Saint Hotel

Feodor Chaliapin - The Complete Recordings (2018) {13CD Set Marston 51301-2}
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© 2018 Marston | 51301-2
Classical / Vocal / Opera / Folk / Bass / Russian Traditions / Historical

Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) (bass) was in the opinion of many the greatest singing actor of the 20th century. Like Enrico Caruso, the name Chaliapin continued to be a household word long after his death. A case in point is that the Sobranie tobacco company continued to market their “Chaliapin” cigarettes into the 1970s. Producing a Chaliapin set has long been a desire of Marston, yet due to the size of the compilation, the production costs, and the time involved, this project has been pushed to the back burner time and time again. With the financial assistance of some of our generous supporters, we have finally released a thirteen-CD set containing every known recording of Feodor Chaliapin numbering well into the two hundreds.

Beyond Description (1973-1989) is a companion set to 2001's 12-disc box The Golden Road (1965-1973), which collected all of the Grateful Dead's albums for Warner Bros, adding bonus tracks to each album, along with a double-disc collection of early pre-Warner recordings called "Birth of the Dead" for good measure. Beyond Description picks up the story after the Dead started their own label with 1973's Wake of the Flood and runs all the way to 1989, when they released their last studio album, Built to Last. Like The Golden Road, each album here is enhanced with bonus tracks, running the gamut from as little as three (on Built to Last) to has many as 16 (a full-length bonus disc added to 1980's live acoustic Reckoning), but there's nothing quite as enticing as "Birth of the Dead." Indeed, "enticing" is not a word that's frequently associated with the albums in this collection.

Harold Budd's discs tend to end up in the new age section of the record store, because his music is generally pleasant, quiet, and soothing. But where most new age composers go for the obvious (and sometimes saccharine) melody, Budd veers off into ambiguity; he also lacks the mystical bent that often goes along with the new age style. Instead, his compositional voice is more like that of a detached observer – one who creates beauty without getting too involved with it. By the Dawn's Early Light finds Budd writing for various combinations of viola, guitar, harp, and keyboards. All of the music is lovely, but not all of the compositions sound complete. In several cases, they sound like raw ideas rushed into the studio before their time. Guitarist Bill Nelson provides much of the interest throughout the album, and the sighing, slithery viola of Mabel Wong lends an occasional turn-of-the-century salon feel to the proceedings. The only really embarrassing moments occur when Budd – whose voice sounds like an unfortunate cross between Garrison Keillor and Kermit the Frog – reads his own poetry. Skip those tracks and you'll be fine.

The new boxset release from Vladimir Cosma following on from Volumes 1 & 2. This release has 17CD's in a hardbox and contains 58 soundtracks which are unpublished and rare.

Frank Zappa - Guitar (1988) {2CD Rykodisc RCD 10550/51 rel 1995}
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© 1988, 1995 Rykodisc / Zappa Family Trust | RCD 10550/51
Rock / Experimental Rock / Instrumental Rock

Official Release #50. Released in 1988, Guitar may be the most important and ironically one of the least-known entries in Frank Zappa's voluminous discography – which spans over seven-dozen LPs as of this writing. His proficiencies as a composer and instrumentalist have long been lauded. However, anthologies of this nature provide an outlet for the remarkable breadth and depth of Zappa's manual dexterity and improvisational scope, which can now be enjoyed on a myriad of levels. The casual enthusiast can revel in the seemingly endless personas and sounds summoned from the soloist and band alike.

A fantastic 5” x 10” deluxe 2 CD box set includes 50 great tracks that David Bowie has covered or was influenced by.

Oft-recorded Bernard Herrmann masterpiece finally gets complete release in dynamic stereo from new masters! Previous release on Rhino label was spectacular album, albeit several major set pieces (including main title & climactic Mount Rushmore sequence) were transferred from damaged elements, all that was then available. Thanks to Warner Bros., new stereo mixes have been made available for first time ever, revealing spectacular sonics (for 1959) and illuminating new details of magnificent score never before captured. While score has also been digitally re-recorded twice under different conductors, neither version can match crisp, exciting performance of MGM Studio musicians under baton of Herrmann himself. Hear harp arpeggios, castenets, wood blocks, snare drums like never before. Get entire climax with punch of bass trombone, thrilling trumpets amidst swirling variety of tempos that keep tension, excitement of Hitchcock's incredible action set-piece moving at fierce pace.