The Tortoise

The Moody Blues' first real attempt at a harder rock sound still has some psychedelic elements, but they're achieved with an overall leaner studio sound. The group was trying to take stock of itself at this time, and came up with some surprisingly strong, lean numbers (Michael Pinder's Mellotron is surprisingly restrained until the final number, "The Balance"), which also embraced politics for the first time ("Question" seemed to display the dislocation that a lot of younger listeners were feeling during Vietnam)…

The Ex - Pokkeherrie
EAC/Flac+Log-no Cue = 385 MB | MP3 vbr v0 266 kbps avg = 117 MB | Full Scans 300 dpi
Punk Rock/Anarcho Punk | Ex Records #EX 024D | 1995 (original vinyl release: 1985)

The Ex, with 'Pokkeherrie' have produced a masterful killer weapon of raw power that rattles up the spine into numbed pink brain cells and fills the vacuum with social issue.

It's filled with some of the most important and representative recordings made by this "virtuose" pianist. My favorite ones are the sessions with Nelson Freire. Sessions with Mischa Mayski are great also! Very recommended to everyone that appreciate calssical piano albums, performed by one of the greatest names of the last 50 years.

This is the debut full-length release by The Seasons - a collaborative project by an international assemblage of accomplished musicians in the realm of jazz, electronic, and indie-rock. Members include Trenton label-head Sam Rouanet (aka Reynold), DJ/producer/Duplex 100 member Phil Stumpf, double bassist James Sindatry, Sam Rouanet's father Jacques Rouanet, a well-known French jazz piano player who toured the world several times with Argentinean singer/songwriter Alberto Cortez, and finally, cornet player Rob Mazurek, the mind behind Chicago Underground and The Exploding Star Orchestra, who has played with Sam Prekop, Isotope 217, Tortoise, Pan American and Stereolab…

Zwan - Mary Star Of The Sea (2003) [CD+Bonus DVD] {Reprise}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 456 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 157 Mb
DVD5 -> 2.19 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 4:3 | English (LinearPCM, 2 ch) | 39:42 | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 40 Mb
© 2003 Reprise / Martha's Music | 48425-2
Rock / Alternative / Indie Rock / Neo-Psychedelia

Billy Corgan has emerged from his three-year hiatus following The Smashing Pumpkins' 2000 break-up, with Zwan and their debut, MARY STAR OF THE SEA. Rounding out the group are former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, Slint/Tortoise guitarist Dave Pajo, Skunk string-slinger Matt Sweeney and bassist from A Perfect Circle, Paz Lenchantin. Corgan does not disappoint as he resurrects the crashing guitars and yowling vocals that ensnared so many young, impressionable post-rock fans. Taking on the moniker of Billy Burke, a Florida evangelist dedicated to "touching the world with God's power," the Chicago native runs a quasi-religious thread through these 14 songs.

After two live dates cut for the long-suffering faithful, Fink – comprising singer/songwriter/guitarist Fin Greenall, bassist Guy Whittaker, and drummer Tim Thornton – offer their first new studio material in three years. Hard Believer is, for the most part, a slow burner; one that employs a more varied, albeit moodier set of textures and sounds than its predecessor, 2011's Perfect Darkness. Recorded at Hollywood Sound with producer/engineer Billy Bush (Garbage, Foster the People), the pace here is generally slow – even dirge-like in places – but the timbral palette that illustrates these melancholy songs puts them across in often unexpected ways. The opening title track begins on the blues tip (with Greenall once more revealing his great debt to guitarist Davy Graham). Spare, gently reverbed acoustic guitar and stomp box initiate, but at a tad over a minute in, a multi-tracked vocal chorus subtly enters, followed shortly thereafter by kick drum, skeletal bassline, electric guitar, more echo, piano, and more lathered-on effects to erect a stoned crescendo inside the repetitive-to-the-point-of-hypnosis groove.

The Observatory fuses progressive sounds with unconventional structures, bold arrangements, improvisation, thought and expression, while borrowing from random music styles to stir up a potent concoction of emotionally powerful extremes, disturbed and angry on one end, haunting and melancholic on the other.
The band was influenced by Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Tortoise, Talk Talk, Shining, Jaga Jazzist, Supersilent, Brian Wilson, Nick Drake and others…