The House Concert Live Collection, Vol. 42: Locky Chung (live at (yu:l) Haus, Seoul, 2009) Locky Chung, Sung Won Park

Essential: a masterpiece of fusion music
Ralph Towner’s Solo Concert holds a special place in my ECM-adoring heart, for it was my introduction to a guitarist whose skills have since become staples of my listening life.

‘Crowded House’ was the band’s first and most commercially successful effort, with two of its singles reaching the American Top Forty – ‘Something So Strong’ and ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’. Reviewers commonly refer to the music of Crowded House as either new wave or something close to that – songs that are short in length, short on instrumental solos, and, to an extent, compatible with music videos. Much of that is actually true of ‘Crowded House’, but the only real description gets offered by stopping the talk, and turning on the music. The album is one snappy yet alluring melody after the next, music that variously earns the description of soulful, emotional, often a celebration but sometimes solemn. Beneath it all, one detects in Neil Finn’s music a passion and meticulous respect for the art he is creating. The lofty quality of his work not only applies to the music – his deceptively simple lyrics always emerge from the music, never the other way around.

Sara K. - Made In The Shade
Label/Cat#: Stockfisch SFR 357.7052.2 | 2.0 FLAC: 902 MB | 5.1 FLAC: 2,29 GB | Artwork: 155 MB | Recovery Info
Country/Year: Germany 2009| Genre: Singer/Songwriter | Hoster: Filepost/Filefactory

The music was superb, and Gunther Pauler has definitely gotten a good handle on the whole multichannel aspect of recording. I wasn’t incredibly impressed with his first venture into surround sound – it just seemed that too much was going on in the surround channels, but both of these hi-res discs provide a convincing degree of realism, very much on par with the excellent stereo-only SACDs that Stockfisch initially released. (…) Regardless of whether you choose the SACD or Blu-ray option, trust me, you won’t be disappointed. I was both thrilled and surprised by how good the music sounded via my Blu-ray player, and it gives me great hope that some form of mainstream hi-res music will continue into the future. Very highly recommended!