Aurora Aurora (1977) [1999, Shroom, SP 99007]

Steely Dan hadn't been a real working band since Pretzel Logic, but with Aja, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's obsession with sonic detail and fascination with composition reached new heights. A coolly textured and immaculately produced collection of sophisticated jazz-rock, Aja has none of the overt cynicism or self-consciously challenging music that distinguished previous Steely Dan records. Instead, it's a measured and textured album, filled with subtle melodies and accomplished, jazzy solos that blend easily into the lush instrumental backdrops.

After the international success of the self-produced "Fox on the Run," Sweet broke away from songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman in an attempt to shake their "pop puppets" and took a stab at conquering the hard rock album market. Sadly, a lot of their post-hit singles period output lacked the tight songwriting and hooks that made them famous, and this problem is in evidence on Off the Record…

20 track Greatest Hits collection including Beautiful Sunday, his big hit from 1972, plus Sunshine Lover, Skydiver & more. Daniel Boone is an English pop musician who became a one-hit wonder in the US with the single "Beautiful Sunday" in 1972. The song was written by Boone and Rod McQueen and sold over two million copies worldwide. It peaked at number 15 on The Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the summer of 1972, having already reached number 21 on the UK Singles Chart earlier that same year. In 1972, Boone was the recipient of the "Most Likeable Singer" award from Rolling Stone magazine.

David Bowie - All Saints: Collected Instrumentals 1977-1999 (2001) {EMI Records}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 391 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 181 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 149 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2001 EMI Records / Virgin | 7243 5 33045 2 2
Rock / Ambient / Experimental Rock / Electronic

This collection of instrumentals offers a stark reminder of the sheer mind-boggling scope of David Bowie's sound and vision. Most of these 16 brooding soundscapes are plucked from Bowie's hugely influential 1977 albums, Low and Heroes. Taking his cue from Kraftwerk, Bowie enlisted ambient pioneer Brian Eno and decamped to Berlin. It's no exaggeration to say that the resulting albums were integral in defining the path of modern music. Throughout, there's a palpable sense of foreboding, perhaps best exemplified by "Sense of Doubt," a truly unsettling mesh of booming piano and spookily spiraling synths. That the Thin White Duke's Berlin material still dazzles is no surprise. However, it's the remarkable revelation–provided by a clutch of slightly more recent tracks–that he can still cut it that'll hearten disillusioned Bowie fans everywhere.

Sherbet were Australia's most popular pop group of the 70s with 20 consecutive hit records and 17 album, accounting for 10 platinum and 14 gold disc awards. In 1969 the Sydney entertainment scene was almost totally geared towards satisfying the money-rich comfort-starved American Vietnam troops who came for official Rest And Recreation. Sydney's nightclubs gave them what they wanted - r&b, soul, funk, good-time rock - and these influences spilled over into the pop group Sherbet, formed without singer Daryl Braithwaite, but completed by his falsetto-capable vocals. They were the archetypical 70s girl fodder pop band - groomed hair, colorful satin stage outfits.

Crammed with over two hours worth of Can performing during their peak years this selection of live cuts shows just what a dazzlingly inventive outfit the German free-form pioneers could be outside of their natural studio habitat. Like many innovative groups of the 1960's and 1970's Can live were a remarkably different beast from their studio persona, many of the tracks captured on this two-disc compilation either completely unrecognisable from their original album form or simply the result of some impromptu jams between the five members…

Weather Report's biggest-selling album is that ideal thing, a popular and artistic success – and for the same reasons.