Del Shannon’s formidable hit list qualifies him as one of the truly great artists of the 1960s. Del made #1 on both sides of the Atlantic with his first 45, ‘Runaway’, and for the next few years he delivered the chart goods again and again with some of the best singles ever made – most of which he wrote or co-wrote. This new Ace set is, we believe, the first to present Del’s UK 45s, as released between 1960 and 1966, in the order they appeared here and in the same couplings used on the original London and Stateside pressings (which often differed from their US counterparts).
Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate come across like the Odd Couple of Malian music. Toure is the tall, bespectacled veteran with the long fingers and a wide grin, looking very relaxed as he settles down to play a loping riff on his acoustic guitar. Diabate is younger, shorter, more intense, arranging himself in front of his kora, the ancient, multi-stringed west African harp. When you see him on video, you can’t quite believe just how quickly his fingers dance around all those strings.
For fans of Juicy J, Beck, Kool Keith, David Crosby, Andrew WK, Sweet, DJ Screw, Lee "Scratch" Perry, "Half Speed Mastered" is unreal album of disparate influences and stream of consciousness pop cult lyrics. Aleister X has been releasing underground and digital release since the mid 2000s, but "Half Speed Mastered" is his full length debut and the best thing the performer has done yet. Confusing but intriguing on first listens, this album grows on you and gets its hooks into your brain like nothing else. Bouncy pop hooks meet chopped n screwed beats and big picture lyrics, all with a seedy celebration of the Los Angeles vibe. Give the songs a chance and you will not be disappointed.
Blending the literate and expressive lyrical style of a classic singer/songwriter with music rooted in indie rock, Joseph Arthur is a well-respected songwriter and performer whose work has impressed critics as well as artists such as Peter Gabriel and Michael Stipe. Arthur's original goal was to become a hotshot bass player, but exposure to Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain prompted him to take up songwriting, and in 1996, he self-released an EP that made its way to Peter Gabriel, who signed Arthur to his Real World label. 1997's challenging Big City Secrets and 2000's rootsy Come to Where I'm From impressed critics and discriminating listeners, and 2004's Our Shadows Will Remain found him digging even deeper into his confessional tales. With 2007's Let's Just Be, Arthur launched his own record label, Lonely Astronaut, giving him greater control over his music as he recorded idiosyncratic projects such as 2013's The Ballad of Boogie Christ and 2014's Lou (the latter a collection of Lou Reed covers).
Amid the ever-growing tide of Deep Purple box sets (this was at least their eighth in nine years), Listen Learn Read On stands alone, not only as the ultimate round-up of the band's greatest moments, but also as the answer to more collectors' dreams than most collectors were even aware they'd had. You want Deep Purple's long-legendary, but forever unavailable BBC sessions? They're here. You want the killer live encores that other albums omitted? They're here. You want a solid introduction to the band members' pre-Purple passages? They're here. And, of course, you want the hits. So they're here as well…
Turkish act Siddhartha was formed in 1993 by Özgür dEmian Kurcan (vocals, guitars), Ege Madra (guitars) and Ulas Akin (bass). For the first 5 years of their existence the band concentrated on being an active live band, with a line-up that soon included Volkan Yildrim (keyboards), Orkun Öker (keyboards) and Kaan Sezgin (drums). In 1998 they hit the studio to record an album, and together with a few songs previously recorded their debut release Siddhartha was issued by Ada Muzik the same year. Siddhartha was disbanded as an active unit in 2001, as founding member Kurcan formed the music collective Siddharthasound Corporation together with Öker instead, a working musical unit first and foremost serving as a vehicle for it's founding members various musical ventures. Turkish outfit Siddhartha explore a flowing and at times hard hitting musical landscape with similarities to bands such as Hawkwind, Pink Floyd and Eloy; and might be of interest to followers of said bands in particular and space rock fans.