Ring 2000

Fantastic singing by the Finnish ensemble, who display a remarkable ability to convey the 'polyphony' - the sounding together of 'many tunes'. For their focus is very much on ensuring each voice is phrasing & singing their 'tune', with the lovely harmonies a result rather than their main target. It's good to hear an ensemble singing this way, all too often we hear the same 'vertical' (harmonic) approach that is the basis of the last 200+ years of concentration on tune+harmony, rather than a truly 'horizontal' focus on the lines of the music.

While Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, the 1968 album that made Cash a household word, spent only two weeks at No. 1, this 1969 follow-up topped the charts for 20 weeks. As with Folsom, the San Quentin LP had to be edited due to space limitations. Now, 31 years after the fact, the show can at last be heard in true perspective. All the original performances hold up, including the album's hit single: Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue," presented unbleeped for the first time. Equally impressive are the eight restored tracks and unexpurgated between-song patter. Cash's opening renditions of "Big River" and "I Still Miss Someone" are bracing. So are four closing songs teaming Cash with his complete performing troupe (the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers). Their gospel performances ("He Turned the Water into Wine," "The Old Account," and an early version of "Daddy Sang Bass") are electrifying, as is a concluding medley featuring everyone. Cash is presented here at his roaring, primal best.

2 CD Set / 5 Previously Unreleased Tracks: Pair all-time great blues-rock guitarist Mick Taylor with roots-rock chanteuse Carla Olson, throw in band members like Ian McLagan (ex-Faces), Barry Goldberg (ex-Electric Flag) and harmonica whiz John Luke Logan, and you had one explosive combo. This deluxe reissue expands their 1990 live at the Roxy album with a number of tracks from Carla's various studio albums, all of 'em featuring Mick and all of 'em long out-of-print. We even unearthed an unreleased cut, an alternate version of 'Winter' that's over twice as long as the Rolling Stones' version on 'Goat s Head Soup' with much Mick guitar solo magic, and the rare, Japan-only track 'You Gotta Move' to up the temperature. And Stones fans wait 'til you hear the 7- minute version of 'Sway' (the original on Sticky Fingers faded out at 3:50 just when Mick was taking off)!

2 CD Set / 5 Previously Unreleased Tracks: Pair all-time great blues-rock guitarist Mick Taylor with roots-rock chanteuse Carla Olson, throw in band members like Ian McLagan (ex-Faces), Barry Goldberg (ex-Electric Flag) and harmonica whiz John Luke Logan, and you had one explosive combo. This deluxe reissue expands their 1990 live at the Roxy album with a number of tracks from Carla's various studio albums, all of 'em featuring Mick and all of 'em long out-of-print. We even unearthed an unreleased cut, an alternate version of 'Winter' that's over twice as long as the Rolling Stones' version on 'Goat s Head Soup' with much Mick guitar solo magic, and the rare, Japan-only track 'You Gotta Move' to up the temperature. And Stones fans wait 'til you hear the 7- minute version of 'Sway' (the original on Sticky Fingers faded out at 3:50 just when Mick was taking off)!

If it seems as though the familiar ABBA sound isn't present on this album, that's because there was no entity known as ABBA at the time that the earliest sides here were recorded. Growing out of an attempt by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus to record together with their respective companions, Agnetha Faltskog and Frida "Anni-Frid" Lyngstad, the first side cut here, "People Need Love," featured the two men singing just as prominently as the women, and was credited to "Bjorn and Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid." It was only after its release and the cutting of a further single, "Ring, Ring," that the more familiar sound of the quartet began to coalesce along with the idea of a permanent professional association. Unreleased in the United States until 1995, this album is more of a generic European pop release than an ABBA release; the music has several unusual attributes…

Incorporating elements of shoegaze, prog, post-hardcore and trip-hop into their alternative metal template, Deftones’ 2000 album ‘White Pony’ is rightly regarded as one of the most influential albums of the Noughties. Here, it gets a deluxe reissue for its twentieth anniversary, accompanied with a remix album titled ‘Black Stallion’ featuring reworks from Clams Casino, DJ Shadow, Robert Smith and more.

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