The Fantastic Shadows

Various Artists - Heavy Sugar: The Pure Essence Of New Orleans R&B (1952-1959) {3CD Set Fantastic Voyage FVTD051 rel 2010}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 574 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 357 Mb
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© 1952-59, 2010 Fantastic Voyage | FVTD051
Rhythm & Blues / Rock ‘n’ Roll / Rockabilly

Over the course of time, Heavy Sugar has been the title of a song, the name of a radio station, an independent movie and the primary ingredient for a rapturous recipe. How fitting it is that this latter description also epitomizes the ingredients that go to make up Heavy Sugar: The Pure Essence of New Orleans R&B. Just think, if the celebrity chefs of New Orleans were to whip up Heavy Sugar until the peaks start to form, then the hostesses on Bourbon Street would go that little bit further and add any flavour necessary to achieve a creamy finish.

Elegant Simplicity - Kicking the Olive Branch (2017) {Proximity Records ESCD 20170602-01}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 356 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 124 Mb
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© 2017 Proximity Records | ESCD 20170602-01
Rock / Progressive Rock

New for 2017 is this latest ELEGANT SIMPLICITY release "Kicking the Olive Branch", featuring a stellar cast of additional musicians. 7 brand new tunes, including the epic title track, fusing funk (yeah, funk!), classic rock, progressive rock and other stuff into a seamless melodic whole. Harder rocking than any previous release, this has some cool guitar moments, sweet mini-moog madness and some fantastic sax and violin moves.

New Jersey indie rockers Yo La Tengo had already been slowly growing into their sound for over a decade by the 1997 release of their revelational eighth album, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. Their guitar-based pop was steadily finding its legs before this, as the band moved toward increasingly dreamy productions on albums like Painful and Electr-O-Pura. The 16 tracks that made up the ambitious and epic I Can Hear the Heart found the group stretching out their whispery vocals and deceptively straightforward pop approach to encompass a variety of unexpected styles. This meant softly wandering guitars and steadfast drums twisted out of their indie rock trappings and morphed into adventurous Krautrock jams like "Spec Bebop," haunting, harmony-driven psych-folk like "We're an American Band," and even a playfully naive take on bossa nova with "Center of Gravity." As for the blissed-out melodic noise pop Yo La Tengo had been working on for the majority of their existence, this was one of the band's finest hours.