If the afterworld includes a red-light district, Erotic Rhythms from Earth would qualify as its soundtrack. The third recording from Austin, Texas programmer/multi-instrumentalist Shane O'Madden beckons you into an off-focus world of amorphous boundaries, one that hovers somewhere between eternity and soft-core carnality. Offering an assortment of quirky temptations too intriguing to resist, O'Madden blurs Middle Eastern textures (principally generated via violin) and ambient electronic wayfaring with sultry, unhurried trip-hop textures, subtle female cooing, and understated rhythms. It all combines to exude a beguiling mood of faint danger and fashionable decadence, where the final destination is a bazaar of hidden, delicious pleasures…
This is effectively the entire studio catalogue, and includes all the American singer-songwriter’s albums recorded as John Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp and John Mellencamp for various record labels. The set contains a total of 223 tracks and spans 35 years. Twelve of the albums have bonus tracks, sourced from the 2005 re-mastered versions of Mellencamp’s Mercury releases.
Sessions is Union Square Music’s 2CD urban and dance music range. Aimed at both the hardened dance music fan and the impulse purchaser, each Sessions title is packed full of hit singles, big club tracks and a choice selection of forgotten gems and underground classics picked out by our expert crate-digging compilers. Strong generic packaging including an outer slipcase, informative sleeve notes and a low price in the shops have made Sessions one of our most popular labels.
Hopefully this reissue of Chapman's 1993 disc will find a wider audience than it managed the first time around. For those who love his late-'60s work, there's a real harking back to the classic Rainmaker in the title, and even a new version of one of his best-known songs, "Postcards of Scarborough." Doing everything himself, Chapman melds his gritty voice with thoughtful lyrics and rippling guitar work, although he does cut loose on a couple of occasions, on the instrumentals "Akublu" and "Elinkine," while his non-vocal take on "She Moves Through the Fair" glides with an almost ethereal grace. He can still write some stunning, insightful songs, like "Fool in the Night," with its remorse, or the wistful "Falling from Grace."
It was in the year 1985, when the foundation was laid for the career of a band which is, almost 35 years later, as active as on the very first day. Certainly, the talk is of Rage that have started out as Avenger, before the band name was changed. Now the three albums between 2001 and 2003 of the Metal Legend from Herne, Germany, are being re-released on three double CDs in a box set, including bonus CDs containing numerous demo versions that also include previously unreleased songs. Especially interesting for all fans is the digitally re-mastered version of the album "Welcome To The Other Side".
An acclaimed singer/songwriter whose literate work flirted with everything from acoustic folk to rockabilly to straight-ahead country, John Prine was born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, IL. Raised by parents firmly rooted in their rural Kentucky background, at age 14 Prine began learning to play the guitar from his older brother while taking inspiration from his grandfather, who had played with Merle Travis. After a two-year tenure in the U.S. Army, Prine became a fixture on the Chicago folk music scene in the late '60s, befriending another young performer named Steve Goodman…
“It was quite earth-shattering,” Marina Diamandis tells Apple Music. “The feeling of not knowing what you want to do with your life is terrifying. And I’d never had that before because I had the luxury of being very focused for 10 years.” The singer-songwriter is describing the career knife-edge she found herself on following 2015’s Froot. Fortunately, an extended hiatus allowed a musical recharge, and with her streamlined stage name and double album, we’re all witnesses to a glorious pop return. “I’m at peace with myself,” she says. “I feel less nervous than I’ve ever felt. And besides, when you’re uncertain, you don’t have anything to lose.” Here, she takes us through both sides of her opus: the radiant pop of LOVE and the darker, more introspective FEAR.