i a Silent Way

After more than a decade of working, and largely owning, the Red Dirt country circuit in Texas and Oklahoma, the Turnpike Troubadours' moment of truth may be nearing. The hard-playing quintet's most recent LP, 2015's The Turnpike Troubadours, marked a true commercial breakthrough as it not only reached Number Three on the country charts, but even cracked the Top 20 of the Billboard 200. Now it's time for them to follow it up.

Leaving Songs by Tindersticks frontman Stuart Staples is his second solo album; his first, Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04, wasn't released in the States until now, as it is included here, thankfully, as a bonus disc. Leaving Songs is a true departure for Staples. The vocals and backing tracks were recorded in Nashville by Mark Nevers with the overdubs recorded back at Lucky Dog in the U.K. After the first lines of "Goodbye to Old Friends," the opening cut, it's obvious that this record is different, in its way, from what Staples has done before, either with or without his band; the tempo, horn lines, the chorus of female backing vocalists.

It is exactly what it says on the package, a full-fledged concerto that bucks every prevalent musical fashion (1978 was the age of punk, after all) by proving that prog wasn't only alive and well, it was also still capable of startling the unwary listener. With fellow Curved Air refugee Francis Monkman overseeing the orchestra, Way's electric violin has never sounded so adventurous, leading the way through four skillfully planned movements that the composer admits were influenced by Ravel, Bartók, and Prokofiev, but which have a personality all of their own. Certainly Way's Concerto withstands comparison with any other rocker's attempt to blend the classics with more modern disciplines (Keith Emerson's piano concerto was released the previous year), and it was poor promotion alone that prevented Concerto for Electric Violin & Synth from making heavier inroads into the period's consciousness.

It is exactly what it says on the package, a full-fledged concerto that bucks every prevalent musical fashion (1978 was the age of punk, after all) by proving that prog wasn't only alive and well, it was also still capable of startling the unwary listener. With fellow Curved Air refugee Francis Monkman overseeing the orchestra, Way's electric violin has never sounded so adventurous, leading the way through four skillfully planned movements that the composer admits were influenced by Ravel, Bartók, and Prokofiev, but which have a personality all of their own. Certainly Way's Concerto withstands comparison with any other rocker's attempt to blend the classics with more modern disciplines (Keith Emerson's piano concerto was released the previous year), and it was poor promotion alone that prevented Concerto for Electric Violin & Synth from making heavier inroads into the period's consciousness.

Kim Richey celebrates the 20th anniversary of her album Glimmer with, A Long Way Back: The Songs of Glimmer, featuring new recordings of the songs from Kim's classic album. Whereas Glimmer, produced by Hugh Padgham, had a pop sheen to its sound, A Long Way Back. . . strips everything down to a more raw essence. Produced by Doug Lancio, who also plays most of the instruments, A Long Way Back. . . allowed Kim to reinterpret these songs and give them a fresh, yet timeless sound. Other musicians on the album include Nielsen Hubbard and Dan Mitchell.

After a decade flirting with shoegaze and dream pop textures, Ulrich Schnauss has returned to his IDM roots with A Long Way to Fall. On his first album (fourth overall) under his name in six years, the German producer almost fully focuses on the synthesizer, nearly abandoning the layered fuzz and tempered haze of his last two solo releases, while eliminating the slow-burning, buried vocals of his work with Mark Peters and A Shoreline Dream. Stretching each song past the five-minute mark, Schnauss lets his work gestate on A Long Way to Fall, letting simple, sometimes nonexistent refrains repeat and recur until some sort of unshakable melody is revealed…

Giovanni Paisiello, whose works Mozart thought enough of to study closely, was mostly forgotten in the nineteenth century, and this Passione de Gesù Cristo remained buried until 1998. This is its second recording; a Polish version on the Arts label, from that year, is also available. The oratorio's text is by the preeminent operatic librettist of the eighteenth century, Pietro Metastasio. One can easily understand why the work has never had a critical mass of general listeners, but for those interested in Mozart's world it's truly fascinating. This passion story features neither Jesus nor Pontius Pilate, nor any of the other usual personages. Instead it takes place after Christ's crucifixion, recounted by St. John, Joseph of Arimatea, and Mary Magdalene (in surely her biggest part until Jesus Christ Superstar came along) to St. Peter, with the accompaniment of a chorus of Christ's other followers; in the second part, all bewail the corruption of Jerusalem and look forward to Christ's resurrection.

Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way, Baby
FLAC, EAC, LOG & CUE | Full Artwork | Size: 500 MB + Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Skint Records BRASSIC 11CD | Country/Year: UK 1998
Genre: Big Beat | Hoster: Filepost/Filefactory

…You've Come a Long Way, Baby is a seamless record, filled with great imagination, unexpected twists and turns, huge hooks, and great beats. It's the kind of record that gives big beat a good name.