Mick Farren – Vampires Stole My Lunch Money (1978/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 34:02 minutes | 367 MB | Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Munster
Digitally remastered! After three albums of raw, rabble-rousing psychedelic street punk with the Deviants, and an esoteric solo album (1970’s Mona – The Carnivorous Circus), Mick Farren put his musical activities on hold at the dawn of the 1970s, and focused instead on his writing. By 1976 Farren was making his mark as a staff writer at the New Musical Express, where he was instrumental in chronicling, and to some extent nurturing, the nascent punk rock movement as it jerked awkwardly to life in the streets and pubs of London. Farren felt a natural affinity with the new youth fashion line of pimple-faced punk aspirants, full of piss, vinegar and amphetamines, ranting about anarchy and boredom over a simplistic rock ‘n’ roll backbeat.
Inevitably, it wasn’t long before Mick was off the sidelines and back in the musical fray. Farren got a call from Logo Records who had just acquired the Transatlantic catalogue and were re-releasing the Deviants’ third album. Mick suggested they also release a new solo album, and to his surprise, after some initial hesitation, they agreed.
Andy Colquhoun, the Warsaw Pakt’s lead guitarist, soon became his primary musical foil -in fact, some of the songs on this album were originally intended for the Warsaw Pakt. Also, Farren put a band together, including guest musicians: Wilko Johnson of Dr Feelgood, Chrissie Hynde who was still in the process of forming the Pretenders, Sonja Kristina, the lead singer of Curved Air, and Will Stallibrass who’d played with Graham Parker, Lightnin’ Slim and Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers, to name a few.
Due to the limited budget, they ended up spending most of their time working on a half-dozen of their favorite tracks, while the rest were “banged down as little more than jamming, art-school R&B, with only a thin coat of metalflake.”
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Michie Koyama – Beethoven:Piano Sonatas No.30,31,32 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:54 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sony Music Labels Inc.
The Japanese pianist, Michie Koyama, started learning piano playing at the age of 5. She completed musical high school at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, moving on to college level at the same University, studying with Michiko Yoshida and Hiroshi Tamura. She participated in international music competitions in Tokyo (reached semi-final stage, 1980). She is the only Japanese pianist ever to have won prizes at the international music competitions in both Moscow (the 7th Tchaikovsky Competition, 3rd Prize, 1982) and Warsaw (the 11th Chopin Competition, 4th Prize, 1985).
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Michelle Willis – See Us Through (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 37:22 minutes | 421 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © GroundUp Music LLC
Toronto-based singer-songwriter and keyboard player Michelle Willis has worked with everyone from Iggy Pop to Snarky Puppy and now embarks on her own with this debut solo album, funded by her fans via crowdsourcing. The culmination of six years of writing, Willis says each song deals with attempting to get to the other side of whatever she was in. Often that meant making a decision or speaking up, or just holding tight and not being afraid to stay the course.
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Michelle Johnson – Merry Christmas (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 42:33 minutes | 483 MB | Genre: Pop, Jazz, Christmas
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Vegas Records
Singer-songwriter Michelle Johnson’s style – best described as Carole King meets Ella Fitzgerald – draws from jazz, pop, soft rock, musical theater, gritty blues, & soul.The Las Vegas based singer has recorded, performed, or shared stages with some of the biggest names in entertainment: Paul McCartney, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Barbra Streisand to name a few. Her aesthetic has roots deep in the singer-songwriter tradition with traces of gospel & folk, & echoes of the vocal masters who ruled the radio waves in the days before rock & roll. That voice lights up “I’m All In,” the Las Vegas based artist’s warm & vibrant latest single, which premiered on September 23, 2019. Once a background singer, she’s now stepping into the spotlight, so keep your eyes on her!
Read moreMichelle DeYoung – Mahler & Ye: The Song of the Earth (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]
Michelle DeYoung – Mahler & Ye: The Song of the Earth (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:38:21 minutes | 1,88 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
“Our countries have moved further apart. Most people are so immersed in their own life experience that they don’t even try to understand the culture of other societies … but by comparing these two works people can see the double picture – how Europeans feel about love, pleasure, and death, and how the Chinese feel about the same things.” Long Yu. Centuries-old Chinese poetry is brought vividly to life in a new recording from Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Their second album for Deutsche Grammophon, The Song of the Earth, is set for international release on 13 August 2021. The world premiere recording of the contemporary The Song of the Earth by Ye Xiaogang is presented alongside Gustav Mahler’s classic symphony. Ye’s ambitious new work expresses the grandeur and beauty of the original Tang Dynasty poems that Mahler set in German translation, fusing a contemporary style with centuries’ worth of traditions from both east and west. Long Yu, who commissioned Ye’s work, conducts the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in this fascinating meeting of histories and cultures
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Michelle Branch – Hopeless Romantic (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:25 minutes | 1,06 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve Pop
Michelle Branch’s first album in 14 years comes in the wake of personal and professional heartbreak, a divorce and a new love. The songs reflect both her past romantic struggles and the optimism she felt while working on the record and falling in love with co-producer Patrick Carney, drummer of the Black Keys.
Hopeless Romantic is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Michelle Branch. Co-written and co-produced by Patrick Carney, whom Branch is dating, the album is Branch’s first release with Verve after leaving her previous label, Reprise Records, and having the original album material scrapped. Hopeless Romantic is also Branch’s first full-length album to be released since Hotel Paper (2003), and first overall release since the Everything Comes and Goes EP in 2010.
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Michelle Blades – Visitor (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:59 minutes | 877 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Midnight special records
This is rock ‘n’ roll Fountain of Youth stuff. It’s a sonic funhouse ride that is melodic, intense, surreal, loud, complex, humorous, and, somewhere between the buttons, just plain beautiful. Reference points: I hear Cate Le Bon’s Crab Day, Kate Bush’s The Dreaming, Slapp Happy’s Ca Va (Sort Of), and even the weird (and wonderful) space surf music of The Revillos’ Rev Up (and the great single “Scuba Scuba”). Michelle cites Frank Zappa, Delia Derbyshire (a pioneer of British electronic music), and the 70’s prog and glam era.
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Michele Tozzetti – Bernstein: Complete Solo Piano Music (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:40 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Piano Classics
Bernstein’s piano output reflects the various strands of his multifaceted personality, in works as different as Touches (1981) – influenced by Aaron Copland’s thorny Piano Variations – and , at the other end of the scale, his often tender, sentimental Anniversaries, miniatures written in commemoration of important people in his life. Taken together his piano works form a musical diary tracing the breadth of his experiences and ideas. Smaller piano pieces often preview bigger things to come. Four of his Five Anniversaries (1949-51) appear as themes in his violin concerto, the Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium.”
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Michele Santoriello, Matteo Salvatori, Massimo Valentini feat. Fabrizio Bosso – Mico (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 41:11 minutes | 465 MB | Genre: Jazz, Fusion
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Abeat
MiCO is an artist collective in constant evolution. Created and strongly desired by Michele Santoriello – bass player, composer and producer – it combines different spirits, thoughts and musical languages in a single sound and rhythmic direction.
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Michele Rabbia, Gianluca Petrella & Eivind Aarset – Lost River (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 44:17 minutes | 439 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM
Lost River is an evocative post-ambient, richly textured sonic event, and one of the outstanding beyond-category recordings of recent ECM history. Drummer Michele Rabbia and guitarist Eivind Aarset had played many duo concerts, and Rabbia had also worked with trombonist Gianluca Petrella in other contexts, but this recording marks a premiere for the trio. Spontaneously improvised for the most part, and with mysterious detail flowering inside its soundscapes, Lost River keeps revealing new forms. Rabbia’s drumming is freely creative and propulsive, and enhanced through his use of electronics. Aarset’s flowing playing will delight listeners who have enjoyed his Dream Logic project and his contribution to recordings with Nils Petter Molvӕr, Tigran Hamasyan, Andy Sheppard and others. Petrella’s role as a principal instrumental voice will surprise those who know him only as a great “jazz” soloist with Enrico Rava and Giovanni Guidi; his broad range is very well deployed in Manfred Eicher’s widescreen production on this recording, made in Udine in January 2018.
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Michele Lee – A Taste Of The Fantastic Michele Lee (1966/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 31:01 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy
Although best remembered for her role as matriarch Karen Fairgate MacKenzie on the long-running prime-time soap opera Knots Landing, Michele Lee also enjoyed a career as a recording artist during the late ’60s, scoring a minor pop hit with 1968’s “L. David Sloane.” Born Michelle Lee Dusick in Los Angeles on June 24, 1942, she was the daughter of Hollywood makeup artist Jack Dusick. By age three she was singing professionally, and made her television debut in a 1959 episode of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. In 1961 Lee co-starred in the Broadway smash How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, later reprising her role as Rosemary in the 1967 feature film version. By 1963, she was a regular television presence, appearing on The Danny Kaye Show, What’s My Line, and Match Game. Following successful nightclub appearances at venues including New York City’s Persian Room and Las Vegas’ Sands Hotel, Lee signed to Columbia Records to release her 1967 debut LP, A Taste of the Fantastic. L. David Sloane followed a year later, coinciding with her co-starring role in the Disney blockbuster The Love Bug. After 1969’s feature The Comic, Lee returned to television, guesting on series including Love American Style and Marcus Welby M.D. In 1974, she also headlined her own failed sitcom pilot, The Michele Lee Show, and earned Tony Award nomination for her work in the Broadway production Seesaw. After the 1976 death of her mother, Lee withdrew from the spotlight for several years before resurfacing in 1979 on the Dallas spinoff Knots Landing. She remained with the series throughout its 14-season network run, setting the record for the most consecutive appearances by an actress in a prime-time dramatic series with 344. By the 1989 season Lee was occasionally directing episodes of Knots Landing as well, and after playing the title role in the 1995 telefilm Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story, she co-wrote and directed the 1996 Lifetime production Color Me Perfect. Lee returned to Broadway in the 2000 production Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, and four years later appeared in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly, her first feature film work in 35 years. –Artist Biography by Jason Ankeny
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Michele Hendricks – Another Side (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 58:21 minutes | 682 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Cristal records
La sortie d’un nouvel opus de Michele Hendricks est toujours un événement très attendu. Son dernier disque, A Little Bit Of Ella, a remporté le Prix du Jazz Vocal 2016 de l’Académie du Jazz. En hommage à Ella Fitzgerald, ce CD présentait Michele dans ce qu’elle fait mieux que personne, le scat et l’arrangement de standards dans son style inimitable.
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Michèle Devérité, Kaori Uemura, Ricardo Rodriguez – The Forquerays, or the Torments of the Soul, Vol. 2 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:58:39 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
This recording presents for the first time the complete works of the Forqueray family – music that is powerful, virtuosic, fascinating, that touches our innermost being – and combines harpsichord pieces with pieces for viola da gamba and basso continuo. It includes the four early pieces by Antoine Forqueray from the Recueil de pieces de violle avec la basse tiré des meilleurs autheurs, and our transcription for two harpsichords of the pieces for three viols found in the Lille Manuscript, as a nod to the family practice of the Forquerays (transcription was a very widespread practice at the time).
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Michèle Dévérité, Kaori Uemura, Ricardo Rodriguez – The Forquerays, or the Torments of the Soul, Vol. 1 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:05:14 minutes | 1,46 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
The Forqueray family, father and son: thereupon hangs a dark tale. The father, Antoine (1672-1745), famous composer and gamba player, a musicien ordinaire de la chambre du roy from 1689, developed such a furious jealousy of his son Jean-Baptiste (1699-1782) that he had him thrown in jail at the age of 20. Only the intervention of his friends won the young virtuoso his freedom, and finally he succeeded his father as a musicien ordinaire de la chambre du roy in 1742, when his father was no longer in a position to object. In 1747, Jean-Baptiste won the privilege of publishing 29 of his father’s pieces for viol da gamba and three of his own pieces; he also published a transcription of these same pieces for harpsichord. It is these works that Michèle Dévérité is offering us on the harpsichord, joined by Kaori Uemuraon the viol da gamba and Ryo Terakado on the viola for the ensemble pieces. A magnificent undertaking, which, two and a half centuries after the break between the two Forquerays, brings them back together in the most striking manner. To complement the second volume, we are also treated to several works dedicated to the Forquerays, by Charles François Clément, Louis-Antoine Dornel, Claude François… uh, sorry: Claude-François Rameau, the son (another father-and-son pair), and two modern composers.
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Michele Carreca – Giacomo Gorzanis: Solo Lute Music (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 53:34 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi
Until this recording, the works of Italian renaissance composer of lute music, Giacomo Gorzanis (1520-1579), have remained mostly undiscovered. All of the works on this album are World Premiere Recordings. They are performed here by Italian lutenist, Michele Carreca.
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