Buford's Beach Bunnies (1993)

Digitally remastered and expanded deluxe two CD edition of fifth album by the Norwegian trio. The second CD includes demos and live tracks. The album was recorded primarily at Prince's Paisley Park studios outside Minneapolis in the U.S. Featured among the tracks is "Angel in the Snow", a song Paul wrote for his bride, Lauren Savoy, as a wedding gift, and the eight-minute epic "Cold as Stone". Memorial Beach featured three more top 50 singles for the band in the UK, "Move to Memphis", "Dark is the Night" and "Angel in the Snow". While the album did not chart on the Billboard 200 and would be the band's last to be released in the U.S., the single "Dark Is the Night" peaked at #11 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.

Beach Blast: Shag & Blues Compilation, Vol. 1 compiles 17 tracks of modern-day beach music favorites. Beach music started in the '60s with the laid-back pop-soul sound of groups like the Chairmen of the Board and smooth soul men like Brenton Wood. The scene is still going strong today, and encompasses blues artists as well as soul sounds. This disc is split between blues and soul, with many old-school soul names popping up, such as Clarence Carter, William Bell, and Tyrone Davis.

Astrud Gilberto - Beach Samba (1967) {Verve 314 519 801-2, Remastered & Expanded Edition rel 1993}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 287 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 19 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1967, 1993 Verve / PolyGram | 314 519 801-2
Jazz / Bossa Nova / Vocal Jazz / Brazilian Jazz / Mood Music / Brazilian Pop

A great album from Astrud Gilberto – one that has her pushing past the simple bossa of early years, running through a range of 60s styles that all sound great – really opening up, finding new confidence in her vocals, and bridging a few different musical worlds in the process! There's still plenty of Brazilian tunes in the mix – like "Oba, Oba", "Canoeiro", "Bossa Na Praia", "Nao Bate O Corocao", and Marcos Valle's great "The Face I Love" – and the album also features great versions of "Misty Roses", "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice", and "Stay". Backings are by Deodato and Don Sebesky – and the album's a dreamy 60s pop delight!

Frank Zappa - The Yellow Shark (1993) [CD+SATRip] + Everything Is Healing Nicely (1999)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 706 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 335 Mb
DVD5 -> 4.07 Gb | All Regions | PAL 4:3 | English LinearPCM, 2 ch | ~ 90 m | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (tiff) -> 1.03 Gb | 5% repair rar
© 1995, 1999 Rykodisc / The Zappa Family Trust | RCD 40560 / UMRK 03
Classical / Modern Composition / Avant-Garde / Experimental

During his last years, Frank Zappa concentrated on his "serious music," trying to impose himself as a composer and relegating the rock personality to the closet. His last two completed projects topped everything he had done before in this particular field. The Yellow Shark, an album of orchestral music, was released only a few weeks before he succumbed to cancer (the computer music/sound collage album Civilization Phaze III was released a few months later). This CD, named for a plexiglas fish given to Zappa in 1988, culls live recordings from the Ensemble Modern's 1992 program of the composer's music.

Ever the iconoclast, if there is one thing that Brian Eno has done with any degree of consistency throughout his varied career, it is presenting his art in an array of perpetually "out of the box" forums. All that changed – in a manner of speaking – with the release of two companion multi-disc compilations. Eno Box I: Instrumentals (1994) condenses his wordless creations, while Eno Box II: Vocals (1993) does the same for the rest of his major works on a similarly sized volume. Interestingly – and in his typically contrary fashion – this initial installment was actually issued last. Each of Eno Box I: Instrumentals' three CDs respectively concentrates on a specific facet of the artist's copious back catalog.

Stars Kill Rock is a collection of largely unreleased material from one of the '90s pre-eminent American indie labels, Kill Rock Stars, operated by Bikini Kill's Tobi Vail. While there are a few clinkers, most of the material is top-shelf; the music generally leans toward punk, and in keeping with the label's riot-grrrl aesthetic, most of the artists involved are female. Among the highlights are contributions from the cuddle-core quartet Tiger Trap, the British sexual terrorists Huggy Bear, and Boston folkie Mary Lou Lord.