This collection is from London's "Degenerate Music" series, works by composers attacked or suppressed by the Nazis. Schreker's score for The Birthday of the Infanta, based on a story by Oscar Wilde, is in his typically lush late Romantic style. Some listeners love this music, while others get seasick. Schulhoff's Moonstruck is a relatively brief dance piece, full of Schulhoff's beloved jazz and immediately striking. Hindemith's The Demon, typical of his acerbic early style, is a challenging and eventually rewarding piece, previously recorded a couple of times. It's a luxury to have one of the world's great orchestras playing this obscure, fascinating program for us; the conductor does well with everything but particularly with Schreker's decadence. --Leslie Gerber
This amazing idea is an act of artistic justice - to say at least - about a set of recordings destroyed or banned by the political disruptions of the twentieth century and most specifically by the Third Reich. Besides, it's also a representation of musical evolution, trends that never reached plain maturity. But also, it concerns with the music of exile: the inward response to a different world after such the well reminded bloody and devastating WW1.
The first work presented here is the marvelous composition of Franz Schreker "The birthday of the Infanta" , an innovative ballet based on an Oscar Wilde's play.
The second work belongs to Erwin Schulhoff labeled "Moonstruck", a prodigious composer who barely lived 48 years (died of tuberculosis in 1942). The seeds of the diverse influences by then, blend the rag, jazz and the presence of the tango take place all along this interesting orchestral suite.
Finally we have Paul Hindemith with "The demons" , a work that undoubtedly has had major luck than its predecessors.
On the other hand, the presence of Lothar Zagrossek in the baton conducting the renowned Gewandhaus orchestra of Leizpig, has been a colossal finding. The members of this prestigious Orchestra display all the gamut of eloquent expressiveness and vibrant rhythm the works demand.
A magnificent finding and hoping the harbingers of such innovative and challenging project undertake that required mission in order to preserve and bring it us back the necessary space in those times of first rate technology.
Tracklist:
Der Geburtstag der Infantin = The Birthday Of The Infanta (19:40)
1 Reigen 1:48
2 Aufzug Und Kampfspiel 2:19
3 Die Marionetten 2:40
4 Menuett Der Tänzerknaben – Die Tänze Des Zwerges 2:51
5 Mit Dem Wind Im Frühling: In Blauen Sandalen Über Das Korn – Im Roten Gewand Im Herbst 5:02
6 Die Rose Der Infantin – Nachklang 4:58
Die Mondsüchtige = Moonstruck (23:49)
7 Introduzione – Ragtime 5:14
8 Valse Boston 6:31
9 Shimmy 2:32
10 Step 1:40
11 Tango 5:07
12 Jazz 2:46
Der Dämon = The Demon, Op.28 (34:28)
13 Tanz Des Dämons 1:16
14 Tanz Der Bunten Bänder – Tanz Der Geängstigten Schwalben 5:51
15 Tanz Des Giftes – Tanz Der Schmerzen 4:08
16 Tanz Des Dämons (Passacaglia) – Tanz Der Trauer Und Sehnsucht 5:54
17 Einleitung Zum 2. Bild – Tanz Des Kindes 3:36
18 Tanz Des Weiten Gewandes – Tanz Der Geschlossenen Orchidee 6:51
19 Tanz Der Roten Raserei – Tanz Der Brutalität 2:17
20 Tanz Des Geschlagenen Tieres – Finale
Tanz grotesk - Schreker - Schulhoff - Hindemith ("Entartete Musik")
(320 kbps, cover art included)
This album was dedicated to the British miners who went on strike during 1984 and 1985. The album features a head-spinning stylistic variety; the driving folk-punk of The Men They Couldn't Hang, the twisted art-country of the Mekons, the loping reggae-punk of Omega Tribe, the frightening anglo-synth rap of Akimbo, the accusatory goth-rock of Leningrad Sandwich, the fierce noise-punk of The Ex, the anarcho-weirdness of The Posion Girls, the hard-to-classify Steve Lake and, of course, the only band on earth who can be described as both Crass' heirs and one-hit wonders, Chumabawamaba.
In 1974, Hugh Masekela had already scored a chart-topping hit in the USA, where he’d been living in exile since the early 1960s. He was hanging out with jazz greats: John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Dizzie Gillepsie are names that pepper the pages of his biography Still Grazing - a nod to his Grammy-winning crossover hit ‘Grazin’ in the Grass’. He’d essentially ‘made it’ - he was living the American dream and no one could tell him otherwise. Suddenly, he found himself right in the middle of America’s high-brow society. With commercial success came the trappings of fame. He left a trail of bad decisions and broken promises, and these eventually caught up with him in the 70s. He was in need of an exit strategy, a remedy to the mounting distractions and dissatisfaction.
Soledad Bravo is born in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain. Her father was a Spanish republican, moving to Venezuela with his family when his daughter was still at an early age. At 24, Soledad began studying architecture and philosophy at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where she also began performing. 
This December sees Patti Smith’s 73th birthday. She is still going strong, remaining as relevant as ever. Happy birthday! 
Ten years ago, Jesus Canneloni, the wonderful and wild sax player of the german polit rock band Schröder Roadshow, died. To remember Jesus and his far-out sax sound, we like to post this Schroeder Roadshow gem.
"A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be
Born Ruth Lee Jones in 1924, Dinah Washington was a band singer with Lionel Hampton from 1943 to '46. After this she went solo, signing with Mercury records in 1948, remaining with that label until her death in 1963. It's been said that Dinah's hard-edged approach to love songs was due to seven failed marriages.
Like most Native Americans of his generation, Floyd Westerman was wrenched away from the arms of his family at the age of five and sent off to a government boarding school nearly 100 miles away. These blatant attempts to destroy Indian civilization by breaking up families and making traditions obsolete became one of many subjects Westerman would take on when he developed into an important Native American protest singer and actor. 
Carambolage was a German, Berlin based, all-female band active in the late 70s and early 80s featuring Angie Olbrich on guitar, Elfi Esther Steitz on vocals and Britte Neander on drums. They released several records on Ton Steine Scherben's label David Volksmund Produktion. They played fairly stunning female art punk and were connected to the polit-rockers Ton Steine Scherben.
Formed in 1976, the german oddball political cabaret and rock group "Schroeder Roadshow", played music in the tradition of Floh De Cologne, Checkpoint Charlie and Ton Steine Scherben - but always a little bit more crazy and dada-inspired than the classic polit rock bands with their straight agit prop songs.
