Dsd

Masabumi Kikuchi - East Wind (1974) {DSD Japan East Wind Masters Collection 1000 UCCJ-9131 rel 2015}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 304 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 103 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 141 Mb | 5% repair rar | DSD Mastering
© 1974, 2015 East Wind Music / Universal Japan | UCCJ-9131
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

A brilliant set from Japanese pianist Masabumi Kikuchi – two long, leaping, loping tracks that almost feel like some of McCoy Tyner's best work! Kikuchi plays acoustic piano, and the group's a quartet with Terumasu Hino on trumpet, Koshuke Mine on tenor, Eric Gravatt on drums, and Juni Booth playing some really wonderful bass. Booth's bass leads the tracks with a soulful quality that you don't always hear on Kikuchi's other work – really giving the record a strongly-rooted vibe, while the musicians are still free to really open up and explore. The album's tracks, "East Wind" and "Green Dance", are both excellent examples of the soulful freedoms allowed in the Japanese scene of the 70s – side-long numbers that are different both from contemporary performances on both the US and European scenes of the period.

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers - Moanin' (1958) {2009 Analogue Productions DSD Remaster}
XLD rip | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 309 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 119 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 13 Mb | 5% repair rar | DSD remaster
© 2009 Blue Note / Analogue Productions / EMI | CBNJ 84003 SA
Jazz / Hard Bop

Art Blakey's most successful album gave us Bobby Timmons' "Moanin'" and Benny Golson's "Along Came Betty" and "Blues March," tunes so powerful that Blakey played them almost every night for the next 30 years. This beautifully performed and recorded session made the Jazz Messengers a jazz institution and put Golson, Timmons and Morgan to the forefront of jazz.

Ron Wood - 1234 (1981) {2006 Japan Mini LP DSD Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 272 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 88 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 13 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | MHCP-1026
Rock / Hard Rock / Blues Rock

Digitally remastered reissue of Ron Wood's album originally released in 1981. DSD remastered in 2006. Includes a special cardboard sleeve case. Every aspect of this Rolling Stone's solo album screams of superstar indulgence, from its bizarre cover shot – look, there's Ron riding a camel under some jets – to co-producer Andy Johns' fawningly surreal back cover exhortation to "don't let anybody tape it because the label needs the money." There's no chance of such an occurrence: three studios are credited – and every track boasts a different lineup.

Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride (1971) {2008 Columbia Japan DSD MiniLP SICP-1780}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 290 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 100 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 45 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1971, 2008 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | SICP 1780 | Mini LP | DSD remastering
Rock / Classic Rock / Hard Rock

Following the success of Climbing! and appearances at Woodstock and other outdoor festivals of the day, Mountain recorded more of the same for Nantucket Sleighride. The title track is a nice mixture of classical-leaning intertwined with moderate rock; both "Don't Look Around" and "The Animal Trainer and the Toad" continue on the hard rock path so well-worn by this band. Not groundbreaking, but it is well worth listening to.

Brian Eno - Discreet Music (1975) {2009 Virgin DSD Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 270 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 129 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 26 Mb | 5% repair rar | DSD Remaster
© 1975, 2009 Virgin Records | 50999 6 84532 2 0
Ambient / Electronic / Avant-Garde

The latter part of 1975 was a remarkably creative period for Brian Eno. With his masterpiece Another Green World, Eno began moving away from the structure and sound of pop music toward a more static instrumental model, influenced in part by Erik Satie and strongly informed by his prior collaborations with Robert Fripp. Recorded just a month after Another Green World, Discreet Music is his first full foray into what has become known as ambient music. Using the same system of two reel-to-reel tape recorders as No Pussyfooting and Evening Star, Eno was able to layer simple parts atop one another, resulting in a beautiful piece of music that never really changes but constantly evolves with the addition and decay of different parts.

Jean-Marc Luisada - Schubert (2014) {Sony Music Japan DSD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 244 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 170 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 79 Mb | 5% repair rar | DSD
© 2014 Sony Music Japan | 88843054212
Classical / Romantic / Piano

French only. C'est le fameux portrait présumé de Schubert, adolescent timide qui semble fuir l'intrusion du peintre assis en face de lui, qui nous invite à l'écoute du dernier album du pianiste Jean-Marc Luisada qui se fait trop rare au disque. Avec des musiciens parfaitement soudés, il nous offre une version particulièrement joyeuse et amicale du Quintette en la majeur, cette Truite que l'on partage dans le plaisir d'une Schubertiade. Comme tout est ici vivant, ensoleillé ; c'est à peine si un voile de mélancolie vient ombrer l'andante à variations. La majeur, la bémol majeur, la mineur, Luisada virevolte avec gourmandise et malice autour de cette note qui se décline sous trois habits différents, un peu comme un peintre (ou un cuisinier) restant dans un camaïeu de couleurs et de goûts.

Brian Eno - Before And After Science (1977) {2004 Virgin DSD Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 238 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 95 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 15 Mb | 5% repair rar | DSD Remaster
© 2004 Virgin Records / Astralwerks | 7243 5 77292 2 2
Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Art Rock / Ambient

Before and After Science is really a study of "studio composition" whereby recordings are created by deconstruction and elimination: tracks are recorded and assembled in layers, then selectively subtracted one after another, resulting in a composition and sound quite unlike that at the beginning of the process. Despite the album's pop format, the sound is unique and strays far from the mainstream. Eno also experiments with his lyrics, choosing a sound-over-sense approach.

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (1959) {2003 DSD Remastered SACD Hybrid}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 352 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 132 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 369 Mb | 5% repair rar | DSD Mastering
© 2003 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | 064935 9
Jazz / Hard Bop / Modal Music / Trumpet

Referring to "Kind of Blue" as the best jazz album of all time might actually be doing it a disservice. Jazz is one of those complex artforms which many people shy away from, afraid that they will not be able to understand it. So extoling its virtues might frighten people even more. But "Kind of Blue" is simply beautiful music. When listening to it, you forget everything you might feel about jazz, whether good or bad, and can only listen to it, amazed and excited. Miles Davis has created something so powerful yet full of simple, memorable melodies. Every note takes you further into that state where you simply hush up, tell whoever you are with to shut up, and listen. It is certainly not the type of music I would put on when friends come over for a chat. But it is an album which I can listen to, over and over and over again. Definitely something for MUSIC fans.