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The Pentangle – The Pentangle (1968) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2011 # UIGY-9507]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 32:33 minutes | Scans included | 1,33 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Full Scans included | 760 MB
Pentangle (or The Pentangle) are a British folk-jazz band with an eclectic mix of folk, jazz, blues and folk rock influences. The original band was active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and a later version has been active since the early 1980s. Their debut album “The Pentangle” brought together their separate influences of folk, jazz, blues, early music and contemporary songwriting. One of the band’s most commercially successful albums, it reached number 21 in the British charts.
Were Pentangle a folk group, a folk-rock group, or something that resists classification? They could hardly be called a rock & roll act; they didn’t use electric instruments often, and were built around two virtuoso guitarists, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, who were already well-established on the folk circuit before the group formed. Yet their hunger for eclectic experimentation fit into the milieu of late-’60s progressive rock and psychedelia well, and much of their audience came from the rock and pop worlds, rather than the folk crowd. With Jacqui McShee on vocals and a rhythm section of Danny Thompson (bass) and Terry Cox (drums), the group mastered a breathtaking repertoire that encompassed traditional ballads, blues, jazz, pop, and reworkings of rock oldies, often blending different genres in the same piece. Their prodigious individual talents perhaps ensured a brief lifespan, but at their peak they melded their distinct and immense skills to egg each other on to heights they couldn’t have achieved on their own, in the manner of great rock combos like the Beatles and Buffalo Springfield.
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Aron Kallay – Flotsam & Jetsam: Music for Piano and Assorted Accoutrements (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:42 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MicroFest Records
The piano of today, nearly unrecognizable from its earliest keyboard predecessors, is a nearly perfect instrument. After hundreds of years of technological advances, the modern keyboard is resilient, producing a beautifully resonant, uniform sound. My work for ZOFO, Altromondo (Italian for “other world” or “another world”) is a piece that works with this “ideal” sounding instrument, and adds a number of other sounds that the piano can make but does not commonly get the opportunity to produce on purpose. These sounds extend from and merge into the additional items that the pianists are required to play.
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The Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Penguin Cafe Orchestra (1981) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2015]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 48:34 minutes | Scans included | 1,96 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans included | 1,92 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 971 MB
or DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | 1.94 GB
The sophomore album from Simon Jeffes’ homegrown band took over three years to record, but the signs are here that it was a labor of love. While drawing compositional and textural inspiration from both English folk and chamber music, it manages to sound like neither and a wondrous hybrid of both. “Walk Don’t Run,” a cover of the Ventures’ classic, turns from a surf tune into a merry jig of sorts, with the violins and cellos playing the melody backed by drums, bongos, and shakers. “Telephone and Rubber Band” turns a busy signal into something full of beauty and joy. Unfailingly romantic, sunny music and an album that set the tone of all further PCO releases.
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The Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Broadcasting From Home (1984) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2015]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 47:30 minutes | Scans included | 1,92 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans included | 1,87 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 886 MB
Bandleader Simon Jeffes composed the leadoff track “Music for a Found Harmonium” on a harmonium he found abandoned on a Tokyo street, which offers an inkling of the musical inspiration that sprang from this remarkable Englishman. As usual, he gathers a loose aggregation of musicians who create stunning, free-flowing acoustic sounds that defy categorization. Jeffes includes brass here for the first time on a Penguin Café Orchestra recording. Recorded over three years, the band’s third album is worth the painstaking studio overdubbing by its leader, who died of a brain tumor in 1997.
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The Penguin Cafe Orchestra – A Brief History (2001) [Reissue 2003]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 77:12 minutes | Scans included | 3,11 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,46 GB
The Penguin Cafe Orchestra (PCO) was a collective of performing musicians created by classically trained British guitarist, composer and arranger Simon Jeffes. The Penguin’s sound is not easily categorized, but has elements of exuberant folk music and a minimalist aesthetic occasionally reminiscent of composers such as Philip Glass. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra recorded and performed for 24 years until Jeffes died of a brain tumour in 1997.
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The Paul Butterfield Blues Band – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965) [Audio Fidelity 2014]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 38:34 minutes | Scans included | 1,55 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 755 MB
Mastered by Kevin Gray | Audio Fidelity # AFZ-187
Even after his death, Paul Butterfield’s music didn’t receive the accolades that were so deserved. Outputting styles adopted from Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters among other blues greats, Butterfield became one of the first white singers to rekindle blues music through the course of the mid-’60s. His debut album, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, saw him teaming up with guitarists Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield, with Jerome Arnold on bass, Sam Lay on drums, and Mark Naftalin playing organ. The result was a wonderfully messy and boisterous display of American-styled blues, with intensity and pure passion derived from every bent note. In front of all these instruments is Butterfield’s harmonica, beautifully dictating a mood and a genuine feel that is no longer existent, even in today’s blues music. Each song captures the essence of Chicago blues in a different way, from the back-alley feel of “Born in Chicago” to the melting ease of Willie Dixon’s “Mellow Down Easy” to the authentic devotion that emanates from Bishop and Butterfield’s “Our Love Is Drifting.” “Shake Your Money Maker,” “Blues With a Feeling,” and “I Got My Mojo Working” (with Lay on vocals) are all equally moving pieces performed with a raw adoration for blues music. Best of all, the music that pours from this album is unfiltered…blared, clamored, and let loose, like blues music is supposed to be released. A year later, 1966’s East West carried on with the same type of brash blues sound partnered with a jazzier feel, giving greater to attention to Bishop’s and Bloomfield’s instrumental talents.
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The Police – Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 38:26 minutes | Scans included | 1,56 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 738 MB
The stage was set for the Police to become one of the biggest acts of the ’80s, and the band delivered with the 1980 classic Zenyatta Mondatta. The album proved to be the trio’s second straight number one album in the U.K., while peaking at number three in the U.S. Arguably the best Police album, Zenyatta contains perhaps the quintessential new wave anthem, the haunting “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” the story of an older teacher lusting after one of his students. While other tracks follow in the same spooky path (their second Grammy-winning instrumental “Behind My Camel” and “Shadows in the Rain”), most of the material is upbeat, such as the carefree U.S./U.K. Top Ten “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” “Canary in a Coalmine,” and “Man in a Suitcase.” Sting includes his first set of politically charged lyrics in “Driven to Tears,” “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around,” and “Bombs Away,” which all observe the declining state of the world. While Sting would later criticize the album as not all it could have been (the band was rushed to complete the album in order to begin another tour), Zenyatta Mondatta remains one of the finest rock albums of all time.
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Anna Pirozzi, Emma Abbate – Alfano: Songs (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 56:20 minutes | 1,93 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Resonus Classics
Franco Alfano was a major musician and teacher who enjoyed considerable success with his operas during his lifetime, but who has been overlooked for decades. Generally regarded as the regenerator of the Italian art song, the works featured in this album offer a generous overview of Alfano’s vocal output, from his Opus 1 Cinq mélodies, written in 1896 when he was a twenty-one-year-old student at Leipzig, to Due liriche per canto, violoncello e pianoforte from 1949, five years before his death.
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The Police – Syncronicity (1983) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2016]
PS3 Rip | ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans (JPG, 300 dpi) | 1,8 Gb
FLAC (Tracks), 24bit/88,2 kHz (converted with foobar2000) | Full Scans (JPG, 300 dpi) | 859 Mb
New Wave, Pop Rock | 00:48:28 | © 2016 A&M Records #UIGY-15031
The Police were back in 1983 with Synchronicity, which hit No. 1 everywhere and remained on top a phenomenal 17 weeks in the U.S. The gold, Grammy-winning “Every Breath You Take” was No. 1 for eight weeks. “Wrapped Around Your Finger” was Top 10 and both “King Of Pain” and “Synchronicity II” became Top 20 hits. The quadruple platinum album took home a Grammy as well. “I do my best work when I’m in pain and turmoil,” Sting told Rolling Stone. And indeed, the dissolution of his first marriage produced some of his best work yet, including “King of Pain” and the stalker’s anthem “Every Breath You Take.” There was pain and turmoil in the band, too — it would be the Police’s last album.”
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The Police – Every Breath You Take: The Classics (1995) [Remaster 2003]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 59:15 minutes | Basic Scans included | 3,92 GB
or FLAC 2.0 (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | 59:20 min | Basic Scans | 1,32 GB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound
The Best-Selling Greatest Hits Album From The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Classics. Digitally Remastered From The Original Master Tapes. Features All Of Their Classics Including ‘Roxanne,”Message In A Bottle,’ ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,”Every Breath You Take,’ ‘King Of Pain’ and ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’.
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LeAnn Rimes – god’s work (resurrected) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:43 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EverLe Records
On the heels of the official announcement of her headlining the infamous London O2 in early 2024, Grammy Award-winning and multi-platinum-selling artist, LeAnn Rimes is releasing a special gift for all music lovers titled, God’s Work (Resurrected). This exclusive extended edition is a re-creation of her previous album God’s Work, which was released last year and received praise from fans and critics alike.
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Lafayette Gilchrist – Undaunted (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:40 minutes | 790 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Lafayette Gilchrist Music
Lafayette Gilchrist’s music has graced the soundtracks of David Simon’s acclaimed series The Wire, The Deuce & Treme. It draws on the span of jazz history from stride to free improv w/ inspiration from hip-hop, funk, & DC go-go, making surprising connections between styles, boldly veering from piledriver funk to piquant stride, vigorous swing to hip-hop swagger, abstraction to deep-bottom grooves.
The new album Undaunted features Gilchrist on piano with a band of Eric Kennedy on Drums, Kevin Pinder on Percussion, Herman Burney on Bass, Brian Settles on Tenor Sax, and Christian Hizon on Trombone.
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Katherine Jenkins – Home for Christmas (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 11:55 minutes | 140 MB | Genre: Christmas
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Masterworks
The Welsh national treasure will perform a combination of classical crossover favourites, operatic arias and special Christmas songs in one of the most captivating concerts Swansea has ever seen.
Katherine is recognised as ‘The Biggest Selling Classical Artist of the Century’ with 14 number one albums across her illustrious career. She has toured the world, performing in some of the most iconic venues including the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Opera House in Sydney.
“There’s no place like home which is why I am thrilled to bits to be performing at the Swansea Arena. Being back in Wales always makes me want to pull out all the stops. I can’t wait and I would love for you to be a part of it too. Katherine x”
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Kanaan – Diversions Vol. 2: Enter the Astral Plane (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 41:07 minutes | 487 MB | Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Jazz Rock, Space Rock, Art Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jansen Records
No Composition, No Ego, Psych as Religion. Kanaan never rests. Having already released one album and completed two successful European tours in 2023, you would think they’d be happy to catch a breather. But not these guys. In November, volume two in their free-flowing session/impro series, Diversions will be released.
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Kanaan – Diversions Vol. 1: Softly Through Sunshine (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 45:33 minutes | 533 MB | Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Jazz Rock, Space Rock, Art Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jansen Records
Europe’s most hardworking rock band Kanaan will on the 25th of November release their sixth studio album in four years. Softly Through Sunshine will the first volume in the “Diversions” series. A series of consecutive album efforts which will document Kanaan’s jam sessions, diverse musical collaborations, sonic experimentation and artistic sidestepping.
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