96 Months

Chico Hamilton - The Master (1973) {2016 Stax-Culture Factory USA Vinyl Replica Collectors Limited Edition 24/96 remastering}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 265 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 87 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 13 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24bit/96kHz remastering
© 1973, 2016 Stax / Concord / Culture Factory USA | CFU01119 | Vinyl Replica
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Fusion / Drums

A totally excellent bit of funk from Chico Hamilton – working with a great group that more than helps their leader live up to the album's title! The record's a real lost gem – and it's got Chico working in much funkier territory than before, grooving with complicated rhythms, and a heavy sound that features lots of work on organ and guitar. Lowell George (of Little Feat fame) is playing slide guitar in the group, giving the sound a great, muddy propellant – which only gets stronger with the help of Simon Nava and Sam Clayton on congas, plus heavy organ and piano by Stu Garner, Jerry Aiello and Bill Payne. Includes the killer Latin groover "Conquistadores 74", plus "Stu", "Feels Good", "Fancy", "Stacy", Gengis" and "I Can Hear The Grass Grow".

The original version of the album In Heat as it was intended to sound. The Fuzztones have been around for over 30 years as a garage rock revival band. Though originally from New York City, they work mainly in Europe where their brand of retro 60 trash rock burns up radios from Hungary to Poland to Italy. The original In Heat was released in 1989 at the peak of the garage revival, when bands like the Chesterfield Kings, Lyres, and Cynics were all the rage. Unsurprising, the music industry turned a blind eye, yet miraculously The Fuzztones signed a major label deal with RCA. Label politics had the band in a "real" studio with a "name" producer who watered down their unharnessed energy and snotty attitude. In the end the original disc was a second rate affair with most of the grit rubbed out only to die a sad, quick death at the hands of critics who never appreciated the band’s live act anyway. Raw Heat therefore turns the clock back in time when garage rock rivaled punk as the most exciting musical scene to come along in decades.

The original version of the album In Heat as it was intended to sound. The Fuzztones have been around for over 30 years as a garage rock revival band. Though originally from New York City, they work mainly in Europe where their brand of retro 60 trash rock burns up radios from Hungary to Poland to Italy. The original In Heat was released in 1989 at the peak of the garage revival, when bands like the Chesterfield Kings, Lyres, and Cynics were all the rage. Unsurprising, the music industry turned a blind eye, yet miraculously The Fuzztones signed a major label deal with RCA. Label politics had the band in a "real" studio with a "name" producer who watered down their unharnessed energy and snotty attitude. In the end the original disc was a second rate affair with most of the grit rubbed out only to die a sad, quick death at the hands of critics who never appreciated the band’s live act anyway. Raw Heat therefore turns the clock back in time when garage rock rivaled punk as the most exciting musical scene to come along in decades.

Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI - Esprit d'Armenie (2012) {Alia Vox AVSA 9892}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 377 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 185 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 236 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Alia Vox | AVSA 9892
Classical / Chamber Music / World Music

This album is a tribute to Armenia and to the Armenian musicians who have played alongside Jordi Savall and his wife Montserrat Figueras over the past several years. The repertoire, culled from Hesperion XXI's fascinating live programs, ranges from lively to contemplative. All of the unique and powerful music on Armenian Spirit is beautifully played using traditional instruments including the duduk, an ancient double-reed instrument with a deeply moving sound quality. Jordi Savall illuminates this music with a faultless musical flair, driven by his endless curiosity and supreme musicianship. The disc is accompanied by a lavishly documented and richly illustrated booklet.

Swiss experimental rock quartet Sonar (whose name is a portmanteau of "sonic" and "architecture") comprise guitarists Stephan Thelen and Bernhard Wagner, bassist Christian Kuntner, and drummer Manuel Pasquinelli. The bandmembers bring an array of talents uniquely suited to creating Sonar's precise and rhythmically complex yet spacious and streamlined post-minimalist sound, harmonically idiosyncratic with the guitars and bass tuned in tritones (an interval given the Latin name diabolus in musica – the devil in music – during medieval times). The California-born Thelen is a strong admirer of the early- to mid-'70s (Starless and Bible Black) and early- to mid-'80s (Discipline) editions of King Crimson, and participated with the Venezuela-born Wagner in Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft seminars in the '90s. Thelen (Sonar's principal composer) also studied classical guitar, and he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Zurich.

Fusing the rhythms and invocations of the ancient Saharan Banga ritual with an electrical storm of contemporary sonics, Ifriqiyya Electrique’s second album both grips and awakens.