Schmelzer & Muffat - Sonatas
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 336 MB | RS
Recorded: Oct. 1985 | Released: 1992 [1986] | Label: HMA 1901220 | TT: 61:29
London Baroque (dir. Charles Medlam)

One of London Baroque's first recordings, this 1986 issue of chamber sonatas by Schmelzer and Muffat retains its power to charm, move, and thrill. (James Leonard, All Music Guide)
Ensemble is crisp and well balanced and intonation is excellent. […] The two violinists are beautifully matched but special praise must go to Ingrid Seifert for her passionate account of the Sonata a tre to which the designation Lament has speculatively been appended. […] All in all then, a fine release of interesting sonatas, imaginatively performed and beautifully recorded. (Gramophone, Nov. 1986)

From the Inside is a concept album by Alice Cooper, released in 1978. It was inspired by Cooper's stay in a New York sanitarium due to his alcoholism. Each of the characters in the songs were based on actual people Cooper met in the sanitarium. With this album, the Alice Cooper Band saw the addition of three former members of the Elton John band: lyricist Bernie Taupin, guitarist Davey Johnstone, and bassist Dee Murray. Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades.

The Horace Silver Quintet - The Tokyo Blues (1962) [2009 Blue Note Rudy Van Gelder Remaster]
EACRip | MP3 @320 -> 91 MB | FLAC (tracks)+LOG+Cue -> 231 MB | Full Artwork HQ of CD and LP -> 8.5 MB
© 2009 Blue Note | 651462 | Jazz / Hard Bop / Classical Jazz

Following a series of concert dates in Tokyo late in 1961 with his quintet, Horace Silver returned to the U.S. with his head full of the Japanese melodies he had heard during his visit, and using those as a springboard, he wrote four new pieces, which he then recorded at sessions held on July 13 and 14, 1962, along with a version of Ronnell Bright's little known ballad "Cherry Blossom." One would naturally assume the resulting LP would have a Japanese feel, but that really isn't the case. Using Latin rhythms and the blues as a base, Silver's Tokyo-influenced compositions fit right in with the subtle cross-cultural but very American hard bop he'd been doing all along. Using his usual quintet (Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor sax, Gene Taylor on bass) with drummer Joe Harris (he is listed as John Harris, Jr. for this set) filling in for an ailing Roy Brooks), Silver's compositions have a light, airy feel, with plenty of space, and no one used that space better at these sessions than Cook, whose tenor sax lines are simply wonderful, adding a sturdy, reliable brightness. The centerpieces are the two straight blues, "Sayonara Blues" and "The Tokyo Blues," both of which have a delightfully natural flow, and the building, patient take on Bright's "Cherry Blossom," which Silver takes pains to make sure sounds like a ballad and not a barely restrained minor-key romp. The bottom line is that The Tokyo Blues emerges as a fairly typical Silver set from the era and not as a grandiose fusion experiment welding hard bop to Japanese melodies. That might have been interesting, certainly, but Silver obviously assimilated things down to a deeper level before he wrote these pieces, and they feel like a natural extension of his work rather than an experimental detour.

Chumbawamba - Readymades [2002]
EAC Rip | FLAC, IMG+CUE, LOG | 340 MB | Covers, Booklet | TIFF (LWZ) 300ppi | 40 MB
Pop/Rock | 2002 | Label: Universal Records | Catalog Number: 440 018 071-2 | RAR 10% Rec. | Rapidshare, Filesonic

Once listeners accept that Chumbawamba got lucky and will never, ever have another "Tubthumping" in them, the better off they'll all be. And the sooner they recognize this, the sooner they can begin to enjoy the subtle charms of this anarchist combo. Because beneath the snarky, self-imposed label, Chumbawamba is a pretty smart pop band, heavy on hooks and even heavier on ideological grandstanding. Readymades basically follows the pattern laid out on their previous two albums. The pop is a little more forward, as is the political theorizing, but it's a consistent listen (more so than the Tubthumper album). Best moment: the wispy folk and anti-capitalist sentiment of "Don't Try This at Home."

Michael Gallucci, All Music Guide

The Horace Silver Quintet - Horace-Scope (1965) [2006 Blue Note Rudy Van Gelder Remaster]
MP3 @320 -> 90 MB
Full Artwork HQ -> 9.6 MB
© 2006 Blue Note | 3552072
Jazz / Hard Bop / Classical Jazz

Horace-Scope is the third album by Horace Silver's classic quintet – or most of it, actually, as drummer Louis Hayes was replaced by Roy Brooks starting with this session. The rhythmic drive and overall flavor of the group are still essentially the same, though, and Horace-Scope continues the tight, sophisticated-yet-swinging blueprint for hard bop pioneered on its two classic predecessors. The program is as appealing as ever, and even though not as many tunes caught on this time – at least not on the level of a "Juicy Lucy" or "Sister Sadie" – Silver's writing is tuneful and tasteful. The best-known selections are probably the lovely closing number "Nica's Dream," which had been around for several years but hadn't yet been recorded on a Silver LP, and the genial, laid-back opener "Strollin'." But really, every selection is full of soulful grooves and well-honed group interplay, the qualities that made this band perhaps the top hard bop outfit of the early '60s. Silver was in the midst of a hot streak that wouldn't let up for another few years, and Horace-Scope is another eminently satisfying effort from that period.