CD Rip Scans

Mike Oldfield's groundbreaking album Tubular Bells is arguably the finest conglomeration of off-centered instruments concerted together to form a single unique piece. A variety of instruments are combined to create an excitable multitude of rhythms, tones, pitches, and harmonies that all fuse neatly into each other, resulting in an astounding plethora of music. Oldfield plays all the instruments himself, including such oddities as the Farfisa organ, the Lowrey organ, and the flageolet. The familiar eerie opening, made famous by its use in The Exorcist, starts the album off slowly, as each instrument acoustically wriggles its way into the current noise that is heard, until there is a grand unison of eccentric sounds that wildly excites the ears.

Recorded in 1973/1974 at the Manor, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire. The seven seventies Tangerine Dream albums are re-issued as "Newly re-mastered from the original master tapes…" (label) in clear jewel cases with "RE-MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL VIRGIN MASTER TAPES" printed into the side .Rubycon is the sixth major release and sixth studio album by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It was released in 1975. It is widely regarded as one of their best albums. Rubycon further develops the Berlin School sequencer-based sound they ushered in with the title track from Phaedra. Although not quite matching the sales figures for Phaedra, Rubycon reached number 10 in a 14-week run, their highest-charting album in the UK.

42 at the time, guitarist Ed Bickert (who had been a top Canadian studio musicians since the late '50s) finally had an opportunity to lead his own record date in 1975; fortunately, there would be many more. The cool-toned guitarist sounds fine on six sophisticated standards (including "Come Rain or Come Shine," "When Sunny Gets Blue" and "It Might as Well Be Spring") with two other versatile Canadian players, bassist Don Thompson and drummer Terry Clarke. Subtle and lightly swinging music.

"Jo Sago" was the band's second (and final) album and originally appeared in November 1970 on the now legendary Harvest label. The band began life as a Progressive Folk band comprising of the core members Jeff Daw (Vocals, Guitar, Flute), James Langston (Vocals, Guitar) & Nigel Phillips (Drums, Recorder, Keyboards) and were part of Jim Simpson's Birmingham-based Big Bear Management stable of artists (who also included Bakerloo, Black Sabbath and Locomotive).
By the time of the "Jo Sago" album, Jeff Daw and James Langston were joined by Bob Wilson on Keyboards, Guitar and Bass and had moved further into the area of Progressive Rock. Produced by Tony Cox at Sound Techniques studios, "Jo Sago" was a conceptual work that touched on subjects such as race relations in 1970s Britain and more…

Released in 1970, Just a Little Lovin' was the fourth (and last) studio album Carmen McRae cut for Atlantic Records in the late '60s/early '70s. The albums were for the most part a mix of pop and jazz songs with a decidedly pop angle. Just a Little Lovin' isn't too different, though it leans more toward the soulful end of the street. Producer Arif Mardin put McRae together with the Dixie Flyers studio band, backup singers extraordinaire the Sweet Inspirations, and an all-star horn section led by King Curtis, and then let her loose on the usual Beatles covers (a lifeless "Something," a very relaxed and sensual "Here, There and Everywhere," and a dramatic take on "Carry That Weight") and pop tunes like Jimmy Webb's "Didn't We" and Laura Nyro's "Goodbye Joe"…

While their subsequent chart-topping albums would contain far more ambitious songwriting and musicianship, the Police's 1978 debut, Outlandos d'Amour (translation: Outlaws of Love) is by far their most direct and straightforward release. Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz backgrounds, it was much easier to get a record contract in late-'70s England if you were a punk/new wave artist, so the band decided to mask their instrumental prowess with a set of strong, adrenaline-charged rock, albeit with a reggae tinge.

Even before his solo concerts became popular successes, Keith Jarrett was clearly getting a free hand from ECM founder Manfred Eicher, as this ambitious double album of classical compositions proves. In this compendium of eight works for all kinds of ensembles, the then-28-year old Jarrett adamantly refuses to be classified, flitting back and forth through the centuries from the baroque to contemporary dissonance, from exuberant counterpoint for brass quintet to homophonic writing for a string section. Though the content is uneven in quality, Jarrett is clearly sincere and skilled enough to exploit his European roots with only a handful of syncopated references to his jazz work. The strongest, most moving individual pieces are the strange, gong-haunted "In the Cave, In the Light" (the probable source of the title of Jarrett's publishing company, Cavelight)…