulful croon comes on full: sultry, emotional, and smooth. The dynamics and textures Swinscoe assembles with the strings and horn sections are as lush as a Gil Evans arrangement but as tight as Manny Albam's. There are truly expansive and adventurous moments here, as on "Flite," introduced by a Rhodes piano with the rhythmic pulse set in play by rolling drum breaks and a skeletal but beautifully articulate upright bassline. Solo space is accorded sparingly while incorporating the entire orchestra -- the brass section (killer trombones), which becomes a bedrock for reining everyone in, is itself sassy and swaggering, holding the fort against edgy funky guitars and those dreamy piano chords.
This gives way to the spidery beginnings of "Familiar Ground," which seem like minimal soundscapes for single instruments abstractly lilting and disappearing in the ether until nearly the three-minute mark when the piece comes into view with its body. When the choral vocals announce themselves so wordlessly and surreally, the effect is complete and it goes on for another five minutes or so before Vogel turns in a stellar performance. Soloists are allowed to let fly in places and let abstraction into the fold for a bit before Swinscoe calls everything back to a lush and disciplined order. In concert, the track "To Build a Home," sung by guitarist Reverend with backing from Vogel, was more conceptual than arresting. Here it becomes a true Cinematic Orchestra offering, with a languid, sad, dramatic kind of tension without being overwrought. The appearance of the nearly 12-minute "Man with a Movie Camera" jam is wonderfully noir-ish and puts on display all that this group has to offer instrumentally. This ambitious composition and difficult arrangement, which walks a line between film music, late-era jazz improv, classical, and cabaret music, is still grounded -- even with the cracking extended drum breaks; distorted turntable scratches; soprano, tenor, and alto sax flights; and guitar noise. The closer features Rhodes bringing her unique plaintive voice to "Time and Space." Its melancholy is heartbreak personified but balanced by a glimmer of hope, borne out by the dreamy, gauzy strings and countered with the ominous sampler and turntable sounds. As cellos and grand piano stretch the middle to accommodate both ends of this spectrum, the feeling of sadness and resolve is almost unbearable -- not for the emotion, but for its indescribable beauty -- before Rhodes is drawn back out to bring it, and the evening, to a close. The album is a truly moving demonstration of this group's amazing gifts.



The Cinematic Orchestra - Live At The Royal Albert Hall (flac  360mb)

01 All That You Give 5:15
02 Child Song 7:38
03 Flite 5:56
04 Familiar Ground 8:35
05 To Build A Home 7:46
06 Prelude 3:05
07 Breathe 6:02
08 Man With The Movie Camera 13:05
09 Time & Space 8:41

The Cinematic Orchestra - Live At The Royal Albert Hall    (ogg 148mb)

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The Cinematic Orchestra has certainly been designed to compose and perform music for films, but that they are now involved with the Disney group is likely to be something even they could not have initially imagined. The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos is an evocative soundtrack behind the French documentary about the strikingly colorful, elegant, and noble but rarely seen pink birds. It is a Disneynature production shot in north Tanzania, with the CO receiving mighty support from string players of the London Metropolitan Orchestra. As a result, Jason Swinscoe and the CO have never been more symphonic or expansive than on this recording, where thematic horizons and deep-seeded romantic emotional content is at the very core of their music beyond previously recorded efforts. They've been consistent since their Canadian-based beginnings mixing electronica and jazz with R&B and trance grooves, but here take a giant leap into what is more a signature sound. With this recording, they are taking to heart their surname, with music that is more traditionally classical, while retaining the electronic and percussive undercurrent that identifies them as singularly unique. This soundtrack traces a journey similar to March of the Penguins, starting with the minimalistic and swelling "Opening Titles," the crystalline waltz and huge sound in "Arrival of the Birds," and a Latin-tinged "The Dance" in 5/4 time with castanets and marimba identifying their modal jazz leanings. Precious bells, thick harmonics, and shimmering breaths in 7/8 time signify "Soda," while the hymnal and reverent-at-dawn flute music in "Hatching" merges into tick-tock algorithms and amalgamated underground bass clarinet for "Marabon." As the film progresses, you can hear the sophistication of the flamingos' serene and supreme confidence move into maturity and earthiness. A folkish "Exodus" is easily comparable to the Americana style of Aaron Copland, "Transformation" takes into account a Steve Reich or Philip Glass horizon-waltz minimalism, the light-house-beacon stance of "Hyena" does not suggest laughing so much as flashes of on and off brilliance, while "Life of the Bird" has the ineffable quality of humid landscape music in a symphonic, two-beat foundation. Where "First Light" comes near the end of the movie in its under-the-surface, darkness-to-sunrise facade, "Crimson Skies" is the coda that evokes a vocalized love story between avian presence and nature that provides the perfect epilogue. Where there is mystery, there is also definition, beauty, delightful, unpredictable, and conclusive results that still leave the mind wandering, and wondering how many more layers are left to be peeled away in order to discover the inner sanctum of self. This music perfectly reflects an elusive aspect of living and life, matching how we see and revere creatures we cannot speak to or understand. But thanks to the Cinematic Orchestra, we have a better understanding through music about how these wondrous birds live, eat, play, commune, and above all -- dream.



The Cinematic Orchestra - The Crimson Wing  (flac  239mb)

01 Opening Titles 2:53
02 Arrival Of The Birds 2:38
03 The Dance 3:20
04 Soda 3:10
05 Hatching 5:11
06 Marabou 3:56
07 Exodus 7:17
08 Transformation 5:16
09 Hyena 1:48
10 Life Of The Bird 3:33
11 First Light 4:05
12 Crimson Skies 3:24

The Cinematic Orchestra - The Crimson Wing  (ogg  106mb)

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Following contributions from guitar bands Arctic Monkeys and Snow Patrol, the critically acclaimed Late Night Tales series invites an outfit more associated with their early laid-back electronica-based installments to compile their own playlist in the shape of British experimental jazz collective the Cinematic Orchestra. While their selected 19 tracks lack the surprise element, it's still a highly eclectic affair, taking in '60s lounge-pop (Burt Bacharach's "South American Getaway"), fingerpicking acoustic folk (Nick Drake's "Three Hours"), and retro Italo house (the Songstress'"See Line Woman"). Showcasing their influences, there are traces of their lush widescreen orchestration on Björk's "Jóga" and Imogen Heap's instrumental "Cumulus," their ambient electronica on U.S. producer Flying Lotus'"Auntie's Harp" and dubstep pioneer Burial's "Dog Shelter," and improvised jazz leanings on trumpeter Eddie Gale's "The Rain" and the Freedom Sounds ft. Wayne Henderson's "Behold the Day." Elsewhere, the album unexpectedly has two artists in common with Gary Lightbody and company's selections in blues-soul vocalist Terry Callier ("You're Goin' Miss Your Candyman") and DJ Food's "Living Beats" (whose turntablist, Patrick Carpenter, now plays with the Orchestra); Sebastian Tellier's "La Ritournelle" and St. Germain's "Rose Royce" reveal their love affair with Gallic jazz-pop; and Radiohead's Thom Yorke ("Black Swan"), minimalist composer Steve Reich ("Electric Counterpoint"), and '60s R&B star Shuggie Otis ("Aht Uh Mi Hed") complete their predominantly chilled-out soundtrack. Fans intrigued by their two own new compositions may feel slightly let down by the brief 39-second forgettable instrumental "Restaurant," but their atmospheric and soulful cover of Syl Johnson's "Talking About Freedom," featuring the impassioned tones of previous collaborator Fontella Bass, should more than make up for the disappointment. A brief insight into the musical mindset of one of the British nu-jazz scene's most exciting acts, the Cinematic Orchestra's addition to the series is a veritable treasure trove of lost classics, obscurities, and high-quality dream pop that takes the concept back to basics.



The Cinematic Orchestra - LateNightTales (flac  360mb)

01 Flying Lotus - Auntie's Harp (Rebekah Raff Remix) 2:27
02 Nick Drake - Three Hours 2:52
03 Eddie Gale - The Rain 1:55
04 Terry Callier - You're Goin' Miss Your Candyman 4:20
05 The Freedom Sounds, Wayne Henderson - Behold The Days 2:59
06 DJ Food - Living Beats 0:19
07 Shuggie Otis - Aht Uh Mi Hed 4:27
08 Thom Yorke - Black Swan 3:58
09 The Cinematic Orchestra - Restaurant 0:19
10 Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint 1:21
11 Björk - Jóga 3:02
12 Imogen Heap - Cumulus 2:59
13 St Germain - Rose Rouge 5:22
14 Songstress - See Line Woman (Vocal) 5:41
15 Sebastien Tellier - La Ritournelle 8:10
16 Burial - Dog Shelter 2:13
17 Burt Bacharach - South American Getaway 3:10
18 The Cinematic Orchestra - Talking About Freedom (Exclusive) 5:22
19 Will Self - "The Happy Detective" (Part 3) (Exclusive) 1:44

The Cinematic Orchestra - LateNightTales    (ogg  143mb)

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Hello, today a final salute to those kings of (surreal) comedy Monthy Python, below you'll find a compilation of all the songs, previously posted within the 8 albums...for those that want to sing together, do a karaoke or just like to enjoy 54 minutes of Pythoneske singing...


Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) were a British surreal comedy group who created the sketch comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus, which first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four seasons. The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and impact, including touring stage shows, films, numerous albums, several books, and a stage musical. The group's influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. ..N'Joy

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Fusing the topical satire of David Frost with the surreal outlandishness of The Goon Show, the Monty Python's Flying Circus troupe formed in England in 1969. Comprised of British performers John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman, along with American animator Terry Gilliam, the group emerged as an international cult phenomenon, honing its singular blend of broad slapstick, edgy black comedy, and social commentary in a string of successful television programs, films, and albums.

After meeting during a taping of the British children's series Do Not Adjust Your Set, the Pythons officially took shape in May 1969 when the BBC contracted the group to produce its own 13-week program. Monty Python's Flying Circus, a weekly sketch comedy series, premiered that October; after becoming a major hit throughout Europe, the troupe recorded 1970's Monty Python's Flying Circus LP, a set of new performances of television material recorded in front of a live audience (including their legendary "dead parrot" sketch, "The Pet Shop"). Their film debut, And Now for Something Completely Different -- a collection of highlights from the series -- followed in 1971.

Another Monty Python Record, released in the U.K. in 1971, made its American debut the following year; for most U.S. fans, the album was their first exposure to the troupe -- the BBC series did not begin appearing on public television outlets for several more months. After 1972's Monty Python's Previous Record, a mixture of original routines and TV material featuring "Eric the Half a Bee,""The Argument Clinic," and "Embarrassment/A Bed-Time Book," the group issued 1973's Matching Tie and Handkerchief, which featured a "trick track" gimmick whereby the second side contained separate grooves both featuring entirely different material; playing randomly depending upon where the needle dropped, the gimmick effectively created a "side three."
A 1973 British tour yielded Live at Drury Lane, released in 1974 to coincide with the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail; the movie's companion record, The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a reprise of screen material along with new skits, did not appear until the next year. After 1976's Live! At City Center, a long hiatus followed before the group reunited for the 1979 feature and soundtrack Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album appeared in 1980, followed by the 1982 concert film Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The 1983 feature Monty Python's the Meaning of Life was the last official group project, although the troupe members subsequently reunited on occasion; most famously, Cleese and Palin teamed in the hit comedy A Fish Called Wanda, while Gilliam's directorial efforts like Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen all prominently featured other Python alumni. Sadly, Graham Chapman died of cancer on October 4, 1989.


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Monty Python Sings is exactly what it sounds like: a parade of songs (many under a minute) written and performed by members of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The numbers should be instantly familiar to fans of their legendary sketch comedy series and theatrical features. Each member of the troupe is represented to some degree or another, including director/animator Terry Gilliam with the tiny tune "I've Got Two Legs" (:33), and several co-written by Graham Chapman (to whom the original 1989 issue of the compilation was dedicated). John Cleese, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin contributed to several compositions, but the lion's share were written/co-written by the most musically inclined member, Eric Idle. Neil Innes (the Bonzo Dog Band), with whom Idle collaborated on the Beatles spoof The Rutles, assisted with arranging and composed the music for "Knights of the Round Table." It's debatable whether those not already enamored by the Pythons' unique brand of humor would be won over by this recording. For the already converted, however, it represents an opportunity to have all of their best known songs in one place: Life of Brian's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" ("when you're chewing on life's gristle/don't grumble, give a whistle"), "Lumberjack Song" (I'm a lumberjack/and I'm O.K./I sleep all night/and I work all day"), and, of course, "Spam Song" ("lovely Spam/wonderful Spa-a-m"). For better or for worse, many of their most politically incorrect songs are also included: "Sit on My Face,""Penis Song (Not the Noel Coward Song),""Never Be Rude to an Arab," and "I Like Chinese." Although packed to the brim with (lyrical) comedy, Monty Python Sings is strictly a musical recording and does not include any sketches, spoken word pieces, or narration.

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with

Eric Idle
Graham Chapman
John Cleese
Michael Palin
Terry Gilliam
Terry Jones



Monthy Python Sings (flac  237mb)


01 Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life 3:33
02 Sit On My Face 0:45
03 Lumberjack Song 3:20
04 Penis Song (Not The Noel Coward Song) 0:41
05 Oliver Cromwell 4:10
06 Money Song 0:52
07 Accountancy Shanty 1:16
08 Finland 2:01
09 Medical Love Song 3:31
10 I'm So Worried 3:38
11 Every Sperm Is Sacred 4:34
12 Never Be Rude To An Arab 1:00
13 I Like Chinese 3:10
14 Eric The Half A Bee 2:06
15 Brian Song 2:36
16 Bruces' Philosophers Song 0:52
17 Meaning Of Life 2:15
18 Knights Of The Round Table (Camelot Song) 1:06
19 All Things Dull And Ugly 1:33
20 Decomposing Composers 2:48
21 Henry Kissinger 1:28
22 I've Got Two Legs 0:33
23 Christmas In Heaven 2:45
24 Galaxy Song 2:41
25 Spam Song 0:32

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Previously

101 Another Monty Python Record (flac  212mb)
201 Monty Python's Previous Record (flac  194mb)
301 Matching Tie and Handkerchief (flac  159mb)
401 Live at Drury Lane (flac  275mb)
501 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (flac  191mb)
601 Contractual Obligation Album (flac  190mb)
701 Life of Brian (flac  231mb)
801 Meaning of Life (flac  237mb)

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Hello, a rarity today..compilation albums ...

The music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history, Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as samba, bossa nova, MPB, sertanejo, pagode, tropicalia, choro, maracatu, embolada (coco de repente), mangue bit, funk carioca (in Brazil simply known as Funk), frevo, forró, axé, brega, lambada, and Brazilian versions of foreign musical genres, such as Brazilian rock and rap.


Today's artist is was born Astrud Evangelina Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro. She married João Gilberto in 1959 and emigrated to the United States in 1963, residing in the U.S. from that time. Astrud and João divorced in the mid-1960s and she began a relationship with her musical partner, American jazz saxophone player Stan Getz.... N'Joy

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The honey-toned chanteuse on the surprise Brazilian crossover hit "The Girl From Ipanema," Astrud Gilberto parlayed her previously unscheduled appearance (and professional singing debut) on the song into a lengthy career that resulted in nearly a dozen albums for Verve and a successful performing career that lasted into the '90s. Though her appearance at the studio to record "The Girl From Ipanema" was due only to her husband João, one of the most famed Brazilian artists of the century, Gilberto's singular, quavery tone and undisguised naïveté propelled the song into the charts and influenced a variety of sources in worldwide pop music.

Born in Bahia, Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro at an early age. She'd had no professional musical experience of any kind until 1963, the year of her visit to New York with her husband, João Gilberto, in a recording session headed by Stan Getz. Getz had already recorded several albums influenced by Brazilian rhythms, and Verve teamed him with the cream of Brazilian music, Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, for his next album. Producer Creed Taylor wanted a few English vocals for maximum crossover potential, and as it turned out, Astrud was the only Brazilian present with any grasp of the language. After her husband laid down his Portuguese vocals for the first verse of his and Jobim's composition, "The Girl From Ipanema," Astrud provided a hesitant, heavily accented second verse in English.

Not even credited on the resulting LP, Getz/Gilberto, Astrud finally gained fame over a year later, when "The Girl From Ipanema" became a number five hit in mid-1964. The album became the best-selling jazz album up to that point, and made Gilberto a star across America. Before the end of the year, Verve capitalized on the smash with the release of Getz Au Go Go, featuring a Getz live date with Gilberto's vocals added later. Her first actual solo album, The Astrud Gilberto Album, was released in May 1965. Though it barely missed the Top 40, the LP's blend of Brazilian classics and ballad standards proving quite infectious with easy listening audiences.

Though she never returned to the pop charts in America, Verve proved to be quite understanding for Astrud Gilberto's career, pairing her with ace arranger Gil Evans for 1966's Look to the Rainbow and Brazilian organist/arranger Walter Wanderley for the dreamy A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness, released later that year. She remained a huge pop star in Brazil for the rest of the 1960s and '70s, but gradually disappeared in America after her final album for Verve in 1969. In 1971, she released a lone album for CTI (with Stanley Turrentine) but was mostly forgotten in the U.S. until 1984, when "Girl From Ipanema" recharted in Britain on the tails of a neo-bossa craze. Gilberto gained worldwide distribution for 1987's Astrud Gilberto Plus the James Last Orchestra and 2002's Jungle.

Gilberto received the Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992, and was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1996, she contributed to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization, performing the song "Desafinado" along with George Michael. Although she did not officially retire, Gilberto announced in 2002, that she was taking "indefinite time off" from public performances.


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Astrud Gilberto's entry in the nicely appointed Verve Jazz Masters compilation series shows exactly why the Brazilian singer is deserving of such an accolade. In her '60s heyday, Gilberto was often derided by jazz purists for her vibrato-less "desafinado" (deliberately slightly off-pitch) singing style and deadpan, childlike voice. But the diminutive bossa nova star has since been a huge influence on dozens of jazz and pop singers.
Verve Jazz Masters is less of a greatest hits package than it is a smartly balanced retrospective of many of Gilberto's best performances. Her biggest hits, "Call Me" and "Summer Samba," are not included, and her signature tune, "The Girl From Ipanema," is only represented by a live take from a 1964 Carnegie Hall concert. The collection places equal emphasis on Gilberto's bossa nova-style interpretations of jazz standards and on her signature Portuguese-language sambas. The smartly packaged CD also features remastered sound and several rare photographs.



Astrud Gilberto - Verve Jazz Masters (flac 280mb)

01 The Girl From Ipanema 5:21
02 Fly Me To The Moon 2:17
03 Non-Stop To Brazil 2:26
04 Only Trust Your Heart 4:14
05 It Might As Well Be Spring 4:21
06 My Foolish Heart 2:44
07 Misty Roses 2:36
08 Tu Me Delirio 3:39
09 Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars) 4:14
10 Manha de Carnival 1:55
11 If You Went Away 3:20
12 Here's That Rainy Day 2:44
13 I Will Wait For You 4:41
14 Who Can I Turn To? 3:08
15 Once Upon A Summertime 3:04
16 The Shadow Of Your Smile 2:29

Astrud Gilberto - Verve Jazz Masters      (ogg  118mb)

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More thematically-programmed than many of Verve's compilations, the Jazz 'Round Midnight series focuses on the quiet, romantic side of the label's artists. Astrud Gilberto is a perfect match for this series. Her simultaneously childlike and alluring voice defines the quiet, romantic elements of the bossa nova style she popularized worldwide with the enormous success of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "The Girl from Ipanema," recorded with her then-husband Joao Gilberto and the Stan Getz Quartet in 1963.
After that classic, Jazz 'Round Midnight focuses little on Gilberto's trademark Brazilian sambas, instead favoring her unique interpretations of jazz standards. Gilberto's bossa nova versions of "Fly Me To the Moon,""The Shadow Of Your Smile," and "Here's That Rainy Day" epitomize romantic languor. "I feel so gay in a melancholy way" goes the key line of the standard "It Might As Well Be Spring," and no sentiments could better encapsulate Astrud Gilberto's gift.



Astrud Gilberto - Jazz 'Round Midnight  (flac  290mb)

01 The Girl From Ipanema 5:21
02 Fly Me To The Moon 2:17
03 Non-Stop To Brazil 2:26
04 Only Trust Your Heart 4:14
05 It Might As Well Be Spring 4:21
06 My Foolish Heart 2:44
07 Misty Roses 2:36
08 Tu Me Delirio 3:39
09 Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars) 4:14
10 Manha de Carnival 1:55
11 If You Went Away 3:20
12 Here's That Rainy Day 2:44
13 I Will Wait For You 4:41
14 Who Can I Turn To? 3:08
15 Once Upon A Summertime 3:04
16 The Shadow Of Your Smile 2:29

Astrud Gilberto - Jazz 'Round Midnight   (ogg   117mb)

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Astrud for Lovers is a strong collection of love songs performed by Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto. Her wispy and melancholic vocals are featured in a variety of settings recorded between 1963 and 1969 for Verve. The earliest tune, "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)," is taken from the legendary Getz/Gilberto album that marked Astrud's star-making first recording. The rest of the collection finds her with Stan Getz again doing a sweet version of "It Might as Well Be Spring" in 1964, crooning a smooth "Tu Mi Delirio" with organist Walter Wanderley in 1966, fronting a big orchestra in 1969 on two songs taken from the Beach Samba album, and essaying the intimate "Mahna de Carnival" with just guitar for accompaniment. The album shows that while she had a limited vocal range she knew how to get the most out of it and that she was equally at home in many settings. Not to mention that the collection establishes and maintains a lovely romantic mood throughout! That is what they had in mind no doubt and they succeeded.



Astrud Gilberto - Astrud For Lovers   (flac  233mb)

01 Only Trust Your Heart 4:15
02 Once I Loved 2:13
03 Tu Mi Delirio 3:39
04 World Stop Turning 2:16
05 Manha De Carnival 1:56
06 Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars) 4:14
07 My Foolish Heart 2:45
08 Look To The Rainbow 3:27
09 It Might As Well Be Spring 4:14
10 Lonely Afternoon 3:23
11 Love Is Stronger Than We 3:43
12 The Shadow Of Your Smile 2:30

Astrud Gilberto - Astrud For Lovers     (ogg  90mb)

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This well-appointed collection from Brazilian jazz vocalist Astrud Gilberto looks beyond her signature 1964 track, "The Girl from Ipanema," at some of the other great performances from her prime years. Issued in 2006 as a European import, Non-Stop to Brazil relies heavily on Gilberto's mid- to late-'60s Verve catalog, pulling highlights from albums like The Shadow of Your Smile ("Take Me to Aruanda"), Look to the Rainbow ("Lugar Bonito [Pretty Place]"), and A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness ("Tu, Mi Delirio"). Her beguiling delivery of these bossa nova, samba, and American jazz tracks reveals why she became an international star.



Astrud Gilberto - Non-Stop To Brazil   (flac  238mb)

01 (Take Me To) Aruanda 2:25
02 Bim Bom 1:50
03 I Had The Craziest Dream 2:21
04 Tu Mi Delirio 3:39
05 On My Mind 2:41
06 Look To The Rainbow 3:26
07 Agua De Beber 2:18
08 Call Me 3:20
09 Oba, Oba 1:59
10 Never My Love 2:53
11 Crickets Sing For Anamaria 1:33
12 Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) 2:19
13 Lugar Bonita (Pretty Place) 3:18
14 Meditation 2:39
15 Nao Bate O Corocao 1:35
16 Non-Stop To Brazil 2:26
17 So Finha De Ser Com Voce 2:15
18 Nega Do Cabelo Duro 2:18

Astrud Gilberto - Non-Stop To Brazil   (ogg 99mb)

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Hello,

Today's artists were a Celtic punk band from London, were founded in Kings Cross, a district of Central London, in 1982 as Pogue Mahone—pogue mahone being the anglicisation of the Irish póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse" and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before breaking up in 1996.  ......N'Joy

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By demonstrating that the spirit of punk could live in traditional Irish folk music, the Pogues were one of the most radical bands of the mid-'80s. Led by Shane MacGowan, whose slurred, incomprehensible voice often disguised the sheer poetry of his songs, the Pogues were undeniably political -- not only were many of their songs explicitly in favor of working-class liberalism, but the wild, careening sound of their punk-injected folk was implicitly radical. While the band was clearly radical, they also had a wickedly warped sense of humor, which was abundantly clear on their biggest hit, the fractured Christmas carol "Fairy Tale of New York." The group's first three albums -- Red Roses for Me, Rum Sodomy & the Lash, If I Should Fall from Grace with God -- were widely praised in both Britain and America, and by 1988 they had earned substantial cult followings in both countries. Yet MacGowan's darkly romantic, wasted lifestyle, which was so key to their spirit and success, ultimately proved to be their downfall. By the end of the decade, he had fallen deep into alcoholism and drug addiction, forcing the band to fire him if they wanted to survive. The Pogues carried on without him in the early '90s, playing to a slowly shrinking audience before finally disbanding in 1996.

MacGowan, an Irish punk inspired by the Clash, formed the Pogues in 1982 after playing with the London-based punk band the Nipple Erectors, a group that was later called the Nips. MacGowan met Spider Stacy in a London tube station, where Stacy was playing a tin whistle. The two began working together, drafting former Nip Jim Fearnley to play guitar. Naming themselves Pogue Mahone -- a Gaelic term meaning "kiss my ass" -- the trio began playing traditional Irish tunes in London pubs and streets, eventually adding Jem Finer (banjo, guitar), Andrew David Ranken (drums), and Cait O'Riordan (bass) to make it a full band. As the group developed into a sextet, they added MacGowan's original songs to their repertoire, and began earning a reputation as a wild, drunken, and exciting live act.

Shortening their name to the Pogues, the group released an independent single, "Dark Streets of London," in early 1984 and supported the Clash on their summer tour. By the fall, they had signed with Stiff Records and had released their acclaimed debut Red Roses for Me. The album was a critical hit, establishing the Pogues as one of the most vital, and certainly one of the most political, bands in Britain. Early in 1985, they added guitarist Philip Chevron and recorded Rum Sodomy & the Lash with producer Elvis Costello. The album was an underground success and was widely praised, especially for MacGowan's songwriting -- not only in the U.K., but also in the U.S., where they were becoming college radio staples. Instead of following Rum Sodomy & the Lash with a new album, the Pogues took nearly a full-year hiatus from recording, releasing the Poguetry in Motion EP in 1986 and appearing in Alex Cox's film Straight to Hell in 1987. By 1988, O'Riordan had left the band to marry Costello, and she was replaced by Darryl Hunt; banjoist Terry Woods was also added to the band. Early in 1988, they signed to Island Records and released the Steve Lillywhite-produced If I Should Fall from Grace with God later that year. The album became the group's biggest hit, generating the number two U.K. single "Fairytale of New York," which featured vocalist Kirsty MacColl.

Although the Pogues were peaking in popularity, MacGowan's relentless drug and alcohol abuse was beginning to cripple the band. Although neither the 1989 hit single "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" or Peace & Love (also 1989) were noticeably affected by his excesses, MacGowan missed the Pogues' prestigious opening dates in 1988 for Bob Dylan and stalked the stage like a madman during a pivotal Saturday Night Live performance. By 1990's Hell's Ditch, Spider Stacy and Jem Finer began singing the bulk of the Pogues' material. Despite positive reviews, Hell's Ditch was a flop, and the group wasn't able to support the record because of MacGowan's behavior. Consequently, he was asked to leave the band in 1991; three years later, he returned with a new band, the Popes.

For subsequent tours, the Clash's Joe Strummer filled in as lead vocalist, but by the time the band recorded their comeback, Waiting for Herb, in 1993, Stacy had become the permanent vocalist. Waiting for Herb was kindly reviewed, yet was also ignored, as was 1995's Pogue Mahone. The following year, the Pogues announced they were disbanding after 14 years in the business. They stayed dormant for the rest of the '90s while MacGowan's work with the Popes slowly came to an end and other members sought their own creative avenues. In 2001, the group made amends with MacGowan and reunited for a short British tour. This goodwill carried through the next decade as the group continued to play short international tours and make one-off appearances eventually releasing a box set of rarities (Just Look Them Straight in the Eye and Say....Pogue Mahone!!) in 2008 and a live album (The Pogues in Paris: 30th Anniversary Concert) in 2012. Just prior to the release of their career-spanning 30 Years box set in 2013, the group's longtime guitarist Philip Chevron passed away from esophageal cancer. Chevron was the author of one of the Pogues' most revered songs, "Thousands Are Sailing," and had become a sort of unofficial spokesperson for the band in its later period.

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What set the Pogues apart from any number of other energetic Irish traditional bands was the sheer physical force of their performances, the punky swagger of their personalities, and Shane MacGowan's considerable gifts as a songwriter. Unfortunately, none of these qualities comes through very clearly on their first album, Red Roses for Me. While the Pogues are in good form here, the production (by Stan Brennan) is thin and lacks the body or nuance to capture the finer details of the performances, robbing this recording of the fire the group would display on their later albums. And it's clear that MacGowan had not yet fully matured as a songwriter; there are a handful of superb songs here, such as "Transmetropolitan,""Streams of Whiskey," and "Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go," but some of the others suggest MacGowan was still learning how to fit all his ideas into his songs. Red Roses for Me is good and rowdy fun, but on Rum Sodomy & the Lash and If I Should Fall from Grace with God, the Pogues would prove they were capable of a lot more than that.



The Pogues - Red Roses For Me (flac  402mb)

01 Transmetropolitan 4:26
02 The Battle Of Brisbane 1:51
03 The Auld Triangle 4:22
04 Waxie's Dargle 1:53
05 Boys From The County Hell 2:56
06 Sea Shanty 2:24
07 Dark Streets Of London 3:17
08 Streams Of Whiskey 2:32
09 Poor Paddy 3:09
10 Dingle Regetta 2:52
11 Greenland Whale Fisheries 2:36
12 Down In The Ground Where The Dead Men Go 3:32
13 Kitty 4:55
Bonus Tracks
14 The Leaving Of Liverpool 3:12
15 Muirshin Durkin 1:50
16 Repeal Of The Licensing Laws 2:12
17 And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda 4:50
18 Whiskey You're The Devil 2:09
19 The Wild Rover 2:36

The Pogues - Red Roses For Me  (ogg  151mb)

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"I saw my task... was to capture them in their delapidated glory before some more professional producer f--ked them up," Elvis Costello wrote of his role behind the controls for the Pogues' second album, Rum Sodomy & the Lash. One spin of the album proves that Costello accomplished his mission; this album captures all the sweat, fire, and angry joy that was lost in the thin, disembodied recording of the band's debut, and the Pogues sound stronger and tighter without losing a bit of their edge in the process. Rum Sodomy & the Lash also found Shane MacGowan growing steadily as a songwriter; while the debut had its moments, the blazing and bitter roar of the opening track, "The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn," made it clear MacGowan had fused the intelligent anger of punk and the sly storytelling of Irish folk as no one had before, and the rent boys' serenade of "The Old Main Drag" and the dazzling, drunken character sketch of "A Pair of Brown Eyes" proved there were plenty of directions where he could take his gifts. And like any good folk group, the Pogues also had a great ear for other people's songs. Bassist Cait O'Riordan's haunting performance of "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" is simply superb (it must have especially impressed Costello, who would later marry her), and while Shane MacGowan may not have written "Dirty Old Town" or "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda," his wrought, emotionally compelling vocals made them his from then on. Rum Sodomy & the Lash falls just a bit short of being the Pogues' best album, but was the first one to prove that they were a great band, and not just a great idea for a band.



The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & The Lash (flac 429mb)

01 The Sickbed Of Cuchalainn 3:02
02 The Old Main Drag 3:19
03 Wild Cats Of Kilkenny 2:48
04 I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day 2:54
05 A Pair Of Brown Eyes 5:02
06 Sally MacLennane 2:45
07 Dirty Old Town 3:46
08 Jesse James 2:58
09 Navigator 4:13
10 Billy's Bones 2:03
11 The Gentleman Soldier 2:04
12 The Band Played Waltzing Matilda 8:14
Bonus Tracks
13 A Pistol For Paddy Garcia 2:31
14 London Girl 3:05
15 Rainy Night In Soho 5:36
16 Body Of An American 4:49
17 Planxty Noel Hill 3:12
18 The Parting Glass 2:14

The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & The Lash  (ogg  159mb)

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If Rum Sodomy & the Lash captured the Pogues on plastic in all their rough-and-tumble glory, If I Should Fall from Grace with God proved they could learn the rudiments of proper record making and still come up with an album that captured all the sharp edges of their musical personality. Producer Steve Lillywhite imposed a more disciplined approach in the studio than Elvis Costello had, but he had the good sense not to squeeze the life out of the band in the process; as a result, the Pogues sound tighter and more precise than ever, while still summoning up the glorious howling fury that made Rum Sodomy & the Lash so powerful. And Shane MacGowan continued to grow as a songwriter, as his lyrics and melodies captured with brilliant detail his obsession with the finer points of Anglo-Irish culture. "Fairytale of New York," a glorious sweet-and-sour duet with Kirsty MacColl, and "The Broad Majestic Shannon" were subtle in a way many of his previous work was not, "Birmingham Six" found him addressing political issues for the first time (and with all the expected venom), and "Fiesta" and "Turkish Song of the Damned" found him adding (respectively) faux-Spanish and Middle Eastern flavors into the Pogues' heady mix. And if you want to hear the Pogues blaze through some fast ones, "Bottle of Smoke" and the title song find them doing just what they've always done best. Brilliantly mixing passion, street smarts, and musical ambition, If I Should Fall from Grace with God is the best album the Pogues would ever make.



The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God (flac  448mb)

01 If I Should Fall From Grace With God 2:21
02 Turkish Song Of The Damned 3:27
03 Bottle Of Smoke 2:47
04 Fairytale Of New York 4:36
05 Metropolis 2:50
06 Thousands Are Sailing 5:28
07 Fiesta 4:13
08 Medley (The Recruiting Sergeant/The Rocky Road To Dublin/Galway Races) 4:01
09 Streets Of Sorrow / Birmingham Six 4:39
10 Lullaby Of London 3:31
11 Sit Down By The Fire 2:18
12 The Broad Majestic Shannon 2:52
13 Worms 1:05
Bonus Tracks
14 The Battle March (Medley) 4:10
15 The Irish Rover 4:07
16 Mountain Dew 2:19
17 Shanne Bradley 3:41
18 Sketches Of Spain 2:14
19 South Australia 3:27

The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God  (ogg  161mb)

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Shane MacGowan's potent appetite for alcohol was evident from the time the Pogues cut their first album, but by the time they got to work on Peace and Love in 1989, it was evident that he'd gone far past the point of enjoying a few pints (or many pints) and had sunk deep into drug and alcohol dependence. The Pogues were always far more than just MacGowan's backing band, but with the group's principal songwriter and lead singer frequently unable to rise to the occasion, the recording of Peace and Love became a trying experience, with the rest of the band often scrambling to take up the slack for their down-for-the-count frontman. Given the circumstances, the Pogues deliver with greater strength than one might expect on Peace and Love; while MacGowan's vocals are often mush-mouthed and his songwriting is markedly beneath his previous standards, Terry Woods contributes two terrific traditional-style numbers ("Young Ned of the Hill" and "Gartloney Rats"), Philip Chevron's "Lorelei" is a superb tale of lost love (he and Darryl Hunt also teamed up for a fine bit of Celtic-calypso fusion on "Blue Heaven"), and Jem Finer brought along a trio of strong originals. Musically, Peace and Love found the band stretching their boundaries, adding accents of film noir jazz on "Gridlock," rockabilly on "Cotton Fields," straight-ahead rock on "USA," and power pop on "Lorelei," though the group's highly recognizable Celtic-trad-on-steroids style is never far beneath the surface. Peace and Love isn't as good as the two Pogues albums that preceded it (which represent the finest work of their career), but it does make clear that MacGowan was hardly the only talented songwriter in the band -- though the fact that the set's most memorable songs were written by others did not bode well for the group's future.



The Pogues - Peace and Love (flac 289mb)

01 Gridlock 3:32
02 White City 2:31
03 Young Ned Of The Hill 2:45
04 Misty Morning, Albert Bridge 3:01
05 Cotton Fields 2:51
06 Blue Heaven 3:36
07 Down All The Days 3:45
08 USA 4:51
09 Lorelei 3:33
10 Gartloney Rats 2:32
11 Boat Train 2:40
12 Tombstone 2:57
13 Night Train To Lorca 3:26
14 London You're A Lady 2:56

The Pogues - Peace and Love  (ogg  107mb)

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Hello, once again i got 4 ! requests of previously updated files-it ain't that difficult folks you can see the previous request at the page and if that's within 12 months i won't re-up sorry.

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

Looka here another batch of 29 re-ups, requests fullfilled up to December 20th. There's much more to be had here. My tip here randomly pick an archive date and move up or down a few pages to older or newer posts, browse what you get there and maybe you'll find something of your liking or it may triggers a memory of what you'd really want and then do a search  ...N' Joy

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3x Aetix Back in Flac ( Theatre Of Hate - Westworld, Paul Young - No Parlez, still in ogg Working Week - Working Nights)


4x Aetix NOW in Flac ( Fischer-Z - Word Salad, New Musik - Anywhere, still in ogg Pigbag - Favourite Things, The System - Logic)


6x Japan NOW in Flac (Logic System - Venus, Yukihiro Takahashi - What, Me Worry ?, Akiko Yani - John Zorn Compilation, still in ogg Hiroshima - Odori, Lizard - I, Susan - The Girl Can't Help it, VA - Yen Memorial, The Drum Battle)


6x Japan NOW In Flac (Takahashi, Yuki - Neuromantic, still in ogg Tsuchiya, Masami - Rice Music Snakeman Show - Bootleg, We Are Frank Chickens - I, Koshi, Miharu - Tutu, Beatniks - Existentialism)


2x Sundaze NOW in Flac (Glass - Low, Heroes Symphony, Keith Jarrett -  Kóln Concert)


2x Grooves NOW in Flac (
Trouble Funk - Drop The Bomb, E.U. - Livin' Large)


3x Beats Back in Flac (FSOL - Papua New Guinea Transitions, FSOL - By Any Other Name, FSOL  - The Pulse EPs)


3x Aetix Back in Flac (The Smithereens - Especially for You, The Smithereens - Green Thoughts, The Smithereens - 11)


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Hello,

Today's artists are an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, Latin and African. They are one of the most successful bands of all time. Rolling Stone Magazine described them as "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and declared that the band "changed the sound of black pop" All month at Grooves..... ..... N'joy

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Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the most musically accomplished, critically acclaimed, and commercially popular funk bands of the '70s. Conceived by drummer, bandleader, songwriter, kalimba player, and occasional vocalist Maurice White, EWF's all-encompassing musical vision used funk as its foundation, but also incorporated jazz, smooth soul, gospel, pop, rock & roll, psychedelia, blues, folk, African music, and, later on, disco. Lead singer Philip Bailey gave EWF an extra dimension with his talent for crooning sentimental ballads in addition to funk workouts; behind him, the band could harmonize like a smooth Motown group, work a simmering groove like the J.B.'s, or improvise like a jazz fusion outfit. Plus, their stage shows were often just as elaborate and dynamic as George Clinton's P-Funk empire. More than just versatility for its own sake, EWF's eclecticism was part of a broader concept informed by a cosmic, mystical spirituality and an uplifting positivity the likes of which hadn't been seen since the early days of Sly & the Family Stone. Tying it all together was the accomplished songwriting of Maurice White, whose intricate, unpredictable arrangements and firm grasp of hooks and structure made EWF one of the tightest bands in funk when they wanted to be. Not everything they tried worked, but at their best, Earth, Wind & Fire seemingly took all that came before them and wrapped it up into one dizzying, spectacular package.

White founded Earth, Wind & Fire in Chicago in 1969. He had previously honed his chops as a session drummer for Chess Records, where he played on songs by the likes of Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, and Etta James, among others. In 1967, he'd replaced Redd Holt in the popular jazz group the Ramsey Lewis Trio, where he was introduced to the kalimba, an African thumb piano he would use extensively in future projects. In 1969, he left Lewis' group to form a songwriting partnership with keyboardist Don Whitehead and singer Wade Flemons. This quickly evolved into a band dubbed the Salty Peppers, which signed with Capitol and scored a regional hit with "La La Time." When a follow-up flopped, White decided to move to Los Angeles, and took most of the band with him; he also renamed them Earth, Wind & Fire, after the three elements in his astrological charts. By the time White convinced his brother, bassist Verdine White, to join him on the West Coast in 1970, the lineup consisted of Whitehead, Flemons, female singer Sherry Scott, guitarist Michael Beal, tenor saxophonist Chet Washington, trombonist Alex Thomas, and percussionist Yackov Ben Israel. This aggregate signed a new deal with Warner Bros. and issued its self-titled debut album in late 1970. Many critics found it intriguing and ambitious, much like its 1971 follow-up, The Need of Love, but neither attracted much commercial attention despite a growing following on college campuses and a high-profile gig performing the soundtrack to Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking black independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.

Last Days and Time Dissatisfied with the results, White dismantled the first version of EWF in 1972, retaining only brother Verdine. He built a new lineup with female vocalist Jessica Cleaves, flute/sax player Ronnie Laws, guitarist Roland Bautista, keyboardist Larry Dunn, and percussionist Ralph Johnson; the most important new addition, however, was singer Philip Bailey, recruited from a Denver R&B band called Friends & Love. After seeing the group open for John Sebastian in New York, Clive Davis signed them to CBS, where they debuted in 1972 with Last Days and Time. Further personnel changes ensued; Laws and Bautista were gone by year's end, replaced by reedman Andrew Woolfolk and guitarists Al McKay and Johnny Graham. It was then that EWF truly began to hit their stride. 1973's Head to the Sky (Cleaves' last album with the group) significantly broadened their cult following, and the 1974 follow-up, Open Our Eyes, was their first genuine hit. It marked their first collaboration with producer, arranger, and sometime-songwriting collaborator Charles Stepney, who helped streamline their sound for wider acceptance; it also featured another White brother, Fred, brought in as a second drummer. The single "Mighty Mighty" became EWF's first Top Ten hit on the R&B charts, although pop radio shied away from its black-pride subtext, and the minor hit "Kalimba Story" brought Maurice White's infatuation with African sounds to the airwaves. Open Our Eyes went gold, setting the stage for the band's blockbuster breakthrough.

That's the Way of the World In 1975, EWF completed work on another movie soundtrack, this time to a music-biz drama called That's the Way of the World. Not optimistic about the film's commercial prospects, the group rushed out their soundtrack album of the same name (unlike Sweet Sweetback, they composed all the music themselves) in advance. The film flopped, but the album took off; its lead single, the love-and-encouragement anthem "Shining Star," shot to the top of both the R&B and pop charts, making Earth, Wind & Fire mainstream stars; it later won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group. The album also hit number one on both the pop and R&B charts, and went double platinum; its title track went Top Five on the R&B side, and it also contained Bailey's signature ballad in the album cut "Reasons." White used the new income to develop EWF's live show into a lavish, effects-filled extravaganza, which eventually grew to include stunts designed by magician Doug Henning. The band was also augmented by a regular horn section, the Phoenix Horns, headed by saxophonist Don Myrick. Their emerging concert experience was chronicled later that year on the double-LP set Gratitude, which became their second straight number one album and featured one side of new studio tracks. Of those, "Sing a Song" reached the pop Top Ten and the R&B Top Five, and the ballad "Can't Hide Love" and the title track were also successful.

Spirit Sadly, during the 1976 sessions for EWF's next studio album, Spirit, Charles Stepney died suddenly of a heart attack. Maurice White took over the arranging chores, but the Stepney-produced "Getaway" managed to top the R&B charts posthumously. Spirit naturally performed well on the charts, topping out at number two. In the meantime, White was taking a hand in producing other acts; in addition to working with his old boss Ramsey Lewis, he helped kickstart the careers of the Emotions and Deniece Williams. 1977's All n' All was another strong effort that charted at number three and spawned the R&B smashes "Fantasy" and the chart-topping "Serpentine Fire"; meanwhile, the Emotions topped the pop charts with the White-helmed smash "Best of My Love." The following year, White founded his own label, ARC, and EWF appeared in the mostly disastrous film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, turning in a fine cover of the Beatles'"Got to Get You Into My Life" that became their first Top Ten pop hit since "Sing a Song." Released before year's end, The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 produced another Top Ten hit (and R&B number one) in the newly recorded "September."

1979's I Am contained EWF's most explicit nod to disco, a smash collaboration with the Emotions called "Boogie Wonderland" that climbed into the Top Ten. The ballad "After the Love Has Gone" did even better, falling one spot short of the top. Although I Am became EWF's sixth straight multi-platinum album, there were signs that the group's explosion of creativity over the past few years was beginning to wane. 1980's Faces broke that string, after which guitarist McKay departed. While 1981's Raise brought them a Top Five hit and R&B chart-topper in "Let's Groove," an overall decline in consistency was becoming apparent. By the time EWF issued its next album, 1983's Powerlight, ARC had folded, and the Phoenix Horns had been cut loose to save money. After the lackluster Electric Universe appeared at the end of the year, White disbanded the group to simply take a break. In the meantime, Verdine White became a producer and video director, while Philip Bailey embarked on a solo career and scored a pop smash with the Phil Collins duet "Easy Lover." Collins also made frequent use of the Phoenix Horns on his '80s records, both solo and with Genesis.

Bailey reunited with the White brothers, plus Andrew Woolfolk, Ralph Johnson, and new guitarist Sheldon Reynolds, in 1987 for the album Touch the World. It was surprisingly successful, producing two R&B smashes in "Thinking of You" and the number one "System of Survival." Released in 1990, Heritage was a forced attempt to contemporize the group's sound, with guest appearances from Sly Stone and MC Hammer; its failure led to the end of the group's relationship with Columbia. They returned on Reprise with the more traditional-sounding Millennium in 1993, but were dropped when the record failed to recapture their commercial standing despite a Grammy nomination for "Sunday Morning"; tragedy struck that year when onetime horn leader Don Myrick was murdered in Los Angeles. Bailey and the White brothers returned once again in 1997 on the small Pyramid label with In the Name of Love.

After 2003's The Promise, a mix of new material and fresh looks at classics, the group realigned with several top-shelf adult contemporary artists and released 2005's Illumination, which featured a collaboration with smooth jazz juggernaut Kenny G. The album was Grammy-nominated in the category of Best R&B Album. Earth, Wind & Fire continued to tour and made a show-opening appearance on American Idol's Idol Gives Back show in 2007. Three years later, Maurice and Verdine White, Bailey, Dunn, and McKay were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The band released Now, Then & Forever, their first album in five years, in 2013. Three years later, on February 3, 2016, Maurice White died from the effects of Parkinson's disease at his home in Los Angeles; he was 74 years old.


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Many groups lose the steam that propelled them to the top; Earth, Wind & Fire, contemporary sound and all, were still blazing when this album was released. "Fall in Love With Me" was the first single. With its festive rhythm and sauntering vocals, it became a number four hit on the Billboard R&B charts and a number 17 pop hit. The percolating single "Side by Side" was the second release. The precise horns, sensuous female backing vocals, and Maurice White's animated vocals make this an entertaining piece. Though it should have fared better, it settled in at number 15 on the R&B charts. The final release was "Spread Your Love." The sonically aggressive special effects are contrasted with a soothing chanting chorus. The single peaked at 57. All three of the above feature Maurice White on lead. Throughout the entire album, White's unifying message is fueled by the aggressive rhythms and relaxing melodies.



Earth Wind & Fire - Powerlight   (flac  290mb)

01 Fall In Love With Me 5:40
02 Spread Your Love 3:51
03 Side By Side 5:56
04 Straight From The Heart 4:59
05 The Speed Of Love 3:35
06 Freedom Of Choice 4:10
07 Something Special 4:24
08 Hearts To Heart 3:44
09 Miracles 4:58

Earth Wind & Fire - Powerlight (ogg   105mb)

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Commercially, Earth, Wind & Fire were slipping in 1983. Though a decent album, Powerlight wasn't the type of big seller EWF was used to. Maurice White responded with a change of direction that proved to be both a commercial and artistic fiasco. Working with very in-demand (and very formula-oriented) studio figures like Martin Page and David Foster, EWF went for a much slicker and more high-tech approach on the weak and disappointing Electric Universe. White saw that synthesizers and drum machines were playing more and more of a role in both R&B and pop, and wanted to acknowledge technology's impact on music with this album. But EWF usually ends up sounding insincere and even sterile. The type of synth-funk that worked so well for the System doesn't work for EWF. A few of the songs are interesting (including "Electric Kingdom" and the single "Magnetic"), but they don't prevent Electric Universe from being EWF's weakest album ever. When this release flopped, EWF's members temporarily went their separate ways, with Philip Bailey and Maurice White concentrating on solo careers.



Earth Wind & Fire - Electric Universe   (flac  263mb)

01 Magnetic 4:19
02 Touch 4:54
03 Moonwalk 4:08
04 Could It Be Right 5:15
05 Spirit Of A New World 4:29
06 Sweet Sassy Lady 4:08
07 We're Living In Our Own Time 5:18
08 Electric Nation 4:30

Earth Wind & Fire - Electric Universe (ogg    92mb)

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Four years passed between 1983's embarrassing Electric Universe and their reunion album, Touch the World. Before the album's release, there was excitement as well as skepticism among Earth, Wind & Fire fans. Was EWF still capable of delivering a great album? And even if it was, how well would the album do in an R&B market that was radically different than that of the 1970s? As it turned out, a lot of the old magic was still there, and Maurice White and Philip Bailey proved that they could still be a powerful combination. From "Evil Roy" (which describes an urban youth's life of crime) to the major hit "System of Survival," Touch the World proved that EWF was still quite capable of excellence. Though White doesn't shy away from technology, he uses it in an organic fashion and remains faithful to the outfit's rich history. Despite "System of Survival"'s success, the album wasn't the huge commercial hit it deserved to be, but it wasn't a bomb either.



Earth Wind & Fire - Touch The World  (flac 294mb)

01 System Of Survival 4:59
02 Evil Roy 4:51
03 Thinking Of You 4:41
04 You And I 4:03
05 New Horizons (Interlude) 2:01
06 Money Tight 4:36
07 Every Now And Then 4:21
08 Touch The World 5:15
09 Here Today And Gone Tomorrow 3:59
10 Victim Of The Modern Heart 3:48

Earth Wind & Fire - Touch The World (ogg   100mb)

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With the positive reception the 1987 album Touch the World and it's three successful singles received? The newly reinvigorated Earth Wind & Fire were back in the studio beginning the recording for their follow up album the very next year. Of course one critical thing happened to be a huge game changer in 1988: the emergence of Teddy Riley with his group Guy and productions for Keith Sweat,Al B. Sure and Bobby Brown. The quick tempo hip-hop friendly shuffle of new jack swing had arrived. Essentially the soul/funk community was exiting the electro/boogie/synth groove of the mid 1980's and entering essentially into the modern era-one where heavy electronic hip-hop/pop based productions would be the mainstream for contemporary R&B-as it would come to be called. Maurice White actually saw a positive in this-an opportunity to showcase a younger generation learning the same cultural lessons and values that fueled Maurice's vision for EWF in the first place. The result finally emerged,and quite appropriately in 1990 with this album.

"Soweto" opens and closes the album with a strong African percussion Kalimba based melody. "Takin' Chances" goes into a bluesy horn packed electro go-go style funk jam that essentially updates the production of a rather "Shining Star" style song. "Good Times",featuring a very vocally chocked and quite rare guest vocal from Mister Sly Stone himself is a very fast paced house funk type groove with a great deal of wah wah guitars and choir vocals from the band itself. The title song is a well crafted hip-hop friendly track with the boy band The Boys that features a wonderfully jazzy classic EWF style refrain. This is actually an incredibly funky album. It updates the rhythms for the hip-hop/pop era yes. But the beats and rhythms are essentially classic EWF under all the programming and such. It might be wise for those who are still naysayers to this album to revisit it. Might find a pretty well done album,full of sometimes powerful grooves,if one re-listens without prejudice.



Earth Wind & Fire - Heritage   (flac 393mb)

01 Interlude: Soweto 0:36
02 Takin' Chances 3:30
03 Heritage 4:05
04 Good Time 4:05
05 Interlude: Body Wrap 0:24
06 Anything You Want 4:46
07 Interlude: Bird 0:37
08 Wanna Be The Man 4:21
09 Interlude: Close To Home 1:35
10 Daydreamin' 4:01
12 King Of Groove 5:20
13 I'm In Love 4:01
14 For The Love Of You 4:27
15 Gotta Find Out 4:09
16 Motor 3:44
17 Interlude: Faith 1:01
18 Welcome 4:04
19 Soweto (Reprise) 0:39

Earth Wind & Fire - Heritage (ogg 136mb)

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Hello, a Merry Christmas to you all, there's a warm breeze blowing here but then the last time i saw a white Christmas is some time ago, and i've never heard the jingle bells.I notice a trend of broadcasting more fantasy in these days...ah yes make believe....next year we'll have more....


Today's artists are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band typically compose lengthy guitar-based instrumental pieces that feature dynamic contrast, melodic bass guitar lines, and heavy use of distortion and effects. The band were for several years signed to renowned Glasgow indie label Chemikal Underground, and now use their own label Rock Action Records in the UK, and Sub Pop in North America. The band were frequently championed by John Peel from their early days......N'Joy

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The cosmic post-rock band Mogwai was formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1996 by guitarist/vocalist Stuart Braithwaite, guitarist Dominic Aitchison, and drummer Martin Bulloch, longtime friends with the goal of creating "serious guitar music." Toward that end, they added another guitarist, John Cummings, before debuting in March 1996 with the single "Tuner," a rarity in the Mogwai discography for its prominent vocals; the follow-up, a split single with Dweeb titled "Angels vs. Aliens," landed in the Top Ten on the British indie charts. Following appearances on a series of compilations, Mogwai returned later in the year with the 7""Summer," and after another early 1997 single, "New Paths to Helicon," they issued Ten Rapid, a collection of their earliest material.

Around the time that Mogwai recorded the superb 1997 EP 4 Satin, former Teenage Fanclub and Telstar Ponies member Brendan O'Hare joined the lineup in time for the recording of Mogwai's debut studio LP, Mogwai Young Team. He exited a short time later -- returning to his primary projects Macrocosmica and Fiend -- to be replaced by Barry Burns. Mogwai next issued 1998's Kicking a Dead Pig, a two-disc remix collection; the No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew) EP appeared a few months later. In 1999, they released Come on Die Young. Rock Action arrived in early 2001. Late that year, Mogwai released the My Father, My King EP; two years later, they issued the ironically titled Happy Songs for Happy People. Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2004 arrived early in 2005.

Mr. Beast, which was released in 2006, found the band going in a softer, more reflective direction. Late that year, the band's collaboration with Clint Mansell on the soundtrack to The Fountain arrived; Mogwai also crafted the score for Douglas Gordon's Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which was released in the U.K. in 2006 and in the U.S. the following spring. The Batcat EP, which featured a collaboration with garage-psych legend Roky Erickson, arrived in late summer 2008, heralding the release of The Hawk Is Howling -- which reunited the band with producer Andy Miller for the first time in a decade -- that fall. In 2010, Mogwai released their first live album, Special Moves, as a package with the Vincent Moon-directed concert film Burning.

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will For 2011's Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, the band reunited with Young Team producer Paul Savage for a more streamlined set of songs. Later that year, they followed up with an EP of unreleased material from the Hardcore sessions, Earth Division, released on Sub Pop. Late in 2012, the band issued A Wrenched Virile Lore, a collection of Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will remixes. Early the following year, the first taste of their score to the French zombie TV series Les Revenants (which was based on the 2004 film of the same name) arrived as a four-song EP; in February 2013, the full-length album appeared.

Mogwai filled the rest of the year with recording their eighth proper album, Rave Tapes, at their Castle of Doom studio, live performances of their Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait score in Glasgow, Manchester, and London, and other live performances. Rave Tapes, which boasted a more streamlined and electronic direction than Mogwai's recent albums, was released in early 2014. Late that year, the band issued the Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1 EP, a collection of Rave Tapes remixes as well as new songs.

Cummings left the band in 2015 to work on his own solo projects. Mogwai's first release after his departure was 2016's Atomic, a collection of reworked tracks from their music for Mark Cousins' BBC 4 documentary Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise. They returned later that year with a number of compositions on the collaborative soundtrack for Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary about the impact of climate change, Before the Flood.

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Young Team, Mogwai's first full-length album fulfills the promise of their early singles and EPs, offering a complex, intertwining set of crawling instrumentals, shimmering soundscapes, and shards of noise. Picking up where Ten Rapid left off, Mogwai use the sheer length of an album to their advantage, recording a series of songs that meld together -- it's easy to forget where one song begins and the other ends. The record itself takes its time to begin, as the sound of chiming processed guitars and murmured sampled vocals floats to the surface. Throughout the album, the sound of the band keeps shifting, and it's not just through explosions of noise -- Mogwai isn't merely jamming, they have a planned vision, subtly texturing their music with small, telling details. When the epic "Mogwai Fears Satan" draws the album to a close, it becomes clear that the band has expanded the horizons of post-rock, creating a record of sonic invention and emotional force that sounds unlike anything their guitar-based contemporaries have created.



Mogwai - Young Team (flac  372mb)

01 Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home 5:57
02 Like Herod 11:41
03 Katrien 5:24
04 Radar Maker 1:35
05 Tracy 7:19
06 Summer (Priority Version) 3:28
07 With Portfolio 3:10
08 R U Still In 2 It 7:20
09 A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters 2:18
10 Mogwai Fear Satan 16:19

Mogwai - Young Team    (ogg  140mb)

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Mogwai - Young Team Appendix (flac  257mb)

01 Young Face Gone Wrong 2:58
02 I Don't Know What To Say 1:14
03 I Can't Remember 3:13
04 Honey 4:18
05 Katrien (Live) 5:31
06 R U Still In 2 It (Live) 8:01
07 Like Herod (Live) 7:53
08 Summer (Priority) (Live) 2:58
09 Mogwai Fear Satan (Live) 10:26

Mogwai - Young Team Appendix    (ogg  97mb)

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Mogwai get translated and abused in various ways in this collection of remixes. Whether it's industrial, dance, or something altogether left field, the 12 remixes on Kicking a Dead Pig take Mogwai to various new places, for better or worse. Klute's version of Summer is basically a breakbeat track, but one that is a credit to the genre. Kid Loco's remix of Tracy rocks like a live hiphop instrumental, but it's basically the orignal looped without words and with a pretty funky drum track laid over it. Max Tundra's take on Helicon 2 is worlds apart from the mellowed out original, starting off kind of a little too loud and scary before it goes sailing off into dreamland. The Hood remix of Like Herod, introduces interesting sonic shifts and gritty guitar dynamics, damn cool. Most other mixes here are pretty good.



Mogwai - Kicking A Dead Pig Mogwai Songs Remixed (flac  343mb)

01 Like Herod (Hood Remix) 7:02
02 Helicon 2 (Max Tundra Remix) 7:20
03 Summer (Klute's Weird Winter Remix) 6:31
04 Gwai On 45 (Arab Strap Remix) 8:42
05 Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters (Third Eye Foundation Tet Offensive Remix) 5:10
06 Like Herod (Alec Empire's Face The Future Remix) 5:22
07 Mogwai Fear Satan (Surgeon Remix) 6:36
08 R U Still In To It? (DJ Q Remix) 8:23
09 Tracy (Kid Loco's Playing With The Young Team Remix) 8:32
10 Mogwai Fear Satan (Mogwai Remix) 9:55

Mogwai - Kicking A Dead Pig Mogwai Songs Remixed   (ogg 133mb)

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"Too much, too soon" is a tattered rock & roll cliché, but it continues to tell the tale of many young bands, such as Glasgow's acclaimed post-rock collective Mogwai. Usually, the phrase is hauled out to describe an intoxicated downward spiral by bands that had too much success all at once, but Mogwai suffered too much praise -- too many accolades from critics, too much reverence from underground hipsters. The singles compilation Ten Rapid and the debut Young Team deserved all the acclaim they earned, but a funny thing happened while Mogwai was recording their much-anticipated second album, ironically titled Come on Die Young -- the band went stale, producing a lethargic trawl through post-Slint and Sonic Youth territory. Where their free-form noise improvisations were utterly enthralling on their earlier records, the ebb and flow is entirely too familiar throughout Come on Die Young, largely because they follow the same pattern on each song. And each cut blends into the next, creating the impression of one endless track that teeters between deliberately dreamy crawls and random bursts of noise. Granted, that was the blueprint for Young Team, but there is little dynamism anywhere on Come on Die Young. Mogwai repeat the same riffs with the same inflection, never pushing themselves toward new sonic territory, yet never hitting a mesmerizing trance. It feels like a degraded photocopy of their earlier records -- it's possible to discern the initial spark that made them fascinating, but this current incarnation is too smudged and muddy to hold attention on its own terms. Perhaps Come on Die Young wouldn't have seemed as disappointing if it hadn't arrived on the wave of hype and expectation, but the truth is, it pales in comparison to their own work.




Mogwai - Come On Die Young  (flac  350mb)

01 Opening Titles 2:53
02 Arrival Of The Birds 2:38
03 The Dance 3:20
04 Soda 3:10
05 Hatching 5:11
06 Marabou 3:56
07 Exodus 7:17
08 Transformation 5:16
09 Hyena 1:48
10 Life Of The Bird 3:33
11 First Light 4:05
12 Crimson Skies 3:24

Mogwai - Come On Die Young  (ogg  106mb)

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Hello, hopefully your Christmas day left some room for thinking about next year, is it going to be more of the same, or is there room for personal growth. Well if your answer to the latter is yes then consider these Brainwave Mind Voyages I'll be posting the coming months, the market for these has been exploding as every caries a mobile, thereby able to play these files in bed.


Brainwave Mind Voyages arose from a thirst for experiential wisdom and a hunger for sharing mind-expanding tools with other like-minded people such as yourself. Shower the seeds of self-empowerment with some modern audio technology, and voila! ....N'Joy

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Your brain operates much like a resonance chamber or a tuning fork. When you hold two similarly tuned tuning forks together and strike one of the them, the other will also vibrate at the same frequency. The vibrational rate or vibratory frequency determines the tone. Our brain produces waves of currents that flow throughout its neural pathways. The type of brainwave is defined by the frequency at which it is pulsing, and this particular rate of pulsation determines our respective state of mind at any given moment in time.

There are four common types of brainwave patterns, but due to the complexity of our brains there are often several patterns interacting at one time. It is the predominance of one particular brainwave frequency that determines our state of mind. For example, if you are in a beta state, there may be trace levels of alpha and theta but they would minimal compared to the dominating amount of beta present. All of these brainwave states have been scientifically studied and categorized by the subjective states that each range will produce. Below is a simple chart containing the four common types of brainwave frequencies along with their characteristic features and associated mental states. The frequencies are measures in hertz (Hz) which is roughly translated as beats per second or cycles per second.

BETA waves 13 to 30 Hz the fastest waves, most commonly found during our waking state, associated with outward awareness, engaged mind, arousal, actively perceiving and evaluating forms of data through the senses; also present with fear, anger, worry, hunger, and surprise.

ALPHA waves 7 to 13 Hz associated with non-drowsy but relaxed, tranquil state of consciousness, less engagement and arousal, pleasant inward awareness, body/mind integration, present during meditation and states of relaxation

THETA waves 3 to 7 Hz associated with increased recall, creativity, imagery and visualization , free-flowing thought, future planning, inspiration, drowsiness, present during dreaming and REM states

DELTA waves .1 to 3 Hz associated with deep dreamless sleep, deep trance state pituitary release of growth hormone, self-healing, present during deep levels of non-REM sleep.

Your brain is always producing electromagnetic brainwaves that have a measurable frequency and magnitude. The characteristics of your brainwaves at any given moment determines your mood and state of mind. The frequency range and magnitude identify whether you are aroused, alert, asleep or anywhere in between these states.

We are always expanding our knowledge of how our brainwaves can be harnessed to create peak states of consciousness. For example, the best moments of creativity, those Eureka! flashes, occur mostly when theta waves are predominant. The hypnogogic state verging between waking and sleeping is characterized by theta brainwave activity. This explains why we have such great ideas before falling asleep. It is noted in history books that this "border-zone" time period has been utilized by many scientists and other great thinkers who have had flashes of insight while experiencing this holistic state of mind.

Einstein came up with the theory of relativity in this state, and likewise, one of the Watson and Crick pair conceptualized the double helix of DNA in this highly visualistic mind state successfully cracking the illusive architecture of DNA. Time spent in this "border-zone" can be time very well spent. All this information about brainwaves is a preamble to the matter of entraining your brainwaves to specific frequencies.

You can now use the process of brainwave entrainment to tune your brainwaves to any brainwave range. You can experience theta, alpha, delta or even combinations of ranges using multi-layered frequencies that blend several brainwave ranges into one synergistic brainwave pattern like the Awakened Mind Brainwave Pattern. The breakthrough occurs when we use this principle of entrainment to synchronize our brainwaves to specific chosen frequencies. We can do this easily by using binaural beat audio technology and monophonic entrainment tones, as you will soon learn, but first some more background information.

THE TWO HEMISPHERES OF THE BRAIN

Our brains have a left and a right hemisphere. The left hemisphere is linear, logical, practical, and time orientated. The right hemisphere seems to be much more non-linear, abstract, creative, holistic, and non-logical. We tend to use one hemisphere at a time, or better said, we will favor particular hemispheres depending on what we are doing. An accountant probably uses less of his right hemisphere than an artist would during the course of his workday. If you are doing math you would be using more of your left side. If you are painting a picture, you would have more right hemispheric activity.

Obviously, it is not that simplistic because both hemispheres are constantly interacting and both can be in use at the same time. These hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum. It serves as a conduit or a bridge between both sides. This bridge can literally be exercised and strengthened until it is physically larger and more capable of transmitting data, thoughts and feedback between hemispheres. The famous clairvoyant healer Edgar Cayce was found to have an unusually large corpus callosum, but could it be that everyone else simply has not developed this hemispheric bridge?

By merging both hemispheres and allowing them to work together we can increase our mental fitness and enhance our cognitive functioning in general. It is basically like having a faster computer processor capable of working at faster speeds. Increased integration creates better performance. By using brainwave entrainment technologies, you can increase your hemispheric synchronization. By simply listening to any BMV CD, your brain naturally synchronizes to balance hemispheric activity and adjusts brainwave activity to match the embedded brainwave carrier frequencies. This audio-induced hemispheric coherence produces an optimal state of holistic whole-brain synergy.

For a more in-depth explanation of the powerful audio neuro-technologies, you can click HERE to read the BMV Technology Page.

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This BMV series I has 10 tracks about 70 minutes in total length and can be used as one long induction program or it could be looped on whatever track you find works best. There are several tracks that were specifically designed to be played at night while you are sleeping. The messages can then slip into your dreaming awareness and spark your lucidity. Your dreaming awareness can be prodded into realizing that you are in fact within a dream.

This BMV Series is a journey as well as a TOOL for strengthening and awakening your dreaming awareness. The entire process takes 70 minutes, but if you are successful at fully transferring your awareness, you can explore this Dream Realm for as long as you desire. You can use this BMV series to induce deep states of relaxation, to harness your creativity , to problem solve or brainstorm, to consciously enter into a trance-like state, to induce out of body experiences or astral travel, and to tap the unlimited potential of your Higher Self.



Brainwave Mind Voyages (Series I) (flac  248mb)

01 Am I Dreaming All Night Loop 1 9:02
02 Am I Dreaming All Night Loop 2 3:48
03 Belief Builder 5:08
04 Brainwave Intro 1:46
05 Lucid Dreaming Intro 4:12
06 Lucid Induction Mantra 7:48
07 MIX EAR MINDawake1 7:21
08 MIX EAR MINDawake2 10:16
09 Trance Induction 13:34
10 Wave of Relaxation 5:27

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Previously



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Hello, last Christmas i gave you my heart and 32 years later it finally broke, its been a tough year for music superstars and this time like in 1970 it wasn't excesses but life itself that took them from us (Bowie (cancer), Maurice White (parkinsons), Prince (death by silly religious cult), Leonard Cohen (old age) and now George Michael decided to kick the bucket , he was a great singer who gave his heart away...



The music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history, Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as samba, bossa nova, MPB, sertanejo, pagode, tropicalia, choro, maracatu, embolada (coco de repente), mangue bit, funk carioca (in Brazil simply known as Funk), frevo, forró, axé, brega, lambada, and Brazilian versions of foreign musical genres, such as Brazilian rock and rap.


Today's artist is a Brazilian musician. He has over 55 releases, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2012  Our man is married to Gracinha Leporace, who has performed with him since the early 1970s. Mendes has also collaborated with many artists through the years, including the Black Eyed Peas, with whom he re-recorded in 2006 a version of his breakthrough hit "Mas Que Nada"..... N'Joy

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For most of the second half of the '60s, Sergio Mendes was the top-selling Brazilian artist in the United States, charting huge hit singles and LPs that regularly made the Top Five. His records with his group, Brasil '66, regularly straddled the domestic pop and international markets in America, getting played heavily on AM radio stations, both rock and easy listening, and he gave his label, A&M, something to offer light jazz listeners beyond the work of the company's co-founder, Herb Alpert. During this period, he also became an international music star and one of the most popular musicians in South America.

Dance Moderno Born the son of a physician in Niteroi, Brazil, Mendes began studying music at the local conservatory while still a boy, with the intention of becoming a classical pianist. He was living in Rio de Janeiro as the bossa nova craze hit in the mid- to late '50s, and at age 15, he abandoned classical music in favor of bossa nova. Mendes began spending time with other young Brazilian musicians in Rio de Janeiro, absorbing the musical ferment around him in the company of such figures as Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto. Their company was augmented by the periodic visits of American jazz giants such as Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Byrd, Paul Winter, Roy Eldridge, and Herbie Mann. Mendes became the leader of his own group, the Sexteto Bossa Rio, and was heard with them by many visiting musicians.

He made his first recording, Dance Moderno, in 1961 on the Philips Records label. By 1962, Mendes and his band were playing at Birdland in New York in an impromptu performance with Cannonball Adderley (who was officially on the bill). Mendes and Adderley cut an album together for Capitol Records that was released later that year.
Bossa Nova York His early music, represented on albums like Bossa Nova York and Girl from Ipanema, was heavily influenced by Antonio Carlos Jobim, on whose recording Mendes worked. Mendes liked what he had found on his visit to New York, and in 1964 he moved to the United States, initially to play on albums with Jobim and Art Farmer, and formed Brasil '65 the following year. The group recorded for Capitol without attracting too much notice at first. In 1966, however, Mendes and his band -- renamed Brasil '66 -- were signed to A&M Records and something seemed to click between the group and its audience.

Equinox The group, consisting in its first A&M incarnation of Mendes on keyboards, Bob Matthews on bass, João Palma on drums, Jose Soares as percussionist, Lani Hall (aka Mrs. Herb Alpert and A&M's co-founder) on vocals, and Janis Hansen on vocals, was successful upon the release of its first album for the label, with its mix of light jazz, a bossa nova beat, and contemporary soft pop melodies. Their self-titled debut LP rose to number six nationally, propelled by the presence of the single "Mas Que Nada." Their second album, Equinox, yielded a trio of minor hits, "Night and Day,""Constant Rain (Chove Chuva)," and "For Me," but their third, Look Around, rose to number five behind a number three single of the group's cover of the Beatles'"Fool on the Hill" and an accompanying hit with "Scarborough Fair," based on the Simon & Garfunkel version of the folk song. Crystal Illusions, from 1969, featured a version of Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" and the hit single "Pretty World." Depending upon one's sensibilities, these covers -- especially "Fool on the Hill" and "Scarborough Fair" -- were either legitimate, internationalized pop versions of the originals, or they were "elevator music."

During this period, Mendes also made several recordings for Atlantic Records separate from his A&M deal, principally aimed at a light jazz audience, and several of them in association with Jobim. Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Hubert Laws, and Claire Fisher were among the jazz figures who appeared on these records, which never remotely attracted the same level of interest or sales as his records with Brasil '66. Mendes successfully walked a fine line between international and domestic audiences for most of the late '60s until the end of the decade. Ye-Me-Le was notably less successful than its predecessors, and its single, "Wichita Lineman," was only a minor hit. Mendes seemed to lose his commercial edge with the turn of the decade, and his next two A&M albums: Stillness, a folk-based collection that contained covers of Joni Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning" and Stephen Stills'"For What It's Worth," and Primal Roots, an album of traditional Brazilian music, failed to make any impression on the charts whatsoever.

The group moved to the much smaller Bell Records label in 1973, and then Mendes jumped to Elektra for his first official solo album, Sergio Mendes. He relaunched his recording career two years later with Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77 to little avail, and then, after a five-year layoff from the public eye, Mendes returned to A&M in 1982. His 1983 comeback album, Sergio Mendes, was his first Top 40 album in nearly a decade and a half, and was accompanied by his biggest chart single ever, "Never Gonna Let You Go," which hit number four. Since then, Mendes has had limited chart success with the single "Alibis" and the LP Confetti. He remained a popular figure internationally, even when his record sales slumped in America, as evidenced by the fact that his entire A&M catalog (and much of his Atlantic work) from the '60s has been reissued on CD in Japan. Indeed, his popularity in the rest of the world, versus America, was even the basis for a comic vignette in one episode of the television series Seinfeld.

During the '90s, Mendes performed with a new group, Brasil '99, and more recently, Brasil 2000, and has been integrating the sounds of Bahian hip-hop into his music. In 1997, A&M's British division released a remastered double-CD set of the best of Mendes' music from his first seven years on the label. Most of Mendes' back catalog was reissued as the 21st century dawned, and in 2006, Concord Records released Timeless, his first album of newly recorded material in eight years. A mere two years later, Encanto appeared, including co-productions from will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas. A third album on Concord, Bom Tempo, was released in 2010. After appearances at numerous festivals and a global tour, Mendes took a short break before beginning to record again. He signed to Sony's revived OKeh imprint and cut a completely new set of songs in Los Angeles, Salvador, and Bahia, with a host of special guests and old friends, including John Legend, will.i.am., and Brazilian artists such as Carlinhos Brown, with whom he cut the first single, "One Nation," issued on One Love, One Rhythm: The 2014 FIFA World Cup Official Album. Mendes' album Magic was released in September.

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Sergio Mendes 1965 classic is a genre-defining album, capturing straight up Bossa Nova with a stellar line-up of seasoned musicians including Hubert Laws, Art Farmer, Phil Woods and a special guest spot for the famed Antonio Carlos Jobim, a purely instrumental album. This was part of the Exotic culture that your grandparents were into in the early 60's. My favorite track has to be the Girl From Impanema, practically a standard in the early to mid 60's. This is nice as background music for a quiet dinner party, or if you're just sitting back and reading from your Kindle that you got from Amazon. The liner notes indicate that there was more material that came from this meeting, but was unfortunately destroyed in a NJ warehouse fire in '78, where Atlantic had all their demos and sessions work stored.



Sergio Mendes - The Swinger From Rio (flac  215mb)

01 Maria Moita 3:27
02 Sambinha Bossa Nova 3:10
03 Batida Diferente 3:23
04 So Danco Samba 3:08
05 Pau Brasil 3:13
06 The Girl From Ipanema 2:51
07 Useless Panorama 3:26
08 The Dreamer 4:13
09 Primavera 2:39
10 Consolocao 3:19
11 Favela 5:21

Sergio Mendes - The Swinger From Rio  (ogg 94mb)

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The pure essence of Sergio Mendes and Brasil 65 is captured beautifully on this collection of tracks recorded in the famed "El Matador." From the random china clang, to the spare truck driving by outside, every subtle nuance has been preserved, the piano is powerful, complex and subtle at the same time.... oh along with some pretty amazing musical moments. In Person at El Matador shines with gorgeous Brazillian/Jazz arangements by Sergio, and exotic vocals by Wanda De Sah... A perfect addition to any cocktail music list.



Sergio Mendes e Brasil 65 - In Person At El Matador  (flac  198mb)

01 Reza 4:54
02 O Morro 2:32
03 Samba Do Astronauta 2:57
04 Tem Do De Mim 2:34
05 Jodel 3:34
06 Samba De Jose 1:52
07 Noa Noa 2:56
08 Black Orpheus Medley 6:13
09 Arrastao 3:52
10 Vai De Vez 2:56
11 Caminho De Casa 2:46

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After bouncing around Philips, Atlantic, and Capitol playing Brazilian jazz or searching for an ideal blend of Brazilian and American pop, Sergio Mendes struck gold on his first try at A&M (then not much more than the home of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and the Baja Marimba Band). He came up with a marvelously sleek, sexy formula: dual American female voices singing in English and Portuguese over a nifty three-man bossa nova rhythm/vocal section and Mendes' distinctly jazz-oriented piano, performing tight, infectious arrangements of carefully chosen tunes from Brazil, the U.S., and the U.K. The hit was Jorge Ben's "Mas Que Nada," given a catchy, tight bossa nova arrangement with the voice of Lani Hall soaring above the swinging rhythm section. But other tracks leap out as well; the obvious rouser is the Brazilian go-go treatment of the Beatles'"Day Tripper," but the sultry treatment of Henry Mancini's "Slow Hot Wind" and the rapid-fire "Tim Dom Dom" also deserve mention.



Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Herb Alpert Presents (flac 165mb)

01 Mais Que Nada (Ma-Sh Kay Nada) 2:37
02 One Note Samba / Spanish Flea 1:46
03 The Joker 2:37
04 Going Out Of My Head 3:00
05 Tim Dom Dom (Chim Dome Dome) 1:51
06 Day Tripper 3:09
07 Agua De Beber (Agwa Gee Beberr) 2:28
08 Slow Hot Wind 2:32
09 O Pato (O Pawtoo) 1:58
10 Berimbau (Ber-Im-Bough) 3:15

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The hype-laden title undoubtedly refers to Sergio Mendes' move to America two years before this album's release, settling in Los Angeles, where this record was made. Clearly he was out to make it big in the U.S.A., for this album tries to move a bit away from Brazil by spotlighting Mendes' jazz and pop piano against the elaborate charts of Clare Fischer, Bob Florence and Dick Hazard. There are contributions from the best-known Brazilians (Edu Lobo, Jobim of course) as well as up-to-the-minute pop tunes "Monday, Monday" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and American songbook material like "Here's That Rainy Day" and "Girl Talk," all served up in airplay-sized packages mostly under three minutes in length. Inevitably, then, Mendes' piano doesn't get much room to breathe, but the charts are quite interesting; Florence's are the most big-band-oriented, Fischer's are the most harmonically challenging, and Hazard's lush offerings are the signposts of Mendes' future with Brasil '66. Though an encouraging step forward, Mendes' first big strike was still several months away.



Sergio Mendes - The Great Arrival    (flac  194mb)

01 The Great Arrival (Cheganca) 2:17
02 Monday, Monday 2:30
03 Carnaval 2:38
04 Cancao Do Amanhecer 2:48
05 Here's That Rainy Day 2:23
06 Boranda 2:40
07 Nana 2:33
08 Bonita 3:21
09 Morning 2:38
10 Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2:31
11 Tristeza De Amar 3:16
12 Girl Talk 2:24

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Hello, Prinses Leia is no more, but i guess if need be Disney will revive her electronically like they did at the end of Rogue One, . Seriously I wouldn't  have thought it possible to die from heart complications in an LA hospital with all the high tech at hand, but Carrie Fisher did at age 60, she leaves behind her mother and daughter. She chain-smoked, confessed to a love of LSD and her compulsions led to addictions to cocaine and painkillers, ah yes the Hollywood lifestyle, she'd probably seen enough of this realm.



Today's artists are an English pop band with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid-1980s. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dexys went through numerous personnel changes over the course of three albums and thirteen singles, with only singer/songwriter/co-founder Kevin Rowland remaining in the band through all of the transitions and only Rowland and "Big" Jim Paterson (trombone) appearing on all of the albums. By 1983, the band consisted only of Rowland and long-standing members Helen O'Hara (violin) and Billy Adams (guitar). The band broke up in 1987, with Rowland becoming a solo artist.  ......N'Joy

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Dexys Midnight Runners are best known in America as one of new wave's ultimate one-hit wonders, thanks to their 1982 number one smash "Come on Eileen," a distinctive fusion of '80s pop, Celtic folk, and blue-eyed soul. In the U.K., however, they earned a fair amount of critical acclaim and made a greater impression on the public consciousness with their frequent changes in sound, wardrobe, and personnel.

Dexys were formed in 1978 by singer/guitarist/songwriter Kevin Rowland and singer/guitarist Kevin "Al" Archer (who changed his first name to avoid confusion). Both had been members of the Birmingham, England, punk band the Killjoys, and Rowland, who was ethnically Irish, had split his childhood between London, Ireland, and Birmingham, and soaked up the influence of Irish folk and the so-called Northern soul music popular in the Midlands. Seeking a new direction, Rowland and Archer decided to put together a full-fledged soul outfit and named it after the stimulant Dexedrine, a popular drug on the Northern soul scene (despite the strict no-drinking-or-drugs policy Rowland later imposed on the band). The lineup eventually settled on trombonist Big Jim Paterson, tenor saxophonist Geoff Blythe, alto saxophonist Steve "Babyface" Spooner, keyboardist Mick Talbot (who replaced Pete Saunders, was once a member of the Merton Parkas and later joined the Style Council), bassist Pete Williams, and drummer Andy "Stoker" Growcott (who replaced Bobby Junior). Acutely image conscious, Rowland tried to reflect the band's working-class roots by dressing them as New York dockworkers, with a wardrobe lifted straight from the Martin Scorsese/Robert DeNiro film Mean Streets. The band struggled financially at first, especially given its large membership, and according to legend, Rowland organized (or at least encouraged) shoplifting expeditions to make ends meet.

Dexys didn't take long to release their first single; "Dance Stance" (aka "Burn It Down"), an attack on anti-Irish discrimination, appeared on EMI in 1979, but only scraped the lower reaches of the charts. However, their next single, "Geno," a tribute to American-born soul singer Geno Washington (who'd made his career in the U.K.), went all the way to the top of the British charts in early 1980. Dissatisfied with their share of the profits, the band stole the completed master tapes of their debut album, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, and successfully reworked their deal. When the album was released later in 1980, it caused a sensation. With their bright, tuneful, horn-heavy take on Memphis soul (which predated Paul Weller's similar transformation of the Jam), Dexys were hailed as British rock's return to an organic, soulful sound in the post-punk/new wave era. Their third single, "There There My Dear," became a Top Ten hit, but Rowland insisted on following it with the inadvisable single choice of "Keep It, Pt. 2," which flopped. This was the last straw for most of the band, who had grown tired of Rowland's control-freak leadership and restlessness. Archer left to form the Blue Ox Babes, and most of the rest of the group wound up in the Bureau, leaving only trombonist Paterson with Rowland.

Rowland and Paterson regrouped Dexys, adding guitarist/banjoist Kevin "Billy" Adams (again renamed), drummer Seb Shelton (ex-Secret Affair), keyboardist Mickey Billingham, alto saxophonist Brian Maurice, tenor saxophonist Paul Speare, and bassist Giorgio Kilkenny (who replaced Steve Wynne). After the 1981 single "Plan B" (which featured a new wardrobe of boxing boots and ponytails), the new lineup left EMI and signed to Mercury. Their first single for the label, "Show Me," became a Top 20 hit, but the follow-up, "Liars A to E," flopped, and Rowland considered modifying the group's approach. Allegedly, he heard a demo tape of Archer's folk-influenced Blue Ox Babes material, and decided to reinvent Dexys in a similar fashion. He infuriated the Babes by not only borrowing from their sound, but recruiting violinist Helen O'Hara out of their lineup; he also added Steve Brennan and Roger MacDuff on the same instrument.

The second Dexys album, Too-Rye-Ay, was released in 1982, and while their soul sound was still easily audible, it was now sitting alongside a strong Irish folk influence, making for a striking hybrid. The makeover was accompanied by yet another wardrobe change, this time to a scruffy gypsy/hobo image that wound up changing the standard of acceptable dress at many a restrictive London club. Dexys introduced their new sound on the single "The Celtic Soulbrothers," which was a mild success; however, the follow-up, "Come on Eileen," was a smash, becoming their second British number one. A few months later, helped along by the group's highly visual, MTV-ready appeal, "Come on Eileen" broke in America and went all the way to number one there as well. With their new folky direction thus established, the entire horn section (even the loyal Paterson) departed in the summer of 1982, as did keyboardist Billingham. Unfortunately, at the peak of the group's success, the rest of the lineup proved unstable as well, due in part to rifts with Rowland; eventually, the core of the group was whittled down to Rowland, guitarist Adams, and violinist O'Hara.

Rowland took Dexys to New York to work on the follow-up album, which -- slowed by his perfectionism -- took a year and a half to record. In the meantime, EMI released the singles compilation Geno in 1983. Paterson rejoined the group when Rowland decided to blend his soul and folk phases more thoroughly, and the rest of the instrumentation was filled out by hired session musicians. When Don't Stand Me Down was finally released in 1985, Rowland insisted that no singles were to be pulled from the album, wanting it to stand as a cohesive piece of work in the manner of '70s LPs. As a result, it sold much more poorly than expected and wasn't helped by lackluster reviews that slammed Rowland's attempts at Van Morrison-esque poetry. After a few weeks, a panicked Mercury -- who'd spent quite a bit of money to make the record -- released "This Is What She's Like" as a single, but the damage was already done. One last single, "Because of You," charted in 1986 after being used as the theme to a British TV show, but with Don't Stand Me Down having bombed, the group disbanded.

Rowland mounted a solo career and returned in 1988 with The Wanderer, a mellow record flavored with country and lounge-pop, which failed to sell. A disheartened Rowland spent the next few years in a deep depression, fighting off bankruptcy and cocaine addiction. In 1996, he signed with Creation as a solo artist, but in typically idiosyncratic fashion, his comeback effort was an all-covers album; My Beauty was released in 1999 and sold abominably, probably not helped by Rowland's new wardrobe of dresses and suspenders.

After a couple years spent living down the album, Rowland returned with a new edition of Dexys Midnight Runners, with the stripped down name Dexys, in 2003. The new line-up began playing live shows and contributed two new songs ("Manhood" and "My Life in England") to the greatest-hits collection Let's Make This Precious. The group, which included former Runners Mick Talbot and Pete Williams, began recording in earnest in 2005 but the painstaking processes didn't yield results until the release of One Day I'm Going to Soar in 2012. Along the way, another former member, "Big" Jim Paterson, joined back up, and Rowland added new vocalist Madeleine Hyland, as well. The album was met with a positive response from critics and signaled a triumphant comeback for the band. After a full slate of concerts over the next few years and the departure of Talbot, Paterson, and Williams, the group's next move was to record Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul. Released by Rhino in June 2016, the record features their unique versions of classic Irish songs (like "Women of Ireland" and "Carrickfergus") and a wide range of others (like Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now"), all given that Dexy's spin.

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The crackling stations being switched on the radio and the gang shout followed by the spoken injunction to "burn it down" sound like they should be starting off a Sham 69 record. Then "Burn It Down" actually starts, with its horn section, Hammond organ and Kevin Rowland's utterly unconventional soul vocals. The cult of Dexy's, and this album in particular, were worshipped as the return of "soul" to English rock music at the dawn of Thatcherism. Exploring the myth that this album holds, especially in Brit music terms, can be a strange prospect: 20 years on it doesn't sound revolutionary, it just sounds good. And good it is, quite good, compared to where Paul Weller ended up, i.e., too reverential by half. This is vibrant, alive, and unconcerned with perfection. Rowland takes a role that Morrissey would have in 1985 and Jarvis Cocker in 1995 -- the unexpected but perfect voice to capture a time and moment in the U.K. His slightly strangled wail and sly, wry lyrics and song titles ("Tell Me When My Light Turns Green,""Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply") make this album in many ways. Musically, the group lays down R&B grooves and brassy hooks with aplomb, as on the brilliant "Seven Days Too Long" and the number one single "Geno," but throw in film noir touches, John Barry-writing-for-James Bond fare and more just as ably. The liner notes have a fun description of the group's origins and brief notes for most of the tunes -- the best for the finale, "There, There, My Dear":

This new edition of Searching For The Young Soul Rebels comes with a second disc which features 21 additional tracks: a- and b-sides, BBC sessions with John Peel and ‘Kid’ Jensen, and previously unreleased demos from EMI’s Manchester Square studio, including a tilt at Sam and Dave’s “Hold On I’m Comin’”. Much of it has been aired before, and inevitably there is repetition, but it contains some terrific performances from a band firing at full power, however briefly.

This blazing incarnation of Dexys barely survived the album’s release before fracturing under the eccentricities of their leader, who subsequently assembled new gangs for the following Too-Rye-Ay and Don’t Stand Me Down before the whole thing fell apart. But ultimately, the myth-making around Kevin Rowland tends to obscure the fact that he’s been responsible for some truly soul-scorching music, much of it featuring on this record. At 30 years of age, Searching For The Young Soul Rebels continues to burn.



Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels (flac  238mb)

01 Burn It Down 4:20
02 Tell Me When My Light Turns Green 3:46
03 The Teams That Meet In Caffs 4:08
04 I'm Just Looking 4:41
05 Geno 3:28
06 Seven Days Too Long 2:43
07 I Couldn't Help If I Tried 4:12
08 Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply 2:59
09 Keep It 3:59
10 Love Part One 1:11
11 There, There, My Dear 3:31

Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels  (ogg  89mb)

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Dexys Midnight Runners - Extra Searching (flac 465mb)

The Non-Album Singles And B-Sides
01 Dance Stance (Alternative Single Mix) 3:44
02 I'm Just Looking (B-Side Version) 4:23
03 Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache 3:24
04 The Horse 2:22
05 Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One) 3:45
06 One Way Love 3:09
07 Plan B 2:37
08 Soul Finger 2:12
Demos & Radio Sessions
09 Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply 2:53
10 Hold On! I'm Comin' 4:18
11 Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache 3:36
12 The Horse 2:40
13 I Couldn't Help If I Tried 4:18
John Peel BBC Radio 1 Session(26-2-80):
14 Geno 3:29
15 Tell Me When My Light Turns Green 3:15
16 The Horse 2:13
17 Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache 3:29
Kid Jensen BBC Radio 1 Session:
18 Geno 3:26
19 Respect 3:35
20 Dance Stance 3:19
21 The Teams That Meet In Caffs 3:56

Dexys Midnight Runners - Extra Searching  (ogg  166mb)

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For one brief moment, Dexy's exploded into America's consciousness -- and what a song to do it with! "Come on Eileen" combines ramalama rock & roll, soul delivery, and Celtic/country flavor into a perfect musical fusion and an irresistible U.K. and U.S. number one hit. The rest of the album is nearly as successful, with quite a few numbers that should have matched "Come on Eileen"'s fame. Given that song's obvious debt to Van Morrison's similar fusions, it's no surprise that Dexy's tipped their hat with a great cover of Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said," another big British single. Throughout the album, Rowland's distinct, unique voice takes the fore, but the revamped Dexy's lineup proves it was the original version's equal, if not better. Given that only trombonist Big Jimmy Patterson remained, and even then only for two tracks, recruiting a new band able to create the "Celtic soul" Rowland dreamed about turned out to be exactly the right move. Excellently produced by Rowland and the legendary Clive Langer/Alan Winstanley production team, Too-Rye-Ay sounds like an old soul revue recorded on-stage, no doubt an intentional goal. Other highlights include the opening jaunt "The Celtic Soul Brothers," which just about says it all both in title and delivery; the slow swirl of "All in All," and the vicious ballad "Liars A to E."



Dexys Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay (flac  442mb)

01 The Celtic Soul Brothers (More, Please, Thank You) 3:09
02 Let's Make This Precious 4:04
03 All In All (This One Last Wild Waltz) 4:10
04 Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) 3:06
05 Old 5:32
06 Plan B 5:05
07 I'll Show You 2:41
08 Liars A To E 4:10
09 Until I Believe In My Soul 7:02
10 Come On Eileen 4:41
The B-Sides
11 Love Part 21:19
12 Dubious 2:42
13 T.S.O.P. 3:47
14 Let's Get This Straight From The Start 3:35
15 Old (Live At Shaftsbury Theatre, London) 4:55
16 Respect (Live At Shaftsbury Theatre, London) 7:42
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17 Let's Make This Precious (Original Version) 3:42

Dexys Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay  (ogg  155mb)

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Dexys Midnight Runners - BBC in Concert (flac 491mb)

BBC In Concert - Newcastle 26/06/82
01 T.S.O.P. 4:15
02 Burn It Down 4:01
03 Let's Make This Precious 4:05
04 Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) 3:16
05 Come On Eileen 6:33
06 Soon 1:27
07 Plan B 4:05
08 Geno 3:33
09 Respect 6:59
10 Old 4:27
11 The Celtic Soul Brothers (More, Please, Thank You) 2:46
12 There There My Dear 4:55
13 Show Me 3:25
14 I'll Show You 3:03
BBC Session - David Jensen 04/07/82
15 Let's Make This Precious 3:41
16 Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) 3:05
17 All In All (This One Last Wild Waltz) 3:52
18 Old 4:40
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19 Reminisce (Part 1) 5:55

Dexys Midnight Runners - BBC in Concert  (ogg  187mb)

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Hello, the final post this year is on Earth Wind & Fire. The last in a series posted in honor of the great artist behind the band Maurice White, singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger and bandleader. He was the founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. White died February 4, 2016 in his sleep from the effects of Parkinson's disease at his home in Los Angeles, California. He was survived by his wife, Marilyn White, sons Kahbran and Eden, daughter Hamia and brothers Verdine and Fred. Maurice was one of the great artists that sadly left this realm this year..

Today's artists are an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, Latin and African. They are one of the most successful bands of all time. Rolling Stone Magazine described them as "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and declared that the band "changed the sound of black pop" All month at Grooves..... ..... N'joy

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Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the most musically accomplished, critically acclaimed, and commercially popular funk bands of the '70s. Conceived by drummer, bandleader, songwriter, kalimba player, and occasional vocalist Maurice White, EWF's all-encompassing musical vision used funk as its foundation, but also incorporated jazz, smooth soul, gospel, pop, rock & roll, psychedelia, blues, folk, African music, and, later on, disco. Lead singer Philip Bailey gave EWF an extra dimension with his talent for crooning sentimental ballads in addition to funk workouts; behind him, the band could harmonize like a smooth Motown group, work a simmering groove like the J.B.'s, or improvise like a jazz fusion outfit. Plus, their stage shows were often just as elaborate and dynamic as George Clinton's P-Funk empire. More than just versatility for its own sake, EWF's eclecticism was part of a broader concept informed by a cosmic, mystical spirituality and an uplifting positivity the likes of which hadn't been seen since the early days of Sly & the Family Stone. Tying it all together was the accomplished songwriting of Maurice White, whose intricate, unpredictable arrangements and firm grasp of hooks and structure made EWF one of the tightest bands in funk when they wanted to be. Not everything they tried worked, but at their best, Earth, Wind & Fire seemingly took all that came before them and wrapped it up into one dizzying, spectacular package.

White founded Earth, Wind & Fire in Chicago in 1969. He had previously honed his chops as a session drummer for Chess Records, where he played on songs by the likes of Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, and Etta James, among others. In 1967, he'd replaced Redd Holt in the popular jazz group the Ramsey Lewis Trio, where he was introduced to the kalimba, an African thumb piano he would use extensively in future projects. In 1969, he left Lewis' group to form a songwriting partnership with keyboardist Don Whitehead and singer Wade Flemons. This quickly evolved into a band dubbed the Salty Peppers, which signed with Capitol and scored a regional hit with "La La Time." When a follow-up flopped, White decided to move to Los Angeles, and took most of the band with him; he also renamed them Earth, Wind & Fire, after the three elements in his astrological charts. By the time White convinced his brother, bassist Verdine White, to join him on the West Coast in 1970, the lineup consisted of Whitehead, Flemons, female singer Sherry Scott, guitarist Michael Beal, tenor saxophonist Chet Washington, trombonist Alex Thomas, and percussionist Yackov Ben Israel. This aggregate signed a new deal with Warner Bros. and issued its self-titled debut album in late 1970. Many critics found it intriguing and ambitious, much like its 1971 follow-up, The Need of Love, but neither attracted much commercial attention despite a growing following on college campuses and a high-profile gig performing the soundtrack to Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking black independent film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.

Last Days and Time Dissatisfied with the results, White dismantled the first version of EWF in 1972, retaining only brother Verdine. He built a new lineup with female vocalist Jessica Cleaves, flute/sax player Ronnie Laws, guitarist Roland Bautista, keyboardist Larry Dunn, and percussionist Ralph Johnson; the most important new addition, however, was singer Philip Bailey, recruited from a Denver R&B band called Friends & Love. After seeing the group open for John Sebastian in New York, Clive Davis signed them to CBS, where they debuted in 1972 with Last Days and Time. Further personnel changes ensued; Laws and Bautista were gone by year's end, replaced by reedman Andrew Woolfolk and guitarists Al McKay and Johnny Graham. It was then that EWF truly began to hit their stride. 1973's Head to the Sky (Cleaves' last album with the group) significantly broadened their cult following, and the 1974 follow-up, Open Our Eyes, was their first genuine hit. It marked their first collaboration with producer, arranger, and sometime-songwriting collaborator Charles Stepney, who helped streamline their sound for wider acceptance; it also featured another White brother, Fred, brought in as a second drummer. The single "Mighty Mighty" became EWF's first Top Ten hit on the R&B charts, although pop radio shied away from its black-pride subtext, and the minor hit "Kalimba Story" brought Maurice White's infatuation with African sounds to the airwaves. Open Our Eyes went gold, setting the stage for the band's blockbuster breakthrough.

That's the Way of the World In 1975, EWF completed work on another movie soundtrack, this time to a music-biz drama called That's the Way of the World. Not optimistic about the film's commercial prospects, the group rushed out their soundtrack album of the same name (unlike Sweet Sweetback, they composed all the music themselves) in advance. The film flopped, but the album took off; its lead single, the love-and-encouragement anthem "Shining Star," shot to the top of both the R&B and pop charts, making Earth, Wind & Fire mainstream stars; it later won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group. The album also hit number one on both the pop and R&B charts, and went double platinum; its title track went Top Five on the R&B side, and it also contained Bailey's signature ballad in the album cut "Reasons." White used the new income to develop EWF's live show into a lavish, effects-filled extravaganza, which eventually grew to include stunts designed by magician Doug Henning. The band was also augmented by a regular horn section, the Phoenix Horns, headed by saxophonist Don Myrick. Their emerging concert experience was chronicled later that year on the double-LP set Gratitude, which became their second straight number one album and featured one side of new studio tracks. Of those, "Sing a Song" reached the pop Top Ten and the R&B Top Five, and the ballad "Can't Hide Love" and the title track were also successful.

Spirit Sadly, during the 1976 sessions for EWF's next studio album, Spirit, Charles Stepney died suddenly of a heart attack. Maurice White took over the arranging chores, but the Stepney-produced "Getaway" managed to top the R&B charts posthumously. Spirit naturally performed well on the charts, topping out at number two. In the meantime, White was taking a hand in producing other acts; in addition to working with his old boss Ramsey Lewis, he helped kickstart the careers of the Emotions and Deniece Williams. 1977's All n' All was another strong effort that charted at number three and spawned the R&B smashes "Fantasy" and the chart-topping "Serpentine Fire"; meanwhile, the Emotions topped the pop charts with the White-helmed smash "Best of My Love." The following year, White founded his own label, ARC, and EWF appeared in the mostly disastrous film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, turning in a fine cover of the Beatles'"Got to Get You Into My Life" that became their first Top Ten pop hit since "Sing a Song." Released before year's end, The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 produced another Top Ten hit (and R&B number one) in the newly recorded "September."

1979's I Am contained EWF's most explicit nod to disco, a smash collaboration with the Emotions called "Boogie Wonderland" that climbed into the Top Ten. The ballad "After the Love Has Gone" did even better, falling one spot short of the top. Although I Am became EWF's sixth straight multi-platinum album, there were signs that the group's explosion of creativity over the past few years was beginning to wane. 1980's Faces broke that string, after which guitarist McKay departed. While 1981's Raise brought them a Top Five hit and R&B chart-topper in "Let's Groove," an overall decline in consistency was becoming apparent. By the time EWF issued its next album, 1983's Powerlight, ARC had folded, and the Phoenix Horns had been cut loose to save money. After the lackluster Electric Universe appeared at the end of the year, White disbanded the group to simply take a break. In the meantime, Verdine White became a producer and video director, while Philip Bailey embarked on a solo career and scored a pop smash with the Phil Collins duet "Easy Lover." Collins also made frequent use of the Phoenix Horns on his '80s records, both solo and with Genesis.

Bailey reunited with the White brothers, plus Andrew Woolfolk, Ralph Johnson, and new guitarist Sheldon Reynolds, in 1987 for the album Touch the World. It was surprisingly successful, producing two R&B smashes in "Thinking of You" and the number one "System of Survival." Released in 1990, Heritage was a forced attempt to contemporize the group's sound, with guest appearances from Sly Stone and MC Hammer; its failure led to the end of the group's relationship with Columbia. They returned on Reprise with the more traditional-sounding Millennium in 1993, but were dropped when the record failed to recapture their commercial standing despite a Grammy nomination for "Sunday Morning"; tragedy struck that year when onetime horn leader Don Myrick was murdered in Los Angeles. Bailey and the White brothers returned once again in 1997 on the small Pyramid label with In the Name of Love.

After 2003's The Promise, a mix of new material and fresh looks at classics, the group realigned with several top-shelf adult contemporary artists and released 2005's Illumination, which featured a collaboration with smooth jazz juggernaut Kenny G. The album was Grammy-nominated in the category of Best R&B Album. Earth, Wind & Fire continued to tour and made a show-opening appearance on American Idol's Idol Gives Back show in 2007. Three years later, Maurice and Verdine White, Bailey, Dunn, and McKay were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The band released Now, Then & Forever, their first album in five years, in 2013. Three years later, on February 3, 2016, Maurice White died from the effects of Parkinson's disease at his home in Los Angeles; he was 74 years old.


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Earth, Wind & Fire's return to Warner Bros. with 1993's Millennium proved to be short-lived -- the album failed to meet the company's expectations commercially. Four years later, EWF ended up on the independent, Miami-based Pyramid label with the surprisingly retro In the Name of Love. More personnel changes had taken place, but thankfully, Maurice and Verdine White and Philip Bailey were still on board for what was EWF's most live-sounding, least high-tech offering since 1983's Powerlight. (However, EWF had been touring without Maurice since 1994). Live horns and real instruments abound, and everything from the ballads "Cruising,""When Love Goes Wrong" and "Right Time" to the punchy funk ditty "Rock It" sounds like it could have been recorded in the 1970s. One very pleasant surprise is a remake of "Love of Life," which the pre-Bailey EWF embraced on its self-titled debut album of 1971. Bailey's son, Sir James Bailey, raps on the sociopolitical "Revolution," but on the whole, this excellent album is unapologetically retro.



Earth Wind & Fire - In The Name Of Love   (flac  339mb)

01 Rock It 4:27
02 In The Name Of Love 4:48
03 Revolution 5:05
04 When Love Goes Wrong 4:51
05 Fill You Up 4:06
06 Right Time 4:02
07 Round And Round 4:00
08 Keep It Real 4:52
09 Cruising 5:41
10 Love Is Life 4:59
11 Avatar (Interlude) 2:09

Earth Wind & Fire - In The Name Of Love  (ogg    119mb)

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In the early '00s, Earth, Wind & Fire's hardcore followers were given a few more reasons to smile when various labels put out some previously unreleased live recordings from the soul/funk innovators''70s/early-'80s heyday. One was Legacy/Columbia's That's the Way of the World: Alive in '75; another was Live in Rio, which came out on EWF's own Kalimba label in late 2002 and focuses on a 1980 appearance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Even if Live in Rio's packaging leaves something to be desired, the performances are nothing to complain about. In 1980, EWF was very much on top of their game, and die-hard fans will be thrilled to hear live versions of hits like "Fantasy,""Boogie Wonderland,""Getaway,""September," and "Serpentine Fire." Observant listeners will notice that this album sticks to EWF's post-Gratitude output -- that is, songs they recorded after their live album Gratitude, which came out in 1975. You won't hear "Shining Star,""Devotion,""That's the Way of the World," or "Reasons" on Live in Rio, although EWF probably performed some or all of those hits at this concert -- arguably, Kalimba Records should have offered the Rio set in its entirety and simply made Live in Rio a double album. Nonetheless, the arrival of Live in Rio is still something to celebrate. The vast majority of EWF fans will agree that Gratitude remains the band's most essential live album, but Live in Rio is still a valuable addition to their catalog.



Earth Wind & Fire - Live In Rio  (flac  417mb)

01 Dialog 1:13
02 Rock That! 0:52
03 In The Stone 4:23
04 Serpentine Fire 4:08
05 Fantasy 3:58
06 Can't Let Go 3:21
07 Getaway 5:25
08 Brazilian Rhyme 2:09
09 Magic Mind 3:57
10 Runnin' 6:05
11 After The Love Is Gone 6:04
12 Rio After Dark 3:02
13 Got To Get You Into My Life 4:11
14 Boogie Wonderland 3:18
15 September 3:43

Earth Wind & Fire - Live In Rio (ogg   148mb)

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A certain reverence needs to be paid toward a group that can manage to still produce interesting, soulful music well into a third decade. Earth, Wind & Fire has endured practically everything a music group can experience and still remain true to the very essence of what made it popular. However, those expecting a knockout traditional Earth, Wind & Fire record will be slightly disappointed with The Promise. Though the magic of Philip Bailey and Maurice White's instantly recognizable vocals is still potent, there are a few things that Earth, Wind & Fire fanatics will immediately notice are different. The use of drum machines as opposed to a live drummer on the majority of the record takes some of the energy and magic out of the delivery, especially when revisiting classic moments of the group's career. Unnecessary interludes also serve more as distractions than interesting segues, and take away what little cohesiveness The Promise holds. Individually, the songs are still well-produced and hold up on their own -- and all would be considered suitable for a smooth jazz/adult R&B setting. Overall, The Promise still retains many of the qualities that endeared fans to Earth, Wind & Fire so many years ago -- it's extremely soulful and soothing, and the loyalists will eat this release up (especially with the renditions of older songs).



Earth Wind & Fire - The Promise (flac 399mb)

01 All In The Way 4:28
02 Betcha' 3:43
03 Wiggle 0:39
04 Why? 4:04
05 Wonderland 4:05
06 Where Do We Go From Here? 5:21
07 Freedom 0:42
08 Hold Me 4:37
09 Never 5:09
10 Prelude 0:40
11 All About Love 4:24
12 Suppose You Like Me 4:37
13 The Promise 0:27
14 She Waits 5:09
15 The Promise (Continued) 0:51
16 Let Me Love You 4:17
17 Dirty 3:47

Earth Wind & Fire - The Promise (ogg   143mb)

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Following 2003's The Promise, Earth, Wind & Fire went back to the studio and refined and updated their approach to music with a more contemporary neo-soul sound on Illumination, and the gamble paid off plentifully, as it's one of the group's freshest and most fully realized album since the glory years of the '70s, when the group was releasing one timeless single after another. What makes Illumination work so well is their approach to staying contemporary without looking ridiculous in the process. The production from start to finish is polished and ready for prime time urban radio airplay, while still maintaining a sensibility of the old-school sound that made it work in the first place. Guest appearances are the norm, rather than the exception, with nonstop cameos from a wide range of artists, from OutKast and the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am all the way to soft rock horn tooter Kenny G. But the crown jewel of the album is unquestionably the eight-minute jam "Show Me the Way," with Raphael Saadiq handling lead vocals in a way that should make Maurice White blush with pride, confident in the kno
wledge his influence is very much alive and well in the next generation of soul musicians. The album's final pieces are puzzling, as Brian McKnight's eloquent appearance on the ballad "To You" is roughly knocked out of place as the fitting closer by a smooth jazz cover of OutKast's "The Way You Move," an ill-fitting move for an otherwise outstanding record. Sequencing error aside, Illumination is the musical defibrillator other aging soul musicians should grab a hold of and take note.



Earth Wind & Fire - Illumination   (flac 410mb)

01 Lovely People 4:29
02 Pure Gold 4:40
03 A Talking Voice (Interlude) 0:19
04 Love's Dance 4:28
05 Show Me The Way 7:47
06 This Is How I Feel 4:21
07 Work It Out 4:29
08 Pass You By 4:59
09 The One 5:11
10 Elevated 4:37
11 Liberation 5:2512
12 To You 4:37
14 The Way You Move 4:36

Earth Wind & Fire - Illumination (ogg 143mb)

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Hello, 2017 it's hard to imagine we'll loose more big names in the musicscene as last year, it could spell the end for the Daesh too certainly in Iraq and Syria, something to consider as we drift into the new year, a year where Europeans feel uncertain, in contrast to those in brash America we'll see how far it goes, meanwhile the Chinese have made a goodwill move by prohibiting the trade in ivory, smart move by them after all isn't the elefant the logo of the Republicans.....


Today's artists are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band typically compose lengthy guitar-based instrumental pieces that feature dynamic contrast, melodic bass guitar lines, and heavy use of distortion and effects. The band were for several years signed to renowned Glasgow indie label Chemikal Underground, and now use their own label Rock Action Records in the UK, and Sub Pop in North America. The band were frequently championed by John Peel from their early days......N'Joy

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The cosmic post-rock band Mogwai was formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1996 by guitarist/vocalist Stuart Braithwaite, guitarist Dominic Aitchison, and drummer Martin Bulloch, longtime friends with the goal of creating "serious guitar music." Toward that end, they added another guitarist, John Cummings, before debuting in March 1996 with the single "Tuner," a rarity in the Mogwai discography for its prominent vocals; the follow-up, a split single with Dweeb titled "Angels vs. Aliens," landed in the Top Ten on the British indie charts. Following appearances on a series of compilations, Mogwai returned later in the year with the 7""Summer," and after another early 1997 single, "New Paths to Helicon," they issued Ten Rapid, a collection of their earliest material.

Around the time that Mogwai recorded the superb 1997 EP 4 Satin, former Teenage Fanclub and Telstar Ponies member Brendan O'Hare joined the lineup in time for the recording of Mogwai's debut studio LP, Mogwai Young Team. He exited a short time later -- returning to his primary projects Macrocosmica and Fiend -- to be replaced by Barry Burns. Mogwai next issued 1998's Kicking a Dead Pig, a two-disc remix collection; the No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew) EP appeared a few months later. In 1999, they released Come on Die Young. Rock Action arrived in early 2001. Late that year, Mogwai released the My Father, My King EP; two years later, they issued the ironically titled Happy Songs for Happy People. Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2004 arrived early in 2005.

Mr. Beast, which was released in 2006, found the band going in a softer, more reflective direction. Late that year, the band's collaboration with Clint Mansell on the soundtrack to The Fountain arrived; Mogwai also crafted the score for Douglas Gordon's Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which was released in the U.K. in 2006 and in the U.S. the following spring. The Batcat EP, which featured a collaboration with garage-psych legend Roky Erickson, arrived in late summer 2008, heralding the release of The Hawk Is Howling -- which reunited the band with producer Andy Miller for the first time in a decade -- that fall. In 2010, Mogwai released their first live album, Special Moves, as a package with the Vincent Moon-directed concert film Burning.

Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will For 2011's Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, the band reunited with Young Team producer Paul Savage for a more streamlined set of songs. Later that year, they followed up with an EP of unreleased material from the Hardcore sessions, Earth Division, released on Sub Pop. Late in 2012, the band issued A Wrenched Virile Lore, a collection of Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will remixes. Early the following year, the first taste of their score to the French zombie TV series Les Revenants (which was based on the 2004 film of the same name) arrived as a four-song EP; in February 2013, the full-length album appeared.

Mogwai filled the rest of the year with recording their eighth proper album, Rave Tapes, at their Castle of Doom studio, live performances of their Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait score in Glasgow, Manchester, and London, and other live performances. Rave Tapes, which boasted a more streamlined and electronic direction than Mogwai's recent albums, was released in early 2014. Late that year, the band issued the Music Industry 3. Fitness Industry 1 EP, a collection of Rave Tapes remixes as well as new songs.

Cummings left the band in 2015 to work on his own solo projects. Mogwai's first release after his departure was 2016's Atomic, a collection of reworked tracks from their music for Mark Cousins' BBC 4 documentary Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise. They returned later that year with a number of compositions on the collaborative soundtrack for Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary about the impact of climate change, Before the Flood.

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Ten Rapid compiles the bulk of the singles Mogwai released between 1995 and 1997, but the tone of the music is so consistent, it could have all come from the same session. Like a post-rock band, Mogwai is about subtle, shifting sonics and repetition, but they are hardly as precious or cerebral as any post-rock group. Each of their songs sounds as if it goes around in a circle, surrounding itself in interlocking, mathematical patterns. While there are waves of feedback washing over the album, the music itself sounds like it's in the distance. Their habit of burying vocals (which aren't featured that often in the first place) also keeps Mogwai from reach, and nothing on Ten Rapid is immediately engaging, even though it is intriguing. With repeated listens, the album reveals its hidden layers, and the music becomes hypnotic in its gradual, deliberate pace and interwoven guitars.



Mogwai - Ten Rapid (flac  168mb)

01 Summer 4:26
02 Helicon 2 2:38
03 Angels Versus Aliens 5:50
04 I Am Not Batman 3:31
05 Tuner 2:58
06 Ithica 27-9 2:58
07 A Place For Parks 2:14
08 Helicon 1 6:00
09 End 2:43

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Like Ten Rapid but with a more awkward name, Mogwai [EP+6] collects some of the experimental rock titans' singles and EPs with such a natural feel that it almost seems like it was designed as an album. In this case, 1997's 4 Satin EP is joined with 1999's self-titled EP and "Xmas Steps," the single version of Come on Die Young's track. The 13-and-a-half-minute "Stereodee" is just as compelling an epic as any of the tracks that wound up on either of those albums, showcasing the band's masterful way with ebbing, flowing, letting a song explode, and pulling it back together again. "Xmas Steps" -- which is a minute longer than the album version of the song -- also shows how expertly Mogwai can play with time and dynamics as they scale a mountain of sound that turns out to be a volcano when they get to the top. This pair of tracks makes up the heart of Mogwai [EP+6], but "Stanley Kubrick"'s limpid pedal steel and "Burn Girl Prom Queen" round out its melancholy soul. These tracks surrounding the Young Team/Come on Die Young era show that Mogwai distribute their wealth pretty equally among their long and short-form releases, and make this collection necessary for any fan who doesn't own these songs already.



Mogwai - EP+6 (flac  395mb)

01 Superheroes Of BMX 8:05
02 Now You're Taken 7:00
03 Stereodee 13:39
04 Xmas Steps 11:14
05 Rollerball 3:47
06 Small Children In The Background 6:51
07 Stanley Kubrick 4:19
08 Christmas Song 3:26
09 Burn Girl Prom Queen 8:33
10 Rage Man 5:05

Mogwai - EP+6   (ogg 149mb)

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Sripping away much of the noodling and noise of their earlier work in favor of tighter structures, more immediate melodies, and vocals, on Rock Action Mogwai recaptures the excitement that surrounded their first releases. Like so many groups stuck with the post-rock tag, Mogwai needed a way to expand beyond the term without changing their sound completely, and aided by guests like producer Dave Fridmann and Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys, they've found it. Rock Action incorporates bristling distortion, propulsive drums, and electronic textures similar to Tortoise's Standards -- particularly on the opening track "Sine Wave" -- but the album's most remarkable moments revisit and reinvent more traditional sounds. Buoyed by lush string arrangements and Fridmann's detailed, warm production, the brooding ballads "Take Me Somewhere Nice" and "Dial: Revenge" couldn't be further from "rock action," but they display the album's refreshing restraint and immediacy. In particular, "Dial: Revenge" -- so named because "dial" is the Welsh word for "revenge" -- benefits from Rhys' emotive yet cryptic vocals in his mother tongue, but the general emphasis on vocals adds to the album's organic, emotive feel. Nowhere is this more evident than the nine-minute epic "2 Rights Make One Wrong": With its lush layers of brass, strings, banjo, guitars, and vocals, it sounds like the rock-oriented cousin of Jim O'Rourke's pocket symphonies. Meanwhile, "You Don't Know Jesus" uses its eight-minute length to reaffirm that the group is still at the top of its game when it comes to guitar-driven catharsis. "Secret Pint" sends the album out on a serene note, proving that in the proper hands, the quietest ballad is just as commanding as the loudest rock action; Rock Action shows that Mogwai have mastered both styles.



Mogwai - Rock Action  (flac  306mb)

01 Sine Wave 4:55
02 Take Me Somewhere Nice 6:57
03 O I Sleep 0:55
04 Dial: Revenge 3:28
05 You Don't Know Jesus 8:02
06 Robot Chant 1:03
07 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong 9:31
08 Secret Pint 3:37

Mogwai - Rock Action  (ogg  114mb)

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It doesn't get much weirder than seeing indie rock darlings Mogwai and Magoo do a split EP of classic Black Sabbath songs, but it really does exist. It seems as though both bands just wanted to rock out, and that's exactly what they do with these metal anthems. Magoo is up to bat first and takes on "Black Sabbath," one of the best numbers in Sabbath's catalogue. Magoo actually covers the song faithfully, but the outer space vocals and lo-fi production make it a very interesting take. Mogwai also plays it pretty straight, although their cover of the marijuana anthem "Sweet Leaf" seems even murkier and drug induced than the original. The sticker on the disc is intriguing enough, calling it a "companion to their recent Rock Action album" and "two parts serenity and one part death metal." My Father My King is a single track of the same name that lasts over 20 minutes. The meat is somewhat similar to the band Earth's sludgy, monotone feedback or Caspar Brötzmann Massaker sans singing, with a nicely noisy production job from a man accustomed to such things, Steve Albini, bookended with relative tranquility. Call it mood music for mood swings and unlike anything the Scottish troupe has endeavored, but it still retains the experimental, arty flair Mogwai is identified with.



Mogwai - 4 EP's  (flac  388mb)

Do The Rock Boogaloo
01 Magoo - Black Sabbath 5:50
02 Mogwai - Sweet Leaf 5:55
Travels In Constants
03 Untitled 6:07
04 Quiet Stereo Dee 4:06
05 Arundel 2:59
My Father My King.
06 My Father My King 20:12
UK Tour EP
07 Close Encounters 3:57
08 Drum Machine 3:31
09 D To E 6:06
10 You Don't Know Jesus (Live)6:14
11 Helicon (Live) 7:53

Mogwai - 4 EP's    (ogg  155mb)

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Can't get enough of these last century Mogwai EP's  have another one, it's New Years day after all. Four versions of "Mogwai Fear Satan," the closing track from the band's 1997 release, Young Team, are offered up here from the likes of Surgeon and My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, while the first and best remix was actually prepared by the band itself. Drenched in echo and high-contrast flute melodies, this track features the group's familiar and quite satisfying undulating half-crescendos. Unfortunately, the remaining treatments amount to three flavors of white noise, for only the most extreme of art rock lovers to contemplate. The overall abrasiveness of Mogwai Fear Satan Remixes is probably too much for casual Mogwai fans. For the collectors and fanatics...



Mogwai - Fear Satan Remixes  (flac  262mb)

01 Fear Satan (Mogwai Remix) 9:50
02 Fear Satan (µ-Ziq Remix) 7:21
03 Fear Satan (Surgeon Remix) 6:26
04 Fear Satan (My Bloody Valentine Remix) 16:12


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