Music Leg

Annelie de Man - Ladder of Escape 10: Contemporary Music for Harpsichord (2008) {Attacca 28120}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 391 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 189 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 51 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2008 Attacca | 28120
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Avant-Garde / Modern Composition / Harpsichord

Let's have a little musical bipolarity. Elegant music by Couperin and Royer followed by this disc of modern works for harpsichord and various instruments. Voormolen's "Suite de Clavecin" is the most accessible work here, and my other favorite is Louis Andriessen's "Dubblespoor" for vibraphone, glockenspiel, celesta, vibraphone and harpsichord, also quite approachable. Then, we have a piece such as JacobTV's "Doggie Steps" for violin, cello, harpsichord and tape - the tape portion includes barking dogs, a few cats (which I like, it recalls the music of P. Bimmstein) and a female voice (I assume the harpsichordist) speaking about "taking doggy steps".

Four world premiere recordings of little-known cantatas and chamber music by Telemann, brilliantly played by experts in the field of early music. „Soprano Dorothee Mields sings like an angel, tenor Benoît Haller’s voice is warm and agile and melodious, the instrumental soloists are all world class, and their ensemble colleagues are equally informed technically and in sync musically. And the sound is a perfect balance of intimate setting and room resonance that allows the uninhibited natural timbres of voices and instruments to be heard. And to all of this, we add the benefit of some terrific Telemann works that few listeners will have heard – and that even experienced Baroque fans will not immediately recognize as coming from this composer.“ (Classics Today)

One of the standout albums of 2021. It's everything you expected and more. Simply amazing. Dry Cleaning release their debut studio album New Long Leg on 4AD. The 10-track long-player, which includes ‘Strong Feelings’ and last year’s single ‘Scratchcard Lanyard’, was recorded over two weeks last summer at Rockfield Studios in rural Wales with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding). Following on from their thrillingly taut 2019 EPs Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks and Sweet Princess, New Long Leg is more ambitious and complex, with Shaw’s spoken vocals tightly intertwined with the band’s restless instrumentals. With lyrics preoccupied by themes like dissociation, escapism, daydreaming, complicated feelings of love, anger, revenge, anxiety, the kitchen, lethargy, forgetfulness, and survival, Shaw says, “the title is ambiguous; a new long leg could be an expensive present or a growth or a table repair.”

Over her fifty-plus year career, singer Maria Muldaur has released more than thirty recordings, scoring one bonafide hit with “Midnight At The Oasis” from her 1973 self-titled album. But she could have had a second hit from the same album. As she explains in her notes included in the packaging of her new release, disc jockeys across the country had another song on the album, “Don’t You Feel My Leg,” in more frequent rotation than “Oasis”. Discussions with her record company about making that song the follow-up broke down as the label considered the track too risque for the general public, a decision that certainly seems quaint today with standards that allow all kinds of potentially offensive language and sexual references on the air, even in the Oval Office at the White House. Muldaur includes an updated version of the song on her exceptional tribute to one of the tune’s writers, Louisa “Blue Lou” Barker.

Featuring fresh perspectives on classic material recorded during a tour that took place despite almost insurmountable issues, Music Is Our Friend is an official bootleg featuring all of King Crimson’s stunning final performance in North America at Washington DC in September, 2021 plus four pieces from KC’s intimate 'Friends and Family' first concert of the tour’s second leg in Albany.

Welcome to this month’s free 15-track CD – exclusively curated for Uncut by Lankum. The band developed in Dublin’s traditional music clubs, but have long tapped into wider international networks of punk, drone, electronica and black metal. They’ve now become inspirations themselves, leading a scene pushing traditional music to the very edges and, as they discuss in their feature in this month’s issue of Uncut, they’re proud to bring new and emerging talents to attention outside of Ireland.