[hf] The Way Out

That's the Way I Like It: The Best of Dead or Alive collects 18 tracks from the androgynous British dance-pop outfit responsible for one of the '80’s most enduring club hits, “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)”. Other highlights include a cover of KC & the Sunshine Band's disco classic "That's the Way (I Like It)," “Lover Come Back to Me," "In Too Deep," "My Heart Goes Bang,” and 1986's "Brand New Lover,” as well as the four extended/alternate mixes that populate the collections’ second half. Remastered from the original studio tapes, the anthology may not be exhaustive, but it’s solid enough for casual fans, and engaging enough to recommend to listeners with the false notion that Dead or Alive was a mere one-hit wonder.

Conventional wisdom holds that the Beatles intended Abbey Road as a grand farewell, a suspicion seemingly confirmed by the elegiac note Paul McCartney strikes at the conclusion of its closing suite. It's hard not to interpret "And in the end/the love you take/is equal to the love you make" as a summation not only of Abbey Road but perhaps of the group's entire career, a lovely final sentiment…

Various Artists - Milk Of The Tree: An Anthology Of Female Vocal Folk & Singer-Songwriters 1966-73 (2017) {3CD Set}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.21 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 523 Mb
Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 24 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1966-73, 2017 Grapefruit Records / Cherry Red Record | CRSEGBOX039
Folk Rock / Pregressive Folk / Psychedelia / Pop Fok / Electric Folk / Singer- Songwriters

Notwithstanding one or two isolated exceptions, it wasn’t until the mid-Sixties that independent female voices really began to be heard within the music industry. The feminist movement naturally coincided with the first signs of genuine musical emancipation. In North America, Joan Baez and Buffy Sainte-Marie emerged through the folk clubs, coffee-houses and college campuses to inspire a generation of wannabe female singers and musicians with their strong, independent mentality and social compassion, while the British scene’s combination of folk song revival and the Beatles-led pop explosion saw record company deals for a new generation of pop-folkies including Marianne Faithfull, Dana Gillespie and Vashti Bunyan.

This impressive, impeccably packaged four-CD box set focuses solely on B.B. King's 1950s and 1960s recordings for the Modern family of labels. That was a period that basically encompassed the vast majority of his work prior to 1962, though he did a few non-Modern sides before signing with ABC Paramount in early 1962 and did a few other sides for Modern in the mid-'60s. So this is basically a box-set overview of King's early career, one that saw him score many R&B hits and build a career as a blues legend, even as the blues were falling out of fashion in favor of rock and soul. As many tracks as there are here - 106 in all, four of them previously unreleased - this isn't a catchall roundup of everything the prolific King did for the label…

These five sonatas which form the Armonico Tributo make the best possible case for Georg Muffat as a composer of the first rank. He apparently drew together the French, German and Italian styles in a way that was unprecedented, and the result is surprisingly moving and brilliant, likely to make new listeners wonder: Muffat where have you been all of my life? In fact it is deeply seductive, often with beautiful harmonies and exquisite grace notes that really get under the skin in this fantastic ambiance. They are in effect like double violin sonatas with a small chamber accompaniment in which each part is taken by one instrument. Roy Goodman leads with aplomb in a period style that has no lack of emotional weight, and contributes a useful note that puts this neglected name into the context of his time, being born 40 years before Bach.

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is the latest instalment in composer, improviser, saxophonist, and visual artist Matana Roberts’ visionary project exploring African-American history through ancestry, archive and place. Weaving together elements of jazz, avant-garde composition, folk and spoken word, Roberts tells the story of a woman in their ancestral line, who died following complications from an illegal abortion. At a time when reproductive rights are under attack, her story takes on new resonance. “I wanted to talk about this issue, but in a way where she gets some sense of liberation,” Roberts explains. By unpacking family stories and conducting extensive research in US public archives, Roberts has created a rounded portrait of a woman who is, as their lyrics put it, “electric, alive, spirited, fire and free.”