Strange Folk

This best-of basically covers the years 1979 to 1994, though it reaches back to 1964 for Marianne Faithfull's first recording and first hit, "As Tears Go By," and includes "She," slated for the upcoming 1995 album A Secret Life. Five of the 11 songs are drawn from Faithfull's strongest album, 1979's Broken English, including the bitter title track and "Why'd Ya Do It." Otherwise, compiler Chris Blackwell makes little attempt to present a balance among Faithfull's recordings – there is nothing at all from Dangerous Acquaintances or A Child's Adventure, and only one track each from Strange Weather and Blazing Away. But there is a good newly recorded cover of Patti Smith's "Ghost Dance" co-produced by Keith Richards and featuring other members of the Rolling Stones, and Blackwell rescues Faithfull's rendition of the title theme for the movie Trouble in Mind from the soundtrack album. It adds up to an excellent compilation that highlights Faithfull's strengths as a singer.

Jan Dukes De Grey are a forgotten relic of progressive music. Their brilliant free-from album "Mice And Rats In The Loft" was the pinnacle of their musical expression, a semi-improvised journey into madness. Jan Dukes De Grey are unique in every way - from the diverse instrumentation handled by only 3 musicians, the way they utilise strange chords, key changes and varying tempos, to the very personal style of vocal expression.

A Subtle Plague - Albums Collection 1993-1997
4xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC (tracks): 1,40 GB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: various | Country/Year: Germany 1993-1997
Genre: Rock | Style: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Folk Rock

"Founded 1984 in New York, Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys recorded A Subtle Plague's first demo. (…) The brothers Simmersbach, Analucia DaSilva, Pat Ryan and changing drummers achieved wide notoriety as one of the best live bands in the U.S. underground (…) Their communal way of touring and devoted fans led to Germany's Rolling Stone magazine calling A Subtle Plague "the Grateful Dead of the '90s"…" ~wikipedia

This comprehensive Bridget St. John box set includes the three sensational albums recorded for Peel’s Dandelion label, plus live recordings and recordings made for the BBC between 1968 and 1972.

"As an improviser, you often find that it‘s not the compositions themselves you‘re playing, but your own memories of them. And as these memories come back to you in the moment, they assert their continuing existence in the here and now," says Michael Wollny. In other words, songs are like ghosts. Wollny‘s new album "Ghosts" is a gathering of some of the ghosts that regularly haunt him. Typically for Wollny, they range from classics like Franz Schubert's "Erlkönig" to jazz standards, film music, songs with a certain fragility by Nick Cave, say, or the band Timber Timbre, and also include his own darkly evocative original compositions.

Biota was founded in 1979 in Fort Collins, Colorado, as the Mnemonist Orchestra. Over the years, the Mnemonist Orchestra developed into Biota (the musical contingent) and Mnemonists (the visual contingent). Both Biota and Mnemonists work as one on productions of musical and visual components. Imagine if a jazz trumpeter from a smoky nightclub, a group of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk musicians, an indie-pop band that sounds like a cross between Blonde Redhead and Circulatory System, and an experimental ambient-electronic musician all got together to record an album for aliens underwater. Yes, it's a glib description. But Biota's music isn't too easy to describe. It rarely sounds like any other music out there, and when you do notice something familiar, it quickly gets enveloped in other sounds or disappears into a complex sonic haze. Different musical phrases often overlap, and sometimes it seems that entirely independent pieces are happening at the same time.

Legends, magic, love and torments in music at the time of the „Tale of tales“. In 1643, in Naples, the probably most important collection of stories and folk tales of all times has been published: the „Pentamerone“ (the five-days-work) or „lo cunto de li cunti“ (the tale of tales) by Giambattista Basile. During five days each day ten tales are told. Basile with this work brought to live the genre of the Fairy Tale wich later on, adopted by the Grimm brothers, Perraut and Brentano, will spread like a wildfire all over Europe.