Phonophani
Animal Imagination
(Hubro, 2017)
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Delphine Dora & Mocke
Le Corps Défendant
(Okraina Records, 2017)
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320 kbps | 103 MB | LINKS
Now a quintet, the second album for Fluff & Gravy from The Harmed Brothers, a Portland outfit framed around founding members Ray Vietti and Alex Salcido, follows on from last year’s A Lovely Conversation EP. Included, are two numbers from that EP, the distorted guitars pop-rocker relationship-in-crisis title-track and the slow building soulful ballad When I Get Back.
The other tracks are a mix of new material and new versions of old songs, such as the album opener, Greetings From Mardi Gras; a song about a relationship that breaks up while on the road. It originally featured on 2010’s limited release All The Lies You Wanna Hear. Here it’s been extended by almost two minutes and, introduced with the sound of rain, transformed from an alt-country jog to something far more wearier and sad, sung in a cracked voice, coloured by mournful violin and erupting into a brief tumult towards the end.
From the same album, they also revisit the screw-up themed Cryin’Shame, replacing the banjo with piano and strings and again giving it a more melancholic pace. Then, from 2012’s Come Morning, while Elvis The Lion retains its slow tempo, it too is longer and gets a more muscular arrangement with a dominant bluesy electric guitar.
Everything else is previously unrecorded, the first up being another road song, the twangy rolling drive of alt-country Adopt A Highway, though relatively more positive (“oh yeah we’ll be broke, but we’ll never be broken”). The Wind is another slow, melancholic, dusty ballad, streaked with pedal steel and a steady snare beat rhythm while organ swirls in the background. Another song about the toll of life on the road is the steady-paced Life In Progress (“I’m thinking about packing it up, this life on the road without love, just turning the van around and coming back home”), a track that’s awash with brooding electric guitar.
Of the remaining two new songs, the salvation-seeking Don’t Wanna Be Lonesome is a slow swaying country waltz with mariachi horns with the album bringing down the shutters on the simple piano ballad Sunshine, gospel-tinged with handclaps and choral voices in the final stretch, echoing its predecessor’s hope on its chorus refrain “we’re gonna find our way home again.”
320 kbps | 102 MB | LINKS
Honesty, confidence, and respect permeate Eilen Jewell’s music, dating back to her self-released Boundary County album in 2006. After releasing five albums of critically acclaimed original songs, the reigning “Queen of the Minor Key” is taking a moment to shake hands with the blues. Eilen Jewell’s new collection of twelve rare, bold blues and R&B covers adds to her potent mix of classic country, folk, and early rock ’n roll inspired original music. From the barrelhouse power of 1920’s Bessie Smith to the electrified sounds of 1960’s Betty James, blues music has always been a strong influence on the Boise, Idaho native.
On Down Hearted Blues (September 22, 201), Eilen and her long-time road band (Jerry Miller, Shawn Supra, Jason Beek) rip through greasy versions of dark blues like Charles Sheffield’s “It’s Your Voodoo Working”, Willie Dixon’s “You Know My Love”, and Albert Washington’s “One of These Days”. The band also strips down the sound, trading in drums and electric instruments for washboards, mandolins, and banjos to cover songs like Memphis Minnie’s “Nothing in Rambling”, Bessie Smith’s “Down Hearted Blues”, and Moonshine Kate’s “Poor Girl’s Story”.
For over a decade Eilen Jewell has taken her brand of sultry surf-noir and dynamic Americana music to cities from Melbourne to Madrid to Manhattan. Her subtle but powerful musical approach, combined with her warm stage presence and evocative original lyrics, continue to gain her the loyalty of fans worldwide.
320 kbps | 515 MB | LINKS
New three CD collection. Huey Lewis and the News are truly one of America’s great rock ‘n’ roll bands. As they enter their 38th year together, their contagious brand of music has outlasted countless trends, and is as fresh today as ever. Formed from two rival Bay Area bands in 1979, they continue to thrill audiences worldwide, selling over 20 million albums in the process, earning them the right to mark their place on the pop history map. These Grammy Award winners have written and performed such classic Top Ten Hits as ‘Heart of Rock & Roll’, ‘Stuck With You’, ‘I Want A New Drug’, ‘If This Is It’, ‘Hip To Be Square’, ‘Do You Believe In Love’ and ‘Workin’ For A Livin’. The group also wrote and performed ‘The Power of Love’ and ‘Back in Time’ for the hit film Back To The Future. ‘The Power of Love’ nominated for an Academy Award, went to #1 on Billboard singles chart, and was a smash hit worldwide. Frontman Huey Lewis’ unmistakable voice has a rich, textured quality that lends itself well to not just their hits, but also to the variety of other songs featured. Huey Lewis and the News have a love of music that comes through in everything they do. Be it their albums, their live performances, or the way they interact with their fans, they are a band with ‘Heart and Soul’.
320 kbps | 117 MB | LINKS
„One Beer Left“ is a longplayer which ranges stilistically from extensive, spherical blues boppers to groovy early 60’s R&B to dirty Rockin’ Blues. A musical challenge which is pretty hard to accomplish but invites the audience to an interesting trip through the world of the blues.
320 kbps | 220 MB | LINKS
The second part of the anthology of the legendary British guitar virtuoso Steve Howe, a member of such famous prog rock bands as Yes and Asia. The box set includes a lot of unreleased material! Rhino represents the second part of the anthology of the legendary British guitar virtuoso Steve Howe, a member of such famous bands as Yes, Asia and others, as well as a successful solo artist. In this issue, attention is focused precisely on the work of Howe in the composition of different collectives (besides the above-mentioned Yes and Asia, they are the GTR, The Syndicats, Tomorrow, The In Crowd, Bodast, Steve Howe Trio, etc.), as well as collaborations with other Known performers, such as Paul Satin and Oliver Wakeman.
320 kbps | 104 MB | LINKS
The band plays Jump blues and swing, are full of hassle, and take the audience back to the 50s and 60s (remember dance shoes!) Simply a deadly band!
320 kbps | 158 MB | LINKS
LCD Soundsystem’s reunion album has officially been announced. American Dream, the band’s fourth album overall and first in seven years, will arrive on September 1st through DFA/Columbia Records.
The follow-up to 2010’s This is Happening spans 10 tracks and includes previously released singles “call the police” and “american dream”.
320 kbps | 102 MB | LINKS
Tompkins Square is proud to release two solo acoustic guitar albums by Rick Deitrick. Gentle Wilderness was released as a private press LP in 1978. River Sun River Moon consists of previously unreleased recordings from the same time period. Deitrick came to our attention via Brooks Rice and Michael Klausman, who compiled Imaginational Anthem Vol 8 : The Private Press, which features Rick’s “Missy Christa” from Gentle Wilderness.
Ohio-born Rick Deitrick took up the guitar at 16 and decided to approach his playing as if he was the only guy on an island and the instrument had just washed ashore one day. According to Rick, “I completely divorced my playing from any formal music knowledge, but it was very important to me to use original tuning. During those years, the sixties/seventies, there was a lot of acoustic guitar playing, often using open tuning as a base. I wanted to create whole tones without de-tuning and keep access to the complex sounds stock tuning provided.”
320 kbps | 102 MB | LINKS
Pronounced ‘Tuck Shearer’, formerly a vocalist-drummer with UK Americana outfit The Whybirds, Bedford-based Luke Tuchscherer launched a solo career as a singer-songwriter with his 2014 debut You Get So Alone At Times. Three years on, now signed to Clubhouse Records, he returns with Always Be True, a more sonically fleshed out affair that, as the press release notes, comes with echoes of Uncle Tupelo, Tom Petty and Steve Earle.
It plays its trump card at the start with the jangly acoustic strum of Waiting For My Day To Come with its crowd-friendly title refrain, organ, pedal steel (played by the ubiquitous BJ Cole) and drums kicking in to build the song into a blue-collar anthem.
It’s followed by another strong track, Don’t Put Me Out, an infectiously melodic slice of alt-country rock and one of two numbers that, aside from seeing him behind the drum kit again, reunites Tuchscherer with fellow original Whybirds Dave Banks, on backing vocals, and Ben Haswell on acoustic. The reunion continues with the jauntily loping These Lonesome Blues while, other than singing back-ups on most tracks, can also be heard contributing banjo to the train rhythm rolling hoedown Be True.
He takes the pace down for Outside, Looking In with its anchoring slow walk drum beat, keening steel and reverb-treated vocal for a song that would seem to be about bitter envy, about being excluded from the party out there by the “total pricks talking shit in fancy dress”, though the line about “spending my time staring into cyberspace where people all around me are living their lives” puts a rather different spin on things.
It slumps slightly on the muted balladry of the overlong seven-minute When The Dream Dies, a song that seems to be aiming for Jackson Browne territory as it unfolds vignettes guessingly about the loss of someone in an accident and a single father discovering his child’s been taken into custody. Likewise, the slow waltzing end of relationship regrets Amanda Jane, which is pleasant enough, but never really goes anywhere.
Fortunately, it recovers in the final stretch, the piano-led rekindling of the heart Love Don’t Come Easy giving way to the remember the good days themed mid-tempo country swayer about friendship, No One Did It Like Us. It ends with the heartfelt A Song For Jack Brown, a simple strummed acoustic song inspired by a Facebook tribute page to the titular 21-year-old from Leighton Buzzard who, despite seeming to have it all, felt he couldn’t go on and committed suicide in 2009. On that opening track he sings “I’m feeling half dead most of the time, just waiting for my day to come.” With this album, it’s arrived.
FLAC | 316 MB | LINKS
“Silence is the Only Sound”, the latest album from Kari Rueslåtten, is due for release on August 25. Kari Rueslåtten, queen of melancholia, has one of the finest voices in alternative Nordic folk-pop. She is one of the first role models for female singers fronting in a metal band (The 3rd and the Mortal) in the 90s, so she was the main inspiration for bands like Nightwish and The Gathering. Her new recording “Silence is the Only Sound” reaffirms Kari Rueslåtten’s ability to deliver incredible vocals laden with dark-edged melancholy. Silence is the Only Sound is Kari Rueslåtten´s 7th solo album.
FLAC | 1,1,GB | LINKS
Tracklist:
01. I Asked (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Becca Stevens & Väsen]
02. Molino Molero (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Susana Baca & Charlie Hunter]
03. Liquid Love (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Chris Turner]
04. Soro (Afriki) (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Salif Keita & Carlos Malta & Bernardo Aguiar]
05. Sing To The Moon (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Laura Mvula & Michelle Willis]
06. Don’t You Know (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Jacob Collier & Big Ed Lee]
07. I Remember (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Knower & Jeff Coffin]
08. Somebody Home (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. David Crosby]
09. Be Still (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Becca Stevens & Väsen]
10. Fuego Y Agua (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Susana Baca]
11. Shapons Vindaloo (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Väsen]
12. One Hope (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans LA / 2015) [feat. Knower]
13. Brother, I’M Hungry (Live At Esplanade Studios, New Orleans La / 2015) [Feat. Nigel Hall & Nola International]
320 kbps | 169 MB | LINKS
On Welcome to Zamrock, Vol. 2, archival label Now-Again continues their exploration of Zamrock’s major players including bands like Born Free, Salty Dog, and Witch. With lyrics frequently sung in English and reflecting social and political strife, tracks like Rikki Ililonga’s dark bluesy “Stop Dreaming Mr. D,” Ngozi Family’s rallying cry “Hold On,” and Chrissy Zebby Tembo’s “I’m Not Made of Iron” are prime examples of Zamrock grit.
320 kbps | 139 MB | LINKS
Tracklist:
01. Oglumga
02. Odarladyp Semirtiili
03. Dongup Xonar Boldum-Na Be
04. Flute Box
05. Karachal
06. Mezhegei
07. Chügle Sen Sen
08. Ko’sh-oi and Torgalyg
09. Kara Kush
10. Igil / Xöömei
11. My Throat, the Cuckoo
12. Achai
13. Sula Salyp Beereel Chonum
