Bach Battle

With 2003's Impossible Figures, Magellan remain one of the most died-in-the-wool and compelling prog rock bands. Given their embrace of technology - endless layers of keyboards and drum machines - and their insistence of the "rock" side of prog with big churning guitars and fat, muddy basslines, they are an anomaly. While they are a truly original act, their roots lie somewhere between Volume IV-period Black Sabbath, King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black, and Genesis' Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. There is so much bombast in their music - including the tympani sound from 2001: A Space Odyssey - that helps to introduce the album's opener, "Gorilla With Pitchfork"…

Various Artists - From Ragtime To Swing (1898-1952) - La Grande Histoire Du Jazz Vol. 1 (2010) {Box 25CD - 25 of 100}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 8.91 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 4.79 Gb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 795 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2010 Le Chant du Monde | 574 1900.24
Jazz / Ragtime / Swing

Each box contains 25 slipcase CDs, a booklet (up to 186 pages) and an index. The booklets contain extensive notes (Eng/Fr) with recording dates and line-ups. 31 hours of music in each box, totalling 1677 tracks Each track has been restored and mastered from original sources. The only reason I can think of for there not yet being a review of these four boxed sets, is that those who own them are just too busy having one hell of a blast listening to them. Some people moan about the 50 year copyright law for audio recordings in Europe, but without it this highly entertaining, eye-opening and educational undertaking could never have taken place. These 100 discs (spread over four boxed sets of 25 discs) tell the story of jazz from 1898 to 1959.

John Zorn - The Hermetic Organ vol. 2 - St. Paul's Chapel, NYC (2014) {Tzadik TZ 8312}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 223 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 114 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Tzadik | TZ 8312 | Tzadik Archival Series
Classical / Avant-Garde / Modern Classical / Improvisation / Organ

Drawing upon traditions as varied as Messiaen, Xenakis, Ligeti, Bach, Tournemire, Ives, Korla Pandit and The Phantom of the Opera, Zorn’s organ improvisations are transcendent, inspiring, ecstatic experiences, offering a direct line to the workings of his rich compositional imagination. Performed at St. Paul’s Chapel at a time when the organ was undergoing extensive reconstruction, the limited number of stops available to him focused his imagination to new heights, resulting in Zorn’s most revelatory recital to date. The second volume documenting these legendary organ recitals is a overwhelming experience filled with moments of passion, tenderness, fragility and extraordinary power.

No one can accuse Flying Steps of resting on their laurels. Hot off the heels of ‘Flying Bach’ and ‘Flying Illusion’, the Berlin-based troupe are back with their most ambitious project to date. ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ is seemingly a hundred things in one, a magical amalgamation of dance, music, live performance, art, history and all the rest, highlighted by the instantly recognisable visible art of Brazilian brothers OSGEMEOS. This is an exhibition come to life, a spiritual successor to Modest Mussorgsky’s 1874 work of the same name. As exciting for adults as it is invigorating for children, we can’t wait to see what Flying Steps come up with next.

The 2nd of September 2010 marks Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s 75th birthday.
This new 11-CD set presents Seiji Ozawa in a wide variety of symphonic repertory with the orchestra’s with which he has been most closely associated since the early 1970s – from the San Francisco Symphony in 1972 in a programme of music centred round Romeo and Juliet, through his twenty-nine years at the Boston Symphony, to the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics and the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan – a celebration of a truly international Maestro.

Fritz Reiner was one of the foremost conductors of his time. Crowning his long career in Europe and America was the decade from 1954 to 1963 as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra – an illustrious partnership that ranks along such other historical tenures as Karajan’s in Berlin, Szell’s in Cleveland and Bernstein’s in New York.