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.

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

Space Age Pop - the 'A' list

I was a little bit disappointed with the response to the basic Space Age Pop (SAP) albums post only getting one comment. I'm not sure if this is because comment moderation is enabled or whether visitors don't know quite what Space Age Pop is or they already have all the albums they want.

I have to continue moderation as there is at least one very determined (and idiotic) spammer.

Anyway I was going to post some albums I thought were the better examples of SAP but this is rather a daunting task due to the large number of great albums in this category.

For instance just looking through the first letter of the alphabet I found four classic albums and I'm sure there are many more. I'm going to highlight these four albums with the first track of each album available to listen to and the album with the best (and adequate) response I'll post.

You can comment in the post or vote for your fave in the sidebar. Just one album per reader thanks as this is just a trial to see if this idea is worth pursuing. All these are rare and I couldn't find much info about them on the web.

Any dedicated SAP or Library music fan would have heard of Janko Nilovic. Well this is a side project in his guise as Andy Loore and a very fine example of SAP or Library or both.

This is a beauty. Didn't have the cover so this will have to do. One track is featured on my Bob Dylan tribute album. This bounces and pops in a wonderfully brassy manner. It practically defines SAP.

Now for something a bit different. If soaring classy strings are your bag this fits the bill.

Breaking Pop News by some Japanese dudes. Originally shared by the wonderful Space Debris who is now no longer active here's a thing he shared way back around 2005 or so and now long disappeared. Its a Japanese offering and rivals the Scorier album for sheer funky brassness or something. Rocks from start to finish. There's details in the MP3 tags.

101 Strings - Sounds of Today

Track Listing

01 - Ode to Billy Joe
02 - I'm a Man
03 - Karma Sitar
04 - California Dreamin
05 - Stone Baroque
06 - San Francisco
07 - A Whiter Shade of Pale
08 - Blues for the Guru
09 - Never My Love
10 - Strings for Ravi
11 - Killer Joe A GoGo
12 - Blues For the Guru 2
13 - Karma Sitar 2
14 - Strings for Ravi 2

This is a request by Jonathan. I looked through the Xtabay archives and found this rare item.

The 101 Strings were perhaps one of the most 'easy' artists of easy listening putting out orchestral versions of the day's hits which could be listened to by mum while she prepared the family roast.

They did put out a couple of more hip albums though, this one, Astro Sounds of course and others like the Les Baxter and Nelson Riddle albums and one or two others.

This isn't the greatest rip I've ever heard but hey its the only one available at the moment. I've added some bonus tracks of better versions (but shorter) of some of the hipper tunes. I've also improved the sound by normalising (it was horribly over modulated) and doing a modest enhancement.

The sad thing is I used to have it on CD but lost it somewhere along the line.

By the way the Strings Beatle album is supposed to be pretty good also so if anyone out there wants to share it let me know.

Link

Space Age Pop - The 10 Basic Albums

Space Age Pop (SAP), what is it? If the album is made in the "age of Stereo" ie from mid 1950 to mid 1970 and has words like Percussion, Super Stereo, Moog, Glittering, Provocative and Exotic the chances are its a SAP album.

So what differentiates SAP from Easy Listening (EL)? Well words like Million, 101, Violins, Flutes, Romantic, Strict Tempo and Gentle would give the clue that its an EL album.

SAP albums were originally intended to show of the new wonder of stereo so ping pong effects, wide stereo panning and the printing of incomprehensible technical details on the back cover were common.

Anyway the Space Age Pop site gives a wonderful overview of this type of music and you should go there right now.

Anyway I was thinking of doing a post highlighting albums I think are representative of SAP music but while I mull over that daunting task I'm going to highlight the 10 basic SAP albums as listed on the aforesaid SAP site (see here).

Its a good starting place and most of the albums are already available on the net. Here then are the SAP 10 basic must have albums.

Available on the LB site or get it here

Here's a great stereo rip of this album courtesy of Manakoora. The original is in mono but Denny re-recorded it in glorious stereo and its my favourite version. Link

One of the kings of SAP music and any album of his is a listening treat. Link

I thought I had every Mancini Gunn album, there were 2 or 3, but I couldn't find this particular one. I found a site that had it but the link is Sendspace my least favourite file hosting site but I finally managed to download it so give it a try. Link

One of the many albums Enoch Light put out with the word Percussion in the title. Its hard to keep track of them all but they're all classic SAP music and the covers are a pop art delight too. Have fun collecting them all.

Link

F & T made a couple of really good SAP albums in the mid 50s until they got sick of eating noodles and living in the same room and decided to go Easy and make some folding money, which they did very successfully I might add. Listen for the treated piano almost classifiable as avant garde music. Classic SAP cover too. Link

Whew this steers dangerously close to EL but who am I to argue with such an esteemed site. The music is languid with sweeping strings and the sound of a cheery fire crackling in the background, oh wait its got some surface noise.

Great make out music but move quickly before you both fall asleep which should take about two tracks.

link

Great cover, great moog music and he's still alive and active today! Probably the greatest SAP moog artist and he has an incomparable library of albums which go way beyond what one thinks as Moog music. One mustn't forget his partner Mr Kingsley either.

A true classic and the album comprises the first 12 songs of this compilation and there's another 14 tracks.

Mr Anonymous has kindly given me a link to the above album. Just go to this blog it was posted in January in two parts. Link

Also here's some more moogalicious sounds from Mr Perrey.

What can you say about this album? Probably the best selling SAP album of all time and denizen of many a bargain bin and op shop. This copy looks like a CD rip so I grabbed this myself. Link.

Great mambo and latin album and this copy has Mambo Mania as a bonus. From a defunct site but the link is still active, lucky us.