Levels of Hypocrisy

At the forefront of the new wave coming from the other side of Atlantic, Blue Shift could be seen as a major revelation ! Without any doubt, "Not The Future I Ordered" is one of the most interesting albums of the year 1997. This band plays a flashy and creative Progressive rock from the other side of the world. Their sound is huge, both on the acoustic guitar parts and on the whole sound. The Yes influence (From the glorious early days to the Trevor Rabin era) is noticeable without being a nuisance.
So, it is with great surprise, and a bit of skepticism, that one welcomes, eighteen years later, the birth of "Levels Of Undo", the second album by the band! Time passed by, and the group is no longer the same. Its music is now both ambitious and diverse, associating the complex and adventurous Progressive rock of the eponymous epic-song…

On her second full-length record, Head of Roses, Jenn Wasner follows a winding thread of intuition into the unknown and into healing, led by gut feelings and the near-spiritual experience of visceral songwriting.

The Flight of Sleipnir sound has always been quite distinct, the first amongst it’s central tenets is a mid-fi approach. It’s not lo-fi and it’s not polished, it retains that little bit of scratch-and-pop, moderate-levels-of-production edge. This is still the case with “EoN”, and with the first distorted guitar tone that is not that distorted or fuzzed but still so, you know you’re treading familiar waters (if you’ve listened to “Lore”, that is.) That is a definite plus for The Flight of Sleipnir in general, that they have their identity grounded. One more thing: The Flight of Sleipnir has gone softer. Not soft, period, but noticeably softer: there are more acoustic songs, more clean vocals, more atmospheric/acoustic/soft passages.

It has been 8 long years since the last record, and Hypocrisy fans can feel the itch. Worship is 11 tracks of precise, ferocious musicianship. Commonly inspired by the fusion of the modern and the ancient, Hypocrisy has once more found a way to combine innovative ideas with classic sound in order to deliver something metalheads can enjoyably consume with awe and brutal vigor. Hypocrisy is Peter Tägtgren (Lead Guitar & Vocals), Mikael Hedlund (Bass Guitar), and Reidar “Horgh” Horghagen (Drums)…

Clifford Brown - Brownie: The Complete EmArcy Recordings of Clifford Brown (1989) {10CD + bonus CD Box Set rec 1954-1956}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.80 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.39 Gb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 158 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1954-56, 1989 EmArcy / Nippon Phonogram | 838 307-2~838 316-2 / 874 788-3
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Trumpet

Although undoubtedly an expensive acquisition, this ten-CD set is perfectly done and contains dozens of gems. The remarkable but short-lived trumpeter Clifford Brown has the second half of his career fully documented (other than his final performance) and he is showcased in a wide variety of settings. The bulk of the numbers are of Brownie's quintet with co-leader and drummer Max Roach, either Harold Land or Sonny Rollins on tenor, pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George Morrow (including some previously unheard alternate takes), but there is also much more.

The John Lurie National Orchestra - The Invention of Animals (2014) {Amulet Records Digital Download 16-44.1}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 222 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 86 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Amulet Records | AMT 037
Jazz / Modern Creative / Modern Jazz / Score

This archival compilation is a much-needed addendum to John Lurie's recorded legacy. Since being struck with a chronic case of Lyme disease in 2000, the saxophonist and composer has focused more on painting than music. The John Lurie National Orchestra was an early-'90s trio with percussionists G. Calvin Weston and Billy Martin. This group recorded fairly little in the studio, issuing only one album, 1993's Men with Sticks. The title track from that recording is featured and showcases just how fluid and communicative they could be in virtually any circumstance. It's one of the true highlights here, with Lurie's hypnotic alto exploring the subtleties of a melodic idea atop a circular rhythm orgy by Weston and Martin.

In terms of the scale of his compositions, John Adams' career is somewhat anomalous for a contemporary composer. While the usual pattern tends to be for a composer to begin a career writing smaller pieces (which have a far likelier chance of being performed) and then expanding to larger forms as his or her reputation grows, Adams (with very few exceptions) was writing large-scale operas and orchestral and choral works starting in the early '80s and didn't begin devoting himself to chamber music with any regularity until the mid-'90s.