Marc Ribot calls Ceramic Dog (Ribot, Shahad Ismaily, Ches Smith) his first rock band since high school. Those familiar with his catalog might be surprised by that, since many of his albums have rocked pretty hard. True enough, there are more songs with words and the power trio format emphasizes the rock aspect, but Party Intellectuals is no less wide-ranging than albums like Rootless Cosmopolitans or Requiem for What's His Name.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - Keyboard Concertos
Freiburger Barockorchester / Andreas Staier / Gottfried von der Goltz
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 263 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi # HMC 901854 | Country/Year: Europe 2004, ReIssue 2011
Genre: Classical | Style: Classical, Concerto

…The justifiably well known Rondo all’Ungarese is played with superb virtuosity by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra with string playing of extraordinary unanimity, with again that wonderful bass. Andreas Staier makes much of the gypsy element and conjures a huge range of colours out of his Walter copy pianoforte. A terrific CD.

Orden Ogan have created a album that takes you on a journey of discovery. From the gargantuan and operatic vocal melodies to the almost thrash metal outbursts, “Easton Hope” is definitely a journey you do not want to miss. After “Rise and Ruin” sets up the album beautifully, “Nobody Leaves” delivers a crushing blow that continues through to the epic “Welcome Liberty”, and does not stop until closer “Of Downfall And Decline”, which is mind blowing to say the very least.

The Charlatans - Some Friendly
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 304 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: PDI # 80.2324 | Country/Year: Spain 1990
Genre: Rock, Electronic | Style: Brit Pop

…"The Only One I Know" remains the best-known cut, Blunt's crisp bass and Collins' Deep Purple-inspired keyboards providing its charge. But Some Friendly's hidden masterpiece comes at the very end – "Sproston Green," a monster jam based on Collins' supreme keyboard work, with Burgess' soaring lyric matching the massive surge of the music. It remains the concluding number of the band's sets to this day for good reason.

Sanborn's '83 release brought a new meaning to late night or midnight music listening ! By no means is this elevator muzak, either ! In fact, Sanborn was on the cutting edge in using drum machines and synthesizer arrangements without stifling his sax playing or throwing the whole project out of whack. Sanborn's playing is very upfront and sharp ! While the recording may sound dated, it is only in a very good positive way to demonstrate what is lacking in some of today's so-called pop-jazz or r & b instrumentalists.

Beethoven's two string quintets are among his least-played major works. This is perhaps understandable in the case of the String Quintet in E flat major, Op. 4, which is based on a serenade from the composer's early Bonn years. That's interesting enough in itself, for it places you inside the expansion of Beethoven's creative capabilities when he came under Haydn's tutelage in Vienna (although this work sounds more like Mozart than Haydn). The String Quintet in C major, Op. 29, was composed in 1800 and 1801, and its absence from the mainstream repertoire is harder to explain.

All of the composers here combine elements of ancient Azerbaijani tradition with Western forms, colourful orchestration and vivid musical storytelling. This is epitomized in Vasif Adigezalov’s symphonically proportioned Fourth Piano Concerto, while Fikret Amirov adds a touch of Arabian exoticism into his Concerto. The bubbling energy of Tofig Guliyev’s ‘Gaytagi’ dance adds a splash of jazz, and Farhad Badalbeyli’s works depict The Sea in an expansive and atmospheric score, followed by the sad tale of the city of Shusha expressed in a vocalise.

This DVD was recorded in the summer of 1974 in the town of Gardner, Massachusetts, supposedly there were six-thousand people there, which is hard to tell from the audience shots provided. In fact it’s hard to tell a lot of things considering the poor overall camera work which, by the way is in black and white. Remember this is 1974, not 1954! The festival name provides the first clue as to what to expect “Down In the Dumps.” And I cannot make that up and I am not lying.

The stylish return into the golden age of soft melancholic tunes as they are still with us dispersed in the skies.