Icon 2013

From the Inside is Poco's most unusual record, and one the band – especially founder Richie Furay, whose songs were sort of pushed into the background – finally didn't like all that much. But it was a very good one anyway, produced in Memphis by guitar legend Steve Cropper and featuring the group generating a leaner, more stripped-down, somewhat bluesier sound. The harmonies are less radiant and the guitars more subdued, and the spirits also a little more low-key than usual.

Walter Trout pays tribute to blues icon Luther Allison on his 23rd solo release Luther's Blues. 12 of the 13 tracks on the CD are associated with Allison except for the Trout original, "When Luther Played the Blues." Trout first met Luther in Switzerland at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1986, which provided the location shot for the CD cover. Trout maintains he had the idea for this album since that first meeting. The songs Trout chose to cover are taken from Allison's albums Songs from the Road, Bad Love, Blue Streak, Reckless, and Soul Fixin' Man. As usual, Trout's guitar dexterity is undisputed, but his top-notch vocal work deserves equal attention, especially on the heart-wrenching tracks "Freedom," and "Pain in the Streets." In an era where blues tribute albums are abundant, and in some cases the tribute is anything but, Luther's Blues rises to the top with the best of them.

The Winkies were probably six months late in cutting and releasing their debut album – six months, and one set of sessions. The news, earlier in 1974, that they were in the studio with Brian Eno was greeted with wild enthusiasm and anticipation; the collapse of those sessions, and Eno's replacement with Guy Stevens, somewhat less so. Far from the maverick icon which his posthumous reputation canonizes, Stevens' mid-1970s reputation owed more to his unreliability than his knob-twiddling skills, and it was no surprise whatsoever when The Winkies finally arrived, bearing more in common with the pre-fame Mott the Hoople (of course, Stevens' last major project) than the glorious glam pub hybrid which the band had hitherto nurtured.

John Coltrane - Sun Ship: The Complete Session (1965) {2CD Set Impulse! B0018075-02 rel 2013}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 695 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 257 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 85 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1965, 2013 Impulse! / Verve / UMG | B0018075-02
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Recorded on August 26, 1965 (and not released until after his death), Sun Ship was the final recording by John Coltrane's quartet with drummer Elvin Jones, pianist McCoy Tyner, and bassist Jimmy Garrison. Pharoah Sanders would join the group the following month, and Tyner and Jones would depart in January of 1966 to be replaced by Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali. It is also one of the saxophonist's most intense taped performances. After nearly four years together, this band had achieved a vital collective identity. When Coltrane moved toward metrically free styles of rhythm and melody (with tunes often based on one chord or a short series of notes as themes), the quartet's rhythmic pulse and collective interplay evolved accordingly.

Mostly Other People Do The Killing - Slippery Rock! (2013) {Hot Cup 123}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 368 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 124 Mb
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© 2013 Hot Cup Records | Hot Cup 123
Jazz / Post-Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz

Mostly Other Peopele Do the Killing is back! And with it the rightly slandered genre of smooth jazz. This quintet's fifth studio album was penned by MOPDtK bassist Moppa Elliott after a lengthy immersion in the smooth jazz recordings of the late 1970s and '80s. Elliott extracted certain idiomatic phrases, harmonies and embellishments from this superficial and commercial style, incorporated into his own compositions and used all the quartet members' encyclopedic knowledge to shed new light on this often maligned sub-genre.

All tracks recorded live at The North Sea Jazz Festival, 1985, Tuinpaviljoen, The Hague, The Netherlands.

After Blank & Jones produced last years comback album for 80s icon Sandra, curated a so8os artist edition for Falco and received a Gold Award for over 100.000 sold units of their so8os series in germany they are finally back with the eighth volume of their worldwide critically acclaimed so8os compilation series. Blank & Jones collected 34 classics from George Michael, Bananarama, Tears for Fears, The Cure, Steve Winwood, Ultravox, and more 80s icons, all in Master Tape Quality, guaranteed no Vinyl Rips! Many of the legendary 12 inch versions on CD for the very first time. Check out the amazing tracklisting which will bring every 80s and 12 inch lover the tears of joy in their eyes.