Yoyo Sham

Originally recorded in 1970 as the soundtrack to French new wave film "Les Stances A Sophie", this LP contains Art Ensemble's most accessible (and probably best) track ever, the awesome "Theme De Yo Yo". While the rest of the LP is free and experimental, "Theme De Yo Yo" is tighter and funkier with a superb vocal from Fontella Bass.

Three substantial piano sonatas stand at the heart of a recording that reflects personal and musical independence. For Anis Fuleihan, the juxtaposition of archaic and modern is both kaleidoscopic and playful, while Boghos Gelalian draws on folkloric and late-Romantic influences in his brand of ‘Orientalism.’ Houtaf Khoury’s Sonata No. 4 both questions and reflects unsettling contemporary experience in a work of audacious, pulsing intensity. Tatiana Primak-Khoury is a Ukrainian-Lebanese pianist. She began her concert career in her native Ukraine before extending her activities to performances in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. A laureate of national and international piano competitions, she graduated with honors from the Kiev Lysenko Special Music School in 1991, going on to study for a Master’s degree at the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music in Kiev in 1996. In 1998 she moved to Lebanon, and has since been committed to expanding the boundaries of her traditional repertoire, constantly searching for and adding new contemporary works by Ovchinnikov, Rautavaara, Saygun and Panufnik among many others.

Three substantial piano sonatas stand at the heart of a recording that reflects personal and musical independence. For Anis Fuleihan, the juxtaposition of archaic and modern is both kaleidoscopic and playful, while Boghos Gelalian draws on folkloric and late-Romantic influences in his brand of ‘Orientalism.’ Houtaf Khoury’s Sonata No. 4 both questions and reflects unsettling contemporary experience in a work of audacious, pulsing intensity. Tatiana Primak-Khoury is a Ukrainian-Lebanese pianist.

In the film, an American film director named Tyler in Beijing (played by Donald Sutherland) finds failing health. The director's assistant hires a man named Yoyo to film a documentary about him. The director discovers he is no longer going to film a large budget film. He and Yoyo decide that he should have a "comedy funeral." Soon afterward the American director falls ill and Yoyo begins planning the funeral.

This six-disc set of supposed punk rock classics, Shit Factory: Greatest Punk Swindle is indeed a swindle. While most of the bands that are featured are worthy of the tag "legendary" (Adicts, Exploited, Dead Kennedys, the Damned the Stranglers) the tracks that appear are poorly recorded live versions, re-recordings and demos. Do not be fooled by the bloody chests of Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten on the cover, as this is not a middle finger raised to the establishment; it's a middle finger aimed directly at the listener.