Chad & Jeremy - The Ark (1968) {Columbia–Sony Music Japan, MHCP-979 rel 2006, Cardboard Sleeve}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 332 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 126 Mb
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© 1968, 2006 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | MHCP-979
Rock / Pop / Psychedelic / Baroque Pop / British Invasion

While The Ark contained nothing quite as elaborate as "The Progress Suite" that had taken up one whole side of Of Cabbages and Kings, it was another psychedelic mishmash of styles – Indian one minute, musichall the next – of a kind so many popular performers had been indulging in at the time in hopes of making the next Sgt. Pepper. The difference was that most of Chad & Jeremy's peers had gotten it out of their systems the year before. But C&J were upper-class types who took naturally to the pretensions of the form – they thought they were making Art. Their listeners thought differently: The Ark missed the charts, and Chad & Jeremy broke up.

Clifford Brown & Max Roach - More Study In Brown (1956) {EmArcy ‎814 637-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 195 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 102 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1965 EmArcy / PolyGram | 814 637-2
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Trumpet / Drums

Comprised mostly of alternate takes with a few previously unissued items, these tracks feature the classic Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet of 1954-1956. Best is a "new" version of "I'll Remember April," which also features tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, and a fully restored "Jordu."

Diamonds Are Forever has undergone a somewhat less significant though thoroughly pleasing expansion with the February 2003 release of the remastered, expanded version. Still mid-priced, the disc features 24 additional minutes of music from the completed film – included is "Gunbarrel and Manhunt," alternating between original John Barry music and Barry's variations on Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme," and the musical accompaniment to various key action scenes, as well as some playful romantic scoring for some of Sean Connery's romantic activities. The main virtue is the improved sound (which greatly benefits Shirley Bassey's finely nuanced performance of the title song) on what was an entertaining and distinctive, if not terribly creative or ambitious score, a somewhat closer relative to Barry's work on Goldfinger and to the exoticism of You Only Live Twice or the bold, near-symphonic scope of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The annotation is reasonably thorough, although on this occasion it focuses far more on the movie than on the music.

On Friday, April 16, 2021, trumpeter and composer Nate Wooley will release Mutual Aid Music, a double-CD of eight ensemble concertos, on Pleasure of the Text Records. Wooley's concertos are performed by an all-star group composed of saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, violinist Joshua Modney, cellist Mariel Roberts, pianists Sylvie Courvoisier and Cory Smythe, percussionists Matt Moran and Russell Greenberg, and Wooley himself on trumpet. Mutual aid points to the concept of community action and the human drive to provide succor to our fellow humans.

A dusky-toned Swedish jazz and pop vocalist, Viktoria Tolstoy is a much celebrated performer in Europe. Known for her lilting, emotive style, she has worked closely with pianist Esbjörn Svensson and trombonist Nils Landgren, crafting her unique crossover jazz, pop, and folk sound. Emerging in the 90s, Tolstoy released a handful of chart-topping jazz albums like 1997's White Russian and 2004's German Jazz Award-winning Shining on You. A descendant of novelist Leo Tolstoy, she has explored both her Swedish and Russian roots on record, issuing My Swedish Heart in 2005 and My Russian Soul in 2008. She has also appeared often on producer Landgren's own albums, including 2004's Funky ABBA and 2011's The Moon, the Stars and You.

It was inevitable, after the mega-success of Tubular Bells in its original form, that someone would orchestrate the piece - the many and varied instrumental voices of the original virtually begged for this treatment, especially as the original album appeared at the height of the progressive rock boom, when even self-contained rock bands such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer were starting to turn toward orchestral accompaniment in their quest for richer sounds. In this case, it was composer Mike Oldfield himself who oversaw and co-produced the work with orchestrator and collaborator David Bedford, a longtime friend and colleague…

No one, least of all Moby, expected the album Play to be the runaway success that it was. The album had been out for nearly a year and a half by the time "South Side" was plucked for single release. "South Side," with added vocals courtesy of No Doubt's Gwen Stefani, proved to be a smash with considerable staying power, eventually peaking in the U.S. Top 20. The maxi-single, stocked with remixes and bonus tracks, proved quite a treat for fans. Not only did it include the Gwen Stefani version, but also the original album version (for comparison purposes), two remixes, one instrumental, and two bonus tracks. The version of "South Side" with Gwen Stefani is a no-brainer - turning the song into a duet immediately fleshed out the vocals and made it stronger and edgier than the original…

Following “La Contra Ola” (BJR015), Bongo Joe is pleased to present LA OLA INTERIOR, a compilation exploring the ambient side of the Spanish electronic music produced in the 80’s. It gathers musicians from various horizons and of many generations, who shared the desire to create an immersive soundscape and to combine electronic music with non-Western musical traditions. As a general rule, the Anglo-Saxon tropism did relate the spanish peninsula’s ambient music to the Balearic Sound, that is to say to the relaxing music played in Ibiza’s nightclubs. But this music takes place in the productive territory of experimental musics, and particularly in its two main breeding grounds: the tape recording underground and the independent musicians-producers scene.

Jon Savage's eclectic voyage through Post-Punk era electronic music, Disco and proto-techno 1978-1982. Spanning Euro Disco to very early Electro and the classic period of High Energy, taking in mainstream Disco, the strange, minimal and avant garde on the way, these fifteen tracks celebrate the fertility and the futurism of synthesiser electronics in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Includes tracks by Suicide, Sea Of Wires, Sylvia Love, Cabaret Voltaire, Transvolta, A Number Of Names, Slick and more.

In 1991 Coil released the third of their early classic full-length albums "Love's Secret Domain", seemingly casting aside the gloom and funereal beauty of its predecessors in favour of a painstakingly multi-layered hallucinogenic electronic beast, which unlike some of their fellow ex-industrial contemporaries' releases of the time wasn't an attempt at easy accessibility or (the-gods-forbid) danceability, but a vibrating psychedelic masterpiece unrivalled in their discography and still a landmark album.

The legendary So-Cal punk group The Offspring are back with their 10th album and first new offering since 2008. After releasing two standalone tracks in 2020 - the over-the-top cover of Joe Exotic's (of Tiger King infamy) "Hey Kitty Kitty" and a rendition of Darlene Love's classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - the band is ready to plant their punk rock flag in the sand once again with their blistering new album Let the Bad Times Roll.