Rkodr Transient Stellar

Though it was the group's major-label debut, Stereolab's Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements showed no signs of selling out. If anything, it's one of the most eclectic and experimental releases in Stereolab's early career, emphasizing the group's elongated Krautrock jams, instrumentals, and harsh, noisy moments. The album begins and ends with smooth, sensual washes of sound like "Tone Burst" and "Lock-Groove Lullaby" and smoothly bouncy pop songs like "I'm Going Out of My Way." These softer, more accessible moments surround complex and varied compositions such as "Analogue Rock," "Our Trinitone Blast," and "Golden Ball," which, with its distorted vocals and shifting tempos, serves as an appetizer for "Jenny Ondioline." A hypnotic, 18-minute epic encompassing dreamy yet driving pop, a Krautrock groove, forceful, churning guitars, and a furious climax, it's the most ambitious – and definitive – moment of Stereolab's early years.

John Coltrane - Stellar Regions (1967) {2015 Japan Impulse! Classics 50 Series UCCI-9251}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 381 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 145 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 374 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1967, 2015 Impulse! / Verve / Universal Music Japan | UCCI-9251
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Unreleased gems from Coltrane – recorded near the end of his life, in 1967, with a quartet that includes Alice Coltrane on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Rashied Ali on drums. The tracks are free – but not as free as work on a record like OM – more in the mode of Ali and Trane's work on the Interstellar Space LP. Titles include "Jimmy's Mode", "Tranesonic", "Seraphic Light", "Sun Star", and "Iris" – and the CD version is extra-packed with music, and includes some bonus alternate takes!

The fourth Sphäre Sechs album was recorded during improvised studio sessions. Using a selected set of analog instruments Christian Stritzel and Martin Stürtzer have put together a mystic, slowly evolving ambient sound. A warm cocoon in cold space longing for the enigmas of the solar system and beyond.
Transient Lunar Phenomena are changes in appearance on the lunar surface of unknown origin. Light signals and color changes have been observed since the 6th century. The lunar events were officially cataloged in NASA technical report TR R-277 in 1968. Recommended for fans of dark space ambient and analog drone.

The 14th installment of Dave's Picks is devoted to another 1972 show, this one taken from an appearance at New York's Academy of Music on March 26, 1972 - i.e. before the Dead headed across the Atlantic for their legendary series of European shows. Generally, it's a pretty muscular performance, getting off the ground with a driving "Greatest Story Ever Told" and featuring a hefty dose of Pigpen in the first set, including "Mr. Charlie" and the one-two punch of "Big Railroad Blues" and "Big Boss Man." Here, his blues leanings seem of piece with the other roots the Dead lay down early - Jerry Garcia sings Hank Williams' "You Win Again," Bob Weir turns Marty Robbins' "El Paso" into one of his signature cowboy rambles - but by the time Pigpen surfaces toward the end singing the crawling "The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)"…

Manassas were the first band Stephen Stills involved himself with after the breakup of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. He'd recorded a pair of solo albums, but forming this group with ex- and future Byrd and former Flying Burrito Brother Chris Hillman, pedal steel guitarist Al Perkins, Joe Lala from Blues Image, the CSNY rhythm section of Dallas Taylor and Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels, and session man Paul Harris turned out to be a dream band, for a time. The unit released two albums on Atlantic: its self-titled debut in 1971 (which is widely regarded as a classic) and a less successful follow-up entitled Down the Road in 1972. Stills' and Rhino's Pieces assemblage of Manassas tracks includes outtakes and unreleased numbers from both recordings. This is the first in a series of retrospective recordings that Stills plans to issue, among them a box set, a live set, and (in association with Experience Hendrix) an album of studio session demos he recorded with Jimi Hendrix, his then guitar teacher (Hendrix appeared on Stills' debut solo effort), as well as a live compilation.