Sincere

Equation - Hazy Daze (1999)
British Folk Rock/Celtic | Putumayo World Music | MP3 CBR 320kbps | 43:47 | 100 MB

Sure, none of your friends have heard of Equation, but they're missing out. I have loved this CD from the very first track and I still can't get enough. Equation's sound has been described as British-Celtic folk-pop. Basically, their sound is all their own and thus this ambiguous description suits them well. They're not quite like anything you've ever heard. But watch out; this album is highly addictive. From the intensely singable "Kissing Crime" to the contemplative "Myself" to the superb "Strange Love," the tracks are all incredibly sincere and beautifully performed. I played this album all summer at the large bookstore where I worked, and every time I played it, someone would come up and ask what was playing. I always highly recommended it to those who asked, as I do to you today. Maybe someday Equation will be the household name that they deserve to be, but for now, they remain one of music's most exquisite hidden treasures. (review from Amazon)

The album features artists such as Markus Schulz, Rex Mundi, Lange, Aly & Fila, Above and Beyond and many others….

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major “Titan” – San Francisco Symphony; Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 225 MB, 3% recovery | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Scans | RS links
Publisher: San Francisco Symphony | Recorded: 2001 | Published: 2001

This fresh and exciting performance of Mahler's First Symphony reveals MTT and his orchestra on largely top form.... The playing of the San Francisco Symphony also is first class, with the exception of the flutes which not only sound more forwardly balanced than the other winds but play with such breathy tone that at lower dynamic levels it's sometimes difficult to discern the actual notes... I would count these faults less serious were it not for the fact that everything else about this production is so good. Still, on the understanding that nothing is ever entirely perfect, I can recommend this characterful performance with sincere enthusiasm. --

Verdi's Requiem–certainly one of his most moving, eloquent masterpieces–was written in honor of the great Italian poet Alessandro Manzoni, whom he admired enormously both for his writings and his political outlook. Though its text is the Latin liturgy, it has been called Verdi's greatest opera because of its basically dramatic character, as well as his own ambivalent attitude toward organized religion. Thus, interpretations tend to emphasize its secular or its sacred aspect, though, naturally, the soloists are trained in the Verdi opera tradition.

Jazz guitarist, one of the most talented in Europe, C. Escoudé, just released a new record called "Catalogne". Yet no Sardana, no Catalan-inspired music, but standards and compositions by Ellington, Reinhardt, Glenn Miller and Michel Legrand. Sound, admirable, and the arrangements, concocted in Chicago is far from the folklore of below the Pyrenees … But the love of a name, country, memories of happiness led to this name … and then Jazz Catalan is booming! This simple music for all, but lived and experienced by seven musicians sincere, is to listen to the top of the castle of Tossa or in the blue bay of Tamariu …

In 2000 when Blue Note upgraded 1958's House Party as part of the label's superior Rudy Van Gelder series, they augmented the title with a ten-plus minute driving blow of Charlie Parker's "Confirmation" as a well-chosen bonus track. Now the effort is bookended by some primal Bird, which was always a forte of the assembled coterie. ~ AllMusic

WMRI is Russian synthesist Mike Winchester. He has quite a few releases spread throughout the Internet, on sites like Jamendo, AmieStreet, Bandcamp, etc. And while much of it is quite good, I feel that his work really shines on a series of recent releases that he alludes to as the “Ambient Gem Series”.

~ Free Floating Music