Cllision 2013

Passaggio, Lavinia Meijer's first release on Sony, is an album of the crossover music of Ludovico Einaudi, an Italian composer and pianist who encouraged the Dutch harpist to record some of his most popular pieces. The playing on this 2013 album is highly polished and appealing, and Meijer demonstrates considerable powers of concentration and precision in performances of her harp transcriptions of Einaudi's keyboard music. Some will find Meijer's renditions emotionally communicative and mood enhancing, and most of the credit for their effectiveness belongs to her, because Einaudi's modal harmonies and conventional patterns tend toward a bland prettiness, or pretty blandness, that's all of a piece. Simple melodies and repeated arpeggiated chords have the instant attraction of minimalist music, and simplicity is often a virtue in the proper context. Sony's recording is clear and close-up, and Meijer has presence in a fairly resonant studio space.

After building a reputation as being a concept-record mastermind and releasing four highly-realized conceptual works under The Dear Hunter name, frontman Casey Crescenzo has taken the path of the original 70’s proggers: he’s gone back to basics.
Comparisons aside, you’d be hard-pressed to find another recent album that sounds like Migrant. Although the record is mostly filled with shorter songs that do not share any particular thematic or conceptual space, the songs and arrangements themselves are still rich and unique. The end result is a fine and diverse record of standalone tracks that mostly work, but sometimes display growing pains from Crescenzo’s transformation from concept album maestro to songwriter…

What…do they sound like when played on a modern concert grand? The answer is: wonderful, life-enhancing and completely convincing. But really, assuming the performers are out of the top drawer (as they are here), no one should be astonished…Kirschnereit brings rhythmic elan and a light-handed touch to the solo part. Matthias Kirschnereit performs Handel's Six Concertos for the Organ and Harpsichord, op.4 on piano. It is only now that the depth and beauty of these concertos can be heard in full!

The big task for Alice in Chains on their 2009 comeback Black Gives Way to Blue was to prove they could carry on battered and bruised, missing Layne Staley but still in touch with their core. They had to demonstrate the band had a reason to exist, and Black Gives Way to Blue achieved this goal, paving the way for another record just like it. Enter The Devil Put the Dinosaurs Here, a record that is pretty close to identical to Black Gives Way to Blue in its sound, attack, and feel. Where it differs is in the latter, as the overall album feels lighter and, at times, the individual songs do, too. "Scalpel" flirts with the acoustic bones of Jar of Flies and also has perhaps the richest melody here, working as a song, not a grind…

Bill Nelson - Getting The Holy Ghost Across (1986) {2CD Cocteau Discs COCD 21009 rel 2013}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 650 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 213 Mb
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© 1986, 2013 Cherry Red / Cocteau Discs | COCD 21009
Rock / Art Rock / Experimental Rock

ESOTERIC RECORDINGS imprint Cocteau Discs, the home of BILL NELSON’s catalogue between 1971 and 2001, continues their series of on-going releases with the newly remastered and expanded release of his 1986 album "GETTING THE HOLY GHOST ACROSS”. Released in 1986, the record was Bill’s sole album for the Portrait label, and was a superbly realised work. Previously released on CD as strictly limited edition of 500 copies on Bill’s Sonolux label, the album is hugely sought after on CD by collectors.

Jerry Lee Lewis - She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye (1970) & There Must Be More To Love Than This (1971) {BGOCD1083 rel 2013}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 348 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 130 Mb
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© 1970-71, 2013 Mercury / BGO Records | BGOCD1083
Country / Rock'n'Roll / Honky Tonk / Traditional Country

BGO's 2013 two-fer She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye/There Must Be More to Love Than This combines Jerry Lee Lewis' 1970 album with its 1971 sequel, both ranking among his finest country efforts. She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye slightly edges out its sequel in terms of consistency, partially because it's anchored on a couple of major hits ("Once More with Feeling," "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye"), but There Must Be More to Love Than This is no slouch, containing a bunch of pure hard country, lots of barroom weepers and barrelhouse rockers.

Stephen Stills - Carry On (2013) {4CD Set Rhino R2 534539}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.84 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 693 Mb
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© 2013 Rhino / Atlantic / Warner | R2 534539
Rock / Folk Rock / Soft Rock

Carry On is a four-CD set, spanning 50 years and includes more than five hours of music and includes a 113 page booklet. Produced by Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein with Stephen Stills, Rhino s anthology spotlights the remarkable scope of stills career with essential recordings, live cuts, new mixes, and 25 previously unreleased tracks. The tracks unfold mostly in chronological order, and the anthology leads off with its oldest entry: "Travelin " a previously unreleased recording that Stills made at age 17 in Costa Rica (one of the many places he lived growing up in a military family). The youngest track, recorded only a few months ago, features CSN performing "Girl From The North Country" in New York City during a sold-out five-night run at the Beacon Theater that closed the group s acclaimed 2012 world tour.

In the 1960s and 1970s Bollywood composers adventurously adopted the trippy guitars, spiralling synthesizers and ethereal vocals of psychedelia and mixed it with lusciously over-the-top Indian orchestrations. Jewels included feature songs by Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Usha Iyer and yodeller Kishore Kumar. Bonus CD: The Rough Guide To R.D. Burman - This hand-picked bonus album spotlights the work of seminal composer R.D. Burman. He scored for over 300 movies over the years 1960 to 1990 and was the son of illustrious composer S.D. Burman, whose compositions are also heard on here.