Школа Гастронома. Коллекция Рецептов №19 (октябрь 2011)

Two decades before X-Factor rejects Jedward gave British pop twins a bad name, Luke and Matt Goss, aka Bros, were conquering the charts with their heart-throb good looks and highly polished teen-friendly pop-funk sound. Celebrating the short-lived shelf life of the duo, this 2011 Camden compilation indicates how the bleached blond brothers went from hysteria-inducing teen idol millionaires to near-bankrupt flops in the space of just three years.

Filter-Kaffee 101 is the first collaborative project by Mario Schönwälder & Frank Rothe, who composed the music for this album between 2007 and 2011.
The 66-minute outcome, presented as eight different "cups", is melodic and rhythmic sequencer music featuring lots of vintage sound textures and warm solos hovering over them. Its mellow and well-tempered atmosphere also has a certain contemporary technical feel, while at the same time carefully incorporating the profound retro sound and feel of '70's electronic music.

Let Your Hair Down is a follow-up to Steve Miller's Bingo! from 2010, and the tracks for this new release were recorded at the same sessions at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch studio with Andy Johns engineering and co-producing, and like Bingo!, Let Your Hair Down finds Miller re-exploring his Chicago blues roots. Miller and his band have always included a few old blues numbers in their concerts, so these are road-tested gems that are obviously close to Miller's heart and soul, and they include the last recordings of Miller's longtime collaborator (and harmonica whiz) Norton Buffalo, who died of lung cancer in 2009 shortly after these sessions. Miller has always had the ability to adapt blues forms into his pop work, but this outing, like Bingo!, is a full-fledged blues record…

"The Great Mass" is the 2011 symphonic masterpiece that constitutes a quantum leap in the art of amalgamating orchestral music with Heavy Metal. The songs are the audible evidence of guitarist Christos Antoniou finishing his studies of classical composition with academic honours and distinction. The Greeks take the next logical step in following the course they highly successfully set on their celebrated comeback-album "Communion" (2008). "The Great Mass" shows this band at the peak of their evolution over seven full-length releases since Septicflesh's founding in 1990, in which the band combines massive deadly guitars at the edge of blackness with haunting gothic melodies and cinematic symphonic arrangements…

Ron Hacker and The Hacksaws release, Filthy Animal, is fueled by a driving rhythm section, Ron's ferocious slide guitar and some stellar guest performances, including guitar work by Debbie Davies. Tracks include a rocking update of the Son House classic Death Letter, and You Gotta Move Part 1, a country style duet with vocalist Leah Tysee. Closing the CD is the title track - a funky blues jam session based on Herbie Hancock's Chameleon.

Dana Fuchs is a throwback to another time: the late '60s and early '70s, when blues-based shouters like Janis Joplin and Robert Plant (in a somewhat different style) were capturing the attention of a generation. Her debt to Joplin is unapologetic – she starred in the off-Broadway musical Love, Janis – and at times maybe a bit too slavish. That's not to say that she brings no other elements to her interpretation of blues and soul-rock styles, only that there are moments on Love to Beg when one might be forgiven for wondering why one would listen to Fuchs when Joplin recordings are still so easily available.