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Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco (Live at The London Palladium) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:48:34 minutes | 1,34 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cooking Vinyl Limited
On the back of her incredible Kitchen Disco Instagram parties during lockdown and the accompanying Greatest Hits album ‘Songs From The Kitchen Disco’, Sophie took her incredible live show back on the road in front of a live audience once again at the start of 2022. With a setlist featuring all the hits plus an incredible array of cover versions all given the Kitchen Disco treatment, fans were in for a treat. To celebrate those shows, Sophie releases her very first live album ‘Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco – Live at The London Palladium’. The album features 24 songs and 110 minutes of live music across 2 CDs including the recent Radio 2 A-listed single with Wuh Oh – ‘Hypnotized’, her massive single ‘Crying At The Discotheque’, classic hit singles ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ & ‘Take Me Home (A Girl Like Me)’ plus amazing covers such as Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’, Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’, Madness’s ‘Our House’ plus many more.
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Sophie Dervaux & Munich Chamber Orchestra – J.C. Bach & J.M. Haydn (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:08 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Berlin Classics
With her new album, Sophie Dervaux brings to the fore two composers who have received less attention so far – despite their great surnames Bach and Haydn. For it is not works by “our old favorites” Johann Sebastian and Joseph that the bassoonist has chosen for her third recording on Berlin Classics, but rather Bach’s youngest son – Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) – and Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806), Joseph Haydn’s younger brother. Sophie Dervaux has been principal bassoonist of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra since 2015. Previously, she was principal contrabassoonist of the Berlin Philharmonic. As an ambassador for her instrument, she is committed to expanding the repertoire for bassoon by rediscovering works or commissioning new ones. She has been a “Püchner Artist” since 2014 and is passionate about making her instrument even better known.
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Sontraud Speidel – Fanny Mendelssohn: Piano Works (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:00:51 minutes | 514 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ars Produktion
Sontraud Speidel’s selection of works by Fanny Hensel reveals the true diversity and originality of one of the most important women composers. Only a small fraction of Hensel multifaceted oeuvre has entered the repertoire until today, and numerous treasures from her pen are still awaiting discovery.
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Sonny Stitt – Stitt Meets Brother Jack (1962/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 38:06 minutes | 357 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Music Manager
Sonny Stitt (who sticks reissue to tenor here) meets up with organist Brother Jack McDuff (along with guitarist Eddie Diehl, drummer Art Taylor, and Ray Barretto on congas) for a spirited outing. Two standards – “All of Me” and “Time After Time”) – are performed with a variety of blues-based originals and the music always swings in a soulful, boppish way. Worth picking up although not essential.
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Sonny Stitt – Feelin’s (1962/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 38:33 minutes | 304 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Music Manager
Charlie Parker has had many admirers and his influence can be detected in numerous styles, but few have been as avid a disciple as Sonny Sitt. There was almost note-for-note imitation in several early Stitt solos, and the closeness remained until Stitt began de-emphasizing the alto in favor of the tenor, on which he artfully combined the influences of Parker and Lester Young. Stitt gradually developed his own sound and style, though he was never far from Parker on any alto solo. A wonderful blues and ballad player whose approach influenced John Coltrane, Stitt could rip through an up-tempo bebop stanza, then turn around and play a shivering, captivating ballad.
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Song Yi Jeon, Vinicius Gomes – Home (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:26 minutes | 835 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Greenleaf Music
A collaboration between vocalist Song Yi Jeon and guitarist Vinicius Gomes, 2022’s Home showcases the duo’s gorgeously enveloping blend of Brazilian, classical, and ECM-style jazz. Born in South Korea, Jeon has made her home in Switzerland for much of her career. That’s where she first met the Brazilian-born, New York-based Gomes while both were members of Wolfgang Muthspiel’s Focusyear ensemble in 2018. Together, they struck up a creative partnership, communing over their shared love for artful and intimately rendered chamber jazz. With her pristine tone and agile sense of harmony, Jeon is known for her distinctive, wordless vocal style, a sound often more akin to an instrumentalist than a singer. It’s a sound that evokes the work of icons like Ella Fitzgerald and Norma Winstone, one that makes her as much of a collaborative improviser as Gomes. Similarly, Gomes has a fluid style that finds him bridging traditional Brazilian sounds, classical, and more far-reaching contemporary jazz idioms. Think Ralph Towner crossed with Carlos Barbosa-Liam and you’ll get a sense of the guitarist’s broad virtuosity. The duo combine all of their passions here, often blurring the genre lines. They also move freely between songs that have a more compositional sound and ones built largely around improvisation. Particularly redolent of all of this is the opening “Eleven Houses,” in which Jeon glides over Gomes’ nylon-stringed Latin groove, occasionally locking melodic arms with him as they dance along their bright harmonic stairways. Interestingly, the one song that does not have any improvisation is their languid reading of Keith Jarrett’s ballad “Prism,” the pianist’s meditative style a perfect match for the pair’s deeply introspective aesthetic. Equally entrancing are cuts like Jeon’s spiraling take on Steve Reichian’s “Dancing Stars” and their kinetic bossa nova-meets-classical tango rendition of Carlos Aguirre’s “Milonga Gris.” While Jeon’s primary focus is wordless vocalese, there are two songs that do have lyrics here, including a gorgeous version of the Jimmy Rowles and Norma Winstone number “A Timeless Place” and Jeon’s own “Expecting Spring,” the latter of which features Korean lyrics written by her mother, adding yet another texture to the duo’s endlessly layered sound. With Home, Jeon and Gomes have crafted an album of nuanced beauty whose melodic textures shift delicately like shadows on a cloudy summer day. – Matt Collar
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Somerville College Choir, Oxford & Will Dawes – The Dawn of Grace: Music for Christmas (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:45 minutes | 1,06 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Resonus Classics
Oxford’s Somerville College Choir under its director Will Dawes presents this compelling new programme of seasonal choral works solely by female composers from across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and including no fewer than eleven world premieres. This wide-ranging selection of repertoire reflects Somerville’s unique role as the only non-denominational college chapel at Oxford, as well as remaining true to its founding principle of enabling women. Together these works tell a different story of the nativity but also of the times we live in, when diversity and equality capture the spirit not only of Christ, but Christmas itself.
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Solar Fields – Versions (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:43:22 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Electronic, Downtempo, Ambient
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © droneform records
Solar Fields – Versions is an album with remixes, edits and live versions of tracks. A beautiful remix from Robert Elster of the track We Are The Dream is also included and an unreleased track, Moon Part 2.
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Solar Fields – Formations (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:18:31 minutes | 888 MB | Genre: Electronic, Downtmempo, Ambient
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © droneform records
Formations the new full-length studio work by Magnus Birgersson musical alter ego is about to see the light. When asked to provide some insights about the album, Solar Fields underlined that every track comes in a different form, shape and emotion. Each song conveys different moods and the sound palette varies from melancholic to joyful, dark to bright, taking its time to plant their seeds into their listener.
This is what you shall expect from Formations: a broad spectrum of sounds and emotions. As always when it comes to the works of Solar Fields, you will find yourself amazed by new details and shades at every further spin.
A kaleidoscopic effort, Solar Fields new album may very well be the right choice for every mood you fall into, just tune it to the right track and you’ll see…
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Soen – ATLANTIS (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:18:46 minutes | 1001 MB | Genre: Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Silver Lining Music
The engaging, enchanting, cutting, yet beautiful Swedish metal supergroup Soen will release (via Silver Lining Music) “ATLANTIS”, featuring thirteen of the group’s most popular compositions reinterpreted with live orchestral accompaniment.
The perfect way for Soen to celebrate a decade together; “ATLANTIS” was created within the mystic and magical confines of Atlantis Grammofon Studio in Stockholm, Sweden, which has seen a wide range of international artists record, from Quincy Jones to Lenny Kravitz to Green Day. Formerly a movie house in 1941, it went on to become Metronome Studio (during which time ABBA was born) before becoming Atlantis Grammofon in 1983.
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Snarky Puppy – Empire Central (Japan Edition) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:41:23 minutes | 2,05 GB | Genre: Jazz Fusion, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © GroundUP Music
Snarky Puppy has built a loyal following with their adventurous blend of jazz, rock and funk based around a heavy touring schedule and live-in-studio video content. A rotating roster of some of the most talented musicians and multi-instrumentalists makes for a truly unique sound within the jazz fusion world. Their new live-in-studio audio and visual album, Empire Central, is a love letter to Dallas, representing Snarky Puppy returning to their funk, gospel roots.
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Snarky Puppy – Empire Central (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:34:40 minutes | 1,91 GB | Genre: Jazz Fusion, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © GroundUp Music LLC
It seems inevitable that the popularity of jam bands would eventually give rise to the jam big band, and first on that scene was the cross-cultural and endlessly innovative Snarky Puppy. Springing from the renowned music program at North Texas State in Denton, Texas, in 2004, and led since the beginning by bassist Michael League, the band is now more a collective with over 40 members who have passed through in the past 18 years, during which they’ve released 15 albums and steadily built a sizable audience for their composed and improvised blend of jazz fusion, full-on rock, and funky extended jams. This is Snarky Puppy’s third live album in a row, which makes sense given that the perky smooth jazz of this 20-piece collective dedicated to finding the necessary groove undoubtedly blossoms in front of an audience. Their superpower, however, is sharp, compelling arranging, and finding a place and the right blend for all its nearly two dozen instrumentalists. Another star in this show is the attention to appealing textures that are built thanks to an array of new and vintage keyboards including a Mellotron, Wurlitzer ARP String Ensemble, Minimoog Model D, Fender Rhodes, and Hohner D6 Clavinet. The big brassy “Pineapple,” where Snarky Puppy’s three drummers and three percussionists raise a mighty din, is typical of the group’s jumpier, groove side. “RL’s,” named for Dallas nightclub RL Griffin’s Blues Palace 2, winds up as a massive guitar shredfest only tangentially related to the blues. In “Belmont,” violinist Zach Brock solos throughout. The sound is huge in all ways, at times crossing over into loud and in-your-face space where wider dynamics might have made for a more enjoyable listen. Strangely, while the entire record was recorded live at the Deep Ellum Art Company in Dallas in March, 2022, and mixed in Els Prats de Rei, Spain (where League resides), the tightest and less flamboyant groove “Mean Green,” (think Average White Band) named for the North Texas mascot, does not feature the applause present elsewhere. Another applause-less tune, “Free Fall,” is a trip back to the synthy 1980s of Al Jarreau and Spyro Gyra. Jam on! – Robert Baird
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Smokey John Bull – Smokey John Bull (1970)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 36:37 minutes | 814 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © AVCO Records Corp.
Here’s another obscurity from the Avco Embassy label, Smokey John Bull were a communal gospel/blues group from the Hartford Connecticut area. The album was produced by Lewis Merenstein, producer of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks” and is a mix of gospel, rock, blues, and funk. The album features two Bob Dylan covers,” He Was A Friend Of Mine” and “The Mighty Quinn” plus Tom Cosgrove’s “Hitchin’ To Memphis”. Also included is the album’s highlight, Jeff Gordon’s “E-Z Rider” (Jack Dominilla)
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Smash Palace – Smash Palace (1985/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:03 minutes | 1,67 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Epic – Legacy
Smash Palace are a power pop rock band currently based out of Southern New Jersey.
The Butler brothers quickly formed a new band, Smash Palace, and signed with Epic Records in 1985. The new line-up included Brian Butler (lead vocals), Stephen Butler (lead guitar and vocals), Phil Rizzo (bass guitar), Harry Lewis (drums) and Greg Persun (rhythm guitar).
The band’s first self-titled LP was released in the fall of 1985 along with an MTV video of the first single, “Living on the Borderline” (directed by Nigel Dick).
Smash Palace then toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada with Mr. Mister and the Cruzados. Greg DiDonato (keyboards) joined the lineup for the tour. When Smash Palace’s A&R man, Dick Wingate, left Epic Records in 1985, he asked the band to come on over to his new label, Polygram Records. Unfortunately, once the band left Epic, the offer from Polygram melted away.
The band recorded demos for tracks that were intended for their second album, including “Cold Wind”, “Girl with the Stars in Her Eyes”, “Stranger Than Strange” and “I’ll Be There” (which was later reworked and recorded on the band’s Over the Top CD release in 2004) and these tracks were played on Philadelphia radio station WMMR-FM’s local music program Street Beat, but never officially released.
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Sloan – Steady (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 36:26 minutes | 469 MB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Yep Roc Records
Thirty years into their career, Canadian indie rock perennials Sloan return with their 13th album: Steady. Featuring the band’s trademark harmonies and every band member taking lead vocal duties on at least a couple tracks, there’s no better musical commonwealth than this quartet. You’ll hear the power pop rockers like “Magical Thinking” and “Keep Your Name Alive” to the moving, stripped-back introspective numbers like “Simply Leaving” and “Human Nature”, and the psychedelic trips of “Panic of Runnymede” and “Close Encounters.” It’s hard to think of another band that has stayed as consistent for three decades musically and still has all the same band members for their entire career. Thirteen albums later, slow and steady wins the race.
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