Ring 2000

H-BlockX vs. Dr. Ring-Ding - Ring Of Fire
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 127 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: X-Cell # XCL 669077 2 | Country/Year: Germany 2000
Genre: Rock | Style: Alternative Rock

"Formed in Münster, Germany in 1991, H-Blockx was a punk-tinged alternative metal band named after Irish slang for high-security prison cells. (…) In 1998, the group released its third album, Fly Eyes, which became their official U.S. debut the following year. 1999 also saw the group recording new songs for the soundtrack of the German film Bang Boom Bang…"

Collectables Records' two-fer CD Ring Around Rosie/Hollywood's Best, credited to Rosemary Clooney "& Friends," combines the singer's first and last album projects for Columbia Records. Hollywood's Best, which paired her with Harry James' trumpet, was first released as an eight-song, 10" LP in 1952 (it was later expanded to a 12-track, 12" LP). Ring Around Rosie, from 1957, matched her up with the jazzy vocal group the Hi-Lo's. These two albums also were Clooney's only ones to reach the Billboard pop charts during the 1950s: Hollywood's Best peaked at number three in 1953, and Ring Around Rosie went to number 14 four years later. As a 24-track, 70-minute CD, the collection is a mixed bag…

Manowar is an American Heavy / Epic Metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980, the group is known for lyrics based on fantasy (particularly swords and sorcery) and mythology (particularly Norse mythology). The band is also known for a loud and bombastic sound…

Lionel Hampton's two-day session for Blue Star in 1976 was a very productive date; he only brought along two regulars, guitarist Billy Mackel and pianist/organist Reynold Mullins, but was joined by an assortment of outstanding European players, including pianist Raymond Fol, alto saxophonist Michel Attenoux (who had worked with Hampton before), trombonist Claude Gousset, tenor saxophonist Gerard Badini, bassist Michel Gaudry, and former Ellington drummer Sam Woodyard, who was living and working in Paris. Hampton was only 68 years old at the time of the recording and still had the reputation for wearing out men a third of his age on the bandstand; his enthusiasm is infectious from the opening number, "Ring Dem Bells," as he introduces each soloist in turn in a lively jam…

Lionel Hampton's two-day session for Blue Star in 1976 was a very productive date; he only brought along two regulars, guitarist Billy Mackel and pianist/organist Reynold Mullins, but was joined by an assortment of outstanding European players, including pianist Raymond Fol, alto saxophonist Michel Attenoux (who had worked with Hampton before), trombonist Claude Gousset, tenor saxophonist Gerard Badini, bassist Michel Gaudry, and former Ellington drummer Sam Woodyard, who was living and working in Paris. Hampton was only 68 years old at the time of the recording and still had the reputation for wearing out men a third of his age on the bandstand; his enthusiasm is infectious from the opening number, "Ring Dem Bells," as he introduces each soloist in turn in a lively jam…

Argent's back catalog remains in a parlous state 20 years on from the group's peak, with great swathes of the repertoire unavailable on CD, and even some of the band's best-known and loved recordings are still chained up in a vault somewhere. Thankfully, this two-fer rendering of their first two albums is an exception to that sorry rule, as the group's transformation from the logical successors to the Zombies into one of the finest prog bands of the early '70s is traced out across 19 songs, almost any of which would be a shoo-in for some future "best-of" Argent compilation. It is true, of course, that Argent was prone to excess on occasion – what is remarkable is just how naturally the band approached that state, as songs build on their own momentum toward peaks that even the best oiled of the group's peers audibly struggled to approach.

In 1997 Bob Dylan nearly died, and it seems like ever since, he's been out on the road trying to gather as many souls as possible, converting the world one by one with the fervor of a man who's been returned to his path by God himself. For the die-hard, the zealous, the purist, there are "field recordings" of virtually every show the man has done in the past several years … you could commit considerable time and energy sorting through them all, trying to find the best performances, the best setlists, the best sound. But for those of us who value time over money and trust the experts to handle the situation on behalf of everyone concerned, there is Rock of Ages, perhaps the most lovingly assembled and beautifully-packaged bootleg ever made…