Scandinavian Star

These recordings came about because the directors of Club Francais du Livre decided to go into the record business. Their plan was to record the top French musicians of the time, each session having an American visiting guest star. One suspects that the documentation of each session was sketchy, for instance there is an unlisted Bass player on the Buck Clayton set and there are other similar anomalies. This in no way detracts from the music, the Buck Clayton session is a classic of the great and often underrated Mainstream Trumpet Man. Michelle de Villiers acquits himself very well on both Tenor and Baritone and the rhythm section is clean and swinging. Andre Persiany is a class act on keyboards and it sounds like a session where everyone was enjoying themselves…

Legendary Swedish heavy-progressive band who released 6 albums between 1974 and 1992 (plus a retrospective in 1996) and reunited and released a couple of new albums from 2004 and on. However, the only addition to the normal guitar, bass and drums instrumentation is some mellotron here and there. It's musical excellence with plenty of extended gratuitous guitar jams and very intricate lyrics. In several ways, Trettioåriga Kriget ("The 30-year War" in English) can be compare to Änglagård and Landberk to sense their influence. The first, self-titled is in many ways like Rush circa 1980. "Krigssång" is an album that fans of 70's rock in general will enjoy, and not just progressive rock listeners. In sum, this is one of the defining Scandinavian prog albums. The first two albums are necessary for any serious exploration of the region. The albums released after the reunion show that the band hasn't lost their touch!

All six of the albums Hanoi Rocks made in their original incarnation – Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks, Oriental Beat, Self Destruction Blues, Back to the Mystery City, Two Steps from the Move, and All Those Wasted Years – are packaged together, one album to one CD, in this straightforward six-CD set. There are no extras, just the albums as they were originally released, though there's a 12-page booklet with a solid history of the band and numerous (if small) reproductions of sleeves from their original releases. It's too much at once even for many fans, but for the more dedicated of that lot, it's a handy encapsulation of their primary recorded work. Hearing all of it does make it clear that, although they're often classified as a heavy metal band, they might be more accurately pegged as a hard rock band with substantial traces of glam and pop (and even some bar band blues-rock) along with the metal.

The Young Mothers - A Mother's Work Is Never Done (2014) {Tektite Records - TR03CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 250 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 86 Mb
Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 27 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Tektite Records | TR03CD
Jazz / Experimental / Experimental Rock / Grindcore / Improvised Music / Hip Hop / Bass / Saxophone

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten reminds us that jazz is the musical equivalent of a dark star, a musical black hole, absorbing all musical energy and classifications. The Norwegian-born bassist-turned Austin, TX resident assembled a multi-genre sextet under the uncategorizable name The Young Mothers. Sure, let's not call this jazz, because it would alienate 99% of fans. But jazz, in truth, it is.

SHADES 1968-1998 is a 4CD Box Set by DEEP PURPLE. It was released on March 16, 1999. It spans their career from 1968 to 1998. This box set contains rare edits and singles which are remastered along with album versions of their biggest hits.

Christopher Herrick continues the Scandinavian leg of his endlessly popular Organ Fireworks series with a disc of music performed on the great organ of Västerås Cathedral in Sweden. The programme is, as ever, a tempting pot-pourri of pieces from around the world, some popular, some rare; some light-hearted and some serious, and demonstrating all facets of virtuoso writing for the organ.