Medley Sasha

If you are looking for a collection of romantic songs to be played while having a drive or a walk with your romantic interest or even by yourself, this is the one to have: issued by the European Sony/Bravo label, it focuses on the songs who were on the radio in the 80's. If you are a "son of the 80's" and enjoy music to awaken your contemplative and quietest side, buy it! While hard to find outside the US, it is worth having.

For the benefit of the geographically challenged, the Bering Strait is the stretch of water, 55 miles across at its narrowest, between western Alaska and eastern Siberia, the place where the U.S. and Russia come the closest to connecting. In fact, since it is frozen over more than half the year, it's the point at which the two countries do connect. The name is an appropriate one, then, to be taken by a Russian group playing Western-style country music….

The Network Media Cooperative (Network Medien-Cooperative) was founded in October 1979 – by April 1990 we had already issued 19 titles, at the time as audio-cassettes with a comprehensive booklet in a small package that looked like a chocolate box. The covers and layouts were produced using Letraset on a light-table installed over a bath tub. Among those first records were the musical themes that were to preoccupy us for 30 years: an extensive document of the “Gypsies Music Festival”; meanwhile the music of the Roma has been documented on numerous Network CDs, including the anthology “Road of the Gypsies” (often copied but never achieving the same level). A double musíccasette packet was devoted to cult music from Haiti and the sounds and life philosophy of the Rastafarians in Jamaica. Recording trips were undertaken, among others, to Cuba, Trinidad, St. Lucia, and Curacao, but also to Latin America, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Belize. We also approached the music worlds of Africa in our portrait of the South African pianist and vocalist Dollar Brand (today Abdullah Ibrahim) and in the first studio recordings of Soukous music. These were followed by trips to Liberia, Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, Zanzibar.

First thing’s first-context and impressions. I’ll spare you the googling-Megatropolis is the sixth studio album released by Iron Savior. It was released in 2007. So what am I doing reviewing it? Here’s the thing. This year, the band released a partially re-recorded and remixed version of the original album. Why? Probably money. But the lead guitarist and singer, Piet Sielck, has been quoted as saying “AFM has informed me that our “Megatropolis” album is sold out, so the idea came up to rework the material and release a new edition. Being unhappy with the album for a long time, I am absolutely delighted to get a chance to correct my errors. The new mix will carry all Iron Savior trademarks such as big choir backings and lots of multi timbral vocals. I left all these goodies out at the time to make the album more distinguishable from my former second band Savage Circus… a fatal error, which I finally can correct now.