Epic Archive

In most bands, there's someone who saves everything – the set lists, the fliers, the photos, the board tapes (or CDs), the T-shirts, and the minutiae that add up during a group's career. In the Beatles it was Ringo Starr, in the Velvet Underground it was Sterling Morrison, and while playing drums with Cheap Trick throughout most of their history, Bun E. Carlos was also the band's pack rat, keeping track of the group's artifacts and holding onto copies of their demos and outtakes. Carlos helped annotate and provided the tapes for many of the tracks on The Epic Archive, Vol. 1, a collection of odds and ends from Cheap Trick's peak creative period of 1975 to 1979. The set opens with three songs from a demo the band cut at Memphis' Ardent Recording in 1975 (power pop devotees can pause to wonder if they bumped into Alex Chilton, who was recording Big Star's 3rd that same year), while also delivering a handful of session outtakes and demos, live tracks from a 1977 gig at the Whisky, a clumsy single edit of "Ain't That a Shame" from At Budokan, rude alternate versions of "I Dig Go-Go Girls" and "Surrender," and three tracks from their 1979 return to Budokan.

Deepest View (Archive Volume 3) (2011). Following closely in the footsteps of their first two archival releases, Space Debris return with a third volume of live recordings and bits and pieces. Starting off in an unusually subdued mood, with moody acoustic piano, the 10-minute opening cut Mary-Joe-Anna nonetheless gets going eventually into another heavy jam from the band. The shorter Reprise of the Sun features some nice electric piano. Off course, throughout is the sterling organ work that is something of a signature sound for Space Debris, provided on some tracks by current keyboardist Winnie Rimbach-Sator and on others by former keyboardist Tom Kunkel. But let’s not forget the tight rhythm section of Peter Brettel (bass) and Christian Jäger (drums) and the endlessly creative guitar playing of Tommy Gorny…

IQ - Tales From A Dark Christmas (2017) {The Archive Collection AC008}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 334 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 117 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 6 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2017 The Archive Collection | AC008
Rock / Art Rock / Neo-Prog / Prog-Rock

This CD was not on general sale, all copies have been given-away to attendees at the London and Zoetermeer 2017 Christmas concerts, with the left-overs sold-out through the band's official website. It is now out of print. As you may know by now, this year sees the 20th anniversary of the iconic IQ Christmas Bash(es). To mark this auspicious occasion the boys are giving away a free ‘Christmas-themed’ archive collection CD as a thank you to everyone attending the shows in London or Zoetermeer. With design by Tony Lythgoe and new artwork from Peter Nicholls, the album ‘Tales from a Dark Christmas’ consists of 6 tracks including the 20 minute epic ‘The Dark Christmas Suite’ complete with Tron choirs, ‘big juicy bass pedals’ big proggy ending and of course Alastair Sim!

Space Debris hail from the Odenwald region in Germany. The members' main concern is to play improvised music reminiscent to 70s krautrock and psychedelic bands. The group started as a trio comprised of Tommy Gorny (guitar), Tom Kunkel (Hammond organ) and Christian Jäger (drums). Supported by many friends having guest appearances they already could produce six albums starting with the year 2002. If you're keen on ambitious jamming music you should check out Space Debris by all means.
Archive Vol. 1 (Journey To The Starglow Restaurant) is the studio disc. Blending classic rock styles (Santana, Deep Purple) with psychedelia, jam rock, fusion, and touches of space rock, the band work their way through a series of burning improvisations, all recorded in one take with no overdubs…

Newly re-mastered, this anthology features all of Spirit’s recordings for the Ode and Epic labels between 1968 and 1972 and notably includes the entire mono mix of the band’s self-titled debut album (appearing on CD for the first time), the complete soundtrack to the film The Model Shop, along with original 1968 stereo mix of The Family That Plays Together, associated out-takes, singles and alternate mixes undertaken in 1991 for the Time Circle compilation. It Shall Be also includes an illustrated booklet with essay by Malcolm Dome featuring archive interviews with Randy California and Ed Cassidy.