title: The Queen of County

text: I have a great respect for this woman's talent. I forgot how much until I went back to the beginning.


title: Efficacy

text: This CD  provides relaxation and peace in a time of great anxiety.


title: Careful what you ask for... the description lies

text: I selected this seller because they were a Prime dealer and the photo was what i was looking for. However they shipped a different battery that never charged while in my XMP3 player and would never let the unit even turn on. Have already printed the label to return.


title: Old school country!

text: Alan stays true to his old school country roots. He’s getting to be a better singer/songwriter as he gets older.


title: Philly Girl loves Harold Melvin and Bluenotes

text: Play this CD in car while driving. Love all of the songs.


title: Simply a story about a man who drives to a ...

text: Simply a story about a man who drives to a river takes his clothes off n jumps in... this is remastered for vinyl n worthbthe privé of admission.


title: Four Stars

text: The monster DOES walk the winter lake.


title: One Star

text: was not hearable, full of static...should have gotten refund


title: Five Stars

text: great album


title: Empty CD Case

text: I received the Changbin jewel case and opened it to find literally nothing inside other than the cover booklet. No CD, no photocard, no stickers, and no photo badges. Very disappointed and reached out to the manufacturer for replacement, but received no response. What a waste of time and money.

attachment_type: IMAGE


title: Good

text: Love


title: Listen to Susan Boyle!

text: I love this CD  Susan is an amazing singer.


title: Great Album ‼‼‼

text: I like the songs  for entertainment!


title: Great product.

text:
The battery I received was the correct replacment for my GEX-XMP3 radio.
The price was a huge savings, compared with the 'Name Brand' version.
Great deal all around.


title: Heartfelt

text: The words are deep meditations on the heart of Christ and I experience a softening of my heart and an expansion of my mind concerning others.  Helps me surrender my judgements.


title: Uplifting

text: Very inspirational... brings me to a place of peace.  I use it as a prayer and find I am more open to God's grace for the day


title: Five Stars

text: I bought this to replace one I lost just like it, so I obviously love this beautiful bagpipe music.


title: Beatles for a new generation!

text: Beatles never disappoint, introducing them to my 7 year-old grandson who’s taking music lessons.


title: Greatest songwriter in the Band other than Brian

text: Classic !!


title: Music

text: Relaxing and full of good praise music


title: This is some great rockabilly, but I bought it for two songs ...

text: This is some great rockabilly,but I bought it for two songs only and they are Steamin' Fifty Three,and One Toothbrush,One Pillow .Phil does a good job on this CD ,but these two songs are in my opinion the best.


title: Great music

text: Loved the music and the teachings


title: Four Stars

text: I purchased this for a friend, I have not heard back


title: Five Stars

text: Perfect!


title: Dvorak's Symphonic Variations

text: The most exciting version of the Symphonic Variations I've ever heard. Wonderful.


title: Disappointing Brahms' 1/Tennstedt

text: What a disappointment. I expected far more from (early) Klaus Tennstedt, more drama, more excitement, just not another dull, well-played Brahms' 1, and not comparable with those you'd expect: Szell, Bernstein, Karajan...


title: Mendelssohn's Scottish

text: Unfortunately, a dull, uninspired version; broad tempi. There are so many terrific performances, forget this one. Save your money.


title: ... always trust Mancini to come thru and this is great.

text: You can most always trust Mancini to come thru and this is great.


title: More for film music fans than exotica fans

text:
I happen to be a collector of both film music and exotica so this compilation of Les Baxter (considered to be the initial pioneer into exotica) movie music is interesting.

Baxter composed a lot of film music, but mostly for B-pictures.  Few people in general will have seen any of the films represented here, let alone be familiar with any of the scores.  I imagine that, for most people, this will be the first time they have heard this music.  What will they find?

Many of the tracks are main titles and end titles taken straight from the films.  This is not necessarily the best representation of the music, as the titles may not encompass complete versions of the "main theme."  Some tracks have sound effects, some tracks quickly fade out (as the first scene of the movie begins, for example), and some tracks allude to themes that might be heard in a more satisfying form later in the movie.  Potential buyers who are used to John Williams compilations, for example, may be disappointed as most of the tracks on this Baxter album are not specially arranged, self-contained pieces.  They may whet your appetite to hear more of each soundtrack, perhaps, but most of these soundtracks are not available in complete form.

After a few listens, for me, 33% of this compilation is comprised of less captivating tracks with musical content that is on the bland side - not bad, but not too interesting without having some personal connection to the B-movie it was attached to.  It is possible that I could appreciate these more with more listens or if saw the movies they were written for.  Another 33% featured more interesting ideas that really makes me want to hear more of the complete soundtrack; for example "Macabre" and "Alakazam the Great."  A few of these pieces were self-contained and therefore sounded more complete.  The final 33% was mostly self-contained tracks that might be more familiar to Baxter fans because they are readily available in complete form, including tracks from "Goliath and the Barbarian", "The Sacred Idol" (the only true exotica music on this compilation), and "Master of the World."

The production can be applauded for even trying to put this compilation together.  It probably wasn't the best idea to include an 8:13 track from House of Usher.  Don't get me wrong, this is one of my favorite scores by Baxter, but this extra long bit of "background" scoring is out of place when only one other of the 32 tracks even cracks 4 minutes. It was also a sloppy mistake to have three tracks accidentally left off the back cover, even if they are listed in the booklet.  The "digitally remastered" notation may or may not be accurate, but be aware that some tracks reflect their 60 year old age.

I can recommend this compilation with the caveats listed above.


title: Inexpensive but Flawed

text:
A company called "Real Gone Jazz" released four volumes of Les Baxter music (32 complete albums) and the sound quality ranged from terrible to very good.  By terrible, I mean that some of the albums had skips and surface noise as you would find on a worn record.

This company, the "Documents" label, seems to be using many of the same sources, as the occasional static splotch or record skip occurs at the same exact moments on the same exact tracks.  At first glance, a one-to-one comparison between the "Real Gone Jazz" release and this "Documents" release  may give the sound edge to the "Documents" Milestone collection, as the recording is louder, and it gives the impression of being brighter and less compressed.  But this may be part illusion.  In many cases, if you just turn up the speaker volume on the "Real Gone Jazz" release, you would get sound close to the "Documents" release sold here.  Additionally, this release seems to accentuate flaws, and any defects in the source album are highlighted.  Finally, this release is too shrill in places, bringing out distortion in denser passages.

Note:  If you are mainly interested in Baxter's Africa/South America/etc. exotica sound, by all means find a copy of the out-of-print "Exotic Moods of Les Baxter" collection.  I's a sampler of many of Baxter's albums, but sound is very good and there are no obvious flaws like record skips.

The "Documents" Milestone collection pairs 2 complete albums on 10 CDs for a total of 20 albums.  Each CD is in a cardboard sleeve, and it is difficult to remove a CD without getting fingerprints on it.  The 10 sleeves fit in a cardboard box.  There is no documentation beyond a few paragraphs on the back of the cardboard box.

Sound varies, so see below:

CD1: The absolute classic "Ritual of the Savage"  has good sound overall, but the tracks "Quiet Village", "Coronation", and "Love Dance" have 1 or 2 minor defects each.  (These are the same exact glitches on the Real Gone Jazz set, but other productions have found sources without these flaws.)  These defects are typically a "micro-skip," like a quarter-second skip ahead.  They are noticeable if you know the music or are just paying attention, but they might slip by if it's just on in the background.  The other album is "Festival of the Gnomes."  It may be conducted by Baxter, but it is otherwise classical ballet-like music written by Prince Di Candriano.  Not what Baxter is known for, and my least favorite album in this collection.  Sound is mainly fair, but bright.

CD2:  "Thinking of You" is easy listening, though the arrangements are often creative.  The sound is good with no flawed tracks.  It is paired with "The Passions", an album that has to be heard to be believed.  Vocalist Bas Sheva sings, grunts, and screams thoughout.  The last track, "Joy", is worth the price of admission.  Sound is good, but can get too bright or shrill.

CD3:  "Kaleidoscope" is more easy listening than exotica.  Sound is generally OK to good.  Only "April in Portugal" had 2 minor defects, but some album dust is apparent now and again on other tracks, but nothing that would distract a typical listener.  The other album is "Caribbean Moonlight".  Defects, such as micro-skips, can be heard on "Taboo", "The Breeze and I", and "Nightingale".  No deal-breakers, just momentary irritations.  The record source seems obvious.

CD4:  "La Femme" is easy-listening composed by Baxter.  Relaxing enough to guide you to sleep.  The terrible, muddy sound on the Real Gone Jazz set is improved upon here to a fair sound, but this is achieved with the introduction of significant hiss.  Unfortunately, the other album "Round the World" (just as on the Real Gone Jazz set) is repeatedly mangled with micro-skips and record pops.  Only the last three tracks, I believe, come out unscathed.  This is the low point of the set.

CD 5:  "Skins" is a concept album.  It is entirely percussion music, mostly all of it composed by Baxter.  No melody, just ambiance, but that's OK.  Sound is pretty good except for a layer of hiss that might become more apparent at louder playing levels.  The album it is paired with, "Midnight on the Cliffs" is problematic.  Several tracks are marred with volume drops, moderate clunks from a scratch as a record spins around, record dust, and/or flat-out skips.  "Take My Love", "Unchained Melody", "Suddenly", and "When You're in Love" had significant problems.

CD6:  The first album is the famous "Space Escapade" with its futuristic exotica.  The recording is a bit bright, with an occasional shrillness in the violins.  "South Pacific" follows and is a step down.  There's more intrusive album noise including some buzzing on a few tracks, album dust, one track with a warble, and one sudden spitting static sound.

CD7:  The easy-listening "Love is a Fabulous Thing" starts out roughly, with an oscillation to the sound volume which might indicate a warped record source.  The first track is the worst and then it gets better over the next 3 tracks or so.  Otherwise, there is album dust sound and some distortion.  The fantastic "African Jazz" album is quite enjoyable, but you'll notice a buzzing distortion at times in louder and denser passages.  This is Baxter at his best.

CD8:  The first album is "Wild Guitars" and is made up of creative covers.  The sound is pretty good, except that distortion can be heard here and there - nothing serious, but a layer of buzz at times during denser passages.  The film score "Goliath and the Barbarians" follows.  The brightness helps at times, but again, there is just a bit of distortion that occurs every so often.  Not noticeable unless you're really listening.  This type of audio issue is certainly more preferable to the album dust and skips we were hearing earlier in the set.

CD9:  "Teen Drums" starts us off.  As you might expect, there is lots of percussion, but other instruments are featured throughout.  It may be the best sounding recording on the entire set.  It is paired with "Young Pops" which is definitely in the easy-listening category.  The record source is evident now and again, and there is some distortion.  The only flaw which might really bother you, though, is a glitch on "Summer Place" which sounds like a skip.  (Again, it's the same skip on the "Real Gone Jazz" release.)

CD10:  The delightful record "Jewels of the Sea" start off us, and this is a relaxing and melodic album.  The record source is obvious and there is hiss and a few light pops.  There's a sort of oscillating reverb that is more obvious on some tracks than others, but this might be part of the original concept.  The film score "Master of the World" ends the collection.  Sound is bright, but can get harsh and start to distort at times.  No flaws like skips, though.


title: 8 Baxter Albums on One Set!

text:
This bargain set boasts many discoveries.  The production of this set is rather basic (expected for the cost).  Do NOT believe the claim of "digitally remastered and enhanced for superior quality".  Details are listed below.  Your thoughts about the actual content of each album are probably different from mine, so I make no comment about the music itself.  Even so, this set will whet your appetite for other Baxter recordings.  You may find yourself hunting down better sources for your favorites on this set.

(1)  Goliath and the Barbarians:  composed by Les Baxter.  This is a very good film soundtrack.  The sound is fair.
(2)  Teen Drums:  composed mostly by Les Baxter.  Percussion with support instruments (sax, piano, guitar, etc.).  Sound ranges from good to very good.
(3)  Young Pops:  various composers.  EZ arrangements of popular songs at the time.  Sound is good.
(4)  Broadway '61:  various composers.  These are EZ arrangements of songs from four Broadway shows.  Sound ranges from fair to good.
(5)  Jewels of the Sea:  mostly composed by Les Baxter.  This is very good exotica.  Sound ranges from fair to good.
(6)  Master of the World:  composed by Les Baxter.  This is a film soundtrack.  Sound is fair.
(7)  Baxter's Best:  various composers.  This is in the EZ-listening mode.  This recording is full of skips and thus a failure.
(8)  Voice of the Xtabay:  mostly composed by Moises Vivanco and performed excellent by the vocalist Yma Sumac - famous for her incredible range.  This is good exotica.  Sound ranges from fair to good with about two obvious glitches.


title: Love Ed Sheeran

text: After seeing Ed Sheeran in concert I had to buy the CD and it did not disappoint. I keep playing it on repeat!


title: Five Stars

text: Prompt delivery and good merchandise!


title: Bee Gees

text: Awesome


title: Dean Hall Y'all!

text: Dean Hall's music is a fusion of blues and southern rock to which your senses are exposed to pure musical ecstasy. With his slashing guitar licks, striking vocal abilities and engaging personality look for Dean Hall to be another breakout artist from the Muzik Mafia family, as he is a complete, in your face powerhouse performer representing true American Music!


title: Beautiful C.D

text: Every songs on this C.D. I just love to worship the Lord while listening. God bless you.


title: Familiar, but a new message.

text: The songs sound remarkably like the originals, but with a new message.  Includes a wide variety of music styles that are familiar yet fun and new.


title: Powerful and Fun Rewrites

text: Apologetix does a great job of making their version sound like the original, but with a Christian message.  It even sounds phonetically similar.  Sometimes a friend will try to sing along thinking its the version they know.


title: Very Disappointing

text:
This was the first of two audio purchases that I made from the

Hynosis Network series.  I was very disappointed in the quality

of the recording and the quality of the material.

I am a Southerner with a mild accent; however, McNeal's deep southern accent was extremely distracting. I found her

technique lacking.  The cd excludes (IMO) effective

background sounds and music.

I would not recommend this product as an effective measure

for fine tuning test taking strategies.


title: Stoll is a must hear/see

text:
Stoll Vaughan is an up and coming songwriter/musician, who most recently opened the Spring/Summer Tour for John Fogerty and John Mellencamp.

Hold On Thru Sleep & Dreams is a great CD. Two of my favorites are Desire and Comin' To Me, although there isn't a song on there that I don't like.

Looking forward to future releases.


title: Feel like i have been shamed

text: There is no Sherri Huffman on this cd......its ocean sounds with a wind up mobile playing in the foreground.  Feel like i have been shamed


title: Wonderful!

text: My family loves this CD!  We are hymn-lovers and find these arrangements so lovely and tastefully written and performed.


title: A Must Have!

text: Cannot imagine making the trip without this cd. Met people along the way who just thought they were driving the road to Hana. Had a convoy going following us knowing we'd get them to something unforgettable. And this cd lead us there and Beyond!! A must have!!


title: Love George Strait

text: I love George Strait and was very excited to get this set.  It is wonderful, my only disappointment is that all the songs are not on the CD's, some are only on the DVD>


title: Five Stars

text: I had looked everywhere for this!!


title: Great product.

text: Great product.


title: The two B's, Buanne and Buble

text: One of my favorite cd's of all time.


title: Useful, Good and Ready to Use

text:
It is an excellent product, a good design, it measures the temperature properly, it has interesting modes, it can be switched between degrees centigrade and faraenheit.

The temperature measurement is ACCURATE corroborated with mercury thermometers, in addition the three screen colors help a lot to identify.


title: Just Beautiful!

text: I came across this by accident on Spotify and HAD to buy it.  Amazingly beautiful renditions of old melodies, whether you understand Armenian or not.  Stunningly beautiful.


title: Good deal

text: Listening pleasure


title: Beautiful music for the whole family!

text: Hide 'Em In Your Heart CDs are delightful, uplifting, scriptures put to music.  This is a way to help not only the youngest children, but parents and grandparents commit scriptures to memory.  I used these CDs with my children, with my grandchildren, and have purchased them as gifts for friends with young children as well.  Listen in the car, on your home CD player, any time that works!


title: Great

text: One of his best live CDs


title: Ole for Dr. Jean

text: My grandkids love the Dr. Jean CD's. This is the second one I have bought for them. They are only 22 months and love listening, singing and dancing to the music.


title: under rated artist.

text: very pleased with both products.


title: very nice product. it is so hard to find cds ...

text: very nice product. it is so hard to find cds by these artists thank you amazon and bacm records. hope they plan to do more.


title: Fun from beginning to end, all around the world!

text: This CD contains songs that each focus on a creature from a different part of the world. Each song is funny. My 3 children are not sure which song is their favorite. I often hear them selecting this CD to listen to. I have also caugth them humming or singing many of the songs while they are doing something else. Your kid's CD collection will not be complete without this one!


title: Good condition.

text: Because of all the bad reviews, I was hesitant to buy. However, it did arrive in good condition. Every thing listed was inside the album. I did not get the free gift though.


title: Definitely worth the purchase.

text: I have the normal SLA album as well but this version is worth the price and purchase over the original for the inclusion of the DVD's alone. I like the added tracks but the DVD's are what really made this the best album. The first disc is a recording of their comeback showcase for the album where they perform about 5 songs, get intervied on stage, and premiere the Boy in Luv music video. The second disc is the behind the scenes of the showcase. The poster is from the Just One Day music video shoot day.


title: No-nonsense Rock

text: This is just solid, no-nonsense rock. So much in music today is over-produced junk. Not this. One way to sum it up is to quote from the first track, "The Living Bubba." Confident vocals tell you to "wear a rubber and be careful who you screw."  And he isn't just talking about sex but all the ways people screw each other.


title: Five Stars

text: Awesome!


title: Five Stars

text: I had been looking for this record for years!


title: Good deal

text: As advertised and the mini came very quickly. Thank you!


title: Four Stars

text: Nice collection.


title: Came in great condition!

text:
Came packaged well (bubble wrapped). they also included some extra photocards which was really nice!

I've been a casual fan of Ateez for a while, mostly only listening to title tracks here and there. this album is the one that has made me a full on Atiny. Inception is the best title track they've ever had imo and this whole concept I just love it!

It's actually made me want to listen to their past b-sides and buy their other albums!


title: Five Stars

text: the record worked perfectly


title: its warped in a way where it skips in-between two ...

text: its warped in a way where it skips in-between two songs so two hear the next song I have to place the needle on it.


title: Really Bad

text: Sucked Big Time


title: Delivered  fast great cd.

text: Fast shipping from a long way aways..great price..


title: Not my usual Amazon experience....

text: Hmmmm......the music is fine.....typical Karunesh, but the selections are perhaps a bit obscure and not really worthy to be on a “Best of” CD. And then there was the atypical experience I had with Amazon concerning this CD. Due to some poor packing, the CD arrived with a cracked jewel case, and as it turned out upon playing, the CD also has a scratch or defect of some kind which affects playback. To be fair, Amazon did refund the entire purchase price and did not ask for the CD to be returned. One final thought....Amazon’s CD prices seem to be quite high, but then I haven’t purchased CDs for a long time. Maybe the prices are typical?


title: Good but not great

text: Not the best Mew album but it does get better with each listen. Will be fun to hear these songs live -- can't wait for the tour.


title: WOW

text:
First off, I am a huge fan of Gruff Rhys (solo records, stuff w/ SFA, and even his early JAMC-styled band, Ffa Coffi Pawb) and I know nothing about Boom Bip. When I heard about this LP, however, I thought it was brilliant.

The other reviewers have not mentioned that this is a CONCEPT ALBUM ABOUT CARMAKER JOHN DELOREAN. I cannot think of a more ridiculously awesome thing to make a concept album about, especially for dudes like me who: 1. grew up in the 80s 2. love cars 3. used to think the DeLorean was the pinnacle of cool cars during our childhood 4. love Back To The Future and so on.

I will agree with the other reviewers who say that the 3 hip-hop style tracks are totally out of place. Then again, I am not really a big fan of hip-hop. Regardless of that, the other tracks definitely garner this album five stars. The "Alderaan" song is possibly the most authenticly 80s-sounding non-80s song ever written - even more so than that M83 record that came out this year.

GET INTO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


title: great value! exactly as advertised

text: great value!  exactly as advertised. many thanks.....


title: Find the CD with 12 songs, NOT 11!

text:
Great music from a fresh voice! Enjoyed most of the CD, which is hard to say these days about a lot of the stuff that comes out.

NOTE: I returned the CD because it wasn't the version that came with "Bass Down Low," make sure you get the CD with all 12 songs! Don't know why but some people are selling an 11 song version.


title: false advertising

text: This CD is not an actual soundtrack of the film. There are none of the Thomas Newman pieces that actually made this soundtrack special.


title: Five Stars

text: love the crafting of this one. might buy more just for that alone.


title: Five Stars

text: My wife loves this so much and she loves the cause behind it too


title: I thought it was super rare, but now I hold one in my ...

text: I remeber when this CD came out so many years ago. I thought it was super rare, but now I hold one in my possession & that's all that matters.


title: Fantastic album.

text: I enjoyed this newer collection of songs from Sandra.


title: Timeless Music

text: Rundgren's music is still great 40 years later.


title: A great CD for the Jazz lover

text: There are actually 2 albums on this CD which is not clear in all the descriptions.  This is worth you time and money.


title: Five Stars

text: Love it


title: Five Stars

text: Great shape, sounds fantastic!


title: CRB

text: This needs to have some type of description or tracklist. This does not look like an official release. If I had to guess, this is a copy of a live show, but who knows?!


title: Love; Forever Changes

text: This lp had no hit singles and if your unfamiliar with it, it is a strange sounding album at first listen. But after some repeated listens I found myself liking it more and more. It is very hard to catorigize. Not quite rock, not quite soul, not folk, yet it has all these elements within it. Although you can tell this lp was recorded in the late 60s, it has a timeless quality to it that makes it very revelent today. I would re3commend this album to anyone. My only advice would be to make sure you listen to it quite a few times. It has a strange hypnotic quality that grabs after repeated spins


title: ROLLING STONES CD

text: WHAT CAN I SAY ABOUT THE ROLING STONES THAT IS NEGATIVE? NOTHING BUT GOOD LISTENING ON THIS CD. WE HAVE ALMOST ALL OF THEIR CD'S AND THIS ONE ALONG WITH THEIR OTHERS IS A MUST FOR A MUSIC COLLECTOR. HAD TO HAVE IT TO COMPLETE OUR COLLECTION.


title: Not As Strong as I was Hoping For

text: I really dig the Demolition Doll Rods and their crazy materialistic Detroit rock. This is one of Margaret Doll Rod's solo albums. Margaret was the lead singer of the Demolition Doll Rods. She's still as fiery as ever and there is a nice selection of songs, but my one real complaint with the album is her attempt at the one man band shtick. The one man band is a hard show to pull off, and Margaret just ins't there yet. The drums seem off beat or at best, they seem like they are frantically trying to find the beat. It's not horrible, but I only listened to it for about a week before shelving it. I haven't pulled it out since. I do like that it's available on vinyl and CD. It's in the same vain as the Doll Rods, and if you're a Doll Rods fan, then you should check it out and decide for yourself. She is talented, and the music does have its interesting moments. I just think you should be fair warned that it comes off like a lower level Doll Rod's album.


title: Cool B-Sides Collection

text: This is a very cool LP set. It doesn't seem to have a record company attached to it, so I'm not really sure where it comes from. Thus, you should probably pick it up before it is no longer available. You'll get two LPs (one purple marbled vinyl and one on grey marbled vinyl). The first three sides of this set all deal with Queen's of the Stone Age b-sides primarily from their last three albums: Songs for the Deaf, Lullabies to Paralyze, and Era Vulgaris. A lot of the b-sides are very cool covers including Elliott Smith's "Christian Brother," Billy Idol's "White Wedding," Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy," and ZZ Top's "Precious and Grace," with Billy Gibbons sitting in on the sessions. I was really excited to find "Precious and Grace" because until now, I was only able to find it on the Lullabies to Paralyze imported vinyl which is pretty costly. The last side of this album deals with remixes. I'm not a big fan of remixes in general, but there are well done and pretty interesting. With that being said, I have listened to the first three sides of this album a ton and only listened to side four a handful of times. If you're a Queens of the Stone Age fan, you'll want this compilation. You'll want to move quickly too before they are no longer available.


title: Awesome

text: This EP (I call it an EP because it's only three songs) was a Record Store Day special release for 2012. If you like Jeff the Brotherhood or just good hard driving guitar rock, then you need this EP, and since it's an RSD release, you need to buy it soon before the price skyrockets to unreasonable. This is a 12 inch, 45 RPM, vinyl EP. There are three songs: "I'm a Freak," "In Space No One Can Hear You Scream," and a cover of Hawkwind's "Master of the Universe." "In Space No One Can Hear You Scream" is broken into two sections with one appearing on side one of the LP and the other appearing on side 2. This is done pretty well, but I do wish they had just put it all on one side. That's my only complaint (Well, that's not entirely true. I wish they issued a download card with the LP, but I'm willing to overlook that). The Hawkwind cover is awesome. Hawkwind is not an easy band to cover, but Jeff the Brotherhood does it justice and puts a heavy spin on it. This band is destined to become a favorite with all hard rocking guitar lovers. You have no idea what you're in for with this album. Just buy it now.


title: A Band You'll Want to Know

text: Fierce Creatures is the best indie band you've never heard of. They sound somewhat similar to The Arcade Fire, but they have a bit of a mellower sound. It has been a long time since an indie album has pulled me in and commanded so many listens from me. Each song on this EP stands alone and is amazing to take in. All instrimintation is top notch and right on the mark. At times, the guitar has a surf quality to it that adds a whole new layer to the song. The keyboards are used mastefully in the music which is difficult to do with keyboards in rock music. What I'm not doing a good job of saying is that the music is layered and full. There are two vocalist (one male and one female) who work well together and off of each other. Both vocalist have great voices that can be full like a group sing along or frail and haunting. By far one of my favorite elements of the band is their use of everything at their disposal. Songs are full of foot stomps, hand claps, and sing alongs. If you are looking for the next big indie band, you need look no farther. I would also encourage you to look at their website and buy their digital downloads.


title: Five Stars

text: great album!


title: Perfect

text: Exactly what I expected!


title: Good performance and sound quality

text: This little release has quite respectable performances and especially balanced and spatial sound. Recorded at St. Luke's at Windermere in Orlando, FL.


title: For Passionate Piano Music Lovers

text: Excellent music to relax by. No words to get in the way of your thinking wen you are working on problems that others have created.


title: Ave Maria - 3 CD Set

text: Ave Maria is just one of the songs and, though not my favorite, is very well done. There are plenty of absolutely great selections on this set of CDs and it is well done both musically and technically.


title: Okay

text: I bought this album after hearing the song Carcel and loved it because it is such a great awesome song, but the rest of the album is just okay too mellow, I guess I need to hear it more to like them better?


title: Spanish rock at its best!

text: I first was introduced to this band on youtube a few weeks ago when I was watching Panda videos. I saw their video for the song Sognare and was immediately hooked so I bought their album and fell in love with them. Then I had to buy their second album and now they are one of my favorite bands! Their albums are so good every song is likable and good I highly recommend them.


title: Five Stars

text: Really happy with my purchase! Thank you♡


title: Fast shipping! Great product!

text: Everything came in great shape! And faster than expected! Thank you:) I thought at first it didn’t have the PC Card but it was in the cd booklet! Safely packaged!


title: YA YA YA YA YA!!!!!!!!!!!

text: Dis CD is double the wickedness!!!!!! I love singin along with the songs. I think it's wierd though how the kidz bop kidz sound like 40 year old men. Wicked wierd!!!!! They should put a parental advisory sticker on this though, because those songs are nasty!!!!!! By this sucka cheif!!!!


title: A Door Opens

text:
One of the great things about Converge is that they bring together all the elements of hardcore over the past twenty-five years into one distinct sound.  If you listen close enough, you can hear the past, present, and possibly the future of hardcore in most of their recordings.

The golden age of hardcore (`80 - `85) is represented at various places, usually only a section of a song or the guitar sound.  Many consider the crossover/ thrash scene (`85 - `90) to be the dominating sound and it certainly does play a large role in their earlier records.  Underground grindcore/ death metal (`90 - `94) is also present, but only appears at the peak of their songs. Finally, there is also the post-hardcore sound of the `90's which emphasized eclectic experimentation which really comes through on "When Forever Comes Crashing."

It almost seems like a tradition for Converge to coming out swinging on the first track (until "You Fail Me" came along), which is exactly what they do here.  "The Unsaid Everything" comes at you like an army of tanks with all their artillery blazing and the onslaught doesn't let up until the beginning of "In Harms Way," which turns from a dark, pretty song into a horrifying, warped industrial style noisefest.

"Conduit" once again brings together all facets of hardcore and is regarded as one of Converge's finest pieces by many.  One of their first attempts at Godflesh influenced sludge metal follows and you can understand why they kept playing with the style by the results they achieved.  Then, they release some the most unconventional, yet effective bombs this arsenal of an album has, "Towing Jehovah" and the title track.

Their next experiment with a pure emo sound comes along which turned out to be a sound they wisely wouldn't use again.  From there on the album quickly redeems itself with hellish abandon that could only come from Converge.

"When Forever Comes Crashing" has multiple personalities that don't really have a cohesive flow throughout the album.  However, they would open the door for more experimentation in their sound which would pay off big time on their next full length album.  Also, they would learn how to put all together all their new found styles into a perfect flow over the course of the album.  Converge took a risk on this album that paid off tenfold and would end up breathing new life into a genre many had dismissed many years ago.


title: Amazing band, great cd.

text: Great band, great music. Great price for cd.


title: Awesome cd from an awesome band

text: I love that this cd actually came from the band,like the singers name is on the package...so dope


title: Excellent album ladies and gentlemen

text: Lounge against the machine,is the real thing....a booze influenced jazz/joke album that cover the greatest rock showtunes of the new rock era....except for the linkin park song...but is a great cover anyway ...Richard Cheese has a really cool sense of humor....you must heard Insane in The Brain or chop suey ...with this dude...I like his Las Vegas casino drunkie style....it reminds me a 50's Gimme Gimme environment...also try to get his other albums....really funny names and funny covers....just like...Good Evening Nasty {beastie boys' Hello Nasty)Straight Outta Vegas(N.W.A.'s,straight outta compton)and Daiquiri of a Mad Man(Ozzy's Diary of a Mad Man)....and many more....buy it eh don't be shy eh!


title: I feel like a little school girl

text: Great album I'm glad I purchased it. And it came a little earlier than I expected way to go Amazon.


title: Greatest album by Frank

text: I bought a used mono copy of the classic from the 60s. Played great and worth buying for every audiophile


title: you might not get what you ordered

text: Ordered dookie, instead got Californication by the red hot chili peppers, in a dookie case. +1 star because californication is a good album too so i cant be too mad


title: Case came in cracked and with a broken hinge.

text: Ive ordered 4 cd’s off amazon and 2 of them have come with case defects and this one was awful, Shattered across the back and had a broken hinge, rendering the entire case useless unless closed.


title: Very happy!

text: Very happy with the CD. I had the cassette when i was younger, and new car doesnt have cassette player, so i needed the CD! It plays good, no scratches. It came sealed, brand new.


title: Great

text: Good


title: Great Success!

text: Mo0s1c igd goob


title: Reznor's new band delivers

text:
At the start of the year Trent Reznor promised fans via Nine Inch Nails official website that although NIN was done touring for the time being, he would be back soon, with new music from NIN as well as some other projects. Over the first several months of 2010 fans were teased by pictures and videos over at the NIN official website--pictures and video clips of Trent and his wife Mariqueen Maandig working on something. Then, this past spring the project was finally revealed to be a new band, How to Destroy Angels, named after a Coil EP, featuring Reznor, Maandig and NIN programmer Atticus Ross.  A full length video for the song "A Drowning" was soon released and shortly thereafter an entire EP was available for free online.

Rather than sounding just like Nine Inch Nails but with a woman singing, HTDA is an altogether different entity.  How to Destroy Angels has Reznor's signature written all over it, yet it sounds distinct from Nine Inch Nails. While NIN could be loosely described as "industrial rock" (although that description is woefully superficial and inadequate) How to Destroy Angels is less rocking, more laid back, more danceable. In short, the music on this EP lends itself more to a spin at a club as opposed to a rock concert. This is not at all a bad thing, as it only goes to show how versatile of an artist Reznor really is. Maandig, formerly of the band West Indian Girl,  proves to be a fine singer. Her voice doesn't have much inflection, yet it doesn't sound exactly monotone either, and lends itself to the Massive Attack/ Portishead styling of the music nicely.

The EP starts out with "The Space in Between," a rather downbeat, catchy, spacey opening that's quite captivating. The offbeat "Parasite," with its white noise and effects sounds a bit like "Year Zero" era (2007) NIN. The very danceable," almost Luscious Jackson sounding  "Fur Lined" is probably the catchiest song on the EP and could easily be successful on an alternative rock station or make it as a cross-over hit.  The hypnotic "BBB" (Big Black Boots) is really offbeat, and like "Parasite" sounds a bit like "Year Zero" NIN. This one took me a few listens to really appreciate, but it's definitely a grower. "The Believers" is the hardest song on the EP to describe. Listing to it, I feel as though I am taking a journey though an Amazonian forest. Like some of the other songs there are traces of "Year Zero" here as well as World-Beats. The EP's finale, "A Drowning" is excellent. It's a melancholy, epic closer in the vein of "Hurt," "Right Where it Belongs" and "Zero-Sum."

Is Trent Reznor capable of making bad music? 20 years of great album after album seems to suggest that the answer is a definitive no. If this EP is just a taste of what HTDA has in store for their full length album, it will definitely be something to look forward to next year.


title: The earthiest, rawest, most spontaneous album Reznor has released

text:
4.5 Stars

For the first fifteen years of NIN's inception, fans would have to wait patiently, five or six years to hear new music. It was just a fact of life that it took forever for Trent Reznor to record and release a new album...in the past few years; however, the opposite is now true.

Including Saul William's "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!" (which Reznor helped write and produce) and "Year Zero Remixed," (both 2007) Nine Inch Nails new album "The Slip" (2008) is the sixth album Trent Reznor has released in the past three years. Sobriety and (as of last year) being free of a major label have certainly been agreeable to Mr. Reznor.

"The Slip" (Halo 27) is not what one might have expected after the grand, dysphoric "Year Zero" with its' Public Enemy beats and songs concerning what a hell the United States will look like in 15 years. "The Slip," by contrast is probably the earthiest, rawest, most spontaneous album Reznor has released. Since only a few weeks were spent writing and a few more spent recording this album, one can see why. Luckily, however, the album manages not to sound rushed or sloppy. It seems that Reznor got the ball rolling, went with it, and didn't over think anything. Guitarist Robin Finck, keyboardist Alessandro Cortini and drummer Josh Freese also made contributions to the album.

Unlike "Year Zero," no time is spent contemplating the state of the world. This probably works for the best, as two albums in a short period of time concerning how bad things could get in the U.S. might be overkill. Rather, like most NIN albums, "The Slip" is personally reflective--although at 43, Reznor's lyrics seem to be a little more refined.

As the album begins, one is lured into a false sense of calmness with the short, low-key opening "999,999" before being thrust into the pounding "1,000,000." Noisy, loud and intense, this track makes for an ideal opener. The momentum doesn't let up with the equally forceful "Letting You," whose sort of peculiar, off-key chorus is where its strength lies.

"Discipline," the album's first single, might at first seem like a rehash of "The Hand that Feeds" (from "With Teeth") but after a few listens it is clear that this song is superior. The groove here is just undeniable. "I need your discipline, I need your help...you know once I start I cannot help myself" Reznor proclaims, possibly fearful that he might one day fall off the wagon--or otherwise lose control.

The almost claustrophobic "Echoplex," another outstanding song, has a sort of hypnotic feel. Laid-back, this song kind of grabs hold of you without you even noticing. The somewhat disparaging "Head Down" is a little reminiscent of the bizarre (yet awesome) "Vessel" from "Year Zero." The melodic chorus kind of comes as a surprise.

Maybe one of Reznor's most heart-felt songs, "Lights in the Sky" is the album's strongest gem. Stripped down, this piano composition is deeply melancholy--although Reznor isn't bemoaning himself--rather this song seems to be directed at someone whom he cares deeply about, stating:

Watching you drown
I'll follow you down
And I am here right beside you
The lights in the sky
Have finally arrived
I am staying right beside you

The rest of the album is mostly all instrumental work. Following "Lights in the Sky" we are led to "Corona Radiata." Over seven minutes in length and minimalistic, one might think it would get a bit monotonous--but it never does, staying intriguing until the very end. The subtle, haunting guitar work leaves a lasting impression. A little noisier and a little more intense "The Four of us are Dying" is no less memorable.

Reznor seems to say that he's about to lose it in the hectic closing "Demon Seed." This one may take a few listens to really get into--but it's definitely very cool and a good way to conclude the album.

The accompanying DVD featuring the band rehearsing "1,000,000," "Letting You," "Discipline," "Echoplex" and "Head Down" is very cool and will definitely be of interest to fans of the album.


title: A soundtrack for daydreams

text:
Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, infamous for long delays between albums, sure has been productive lately. 2007 saw Reznor release the critically acclaimed "Year Zero" and its' follow-up "Year Zero Remixed." In addition, last year Reznor produced Saul Williams' "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust." Now, out of nowhere, with no advance notice, Reznor is back with NIN's sixth album, the instrumental "Ghosts I-IV."

"A soundtrack for daydreams," is how Reznor sums up the new album...and that, I feel, is the best way to appreciate the new NIN. Rather than listening to this album as background music while driving or doing housework, "Ghosts I-IV" is best appreciated with relaxed, yet concentrated listening. Lie in bed or on the sofa, relaxed, and immerse yourself with this CD. Just sort of daydream--meditate, think about whatever...and let "Ghosts I-IV" be the soundtrack...

And as the mood of the album changes, allow your mood to flow with the album...try to get lost in the music.

Some have commented that "Ghosts I-IV" sounds similar in style to the instrumental music from "The Fragile," (1999) but I don't know if it's all that accurate to say that. While the instrumental music from "the Fragile" sort of held the vocal compositions from that CD together like glue, "Ghosts I-IV" is a little more "out there." It can, therefore, be seen as a mosaic--of several different styles--piano compositions, industrial beats, the avant-garde--all mixed together, with no real dominant flavor overpowering the rest. And while the album is all-over-the-place, treading many territories, everything works; "Ghosts I-IV" takes so many twists-and-turns-its always interesting. At the same time, with almost two hours of music to absorb, "Ghosts I-IV" is best appreciated with repeated listens--to fully appreciate all its' rich textures and intricacy.


title: A great compilation for hard-core Beatle fans

text:
The mid 90s saw the Beatles release a trilogy of anthology albums, containing demos, out-takes, live performances and "new songs."

Whether or not the anthology series is recommended depends on where you are coming from. If you are a casual fan and/or just own a few Beatle albums, you are better off completing your collection before you pick up these three compilations. That said, if you already own all thirteen studio albums, as well as the two "Past Master" (1988) collections, the anthology series is definitely the next step.

"Anthology 2" (1996) opens up with "Real Love," a demo that John Lennon recorded sometime in the late 70s. At the time of the compiling of the material to be used for the three anthologies, Ringo, Paul and George then added music.  While the consensus seems to be that "Real Love" and "Free as a Bird" (from 1995's "Anthology One") are not up to par with vintage Beatles, I would have to disagree, at least with the general opinion of "Real Love." In a word, "Real Love" is phenomenal. Lennon's voice sounds at a distance, almost as though he were singing through the grave. Lennon's haunting vocals over the beautifully written song and orchestration are mesmerizing. The song demonstrates Lennon's pop-craft mastery, showing that he was every bit as gifted as McCartney in this regard. Harrison's totally signature solo makes "Real Love" sound like vintage Beatles. All in all, "Real Love" is a truly underrated number. While I rate this compilation four stars, "Real Love" alone deserves six.

Another gem from "Anthology 2" is the outstanding Ringo number "If You've Got Trouble," (Lennon/McCartney) which was recorded for "Help!" but wound up being replaced by the good, but far inferior "Act Naturally."

The rest of "Anthology 2" focuses mainly on the Beatles mid-point era, circa "Rubber Soul" (1965) through "Magical Mystery Tour" (1967). The focus mainly concerns alterative versions and outtakes of well-known, classic songs. While the casual fan is definitely better off starting with the studio versions first, for long-time fans, especially those that have heard these songs for forty or so years, it's cool to hear these classics as works-in-progress. Even if the demos obviously aren't as good as the finished product, it's fascinating to hear the songs in their infancy. Some of these demos take a different path then what wound up as the finished product, like the sitar-led Norwegian Wood" or the sparse "Across the Universe."  As you hear the demos get more and more complex, starting with the "Revolver" (1966) sessions, it's like being behind the scenes, watching Bruce Banner turn into the Incredible Hulk. A couple of live songs from the Beatles final tour in 1966 are thrown in for good measure and make a rare treat.

In a nutshell, if you are just a causal fan, stick with collecting the Beatles studio albums first. If you already own all the Beatles studio albums, however, the anthology series is well worth checking out.


title: Lives up to its reputation as one of the best albums ever

text:
Love's "Forever Changes" was an album that I had often read or heard about, but never listened to. Because of the hype and mystique surrounding the album, I decided to give it a try. After owning this CD for several months, all I can say is, "Forever Changes" really does live up to its' reputation as being one of the finest rock albums ever recorded. In terms of originality, song-writing, production, craft, and delivery, "Forever Changes" is easily as good as "Sgt. Pepper" or "Revolver." And although I liked this album instantly, it just gets better and better with repeated plays. Once everything sinks in and one fully grasps the complexity of the songs and their arrangements, one fully appreciates this album in all its glory.

Because Love was from L.A. and the band was an infuluece/rival of the Doors, I was expecting Love to sound something like The Doors. But this was not the case. Love's music actually encompassed several styles, so it would be hard to pigeonhole the band. They were a rock band, but their music also incorporated elements of folk, jazz, even classical.

You know how it is with a lot of albums; There are three or four good songs, a few okay ones, and a then some filler. But then there are those albums where every song is as good as the last, where the album is sort of like a best-of all by itself -- Like Nirvana's "Nevermind," Guns N' Roses "Appetite For Destruction," or the Beatles "Abby Road." Every song on "Forever Changes" is a highlight--every song is beautifully written and is a work of art.

The sound of the album is best described as folk-rock tinged with orchestration. But the music is never bogged down by the orchestration, like the Beatles "The Long and Winding Road." The orchestration is actually as light as a feather and serves to enhance everything and works in perfect synchronicity with the songs.

In the liner notes of the CD, Andrew Sandoval describes "Forever Changes" to be in a sense "the ultimate soundtrack to L.A.: the mariachi horns of the melting pot; the sirens and the accidents; the sweet strings and dissonant guitars. Arthur Lee and Love captured it all in a musical postcard." Love captured L.A. in the summer of love, warts and all, it was cynical and despairing, but also beautiful and majestic--and "Forever Changes" captures it all.

Arthur Lee is definitely one of, if not the most underrated songwriter of all-time. The first incarnation of Love was also the best. Arthur Lee and guitarist/songwriter Bryan MacLean had an incredible chemistry that sadly only lasted three albums.

If you're a fan of classic rock or are building a rock collection and want every classic recording, "Forever Changes" is a must have. It is simply that good and deserves to be heard.


title: songs

text:
Olivia Newton John, let me be there
The Edgar Winter group, Free ride
Al Wilson Show and tell

many many more...

22 Original Stars
22 Original Artists


title: Merykufktul

text: thumbs up


title: Just what I expected! No surprises.

text: Just what I expected! No surprises.


title: Love the vinyl but the copy I received has someone’s ...

text: Love the vinyl but the copy I received has someone’s name written right in the middle of the album cover, incredibly disappointing, especially for the nondisclosure.


title: AWESOME!!

text: The  CD came quickly and was in excellent condition


title: Five Stars

text: Played it loud for the neighbors to enjoy


title: Five Stars

text: I absolutely love this CD!


title: Three Stars

text: KINDA STUPID!!!!!!


title: Great compilation has that Westcoast g funk all over it ...

text: Great compilation has that Westcoast g funk all over it great guests and artist.cd is hard to find I ordered it off a website forgot which one.i believe it's an overseas release cost me like $30 but we'll worth it


title: Colored vinyls!

text: Love this album. Came in perfect condition and the vinyls are different colors!


title: Sounds great beautifuly recorded

text: I love the album


title: THE BEST IN PUNK

text:
THIS IS PLAINLY ONE OF THE BEST, if not THE BEST, PUNK ALBUM I HAVE EVER HEARD / THAT HAS BEEN EVER PRODUCED.  The style is completely raw.  And it doesn't matter, really, if you can speak the language, it transcends any language barrier.  The sounds are so key.  It makes teh Dead Kennedys sound like green day, or worse.  THIS IS TRUE RAW POWER OF BRUTAL, UNFLINCHING PUNK.

And yet, there are also some nice variables at work, there are acoustic guitars that are thrown into the mix, and an overt and superb sense of "pop" melodies... The vocal is what will catch you, it is a careening, terrifying and fearless howl that attacks from the perfectly rendered song structures.  Every song is catchy and yet the entirety of this work is an isolated mess.  This is what music should be about, and what the true essence of punk should sound like.


title: good. for the status quo.

text: Decent album... if you like Scotty's brand of black metal "Muzak." To be played at high volume in every elevator and shopping mall in hell.  Nocturnal Poisoning is the best work of Xasthur, also one that has not been duplicated in sound or style.  ALl his other albums are like this one, in essence.


title: Great album, horrid remastering, irrelevant bonus tracks

text:
Those pop culture curators and preservationists over at Rhino usually do a fantastic job of remastering and repackaging old classics for the new century (see, for example, the excellent reissues of The Stooges, Gram Parsons, The Cure, etc.).  Unfortunately, they completely and totally butchered the sound on this otherwise fantastic folk-psychedelic gem.

I am not an audiophile so forgive my non-technical description but basically they cranked up the bass which muddies and overwhelms the vocals, guitars, horns, and strings--essentially all other sounds.  Further diminishing the sound is their unnecessary separation of said instuments: you have the acoustic guitars isolated to, and hence, coming out of only the left speaker, the horns coming out the right one, etc.  This has the effect of providing neither good mono nor good stereo but some sort of crappy offspring of both.

Given the fact that the bonus tracks are ho-hum at best, you'd do best to seek out the now out-of-print original issue.  It's cheaper and the sound quality is better by some distance.  (I'll give the Rhino folks one mulligan or two, but please don't ever ruin one of my favorite albums like this again!)


title: An overlooked classic

text: Our family never got tired of hearing this. Singing style never too sweet or too harsh, and full of the energy characteristic of authentic folk music. The songs: work songs, canoeing songs were classics wonderful to hear and not at all hackneyed. I with someone would reissue this.


title: Finally have the CD

text: I've had the vinyl for years. Burnin' is one of my all time favorite tunes, and it's great to now have the CD.


Loving the frequencies of these Wholetone discs...everyone of them is soothing and beautiful!!!


title: SCB At their best!

text: Wish there were more bands like this these days. I miss this.


title: Drums Ahead of their time by a Master

text: This fusion of jazz and African drumming from the early '60's features top drumming and is eminently listenable.  Anyone open to jazz or African drum influences will love this album.  "World music" way ahead of its time, and decades before the concept emerged.


title: John Mann just gets better

text: Former  Tim Krekel co-hort John Mann steps out again with Little Corner, his best record to date, with songs that channel the Krekel mojo , (he even sounds like Tim in places).  Great record from a great artist!!


title: Five Stars

text: Outstanding quality.


title: Best Album Ever

text:
I bought this CD for something like $1 from a cut-out bin at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago.  My copy doesn't have a notch or a hole or anything in it to denote its surplus status but that's where I got it and how much I paid.  I don't even remember which songs on it interested me enough to want to take it home but it was cheap so I did.  In fact, I still haven't even *played* it.  It's just been sitting on a shelf in a spare bedroom all this time waiting for the day to arrive when I might rip and FLAC its WAVs and make some MP3s from it or something.  The song index looks good enough.  I really like the set of artists who contributed to it.  But what's so damned wonderful about this disc that causes it to sell around here *used* for $19.49 a pop?  Good grief!  I must be one of the luckiest guys alive to have gotten mine for the price I paid.

I especially like the propaganda printed on the back which says: 'By purchasing this album you will be contributing to forest conservation.'  Then again, this disc was released in 1995 so what else should I expect?

What's on the backside of the inner booklet is even better!  Right above a picture of Bambi it says 'In the time it takes to listen to this album, *four* more species will have become extinct.'  Let's do the math on that.  This CD plays for just under an hour.  That's 96 species per day x 3,650 days (season to taste)...  OMG!!!!!  What is happening to the planet?!!!!!  I must buy 40 more of these right now to do my part and help nuke all that destruction!!!!  Oh, but wait... Let's do the math on that.  $19.49 x 40 = OMG!!!!!  What is happening to my wallet?!!!!!

Maybe if I just save my money and continue not playing this CD all those animals won't die.

Gosh, I feel better already!


title: A song list

text:
1. Riding High
2. Organ Grinder
3. Hasty Heart
4. I've Got You On My Mind
5. Somebody Tell Me My Name
6. I Love You - long album version
7. Ashes Of Me]
8. She's A Dancer - Larry's recording
9. Crying Shoes
10. The Epic - The Rock Opera

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


title: Rubbery music full of beef and heart!

text:
"BUFFALO (Big Bottom Swing)" farted out of the Mushroom's speakers in New Orleans in 1985, all blubbery, burberry, Baby!  Being a huge fan of fun, lefty, bass-heavy music, I quickly acquired it's host EP, QUIRK OUT.  This crafty little disc contained odd rock, id-derived-ditties carved from a heartening Anglo/Gaelic unrest all blasted with rock power trio finesse and insouciant surrealism...HOW DARE THEY (but god bless 'em!).  The 1980s were plagued by increasing crass commercialism and a robotic sameness from the music industry, yet despite the overwhelming pressure to CONFORM, Stump careened hearteningly out of the London scene with fantastic chops bending ideas and song structure to the breaking point.  They were like a British Beefheart or Pere Ubu:  weird like the Residents yet brimming with mad virtuosity and a giddy playfulness.
  I cherished those 5 songs on QUIRK OUT for the next couple of years until MTV did the unthinkable:  the Stump song CHAOS made a modest rotation in their video line-up.  Not only had Stump landed their bounding, Gumby-like and beautifully insane music on the American air-waves:  they created an amazing video that perfectly fit the anarchic weirdness of their music.  Bubbling fretless bass buoyed fluttery, arpeggiated guitar lines while bodhran and tight trap percussion danced around strategically placed creaks and moans of shipping samples.  Stump brought listeners (and viewers) aboard their bouncy Bounty!  The video featured the pirate-costumed band playing their instruments like kids playing on a colorful and cheesy ship set and court-martial diorama that was more than cartoon-like, befitting this unbridled music.  The video credits titled the LP:  A FIERCE PANCAKE...where can I get this?
  I soon returned from the Mushroom record store eagerly cuing this delicious vinyl slab of Dada rock; and what spewed in goofy spurts from my speakers was music that was nothing short of art rock genius.  The musicianship of AFP attains exceedingly high levels.  Kev Hopper's popping and gooey fretless bass lines burble like Percy Jones (Brand X) through cartoon speakers (Hopper also deploys amazingly colorful samples throughout AFP).  The skittery twang jangled by guitarist Chris Salmon simply astounds:  no barre-chord college-quad-strummer here.  The guitar work rivals anything out there and Salmon's ability to continually reinvent, employing varied  techniques writes each song anew. Percussionist Rob MacKay finds every rhythm but the 4/4 heartbeat of pop music to drive these effervescent songs.  And it must be told that the song-writing is amazingly diverse and strong on AFP.  Each track is a wonderment of artful invention and an uncanny ability to deliver catchy , sing-along-able tunage:  BLUBBERY-BURBERRY, BABY, indeed!  Mick Lynch then comes from somewhere left of Dublin to scat, howl and croon like some golden-throated buffoon about the delights of fish-n-chips, Charlton Heston and his beautiful, boggy home.  His powerful yet infinitely bendy tenor resounds joyously and smirkingly, delivering lyrics sounding closer to Dr. Seuss than to pop music:  "Chaos said the captain/ we must vindicate this venom/ eradicate the rubber duck/ squeeze the life out of something soft!"  BRING ON THE JONAH!  This music must be heard to be believed.  If you dig on Captain Beefheart, Primus, Zappa, Pere Ubu, early Talking Heads, Adrian Belew, Minutemen or any proficiently executed music that takes itself the opposite of seriously, then STUMP's "A Fierce Pancake" will be for you.  By the way, get the new COMPLETE ANTHOLOGY, have all that STUMPy goodness in one place and don't even ask:  HOW MUCH IS THE CHIPS?  HOW MUCH IS THE FISH? (OK, ask away!) ...just get it now.  You'll be glad you did.

R.I.P. Mick Lynch - Singing with STUMP seems as if James Joyce scored the soundtrack for a Monty Python sketch...


title: Ate it up and burped an epiphany

text:
Brown Whörnet is/was a band trumpeting loudly & lewdly from one of the last bastions of creativity, virtuosity and free-thought in "the live music capital of the world" (ie. Austin TX).  Stingy Bunion & the Whornets would round-up a half-dozen or more players for each CD or live performance and unleash sonic mayhem with intellectually retarded fury before mostly unsuspecting 6th Streeters who would seek only to shake their hips will sucking on Lone Star lights.  Much like their perverted uncles in the Butthole Surfers, BW crank their amps to 11 and with spastic punk ferocity cleave mind-gasms of post-rock
inanities that somehow also simultaneously sound musically like the idiot bastard sons of FZ, as well.  Where the Whornets differ from the BHS can be heard in extended workouts of fusion-like, technical heady prog-jams.  No small wonder: keyboardist Peter Stopchinsky also performs with Graham Reynolds in more refined jazz & big band projects.  Such lofty musicality didn't prevent The Whörnets from embellishing live performances with obtuse on-stage antics & costumery; one New Year's Eve event featured a 2nd set where-in BW dressed as technicolor 1970s disco-heads replete with platform shoes & afros, who then blasted proto-punk versions of Earth Wind & Fire.  Such was the live & unpredictable sweetness of a Brown Whörnet concert. This Hamburger disc opens with a rock-n-roll grinder in "The Working Song".  Taking a Coryell-esque extreme guitar riffage approach, then thrashing out the amp's sound for the kids wishing to bang some head.  The Whörnets send this high-octane instrumentation over the top with the group chanting against
WORK, stating emphatically:  J-O-B = MISERY! Indeed.  ICE KNIFE and NIGHT CRISIS among others receive similar blistering performances, replete with horny horn embellishment, the oddest samples and Casio keyboard ridiculossity.  Then our dear Whörneteers ratchet up the knobs on their Weird-o Boxes and deliver such head-doinkers as "Arsenio's Fat Black Ass '98", "Danse Raja" & "Festival of our Mind". These last 2 follow each other on the CD and cleave the vox of a retarded Jim Morrison to the CHEEPEST keyboards that first on "Danse Raja" tweek out pseudo-middle-eastern dervishes declaiming a land of pleasure inside one's pantaloons.  Then, the Idiot Morrison both finds & loses himself
amidst truly odd sampling on the highway of lunacy in "Festival of Our Minds" as his pantaloons need a seeing-eye monkey to assist with this misfit jig.  One can compare their ever-shifting sonic landscape to Mr. Bungle or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum due to a punk/metal edge to the guitar work.  But such analogies do Brown Whörnet some dis-service, as they pre-date SGM and were creating their brand of artful noise duriNG the same time-frame as Mr. Bungle. The delicious difference being that BW delivered big bang bucks in the humor department, as the true bastard sons of Frank Zappa.  Other highly recommended recordings by this crack band of retarded, guerrilla musician-provocateurs include Valamaranaro, Emena Pestisode, and Stroke the Ape-child; each disc a cache of giddy, highly muscial proficiency coupled with drooling idiot comedy that sneers lovingly at redonkulous made-up-isms and pecan farmers. You people need to buy more of their music and encourage these challenged geniuses to roll their yellow short-bus back into the studio and onto the American stages so we can keep an eye & ear on them!  Be careful, tho:  Stingy Bunion wants to borrow your lighter.


title: Not Bad Later Day Live Recording

text: Since the breakup of the "classic" Hogs lineup, McPhee has generally played with sideman that keep it fairly straightforward. On this release one of my favorite bassists of all time,Jon Camp (see Renaissance)joins the group. Camp is clearly the best bassist Tony has worked with since the great Pete Cruickshank. One of the better 80's Groundhogs live recordings for sure, the performance blows away Hogs On The Road despite the fact that it sounds like (a very good)audience recording rather than a soundboard tape.


title: Great Psychedelic Obscurity

text: I found this CD somewhat by accident, in a budget CD bin at a local mall. I noticed it was on the same label(BGO) that re-issued The Groundhogs catalog on CD, and the group appeared to be a power trio in psychedelic clothes from '69;so,I took a chance. Weird stuff. Heavy !!! fuzztone guitar in the vein of George Brigman & Split and SRC, along with Captain Beefheart-esque vocals,especially on the first tune "Death Of An Electric Citizen" which could have come straight off Safe As Milk,or Strictly Personal."American Boy Soldier",although a bit dated is  a Zappa-esque Vietnam era parody,that may have even been intended as serious social commentary.But they were English,so why worry about Nam and the draft anyway ?"Dawn Crept Away" is 14 plus minutes of total insanity that closes this forgotten gem. If you are a serious psych collector you'll want this.


title: Why Do People Go Crazy Over This Album ?

text: This is BOC on beyond their last legs, making their last major label album and heading straight for the over the hill circuit. This album sounds even worse to me today than it did in '89. Come on now, we all know a group has  had it when they start re-recording their own songs(usually means they  can't write quality new ones).The reason they give for this is that they  were a part of some great lost conceptualized work that the record label  wouldn't let them do way back when(yeah, yeah,yeah). From what I'm told  this was originally supposed to be an Albert Bouchard solo album, hence the  million guests guitarists. That brings up another point, with a great  guitarist like Roeser, why did you need any of those guys(Satriani, Aldo  Nova, Robby Krieger[and what exactly did they do anyway])The label probably  made them call it a BOC album, or they wouldn't have let it come out.  Hardly anyone is even on their right instrument(ie the one they play live).  Stick with the original classic records(debut through Fire Of Unknown  Origin).


title: Not Bad, But They Got Better Than This

text: Marillion's next step was their masterpiece, "Misplaced Childhood". Along with "Script For A Jester's Tear" and the earlier "Market Square Heroes" EP, this was another stage of  growth that got them to greatness. Fish's vocals sound really strained on  this one, and the really killer production was not here yet, and the  tendency to want to sound like Genesis was still looming, only this time  more like the "Duke" and "Abacab" records than the  vintage Gabriel era. Not really a bad album though, "Assassing"  and "Punch And Judy" became big concert favorites along with the  title track, but the best was yet to come.


title: Fantastic

text: One of my favorite albums in the history of rock music.  If you like music that is weird and technically demanding, this is a great place to begin.


title: Let's set the record straight...

text: I inadvertantly wrote a review for this deluxe re-issue under the banner of the original CD version, so this is my attempt to address the recently released, 7-bonus track edition of this stellar album. I can understand why people wouldn't know or care about Love, but then again they are probably the same people who think Britney Spears is an "artist". To the uninitiated, it helps to know that Love was Jim Morrison's favorite group; when "Forever Changes" was first issued in 1967, it was their third album for Elektra, who eventually signed The Doors and released that group's incredible debut the same year. If it weren't for Arthur Lee and Love: 1) Elektra would not have gotten into the rock game; 2) The Doors might not have gotten signed to Elektra (Arthur Lee saw the group play The Whisky a Go Go and referred them to Jac Holzman and Ahmet Ertugen); 3) Jimi Hendrix might not have been exposed to a recording studio until much later in life (Lee recorded Hendrix on a rare 45 in the early '60's, and later included sessions with Jimi on subsequent Love LPs); and my life would still be the same. The re-issue offers a little insight into this deliberately mysterious group by supplying fans with outtakes from the original line-up's last session ("You and I and Your Mind Belong Together"), a demo version of one of the tracks ("The Good Humor Man..." re-titled as "Hummingbirds"), alternate mixes of classic Love tracks ("You Set The Scene" and "Alone Again Or", which emphasizes Brian Maclean's vocals more prominently), and even a song deleted from the original album completely ("Wonder People"), as well as the B-side "Laughing Stock" which is from the same session as "You and I..." Needless to say, the album sounds great, despite the original multi-track tapes being MIA. Lee seems like a prophet when he rattles off lines like "The news of today will be the movies of tomorrow"... Too bad the band went through all the tragic cliches that accompany bands that come close to stardom: infighting, ego trips, money issues, refusals to tour, line-up adds and drops, and the obligatory drug abuse that grew to mythic proportions... Unlike any other album released in 1967, this one shows both sides of the coin that was the Summer Of Love: Hippie pride paired with nihilism, romance with despair, mind-expansion with paranoia. Arthur Lee was onto something, and until he is released from jail in 2005, we may never hear anything this well-written and executed from the man ever again. You can hear in this one album where artists as diverse as The Damned, UFO, The Smiths, Baby Lemonade, Neil Young, The Hooters, Echo & The Bunnymen, and even John Frusciante of the Chili Peppers copped some of their best ideas; you can also hear how well Love incorporated their own influences and peers into their songs: you hear Dylan, Neil Young (again), Brian Wilson, The Byrds, mariachi and flamenco music, Memphis Blues, folk, and acid rock peek up here and there, but the overall sound and texture is pure Love.  Take a risk, all you adventurous pop music fans out there who are looking for interesting, elegant melodies to sing along to as you drive around L.A. or wherever it is you may live.


title: Five Stars

text: nice cd thank you


title: Five Stars

text: good


title: Five Stars

text: 7 stars


title: Five Stars

text: star


title: Dated

text:
This album sounds like generic 60s oldies that you hear every time you go to the dentist or when your aunt is driving.

The first two songs are good... but only good when compared to the rest of the album or the utter garbage of the period.  Way back in '67, there was good music.  There was great music... Beefheart, Hendrix, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles and Stones, the Doors, the 13th Floor Elevators, Scott Walker and the Walker Brothers, and the flippin' Velvet Underground.  Syd Barrett was helming Pink Floyd at their best, Can were forming, Van Morrison was coming into his own, and Magic Sam was working it out.  All in all, a very fertile period.  Do not waste your time or money on this album.  There's plenty of good stuff out there for you.


title: The Swag Killer

text:
If you are a long time fan of K-Rino this should fit right in with most of his albums. Nice average album. As usual the lyricism is the star of this album.
Lyrics= A
Production= C+


title: Future Of Hip Hop....

text: When I heard this thing all the way through the first time, I swear I thought I was listening to an album! This is untouchable FIRE right here, I love it. Ok anyway, this is a great CD, period. This is basically a sampler of whats to come on this new Blacksmith label, and its surprisingly good. Thats not to say that any of these artists are surprisingly good, because they're all monsters on the mic, but I was surprised at how good this was for a mixtape. The production was great, the sound quality was as good as any album, and the content was amazing. out of 19 tracks, theres only 2 I didn't give 5/5 stars too, and those get a 4/5. These guys must have really stepped their game up after signing to Blacksmith, and if so, I cant wait to see whats coming in the future. If you a fan of Kweli, Xzibit, Jean Grae, Strong Arm Steady, etc, go cop this mixtape. You wont take it out your CD player for weeks.


title: War-Chansons Par excellance!

text: Italy's finest, Camerata Mediolanense, has released a very diverse album in "Campo di Marte", shifting effordless between beautiful, almost barogue sounding chansons, to more percussion-driven tracks with a conquering post-war/battle "feel" to them..<br />(Although Camerata is very good on CD, don't miss the chance to experience them live, where the REALLY shine through...)


title: Flawed, but a massively influential collection, warts 'n all

text:
This collection of no-wave and avant-noise music, compiled and produced by Brian Eno with absolutely no frills, is extremely influential on the more out-there, and, strangely, more commercialized disco-punk that's been coming out of Manhattan recently (think the Rapture - whose sax player shows an occasional James Chance influence). The four bands inside this album are the Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars, and DNA.

The first and best band is the Contortions. Led by a man with the moniker of James Chance, the Contortions played a particularly homicidal brand of funk, complete with atonal accents in the organ and open-tuned slide guitar, sheet-metal bass, warped chicken-scratch lead guitar, and disco drums. Topping that all off were the sneering vocal screech (which did bear a slight resemblance to Richard Hell at his most bilious, though generally far more intense) and hideously gurgling, Ayler-influenced alto sax of Mr. Chance. He often squiggled across the stages he would play on one foot, like a Jerry Lee Lewis high on mescaline and raised on performance art. The four tracks here are all uniformly excellent, with "Dish It Out" leading the pack on a merciless bassline and a disfigured introductory sax solo. Chance's vocal here was perfect, nearly tripling the aggression with his entrance alone: "Sick of beeiiinnnnn'!!!!!! on the losin' end!!!!!!!!!!!" The band hurtles along with murderous intent, making this track a startlingly brilliant song. "Flip Your Face" follows with slide guitar snapping like a rubber band across the sonic spectrum, and what follows this rather grating little intro is a loping midtempo groove with charm and panache, with, of course, a trademarked ugly sax solo that would give Lindsay Lohan nightmares. Mr. Chance croons in a voice that would send Captain Beefheart into hearty titters about flipping your face over lightly, and that you aren't all there, anyway-yuh. I wouldn't say this was my favorite song of all time, as apparently Steve Albini did, but it is definitely its own song, and very fun, in a warped sort of way. "Jaded" opens with a hilariously off bass note, and then staggers forward with no desire to live, a disgusting little dirge with Chance's nonsensical vocals putting the finishing touch on it - brilliant. A truly - and I mean *truly* - inspired cover of James Brown's "I Can't Stand Myself" ends the Contortions songs, flying along at top speed with Chance posing, sassing, howling, shrieking and generally making himself a genius frontman, while the band detonates behind him. If only all white funk sounded like this.

The quality then takes a swan dive into the Grand Canyon with the next four songs, from the generally excrable Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, fronted by the infamous Lydia Lunch. I personally can't really tell three of the four songs apart. They are all really slow, static in fact, and most of the same chords pop up, and Lydia always moans at the exact same,  sickeningly shrill pitch, and it all generally sounds like the musical equivalent of medieval torture. "Burning Rubber" and "I Woke Up Dreaming" are practically alike in musical structure, everything. "The Closet" at least has guitar that sounds actually nauseated - I don't know how Lunch did it, but the instrument sounds like it's about to throw up while playing the same chords she always does. I don't know - some people really do like this stuff, but I just can't get into Lydia Lunch. The one song of hers on here that I truly do like, though, is "Red Alert," an instrumental that is absolute, unbridled, furious aggression piled into 32 seconds. The bass is high-pitched, and slides between a couple notes again and again; the drums actually have some drive to them, for once; and Lunch shuts up and turns her guitar into an unbelivably high pitched sonic dentist's drill - really something. That they chose not to elaborate on "Red Alert" seems practically perverse.

The next act is called Mars. Mars had a lot of bad music, and were responsible for the no-wave opera "John Gavanti," as horrible a musical experience as I have ever had (though with two honest-to-goodness genius numbers on it, "Gavanti Samba" and "Mirror Mirror"), but here they realize their vision of noise-as-beautiful-expression, if only in flashes. "Helen Fordsdale" has a locomotive rhythm driving it; with the chattering, unutterably malevolent guitars, screaming vocals and the chordal catchy bassline, the noise becomes a song, albeit something almost ridiculously aggressive. But the smarts are there, making it an amazing slice of dementia. "Hairwaves" then takes about 3 minutes to go absolutely nowhere. "Tunnel" is flawed - not really very compelling - but the introductory guitar is astonishing, sounding exactly like a train chugging down the subway tracks. But "Puerto Rican Ghost" might be the best Mars selection here, with spasming drums, something which might, at a base and perverted level, be called funk bass, and of course the howling guitars and vocals - only this time, the vocals make chilling sense (the lyrics don't, really, but frantic gibberish was always Mars's stock in trade anyway): "Mommy, close the door!" Utterly terrifying, and only a minute long - one of Mars's absolute greatest songs.

The compilation ends with four good-to-fantastic songs by DNA, a power trio of sorts led by Arto Lindsay, whose solo albums are gorgeous. Arto sings here not in the soft, sensitive croon he employs on many of his other musical outings, but in an incomprehensible yowl that sounds like someone who just swallowed a jar of marbles trying to be swaggering and sexy. He also plays free-form, atonal electric 12-string guitar that somehow always sounds tremendously exciting and strangely musical. Robin Crutchfield, who would later leave the group for his own Dark Day, filled in the monolithic electric piano that proved the base of the band, and Ikue Mori played jerking drum rhythms around the others. Crutchfield was later replaced by ex-Pere Ubu bassist Tim Wright, but here the band is still with his lead-fingered keyboard, which often provides the songs with actual melodies. "Egomaniac's Kiss" is an absolute laugh, with Arto's vocals completely sending it over the edge into hilarity: think Bozo the Clown doing cabaret in a crack house and you may have an idea of it. "Lionel" is like a bombastic intro stretched into a two-minute instrumental: pure power, with Lindsay's frenetic strumming and Crutchfield's pulsing keyboard at one. "Not Moving" actually sounds like a hit song - from Neptune. Nonstop keyboard glisses and Arto's idea of blues bends make way for monotone vocal stylings and a relatively straight rhythm. "Size" ends the compilation on a glorious two-minute high with an amazing, irreplaceable riff and the band at its' most ecstatic. Brilliant art-noise.

This is quite influential on many musicians. I personally love the Contortions, really like DNA, appreciate Mars when they aren't just making noise, and really can't stand Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. But your tastes might be different.


title: An oddity

text:
I am not a Billy Joel fan - I do not like his music so much I change the station when one of his irritating songs come on the radio.

That being said, this is pre-pop BJ, and is so bad it is almost good - its a lot of fun to listen to.  I do not have this cd, only the original Attila on lp - yep, 99 cent cut-out bin special back in the day.  At the time I got it I wondered, could this William Joel and Billy Joel be one and the same?  The album is either godawful or brilliant, or both, but definitely interesting. Personally I wish BJ had kept going in this direction instead of inflicting 'Piano Man' and the rest of his crappy music on us.


title: A Classic Album

text: Blues based English Invasion music.  Love the Animals and this is their best album, in my opinion.


title: Very good cd

text: Very good cd


title: Very good cd

text: Very god cd


title: Five Stars

text: Very good cd


title: Five Stars

text: Very good CD


title: Five Stars

text: very good CD


title: Classic

text: I echo those who think "Then Play On" is the height of FM's accomplishments.  So many great songs on this reissue, compared to the LP I bought in 1971 (and still have).  Peter Green's slide work, especially on "Show-Biz Blues" is inspiring (no, Jeremy Spencer did not do slide on TPO, he contributed very little to the album), and "Closing My Eyes" is my favorite FM/PG song ever--a pleading, emotional preview of the sonic drama that would underscore future FM compositions. When this album came out I was a teenager a couple years into learning guitar, and it made an impression on me that continues 50 years later; I still cite Peter Green as a primary influence.  I would give this 10 stars if I could.


title: My favorite Steve Lacy work

text: We've all got preferences and this is my preferred Steve Lacy work.  Admittedly, the solo things just aren't my cup of tea and yes, I've listened to them.  Steve Lacy is arguably the greatest soprano sax voice of all time (he is in MY book) and this set is perfect in tone, originality, form and maturity.  One of my favorite works by any artist!  Superlative.


title: Why is it so often forgotten?

text:
It's hard to understand why great albums are so often overlooked, but this album in particular is a hidden gem. Despite it's appearance on many top 100 (and even 10 on occasion) rock albums of all time, this one, for the most part, has been forgotten by the general public. It's a shame too, because it rightfully belongs on those top 100 and 10 lists.

Without going through every single song (they're all beautiful and still sound fresh to this day) some of the highlights of the album include "Alone Again Or" "Old Man" "Red Telephone" and "Live and Let Live." They're all unique blends of folk-rock, psychedelia, baroque, jazz, and hard rock in some places. At no time does this album sound over indulgent or overblown. The strings, which often make songs sound very cheesy, fit in perfectly with Arthur Lee's (and Maclean's) beautiful compositions and the horns add a certain power as well. None of it ever sounds out of place or forced. There are unique key changes and unusual vocals throughout that just make this album sound unusually innovative and perpetually fresh. Even nearly 40 years after it's release, there are things that can be heard and learned from this album. "Live and Let Live," which really sounds like the albums staple, is a brilliant folky pop gem that incorporates a lot of the properties listed above, as well as some electric guitar work that is fitted in perfectly to add that extra power in the middle of the song.

To tell the truth, it's really hard for me to recommend individual songs on this album, as they're all great. And you can't say that about many albums. It's quite easy to listen to it completely through without it ever sounding tedious or overly long. It's just that good. Do yourself a favor and buy this album. There's really nothing else to say.


title: Fantastic

text: I bought this set (on vinyl) when I was a teenager in the late1970s, not long after it came out and I was absolutely blown away!  This is amazing music.  This was one of a handful of recordings that were truly landmarks in defining and shaping my musical development and taste.  Before I heard these, I was only familiar with a few string quartets of Mozart and Beethoven which I liked OK, but string quartets were not really essential A list listening for me.  After hearing these recordings of the Bartok String Quartets, the string quartet become a favored musical form and my love and passion for early twentieth century music (which I already like) deepened considerably.  The New Hungarian Quartet really breathes life into this cycle, and gives the Bartok quartets the full spectrum of emotions, energy, and verve, they deserve.  I have heard a number of recordings of the Bartok Stings Quartets over the years, including the Tokyo String Quartet, and too often they sound like a sterile, lifeless, academic exercises.  This is by far the best I have heard, full of life.


title: Power pop meets 1990s alternative rock.

text: A wild ride.  Power pop meets 1990s alternative rock meets bubblegum.  I don't understand the lyrics at all but who cares?  Interesting melodies, some of which are impossible to get out of your head.  This band treads in territory that has virtually nothing in common with commercial music in 2021.  How could anyone not dig juicy tracks like "Things," "Know," "Living Tide," Anything and Everywhere," "Venus Blind," "Benches" and the strangely confusing "Milkshake" ?  The guitar playing is fabulous.  The ultimate one man band experience to help you forget whatever's on your mind.


title: Top notch vintage live Sparks.

text: Sparks live in the studio in 1974.  Who could ask for anything more?  Wish I'd been there to witness this.  The band is tight, focused, and energetic.  And the songs are, of course, phenomenal.


title: jazzman

text:
The 1992 CTI cd "Youkali" (with jazz guitarist Jim Hall leading it) is one I picked up  25 years ago that
had been hidden away in my collection and probably been played only once since then. I was reading
through some old issues of Downbeat magazine recently and came across an advertisement in one for
"Youkali". I thought, let's dig it out and give it a spin as I didn't recall that much about it and wanted to
hear it again. With CTI records, you either love them or hate them (and there's plenty who hate them.)
I'm one of the former. As I listened to the 1st track, the title cut, it was most definitely a CTI recording
with the mixed in horns, dreamy vocals (from Carmen Cuesta), and smooth production. Nice effective
trumpets and trombones from Lew Soloff, Bob Millikan, Dave Taylor, and Jim Pugh (who also arranged
it) along with a pleasant solo from Hall. Grover Washington, Jr. on soprano sax is here as well on the
9:37 track. The next cut, "Django",  made me sit up when the late, legendary Chet Baker soared into
his gorgeous trumpet solo - so perfect and beautiful.  He had passed on 4 years before "Youkali" was
released, but you wouldn't know it from his dubbed in tape. Hall solo's again, along with fine playing
from Donald Harrison on soprano sax, bassist Mark Egan, & Kenny Barron on electric piano while the
horn ensemble blends in and out. Don Sebesky provided the rhythm arrangement. "Skylark", up next,
again features Baker with pianist's  Roland Hanna and Ted Rosenthal (in the opening intro) with Byron
Stripling, John Clark, Keith O'Quinn, and Matt Finders added to the horn section with arrangements by
Sebesky & Pugh. At this point, I wondered if this version of "Skylark" was re-worked from Hanna's solo
CTI release from 1982 (with Baker), "Gershwin Carmichael Cats" that I also have? That track of "Skylark"
runs 7:27 while this one is at 9:25. The next two tracks, "All Blues" & "Malaguena" (along with "Django")
also appeared in different mixes on Hall's 1982 CTI release "Studio Trieste" (that included Baker as well).
Grover Washington Jr. is superb on these two cuts, particularly "All Blues" (as is Baker who doesn't play
on "Malaguena"). This re-mix of "All Blues" and the vibrant arrangement of "Skylark", with Baker's added
extended solo's in shining form, is worth the price of the cd alone.  The final cut on "Youkali" ends with
the stunning "All Across the City", a dark original from Hall that results in one of the more atmospheric
mixes released on CTI, with haunting studio effects recalling many earlier CTI recordings from the 70's -
a most efficacious, moody way to close out the cd. The one fault I have with "Youkali" as a whole is that
Hall is not really featured in a prominent role on the recording. He does offer brief solos on several of the
tracks and naturally contributes, but it's not really as a LEADER of the release. Nonetheless, "Youkali" is a
worthy addition to Hall's other CTI recordings released over the years of which "Concierto" from 1975 is a
timeless classic that also features Chet Baker, Paul Desmond, & Sir Roland Hanna in stellar performances.


title: jazzman

text:
The fabulous 1970  Blue Note recording "Another Story" from the late, legendary tenor saxophonist Stanley
Turrentine (1934-2000) was the last 1960's Blue Note record from him to be issued "on schedule" - recorded
in March 1969 and released several months later in 1970. (His last Blue Note session from the 60's, "Ain't No
Way", was recorded in June but wasn't issued until 1980 as part of the "classic series".) I already had "Another
Story" in my Mosaic box of Stanley's Blue Note Quintet/Sextet Studio Sessions, but had totally forgotten this
after I recently heard a local jazz station play the 11:22 Oliver Nelson cut "Six and Four" from "Another Story".
After locating the cd from a Japanese seller, I paid mega $ for a new copy. (Well, at least I got the OBI strip &
original liner notes with it - not in the Mosaic set!) Along with "Six and Four" this is just a phenomenal session
from Turrentine and his quartet of Thad Jones on flugelhorn, Cedar Walton on piano, Buster Williams on bass,
and drummer Mickey Roker. Of the 5 tracks on the cd, there are 2 other standards, an up-tempo "The Way You
Look Tonight" and a slow, gorgeous blues-drenched  "Stella By Starlight". Stanley offers his original "Get It" to
start the recording and the marvelous Thad Jones contributes  "Quittin' Time" to complete the set. Recorded
at Van Gelder Studio, the sound quality is classic, spectacular Blue Note,  with production from Duke Pearson
who just a few weeks later would also produce another stellar Blue Note session at Van Gelder Studio, Herbie
Hancock's landmark "The Prisoner",  which would be his final record on Blue Note. Great things, indeed, were
STILL happening at Blue Note as the 60's decade closed out even as the label was quickly moving toward the
funk and electric scene. Stanley Turrentine would leave Blue Note, as well, shortly after "Another Story" was
recorded and move on to the more commercial output of CTI for several years in the 70's, (but would return
to the label in later years once again). After "re-discovering" "Another Story", it has quickly become one of my
top-tier Blue Note's. Vinyl copies are still readily available, but the cd will be much more difficult to get. If you
can find an affordable copy, grab it while you can. Another fine Blue Note masterpiece from Mr. T. They don't
make them like this anymore.


title: jazzman

text:
This 2017 recording of the late composer Claus Ogerman's (1930-2016) performances of his "Symphonic
Dances" and "Some Times (Ballet)" pieces on the specialty Kritzerland  label is a remastered re-release of
this same recording that was originally issued back on cd in 1992 on the small, short-lived Bay Cities label
owned by Bruce Kimmel. The Bay Cities release has become more rare than hen's teeth since its first issue
by Kimmel and the present Kritzerland version under review here now is a VERY limited edition of only 500
copies. By pure accident many years ago, I found a perfect copy of the Bay Cities cd in a record store (long
gone) cut-out bin and was blown away by it, as I had never heard of this cd and the performances of Claus'
scores on it were totally new. I wrote an amazon review of it back in 2009 (that still remains the only review
written here about the Bay Cities release.) They were originally discovered and put out by Kimmel (after he
contacted Ogerman about his admiration for his music), and would he have anything new he could possibly
release on his then label (Bay Cities)? By good fortune, Ogerman had these versions available of "Symphonic
Dances" and "Some Times" (which would later be reworked and released as the magnificent "Gate of Dreams"
on WB in 1977), so Bruce was able to get them out on his label in 1992. As this music is so exquisite, like fine
wine, and didn't receive the exposure it deserved on its first release, Kimmel got Kritzerland to re-release it
as this gorgeous, remastered cd in 2017 with updated liner notes and beautiful packaging art. The original
Bay Cities recording engineers were Stanley Tonkel and Frank Laico (who also did the legendary 1974 MPS
recording "Symbiosis" with Ogerman and pianist Bill Evans). That version still sounds superb to my ears and
the remastered 2017 cd from James Nelson at Digital Outland is even better. All the stars in the universe for
Claus Ogerman and his brilliant composing on this recording. Get this one while it's still available (unlike the
ultra-rare Bay Cities cd.) As with all of Ogerman's music, a masterpiece and desert island disc. R.I.P. Claus.