#81

This is a reasonably comprehensive collection of Peter Green's catalog, with 78 minutes of music at mid-price, drawn from In the Skies, Little Dreamer, Blue Guitar, White Sky and Legend, the first two albums contributing the majority of the best material here. Green's guitar playing is as impressive as ever, and his singing is nothing to ignore, a sweet, gently soulful rasp that recalls his one-time rival Eric Clapton at his best behind the microphone. There's just a bit of fall-off in quality between tracks like "Apostle" and "Little Dreamer," and later stuff like "Last Train From San Antone" when they're heard side by side. And a lot of this doesn't seem as strong today as it did in the late '70s, when Green was one of the last exponents of British blues still working in that genre and getting heard. But the sound is good, and the price is right.

Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (1982) {5CD+DVD Super Deluxe Edition rel 2016}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.63 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 610 Mb
DVD5 -> 3.20 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 16:9 | LPCM, 2 ch (96-24) / DTS, 6 ch / Dolby AC3, 6 ch | ~ 54+15 m | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 89 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1982, 2016 Virgin Records / Universal | 4766622
New Wave / Pop Rock / Synth-Pop

Super deluxe six disc edition boasts an abundance of material. Disc one features a 2016 remaster (by Andrew Walter at Abbey Road) approved by Charlie Burchill and the second disc gathers 12-inch remixes and instrumentals of the singles, a few of which enjoy their CD debut. Various edits and B-sides can be found on the third CD in the set while disc four features previously unreleased BBC John Peel and Kid Jensen radio sessions, recorded in February and August 1982. All ten tracks on disc five are previously unreleased; made up of alternative mixes and demos and the icing on the cake is the sixth and final disc which is a DVD, featuring Charlie Burchill and Ronald Prent's 5.1 surround sound mix, first released on the now long out-of-print DVD-Audio in 2005. This mix of the album is a unique 'full duration' mix which is different to the standard version. DVD also includes promo videos and a few Top of the Pops performances. Note, this is a DVD-V unlike the DVD-A/V disc from previous Simple Minds box sets.

Singer Jean Carne's career has had various incarnations, as well as a slight name change similar to Dionne Warwick's (adding an "e" to the end of her last name as Warwick did for a short time). Born Sarah Jean Perkins in Columbus, GA, she was raised in Atlanta. She began singing gospel music in the church choir at age four; she also took piano lessons and learned the clarinet and bassoon. Carne won a music scholarship to Morris Brown College and began her recording career in 1969 with her husband, keyboardist Doug Carn, on the Black Jazz label, where she was one of the last vocalists to work with jazz legend Duke Ellington before his death.

La Monte Young - The Well-Tuned Piano 81 X 25 (6:17.50 - 11:18:59 PM NYC) (1987) {5CD Gramavision 18-8701-2 rec 1981}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.03 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 708 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 221 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1981, 1987 La Monte Young / Gramavision | 18-8701-2
Classical / Modern Classical / Modern Composition / Microtonal / Piano

The Well-Tuned Piano is La Monte Young's magnum opus, the work in which many of his theories are crystallized and laid out for the listener. It's a massive solo piano performance, lasting a little over five hours, during which Young displays virtually every combination of chords that he deems special, seguing one into another. At the end of the day, the question is: Given the formal system and obviously huge amount of time devoted to its investigation, is the resultant music beautiful enough to justify the large amount of hype accompanying the project? The first thing that strikes the listener is the sound of the piano itself, a Bosendorfer that has been tuned in just intonation.

There was a time when you could walk into your average record store and find the singles section by spotting the big block of black rows. These rows signaled the whereabouts of the Ds and tended to eat up a disproportionate space of the singles section. In 2004, the Mute label condensed all of these releases into Remixes 81-04, which itself was ironically (or fittingly) presented in multiple versions. This particular version is a triple-disc set that attempts to function as a representative sampling of Depeche Mode's innumerable remixes. It does an admirable job, making a point to highlight glorified extended versions and radical reworkings alike.

Antonin Dvorak - Piano Quintet op. 81 & String Quintet op. 97
Leipziger Streichquartett & Christian Zacharias
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 302 MB | Full Artwork: 120 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 307 1249-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Quintet

"…MDG provides typically fine sonics, with the strings well balanced against a piano that turns a bit glassy in its upper register at higher dynamic levels. The real question is whether or not, with such fine versions already available from various Czech groups on Supraphon (Panocha Quartet) and Praga (Klánský/Prazák Quartet), you will want to spend premium price to acquire this newcomer, even if the coupling of these two particular works is somewhat unique. This is a decision you must make for yourself; if you ultimately opt to go for it, you won’t be sorry." ~classicstoday

Antonin Dvorak - Piano Quintet op. 81 & String Quintet op. 97
Leipziger Streichquartett & Christian Zacharias
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 302 MB | Full Artwork: 120 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 307 1249-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Quintet

"…MDG provides typically fine sonics, with the strings well balanced against a piano that turns a bit glassy in its upper register at higher dynamic levels. The real question is whether or not, with such fine versions already available from various Czech groups on Supraphon (Panocha Quartet) and Praga (Klánský/Prazák Quartet), you will want to spend premium price to acquire this newcomer, even if the coupling of these two particular works is somewhat unique. This is a decision you must make for yourself; if you ultimately opt to go for it, you won’t be sorry." ~classicstoday