Michael Wollny – Wunderkammer XXL (Live) (2009/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 57:40 minutes | 616 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music
“The most exciting jazz pianist in Germany” was the title of Die Welt after the publication of “Michael Wollny’s Wunderkammer” in autumn 2009. And the Frankfurter Rundschau spoke of a “big step further in a completely new direction”. In fact, the album marked the beginning of a new era in the career of Michael Wollny. The pianist, who always manages to surprise his listeners and himself with his music, was subsequently elevated to the Olympus of European jazz: he received the coveted ECHO Jazz as the best pianist nationally, the Hamburger Abendblatt named him the “strongest (jazz) musician personality that Germany has produced since Albert Mangelsdorff” and the FAZ sees him as a “perfect piano master”, “who brings everything you can ask for from a perfect jazz pianist: virtuoso technique , exuberant fantasy, Discipline and the ability to creative chaos, sensuality, as well as aesthetic sense“.
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The Playfords – Dark Cloud: Songs from the Thirty Years’ War 1618-1648 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:12 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi
Founded in Weimar in 2001, The Playfords ensemble draws their inspiration from The English Dancing Master, a collection published in England in 1651 by John and Henry Playford. Technical notes on various dances are written in accompaniment to popular melodies, with the harmonies and the bass improvised depending on the talent and fancies of the musicians. This is the premise which the ensemble works from, trying to preserve a certain element of authenticity through spontaneous improvisation, in tandem with advice from Renaissance dance and music experts.
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The Players Association – Born To Dance (Remastered) (1977/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 32:48 minutes | 752 MB | Genre: Dance, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Craft Recordings
The Players Association recordings brought in leading jazz session musicians such as Joe Farrell, David Sanborn, James Mtume, Mike Mandel and Lorraine Moore on vocals as well as others. Whilst writing some of their own songs, the group mainly focused on covers. Their two biggest hits were “Disco Inferno,” a cover of the Trammps tune, and their own composition “Turn the Music Up!” Both tracks were recorded on the Vanguard label and issued in the UK as 12″ singles which boosted the group’s popularity on the dance floors around the UK.
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The Plaster Caster Blues Band – The Plaster Caster Blues Band (1969/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:10 minutes | 612 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ace Records
Some of the records I post here are unjustifiably obscure, while others are just obscure–this one falls into the latter category. However, once again I didn’t have time to rip a new record (it takes time once you take into account the de-clicking that I have to do) and so have fallen back on a rip I made some time ago and haven’t listened to since, probably with good reason. (The record, again, comes from the WMUC library.)
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The Pinnacle Boys – High Lonesome Bluegrass (1980/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 31:29 minutes | 622 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CMH Records
The Pinnacle Boys were one of the great Knoxville bands in the ’70s that were considered among the best in the current bluegrass crop. Yet, the actual lineup on a given day could change whimsically, with the comings and goings of various star sidemen in these and every other bluegrass band in the Appalachian area too complicated for anyone to follow. However, High Lonesome Bluegrass features a fantastic line-up with Bud Brewster (best known for backing Carl Story) featured on guitar and lead vocals, Randall Collins on lead fiddle, Rob Mashburn on bass, Jerry Moore on harmony fiddle and baritone vocal, Mike Pearson on banjo and tenor vocal, Jim Smith on mandolin, Doug Klein & Robby Osborne (son of the legendary Bobby Osborne) splitting drum duties and Produced by Sonny Osborne (of the Osborne Brothers, and Robby’s uncle). There was something at the heart of the group’s music other than flashy virtuosity, perhaps a bit of their hometown’s sentimental old-time music atmosphere, that made this group truly special to bluegrass music.
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The Phunkguerilla & Cosmo Klein – Kingdom On Fire (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 38:09 minutes | 436 MB | Genre: Jazz, Funk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cosmopolytix
“Kingdom On Fire” is an impressive status report and a further blow of liberation after ten years of development, which the project THE PHUNKGUERILLA has accomplished to this day. Fischer had previously worked with artists such as Chaka Khan, Lionel Richie and Stefan Raab‘s Heavytones show band, worked on more than 300 albums and participated in 800 TV shows. So here was a street musician with great ambitions, fired from the popbusiness, and there was an autodidactic multi-instrumentalist with a huge background. And the two shared a vision. A er numerous „guerrilla sessions“, the 30-man network finally found the perfect musicians for the now six-headed THE PHUNKGUERILLA cast. It was a trip with many stations, of which the album „Kingdom On Fire“ is the latest, but certainly not the last one.
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The Peppi Morreale Trio – The More U Drink The Better I Sound (1966/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 29:56 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA – Legacy
Peppi Morreale was a well known Latin American swinging pianist who had been performing in clubs and resorts since the 1950s. Peppi had been Carol Channing’s musical director but later working with his own trio.
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The Paper Kites – Roses (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 43:59 minutes | 477 MB | Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nettwerk Music Group
Australian band The Paper Kites have confirmed that their next studio album, Roses, will arrive early next year on March 12th. The studio effort will be the band’s first since their On the Train Ride Home and On the Corner Where You Live companion albums arrived in 2018.
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The Murlocs – Bittersweet Demons (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:37 minutes | 510 MB | Genre: Garage Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ATO (UK)
On their fifth album, The Murlocs reflect on those who leave a profound imprint on our lives: the saviors and hellraisers and assorted other mystifying characters. The most personal and boldly confident work yet from the Melbourne-based five-piece (which includes two members of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard); the album sets their storytelling to eleven infectious tracks written mostly on piano, lending a greater emotional intensity to the band’s restless and radiant brand of garage-rock.
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The Mozartists & Ian Page – Jommelli: Il Vologeso (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:20:06 minutes | 2,41 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
The Mozartists continue their project of staging operas by Mozart and his contemporaries with their recording of the UK premi’ere of Niccol`o Jommelli’s Il Vologeso, first performed over 250 years ago on 11 February 1766 for the Stuttgart court in Ludwigsburg.
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The Raven Age – Exile (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 58:14 minutes | 704 MB | Genre: Rock, Hard Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EX1 Records
Exile is a beautifully curated selection of 11 tracks featuring 2 new original songs, plus fan favorites from both the Conspiracy album and hand-picked live tracks from their epic setlists. The Raven Age are as brilliantly catchy as they are deviously heavy, delicately balancing classic and modern metal influences with an alt.rock twist. Their latest opus traps lightning in a bottle and laces cinematic flavours within concrete heaviness in a way very few have done before – dragging the listener deeper and deeper inside their dark dystopian reality. The proof, as they say, is always in the pudding. With the success of their latest album Conspiracy reaching over 30 million streams worldwide as well as storming UK arenas opening for Alter Bridge and Shinedown. The Raven Age have risen to every challenge thrown their way and look primed for metal glory.
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The Ramsey Lewis Trio – Bossa Nova (1962/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 34:36 minutes | 627 MB | Genre: Bossa Nova, Latin Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Argo
Bossa Nova is an album of Bossa nova compositions by Ramsey Lewis’ Trio featuring tracks recorded in 1962 and released on the Argo label.
Allmusic awarded the album 4 stars stating “the Ramsey Lewis Trio embraced the sunkissed Rio groove to create one of its most unusual and engaging LPs”.
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The Ralph Sharon Trio – Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 32:55 minutes | 601 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy
Born in London, he emigrated to America in the 1953, becoming a U.S. citizen five years later. By 1958, Ralph Sharon was recording with Tony Bennett, the start of a more than 40 year working relationship as Bennett’s man behind the music on many Grammy winning studio recordings, and touring with Bennett for many years. Ralph Sharon continues to perform. He and the Ralph Sharon Trio have a regular engagement Wednesdays at the Dazzle Jazz Club in Denver, Colorado.
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The Shires – Good Years (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 40:32 minutes | 487 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd
The follow-up to 2018’s ‘Accidentally on Purpose’ was recorded in Nashville and is released to tie in with a big UK tour. Speaking on the release of the single and the new LP, Crissie Rhodes and Ben Earle said: “Honesty and storytelling has always been such an important part of our songwriting. We’ve poured some of the incredible experiences and life we’ve lived into these songs. We can’t wait to hit the road next year and play these live across the country. “The songs mean so much to us personally, but there really is nothing like looking out at our fans in the crowd and seeing how much of an impact they can have in someone else’s life. It’s truly a very special thing.”
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The Shires – Accidentally On Purpose (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:19 minutes | 478 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca (UMO)
The biggest selling UK country act of all time, The Shires, announce their highly anticipated third album ‘Accidentally on Purpose’, due for release on 20th April 2018 through Decca Records. The trailblazing duo will also be hitting the road this summer, performing their new music across the UK, including London’s Royal Albert Hall on 18th May. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, The Shires’ new album combines massive country-pop choruses and emotive words about their whirlwind journey, relationships and their time in the States. Increasingly, US country music is taking music influence from the mainstream with pop-inspired hooks, a sound that The Shires’ new album reflects. “Accidentally on Purpose is full of personal songs that really sums up the whirlwind journey we’ve been on together. From the first day we met, we’ve been crazy dreamers with big plans, who really believed that Country could break into the UK mainstream. For all those dreams, we never imagined it would all happen so quickly and we’re so proud and excited to be releasing our third album.” – Ben and Crissie, The Shires
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