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Xtabay - Lure of the Unknown Love
Voice of the Xtabay!
Smile - Its a new day
Is this the best news since the rerelease of the Beatle's catalog? Finally the official release of Smile on 5 CDs. Overkill? Not in this case.
In the meantime here's a link to one of the best fan versions of Smile I've heard, very well and professionally done and to my ears must be close to what the original album would have sounded like, he mentions some great booklet scans but unfortunately they don't seem available any more.
The whole site is a wonderful tribute to the Beach Boys with lots of alternate versions of the Smile album.
Link
In the meantime here's a link to one of the best fan versions of Smile I've heard, very well and professionally done and to my ears must be close to what the original album would have sounded like, he mentions some great booklet scans but unfortunately they don't seem available any more.
The whole site is a wonderful tribute to the Beach Boys with lots of alternate versions of the Smile album.
Link
Rapidshare to delete files
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The Joy of Easy Listening BBC 2011 - Don't Miss It!
Fantastic BBC documentary about the really popular music of the 60s. Its says something about me that I know all the artists featured and had a lot of the albums. In fact I could swear one of the album covers (Chaquito) was one I uploaded to the web. Make sure you see or download all 6 episodes.
Dig It! The Sound of Phase 4 Stereo
Decca Presents: DIG IT! The Sound of Phase 4 Stereo
compiled by The Karminsky Experience
Tracklist
01 Route 66 - Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra
02 Ticket To Ride - John Keating Sound
03 Make Like Shake - Shake Keane
04 Got My Feet On The Ground - Larry Page Orchestra
05 Coming Home Baby - Trax 4
06 Tequilla - Edmundo Ross And His Orchestra
07 Soul Sauce - Kenny Baker And Roland Shaw Orchestra
08 Spinning Wheel - Ted Heath And His Music
09 These Boots Are Made For Walking - Alan Tew Orchestra
10 Chain Of Fools - Shake Keane
11 Don't Cha Hear Me Calling Ya - Ted Heath
12 Twisting With James - Roland Shaw
13 Big M - Des Champ
14 Mas Que Nada - Chris Waxman
15 Venus - Claud Denjean
16 Girl In The White Coat (General Hospital) - Ray Martin
17 Soulful Strut - Ronnie Aldrich
Superb CD quality sampler for Phase 4 records. Wish there was more of this sort of thing available.
Star Trek harum
Who knew outer space resembled a Turkish harum? Music by Alexander Courage. Thanks Lazar.
This is pretty good too clip from the Atomic Lounge it made me nostalgic for a place i only knew as a kid.
Warren Kime - Collection
This post shows the value of persistence. A commenter has been requesting all three Kime albums so I've uploaded them all in one folder. Wonderful pop art covers, brassy beaty music, Space Age Pop doesn't get much better than this.
Goin Someplace
All 3 albums
George Tipton Plays Nillson
Another Tipton obscurity. After tackling Jan & Dean, Tipton gives his impression of terminal geek Nillson's repertoire. And a nice album it is.
Highly talented but plagued by self doubt and a similar self hating lifestyle to sometime companion John Lennon, Nillson flared brilliantly in the late sixties and early seventies before succumbing to the Hollywood excesses and passing prematurely.
Thanks to the brilliant blog "For the Love of Harry" for this rare gem and there's a treasure trove of Harry's material there. For a (not so) minor talent the aforesaid site is an exhaustive labour of love for the Harryphiles involved.
Essential albums: Aerial Pandemonium Ballet, Nillson Schmillson and Son of Schmillson.
Track list
01. Rainmaker
02. Poly High
03. Nobody Cares About The Railroads Anymore
04. Think About Your Troubles
05. Marchin' Down Broadway
06. One
07. Maybe
08. Open Your Window
09. Without Her
10. Mourning Glory Story
11. Waiting
GTPN
Highly talented but plagued by self doubt and a similar self hating lifestyle to sometime companion John Lennon, Nillson flared brilliantly in the late sixties and early seventies before succumbing to the Hollywood excesses and passing prematurely.
Thanks to the brilliant blog "For the Love of Harry" for this rare gem and there's a treasure trove of Harry's material there. For a (not so) minor talent the aforesaid site is an exhaustive labour of love for the Harryphiles involved.
Essential albums: Aerial Pandemonium Ballet, Nillson Schmillson and Son of Schmillson.
Track list
01. Rainmaker
02. Poly High
03. Nobody Cares About The Railroads Anymore
04. Think About Your Troubles
05. Marchin' Down Broadway
06. One
07. Maybe
08. Open Your Window
09. Without Her
10. Mourning Glory Story
11. Waiting
GTPNEnnio Morricone Platinum Collection Flac
Here's something I found in my travels. Three CDs in the lossless flac format. I'm in the process of converting my entire CD collection into Flac files for easy access and no loss in listening quality.
From the cover blurb: Three CD collection featuring some of the finest music composed by the legendary Ennio Morricone, recent recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Oscar at the 2007 Academy Awards. Features 60 tracks from his early 'spaghetti westerns' to Hollywood blockbusters like The Mission. A stunning, emotional musical trip that can stand on it's own without the listener ever having seen any of the films these tracks were composed for. EMI.
These are not my uploads as my upload speed is too slow to upload these 11 files so thanks to the original uploader.
Get em here . See comments for track list and p/w.
From the cover blurb: Three CD collection featuring some of the finest music composed by the legendary Ennio Morricone, recent recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Oscar at the 2007 Academy Awards. Features 60 tracks from his early 'spaghetti westerns' to Hollywood blockbusters like The Mission. A stunning, emotional musical trip that can stand on it's own without the listener ever having seen any of the films these tracks were composed for. EMI.
These are not my uploads as my upload speed is too slow to upload these 11 files so thanks to the original uploader.
Get em here . See comments for track list and p/w.
Bel-Aire Orchestra - Jan & Dean's Pop Symphony
I thought some of you might like to listen to this oddity. Its not just a Hollyridge Strings style orchestral version of a group's hits (good as Hollyridge are) its unique in that Jan Berry actually got involved in the production of this album and most of the ideas are his.
He's helped by the usual stellar Hollywood session men and George Tipton. Its very different to the usual strings play groups sounds and has some very good ideas and makes for interesting listening.
AMG thought it was pretty good too:
He's helped by the usual stellar Hollywood session men and George Tipton. Its very different to the usual strings play groups sounds and has some very good ideas and makes for interesting listening.
AMG thought it was pretty good too:
The general perception, of course, is that Jan & Dean were almost exclusively a singles act in terms of their most important output, and that is largely true. But a few of their albums were "conceptual" in nature...and then there's Pop Symphony, No. 1, the strangest album in their entire output -- an instrumental album of Jan & Dean hits played by the Bel-Aire Pops Orchestra (augmented by some top L.A. sessionmen, most of whom played on Jan & Dean's usual output), arranged by Jan Berry and George Tipton, who also conducted. What's funny is that Pop Symphony, No. 1 isn't a bad little record, and was also damned rare for a very long time. The material seems at first like standard pop instrumental music, except it does have those melodies, which work whether they're sung by Jan & Dean or, as is the case here, carried by a brass or string section. And it turns out that Pop Symphony, No. 1 is full of entertaining and unexpected delights, with the result that this record isn't quite as bizarre as it seems.
Link
Joe Meek - A Strange Story
Going through a little phase of watching a new feature movie and a 1991 documentary on strange and troubled genius Joe Meek.
The movie, "Telstar" is a pretty good summation of Joe's chaotic and troubled life as an eccentric record producer. Credited with virtually kick starting the British singles music industry and creating some innovative studio tricks Joe eventually was outpaced by more talented studio technicians and eventually swamped by the wave started by the Beatles and Stones.
The actor playing Joe really nails his personality and manner and even looks a lot like him.
The film is fascinating in its depiction of Joe's cramped and chaotic studio situated in tiny rooms above a luggage shop. Its amazing how many famous artists recored with Joe but his main hits were with the Tornados and his bleached fancy, Heinz.
After being sued by somebody claiming to have written Telstar before Joe and hounded by a homosexual criminal charge Joe eventually succumbed to addiction and mental illness culminating in him shooting his downstairs co-tenant and himself with a gun ironically owned by Heinz.
The documentary is even better and really shows the sides of Joe's eccentric genius and features an interview with Joe's two brothers who seem a little bemused by Joe's lifestyle.
The Strange Story of Joe Meek (BBC documentary)
Telstar (the movie)
Joe Meek - I Hear a New World (album of his studio techniques and tricks)
Joe Meek the Amazing World of (album of his main hits)
The movie, "Telstar" is a pretty good summation of Joe's chaotic and troubled life as an eccentric record producer. Credited with virtually kick starting the British singles music industry and creating some innovative studio tricks Joe eventually was outpaced by more talented studio technicians and eventually swamped by the wave started by the Beatles and Stones.
The actor playing Joe really nails his personality and manner and even looks a lot like him.
The film is fascinating in its depiction of Joe's cramped and chaotic studio situated in tiny rooms above a luggage shop. Its amazing how many famous artists recored with Joe but his main hits were with the Tornados and his bleached fancy, Heinz.
After being sued by somebody claiming to have written Telstar before Joe and hounded by a homosexual criminal charge Joe eventually succumbed to addiction and mental illness culminating in him shooting his downstairs co-tenant and himself with a gun ironically owned by Heinz.
The documentary is even better and really shows the sides of Joe's eccentric genius and features an interview with Joe's two brothers who seem a little bemused by Joe's lifestyle.
The Strange Story of Joe Meek (BBC documentary)
Telstar (the movie)
Joe Meek - I Hear a New World (album of his studio techniques and tricks)
Joe Meek the Amazing World of (album of his main hits)Breaking Pop News
I've had a few requests for the rest of the 'A's so here they are. Personally I think they are both better than the other two albums. I've got a feeling the above album had something to do with a Datsun promotion judging by the cover.
Arakawa Yasuo & Shiji Shiroo - Breaking Pop Hit News 1972
LinkAlex Scorier - Scores
Link
When I'm 64 - was the wait worth it?
The miracle of the internet I've already found the complete box sets for the mono and stereo versions of the new remastered Beatles official catalog even though they haven't been officially released yet.
The mono is at 320kps and the stereo is at 220kps. I've also downloaded a couple of albums in flac format to see if there's much difference. The answer is very little if any. These will tide me over until my order arrives.
That could be a while as Amazon has completely sold out the first allocation. Just shows the demise of music sales by people sharing music on the internet has been grossly exaggerated and if anything it creates more interest in my view.
So was the wait worth it the short answer is a resounding yes. There's so many things that could have been done better and not putting each short album on a separate disc to milk as much money from the punters as possible is one of them. But the main issue is the sound and these simply are the best sounding discs so far even making the many Ebbetts versions unnecessary and in fact Dr Ebbetts has officially retired.
So are both the mono and stereo versions essential? Again a resounding yes. The supply of an entire mono version of the albums is an inspired master stroke and they sound deep and transparent and so much better than the thin sounding 80s released mono albums ( a big thumbs down to George Martin who rightly said the mono versions of the early albums were better but then made no effort to remaster them properly).
The mono versions are so good at first its almost impossible to tell if they are mono the sound is so clear and strong. But in a lot of cases they actually sound more detailed and punchy than the stereo versions. This may be because the early albums were made to be released in mono and the stereo versions were hastily made to cash in on the coming stereo boom. Also you haven't heard Sgt Peppers until you hear the mono version its almost a different album.
Of course I can't share the links but seek and ye shall find but be quick as its a constant battle to download them before the net police delete the links. I have no compunction about downloading them as these should have been properly remastered and released at least 20 or 30 years ago before the internet was even invented.
So there you have it the musical event of the year and probably the decade if not the century. And its all happened before I turned 64 (just).
So what now, well if you can grab a copy of the Yellow Submarine songs only album from 1999 you can get a hint of what the Beatles catalog might sound like with new stereo mixes. Well let's hope it doesn't take another 40 years for that to happen. (check comments for a little present)
The mono is at 320kps and the stereo is at 220kps. I've also downloaded a couple of albums in flac format to see if there's much difference. The answer is very little if any. These will tide me over until my order arrives.
That could be a while as Amazon has completely sold out the first allocation. Just shows the demise of music sales by people sharing music on the internet has been grossly exaggerated and if anything it creates more interest in my view.
So was the wait worth it the short answer is a resounding yes. There's so many things that could have been done better and not putting each short album on a separate disc to milk as much money from the punters as possible is one of them. But the main issue is the sound and these simply are the best sounding discs so far even making the many Ebbetts versions unnecessary and in fact Dr Ebbetts has officially retired.
So are both the mono and stereo versions essential? Again a resounding yes. The supply of an entire mono version of the albums is an inspired master stroke and they sound deep and transparent and so much better than the thin sounding 80s released mono albums ( a big thumbs down to George Martin who rightly said the mono versions of the early albums were better but then made no effort to remaster them properly).
The mono versions are so good at first its almost impossible to tell if they are mono the sound is so clear and strong. But in a lot of cases they actually sound more detailed and punchy than the stereo versions. This may be because the early albums were made to be released in mono and the stereo versions were hastily made to cash in on the coming stereo boom. Also you haven't heard Sgt Peppers until you hear the mono version its almost a different album.
Of course I can't share the links but seek and ye shall find but be quick as its a constant battle to download them before the net police delete the links. I have no compunction about downloading them as these should have been properly remastered and released at least 20 or 30 years ago before the internet was even invented.
So there you have it the musical event of the year and probably the decade if not the century. And its all happened before I turned 64 (just).
So what now, well if you can grab a copy of the Yellow Submarine songs only album from 1999 you can get a hint of what the Beatles catalog might sound like with new stereo mixes. Well let's hope it doesn't take another 40 years for that to happen. (check comments for a little present)
Billy Strange - Goldfinger
What's strange about Billy? Well nothing really here he's doing the Bond Goldfinger theme and other soundtrack tunes of the period.
There's even Steve Martin's The Jerk now maybe that is a bit strange after all. That's where Steve tried to be the new Jerry Lewis and didn't really succeed but there again much funnier than anything he's done lately. To see Steve at his funniest and best see Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid his tribute to film noir and it gets better every time you see it. Its also the inspiration for Dr Forrest's Cheese Factory blog which is a mad and sometimes inspired melange of weird and wonderful stuff.
So for all the Friend's of Carlotta here it is, its my rip and its been languishing in my Rapidshare folder for ages and now it finally sees the light of day. Its a mono 96kps rip equivalent to 192kps stereo.
Link
There's even Steve Martin's The Jerk now maybe that is a bit strange after all. That's where Steve tried to be the new Jerry Lewis and didn't really succeed but there again much funnier than anything he's done lately. To see Steve at his funniest and best see Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid his tribute to film noir and it gets better every time you see it. Its also the inspiration for Dr Forrest's Cheese Factory blog which is a mad and sometimes inspired melange of weird and wonderful stuff.
So for all the Friend's of Carlotta here it is, its my rip and its been languishing in my Rapidshare folder for ages and now it finally sees the light of day. Its a mono 96kps rip equivalent to 192kps stereo.
Link
Art Van Damme - Cocktail Capers
Here's a delicious album from hip accordianist Art Van Damme. Its a request. Thanks to the original uploader.
Link
Acquaviva and Andy Loore links posted
I've uploaded the above albums. Get em here Acquaviva Andy Loore.
Not entirely satisfied with the response but thanks to those who took the trouble to comment.
Uploads of the other two albums will be subject to sufficient interest being shown.
Uploads of the other two albums will be subject to sufficient interest being shown.
Les Paul - My Tribute
OK so the legends of music are dropping off the perch at an alarming rate but mum this is serious! The absolute legend of them all Les Paul has left this mortal realm after a lifetime of innovation and great music.
Its probably true to say popular music today would be entirely different if Les Paul hadn't been around. Inventor of the modern electric guitar and multi track recording not to mention all sorts of innovations and techniques this guy was the biz.
Just listen to his early instros, they sound like the fastest picker you've ever heard on helium. Sublime stuff.
Here is a long out of print box set which probably best sums up Les the guitar player and his terrific 50s style duets with his wife Mary Ford.
The album links are not my upload so thanks to him or her.
Download this text file which contains the links. Only 128kps but who cares. Link
Its probably true to say popular music today would be entirely different if Les Paul hadn't been around. Inventor of the modern electric guitar and multi track recording not to mention all sorts of innovations and techniques this guy was the biz.
Just listen to his early instros, they sound like the fastest picker you've ever heard on helium. Sublime stuff.
Here is a long out of print box set which probably best sums up Les the guitar player and his terrific 50s style duets with his wife Mary Ford.
The album links are not my upload so thanks to him or her.
Download this text file which contains the links. Only 128kps but who cares. Link
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