Hello,


Today's artists had age, a pub rock pedigree, musical savvy, and long hair working against them – cardinal sins in a punk movement that was almost militaristic in its rigidness - but you’d be hard pressed to see how that hindered them.  .. ......N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Part of the idea behind punk rock was that anyone could play it, but while most folks took that to mean the young and inexperienced could pick up a guitar and bash out two or three chords, the concept worked the other way, too. The Vibrators were one of the early bands to break out on the London punk rock scene, and created one of the first classic albums to come out of U.K. punk. But as much as they tried to look like kids off the streets, their leader was anything but. Guitarist and singer Knox (aka Ian Carnochan) was the ripe old age of 31 when he launched the Vibrators, and he'd been playing in bands since his mid-teens. But if Knox was a bit long in the tooth to be part of the youth vanguard, he was also in it for the long haul, and he's kept the Vibrators alive and productive through dozens of lineup changes well into the 21st Century.

Knox was born in London on September 4, 1945, and grew up in the neighborhoods of Cricklewood and Watford. He was 13 when he first started playing guitar, and he played in a pair of bands with his schoolmates, the Renegades and Knox & the Knight Ryders. Knox was the rare British art school student who put his guitar away while he studied painting, but by 1972 he was playing again and performed on the fringes of the U.K. pub rock circuit. In 1976, as punk rock was growing from an underground phenomenon to the next big thing, Knox chose to get in on the action and formed the Vibrators, with himself on guitar and vocals, John Ellis on guitar, Pat Collier on bass, and a drummer who was identified as Eddie the Drummer (real name: John Edwards). The group quickly jumped out of the gate, opening shows for the Stranglers and the Sex Pistols and becoming regulars at one of London's first homes for punk, the 100 Club. Mickie Most signed the group to his RAK Records label, and they dropped their first single, "We Vibrate," in November 1976. The same month, they were Chris Spedding's backing band for his novelty take on punk, "Pogo Dancing." Before RAK could release a second Vibrators single, they were snapped up by Epic Records, which released the single "Baby Baby" in May 1977. A month later, Epic unveiled their debut album, Pure Mania, to strong reviews and respectable sales, rising to number 49 on the U.K. album charts. In 1977, they also were the support act for Iggy Pop's U.K. tour (with David Bowie backing Iggy on keyboards).

A mere ten months later, the Vibrators dropped their second LP, V2, which featured a new bassist, Gary Tibbs, after Pat Collier left the group. A single from V2, "Automatic Lover," made it to number 35 on the British singles charts, which led to the Vibrators appearing on Top of the Pops. More live work followed, though John Ellis would drop out of the band in 1978, with Dave Birch signing on as guitarist; the group also added Don Snow on saxophone and keyboards. That lineup proved to be short-lived, and Knox and Eddie recruited guitarist Greg Van Cook and bassist Ben Brierly for a version that fell apart by the end of 1978. By early 1979, Knox left the Vibrators to launch a solo career, and while the band struggled along without him, they threw in the towel in 1980.

In 1982, Knox opted to give the Vibrators another try, and he recruited the original lineup (Collier, Ellis, and Eddie) to cut a new album, Guilty, for Anagram Records. This edition managed to stay together long enough to record the albums Alaska 127 (1984) and Fifth Amendment (1985) before Collier bowed out to pursue a career as a producer. Noel Thompson replaced Collier on bass, and after John Ellis quit the band to join the Stranglers, Mickie Owen took over on guitar. This lineup recorded a live LP, but by the time the group next returned to the studio, Noel Thompson was out and Mark Duncan was the new bassist. This edition cut two albums, Recharged and Meltdown (both 1988) before Owen dropped out and Nigel Bennett picked up the guitar spot. With Bennett, the Vibrators cut the albums Vicious Circle, Volume Ten, and Unpunked, between 1989 and 1996. From this point on, the number of personnel changes continued to increase, with Knox and Eddie as the sole constants (and with Knox even leaving the lineup in 2008 for 14 months after an accident). However, the band continued to record and tour regularly, playing upward of 100 dates a year, and were regularly lauded as one of the most indefatigable bands in U.K. punk. In 2017, as the band was preparing for what they announced would be their last United States tour, the Vibrators dropped a studio album, Restless, via Die Laughing Records. .

On July 16, 2007, the band re-formed for a benefit concert in honor of Paul Fox, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Henry Rollins filled in on lead vocals, and the Damned, Tom Robinson, and Misty in Roots were among the opening acts. This inspired the band to return to the studio, with John Jennings and David Ruffy joined by guitarist Leigh Heggarty. In June 2008, another compilation, Original Punks, was released by Music Club Deluxe in the UK. The two-disc set included demos, alternate versions and live tracks plus songs recorded by Ruts D.C. They would record material over the next five years at Mad Professor's studio; Rhythm Collision, Vol. 2 arrived in 2013. A concert album, Live on Stage, appeared in 2014, while a new studio album, Music Must Destroy, arrived in 2016, with Henry Rollins performing guest vocals on the title track and Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers and Kirk Brandon of Theatre of Hate and Spear of Destiny appearing on "Kill the Pain." The same year saw another Ruts compilation, Babylon's Burning, which repackaged the Live and Loud! and In a Can albums as a two-LP set.

 xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Were the Vibrators real punks? Maybe not, but then again, were the Stranglers? Or Eddie and the Hot Rods? Even more to the point, was Steve Jones? Plenty of rock careerists jumped onto the punk/new wave bandwagon in the wake of the Sex Pistols' success (and more than a few folks, like Jones, stumbled into the new movement by accident), but unlike most of them, the Vibrators took to the fast/loud/stripped down thing like ducks to water, and both Knox (aka Ian Carnarchan) and Pat Collier had a genius for writing short, punchy songs with sneering melody lines and gutsy guitar breaks. If the Vibrators were into punk as a musical rather than a sociopolitical movement, it's obvious that they liked the music very much, and on that level their debut album stands the test of time quite well. Pure Mania boasts a bit more polish (and less politics) than many of the albums from punk's first graduating class (such as Damned Damned Damned or The Clash), but if you're looking for a strong, satisfying shot of chugging four-square punk, cue up "Yeah Yeah Yeah,""No Heart,""Petrol," or "Wrecked on You" and you'll be thrown into a gleeful pogo frenzy. Maybe Pure Mania isn't purist's punk, but it's pure rock & roll, and there's nothing wrong with that. interspersed with the group's rather amusing take on early rock & roll.



 The Vibrators - Pure Mania (flac  315mb)

01 Into The Future.... 2:18
02 Yeah Yeah Yeah 1:19
03 Sweet Sweet Heart 2:38
04 Keep It Clean 2:58
05 Baby Baby 3:41
06 No Heart 1:50
07 She's Bringing You Down 2:27
08 Petrol 2:09
09 London Girls 2:32
10 You Broke My Heart 3:28
11 Whips & Furs 2:14
12 Stiff Little Fingers 2:17
13 Wrecked On You 1:29
14 I Need A Slave 1:43
15 Bad Time 1:55
Bonus
16 London Girls (Live) 2:40
17 Stiff Little Fingers (Live) 2:13
18 We Vibrate 2:10
19 Whips & Furs (Single Version) 2:26

 The Vibrators - Pure Mania (ogg   106mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

As in their first album, V2 shows the Vibrators taking the driving energy of punk and applying it to songs that have a subtle, pop-like quality; while it does not have the wonderfully brash and itchy cohesiveness of Pure Mania, it's a solid album well worth hearing. The songs are mostly catchy and listenable, the lyrics are as capable as those in the group's previous release, and the arrangements have much more variety and color than most punk records of the time do. "24 Hour People" sports Chuck Berry-style guitar licks and 1960s-derived backing vocals, "Public Enemy No. 1" and "Fall in Love" are less punky and more straightforward rockers, "Feel Alright" has a 1960s garage band-style chorus, and "Nazi Baby" audaciously adds strings to the fast, almost danceable music. The only really ineffective excursion on this album is "Troops of Tomorrow," a slow, menacing number that somehow gets too thick for its own good and is further marred by an excessively lengthy opening section.



  The Vibrators ‎- V2   (flac  236mb)

01 Pure Mania 3:00
02 Automatic Lover 3:04
03 Flying Duck Theory 2:58
04 Public Enemy No. 1 2:07
05 Destroy 2:16
06 Nazi Baby 4:19
07 Wake Up 1:57
08 Sulphate 1:43
09 24 Hour People 1:52
10 Fall In Love 4:10
11 Feel Allright 1:51
12 War Zone 2:17
13 Troops Of Tomorrow 5:39

 The Vibrators ‎- V2   (ogg   91mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

After Knox's unguarded comments about starting a solo career had ensured the death of the original Vibrators in 1980, they seemed destined to be remembered as underachieving also-rans from punk's first wave. However, in 1982 bass player Pat Collier, who had established the highly successful studio enterprise Alaska 127, decided to get the old gang back together, putting out a call to fellow original members John Ellis, Knox, and Eddie. Knox recalls the spirit behind the reunion: "They were initially saying, 'Oh, we can knock out any old rubbish and make some money.' But I said that we couldn't really; we had a history for being a good band, so we had to write good material." One thing his fellow band members did impress on Knox was that they wanted an equal share in songwriting. Not a good idea -- the resulting Guilty suffers from a lot of uneven compositions.



 The Vibrators - Guilty   (flac  365mb)

01 Wolfman Howl 1:22
02 Rocket To The Moon 2:39
03 Sleeping 3:38
04 Parties 2:51
05 Jumpin' Jack Flash 2:47
06 Watch Out Baby 2:32
07 Do A Runner 2:43
08 We Name The Guilty 3:50
09 Baby, Baby 3:07
10 Fighter Pilot 2:50
11 The Day They Caught The Killer 2:44
12 Kick It 2:40
13 A Dot Ain't A Lot 3:17
14 Claws In My Brain 4:23
Bonus
15 Dragnet 3:04
16 Hang Ten 3:00
17 Guilty 3:08

 The Vibrators - Guilty    (ogg  120mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

The Vibrators' second album following their 1982 reunion. The title was taken from producer Pat Collier's studio, which had become their adopted home. It's actually a much better affair than its predecessor, Guilty. "Amphetamine Blue" starts things off and is typical of the 12 committed punk-pop efforts on display here. Sadly, there were precious few people prepared to take the Vibrators seriously the first time around; there were next to none now. Despite some real classics such as 3D Jesus, Shadow Love, pity this line-up did not record many more.



 The Vibrators - Alaska 127   (flac  251mb)

01 Amphetamine Blue 2:44
02 Somnambulist 3:27
03 Baby Blue Eyes 3:18
04 Peepshow 2:44
05 4875 3:00
06 3-D Jesus 3:27
07 Jesus Always Lets You Down 2:56
08 Flying Home 3:09
09 Shadow Love 2:51
10 MX America 2:43
11 Flash, Flash, Flash 1:48
12 Punish Me With Kisses 2:46

 The Vibrators - Alaska 127    (ogg  82mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

The Vibrators couldn't have been more removed from punk's eternally youthful and musically inept ideology. Guitarist Ian Carnochan's (aka Knox) songs nodded more to Chuck Berry than to Johnny Rotten. The bandmembers were already passing their mid-twenties when they entered the punk scene, making them seem hopelessly unfashionable. However, the "Vibes" -- as fans and writers lovingly nicknamed them -- sidestepped those issues with a gleeful irreverence that did much to win over the new scene's fans. John Peel's show provided one of their best outlets, since he was the first major DJ to play punk on his show, from which these broadcasts are taken. Not surprisingly, the October 28, 1978, session is as barebones as they come; "We Vibrate,""Jenny Jenny," and "Sweet Sweet Heart" chug by in suitable Berry-ish fashion, but there's also no denying the sly humor of "Whips and Furs" or "I Wanna Be Your Nazi Baby." Steady gigging on the Pure Mania debut album's heels did much to make the Vibrators into a more cohesive, confident unit. The improvements are obvious on the June 22, 1977, session, whose take of the band's best-known song, "Baby Baby," crackles with spunky self-assurance. The material gets increasingly poppier as time passes, which doesn't dampen the boisterous noise aired on March 6, 1978, as exemplified by the cunning puns thrown throughout "Automatic Lover" -- although "Troops of Tomorrow" displays a moodier side than most listeners associate with the band. By the time of May 4, 1978's "In Concert" broadcast, the Vibrators felt emboldened to add Don Snow on sax and synths, which brightened the sound without watering down the energy. Never the trendiest of contenders, the band knew how to play up its strengths while playing to the gallery; this album is a worthy snapshot of that progress.



 The Vibrators - Peel Sessions   (flac  332mb)

John Peel 28.10.76
01 Dance To The Music
02 Sweet Sweet Heart
03 Jenny Jenny
04 I'm Gonna Be Your Nazi Baby
05 We Vibrate
John Peel 22.6.1977
06 Petrol
07 Keep It Clean
08 Baby, Baby
09 London Girls
10 She's Bringing You Down
John Peel 6.3.1978
11 Automatic Lover
12 Destroy
13 Troops Of Tomorrow
14 Fall In Love
Old Grey Whistle Test 4.4.1977
15 War Zone
16 Flying Duck Theory
17 Wake Up
18 24 Hour People

 The Vibrators - Peel Sessions    (ogg  108mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx 

Hello,


Today's artist is the grand old lady of Cuban music. While her early recordings made her a star in Cuba, her participation in the 1996 album and video documentary, The Buena Vista Social Club, brought her to international attention. Her solo album, The Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo, released in 2000, reinforced her status as one of Cuba's greatest musical ambassadors........N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Omara Portuonda

Born on 29 October 1930 in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana, Portuondo had three sisters. Her mother, Esperanza Peláez, came from a wealthy Spanish family, and had created a scandal by running off with and marrying a black professional baseball player, Bartolo Portuondo. Omara joined the dance group of the Cabaret Tropicana in 1950, following her elder sister, Haydee. She also danced in the Mulatas de Fuego in the theatre Radiocentro, and in other dance groups. The two sisters also used to sing for family and friends, and they also performed in Havana clubs. Portuondo and Haydee then in 1947 joined the Loquibambia Swing, a group formed by the blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn.

From 1952–1953 she sang for the Orquesta Anacaona, and later in 1953 both sisters joined (together with Elena Burke and Moraima Secada) the singing group Cuarteto d'Aida, formed and directed by pianist Aida Diestro. The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole at the Tropicana, and recording a 1957 album for RCA Victor. In 1958, pianist and composer Julio Gutiérrez invited Portuondo to sing for his ensemble in a series of recordings bridging jazz and Cuban music for the record label Velvet. The result was Magia Negra, her debut solo album. Haydee left the Cuarteto d'Aida in 1961 in order to live in the US and Omara continued singing with the quartet until 1967.
1967–present

In 1967 Portuondo began to focus on her solo career recording two albums for Areito, Omara Portuondo and Esta es Omara Portuondo.[5] In the same year she represented Cuba at the Sopot Festival in Poland, singing Juanito Márquez'"Como un milagro". Alongside her solo work, in the 1970s she sang with the charanga Orquesta Aragón, and toured with them abroad.

In 1974 she recorded, with guitarist Martín Rojas, an album in which she lauds Salvador Allende and the people of Chile a year after the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Among other hits from the album, she sang Carlos Puebla's hit "Hasta Siempre, Comandante", which refers to Ché Guevara. She also recorded "Y que se sepa", with one of the most successful Cuban bands of the late 20th century, Los Van Van. Later on she performed with Juan Formell, singing Formell's song "Tal vez", a song she recorded later on with Maria Bethania. During the 1970s and 1980s Portuondo enjoyed success at home and abroad, with tours, albums (including one of her most lauded recordings in 1984 with Adalberto Álvarez), film roles, and her own television series.

In 2004 the International Red Cross appointed her International Ambassador, the first Cuban musician to hold this title, in Montreal, Canada. In 2007 she performed the title role to sold out audiences in Lizt Alfonso's dance musical "Vida", the story of modern Cuba through the eyes and with the memories of an old woman. In this same year, her performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival was released on DVD. She recorded in 2008 a duet album with Brazilian singer Maria Bethânia named Maria Bethânia e Omara Portuondo. In 2008 she recorded the album Gracias as a tribute to the 60th anniversary of her singing career. Today, Omara lives in a high-rise apartment just off the Malecón, Havana, overlooking the sea. She remains a popular fixture on the local music scene, singing regularly at the Tropicana Club, the Delirio Habanero and the Café Cantante.

Portuondo sang (duetting with Ibrahim Ferrer) on the album Buena Vista Social Club in 1996. This led not only to more touring (including playing at Carnegie Hall with the Buena Vista troupe) and her appearance in Wim Wenders' film Buena Vista Social Club, but to two further albums for the World Circuit label: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo (2000) and Flor de Amor (2004). She remains a member of Buena Vista Social Club, being the only original vocalist to do so. Portuondo had settled into semi-retirement by the mid-'90s. Her plans to slow down her career were altered after Ry Cooder, who was in Cuba recording with the Chieftains, heard her sing in 1995. When he returned, the following year, to produce The Buena Vista Social Club, Portuondo was invited to become a featured vocalist with the all-star group. In 1998, Portuondo recorded a duo album, Desafios, with Cucho Valdes.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

A set featuring recordings from 1997-2000 when Omara Portunondo started recording with the Buena Vista Social Club. She was nominated for a Grammy in 2004. This double CD, Lágrimas Negras (Black Tears), Canciones y Boleros, is the result of an interpretive creation full of feeling, intimacy, and naturalness. She returned to the Latin American popular classics -to Violeta Parra, to Virgilio González, to Alberto Vera, to Eusebio Delfín- with a fabulous ensemble consisting of the great Rubén González and Enriqueta Almanza's piano, Richard Egües's flute, Martín Rojas's magnificent guitar, the bass of Cachaíto, Mirabal's art in unraveling the mysteries of the brass instruments, Amadito Valdés's paila with AfroCuban rhythms and the tasty percussion of Hernán Cortés, Roberto García, and Osvaldo Rodríguez.

As the last living of the original buena Vista Social Club, Omara Portuondo wears a heavy legacy. With her now 85 years, she tours the world and spread the charm of Cuba. Here are 2 CDs with older and newly recorded recordings together. Of course, this can never do justice to a career of more than 60 years, alas most of her recordings slumber in Cuban archives but is a nice start. If you want to "hear" more from the Grande Dame then you should look for the few original albums, where Omara reveals her versatility and her talent which makes her so unique.  "Lagrimas" receives an absolute thumbs up recommendation as an introduction to the musical soul of Cuba.  And if you have the chance to experience Omara live, you should not miss out on this one because likely you will never again!



Omara Portuondo - Lagrimas Negras 2    (flac  275mb)

01 Obertura 0:37
02 Hasta Siempre 4:54
03 Veinte Años 3:21
04 Interludio 2:52
05 Es lo Que Me Queda por Vivir 3:48
06 Lágrimas Negras 4:18
07 Y Sólo Tú y Yo 3:06
08 Allí 2:36
09 Vuela Pena 4:32
10 Me Acostumbré a Estar Sin Ti 2:17
11 Canción de un Festival 3:23
12 Gracias a La Vida 4:35
13 Porqué Dudas 2:01
14 Y Tal Vez 4:08
15 Un Ratico Más No Importa 3:38

Omara Portuondo - Lagrimas Negras 2  (ogg  117mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

An interesting collaboration between two great singers from Latin America: Brazil's Maria Bethania (born in 1946) and Cuba's Omara Portuondo (born in 1930). I'm more familiar with Bethania's work than with Portuondo: Bethania seems to me a bit more innovative and diverse in her career than Portuondo, who seems to belong to the more traditional bolero genre (though her style is very dignified, far from the more commercial artists in this genre). Most of the songs are a bit slow, with spare orchestration, letting this two women's great voices come to the forefront. Some songs are in Spanish, some in Portuguese and some, like the last track, the best in the album, Caipira de Fato/El Amor de Mi Bohio is actually a medley: Bethania starts with a Brazilian song and Portuondo finishes with a Cuban song: the blending of both is almost seamless. Bethania sometimes sings in Spanish (flawlessly); Portuondo sometimes also sings in Portuguese, but I can't vouch for her pronounciation. Other great songs here are the beautiful Nana para un Suspiro, Tal Vez, So Vendo que Beleza and Para Cantarle al Amor.



Omara Portuondo y Maria Bethania - Omara e Maria    (flac  208mb)

01 Lacho 3:08
02 Menino Grande 3:16
03 Nana Para Un Suspiro (Semillita) 4:10
04 Poema LXIV / Palabras/ Palavras 4:01
05 Tal Vez 3:31
06 Você 4:13
07 Arrependimento 3:15
08 Mil Congojas 3:13
09 Só Vendo Que Beleza (Marambaia) 2:26
10 Para Cantarale A Mi Amor 5:48
11 Caipira De Fato/El Amor De Mi Bohío 4:25

Omara Portuondo y Maria Bethania - Omara e Maria  (ogg    93mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Chucho Valdes is a star in his own right, perhaps the shiniest one Cuba has right now, but not a great accompanist; therefore he can't help himself with long soliloquies and overpowering Portuondo at some points. Musically, I find Chucho too light as an accompanist; he lacks, I feel, structure. To my taste, the only irreproachable thing in this cd is the tracks. From "Llanto de luna", a beautifully poetic song by the genial Julio Gutierrez and that Portuondo does quite well, to "Recordare tu boca", written by the exquisite Tania (Zoila) Castellanos, all are songs inscribed in the "Feeling" movement, the musical renovation that gave new life to the Cuban popular song back in the second half of the 20th century.



Omara Portuondo y Chucho Valdes - Omara e Chucho   (flac  231mb)

01 Noche Cubana 1:09
02 Claro de Luna / Llanto de Luna 4:45
03 Y Decidete Mi Amor 3:27
04 Alma Mia 5:55
05 Me Acostumbre A Estar Sin Ti 3:12
06 Esta Tarde Vi Llover 8:08
07 Si Te Contara 4:27
08 Huesito 3:12
09 Mis Sentimientos 5:12
10 Nuestra Cobardia 3:39
11 Babalu Ayé 5:16
12 Recordare Tu Boca 4:30
13 Noche Cubana 2:13

Omara Portuondo y Chucho Valdes - Omara e Chucho (ogg  109mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

This album reveals that Marialy Pacheco is a composer and arranger absolutely engaged with her musical roots and the sounds of her Cuban origins. Self-confidently Marialy Pacheco ministers to the works of renown composers as Eliseo Grenet, Moises Simons, Felipe Rosario Goyco and Antonio María Romeu. With great respect for their original identity the pianist provides them with her personal hand in a new, modern way and connected to the here and now. What is left is the pure and simple beauty of these traditional songs. With the composition of her Cuban Suite Marialy Pacheco is also bowing to the traditional Cuban dances Rumba, Danzón and Conga, dedicating a separate part of the suite to each of them. In our today’s modern language she compositionally demonstrates the deep look into these historical music structures. She finds the balance between seriousness and technical sophistication on the one hand, and lightness, exotic, and the heat of Caribbean rhythms on the other hand. Even with her further self-compositions Metro and Cambodian Smiles, she is telling very personal stories. And they also impressively testify the creative potential and her Cuban soul, which of course can be heard in these entirely modern pieces as well. To keep the authentic and traditional Latin American sound, but refreshing it at the same time, Marialy Pacheco’s trio consists of the two great Colombian musicians Juan Camilo Villa on bass and Miguel Altamar on drums.



Marialy Pacheco - Introducing    (flac  344mb)

01 Ay! Mama Inés 5:25
02 En El Camino 5:58
03 El Manisero 7:06
04 Cuban Suite - Rumba 5:29
05 Cuban Suite - Danzón 10:06
06 Cuban Suite - Conga 5:46
07 Madrigal 9:36
08 Tres Lindas Cubanas 5:01
09 Metro 7:12
10 Cambodian Smiles 7:14

Marialy Pacheco - Introducing  (ogg  162mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello,

Today's Artist is a French-born English disc jockey and record label owner in England. His labels have included Acid Jazz, Talkin' Loud, and Brownswood Recordings. Peterson has been associated with the careers of artists of the 1990s, such as Erykah Badu, Roni Size, and Jamiroquai.Compilation albums have also been a constant throughout his career from the very beginning, as often having access to rare or hard-to-find records, as well as unsigned artists, has meant being able to share such finds with a wider audience.  ....N Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Gilles Peterson'(born 64) attended The John Fisher School, in the mid- and late- 1980s, living among the South London suburban soul scene in the early eighties, Gilles would avidly listen to listening to Level 42, Earth Wind & Fire, Central Line and the heavier, deeper pirate stations such as Radio Invicta. This inspired him to set up his own station - literally an aerial suspended between a tree and a phone box - playing an eclectic mix of jazz, funk, reggae, soul and early electro. By a stroke of luck, Radio Invicta needed a new transmitter, so Gilles swapped his for a regular show on the station.

At the same time, Gilles was a regular shopper at DJ Paul Murphy's Palladin Records. Murphy also DJ'd at Camden's Electric Ballroom, and his knowledge of rare, killer power jazz tunes and rare Afro-Cuban fusion was further inspiration for Gilles, who took over the decks when Paul left. Once ensconced upstairs in the Electric Ballroom, Gilles' understanding and insight into jazz, funk and soul grew exponentially. Gilles soon began to play at Nicky Holloway's Special Branch night at The Royal Oak.

1985 saw Gilles releasing the Jazz Juice (streetsounds) compilation series, collecting together many of the jazz tracks Gilles had been playing over the past few years. EMI Records soon called on Gilles to put together a series of inspired collections showcasing jazz label Blue Note's best artists resulting in 'Blue Bossa Vols. 1 & 2' and 'Baptist Beat' , which became the motivation for the hugely popular 'Blue' series of Jazz compilations.

During this period, Gilles had also been working on new pirate radio projects before 'going legit' with the BBC Radio London which was the first legal station he worked for, hosting a show called 'Mad On Jazz'. After leaving Radio London in 1986, Gilles started his Sunday sessions - 'Talkin' Loud'& 'Saying Something' - at Camden's Dingwalls. Co-hosted by Patrick Forge, these ran for five years. Coinciding with the emerging acid house scene, the sessions became a natural magnet for post clubbing come-down kids.

Shortly afterwards, Gilles started the Acid Jazz label, but after two years he felt the sound, the music and name was becoming a mod thing, a retro thing.' And so the approach from Phonogram was welcome , and he set up a new label Talkin' Loud records in 1989 . Gilles got the chance to echo his own diverse tastes and the label saw releases from the likes of Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, the Galliano.

Back on air, Gilles' show on London's Jazz FM was axed in 1990 after he played 'inappropriate' music and made statements supporting peace during the Gulf War. Soon after, he joined the newly-legalized Kiss FM. His Sunday evening WorldWide slot proved one of the most popular on the station and he stayed there for eight years until he joined Radio 1 in 1998. From 1998 to the present, through his BBC show Worldwide, Peterson has continued to stretch the musical boundaries. The show has always highlighted both new, but more importantly for the audience it is supposed to serve, older and often very rare records from the late-1950's to 1980's. In fact every three months or so, Gilles dedicates a whole show to older vinyl releases in a special version of his show he subtitles a Brownswood Basement.

In 2002 he released a compilation album, Impressed with Gilles Peterson, featuring rare and forgotten British Jazz from the 1950-1960s, that Peterson had collected over the years. This led to many of the records being re-released to a new audience. This in turn led to a series of concerts featuring some of the artists and a documentary about the history of British jazz (Jazz Britannia)

 In August 2004 the show moved from Wednesday (midnight til 2am) to an earlier Sunday slot (11:00 to 01:00) In September 2006, Peterson's show on Radio 1 was moved from Sunday night to Wednesday night (more precisely the early hours of Thursday morning), 02:00 to 04:00 (GMT) where you can pick him up every week and not to worry.

Widely acclaimed as a musical tastemaker, Gilles spreads his influence on music listeners around the world mostly through the Worldwide radio show on BBC Radio 1 and besides he also does another version of the show which gets syndicated to radio stations all over the world. Parallel to this, his frequent DJing gigs around the world also have cemented a worldwide following. In 2006 Gilles and Freshly Cut, a French event production company from Montpellier, collaborated to create the unique Worldwide Festival. This started out as a small intimate festival during the summertime in the coastal town of Sète in France. Meanwhile it hasbeen expanded to three festivals, in London, Shanghai and Sète in 2007. In 2008 it will have expanded to take place in London, Beijing, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sète.

In late 2011 Peterson announced that after 13 years at the station he would be leaving BBC Radio 1, following his last show in the early hours of Wednesday 28 March and moving to a new show on BBC Radio 6 Music.
Following his departure from Radio 1, Peterson started a new three-hour Saturday afternoon show on BBC Radio 6 Music, beginning on Saturday 7 April 2012, running weekly from 3 to 6 pm, and giving him an extra hour of broadcast time. Like his previous Radio 1 programme, it is made by independent production company Somethin' Else for the BBC.

Peterson has been producing and broadcasting original radio shows for Japan. He had daily 15 minute music program on J-WAVE (81.3FM), Tokyo’s Finest FM Station. Daily program “Worldwide 15” run Mondays–Thursdays from 4:05 to 4:20 pm from 2005 to 2011. The show was highly received and made many radio hits. Music event of the program "Worldwide Showcase” became annual events and each year which featured DJs and Live acts from Japan and international. The event was curated under particular theme each year.

Peterson has been involved in founding four record labels. In 1987, together with DJ Baz Fe Jazz, he was recruited by Ace Records to create the soul, funk and jazz dance sub-label BGP Records.[10] In 1988 he and Eddie Piller founded Acid Jazz Records, a label whose roster included the Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, Corduroy, the James Taylor Quartet and Snowboy. After growing disillusionment with the scene that grew up around the label, he went on to run Talkin' Loud, enlisting the help of fellow DJ Norman Jay, who formed his own Global Village label. The Talkin' Loud roster included Nuyorican Soul (a side project of the producers Masters At Work), Courtney Pine, MJ Cole, Young Disciples, Incognito, Terry Callier, The Roots, Galliano and Roni Size's project Reprazent.

Peterson's most recent record label, Brownswood Recordings, was launched in 2006. The label's early releases includes the likes of British singer/songwriter Ben Westbeech, 45-piece orchestral ensemble The Heritage Orchestra, Japanese punk jazz band Soil & "Pimp" Sessions, Brooklyn-based pianist Elan Mehler and jazz vocalist José James. More recently, they've released music by Zara McFarlane, Ghostpoet's Mercury Prize-nominated debut and their long-running compilation series, compiled by Peterson, called Brownswood Bubblers.
The label is sometimes confused with a different imprint called Brownswood Records, which released music from Japanese bands like United Future Organization.

In 2011, he founded the Steve Reid Foundation in memory of the legendary jazz drummer. Having witnessed Reid’s suffering with illness and hardship, Gilles set up the charity to raise money for musicians in need. Since then, they’ve collaborated with Help Musicians UK to help musicians who are in need of support. More recently, a collaboration with the PRS Foundation has seen grants and mentoring provided to new artists. Gilles ran the 2011 London Marathon, raising just under £7,000 for Help Musicians UK, followed by the 2016 New York Marathon, where he raised over $21,000 for the Steve Reid Foundation.

Released in May 2014 via Talkin’ Loud / Virgin EMI, Sonzeira's Brasil Bam Bam Bam is a journey through the different flavours of authentic Brazilian music culture. Sonzeira is the collective name for the group of Brazilian artists who feature on the album. Peterson turned from DJ to producer for this ambitious venture, settling in Rio de Janeiro with young UK production associates Sam Shepherd (Floating Points); Dilip Harris and Rob Gallagher from 2 Banks of 4; and Kassin from Rio collective Orquestra Imperial. The album features Brazilian artists such as Seu Jorge and Elza Soares.

Along with the album, there was a documentary film celebrating the creation and release of “Sonzeira: Brasil Bam Bam Bam". Titled “Bam Bam Bam: The Story of Sonzeira”, this two-hour documentary was directed by Charlie Inman and Ben Holman and shot in 2014 by Mother London and Rio de Janeiro’s Beija Films. The film was also distributed in Tokyo, Japan by Sha-la-la Company and raised money for Fight For Peace (Luta Pela Paz), organization founded in Complexo da Maré, Rio de Janeiro, as a direct response to youth-involvement in drug-related crime and violence.
Havana Cultura

2009 saw the birth of a new collaborative project and long-term partnership between Peterson and Havana Club or "Havana Cultura". Havana Cultura is a global initiative developed by Havana Club International that gives a platform to Cuban artists from all disciplines. The website, www.havana-cultura.com, was launched in 2007.
Peterson and Brownswood's involvement began two years later, resulting in four album releases and three international tours.

Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound was the first album to come out of the project, released in 2010. Travelling to Cuba in 2009, Peterson teamed up with the award-winning Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca to find the best up-and-coming musical talent in Havana. The double album was a celebration of Cuba’s musical forces spanning Latin, Afro jazz and fusion to hip-hop, funk, reggaeton and soul.

In support of this project, Peterson began a European tour in June/July 2010, accompanied by Fonseca, his band and vocalists Danay Suarez, Ogguere and Obsesión. This was the first of three tours organised in close collaboration with Havana Club. The Gilles Peterson Havana Cultura band has now travelled through Europe and beyond with shows in London (Barbican), Paris, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Berlin and Madrid, as well as many festivals.

Travelling with the rest of the 2011 crew, Mala (Digital Mystikz) was also invited to Cuba with Peterson to record and collaborate with local musicians as part of the ongoing Havana Cultura project. The results are found on the album Mala in Cuba, which was released on Brownswood Recordings in partnership with Havana Cultura on 10 September 2012.

A new global music-radio platform launched by Gilles Peterson in September 2016. Following the success of the Grand Theft Auto V in-game radio station of the same name, WorldWide FM has expanded into the real world with Peterson and Thris Tian hosting shows alongside a hand-picked roster of the finest DJs and selectors from five continents. Since the launch, the station has gone out on the road broadcasting across Europe, the US and Asia, with pop-ups in Amsterdam (ADE), Los Angeles (How We Do LA), Marseille (Le Gallette), Milan (Jazzmi Festival), Paris (Le Mellotron), Tokyo (HMV Shibuya), and closer to home, at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (Somerset House). The station is Powered by WeTransfer and broadcasting from The Pyramid radio studios in north London.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Masterpiece brings you legends from the world of music that have one unique story to tell through their own influences and inspirations. A collection like no other that really holds its creator in serious high regard. Masterpiece welcomes none other than Gilles Peterson. Gilles' career started back in the early 1980's when inspired by the exciting blend of music coming out of South London pirate radio stations. Having run his own station Civic Radio he went on to present a string of pirate stations, some of those being KJAZZ, Solar Radio before heading to BBC London for his Mad On Jazz show. Upon leaving BBC London in 1986 Gilles took up a new residency at Dingwalls in Camden, London alongside fellow DJ Patrick Forge. This night ran for 5 years coinciding with the rise of acid house in the UK. The popular Sunday afternoon party grew and grew and established itself a legendary session. From here Gilles went on to begin his A&R passion and founded the legendary Acid Jazz label alongside Eddie Piller. Acid Jazz released records from the likes of Extasis, Galliano and Bucky Leo to name but a few. Gilles' A&R skills didn't go un-noticed when in 1989 he was approached by Phonogram to A&R artists for a new imprint called Talkin' Loud. It was here that Gilles really cemented his relationship with new and old, with innovation and heritage releasing classic material by The Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, Galliano and The Young Disciples. Talkin' Loud became synonymous with Gilles' own broad taste in music and with no less than 5 Mercury Music Prize nominations under his belt (4 Hero, Courtney Pine, Young Disciples, MJ Cole and Roni Size Reprazent) which won the award in 1997. After an 8 year residency at Kiss FM, Gilles took his Worldwide radio show to BBC Radio 1 in 1998, where he's enjoyed 12 years at the station (and counting) broadcasting the Worldwide sound to receptive ears. Gilles now records a weekly Worldwide programme that is syndicated to 12 stations across the globe including France, Austria, Japan's no 1 commercial station J-Wave. It doesn't stop there however; the "Worldwide" tag extends to two annual musical extravaganzas - the Worldwide Festival and the Worldwide Awards. The Worldwide festival recently celebrated its fifth birthday, taking place in the South of France in July. The festival showcases Gilles' favourite artists, bands and DJ's across a 4 day party in the Mediterranean sun. The awards are a more intimate affair celebrating the finest emerging talent championed by Gilles. Amongst all of this Gilles runs his own label Brownswood Recordings. Set up in 1995 as an outlet for his favourite new discoveries. The label has seen him sign new talent such as Ben Westbeech, Jose James and Owiny Sigoma Band. Following in the footsteps of Francois K, Jazzie B (Soul II Soul) and Fabio & Grooverider, Gilles brings a Masterpiece selection containing a typically wide ranging, devious selection that references twists and turns of Petersons career as a ground breaking, outer-national club and radio DJ.

Masterpiece is a lofty title, but the revered names who’ve already presented their carefully-selected programmes of inspirational, genre-defying dance music have set an astronomically-high precedent since Ministry started the series in 2008. Gilles Peterson spent two years putting together his three-disc spread of dance music past and present, covering a remarkably-panoramic spectrum in 49 carefully-presented tracks, from jazz-funk to acid house and even cutting edge techno. Each disc carries a name and concept. Disc One (Dusk) may confuse those expecting cool funk, bowling in with techno hotshots such as Scuba, Todd Tjerske, SBTRKT and Kode 9, but finishing with the gorgeous piano-ambience of Bugge Wesseltoft & Henrik Schwarz’s Kammermuzik. Disc Two (Dawn) is an astounding mix of old school Chicago acid (Phuture, Virgo 4), UK foraging (Wagon Christ, Locussolus) and warming tribute to the late Arthur Russell with Dinosaur L’s Go Bang! and today’s Arthur’s Landing. Disc Three (Twilight) traverses disco-soul (Light of The World), jazz-funk (Roy Ayers) and Talkin’ Loud artists (Incognito, Young Disciples), Terry Callier’s haunting Dancing Girl epic and coolly-strutting Royal Jazz Trio, closing a set which lives up to its title with flying colours.



 Masterpiece Created By Gilles Peterson 1 Dusk (flac   511mb)

101 Finn Peters - Purple 1:05
102 Mr Beatnick - Synthetes 4:29
103 Scuba - So You Think You're Special (Joe Remix) 6:22
104 Mic Newman - The Fidelity 5:33
105 Roman Rauch - Can't Get Enough (SoulPhiction RMX) 5:40
106 Bassfort - Moon Shadow 5:27
107 Prommer & Barck - Sleeping Beauty 6:13
108 Mr Raoul K - The African Government 6:15
109 Bjørn Torske - Langt Fra Afrika (Todd Terje Remix) 6:47
110 Mo Kolours - Biddies 3:25
111 King Coya - Cumbia De Villadonde 4:02
112 SBTRKT Feat. Sampha - Hold On 3:34
113 Koreless - MTI 3:22
114 Kode9 And The Spaceape Feat. Cha Cha - Love Is The Drug 2:30
115 Jacques Greene - Another Girl 6:18
116 Bugge Wesseltoft & Henrik Schwarz - Kammermusik 6:51

Masterpiece Created By Gilles Peterson 1 Dusk (ogg   155mb)

xxxxx

Masterpiece Created By Gilles Peterson 2 Dawn (flac   512mb)

201 Wagon Christ - Mr. Mukatsuku 0:21
202 Peaking Lights - Hey Sparrow 3:41
203 Locussolus - Throwdown (Vocal) 3:58
204 Arthur's Landing - Love Dancing 4:37
205 Tyrone Evans - Rise Up 5:02
206 Ish - Faster Than A Speeding Bullet 2:54
207 Gatto Fritto - Hex 6:49
208 Discodeine Falkenberg 4:11
209 Owiny Sigoma Band - Wires (Theo Parrish Mix) 8:22
210 Dinosaur L - Go Bang! 6:43
211 Virgo Four - It's A Crime (Caribou Mix) 6:56
212 Phuture - Acid Tracks 6:27
213 Art Department - Feat. Seth Troxler Living The Life 5:25
214 Hot Natured Feat. Ali Love - Forward Motion4:54
215 Julio Bashmore - Batty Knee Dance 4:38
216 Four Tet - Pinnacles 4:29

Masterpiece Created By Gilles Peterson 2 Dawn (ogg   164mb)

xxxxx

Masterpiece Created By Gilles Peterson 3 Twilight (flac   541mb)

301 Incognito - Summers Ended 4:58
302 Cameo - The Sound Table 3:35
303 Roy Ayers - Evolution 4:31
304 Light Of The World - Time 4:17
305 Freeez - Southern Freeez 5:35
306 Tom Browne - Come For The Ride 4:41
307 Soul II Soul - Fairplay 3:52
308 Leena Conquest - Boundaries 4:45
309 Charlie Winston - In Your Hands 3:49
310 NYCC - I'll Keep A Light In My Window 5:53
311 Gene Chandler - Does She Have A Friend (For Me?) 4:10
312 The Meditation Singers - Trouble's Brewin 4:49
313 Teena Marie - Portuguese Love 3:22
314 RAMP  - Daylight 4:10
315 Young Disciples - As We Come (To Be) 4:32
316 Terry Callier - Dancing Girl 8:58
317 The Royal Jazz Trio - Various Kicks-Grand Battements-Walks 2:02

Masterpiece Created By Gilles Peterson 3 Twilight (ogg   188mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello,


Today's Artists were a German electronic avant-garde band founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1969 together with Holger Trülzsch (percussion), Frank Fiedler (recording engineer and technical assistance) and Bettina Fricke (tablas and production). Other important members during the next two decades included Djong Yun, Renate Knaup, Conny Veit, Daniel Fichelscher, Klaus Wiese and Robert Eliscu. The band influenced many other European bands with their uniquely soft but elaborate instrumentation, which took inspiration from the music of Tibet, Africa, and pre-Columbian America. With music sometimes described as "ethereal", they created soundscapes through psychedelic walls of sound, and are regarded as precursors of contemporary world music, as well as of new age and ambient. .......N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

A changeable line-up of musicians led by mystic and keyboard player Florian Fricke (1944-2001), Krautrock icons Popol Vuh were one of the great innovators of world music and exotic ambient.

Known very unfairly in some quarters as purveyors of sitar-heavy "raga rock", the band's sonic trademarks are far more diverse: abstract electronica, devotional music, progressive rock, eclectic vocal blends and pioneering ethno-ambient fusions. You may have already heard their music without realising it: German director Werner Herzog has used it to mesmerising effect in some of his films from the 70's and 80's, most notably Aguirre Wrath Of God and his extraordinary 1979 remake of the silent vampire classic Nosferatu.

Fricke was a brilliant, intuitive musician and one of the first Westerners to seamlessly blend Eastern and Western sounds, in both a traditional rock band context and in a more ethereal and meditative vein. But he didn't do it alone. Guitarist and drummer Daniel Fichelscher - the only other stable longtime member of the group - also made outstanding contributions. He was a supple, melodic guitar player who brought a rock-like accessibility to Popol Vuh's sound and without whom a large portion of the band's music would have been a very different thing. He was also a fine singer, making substantial contributions to the group vocals and chants that became pronounced in the band's music after the mid 1970's.

Where to begin?

At the time of Fricke's death more than two dozen original albums and film soundtracks of varying quality had been released and many more compilations as well. Wading through them can be a maddening experience. There is a tendency to repeat or re-record tracks on successive albums for no apparent reason, not to mention a lot of previously released music turning up on the film soundtracks. The less-than-hi-fidelity sound of some productions also takes a little getting used to. Until very recently the band's back catalogue was a shambles: some put that down to Fricke's personal quirks and aversion to the music business, while Fricke himself on at least one occasion (in a rare 1996 interview) blamed the record companies.

Popol Vuh's earliest music dates from the late 1960's and early 70's and is fairly typical of the exploratory, abstract electronica in vogue among German bands at the time. The second album In The Gardens Of Pharao (1971) is a classic; an intense, eerie melding of electronic tones from the Moog synthesiser and organ with cymbals, vocal tones and half-submerged tribal instruments. That it recalls early period Tangerine Dream is not surprising when you consider it was Fricke who introduced that very band to the Moog synth as a guest player on their album Zeit (1972). But In the Gardens of Pharao is a more deeply sacred music than TD, reflecting his keen interest at the time in Mayan Indian culture and his lifelong spiritual leanings in general.

At one end is the 20-minute "Spirit Of Peace", a spacious and deeply personal creation for solo piano. At the other end is the stunning main theme from Werner Herzog's film Aguirre (ignore the patchy Aguirre soundtrack album released 1974). On this track Fricke reaches the apogee of his work with electronic synthesis. It's breathtakingly, jaw-droppingly beautiful: a six minute sepulchral drone that blends angelic vocal samples played on a Melotron-like keyboard with deeply trance-inducing colours and pulses from the synthesiser. A milestone in ambient sound, "Aguirre" (also known as "Lacrime Di Re") also marks the end of Fricke's short love affair with electronics. A certain vocal sound he'd been attempting to find with electronics unexpectedly turned up in the form of a Korean vocalist named Djon Yon, who would feature prominently on Popol Vuh's next album Hosianna Mantra (1972).

Almost an antithesis to what came before, Hosianna Mantra favours mostly acoustic music that's devotional but doesn't sit within any single religious tradition. It's a timeless, beatless neo-classical blend of Yon's ritual-like vocal improvisations blended with Fricke's piano, silky electric guitar by one Connie Veit (with lots of sustain and echo), sweet oboe by Robert Eliscu of the pioneering world music band Between, and subtle touches of droning tamboura.

Meeting guitarist Daniel Fichelscher around this time radically changed Fricke's musical world yet again. In the next few years there appeared a series of forward-thinking albums made by what superficially appears to be rock line-up but which doesn't sound quite like any other rock music of the 1970's.

Seligpreisung (1973) is the greatest of these, a masterpiece of ambient rock jamming, jazz-style improvising and lovely duets for oboe and piano. The changing time signatures within many tracks are brilliantly handled, the flow uninterrupted. It marks the first appearance of Popol Vuh's trademark jangling guitar and piano combination, a luminous ambient sound that came to define the band's very soul. Fricke's wordless vocals here - usually not part of the PV sound - seem to anticipate the visionary style of Stephan Micus a decade later, being all about sound rather than lyrics. Seligpreisung also displays the band's mysterious brilliance for being able to sound non-Western with little actual reliance on exotic instruments.

Three other albums recorded in this quasi-rock style in the mid 1970's also rate essential listening and two of them feature the welcome return of Djon Yon's vocals.

Das Hohelied Salomos (1975) echoes the sound of Hosianna Mantra but with the additional of drums and more intensely layered rhythm and lead guitars, giving the album a more rocking feel. Some impressive group vocal chants start to appear at this point in the band's career, a direction which would come to full flower in the next decade. For the first time Indian sitar sits upfront on several tracks but it doesn't radically alter the groups sound - suggesting an earlier mastery of Indian and Mid Eastern modes before they ever relied on the actual instruments. The album Letzte Tag Letzte Nachte (1976) is similar, if even more intense at times in its psychedelic rock gestures, and some of Yon's most powerful singing can be heard here. Rounding out the trio is the film soundtrack Coeur De Verre/Herz Aus Glass (1977) which is completely instrumental, allowing Fichelscher to really let fly with some his most celestial, probing guitar playing.

Having explored the possibilities of what a full-time rock combo could sound like, the band moved on once again and by the late 70's was charting increasingly quiet and contemplative waters. The music recorded for Werner Herzog's hypnotic vampire film Nosferatu is actually spread across two different albums released in the same year: the official soundtrack album Nosferatu (1978) plus Bruder Des Schattens Sohne Des Lichts (1978).

The recent CD re-issue of Nosferatu by SPV Recordings compiles all of the music from both earlier releases and is the logical purchase. On these releases the band downplays its penchant for progressive rock jamming to include beatless mood pieces and atmospheric ethno-ambient stylings. Some moments date back to the sessions that produced the eerie electronica of In The Gardens of Pharao; some pieces exist within the classic Popol Vuh blend of piano and guitar; others manage the not inconsiderable feat of making Indian sitar and tambour drones sound rather tense. Towering above them all is Nosferatu's main theme "Brothers Of Darkness Sons Of Light", an example of Fricke's growing sophistication in use of vocals. It opens with dark male vocal chants that seem to blend Tantric, Buddhist and Christian traditions, building slowly with sad oboe and crashing Tibetan cymbals before spilling over into a slow instrumental jam as openly loving and joyous as anything you'll hear from the band.

Consistent with the feel of the previous two albums is the magnificent Tantric Songs (1979/1981) which - just to keep things confusing - currently exists in two different versions. It demonstrates the band's extraordinary gift for tapping a deep, mystical, intangible power and turning it into music without pomp or pretension. The album offers some the moodiest and most ambient of Popol Vuh's music: Fricke's shadowy gothic piano figures, Fichelscher's glittering acoustic and electric guitars, some lovely oboe and touches of Indian instrumentation. It's music unanchored to any particular time period in musical history and awash with religious atmosphere, carried by subtle shifts of light and shade. The original version of Tantric Songs emphasises a slightly wider range global exotica than Celestial Harmonies U.S. version. The latter is more of a "best-of" collection of late 70's material which deletes a handful of shorter tracks to make room for the aforementioned 18-minute classic "Brothers Of Darkness Sons Of Light".

Although output of new material slowed in the 1980's, the decade remains significant for Popol Vuh's exhilarating distillation of vocal sounds - chants, mantras and choral singing - from different ages and cultures.

The film soundtrack Sei Still Wisse Ich Bin (1981) is an "oratorio" that finds the band working with large scale choirs and group vocals. Anyone with a fondness for the soulful qualities of human voice should be suitably knocked out. Backed by flowing piano, guitars, tribal drums and shimmering percussion, the swelling chorales and chants are by turns mournful and joyous, dark and euphoric, dramatic and gentle. The vocal sources are varied - operatic, South American, Christian, Tibetan elements and more. This is profound music, human and divine at the same time, and its rough edges and looseness make it all the more appealing. With perfect understatement, his friend and Celestial Harmonies Records boss Eckart Rahn once said to me in an interview about Fricke: "He knew something". Yes he did, and he managed to get it down on spellbinding records like this.

Four more original releases from the same decade also rate highly. Agape Agape (1983) and Spirit Of Peace (1985) don't consistently scale the heights of Still Wisse Ich Bin with their vocal work but are still essential releases. "Why Do I Still Sleep" is a cluster of simple piano figures so gentle and expansive you may get carried away on its ravishing melody and not return for several hours. Some of the layered vocal chants like "Agape Agape" and "We Know About The Need" are extraordinarily beautiful, while the gentle group jam "Take The Tension High" casts its slow mantra-like spell over 18 minutes. The film soundtrack Cobra Verde (1987) also contains several similar folksy vocal mantras alongside some surprising beatless, string-laden landscapes - the latter more traditionally filmic and not typical of the band, but fantastic and darkly beautiful all the same.

The 90's proved to be creatively far leaner than previous decades, with only For You And Me (1991) proving to be an impressive work. Its clean, crisp production is something of a shock if you previously waxed ears on the band's earlier material. Was the softer lo-fi sound of yore deliberate? Quite possibly.

Certainly the band's creative dynamic was now different. What is not widely known is the reason: Fricke sustained a serious hand injury at some point in the 80's - losing at least one finger to gangrene after a trip the Himalayas, according to Eckart Rahn - and tragically could no longer play the piano. So new member Guido Hieronymus took over the piano playing and also shared the creative duties, a move that fundamentally changed Popol Vuh, with Daniel Fichelscher now less involved than before.

The overall effect of the clean sound on For You and Me seems somehow less mystical but the album is still a lovely, engaging and mostly upbeat collection of world music fusions with just a touch of synth pop. The classic blend of ringing guitars and glowing piano still binds everything together, however, and some of the small group choral arrangements are striking. The band's past resurfaces on the 4-part suite "Om Mane Padem Hum" on which Fricke cleverly reworks the brighter moments from his classic "Brothers Of Darkness Sons Of Light" into something new but equally as warm and optimistic.

With the non-essential City Raga (1995) and Shepherd's Symphony (1997) the influence of Hieronymus on keyboards and arrangements has become overt, with the band now hopping on board the 90's ambient dance bandwagon. At the time many fans were aghast, but in retrospect neither of these are horrible records; they're just underwhelming next to ethno-ambient efforts by more dance-savvy acts of the period like Mayko, Loop Guru, Deep Forest and Delerium. Daniel Fichelscher - sidelined after the arrival of Hieronymus - was unimpressed with all the sequencers and drum machines; he left the band soon after City Raga after contributing guitar to just one track.

The final album before Fricke's death in 2001 was an interesting but unexceptional mix of ambient drones and poetry for an art installation called Messa Di Orfeo (1999). It's significant only in that it suggests Fricke had come nearly full circle to once again embrace the abstract electronica of his earliest work.
.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Side one of the LP has the one long (18'47")  'Bruder des Schattens' track which is, quite simply, possibly the most beautiful piece of music you will ever hear in your life. A dreamscape based around acoustic instruments and voices; Fricke had jettisoned his early experiments with synthesizers by this time. Side two has shorter tracks in the same vein - mainly built up around acoustic guitars and piano, actually quite pastoral in a good way, one where the comparisons to Steve Reich are not that out of place.



Popol Vuh - Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts (Brothers of Darkness-Sons Of Light) (flac  177mb)

01 Brüder Des Schattens - Söhne Des Lichts 18:47
02 Höre, Der Du Wagst 5:52
03 Das Schloss Des Irrtums 5:35
04 Die Umkehr 5:57
bonus
05 Sing, For Songs Drive Away The Wolves 4:15

    (ogg  mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Florian Fricke's soundtracks always added a distinctive dimension to the films of Werner Herzog and that's especially true of his recordings for Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (starring Klaus Kinski as the most spectacularly grotesque Count Dracula ever). This CD brings together Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts and Nosferatu: Fantôme de la Nuit, two 1978 Popol Vuh albums containing material for Herzog's film. The director drew initially on the first of these records but subsequently asked Fricke for more music conveying fear and dread. In response, Fricke raided his archive of unused work -- this was the origin of the second record. Featured prominently in the film, "Brüder des Schattens, Söhne des Lichts" moves from a spectral choral beginning to a lighter, almost pastoral conclusion with piano, guitar, and sitar, echoing the chiaroscuro dynamic of its title ("Brothers of Shadow, Sons of Light"). That brighter, expansive mood recurs on several tracks with a more pronounced Eastern groove: "Through Pain to Heaven," for example, with its mesmerizing interplay of guitars and droning, billowing sitar. Darker numbers like "Mantra 2" -- which combines choral voices and organic drones in a mournful, subtly menacing fashion -- resonate more explicitly with the film's gothic aesthetic. Among the dark tracks, the most striking pay homage to early electronic soundtrack experiments: for example, "Die Nacht der Himmel" with its spooky theremin sound and the supremely eerie "Der Ruf der Rohrflöte." To call this a soundtrack CD is slightly misleading: not all the music features in the movie and it omits non-Popol Vuh material heard in the film (portions of Wagner's "Das Rheingold" and Gounod's "Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cècile," for instance). That said, it holds together as a coherent album in its own right and includes some exceptionally strong, memorable material.



 Popol Vuh - Nosferatu    (flac 333mb)

01 Bruder Des Schattens 5:41
02 Höre, Der Du Wagst 5:58
03 Das Schloss Des Irrtums 5:35
04 Die Umkehr 5:56
05 Mantra 1 6:13
06 Morning Sun 3:19
07 Venus Principle 4:39
08 Mantra 2 5:20
09 Die Nacht Der Himmel 5:01
10 Der Ruf Der Rohrflöte 3:37
11 To A Little Way 2:32
12 Through Pain To Heaven 3:45
13 On The Way 4:03
14 Zwiesprache Der Rohrflöte 3:22

Popol Vuh - Nosferatu     (ogg  141mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Die Nacht der Seele appears to be a slight release.  The songs are edited down to bite-size fragments, and reflect a variety of styles.  Djong Yun inexplicably comes back for one track, the magnificent "Wo bist Du," which sounds like it was recorded around the time of Einsjager & Siebenjager.  Largely an acoustic album, with Fricke playing piano backed by Amon Duul II's Daniel Fischelsher and Renate Knaup on guitars and voice. Despite the presence of oboe and sitar on this album, it definitely isn't new-age fluff - these 11 tracks are very moody and eerie inner soundscapes. This unassuming album to rank among the very best PV releases.



Popol Vuh - Die Nacht der Seele (Tantric Songs) (flac  226mb)

01 Mantram Der Erdberührung 2:14
02 Engel Der Luft 2:40
03 Mit Händen, Mit Füssen 2:44
04 Wo Bist Du, Der Du Überwunden Hast? / Gesegnet Du, Bei Deiner Ankunft 5:44
05 Mantram Der Erdberührung II 2:17
06 Im Reich Der Schatten 2:17
07 Wanderer Durch Die Nacht 4:13
08 Mantram Der Herzberührung I 1:51
09 Auf Dem Weg 2:54
10 Mantram Der Herzberührung II 1:44
11 In Der Halle Des Lernen 4:03

Popol Vuh - Die Nacht der Seele (Tantric Songs)   (ogg  105mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Recorded in 1980 and produced by Klaus Schulze, Sei Still, Wisse ICH BIN ("Be quiet, know I am") is one of Popol Vuh's sacred music offerings. Like Hosianna Mantra nearly a decade before, this set is regal in its solemnity and in its intensity. Utilizing the Chorensemble der Bayerischen Staatsoper and the soprano saxophone stylings of Chris Karrer, Popol Vuh -- down to a three-piece with vocalist Renate Knaup fronting the choir, Fricke on piano and voice, and guitarist Daniel Fichelscher holding down the drum chair as well, this is a huge recording . Schulze's immediate mix, which brings the vocals into complete balance with the undulating, mantra-like instrumentation, is nothing less than stunning; from Tibetan-style prayer chants to Eastern Orthodox choral scales, from thundering bass drums and cymbals to snaky, elusive, sparse electric guitar lines and Fricke's trademark shimmering piano, each of this album's seven selections is its own kind of masterpiece. It is the perfect marriage of world music utilized in rock & roll fashion, and of both being placed at the service of the Sacred. It is nothing less than awe-inspiring.



Popol Vuh - Sei Still, Wisse ICH BIN (flac  193mb)

01 Wehe Khorazin 6:22
02 Und Als Er Sah Es Geht Dem Ende Zu 7:04
03 Garten Der Gemeinschaft 4:41
04 Gemeinsam Aßen Sie Das Brot 2:51
05 Laß Los 6:46
06 Gemeinsam Tranken Sie Den Wein 3:50
07 ...Als Lebten Die Engel Auf Erden 2:10
Bonus
08 King Minos III (Studio Version) 5:02

  (ogg   mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Two years after the issue of Sei Still, Wisse ICH BIN, Agape-Agape (Love-Love) offers a deeper view of the same animal. Still utilizing a choir for Gregorian chant-like ethereal intensity -- though they sing in Byzantine scales -- pianist Florian Fricke, guitarist/percussionist Daniel Fichelscher, guitarist Conny Veit (who came back to the fold after a prolonged absence), and vocalist Renate Knaup delve deeply into the drone world of Fricke's sacred music muse. There are eight pieces on this set, the longest of which is the final one, "Why Do I Fall Asleep." But they are all of a single theme, even Fichelscher's "They Danced, They Laughed, As of Old," which is an extended retreatment of "Kleiner Kreiger" from the Einsjäger & Siebenjäger album. Fricke only comes to the fore on the title track with his shimmering, insistent mantra-piano, but the twin guitars of Fichelscher and Veit more than compensate elsewhere as they entwine and slip through and around one another. Once again, though the music might seem formulaic, it is in the subtleties and dynamics that Fricke's compositional growth is revealed, and Agape-Agape is a worthy, devastatingly beautiful outing.



Popol Vuh - Agape-Agape Love-Love (flac  167mb)

01 Hand In Hand 2:52
02 They Danced, They Laughed, As Of Old 4:49
03 Love, Life, Death 1:28
04 The Christ Is Near 3:50
05 Love-Love 5:20
06 Behold, The Drover Summonds 5:52
07 Agape-Agape 4:55
08 Why Do I Still Sleep 7:58
Bonus
09 Circledance 2:36

  (ogg   mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello,  i probably should have expected, after posting almost 100 re-ups these last 2 weeks, i would be inundated by requests this week, and thus for the first time there's a back log the size of next weeks re-up page. Furthermore i wish to communicate that i will remove too-early re up requests (to avoid confusion).


15 correct requests for this week, 1 cloudy re up, 4 too early , whatever another batch of 55 re-ups (15.2 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 February 5th !... N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

2x Sundaze NOW in Flac (Unkle Sounds - Widescreen Edit ~ A New Hope, Unkle Sounds - Bonus Material Edit ~ Strikes Back)


7x Wales Back In Flac (Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth, Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft, World Party - Goodbye Jumbo, Jem - Finally Woken, John Cale - Music For A New Society, The Darling Buds - Erotica, Sasha (DJ) - Airdrawndagger)


4x Sundaze Back In Flac (Haruomi Hosono - Mental Sports Mixes, Haruomi Hosono - N D E, Haruomi Hosono - Naga, HAT - DSP-Holiday )


2x Sundaze Back in Flac (John Foxx & Harold Budd – Translucence & Drift Music , John Foxx, Steve D'Agostino, Steve Jansen - A Secret Life )


4x Sundaze Back in Flac (Space Night Vol. 09 alpha, Space Night Vol. 09 beta, Space Night Vol.11 Alpha, Space Night Vol.11 Beta )


4x Sundaze Back in Flac (HIA & Biosphere - Polar Sequences, HIA & Biosphere - Birmingham Frequencies, HIA & Namlook - S.H.A.D.O, HIA & Namlook - S.H.A.D.O 2)


6x Netherlands NOW in flac (Clan of Xymox - Id+Subsequent Pleasures, the Gathering - Souvenir, Mecano - Sub-Untiteld, Herman Brood - My Way, Kraak 'n Smaak - Boogie Angst, Speedy J - G Spot)


3x Roots Back in Flac (Dub Syndicate ‎- The Pounding System, Dub Syndicate ‎- Tunes From The Missing Channel, Dub Syndicate - Echomania)


5x Wavetrain Back in Flac (Polystyrene - Translucence, John Foxx - Metamatic, still in ogg Positive Noise - Change Of Heart, Positive Noise - Heart of Darkness, The Reds - I)


4x Aetix Back in Flac (Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – I, Tom Petty –You're Gonna Get It !, Tom Petty - Damn The Torpedoes, Tom Petty n the Heartbreakers - Long After Dark)


4x Aetix NOW in Flac (Nitzer Ebb - Basic Pain Procedure , Nitzer Ebb - That Total Age,  Nitzer Ebb - Belief, Nitzer Ebb - Showtime)


4x Roots NOW in Flac ( Francis Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, Antonio Jobim - A Certain Mr.Jobim, Antonio Carlos Jobim - Tide, Antonio Carlos Jobim - Stone Flower )


3x Aetix Back in Flac ( General Public - All The Rage, Modern English - After The Snow, still in ogg Fingerprintz - The Very Dab)


posted in january but without the oggs but a special request has me add the 2 remaining oggs from that page
6x Wavetrain-Jumbo Day Back In Flac (Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes, Suicide - II, Romeo Void - Warm, In Your Coat, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Buzz, Defunkt - Avoid The Funk, Human Sexual Response - Fig 15,  still in ogg Units - Digital Stimulation, Comateens - Comateens)


cloudy files re-up

1x Sundaze Back in Flac ( VA - Ambient Meditations 1  )


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello,


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Mark Z. Danielewski (born March 5, 1966) is an American fiction author. Though his second novel, Only Revolutions (2006), was nominated for the National Book Award, Danielewski is most widely known for his debut novel House of Leaves (2000), which garnered a considerable cult following and won the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. His latest project is The Familiar, an ambitious 27-volume serial novel whose first installment, The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May, was released on May 12, 2015. The Familiar, Volume 5: Redwood completed Season One when it was released on October 31, 2017.

Danielewski's work is characterized by an intricate, multi-layered typographical variation, or page layout. Sometimes known as visual writing, the typographical variation corresponds directly, at any given narratological point in time, to the physical space of the events in the fictional world as well as the physical space of the page and the reader. Early on, critics characterized his writing as being ergodic literature, but recently, Danielewski, who has commented on his disappointment with criticism's inability to properly confront his work, expressed his theoretical approach to literature:

Signiconic = sign + icon. Rather than engage those textual faculties of the mind remediating the pictorial or those visual faculties remediating language, the signiconic simultaneously engages both in order to lessen the significance of both and therefore achieve a third perception no longer dependent on sign and image for remediating a world in which the mind plays no part."

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

"The Navidson Record now stands as part of this country's cultural experience and yet, in spite of the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have seen it, the film continues to remain an enigma. Some insist it must be true, others believe it is a trick on a par with the Orson Welles radio romp The War of the Worlds. Many more have never even heard of it."
With these words Zampano preludes the excerpts from an extraordinary film, cut together by Will Navidson from cameras located within his house and those he took with him into the labyrinth that had sprung up there over the course of a few days.
According to the Navidson record, it was when the family returned to the house from a trip to Seattle that they first discovered the additional door and the space behind it. Will Navidson, celebrated adventure photographer, was intrigued, his partner Karen insisted that the door be permanently locked. But one night after a row, Navidson opened the door and went in. He found rooms beyond rooms, all windowless, all unlit, and only narrowly escaped becoming lost forever in the labyrinth. Not long afterwards the spiral staircase appeared, corkscrewing downwards to a dark infinity. So Navidson equipped his brother Tom and others for an expedition, as if they were embarking on a quest into some architectural jungle. The cameras rolled and they descended, and here's the audio.

House of Leaves is the remarkable cult novel by Mark Z Danielewsky, a labyrinth of its own kind with its multiple interwoven narratives and textual tricks. This dramatic piece re-imagines the terrifying heart of the story. The narrator in this production is Jim Norton who recently received both an Olivier award for the National Theatre production and a Tony for the hit Broadway production of Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, and is currently appearing again at the National in McPherson's new play The Veil.....

Adapted by: Mike Walker

Cast:
Zampano ..... Jim Norton
Navidson .....William Hope
Karen ..... Debora Weston
Tom Navidson ..... Martin McDougall
Jed Leeder ..... Jeff Mash
Holloway ..... Richard Ridings
Reston ..... Vinta Morgan
Daisy ..... Eleanor Blaney

Producer/Director: John Taylor


Mark Z Danielewski - Recordings Recovered from the House of Leaves ( 57min mp3     39mb).

A closet becomes a hallway and a hallway a vast labyrinth in an odd house in Virginia.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

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)
Daphne Du Maurier - Dont Look Now. ( 57min mp3  38mb)
Bram Stoker - The Lair of the White Worm. ( 57min mp3  39mb)
Anita Sullivan - Rock of Eye. ( 44min mp3  30mb).
James Herbert - The Magic Cottage ( 83min mp3     57mb).
Willa Cather - The Affair at Grover Station ( 88min mp3     61mb).

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, the Championsleague got down to business again and  the in form team of the Premier League, Man United got a football lesson today, they were peopled at home by PSG that didn't need their superstar Neymar or goalscorer Cavani to stun a chace-less Man United, 0-2 the final score. The coming week there will another 3 UK teams all drawing a German opponent, they'll need at least 2 wins out of those to keep the Brexit hopes alive...


Today's artists had age, a pub rock pedigree, musical savvy, and long hair working against them – cardinal sins in a punk movement that was almost militaristic in its rigidness - but you’d be hard pressed to see how that hindered them.  .. ......N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Part of the idea behind punk rock was that anyone could play it, but while most folks took that to mean the young and inexperienced could pick up a guitar and bash out two or three chords, the concept worked the other way, too. The Vibrators were one of the early bands to break out on the London punk rock scene, and created one of the first classic albums to come out of U.K. punk. But as much as they tried to look like kids off the streets, their leader was anything but. Guitarist and singer Knox (aka Ian Carnochan) was the ripe old age of 31 when he launched the Vibrators, and he'd been playing in bands since his mid-teens. But if Knox was a bit long in the tooth to be part of the youth vanguard, he was also in it for the long haul, and he's kept the Vibrators alive and productive through dozens of lineup changes well into the 21st Century.

Knox was born in London on September 4, 1945, and grew up in the neighborhoods of Cricklewood and Watford. He was 13 when he first started playing guitar, and he played in a pair of bands with his schoolmates, the Renegades and Knox & the Knight Ryders. Knox was the rare British art school student who put his guitar away while he studied painting, but by 1972 he was playing again and performed on the fringes of the U.K. pub rock circuit. In 1976, as punk rock was growing from an underground phenomenon to the next big thing, Knox chose to get in on the action and formed the Vibrators, with himself on guitar and vocals, John Ellis on guitar, Pat Collier on bass, and a drummer who was identified as Eddie the Drummer (real name: John Edwards). The group quickly jumped out of the gate, opening shows for the Stranglers and the Sex Pistols and becoming regulars at one of London's first homes for punk, the 100 Club. Mickie Most signed the group to his RAK Records label, and they dropped their first single, "We Vibrate," in November 1976. The same month, they were Chris Spedding's backing band for his novelty take on punk, "Pogo Dancing." Before RAK could release a second Vibrators single, they were snapped up by Epic Records, which released the single "Baby Baby" in May 1977. A month later, Epic unveiled their debut album, Pure Mania, to strong reviews and respectable sales, rising to number 49 on the U.K. album charts. In 1977, they also were the support act for Iggy Pop's U.K. tour (with David Bowie backing Iggy on keyboards).

A mere ten months later, the Vibrators dropped their second LP, V2, which featured a new bassist, Gary Tibbs, after Pat Collier left the group. A single from V2, "Automatic Lover," made it to number 35 on the British singles charts, which led to the Vibrators appearing on Top of the Pops. More live work followed, though John Ellis would drop out of the band in 1978, with Dave Birch signing on as guitarist; the group also added Don Snow on saxophone and keyboards. That lineup proved to be short-lived, and Knox and Eddie recruited guitarist Greg Van Cook and bassist Ben Brierly for a version that fell apart by the end of 1978. By early 1979, Knox left the Vibrators to launch a solo career, and while the band struggled along without him, they threw in the towel in 1980.

In 1982, Knox opted to give the Vibrators another try, and he recruited the original lineup (Collier, Ellis, and Eddie) to cut a new album, Guilty, for Anagram Records. This edition managed to stay together long enough to record the albums Alaska 127 (1984) and Fifth Amendment (1985) before Collier bowed out to pursue a career as a producer. Noel Thompson replaced Collier on bass, and after John Ellis quit the band to join the Stranglers, Mickie Owen took over on guitar. This lineup recorded a live LP, but by the time the group next returned to the studio, Noel Thompson was out and Mark Duncan was the new bassist. This edition cut two albums, Recharged and Meltdown (both 1988) before Owen dropped out and Nigel Bennett picked up the guitar spot. With Bennett, the Vibrators cut the albums Vicious Circle, Volume Ten, and Unpunked, between 1989 and 1996. From this point on, the number of personnel changes continued to increase, with Knox and Eddie as the sole constants (and with Knox even leaving the lineup in 2008 for 14 months after an accident). However, the band continued to record and tour regularly, playing upward of 100 dates a year, and were regularly lauded as one of the most indefatigable bands in U.K. punk. In 2017, as the band was preparing for what they announced would be their last United States tour, the Vibrators dropped a studio album, Restless, via Die Laughing Records. .

On July 16, 2007, the band re-formed for a benefit concert in honor of Paul Fox, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Henry Rollins filled in on lead vocals, and the Damned, Tom Robinson, and Misty in Roots were among the opening acts. This inspired the band to return to the studio, with John Jennings and David Ruffy joined by guitarist Leigh Heggarty. In June 2008, another compilation, Original Punks, was released by Music Club Deluxe in the UK. The two-disc set included demos, alternate versions and live tracks plus songs recorded by Ruts D.C. They would record material over the next five years at Mad Professor's studio; Rhythm Collision, Vol. 2 arrived in 2013. A concert album, Live on Stage, appeared in 2014, while a new studio album, Music Must Destroy, arrived in 2016, with Henry Rollins performing guest vocals on the title track and Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers and Kirk Brandon of Theatre of Hate and Spear of Destiny appearing on "Kill the Pain." The same year saw another Ruts compilation, Babylon's Burning, which repackaged the Live and Loud! and In a Can albums as a two-LP set.

 xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Fifth Amendment (1985) moves even further towards Pop territory with a great collection of trackss. Album opener “Blown Away By Love” features more keyboard work than any song in their catalog thus far. However, the hooks are fab and it remains one of the catchiest songs in their catalog. The track is followed by the bluesy grime of “Rip Up The City,” which feels more influenced by New York than London. “Wipe Away” could’ve been a Graham Parker & The Rumour single. “Frankenstein Stomp” is dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll. “Too Late For Love” is wonderfully wobbly Pop. And so on… Fifth Amendment may not have satisfied the Punk elite but it sure stands tall as a wonderfully skewered Pop platter.



 The Vibrators - Fifth Amendment (flac  278mb)
 
01 Blown Away By Love 3:34
02 Rip Up The City 3:32
03 Tomorrow Is Today 3:19
04 Wipe Away 2:53
05 Too Late For Love 3:28
06 The Demolishers 4:09
07 Running Right Into Your Heart 3:04
08 Frankenstein Stomp 2:54
09 Crazy Dream 3:19
10 Criminal 3:17
11 Blown Away By Love (7' Version) 3:26
12 Still Not Over You 3:03

 The Vibrators - Fifth Amendment (ogg   102mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Entitled Rarities 1979-80, the first half of this 18 track disc features nine demos that singer/songwriter Knox and Eddie recorded with a new crew of Vibrators. With John Ellis, Pat Collier and Gary Tibbs in their rear view mirror, The Vibrators were moving forward with the same energy that fueled their first two albums. While some of these songs appeared in different forms down the line, this set of previously unreleased recordings is definitely the link between the first phase of their career and the second. The most telling track here is “Vipers In The Dark,” a track that revealed the Lou Reed/V.U.-influenced direction that the band would eventually follow. But sadly, before the band could find a deal and record proper studio versions of these songs, Knox left the band to pursue other interests. Eddie brought in frontman Kip and continued to move The Vibrators forward.  The remaining tracks feature recordings with Kip including the legendary “Disco In Moscow” single. While the band still occupied a similar musical universe to their previous releases, the tracks were certainly less Punk and more Rock ‘n’ Roll with nice hooks. There’s even a slight Mod influence, which may not be a coincidence since Kip left The Vibrators to join The Chords for their last few singles.



  The Vibrators - Rarities 1979-80   (flac  416mb)

Third Album Demos
01 Fighter Pilot
02 Pushin' Too Hard
03 Splitting Up
04 Ticket To Paradise
05 Stich You Up
06 She's A Boy
07 Goin' Uptown
08 Rain Rain Rain
09 Vipers In The Dark
The Kip Recordings
10 Gimme Some Lovin'
11 Powercry
12 Dksco In Moscow
13 Take A Chance
14 All You Need Is A Name
15 I Think You're Lovely
16 Strange Kinda World
17 Lovin' Machine
18 I Can't Get No Answer

 The Vibrators - Rarities 1979-80   (ogg   142mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

By this stage I'm not sure even the most  rabid of fans could have believed The Vibrators would ever claw their way back into even the semi-limelight. The problem is the band are labouring under the law of diminishing returns and are caught in a vicious debilitating circle. At the start of their career, record companies were so keen to sign bands which could loosely be termed punk that they were throwing money at them. They had ready access to decent studio facilities, up and coming producers and regular media coverage. Ten years later and that must have seemed like another world to The Vibrators. Looking at the liner notes for this release and I see that the album were recorded in a studio called The Greenhouse. Such is the poor quality of the production on both albums that it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it's situated at the bottom of Knox' garden. On some tracks, the vocals are so muffled and the individual instrumentation so indistinct I can well believe the tomatoes and radishes are interfering with the sound!

Well the album is completely crippled by poor production. There are two many tracks that seem to be nothing more than a killer riff because the vocal is pushed so far back in the mix it's virtually indistinct. And that's a shame. Knox may not have the most dominant of voices but I do like his scraggy sneer. Too often, though it goes missing. So, while Vicious Circle has it moments, it doesn't show The Vibrators at their best.



 The Vibrators - Vicious Circle   (flac  255mb)

01 No Getting Over You 2:39
02 Poll Tax Blues 3:14
03 I Don't Wanna Fall 4:02
04 Rocket Ride to Heaven 3:38
05 Count on Me 3:28
06 Slow Death 3:45
07 Fire 2:19
08 Halfway to Paradise 3:30
09 Ruby's Gotta Heart 3:23
10 Don't Trust Anyone 2:21
11 No Mercy 3:04
12 Work 4:32

 The Vibrators - Vicious Circle    (ogg  96mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

The Vibrators tenth effort (if you include Live) saw a comfortable band, and this reflected in the album. It is effortless in it’s delivery, every track feels like it was crafted and perfected by a band that had become somewhat of a hot proposition. The punk feel is ever present, the guitars taking the rule book for punk and, in it’s fashion, tearing them up to make even the greats sweat.  It results in one of the more tolerable latter-day Vibrators efforts, mainly because new guitar player Nigel Bennett cannot restrain his enthusiasm, the saxophone integrates well, too. This album is a representation of a band at ease with themselves and making the music they want to make.



 The Vibrators - Volume Ten   (flac  313mb)

01 Losing It 3:48
02 Hot For You 2:19
03 Rave On 2:06
04 Wonderful World 3:47
05 Outta My System 5:18
06 Cartel 4:50
07 Video Girl 3:23
08 Hey America 2:40
09 Raintime 5:12
10 World In Your Hands 3:30
11 Don'tcha Know Now 2:18
12 Can't Have It All 2:24
13 Commanche3:40

 The Vibrators - Volume Ten    (ogg  113mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. Originating as a Western Christian feast day honoring one or two early saints named Valentinus, Valentine's Day is recognized as a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love in many regions around the world, although it is not a public holiday in any country.

Martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14 are presented in martyrologies, including a written account of Saint Valentine of Rome imprisonment for performing weddings for soldiers, who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his judge, and before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell. Hmm clearly the judge was not at all impressed by his daughers recovery, nevertheless they started a drama that unfolded numerous times, even before choclate was invented to soothe the female psyche...



Today's artists are less a band than an assemblage of some of Cuba's most renowned musical forces, whose performing careers had largely ended decades earlier with the rise of Fidel Castro. Recruiting the long-forgotten likes of singer Ibrahim Ferrer, guitarists/singers Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa, and pianist Rubén González, Ry Cooder entered Havana's Egrem Studios to record the album Buena Vista Social Club; the project was an unexpected commercial and critical smash, earning a Grammy and becoming the best-selling release of Cooder's long career. The international success generated a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music as a whole.....N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

The Buenavista Social Club was a members-only club originally located in Buenavista (literally good view), a quarter in the current neighbourhood of Playa (before 1976 part of Marianao), one of the 15 municipalities in Cuba's capital, Havana. The original club was founded in 1932 in a small wooden venue at calle Consulado y pasaje “A” (currently calle 29, n. 6007). In 1939, due to lack of space the club relocated to number 4610 on Avenue 31, between calles 46 and 48, in Almendares, Marianao. This location is recalled by Juan Cruz, former director of the Marianao Social Club and master of ceremonies at the Salón Rosado de la Tropical (other nightclubs in Havana). As seen in the Buena Vista Social Club documentary, when musicians Ry Cooder, Compay Segundo and a film crew attempted to identify the location of the club in the 1990s, local people could not agree on where it had stood.

At the time, clubs in Cuba were segregated; there were sociedades del blancos (white societies), sociedades de negros (black societies), etc. The Buenavista Social Club operated as a black society, which was rooted in a cabildo. Cabildos were fraternities organized during the 19th century by African slaves. The existence of many other black societies such as Marianao Social Club, Unión Fraternal, Club Atenas (whose members included doctors and engineers), and Buenavista Social Club, exemplified the remnants of institutionalized racial discrimination against Afro-Cubans. These societies operated as recreational centers where workers went to drink, play games, dance and listen to music. In the words of Ry Cooder,

    Society in Cuba and in the Caribbean including New Orleans, as far as I know, was organized around these fraternal social clubs. There were clubs of cigar wrappers, clubs for baseball players and they'd play sports and cards—whatever it is they did in their club—and they had mascots, like dogs. At the Buena Vista Social Club, musicians went there to hang out with each other, like they used to do at musicians' unions in the U.S., and they'd have dances and activities.

As a music venue, the Buenavista Social Club experienced the peak of Havana's nightclub life, when charangas and conjuntos, played several sets every night, going from club to club over the course of a week. Often, bands would dedicate songs to the clubs where they played. In the case of the Buenavista Social Club, an eponymous danzón was composed by Israel López "Cachao" in 1938, and performed with Arcaño y sus Maravillas. In addition, Arsenio Rodríguez dedicated "Buenavista en guaguancó" to the same place. Together with Orquesta Melodías del 40, the Maravillas and Arsenio's conjunto were known as Los Tres Grandes (The Big Three), drawing the largest audiences wherever they played. These vibrant times in Havana were described by pianist Rubén González, who played in Arsenio's conjunto, as "an era of real musical life in Cuba, when there was very little money to earn, but everyone played because they really wanted to".

Shortly after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, newly elected Cuban President Manuel Urrutia Lleó, a devout Christian, began a program of closing gambling outlets, nightclubs, and other establishments associated with Havana's hedonistic lifestyle. This had an immediate impact on the livelihoods of local entertainers. As the Cuban government rapidly shifted towards the left in an effort to build a "classless and colourblind society", it struggled to define policy toward forms of cultural expression in the black community; expressions which had implicitly emphasized cultural differences. Consequently, the cultural and social centers were abolished, including the Afro-Cuban mutual aid Sociedades de Color in 1962, to make way for racially integrated societies. Private festivities were limited to weekend parties and organizers' funds were confiscated. The measures meant the closure of the Buena Vista Social Club. Although the Cuban government continued to support traditional music after the revolution, certain favor was given to the politically charged nueva trova, and poetic singer-songwriters such as Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés. The emergence of pop music and salsa, a style derived from Cuban music but developed in the United States, meant that son music became even less common.

The occurrence of these closures and the change in traditions is the simplest explanation of why many musicians were out of work, and why their style of music had declined before the all-star group Buena Vista Social Club made it popular again.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx


Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996 to revive the music of pre-revolutionary Cuba. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the group after the homonymous members' club in the Buenavista quarter of Havana, a popular music venue in the 1940s. To showcase the popular styles of the time, such as son, bolero and danzón, they recruited a dozen veteran musicians, many of whom had been retired for many years.

The group's eponymous album was recorded in March 1996 and released in September 1997, quickly becoming an international success, which prompted the ensemble to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam and New York in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film for a documentary—also called Buena Vista Social Club—that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders' film was released in June 1999 to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards. This was followed up by a second documentary: Buena Vista Social Club: Adios in 2017.

xxxxx

Shortly after returning from Havana to record the Buena Vista Social Club album, Ry Cooder began working with German film director Wim Wenders on the soundtrack to Wenders' film The End of Violence, the third such collaboration between the two artists. According to Wenders, it was an effort to force Cooder to focus on the project, "He always sort of looked in the distance and smiled, and I knew he was back in Havana." Wenders filmed the recording sessions on the recently enhanced format Digital Video with the help of cinematographer Robert Müller, and then shot interviews with each "Buena Vista" ensemble member in different Havana locations. Wenders was also present to film the group's first performance with a full line-up in Amsterdam in April 1998 (two nights) and a second time in Carnegie Hall, New York City on 1 July 1998. The completed documentary was released on 17 September 1999, and included scenes in New York of the Cubans, some of whom had never left the island, window shopping and visiting tourist sites. According to Sight & Sound magazine, these scenes of "innocents abroad" were the film's most moving moments, as the contrasts between societies of Havana and New York become evident on the faces of the performers. Ferrer, from an impoverished background and staunchly anti consumerist, was shown describing the city as "beautiful" and finding the experience overwhelming. Upon completion of filming, Wenders felt that the film "didn't feel really like it was a documentary anymore. It felt like it was a true character piece".


The film became a box office success, grossing $23,002,182 worldwide. Critics were generally enthusiastic about the story and especially the music, although leading U.S. film critic Roger Ebert and the British Film Institute's Peter Curran felt that Wenders had lingered too long on Cooder during the performances; and the editing, which interspersed interviews with music, had disrupted the continuity of the songs. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature in 1999. It won best documentary at the European Film Awards and received seventeen other major accolades internationally.


Wim Wenders - Buena Vista Social Club   (avi  787mb)

xxxxx

The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with stars from different musical genres. The "Buena Vista Social Club" name became an umbrella term to describe these performances and releases, and has been likened to a brand label that encapsulates Cuba's "musical golden age" between the 1930s and 1950s. The new success was fleeting for the most recognizable artists in the ensemble: Compay Segundo, Rubén González, and Ibrahim Ferrer, who died at the ages of ninety-five, eighty-four, and seventy-eight respectively; Compay Segundo and González in 2003, then Ferrer in 2005.

Several surviving members of the Buena Vista Social Club, such as veteran singer Omara Portuondo, trumpeter Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, laúd player Barbarito Torres and trombonist and conductor Jesús "Aguaje" Ramos currently tour worldwide, to popular acclaim, with new members such as singer Carlos Calunga and pianist Rolando Luna, as part of a 13-member band called Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club.


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

This album is named after a members-only club that was opened in Havana in pre-Castro times, a period of unbelievable musical activity in Cuba. While bandleader Desi Arnaz became a huge hit in the States, several equally talented musicians never saw success outside their native country, and have had nothing but their music to sustain them during the Castro reign. Ry Cooder went to Cuba to record a musical documentary of these performers. Many of the musicians on this album have been playing for more than a half century, and they sing and play with an obvious love for the material. Cooder could have recorded these songs without paying the musicians a cent; one can imagine them jumping up and grabbing for their instruments at the slightest opportunity, just to play. Most of the songs are a real treasure, traversing a lot of ground in Cuba's musical history. There's the opening tune, "Chan Chan," a composition by 89-year-old Compay Segundo, who was a bandleader in the '50s; the cover of the early-'50s tune "De Camino a la Verada," sung by the 72-year-old composer Ibrahim Ferrer, who interrupted his daily walk through Havana just long enough to record; or the amazing piano playing on "Pablo Nuevo" by 77-year-old Rubén González, who has a unique style that blends jazz, mambo, and a certain amount of playfulness. All of these songs were recorded live -- some of them in the musicians' small apartments -- and the sound is incredibly deep and rich, something that would have been lost in digital recording and overdubbing. Cooder brought just the right amount of reverence to this material, and it shows in his production, playing, and detailed liner notes. If you get one album of Cuban music, this should be the one.



Buena Vista Social Club - I     (flac  353mb)

01 Chan Chan 4:16
02 De Camino A La Vereda 5:03
03 El Cuarto De Tula 7:27
04 Pueblo Nuevo 6:05
05 Dos Gardenias 3:02
06 ¿Y Tú Qué Has Hecho? 3:13
07 Veinte Años 3:29
08 El Carretero 3:28
09 Candela 5:27
10 Amor De Loca Juventud 3:21
11 Orgullecida 3:18
12 Murmullo 3:50
13 Buena Vista Social Club 4:50
14 La Bayamesa 2:54

Buena Vista Social Club - I   (ogg  148mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

It should never cease to amaze how spry and dramatically potent a force is the Buena Vista Social Club. The group--really a gaggle of aging Cuban maestros brought together for stunning all-star performances--keeps its footing in Cuban dance music at the same time as it revels in the lax tempo of layered hand percussion and traditional rhythms. Ibrahim Ferrer stepped to the international fore as the vocalist on the eponymous BVSC CD in 1997 and here furthers his already-obvious command of everything from sultry, horn-swaying ballads to gritty son tunes like "Mami me gusto." Ferrer's tattered vocal inflections shape the more rollicking tunes so their texture is palpable, especially when belted in antiphonal give-and-takes with the rest of the huge band he totes along here. A 15-member-strong string section steps forward on the bolero tracks, which send off a smoldering passion that's startling in light of the BVSC's heightened, horn-charged charts. But the rich string passages color songs in wide brush strokes, which is to say that they heighten the passion to no end. Ferrer's debut might come in his twilight years, but it's a majorly luminous event.



Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer     (flac  307mb)

01 Bruca Maniguá 4:44
02 Herido De Sombras 4:11
03 Marieta 5:55
04 Guateque Campesino 5:09
05 Mamí Me Gustó 5:04
06 Nuestra Ultima Cita 3:56
07 Cienfuegos Tiene Su Guaguancó 5:22
08 Silencio 4:38
09 Aquellos Ojos Verdes 4:54
10 Qué Bueno Baila Usted 4:39
11 Como Fue 3:33

Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer   (ogg    116mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Many people think of Buena Vista Social Club as forgotten musical legends Ry Cooder discovered and introduced to the world. The reality is some of them were not forgotten and some were not even legends. Now let me introduce Arsenio Rodriguez. This album features his compositions. He was a genius, a prolific composer and a great innovator. He introduced conga drums, piano and brass section to Cuban septetos making a de-facto revolution in Cuban music. He was also the true creator of mambo. By 1950 when he moved to the US he was already a legend. He kept performing and recording with limited commercial success. He was a cult figure and died poor and forgotten in Los Angeles in 1970. That makes this album a tribute to a true forgotten legend.

So I'm glad Guajiro Mirabal and BVSC had a shot at Arsenio. This recording is explosive and cheerful. Highly enjoyable dance music that has standed the test of time reaffirming once again Arsenio's position in the history of Cuban music.



Buena Vista Social Club Presents Manuel Guajiro Mirabal    (flac  279mb)

01 El Rincón Caliente 4:46
Para Bailar El Montuno 4:17
Deuda 5:22
El Reloj De Pastora 3:49
Me Boté De Guaño 4:24
Mi Corazón No Tiene Quien Lo Llore 3:16
Tengo Que Olvidarte 4:37
Canta Montero 4:12
Chicharronero 4:09
No Vuelvo A Morón. Las Tres Marias. Apurrúñenme Mujeres Medley 5:03
Dombe Dombe 2:16

Buena Vista Social Club Presents Manuel Guajiro Mirabal  (ogg  112mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx


Turning the covers album concept on its head, Rhythms del Mundo: Cuba doesn't set a varied group of northern artists loose on the music made famous by the Buena Vista Social Club, but instead sets the Club's members lose on the northerners' own songs. Now that's an inspired idea, and all to aid charities assisting the victims of natural disasters and raising awareness of climate change. However, to call this a covers album is a bit misleading, as most of the songs feature the original vocals, and occasionally some of the original instrumentation, but it's not a remix project either, as the Social Club add their own music to the original recordings. The main recording sessions took place in Havana at Abdala Studios from April 2005 to June 2006 and mixed at Lazy Moon Studios (UK). While the majority of the vocals remain the same, the musicians of the Buena Vista Social Club reworked the original orchestration from each song and created something utterly unique, casting their trademark mastery over each track. So, it's a grand fusion of Cuban and northern sounds. And eclectic to boot, with songs contributed by such international artists as Quincy Jones, Sting and U2, as well as the likes of Radiohead and Coldplay. But to give the set a real frisson, the Social Club also took on such younger, feted artists as Franz Ferdinand, Maroon 5, the Kaiser Chiefs, and the so hot they're actually sizzling Arctic Monkeys. Reaching back into the past, Ibrahim Ferrer and the Club also deliver up a lush cover of "As Time Goes By," Omara Portunondo joins Ferrer for an equally lavish "Casablanca," and in another (and one of her final recordings) the late singer offers up a heartrending "Killing Me Softly." These numbers give the set its timeless quality; the rest its up-to-date feel. Not every song works perfectly, Jack Johnson's vocals are a bit uncomfortable rhythmically on his version, but Coldplay's is superb, the Arctic Monkeys are absolutely lethal, U2's track is stunning, and Dido and Faithless' is sublime. The Club brings out the sweetness and glow of Maroon 5's song, give the Kaiser Chiefs a wonderful Latin kick, totally reinvent Radiohead, then give Quincy Jones a lesson in authentic Spanish music, while trotting out their own soul credentials. Of course the musicianship is flawless, the arrangements inspired, and this mix of north and south proves that the music is not just simpatico, it was surely made for creative melding.



Buena Vista Social Club - Rhythms Del Mundo Cuba   (flac  369mb)

01 Clocks 5:01
02 Better Together 3:27
03 Dancing Shoes 2:29
04 One Step Too Far 3:17
05 As Time Goes By 3:10
06 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 4:53
07 She Will Be Loved 4:05
08 Modern Way 3:58
09 Killing Me Softly 4:27
10 Ai No Corrida 4:30
11 Fragilidad 4:17
12 Don't Know Why 3:10
13 Hotel Buena Vista 3:37
14 The Dark Of The Matinee (Spanish Version) 3:58
15 High And Dry 5:14
16 Casablanca (As Time Goes By) 3:10

Buena Vista Social Club - Rhythms Del Mundo Cuba  (ogg  153mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, today the 4th and final installment on the connoisseur that has been busy sharing his knowledge the last 20 years, he deservedly build a big reputation, if not a corresponding bank account, but hey that's the music biz for ya. Yesterday we were in Havana and go figure Gilles has been there too...

Today's Artist is a French-born English disc jockey and record label owner in England. His labels have included Acid Jazz, Talkin' Loud, and Brownswood Recordings. Peterson has been associated with the careers of artists of the 1990s, such as Erykah Badu, Roni Size, and Jamiroquai.Compilation albums have also been a constant throughout his career from the very beginning, as often having access to rare or hard-to-find records, as well as unsigned artists, has meant being able to share such finds with a wider audience.  ....N Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Gilles Peterson'(born 64) attended The John Fisher School, in the mid- and late- 1980s, living among the South London suburban soul scene in the early eighties, Gilles would avidly listen to listening to Level 42, Earth Wind & Fire, Central Line and the heavier, deeper pirate stations such as Radio Invicta. This inspired him to set up his own station - literally an aerial suspended between a tree and a phone box - playing an eclectic mix of jazz, funk, reggae, soul and early electro. By a stroke of luck, Radio Invicta needed a new transmitter, so Gilles swapped his for a regular show on the station.

At the same time, Gilles was a regular shopper at DJ Paul Murphy's Palladin Records. Murphy also DJ'd at Camden's Electric Ballroom, and his knowledge of rare, killer power jazz tunes and rare Afro-Cuban fusion was further inspiration for Gilles, who took over the decks when Paul left. Once ensconced upstairs in the Electric Ballroom, Gilles' understanding and insight into jazz, funk and soul grew exponentially. Gilles soon began to play at Nicky Holloway's Special Branch night at The Royal Oak.

1985 saw Gilles releasing the Jazz Juice (streetsounds) compilation series, collecting together many of the jazz tracks Gilles had been playing over the past few years. EMI Records soon called on Gilles to put together a series of inspired collections showcasing jazz label Blue Note's best artists resulting in 'Blue Bossa Vols. 1 & 2' and 'Baptist Beat' , which became the motivation for the hugely popular 'Blue' series of Jazz compilations.

During this period, Gilles had also been working on new pirate radio projects before 'going legit' with the BBC Radio London which was the first legal station he worked for, hosting a show called 'Mad On Jazz'. After leaving Radio London in 1986, Gilles started his Sunday sessions - 'Talkin' Loud'& 'Saying Something' - at Camden's Dingwalls. Co-hosted by Patrick Forge, these ran for five years. Coinciding with the emerging acid house scene, the sessions became a natural magnet for post clubbing come-down kids.

Shortly afterwards, Gilles started the Acid Jazz label, but after two years he felt the sound, the music and name was becoming a mod thing, a retro thing.' And so the approach from Phonogram was welcome , and he set up a new label Talkin' Loud records in 1989 . Gilles got the chance to echo his own diverse tastes and the label saw releases from the likes of Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, the Galliano.

Back on air, Gilles' show on London's Jazz FM was axed in 1990 after he played 'inappropriate' music and made statements supporting peace during the Gulf War. Soon after, he joined the newly-legalized Kiss FM. His Sunday evening WorldWide slot proved one of the most popular on the station and he stayed there for eight years until he joined Radio 1 in 1998. From 1998 to the present, through his BBC show Worldwide, Peterson has continued to stretch the musical boundaries. The show has always highlighted both new, but more importantly for the audience it is supposed to serve, older and often very rare records from the late-1950's to 1980's. In fact every three months or so, Gilles dedicates a whole show to older vinyl releases in a special version of his show he subtitles a Brownswood Basement.

In 2002 he released a compilation album, Impressed with Gilles Peterson, featuring rare and forgotten British Jazz from the 1950-1960s, that Peterson had collected over the years. This led to many of the records being re-released to a new audience. This in turn led to a series of concerts featuring some of the artists and a documentary about the history of British jazz (Jazz Britannia)

 In August 2004 the show moved from Wednesday (midnight til 2am) to an earlier Sunday slot (11:00 to 01:00) In September 2006, Peterson's show on Radio 1 was moved from Sunday night to Wednesday night (more precisely the early hours of Thursday morning), 02:00 to 04:00 (GMT) where you can pick him up every week and not to worry.

Widely acclaimed as a musical tastemaker, Gilles spreads his influence on music listeners around the world mostly through the Worldwide radio show on BBC Radio 1 and besides he also does another version of the show which gets syndicated to radio stations all over the world. Parallel to this, his frequent DJing gigs around the world also have cemented a worldwide following. In 2006 Gilles and Freshly Cut, a French event production company from Montpellier, collaborated to create the unique Worldwide Festival. This started out as a small intimate festival during the summertime in the coastal town of Sète in France. Meanwhile it hasbeen expanded to three festivals, in London, Shanghai and Sète in 2007. In 2008 it will have expanded to take place in London, Beijing, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sète.

In late 2011 Peterson announced that after 13 years at the station he would be leaving BBC Radio 1, following his last show in the early hours of Wednesday 28 March and moving to a new show on BBC Radio 6 Music.
Following his departure from Radio 1, Peterson started a new three-hour Saturday afternoon show on BBC Radio 6 Music, beginning on Saturday 7 April 2012, running weekly from 3 to 6 pm, and giving him an extra hour of broadcast time. Like his previous Radio 1 programme, it is made by independent production company Somethin' Else for the BBC.

Peterson has been producing and broadcasting original radio shows for Japan. He had daily 15 minute music program on J-WAVE (81.3FM), Tokyo’s Finest FM Station. Daily program “Worldwide 15” run Mondays–Thursdays from 4:05 to 4:20 pm from 2005 to 2011. The show was highly received and made many radio hits. Music event of the program "Worldwide Showcase” became annual events and each year which featured DJs and Live acts from Japan and international. The event was curated under particular theme each year.

Peterson has been involved in founding four record labels. In 1987, together with DJ Baz Fe Jazz, he was recruited by Ace Records to create the soul, funk and jazz dance sub-label BGP Records. In 1988 he and Eddie Piller founded Acid Jazz Records, a label whose roster included the Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, Corduroy, the James Taylor Quartet and Snowboy. After growing disillusionment with the scene that grew up around the label, he went on to run Talkin' Loud, enlisting the help of fellow DJ Norman Jay, who formed his own Global Village label. The Talkin' Loud roster included Nuyorican Soul (a side project of the producers Masters At Work), Courtney Pine, MJ Cole, Young Disciples, Incognito, Terry Callier, The Roots, Galliano and Roni Size's project Reprazent.

Peterson's most recent record label, Brownswood Recordings, was launched in 2006. The label's early releases includes the likes of British singer/songwriter Ben Westbeech, 45-piece orchestral ensemble The Heritage Orchestra, Japanese punk jazz band Soil & "Pimp" Sessions, Brooklyn-based pianist Elan Mehler and jazz vocalist José James. More recently, they've released music by Zara McFarlane, Ghostpoet's Mercury Prize-nominated debut and their long-running compilation series, compiled by Peterson, called Brownswood Bubblers. The label is sometimes confused with a different imprint called Brownswood Records, which released music from Japanese bands like United Future Organization.

In 2011, he founded the Steve Reid Foundation in memory of the legendary jazz drummer. Having witnessed Reid’s suffering with illness and hardship, Gilles set up the charity to raise money for musicians in need. Since then, they’ve collaborated with Help Musicians UK to help musicians who are in need of support. More recently, a collaboration with the PRS Foundation has seen grants and mentoring provided to new artists. Gilles ran the 2011 London Marathon, raising just under £7,000 for Help Musicians UK, followed by the 2016 New York Marathon, where he raised over $21,000 for the Steve Reid Foundation.

Released in May 2014 via Talkin’ Loud / Virgin EMI, Sonzeira's Brasil Bam Bam Bam is a journey through the different flavours of authentic Brazilian music culture. Sonzeira is the collective name for the group of Brazilian artists who feature on the album. Peterson turned from DJ to producer for this ambitious venture, settling in Rio de Janeiro with young UK production associates Sam Shepherd (Floating Points); Dilip Harris and Rob Gallagher from 2 Banks of 4; and Kassin from Rio collective Orquestra Imperial. The album features Brazilian artists such as Seu Jorge and Elza Soares.

Along with the album, there was a documentary film celebrating the creation and release of “Sonzeira: Brasil Bam Bam Bam". Titled “Bam Bam Bam: The Story of Sonzeira”, this two-hour documentary was directed by Charlie Inman and Ben Holman and shot in 2014 by Mother London and Rio de Janeiro’s Beija Films. The film was also distributed in Tokyo, Japan by Sha-la-la Company and raised money for Fight For Peace (Luta Pela Paz), organization founded in Complexo da Maré, Rio de Janeiro, as a direct response to youth-involvement in drug-related crime and violence.
Havana Cultura

2009 saw the birth of a new collaborative project and long-term partnership between Peterson and Havana Club or "Havana Cultura". Havana Cultura is a global initiative developed by Havana Club International that gives a platform to Cuban artists from all disciplines. The website, www.havana-cultura.com, was launched in 2007. Peterson and Brownswood's involvement began two years later, resulting in four album releases and three international tours.

Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound was the first album to come out of the project, released in 2010. Travelling to Cuba in 2009, Peterson teamed up with the award-winning Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca to find the best up-and-coming musical talent in Havana. The double album was a celebration of Cuba’s musical forces spanning Latin, Afro jazz and fusion to hip-hop, funk, reggaeton and soul.

In support of this project, Peterson began a European tour in June/July 2010, accompanied by Fonseca, his band and vocalists Danay Suarez, Ogguere and Obsesión. This was the first of three tours organised in close collaboration with Havana Club. The Gilles Peterson Havana Cultura band has now travelled through Europe and beyond with shows in London (Barbican), Paris, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Berlin and Madrid, as well as many festivals.

Travelling with the rest of the 2011 crew, Mala (Digital Mystikz) was also invited to Cuba with Peterson to record and collaborate with local musicians as part of the ongoing Havana Cultura project. The results are found on the album Mala in Cuba, which was released on Brownswood Recordings in partnership with Havana Cultura on 10 September 2012.

A new global music-radio platform launched by Gilles Peterson in September 2016. Following the success of the Grand Theft Auto V in-game radio station of the same name, WorldWide FM has expanded into the real world with Peterson and Thris Tian hosting shows alongside a hand-picked roster of the finest DJs and selectors from five continents. Since the launch, the station has gone out on the road broadcasting across Europe, the US and Asia, with pop-ups in Amsterdam (ADE), Los Angeles (How We Do LA), Marseille (Le Gallette), Milan (Jazzmi Festival), Paris (Le Mellotron), Tokyo (HMV Shibuya), and closer to home, at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (Somerset House). The station is Powered by WeTransfer and broadcasting from The Pyramid radio studios in north London.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

2009 saw the birth of a new collaborative project with Havana Club under the moniker “Havana Cultura”. Travelling to Cuba in 2009, Gilles teamed up with the award-winning Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca to find the very best up and coming musical talent in Havana.

His never-ending quest for the perfect beat led him to Havana or rather, Havana Cultura led him to Havana. It was an experiment. We wanted to witness the effect new Cuban sounds would have on Gilles Peterson and vice-versa. Not surprisingly he wound up "discovering so many great up-andcoming musicians who can have a big effect on world music over the many years to come." The obvious next step was to gather those musicians in Havana's EGREM studio— yes, where the Buena Vista Social Club album happened and make a record. Gilles saw it as a "great opportunity to do something that was really a musical melange — something new, something fresh, something not just Buena Vista Social Club…. Bringing together the street, the urban and the more traditional."

The resulting Havana Cultura CD is actually two albums. The first disc contains the 12 original tracks Gilles recorded with his hand-picked "Havana Cultura Band," led by pianist Roberto Fonseca. The album features some outstanding guest appearances from Mayra Caridad Valdés, Ogguere, Danay, Francis Del Rio and Obsesión.

The second disc is a compilation of 16 previously released and unreleased tracks, drawing from more top Cuban talent: Los Aldéanos, Telmary, Yusa, Kelvis Ochoa, Doble Filo, Descemer Bueno, Gente de Zona, Harold Lopez Nussa, Kumar, Free Hole Negro, Cubanito 20.02, Wichy de Vedado and Tony Rodriguez. The album packaging was designed by Alexandre Arrechea, one of Cuba's brightest art stars.



 Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band - Havana Cultura The Search Continues (flac   294mb)

01 Orisa 4:48
02 La Mulata Abusadora 4:06
03 Malecon Habanero 3:22
04 Vida Interlude 1:46
05 Check La Rima 4:08
06 Oresteslude 0:50
07 Agita 4:17
08 Vamos Al Mar 3:28
09 Saxolude 0:32
10 Sobre Vibiente 3:42
11 Cuando Ya No Este 4:49
12 La Tormenta 4:21
13 Espera Mi Gente 6:19
14 Muestrame Lude 0:26

Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band - Havana Cultura The Search Continues (ogg   114mb)

xxxxx

Three years have passed since Gilles’ initial exploration of the Cuban underground uncovered Havana’s fertile – and fiercely independent – hip-hop culture: nodded to the riotous thump ‘n’ grind of Cuba’s homegrown reggaeton movement and highlighted a clique of artists innovating in the spaces between jazz, soul, traditional Cuban rhythms and hip-hop. Peterson’s excursion under the skin of the Cuban underground in 2011 underlines the same spirit of experimentation on CD02 and raises a clutch of new talent (including Djoyvan, Afrikun, Kola Loka and the Creole Choir of Cuba) from local notoriety to worldwide exposure, showcasing new collaborations and exclusive tracks from Danay Suarez, Edgaro “El Productor en Jefe” and El Tipo Este.

Gilles Peterson, The New Cuban Underground (flac   424mb)

15 Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band - Vida 3:26
16 Golpe Seko - Me Queda Voz 3:26
17 Interactivo - Chica Cubana 5:32
18 Vince Vella - Bailalo 4:36
19 The Heavyweights Brass Band - Nueva Orleans 2:59
20 Kola Loka - No Me Da Me Gana Americana 4:29
21 Anonimo Consejo - Cojimar 3:35
22 Melvis Santa - Tu Momentico 3:18
23 Maria Mola Jimenez & El Tipoeste - Siesta Es Me Mama 2:37
24 Arema Arega - Ay 3:48
25 Francis Del Rio - Misa Para Miguelito 4:53
26 Afrikun - Kimbiseros 5:58
27 Creole Choir Of Cuba - Peze Cafe 2:57
28 Danay Suarez - Yo Aprendi 3:16
29 Obsesion - Tu Con Tu Ballet 3:24
30 Djoyvan - Afro Nupa Adandao 6:37

Gilles Peterson, The New Cuban Underground (ogg   158mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

The latest chapter in the long standing relationship between Gilles Peterson and the music of Cuba sees him explore the roots of rumba through a project comprising three parts: a feature length documentary, a collection of remixes and a free sample pack. Produced in collaboration with rum maker Havana Club – creator of the Havana Cultura platform to promote contemporary Cuban culture – this is another episode in a six-year relationship that's already given vital exposure to different aspects of Cuba's thriving music culture through the Havana Cultura album series.

Peterson worked with the island's esteemed rumberos to record authoritative versions of the three rhythms as well as discuss what differing meanings and origins are attached to each. The recordings of rumba's three key styles were handed to a crop of producers working in the orbit of the most interesting corners of club music, allowing for an exciting, global re-interpretation of rumba's roots.

The result is Havana Club Rumba Sessions: a collection of remixes that's as varied as you'd expect from a roster of producers spread across locales as wide as South London to Japan and beyond. Berlin-based Max Graef & Glenn Astro deliver a kickdrum-sprung workout that pays testament to the free and easy hip hop beatmaking in a style that's long been their m.o.; Motor City Drum Ensemble's four-to-the-floor arrangement loops things up into a hypnotic slow burn; Japan's Daisuke Tanabe & Yosi Horikawa tease out the rhythm to a careful balance between percussion and undercurrents of bass; France's débruit ratchets up the tempo in a beautifully polished rework that slots the click of the percussion into a steady bounce; Pablo Fierro takes things in similarly intense fashion in a pared down mix geared for the dancefloor at peaktime; Canada-based Poirier keeps things steady with delicate melodies adding an emotive edge.
The final mixes are by four of the producers involved in the 22a beatmaker collective, the first of which is by Reginald Omas Mamode IV who folds the Cuban rhythm into atypically disjointed construction; Tenderlonious spaces out gentle chords and a vocal from Daymé Arocena to keep things sparse.



 Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band - Havana Club Rumba Sessions (flac   362mb)

01 Yambu (Daisuke Tanabe And Yosi Horikawa Remix) 3:12
02 La Rumba Experimental (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix) 6:40
03 La Plaza (Poirier Remix) 4:21
04 Weird Melody (Max Graef And Glenn Astro Remix) 5:21
05 Okay Cuba (Débruit Remix) 4:41
06 Havana Sessions (Pablo Fierro Remix) 7:16
07 Havana Cool Out (Reginald Omas Mamode IV Remix) 3:38
08 Rumba Version (Al Dobson Jr Remix) 4:12
09 Rumba Tierna (Tenderlonious Remix) 4:01
10 Urgent Rumba (Pépé Bradock Remix) 6:51
11 Yuka Music (Mo Kolours Remix) 4:20
12 Mi Yimboro (Djoyvan Remix) 6:26

 Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band - Havana Club Rumba Sessions (ogg   145mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

In 2008, DJ and globetrotter Gilles Peterson was approached by the melomaniac at the helm of Havana Cultura – an initiative to showcase and support Cuban creativity by Cuban rum maker Havana Club –, inviting him to Cuba to check out Havana’s underground music scene with a view to making an album. While some might associate Cuba simply with salsa or Buena Vista Social Club, there was a new generation of artists teeming with new sounds, waiting for an opportunity to reveal their talent to the world.

That first trip was the beginning of what has now been an eight-year-long collaboration between Peterson, his Brownswood Recordings label and Havana Club’s cultural platform. It first resulted in the release of Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound, an acclaimed double album that included original productions and a compilation of existing tracks across a range of genres reflecting contemporary Cuba’s musical diversity: jazz, hip hop, reggaeton and plenty in between.

From there, the first edition of Havana Cultura Sessions, a solo release from Danay Suarez – a standout talent in the sessions for New Cuba Sound – came next, followed by Havana Cultura Remixed, joining the dots – with remixes from Louis Vega and 4 Hero – between Cuba and global club culture. After that, 2011’s Havana Cultura: The Search Continues was the next attempt to dig deep into the different corners of the island’s contemporary music scene. Joining Peterson on that trip was dubstep pioneer Mala, who took recordings and sessions with Cuban artists as the basis for Mala in Cuba, an album marrying together UK soundsystem culture with the deep rhythmic possibilities of Cuba.

On Havana Cultura Mix – The Soundclash!, the project was opened up to fledgling electronic producers through a remix competition for unsigned beatmakers. Top entries were chosen from mixes submitted online, with winners being flown to Cuba to collaborate with some of the island’s finest artists. The Havana Cultura Sessions EP by Daymé Arocena, which followed, was the first solo release by a vocalist and choir leader who had been too young to record when Peterson and the Havana Cultura team had first encountered her stunning voice.

Finally, 2016 saw the release of Havana Club Rumba Sessions – Peterson returned to Cuba with old friend Crispin Robinson, who guided him through the rumba traditions running deep through all of the music which has followed it. The album saw the three central rhythms to rumba – guaguancó, yambú and columbia – remixed and reimagined by a diverse range of producers from around the world.

At Havana Club, we’re proud of our Cuban origins. Havana is one of the world’s most buoyant cultural scenes – particularly when it comes to music – and we were eager to give a bigger voice to a generation of young artists whose work is decidedly modern, yet firmly anchored in the richness of Cuba’s musical tradition,” explains François Renié, who runs the initiative at Havana Club.

“The Havana Cultura project gave me the chance to go deep in a country that had intrigued me ever since I was digging for Latin records as a young DJ,” recalls Gilles. “From the first release up to now, it’s been about taking that spirit of the Buena Vista Social Club to show a new generation of artists and opening it up to as big an audience as possible. Picking the tracks for this anthology, I wanted to show modern Cuba alongside the remixes, putting it in the context of a global club culture



 Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura Anthology 1 (flac   342mb)

01 Kerkstra feat. Etian Brebaje Man & Sexto Sentido - Soy Cubano 03:38
02 Lagrimas de Soledad (No Existen Palabras)(Feat. Danay Suárez) 04:20
03 Arroz Con Pollo 03:34
04 Feat. Telmary & Elain Morales - La Mulata Abusadora 04:07
05 Rezando 04:46
06 Mala - Calle F 04:13
07 Roforofo Fight (Feat. Mayra Caridad Valdés) 06:05
08 La Rumba Experimental (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix) 06:41
09 Cuando Ya No Este (Feat. Danay Suárez) 04:48
10 La Revolución del Cuerpo Pt.1 (Skinner's Owiny Sigoma Mix) 07:14
11 Chillum Trio feat. Coki & Yeni - Yemaya 04:34
12 Arema Arega - Ay 03:46

 Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura Anthology (ogg   137mb)

xxxxx

 Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura Anthology 2 (flac   352mb)

13 Espera Mi Gente(Feat. Danay Suárez, Ogguere ) 06:16
14 Orisa(Feat. Dreiser & Sexto Sentido) 04:47
15 Check La Rima (Feat. Los Aldeanos, Danay Suárez & Silvito El Libre) 04:08
16 La Plaza (Poirier Remix) 04:24
17 La Revolución del Cuerpo Pt.1 (Feat. Ogguere, Danay Suárez & Obsesión)04:32
18 Ipacuba(Feat. Danay Suárez) 06:34
19 Seu Seppie Feat. El Niche - Traigo 03:13
20 Yambu (Daisuke Tanabe and Yosi Horikawa Remix) 03:16
21 En Lo Profundo (Feat. Danay Suárez,Roberto Fonseca)06:29
22 Daymé Arocena - El Ruso 04:45
23 Rezando (Michel Cleis Remix) 06:30

 Gilles Peterson Presents Havana Cultura Anthology (ogg   136mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, final visit to Florian Fricke's musical empire, may he enjoy the afterlife..


Today's Artists were a German electronic avant-garde band founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1969 together with Holger Trülzsch (percussion), Frank Fiedler (recording engineer and technical assistance) and Bettina Fricke (tablas and production). Other important members during the next two decades included Djong Yun, Renate Knaup, Conny Veit, Daniel Fichelscher, Klaus Wiese and Robert Eliscu. The band influenced many other European bands with their uniquely soft but elaborate instrumentation, which took inspiration from the music of Tibet, Africa, and pre-Columbian America. With music sometimes described as "ethereal", they created soundscapes through psychedelic walls of sound, and are regarded as precursors of contemporary world music, as well as of new age and ambient. .......N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

A changeable line-up of musicians led by mystic and keyboard player Florian Fricke (1944-2001), Krautrock icons Popol Vuh were one of the great innovators of world music and exotic ambient.

Known very unfairly in some quarters as purveyors of sitar-heavy "raga rock", the band's sonic trademarks are far more diverse: abstract electronica, devotional music, progressive rock, eclectic vocal blends and pioneering ethno-ambient fusions. You may have already heard their music without realising it: German director Werner Herzog has used it to mesmerising effect in some of his films from the 70's and 80's, most notably Aguirre Wrath Of God and his extraordinary 1979 remake of the silent vampire classic Nosferatu.

Fricke was a brilliant, intuitive musician and one of the first Westerners to seamlessly blend Eastern and Western sounds, in both a traditional rock band context and in a more ethereal and meditative vein. But he didn't do it alone. Guitarist and drummer Daniel Fichelscher - the only other stable longtime member of the group - also made outstanding contributions. He was a supple, melodic guitar player who brought a rock-like accessibility to Popol Vuh's sound and without whom a large portion of the band's music would have been a very different thing. He was also a fine singer, making substantial contributions to the group vocals and chants that became pronounced in the band's music after the mid 1970's.

Where to begin?

At the time of Fricke's death more than two dozen original albums and film soundtracks of varying quality had been released and many more compilations as well. Wading through them can be a maddening experience. There is a tendency to repeat or re-record tracks on successive albums for no apparent reason, not to mention a lot of previously released music turning up on the film soundtracks. The less-than-hi-fidelity sound of some productions also takes a little getting used to. Until very recently the band's back catalogue was a shambles: some put that down to Fricke's personal quirks and aversion to the music business, while Fricke himself on at least one occasion (in a rare 1996 interview) blamed the record companies.

Popol Vuh's earliest music dates from the late 1960's and early 70's and is fairly typical of the exploratory, abstract electronica in vogue among German bands at the time. The second album In The Gardens Of Pharao (1971) is a classic; an intense, eerie melding of electronic tones from the Moog synthesiser and organ with cymbals, vocal tones and half-submerged tribal instruments. That it recalls early period Tangerine Dream is not surprising when you consider it was Fricke who introduced that very band to the Moog synth as a guest player on their album Zeit (1972). But In the Gardens of Pharao is a more deeply sacred music than TD, reflecting his keen interest at the time in Mayan Indian culture and his lifelong spiritual leanings in general.

At one end is the 20-minute "Spirit Of Peace", a spacious and deeply personal creation for solo piano. At the other end is the stunning main theme from Werner Herzog's film Aguirre (ignore the patchy Aguirre soundtrack album released 1974). On this track Fricke reaches the apogee of his work with electronic synthesis. It's breathtakingly, jaw-droppingly beautiful: a six minute sepulchral drone that blends angelic vocal samples played on a Melotron-like keyboard with deeply trance-inducing colours and pulses from the synthesiser. A milestone in ambient sound, "Aguirre" (also known as "Lacrime Di Re") also marks the end of Fricke's short love affair with electronics. A certain vocal sound he'd been attempting to find with electronics unexpectedly turned up in the form of a Korean vocalist named Djon Yon, who would feature prominently on Popol Vuh's next album Hosianna Mantra (1972).

Almost an antithesis to what came before, Hosianna Mantra favours mostly acoustic music that's devotional but doesn't sit within any single religious tradition. It's a timeless, beatless neo-classical blend of Yon's ritual-like vocal improvisations blended with Fricke's piano, silky electric guitar by one Connie Veit (with lots of sustain and echo), sweet oboe by Robert Eliscu of the pioneering world music band Between, and subtle touches of droning tamboura.

Meeting guitarist Daniel Fichelscher around this time radically changed Fricke's musical world yet again. In the next few years there appeared a series of forward-thinking albums made by what superficially appears to be rock line-up but which doesn't sound quite like any other rock music of the 1970's.

Seligpreisung (1973) is the greatest of these, a masterpiece of ambient rock jamming, jazz-style improvising and lovely duets for oboe and piano. The changing time signatures within many tracks are brilliantly handled, the flow uninterrupted. It marks the first appearance of Popol Vuh's trademark jangling guitar and piano combination, a luminous ambient sound that came to define the band's very soul. Fricke's wordless vocals here - usually not part of the PV sound - seem to anticipate the visionary style of Stephan Micus a decade later, being all about sound rather than lyrics. Seligpreisung also displays the band's mysterious brilliance for being able to sound non-Western with little actual reliance on exotic instruments.

Three other albums recorded in this quasi-rock style in the mid 1970's also rate essential listening and two of them feature the welcome return of Djon Yon's vocals.

Das Hohelied Salomos (1975) echoes the sound of Hosianna Mantra but with the additional of drums and more intensely layered rhythm and lead guitars, giving the album a more rocking feel. Some impressive group vocal chants start to appear at this point in the band's career, a direction which would come to full flower in the next decade. For the first time Indian sitar sits upfront on several tracks but it doesn't radically alter the groups sound - suggesting an earlier mastery of Indian and Mid Eastern modes before they ever relied on the actual instruments. The album Letzte Tag Letzte Nachte (1976) is similar, if even more intense at times in its psychedelic rock gestures, and some of Yon's most powerful singing can be heard here. Rounding out the trio is the film soundtrack Coeur De Verre/Herz Aus Glass (1977) which is completely instrumental, allowing Fichelscher to really let fly with some his most celestial, probing guitar playing.

Having explored the possibilities of what a full-time rock combo could sound like, the band moved on once again and by the late 70's was charting increasingly quiet and contemplative waters. The music recorded for Werner Herzog's hypnotic vampire film Nosferatu is actually spread across two different albums released in the same year: the official soundtrack album Nosferatu (1978) plus Bruder Des Schattens Sohne Des Lichts (1978).

The recent CD re-issue of Nosferatu by SPV Recordings compiles all of the music from both earlier releases and is the logical purchase. On these releases the band downplays its penchant for progressive rock jamming to include beatless mood pieces and atmospheric ethno-ambient stylings. Some moments date back to the sessions that produced the eerie electronica of In The Gardens of Pharao; some pieces exist within the classic Popol Vuh blend of piano and guitar; others manage the not inconsiderable feat of making Indian sitar and tambour drones sound rather tense. Towering above them all is Nosferatu's main theme "Brothers Of Darkness Sons Of Light", an example of Fricke's growing sophistication in use of vocals. It opens with dark male vocal chants that seem to blend Tantric, Buddhist and Christian traditions, building slowly with sad oboe and crashing Tibetan cymbals before spilling over into a slow instrumental jam as openly loving and joyous as anything you'll hear from the band.

Consistent with the feel of the previous two albums is the magnificent Tantric Songs (1979/1981) which - just to keep things confusing - currently exists in two different versions. It demonstrates the band's extraordinary gift for tapping a deep, mystical, intangible power and turning it into music without pomp or pretension. The album offers some the moodiest and most ambient of Popol Vuh's music: Fricke's shadowy gothic piano figures, Fichelscher's glittering acoustic and electric guitars, some lovely oboe and touches of Indian instrumentation. It's music unanchored to any particular time period in musical history and awash with religious atmosphere, carried by subtle shifts of light and shade. The original version of Tantric Songs emphasises a slightly wider range global exotica than Celestial Harmonies U.S. version. The latter is more of a "best-of" collection of late 70's material which deletes a handful of shorter tracks to make room for the aforementioned 18-minute classic "Brothers Of Darkness Sons Of Light".

Although output of new material slowed in the 1980's, the decade remains significant for Popol Vuh's exhilarating distillation of vocal sounds - chants, mantras and choral singing - from different ages and cultures.

The film soundtrack Sei Still Wisse Ich Bin (1981) is an "oratorio" that finds the band working with large scale choirs and group vocals. Anyone with a fondness for the soulful qualities of human voice should be suitably knocked out. Backed by flowing piano, guitars, tribal drums and shimmering percussion, the swelling chorales and chants are by turns mournful and joyous, dark and euphoric, dramatic and gentle. The vocal sources are varied - operatic, South American, Christian, Tibetan elements and more. This is profound music, human and divine at the same time, and its rough edges and looseness make it all the more appealing. With perfect understatement, his friend and Celestial Harmonies Records boss Eckart Rahn once said to me in an interview about Fricke: "He knew something". Yes he did, and he managed to get it down on spellbinding records like this.

Four more original releases from the same decade also rate highly. Agape Agape (1983) and Spirit Of Peace (1985) don't consistently scale the heights of Still Wisse Ich Bin with their vocal work but are still essential releases. "Why Do I Still Sleep" is a cluster of simple piano figures so gentle and expansive you may get carried away on its ravishing melody and not return for several hours. Some of the layered vocal chants like "Agape Agape" and "We Know About The Need" are extraordinarily beautiful, while the gentle group jam "Take The Tension High" casts its slow mantra-like spell over 18 minutes. The film soundtrack Cobra Verde (1987) also contains several similar folksy vocal mantras alongside some surprising beatless, string-laden landscapes - the latter more traditionally filmic and not typical of the band, but fantastic and darkly beautiful all the same.

The 90's proved to be creatively far leaner than previous decades, with only For You And Me (1991) proving to be an impressive work. Its clean, crisp production is something of a shock if you previously waxed ears on the band's earlier material. Was the softer lo-fi sound of yore deliberate? Quite possibly.

Certainly the band's creative dynamic was now different. What is not widely known is the reason: Fricke sustained a serious hand injury at some point in the 80's - losing at least one finger to gangrene after a trip the Himalayas, according to Eckart Rahn - and tragically could no longer play the piano. So new member Guido Hieronymus took over the piano playing and also shared the creative duties, a move that fundamentally changed Popol Vuh, with Daniel Fichelscher now less involved than before.

The overall effect of the clean sound on For You and Me seems somehow less mystical but the album is still a lovely, engaging and mostly upbeat collection of world music fusions with just a touch of synth pop. The classic blend of ringing guitars and glowing piano still binds everything together, however, and some of the small group choral arrangements are striking. The band's past resurfaces on the 4-part suite "Om Mane Padem Hum" on which Fricke cleverly reworks the brighter moments from his classic "Brothers Of Darkness Sons Of Light" into something new but equally as warm and optimistic.

With the non-essential City Raga (1995) and Shepherd's Symphony (1997) the influence of Hieronymus on keyboards and arrangements has become overt, with the band now hopping on board the 90's ambient dance bandwagon. At the time many fans were aghast, but in retrospect neither of these are horrible records; they're just underwhelming next to ethno-ambient efforts by more dance-savvy acts of the period like Mayko, Loop Guru, Deep Forest and Delerium. Daniel Fichelscher - sidelined after the arrival of Hieronymus - was unimpressed with all the sequencers and drum machines; he left the band soon after City Raga after contributing guitar to just one track.

The final album before Fricke's death in 2001 was an interesting but unexceptional mix of ambient drones and poetry for an art installation called Messa Di Orfeo (1999). It's significant only in that it suggests Fricke had come nearly full circle to once again embrace the abstract electronica of his earliest work.
.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Of all the Popol Vuh recordings, and of all the soundtracks Florian Fricke composed for Werner Herzog's films, Fitzcarraldo is by far the most atypical. Given that this is a film about an opera house being built in the middle of the South American jungle so Enrico Caruso will come to perform there, it would stand to reason that opera music be used in the soundtrack. And therein lies both the brilliance and difficulty of the score as a recording. Certainly those fans of Krautrock who love Fricke's gorgeously haunting, simple melodies, are not ready for the bombast of tenor god Caruso -- or are they? The manner in which the score is structured is such that these moments from Caruso's performances come across as moving vignettes in and of themselves. When juxtaposed next to Fricke's serial music, they become portals to another time and are episodes that stand in stark contrast to opera music in general. Make no mistake. This is a provocative score and is not for everyone, not even Popol Vuh fans. But for those open-minded enough to accept Fitzcarraldo on its own merits, this is a singular achievement in Fricke's composing, editing, and production career.



Popol Vuh - Fitzcarraldo (flac  214mb)

01 Wehe Khorazin 5:32
02 Scene From „Ernani“ 5:51
03 Engel Der Luft 2:35
04 RidiPagliacci (by Caruso) 3:09
05 O Paradiso (by Caruso) 3:35
06 Kind Mit Geige 0:54
07 Im Garten Der Gemeinschaft 2:23
08 Blasmusik 0:41
09 Tod Und Verklärung (Excerpt) 2:52
10 Musik Aus Burundi 1:49
11 Il Sogno - Manon 2:36
12 Quartett - Rigoletto 3:57
13 Oh Mimi, Tu Piu Non Torni (by Caruso) 3:02
14 Als Lebten Die Engel Auf Erden 2:04
15 A Te O Cara, Amor Talora - I Puritani 5:50

Popol Vuh - Fitzcarraldo    (ogg  96mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Spirit of Peace is the fifteenth album by Popol Vuh. It was originally released in 1985 on Cicada. The first track was used by Werner Herzog as original motion picture soundtrack for his documentary The Dark Glow of the Mountains (original title "Gasherbrum – Der leuchtende Berg") about Reinhold Messner.
Perhaps people are unfairly comparing this to the outstanding seminal Popol Vuh albums of the 70's.  Admittedly, their sound had changed DRAMATICALLY by the time of Spirit of Peace. This album is truly what the title suggests; one of the more peaceful albums ever made, and also one of the most beautiful.  Definitely way more mellow than their early to mid-70's material, but a truly stunning album that's among the best I've ever heard in the realm of ambient/new age/atmospheric/scared musics.

On this album it all is arranged and performed in such a way that nothing disturbs the absolutely gorgeous flow of the music that seems to be radiating from a completely different plane of existence, be it heaven or dao or nirvana - from what I've read from Fricke's rare interviews his aim was to make universally sacred music, regardless of the religious boundaries of the listener. You don't have to be a religious person to appreciate the beauty of these pieces, but the spiritual resonance within the album is of a magnitude that shouldn't be overlooked, giving the album a mesmerizing and, dare I say, healing quality.



 Popol Vuh - Spirit of Peace   (flac 182mb)

01 We Know About The Need 4:20
02 Spirit Of Peace 7:00
03 Song Of Earth 8:07
04 Take The Tension High 17:27

      (ogg   mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

‘For You And Me’ was their 17th album & now 28 years later it holds up more than ever. While decidedly new age and world music in sound (with musical elements from the Himalayas, Ireland, Greece and Africa), this album has style and grace, and the updated sonic quality makes it a pleasure to listen to. The light pieces combined with their timeless dramatic signature sound, the majestic piano chords, the profound lyrics and the crescendos of emotions set this album apart from the banal new age mainstream. The authentic Popul Vuh spirituality permeates on every track here, prepare for goose bumps and a divine moment,in For You And Me, they created a more modern day classic, easily their best album of the 90’s.”



Popol Vuh - For You And Me (flac  264mb)

01 For You And Me 5:27
02 Wind Of The Stars In Their Eyes 3:04
03 Little Bazaari 7:51
04 Compassion 5:05
05 When Love Is Calling You 4:13
06 In Your Eyes 1:02
07 OM Mani Padme Hum 1 1:12
08 OM Mani Padme Hum 2 2:48
09 OM Mani Padme Hum 3 4:32
10 OM Mani Padme Hum 4 5:19
11 For You 2:06

Popol Vuh - For You And Me (ogg   107mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Issued in 1993, Sing, for Song Drives Away the Wolves is Florian Fricke's remixed and updated version of Popol Vuh's soundtrack album for Werner Herzog's Coeur de Verre (Heart From Glass), 1976. The original material is saturated in the heritage of East Indian classical music as it met the droning evolution of Krautrock. On Sing, the original seven tracks are present with beefed-up basslines, layered keyboards and guitars, and more punched-up kit drums. Unlike most update projects, this one works because of the obvious reverence Florian Fricke has for the material. It may be rocked up, but it still sounds like nothing else out there. This is music of bliss and mysticism, it resonates with its gradually unfolding themes and variations, and presents the listener a veritable world of sonic warmth to enter into and remain for as long as one wishes. The effect of these modern tracks is riveting; their punch is undeniable, but so is their subtlety. This new version of the album also contains the title track from Einsjäger and Siebenjager "You Shouldn't Awake Your Beloved Before It Pleases Her" from 1974. Almost 19-and-a-half minutes in length, it complements this sound beautifully in that it unfolds acoustically from Fricke's piano, a soprano saxophone, and drums. The same feeling of ecstasy eventually draws itself out of the music as an electric guitar enters the fray and transforms it into a driving, droney dirge. While Coeur de Verre is more desirable for those who like originals, Sing should not be discounted. Fricke was one of the few musicians who understood how to remix his own music.



Popol Vuh - Sing, for Song Drives Away the Wolves (flac  251mb)

01 Song From The High Mountains 6:20
02 Pages From The Book Of Daring 3:54
03 Dance Of The Chassidim 3:20
04 Keepers Of The Threshold 3:35
05 Sing, For Song Drives Away The Wolves 4:14
06 Little Warrior 1:04
07 Sweet Repose 1:00
08 You Shouldn't Awake Your Beloved Before It Pleases Her 19:26

Popol Vuh - Sing, for Song Drives Away the Wolves (ogg   97mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

After spending 25 years turning musical dreams into realities Florian Fricke, Frank Fiedler and Guido Hieronymus have, with Shepherd's Symphony recorded an album that sounds quite unlike anything previously released under the name Popol Vuh. It's a reflection of the desire by Popol Vuh to encroach upon the avenue of popular music. In this, Florian has been heavily influenced by his son Johannes whose love for Hip-Hop and Techno Trance Sounds led to his convincing Florian of the need to write material that would appeal to the younger generation of music lovers whilst retaining the support of existing fans.
Florian Fricke has always been open to change within his music and to experiment with samples and sounds, he recently ventured into the World of Dance, always striving to ensure that his critics could not point to any stagnation in his music. His previous album, City Raga, indicated a coming change which has been completed with the Shepherd's Symphony album.

The Symphony is modern schamanistic music and will gain Popol Vuh many new admirers. Florian has always tried to walk new paths, untouched by others, it is an expression of Florian's freedom to remain an innovator and never to become an imitator. "Hirtensymphony", is the title of a new German film recently made in Tibet by Florian, who travels, once every five years to Himalaya where on his last journey, accompanied by his longtime friend and co-producer he conquered the Kailash mountain. In Germany there is a very old creative tradition based on a sort of mystical tendency toward the absolute. Before Popol Vuh they produced many great poets, philosophers, some wonderful music and sadly, mad fascism. The music of Popol Vuh is relaxing, but never boring. It is gentle, but not slushy. It is like the Ocean at Sundown, like the Desert by Night, like the Sky at Dawn. Think Deep, Think Sleep, Think For Yourself!



Popol Vuh - Shepherd's Symphony (flac  285mb)

01 Shepherds Of The Future (Die Hirten Der Zukunft) 6:08
02 Short Visit To The Great Sorcerer (Kurzer Besuch Beim Grossen Zauberer) 6:00
03 Wild Vine 8:29
04 Shepherd's Dream (Der Traum Des Schäfers) 4:17
05 Eternal Love 8:18
06 Dance Of The Menads (Tanz Der Menaden) 6:24
07 Yes 5:02

Popol Vuh - Shepherd's Symphony (ogg  101 mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello posting from elsewhere as my power is down, they say things can only get better...like reading a book at candlelight. Anyway, sorry to disappoint you all

Hello,  looks like chances are Scotland becoming an independent nation once again, as London, on orders of their hinterland, prepare to jump of a cliff and limit the damage that will incur. Now is the EU prepared to pay them a bonus for breaking up the UK with possibly N Ireland and even Wales following the money and leave those English basket-cases behind.


Today's artists were a Scottish post-punk band, active between 1979 and 1982, who released singles on the Postcard Records label. The band was named after the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial. Although they released just one album while together and achieved only moderate success, they have since proved influential on many bands that followed. .. ......N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

 Inspired by the artsy side of the '70s New York scene and the anti-careerist stance of punk, Edinburgh natives Paul Haig (vocals, guitar), Malcolm Ross (guitar), and Ronnie Torrance (drums) formed a band with an apparently unmentionable name. Future Exploited member Gary McCormack came and went as the bassist, with the trio eventually renaming itself TV Art. David Weddell eventually filled the gap, with the band frequently playing in and around their town. By the end of 1979's summer, they had recorded a demo and changed their name to Josef K.

November of that year saw the release of the nervy Chance Meeting single on the one-off Absolute label. Alan Horne and Orange Juice member Edwyn Collins struck a verbal deal with the band for their Postcard imprint, which released a series of the band's singles. The first was a double pack with the funk-/soul-influenced Orange Juice gracing one half, which helped break ground on the press-derived "Scottish Sound." In late 1980 the band recorded an LP's worth of material in less than two weeks. The somewhat slickly produced Sorry for Laughing was canned by Horne and the band for tilting the sound toward the rhythm section, rather than highlighting the guitars and sounding live. A few months later, the band recorded another album, entitled The Only Fun in Town. Committed in less than a week, this one was released officially, hitting the top position of the U.K. indie chart. Notably, it was the only full-length released by the band, as well as the Postcard label. Having released a record and playing a number of successful shows, Haig determined that the band needn't accomplish anything more and disbanded his group. Ross went off to join Orange Juice, and also spent time with fellow Scots Aztec Camera. Haig began a solo career, eventually working with such talents as Alan Rankine, Billy Mackenzie, Cabaret Voltaire, and Mantronix. Weddell and Torrance were part of the Happy Family with Nick Currie (better known as Momus).

Musically, they resembled their label mates Orange Juice in fusing post-punk guitars with funk and disco rhythms. They were influenced by American bands such as Pere Ubu, Television, Talking Heads, and The Voidoids, and British bands such as Subway Sect. However, in terms of their lyrics and image Josef K were always far more downbeat and austere than Orange Juice, and were never to match Orange Juice's commercial success. They were also described as sounding similar to Joy Division but "less doomy". Haig was a fan of Joy Division and "It's Kinda Funny" was inspired by the death of Ian Curtis. Haig's lyrics were also inspired by the works of Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Knut Hamsun.

The band adopted what was described as an "anti-rock stance", most members eschewing drink and (most) drugs, and the band never doing encores, which Ross considered "patronizing".


A number of posthumous releases followed shortly after the band's departure. Young and Stupid was issued by Supreme International Recordings in 1987, compiling singles, a session for the BBC, and stray tracks from the shelved first album (it has been reissued twice since then with varying content). Les Temps Modernes coupled Sorry for Laughing with The Only Fun in Town on CD in 1990 (since the original release, it has been reissued by Rev-Ola and LTM once again). Marina issued a compilation of the band's finer moments in 1998, entitled Endless Soul. Domino did the same in 2006, with the excellent Entomology. Despite the recurring levels of interest in the band and their work, unlike many of their peers, they have to date resisted the urge to re-form.

 xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

It would be easy to say that Josef K had better days ahead of them when leader Paul Haig decided to close that chapter in his life, because there's simply no telling. Despite that train of thought and despite the reservations of bandmembers and critics over the way the Scottish quartet's limited studio output was recorded, and despite the fact that the bandmembers thought they did their best work on-stage, there is still no denying that there is some brilliance apparent in their lone studio album and this compilation, Young and Stupid. Three versions of it are floating around, with each successive edition improving on the one that preceded it. It was originally released on vinyl by Supreme in 1987 with 12 songs that mined their singles; though the tracks were selected by the band and the LP was released by their former manager, it didn't exactly fulfill its duty or exhaust the vaults -- vaults that contained substantial recordings that had been out of print for some time. When the label issued the title on CD three years later, it was significantly bolstered with the addition of several tracks: a session recorded for John Peel's BBC program in 1981, another smattering from 7" releases, and some previously unreleased material that included a demo version of "Radio Drill Time." This thankfully brought a full close to the CD issuing of Josef K's studio legacy, as it completed the unfinished job done by the original pressing. (So the CD version of Young and Stupid and the Only Fun in Town/Sorry for Laughing pairing rounds up everything the band made in a studio.)

It's also probably worth explaining that a number of songs from the original version are not included on the two versions that followed; those songs -- which could be found on the CD release of The Only Fun in Town/Sorry for Laughing anyway -- were extracted to make room for all the goodies mentioned above. And when LTM reissued the disc in 2002, they remastered the sound to great effect and added a superfluous live rendition of "Adoration" to the end of the second version's running order -- so that's the one to own. The fantastic BBC session is a key inclusion, not only for the fact that it was the last material recorded by the band prior to its breakup. "The Missionary," which was laid down for the session and would later be released as the A-side to a posthumous single (with vocal and instrumental takes on "The Angle" -- a hot tune in its own right that displays their Talking Heads influence more than anything else they released -- as B-sides), is proof positive that Josef K didn't pack it in because they were running on fumes. A speedy, dexterous number that showcases each member's locked-in precision, it's easily one of the best songs they committed to tape, right up there with the classic "Sorry for Laughing," which is also found here in its single version. They were smart, stylish, and jerky, but they were in every sense a pop band -- and an excellent one at that.



 Josef K - Young And Stupid (flac  468mb)
 
01 Romance 2:54
02 Chance Meeting 2:58
03 Radio Drill Time 4:06
04 Crazy To Exist (Live) 3:01
05 It's Kinda Funny 3:40
06 Final Request 2:18
07 Sorry For Laughing 3:01
08 Revelation 4:16
09 Chance Meeting 3:07
10 Pictures (Of Cindy) 2:19
11 The Angle (One Angle) 2:42
12 The Angle (Second Angle) 2:36
13 The Missionary 3:49
14 Heart Of Song 3:20
15 Applebush 2:20
16 Heaven Sent 3:35
17 Endless Soul 2:25
18 Radio Drill Time (Demo) 4:18
19 Torn Mentor 5:13
20 Night Ritual 2:45
21 Adoration [Live] 4:43

 Josef K - Young And Stupid  (ogg   166mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Released by the Marina label in 1998, Endless Soul is a serviceable overview of Josef K's brief career, taking the best songs from the band's lone album and several singles into consideration. There isn't exactly a great need for its existence, as there isn't much of a point in distilling such a limited output that can be swept up in whole. “From here I see another plan, and hearing voice can't understand. A thousand times for all to see; questioning the right to be.” Josef K play hurricane jangle pop and their songs are full of punk spirit. “It took ten years to realize why the angels start to cry when you roll on down the lane – your happy smile, your funny name. I'm not being mean, so don't take it hard when I ask you to run round the yard.” The hectic beats and very emphatic bass seem to be the band’s trademark. “There’s so many pathways that lead to the heart. The records were letters, the wrong place to start so devoid of expression I can tell at a glance stripped at face value we can glide into trance. On the freeway so dark in the heat of this night we can tune in on them if the frequency’s right.” And of course their guitars are always wailing and yelping.



  Josef K - Endless Soul   (flac  389mb)

01 The Missionary 3:47
02 Endless Soul 2:28
03 It's Kinda Funny 3:43
04 Sorry For Laughing 2:59
05 Heart Of Song 3:18
06 Heads Watch 2:05
07 Chance Meeting 3:04
08 The Angle 2:39
09 Drone 3:07
10 Variation Of Scene 3:29
11 Final Request 2:21
12 16 Years 2:31
13 Heaven Sent 3:37
14 Revelation 4:14
15 Radio Drill Time 4:04
16 Adoration 4:41

 Josef K - Endless Soul    (ogg   126mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Boots for Dancing are a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland, active between 1979 and 1982. They reformed in 2015.

The band was formed in late 1979 by Dave Carson (vocals), Graeme High (guitar), Dougie Barrie (bass), and Stuart Wright (drums).[1] Showing influences from the likes of Gang of Four and The Pop Group, they signed to the Pop Aural label for their eponymous debut single, receiving airplay from John Peel.[1] In the next two years, the band had more line-up changes than releases, first with ex-Shake and Rezillos drummer Angel Paterson replacing Wright, to be replaced himself by Jamo Stewart and Dickie Fusco.[1] Former Thursdays guitarist Mike Barclay then replaced High, who joined Delta 5. The band also added ex-Shake/Rezillos guitarist Jo Callis for second single "Rain Song", issued in March 1981.[1] Callis then left to join The Human League, with no further line-up changes before third single "Ooh Bop Sh'Bam" was released in early 1982.[1] Barrie then departed, his replacement being ex-Flowers/Shake/Rezillos bassist Simon Templar (b. Bloomfield), and ex-Josef K drummer Ronnie Torrance replaced the departing Fusco and Stewart (the latter forming The Syndicate).[1] The band split up later in 1982.

 Keep trawling back through the annals of pop north of the border, tracing that lineage, and you will eventually encounter the legend that is Boots for Dancing, the punk-funk combo that began life in the capital as a post-pub piece of bravado and rolled through no more that three years of existence with a constantly changing line-up around frontman, vocalist, proto-rapper and mean mover Dave Carson. They left a recorded legacy of just three singles and a trio of sessions for the John Peel radio show. The legendary DJ's crucial support hardly sets Boots for Dancing apart from many other bands in what is now termed the post-punk era of 1979 to 1982, but his assertion that they were one of the few bands whose music was liable to persuade him on to the dancefloor is worth noting.

Now, some decades later, there is a Boots for Dancing album, newly released on the Athens of the North label run by Euan Fryer and the culmination of three years work by Fryer and Carson. Entitled The Undisco Kidds - a title that pays studied homage to the sound of George Clinton's seminal American band Funkadelic who inspired the less musically literate Edinburgh teenagers back in the day - the 14-track disc includes the entirety of two of those Peel sessions and one song from the third, together with four tracks recorded in 1981 at Tony Pilley's equally legendary Barclay Towers studios in Edinburgh. That visit to the studio produced the band's third, self-released, single, Ooh Bop Sh'Bam, but it is the only song on the whole project that has previously been commercially available, which makes the album much more than an exercise in vault-raiding nostalgia.

Particularly curious at first sight is the omission of both the previous singles, released on Bob Last's Pop:Aural label, The Rain Song, and the twelve-inch floor-filling anthem that kick-started the whole story, the song Boots for Dancing itself. As Carson explains, there are both musical and legal reasons for their absence.

"The work in putting together a Boots album - and it was Euan driving it - was in tracking down high quality recordings. The sound on the Pop:Aural recordings was much more compressed and not at all like the rest of the music we could find. And there is still some questions about the status of them in terms of what we signed at the time.

"It was simpler to licence the Peel sessions from the BBC and we were lucky to track down Tony Pilley. We wanted to make it sound like an album as an entity rather than the product of different sessions. The recordings were made over two years but they are not too disparate. I am totally amazed by it."

"It is not about revisiting the past and past relationships, but about finding something and putting it out for people to enjoy."

In that endeavour, Carson found the perfect partner in Fryer's Athens of the North operation, whose main business previously has been tracking down rare soul and disco 45s and reissuing them in high quality - and not inexpensive - seven inch pressings. Naturally, although the first release of The Undisco Kidds is on CD, there will be a vinyl version.

The story that Boots for Dancing is part of is one of a very vibrant Edinburgh scene, which is very fondly recalled by those who were there. Its alumni included Jo Callis, the guitarist and songwriter who passed influentially through the ranks of Boots on his journey between the Rezillos and The Human League. The manager of Boots for Dancing, and later the equally before-the-wave So You Think You're A Cowboy?, Alan "Pinhead" Proudfoot, would occasionally employ this writer to drive his bands to and from gigs. It is an era that is beautifully evoked, and meticulously recorded, by The Herald's Neil Cooper in a lengthy essay in the new disc's booklet.

"The coherence in the story is all Neil's," says Carson. "He interviewed me for two-and-a-half hours and then sent me a first draft with all the cross-references he had found through drawing me out and triggering my memory. He really opens up the story. There was no such thing as post-punk back then - that was invented in retrospect - but it was a development of the ideas of 1976 and 77 in that we were all about challenging things."

The Boots for Dancing album has - eventually and coincidentally - arrived at a time when the story of Scottish music-making of the period, particularly in Edinburgh as well as better-documented Postcard-label Glasgow, is being rediscovered, due in no small part to Grant McPhee's acclaimed documentary film Big Gold Dream. Gideon Coe airing an old Boots for Dancing Peel session on BBC Radio 6Music also gave Carson and Fryer's efforts "a bit of a boost", as Carson puts it.

What is clear is that The Undisco Kidds is an album that Boots never stood still long enough to make at the time. The variety in the music is terrific, ranging from the foot-stomping chants of Get Up and Ooh Bop Sh'Bam that grew straight from that eponymous punk-disco debut, to the lounge supper club jazz aesthetic of Style in Full Swing and South Pacific and culminating in the uncategorisable Bend and Elbow, Lend an Ear. While the skill of the young musicians develops in provocative directions, the common thread is Carson's way with an ear-catching lyric, cheerfully plundering a hinterland of showtunes, gospel and r'n'b for memorable phrases to repurpose.

"My main regret is that we didn't get into the studio more," says Carson, "because the other great instrument is the mixing desk. Most of these tracks were recorded with very few overdubs, and I'm very happy that people can now understand the range and variation Boots were capable of."



 Boots for Dancing - Undisco Kidds (flac  369mb)

01 Salt in the Ocean 3:44
02 The Pleasure Chant 4:18
03 (Let's All) Hesitate 3:56
04 Get Up 3:26
05 Style in Full Swing 3:23
06 Timeless Tonight 3:30
07 (Somewhere in The) South Pacific 6:50
08 Just the Ticket 4:01
09 Wild Jazz Summers 5:06
10 Shadows on Stone 3:37
11 Oh' Bop Sh Bam 2:55
12 Money (Is Thin on the Ground)  3:28
13 Stand 3:21
14 Bend an Elbow, Lend an Ear 3:32

 Boots for Dancing - Undisco Kidds    (ogg  139mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx 

Hello,

Today's artists are less a band than an assemblage of some of Cuba's most renowned musical forces, whose performing careers had largely ended decades earlier with the rise of Fidel Castro. Recruiting the long-forgotten likes of singer Ibrahim Ferrer, guitarists/singers Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa, and pianist Rubén González, Ry Cooder entered Havana's Egrem Studios to record the album Buena Vista Social Club; the project was an unexpected commercial and critical smash, earning a Grammy and becoming the best-selling release of Cooder's long career. The international success generated a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music as a whole.....N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx



Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996 to revive the music of pre-revolutionary Cuba. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the group after the homonymous members' club in the Buenavista quarter of Havana, a popular music venue in the 1940s. To showcase the popular styles of the time, such as son, bolero and danzón, they recruited a dozen veteran musicians, many of whom had been retired for many years.

The group's eponymous album was recorded in March 1996 and released in September 1997, quickly becoming an international success, which prompted the ensemble to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam and New York in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film for a documentary—also called Buena Vista Social Club—that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders' film was released in June 1999 to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards. This was followed up by a second documentary: Buena Vista Social Club: Adios in 2017.

xxxxx

Shortly after returning from Havana to record the Buena Vista Social Club album, Ry Cooder began working with German film director Wim Wenders on the soundtrack to Wenders' film The End of Violence, the third such collaboration between the two artists. According to Wenders, it was an effort to force Cooder to focus on the project, "He always sort of looked in the distance and smiled, and I knew he was back in Havana." Wenders filmed the recording sessions on the recently enhanced format Digital Video with the help of cinematographer Robert Müller, and then shot interviews with each "Buena Vista" ensemble member in different Havana locations. Wenders was also present to film the group's first performance with a full line-up in Amsterdam in April 1998 (two nights) and a second time in Carnegie Hall, New York City on 1 July 1998. The completed documentary was released on 17 September 1999, and included scenes in New York of the Cubans, some of whom had never left the island, window shopping and visiting tourist sites. According to Sight & Sound magazine, these scenes of "innocents abroad" were the film's most moving moments, as the contrasts between societies of Havana and New York become evident on the faces of the performers. Ferrer, from an impoverished background and staunchly anti consumerist, was shown describing the city as "beautiful" and finding the experience overwhelming. Upon completion of filming, Wenders felt that the film "didn't feel really like it was a documentary anymore. It felt like it was a true character piece".

The film became a box office success, grossing $23,002,182 worldwide. Critics were generally enthusiastic about the story and especially the music, although leading U.S. film critic Roger Ebert and the British Film Institute's Peter Curran felt that Wenders had lingered too long on Cooder during the performances; and the editing, which interspersed interviews with music, had disrupted the continuity of the songs. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature in 1999. It won best documentary at the European Film Awards and received seventeen other major accolades internationally.


Wim Wenders - Buena Vista Social Club   (avi  787mb)

xxxxx

The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with stars from different musical genres. The "Buena Vista Social Club" name became an umbrella term to describe these performances and releases, and has been likened to a brand label that encapsulates Cuba's "musical golden age" between the 1930s and 1950s. The new success was fleeting for the most recognizable artists in the ensemble: Compay Segundo, Rubén González, and Ibrahim Ferrer, who died at the ages of ninety-five, eighty-four, and seventy-eight respectively; Compay Segundo and González in 2003, then Ferrer in 2005.

Several surviving members of the Buena Vista Social Club, such as veteran singer Omara Portuondo, trumpeter Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, laúd player Barbarito Torres and trombonist and conductor Jesús "Aguaje" Ramos currently tour worldwide, to popular acclaim, with new members such as singer Carlos Calunga and pianist Rolando Luna, as part of a 13-member band called Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club.


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

The Cinco leyendas collection, made up of original records by Francisco Repilado (Compay Segundo), Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Eliades Ochoa and Rubén González, became the highest-selling Cuban record company in the world.  Legendary figures are full of Cuban music, and therefore on the basis of this title could have armed as many occasional quintets as wanted, but it happens, that these five were not taken at random, but between how much they have in common,  is the fact that they were the names that most managed to shine in the world of the album, after their invaluable contribution to the triumph achieved by what could be considered the most commercial of projects on Cuban music made in the last ten years, the Buena Vista  Social Club. This album gives us the possibility of being able to obtain, once and for all, five compilations made from selected themes of previously published anthologies about these great artists, which presupposes that it is musically "the best of the best," including extensive comments from  prestigious musicologists who are in charge of delving into the history of each of these figures and their significance within the Cuban musical context, which provides an interesting theoretical platform also published in two languages, to the seventy-four jewels that groups this elegant case.

xxxxx

Born in the eastern town of Songo La Maya in 1946, Eliades Ochoa began playing guitar at the age of six, debuting at a very young age when improvising on the streets of Santiago de Cuba, until he became a member of the Oriental Quintet and  of the Septet Typical.  Recognized for his exceptional qualities as a guitarist, he received the offer in 1978 to direct the Cuarteto Patria, a group that, starting from his entry, would experience a new stage of development, starting a successful career of international presentations and record productions. In 1997 he was one of the participants in the project Buena Vista Social Club, which brought together great figures of Cuban music, achieving the Grammy award, which contributed to the international promotion of his work, which appears in the present  album a representative sample.



BVSC 1 - Eliades Ochoa     (flac  344mb)

01 El cuarto de Tula
02 Estoy hecho tierra
03 En casa de Pedro el Coj
04 Allí donde tú sabes
05 La culebra
06 Rita la Caimana
07 Que lío Compay Andrés
08 Alma de mujer
09 Mujer perjura
10 Qué te parece Cholito
12 La venganza del Perico
13 Entre flores
14 Beso discreto

BVSC 1 - Eliades Ochoa   (ogg  146mb)

xxxxx

When the veteran defenders of traditional Cuban music with their acoustic formats became fashionable in the last decade of the nineties, they took an enormous advantage in the commercial order to the rest of the demonstrations;  One of the most undeniably sounding themes was the Chan Chan, which, showing an extreme simplicity and unequaled flavors, moved the entire planet in the voice of its composer, Francisco Repilado, the charismatic Compay Segundo.
 Born in Santiago on Siboney Beach, where he was born on November 18, 1907, he was a very young clarinetist from the Municipal Band of Santiago, at the same time that he gave free rein to his troubadour affiliation while simultaneously staying in it with his participation in different groups.  of traditional music.  In the thirties he settled in Havana, entering as a clarinetist in the Municipal Band of the capital under the direction of maestro Gonzalo Roig, which would follow his entry as a guitarist in the Hatuey Quartet of Justa García.  The clarinet was also used to form part of the Matamoros Ensemble, where he stayed for twelve years, and from 1942 he founded the duo Los Compadres with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, where he stayed until the month of September 1955, then  which founds the group Compay Segundo and their Boys who would accompany him for the rest of his life.  In 1997 he took part in the project Buena Vista Social Club, Grammy winning album, which served to turn his Chan Chan into a hymn, which he later had the opportunity to defend in the main stages of the world. The present album is a compilation of some of the most important themes within his repertoire, which give us the measure of his wonderful talent as a composer and the extraordinary Cubanness of his pen



BVSC 2 - Compay Segundo    (flac  281mb)

01. Saludos Compay
02. Chan chán
03. Voy pa' Mayarí
04. Anita
05. La mujer del peso
06. Sanluisera
07. Yo soy de monte Compay
08. Será cuando tú digas
09. Francisco Guayabal
10. Sigue el paso No. 1
11. A los barrios de Santiago
12. De Jatibonico a Bolondrón
13. Sigue el paso No. 2
14. Sigue el paso en la Nochebuena
15. María en la playa

BVSC 2 - Compay Segundo  (ogg    116mb)

xxxxx

Ibrahím Ferrer started singing at the age of thirteen, with a group called Los Jóvenes del Son that was dedicated to entertain neighborhood parties, later joining different groups such as Wilson, Surprise and the Wonder of Beltrán, until  enter the legendary orchestra Chepín de Electo Rosell, with which he placed a lot of successes, among which the anthological one is montuno Bartolo's platanal.  In 1953 he joined the group of Pacho Alonso - years later baptized with the name of Los Bocucos - a group in which, starting in 1967, he became the lead singer, and in which he will continue until 1991. In 1997, he was invited to participate in the Buena Vista Social Club, and that same year he returned to the studios to record with the Afro Cuban All Stars orchestra the album All Cuba Like, which the Buena Vista Social title would follow shortly after.  Club presents Ibrahím Ferrer, his first solo album, nominated for the Latin Grammy, where Ibrahím won the title of "Revelation Artist" after sixty years of artistic career. Since then countless concerts were generated in countless countries, which would take him to the most important stages of the world, creating a great demand on his discography, most of which is treasured in the archives of the EGREM, serving as  base for the compilation of compilations like this one in which we can appreciate many of the themes that he turned into hits throughout his career



BVSC 3 - Ibrahim Ferrer    (flac  354mb)

01. El botellero
02. Como la piel canela
03. Fomento
04. Monte adentro
05. En qué parte de Cuba nació el son
06. Así es la vida Compay
07. Todavía me queda voz
08. El son de la santiaguera
09. Cucuruchito de coco
10. Esto se baila y se toca
12. Mi tonada montuna
13. Estoy seco y me quiero mojar
14. Mañana me voy pa' Sibanicú
15. El platanal de Bartolo

BVSC 3 - Ibrahim Ferrer (ogg  136mb)

xxxxx

Omara Portuondo is recognized as one of the main exponents of the "filin", a creative movement that was created in the late forties in the Cuban song.  Throughout his career he joined different groups such as the Conjunto Loquibambia Swing, the Musicabana group, the Orlando de la Rosa Quartet and the Anacaona orchestra;  but without a doubt the most important of all was the quartet Las D'Aida, organized by the pianist Aida Diestro, with whom he kept working for fifteen years, until in 1967 he separated and offered a concert at the Teatro  Amadeo Roldán, with whom he began a period of consolidation of his image, in which he completely won the favor of a national audience that witnessed the authentic appearance of an artist endorsed by his talent, which he admired not as  the fashion singer, but as the genuine personification of the Cuban song.
 A successful career of three decades full of foreign tours, participation in festivals and recordings was crowned with the triumph of the Buena Vista Social Club, making Omara one of the great legends of Cuban music with Ibrahím, Compay, Rubén and Eliades;  moment from which it began to appear in multiple compilations that sought to satisfy the appetite of an audience eager to find their recordings. The album that we are putting to your consideration aims to show us a part of so much good music sown throughout a lifetime, unsurpassedly performed by a singer who is a true diva of Cuban music.



BVSC 4 - Omara Portuondo    (flac  305mb)

01. Échale salsita
02. Lo que me queda por vivir
03. Mi son caliente
04. Vuela pena
05. Guitarra en son mayor
06. Nada para ti
07. Vieja luna
08. Te quería
09. Vale la pena vivir
10. Toda una vida
11. Eso no lo he dicho yo
12. Me acostumbré a estar sin ti
13. Y mucho más
14. Nosotros
15. Agua que cae del cielo

BVSC 4 - Omara Portuondo (ogg  112mb)

xxxxx

For more than sixty years, Rubén González was professionally linked with the elite of our popular music, until he became a member of the group of veterans who starred at the end of the last century in the adventure of the Buena Vista Social Club. His professional life began in the central region of the country as a musician of different orchestras until in 1941 he made the decision to move to the capital, quickly establishing himself among the most demanded pianists of that time.  He was a member of the ensembles of Arsenio Rodríguez and Kubavana by Alberto Ruiz, of the Senén Suárez group and the Riverside Orchestra, until he joined Enrique Jorrín's orchestra, in which he kept contributing his characteristic "tumbao" for more than  twenty five years.  Simultaneously he was part of the Cuban Cuban Nonto organized by the trombonist Pucho Escalante, with which he was able to unleash his passion as a jazz player.  His first record as a soloist is recorded in 1975 and is titled Indestructible, an album in which although it includes rich sonorous downloads that show his interpretative skills, he places greater emphasis on making a waste of expressiveness from his version of key titles within  from the repertoire of the filin.  In 1996 they invited him to be part of the cast of the Afrocuban All Stars for the recording of his album All Cuba Like, which was nominated for the Grammy Awards, followed by the classic Buenavista Social Club, with which came the opportunity to perform at  the most important international stages, also opening the doors for the appearance of his albums Introducing Rubén González y Chanchullo, edited in 2003 a few months before his death.  This album shows us a compilation of some of its main recordings through which we can get closer to the work of one of the great legends of Cuban culture.



BVSC 5 - Rubén González   (flac  223mb)

01 Yo te enseño Lola
02 Soplete
03 Préstame la bicicleta
04 Date una vueltecita
05 Ambrosio
06 La gloria eres tú
07 Noneto
08 Nuestra canción
09 Moby Dick
10 Todo aquel ayer
11 ¿De qué te quejas?
12 Mil congojas
13 Sancho
14 Ciudad oscura
15 Qué infelicidad

BVSC 5 - Rubén González  (ogg  105mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, most of you are aware that Iceland is a special place, fire and ice and just 300,000 humans making a living there, and yet they managed to give the world a number of global artists, it's not just Bjork but there is Johann Johansson, Sigur Ros and before all that there were Mezzoforte...



Today's Artists Eythor, Fridrik, Johann and Gulli were only fifteen and sixteen years old when they formed the band in Reykjavik 1977. The four teenage boys all loved playing their instruments and shared an interest in music, from heavy-rock to jazz-rock fusion and funk. Their enthusiasm and energy soon caught the attention of Icelandic recording executive Steinar Berg, who thought this could lead to something worthwhile and signed the band to his Icelandic label, Steinar hf, in 1979. After three albums of experimenting and developing their skills, the band travelled to London in 1982 to record what turned out to be the pivotal fourth album, Surprise, Surprise.  They teamed up with producer/engineer Geoff Calver, horn- & vocal arranger Chris Cameron and percussionist Luis Jardim, who helped the young Icelanders shape their style and create what became the unmistakable sound of Mezzoforte. Catchy melodies, strong grooves and exciting solos were the key elements. ....N Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Until the arrival of the Sugarcubes, jazz fusion band Mezzoforte was Iceland’s best-known musical export. The group was formed in 1977 at a Reykjavik high school by Fridrik Karlsson (b. 24 April 1960; guitar), Eythór Gunnarsson (b. 9 September 1961; keyboards), Jóhann Ásmundsson (b. 30 March 1961; bass), and Gunnlaugur Briem (b. 8 September 1962; drums).

Mezzoforte was founded in 1977 by four 15-17 year old guys, Eyþór Gunnarsson, Friðrik Karlsson, Jóhann Ásmundsson and Gunnlaugur Briem.

Eyþór and Friðrik had been playing in a dance band together (they actually first met at a summer festival arranged by the Icelandic boy scouts in 1976) and Gulli and Jóhann had been playing together for a short while. What brought them all together was a shared interest in jazz and fusion music.

In the beginning they practiced playing songs by artists like Weather Report, Al di Meola, Chick Corea, Earth, Wind and Fire, George Duke, Jean Luc Ponti (they had a violinist in the band for some months) and other fusion bands. Pretty soon however they started writing some songs of their own, with Friðrik and Eyþór being the most active songwriters.

From early on it was obvious that both personally and musically they all fitted well together. They rehearsed for several hours a day, seven days a week and spent the rest of the time together going to the movies or listening to music. Having played in Reykjavík (mainly in high schools) for just over a year they were offered a recording contract with Steinar Records(later SPOR Records). Mezzoforte had actively started to write their own material and soon developed a unique sound, blending melodic harmonies with tight, funky, rhythm and unpredictable tempo changes. The band recorded their first album in Hljóðriti the only 24 track studio in Iceland at that time.

The first album simply called Mezzoforte was released in 1979 and is the first Icelandic fusion album.

In the following years the band made two additional albums and toured around Iceland. They also played in various dance and jazz bands, some of them were already full time musicians by the age of eighteen. The band was a five-piece band during the first years. Stefan S. Stefansson played saxophone on the first album, but left soon after the release of the album. Björn Thorarensen (keyboards) joined the band in 1979 and played on the second and third album. The band became well respected for their music and the members were in increased demand as session players, and backing band to vocalists. Some interest was also building up outside Iceland.

The second album Í hakanum, was made in the same studio in Iceland. When it came to making the third album the band and Steinar Berg Ísleifsson their record publisher wanted to make an album that would stand the test of a more international audience. They travelled to London, in the fall 1981 to make the album, under the direction of Simon Heyworth. Björn decided to leave Mezzoforte in 1982 to concentrate on his studies in computer sciences. Following his departure Kristinn Svavarsson (saxophones) who had been playing with the band for a while, formally joined the band.

The album Þvílíkt og annað eins was released in Iceland around Christmas time in 1981. Plans for release in the UK did not come through however and since the band was very actice in their songwriting at this time they ended up recording another album in London in 1982, without Þvílíkt og annað eins ever being released in its entity outside of Iceland. (The album will be released as a part of re-releasing all Mezzoforte albums in 1997)

1982-1984

In early 1982 the song Dreamland (Ferðin til draumalandsins) was released with Shooting Star from the second album as a double A-side single and did well on the club scene in the UK.

Having recorded their fourth album Surprise Surprise in London in 1982 the band found themselves standing at crossroads. The small Icelandic market was not enough to support a full time fusion band and the future did not look too positive. They played some concerts in Iceland, but the novelty of an instrumental band was wearing off and interest in funk and fusion music was diminshing with punk rock taking over the music scene. The band held a concert in one of Reykjaviks high scools in february 1983, to an audience of six people. This made them think seriously of breaking up the band.

It was therefore a big surprise when the song Garden Party from the Surprise Surprise album started to climb the British dance and pop charts and eventually found its way to number 17 on the british pop chart in the spring of 1983. Following this the band came internationally known. Garden Party made it into the pop charts in most European countries and suddenly the band was in big demand. The members moved with their families to England and spent the next years touring extensively around Europe and also toured Japan and other countries.

Having enjoyed the success of Garden Party and the Surprise Surprise album for only a few months, Mezzoforte started working on the followup album, their fifth studio album, Observations. Recording sessions were squeesed in between concerts and tours around the world, but despite a very busy schedule the recordings were finished in just two months. Nine songs were recorded for the album, but earlier in the year the band had recorded Rockall which was released as a single in June 1983. The album was first released in Iceland in December 1983 as Yfirsýn with Icelandic songtitles.

After the release of Observations, Mezzoforte toured Europe and Japan, playing more than 150 concerts in one year, including most major festivals, such as the North Sea festival in Holland and the Montreux Festival in Switzerland where the band headlined a concert with Passport, Steps Ahead and Spyro Gyra. Observations is the last Mezzoforte album to feature Kristinn Svavarsson on saxophones. While the rest of the band decided to stay in the UK, Kristinn went back to Iceland in the summer of 1984, having spent one year on the road while his family was living in London.

So now Mezzoforte was a four piece band. They had recorded five albums, made the charts in most European countries and played at more concerts and TV shows than anyone can remember. With their families back home in Iceland, the band was still living in England between tours.

During the late summer and fall 1984, the band recorded Rising in three different studios. This is the only album Mezzoforte made as a quartet, relying on just two other musicians to complete the musical picture on a couple of songs. The band was also taking more responsibility for producing the songs with Geoff Calver behind the mixing console.

For concerts the four Icelanders added musicians of several other nationalities performing as six or even seven-piece band during late 1984 and 1985. During that period they took a step into another musical direction adding lead vocals to the lineup.

1985-1989

No limits is the seventh studio album made by Mezzoforte. On this album made in 1985, two long time touring partners took part in the recordings. The dutch percussionist Jeroen De Rijk and the british saxophonist David O'Higgins played on a couple of songs. On this album Mezzoforte changes their musical course, recording three tracks with lead singer Noel McCalla. This album was produced by Nigel Wright who also wrote lyrics to a couple of songs. By this time the band had moved back to Iceland, but was as busy as ever touring around Europe with David O'Higgins and Noel McCalla. Mezzoforte started working on building their own recording studio in Iceland and this was the last time they went to England to make an album. A recording deal with BMG Ariola had secured the release of Mezzoforte albums in the USA and early 1987 the band started to make an album aimed at this new market. Enjoying the luxury of having their own studio available at all times the band spent endless time in the studio. A lot of time went into programming synthesizers and sequencers and in fact the band did not play much together or rehearse the songs before going into the studio. The only song on the album that the band recorded as a group is In a Word and that took only few hours to complete.

For additional producers they looked in two opposite directions. Two of the songs are produced and partially arranged by two Norwegians, Svein Dag Hauge and Rolf Graf. They were members of the group Lava a well known group in Norway, frequently backing Randy Crawford on her tours outside the US. Eythor Gunnarsson worked with Lava/Randy Crawford for some time and the saxophonist of Lava, Kåre Kolve later joined Mezzoforte.

The other producer Eric Phersing came from the United States. He had worked with several jazz/fusion artists in Los Angeles. Most of the recordings were done in Iceland but when it came to putting the finishing touches to the album the band went to Los Angeles where Ernie Watts and Steve Tavaglione added some saxophone lines to the songs. The Seawind horns played on three songs and Efrain Toro added some percussion.

In order to make the album sound more like US albums, the band got Erik Zobler to mix the album in Los Angeles. Zobler who is half Icelandic was at that time best known for his long time work with George Duke and his work on Michael Jacksons album BAD.

After two years of more or less continous work the album was finally released in 1989. It did not do as well as expected in the US market and the reaction in other parts of the world were disappointing for the band as well. So having played at concerts in Europe in 1989/90 and done some re-recordings for a compilation album (Fortissimos released in 1991) the band took a break to work on other projects and did not return to the recording studio as Mezzoforte until late 1993.

1990-1997

During this period Fridrik Karlsson made a solo album (Point Blank released 1990) featuring Mezzofortes members on some of the songs, they also worked with Eythor Gunnarssons wife Ellen Kristjánsdóttir and saxophonist Sigurður Flosason. Both these acts toured around Scandinavia in 1990-92 under various names. Friðrik and Jóhann joined the pop/dance band Stjórnin, and participated in the Eurovision Grand Prix Song Contest as Heart 2 Heart. Eyþór and Gulli started working with Bubbi Morthens, an Icelandic rock star, with Eyþór producing a couple of his albums.

The band had begun writing for a new album in early 1993 when they received an invitation to go to SE Asia to play at two jazz festivals in Indonesia and Malaysia in September 1993. By this time Kåre Kolve had become a member of the band. Coming straight off the tour, the band went to Puk Studios in Denmark to record a new album, before returning home to Iceland. This time the band produced the album by themselves and changed their working methods by recording most of the music "live" and using very few additional musicians. The album called Daybreak was released internationally in 1994. During 1994 the band toured in Norway and SE Asia adding Singapore to the list of countries. But most of the time was spent on other projects.

In January 1995 Mezzoforte started working on a new album and during that year spent much time writing and recording new material with a new saxophone player Óskar Guðjónsson The recordings were finished in December 1995 and the album called Monkey Fields was released in Central Europe in September 1996, in Scandinavia in December 1996/January 1997.

In 1996 Mezzoforte visited four countries for the first time, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in April and Bulgaria in December. The band played at the JakJazz festival in Indonesia for the third time and played some concerts in Iceland, one of which was recorded for Radio and Television. In early 1996 Frissi Karlsson moved to London to work as a session musician. He was soon offered to play on the soundtrack for the movie Evita. Later Gulli Briem joined Frissi in the studio and together they performed with Madonna on BBC´s Top of the Pops.

In 1997 the band will be touring in Europe, starting to work on a new album, working on a documentary TV program and several other projects.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Mezzoforte was founded in 1977 by four 15-17 year old musicians: Friðrik Karlsson, Eyþór Gunnarsson, Jóhann Ásmundsson and Gunnlaugur Briem. What brought them together was a shared interest in jazz and fusion music. Having played in Reykjavík (mainly in high schools) for just over a year they were offered a recording contract with Steinar Records and recorded their first album in Hljóðriti, the only 24 track studio in Iceland at that time. Simply titled Mezzoforte, it is the first Icelandic fusion album. The band was a five-piece band during the first years, Stefán S. Stefánsson played saxophone on the first album, but left soon after the release of the album. The band became well respected for their music and the members were in increased demand as session players and backing band members to vocalists. Some interest was also building up outside Iceland.



 Mezzoforte - Mezzoforte (flac   195mb)

01 Kínahverfið (Chinatown) 4:56
02 Í Dagsins Önn (One day semester)3:53
03 Kvöldstund Með Þér (Evening With You) 4:40
04 Þeir Settu Svip Á Bæinn (Dodge the town) 4:53
05 Fyrirkomulagið (Arrangements) 4:42
06 Gengið Á Jökulinn (Walk on the glacier) 4:36
07 Þegar Tangóinn Fékk Sér Nýjan Kjól (When Tango Got A New Dress) 3:14
08 Sólroðinn (Reddened sun) 3:54

  (ogg    mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Í Hakanum is the 1980 studio album of Mezzoforte on Steinar released in Iceland. The September 1981 UK release, titled Mezzoforte, had a different cover artwork, but – since their first album, released only in Iceland, was also called Mezzoforte – Í Hakanum was usually referred to as Octopus,[2] what became the title of the 1996 CD re-release. Though still in their teens, members of Mezzoforte were already working as session musicians in Iceland, playing in various bands and backing singers. After their debut album as a quartett, Bjorn Thorarensen joined Mezzoforte as a second keyboard player. Í Hakanum was the first Mezzoforte album, produced by Geoff Calver. Recordings took place at Hot Ice Studios in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland from mid August to mid October 1980 with some additional recordings and mixing in London’s Red Bus Studios in late October. The album features Kristinn Svavarsson on sax, who became a full member of the band in 1982.



Mezzoforte - Octopus (flac   199mb)

01 Humoresque / Gletta 3:41
02 Midnight Express / Miðnæturhraðlestin 3:35
03 Danger High Voltage / Háspenna Lifshætta 4:05
04 Octopus / Eftirsjá 5:31
05 Shooting Star / Stjörnuhrap 5:02
06 Northern Winds / Vindur Úr Suðri 5:32
07 Rendez-Vous / Fyrstu Kynni 5:57
08 Finale / Niðurlagið 2:29

  (ogg    mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

The songwriting formulas are 90% the responsibility of keyboards’ player Eythor Gurnasson – who was certainly well informed of the novelties of the golden age of keyboards – and guitar player Fridrik Karlson who alternated between acoustic and electrics but certainly favored George Benson post-mid seventies phase; at the end of the day the only track which stands out is, in spite of its Disco references, the group penned “Funk Suite No.1” when most of the above mentioned pitfalls are avoided, the guys indulge in some inflamed statements, the saxes soar,  the guitarist finally pugs his guitar into an effects pedal to add a much welcomed grit to his sound, an organ sound is at last discernible,  the percussions are able to run wild for a while and the gals’ mics are definitely off! However I’m strongly convinced we can assume that the several guests listed were also given free rein; with Louis Jardim and Eirikur Ingolfsson on percussions, Chris Hunter on alto and tenor saxes, Martin Dobson on tenor and Bill Eldridge and Stuart Brooks on trumpet I can only say that it was too little too late and that although that 80s spirit had irremediable infiltrated the inspirational cells of most everyone in the Bizz, they could have taken better advantage of the manpower at their disposal.



 Mezzoforte - Surprise,Surprise (flac   297mb)

01 Surprise 1:25
02 Garden Party 6:00
03 Gazing At The Clouds 6:30
04 Early Autumn 6:17
05 Action Man 4:58
06 Funk Suite No.1 5:49
07 Easy Jack 4:45
08 Fusion Blues 5:40
09 The Old Neighborhood 5:32
10 Surprise, Reprise 0:50

 Mezzoforte - Surprise,Surprise (ogg   120mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Sprelllifandi / Live at the Dominion is a live album of the Icelandic funk / fusion band Mezzoforte from 1983. The registration from the Dominion Theater in London on 30 June 1983 has only been published in Iceland and in a limited edition in Japan.



 Mezzoforte - Sprelllifandi (flac   304mb)

01 Intro 1:05
02 Danger/High Voltage 4:29
03 Surprise 0:42
04 Gazing At The Clouds 6:40
05 Early Autumn 7:06
06 The Venue 4:43
07 Midnight Express 4:03
08 Garden Party 7:40
09 Surprise Surprise 5:52
10 Blue Ice 6:23

 Mezzoforte - Sprelllifandi (ogg   129mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, sometimes you come across an artist who despite having released some 40 albums often in collaboration, hasn't managed to create a website to promote his work. Not sure why one would sabotage ones career like that, but then he hasn't released anything these last 6 years and the website of the label he founded to release his work, Atmoworks has been defunct since too, to me all this shows a lack of understanding of marketing in the age of the internet. Pity, but then age 40 and not much to show for (money-wise) pressure mounts to secure a regular income....


Today's Artist introduces himself as a synthesist, drummer, electronic groove creator and sound sculptor. He mixes experimental sound sculpting with a hybrid of electronic and acoustic grooves. .......N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Synthesist, drummer, sound sculptor and electronic groove creator, Peoria-Illinois-based "Vir Unis" (real name: John Strate-Hootman, 26 October 1969, Morton, IL, United States ) is a significant voice in the world of atmospheric / tribal / ambient music. With an emphasis on rhythm and pulse, underpinned by deep synthesizer textures, Vir Unis realizes music that moves between the organic intensity of ever evolving fractal grooves and the harmonic complexity of mist strewn sonic atmospheres. Co-founder of AtmoWorks

After performing as a drummer in various synth pop and new wave bands in the 1980's, he worked for several years in solitude developing atmospheric and experimental music via a simple analog 4-track cassette deck, one effects box, delay pedal, drum machine, and a synthesizer. Acquiring his first computer, Vir Unis was first introduced to digital recording via Sonic Foundry software in 1996. Realizing the vast potential that the digital realm offers the electronic musician, he quickly set about creating a new world of possibilities for himself, both atmospherically and rhythmically. Starting out as a drummer and percussionist, these kinds of software tools helped shape a lot of the ideas that he was developing in his mind, but could not produce with the audio tools of the time, given the limitations of magnetic tape. However, being based in this minimalist approach to creating music, he was accustomed to pushing the instruments that he had to the furthest point and beyond, thus creating an atmosphere in which the imagination could thrive in either the digital or analog world. Forging a new and experimental fusion of analog percussion sources and digital editing became the primary focus for the next several years. Combining these electronic grooves with the sonic and misty psychedelic atmospheres that he had been working on for the past decade seemed the perfect alchemy and the next level he had been seeking.

In the summer of 1998, Imaginarium was released. This was a collaboration album with Midwest duo Ma Ja Le and was produced by the legendary electronic music composer Steve Roach. This proved to be quite a fortuitous event for many reasons, but the main reason was a lasting collaboration between Roach and Unis, developing their ongoing exploration of fractal groove creation into what Roach has called "Elegant Futurism". Their first collaboration, Body Electric, was released on Projekt in February of 1999. Well received by both critics and listeners alike, Body Electric received much radio airplay nationwide and remained in the Airwaves and New Age Voice top ten for over 8 weeks. Later that year, Vir Unis released his first solo album, The Drift Inside, in November of 1999 on Minneapolis based label GreenHouse Music. Produced by Steve Roach and Vir Unis, The Drift Inside focused primarily on self-reflective inner space music. Being completely beatless, his first solo album offered a different side to the tribal and electronic groove albums with Steve Roach and Ma Ja Le. However, The Undivided Flow, his contribution to The Ambient Expanse (Mirage), did offer a glimpse at the music that was developed on The Drift Inside. He also contributed one track, Beneath the Hive, to GreenHouse Music's first compilation album, Convergent Evolution in 1999. The Drift Inside has received several highly charged and positive reviews. A favorite of many space music fans, it was #2 on the New Age Sampler Radio show for The Ambient Hour which broadcasts on 89.9 FM, WWSP from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. Vir Unis was also interviewed for their Millennium Featured Artist Series during this time. The Drift Inside was also featured in February 2000 on Hearts of Space program entitled "Luminosity".

Of music, Strate says, "I consider music to be a visual medium. Not just in imagining pictures while listening to music, but in a much more direct way. I see music when I listen to it. It creates patterns, textures, and all sorts of mandala like structures. In designing images on the computer, I try to capture the things I see in music. Painting, drawing, and computer aided design is all musical too. So, there's this sort of synesthesia that occurs naturally if you tune into it, and that's why a lot of artists are able to cross over into various mediums, because they all derive from the same source".

Vir Unis performed on 4 March 2000 at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia. This was his first concert ever on the east coast of the USA, second solo concert ever and demonstrated his talent for exploring, through music, the areas of space within and outside of the audience. A recording of this concert has been released via MP3.com.
Following the 4 March Gathering, Saul Stokes and Vir Unis performed their first collaboration live on the 03.05.00 broadcast of STAR'S END. Vir Unis + James JohnsonVir Unis returned to Philadelphia on 12 April 2003 to once again perform at The Gatherings Concert Series. Joining him was friend and collaborator, noted sonic explorer James Johnson. The duo presented live material in the vein of their recent release, Perimeter and its follow-up 3CD set, Perimeter 2 - released in Philadelphia on 12 April.

Among music composition and recording, Vir Unis has also been credited as a graphic designer for all his own solo albums, the cover artwork for Steve Roach's Midnight Moon (Projekt), and most recently, Blood Machine and the upcoming Sonic Foundry Vir Unis ACID Loop Library. Vir Unis has also musically contributed to Steve Roach's solo album, Light Fantastic (HOS/Fathom) as a guest artist, which earned Steve the AIIFM award for 1999, and also Roach's Serpant's Lair (Projekt), which was a collaboration album with percussionist Byron Metcalf. Always looking to keep the music and ideas fresh and evolving, Vir Unis is relentless in his search for new sounds, new grooves, and new worlds in which to create. Combing the various sources of acoustic and electronic sounds from the ground up into an analog and digital fractal stew and utilizing the latest software and hardware, Vir Unis' goal was nothing less than to create 100% original electro-psychedelic mind-body music.



2001 Interview

AV:  You started your musical career playing drums. Bearing in mind other synthesists like Klaus Schulze, Chris Franke started out on the same route, what made you change to synthesizers?

VU:  Actually, my brother had a Moog Rogue and a Prophet 600 and I remember being quite fascinated with the possibilities to create strange and alien sounds.  I didn't really care too much about conventional sounds and playing chops or recognized musical forms.  I was very intrigued with the idea that one could sculpt sound and the patterns could just keep changing infinitely. I liked synthesizers because they were their own instrument.  I despised the more featureless black box sample playback machines that were starting to come out.  They seemed to have more in common with a Stealth Bomber than they did a musical instrument!  I was way more intrigued by the analog synthesizers and all the blinking lights, sliders, faders, and knobs they had.  From there I started listening closely to some of the more atmospheric string sounds that a lot of New Wave pop bands were utilizing in their songs and recognizing how they sort of sprung from a lot of the early Brian Eno recordings and also stuff that David Sylvian and Richard Barbieri were doing with their band, Japan.  So I set out with really no concrete plans other than to just sit in front of the synth and just dream.

AV:  What exactly is a "fractal groove" in technical terms?

VU:  "Fractal grooves" are really a process born out of extracting rhythmic patterns from within patterns.  It's also an endless and infinite array of possibilities, so I was certainly fascinated with this concept when I first discovered how you could literally produce 30 different type of grooves from a single loop.  It's a matter of increasing complexity, taking one simple groove and pushing it through this process to create highly sophisticated and what Steve Roach calls "elegant futuristic" beats.  The idea is to create several varying degrees of a type of loop and blend them together in oscillating crossfades that create this sort of mandala like fractalization.  It gives that sort of psychedelic and liquid  lava lamp like flow to the grooves.

AV:  Can you remember the first electronic recording you heard and how it affected you?

VU:  I can't recall the exact title of the first electronic recording I heard.  But, I can recall first listening to space music in the mid eighties.  A girlfriend of mine had a tape she made of a program that I had just heard about called "Hearts of Space".  I remember how lush and mind expanding it sounded in comparison to the more upbeat electronic pop music that I was listening to and performing at the time.  It wasn't something that I listened to all the time or very much, for that matter, so when I did listen to it it was a unique and special event.  So this atmosphere of it being a special event started to develop.  It began to affect me slowly but deeply.  It really felt like the soundtrack to a dream, and increasingly I felt connected to it at a deeper level, as it felt like something that I had been searching for a long time.  Staying up late and listening to this music in a dark room became a favorite ritual over time.

AV:  How do you go about preparing for a concert? Is it a disciplined approach with hours of rehearsal or is a lot done on the spur of the moment in the concert hall?

VU:  My preparation for a concert is more psychological than anything else. Of course, I go through all the usual preparations of getting a few sounds programmed on the synthesizers and putting together backdrop atmospheres, although I prefer to mainly twist the music on the fly.  Mostly I tend to become very quiet, preferring little or no speech, and slowly start to focus on being in the moment and being carried by the current of the beats and sounds.  Usually this approach melts away the nervous energy that builds up preceding a performance.  Most of the shows that I've done recently have been based on improvisation.  You make yourself prepared emotionally and physically and the spirit will move you to create the right stuff.  This is something that makes the shows much more exhilarating, on the edge, and less of being a sound pilot/dj for the crowd. I definitely think it's much more interesting to see a performer moving and interacting with other musicians.  That's why a lot of my recent shows have been with others.

AV:  You have worked with Steve Roach on a number of albums now. What is the single most important thing you have learned from this veteran of the scene?

VU:  Actually, several things.  Integrity.  Grace.  Focus.  Dedication.  I've met very few people in this life as focused and dedicated to their craft as Steve Roach.  Time and time again he has blown me away with how deep his art flows.  This is a man who makes no compromises with the outer world, instead choosing to dive into the dark and bring back something profoundly human, rich, and enduring. It's a hero's quest, and working with him has only served to clarify my calling, my destiny.

AV:   Is there a single piece of musical equipment that you would just love to own?

VU:  I would love to own a top of the line Lexicon reverb.  It's pure space contained in a black box....

AV:  Have you ever been tempted to try and break into the mainstream music charts by releasing a commercial "pop" piece of music?

VU:  I come from a background of playing in bands that though they have been a bit on the unconventional side still created musical forms from the well of popular culture.  I did this for approximately 7 years, so I've had my fill to last a lifetime.  Since I've been on my own, it's been all about creating my own space.

AV:  A lot of your music is very reflective and spiritual. Do you have your own personal belief system or do you practice a faith that comes through with the music?

VU:  I don't practice any sort of organized religious doctrine.  I tend to shy away from the dogma that lies at the outer perimeter of religion and go immediately to it's essence which I feel connects all the world's ideologies and traditions.  I come from a Christian environment that had very little to do with the actual teachings of Christ, so the reflective and spiritual aspect of my music is really an attempt to get past these layers of cultural conditioning and dive deeper to the truth that lies inside.  I have a lot of beliefs and ideas that spring from a more eastern philosophy or approach to life, so I certainly have an affinity with Buddhism, Taoism, and Zen, but by no means am I a scholar of any these ways of life.  Essentially, my religion, if anything, is my music.

AV:  Beyond Perimeter what projects do you have in the works for next year that we might be looking for?

VU:  A collaboration with Saul Stokes should be finished by the end of the year.  This is titled "Thermal Transfer" and will be released on Hypnos' new affiliate label, Binary.  An official release date hasn't been scheduled yet, but it's expected to be out sometime around early February 2002.  It's really a nice mix of Saul's homemade synth style electronic music and my fractal groovescapes and atmospheres.  We've been working on it for about a year, so I'm really excited about seeing it finally come to life. I also have a solo album, tentatively titled "Mercury and Plastic" coming out sometime next year.  It's a continuation of Pulse n Atmo and a lot of the work that I've done with Steve Roach and James Johnson. A live disc from the Space For Music Festival that Interstitial and I performed at in Milwaukee last May will also be released sometime early in 2002.  We're hoping to encode it in 5.1 surround for a really expansive experience.  That will probably be released on my new artist direct label, "In The Bubble Music".

I also hope my long time collaboration with MJ Dawn, Steve Roach and Subatomic God will be finished.  It's taken a lot of twists and turns these past four years and I'm really anxious to see it finally finished.  Expect some real high energy and fast paced groovescapes on that one!  Other than that, James Johnson and I have been talking about releasing a live CD that would consist of tracks collected from our Fall 2001 shows that we're in the middle of right now. Also a collaboration with guitartist Chris Short, entitled Hub of The Mono Gods, may be finished sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2002.   Actually, despite this list of collaborations and solo projects, I really intended to relax some more next year, but the projects are already stacking up!

AV:  Do you have any plans for appearances for the balance of this year and into next year that have been finalized?

VU:  My next scheduled apprearance is Nov. 4th and 6th in Toronto, Canada for 1groove.com and The Ambient Ping.  The show at the Ambient Ping is actually a release party for "Perimeter" with James Johnson.  We'll be performing material from this album at both shows.  Other than those two concerts, nothing else is scheduled for the remainder of this year....At least, for now....

AV:  Lastly where do you see yourself in say ten years time?

VU:  It's hard to say.  All of us, in this world, are really on the edge of uncertainty.  The world really does spin on a dime, and who knows what will happen with any one of us.  Of course I have my personal hopes and aspirations that I work towards, but I really try to stay focused on the present and the immediate future.  In ten years time, I do know that I will be on the same path that I am now, but with hopefully a lot more insight, patience, respect, and compassion.  Other than just being alive and breathing, what more could I ask for?


Well i made an effort to tell you about the man, even if the net delivers very little on him, and now i guess here at Rho-Xs we have the best advertorial on him, hmmm someone should create a wiki page on him

.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Vir Unis, with some help from Steve Roach, has managed to create a profound and chimerical recording. The Drift Inside, with its slowly evolving aural brilliance and kaleidoscopic melodic fragments, takes the listener for a deep journey into the mind's eyes and ears. This is another great Green House Music recording that takes you away just long enough to regroup and return revived. Vir Unis' impeccable blend of harmonic alchemy and provocative, illustrious soundscapes is a welcome contribution to ambient music, and clearly one of the genre's best offerings. Beyond being another great ambient recording, this disc clearly illustrates the intersection of gifted studio production and exceptional imagination. The Drift Inside is very representative of Vir Unis' more atmospheric ambient work, and quite comparable to his Aeonian Glow.

The Drift Inside consists of 12 electronic pieces, which proceed along at a slow, stately pace. There is no rhythm and only very minimal percussion. Each piece is a meditation on only one or two chords, with volume pulsing softer and louder, traced about by a slow kaleidoscope of electronic effects that come and go. The chords are beautifully chosen, some as tonal as Debussy, others microtonal and more dissonant. All are sunk in that ocean of reverb that is so characteristic of the school of Steve Roach. Roach himself does put in an appearance here and there, but this doesn't sound like imitation Roach. The first four pieces are especially powerful, seamlessly linked together, and the title cut, number 4, "The Drift Inside," is perhaps the best on the album.

As the title advertises, the album is meant to drift you into an inward, meditative, perhaps ecstatic mental state; it certainly works like that for me. The sensuous yet austere harmonies evoke moods of languid dreaming sunlight, or bracing interstellar darkness, or unearthly visionary landscapes. I highly recommend The Drift Inside for any astral travelling you may be planning to undertake.



 Vir Unis ‎- The Drift Inside (flac  370mb)

01 Currents Beneath The Shine 7:05
02 Hidden Streams 4:59
03 Leaving The Skin 7:02
04 The Drift Inside 5:25
05 Zero Ground 8:39
06 esonate & Glow 5:43
07 Crystal Eyes 8:13
08 In The Wake Of A Passing Thought 6:06
09 Adrift 5:34
10 Solar Plexus 3:02
11 Neuron Lights 5:30
12 Deepest Dream 5:26

Vir Unis ‎- The Drift Inside   (ogg  150mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

With Aeonian Glow, Vir Unis has created a recording that -- like his previous work, The Drift Inside -- no ambient/space/atmospheric music enthusiast should be without. Again like The Drift Inside, the production is of the absolutely highest audiophile quality -- a very stereophonic atmospheric recording that's as multi-dimensional as it is dynamic. Aeonian Glow is an album of surprisingly paradoxical qualities: dark yet expansive, sparse but possessing an inescapable warmth, cold precision blended seamlessly with organic sound textures. The atmosphere is frigid as any Nordic ambient, yet maintains a constant energy that would seem to defy that description. Shimmering, irresistibly mind-blowing synths against a backdrop of subtle nature and field recordings. The composition is far exceeding other artists, more like classical music taking ambient form. Attention never wanes thanks to clever arrangement which slowly builds listener anticipation and presents consistent emotional cues. This is one of those rare modern ambient albums that is really effective. Highly recommended for anyone that likes ambient music.



 Vir Unis - Aeonian Glow (A New Aeon)   (flac 427mb)

01 Glide 8:05
02 The Ghost Of Aeons 13:14
03 Indigo Light 13:53
04 Particle Path 4:47
05 A Night Of Passage 16:39
06 Flying Dream 10:33
07 Alien Machinery 8:00
08 Letting Go Of This Radiant Hive 16:17
09 A New Aeon 7:22

 Vir Unis - Aeonian Glow (A New Aeon)     (ogg  188 mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

A melancholy master-work of Vir Unis' work; recommended as a good place to start for any non-adept at Vir Unis' works. The album breaks away from the more popular pulse-beats -- that have plagued some of his earlier works -- and nears the boundary of starry sound-scapes by use of resonance and overtones (read as the "end effects" of instruments/sounds) making Primary Space definite "ambient" music. One may venture to say that Primary Space should have brought him more deserved attention and credibility.



Vir Unis - Primary Space - Early Works Vol. 2 (flac  328mb)

01 In The Core Of A Spinning Disc 6:02
02 Stochastic Entropies 6:31
03 The Red Queen Principle 5:44
04 A Number Of Recombinations 5:21
05 Dissolving At The Singularity 5:04
06 A Sense Of Light Travel 4:08
07 Micro Tunnels 1:52
08 Symmetry Of The Mirror 5:42
09 Cellular Automata 4:09
10 Primary Space 5:33
11 Shadows Drift 5:47
12 Growth Of Complexity 6:15
13 Dreaming Of Time 5:17
14 Infinite Curvature 4:54
15 Four Exposures To The Logos Laser 3:05

Vir Unis - Primary Space - Early Works Vol. 2 (ogg   154mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Pulse-N-Atmo was a step in a different direction for Vir Unis, mostly thanks to a larger focus on modern music and a glazed percussive-heavy atmosphere. The change worked, not as effectively as hardcore enthusiasts would've liked, but with purpose, a little direction, and a significant amount of resourcefulness, riding that fine line between subtle exploration and a stylistic (and previously successful) safety net. "Mind Blink Bike Ride," for example, and its glitch-techno influences are in pleasant contrast to the familiar breezes of ambient and cool new-age synths. The inconsistency was jarring to some, conflicted to others, but one of the only satisfying choices Vir Unis could've made for a third outing that wasn't too innocuous or too unexpected and alienating.



Vir Unis - Pulse N Atmo (flac  404mb)

01 Ghost In The Bubble 6:23
02 Doppleganger 5:30
03 Spoon Bender 6:47
04 Black Locust Beach 4:26
05 Good Morning Blowfish 6:24
06 Mind Blink Bike Ride 5:49
07 Rinse 3:20
08 Alpha State 5:26
09 Logan 5:01
10 Tweak The Pulse 5:40
11 Transmission At Banner Marsh 4:40
12 We Are The Sun's Dream 10:40

Vir Unis - Pulse N Atmo (ogg   194mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello,


10 correct requests for this week, 1 cloudy re up, 3 too early , whatever another batch of 35 re-ups (11.7 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 February 19th !... N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

8x Wavetrain-7-7-7 NOW in Flac (A Certain Ratio - To Each And Everyone, Rip Rig & Panic - Attitude, This Heat - Deceit, Thomas Leer - Contradictions, Bill Nelson - Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam, still in ogg 400 Blows - '.....If I Kissed Her I'd Have To Kill Her First.....' , Hector Zazou - La Perversità, Bill Nelson - Sounding The Ritual Echo (Atmospheres For Dreaming))


3x Aetix Back In Flac (VA - Disco Not Disco 1, VA - Disco Not Disco 2, VA - Disco Not Disco 3)


4x Sundaze Back In Flac (PCO - Music from the Penguin Cafe, PCO - Penguin Cafe Orchestra,
PCO - Broadcasting From Home, PCO - Signs Of Life)


3x Roots Back in Flac (Funky Kingston - Reggae Grooves 68-74, Funky Kingston - Reggae Grooves 2 68-74, VA - Jamaica Funk (Funk And Soul 45's))


4x Aetix Back in Flac (Front Line Assembly - Corroded + Disorder, Front Line Assembly - Gashed Senses And Crossfire, Front Line Assembly - Caustic Grip, Front Line Assembly - EP's 88-90)


3x Aetix Back in Flac (Berlin - Pleasure Victim, Berlin - Love Life, Berlin - Count Three & Pray)



1x Roots NOW in flac (Rhythm & Sound & Tikiman - Showcase)



5x Japan Back in Flac (Shoukichi Kina - Peppermint Tea House, Audio Active - Happy Happer, Pizzicato 5 - Happy End Of The World, Cornelius - Fantasma , Boom Boom Satellites - 7 Ignitions )



3x Sundaze Back in Flac ( DeepChord Presents Echospace - Hash-Bar Loops, DeepChord Echospace - Spatialdimension, Soultek - Reflective)






cloudy files re-up

1x Sundaze Back in Flac ( Seefeel - (Ch-Vox) +StarethroughEP)



xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, as i was scrolling thru my audio plays, my eye fell on Good Omens and when i did a duckduck first thing that caught my eye IMDB announcing an eagerly awaited mini series about A tale of the bungling of Armageddon, featuring an angel, a demon, an 11-year-old Antichrist, and a doom-saying witch, crazy stuff right in sync with the crazy Trump age, still a few months before it premieres end of May at Amazon, so why not get prepared and listen to what BBC radio 4 made of this....


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

It is the coming of the End Times: the Apocalypse is near, and Final Judgement will soon descend upon the human species. This comes as a bit of bad news to the angel Aziraphale (who was the guardian of the Eastern Gate of Eden) and the demon Crowley (who, when he was originally named Crawly, was the serpent who tempted Eve to eat the apple), respectively the representatives of Heaven and Hell on Earth, as they have become used to living their cosy, comfortable lives and have, in a perverse way, taken a liking to humanity. As such, since they are good friends (despite ostensibly representing the polar opposites of Good and Evil), they decide to work together and keep an eye on the Antichrist, destined to be the son of a prominent American diplomat stationed in Britain, and thus ensure he grows up in a way that means he can never decide between Good and Evil, thereby postponing the end of the world.

In fact, Warlock, the child whom everyone thinks is the Anti-Christ, is a normal eleven-year-old boy. Due to the mishandling of several infants in the hospital, the real Anti-Christ is Adam Young, a charismatic and slightly otherworldly eleven-year-old living in Lower Tadfield, Oxfordshire, an idyllic town in Britain. Despite being the harbinger of the Apocalypse, he has lived a perfectly normal life as the son of typical English parents, and as a result has no idea of his true powers. He has three close friends - Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian - who collectively form a gang that is simply referred to as "Them" by the adults.

As the end of the world nears, Adam blissfully and naively uses his powers, changing the world to fit things he reads in a conspiracy theory magazine, such as raising the lost continent of Atlantis and causing Little Green Men to land on earth and deliver a message of goodwill and peace. In the meantime, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse assemble: War (a female war correspondent), Death (a biker), Famine (a dietician and fast-food tycoon), and Pollution (a young man--Pestilence having retired after the discovery of penicillin). The incredibly accurate (yet so highly specific as to be useless) prophecies of Agnes Nutter, 17th-century prophetess, are rapidly coming to pass.

Agnes Nutter was a witch in the 17th century and the only truly accurate prophet to have ever lived. She wrote a book called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, a collection of prophecies that did not sell very well because they were unspectacular, cryptic and all true. She, in fact, decided to publish it only so she could receive a free author's copy. This copy is passed down to her descendants, and is currently owned by her multi-great granddaughter Anathema Device. Agnes was burned at the stake by a mob; however, because she had foreseen her fiery end and had packed 80 pounds of gunpowder and 40 pounds of roofing nails into her petticoats, everyone who participated in the burning was killed instantly.

As the world descends into chaos, Adam attempts to split up the world between his gang. After realizing that by embracing absolute power, he will not be able to continue to grow up as a child in Lower Tadfield, Adam decides to stop the apocalypse.

Anathema, Newton Pulsifer (one of the two last members of the Witchfinder Army), Adam and his gang, Aziraphale and Crowley gather at a military base near Lower Tadfield to stop the Horsemen causing a nuclear war and ending the world. Adam's friends capture War, Pollution, and Famine. Just as Adam's father, the devil, seems to come and force the end of the world, Adam twists everything so his human father shows up instead, and everything is restored.

Gaiman and Pratchett had known each other since 1985. It was their own idea, not that of their publisher, to collaborate on a novel. According to Gaiman, he originally began the book as a parody of Richmal Crompton's William books, named William the Antichrist, but it gradually outgrew the original idea.
Pratchett and Gaiman planned the novel together over lengthy phone conversations, and shared their writing by mailing floppy disks (remember floppy disks?) back and forth.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, the world will end on a Saturday. A Saturday quite soon,...

Events have been set in motion to bring about the End of Days. The armies of Good and Evil are gathering and making their way towards the sleepy English village of Lower Tadfield. The Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse - War, Famine, Pollution and Death - have been summoned from the corners of the earth and are assembling.

Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell and his assistant Newton Pulsifier are also en route to Tadfield to investigate some unusual phenomena in the area, while Anathema Device, descendent of prophetess and witch Agnes Nutter, tries to decipher her ancestor's cryptic predictions about exactly where the impending Apocalypse will take place.

Atlantis is rising, fish are falling from the sky; everything seems to be going to the Divine Plan. Everything that is but for the unlikely duo of an angel and a demon who are not all that keen on the prospect of the forthcoming Rapture. Aziraphale (once an angel in the Garden of Eden, but now running an antiquarian bookshop in London), and Crowley (formerly Eden's snake, now driving around London in shades and a vintage Bentley) have been living on Earth for several millennia and have become rather fond of the place. But if they are to stop Armageddon taking place they've got to find and kill the one who will the one bring about the apocalypse: the Antichrist himself.

There's just one small problem: someone seems to have mislaid him...


Dirk Maggs, best known for his adaptation of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, adapted and directed the radio dramatization along with producer Heather Larmour and, of course, Neil Gaiman himself.

Josie Lawrence as Agnes Nutter and Paterson Joseph as Famine, as well as Game of Thrones actor Clive Russell, Julia Deakin, Louise Brealey, Simon Jones, Arsher Ali, Phil Davis, and Mark Benton. The two lead roles of Aziraphale and Crowley will be voiced by Mark Heap (Spaced) and Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), respectively. And, on top of all that, we can expect to hear cameo appearances from both Pratchett and Gaiman themselves.


Gaiman and Pratchett - Good Omens - Episode 1 ( 28min mp3     33mb).


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

previously



xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, music news of the day was undoubtedly the death of Mark Hollis (age 64), frontman of Talk Talk, admittedly he had fully retreated from the music scene since 1997 after the release of his solo album. Over the years the music of Talk Talk has become ever more sanctified, and its true, earlier today i listened to Spirit of Eden and 30 years later it remains a devastatingly beautiful album, in a way there was no where to go as their label EMI had proven to be run by short term profit nin com poops. Anyway the fade out continued with their last official album Laughing Stock and even after Mark Hollis released a solo album gave rise to the hope of a Talk Talk revival Hollis was clear that was not to be. In the end he had said everything there was to say. Thusfar it's unclear what caused his untimely death..

Here a link on Mark Hollis and Talk Talk career, I specially point out the video Its my Life (that got blocked by EMI) , because it shows what inspired Mark and the band, unfortunatly they were to far ahead of the times. Anyway it's a good read.Mark Hollis: reluctant pop star




Today's artists were one of the smartest -- and catchiest -- British pop bands to emerge from the punk and new wave explosion of the late '70s. From the tense, jerky riffs of their early singles to the lushly arranged, meticulous pop of their later albums, their music has always been driven by the hook-laden songwriting of guitarist Andy Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding. While popular success has eluded them in both Britain and America, the group has developed a devoted cult following in both countries that remains loyal over two decades after their first records......N-Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Before the band finally settled on a name: XTC, the core duo of Andy Partridge (guitars & vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass & vocals) went through many band names in the previous 5 years,  Terry Chambers (drums) joined in 1973 and keyboard player Barry Andrews followed in 1976.  By this time (77), the punk rock movement was in full swing, and XTC had found their style, a unique brand of hyperactive pop mixed with funk, punk, ska, reggae, and art rock. That year they signed with Virgin and released their debut LP White Music in January 1978. White Music received favorable reviews and entered the British top 40, but lead single "Statue of Liberty" was banned by the BBC for making allegedly lewd references to the famous statue ("in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt")...yes 30 years ago those censorists assumed getting a hard on from a copper statue, or maybe it was to prevent young men getting the wrong idea and emigrate to the States..outrageous either way...
Their second effort Go2 came 8 months later, it had a limited edition bonus disc Go + (dub mixes of songs from the album). The title was inspired by the Japanese strategy game GO and the fact that it was their second album. In 1980 Andrews left to become one of Fripps League of gentlemen and afterwards went on to form Shriekback. He was replaced by guitarist and keyboardist Dave Gregory. With his arrival, the band scored their first charting single, Moulding's "Life Begins at the Hop". The loss of Andrews' distinctive keyboard playing started the band on a path towards a more traditional rock sound. The resulting album, Drums and Wires, contained the band's first big hit, "Making Plans for Nigel",  the album found the band branching out into more overtly political topics, culminating in the unhinged ranting of "Complicated Game", which became one of the band's most well-known non-hits. During this period, Partridge also further indulged his love of dub, releasing a solo LP in 1980 under the name 'Mr Partridge'. The album, Take Away/The Lure of Salvage, featured radical dub deconstructions of music from the preceding XTC albums.

Their 1980 LP, Black Sea spawned the hit singles "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" and "Generals and Majors". The last major hit of XTC's touring phase was "Senses Working Overtime", the first single from their double album English Settlement and a top 10 hit in 1982. At the peak of their popularity, the band embarked on a major tour, but Partridge suffered a mental breakdown on stage during one of the first concerts of the tour in Paris on March 18, 1982. Andy Partridge's breakdown, caused by the loss of his valium supply on which he become dependant since his teenager years, manifested itself as uncontrollable stage fright. the european and US tours were cancelled and since then, XTC have been exclusively a studio band, although they have given occasional live-to-air performances from radio stations, and a handful of TV appearances. Drummer Chambers was more or less forced to leave, left without the performances income and was never replaced as from then on this role would be taken on by hired session hands.

Mummer (83) saw Partridge cooling his heels with pastoral songs like "Love on a Farmboy's Wages", the band's next album took a noisy left turn. 1984's The Big Express, surprised both their record company and fans alike with its abrasive sound and became XTC's poorest seller to date . XTC responded with a project that was intended as a homage to 1960s pop and psychedelic music by groups such as the Beatles, The Byrds, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd and the Pretty Things and released 25'o clock a mini album under the name of The Dukes of Stratosphear, 2 years later they had another go and released a full album "Psonic Psunspot". 3 years after a compilation (Anthology) of those 2 albums was released under the colourfull title  Chips From The Chocolate Fireball (An Anthology),

In 1986, the band travelled to Todd Rundgren's studio-in-the-woods in Woodstock, New York to record Skylarking. Although the pairing of XTC and Rundgren was highly anticipated by fans, the sessions were less than enjoyable for the band. Rundgren had insisted that the band send him, in advance, demos of all the songs that they thought they might tackle for the record. When the band got to Woodstock, Rundgren had already worked out a running order for both the recording and sequence of the album itself. The two egos of Rundgren and Partridge clashed frequently during the recording of Skylarking . Yet the album earned critical accolades and sold well. The band's follow up, Oranges and Lemons, produced by Paul Fox, was their biggest seller yet, with thanks to the singles getting heavy airplay on MTV.

Their 1992 album, Nonsuch (named after Henry VIII's fabled palace), united them with famed UK producer Gus Dudgeon and drummer Dave Mattacks. In spite of the LP's success, soon after it was released a contractual dispute with their label, Virgin Records, saw XTC go "on strike" from 1992 through 1998, finally resulting in the termination of their contract. After leaving Virgin, Partridge had their accounts audited and it was discovered that the company had withheld substantial royalty payments from them(surprise ). The settlement of the accounts provided the group with much-needed cash flow, allowing Partridge and Moulding to install fully-equipped studios and work comfortably at home. They are now able to record the majority of their work themselves, they formed their own label, Idea Records, and embarked on the recording of the ambitious "Apple Venus" project, a collection of the best material written during the band's dispute with Virgin. This didnt go down as smoothly as expected as long time member, Dave Gregory,  left,  again because of loosing out financially, it caused some upheavel. The band's next record, Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) was the guitar-heavy collection Gregory would have preferred. In October 2005, the two albums were reissued together in the 4-CD Apple Box collection.

In November 2006, Partridge told several interviewers that Moulding no longer had any interest in writing, performing or even listening to music. Partridge has said he would not continue XTC without Moulding, and that therefore he has been forced to regard XTC "in the past tense," with no likelihood of a new project unless Moulding should have a change of heart. Partridge meanwhile jammed with Martin Barker and Barry Andrews (both Shriekback) and released a double CD under the name of Monstrance.

XTC's lack of commercial success isn't because their music isn't accessible -- their bright, occasionally melancholy, melodies flow with more grace than most bands -- it has more to do with the group constantly being out of step with the times. However, the band has left behind a remarkably rich and varied series of albums that make a convincing argument that XTC is the great lost pop band.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Following Go 2, keyboardist Barry Andrews left XTC and, rather than finding a replacement keyboard player, the band opted to recruit another guitarist (who could also play keyboards), Dave Gregory. The album that followed the lineup change, Drums and Wires, marks a turning point for the band, with a more subdued set of songs that reflect an increasing songwriting proficiency. The aimless energy of the first two albums is focused into a cohesive statement with a distinctive voice that retains their clever humor, quirky wordplay, and decidedly British flavor. Musically, Drums and Wires, titled to reflect the big drum sound they developed for the album, is certainly driven by the powerful rhythms and angular, mainly minimalistic arrangements, but the addition of a second guitarist also allows for some inventive and interesting guitar work (the "wires") that made up for the lack of Andrews' odd flourishes -- the tension between the two sounds creates some truly inspired, nervy pop. Colin Moulding also comes into his own as a songwriter, penning XTC's first substantial hit, the new wave classic "Making Plans for Nigel."



XTC - Drums And Wires ( 386mb)

01 Making Plans For Nigel 4:14
02 Helicopter 3:55
03 Day In Day Out 3:08
04 When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty 3:22
05 Ten Feet Tall 3:17
06 Roads Girdle The Globe 4:51
07 Real By Reel 3:47
08 Millions 5:39
09 That Is The Way 2:57
10 Outside World 2:41
11 Scissor Man 4:00
12 Complicated Game 5:05
13 Life Begins At The Hop 3:49
14 Chain Of Command 2:34
15 Limelight 2:27

XTC - Drums And Wires(ogg  135mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

XTC continue on with the big drum sound of Drums and Wires, adding more polish and an even heavier-hitting approach for Black Sea -- their arrangements are fuller and they rock harder than ever before. Where Drums and Wires implied social commentary, Black Sea more directly addresses sociopolitical concerns, handling them not strictly in a theoretical sense, but rather showing a human response to the circumstances. Of course, the band's skewed outlook and mid-'60s pop sense keeps things from becoming too heavy -- included are some of their finest songs, like "Respectable Street,""Generals and Majors," and "Towers of London," as well as the thoroughly enjoyable pop fluff throwaway "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" to keep the mood light. All in all, there isn't a bad song in the bunch -- Black Sea is their most consistent album to date -- and although XTC always operated on the fringes, the album is their most commercial-sounding, fitting in perfectly with the new wave of the late '70s/early '80s. This 2001 remaster reissue adds three tracks -- "Smokeless Zone,""Don't Lose Your Temper," and "The Somnambulist" -- .



XTC - Black Sea ( 384mb)

01 Respectable Street 3:38
02 Generals And Majors 4:05
03 Living Through Another Cuba 4:44
04 Love At First Sight 3:08
05 Rocket From A Bottle 3:30
06 No Language In Our Lungs 4:53
07 Towers Of London 5:24
08 Paper And Iron (Notes And Coins) 4:17
09 Burning With Optimism's Flames 4:16
10 Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me) 3:57
11 Travels In Nihilon 7:04
12 Smokeless Zone 3:51
13 Don't Lose Your Temper 2:33
14 The Somnambulist 4:38

XTC - Black Sea (ogg  140mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

XTC took full advantage of their studio-bound status with The Big Express, creating their most painstakingly detailed, multi-layered, sonically dynamic album to date. The more upbeat material and brighter sound recall some of the band's earlier moments, but most of all, The Big Express signals a turning point for the band, setting the blueprint for their later approach -- a combination of studio perfection matched with impeccable songcraft that results in a thoroughly consistent and enjoyable album beginning to end. Skylarking, the album that followed, gets much more glory, and certainly its impact was greater (this one was virtually ignored), but really, The Big Express covers much of the same territory and is just as strong an album in many ways. [Three songs were added to the middle of the reissue -- "Red Brick Dream,""Washaway," and "Blue Overall" -- but they fit seamlessly into the complete picture.]



XTC - The Big Express ( 324mb)

01 Wake Up 4:40
02 All You Pretty Girls 3:40
03 Shake You Donkey Up 4:19
04 Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her 3:50
05 This World Over 5:37
06 The Everyday Story Of Smalltown 3:53
07 I Bought Myself A Liarbird 2:49
08 Reign Of Blows 3:27
09 You're The Wish You Are I Had 3:17
10 I Remember The Sun 3:10
11 Train Running Low On Soul Coal 5:19
12 Red Brick Dream 2:03
13 Wash Away 3:01
14 Blue Overall 4:33

XTC - The Big Express (ogg 130mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Working with producer Todd Rundgren didn't necessarily bring XTC a sense of sonic cohesion -- after all, every record since English Settlement followed its own interior logic -- but it did help the group sharpen its focus, making Skylarking its tightest record since Drums and Wires. Ironically, Skylarking had little to do with new wave and everything to do with the lush, post-psychedelic pop of the Beatles and Beach Boys. Combining the charming pastoral feel of Mummer with the classicist English pop of The Big Express, XTC expand their signature sound by enhancing their intelligently melodic pop with graceful, lyrical arrangements and sweeping, detailed instrumentation. Rundgren may have devised the sequencing, helping the record feel like a song cycle even if it doesn't play like one, but what really impresses is the consistency and depth of Andy Partridge's and Colin Moulding's songs. Each song is a small gem, marrying sweet, catchy melodies to decidedly adult lyrical themes, from celebrations of love ("Grass") and marriage ("Big Day") to skepticism about maturation ("Earn Enough for Us") and religion ("Dear God"). Moulding's songs complement Partridge's songs better than before, and each writer is at a melodic and lyrical peak, which Rundgren helps convey with his supple production. The result is a pop masterpiece -- an album that has great ambitions and fulfills them with ease. The initial release of Skylarking didn't feature "Dear God," which was originally the B-side of "Grass." After "Dear God" became an unexpected hit, "Mermaid Smile" was pulled from the album so the hit single could be added.



XTC - Skylarking ( 277mb)

01 Summer's Cauldron 3:19
02 Grass 3:05
03 The Meeting Place 3:14
04 That's Really Super, Supergirl 3:21
05 Ballet For A Rainy Day 2:50
06 1000 Umbrellas 3:44
07 Season Cycle 3:21
08 Earn Enough For Us 2:54
09 Big Day 3:32
10 Another Satellite 4:16
11 Mermaid Smiled 2:26
12 The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul 3:24
13 Dying 2:31
14 Sacrificial Bonfire 3:49
15 Dear God 3:39

XTC - Skylarking (ogg 114mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Hello, those were the days when a plain singer could become a star, i guess a few decades ago people weren't bombarded with imagery whilst radio ruled, specially in the socalled 2nd world (latin america). These days today's artist would have a tough time to become a global star, which she undoubtely was during the last 3 decades of the last century, but then she was a persona non grata to the Fidel regime which automatically showered her with recognition by the communist hating US and it's submissive allys, a cold war star if there ever was one.



Today's artist was one of Latin music's most respected vocalists. A ten-time Grammy nominee, who sang only in her native Spanish language, received a Smithsonian Lifetime Achievement award, a National Medal of the Arts, and honorary doctorates from Yale University and the University of Miami. A street in Miami was even renamed in her honor, and her trademark orange, red, and white polka dot dress and shoes have been placed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute of Technology. The Hollywood Wax Museum includes a statue of the Cuba-born songstress. According to the European Jazz Network, she "commands her realm with a down-to-earth dignity unmistakably vibrant in her wide smile and striking pose.".....N'Joy

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born on October 21, 1925 in the diverse, working-class neighborhood of Santos Suárez in Havana, Cuba, the second of four children. Her father, Simón Cruz, was a railroad stoker and her mother, Catalina Alfonso was a homemaker who took care of an extended family. Celia was one of the eldest among fourteen children- brothers, sisters, and many cousins- she often had to put the younger ones to bed by singing them to sleep. While growing up in Cuba's diverse 1930s musical climate, Cruz listened to many musicians who influenced her adult career, including Fernando Collazo, Abelardo Barroso, Pablo Quevedo and Arsenio Rodríguez. Despite her father's opposition and the fact that she was Catholic, as a child Cruz learned Santería songs from her neighbor who practiced Santería.

As a teenager, her aunt took her and her cousin to cabarets to sing, but her father encouraged her to attend school in the hope she would become a teacher. After high school she attended the Normal School for Teachers in Havana with the intent of becoming a literature teacher. At the time being a singer was not viewed as an entirely respectable career. However, one of her teachers told her that as an entertainer she could earn in one day what most Cuban teachers earned in a month. Cruz's big break came in 1950 when Myrta Silva, the singer with Cuba's Sonora Matancera, returned to her native Puerto Rico. Since they were in need of a new singer, the band decided to give the young Celia Cruz a chance. She auditioned in June, and at the end of July she was asked to join as lead singer.[10] She won the support of Sonora's band leader, Rogelio Martínez, and went on to record hits such as "Yembe Laroco" and "Caramelo". Soon her name was bigger than the band's. During her 15 years with Sonora Matancera, she appeared in cameos in some Mexican films such as Rincón criollo (1950), Una gallega en La Habana (1955) and Amorcito corazón (1961), toured all over Latin America, and became a regular at Havana's famous Tropicana nightspot.

After Fidel Castro assumed control of Cuba in 1959, when the Sonora Matancera left Cuba to perform in Mexico in June 1960, they did not return. Cruz and her husband, Pedro Knight, were prohibited from returning to their homeland and became citizens of the United States. In 1965, Cruz left the group and in 1966, Cruz and Tito Puente began an association that would lead to eight albums for Tico Records. The albums were not as successful as expected. However, Puente and Cruz later joined the Vaya Records label. There, she joined accomplished pianist Larry Harlow and was soon headlining a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. Cruz's 1974 album with Johnny Pacheco, Celia y Johnny, was very successful, and Cruz soon found herself in a group named the Fania All-Stars, which was an ensemble of salsa musicians from every orchestra signed by the Fania label (owner of Vaya Records).

In 1976, she participated in a documentary film Salsa about the Latin culture, along with figures like Dolores del Río and Willie Colón. She also made three albums with Willie Colon (1977, 1981, 1987). With a voice described as operatic, Cruz moved through high and low pitches with an ease that belied her age, and her style improvising rhymed lyrics added a distinctive flavor to salsa. Her flamboyant costume, which included various colored wigs, tight sequined dresses, and very high heels, became so famous that one of them was acquired by the Smithsonian institution. During the 1980s, Cruz began to garner the international recognition that was her due, she made many tours in Latin America and Europe, doing multiple concerts and television shows wherever she went, and singing both with younger stars and stars of her own era. She began a crossover of sorts, when she participated in the 1988 feature film Salsa alongside Robby Draco Rosa.

In 1990, Cruz won a Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Performance – Ray Barretto & Celia Cruz – Ritmo en el Corazón. She later recorded an anniversary album with Sonora Matancera. In the same year, she was recipient of the Excellence Award at the 1990 Lo Nuestro Awards. In 1992, she starred with Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas in the film The Mambo Kings. Cruz's popularity reached its highest level after she appeared in the The Mambo Kings. Cruz also appeared in the film The Perez Family. She sang a duet version of "Loco de Amor," with David Byrne, in the Jonathan Demme movie Something Wild.In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Cruz the National Medal of Arts. In the same year, she was inducted into Billboards Latin Music Hall of Fame along with fellow Cuban musician Cachao López. In 1999, Cruz was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.Cruz continued to record and perform until sidelined by a brain tumor in 2002. While recovering from surgery to remove the tumor, she managed to make it in to the studio in early 2003 to record Regalo de Alma. Her surgery was only partially successful and she died July 16, 2003. The passing of the "Queen of Salsa" left a huge gap in Latin music, but also a remarkable catalog to document her reign.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Although fans may have had high expectations for the first album recorded by Celia Cruz after she moved to one of the top labels in Latin music (Tico), Son con Guaguanco doesn't disappoint in the least. The record, produced by Al Santiago and featuring perhaps the best salsa band ever formed (the Alegre All Stars), positively sizzles with heat and energy. With tight arrangements, a crack group behind her, and no down-tempo material in sight, Cruz lets it all out, while the sections (brass, wind, percussion) follow her every move and inject more energy between the lines. Highlights include the opening "Bemba Colora," the title song, and "No Hay Manteca."



 Celia Cruz ‎- Son Con Guaguancó      (flac  213mb)

01 Bemba Colora 3:30
02 Son Con Guaguanco 2:45
03 Es La Humanidad 2:23
04 Lo Mismo Si, Que No 2:55
05 Oye Mi Consejo 2:45
06 Se Me Perdió La Cartera 2:30
07 Tremendo Guaguancó 3:07
08 Permíteme 2:30
09 No Hay Manteca 2:30
10 El Cohete 2:40
11 La Adivinanza 2:48
12 Amarra La Yegua 3:10

Celia Cruz ‎- Son Con Guaguancó   (ogg  94mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Being so used to Celia Super Star, it's hard to believe that by 1974, she was definitely the older generation as far as the young idea was concerned. Then came this record, pairing the star of the parents and the star of the kids in a stroke of musical brilliance and marketing genius. The rest is history, except that this -- the first of the series -- was also the best.



Celia Cruz - Celia (& Johnny Pacheco)    (flac  292mb)

01 Quimbara 4:55
02 Toro Mata 5:38
03 Vieja Luna 3:12
04 El Paso Del Mulo 4:40
05 Tengo El Idde 4:59
06 Lo Tuyo Es Mental 3:12
07 Canto A La Habana 5:30
08 No Mercedes 4:16
09 El Tumbao Y Celia 4:51
10 El Pregon Del Pascador 5:03

Celia Cruz - Celia (& Johnny Pacheco)  (ogg    127mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Just one year after their Celia & Johnny album produced the massive hit "Quimbara," Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco were back for Tremendo Caché. Nearly a ringer for its excellent predecessor, the album kicked off right with the heavily risque "Cucala," which Cruz pulled off with panache. The band is identical to that played on Celia & Johnny, with powerful arrangements coming from Pacheco, Bobby Valentín, and Pappo Lucca, among others. For those who feared a letdown from an album coming so soon after their first collaboration, Tremendo Caché was quite an achievement.



Celia Cruz - Tremendo Caché (with Johnny Pacheco)     (flac  230mb)

01 Cucala 3:48
02 Orizah Eh 4:15
03 Tres Dias De Carnaval 4:58
04 No Me Hables De Amor 3:19
05 Dime Si Llegue A Tiempo 3:49
06 La Sopa En Botella 5:08
07 De La Verdegue 3:00
08 Ni Hablar 3:11
09 Rico Changi 4:22
10 No Aguanto Mas 3:31

Celia Cruz - Tremendo Caché (with Johnny Pacheco)  (ogg  102mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Introducing is far from Celia Cruz's debut; it was originally released in 1978, well into the Cuban-born superstar's third decade as one of the biggest stars in salsa. Her first album for the Fania label after a long and fruitful association with Tito Puente on the Tico label, this album shows that Cruz was still at the top of her game even without Puente's input. A strictly traditional salsa record with no period-specific elements to court the mainstream audience (no attempts at disco crossover, in other words), Introducing contains some of Cruz's most beloved songs, including feisty versions of standards like "Bemba Colora" and "Cucala," along with charming lesser-known tunes like "Historia de Una Rumba." By this point in her career, Celia Cruz knew exactly what she was all about, and so Introducing contains none of the sometimes-misguided pop cover versions of her earlier years. The album so straightforwardly arranged and recorded that it could have been recorded at any point in her career.



Celia Cruz - Introducing... Celia Cruz    (flac  414mb)

01 Quimbara 4:49
02 Soy Antillana 6:12
03 A Santa Barbara 3:27
04 Yerbero Moderno 4:35
05 Ritmo Tambor Y Flores 5:27
06 Sabroso Son Cubano 2:50
07 Bemba Colora 3:23
08 Me Voy Contigo 5:55
09 Cucala 3:45
10 Cuando Tu Me Quieras 2:26
11 Besitos De Coco 4:25
12 Berimbau 5:10
13 El Tumbao Y Celia 4:51
14 Historia De Una Rumba 5:30
15 Bombora Quina 2:43
16 Aye Mi Cuba 4:53

Celia Cruz - Introducing... Celia Cruz  (ogg  177mb)

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx