Thunder – Live at Leeds (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:41:18 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © earMUSIC
Since forming in 1989, Thunder have established themselves at the top table of UK rock and cultivating a well-deserved reputation as consummate live performers.
January 26, 2024, sees the release of the previously unreleased live album “Live At Leeds”, recorded on March 3rd, 2015, as part of a three-date arena tour in support of ‘Wonder Days’, one of the finest studio records of Thunder’s career.
A 16-song set delivered a hatful of hits and no less than six numbers from ‘Wonder Days’, namely its title cut, ‘Black Water’, ‘Resurrection Day’, ‘Broken’, ‘The Thing I Want’ and ‘When The Music Played’.
“Live At Leeds” stood as further evidence of Thunder’s prowess as live entertainers.
Read moreThunder – Live at Islington Academy (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:08:20 minutes | 822 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © earMUSIC
Among the most popular and enduring British hard rock bands of the past 25 years, Thunder are to launch the previously unreleased live album “Live At Islington Academy” on January 26, 2024.
The live record captures the South London based band during the touring cycle of their eighth studio album, ‘Robert Johnson’s Tombstone’. The quintet had already completed a lengthy circuit of the UK in promotion of the record when they were contacted by Planet Rock Radio (UK) about the possibility of performing a set before a live audience at the station’s first annual Christmas Bash.
A mere 800 lucky fans got the opportunity to see Thunder perform at the Planet Rock Christmas Party on December 19th, 2006, and offered up a storming, surprise performance dominated by golden classics such as ‘River Of Pain’, ‘Low Life In High Places’, ‘You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down’, ‘Love Walked In’, ‘Backstreet Symphony’ and ‘I Love You More Than Rock ‘N’ Roll’, followed by a hot, sweaty encore of the hit single ‘Dirty Love’.
“Live At Islington Academy” shows off not just an amazing catalogue of unforgettable rock hits, but just the sheer live power that Thunder possess.
Read moreThe Smile – Wall Of Eyes (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 45:17 minutes | 477 MB | Genre: Post-Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © XL Recordings
The Smile’s new album Wall Of Eyes, will be released on 26th January on XL Recordings. The new album, was recorded between Oxford and Abbey Road Studios, and is produced and mixed Sam Petts-Davies. It features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Wall Of Eyes is the follow up their 2022 debut LP A Light For Attracting Attention
Read moreThe Jakob Manz Project – The Answer (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 46:15 minutes | 888 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music
Accepted as a young student at the Stuttgart University of Music at the age of 15, multiple awards as a teenager, the ACT debut “Natural Energy” at 19, winner of the Baden-Württemberg Jazz Prize at 21 – is the unstoppable rise of the now 22-year-old saxophonist Jakob Manz over? Not at all, as the new album “The Answer” proves.
Read moreThe Gospel Artistics – The Gospel Artistics (1973/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 26:57 minutes | 1016 MB | Genre: Gospel, R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Craft Recordings
Based in the Washington D.C. area, nine-piece ensemble the Gospel Artistics set up shop at DB Sounds Studios in nearby Silver Spring, Maryland, for a full-length project, tied together and informed by elements as disparate as Northern soul and jam rock. The all-male group displayed the talents of all of its participants, as several members were multi-instrumentalists, vocalists, writers and producers. This includes work from vocalist and organist Al Mason, guitarist and baritone vocalist Tyrone Chase and songwriter and tenor vocalist David Hood.
Hood and Chase co-write “Lord Is It I?” a standout callback to the doo-wop of Motown and Chess, affixed in an otherwise largely livewire album. Though still a pared-back respite from the electrified soul of the album’s remaining runtime, the song’s syrupy, sweet tone is jilted by LeVon McNeil’s hard-hitting drumming, hinting at the group’s brash overtones.
Read moreThe Commanders – Walk With Me (1972/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 29:37 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Gospel, R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Craft Recordings
A sharp departure from the black traditional gospel and soul-infused message music of Gospel Truth’s catalog, the Commanders’ 1972 release “Walk With Me” promises a very different type of “Old-Time Religion.” This quintet of white voices raised their joyful noise from the rolling hills of Birmingham, Alabama, a state mired by the imagery of fire hoses, police attack dogs and race-related unrest, as the wounds of the Civil Rights Era only recently began the process of healing.
Read moreSarah Jarosz – Polaroid Lovers (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:40 minutes | 867 MB | Genre: Americana, Pop, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rounder
Polaroid Lovers is the 7th studio album from four-time Grammy winner Sarah Jarosz. Produced by Daniel Tashian, Polaroid Lovers is a bold creative statement that sees Jarosz exploring new sonic territory. The 11 songs on the album, all co-written by Jarosz with songwriters including Tashian, Jon Randall, Ruston Kelly, and Natalie Hemby, touch on themes both personal and universal: love, longing, and finding one’s place in the world.
Read moreRahsaan Roland Kirk – Live in Paris (1970) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:28 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Transversales Disques
Gifted multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the height of his powers, backed by his Vibration Society, including long-term cohorts pianist Ron Burton, powerhouse percussionist Joe Habao Texidor, Dick Griffin on trombone, drummer Jerome Cooper and Vernon Martin on Double Bass.
First ever official reissue of this rare ORTF recording performed live at studio 104, Maison de la Radio Paris, with the full permission and cooperation of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA).
Read morePiotr Anderszewski – Bartók, Janáček, Szymanowski (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:12 minutes | 986 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics
Piotr Anderszewski juxtaposes solo piano works by three composers who asserted and shaped the musical identity of their Central European countries in the earlier 20th century: Janáček in Moravia (which in 1918 became part of Czechoslovakia), Szymanowski in Poland, and Bartók in Hungary.
“The works on this album are imbued with a sense of rebellion,” says Anderszewski, himself a native of Warsaw. “There is no place here for stylisation or decorum. These works plumb the very roots of music.”
Read morePhilip Glass – Philip Glass Solo (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 53:54 minutes | 426 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Orange Mountain Music
“Orange Mountain Music presents “”Philip Glass Solo” a collection of Glass performing some of his most enduring and beloved piano works. Philip Glass Solo was recorded at a time when the world was undergoing a major shift—for Glass, that shift manifested in going from a busy tour and premiere schedule to time spent at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The storied musician dedicated this time to revisiting some of his older piano music, occasionally reacquainting himself with these old friends, playing them for an audience of one in his home studio in New York. It is his most personal record to date, offering a snapshot of his life, and a portrait of daily practice over eight decades through several cherished works. Now 86, Glass reflects, “This record revisits my works for piano. From 2020-2021, I had time at home to practice the works I have played for many years. This record is both a time capsule of 2021, and a reflection on decades of composition and practice. In other words, a document on my current thinking about the music. There is also the question of place. This is my piano, the instrument on which most of the music was written. It’s also the same room where I have worked for decades in the middle of the energy which New York City itself has brought to me. The listener may hear the quiet hum of New York in the background or feel the influence of time and memory that this space affords. To the degree possible, I made this record to invite the listener in.” Philip Glass Solo opens with “Opening,” originally written for the 1982 album Glassworks, which remains one of Glass’ most transfixing pieces and established a sound that quickly became a calling card. Next we hear Mad Rush, one of his most beloved pieces and longest performances on record (at 16:35), which he composed originally as an organ piece in 1978 when the Dalai Lama made his first public address in New York. This is followed by Metamorphosis I, II, III, and V, the series of music Glass arranged for his first solo piano concerts in the 1980s; the album ends with a reworked version of “Truman Sleeps” from the soundtrack of the beloved 90s film The Truman Show, where Glass appeared on screen performing the piano in one of the pivotal scenes of the film. His changes to the piece speak to the heart of all artists’ evolution of both themselves, and their music, over time.”
Read morePaul Colomb – Bleue Quintet (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 51:05 minutes | 538 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mirare
“Bleue Quintet” is a neoclassical project by Paul Colomb with his cello quintet, inspired by his travels, his youth and his view of the world in general: “From the bustle of the city of Bangalore to the bizarre beauty of the industrial port of Saint-Nazaire, this album explores the poetry of the atmospheres that touch and inspire me. Nourished by my classical and contemporary roots, I am delighted to be surrounded by four friends who are also wonderful cellists.”
Read morePatricia Kopatchinskaja, Reto Bieri, Polina Leschenko – Take 3 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:06:39 minutes | 2,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
The basic idea of this album was to play in threes… Not to play ‘something’, but to experiment ‘in threes’ with sound worlds as different as those of Bartók, Poulenc and Schoenfield. With his Contrastes, composed in 1938 for Benny Goodman, Bartók broadened his penchant for traditional music and turned it into a more universal work, influenced by jazz. Poulenc was a child of the Paris of the Roaring Twenties, influenced as much by Stravinsky, Ravel and Satie as by cabaret songs and operetta. Paul Schoenfield, born in Detroit in 1947, also likes to combine styles. Each of the movements in his trio is based on an Eastern European Hasidic melody… not forgetting the breathtaking klezmer dances of Romanian Șerban Nichifor. Almost ten years after Take 2 (Alpha211), Patricia Kopatchinskaja reunites with two great accomplices, clarinettist Reto Bieri and pianist Polina Leschenko, for a programme based around trios that celebrate the roots of these three musicians.
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