Now From 29 December 2014

James Brown - Bodyheat (1976) {2014 Japan Rare Groove Funk Best Collection 1000 UICY-76591}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 269 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 88 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1976, 2014 Polydor / Universal Music Japan | UICY-76591
Funk / R'n'B / Soul / Funky Jam

'BODYHEAT' was originally released in December 1976 as Polydor-1-6093 in a striking jacket illustrated by Virginia Team. The title cut's single release was his last highest charting single (#13 R&B) until "Living In America" in 1985 (#4 Pop, #10 R&B). A clavinet based funk-er, it features a steadier beat somewhere between his usual funk and straight disco. In fact the back cover of the album announced "James Brown - Brand New Sound." Surprisingly, the rest of the original album's Side One consisted of two ballads, the almost four years stale "It's A Man's, Man's World" retread "Woman," and the much better "Kiss In '77" which deserved more than it's #35 R&B showing. Brown seemed to favor the atypically restrained ballad, featuring it in his concerts for years after it's release.

Blending the literate and expressive lyrical style of a classic singer/songwriter with music rooted in indie rock, Joseph Arthur is a well-respected songwriter and performer whose work has impressed critics as well as artists such as Peter Gabriel and Michael Stipe. Arthur's original goal was to become a hotshot bass player, but exposure to Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain prompted him to take up songwriting, and in 1996, he self-released an EP that made its way to Peter Gabriel, who signed Arthur to his Real World label. 1997's challenging Big City Secrets and 2000's rootsy Come to Where I'm From impressed critics and discriminating listeners, and 2004's Our Shadows Will Remain found him digging even deeper into his confessional tales. With 2007's Let's Just Be, Arthur launched his own record label, Lonely Astronaut, giving him greater control over his music as he recorded idiosyncratic projects such as 2013's The Ballad of Boogie Christ and 2014's Lou (the latter a collection of Lou Reed covers).

In 1977, after three years' time off working on various solo projects – which were to have culminated with a trio of solo albums – Emerson, Lake & Palmer reunited to release Works, Vol. 1, a double LP containing the best of the solo works plus a side of group-conceived pieces. All in all, it was the most ambitious and wide-ranging body of music they'd ever released, and was followed by the more modestly proportioned but still successful Works, Vol. 2 in November of that year, and a tour that fall and winter; in keeping with the albums that spawned it, the concerts initially featured a 90-piece orchestra supporting the trio…

Charles Mingus and His Jazz Groups - Mingus Dynasty (1959) {2014 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 387 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 142 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 183 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1959, 2014 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | SICP 4003 | 2014 DSD remaster
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz

Reissue the with latest 2014 DSD remastering. Comes with liner notes. Mingus Dynasty is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959. It is the companion album to the classic Mingus Ah Um and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Brilliant work by Mingus – recorded right around the same time as his legendary Mingus Ah Um album for Columbia! The group features some of Mingus' best sidemen – like Booker Ervin, Jimmy Knepper, John Handy, Roland Hanna and Don Ellis – and the tracks have that wild mix of emotion, tight composition, and freewheeling soloing that made Mingus' late 50's output so compelling. Includes "Diane", "Song With Orange", "Gunslinging Bird", and "Far Wells, Mill Valley". Plus the CD includes the bonus track "Strollin" and unedited versions of "Slop", "Song With Orange", "Gunslinging Bird", and "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" – all of which were originallly shaved down for release on the original album, now here in their proper form.

Charley Pride - The Country Way (1967) + Make Mine Country (1968) {2014 Music City Records Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 402 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 149 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1967-68, 2014 RCA / Music City Records / Sony Music | 05316
Country / Country Pop / Nashville Sound

There needs to be at least 5 more available stars for this cd set. Charley Pride's 3rd Album, "The Country Way" was the best album of his entire career! It could have been a Greatest Hits album - all of the songs are THAT good!! Charley is way over due for a boxed set on his entire RCA career, but - hopefully - that will happen soon. You cannot go wrong with this cd. In fact, buy 5 and give to your friends and neighbors. If there is a greater demand for these 60's country music super stars on cd, someone will put out more of all of the deserving artists.

Eels - The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett (2014) {E Works Records EWORKS1147CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 198 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 96 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 166 Mb | 5% repair rar
© E Works Records | EWORKS1147CD
Rock / Indie Rock

It's not like Mark Oliver Everett (hereafter known as E) hasn't dealt with these themes before. His whole recording career, most of it done under the Eels moniker, has been full of brilliantly crafted pop songs that tour death, terminal illness, regrets, lost dear ones, a veiled belief in better days and times overlaid by thick angst, and now and then, actual bursts of bouncing joy and humor. So there's nothing really new thematically on the 11th Eels album, The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett, and even its sparse, stripped-down, and lightly orchestrated acoustic folk feel is something E has often visited. He turned 50 while writing these songs, so maybe that has something to do with the heavy and regretful tone that washes through these rather muted, weary, and almost whispered musings, few of which even rise to the tempo of a slow shuffle.

Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Roxy By Proxy (2014) {Zappa Records ZR 20017 rec 1973}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 530 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 179 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 713 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1973, 2014 Zappa Records / ZFT | ZR 20017
Rock / Experimental Rock / Jazz Rock

Official Release #99. After numerous delays those who pre-ordered Frank Zappa’s Roxy By Proxy have finally received their CDs. The 13-track release was recorded at The Roxy in Los Angeles on December 9 and 10, 1973. Frank is listed as the producer of the project, which was mixed in 1987, though Gail Zappa and Joe Travers are listed as producers for the CD and compilation. John Polito mastered the CD in 2011 and it includes liner notes from band member Ruth Underwood.