Youth 2013

With their 2010 debut Crooks & Lovers being a near perfect, small wonder of post-dubstep bliss, British electronic music duo Mount Kimbie tackle the difficult sophomore release with the usually dire move of "add more vocals," but the results aren't dire at all. Quite the contrary, the opening "Home Recording" is the wonderfully foggy, yet somehow crisp, experience offered on their debut with far-off vocals coming from Kimbie member Kai Campos, whose style here is somewhere between James Blake and Ben Gibbard without aping either. The lyrics are a bit more free-form than traditional singer/songwriter material, and when a horn section break in the middle offers a prickly and rewarding bridge, it's like a transmission from the Portishead side of trip-hop where modern composition, The Wire magazine, and all things artistic are held dear…

Riccardo Muti's 2011 performances of Saverio Mercadante's I due Figaro (The Two Figaros) were the first it had received since 1835, and this Ducale release of the presentation at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, Italy, is the world-premiere recording. The story of this comic opera is a sequel to events in the Beaumarchais plays, which inspired Rossini's Barber of Seville and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro; the characters of Figaro, Susanna, Cherubino, and the Count and Countess Almaviva are seen a decade later in another farce of disguises and deception. The music is very much in the animated style of Rossini, with an exotic quality that Mercadante discovered on his visit to Madrid, and the mood of the opera is brightened by the combination of Neapolitan tunefulness and Spanish dance rhythms.

Lee Ranaldo And The Dust - Last Night On Earth (2013) {Matador OLE-1041-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 437 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 153 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 146 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Matador Records | OLE-1041-2
Rock / Experimental Rock / Alternative / Indie Rock

As Sonic Youth's members explored their individual careers during the band's hiatus, it was fascinating to hear their projects develop. Between the Times and the Tides allowed Lee Ranaldo's more pastoral, mystical side to flourish, and it's in even fuller flower on Last Night on Earth. This is also the debut of Ranaldo's group the Dust, and while two of the group's key players, Alan Licht and Steve Shelley, appeared on his previous album, these songs feel like the work of a full-fledged band. Ranaldo and company sound more confident; where he tried a little bit of everything on Between the Times and the Tides, here he and his band concentrate on expansive songs filled with shimmering melodies and epic solos.

Daughter - If You Leave (2013) {4AD CAD3301CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 233 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 109 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 65 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 4AD | CAD 3301CD
Rock / Indie / Dream Pop / Pop Folk / Indie Pop

Given its beginnings as Elena Tonra's solo project, it would be easy to assume that Daughter is just another singer/songwriter act with a couple of supporting musicians. However, over the course of If You Leave, Tonra, guitarist Igor Haefeli, and drummer Remi Aguilella make it clear that this is the work of a band. Together, they swing between moments of close-up intimacy and widescreen majesty, often during the course of one song. These songs have so many ebbs and flows that they're practically tidal: "Lifeforms" swells from spiraling guitars that recall the xx in their moody simplicity into towering rock that makes the most of Haefeli's amps and Aguilella's kit.

Almost 10 years after her debut album Norwegian saxophonist and composer Frøy Aagre releases her fourth album, the most ambitious, epic and diverse album in her career. The album marks a distinct stylistic change in Aagre´s music with the entry of electronic sounds and influence from pop and electronica. The music is warm, challenging and inventive, it is a masterful mix of genres performed with musical energy and enthusiasm.

Hailing from Tashkent Uzbekistan, Fromuz (From.uz) is a 5 piece primarily instrumental band that creates a high-energy blend of complex Progressive Rock, Jazz Fusion, and Improvisation, along with healthy doses of Classical and European influences. Fromuz was officially introduced to the world through the compositions that they debuted in April 2005 at the Youth Theater of Uzbekistan, in Tashkent.
The band’s first full length CD, “Overlook” was released in 2008 to rave reviews, landing on many critics’ top 10 Lists for the year, including some where the band was lauded as releasing the best progressive rock CD of 2008…