End Day (2005)

Clark had her brief moment in the sun, then languished in near obscurity, save for the die-hard loyalists of the Northern soul scene, who relished every move she made from her Motown years and beyond. Thankfully, the folks over at the U.K. imprint of Motown had the good sense to include her in their recent onslaught of catalog reissues highlighting the minor players of Motown.

Director Tim Burton brings his unique vision and sensibility to Roald Dahl's classic children's story in this lavish screen interpretation. Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) is the secretive and wildly imaginative man behind the world's most celebrated candy company, and while the Wonka factory is famously closed to visitors, the reclusive candy man decides to give five lucky children a chance to see the inside of his operation by placing "golden tickets" in five randomly selected chocolate bars. Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore), whose poor but loving family lives literally in the shadow of the Wonka factory, is lucky enough to obtain one of the tickets, and Charlie, escorted by his Grandpa Joe (David Kelly), is in for the ride of a lifetime as he tours the strange and remarkable world of Wonka with fellow winners, media-obsessed Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry), harsh and greedy Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), gluttonous Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz), and ultra-competitive Violet Beauregarde (Annasophia Robb). Over the course of the day, some of the children will learn difficult lessons about themselves, and one will go on to become Wonka's new right hand.

In their early years, Kaipa was one of Sweden's best Symphonic Prog bands. Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings was a member of Kaipa. Their albums contain mostly instrumental music, drawing its influences from classic progressive Rock bands (Camel, Yes, Genesis), Classical music (Bach), and also Swedish Folk music. The Decca Years is a compilation of the three first albums from Kaipa, released under the Decca label during the years of 1975 to 1978. It also includes a demo which was previously unreleased, and a previously unreleased live set.

Chante is an exemplary cultivation of Aldo Romano's jardín of romantic songs. His poignant intimacy of feelings is genuinely conveyed in this stylish set of emotional songs replete with rhythmic waves, passionate lyrics, and beautiful music. With superb accompaniment from Nelson Veras on acoustic guitar, Rémi Vignolo on double bass, André "Dee" Ceccarelli on drums, Francesco Bearzatti on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Flavio Boltro on trumpet, and Baptiste Trotignon on piano, the pleasure you will derive from Romano's poetic expressions is priceless.

A tough-talking teen attempts to uncover his ex-girlfriend's killer in director Rian Johnson's hard-boiled high-school noir, told in the style of a Dashiell Hammett mystery. An outsider by nature, Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is forced to penetrate the elaborate ranks of the high-school social scene and its more insidious underbelly when the body of his former girlfriend Emily is found lying lifeless in a remote creek. Though the pair had been on the outs, Brendan can't seem to shake the hysterical phone call that he received from Emily the day before her body was discovered, a call in which she rattled off a number of cryptic words: "brick," "pin," "tug," "poor Frisco." He's determined to find the guilty party, and to do that he'll need to uncover the meaning behind her enigmatic phone call.

Ruphus - Let Your Light Shine
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC (tracks): 247 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Pan Records # PACD 026 | Country/Year: Norway 2005, 1975
Genre: Rock, Jazz | Style: Jazz Rock, Progressive Rock

"Ruphus is probably one of the most important 70's Norwegian hard rock band with progressive tendencies (…) Future jazz-rock legend Terje Rypdal produced their third album 'Let Your Light Shine', a jazz-rock album that had much success in Germany…"