Metropole Orkest – Metropole Studio Sessions: Dutch Jazz Jam II (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:24 minutes | 947 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Metropole Orkest
Metropole Orkest and NPO Radio 2 Soul & Jazz once again join forces to present the Dutch Soul Jam II on Friday 26 February. This evening the orchestra will share the stage with amazing soloists such as Shirma Rouse, Paul van Kessel, Latanya Alberto, Ivan Peroti and Patty Lou. You can expect music from the likes of Eddie Harris, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Kahn and Marvin Gaye.
Read moreMetropole Orkest – Metropole Studio Sessions: Dutch Jazz Jam I (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:49 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Metropole Orkest
Since 1945, Netherlands big-band the Metropole Orchestra (aka Metropole Orkest) has been globally renowned for their live and recorded performances of jazz, pop, electronic, classical, world, and avant-garde music; the orchestra is comprised of musicians from those genres and more. They are the world’s oldest multi-genre orchestra with a catalog of more than 100 albums. Their roster can be broken up into smaller configurations of 17 and larger ones of nearly 100. In addition to their own body of recorded work, they have collaborated in concert and on recordings with dozens of prominent artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Tori Amos, Elvis Costello, Steve Vai, Snarky Puppy, and prog metallers Within Temptation. A first-call orchestra for film scores and soundtracks, they have recorded original works for countless films on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2014, a year after Jules Buckley took over as conductor and music director, the group committed itself to working with international vocalists. Their first such projects were Laura Mvula with Metropole Orkest, and Live in Holland with Asha Bhosle. In 2017 they collaborated with electronic composer Jameszoo for the in-concert Melkweg, and with Argentine composer and jazz pianist Pablo Ziegler for Amsterdam Meets New Tango. A year later, they collaborated with Raul Midon on his If You Really Want and in 2019, made their debut performance at the annual extreme music festival Roadburn in collaboration with Triptykon for their commissioned original work Requiem. The Metropole Orkest was founded in 1945 by the Dutch Radio Foundation under the leadership of conductor Dolf van der Linden; the 17-member ensemble made its debut on November 25 of that year, and in the decades to follow established itself as an institution of the European jazz community, backing everyone from Tony Bennett and Shirley Bassey to Natalie Cole. After 35 years at the helm, van der Linden left the orchestra in 1980 and was replaced by Rogier van Otterloo; in the wake of van Otterloo’s 1988 death, the reins were handed to artistic director Dick Bakker, who held them until American composer, arranger, and conductor Vince Mendoza took over the baton in 2005 and held it until Jules Buckley, a guest conductor from 2008 on received it from him in 2013. The orchestra’s reputation flourished over the next several years. They issued globally acclaimed albums including Revolutions with Jim Beard in 2008,El Viento: The Garcia Lorca Project, Ivan Lins & the Metropole Orchestra and Morricone: The Maestro, The Music, And the Orchestra, all in 2010. Despite releasing 20 albums between 2008 and 2011, the Dutch government seriously considered withdrawing the group’s funding. In December, a budget was assured through 2017. Metropole Orkest issued some of its most prestigious recordings over the next five years, including Edu Lobo & Metropole Orkest, Perfect Vision: The Esquivel Sound, and Sylva with Snarky Puppy. In 2017 a concert with Argentine jazz pianist Pablo Ziegler was released with the title Amsterdam Meets New Tango; it drew global acclaim from critics and airplay all over Europe and Asia. In the build-up to another Dutch parliamentary debate over public funding for arts and culture in May 2018, the Metropole Orkest announced that budget cuts during the preceding five years had caused a 50-percent work reduction. Many faced problems when trying to combine the orchestra’s irregular work hours with part-time jobs required to make ends meet. Metropole Orkest issued only a one recording in 2019: a retrospective collaborative performace with Jameszoo (aka Mitchel van Dinther) entitled Melkweg, titled for the famed concert venue. They performed a commissioned collaboration with Triptykon at the year’s Roadburn Festival. Entitled Requiem, it featured the entire performance of Celtic Frost’s unfinished work of the same name; it composed by their the band’s guitarist Tom Gabriel Warrior, who founded Celtic Frost in 1986. The set was released by Century Media in the spring of 2020. The same year, a limited edition, double vinyl release of Melkweg was sold through Bandcamp – Thom Jurek & Jason Ankeny
Read moreMetropol Ensemble – Favourite Songs (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 52:46 minutes | 511 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ME JAZZKLASSIK
The Metropol Ensemble is a Bremen cross-over ensemble that has been delighting concert audiences since 2008 with a broad musical portfolio and an individual sound profile that ranges from favorite songs to improvised sound collages.
Read moreMetronomy – Metronomy Forever (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 54:49 minutes | 625 MB | Genre: Electronic, Synth-pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Because Music
The follow-up to 2016’s ‘Summer 08’, ‘Metronomy Forever’ features 17 tracks. Its length is born from a desire for breathing room, from not wanting to stuff the hits together like a bouquet of petrol station roses – a modern way of listening to music. Metronomy’s innate skill for blending off-kilter funk, energising club vibes and esoteric pop is interspersed with some mood-setting, glistening and melodic electronic tracks. The band’s leader Joseph Mount called upon a variety of inspirations for this album. Most notably, he wanted to replicate the feeling of listening to the radio, with an infinite quality, sumptuous songs of different styles, ever rolling, helping to lighten your mood. Moving away from the bustle of his former Parisian home to take up residence atop a hill in the garden of England had an impact, infusing the album with a sense of tranquillity and a calm joy that reflects the relative happiness of his existence. Also influential was time spent working on Robyn’s critically adored ‘Honey’ album, with a similar feeling of emotional, intense, carnal mania informing songs such as ‘Sex Emoji’ and ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’.
Read moreMetronomy – Love Letters (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:25 minutes | 904 MB | Genre: Electronic, Synth-pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Because Music Ltd.
Given the critical and commercial success of The English Riviera, Metronomy could have easily spent another album or two expanding on its polished, erudite pop. However, they’re too mercurial a band to do the obvious thing. On Love Letters, they abandon their previous album’s sleek precision for fuzzy analog charm.
Read moreMetronhomme – 4 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:17 minutes | 449 MB | Genre: Jazz Rock, Progressive Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Metronhomme
In 2019 the album “4” takes shape, the fourth new work of Métronhomme: an LP 33 rpm 180gr. self-produced by the band, in which there are 11 instrumental tracks, for a total duration time of 43 minutes of great emotional music. “4” for the band is the result of a long period of separation from the “live” scenes, passed in the rehearsal room and dedicated exclusively to composition and musical exploration, with the subsequent studio recording final moment. The musical material was the result of the freest creative moment of the band, a freeness that previous works of the band had necessarily contained.
Read moreMethyl Ethel – Triage (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:09 minutes | 777 MB | Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative, Psychedelic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | ©
With his thirtieth birthday, and the ceremonial cap on three records and three EP’s, Webb felt a sense of closure in the making of Triage. Methyl Ethel has always been a surrealist outfit – a dark and obscured expression of life set to the backdrop of dream pop hooks. But Triage is a more reflective album – one that explores the notion of coming of age, only to reference it for the snapshots and passing memories that it has become. The album was written, produced and performed by lead singer Jake Webb, recorded in Jake’s home studio in West Perth and mixed at Mute Studio in London with Marta Salogni.
Read moreMethyl Ethel – Everything Is Forgotten (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:23 minutes | 889 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Dream Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 4AD
Perth band Methyl Ethel’s Oh Human Spectacle was a solid record, and a promising 2016 debut. But it also suggested they had plenty to prove if they were going to make an impression on the increasingly overcrowded area of psychedelic indie pop. Jake Webb showed himself to be a skilled writer of shimmering psych-pop, but his compositions didn’t quite have the bombastic pomp of tracks like Tame Impala’s “Elephant” or MGMT’s “Electric Feel”.
Read moreMethadone Skies – Different Layers of Fear (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:11:45 minutes | 889 MB | Genre: Metal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Haywire Records
Methadone Skies new album – Different Layers Of Fear – is perhaps their most engaging and heaviest album to date. The band play a darker, bolder and progressive style of Instrumental Stoner Rock/Metal compared to their previous albums. Methadone Skies don’t shy away from creating complex sounding rhythms throughout the course of the album.
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