Fieh – III (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 48:23 minutes | 567 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jansen Records
Fieh returns with their third studio album, III, once more leaving an impression by representing the front line of the Norwegian “future soul” scene. Immediately after the success with their previous album In the Sun in the Rain the octet was back in the studio. Like an eight-headed genius impressing us with catchy compositions and lyrics, they also produced the album themselves.
Read moreThe Thrill – Past and Present (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 31:00 minutes | 343 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © The Thrill
The Thrill band is one of those bands who is capable of playing the many different kinds of music that people want to hear and enjoy.
Read moreSweet Thursday – Sweet Thursday (1973/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 44:33 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Great Western Gramophone
Sweet Thursday is the self-titled debut, and only, album by the late 1960s British rock band Sweet Thursday. Its chance of success was cut short by the almost-immediate failure of the record label.
The album was recorded at Trident Studios in London. It is notable for featuring keyboardist Nicky Hopkins (who worked with The Rolling Stones and The Who among many others) and Bluesbreakers alum Jon Mark (who would go on to form the group Mark-Almond). It was produced by Hugh Murphy, who later became known for his work with Gerry Rafferty. Recording and engineering was done by Barry Sheffield.
Read moreBruce Marshall Group – Vintage To Verdict (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:49 minutes | 483 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verdict Music LLC.
Bruce Marshall took up guitar in 1966 at age 12 when his father gave him his ¾ Kay acoustic. He grew up in a musical household, both parents and the 4 Marshall children were always singing, playing guitar and piano and their parents taught them vocal harmony at a young age. Like many of his peers, seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan was a watershed moment and Bruce absorbed the sounds from that era, especially vocal groups like The Rascals, Beach Boys, Everly Brothers and Buffalo Springfield. When he discovered the likes of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, BB King and Muddy Waters, Marshall developed a love of soul music and the blues.
Read moreStephen Hough – Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 – Grieg: Piano Concerto (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:57 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt’s birth, virtuoso pianist Stephen Hough recorded the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major and the Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, as well as Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, a Liszt-inspired work that rounds out the program appropriately. While these warhorses are overly familiar to most classical fans, the Liszt bicentennial has given some listeners a chance to hear his concertos with new ears and find fresh things to like in them. Hough is very nearly the ideal pianist to help with any reassessment, and his clear communication of the music certainly makes everything coherent and engrossing, no matter how many times these concertos have been played or heard. The fully engaged accompaniment of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra also contributes to the performances’ high level of interest, and Andrew Litton’s alert direction is a good match for Hough’s brilliance, especially in the Liszt concertos. The Grieg concerto is a more labored composition and offers less of the fantasy, flash, and fun that Liszt provides, but Hough gives it refinement and polish, and Litton keeps the textures and tone light enough to prevent the music from descending into murkiness. Hyperion’s recording is transparent and well-balanced throughout, so all three concertos have splendid sound.
Read moreBen Winkelman – Heartbeat (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:24 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © OA2 Records
Pianist Ben Winkelman’s sixth album as a leader, Heartbeat, features jazz heavyweights Gilad Hekselman, Matt Penman and Obed Calvaire, and comprises nine originals, four played by piano trio, five by quartet with guitar. Written mostly in the early months of the Covid pandemic while awaiting the birth of his first child, the album draws inspiration from the anticipation of becoming a father, and the feeling of crisis and isolation at the start of the pandemic in New York. Containing playful, intricate compositions as well as simple, lyrical ones, the album spans a range of moods and stylistic influences, with an emphasis on strong melodic lines, rhythmic exploration and group interplay. Having focused on the piano trio on his previous albums, this one marks a change with the addition of guitar on five tracks.
Read moreSoul Thrivers – Morning Glory (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 50:55 minutes | 994 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Timezone
We’re very proud of this album: it represents the accumulation of many years playing music together, a long process of finding our voice as a Neo- or Contemporary Blues band. On this album are traditional tunes that are well over a hundred years old, alongside things we wrote ourselves (and with our fellow-traveller Mauro Pandolfino). It is a tribute to the durable power of the country-blues idiom–basically invented by slaves and developed by their children and grandchildren–that a Brit, a French-American and a Pole living in Berlin in the 21st century felt inspired to pay tribute, once again, to the likes R.L. Burnside, Fred McDowell, and Junior Kimbrough, to name just a few, and to carry this music into the future.
A huge shout-out to Butterama Recording Center and to Daniel Nentwig, who in addition to engineering the sessions played some funky bass on ‘Searching for You’. And to all our friends and fans over the years for coming to our shows & supporting
Read moreRay D’Ariano – Are You On Something? (1973/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 32:32 minutes | 979 MB | Genre: Humour, Comedy
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Kamasutra Record
Every copy of Ray D’Ariano’s 1972 comedy album ARE YOU ON SOMETHING? (KSBS 2072) that I’ve ever seen has either a hole punch or cutout notch in the cover. I purchased my first copy in 1974 from a department store bargain bin. This is no reflection on Ray’s work here, which is spirited and in places wickedly imitative.
As seen here, Ray was once a doughy kid from NYC with thick dark red hair. In the mid-80s he played sidekick to Soupy Sales on WNBC-66AM’s 10am to 3pm slot. Their music and talk show was sandwiched between Imus in the Morning and Howard Stern. This was during Howeird’s PRIVATE PARTS era. After Stern was fired, Soupy’s contract wasn’t renewed. Ray was kept on at 10 to 3 until 1988, when WNBC ceased to exist (it’s now WFAN). He claims to be NYC’s last-ever AM radio DJ.
Read moreThought Gang – Thought Gang (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 59:21 minutes | 691 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sacred Bones Records
Thought Gang is the collective moniker of two towering proponents of all things weird. Over the years, Angelo Badalamenti has created the soundtrack for David Lynch’s surrealist visions, from Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks to Mulholland Drive. In the early ’90s, they began collaborating on a purely musical project, which was 90-percent completed during that decade. What began in 1991 took 26 years to see daylight, or the dark night, as is perhaps more appropriate when describing Lynch’s murky visions. Thought Gang certainly don’t disappoint when it comes to any anticipated weirdness listeners may expect. Even by these long-standing collaborators’ standards, their self-titled debut is pretty out there. Loosely taking the form of madly obscure jazz experiments, the tracks were created with Badalamenti and additional jazz musicians interpreting Lynch’s strange, imagined scenes. Largely, the compositions are true to their original form, save some supplementary guitar parts — courtesy of Lynch — on “One Dog Bark,” and new vocals on “Jack Paints It Red,” which are as creepy as one might hope. Two tracks on the record may well be familiar to hardcore fans, as both “A Real Indication” and “The Black Dog Runs at Night” appeared on the 1992 soundtrack to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Reportedly, Lynch was apprehensive about Badalamenti taking the vocals on the former track lest he embarrass himself. The resultant speak-sing beatnik-esque delivery lends the track an out-of-time hard-boiled atmosphere that ultimately delighted the director. And Lynch achieves an impressive, intimidating prowl with the buckled bass solo, while the cool jazz motif “One Dog Bark” is rendered off-center by the guitar shredding in the background. Overall, Thought Gang feels like being jettisoned into the outer reaches of Lynch’s no doubt brilliant, but nevertheless manifestly eccentric mind. As such, Lynch and Badalamenti aficionados will no doubt revel in its many strange charms, but perhaps above all, they’ll appreciate the sound of two old friends having a great deal of mischievous fun. ~ Bekki Bemrose
Read moreThompson – Family (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:11 minutes | 818 MB | Genre: Folk Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Fantasy Records
As the title indicates, this album brings together various members of the musical Thompson family: Teddy Thompson, his acclaimed folk rocker parents Richard and Linda, brother Jack, younger sister Kami, her husband James and nephew Zak Hobbs, collectively dubbed Thompson. This collaborative album of original songs captures the warmth, intelligence and humour of this supremely talented family as they record together for the very first time. The family members all wrote and recorded their songs where they live and sent them in; once done, the family met up for four days of studio time in London and New York City where the tracks were recorded with Teddy at the helm. The recordings feature abundant musical cross-pollination from all the performers as well as shared backing vocals.
Read moreTheon Cross – Fyah (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:28 minutes | 960 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Gearbox Records
As one of the key players of the London jazz scene, Theon Cross has been dominating airwaves and stages recently. He’s part of a thriving family network of young London-based musicians who have regularly supported one another in stretching and re-shaping the boundaries of the jazz genre.
Read moreThomas Trotter – Duruflé: Complete Organ Works (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:13:25 minutes | 2,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Kings College Cambridge
“I love the way he makes the music shine brightly through that incense-laden atmosphere which seems to shroud so many recordings of this repertory, without actually disturbing it in any way. I do not recall ever having been so excited by this music before. An exceptionally fine recording, which has captured instrument, acoustic and playing with impeccable detail without any sacrificing of atmosphere, and we have here a genuinely exceptional organ release.” – Gramophone
Read moreThe BB King Blues Band – The Soul of the King (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 59:33 minutes | 673 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ruf Records GmbH
2019 release. They might have an illustrious history, but The Soul Of The King reminds us that The B.B. King Blues Band are a lineup moving forward, writing a love-letter to their fallen leader while staking their own claim in the modern era. Choosing songs from King’s sprawling catalog could have been an ordeal. But for The Soul Of The King, the lineup made a smart move, letting the A-list guests dictate the material. There’s a heartfelt turn from Michael Lee on ‘The Thrill Is Gone’. Mary Griffin and Taj Mahal combine their vocal and guitar talents on ‘Paying The Cost To Be The Boss’. Kenny Neal lends poignant vocals and licks to ‘Sweet Little Angel’.
Read moreThe Bayonets – Crash Boom Bang! (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 46:35 minutes | 555 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © JEM
This debut from Los Angeles indie rockers the Bayonets was first released in 2014 and includes the single Vagabond Soul, featuring Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler on vocals and harmonica. The band is led by Brian Ray, who spent years playing and recording with Etta James and Paul McCartney, and Oliver Leiber, son of legendary rock & roll songwriter Jerry Leiber of Leiber and Stoller.
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