Computeractive From 6 19 July 2016

A record-breaking pop phenomenon, Steps have always been dedicated to the dance floor. This remastered 3CD anthology brings together no less than 37 full-length mixes of their classic hits, including Tragedy, One For Sorrow, Deeper Shade Of Blue and many more. Alongside sought-after mixes from Almighty, Xenomania, Sleazesisters, Tony Moran and PWL’s Work In Progress team, an exclusive new Matt Pop remix of Say You’ll Be Mine takes Steps right back to their Hit Factory roots.

First recognized as the dance duo behind the club hits "Stakker" (as Humanoid) and "Papua New Guinea," Future Sound of London later became one of the most acclaimed and respected international experimental ambient groups, incorporating elements of techno, classical, jazz, hip-hop, electro, industrial, and dub into expansive, sample-heavy tracks, often exquisitely produced and usually without easy precursor.
Notoriously enigmatic and often disdainful of the press, the group's Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans worked their future-is-now aesthetic into a variety of different fields, including film and video, 2- and 3-D computer graphics and animation, the Internet, radio broadcast, and, of course, recorded music…

Distortland, the ninth studio LP from Portland, Oregon quartet the Dandy Warhols, continues the band's post-Odditorium maturation, taming a bit of their edge. As singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor acknowledges on "The Grow Up Song," "I've got to admit, I'm too old for this shit." With less sleaze and more reflection, the Dandies retain their wit with a wink, but aren't as sneering as on prior releases. While their most popular hits tend to veer toward the infectious pop side of the spectrum, most of their albums contain a hefty amount of trippy dreamscapes. Distortland isn't as in-your-face as the more muscular tracks on This Machine, nor is it as shiny as Welcome to the Monkey House. Without any immediate hits like "We Used to Be Friends" or "Bohemian Like You," the band seems to have left behind that commercial urge on Distortland, instead focusing on vibes and sensations.

Australia is not the first place you think of as a crate-digger's paradise. But these 20 slices from the country's early-Seventies season in commercial R&B and pop-jazz fusion are a lively lesson in the ingenious adaption of imported trends over an extreme distance. This is overwhelmingly white funk: "Back on the Street Again," an Etta James cover by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, and the ID's "Feel Awlright" are examples of hot shots from Australia's Sixties-beat and heavy-rock scenes finding their dance-floor feet; a track by the progressive-rock band Tamam Shud comes from the soundtrack to a 1971 surfing documentary. But it is all robust fun with intriguing sampling prospects.

Unknown Italian sacred and instrumental music of the 18th century from Naples: The Abchordis Ensemble interprets the Lectio VIII Defunctorum (for soprano, two violins and basso continuo) by Gennaro Manna (1715-1779), and the symphony by Aniello Santangelo (18th century) in F (for two violins, viola and basso continuo) and the Stabat Mater (for four voices, with violins, violetta and basso continuo) by Giacomo Sellitto (1701-1763). An equally melodious and virtuoso music, sometimes attractively chromatically charged. Musical examples of the incredible cultural diversity in Naples in the 18th century. The Abchordis Ensemble was founded in 2011 by ten musicians of various nationalities, with the aim of rediscovering and bringing to light today unpublished or under-performed music. The vocal and instrumental ensemble dedicated themselves above all to church music in 17th and 18th century Italy.

Bill Evans - Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forest (2016) {2CD Resonance Records HCD-2019 rec 1968}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 460 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 217 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 213 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1968, 2016 Resonance Records / MPS | HCD-2019
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / PIano Trio

Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forest is a newly unearthed studio session from the iconic pianist Bill Evans featuring bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Recorded on June 20, 1968, nearly 10 years after the legendary Kind of Blue sessions with Miles Davis and a mere five days after the trio's incredible Grammy award-winning performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, this is truly a landmark discovery for jazz listeners worldwide. Available in deluxe 2-CD and limited edition 2-LP sets, and containing over 90 minutes of music, this is the only studio album in existence of the Bill Evans trio with Gomez and DeJohnette. Some Other Time was recorded by the legendary MPS Records founder and producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer along with writer/producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt at the MPS studios in the Black Forest (Villingen, Germany).

Séga is the traditional music of Mauritius (a small island off the coast of Madagascar) and is known as the “blues” of the Indian Ocean. The music was born during the 17th to 19th centuries by African slaves seeking relief from harsh conditions in sugar cane fields and on colonial land by dancing to improvised music incorporating rhythms from their homelands in West Africa, Mozambique, Zanzibar or Madagascar. From these diverse African influences sprang a new, insular dance and music, the séga.

Decades after its release, Tales from Topographic Oceans is still the most controversial record in Yes' output. This was the place where Yes either fulfilled all of the promise shown on their previous five albums or slid off the rails in a fit of artistic hubris, especially on the part of lead singer Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe, who dominated the composition credits here…