Hard Hitter Rock Engle

A year on from one of the most satisfying hard rock debuts of the age, 1972's Bulletproof, Hard Stuff were hard-pressed to make such a brazen impression on their second LP, and that despite having spent the intervening time pushing themselves to the very brink of a breakthrough. Funkier than its predecessor, and more experimental too, the uncompromisingly named Bolex Dementia substituted much of its predecessor's raw power with proggier tones – John Du Cann himself compared the title track to Spooky Tooth's equally vague meanderings with Pierre Henry. And as if that were not difficult enough, the album was decked in what remains an astonishingly ugly cover, and promoted with a truly tasteless ad campaign.

Two CD collection. When Purple Records was first set up in 1971, it was by no means a mere vanity label to release Deep Purple product, from Machine Head until the end of the decade; it also set out to nurture and discover raw talent too. The label would eventually become home to debut solo releases from Jon Lord, Roger Glover, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes, as well as early releases from Yvonne Elliman and Ronnie James Dio with Elf. One of their earliest signings was a hard rock band called Bullet, featuring guitarist John Du Cann and drummer Paul Hammond, both formerly of Atomic Rooster, having played on Death Walks Behind You (1970), and In The Hearing Of (1971). They were joined by Quatermass bassist John Gustafson. After only one single, they discovered a US band already called Bullet, swiftly changing their name to Hard Stuff.

Elfenbein "Made in Rock" CD reissue. These were an obscure 70's Anglo-American styled hard/progressive rock band. Their song-based kind of boogie rockin' style draws comparison to many an ex-Man band, like The Neutrons or Judas Jump (The Crack in the Cosmic Egg).

Various Artists - Rock And Roll Music!: The Songs Of Chuck Berry (2017) {Ace Records CDCHD 1491} (Complete Artwork)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 394 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 156 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 48 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2017 Ace Records | CDCHD 1491
Rock & Roll / Rhythm & Blues

It's no secret that Chuck Berry's songs are rock & roll standards, covered by more musicians than can be counted. That poses something of a problem for Ace's Rock & Roll Music! The Songs of Chuck Berry, a 2017 entry in their ongoing Songbook series. Where other collections in this line provide some kind of revelation about the composer, these songs are so well-known through their constant covers that having 24 songs collected on one disc doesn't stand as a testament to the composer; anybody paying attention to rock & roll music knows that Chuck Berry was a formidable writer.

Starting off the year with a 100-song marathon in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, Robert Pollard is setting a mighty high bar for Guided By Voices in 2020. Following three acclaimed and stylistically distinct full-length albums in 2019, Surrender Your Poppy Field, is a head-spinning tour de force: a bit of everything… plus more! And hands down the most adventurous GBV album ever. There are lo-fi four-track tape recordings, there are songs recorded with a single microphone in a basement, there are big studio fully-produced hook-laden pop songs, and there is a lot in between. Seemingly, the guiding concept of Surrender Your Poppy Field was to make the songs sound as different from one another as possible: sudden shifts in mood, tempo and rhythm, unexpected chord progressions, false endings and codas, string orchestrations, mysterious voices…