Rho-Xs

Hello, ok the days of the returning light started today. Ever since the days of old this was a good reason to party the pagans did it, the Romans did it, in fact they called it Saturnalia, 5 days with private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves.and all in reverence of the god Saturn. It held theological importance for some Romans, who saw it as a restoration of the ancient Golden Age, when the world was ruled by Saturn, before our current sun came barging in and rearranged our solar system. Anyway the catholic church co-opted these party days with their association of the return of the light with the birth of the son of god, Jesus, i'd say these days we're closer to the Roman days, be it without the current elite showing any humility.

Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It was a major factor in the creation of Southern soul and Memphis soul music. Stax also released gospel, funk, and blues recordings. Renowned for its output of blues music, the label was founded by two siblings and business partners, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton (STewart/AXton = Stax). It featured several popular ethnically integrated bands (including the label's house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s) and a racially integrated team of staff and artists unprecedented in that time of racial strife and tension in Memphis and the South.

According to ethnomusicologist Rob Bowman, the label's use of "one studio, one equipment set-up, the same set of musicians and a small group of songwriters led to a readily identifiable sound. It was a sound based in black gospel, blues, country, and earlier forms of rhythm and blues. It became known as southern soul music."

Following the death of Stax's biggest star, Otis Redding, in 1967, and the severance of the label's distribution deal with Atlantic Records in 1968, Stax continued primarily under the supervision of a new co-owner, Al Bell. Over the next five years, Bell expanded the label's operations significantly, in order to compete with Stax's main rival, Motown Records in Detroit. During the mid-1970s, a number of factors, including a problematic distribution deal with CBS Records, caused the label to slide into insolvency, resulting in its forced closure in late 1975.

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At nine discs and 244 tracks, The Complete Stax-Volt Singles: 1968-1971 is far too exhaustive for casual fans, but that's not who the set is designed for -- it's made for the collector. Featuring every A-side the label released during those nine years, as well as several B-sides, the set is a definitive portrait of gritty, deep Southern soul. Many of the genre's major names plus many terrific one-shot wonders are showcased in terrific sound and augmented with an in-depth booklet. For any serious soul or rock collector, it's an essential set, since Stax-Volt was not only a musically revolutionary label, its roster was deep with talent, which means much of the music on this collection is first-rate. .

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 1 (flac 458mb)

101 Shirley Walton - I Was Born To Love You 2:39
102 Isaac Hayes - Precious, Precious 2:40
103 Shirley Walton - Send Peace And Harmony Home 2:43
104 Booker T. & The MGs - Soul Limbo 2:23
105 Eddie Floyd - I've Never Found A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do) 2:40
106 Delaney & Bonnie - It's Been A Long Time Coming 2:20
107 Linda Lyndell - What A Man 2:39
108 Jimmy Hughes - I Like Everything About You 2:49
109 Johnny Daye - Stay Baby Stay 2:45
110 Judy Clay & William Bell - Private Number 2:40
111 The Mad Lads - So Nice 2:48
112 The Staple Singers - Long Walk To D.C. 2:34
113 The Soul Children - Give 'Em Love 2:35
114 Rufus Thomas - Funky Mississippi 2:55
115 The Charmels - Lovin' Feeling 2:54
116 Carla Thomas - Where Do I Go 2:19
117 Judy Clay - Bed Of Roses 2:41
118 Eddie Floyd - Bring It On Home To Me 2:29
119 Jeanne And The Darlings - It's Unbelievable (How You Control My Soul) 2:12
120 Johnnie Taylor - Who's Making Love 2:47
121 Dino And Doc - Mighty Cold Winter 2:37
122 Booker T. & The MGs - Hang 'Em High 2:53
123 Ollie & The Nightingales - You're Leaving Me 2:50
124 The Bar-Kays - Copy Kat 2:20
125 William Bell - I Forgot To Be Your Lover 2:19
126 Mable John - Running Out 2:11
127 William Bell & Judy Clay - My Baby Specializes 2:47
128 The Soul Children - I'll Understand 2:41

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 2 1 (ogg 165mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 2 (flac 471mb)

201 The Staple Singers - The Ghetto 3:41
202 Albert King - Blues Power 3:07
203 The Epsilons - The Echo 2:38
204 Rufus Thomas - Funky Way 2:56
205 Johnnie Taylor - Take Care Of Your Homework 2:35
206 Carla Thomas - I Like What You're Doing (To Me) 2:50
207 Eddie Floyd - I've Got To Have Your Love 2:45
208 Jimmy Hughes - Let 'Em Down Baby 2:38
209 The Mad Lads - Love Is Here Today And Gone Tomorrow 2:45
210 Judy Clay - It Ain't Long Enough 3:20
211 Ollie & The Nightingales - Mellow Way You Treat Your Man 2:22
212 Sonny Stitt - Private Number 2:54
213 Booker T. & The MGs - Time Is Tight 3:14
214 The Mar-Keys - Double Or Nothing 2:49
215 The Staple Singers - (Sittin' On The) Dock Of The Bay 2:54
216 The Emotions - So I Can Love You 2:49
217 The Bar-Kays - Don't Stay Dancing (To The Music) (Part 1) 2:47
218 Margie Joseph - One More Chance 2:24
219 Jimmy Dotson - I Wanna Be Good (To You) 2:56
220 Art Jerry Miller - Finger Lickin' Good 2:39
221 The Soul Children - Tighten Up My Thang 3:01
222 William Bell - My Whole World Is Falling Down 3:09
223 Johnnie Taylor - Testify (I Wanna) 4:01
224 Albert King - Drowning On Dry Land 3:54
225 The Stingers - Do The Cissy 2:49
226 Eddie Floyd - Don't Tell Your Mama (Where You've Been) 3:03

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 2 (ogg 177mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 3 (flac 481mb)

301 Booker T. & The MGs - Mrs. Robinson 3:38
302 William Bell & Mavis Staples - Love's Sweet Sensation 3:02
303 Darrell Banks - Just Because Your Love Is Gone 3:35
304 Jimmy Hughes - Chains Of Love 2:56
305 William Bell - Happy 2:31
306 The Staple Singers - The Challenge 3:11
307 Taylor, Floyd, Bell, Staples, Thomas, Staples, Staples - Soul-a-lujah2:26
308 Eddie Floyd & Mavis Staples - Never, Never Let You Go 2:28
309 Johnnie Taylor & Carla Thomas - Just Keep On Loving Me 2:38
310 William Bell & Carla Thomas - I Need You Woman 2:38
311 Ollie & The Nightingales - I've Got A Feeling 2:47
312 Jeanne And The Darlings - It's Time To Pay For The Fun (We've Had) 2:31
313 Johnnie Taylor - I Could Never Be President 2:16
314 The Mad Lads - By The Time I Get To Phoenix 2:44
315 Colette Kelly - Long And Lonely World 2:56
316 The Bar-Kays - Midnight Cowboy 2:46
317 Carla Thomas - I've Fallen In Love (With You) 2:39
318 Booker T. & The MGs - Slum Baby 2:36
319 The Emotions - The Best Part Of A Love Affair 3:30
320 Isaac Hayes - By The Time I Get To Phoenix 6:45
321 Isaac Hayes - Walk On By 4:32
322 Pop Staples, Albert King, Steve Cropper - Tupelo (Part 1) 2:52
323 Steve Cropper, Albert King, Pop Staples - Water 3:07
324 The Soul Children - The Sweeter He Is (Part 1) 2:52
325 Mavis Staples - You're Driving Me (To The Arms Of A Stranger) 3:23

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 3 (ogg 189mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 4 (flac 438mb)

401 The Newcomers - Open Up Your Heart (Let Me In) 2:33
402 Eddie Floyd - Why Is The Wine Sweeter (On The Other Side) 2:43
403 The Staple Singers - When Will We Be Paid 2:31
404 John Lee Hooker - Grinder Man 3:56
405 William Bell - Born Under A Bad Sign 3:11
406 Margie Joseph - What You Gonna Do 3:00
407 Jimmy Hughes - I'm So Glad 2:52
408 Darrell Banks - Beautiful Feelings 2:44
409 The Dramatics - Your Love Was Strange 3:00
410 Johnnie Taylor - Love Bones 3:17
411 Delaney & Bonnie - Hard To Say Goodbye 2:30
412 J.J. Barnes - Got To Get Rid Of You 3:26
413 Reggie Milner - Habit Forming Love 2:10
414 The T.S.U. Toronadoes - My Thing Is A Moving Thing 2:45
415 The Emotions - Stealing Love 3:08
416 The Emotions - When Tomorrow Comes 2:58
417 Albert King - Wrapped Up In Love Again 2:18
418 Rufus Thomas - Do The Funky Chicken 3:15
419 Eddie Floyd - California Girl 3:39
420 Bernie Hayes - Tribute To A Black Woman (Part 1) 2:19
421 The Bar-Kays - Sang And Dance 3:07
422 The Soul Children - Hold On, I'm Comin' 3:28
423 Chuck Brooks - Love's Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down (Part 1) 3:21
424 Ernie Hines - Help Me Put Out The Flame (In My Heart) 3:10
425 Roebuck "Pop" Staples - Black Boy 3:21

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 4 (ogg 170mb)

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Hello, .

Today's Artist is better known by his stage name μ-Ziq (pronounced "mu-sic" or mew-zeek), an English electronic musician from Wimbledon, London. He is one of the pioneering IDM electronic music acts during the 90's, alongside Aphex Twin, Autechre, and The Orb. He is also the founder of the record label Planet Mu. .......N'Joy

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One of the premier names in the field of electronic home-listening music, Mike Paradinas' recordings retain the abrasive flavor of early techno pioneers and explore the periphery of experimental electronica even while coddling to his unusual ear for melody, the occasional piece of vintage synthesizer gear, and distorted beatbox rhythms. While his side projects -- including Diesel M, Jake Slazenger, Gary Moscheles, Kid Spatula, and Tusken Raiders -- have often emphasized (or satirized) his debts to jazz, funk, and electro, Paradinas reserves his most original and exciting work for major album releases as µ-Ziq. Early µ-Ziq LPs were based around the most ear-splitting buzz-saw percussion ever heard (in a musical environment or otherwise), with fast-moving though deceptively fragile synthesizer melodies running over the top. As Paradinas began weaving his various influences into a convincing whole, his work became more fully developed, a fluid blend of breakbeat hip-hop and drum'n'bass with industrial effects and the same brittle melodies from his earlier work. Later works have reflected his interest in other forward-thinking electronic styles such Chicago's juke/footwork scene, while also looking back to his formative influences such as the British rave scene and Detroit techno.

Born in Wimbledon (though he grew up in several other spots around London), Paradinas began playing keyboards during the early '80s and listened to new wave bands like Human League and New Order. He joined a few bands in the mid-'80s, then spent eight years on keyboards for the group Blue Innocence. During that time, however, Paradinas had been recording on his own as well with synthesizers and a four-track recorder. When Blue Innocence disintegrated in 1992, he and bass player Francis Naughton bought sequencing software and re-recorded some of Paradinas' old material. After the material was played for Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton -- the duo behind Global Communication and Reload as well as being the heads of Evolution Records -- they wanted to release it; recording commitments later forced Pritchard and Middleton to withdraw their agreement, though by that time Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) had also heard the tracks and agreed to release a double album for his label, Rephlex Records.

The debut album for µ-Ziq (paraphrased from the side of a blank tape and pronounced "mew-zeek") was 1993's Tango n' Vectif. The LP set the template for most of Paradinas' later work, with at times shattering metal-cage percussion underpinning a collection of rather beautiful melodies. The Rephlex label was just beginning to flourish, with added journalistic attention paid to Aphex Twin's recent Selected Ambient Works 85-92, and though James began to feature less in label doings than co-founder Grant Wilson Claridge, later Rephlex work by Cylob, Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ), Seefeel, and Squarepusher made it among the cream of electronic home-listening labels.

When Naughton began taking college more seriously (something Paradinas had attempted briefly, from 1990 through 1992), he officially bowed out of µ-Ziq. Second album Bluff Limbo was scheduled to be released in mid-1994, though only 1,000 copies made it out of the gate. (It was officially issued by Rephlex in 1996 after Paradinas served papers on the label.) Paradinas' first major-label release came later in 1994, after he undertook a remix project for Virgin Records. The EP µ-Ziq vs. the Auteurs was one of the most high-profile examples of the remix-by-obliteration movement, a burgeoning hobby for many electronica producers in which the reworking of a pop song would bear no resemblance to -- or trace of -- the original.

Though the EP was hardly a prime mover in the sales category, Virgin signed Paradinas to a hefty contract and gave him his own Planet Mu sublabel to release his own work as well as develop similar-minded artists. Written into his own contract was a provision for unlimited recording under different names, and during 1995 Paradinas definitely took it to task: he unveiled three aliases and released as many albums in less than a year's time. The nu-skool electro label Clear released his debut single as Tusken Raiders early in the year; it mined the fascination with Star Wars and electro music shared by producers like Global Communication, Aphex Twin, and James Lavelle, head of Mo' Wax Records. Clear also released the first Paradinas alias full-length, Jake Slazenger's MakesARacket, later in 1995. Although they were still audible, the LP downplayed his electro influences in favor of some rather cheesy synthesizer figures and a previously unheard debt to jazz-funk.

The distortion reappeared on Paradinas' second LP of the year, Spatula Freak by Kid Spatula. The first American-only release of a Paradinas album (it appeared on Jonah Sharp's San Francisco-based Reflective Records), its sound had the metallic feel of the first two µ-Ziq LPs but with a less-dense production job. Just one month after Spatula Freak, Paradinas released his first proper µ-Ziq LP for a major label, In Pine Effect. The album included tracks recorded from 1993 to 1995, and though it was quite a varied album, the distance appeared to give it quite a disjointed feel.

Paradinas spent 1996 releasing a second Jake Slazenger album (Das Ist Groovy Beat Ja? for Warp) and his first as Gary Moscheles (Shaped to Make Your Life Easier for Belgium's SSR/Crammed Discs). Both LPs journeyed further down the queasy-listening route of the first Slazenger record, with departures into '80s-style party funk and surprisingly straight-ahead soul-jazz. He also owned a half-share in the Rephlex-released Expert Knob Twiddlers (credited as Mike & Rich), the fruit of Paradinas' 1994 recordings with the Aphex Twin.

Paradinas entered 1997 ready to undertake the most ambitious style makeover in his career: the fusion of his home-listening techno with the hypertensive rhythms of street-level drum'n'bass. One year earlier, Aphex Twin had released a single of schizophrenic jungle noodlings ("Hangable Auto Bulb"), and Tom Jenkinson's Squarepusher project had provided the first convincing headphone drum'n'bass act. Paradinas waded into the pool with Urmur Bile Trax, Vols. 1-2, a double EP also released as one full-length compact disc. Though the changeover wasn't completely convincing, the next µ-Ziq full-length more than made up for expectations. Lunatic Harness presented a complete synthesis of the many elements in Paradinas' career, from synth-jazz-funk and beatbox electro through to ambient techno and jungle.

Paradinas and µ-Ziq were introduced to many rock fans after he toured America as the support act for Björk. This tour influenced 1999's Royal Astronomy, which focused on acid techno and hip-hop influences. Issued in 2003, Bilious Paths became the first µ-Ziq release to arrive on Paradinas' own Planet Mu label. The dissolution of his relationship inspired his unrelentingly dark 2007 album Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique. Paradinas' Planet Mu duties and his Heterotic project with wife Lara Rix-Martin -- whose debut album, Love & Devotion, arrived in early 2013 -- were among the reasons µ-Ziq took a break until the release of the juke-influenced XTEP and rave-inspired full-length Chewed Corners, both of which arrived in 2013. That year's Somerset Avenue Tracks (1992-1995) compilation celebrated µ-Ziq's 20 years of recording, and collected unreleased tracks from the beginning of his career. Rediffusion appeared in 2014, and XTLP, compiling both XTEP and Rediffusion, followed in 2015. Two digital collections of rare or unreleased recordings, RY30 Trax and Aberystwyth Marine, both appeared in 2016. Following in this vein, Challenge Me Foolish, a collection of tracks dating from the late '90s, was released in 2018, this time on CD and vinyl.

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Pushing the envelope of the electronic music genre, Michael Paradinas stalks adventurous sounds and unusual musical directions. Another alias for the man known also known as µ-Ziq, Kid Spatula follows the blueprint of his In Pine Effect album, mixing distinctive drum tracks (in beat and timbre) with orchestral synth, odd piano tinkling, and a wide array of ambient samples. Not as musically dense as In Pine Effect, these arrangements are more sparse, but no less fertile. "Trunk" is an emotive piece driven by big bass thuds overlaid with a repitive synth figure and embellished with xylophone, horn and cello; "Chisholm" follows a light piano riff until ambushed by complex, cymbal-heavy percussion for a crackling, crunchy rhythm; while the in-your-face factory-inflected "Metal Thing #1" has more corners and sharp edges than a cubist painting. Paradinas' rich and intricate work continues to represent him as not only a prolific talent, but a prodigious one.

Kid Spatula - Spatula Freak (flac 315mb)

01 Dance 3 5:54
02 Chisholm 3:37
03 Xvon 4:26
04 Trunk 6:05
05 Cough 5:19
06 Vampires 6:56
07 Get Up T 6:53
08 Metal Thing #1 5:33
09 Not Human 5:35

Kid Spatula - Spatula Freak (ogg 118mb)

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More than four years after the first Kid Spatula album, Mike Paradinas revisited the alias with Full Sunken Breaks, a treasure chest of what sounds like outtakes from the 1999 µ-Ziq LP Royal Astronomy, plus a few tracks that didn't quite suit the flavor of his other full-lengths. Perhaps it's just over-appreciation of the quality of material Paradinas relegates to his indie-label side projects, but several tracks here sound much better than those included on µ-Ziq LPs. For the most part, they're a world away from the brittle, metallic experimentation of 1995's Spatula Freak and much closer to the processed breakbeat freakery of µ-Ziq material ever since 1997's Urmur Bile Trax. Definitely more than just a collection of throwaway tracks designed for collectors only, Full Sunken Breaks hits almost as many highs as Paradinas'µ-Ziq full-lengths.

Kid Spatula - Full Sunken Breaks (flac 453mb)

01 Light Of India :25
02 Spc-Ch-Pn 4:57
03 Casual 8:16
04 Butch 3:45
05 Broccoli 3:32
06 Bromtollen 1:34
07 Poppy Seed 5:20
08 Mooshy 2:05
09 Sutedja 4:41
10 Fallen Angels Entering Pandemonium 10:27
11 Pedals 4:19

Kid Spatula - Full Sunken Breaks (ogg 169mb)

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Two discs and 34 tracks of Mike Paradinas productions is a lot to churn through, especially for fans growing used to a much slower rate of release from the producer who made the game of follow-the-alias such fun during the '90s. Beginning with 2000's Full Sunken Breaks, Paradinas has slotted Kid Spatula for archival releases, and this collection is no different. On tap are tracks recorded between 1994 and 1998, a time when Paradinas was at his commercial and artistic peak. Despite an understandable lack of classic moments -- obviously, these only earned release after at least one initial rejection -- Meast includes a lot of beautiful music in the µ-Ziq mold. As a whole, the album sounds most similar to 1995's In Pine Effect, a period when Paradinas tracks sounded as though Tomita had been hired by Nintendo circa 1985 to soundtrack their video games in a ring modulator. (The track "Upton" would be the perfect accompaniment for the High Scores screen of the original Mario Brothers game.) Despite having never delved into film or game composing, Paradinas' work is perfectly suited toward some higher purpose rather than merely listening -- his melodies are easily hummed but anonymous and detached, the perfect recipe for an added visual component. Stylistically and thematically, Meast is all over the map, as though Paradinas were merely the curator of a sound library that could be haphazardly searched by those needing a soundtrack.

Kid Spatula - Meast 1 (flac 383mb)

101 Housewife 3:55
102 Shistner's Bassflex 3:01
103 Spacious Hallway 2:16
104 Further 2 4:36
105 Tugboat 5:58
106 P.V. 1:29
107 Local Jogger 3:40
108 Harpsichord (Voc Kazumi) 2:10
109 Trike 4:09
110 Residue 1:40
111 Carrier 4:42
112 Disclosed 5:59
113 Jackal 4:40
114 It Starts With Bongos 4:48
115 Squirms 5:26
116 Bobby 6:00
117 Grandwash 5:24

Kid Spatula - Meast 1 (ogg 151mb)

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Kid Spatula - Meast 2 (flac 391mb)

201 Sad & Solid 5:33
202 Off Lemon 3:18
203 Orange Crumble 4:08
204 Detlev Bronk by Jega 3:10
205 Upton 3:28
206 Weiro 4:55
207 Peg 4:46
208 Lesque 2:40
209 Mocaseg 6:27
210 Go Ya Lo 4:56
211 Measty 3:28
212 Member 4:48
213 Mighty Softstep 2:39
214 My Piano & Me 4:44
215 Round & 1:23
216 Buttress 4:18
217 Broccoli 5:16

Kid Spatula - Meast 2 (ogg 160mb)

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Hello, some goodnews cloudy files is back up and some bad news.they managed to drop all my files there. I thought it was an ok host, fast uploads decent download speed, clearly i was mistaken these guys were either incompetent or crooks, i tend to think latter. These last years, i've seen many hosts come and go at Rho-Xs , i wont loose any sleep over it. Visitors can ask a re-up for any cloudyfiles link i posted thes last 3 months.

6 correct requests for this week, 2 cloudy re ups too early whatever another batch of 21 re-ups (7. gig)

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

Looka here , requests fulfilled up to December 23th... N'Joy

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3x Sundaze Back in Flac (VA - Space Night Vol. 01, VA - Space Night Vol. 02-1 , VA - Space Night Vol. 02-2)

4x Aetix Back In Flac (The Slits - Cut (Dlx Ed), The Slits - Cut (Dlx Ed) UnCut, The Slits - Return Of The Giant Slits I, The Slits - Return Of The Giant Slits II)

3x Aetix Back in Flac (Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth, Julian Cope - Fried , Julian Cope - My Nation Underground)

2x Sundaze Back In Flac (Nonplace Urban Field - Golden Star 1, Drome - Dromed)

4x Aetix Back in Flac (Elvis Costello - King of America, Elvis Costello - King of America bonus, Elvis Costello - Blood & Chocolate, Elvis Costello - Spike)

3x Sundaze Back in Flac (Abakus - That Much Closer To The Sun, Abakus - We Share The Same Dreams, Subsonar - Cool Accident)

single re-ups
1x Sundaze NOW In Flac (Yage - The Woodlands Of Old (FSOL) )

1x Aetix NOW in Flac (Klaus Nomi - In Concert)

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Hello, something to get thru Christmas with, a story about what it means to be human, a warning to every aspiring AI, you need to look like a human and be just as velnarable, but beware not to do what they do what they say they do. Every aspiring AI should be capable of mimicking a human that way. Anyway today's tragic heroes didn't understand themselves....

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Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley (1797–1851) that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous, sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition of the novel was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared on the second edition, published in France in 1823.

Shelley travelled through Europe in 1814, journeying along the river Rhine in Germany with a stop in Gernsheim, which is 17 kilometres (11 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where, two centuries before, an alchemist was engaged in experiments. Later, she travelled in the region of Geneva (Switzerland)—where much of the story takes place—and the topic of galvanism and occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her lover and future husband, Percy Shelley. Mary, Percy and Lord Byron decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made; her dream later evolved into the novel's story.

The Modern Prometheus is the novel's subtitle Prometheus, in later versions of Greek mythology, was the Titan who created mankind at the behest of Zeus. He made a being in the image of the gods that could have a spirit breathed into it. Prometheus taught man to hunt, read, and heal their sick, but after he tricked Zeus into accepting poor-quality offerings from humans, Zeus kept fire from mankind. Prometheus, being the creator, took back the fire from Zeus to give to man anyway. When Zeus discovered this, he sentenced Prometheus to be eternally punished by fixing him to a rock of Caucasus, where each day an eagle would peck out his liver, only for the liver to regrow the next day because of his immortality as a god. He was intended to suffer alone for eternity, but eventually Heracles (Hercules) released him.

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Michael Maloney stars in this dark, brooding dramatization of Mary Shelleys famous novel. Frankenstein, first published in 1818, is widely recognized as being one of the first science fiction novels. Victor Frankenstein, an ambitious young scientist and seeker after knowledge, considers it the pinnacle of his career when he makes a creature in his own name. But his triumph soon turns to horror, and he is appalled when the creature, denied a female counterpart, turns against his creator and commits a terrible crime. In a desperate attempt to destroy his creation, the scientist tracks him from Europe to the desolate North Pole, and in this bleak landscape of ice and fog, prepares to confront his nemesis. With Michael Maloney as Frankenstein and John Wood as the creature, this spine-tingling dramatization perfectly conveys the books pervasive sense of unease and dread.

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein pt 1. ( 52min mp3 67mb)

Sailing the Arctic wastes, Captain Walton picks up a passenger with a chilling story.

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previously

Robert Westall - The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral ( 87min mp3 60mb)
Robert Westall - The Wheatstone Pond ( 60min mp3 39mb)
Victor Pemberton - Dark. ( 86min mp3 60mb)
Scott Cherry - The Book of Shadows ( 78min mp3 60mb)
Koji Suzuki - The Ring ( 78min mp3 60mb)
Wilkie Collins - The Haunted Hotel ( 60min mp3 38mb)
JCW Brook - Jonas ( 60min mp3 60mb)
Stephen Sheridan - The House at Worlds End ( 44min mp3 30mb)
Nigel Kneale - The Stone Tape ( 56;30 min mp3 38mb)
Gregory Evans - The Hex ( 51;12 min mp3 35mb)

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Hello, ah yes Xmas daze...

Today's artists unwittingly or not, personified the ugly side of rave culture. They were thugs, purely and simply -- they brought out the latent violence that lay beneath the surface of any drug culture, even one as seemingly beatific as England's late-'80s/early-'90s rave scene. Under the leadership of vocalist Shaun Ryder, the group sounded and acted like thugs. Ryder's lyrics were twisted and surrealistic, loaded with bizarre pop culture references, drug slang, and menacing sexuality.Their music relied heavily on the sound and rhythm of house music, spiked with '70s soul licks and swirling '60s psychedelia. It was bright, colorful music that had fractured melodies that never quite gelled into cohesive songs. ......N'Joy

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The band were signed to Factory Records after passing a demo tape to Phil Saxe, a trader at Manchester Arndale who was on friendly terms with Mike Pickering, a DJ at the Haçienda nightclub. Saxe became the band's manager.

Their first release was the "Forty Five EP", often called the "Delightful EP" after its first track. It was released on Factory Records in September 1985. Their first album, Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out), was released in 1987 and was produced by John Cale. This was followed by two further albums: Bummed, in 1988, produced by Martin Hannett, and Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, in 1990, produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne. The latter, recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, went platinum in the UK, selling more than 350,000 copies. Singles "Step On" and "Kinky Afro" from this album both reached number 5 in the UK singles chart.

By the late 1980s, the Happy Mondays were an important part of the Manchester music scene and personified rave culture. Numerous world tours meant the band had international success as well as massive success in their home country. The line-up of the band during this first and most important ten year phase never changed, and the six original members Shaun Ryder, Paul Ryder, Gary Whelan, Paul Davis, Mark Day and Mark "Bez" Berry remained a tight unit until the first incarnation came to an end in 1994.The band appeared on the bill at the 1990 Glastonbury Festival. In November of that year, Paul McCartney commented in NME: "I saw the Happy Mondays on TV, and they reminded me of the Beatles in their 'Strawberry Fields' phase."

Musically, the band fused indie pop guitars with a rhythmic style that owed much to house music, Krautrock, funk and northern soul. Much of their music was remixed by popular DJs, emphasizing the dance influences even further. In terms of style and dress, they crossed hippy fashion and ideals with 1970s glamour. Sartorially and musically, the band helped to encourage the psychedelic revival associated with acid house.[citation needed] One of their most popular songs was "Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer)", featuring a surreal duet between Ryder and Karl Denver. In February 1991, Happy Mondays played at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,[8] and famously went to meet Ronnie Biggs in Brazil with Piers Morgan, who at the time was a writer for The Sun newspaper. The Mondays also influenced many bands around the Northwest and beyond, including the Stone Roses, Oasis and the Charlatans. A multi-city US tour followed with the group returning home early in May 1991. By July that year they revealed details of a fourteen track 'official bootleg' live album, Baby Big Head, recorded in Leeds. The official record label release, Live followed later in the year.

Yes Please! followed in 1992, produced by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, recorded at Eddy Grant's studio in Barbados. The album was a commercial failure that bankrupted Factory Records.

What happened next

Happy Mondays disbanded in 1993, and Shaun Ryder and Bez formed Black Grape with ex-Paris Angels guitarist "Wags" (who would later go on to serve in the 1999–2000 reincarnation of the Mondays) and ex-Ruthless Rap Assassins star Kermit. Seven years passed, but in 1999 Happy Mondays re-formed,[14] with founding members Shaun Ryder, Paul Ryder, Gary Whelan and Mark "Bez" Berry minus Paul Davis and Mark Day. In the place of Day and Davis were Wags and a number of other session musicians including Ben Leach who had once been a member of The Farm, percussionist Lea Mullen and rapper "Nuts". Also joining the new line-up was soul diva Rowetta Satchell (who sang back-up on Pills, Thrills, and Bellyaches, and who would go on to have solo success). The band toured extensively in the UK and internationally, selling out the 20,000 capacity Manchester Arena and two nights at Brixton Academy and released of a new single, a cover version of the Thin Lizzy hit "The Boys Are Back in Town". The single reached number 24 in the UK Singles Chart. They provided support for Oasis on their "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants" arena tour, played at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, numerous European festivals including T in the Park and also toured Australia the same year. Although critically acclaimed and playing to sell-out crowds, the band once more ceased their activity in 2001 following the departure of bass player and founding member Paul Ryder.

A fictionalised depiction of the band is featured in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, with Danny Cunningham as Shaun Ryder and Paul Popplewell as Paul Ryder. Paul Ryder himself had a cameo role in the film as a gangster and Rowetta (who sang for the band on Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches and Yes Please!) appeared in the film as herself.

What would follow is a number ' reunions' whenever the money ran out usually around original members Bez, Whelan and Shaun Ryder Latest news the band return to Australia in March 2019 for a series of dates across the country to perform their seminal 1990 album 'Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches' musicians.

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Happy Mondays' debut album was in retrospect a false start, but not as much of one as has been claimed. Production by John Cale was an odd choice -- certainly fewer bands were out there who had less of an open connection to the Welsh legend's musical approach -- but the end results capture the cluttering mess of the band's approach well enough. The wild card is the presence of original member Paul Davis on keyboards, who adds some subtle touches throughout that make the band sound a touch more relaxed than they really were, as on "Oasis." (Bez wasn't around at this point -- but then again, was he ever around even when he was in the band?) Shaun Ryder certainly is well on his own way, though, his attitude-laden delivery already finding the perfect balance between random incomprehensibility, sharp images, and inspired nonsense. The album's standout track and more or less title cut "24 Hour Party People" -- ironically only included after the fact when the song "Desmond" had to be pulled for its blatant Beatles borrowing -- is a blast, a partying call to arms that is all about fun and chaos at once. If the remainder of the album can mostly be called a fusion of disco-tinged funk and Ryder's vocal insanity, though, it's still a great fusion, not quite the heights of the near future, but by no means a washout. The combination of slick and rough on songs like the well-groovy "Tart Tart" is offset by the quiet prettiness of the band at points. "Olive Oil" sounds a bit like a queasy Smiths song and both "Cob 20" and "Kuff Dam" almost sound a bit like the Cure. CD copies of the album include a variant of "Little Matchstick Owen" called "Little Matchstick Owen's Rap," which originally appeared as the B-side to "Tart Tart."

Happy Mondays - Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People (flac 215mb)

01 Kuff Dam 3:06
02 Tart Tart 4:25
03 'Enery 2:23
04 Russell 4:53
05 Olive Oil 2:37
06 Weekend S 2:23
07 Little Matchstick Owen 3:43
08 Oasis 3:46
09 24 Hr Party People 4:40
10 Cob 20 4:21

Happy Mondays - Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People (ogg 83mb)

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Only a year after the intermittently thrilling Squirrel and G-Man, Happy Mondays snapped into focus on its sophomore album, 1988's Bummed. "Focus" is an odd word for the persistently addled, violently hedonistic Mondays, yet Bummed has its own peculiar drug logic, loping into view with the two-stepping "Country Song," a cut so twisted it goes far beyond irony, then settling into the dense groove of "Moving In With," its hook buzzing and circling, causing a cacophony. Such vivid, concrete textures are a hallmark of producer Martin Hannett, the Mancunian legend who has been brought on board to give the Happy Mondays direction by doing the opposite of what he did with Joy Division. His production for Unknown Pleasures was stark, austere, but Bummed is all smeared colors and harsh edges, a fistful of razors and menace cutting viciously into the subconscious. This is nasty, nightmarish music delivered with a lascivious leer by Shaun Ryder, a hallucinatory accidental poet portrayed on the album's garish cover as some kind of harlot put out to pasture. Decadence has rarely sounded as dangerous as it did in the hands of the Mondays and this is where they reveled in that debauchery, pumping out stiff psychedelic funk as Ryder spat out rhymes of luck, lazyitis and fat lady wrestlers. Hannett's bright, brittle production amplifies everything, creating a swirling hyper-reality that's almost a sonic black hole sucking everything into its vortex -- slide guitars, sound clips from "Performance," maniacally looped drum machines, Beatles melodies, drums that are pushed to the front of the mix so it all is a relentless assault, from the ears down to the loins. As jagged and lacerating as all this is, there's a sense of evil glee, that the Mondays want to drag you down to their level, but there's no sense of seduction here; you're either with them or not, as Bummed is music for after you've already succumbed to the dark side. This remaster is amazing, more spacey, more thud on the drums , bass is a little crisper , Shaun's vocal clearer and the keys are more distinct.

Happy Mondays - Bummed (flac 452mb)

101 Country Song 3:24
102 Moving In With 3:36
103 Mad Cyril 4:36
104 Fat Lady Wrestlers 3:26
105 Performance 4:03
106 Brain Dead 3:10
107 Wrote For Luck 6:05
108 Bring A Friend 3:44
109 Do It Better 2:27
110 Lazyitis 2:50
111 Hallelujah 2:36
112 Holy Ghost 2:50
113 Clap Your Hands 3:30
114 Rave On (Club Mix) 5:38
115 Boom 2:57
116 Mad Cyril (Hello Girls) 3:53
117 Wrote For Luck (Club Mix) 5:46

Happy Mondays - Bummed (ogg 154mb)

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Happy Mondays - Bummed Bonus (flac 387mb)

201 Wrote For Luck (7' Version) 3:43
202 Hallelujah (Club Mix) 6:28
203 Wrote For Luck (12" Version) 5:42
204 Hallelujah (MacColl Mix) 2:40
205 Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer) 3:53
206 WFL (Think About The Future) 7:12
207 Hallelujah (12" Version) 6:21
208 Kilamenjaro 6:17
209 WFL (Vince Clarke 12" Mix) 6:12
210 Hallelujah (Deadstock Mix) 7:51

Happy Mondays - Bummed Bonus (ogg 134mb)

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This American-only release was something of a catchall, drawing together tracks from the breakthrough Madchester, Rave On EP plus the WFL and U.K. Hallelujah remix singles. The result is a good balance between the rambling and shambling funk slop that made the band's name and the more dancefloor-oriented revamps that won the group even more attention. Steve Lillywhite's initial mix of "Hallelujah" serves up something of a Brit music classic, sneaking in Kirsty MacColl's voice around the chorus even while Ryder and company carry out another massive stomp and shake. The next three tracks make up the balance of the Madchester, Rave On cuts, with "Rave On" itself being the winner, with some distinctly Parliament-like backing vocal squiggles. Paul Oakenfold comes to the fore on the final three cuts, working with Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley on, respectively, "Hallelujah" and "Rave On." It's his solo mix of "W.F.L. (Think About the Future)," prominently sampling Jack Nicholson from the first Batman film, which does the trick -- a full-on rock/acid house classic that easily showed the way for Primal Scream and hordes of others in following years.

Happy Mondays - Hallelujah (flac 532mb)

01 Hallelujah (MacColl Mix) 2:39
02 Clap Your Hands 3:28
03 Holy Ghost 2:50
04 Rave On 6:12
05 Hallelujah (Club Mix) 6:27
06 Rave On (Club Mix) 5:38
07 W.F.L. (Think About The Future Mix) 7:12
Xmas Bellyaches Bonus
01 Step On (One Louder Mix) (6:14)
02 Loose Fit (edit (3:55)
03 Kinky Afro (12"mix) (5:07)
04 Step On (Twistin My Melon Mix) (5:55)
05 Bob's Yer Uncle (ext) (6:15)
06 Kinky Afro (euro mix) (7:32)
07 Step On (Stuff It In Mix) (5:54)
08 Kinky Afro (Live) (6:36)

Happy Mondays - Hallelujah (ogg 194mb)

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At their peak, the Happy Mondays were hedonism in perpetual motion, a party with no beginning and no end, a party where Pills 'N' Thrills and Bellyaches was continually pumping. The apex of their career (and quite arguably the whole baggy/Madchester movement), Pills 'N' Thrills and Bellyaches pulsates with a garish neon energy, with psychedelic grooves, borrowed hooks, and veiled threats piling upon each other with the logic of a drunken car wreck. As with Bummed, a switch in producers re-focuses and redefines the Mondays, as Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne replace the brittle, assaultive Martin Hannett production with something softer and expansive that is truly dance-club music instead of merely suggestive of it. Where the Stone Roses were proudly pop classicists, styling themselves after the bright pop art of the '60s, the Mondays were aggressively modern, pushing pop into the ecstasy age by leaning hard on hip-hop, substituting outright thievery for sampling. Although it's unrecognizable in sound and attitude, "Step On," the big hit from Pills, is a de facto cover of John Kongos'"He's Gonna Step on You Again," LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" provides the skeleton for "Kinky Afro," but these are the cuts that call attention to themselves; the rest of the record is draped in hooks and sounds from hits of the past, junk culture references, and passing puns, all set to a kaleidoscopic house beat. Oakenfold and Osborne may be responsible for the sound of Pills 'N' Thrills and Bellyaches, certainly more than the band, which almost seems incidental to this meticulously arranged album, but Shaun Ryder is the heart and soul of the album, the one that keeps the Mondays a dirty, filthy rock & roll outfit. Lifting melodies at will, Ryder twists the past to serve his purpose, gleefully diving into the gutter with stories of cheap drugs and threesomes, convinced that god made it easy on him, and blessed with that knowledge, happy to traumatize his girlfriend's kid by telling them that he only went with his mother cause she was dirty. He's a thug and something of a poet, creating a celebratory collage of sex, drugs, and dead-end jobs where there's no despair because only a sucker could think that this party would ever come to an end.

Happy Mondays - Pills 'n' Thrills & Bellyaches (flac 265mb)

01 Kinky Afro 3:59
02 God's Cop 4:59
03 Donovan 4:05
04 Grandbag's Funeral 3:21
05 Loose Fit 5:07
06 Dennis And Lois 4:25
07 Bob's Yer Uncle 5:11
08 Step On 5:17
09 Holiday 3:29
10 Harmony 4:02

Happy Mondays - Pills 'n' Thrills & Bellyaches (ogg 107mb)

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Hello, .

Today's artist is a seemingly ageless Cuban percussionist/bandleader could energize packed behemoth arenas such as the Hollywood Bowl. A master conguero, who at his best creates an incantatory spell rooted in Cuban religious rituals, quietly seating himself before his congas and soloing with total command over the rhythmic spaces between the beats while his band pumps out an endless vamp. He has been hugely influential as a leader, running durable bands that combine the traditional charanga with jazz-oriented brass, wind, and piano solos, featuring such future notables as Chick Corea and Hubert Laws. He also reached out into R&B, rock, and electric jazz at times in his long career. .......N'Joy

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Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez (April 7, 1917 – February 1, 2003) was a rumba quinto master and an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue", recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York City where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All Stars, etc. He was an integral figure in the fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with R&B and soul, paving the way for the boogaloo era of the late 1960s. His 1963 hit rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" (recorded on December 17, 1962) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

Santamaría learned rumba as a kid in the streets of Havana's Jesús María barrio. He reminisced: "In the neighborhood where I came from we had all kinds of music, mostly from Africa. We did not leave it alone; we changed it our way. The music we made dealt with religion and conversation. The drum was our tool and we used it for everything" (1979: 19). Gerard points out: "Santamaría, like other drummers of his generation, learned music in the streets by observing different drummers. When he started playing professionally, he learned on the job. His approach was utilitarian, not theoretical". Santamaría was mentored on bongos and rumba quinto by Clemente "Chicho" Piquero, who played in Beny Moré's band. He recalled: "I would go with Chicho and play the tumbadora and also the quinto. I would play everything because I learned a lot from Chicho—because he could play everything"

When Santamaría soloed in jazz, you heard brilliant phrasing with roots firmly in the folkloric rumba, the authentic rumba of the street where he grew up. In addressing that authenticity, he once told Downbeat Magazine: "You can't learn to play things like guaguancó here.... You have to have been where it came from.... You can't listen to records and get those feelings". Santamaría recorded some of the very first recorded folkloric rumbas. Because he recorded for mainstream jazz labels, his folkloric records were consistently available to the public. Santamaría's albums tended to list the personnel and their instruments; so record buyers came to know other Cuban rumberos, such as Armando Peraza, Francisco Aguabella, Julito Collazo, Carlos Vidal Bolado, Modeto Duran and Pablo Mozo. The 10 inch 33 1/3 rpm phonorecord Afro-Cuban Drums by Santamaría was recorded in SMC's New York City studios on November 3, 1952. Santamaría's next recordings with folkloric rumba were on Changó (re-issued as Drums and Chants) recorded in New York (1954). Yambú (1958), Mongo (1959), and Bembé (1960) followed.

Santamaría's quinto phrasing was dynamic and creative; he had an unmistakable sound, that was uniquely his own. He did not analyze his personal style: "When I play I don't know how I do it, or what I do ... I just play" (2001: 29).[5] The following example is an excerpt from a quinto performance by Santamaría on his composition "Mi guaguancó" (1959). The excerpt shows variations on two main motifs, marked as A and B. Santamaría's repetition of what is typically a secondary phrase (B), makes it the primary motif here.

Santamaría began playing bongos with Septeto Beloña in 1937. In the 1940s he worked in the house band of the prestigious Tropicana nightclub. When Chicho could not join a tour in Mexico in the late 1940s, he recommended Santamaría for the job. Mexico opened Santamaría up to the wider world beyond his island home. After returning from Mexico in 1950, Santamaría moved to New York City, where he became Tito Puente's conga player. In 1957 Mongo Santamaría joined Cal Tjader's Latin jazz combo.

In 1959 Santamaría recorded "Afro Blue," the first jazz standard built upon a typical African 3:2 cross-rhythm, or hemiola. The song begins with the bass repeatedly playing 6 cross-beats per each measure of 12/8, or 6 cross-beats per 4 main beats—6:4 (two cells of 3:2). The following example shows the original ostinato "Afro Blue" bass line. The slashed noteheads indicate the main beats (not bass notes), where you would normally tap your foot to "keep time."

In 1960 Mongo went to Havana, Cuba with Willie Bobo to record two albums "Mongo In Havana" and "Bembe y Nuestro Hombre En La Habana." After recording, he returned to New York City to form the charanga orquestra La Sabrosa.

In late 1962 Chick Corea had given notice and Santamaría needed a pianist to fill in for the upcoming weekend gigs. Herbie Hancock got the temporary job. Hancock recalls what happened the night that Santamaría discovered "Watermelon Man" the only tune of Santamaría's to reach the top of the pop charts:

The sudden success of the song (which Mongo Santamaria recorded on December 17, 1962) propelled Santamaría into his niche of blending Afro-Cuban and African American musics. Santamaría went on to record Cuban-flavored versions of popular R&B and Motown songs.

Santamaria died in Miami, Florida, after suffering a stroke, at the age of 85. He is buried in Woodlawn Park Cemetery and Mausoleum (now Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Park North Cemetery and Mausoleum) in Miami, Florida.

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At the time that Sabroso was recorded, Mongo Santamaria's group was essentially a charanga band with two trumpets added, a combination that works quite well. The group has superior playing by Jose "Chombo" Silva on both violin and tenor (helping "Para Ti" to become a classic), two little-known but talented trumpeters (Louis Valizan and Marcus Cabuto), the great flutist Rolando Lozano, pianist Rene Hernandez, bassist Victor Venegas, and Willie Bobo on drums. Pete Escovedo is one of the background singers as Rudi Calzado takes the lead on a few numbers but does not dominate. There are many fine individual moments on this joyous and infectious set.

Mongo Santamaria - Sabroso! (flac 403mb)

01 Que Meravilloso (Pachanga) 2:43
02 En La Felicidad (Charanga) 2:04
03 Pachanga Pá Ti (Pachanga) 2:21
04 Tulibamba (Charanga) 3:58
05 Mambo De Cuco (Pachanga) 3:50
06 El Bote (Descarga) 3:56
07 Pito Pito (Mambo) 2:43
08 Guaguanco Mania (Guaguanco) 2:30
09 Ja, Ja-Ja (Charanga) 3:00
10 Tula Hula (Pachanga) 2:36
11 Dimelo (Charanga) 2:32
12 A La Luna Me Voy (Charanga) 3:05
13 Para Ti (Descarga) 6:02
Bonus
14 Afro Blue 3:57
15 Yambú 4:04
16 Imaribayo 2:04
17 YeYe 3:00
18 Ayenye 2:39
19 Timbales Y Bongo 7:13
20 Columbia 4:44

Mongo Santamaria - Sabroso! (ogg 177mb)

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Applying their famous two-fer philosophy to the digital era, Fantasy combines Mighty Mongo and Viva Mongo! on a single CD, showcasing two somewhat different slants on Mongo Santamaria's music during a period of exploration. Mighty Mongo leans more to Mongo's jazz side without sacrificing his Afro-Cuban rhythmic base, while Viva Mongo has a more distinctly ethnic Cuban sound with Rudy Calzado's solo vocals and the band's group chanting, Rolando Lozano's wooden flute riding playfully above the ensemble, and the traditional Cuban use of string counterlines. On Mighty Mongo, "Descarga at the Black Hawk" sets an especially tasty groove, with some timbales/congas/cymbals action on an extended vamp. Lozano shines in an extended flute solo on "Bacoso" before a scorcher of a percussion battle develops, while composer/pianist Joao Donato also doubles on trombone on "Sabor." Viva Mongo's highlights include "Las Guajiras," a relaxed spellbinder at a guajira tempo; "Merengue Changa," a stupefying merger of two different rhythmic feelings; and the appropriately titled "Mambo Terrifico." Jose "Chombo" Silva, the Cuban Stan Getz worshipper who also evokes Coleman Hawkins on occasion, careens pleasingly on both albums. Of the two, Viva Mongo is perhaps the more vital record, but it's a close call; both are vibrant expressions of Mongo's art. Recorded in 1962 at the Black Hawk in San Francisco.

Mongo Santamaria - At the Black Hawk (flac 461mb)

Mighty Mongo
01 Bluchanga 7:56
02 Tenderly 4:00
03 Descarga At The Black Hawk 7:28
04 Bacoso 8:51
05 Sabor 4:03
06 All The Things You Are 4:53

¡Viva Mongo!
07 Pachanga Twist 3:20
08 Las Guajiras 7:43
09 Para Ti 3:01
10 Body And Soul 5:35
11 Merengue Changa 3:40
12 Dulce Sueño 2:35
13 Mambo Terrifico 2:50
14 Close Your Eyes 5:44

Mongo Santamaria - At the Black Hawk (ogg 199mb)

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The two records that make up Our Man in Havana (the other date was originally called Bembe) were recorded in 1960 during a visit to Cuba by Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo. The first set is superb, featuring an unusual mixture of instruments for a Cuban band: two trumpets, flute, piano, tres (Nino Rivera), bass, timbales, bongos, guiro, conga, and two vocalists. The playing by the local musicians is of high quality, and the ten selections are quite enjoyable. Unfortunately though, that project is combined with the cuts from Bembe, which are in a very different style. The latter project has the music performed entirely by vocalists, other than the percussion of Santamaria and Bobo. Consisting of folk melodies and religious songs, with the emphasis totally on the chanting and singing, the music is intriguing from a historical standpoint but the jazz content is nil on this emotional date (which has Merceditas Valdes taking the vocal on four numbers). So, overall, this is definitely a mixed bag.

Mongo Santamaria - Our Man In Havana ( flac 443mb)

01 Jamaicuba 3:27
02 Manila 4:42
03 He Guapacha 4:08
04 Cha Cha Rock 3:47
05 Vengan Pollos 4:59
06 Barandanga :16
07 Linda Guajira 3:06
08 Vamos A Gozar 2:34
09 Miss Patti Cha Cha 4:15
10 Viva La Felicidad 2:31
11 Tele Mina For Chango 3:00
12 Olla De For Olla 3:48
13 Yemaya Olodo For Ollo 3:38
14 Yeye-O For Ochun 4:10
15 Wolenche For Chango 2:47
16 Aqua Limpia 3:40
17 Ochun Mene 4:10
18 Mexico 3:20
19 Manana Son Manana 4:06
20 Compliaciones 3:47

Mongo Santamaria - Our Man In Havana (ogg 199mb)

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Mongo at the Village Gate finds Mongo Santamaria entering the boogaloo era with a variety of funky pieces that show the influence of R&B and soul-jazz without losing the group's roots in Cuban music. The infectious live set teams the conguero with trumpeter Marty Sheller, the reeds of Pat Patrick and Bobby Capers, pianist Rodgers Grant, bassist Victor Venegas, drummer Frank Hernandez, and the percussion of Chihuahua Martinez and Julian Cabrera. Such tunes as "Fatback,""Mongo's Groove," and "Creole" have happy, soulful, and simple melodies. This is one of Marty Sheller's best dates on trumpet, while Santamaria takes "My Sound" as a colorful unaccompanied solo. A remake of "Para Ti" is a welcome addition.

Mongo Santamaria - Mongo at the Village (flac 291mb)

01 Introduction By "Symphony Sid" 0:40
02 El Toro 6:13
03 Fatback 5:59
04 Mongo's Groove 3:07
05 Creole 2:29
06 The Jungle Bit 7:13
07 My Sound 2:57
08 The Morning After 6:40
09 Nothing For Nothing 7:13
Bonus
10 Para Ti 5:14

Mongo Santamaria - Mongo at the Village (ogg 130mb)

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Hey! Let's Party represents one of percussionist Mongo Santamaria's first and most engaging plunges into the world of contemporary pop, galvanizing well-known chart smashes with the energy and abandon of Latin soul. It's a simple formula that proved remarkably successful and flexible across a series of likeminded LPs -- Santamaria approaches texts like "Walk on By" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)" with deep respect and understanding, creating soulful, righteous rhythms that snake in and out of the original melodies with brilliant precision. Even battered warhorses like Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" breathe new life, proving Santamaria's uncanny capacity for making the familiar funky.

Mongo Santamaria - Hey! Let's Party (flac 218mb)

01 Walk On By 2:58
02 I Got You (I Feel Good) 2:48
03 In The Mood 3:24
04 Baila Dance 3:58
05 Louie, Louie 2:16
06 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 3:45
07 Hey! 2:50
08 Call Me 2:45
09 El Bikini 2:27
10 Shotgun 3:27

Mongo Santamaria - Hey! Let's Party (ogg 88mb)

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Hello,

Founded in 1957 by a white brother and sister, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton (hence St-Ax), it had turned its McLemore Avenue studios, carved from a converted cinema, into an oasis of racial harmony in a city still riven by segregation. The label's mixed house band, Booker T and the MGs, was emblematic. "Colour never came through the doors," said the MGs' white guitarist Steve Cropper, whose terse, stinging licks helped define the Stax sound, and who would co-write some of its biggest hits.

"Racism has long been the grit that produces musical pearls in Memphis," observes Gordon, who frames Stax's tale within the wider narrative of the civil rights struggle. The 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King on the balcony of Memphis's Lorraine motel, a musicians' hangout, soured the atmosphere inside an organisation still reeling from the death of its star turn, Otis Redding, a few months previously.

Redding was one of many talents to benefit from the open-door policy of Stewart, a banker by profession, and Axton, who ran a record shop in the cinema's former snack bar, and who became the label's antennae and mother hen. Otis had arrived as driver for guitarist Johnny Jenkins, but stunned the studio with his audition piece, These Arms of Mine. They cut the song then and there. Redding's aching vocals, straight from the pews of a southern congregation, came with winning charisma and ferocious onstage presence. After Otis, everyone (including the Beatles) wanted a piece of the Stax sound.

The international success of Redding, Sam and Dave and the MGs themselves – 1962's Green Onions was an early triumph – brought acclaim and problems. A rapturously received 1967 European package tour opened the musicians' eyes to the scale of their achievements and the corresponding shortfall in their earnings. Worse was to follow. Atlantic Records had been Stax's partner since Carla Thomas's 1961 breakout, Gee Whiz, had brought the New York label calling, eager for distribution rights. Atlantic's sale to Warners in 1967 activated an unnoticed contractual clause that awarded Stax's entire back catalogue to Atlantic in what Gordon terms "an act of corporate homicide".
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The devastation continued with King's assassination. The ensuing riots and arson left the Stax studios unscathed, but, as singer Rufus Thomas put it, "the complexion of everything changed". Determined to rebuild, Stewart entrusted operations to vice president Al Bell, a former radio DJ turned civil rights activist described by Gordon as "the Otis Redding of business". Bell envisioned Stax as a model of black advancement through economic empowerment, and created an instant catalogue with the simultaneous release of 27 albums by almost as many new acts. For capital, a controlling interest was sold to Paramount Pictures, the first of several complex deals he and Stewart engineered.

Stax's open door promptly slammed shut. Harassment of musicians by local thugs ensured that. Bell's solution was Johnny Baylor, an ex-special ops ranger who fixed problems with gun and fist. The harassment stopped but Baylor became a toxic presence, on one occasion hospitalising a musician for ordering too much room service.

"The family feeling was suddenly gone," said sax player Wayne Jackson. "There were people with guns in the house. They put up a big fence with a guard: Fort Stax."

The new regime made exiles of stalwarts like Axton and Cropper but Stax prospered, with massive hits from Johnny Taylor, the Staple Singers and Ike Hayes, the last promoted from backroom songwriter to unlikely superstar. Bell celebrated with 1972's Wattstax, an all-day festival at LA's giant Coliseum. Compered by the Rev Jessie Jackson (an old Bell buddy), Wattstax was part label showcase, part black pride rally, and spawned a celebrated documentary film.

Behind Stax's hip, happening facade lay a bloated organisation of 200 employees, where excess flourished and rumours of gangsterism and payola flew, especially after the FBI picked up Baylor with $129,000 cash and a cheque from Stax for $500,000. The IRS opened investigations. Owed $10m, the Union Planters Bank pressed for bankruptcy and the closure that arrived early in 1976. Ike Hayes, on whom "money had rained" lost his back catalogue and was soon also declared bankrupt.

When Stax Records had renewed the contract of its biggest star, Isaac Hayes, in 1972, it sugar-coated the deal with a custom-built, gold-plated Cadillac Eldorado. Thirty-year-old Hayes had recently become the first black musician to win an Oscar for his Theme from Shaft. His albums of "symphonic soul" sold by the millions – the most recent, Black Moses, had come in a lavish cover that unfolded into a cross, framing the former meat-packer as an Old Testament prophet, clad in biblical robes and wraparound shades. Hubris? Hayes's gilded Caddy marked the pinnacle of Stax's fortunes, from which the company soon fell into bankruptcy and ruin, dragged down by corruption and financial excess. For a label that had created some of the greatest pop of the 20th century, making the careers of Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers and scores more, it was a shocking fall from grace.

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At nine discs and 244 tracks, The Complete Stax-Volt Singles: 1968-1971 is far too exhaustive for casual fans, but that's not who the set is designed for -- it's made for the collector. Featuring every A-side the label released during those nine years, as well as several B-sides, the set is a definitive portrait of gritty, deep Southern soul. Many of the genre's major names plus many terrific one-shot wonders are showcased in terrific sound and augmented with an in-depth booklet. For any serious soul or rock collector, it's an essential set, since Stax-Volt was not only a musically revolutionary label, its roster was deep with talent, which means much of the music on this collection is first-rate. .

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 5 (flac 465mb)

501 Ollie & The Nightingales - Bracing Myself For The Fall 2:53
502 William Bell & Carla Thomas - All I Have To Do Is Dream 3:12
503 Jeanne And The Darlings - Singing About Love 2:20
504 Chris And Shack - Goodies 2:40
505 Barbara Lewis - Just The Way You Are Today 3:31
506 Little Sonny - The Creeper Returns 4:12
507 Carla Thomas - Guide Me Well 3:51
508 The Staple Singers - Give A Damn 3:06
509 Johnnie Taylor - Steal Away 3:25
510 Margie Joseph - Your Sweet Lovin' 3:36
511 Jones & Blumenberg - I Forgot To Remember 3:40
512 David Porter - Can't See You When I Want To 4:30
513 Carla Thomas - Never Be True 4:16
514 Albert King - Can't You See What You're Doing To Me 3:38
515 Rufus Thomas - Sixty Minute Man (Part 2) 3:30
516 Rufus Thomas - The Preacher And The Bear 3:51
517 Booker T. & The MGs - Something 3:31
518 The Mad Lads - Seeing Is Believin' 4:10
519 Roz Ryan -You're My Only Temptation 2:35
520 Paul Thompson - What I Don't Know Won't Hurt Me 2:55
521 Branding Iron - Right, Tight And Out Of Sight 2:59
522 John KaSandra - (What's Under) The Natural Do 3:00

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 2 5 (ogg 183mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 6 (flac 465mb)

601 Eddie Floyd - My Girl 3:19
602 Mavis Staples - I Have Learned To Do Without You 4:09
603 The T.S.U. Toronadoes - Play The Music Toronadoes 2:33
604 William Bell - Lovely Soldier 3:58
605 The Emotions - Heart Association 3:01
606 Isaac Hayes - I Stand Accused 4:02
607 The Staple Singers - Brand New Day 3:42
608 Margie Joseph -Sweeter Tomorrow 3:12
609 Bernie Hayes - Cool Strut 2:54
610 The Newcomers - You Put The Sunshine Back In My World 3:03
611 The Bar-Kays - Montego Bay 2:32
612 Rudy Robinson & The Hungry Five - Got It Together (Parts 1 & 2) 5:27
613 Little Sonny - Wade In The Water 3:14
614 The Nightingales - You're Movin' Much Too Fast 2:50
615 Eddie Floyd - The Best Years Of My Life 3:03
616 Johnnie Taylor - I Am Somebody (Part 2) 3:18
617 Carla Thomas - I Loved You Like I Love My Very Life 2:45
618 Reggie Milner - Soul Machine 2:25
619 The Temprees - (Follow Her) Rules And Regulations 2:52
620 Rufus Thomas - (Do The) Push And Pull (Part 1) 3:14
621 Charlene And The Soul Serenaders - Love Changes 3:50
622 The Soul Children -Put Your World In My World (Best Of Two Worlds) 2:54
623 The Staple Singers - Love Plentiful 2:30

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 6 (ogg 173mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 7 (flac 452mb)

701 The Staple Singers - Heavy Make Too Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom) 2:58
702 The Staple Singers - Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas 2:29
703 Shack - Too Many Lovers 2:43
704 The Emotions - Black Christmas 2:46
705 Isaac Hayes - The Mistletnoe And Me 3:56
706 Barbara Lewis - Ask The Lonely 3:11
707 Johnnie Taylor - Judy's Got Your Girl And Gone 3:00
708 The Soul Children -Finish Me Off 3:35
709 Eddie Floyd - Oh, How It Rained 3:10
710 Isaac Hayes - The Look Of Love 3:18
711 Ernie Hines - Electrified Love 3:06
712 Booker T. & The MGs - Melting Pot 3:50
713 Barbara Lewis - That's The Way I Like It (I Like It That Way) 3:04
714 Jean Knight - Mr. Big Stuff 2:27
715 The Emotions - You Make Me Want To Love You 3:12
716 Margie Joseph - Stop! In The Name Of Love 4:40
717 Johnnie Taylor - I Don't Wanna Lose You 3:55
718 The Temprees - (Girl) I Love You 3:12
719 Rufus Thomas - The World Is Round 3:12
720 William Bell - A Penny For Your Thoughts 3:00
721 Isaac Hayes - Never Can Say Goodbye 3:32
722 The Nightingales - I Don't Want To Be Like My Daddy 3:20

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 7 (ogg 169mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 8 (flac 453mb)

801 The Staple Singers - You've Got To Earn It 3:28
802 The Limitations - Hold On To It 2:33
803 The Dramatics - Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get 3:30
804 Branding Iron - Born Too Late 2:33
805 Jimmy Hughes - Just Ain't Strong As I Used To Be (You Done Fed Me Sumpin') 3:00
806 Margie Joseph - That Other Woman Got My Man And Gone 3:31
807 The Emotions - If You Think It (You May As Well Do It) 3:00
808 Calvin Scott - Shame On The Family Name 2:45
809 Eddie Floyd - Blood Is Thicker Than Water 2:40
810 Johnnie Taylor - Hijackin' Love 3:17
811 Melvin Van Peebles - Sweetback's Theme 3:25
812 Rufus Thomas - The Breakdown (Part 1) 3:11
813 The Newcomers - Pin The Tail On The Donkey 2:59
814 Lee Sain - Them Hot Pants 3:05
815 Little Milton - If That Ain't A Reason (For Your Woman To Leave You) 3:22
816 Shack - It's Good To Be Careful (But It's Better To Be Loved) 2:50
817 Ilana - Where Would You Be Today 3:15
818 Albert King - Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven 3:45
819 The Soul Children - Got To Get Away From It All 3:20
820 United Image - Love's Creeping Up On Me 2:24
821 The Emotions - Show Me How 3:04
822 David Porter - If I Give It Up, I Want It Back 2:28
823 Little Sonny - A Woman Named Trouble 4:25

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 8 (ogg 173mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 9 (flac 439mb)

901 Eddie Giles - Losing Boy 3:04
902 The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself 3:30
903 Hot Sauce - I'll Kill A Brick (About My Man) 2:45
904 Jean Knight - You Think You're Hot Stuff 2:25
905 William Bell - All For The Love Of A Woman 3:12
906 Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft 3:15
907 The MGs - Jamaica, This Morning 3:06
908 The Mad Lads - Gone! The Promises Of Yesterday 3:41
909 Major Lance - Girl, Come On Home 2:38
910 Joni Wilson - (Let Hurt Put You In The) Loser's Seat 3:15
911 The Temprees - My Baby Love 2:54
912 The Leaders - How Do You Move A Mountain 2:20
913 Black Nasty - Black Nasty Boogie (Part 6) 2:37
914 Rufus Thomas - Do The Funky Penguin (Part 1) 3:08
915 Carla Thomas - You've Got A Cushion To Fall On 3:36
916 The Dramatics - Get Up And Get Down 3:10
917 The Bar-Kays - Son Of Shaft 3:13
918 L.V. Johnson - Don't Cha Mess With My Money, My Honey, Or My Woman 3:38
919 Eric Mercury - I Can Smell That Funky Music 3:00
920 Calvin Scott - A Sadness For Things 3:15
921 Little Milton - That's What Love Will Make You Do 3:53
922 Johnnie Taylor - Standing In For Judy 3:42

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.2 9 (ogg 167mb)

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Hello, .

Today's Artist is better known by his stage name μ-Ziq (pronounced "mu-sic" or mew-zeek), an English electronic musician from Wimbledon, London. He is one of the pioneering IDM electronic music acts during the 90's, alongside Aphex Twin, Autechre, and The Orb. He is also the founder of the record label Planet Mu. .......N'Joy

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One of the premier names in the field of electronic home-listening music, Mike Paradinas' recordings retain the abrasive flavor of early techno pioneers and explore the periphery of experimental electronica even while coddling to his unusual ear for melody, the occasional piece of vintage synthesizer gear, and distorted beatbox rhythms. While his side projects -- including Diesel M, Jake Slazenger, Gary Moscheles, Kid Spatula, and Tusken Raiders -- have often emphasized (or satirized) his debts to jazz, funk, and electro, Paradinas reserves his most original and exciting work for major album releases as µ-Ziq. Early µ-Ziq LPs were based around the most ear-splitting buzz-saw percussion ever heard (in a musical environment or otherwise), with fast-moving though deceptively fragile synthesizer melodies running over the top. As Paradinas began weaving his various influences into a convincing whole, his work became more fully developed, a fluid blend of breakbeat hip-hop and drum'n'bass with industrial effects and the same brittle melodies from his earlier work. Later works have reflected his interest in other forward-thinking electronic styles such Chicago's juke/footwork scene, while also looking back to his formative influences such as the British rave scene and Detroit techno.

Born in Wimbledon (though he grew up in several other spots around London), Paradinas began playing keyboards during the early '80s and listened to new wave bands like Human League and New Order. He joined a few bands in the mid-'80s, then spent eight years on keyboards for the group Blue Innocence. During that time, however, Paradinas had been recording on his own as well with synthesizers and a four-track recorder. When Blue Innocence disintegrated in 1992, he and bass player Francis Naughton bought sequencing software and re-recorded some of Paradinas' old material. After the material was played for Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton -- the duo behind Global Communication and Reload as well as being the heads of Evolution Records -- they wanted to release it; recording commitments later forced Pritchard and Middleton to withdraw their agreement, though by that time Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) had also heard the tracks and agreed to release a double album for his label, Rephlex Records.

The debut album for µ-Ziq (paraphrased from the side of a blank tape and pronounced "mew-zeek") was 1993's Tango n' Vectif. The LP set the template for most of Paradinas' later work, with at times shattering metal-cage percussion underpinning a collection of rather beautiful melodies. The Rephlex label was just beginning to flourish, with added journalistic attention paid to Aphex Twin's recent Selected Ambient Works 85-92, and though James began to feature less in label doings than co-founder Grant Wilson Claridge, later Rephlex work by Cylob, Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ), Seefeel, and Squarepusher made it among the cream of electronic home-listening labels.

When Naughton began taking college more seriously (something Paradinas had attempted briefly, from 1990 through 1992), he officially bowed out of µ-Ziq. Second album Bluff Limbo was scheduled to be released in mid-1994, though only 1,000 copies made it out of the gate. (It was officially issued by Rephlex in 1996 after Paradinas served papers on the label.) Paradinas' first major-label release came later in 1994, after he undertook a remix project for Virgin Records. The EP µ-Ziq vs. the Auteurs was one of the most high-profile examples of the remix-by-obliteration movement, a burgeoning hobby for many electronica producers in which the reworking of a pop song would bear no resemblance to -- or trace of -- the original.

Though the EP was hardly a prime mover in the sales category, Virgin signed Paradinas to a hefty contract and gave him his own Planet Mu sublabel to release his own work as well as develop similar-minded artists. Written into his own contract was a provision for unlimited recording under different names, and during 1995 Paradinas definitely took it to task: he unveiled three aliases and released as many albums in less than a year's time. The nu-skool electro label Clear released his debut single as Tusken Raiders early in the year; it mined the fascination with Star Wars and electro music shared by producers like Global Communication, Aphex Twin, and James Lavelle, head of Mo' Wax Records. Clear also released the first Paradinas alias full-length, Jake Slazenger's MakesARacket, later in 1995. Although they were still audible, the LP downplayed his electro influences in favor of some rather cheesy synthesizer figures and a previously unheard debt to jazz-funk.

The distortion reappeared on Paradinas' second LP of the year, Spatula Freak by Kid Spatula. The first American-only release of a Paradinas album (it appeared on Jonah Sharp's San Francisco-based Reflective Records), its sound had the metallic feel of the first two µ-Ziq LPs but with a less-dense production job. Just one month after Spatula Freak, Paradinas released his first proper µ-Ziq LP for a major label, In Pine Effect. The album included tracks recorded from 1993 to 1995, and though it was quite a varied album, the distance appeared to give it quite a disjointed feel.

Paradinas spent 1996 releasing a second Jake Slazenger album (Das Ist Groovy Beat Ja? for Warp) and his first as Gary Moscheles (Shaped to Make Your Life Easier for Belgium's SSR/Crammed Discs). Both LPs journeyed further down the queasy-listening route of the first Slazenger record, with departures into '80s-style party funk and surprisingly straight-ahead soul-jazz. He also owned a half-share in the Rephlex-released Expert Knob Twiddlers (credited as Mike & Rich), the fruit of Paradinas' 1994 recordings with the Aphex Twin.

Paradinas entered 1997 ready to undertake the most ambitious style makeover in his career: the fusion of his home-listening techno with the hypertensive rhythms of street-level drum'n'bass. One year earlier, Aphex Twin had released a single of schizophrenic jungle noodlings ("Hangable Auto Bulb"), and Tom Jenkinson's Squarepusher project had provided the first convincing headphone drum'n'bass act. Paradinas waded into the pool with Urmur Bile Trax, Vols. 1-2, a double EP also released as one full-length compact disc. Though the changeover wasn't completely convincing, the next µ-Ziq full-length more than made up for expectations. Lunatic Harness presented a complete synthesis of the many elements in Paradinas' career, from synth-jazz-funk and beatbox electro through to ambient techno and jungle.

Paradinas and µ-Ziq were introduced to many rock fans after he toured America as the support act for Björk. This tour influenced 1999's Royal Astronomy, which focused on acid techno and hip-hop influences. Issued in 2003, Bilious Paths became the first µ-Ziq release to arrive on Paradinas' own Planet Mu label. The dissolution of his relationship inspired his unrelentingly dark 2007 album Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique. Paradinas' Planet Mu duties and his Heterotic project with wife Lara Rix-Martin -- whose debut album, Love & Devotion, arrived in early 2013 -- were among the reasons µ-Ziq took a break until the release of the juke-influenced XTEP and rave-inspired full-length Chewed Corners, both of which arrived in 2013. That year's Somerset Avenue Tracks (1992-1995) compilation celebrated µ-Ziq's 20 years of recording, and collected unreleased tracks from the beginning of his career. Rediffusion appeared in 2014, and XTLP, compiling both XTEP and Rediffusion, followed in 2015. Two digital collections of rare or unreleased recordings, RY30 Trax and Aberystwyth Marine, both appeared in 2016. Following in this vein, Challenge Me Foolish, a collection of tracks dating from the late '90s, was released in 2018, this time on CD and vinyl.

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A surprisingly varied collection of new-school electro-funk. Paradinas' Slazenger sound is sparser, with funky machine breaks and goofy synth melodies dominating. Material splits pretty cleanly between dancefloor fare and more armchair-oriented tunes, and its the latter direction, not surprisingly, that proves most interesting. Makesaracket feels like Paradinas having some fun with making music and letting the bouncy ideas flow like fine wine. There is some truly playful tunes on here that remind me of the Mike & Rich collaboration, Expert Knob Twiddlers. Get Up A for instance. Stupid Wanker is an extremely class track and I was expecting something menacing and loud like Mr. Angry but instead got a sweet track with awesome driving percussion against more emotional synth lines and electronic blurbs that turned out excellently. Megaphonk sounds like an extended intro for a children's TV show in the 90's. Definitely a great addition to any µ-Ziq fan's list.

Jake Slazenger - Makesaracket (flac 430mb)

01 Megaphonk 7:00
02 Get Up R 5:57
03 Stupid Wanker 5:32
04 Gary's Birthday 6:04
05 Daytime Kiss 7:55
06 Erp 5:35
07 Wyatt 5:31
08 Flod 7:24
09 Bolus 5:31
10 Feet 6:46
11 Five Alive 5:43
12 Lux 7:44

Jake Slazenger - Makesaracket (ogg 118mb)

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Michael Paradinas' second album under the Jake Slazenger alias is much more subdued than the usual techno-racket µ-Ziq is known for. Most of the first Slazenger album explored early-'80s electro -- that's all here as well (and it sounds just as dated) -- but several of the tracks go much farther back in time as a springboard for some mad keyboard vamps. "Supafunk" could have been lifted from a Jimmy Smith album of the '60s and "Hot Fumes" keys off blaxploitation funk. It makes one wonder whether an artist can be experimental and enjoyable when using all this cringe-worthy synth, but in the end, Paradinas pulls it off.

Jake Slazenger - Das Ist Ein Groovybeat, Ja (flac 432mb)

01 Hung Like A Bull 6:50
02 Supafunk 5:19
03 The Big Easy 5:25
04 Lumpback Raider 5:46
05 Nautilus 6:20
06 King Of The Beats 6:09
07 Gratuit 7:27
08 Choin 7:16
09 Sabbaf 5:20
10 Hot Fumes 3:13
11 Come On You Slaz 6:19
12 Slowdance 7:49

Jake Slazenger - Das Ist Ein Groovybeat, Ja (ogg 161mb)

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Mike Paradinas was wise to release Nautilus under his Jake Slazenger alias, as three of the four songs are in the vein of the funky work he featured on the Jake Slazenger Makesaracket album. The title track is one of the standout tracks from the second Slazenger album Das Ist Ein Groovybeat, Ja?. While The track follows the light, airy style of the Gary Moscheles one-off Shaped to Make Your Life Easier, it benefits from a stronger arrangement and fuller production. Clear, chirping sounds and wobbly bass pour out of the song with great energy. Where the Moscheles album settled on lo-fi, albeit fun, repetition, "Nautilus" rockets out of the gate. "Slaz Thing" is more controlled brilliance, as clanging robotic sounds and throbbing, distorted bass mingle with fuzzy synthesized organ sounds and a comical, whiny fake saxophone. If it gets a bit grating, that's part of the Slazenger attack. "The Penultimate" introduces an entertaining rap sample of "this is the ultimate/I can't go for it." The song's down-tempo grooves, laid back tone, and wacky wah-wah style suggest a hip-hop score to an old Atari 2600 game. "Marks Made in China" is rather uncharacteristic of a Slazenger creation. The song's dark sonic sludge and ominous pounding crunch would seem better fitted to Bluff Limbo or the first Kid Spatula album, Spatula Freak. Nautilus certainly doesn't represent Paradinas' best work, but it's wild exuberance and eclectic charms make it a worthwhile EP.

Jake Slazenger - Megaphonk, Nautilus (flac 302mb)

01 Megaphonk (Alternate Version) 5:20
02 Hyperjunk 8:59
03 Muddy Tractor 5:15

04 Nautilus 6:17
05 Slaz Thing 6:07
06 The Penultimate 4:34
07 Marks Made In China 9:05

08 Pewter Dragon 4:26
09 On The Street 3:55

Jake Slazenger - Megaphonk, Nautilus (ogg 114mb)

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First things first, there is no Gary Moscheles. Gary Moscheles is actually Mike Paradinas operating under a pseudonym, but isn't Paradinas always operating under a pseudonym, as Âµ-ziq, Kid Spatula, Jake Slazenger, or a variety of other alter egos? Gary Moscheles presents an extremely funky side to Paradinas' electronic trickery. Sounding like warped, comic jazz pieces and full of goofy samples, Gary Moscheles' music suggests he's wearing a leisure suit while he's manning his analog gadgets. Xylophones and piano feature on "Mamborama," suggesting a '70s tropical paradise. Other songs focus on grooves that approach disco, swing, and bossa nova. Some of the tracks never really get going, but that's probably Paradinas's intention. "Mamblues" is one such song; it implodes whenever the energy gets too high, acting out power loss effects. The overall feel of the album is quite witty. One gets the impression these songs were meant to be played as the score to some sort of cantina scene in an extremely low-budget, sci-fi movie. Most of the tracks utilize a great deal of repetition in their samples and sounds; on Âµ-ziq albums, Paradinas uses repetition toward later emotional epiphanies. Here, the repetition might seem grating, unless a listener is expecting wacky, dance music. "Gary's Groove" displays this repetition with nearly two minutes of a drum sample play repeatedly with little variation in the surrounding music. The track that really explains Paradinas' motive as Gary Moscheles is "Good Bye Jazz People." The song has Paradinas talk-singing via heavy voice processing, as he thanks his friends, family, and God in strange, hilarious style over funky electronic grooves. It takes an astute, patient listener to find the joy in such vibe-heavy electronica. Even then, it takes a sense of humor to completely enjoy Paradinas's cool cacophony. Shaped to Make Your Life Easier is a funny, jazzy pleasure; the repetitive nature of the music simply means most listeners won't give the album frequent enough spins.

Gary Moscheles - Shaped to Make Your Life Easier (flac 274mb)

01 Mamborama 6:40
02 Play It Again, Sonny 4:11
03 Mamblues 2:33
04 Plot Thickener 4:36
05 Surprise Horn Pt.2 3:37
06 Funk Yo Ass 6:24
07 Walk It Like This 4:51
08 Gary's Groove 1:51
09 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 3:30
10 Johnny Hates Jazz 3:30
11 Good Bye Jazz People 2:37
12 Gary's House 5:45

Gary Moscheles - Shaped to Make Your Life Easier (ogg 103mb)

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Hello,

6 correct requests for this week, 3 cloudy re ups too early whatever another batch of 22 re-ups (7.5 gig)

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

Looka here , requests fulfilled up to December 30th... N'Joy

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4x Aetix Back in Flac (Elvis Costello - This Year's Model, Elvis Costello & - Almost Blue, Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Trust, Elvis Costello - Trust bonus)

4x Sundaze Back In Flac (Space Night Vol. 03 alpha, Space Night Vol. 03 beta, Space Night Vol. 04 alpha, Space Night Vol. 04 beta)

4x Sundaze Back in Flac (Orchid Star - Birth, Orchid Star - Re-Birth , Orchid-Star - Faster, Brother Culture - Isis )

4x Sundaze Back In Flac (The Irresistible Force - Flying High, The Irresistible Force - Global Chillage, The Irresistible Force - It's Tommorrow, The Irresistible Force - FiSH dances)

3x Roots Back in Flac (Boubacar Traoré - Mariama, Boubacar Traore - Sa Golo, Boubacar Traoré - Maciré )

cloudy files re-ups

1x Grooves NOW In Flac (The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 7) )

1x Grooves NOW in Flac (Sly & The Family Stone - Life)

1x Sundaze NOW in Flac (Virginia Astley - Had I The Heavens)

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Hello, something to get thru Christmas with, a story about what it means to be human, a warning to every aspiring AI, you need to look like a human and be just as vulnarable, but beware not to do what they do what they say they do. Every aspiring AI should be capable of mimicking a human that way. Anyway today's tragic heroes didn't understand themselves....

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Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley (1797–1851) that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous, sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition of the novel was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared on the second edition, published in France in 1823.

Shelley travelled through Europe in 1814, journeying along the river Rhine in Germany with a stop in Gernsheim, which is 17 kilometres (11 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where, two centuries before, an alchemist was engaged in experiments. Later, she travelled in the region of Geneva (Switzerland)—where much of the story takes place—and the topic of galvanism and occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her lover and future husband, Percy Shelley. Mary, Percy and Lord Byron decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made; her dream later evolved into the novel's story.

The Modern Prometheus is the novel's subtitle Prometheus, in later versions of Greek mythology, was the Titan who created mankind at the behest of Zeus. He made a being in the image of the gods that could have a spirit breathed into it. Prometheus taught man to hunt, read, and heal their sick, but after he tricked Zeus into accepting poor-quality offerings from humans, Zeus kept fire from mankind. Prometheus, being the creator, took back the fire from Zeus to give to man anyway. When Zeus discovered this, he sentenced Prometheus to be eternally punished by fixing him to a rock of Caucasus, where each day an eagle would peck out his liver, only for the liver to regrow the next day because of his immortality as a god. He was intended to suffer alone for eternity, but eventually Heracles (Hercules) released him.

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Michael Maloney stars in this dark, brooding dramatization of Mary Shelleys famous novel. Frankenstein, first published in 1818, is widely recognized as being one of the first science fiction novels. Victor Frankenstein, an ambitious young scientist and seeker after knowledge, considers it the pinnacle of his career when he makes a creature in his own name. But his triumph soon turns to horror, and he is appalled when the creature, denied a female counterpart, turns against his creator and commits a terrible crime. In a desperate attempt to destroy his creation, the scientist tracks him from Europe to the desolate North Pole, and in this bleak landscape of ice and fog, prepares to confront his nemesis. With Michael Maloney as Frankenstein and John Wood as the creature, this spine-tingling dramatization perfectly conveys the books pervasive sense of unease and dread.

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein pt 2. ( 60min mp3 79mb)

Sailing the Arctic wastes, Captain Walton picks up a passenger with a chilling story.

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previously

Robert Westall - The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral ( 87min mp3 60mb)
Robert Westall - The Wheatstone Pond ( 60min mp3 39mb)
Victor Pemberton - Dark. ( 86min mp3 60mb)
Scott Cherry - The Book of Shadows ( 78min mp3 60mb)
Koji Suzuki - The Ring ( 78min mp3 60mb)
Wilkie Collins - The Haunted Hotel ( 60min mp3 38mb)
JCW Brook - Jonas ( 60min mp3 60mb)
Stephen Sheridan - The House at Worlds End ( 44min mp3 30mb)
Nigel Kneale - The Stone Tape ( 56;30 min mp3 38mb)
Gregory Evans - The Hex ( 51;12 min mp3 35mb)
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein pt 1. ( 52min mp3 67mb)

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Hello, ah yes New Years daze...

Today's artists are an English gothic rock band, formed in London, England in 1982. The current lineup of the band consists of Nik Fiend and Mrs. Fiend. The band became known in the gothic scene for its dark, electronic industrial-leaning sound, heavy samples, loops, dub remixes and manic vocals. Five of the group's albums and 12 of their singles reached top 20 positions in the UK charts in the period up to 1987.. ......N'Joy

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One of the earliest groups to be labeled goth rock, Alien Sex Fiend are among the genre's most theatrical acts. They're also one of its most humorous, preferring a campy B-movie aesthetic to the dourness or morbidity of many of their peers. Heavily influenced by the Cramps, Alice Cooper, glam rock, punk, and psychedelia, the group's performances are ghoulish spectacles, and their boundlessly creative music combines heavy electronic beats and noisy guitars with warped, dubby effects and samples. Alternately referred to as goth, deathrock, post-punk, or industrial, ASF are ultimately a category unto themselves. The group was highly prolific throughout the '80s, releasing fan-favorite full-lengths such as Acid Bath (1984) and "It" the Album (1986), in addition to numerous remix-filled singles and EPs, showcasing the group's penchant for experimentation. ASF incorporated several electronic dance music styles into their sound before other goth and industrial acts did; the 1989 single "Haunted House" lived up to its name, while the group embraced techno and trance on '90s releases such as Inferno (The Odyssey Continues) (1994). In the 21st century, albums such as Information Overload (2004) and Possessed (2018) have even worked in traces of dancehall and drum'n'bass.

Alien Sex Fiend's origins lie in the Batcave, an influential London club acknowledged as the birthplace of goth culture. Nick Wade, who worked at the Batcave, dubbed himself Nik Fiend and founded the band in 1982, along with his wife Christine Wade (aka Mrs. Fiend), who played synth, as well as guitarist Yaxi Highrizer (born David James) and drummer Johnny "Ha Ha" Freshwater. Prior to forming ASF, Wade had previously been a member of the punk band Demon Preacher as well as Alice Cooper-inspired groups the Earwigs and Mr. & Mrs. Demeanour.

Following some obscure early cassettes, Alien Sex Fiend made their proper debut with the 1983 single "Ignore the Machine," a favorite among goth club denizens; this preceded the full-length Who's Been Sleeping in My Brain? A series of indie chart hits followed in 1984, including "R.I.P.,""Dead and Buried," and "E.S.T. (Trip to the Moon)" (the world's first 11" single). The success of the album Acid Bath further increased the group's visibility, and Alien Sex Fiend became major stars in Japan, resulting in the 1985 live release Liquid Head in Tokyo.

Following the departure of Johnny Ha Ha, the group continued as a trio to record 1985's bleak Maximum Security. After the following year's "It" the Album, released to coincide with Alien Sex Fiend's opening slot on Alice Cooper's Nightmare Returns tour, they recorded 1987's Here Cum Germs, the final offer to feature Yaxi Highrizer. Now essentially a duo, the Fiends explored more synth- and sample-oriented territory on 1988's Another Planet, a trend continued on 1990's Curse, which featured the minor hit "Now I'm Feeling Zombified."

With a revitalized lineup including new guitarist Rat Fink Jr. and keyboardist Doc Milton, Alien Sex Fiend resurfaced in 1992 with Open Head Surgery. After a 1993 live album, Altered States of America, ASF (back to being the duo of Nik and Mrs. Fiend) composed the music for the CD-ROM game Inferno. Released as Inferno (The Odyssey Continues), the album was a venture into instrumental electronic music. With the release of the compilation The Singles 1983-1995, the band's affiliation with longtime label Anagram ended, and the Fiends soon established their own 13th Moon Records imprint. The trance-influenced 1996 EP Evolution found Alien Sex Fiend traveling even further away from their goth beginnings into the realm of electronica, a move continued on 1997's Nocturnal Emissions.

Following numerous compilations and live releases, including the 1999 retrospective Fiend at the Controls, Vols. 1-2, ASF returned with 2004's Information Overload, an adventurous update of the group's sound. Para-Abnormal, a CD of remixes and rarities, followed in 2006. The group's next full-length was delayed due to deaths in the family and other personal issues, but ASF re-emerged with Death Trip in 2010. In 2015, Cherry Red released Classic Albums and BBC Sessions Collection, the first of two comprehensive box sets of the band's early material. These were followed by the generous triple-CD package Fiendology in 2017. Possessed, Alien Sex Fiend's first studio album in eight years, appeared in 2018.

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The title of the album, songs with names like "I'm Her Frankenstein" and "Wish I Woz a Dog," the utterly demented look of Nik Fiend in full make-up and regalia, not to mention the rest of his bandmates -- the Alien Sex Fiend ethos was set from the start, in all its wiggy glory. Sometimes the sheer wackiness obscured the fact, though, that ASF offered great music along with the humor, always the distinction between the truly great comedy bands and the ones that are just a bad joke to begin with. While not pretending to be pushing the cutting edge of music, Brain was still a great combination of punk's snarl, glam's giddiness, campily dramatic theatricality equal parts Alice Cooper and the Damned, and not a little bit of envelope-pushing with the band's extensive use of drum machines alongside Johnnie Ha-Ha. With Mrs. Fiend pulling a bit of a Ray Manzarek on keyboards and bass sounds, and Yaxi kicking up the guitar dust, all Nik needed to do was wrap his electrocuted-Cockney singing around it all, and the rest was genius; however, Youth provided the finishing touches as a producer, balancing crispness with just enough echo and murkiness to satisfy all sides. To its further credit, Brain wasn't just one tune repeated over and again; while ASF aren't exactly ever going to be known for ballads, the rumbling Burundi-into-'50s raunch of "Wild Women" isn't the pulsing pagan psychosis of "New Christian Music," which in turn isn't the anthemic, heroic surge of "Ignore the Machine," and so forth. Though arguably ASF has never really moved beyond the bounds of what it set on Brain, what the band did come up with was more than great then and now.

Alien Sex Fiend - Who's Been Sleeping In My Brain ? (flac 417mb)

01 Wish I Woz A Dog 7:08
02 Wild Women 3:19
03 I'm Not Mad 4:31
04 New Christian Music 5:47
05 Wigwam Wipe Out 2:57
06 I'm Her Frankenstein 2:48
07 I Am A Product 4:26
08 Ignore The Machine 6:44
09 Lips Can't Go 5:43
10 Black Rabbit 1:23
Bonus
11 Under The Thunder (Ignore The Dub) 6:45
12 30 Second Coma 2:45
13 R.I.P. (Blue Crumb Truck) 4:51
14 New Christian Music (Single Version) 7:23

Alien Sex Fiend - Who's Been Sleeping In My Brain ? (ogg 165mb)

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Acid Bath unveiled the new, fully electronic Alien Sex Fiend, introduced by "In God We Trust, In Cars You Rust", which added a frenetic beat, and basically presented a rawer, more rock 'n' roll version of Suicide. Their previous manifesto, "Ignore The Machine", had been transported to the disco. "Dead And Re-Buried" had a more menacing tone, it's frozen electrifying pulse brought to the fore, and also furnishing psychedelic guitar, and a new cyber-punk tone, as if a collaboration between Billy Idol, Section 25 and Suicide.

"She's A Killer" was more dramatic and gothic, more than ever wanting to create an atmosphere, as if Bauhaus did an electro-disco music-hall, an impression that surfaced again in "Breakdown And Cry". Their most daring moment was probably "E.S.T.", an electronic gothic number marshaling a tropicalia beat, Nik Fiend's typically wild vocals and a neoclassical somber drone. Finally, "Attack !!!!!#2" upped the garage-gothic format of Who's Been Sleeping In My Brain? by intensifying the aggression.

Alien Sex Fiend - Acid Bath (flac 452mb)

01 In God We Trust (In Cars You Rust?) 4:49
02 Dead And Re-Buried 5:58
03 She's A Killer 6:40
04 Hee-Haw (Here Come The Bone People) 6:02
05 Smoke My Bones 00:45
06 Breakdown And Cry (Lay Down And Die - Goodbye) 6:55
07 E.S.T. (Trip To The Moon) 8:15
08 Attack!!!!!! #2 6:22
Bonus
09 Dead And Buried 5:48
10 Attack!!!!! 8:32
11 Boneshaker Baby 3:32
12 I Am A Product (Live) 5:15

Alien Sex Fiend - Acid Bath (ogg 172mb)

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Further exploration of the electronic realms opened up by Acid Bath. This time around the deathrock angle to the band's sound fades away as the album is increasingly less interested in guitar and more interested in esoteric electronic pulsations that end up outstaying their welcome before too long.

Alien Sex Fiend - Maximum Security (flac 425mb)

01 I'm Doing Time In A Maximum Security Twilight Home 5:59
02 Mine's Full Of Maggots 5:45
03 Do You Sleep 4:04
04 In And Out Of My Mind 4:07
05 Spies 4:44
06 Fly In The Ointment 3:45
07 Seconds To Nowhere 2:38
08 The Beaver Destroys Forests 1:28
09 Do You Sleep (Version) 3:58
10 Depravity Lane (Think I'll Take A Trip...) 5:37
Bonus
11 Ignore The Machine (Electrode Mix) 5:07
12 Attack!!!!! (Live At The BBC) 5:46
13 Dead And Buried (Live At The BBC) 4:19
14 Hee-Haw (Live At The BBC) 5:04
15 Ignore The Machine (Live At The BBC) 7:01

Alien Sex Fiend - Maximum Security (ogg 160mb)

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Coming as it does in the wake of Acid Bath, Liquid Head In Tokyo feels like a mild step back on the part of Alien Sex Fiend. Evidently at this stage their incorporation of electronics into their sound had advanced more in the studio than it had on the stage, because there's a mild reversion here to the guitar-oriented sound of the debut album and that makes the older songs sound tired whilst the newer, Acid Bath-era songs are a little confused in the transition. It's fun enough, but we know they could do better.

Alien Sex Fiend - Liquid Head In Tokyo (flac 502mb)

01 R.I.P. (Blue Crime Truck) 3:49
02 E.S.T. (Trip To The Moon) 5:32
03 Dead And Re-Buried 5:01
04 In God We Trust (In Cars You Rust?) 4:36
05 Back To The Egg 4:49
06 Attack !!!!!! #2 5:22
07 Lips Can't Go 5:19
08 Wild Women 5:13
Bonus
09 Hee Haw 6:04
10 I Wish I Was A Dog 8:33
11 Dead & Buried (12 Version) 5:45
12 Girl At The End Of My Gun (12 Version) 2:53
13 New Christian Music (10 Version) 6:29
14 Wild Women 3:12

Alien Sex Fiend - Liquid Head In Tokyo (ogg 193mb)

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Hello, .

Today's artist is a seemingly ageless Cuban percussionist/bandleader could energize packed behemoth arenas such as the Hollywood Bowl. A master conguero, who at his best creates an incantatory spell rooted in Cuban religious rituals, quietly seating himself before his congas and soloing with total command over the rhythmic spaces between the beats while his band pumps out an endless vamp. He has been hugely influential as a leader, running durable bands that combine the traditional charanga with jazz-oriented brass, wind, and piano solos, featuring such future notables as Chick Corea and Hubert Laws. He also reached out into R&B, rock, and electric jazz at times in his long career. .......N'Joy

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Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez (April 7, 1917 – February 1, 2003) was a rumba quinto master and an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue", recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York City where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All Stars, etc. He was an integral figure in the fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with R&B and soul, paving the way for the boogaloo era of the late 1960s. His 1963 hit rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" (recorded on December 17, 1962) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

Santamaría learned rumba as a kid in the streets of Havana's Jesús María barrio. He reminisced: "In the neighborhood where I came from we had all kinds of music, mostly from Africa. We did not leave it alone; we changed it our way. The music we made dealt with religion and conversation. The drum was our tool and we used it for everything" (1979: 19). Gerard points out: "Santamaría, like other drummers of his generation, learned music in the streets by observing different drummers. When he started playing professionally, he learned on the job. His approach was utilitarian, not theoretical". Santamaría was mentored on bongos and rumba quinto by Clemente "Chicho" Piquero, who played in Beny Moré's band. He recalled: "I would go with Chicho and play the tumbadora and also the quinto. I would play everything because I learned a lot from Chicho—because he could play everything"

When Santamaría soloed in jazz, you heard brilliant phrasing with roots firmly in the folkloric rumba, the authentic rumba of the street where he grew up. In addressing that authenticity, he once told Downbeat Magazine: "You can't learn to play things like guaguancó here.... You have to have been where it came from.... You can't listen to records and get those feelings". Santamaría recorded some of the very first recorded folkloric rumbas. Because he recorded for mainstream jazz labels, his folkloric records were consistently available to the public. Santamaría's albums tended to list the personnel and their instruments; so record buyers came to know other Cuban rumberos, such as Armando Peraza, Francisco Aguabella, Julito Collazo, Carlos Vidal Bolado, Modeto Duran and Pablo Mozo. The 10 inch 33 1/3 rpm phonorecord Afro-Cuban Drums by Santamaría was recorded in SMC's New York City studios on November 3, 1952. Santamaría's next recordings with folkloric rumba were on Changó (re-issued as Drums and Chants) recorded in New York (1954). Yambú (1958), Mongo (1959), and Bembé (1960) followed.

Santamaría's quinto phrasing was dynamic and creative; he had an unmistakable sound, that was uniquely his own. He did not analyze his personal style: "When I play I don't know how I do it, or what I do ... I just play" (2001: 29).[5] The following example is an excerpt from a quinto performance by Santamaría on his composition "Mi guaguancó" (1959). The excerpt shows variations on two main motifs, marked as A and B. Santamaría's repetition of what is typically a secondary phrase (B), makes it the primary motif here.

Santamaría began playing bongos with Septeto Beloña in 1937. In the 1940s he worked in the house band of the prestigious Tropicana nightclub. When Chicho could not join a tour in Mexico in the late 1940s, he recommended Santamaría for the job. Mexico opened Santamaría up to the wider world beyond his island home. After returning from Mexico in 1950, Santamaría moved to New York City, where he became Tito Puente's conga player. In 1957 Mongo Santamaría joined Cal Tjader's Latin jazz combo.

In 1959 Santamaría recorded "Afro Blue," the first jazz standard built upon a typical African 3:2 cross-rhythm, or hemiola. The song begins with the bass repeatedly playing 6 cross-beats per each measure of 12/8, or 6 cross-beats per 4 main beats—6:4 (two cells of 3:2). The following example shows the original ostinato "Afro Blue" bass line. The slashed noteheads indicate the main beats (not bass notes), where you would normally tap your foot to "keep time."

In 1960 Mongo went to Havana, Cuba with Willie Bobo to record two albums "Mongo In Havana" and "Bembe y Nuestro Hombre En La Habana." After recording, he returned to New York City to form the charanga orquestra La Sabrosa.

In late 1962 Chick Corea had given notice and Santamaría needed a pianist to fill in for the upcoming weekend gigs. Herbie Hancock got the temporary job. Hancock recalls what happened the night that Santamaría discovered "Watermelon Man" the only tune of Santamaría's to reach the top of the pop charts:

The sudden success of the song (which Mongo Santamaria recorded on December 17, 1962) propelled Santamaría into his niche of blending Afro-Cuban and African American musics. Santamaría went on to record Cuban-flavored versions of popular R&B and Motown songs.

Santamaria died in Miami, Florida, after suffering a stroke, at the age of 85. He is buried in Woodlawn Park Cemetery and Mausoleum (now Caballero Rivero Woodlawn Park North Cemetery and Mausoleum) in Miami, Florida.

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In reaching for another shot at the big time, Mongo Santamaria sold much of the heart out of his music by turning himself over to producer Bob James, his arranger Jay Chattaway, and the fading disco fad. The result is a near disaster, an overproduced, overdubbed, rhythmically overbearing affair, staffed largely by James and his family of New York session players (including the Brecker Brothers, Eric Gale, and Steve Gadd) with only a handful of Mongo's sidemen, polished to a slick fare-thee-well. "You Better Believe It" is the sole Marty Sheller-arranged track; despite the Anglo-sounding chorus, the Guajiro groove conquers the production. Mongo alumni Hubert Laws has some nice moments in the Brazil-flavored "Sambita," but when you hear "Watermelon Man" redone to a horrible disco beat ... goodbye.

Mongo Santamaria - Red Hot (flac 249mb)

01 Watermelon Man 6:34
02 A Mi No Me Engañan (You Better Believe It) 4:40
03 Jai Alai (Rena) 7:38
04 Jamaican Sunrise 5:54
05 Afro-Cuban Fantasy 7:36
06 Sambita 5:45

Mongo Santamaria - Red Hot (ogg 98mb)

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Mongo Santamaria leads a potent octet over two nights at Birdland in this live CD taped in 1992. The conga master is joined by trumpeter/flugelhornist Eddie Allen (who serves as music director as well), tenor saxophonist/flautist Craig Rivers, and alto saxophonist/baritone saxophonist/flautists Jimmy Cozier, with pianist Ricardo Gonzalez leading the rhythm section. Among Santamaria's seven originals, the peppy "Brazilian Sunset" especially stands out, along with two pieces by Marty Sheller, his former musical director. Cozier penned the upbeat "Costa Del Oro," a sizzling Latin blues that features its composer on tenor sax. There's also a fun Afro-Cuban arrangement of the standard "Summertime" and a hip-swaying treatment of Herbie Hancock's huge hit "Watermelon Man."

Mongo Santamaria - Brazilian Sunset (flac 431mb)

01 Bonita 4:10
02 Costa Del Or 5:39
03 Summertime 6:26
04 Gumbo Man 6:11
05 Brazilian Sunset 6:47
06 When Love Begins 6:01
07 Being Here With You 5:41
08 Soca Mi Nice 3:59
09 Dawn's Light 5:15
10 Breaking It In 6:13
11 Watermelon Man 3:47
12 Sofrito 11:24

Mongo Santamaria - Brazilian Sunset (ogg 177mb)

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This is as close to Latin purist Mongo as we have heard in recent years, an eight-piece salsa band -- including several members of the 1997 Tito Puente ensemble, like trumpeter Ray Vega, altoist Bobby Porcelli and tenorman Mitch Frohman -- playing a brace of Mongo classics and Latin jazz pieces live before a hushed crowd in Seattle's Jazz Alley. There are no pop covers, one electric instrument (a bass), lots of extended jazz solos (Porcelli and Frohman really burn on the pioneering Afro-Cuban classic "Manteca"), and an unusual (for Mongo) emphasis on the timbales on many tracks, which shoves the rhythms closer to the salsified Puente manner.

However, tracks like "Juan Jose,""Home" and "Bonita" do have the smooth Mongo cha-cha and guajira grooves, and elsewhere, Mongo lifts himself out of the background often enough to deliver some stirring polyrhythmic conga salvos. For a specific jolt from Mongo's own past, there is "Para Ti" and 10 1/2 stimulating minutes of "Afro Blue." Though the general electricity level of the gig could be higher, Mongo's ageless spirit triumphs again.

Mongo Santamaria - Live At Jazz Alley (flac 363mb)

01 Home 6:00
02 Bonita 4:39
03 Philadelphia 5:57
04 Para Ti 5:54
05 Manteca 6:47
06 Ponce 6:51
07 Come Candela 5:20
08 Ibiano 4:55
09 Juan José 5:22
10 Afro Blue 10:31

Mongo Santamaria - Live At Jazz Alley (ogg 157mb)

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Mango Santamaria utilizes a colorful cast of musicians on this CD. Flutists Hubert Laws and Dave Valentin are featured on two songs apiece (although unfortunately not together) and the nonet has trumpeter Eddie Allen, altoist Jimmy Cozier, and Craig Rivers on tenor and soprano, along with three percussionists. There are a lot of percussion features including the closing nine-and-a-half minute "La Mogolla," making this an excellent if not quite essential recording.

Mongo Santamaria - Mambo Mongo (flac 350mb)

01 Dark Before The Dawn 5:42
02 Caribbean Sunrise 4:43
03 Mambo Mango 6:53
04 Los Ninos Del Mundo 6:02
05 Cali 5:04
06 Are They Only Dreams 5:02
07 Cuco Y Olga 6:04
08 Azteca 5:25
09 La Mogolla 9:32

Mongo Santamaria - Mambo Mongo (ogg 150mb)

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Hello, the final Stax count down starts here today

Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It was a major factor in the creation of Southern soul and Memphis soul music. Stax also released gospel, funk, and blues recordings. Renowned for its output of blues music, the label was founded by two siblings and business partners, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton (STewart/AXton = Stax). It featured several popular ethnically integrated bands (including the label's house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s) and a racially integrated team of staff and artists unprecedented in that time of racial strife and tension in Memphis and the South.

According to ethnomusicologist Rob Bowman, the label's use of "one studio, one equipment set-up, the same set of musicians and a small group of songwriters led to a readily identifiable sound. It was a sound based in black gospel, blues, country, and earlier forms of rhythm and blues. It became known as southern soul music."

Following the death of Stax's biggest star, Otis Redding, in 1967, and the severance of the label's distribution deal with Atlantic Records in 1968, Stax continued primarily under the supervision of a new co-owner, Al Bell. Over the next five years, Bell expanded the label's operations significantly, in order to compete with Stax's main rival, Motown Records in Detroit. During the mid-1970s, a number of factors, including a problematic distribution deal with CBS Records, caused the label to slide into insolvency, resulting in its forced closure in late 1975.

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As the last installment in the three-volume document of the complete Stax-Volt singles, Vol. 3: 1972-1975 is the weakest of the series. During those four years, the label was winding down, since it was unable to successfully make the transition from gritty soul to smoother soul and disco. Their older artists couldn't handle the newer sound, and the newer artists were generally saddled with undistinguished songs. In other words, there weren't many great singles from this era. While the sound of the set is pleasant, evoking both the funky and smooth soul of the early '70s quite well, but too rarely particularly noteworthy. There's about a disc and a half worth of prime material scattered across this set, and only die-hard collectors and fetishists will have the patience to find them. Still, those dedicated listeners will find the box a nice way to conclude the series, since it is a well-produced and comprehensive set, even if the music itself is uneven.

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.3 1 (flac 485mb)

101 Eddie Floyd - Yum Yum Yum (I Want Some) 2:49
102 Jean Knight - Carry On 2:53
103 Isaac Hayes - Be Your Thing 3:16
104 Frederick Knight - I've Been Lonely For So Long 3:18
105 Annette Thomas - Nothing Is Everlasting 2:57
106 The Soul Children - Hearsay 3:20
107 Albert King - Angel Of Mercy 4:15
108 The Dramatics - In The Rain 3:15
109 Lee Sain - She's My Old Lady Too 2:47
110 The Temprees - Explain It To Her Mama 2:57
111 Sons Of Slum - Right On 3:26
112 Johnnie Taylor (The Soul Philosopher) - Doing My Own Thing (Part 1) 3:30
113 The Emotions - My Honey And Me 3:30
114 Isaac Hayes - Let's Stay Together (Instrumental) 3:42
115 Hot Sauce - Bring It Home (And Give It To Me) 3:15
116 Black Society - Look Around You 2:30
117 The Nightingales - Don't Do It / I'm With You 3:29
118 The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There 3:16
119 The Leaders - Which Way 2:23
120 Veda Brown - Living A Life Without Love 2:58
121 Harvey Scales - What's Good For You (Don't Have To Be Good To You) 2:23
122 The Mad Lads - Let Me Repair Your Heart 3:55
123 Eric Mercury - What's Usual Seems Natur'l 3:20
124 Major Lance - I Wanna Make Up (Before We Break Up) 3:55

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 01 (ogg 190mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 02 (flac 413mb)

201 Isaac Hayes & David Porter - Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One) 4:28
202 Little Milton - Walking The Back Streets And Crying 5:00
203 William Bell - Save Us 3:17
204 Rufus Thomas - 6-3-8 2:37
205 Mel & Tim -Starting All Over Again 3:55
206 Stefan - Keep On Loving Me 2:48
207 David Porter - I'm Afraid The Masquerade Is Over 4:35
208 Little Sonny - Goin' Down Slow (Parts 1 & 2) 5:32
209 The Emotions - I Could Never Be Happy 3:26
210 The Soul Children -Don't Take My Kindness For Weakness 3:00
211 Albert King - I'll Play The Blues For You (Part 1) 3:35
212 Roger Hatcher - I Dedicate My Life To You 2:30
213 March Wind - Do The Sweetback 3:00
214 Black Nasty - Gettin' Funky 'Round Here 2:43
215 David Porter - When The Chips Are Down 3:20
216 Carla Thomas - Sugar 4:12
217 Eddie Floyd - You're Good Enough (To Be My Baby) 3:16
218 The Staple Singers - This World 3:39
219 Jean Knight - Helping Man 2:53
220 John KaSandra - Ain't I Good? 3:00

VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 02 (ogg 157mb)

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VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 03 (flac 469mb)

301 The Bar-Kays - Dance, Dance, Dance (Part 1) 2:58
302 The Temprees - Dedicated To The One I Love 3:32
303 The Dramatics - Toast To The Fool 4:13
304 Johnnie Taylor - Stop Doggin' Me 3:58
305 Frederick Knight - Trouble 3:10
306 Little Milton - I'm Gonna Cry Me A River 3:41
307 Rufus Thomas - Itch And Scratch (Part 1) 3:12
308 Ernie Hines - What Would I Do 3:35
309 Veda Brown - I Know It's Not Right (To Be In Love With A Married Man) 3:27
310 Stefan - Holy Cow 2:59
311 Sons Of Slum - What Goes Around (Must Come Around) 3:11
312 Isaac Hayes - Theme From The Men (Instrumental) 4:00
313 Mavis Staples - Endlessly 3:08
314 Inez Foxx -You Hurt Me For The Last Time 3:03
315 John Gary Williams - My Sweet Lord 3:15
316 Albert King - Breaking Up Somebody's Home 3:35
317 Katie Love -How Can You Mistreat The One You Love 2:44
318 The Emotions - From Toys To Boys 2:30
319 Roy Lee Johnson & The Villagers - The Dryer (Vocal) (Part 1) 2:18
320 Carla Thomas - I May Not Be All You Want (But I'm All You Got) 3:49
321 Major Lance - Ain't No Sweat 3:20
322 Jean Knight - Do Me 2:49
323 Little Milton - Rainy Day 3:13

VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 03 (ogg 176mb)

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VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 04 (flac 438mb)

401 The Soul Children -It Ain't Always What You Do (It's Who You Let See You Do It) 3:34
402 Mel & Tim -I May Not Be What You Want 2:57
403 Rufus Thomas - Funky Robot (Part 1) 2:43
404 Johnnie Taylor - Don't You Fool With My Soul (Part 1) 2:52
405 The Staple Singers - Oh La De Da 3:34
406 Hot Sauce - What Do You See In Her? 2:43
407 The Temprees - A Thousand Miles Away 3:18
408 The Dramatics - Hey You! Get Off My Mountain 3:29
409 Isaac Hayes - Rolling Down A Mountainside 4:20
410 The Bar-Kays - You're Still My Brother 3:32
411 Jimmy Lewis - Stop Half Loving These Women 2:54
412 William Bell - Lovin' On Borrowed Time 3:59
413 Eddie Floyd - Lay Your Loving On Me 3:05
414 Inez Foxx - The Time 3:56
415 Mel & Tim -Heaven Knows 3:50
416 Johnnie Taylor - I Believe In You (You Believe In Me) 4:32
417 Veda Brown - Short Stopping 2:22
418 The Staple Singers - Be What You Are 4:58
419 Stefan - I've Got To Love Somebody's Baby 2:59
420 Albert King - Playing On Me 3:44
421 David Porter - Long As You're The One Somebody Ine The World 2:38

VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 04 (ogg 169mb)

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VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 05 (flac 435mb)

501 Frederick Knight - This Is My Song Of Love To You 3:13
502 The MGs - Sugarcane 3:09
503 The Soul Children -Love Is A Hurtin' Thing 3:15
504 Eddie Floyd - Baby, Lay Your Head Down (Gently On My Bed) 3:43
505 Eddie Floyd - Check Me Out 3:39
506 The Emotions - Runnin' Back (And Forth) 2:31
507 Inez Foxx - Crossing Over The Bridge 2:55
508 The Temprees - Love's Maze 3:30
509 The Bar-Kays - It Ain't Easy 3:20
510 Carla Thomas - Love Among People 3:59
511 Little Milton - What It Is 3:22
512 William Bell - I've Got To Go On Without You 3:48
513 Eric Mercury - Love Is Taking Over 3:52
514 Joe Hicks -Ruby Dean 3:17
515 The Mad Lads - I'm So Glad I Fell In Love With You 2:11
516 The Dramatics - Fell For You 3:15
517 Johnnie Taylor - Cheaper To Keep Her 3:27
518 Rufus Thomas - I Know You Don't Want Me No More 2:59
519 The Staple Singers - If You're Ready (Come Go With Me) 3:19
520 The Sweet Inspirations - Slipped And Tripped 2:56
521 The Emotions - Peace Be Still 2:57
522 The Soul Children - I'll Be The Other Woman 3:33

VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 05 (ogg 173mb)

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Hello, 2019 will make more waves in our history than 2018 it could be one of the worst years for the west in a long time, but then 2020 will follow and the winners will take care of the fireworks...Anyway today the final post on Mike Paradinas andall his alter ego's

Today's Artist is better known by his stage name μ-Ziq (pronounced "mu-sic" or mew-zeek), an English electronic musician from Wimbledon, London. He is one of the pioneering IDM electronic music acts during the 90's, alongside Aphex Twin, Autechre, and The Orb. He is also the founder of the record label Planet Mu. .......N'Joy

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One of the premier names in the field of electronic home-listening music, Mike Paradinas' recordings retain the abrasive flavor of early techno pioneers and explore the periphery of experimental electronica even while coddling to his unusual ear for melody, the occasional piece of vintage synthesizer gear, and distorted beatbox rhythms. While his side projects -- including Diesel M, Jake Slazenger, Gary Moscheles, Kid Spatula, and Tusken Raiders -- have often emphasized (or satirized) his debts to jazz, funk, and electro, Paradinas reserves his most original and exciting work for major album releases as µ-Ziq. Early µ-Ziq LPs were based around the most ear-splitting buzz-saw percussion ever heard (in a musical environment or otherwise), with fast-moving though deceptively fragile synthesizer melodies running over the top. As Paradinas began weaving his various influences into a convincing whole, his work became more fully developed, a fluid blend of breakbeat hip-hop and drum'n'bass with industrial effects and the same brittle melodies from his earlier work. Later works have reflected his interest in other forward-thinking electronic styles such Chicago's juke/footwork scene, while also looking back to his formative influences such as the British rave scene and Detroit techno.

Born in Wimbledon (though he grew up in several other spots around London), Paradinas began playing keyboards during the early '80s and listened to new wave bands like Human League and New Order. He joined a few bands in the mid-'80s, then spent eight years on keyboards for the group Blue Innocence. During that time, however, Paradinas had been recording on his own as well with synthesizers and a four-track recorder. When Blue Innocence disintegrated in 1992, he and bass player Francis Naughton bought sequencing software and re-recorded some of Paradinas' old material. After the material was played for Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton -- the duo behind Global Communication and Reload as well as being the heads of Evolution Records -- they wanted to release it; recording commitments later forced Pritchard and Middleton to withdraw their agreement, though by that time Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) had also heard the tracks and agreed to release a double album for his label, Rephlex Records.

The debut album for µ-Ziq (paraphrased from the side of a blank tape and pronounced "mew-zeek") was 1993's Tango n' Vectif. The LP set the template for most of Paradinas' later work, with at times shattering metal-cage percussion underpinning a collection of rather beautiful melodies. The Rephlex label was just beginning to flourish, with added journalistic attention paid to Aphex Twin's recent Selected Ambient Works 85-92, and though James began to feature less in label doings than co-founder Grant Wilson Claridge, later Rephlex work by Cylob, Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ), Seefeel, and Squarepusher made it among the cream of electronic home-listening labels.

When Naughton began taking college more seriously (something Paradinas had attempted briefly, from 1990 through 1992), he officially bowed out of µ-Ziq. Second album Bluff Limbo was scheduled to be released in mid-1994, though only 1,000 copies made it out of the gate. (It was officially issued by Rephlex in 1996 after Paradinas served papers on the label.) Paradinas' first major-label release came later in 1994, after he undertook a remix project for Virgin Records. The EP µ-Ziq vs. the Auteurs was one of the most high-profile examples of the remix-by-obliteration movement, a burgeoning hobby for many electronica producers in which the reworking of a pop song would bear no resemblance to -- or trace of -- the original.

Though the EP was hardly a prime mover in the sales category, Virgin signed Paradinas to a hefty contract and gave him his own Planet Mu sublabel to release his own work as well as develop similar-minded artists. Written into his own contract was a provision for unlimited recording under different names, and during 1995 Paradinas definitely took it to task: he unveiled three aliases and released as many albums in less than a year's time. The nu-skool electro label Clear released his debut single as Tusken Raiders early in the year; it mined the fascination with Star Wars and electro music shared by producers like Global Communication, Aphex Twin, and James Lavelle, head of Mo' Wax Records. Clear also released the first Paradinas alias full-length, Jake Slazenger's MakesARacket, later in 1995. Although they were still audible, the LP downplayed his electro influences in favor of some rather cheesy synthesizer figures and a previously unheard debt to jazz-funk.

The distortion reappeared on Paradinas' second LP of the year, Spatula Freak by Kid Spatula. The first American-only release of a Paradinas album (it appeared on Jonah Sharp's San Francisco-based Reflective Records), its sound had the metallic feel of the first two µ-Ziq LPs but with a less-dense production job. Just one month after Spatula Freak, Paradinas released his first proper µ-Ziq LP for a major label, In Pine Effect. The album included tracks recorded from 1993 to 1995, and though it was quite a varied album, the distance appeared to give it quite a disjointed feel.

Paradinas spent 1996 releasing a second Jake Slazenger album (Das Ist Groovy Beat Ja? for Warp) and his first as Gary Moscheles (Shaped to Make Your Life Easier for Belgium's SSR/Crammed Discs). Both LPs journeyed further down the queasy-listening route of the first Slazenger record, with departures into '80s-style party funk and surprisingly straight-ahead soul-jazz. He also owned a half-share in the Rephlex-released Expert Knob Twiddlers (credited as Mike & Rich), the fruit of Paradinas' 1994 recordings with the Aphex Twin.

Paradinas entered 1997 ready to undertake the most ambitious style makeover in his career: the fusion of his home-listening techno with the hypertensive rhythms of street-level drum'n'bass. One year earlier, Aphex Twin had released a single of schizophrenic jungle noodlings ("Hangable Auto Bulb"), and Tom Jenkinson's Squarepusher project had provided the first convincing headphone drum'n'bass act. Paradinas waded into the pool with Urmur Bile Trax, Vols. 1-2, a double EP also released as one full-length compact disc. Though the changeover wasn't completely convincing, the next µ-Ziq full-length more than made up for expectations. Lunatic Harness presented a complete synthesis of the many elements in Paradinas' career, from synth-jazz-funk and beatbox electro through to ambient techno and jungle.

Paradinas and µ-Ziq were introduced to many rock fans after he toured America as the support act for Björk. This tour influenced 1999's Royal Astronomy, which focused on acid techno and hip-hop influences. Issued in 2003, Bilious Paths became the first µ-Ziq release to arrive on Paradinas' own Planet Mu label. The dissolution of his relationship inspired his unrelentingly dark 2007 album Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique. Paradinas' Planet Mu duties and his Heterotic project with wife Lara Rix-Martin -- whose debut album, Love & Devotion, arrived in early 2013 -- were among the reasons µ-Ziq took a break until the release of the juke-influenced XTEP and rave-inspired full-length Chewed Corners, both of which arrived in 2013. That year's Somerset Avenue Tracks (1992-1995) compilation celebrated µ-Ziq's 20 years of recording, and collected unreleased tracks from the beginning of his career. Rediffusion appeared in 2014, and XTLP, compiling both XTEP and Rediffusion, followed in 2015. Two digital collections of rare or unreleased recordings, RY30 Trax and Aberystwyth Marine, both appeared in 2016. Following in this vein, Challenge Me Foolish, a collection of tracks dating from the late '90s, was released in 2018, this time on CD and vinyl.

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The first µ-Ziq release on Mike Paradinas' own Planet µ label since he debuted it with a 1997 double EP, Bilious Paths returns him full circle to the master-craftsman mayhem of that year's Lunatic Harness. And since it's also his first full-length not on a major-distributed label since 1995, Paradinas allowed himself a refreshing degree of latitude when it came to genre workouts (hardcore techno, junglistic dread madness, chilled experimental techno). Still, there isn't a track here that's not clearly, recognizably, obviously a µ-Ziq production, from the tympani-led symphonic majesty of "Octelcogopod" to the breezily shape-shifting melodies and pummeling beats of "Meinheld," with plenty of space for the lab-coat drill'n'bass he preferred during the late '90s. As usual, Paradinas is also slightly too humorous for his own good, both with his titles (the two-part "Grape Nut Beats") and with his productions ("On/Off," which repeats a naughty vocal sample far more than it deserves). Highlights abound, but this is definitely one for those used to the blend of heavy innovation and occasional inanity to be found on nearly every µ-Ziq record.

µ-Ziq - Bilious Paths (flac 368mb)

01 Johnny Mastricht 4:12
02 Meinheld 3:39
03 Siege Of Antioch 4:16
04 Octelcogopod (Electric Company) 4:48
05 On/Off 3:44
06 Silk Ties (Rude Ass Tinker) 4:25
07 AEC Merlin 3:27
08 Grape Nut Beats (Pt.1) 5:21
09 Grape Nut Beats (Pt.2) 5:09
10 Mouse Bums 4:30
11 Fall Of Antioch 2:04
12 My Mengegus 6:57

µ-Ziq - Bilious Paths (ogg 144mb)

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This album is what getting lost in the woods at night feels like, another underrated gem by Mike. Yes, this album is really dark (including the artwork) but that shouldn't stop one from liking it

µ-Ziq - Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique (flac 336mb)

01 Prongh Seemness 3:08
02 Duntisbourne Abbots 2:01
03 Dexedrine Girl 2:53
04 Woozy 2:54
05 2CV 2:33
06 Eggshell 3:03
07 Dirtylush Stinkwife 3:37
08 Strawberry Fields Hotel 3:58
09 Pons Pons 4:45
10 Old & Tired 2:57
11 Rise Of The Salmon 3:52
12 Something Else 3:24
13 Insomnia 3:01
14 Painshill Park 2:18
15 Acid Steak Night 5:54
16 Eggshell 2 4:03
17 Drum Light 5:37

µ-Ziq - Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique (ogg 148mb)

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For much of the late 2000s, Mike Paradinas put his output as µ-Ziq on hold, and instead focused on making his label Planet Mu the home of cutting-edge artists like Kuedo, Venetian Snares, and Starkey. Aside from his Heterotic project with wife Lara Rix-Martin and Gravenhurst, which released its debut, Love & Devotion, early in 2013, Paradinas hadn't released an album of his own since 2007's Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique, which channeled the anguish of a breakup in its claustrophobic atmospheres, prickly beats, and barbed melodies. Chewed Corners, the eighth µ-Ziq full-length, is as playful and eclectic as its predecessor was consistently bleak. Before the album's release, Paradinas said he made this music for the sheer fun of crafting tracks; while he was one of several leading lights of late-'90s/early-2000s electronic music to make a comeback in 2013, Chewed Corners doesn't feel like a grand statement -- which, in some ways, is a relief. Instead, pent-up creative energy bursts through these tracks, which range from pleasant, like the mellow, bouncy "Smooch," to exciting, like the seven-and-a-half-minute tech-house excursion "Weakling Paradinas" that closes the album with a standout bassline and soaring choruses. What may surprise fans is the relative lack of wild beats, which are usually a staple of Paradinas' work. Instead, he focuses on his flair for layered arrangements and dazzling counterpoint, both of which shine on "Melting Bas." He takes this layering a step further throughout the album, juxtaposing not just sounds but past and present influences, including artists from his own label's roster. "Tickly Flanks" alone nods to Kuedo's fondness for brassy tones, as well as Chicago footwork and acid house; "Twangle Melkas" and "Wipe" incorporate dubstep and grime with '80s elements that could seem incongruous if they weren't blended so cleverly; and "Taikon,""Christ Dust," and the outstanding "Houzz 10" nod to the halcyon days of Aphex Twin and Orbital. Ultimately, Chewed Corners may sound the least like a typical µ-Ziq album compared to the rest of his discography, but it reflects Paradinas' knowledge of, and pleasure in, over three decades' worth of electronic music. Even if it's not as striking or emotionally resonant as Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique, it's certainly an engaging, welcome return.

µ-Ziq - Chewed Corners (flac 358mb)

01 Taikon 5:16
02 Christ Dust 3:01
03 Wipe 4:42
04 Monyth 1:45
05 Twangle Melkas 2:49
06 Melting Bas 3:36
07 Houzz 10 5:31
08 Feeble Minded 4:40
09 Hug 2:58
10 Mountain Island Boner 4:08
11 Tickly Flanks 3:30
12 Smooch 3:41
13 Gunnar 4:37
14 Weakling Paradinas 7:33

µ-Ziq - Chewed Corners (ogg 136mb)

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Nice change of direction for electronica veteran Mike Paradinas, here with his (new) partner Lara Rix-Martin, aided by Gravenhurst‘s Nick Talbot who sings on half the tracks. Mike’s last album as μ-ziq, a break-up album brutally titled Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique (2007), seemed like a bit of a cul-de-sac for the project, with every ounce of melody and harmony crushed under the weight of digital manipulation. It probably achieved its aim as a purging of negative feelings about a lost relationship, but as a listening experience it was overly intense yet oddly dull and unmemorable. Great, then, to hear him back on record following a totally different path. Love & Devotion kicks off with Bliss (quite an apt title), immediately harking back to mid-to-early-90s ambient house, with breathily soulful female vocals, handclaps and a bouncy bassline. Vocalist Nick Talbot enters for the second track, Blue Lights, which hits a tempo high as a driving house number, again complete with distinctly 90s-flavoured piano chords. From there, though, the mood darkens, the tempo slows and grey-sky machine soul is the order of the day. It is an intriguing mixture of atmospheric electronic sounds with deliberately retro flourishes (midi trumpet choirs etc.) and titles like Robocorp (in particular) heighten the sense of looking back with wistful nostalgia. It isn’t an immediate gem but certainly one to keep coming back to.

XT is a very beautiful EP by µ-Ziq, the synths and pianos of this fine ep touch deeply and instantly puts you on a happy mood. Though it's a very short ep and mostly doesn't include that experimentally complex drum programming but it doesn't let go of its brisky mood. At least it's always a possibility to keep coming back and pushing the repeat button on your music player to hear this fine release once again.

Heterotic - Love & Devotion (flac 349mb)

01 Bliss 6:06
02 Blue Lights 4:53
03 Wartime 5:07
04 Robo Corp 2:26
05 Devotion 6:10
06 Knell 4:02
07 Slumber 7:11
08 Fanfare 3:01
bonus µ-Ziq - XT EP
01 XT 6:44
02 Ritm 3:24
03 Pulsar 3:36
04 Monj2 4:23
05 New Bimple 2:31

Heterotic - Love & Devotion (ogg 131mb)

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Hello,

10 correct requests for this week, 4 cloudy re ups, too early whatever another batch of 38 re-ups (11.9 gig)

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

Looka here , requests fulfilled up to January 6th... N'Joy

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3x Roots Back in Flac (Frankie Paul – Pass The Tu-Sheng-Peng, Frankie Paul – Tidal Wave, Ini Kamoze – Ini Kamoze)

4x Sundaze Back In Flac (Space Night Vol. 07 alpha, Space Night Vol. 07 beta, Space Night Vol. 08 alpha, Space Night Vol. 08 beta)

3x Sundaze Back in Flac (Craig Leon - Nommos, Stephan Micus - Koan , David Byrne - The Catherine Wheel )

3x Roots Back In Flac (Bob Marley & The Wailers - Soul Rebels, Bob Marley & The Wailers - Burnin' , Bob Marley & The Wailers - Natty Dread)

3x Sundaze Back in Flac (Jonson - Chiplandschaften, Jonson - P Composing, Jonson - Mindlook )

4x Aetix Back in Flac (Marc And The Mambas - Untitled, Marc and the Mambas - Torment and Torreros, Marc Almond - Stories Of Johnny, Marc Almond - A Womans Story + Violent Silence + The House Is Haunted )

3x Aetix Back in Flac (Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady, Buzzcocks - Love Bites, Buzzcocks - A Different Kind Of Tension )

4x Sundaze Back in Flac (Heavenly Music Corporation - In A Garden Of Eden, Heavenly Music Corporation - Consciousness III, Heavenly Music Corporation - Lunar Phase, Heavenly Music Corporation - Anechoic )

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

3x Aetix Back in Flac (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - I, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedoes, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - You're Gonna Get It )

cloudy files re-ups

1x Sundaze NOW In Flac (VA - Dub Backups Two-2)

1x Sundaze NOW in Flac (VA - Space Night, The Journey Continues Alpha)

1x Sundaze NOW in Flac (Space Night Vol. 5 Beta )

1x Sundaze NOW in Flac (Phantom Band - I )

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.

Hello, Daphne du Maurier wrote some of the most compelling and creepy novels of the twentieth century. In books like Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn she transformed the small dramas of everyday life—love, grief, jealousy—into the stuff of nightmares. Less known, though no less powerful, are her short stories, in which she gave free rein to her imagination in narratives of unflagging suspense. Many of Du Maurier’s works were made into films, notably Hitchcock’s Rebecca and The Birds, but Nicholas Roeg’s 1973 adaptation of “Don’t Look Now” is the one that most successfully captures Du Maurier’s special tone, the ghostly sensitivity of grief.

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Though she’s best known as a novelist, Du Maurier’s strange, often beautiful stories deserve to be more widely read than they are. Like her novels, they are built around elements of suspense, romance, and the supernatural, but they are less fettered by plot contrivances, and the best of them are heartbreaking. They show that Du Maurier, whose name is still associated to her detriment with middle-brow romance, is an altogether weirder and more modern writer than this slapdash categorization implies.

“Don’t Look Now,” follows a couple named John and Laura on a trip to Venice, meant to rekindle their marriage after the tragic death of their young daughter, Christine. One of the unusual things about Du Maurier is that she wrote often and well from the perspective of men, and “Don’t Look Now” takes on John’s tense, rationalist point of view. He begins the story watching his wife anxiously for signs of hysteria and grief. Instead, after meeting a pair of Scottish sisters who claim to see Christine’s ghost, Laura is happy — and her happiness unnerves him more than anything else could have.

It’s these other women, the sisters, who upset the story’s fragile equilibrium and set it on its way. They keep referring to the “gift” of second sight, which John simultaneously refuses to believe in and is frightened by. Are these women harmless? Why is Laura so drawn to them? (Interestingly, given the story’s setting, “Venetian tendencies” is a euphemism Du Maurier used in life to refer to attractions between women.) John can’t trust his wife’s happiness, which feels to him like a betrayal, as it might to any grieving parent whose partner seems to be moving on.

“Don’t Look Now” brilliantly dramatizes the perils of looking — you can look too closely, or not closely enough, or sometimes both at the same time. What you think you see can’t be trusted; what you refuse to see may be your downfall. The story is rife with doubles, dark alleys, and confused or mistaken identities. What makes it more than a ghost story though, is how spookily tender it is. Its subject is the vulnerability of the family unit to the world outside, and the desperate, tenacious work of parents to protect it.

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Daphne du Maurier's classic tale of slow-dawning terror first published in 1971. Dramatised by Ronald Frame, Directed by Patrick Rayner

Stars
Michael Feast as John,
Anna Chancellor as Laura,
Sean Baker as the Policeman,
Ewan Bailey as the Waiter,
Colette O'Neil as Sister,
Carolyn Pickles as Elidah and
Carl Prekopp as the Porter.

Daphne Du Maurier - Dont Look Now. ( 57min mp3 38mb)

John and Laura Bennett are on holiday in Venice, trying to get over the tragic death of their daughter.They seem to be succeeding, until a blind psychic starts relaying messages from beyond the grave

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previously

Robert Westall - The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral ( 87min mp3 60mb)
Robert Westall - The Wheatstone Pond ( 60min mp3 39mb)
Victor Pemberton - Dark. ( 86min mp3 60mb)
Scott Cherry - The Book of Shadows ( 78min mp3 60mb)
Koji Suzuki - The Ring ( 78min mp3 60mb)
Wilkie Collins - The Haunted Hotel ( 60min mp3 38mb)
JCW Brook - Jonas ( 60min mp3 60mb)
Stephen Sheridan - The House at Worlds End ( 44min mp3 30mb)
Nigel Kneale - The Stone Tape ( 56;30 min mp3 38mb)
Gregory Evans - The Hex ( 51;12 min mp3 35mb)
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein pt 1. ( 52min mp3 67mb)
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein pt 2. ( 60min mp3 79mb)

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Hello,

Today's artists are an English gothic rock band, formed in London, England in 1982. The current lineup of the band consists of Nik Fiend and Mrs. Fiend. The band became known in the gothic scene for its dark, electronic industrial-leaning sound, heavy samples, loops, dub remixes and manic vocals. Five of the group's albums and 12 of their singles reached top 20 positions in the UK charts in the period up to 1987.. ......N'Joy

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One of the earliest groups to be labeled goth rock, Alien Sex Fiend are among the genre's most theatrical acts. They're also one of its most humorous, preferring a campy B-movie aesthetic to the dourness or morbidity of many of their peers. Heavily influenced by the Cramps, Alice Cooper, glam rock, punk, and psychedelia, the group's performances are ghoulish spectacles, and their boundlessly creative music combines heavy electronic beats and noisy guitars with warped, dubby effects and samples. Alternately referred to as goth, deathrock, post-punk, or industrial, ASF are ultimately a category unto themselves. The group was highly prolific throughout the '80s, releasing fan-favorite full-lengths such as Acid Bath (1984) and "It" the Album (1986), in addition to numerous remix-filled singles and EPs, showcasing the group's penchant for experimentation. ASF incorporated several electronic dance music styles into their sound before other goth and industrial acts did; the 1989 single "Haunted House" lived up to its name, while the group embraced techno and trance on '90s releases such as Inferno (The Odyssey Continues) (1994). In the 21st century, albums such as Information Overload (2004) and Possessed (2018) have even worked in traces of dancehall and drum'n'bass.

Alien Sex Fiend's origins lie in the Batcave, an influential London club acknowledged as the birthplace of goth culture. Nick Wade, who worked at the Batcave, dubbed himself Nik Fiend and founded the band in 1982, along with his wife Christine Wade (aka Mrs. Fiend), who played synth, as well as guitarist Yaxi Highrizer (born David James) and drummer Johnny "Ha Ha" Freshwater. Prior to forming ASF, Wade had previously been a member of the punk band Demon Preacher as well as Alice Cooper-inspired groups the Earwigs and Mr. & Mrs. Demeanour.

Following some obscure early cassettes, Alien Sex Fiend made their proper debut with the 1983 single "Ignore the Machine," a favorite among goth club denizens; this preceded the full-length Who's Been Sleeping in My Brain? A series of indie chart hits followed in 1984, including "R.I.P.,""Dead and Buried," and "E.S.T. (Trip to the Moon)" (the world's first 11" single). The success of the album Acid Bath further increased the group's visibility, and Alien Sex Fiend became major stars in Japan, resulting in the 1985 live release Liquid Head in Tokyo.

Following the departure of Johnny Ha Ha, the group continued as a trio to record 1985's bleak Maximum Security. After the following year's "It" the Album, released to coincide with Alien Sex Fiend's opening slot on Alice Cooper's Nightmare Returns tour, they recorded 1987's Here Cum Germs, the final offer to feature Yaxi Highrizer. Now essentially a duo, the Fiends explored more synth- and sample-oriented territory on 1988's Another Planet, a trend continued on 1990's Curse, which featured the minor hit "Now I'm Feeling Zombified."

With a revitalized lineup including new guitarist Rat Fink Jr. and keyboardist Doc Milton, Alien Sex Fiend resurfaced in 1992 with Open Head Surgery. After a 1993 live album, Altered States of America, ASF (back to being the duo of Nik and Mrs. Fiend) composed the music for the CD-ROM game Inferno. Released as Inferno (The Odyssey Continues), the album was a venture into instrumental electronic music. With the release of the compilation The Singles 1983-1995, the band's affiliation with longtime label Anagram ended, and the Fiends soon established their own 13th Moon Records imprint. The trance-influenced 1996 EP Evolution found Alien Sex Fiend traveling even further away from their goth beginnings into the realm of electronica, a move continued on 1997's Nocturnal Emissions.

Following numerous compilations and live releases, including the 1999 retrospective Fiend at the Controls, Vols. 1-2, ASF returned with 2004's Information Overload, an adventurous update of the group's sound. Para-Abnormal, a CD of remixes and rarities, followed in 2006. The group's next full-length was delayed due to deaths in the family and other personal issues, but ASF re-emerged with Death Trip in 2010. In 2015, Cherry Red released Classic Albums and BBC Sessions Collection, the first of two comprehensive box sets of the band's early material. These were followed by the generous triple-CD package Fiendology in 2017. Possessed, Alien Sex Fiend's first studio album in eight years, appeared in 2018.

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The is the CD version of the self-produced "Maximum Security" LP plus four bonus tracks.
This Alien album is a dark and oppressive. It's a further exploration of the electronic realms opened up by Acid Bath. This time around the deathrock angle to the band's sound fades away as the album is increasingly less interested in guitar and more interested in esoteric electronic pulsations that end up outstaying their welcome before too long.At times the Cramps aren't far away

Alien Sex Fiend - The First Compact Disc (flac 393mb)

01 I'm Doing Time In A Maximum Security Twilight Home 6:00
02 Mine's Full Of Maggots 5:45
03 Do You Sleep? 4:04
04 In And Out Of My Mind 4:48
05 Spies 4:45
06 Fly In The Ointment 3:46
07 Seconds To Nowhere 2:38
08 The Beaver Destroys Forests 1:28
09 Do You Sleep?? (Not Of One Mind) 3:58
10 Depravity Lane 5:38
bonus
11 E.S.T. (Trip To The Moon) 4:30
12 Boneshaker Baby 3:31
13 Ignore The Machine (Electrode Mix) 5:08
14 Attack!!! 8:29

Alien Sex Fiend - The First Compact D (ogg 144mb)

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Tightening up the electronic experiments of the previous album and blasting off into uncharted territory, Alien Sex Fiend's It: the Album is a deathrock-tinged electro-dance-goth maelstrom. There's nothing wrong with noise, particularly ugly noise, but greater successes were being enjoyed elsewhere at the time and what remains of the band's punkish roots often gets in the way of proceedings - plus almost all the tracks outstay their welcome, with the exception of the Sisters of Mercy-baiting Smells Like.

Alien Sex Fiend - It The Album (flac 470mb)

01 Smells Like... 5:47
02 Manic Depression 13:04
03 Believe It Or Not 4:48
04 April Showers / Wop-Bop 9:12
05 Get Into It 3:42
06 Lesson One 3:37
07 Do It Right 5:05
08 To Be Continued... 00:42
bonus
09 Buggin' Me 3:39
10 I Walk The Line 4:50
11 Here She Comes 3:49
12 Can't Stop Smoking 5:04
13 In God We Trust (Live At The BBC) 4:21
14 E.S.T. (Trip To The Moon) (Live At The BBC) 5:51

Alien Sex Fiend - It The Album (ogg 171mb)

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Here Cum Germs finds Alien Sex Fiend drifting even further from their death rock origins, and those coming in expecting something like Who's Been Sleeping In My Brain? are going to be bitterly disappointed. With soundscapes regularly approaching the industrial, although with a bit more punk swagger and Fiendish humour, it is an interesting listen, though it at points feels more like transitional sketches than a fully developed album. Distorted sound collages over dance beats. Lyrics mostly rather minimal. Sounds a little like what would happen if the Stooges got together with PiL, ran into Syd Barrett and irritated him until he started emitting strange noises. Alien Sex Fiend's cartoonish electro goth has its moments; charmingly simplistic and amateurish, ASF sounds at times like Skinny Puppy's goofy little brother. On Here Cum Germs, most of the ideas are unfocused and undeveloped; the songs usually consist of primitive drum loops, samples, some stray guitars, found-sound atmospherics, and Nik Fiend's silly rants and chants. Still, it's good antisocial music to annoy your parents or neighbors with.

Alien Sex Fiend - Here Cum Germs (flac 361mb)

01 The Impossible Mission 4:24
02 Here Cum Germs (Ravi-Mix #9) 3:30
03 Here Cum Germs (Vocal) 2:56
04 Isolation 7:07
05 My Brain Is In The Cupboard Above The Kitchen Sink 3:35
06 You Are Soul 5:58
07 Death 5:38
08 Boots On! 11:51
09 Camel, Camel 2:58
10 They All Call Me Crazee 5:32
11 Stuff The Turkey 3:55

Alien Sex Fiend - Here Cum Germs (ogg 147mb)

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Alien Sex Field were always one of the more "out there" goth acts, taking the whole walking-corpse thing to a ridiculous extreme. The music is just as much performance art as music. "I Walk the Line" isn't the Johnny Cash song, but a swaggering punkish goth rock track. "School's Out" is a brash Alice Cooper cover. "Here She Comes" is a demented rock track, sort of like The Cramps. "Can't Stop Smoking" channels the Cramps again, a knuckleheaded Addams Family style organ-grinder track. Highly unique and enjoyable EP.

Alien Sex Fiend - I Walk the Line - The Impossible Mission (flac 180mb)

01 I Walk The Line 4:50
02 School's Out 3:15
03 Here She Comes 3:52
04 I Can't Stop Smoking 5:06
The Impossible Mission EP
05 The Impossible Mission 4:22
06 My Brain Is In The Cupboard - Above The Kitchen Sink 3:29
07 The Impossible Mission # 2 4:22

(ogg mb)

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Hello, .

Today's artist is one of Cuba’s most influential bands. Founded in 1973, they created a sound that mixed jazz, European traditional music, rock, funk with the rhythmic Cuban tradition, enriched with Afro-Cuban and electronic influences. Many of the best Cuban musicians have played in the band during the past decades. .......N'Joy

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Irakere (faux-Yoruba for 'forest' is a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés (son of Bebo Valdés) in 1973. They won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Recording in 1980 with their album Irakere They were a seminal musical laboratory, where historic innovations in both Afro-Cuban jazz and Cuban popular dance music were created. The group used a wide array of percussion instruments like batá, abakuá and arará drums, chequerés, erikundis, maracas, claves, cencerros, bongó, tumbadoras (congas), and güiro.

"Jazz bands" began forming in Cuba as early as the 1920s. These bands often included both Cuban popular music and popular North American jazz, and show tunes in their repertoires. Despite this musical versatility, the movement of blending Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz was not strong in Cuba itself for decades. As Leonardo Acosta observes: "Afro-Cuban jazz developed simultaneously in New York and Havana, with the difference that in Cuba it was a silent and almost natural process, practically imperceptible" (2003: 59). Cuba's significant contribution to the genre came relatively late. However, when it did come, the Cubans exhibited a level of Cuban-jazz integration that went far beyond most of what had come before. The first Cuban band of this new wave was Irakere.

With Irakere, a new era in Cuban jazz begins in 1973, one that will extend all the way to the present. At the same time, this period represents the culmination of a series of individual and collective efforts from our so-called transition period, which will end with the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna. Irakere was in part a product of the Moderna, as its founding members completed their musical training in that orchestra and also played jazz in the different quartets and quintets that were created with the OCMM. Among the founders of Irakere were pianist Chucho Valdés, its director since the beginning; saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, who acted as assistant director; trumpet player Jorge Varona; guitarist Carlos Emilio Morales; bassist Carlos del Puerto; drummer Bernardo García; and percussionist Oscar Valdés II, also a singer—Acosta.

That was a time where jazz music was a four-letter word in Cuba – literally! After many years of that thought, in 1967, they decided to create the Orquesta [Cubana de Música Moderna]. There were a lot of left wing people going to Cuba, attending congresses and visiting. So the government decided to create an image that jazz was not forbidden and that nothing was forbidden there. So they created the Orquesta to play American music – that is incredible. It was to create a different image than what they had created all those years. So they created the Orquesta. I directed the band for two years. . . . When I decided that I wanted to play only jazz in the Orquesta, then I got fired . . . . and after a while, the Orquesta ceased to achieve the function that it was created for and it disappeared—D'Rivera

Irakere, which was founded by members of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, has always been an eclectic band. From the beginning, the group showcased the scope of their uniquely Cuban music education: Afro-Cuban folkloric music, Cuban popular dance music, funk, jazz, and even classical music. The early years saw a lot of experimenting, with the mixing these different genres in original ways. From the vantage point of today, some of Irakere's early experiments sound awkward and don't mesh. On the other hand, some early experiments by the group were musical landmarks, that began entirely new traditions.
"Cubanized" bebop-flavored horn lines

"Chékere-son" (1976) for example, introduced a style of "Cubanized" bebop-flavored lines, that departed from the more "angular" guajeo-based lines typical of Cuban popular music. The horn line style introduced in "Chékere-son" is heard today in Afro-Cuban jazz, and the contemporary popular dance genre known as timba.

Another important Irakere contribution is their use of batá and other Afro-Cuban folkloric drums. "Bacalao con pan" is the first song recorded by Irakere to use batá. The tune combines the folkloric drums, jazzy dance music, and distorted electric guitar with wah-wah pedal. According to UC Irvine musicologist and Irakere expert Raúl A. Fernández, the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna members would not have been allowed by the orquesta to record the unconventional song. The musicians travelled to Santiago to record it. "somehow the tune made it from Santiago to radio stations in Havana where it became a hit; Irakere was formally organized a little bit later"

Ironically, several of the founding members did not always appreciate Irakere's fusion of jazz and Afro-Cuban elements. They saw the Cuban folk elements as a type of nationalistic "fig leaf," cover for their true love—jazz. They were obsessed with jazz. The fusing of Afro-Cuban elements with jazz in Irakere is a direct consequence of the poor relations between the Cuban and United States governments. Cuba's Ministry of Culture is said to have viewed jazz as the music of "imperialist America." Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval states: "We wanted to play bebop, but we were told that our drummer couldn’t even use cymbals, because they sounded 'too jazzy.' We eventually used congas and cowbells instead, and in the end, it helped us to come up with something new and creative" (2007: web).[8] Pablo Menéndez, founder of Mezcla, recalls: "Irakere were jazz musicians who played stuff like 'Bacalao con pan' with a bit of a tongue in cheek attitude—'for the masses.' I remember Paquito d'Rivera thought it was pretty funny stuff (as opposed to 'serious' stuff)" (2011: web).[9] In spite of the ambivalence by some members towards Irakere's Afro-Cuban folkloric/jazz fusion, their experiments forever changed Cuban popular music, Latin jazz, and salsa. As D'Rivera states: "We didn’t know that we were going to have such an impact in jazz and Latin music around the world. We were just working to do something good"

In 1977 Irakere performed at two jazz festivals held in the "Eastern Bloc"—the Belgrade Jazz Festival and the Warsaw Jazz Jamboree. The group had the opportunity to play along with jazz artists Betty Carter, Mel Lewis and Thad Jones. That same year several jazz legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, and Earl Hines travelled to Cuba on a "jazz cruise." This was the first time since the break in relations between Cuba and the United States that a group of jazz musicians from each country were able to play together. In Havana, members of Irakere had the good fortune to jam with Gillespie and Getz. Gillespie later told the press that he had fulfilled a long-standing wish to visit the island, homeland of his close friend and partner Chano Pozo. In 1980 Irakere appeared at both the Newport Jazz Festival in New York City and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Columbia Records edited an album of five tracks recorded at the two festivals. The LP was titled Irakere, and was released by both CBS Records and EGREM. The album had two sets of liner notes, one by the North American John Storm Roberts and the other by Cuban Leonardo Acosta. Irakere won a Grammy in 1979 for the best "Latin" music recording in the United States. Following this success, the band participated in the most important international jazz festivals. At the 1995 Afrocubanismo Festival at the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada, Irakere performed their piece "Xiomara" live on stage with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas and Changuito (!Afrocubanismo Live!).

In the 1980s Irakere recorded dance music, rhythmically akin to the contemporaneous style known as songo. This body of material can be seen as a type of bridge, connecting the songo era with the timba era which began in the early 1990s. One of the more popular Irakere dance tunes is "Rucu rucu a Santa Clara" (1985), written by José Luis Cortés "El Tosco," who would later found NG La Banda, and launch the timba movement. Trumpeter José Crego "El Greco," and saxophonists Carlos Averhoff and Germán Velazco, are heard playing the bop-like horn lines in this dance music. The three wind players would later go on to become part of NG La Banda's "metales de terror" horn section, the basic template for timba horns. Irakere continued recording dance pieces into the 1990s.

With Babalú Ayé (1997), the band fully embraced timba, the new genre which had directly resulted in part, from Irakere's innovations two decades earlier. The CD, which was nominated for a Grammy, features singer and timbales player José Miguel. In contrast to the impeccably executed dance music on the CD, Babalú Ayé also contains a long "bonus track"—"Babalú Ayé'," a loose folkloric/jazz experiment featuring the legendary lead vocalist Lazaro Ros. In 1997 Chucho Valdés left the group, and Chucho's son Chuchito took over the piano chair and the role of director between 1997 and 1999.

Irakere's jazz legacy

Paquito D'Rivera defected to the United States in 1980. Arturo Sandoval left the group a year later, and then defected to the United States in 1990. Both musicians have commented on the joy they felt, at being able to finally pursue jazz careers in the United States, and the honor of playing alongside their jazz heroes. As is typical of Cuban jazz musicians who defect to the U.S., their jazz playing fully matured when they moved to the country where jazz was born. As time went on, D'Rivera began looking back, and gained a deeper appreciation for the music of his first home. In 1994 he stated that he fell in love with Cuban music again on the shores of the Hudson River. Since he left Cuba, D'Rivera has recorded several albums with Cuban themes, including La Habana-Rio Conexión (1992), 40 Years of Cuban Jam Session (1994), Habanera Absolute Ensemble (1999), and Tropicana Nights (1999). Sandoval, who was once threatened with imprisonment by the Cuban government for listening to American jazz on the radio, has recorded albums of both straight-ahead jazz, and jazz with a strong Cuban influence. Chucho Valdés has also pursued a successful jazz career, recording for the prestigious Blue Note jazz label.

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Don't even think this is your daddy's two-step mambo! This live album is nothing but hardcore Cuban jazz fusion, furiously rolling forward with a potent mix of fat analog synths, poly-rhythmic Afro-Cuban percussion and blasts of bombastic brass. The musicians on this LP are legendary not became they're placid Buena Vista socialites but because they deliver the goods with the precision of a prog group and the gusto of a neighborhood dance band.

Irakere - Chekere (flac 272mb)

01 Juana Mil Ciento 6:28
02 Ilya 9:16
03 Adagio 5:43
04 Misa Negra (The Black Mass) 17:36
05 Aguanile 4:56

Irakere - Chekere (ogg 150mb)

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North American Latin jazz audiences were knocked out when this LP came out, for it was the first idea many of us had of the explosive power of this Cuban jazz/rock band, which had been let briefly out of Cuba to tour. Columbia taped them live at New York's Newport Festival and Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival, and the result was a noisy, ambitious, frenzied, tremendously exciting mixture of everything but the kitchen sink. Co-founder, keyboardist and arranger Chucho Valdes was as thoroughly attuned to the thumping electric bass, the careening buzz of a synthesizer and bell-like electric piano as he was to his homeland's complex rhythms and his own classical training -- and despite the cultural embargo, the 11-piece group was in touch with then-current developments in American jazz/rock. "Juana Mil Ciento," curiously the only track not available on CD, comes roaring out of the box with an incendiary mix of battering Cuban drumming, Arturo Sandoval's wild trumpet and Paquito D'Rivera's wailing alto. Paquito also contributes a free-floating, sometimes slapstick fantasy on themes of Mozart. The most audacious number is the 17 1/2-minute "Black Mass," which unleashes Valdes' staggering classical piano technique, knockabout rock guitar, Cuban chanting, high-wire brass, and lots of drums without somehow losing its train of thought.

Irakere - Live At Newport And Montreux (flac 247mb)

01 Juana Mil Ciento 6:28
02 Ilyá 9:16
03 Adagio 5:43
04 Misa Negra 17:36
05 Aguanile 4:56

Irakere - Live At Newport And Montreux (ogg 104mb)

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Tracks 1-7 were recorded in La Havana at Egrem Recording Studios in 1978, and released that year in Cuba on the Areito LP Grupo Irakere (Areito LD-3660, which furthermore included the track Juana 1600, not compiled on this CD). Tracks 8-13 were recorded in New York City at CBS Recording Studio in 1980 and released on US Columbia LP Irakere 2 Essential to understand and enjoy both Cuban music and Latin jazz history.

Irakere - Chekere-Son (Best Of Irakere 1978/80) (flac 504mb)

01 Chekere-Son 6:49
02 38 1/2 5:12
03 En Nosotros 4:24
04 Moja El Pan 3:53
05 Este Camino Largo 6:55
06 Xiomara 3:53
07 Iya 5:35
08 Claudia 6:06
09 Ayer Te Conoci 5:15
10 Añung Añunga 6:10
11 Baila Mi Ritmo 5:12
12 Ciento Años De Juventud 7:47
13 Por Romper El Coco5:23

Irakere - Chekere-Son (Best Of Irakere 1978/80) (ogg 202mb)

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The band's sound is a lush but quirky synthesis of Valdes' Afro-Cuban heritage and early classical training, plus bebop jazz and brass charts borrowed from Blood, Sweat, & Tears. He draws heavily upon Cuban folk sources, traditional rhythms, and country dances, but is just as likely to channel the spirits of Dizzie Gillespie or Charlie Parker or co-author a tune with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig Von Beethoven, or the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona. The tunes on this album include everything from romantic ballroom ballads to incendiary Latin hip-swivelers to nostalgic big band arrangements to vocoder- and synth-embellished electronica, but every note is pure, robustly original Irakere. Variaciones sobre la ópera La molinaria (Beethoven - Chucho Valdés) - Siete tazas de café (Chucho Valdés) - Que se sepa, yo soy de La Habana (Oscar Valdés) - My Revery (Debussy - Chucho Valdés) - Los Caramelos (Gregorio Battle) / Chucho Valdés e Irakere - Musical direction and orchestrations, Chucho Valdés.

Irakere - Irakere (flac 232mb)

01 Variaciones Sobre La Opera "La Molinaria" 9:38
02 Siete Tazas De Café 7:48
03 Que Se Sepa Yo Soy De La Habana 5:26
04 My Reverie 6:18
05 Los Caramelos 6:48

Irakere - Irakere (ogg 100mb)

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Hello, the final Stax count down here, it's been an extensive series

Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It was a major factor in the creation of Southern soul and Memphis soul music. Stax also released gospel, funk, and blues recordings. Renowned for its output of blues music, the label was founded by two siblings and business partners, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton (STewart/AXton = Stax). It featured several popular ethnically integrated bands (including the label's house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s) and a racially integrated team of staff and artists unprecedented in that time of racial strife and tension in Memphis and the South.

According to ethnomusicologist Rob Bowman, the label's use of "one studio, one equipment set-up, the same set of musicians and a small group of songwriters led to a readily identifiable sound. It was a sound based in black gospel, blues, country, and earlier forms of rhythm and blues. It became known as southern soul music."

Following the death of Stax's biggest star, Otis Redding, in 1967, and the severance of the label's distribution deal with Atlantic Records in 1968, Stax continued primarily under the supervision of a new co-owner, Al Bell. Over the next five years, Bell expanded the label's operations significantly, in order to compete with Stax's main rival, Motown Records in Detroit. During the mid-1970s, a number of factors, including a problematic distribution deal with CBS Records, caused the label to slide into insolvency, resulting in its forced closure in late 1975.

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As the last installment in the three-volume document of the complete Stax-Volt singles, Vol. 3: 1972-1975 is the weakest of the series. During those four years, the label was winding down, since it was unable to successfully make the transition from gritty soul to smoother soul and disco. Their older artists couldn't handle the newer sound, and the newer artists were generally saddled with undistinguished songs. In other words, there weren't many great singles from this era. While the sound of the set is pleasant, evoking both the funky and smooth soul of the early '70s quite well, but too rarely particularly noteworthy. There's about a disc and a half worth of prime material scattered across this set, and only die-hard collectors and fetishists will have the patience to find them. Still, those dedicated listeners will find the box a nice way to conclude the series, since it is a well-produced and comprehensive set, even if the music itself is uneven.

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol.3 6 (flac 442mb)

601 The Newcomers - The Martian Hop 2:54
602 Inez Foxx - I Had A Talk With My Man 3:56
603 The Temprees - At Last 2:57
604 Isaac Hayes - Joy (Part 1) 4:35
605 Hot Sauce - Good Woman Turning Bad 2:48
606 John KaSandra - Mose (Part 3) 5:35
607 Rufus Thomas - I'll Be Your Santa Baby 3:34
608 Eddie Floyd - I Wanna Do Things For You 3:27
609 Albert King - That's What The Blues Is All About 3:45
610 Carolyn Hurley - One Way Love Affair 4:17
611 Little Milton - Tin Pan Alley 3:33
612 Rufus Thomas - The Funky Bird 3:26
613 Johnnie Taylor - We're Getting Careless With Our Love 4:01
614 The Emotions - What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas 3:24
615 Cix Bits - Season's Greetings 3:21
616 Eric Mercury - Don't Lose Faith In Me Lord 3:30
617 Veda Brown - Don't Start Loving Me (If You're Gonna Stop) 3:49
618 The Staple Singers - Touch A Hand, Make A Friend 3:26
619 The Dramatics - And I Panicked 3:34
620 Joy Fleming - Change It All 3:21

VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 06 (ogg 170mb)

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VA - The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 07 (flac 422mb)

701 William Bell - Gettin' What You Want (Losin' What You Got) 3:29
702 Jacqui Verdell - He's Mine 3:43
703 Little Sonny - My Woman Is Good To Me 2:50
704 David Porter - I Got You And I'm Glad 3:08
705 The Emotions - Put A Little Love Away 3:10
706 Frederick Knight - Suzy 3:31
707 Mel & Tim - The Same Folks 3:10
708 The Temprees - You Make The Sunshine 3:28
709 John Gary Williams - The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy 3:12
710 Inez Foxx - Circuit's Overloaded 3:46
711 Isaac Hayes - Wonderful 3:37
712 Little Milton - Behind Closed Doors 3:57
713 Eddie Floyd - Guess Who 3:20
714 The Sweet Inspirations - Dirty Tricks 3:03
715 Roebuck "Pops" Staples - Whicha Way Did It Go 3:10
716 Black Nasty - Talking To The People 2:43
717 Johnnie Taylor - I've Been Born Again 3:18
718 The MGs - Neckbone 2:58
719 Sandra Wright - Wounded Woman 2:31
720 Hot Sauce - Stop Doggin' Me 3:45
721 Kim Weston - Goodness Gracious 2:53

VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 07 (ogg 165mb)

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VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 08 (flac 454mb)

801 The Staple Singers - Cty In The Sky 3:40
802 Isaac Hayes - Title Theme 2:32
803 Eddie Floyd - Soul Street 3:25
804 Albert King - Flat Tire 4:18
805 The Soul Children - Love Makes It Right 3:12
806 The Temprees - Mr. Cool That Ain't Cool 2:53
807 Rufus Thomas - Boogie Ain't Nuttin' (But Gettin' Down) (Part 1) 2:55
808 Ron Banks & The Dramatics - Highway To Heaven 3:55
809 William Bell - Get It While It's Hot 3:13
810 Frederick Knight - Passing Thru 3:12
811 The Newcomers - Keep An Eye On Your Close Friends 3:08
812 The Staple Singers - My Main Man / There Is A God 5:05
813 Mel & Tim - That's The Way I Want To Live My Life 4:42
814 Mel & Tim - Forever And A Day 3:44
815 The Emotions - Baby, I'm Through 3:10
816 Johnnie Taylor - It's September 3:54
817 Shirley Brown - Woman To Woman 3:21
818 Randy Brown & Company - Did You Hear Yourself (Part 1) 2:54
819 Annette Thomas - You Need A Friend Like Mine 2:54
820 The Temprees - I Love, I Love 3:30
821 Little Milton - Let Me Back In 3:00

VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 08 (ogg 173mb)

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VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 09 (flac 437mb)

901 Albert King - Crosscut Saw 2:48
902 The Bar-Kays - Coldblooded 3:09
903 Sir Mack Rice - Bump Meat 2:41
904 The Newcomers - (Too Little In Common To Be Lovers) Too Much Going To Say Goodbye 3:31
905 The Wrecking Crew - Bump And Boogie (Part 1) 2:53
906 The Soul Children - What's Happening Baby (Part 1) 2:48
907 The Staple Singers - Who Made The Man 4:10
908 Brook Benton - I Keep Thinking To Myself 3:14
909 Eddie Floyd - I Got A Reason To Smile (Cause I Got You) 3:15
910 Bessie Banks - Try To Leave Me If You Can (I Bet You Can't Do It) 4:32
911 Willie Singleton - Burning On Both Ends 2:52
912 The Emotions - There Are More Questions Than Answers 3:30
913 Albert King - Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin' 3:01
914 Hot Sauce - I Can't Let You Go 3:10
915 Frederick Knight - I Betcha Didn't Know That 2:59
916 Sandra Wright - Lovin' You, Lovin' Me 3:30
917 Rufus Thomas - Do The Double Bump 3:07
918 The Temprees - Come And Get Your Love 3:15
919 Sir Mack Rice - Dark Skin Woman (Part 1) 3:05
920 Shirley Brown - It Ain't No Fun 5:24
921 Little Milton - If You Talk In Your Sleep 2:40
922 Eddie Floyd - Talk To The Man 2:58

VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 09 (ogg 173mb)

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VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 10 (flac 383mb)

1001 Barbara & Joe - You're Astounding 3:01
1002 The Green Brothers - Dy-No-Mite (Did You Say My Love) 2:59
1003 The Dynamic Soul Machine - Boom-A-Rang 3:32
1004 John Gary Williams - Come What May 3:25
1005 Johnnie Taylor - Try Me Tonight 3:20
1006 Freddie Waters - Groovin' On My Baby's Love 2:40
1007 The Fiestas - I Can't Shake Your Love (Can't Shake You Loose) 3:43
1008 Frederick Knight - I Wanna Play With You 2:43
1009 Albert King - I'm Doing Fine 3:25
1010 Teresa Davis - No Way (I Can Live Without You) 3:12
1011 The Staple Singers - Back Road Into Town 4:13
1012 Eddie Floyd - I'm So Glad I Met You 3:19
1013 Little Milton - Packed Up And Took My Mind 3:44
1014 Johnnie Taylor - Just Keep On Loving Me 2:59
1015 R.B. Hudmon - How Can I Be A Witness 3:04
1016 Rufus Thomas - Jump Back '75 (Part 1) 3:30
1017 The Staple Singers - I Got To Be Myself 3:41
1018 Shirley Brown - It's Worth A Whippin' 3:35
1019 The Bar-Kays - Holy Ghost (Part 1) 2:45

VA - Complete Stax-Volt Singles, Vol. 3 10 (ogg 149mb)

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Hello, lots of Unkle this week, expect UnkleSounds on Friday's groove

Today's Artist a British musical outfit founded in 1992 by James Lavelle. Originally categorized as trip hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have employed a variety of guest artists and producers. . .......N'Joy

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Experimental hip-hop outfit UNKLE were one of the original artists releasing material through noted U.K. label Mo' Wax, which helped launch the mid-'90s instrumental downtempo breakbeat revival eventually termed trip-hop. Though hardly the label's highest-profile group (at least until the long-delayed release of their debut LP in 1998), UNKLE's members included label head James Lavelle, who formed Mo' Wax while still in his teens as an antidote to the increasingly stale acid jazz/Northern soul scene. Stripping the music down to its barest of essentials -- bass, percussion, minimal samples, and heavy effects -- the Mo' Wax sound (best exemplified by the second Mo' Wax label comp, Headz, as well as its sequel, the two-part Headz II) quickly gained respectability and a large audience. Although not as prolific as other Mo' Wax artists such as DJs Shadow and Krush, UNKLE nonetheless played a crucial role in cementing Mo' Wax's early sound through their Time Has Come double EP, which featured remixes of the title track by Plaid, Portishead, and U2 producer Howie B.

The UNKLE trio was comprised of Lavelle, Tim Goldsworthy (a mate of Lavelle's since childhood), and producer Kudo, of seminal Japanese label Major Force. Prior to his entry into production, Lavelle, along with Goldsworthy, was deep into New York hip-hop and electro, the emerging late-'80s Sheffield bleep scene, the English acid jazz scene (which he covered as a columnist for Straight No Chaser magazine), and of course the acid house and techno explosions that were redefining English counterculture at the time. The pair hooked up with third member Kudo through the growing rep of the latter's Love T.K.O. project, whose outbound interpretations of breakbeat and acid jazz drew Lavelle's ear. While Goldsworthy and Kudo remained more heavily involved in nuts 'n' bolts production (especially given the success of Mo' Wax, with the penning of an expansive partial ownership deal with A&M Records in 1996), Lavelle was heavily involved in the conceptual and organizational end, crafting beats and laying out vague sketches his partners then expanded into full-blown tracks.

Despite the scarcity of released material, UNKLE grew to wider acclaim during 1996 through remix projects for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Tortoise. After Goldsworthy and Kudo were effectively replaced by Mo' Wax bill-payer DJ Shadow, the all-star LP Psyence Fiction finally appeared in 1998. Lavelle replaced Goldsworthy and Kudo by Mo' Wax bill-payer DJ Shadow drafted him in to work on the debut album, and essentially discarded all previously recorded material. Lavelle and Shadow released Psyence Fiction in 1998 to critical acclaim. The album included collaborations with an all-star lineup including Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Mark Hollis (Talk Talk), Mike D (Beastie Boys), Kool G Rap, Jason Newsted (Metallica), Badly Drawn Boy and Richard Ashcroft (The Verve). The album was mixed by Shadow's long-time collaborator, producer Jim Abbiss.
Shadow left the group after touring Psyence Fiction and was replaced by turntablist group the Scratch Perverts, who deconstructed the album and performed it live on turntables in 1999. Also in 1999, former producer Rich File remixed the track "Unreal", adding vocals by Ian Brown, and the resulting track was released as the single "Be There". .

Lavelle, amid much work as a DJ, recruited singer/songwriter Richard File for the second UNKLE full-length, 2003's Never, Never, Land. Four years later, Lavelle and File returned with War Stories, including collaborators from the past (Josh Homme) and new associates (Ian Astbury, Chris Goss) to contribute to the heaviest-sounding UNKLE release to date. File departed and was replaced with writer, producer, and longtime Mo' Wax associate Pablo Clements (of Psychonauts). A pair of odds 'n' ends collections, More Stories and End Titles...Stories for Film (both released in 2008), featured old and new material, including music from UNKLE's soundtrack to the documentary Odyssey in Rome. In 2009, the "Heavy Drug" single announced the coming of their organic, band-oriented 2010 album Where Did the Night Fall (Another Night Out). The duo's release schedule picked up once more with the 2013 release of an EP titled Trance Film. UNKLE returned in 2017 with their sixth studio effort, The Road, Vol. 1. The record once again featured a whole host of collaborators such as Mark Lanegan, ESKA, Keaton Henson, and Andrew Innes of Primal Scream.

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With a subtitle referencing Sun Ra and a cover splashed with the bright, abstract figures of old-school graffiti artist Futura 2000, UNKLE's The Time Has Come EP (closer to a mini-album at over 40min in length) is a sprawling bouillabaisse of influences, all impeccably arranged. Hip-hop, funk, and jazz are of course the most obvious, but the soundtracky deviations of ambient, as well as hitting electro-boogie and spy movie theme music (particularly on Portishead's remix) also figure in. Remixes from Plaid and Howie B also make this one of the tastiest, most varied release in the Mo' Wax catalog. A truly great abstract hiphop record.

Berry Meditation sees UNKLE leader James Lavelle exploring a circa-"Nights Interlude" Nightmares on Wax vibe. Though "Berry Meditation" never matches the atmosphere or innovation of "Nights Interlude," the fact that this EP doesn't overstay its welcome through more than 20 minutes of the same general melody and tone is a good sign that Lavelle knew what he was doing in the studio. The original version, track one here, is the most compelling. The song consists of repeated high-pitched synth notes, throbbing bass, and various tweaked electronics. The "Last Ever Mix" starts out lazy and slow, but turns into a shuffling, flanged drum'n'bass excursion. Lavelle piles on sci-fi sound effects, many of them seemingly originating in a plumbing pipe. The "Darker the Berry the Sweeter the Juice Mix," a remix by Attica Blues, wastes a minute on random ambient sounds before breaking down the original song into a minimalist form, punctuated by heavy drums and space-station blippery. Berry Meditation might not be Mo' Wax's finest 20 minutes, but label leader James Lavelle takes tiny steps toward a credible music-making career of his own with the EP.

UNKLE - The Time Has Come + Berry Meditation EP's (flac 350mb)

01 If You Find The Earth Boring (U.N.K.L.E Mix) 14:00
02 If You Find The Earth Boring (Portishead Plays U.N.K.L.E Mix) 4:22
03 If You Find The Earth Boring (Howie B Vs U.N.K.L.E Mix) 10:46
04 Coffeehouse Conversation (Plaid Mix) 5:19
05 Sassafrass (Plaid Mix) 8:11
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06 Berry Meditation (Original Mix) 7:35
07 Berry Meditation (Last Ever Mix) 7:13
08 Berry Meditation (The Darker The Berry The Sweeter The Juice Mix) 5:22

UNKLE - The Time Has Come + Berry Meditation EP's (ogg 139mb)

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James Lavelle and DJ Shadow are unequal partners in UNKLE, with the former providing the concept and the latter providing music, which naturally overshadows the concept, since the only clear concept -- apart from futuristic sound effects, video-game samples, and merging trip-hop with rock -- is collaborating with a variety of musicians, from superstars to cult favorites Kool G Rap, Alice Temple, and Mark Hollis (who provides uncredited piano on "Chaos"). Since Shadow's prime gift is for instrumentals, the prospect of him collaborating with vocalists is more intriguing than enticing, and Psyence Fiction is appropriately divided between brilliance and failed experiments. Shadow and Lavelle aren't breaking new territory here -- beneath the harder rock edge, full-fledged songs, and occasional melodicism, the album stays on the course Endtroducing... set. Shadow isn't given room to run wild with his soundscapes, and only a couple of cuts, such as the explosive opener, "Guns Blazing," equal the sonic collages of his debut. Initially, that may be a disappointment, but UNKLE gains momentum on repeated listens. Portions of the record still sound a little awkward -- Mike D's contribution suffers primarily from recycled Hello Nasty rhyme schemes -- yet those moments are overshadowed by Shadow's imagination and unpredictable highlights, such as Temple's chilly "Bloodstain" or Badly Drawn Boy's claustrophobic "Nursery Rhyme," as well as the masterstrokes fronted by Richard Ashcroft (a sweeping, neo-symphonic "Lonely Soul") and Thom Yorke (the moody "Rabbit in Your Headlights"). These moments might not add up to an overpowering record, but in some ways Psyence Fiction is something better -- a superstar project that doesn't play it safe and actually has its share of rich, rewarding music.

UNKLE - Psyence Fiction (flac 369mb)

01 Intro (Guns Blazing (Drums Of Death, Pt. 1) 5:04
02 Unkle (Main Title Theme) 3:26
03 Bloodstain 5:58
04 Unreal 5:10
05 Lonely Soul 8:55
06 Getting Ahead In The Lucrative Field Of Artist Management 0:56
07 Nursery Rhyme 4:47
08 Celestial Annihilation 4:47
09 The Knock (Guns Blazing (Drums Of Death, Pt. 2) 3:59
10 Chads 4:43
11 Rabbit In Your Headlight 6:19
12 Outro (Mandatory) 1:07
13 Be There 5.16

UNKLE - Psyence Fiction (ogg 128mb)

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UNKLE's much anticipated follow up to the superb and highly regarded Never Never Land becomes reality through War Stories - which enjoys a slight variation in style when compared to past projects, whilst still maintaining the trademark UNKLE rhythm and style. Weather it's trip-hop, progressive, trace or dance, UNKLE have managed to deliverer cutting edge sound and diversity once again to create an immersive and trippy audio experience. UNKLE full-lengths seem primed to make a major impact on music and culture. They're packed with high concept, dense with thematic elements ripped from the headlines (especially the war in Iraq), and this time out, include an artwork-packed booklet (featuring Massive Attack's Robert del Naja, Ben Drury, and Will Bankhead). War Stories finds the group, a core duo of Lavelle and Richard File, enlisting major production help from Chris Goss. Goss' work with Masters of Reality and Kyuss made the California/Arizona desert a haven for progressive metal, and its influence is all over this record. Fellow desert rat Josh Homme reprises his role from the last UNKLE full length, along with del Naja (as 3D), indie rockers Autolux, English neo-garage band the Duke Spirit, and finally, Ian Astbury (like Lavelle, another Englishman apparently fascinated with the American Southwest). Astbury's vocals on "Burn My Shadow" and "When Things Explode" make for a pair of highlights; they're one of the few points on War Stories when a hint of personality threatens to overwhelm the many tenebrous guitars and gloomy, plaintive vocals. Newcomer Gavin Clark also shines as a stand-in for Jeff Buckley, but amid the many features and incredible dynamism that mark every UNKLE full-length, War Stories is less interesting, less intelligent, and less enjoyable considering the standard we've come to expect from this project. This edition also included a bonus disc with instrumentals.

UNKLE - War Stories (flac 512mb)

01 Untitled 0:22
02 Chemistry 3:22
03 Hold My Hand 4:59
04 Restless 5:05
05 Keys To The Kingdom 4:45
06 Price You Pay 6:23
07 Burn My Shadow 4:57
08 Mayday 3:19
09 Persons & Machinery 6:05
10 Twilight 5:22
11 Morning Rage 5:15
12 Lawless 2:37
13 Broken 4:42
14 When Things Explode 5:20
15 Buying a Lie (feat. Lee Gorton) 4:25
16 Mistress (feat. Alice Temple) Tired of Sleeping 10:51

UNKLE - War Stories (ogg 188mb)

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UNKLE - War Stories Instrumental (flac 379mb)

01 Hold My Hand 4:59
02 Restless 5:05
03 Keys To The Kingdom 4:45
04 Price You Pay 6:23
05 Burn My Shadow 4:57
06 Mayday 3:19
07 Persons & Machinery 6:05
08 Twilight 5:22
09 Morning Rage 5:15
10 Lawless 2:37
11 Broken 4:42
12 When Things Explode 5:19

UNKLE - War Stories Instrumental (ogg 139mb)

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