![King Crimson - Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (40th Anniversary Edition) (1973/2023) [High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray Disc]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2024/05/12/138741_front.md.jpg)
Thorvald Fredin, Oskarshamn Ensemble – Concertos For Double Bass and Orchestra (1985) [Reissue 2005]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 44:27 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 3,35 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 877 MB
Features Stereo & Multichannel Surround Sound | Opus 3 Records # CD 8522
In this highly unusual recording, featuring the double bass as solo instrument, we hear music by the Italian composer Giovanni Bottesini and two Swedish composers – Erland von Koch and Lars-Erik Larsson. Soloist Thorvald Fredin is Professor of Double Bass at the Stockholm College of Music. A breezy presentation of double bass virtuoso Bottesini’s second concerto for the instrument, originally written for performance by the composer himself coupled with his Elegia, testifies the present performers’ technical mastery and musical understanding of this typically 19th century composition in which no opportunity is lost, in cantelineor runs, demonstrating the soloist’s proficiency.
Read more
Bill Haley – Rock Around The Clock (1955/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:11 minutes | 658 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rock&Roll Classics
“Rock Around the Clock” is a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym “Jimmy De Knight”) in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1954 for American Decca. It was a number one single for two months[6] and did well on the United Kingdom charts; the recording also reentered the UK Singles Chart in the 1960s and 1970s.
Read more
Thomas Schippers, New York Philharmonic – Prokofiev / Mussorgsky (2003)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 74:01 minutes | Full Art (PDF) | 4,89 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Art (PDF) | 1,44 GB
Thomas Schippers conducts the New York Philharmonic in two Russian showpieces. Thomas Schippers had a sadly short career, but these recordings show his art at the best. The Nevsky is from 1962, while the Pictures is from 1965. The sources are not entirely clear, but both were likely 3-track recordings, and both have been redone in surround for this release.
Read more
Texas – Careful What You Wish For (2003)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 42:47 minutes | Scans included | 2,81 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 845 MB
Texas took a bit of time to deliver the follow-up to Hush — an indication that the group was either aware that some fans didn’t feel the record was up to snuff, or an indication that the group wasn’t quite sure where to go next, a theory bolstered by the appearance of a greatest-hits album — a traditional measure for a band biding their time. When they finally did release their sixth album, Careful What You Wish For, in the fall of 2003, times had changed: they were no longer a shoo-in for the top of the U.K. charts, nor did they have a U.S. contract. Faced with this situation, the group crafted a very safe, very mature, very British set of soulful adult pop. There are the usual concessions to hipness — a few of the beats gleam with modernity, there is the de rigueur cameo from rappers — but this is solidly a smooth, soulful collection of well-crafted pop that intentionally plays it safe. It’s not quite as lush as Hush, which highlighted Sharleen Spiteri’s sexiness, nor is it the crackerjack, stylish, modern, blue-eyed soul of White on Blonde, which remains their highwater mark. Instead, it’s a straight-ahead album that plays to their strengths without exploiting them. In other words, while this is certainly enjoyable as it spins, it doesn’t provide many memorable moments. Since the band consciously tried to construct an album that evokes their best work, that’s not an entirely surprising result — they’re so intent on delivering a specific sound, they’ve neglected to spend as much time on the songs — and it’s not a bad result, either, at least on the surface. But once you dig beneath the surface, there’s not as much to offer as on White on Blonde, and, for that matter, the surface doesn’t glisten as seductively as on Hush, either.
Read more
Tete Montoliu Trio – Catalonian Rhapsody (1992) [Japan 2017]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 52:40 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 2,11 GB
or FLAC 2.0 (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,15 GB
This wonderful studio date by the talented Catalonian blind pianist Tete Montoliu was recorded in his native Barcelona in March of 1992, but until now it had been only available on a long out of print CD issued in Japan by the Alfa Jazz label shortly after being recorded. The renowned VENUS label presents it back again for everyone to enjoy. Tete is backed by New Orleans drummer Idris Muhammad, and Netherlands born bassist Hein Van de Geyn, and the program features a selection of Catalan traditional songs, plus two versions of songs by the remarkable Joan Manuel Serrat (“Words of Love”, which Tete recorded on several other occasions, and the more seldom heard “My Street”), and one Montoliu original, “I Don’t Smoke Anymore”.
Read more
Terumasa Hino Quintet – Live (1973) [Japan 2007]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 48:51 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 1,96 GB
or FLAC (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,07 GB
Born in 1942, trumpeter Terumasa Hino has been the leader of Japanese jazz for many decades, and one of the most internationally recognized among Japanese jazz musicians. His technique is amazing and his lyrical and emotional performance is something to behold. Recorded live in concert at Tokyo Yubin Chokin Hall on June 2, 1973, Hino and his quintet clearly showed that they were steeped in the “free” mode of operation, but their performance is engaging and does not leave the audience behind. Wild and unpredictable improvisations coexist with lyrical and rhythmic playing. A brilliant performance with many instances of amazing interplay.
Read more
Teresa Perez – The Artistry Of Teresa Perez (2001)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 69:29 & 39:59 minutes | Basic Covers | 2,88 GB
Features Stereo and Multichannel surround sound / Two different programs
This is our choicest selection of performances from her three albums recorded in recent years. Terry’s artistry and versatility are amply manifested here. The recordings are meticulously re-mastered for even better sound by our engineer, Paul Stubblebine. Tracks no. 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13 are actually live six-channel recordings while the rest are re-mastered into multi-channel configuration by utilization of new technology. Hence, it is a three-in-one album, meaning a hybrid disc of stereo, multi-channel SACD and regular CD. The music is exquisitely arranged by maestros Harold Farberman, Tim Janis, Tim Gorman and recorded on different occasions with different orchestras and venues, showcasing the various aspects of the beautiful tone colors of Terry’s unique interpretations. The beautiful music, breath-taking performances and the fabulous sound of this album will bring about many hours of listening pleasure to all listeners. ~~ First Impressions Music
Read more
Terence Blanchard – Let’s Get Lost (2001)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 63:59 minutes | Covers included | 2,57 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Covers included | 1,18 GB
Like George Gershwin and Cole Porter, the music of Jimmy McHugh is an essential part of the American popular song canon, and jazz musicians have always been the canon’s greatest interpreters. On this CD, New Orleans-born trumpeter Terence Blanchard delivers fresh renditions of McHugh’s songs with four of the brightest singers on the scene. The cool Canadian chanteuse Diana Krall tickles the title track with her Shirley Horn-like vocals and pianisms, while Jane Monheit graces the ballad “Too Young to Go Steady” and the bouncy “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” with her quiet-storm phrasing. Dianne Reeves’s powerful voice imbues “I Can’t Believe You’re in Love with Me” and the midtempo “Can’t Get Out of This Mood” with new emotional colors. Cassandra Wilson’s down-South delivery transforms “Don’t Blame Me” and “Sunny Side of the Street” into slow-drag and tango-tinged numbers. Blanchard’s instrumental versions of “You’re a Sweetheart” and “Lost in a Fog,” with the tenor saxophonist Brice Winston, are lyrical in their own jazzy ways.
Read more
Ted Rosenthal Trio – The King And I (2006) [Japan 2018]
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 51:47 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 2,08 GB
or FLAC Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/48 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 628 MB
Ted Rosenthal is one of the leading jazz pianists of his generation. He actively tours worldwide with his trio, as a soloist, and has performed with many jazz greats, including Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, and James Moody. He is the winner of the 2nd Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in 1988. He is also very active in jazz education as a faculty member of The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. Rosenthal executed this somewhat adventurous idea beautifully and made a delightful piano trio album. His impressive arrangement skills are on full display, and his superb supporting cast George Mraz and Lewis Nash more than rises to the challenge of turning sometimes tricky compositions into a romping, swinging affair. This is a wonderful, fun and swinging piano trio album. Enthusiastically recommended.
Even those who’ve heard songs like “Shall We Dance?” and “Hello, Young Lovers” may not realize that they come from a single musical The King and I. And there are very few jazz albums entirely dedicated to the songs from the musical, written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. That is exactly what they did here.
Read more
Ted Nugent – Ted Nugent (1975) [APO Remaster 2014]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 39:08 minutes | Scans included | 1,58 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 799 MB
After disintegrating the Amboy Dukes in the early ’70s, Ted Nugent finally decided to strike out on his own as a solo star. Even without a recording contract, Nugent toured constantly, built up a fervent following, and created a smoking hard rock quartet with the help of singer/guitarist Derek St. Holmes, bassist Rob Grange, and drummer Cliff Davies. The band’s first release, 1975’s Ted Nugent, is a prime slice of testosterone-heavy, raging, unapologetic rock & roll, and along with the band’s 1977 release Cat Scratch Fever, it is Nugent’s best solo studio album. While the grinding opening track, “Stranglehold,” stretches beyond eight minutes and contains several extended, fiery-hot guitar leads, it does not come off as your typical ’70s overindulgent fare — every single note counts, as Nugent wails away as if his life depended on it. Other Nuge classics include “Motor City Madhouse,” plus the St. Holmes-sung “Hey Baby” and “Just What the Doctor Ordered,” all eventually becoming arena staples and making the band one of the late-’70s top concert draws. Additional highlights are the unexpected breezy jazz ballad “You Make Me Feel Right at Home,” plus the untamed rockers “Stormtroopin'” and “Queen of the Forest.” Nugent himself hails Ted Nugent as his best work, and with good reason. It’s an essential hard rock classic.
Read more
Tears For Fears – Songs From The Big Chair (1985) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 41:53 minutes | Scans included | 1,69 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 844 MB
If The Hurting was mental anguish, Songs from the Big Chair marks the progression towards emotional healing, a particularly bold sort of catharsis culled from Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith’s shared attraction to primal scream therapy. The album also heralded a dramatic maturation in the band’s music, away from the synth-pop brand with which it was (unjustly) seared following the debut, and towards a complex, enveloping pop sophistication. The songwriting of Orzabal, Smith, and keyboardist Ian Stanley took a huge leap forward, drawing on reserves of palpable emotion and lovely, protracted melodies that draw just as much on soul and R&B music as they do on immediate pop hooks. The album could almost be called pseudo-conceptual, as each song holds its place and each is integral to the overall tapestry, a single-minded resolve that is easy to overlook when an album is as commercially successful as Songs from the Big Chair. And commercially successful it was, containing no less than three huge commercial radio hits, including the dramatic and insistent march, “Shout” and the shimmering, cascading “Head Over Heels,” which, tellingly, is actually part of a song suite on the album. Orzabal and Smith’s penchant for theorizing with steely-eyed austerity was mistaken for harsh bombasticism in some quarters, but separated from its era, the album only seems earnestly passionate and immediate, and each song has the same driven intent and the same glistening remoteness. It is not only a commercial triumph, it is an artistic tour de force. And in the loping, percolating “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Tears for Fears perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-’80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic. Songs from the Big Chair is one of the finest statements of the decade.
Read more
The Coronas – True Love Waits (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 46:09 minutes | 991 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © So Far So Good
Irish rock outfit the Coronas became a prominent force on the Dublin live circuit with their blend of contemporary indie rock. Debuting in 2007 with Heroes or Ghosts, their anthemic sound spread throughout their albums, including 2020’s True Love Waits. Formed in Dublin, Ireland in 2003 by Danny O’Reilly (vocals, guitar), Graham Knox (bass), and Conor Egan (drums) after they met at college, the trio originally went by the name Kiros before adopting, Corona. Worried about being confused with the Italian dance outfit of the same name, the trio finally settled on the Coronas. Their blend of anthemic indie rock soon developed a following after numerous gigs in and around Dublin and saw them sign to local indie label 3ú Records, which had also worked with O’Reilly’s mother, folk singer Mary Black. Their debut album, Heroes or Ghosts, appeared in 2007; the trio had also drafted in Dave McPhillips on lead guitar to flesh out their sound. With the release peaking in the Irish Top 20, the group found themselves appearing on national television and being nominated for gongs at the 2008 Meteor Awards. The following year saw the release of the sophomore album, Tony Was an Ex-Con. The John Cornfield (Muse, Razorlight) produced album hit the Irish charts on release, debuting at number three and went on to scoop the 2010 Meteor Award for Best Album, beating U2 and Snow Patrol in the process. The group continued to play live, scoring support slots with the likes of the Script and also opening for Paul McCartney, as well as headlining themselves. 2011 saw the release of their third album, Closer to You, after teaming up with producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, the Fratellis) for the record. More live dates followed – with stops in Europe, the U.K., and Ireland – and the group rounded out 2012 with a sold-out home show in front of over 14,000 people. In 2014, after a chance meeting with producer Eliott James (Kaiser Chiefs, Noah and the Whale), the group set about recording their fourth album, The Long Way. Part-way through the process, they inked a deal with Island Records, which issued the album in November. After releasing just one album on Island, the group parted ways with the label, eventually returning to Ireland to record their fifth album. Taking their time – without the pressure of a major-label deal – the group delivered the slightly more low-key-sounding Trust the Wire in 2017, on their own So Far So Good label. The album headed straight to the top of the Irish album charts on release, claiming the Coronas’ first number one. Continuing to play sold-out shows across Europe, Australia, and the U.K., the group recorded their three-night run at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, releasing the set in 2019 as, Live at the Olympia. At the end of the year McPhillips announced he was leaving the band to take a break and pursue other avenues. The now-three-piece returned in 2020 with their sixth studio album, True Love Waits. Recorded with George Murphy (Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons), the album was preceded by the tracks “Haunted,” “Cold,” and “Lost in the Thick of It.” – Rich Wilson
Read more
Thee Oh Sees – Levitation Sessions (Live) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 49:43 minutes | 629 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © The Reverberation Appreciation Society
“Lots of old favorites and 7 never before performed live hits from the crypt recorded dusk till dawn in Pioneertown, California. Its raw and shreddy with a bit of elastic improvisation thrown in come hang out with us for a few crack a beer meant to be played loud” – JPD
Read more
The Gutbuckets – Gasfire Rag (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:29 minutes | 449 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © The Gutbuckets
Gasfire Rag is the second album from Italian blues duo the Gutbuckets, a group dedicated to discovering and rearranging traditional African-American music that emerged from New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta, particularly between the 1920s and the 1940s. The band is composed of vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Antonio Speciale and Mario Evangelista, joined by Valerio Mazzoni on trumpet and bassist Maurizio Costantini.
Read more
The Guess Who – The Future is What It Used to Be (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 41:19 minutes | 852 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cleopatra Records
Classic rock giants, The Guess Who, are back with their first studio album of new material in over 30 years. Features what could be the most rockin’ line-up of the band since it’s ’60s heyday, anchored by original GW drummer Garry Peterson along with vocalist Derek Sharp, superstar bassist Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot/Ozzy), guitarist Will Evankovich, and multi-instrumentalist Leonard Shaw. Also featured on the album are several special guests including, Tommy Shaw (Styx) on vocals, Brent Fitz (Slash, Gene Simmons) percussion, Jim Kale (Guess Who founding member) and Michael Devin (Whitesnake) on bass guitar. The album includes the single “Playin’ On The Radio”.
Read more