The Northern Belle – We Wither, We Bloom (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:41 minutes | 458 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Die With Your Boots On Records
Written as an examination of personal relationships, the new album by The Northern Belle is aptly titled We Wither, We Bloom. The Norwegian septet is among the pioneers of the nordicana scene that has been gaining momentum in the US the last few years. Fronted by prolific singer-songwriter Stine Andreassen (also of folk quartet Silver Lining) and armed with pedal steel, slide guitar, lush harmonies, a string quartet and their secret weapon, the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, The Northern Belle have developed their own unique brew of pop-oriented americana and folk music. Imagine Fleetwood Mac fronted by Jenny Lewis in a country mood.
Read moreStarbenders – Take Back The Night (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 47:38 minutes | 630 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sumerian Records
In 2020, Atlanta band Starbenders released their second album, Love Potions. It didn’t change the world, but it probably deserved to, with a stream of brilliantly written singles giving the collection the feel of a glam/goth/punk Thriller or Hysteria, but without the accompanying sales spike.
Take Back The Night carries on in much the same vein. Led by the extraordinary Kimi Shelter – a bewitching hybrid of Stevie Nicks and Cruella de Vil – Starbenders sound like a band who’ve studied the great crafters of pop-rock, from Pat Benatar to Blondie and beyond, stirred a bunch of crunching riffs into the mix, and come up with an album that’s defiant, spooky and sexy, yet somehow more fun than graduation day at clown college.
Read moreSleeping With Sirens – Complete Collapse (Deluxe) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 57:15 minutes | 753 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sumerian Records
Complete Collapse is the 6th studio album from post-hardcore trailblazers, Sleeping with Sirens. In good company with features from Underoath’s Spencer Chamberlain, Royal & The Serpent, Dorothy, and Charlotte Sands, the band calls this release their “hardest hitting album to date.”
The Deluxe Edition features 5 all-new bonus tracks, including a new song and several acoustic versions!
Read moreSiapiau – Pi (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 57:30 minutes | 666 MB | Genre: Experimental Electronic, Avant-Garde Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Discus Music
Siapiau is Welsh for ‘Shapes’, as the four members of the band create shapes in the air out of apparently nothing. The beauty of improvisation is that, at its best, it creates something perfectly fitted to the moment it was created in.
Read moreShai Wosner – Beethoven: Diabelli Variations in C Major, Op. 120 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 53:08 minutes | 810 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Onyx Classics
In 1819 the publisher and composer Anton Diabelli invited 50 Austrian composers to write one variation a short waltz he had composed. He specified that it take up just one sheet (which he supplied) and this already contained his waltz. Composers such as Czerny, Moscheles, Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Liszt (just 10 years old), Schubert and Beethoven were among those invited. All except one provided their contribution. That one was Beethoven, who, electrified by Diabelli’s Waltz produced a massive work comprising 33 variations which was completed after the composer had completed the Missa Solemnis, and the last three piano sonatas. He delivered it to Diabelli in 1823, making it his final masterpiece. This huge work is one of the peaks of the repertoire for solo piano, it still baffles the listener, it still has the capacity to reveal more than we thought we knew about it. It makes extreme demands upon the performer and the listener, and in a great performance never ceases to surprise and shock the listener.
Read moreYoung Knives – Voices of Animals and Men and Shouts and Screams and Groans (Remastered) (2006/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:32:33 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino
Young Knives’ classic Mercury Music Prize nominated debut album, Voices of Animals and Men and Shouts and Screams and Groans, has been reissued for the first time in over 15 years. Including the hits “Weekends and Bleakdays (Hot Summer)”, “She’s Attracted To” and “The Decision”, the album has been remastered with an entire bonus album created from the prolific B-sides.
Young Knives are an English indie rock band from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. The name is based on a misunderstanding of “young knaves”, which was found by the band when rummaging through a book.
Read moreYoung Knives – Super Superabundance (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:21:23 minutes | 979 MB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino
Young Knives couldn’t be faulted for much on their breakthrough album, Voices of Animals and Men. If their tartar plaid and throwback video-making — not to mention their angular new wave musical sense — made them seem rather retro-obsessed, their songs were pure gold and singer Henry Dartnall played the nerdy, over-analytical type very well. But where Voices of Animals and Men featured social critique that didn’t make life seem too bad (just the kind of place where you might have to work in a takeaway shop or get a little freaked out about relationships and school life), on Superabundance the situation is quite dire. Dartnall’s view of life in England now includes the dreariness of its domestic life, its materialism, the desperation of its nightlife, its lack of care for the individual — and that’s just the first four songs. It’s gotten so bad, apparently, that suicide is an option (“Sitting in the front seat/turning on the motor/sucking on the hosepipe/keep it turning over”). But music is, by and large, entertainment and escapism, so regardless of whether Young Knives intend to add enlightenment to that formula, their hooks and their ideas — their entire musical package — are too intriguing and exciting to provoke the usual worries about agit-pop. (Tiresome themes, depressing lyrics, and worse yet, the listener’s nagging sense that all this has been heard before.) The trio definitely have mastered the basics of new wave: the spiky rhythms, plunging basslines, jagged guitars, and yelping vocals. More so than their debut, however, they’re proving themselves masters of arranging and pacing their songs for maximum impact, letting guitars rage only up to a point and switching gears multiple times even before they hit the bridge. If you’re afraid there’s too much faux-populism on display (and not enough true populism), listen to the sober epic “Turn Tail” for something that reaches farther in a lyrical sense than most any other British band of the 2000s; the fatalism of the chorus (“We’re all slaves on this ship/this ship’s sinking”) turns to hope near the end (“Swim to the coast, boat full of ghosts, jump from the prow”). Like certain of their forebears (Gang of Four being only the most obvious), Young Knives understand that using music to make social statements means very little unless the music is as strong as the statements. – John Bush
Read moreThe Quill – Earthrise (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 47:27 minutes | 598 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Metalville
The ninth studio album from the Swedish hard rock institution. With a sound based on a wide range of influences, The Quill have released one quality album after another since their debut in 1995. The dynamic interplay between original vocalist Magnus Ekwall, drummer Jolle Atlagic (Hanoi Rocks, Electric Boys, Firebird), guitarist Christian Carlsson and bassist Roger Nilsson (Spiritual Beggars, Firebird) creates The Quill’s unique, deep ‘70s heavy rock. No frills, just real rock at full throttle! Packed with catchy riffs, pounding bass lines and a fantastic frontman, this album will once again delight all fans of honest hard rock.
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