The Slits - The Peel Sessions

Upgrading an earlier disc that featured the band's first two John Peel sessions only, this ten-track compilation rounds up all of the Slits' BBC recordings, with the most crucial of their three sessions, the previously unreleased October 1981 airing, added in to remind listeners that the group's early reputation as a slipshod blur of punk-oid energy was only the first of the faces they turned to the world. In terms of classic punk energy, sessions dating from September 1977 and May 1978 are unbeatable, the sound of the unsigned, untutored, and -- in the eyes of many people -- unlistenable Slits crashing defiantly through distinctly formative renditions of songs that would not reach fruition for another year, and the completion of their debut album. "Vindictive" alone was not realigned for that disc; of the other six songs, all underwent sufficient reinvention to create starry-eyed converts of even the most disdainful of early witnesses. Famously, at the band's first BBC session, an anguished technician crept out to retune their instruments while the quartet was busy elsewhere. It doesn't affect their performance.

By the time the Slits returned to the BBC in 1981, their original vision had become totally skewed -- along with much of their early optimism. The Return of the Giant Slits, their long-awaited second album, had arrived to absolute incomprehension, and the band's future was already in doubt. The music they were playing, however, was the future. No longer the adrenalined D.I.Y. disaster that had clattered so alluringly across the early sessions, nor the dubbed-out hybrid of Cut, the Slits were now embracing a tribal thud that, while wholly anticipating the later fashion for world music, was so far out on a limb that even Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush had yet to clamber out to join them.

Lengthy throbs through "In the Beginning There Was Rhythm," the so-haunting mantra "Earthbeat," and (the aptly titled) "Difficult Fun" are readily superior to their vinyl counterparts, tasting much the same as the band's period live performances, but imbibed, too, with a questing tenderness that reveals just what a fabulous vocalist Ari Up was; her post-Slits recordings with the New Age Steppers caught many people by surprise, but the Peel rendition of "Earthbeat," in particular, proves there was no need for that.

Sometime during the mid-'90s, John Peel rated the first two Slits broadcasts among his all-time favorite sessions -- one reason why many first-time purchasers chose to overlook the repackaged Peel Sessions altogether. In terms of illustrating all that the Slits were truly capable of, however, the third session is even better than either.


Tracklist:

1 Love Und Romance 2:28
2 Vindictive 2:17
3 New Town 3:31
4 Shoplifting 1:31
5 So Tough 2:19
6 Instant Hit 2:32
7 FM 3:32
8 Difficult Fun 5:42
9 In The Beginning 11:03
10 Earthbeat / Wedding Song 8:31

The Slits - The Peel Sessions

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Zehnkampf – Festival des politischen Liedes 1970–1980

This year there will be no "Festival Musik und Politik", so let´s go back in time...

The Festival of Political Song took place from 1970 to 1990 in East Berlin, held annually in February (except during the Tenth World Festival in the summer of 1973). It was one of the biggest music events in the DDR (GDR) and an "international institution" (Mikis Theodorakis, 1983).
"Zehnkampf – Festival Des Politischen Liedes 1970–1980" ("Decathlon - Festival Of Political Song 1970-1980") is a compilation of live tracks, recorded between 1970 and 1980.

The first page contains primarily Spanish-speaking artists -  Inti-Illimani and Quilapayún are playing two important hymns of the South American socialists (Venceremos and El Pueblo Unido) . Side two starts with an excerpt from Mikis Theodorakis ' "Canto General", based on Pablo Neruda's poems, following are tracks from Gruppe Schicht and Jahrgang ´49 from the GDR.

In contrast, side three and four are dedicated to (West) German, European, African and Vietnamese artists such as is Franz Josef Degenhart , Floh de Cologne, Sands Family, Bots, Miriam Makeba and Singegruppe Hanoi. Finally, the double album closes with the song "Wir sind überall" ("We Are Everywhere") by Oktoberklub - a hymn and a manifesto of the artists and the festival.

Tracklist:

Side One
Venceremos - Inti-illimani - 1973
A desalambrar - Daniel Viglietti - 1974
Marinero der Rückkehr - Isabel y Ángel Parra - 1980
Fusil contra fusil - Silvio Rodríguez - 1972
La consigna - Carlos Mejía Godoy - 1979
Canción de la unidad latinoamericana - Manguaré - 1977
Poder popular - Santocas - 1976
El pueblo unido - Quilapayún - 1978

Side Two
Algunas bestias - Rundfunkchor Berlin - 1980
L'apprendista - Macchina Macheronica - 1979
Regine - Gruppe Schicht - 1979
Baikal-Amur-Magistrale - Gruppe Lingua - 1975
Swiecie Nasz (unsere Welt) - Gruooe ANAWA - 1972
Fahnenlied - Jahrgang '49 - 1976

Side Three
Ich kenne ein Land - Floh de Cologne - 1979
Ballade von Hans Dickhoff - Dieter Süverkrüp - 1972
Kenen joukoissa seisot - Agit-Prop - 1972
Mexico '68 - Francesca Soleville - 1971
Der lange Weg - Bots - 1977
Kommt an den Tisch unter Pflaumenbäumen - Franz Jozef Degerhardt - 1977
The Winds are Singing Freedom - The Sands Family - 1974

Side Four
Grândola, villa morena - José Afonso - 1975
Ich grüsse die Revolutionäre - Gruppe der PLO - 1977
Afrika - Miriam Makeba - 1977
Revolutionäres Heimatland oder Tod - Gruppe Rev. Lied - 1979
The strangest dream - Perry Friedman - 1980
Vietnam Ho Chi Minh - Singegruppe Hanoi - 1977
Mein Erde blühe - Larissa Kandalowa - 1980
Wir sind überall - Oktoberklub - 1973

Zehnkampf – Festival des politischen Liedes 1970–1980, LP 1
Zehnkampf – Festival des politischen Liedes 1970–1980, LP 2
(160 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Yikhes - Early Klezmer Recordings 1911-1939 (Trikont)

"Yikhes. Frühe Klezmer-Aufnahmen von 1907-1939 aus der Sammlung von Prof. Martin Schwartz", was published in German in 1991 and was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize in 1992. The album has been made from old 78 rpm records, most of which were recorded acoustically (before the invention of dynamic microphones).

The first of three volumes in Trikont's klezmer series puts to shame the ones issued by Yazoo and Music & Arts. These early recordings of Naftule Brandwein, Dave Tarras, Josef Solinski, Leon Ahl, Abe Schwartz, Joseph Moskowitz, and many others on this 18-track retrospective reveal the deep and ancient roots of the Lineage Stammbaum. Culled from the personal collection of klezmer historian Dr. Martin Schwartz, the music presented here traces the movement of Jewish music around Eastern Europe from 1911 to the Shoah, Stalinism, and dispersion of Jews to other parts of the world where political forces and cultural assimilation all but destroyed this great music until the 1970s when it was recorded again. 

What took place before this time is part only of cultural memory; what happened between 1939 and the '70s is horrific. The Klezmorim were musicians. Klez, translated, means musician. Mer means song, and this we have klezmer music as the musician's song. The recordings here bare out why the definition is important; these are rigorous instrumental workouts, full of improvisation and tempo and mode changes, they are dizzying. What is also so notable about the first volume is how the reputations of Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras prove, even in these early pieces, not to be the stuff of myth but even more substantial than the accounts would have us believe. One listen to "Rumenishe Doina" by Brandwein, with it's stop and go rhythm and searing clarinet solo, is enough, but then Tarras' "A Rumenisher Nighn" is a ride through the mountains of Romania on a fast horse as his clarinet triple times the violins keeping rhythm. 

All the tracks here are notable, the previous two standouts, along with Josef Solinski's "Romanian Fantasy, Pt. 4," where the plucked violins begin to create a rhythm and another a melody, seemingly out of the air. Minimal parsed phrases between the two violins gradually elongate into a modal rondo where they drone against each other in now long, mournful lines before evolving into the fancy-free gypsy fantasy it becomes and reaches dizzying heights of improvisational fury. 

Make no mistake, some of these recordings are a bit dodgy due to their age, but most of them are well preserved. The musicianship and selection of the material, however, are first-rate by any standard, assembling this the best collection of early klezmer in the world.


Tracklist:

1 Naftule Brandwein - Rumänische doina
2 Yenkovitz & Goldberg - Yoshke furt avek
3 Naftule Brandwein - Vi tsvey iz Naftule der driter
4 Josef Solinski - Rumänische Fantasien
5 Naftule Brandwein - Naftule shpilt far dem rebn
6 Max Leibowitz - Yiddish Hora - a heymish freylekhs
7 State Ensemble of Jewish Folk Musicians - Jüdischer Tanz
8 Belf's Rumanian Orchestra - Yikhes
9 Naftule Brandwein - Heyser bulgar
10 Dave Tarras - A rumenisher nign
11 Leon Ahl - Doina
12 Joseph Moskowitz - Buhusher khusid
13 Mishka Ziganoff - Galitsyaner khusid
14 Abe Schwartz - Nationale Hora - Teil I
15 Harry Raderman’s & Beckerman’s Orchestra - An europeyishe kolomeyke
16 Naftule Brandwein - Der ziser bulgar
17 Belf's Rumanian Orchestra - Simkhas toyre
18 Naftule Brandwein - Naftule, shpil es nokh amol


VA - Yikhes - Early Klezmer Recordings 1911-1939 (Trikont)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Track 18 - New York, April 1925

Aparcoa - Chile (1975, Amiga, vinyl rip)

Aparcoa was a Chilean folk band founded in 1966.
Members were Julio Alegría, Felipe Canales, Miguel Córdova, Jaime Miqueles, Leonardo Parma, Rodrigo Zorrilla, Hugo Pirovic, Marcelo Fortín, Juan Carvajal, Juan Palomo.

The album "Chile" with political songs was released in 1975 on Amiga records.


Tracklist:

01 - Chile
02 - Grandola, Vila Morena
03 - Los Jilgueros
04 - Alla Lejos Y Hace Tiempo
05 - El Banderon Americano
06 - Cuecas
07 - Los Machetes
08 - Mis Llamitas
09 - Plegaria Del Labrador
10 - Guitarra Enlunarada
11 - Las Ultimas Palabras

Aparcoa - Chile (Amiga, 1975)
(32o kbps, cover art included)

Pete Seeger - Headlines and Footnotes: A Collection Of Topical Songs

For nearly 60 years Pete Seeger, with his banjo and 12-string guitar, has made music which inspires people to improve their lives and world. Selections on this anthology, culled from the hundreds Seeger recorded for Folkways Records between 1955 and 1999, include concert and studio recordings about prominent events and themes of the twentieth century: the Spanish Civil War, union organizing, and the civil rights and antiwar movements.

Like the prior compilation "If I Had a Hammer", this focuses a little loosely on topical songs, concentrating on (but not limited to) ones that deal with specific events. At a glance this might seem like a less essential anthology, since If I Had a Hammer contained major songs identified with Seeger like "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "We Shall Overcome," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone." It's actually on the same musical and lyrical level, however, and again has versions of some of the most famous tunes written or popularized by Seeger: "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," "Wimoweh," "Guantanamera," "Wasn't that a Time," Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes," "I Come and Stand at Every Door," and "The Bells of Rhymney" (the last two of which were covered by the Byrds in the mid-'60s). About half of these are taken from Folkways Recordings, but about half are previously unreleased live versions or studio outtakes, so from a collector's point of view this disc is pretty interesting as well. Of course with a Seeger recording, the educational and inspirational values are about as important as the musical ones, and the lesser-known songs usually also have something to make one think, whether it's a narrative of the Titanic disaster or the anti-racist "Listen Mr. Bilbo." Almost all performances were recorded in the '50s and '60s; three songs recorded between 1994 and 1999 find Seeger's voice fading and shaky, though his heart's intact.

Tracklist:

1 Peg and Awl
2 The Titanic
3 Sinking of the Reuben James
4 Listen Mr. Bilbo
5 Hold the Line
6 Passing Through
7 Coal Creek March/Payday at Coal Creek/Roll Down the Line
8 I Come and Stand at Every Door
9 Times A-Getting Hard
10 Little Boxes
11 From Way Up Here
12 The Battle of Maxton Field
13 My Get Up and Go
14 The Bells of Rhymney
15 Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
16 Guantanamera
17 There Once Was a Woman Who Swallowed a Lie
18 Wasn't That a Time
19 Viva la Quince Brigada
20 Wimoweh
21 English Is Cuh-Ray-Zee
22 Odds on Favorite
23 A Little of This and That

Pete Seeger - Headlines and Footnotes: A Collection Of Topical Songs
(320 kbps, cover art included)

José Afonso - Cantigas do Maio (1971)

50 years ago, the Carnation Revolution ended Portugal's dictatorship in one night.

José "Zeca" Afonso continues as one of the most beloved Portuguese singers, decades after his death in 1987. During his long career, Zeca's music was the poetic expression of his revolutionary politics. Beginning his career as a fado singer, his music benefited from years living in both Angola and Mozambique, both Portuguese colonies at the time. Zeca's politics, already forged by involvement in both student and workers movements in Portugal, evolved with his observations of brutal colonial rule in Mozambique, as well as the incipient armed rebellion led by FRELIMO.

"Cantigas do Maio" is considered Zeca's best record, and it arguably is his most important. The B-side begins with "Grândola, Vila Morena," the song that became the anthem of the revolutionary movement to overthrow the fascist, Salizarian dictatorship that had ruled Portugal for decades. It also was used in April 1974 to coordinate the revolutionary military forces that overthrew the fascist government, in a practically bloodless coup popularly known as the Carnation Revolution: the song was broadcast on the national radio to signal the beginning of action.

While "Grândola, Vila Morena" is iconic, all of the songs on this album are powerful and memorable. Zeca's unique voice was perfectly suited for his activist role. It's a voice desperately needed now, in every language, to contend with pan-global repressive forces. Enjoy! Then act! 

- With thanks to Rhythm Connection - hope you will re-start your wonderful blog one day!

This album is a masterpiece mixing both traditional portuguese music and vast branches of influences brought in by the exquisite composer Jose Afonso, also a gifted singer in most of the songs.
This collections of songs is awesome and contains an incredibly beautiful content of both happiness and sorrow.
Even if you don't understand the words you will be certainly be captivated by the intimacy of the approach.

Cantigas do Maio is a popular chorus based song, with guitar and accordion. In the chorus ("Minha mãe, quando eu morrer (x2) ai chore por quem muito amargou (x2) para então dizer ao mundo (2x) ai Deus mo deu, ai Deus mo levou (x3)"), Zé Mário plays an accordion that gives me shakings. Don't know why...

Milho Verde, popular Minho song, was, deliberately, aidded by the adufe sound (a traditional instrument, squared, common in Beira Baixa).This song was recorded by Gal Costa in 1973.

Cantar Alentejano is an hommage to Catarina Eufémia, countrywoman killed by GNR (Republican National Guard), in the fifties. ("Quem viu morrer Catarina / Who saw Catarina dying, Não perdoa a quem matou / doesn't forgive who killed her. (...) Aquela andorinha negra bate as asas pra voar (x2) That black bird shakes his wings to fly (x2) / Ó Alentejo esquecido ainda um dia hás-de cantar (x2) Oh forgotten Alentejo, one day you'll sing"). And this is only the best example of the perfection and beauty that Zeca's voice could reach.

Grândola, Vila Morena is, more than a political song, a symbolic song. It talks about the fraternity of Grandola's inhabitants, that Zeca knew when he visted that Alentejo land. To this, José Mário Branco made something unique, although well conjugated (or we found it normal, now): sound of steps, many people walking. As said, symbolic. And a powerful choir where we can hear the voices of José Mário Branco itself, Zeca's and Francisco Fanhais's. This way we understand why it was chosen to be the key to the Carnation Revolution.

Maio Maduro Maio is, to me, the beautifulest on this record. So soft, so calm. So perfect. Only listened. I cant's say other way. On this reissue booklet it's said: "Not all was easy, because, to Zeca, some of the splendid solutions found by Zé Mário didn't convince him immediately. So that, one time -as Zé Mário remembers - he had to say: "In this song you (Zeca) will let me do my way. And in ten years we talk, ok?". This quote is a mention to the metalic air instruments used on a part of this song. The truth is, some years passed on, Zeca said to Zé Mário: "You were right".

Mulher da Erva has a bass based arrangement, insisting, and on an Hammond, in semicirculars lines, while José Afonso sings in a funny way.

Coro da Primavera, is an universal song, of hope and victory. This is THE example of a marriage between text and music, evidencing the richness a song can be made of. Here's its lyric, with some explanations of how it goes, for you to see where what I mean: it starts with a percussion, then the bass enters, and then a flute.

On his book "As Voltas de Um Andarilho", Viriato Teles writes "The most historical and refferencial of all the Portuguese popular music records. (...) This album marks the first real turning point on a musical revolution that Zeca started 12 years before". A classic must.

Tracklist:

A1 Senhor Arcanjo
A2 Cantigas Do Maio
A3 Milho Verde
A4 Cantar Alentejano
B1 Grândola, Vila Morena
B2 Maio Maduro Maio
B3 Mulher Da Erva
B4 Ronda Das Mafarricas
B5 Coro Da Primavera

José Afonso - Cantigas do Maio (1971)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Dmitri Schostakowitsch - Kyrill Kondraschin, Moskauer Philharmonie – Sinfonie Nr. 5 D-moll Op. 47 (ETERNA, 1975)

Shostakovich composed his Fifth Symphony in 1937, a period when Joseph Stalin’s regime dominated the Soviet Union and imposed strict artistic constraints. The symphony represents a pivotal moment in Shostakovich’s career, where he had to balance his artistic integrity with the need to please this oppressive regime. As a result, the Fifth contains a profound sense of tension, dissent, and defiance. It is an artistic statement that resonates with the human spirit, as it reveals the triumph of the individual against the forces of oppression.



Although the Fifth Symphony was composed in a specific historical context, its themes and emotions transcend time and place. Shostakovich’s exploration of personal struggle, resilience, and the power of the human spirit resonates with audiences from all walks of life. The symphony’s ability to evoke powerful emotions and convey a profound sense of humanity has helped it endure as a cornerstone of the cannon for nearly a century.



Tracklist:

A1 1. Moderato 13:32
A2 2. Allegretto 5:21
B1 3. Largo 12:04
B2 4. Allegro Non Troppo 10:48

Dmitri Schostakowitsch - Kyrill Kondraschin, Moskauer Philharmonie – Sinfonie Nr. 5 D-moll Op. 47 (ETERNA, 1975)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Felicia Sanders - The Songs Of Kurt Weill (1960)

Felicia Sanders (born April 26, 1921, Mount Vernon, New York, USA – died February 7, 1975) was a singer of traditional pop music. She sang in the 1940's, with big bands and on the radio based in Los Angeles, California. She is was the first singer to do the song "In Other Words (Fly Me to the Moon)".

This album is a collection of songs by the famous German composer Kurt Weill. 

Tracklisting:

Speak Low 3:23
This Is New 3:03
Remember That I Care 3:37
Green Up-Time 1:52
September Song 4:07
Here I'll Stay 2:47
Thousands Of Miles 2:20
Foolish Heart 2:46
Stay Well 3:49
Westwind 3:04
Mon Ami, My Friend 2:26
Oh Heart Of Love 3:04

Felicia Sanders - The Songs Of Kurt Weill (1960)

(cover art included)

Dmitri Shostakovich - Under Stalin´s Shadow - Symphony No. 10 - Andris Nelsons

The "Under Stalin's Shadow" subtitle of this release may be confusing inasmuch as the opening Passacaglia from the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District dates from before the period when Stalin made Shostakovich's life a living hell, and the main attraction, the Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93, was finished ten months after Stalin's death.

Actually the album is the first in a set of three; the others will cover the symphonies No. 5 through No. 9, all written during the period of Stalinist cultural control. But even here the theme is relevant: the pieces are linked by a dark mood that carries overtones (of a feminist sort in the case of the opera) of repression. And the Symphony No. 10 is decidedly some kind of turning point, with repeated (and finally triumphant) assertions of the D-S-C-H motif (D, E flat, C, B natural in the German system) that would appear frequently in the composer's later work.

Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Andris Nelsons, who grew up in Soviet-controlled Latvia, is to be believed when he claims a spiritual kinship with Shostakovich, and he delivers a full-blooded performance of the Symphony No. 10 that rises from deepest introspective gloom to a fine example of Shostakovich's sarcasm, to the discovery of the motif, to a triumphant finale enthusiastically greeted by Symphony Hall's usually reserved patrons. Deutsche Grammophon's live engineering, in the orchestra's first recording for the label, is notably clear and sharp. A superior reading of one of the lesser-known Shostakovich symphonies.   


Tracklist:

1 Passacaglia (Interlude from Act II of Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk 8:11

Symphony No. 10 In E Minor Op. 93
2 Moderato 25:39
3 Allegro 4:22
4 Allegretto 12:44
5 Andante - Allegro 13:54


Dmitri Shostakovich - Under Stalin´s Shadow - Symphony No. 10 - Andris Nelsons
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Kendra Smith - Five Ways Of Disappearing (1995)

"Five Ways of Disappearing" is an album by the American musician Kendra Smith, released in 1995. It marked a full-album return to music for Smith, who for much of the 1990s had been tending to her northern California organic farm. Smith did not do a lot of promotion for the album, and chose not to tour nationally behind it

The album was produced by Smith and A. Phillip Uberman. Many of its songs were constructed around the use of a pump organ; others used Turkish drums and harmonium. On some songs, Smith randomly arranged words to form the lyrics, and used multitracked vocals.

Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Spare and haunting, the eerie keyboards and varied guitar textures drape the songs’ slow tempos and rustic melodies, while Smith’s cool vocals deliver elusive, psychedelic lyrics." Trouser Press called "Bold Marauder" "one of the best acoustic Led Zeppelin imitations in recent memory," and wrote that "though some songs are amiss, precious or overly derivative, as a personal sampler, Five Ways of Disappearing is an impressive—and colorful—achievement." Rolling Stone determined that, "when Smith resigns the organ to a background role and matches her voice's fine edge to the guitar's slightly spacey effects, the results are down to earth and memorable."

Robert Christgau thought that, "with the pump organ and all she does have Her Own Sound, especially if you don't remember Nico too clearly—and unlike Nico, she also has a sense of humor." Spin deemed it "a songwriter's album, in the style of Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)... Each package of lyrics is showcased inside of a specific set of instrumental routines." The Knoxville News Sentinel concluded that the album "drags listeners into semi-consciousness two ways: sometimes entrancing with atmosphere, sometimes with lulling tedium."

AllMusic wrote that Smith's "deadpan vocal delivery adds another layer of individuality to an offbeat album by an offbeat artist."

Tracklist:

1 Aurelia
2 Bohemian Zebulon
3 Temporarily Lucy
4 In Your Head
5 Space: Unadorned
6 Maggots
7 Drunken Boat
8 Interlude #1
9 Valley Of The Morning Sun
10 Judge Not
11 Get There
12 Interlude #2
13 Bold Marauder

Kendra Smith - Five Ways Of Disappearing (1995)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Abbey Lincoln - That´s Him! (1957)

Anna Marie Wooldridge (August 6, 1930 – August 14, 2010), known by her stage name Abbey Lincoln, was an American jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress, who wrote and performed her own compositions. She was a civil rights advocate during the 1960s.

"That´s Him!" was her second recording, and her first for Riverside. The album finds her accompanied by quite an all-star roster: tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, trumpeter Kenny Dorham, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Max Roach.

Even this early, she was already a major jazz singer with a style of her own. Lincoln was careful from this point on to only interpret lyrics that she believed in. Her repertoire has a few superior standards (including several songs such as "I Must Have That Man!" and "Don't Explain" that are closely associated with Billie Holiday) plus Oscar Brown, Jr.'s "Strong Man" and Phil Moore's "Tender as a Rose"; she takes the latter unaccompanied. "Don't Explain" is slightly unusual in that Paul Chambers is absent and Wynton Kelly makes an extremely rare appearance on bass. All three of Abbey Lincoln's Riverside albums are well worth the listen.          


Abbey Lincoln - That´s Him! (1957)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Smashing Pumpkins - Versions (1994)

The Smashing Pumpkins was one of the biggest bands of the alternative era, who deftly mixed roaring rock with dark, insular alternative pop. The band was formed in 1988 by Billy Corgan and James Iha, split in 2000, but was reformed by Corgan in 2006.

The band has a diverse, densely layered sound, which evolved throughout their career and has contained elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, grunge, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegaze, dream pop, and electronica overall, with Corgan as the group's primary songwriter.

The band's first album, Gish (1991), became an underground success. In the advent of alternative rock's mainstream breakthrough, their second album Siamese Dream (1993) established the band's popularity. Despite a tumultuous recording process, the album received acclaim and is regarded as one of the best albums in the genre.

"Versions" is an unofficial release, compiling very euphoric acoustic, alternative and electric versions of some of their mid-90s classics.


Tracklist:

1 Cherub Rock (Acoustic Version) 4:26
2 Disarm (Acoustic Version) 3:20
3 Rocket (Acoustic Version) 4:43
4 Spaceboy (Acoustic Version) 3:02
5 Rocket (Alternate Acoustic Version) 4:20
6 Cherub Rock (Alternate Acoustic Version) 4:29
7 Today (Acoustic Version) 3:24
8 Disarm (Alternate Acoustic Version) 3:24
9 Spaceboy (Alternate Acoustic Version) 4:07
10 Dancing In The Moonlight (Acoustic Version) 4:08
11 Rocket (Electric Version) 4:19
12 Quiet (Electric Version) 3:29
13 Today (Electric Version) 3:23
14 Rhinoceros (Electric Version) 4:35
15 Geek USA (Electric Version) 5:17
16 I Am One (Electric Version) 4:15
17 Disarm (Electric Version) 2:14
18 Cherub Rock (Electric Version)

The Smashing Pumpkins - Versions (1994)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Esther Phillips - Set Me Free (1986)

Esther Phillips was an American soul and rhythm & blues singer (December 23, 1935, Galveston, Texas - August 7, 1984 in Carson, California).

She was an influence on many other artists including Aretha Franklin. She was already a mature singer at age fourteen, and won the amateur talent contest in 1949 at the Barrelhouse Club owned by Johnny Otis. Otis was so impressed he billed her as 'Little Esther' and added her to his traveling revue, the California Rhythm and Blues Caravan. Her first hit record was "Double Crossing Blues" (#1 R+B), recorded in 1950 for Savoy Records. Her duet with Mel Walker on "Mistrusting Blues", also went to number one that year, as did "Cupid Boogie". Other Little Esther records that made it onto the U.S. Billboard R&B chart in 1950 include "Misery" (#9), "Deceivin'" (#4), "Wedding Boogie" (#6), and "Faraway Blues" (#6). Few artists, R&B or otherwise, have ever enjoyed such success in their debut year. Phillips left Otis and the Savoy label at the end of 1950 and signed with Federal Records. Although she recorded more than thirty sides for Federal, only one, "Ring-a-Ding-Doo", charted; making it to #8 in 1952. Not working with Otis was part of her problem; the other part was her drug usage. By the middle of the decade Phillips was chronically addicted to drugs.

Phillips ultimately got well enough to launch a comeback in 1962. Now billed as Esther Phillips instead of Little Esther, she recorded a country tune, "Release Me," with producer Bob Gans. This went to number 1 on R&B and number 8 on the pop listings. After several other minor R&B hits on Lenox, she was signed by Atlantic Records. Her cover of The Beatles song "And I Love Him" nearly made the R&B Top Ten in 1965 and The Beatles flew her to the UK for her first overseas performances. During the 1970's she made a temporary move into disco material and scored an international hit with "What A Difference A Day Made", an updating of the 1930's jazz standard.

Phillips died at UCLA Medical Center in Carson, California in 1984, at the age of 48 from liver and kidney failure.

The album "Set Me Free" is a compilation, tracks 1 to 4 recorded 1964 , 5 recorded 1966 , 6 recorded 1965, 7 to 13 recorded 1966, 14 to 24 recorded 1970.



Tracklist:

A1 Mo Jo Hanna
A2 I Saw Me
A3 Double Crossing Blues
A4 Hello Walls
A5 Some Things You Never Get Used To
A6 Let Me Know When It's Over
A7 Ups And Downs
B1 Cheater Man
B2 When A Man Loves A Woman
B3 Fever
B4 When Love Comes To The Human Race
B5 Try Me
B6 I'm Sorry
B7 Somebody Else Is Taking My Place
C1 Catch Me I'm Fallin'
C2 I'm In Love
C3 Brand New Day
C4 Just Like A Fish
C5 Tomorrow Night
C6 Some Cats Know
D1 Set Me Free
D2 All God Has Is Us
D3 He Knows
D4 Woman Will Do No Wrong
D5 Crazy Love

Esther Phillips - Set Me Free (1986)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Paul Dessau - Lilo Herrmann - An die Mütter und an die Lehrer - Der anachronistische Zug (NOVA)

Liselotte Hermann was a German student who became involved in anti-Nazi activities. She was arrested and sentenced to death for high treason, becoming the first woman to be executed in Hitler's
Third Reich.

She was an engineer’s daughter and had a middle-class liberal upbringing. After completing her Abitur, she went to work in a chemical factory to support her studies in chemistry, starting in 1929, and later also in biology as of 1931. She took these programmes at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart (now the University of Stuttgart) and the University of Berlin. She joined the Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands (“Communist Youth Federation of Germany”) in 1928 or 1930, and also became a member of the Roter Studentenbund (“Red Students’ League”). From 1931, she was a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

Early in 1933, she signed a “Call for the Defence of Democratic Rights and Freedoms” at the university in Berlin, and was therefore, together with 111 other students, reprimanded and debarred by the university on 11 July 1933. From that time, she worked illegally against Germany's fascist dictatorship. On 20 December 1933, her husband was slain in Gestapo custody.
She took a job as a nanny and socialized with the armed resistance within the KPD. In 1934, Liselotte's son Walter was born. From September of the same year, she lived once again in Stuttgart, where she worked as a shorthand typist at her father's engineering office.
She reestablished contacts with the now banned KPD. From late 1934, she worked as a technical aid with Stefan Lovasz, the Württemberg KPD leader. She obtained from Arthur Göritz information about secret weapons projects - munitions production at the Dornier factory in Friedrichshafen and the building of another, underground munitions factory near Celle - which she relayed to the KPD's office that had been set up in Switzerland.

On 7 December 1935, Liselotte Hermann was seized. For 19 harrowing months she was held in remand custody, whilst her young son had to be cared for by his grandparents. Charged before the Volksgerichtshof, Herrmann was sentenced to death by the Second Senate of the Volksgerichtshof in Stuttgart on 12 June 1937 for "treason and conspiracy to commit high treason". Lina Haag was held in the same Remand Prison at that time, and remembers the night she was sentenced in her book 'A Handful of Dust' or 'How Long the Night'.
After a year in the Berlin Women's Prison, she was transferred to Plötzensee Prison, also in Berlin, for execution. Despite international protests, Liselotte Hermann was sent to the guillotine on 20 June 1938. Her political friends Stefan Lovasz, Josef Steidle and Arthur Göritz were also put to death the same day.

In East Germany, many schools, streets, and institutions were named after her, but after German reunification in 1990, many were given new names in the rush to erase all references to Communism.
Indeed, even in Stuttgart, where Liselotte Herrmann studied, she has been a controversial figure. In 1988, unknown persons placed a simple memorial stone to her on the University of Stuttgart campus, which caused a bit of a stir. "Lilo-Herrmann-Weg" was the city's tribute to her, but it is little more than a 100 m-long blind alley affording access to public and private parking. No-one lives there. In the 1970s, students at the university tried to get a new residence named after her, but the university administration balked at the idea.

The German writer Friedrich Wolf worked after the World War I as a doctor in Remscheid and Hechingen, where he focused on care for common people and prescribed treatment using naturopathic medicine. In 1923 and 1925 his sons Markus und Konrad were born. After 1928 he became a member of the Communist Party and the Association of Proletarian-Revolutionary Authors. In 1929 his drama "Cyankali" sparked a debate about abortion, and he was briefly arrested and charged for performing abortions.
In early 1932 he founded the Spieltrupp Südwest in Stuttgart, a communist agitprop group of lay actors that created controversial pieces about current topics.
After the Nazis came to power, Wolf emigrated with his family to Moscow. In 1938 he made his way to Spain to work as a doctor in the International Brigades. However, he was arrested in France and interned in the concentration camp Le Vernet. In 1941 he gained Soviet citizenship and returned to Moscow where he became a founder of the National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD) .
In 1945 he returned to Germany and was active in literary and cultural-political issues. From 1949 to 1951 he was the first ambassador of East Germany to Poland. On October 5, 1953, he died in his personal office in Lehnitz.

Friedrich Wolf wrote the biographic poem "Lilo Herrmann", which was set to music in 1954 by the German conductor and composer Paul Dessau. This album features his melodrama for speaker, chorus & ensemble "Lilo Herrmann" besides "An die Mütter und an die Lehrer" and "Der anachronistische Zug", a collaboration with Bertolt Brecht.

Paul Dessau - Lilo Herrmann - An die Mütter und an die Lehrer - Der anachronistische Zug (NOVA)
(320 kbps, vinyl rip, small front cover included)

Nikki Sudden - Groove (1989)

Though Nikki Sudden's liner notes claim that "half of the rhythm section lost all of their enthusiasm" during the making of "Groove", that laziness is nowhere evident in the final product. 

A big, swaggering, barnburner of a record, "Groove" pits toothy chords against thundering drums, making for what could best be described as post-punk designed to fill Madison Square Garden. 

The only thing that keeps the affair from being a full-blown bow to stadium rock is Sudden's wobbly, nasal vocals and his stubborn refusal to bow to conventional song structure. Forget anthemic singalong choruses -- Sudden's songs are all verse. Though scattered moments recall the stomp and pout of Marc Bolan, Sudden is too obtuse to be especially sexy. The brash, furious "Great Pharoah" has a two-note vocal melody, and the mournful cover of Neil Young's "Captain Kennedy" is interrupted up by long, loping guitar interludes. 

"Groove" works because it revels in the tension between the muscular arrangements and Sudden's passive drawl.


"This album is dedicated to Karl Stephenson who was killed on Christmas eve 1988, age 24 ... somebody had to play Peter Pan."


Tracklist:

1 See My Rider 6:20
2 Murder Valley 4:47
3 French Revolution Blues 3:25
4 Breaking Lines 4:45
5 Groove 5:08
6 Sea-Dog Blues 3:40
7 Great Pharaoh 4:05
8 Poor Relation 3:33
9 Wild Cathedral 3:29
10 Beethoven's Ring 4:37
11 Back To The Coast 2:55
12 Too Bad For You 5:00
13 Village Green 7:51
14 Wedding Hotel 3:39

Nikki Sudden - Groove (1989)

(ca. 254 kbps, cover art included)

Gil Scott-Heron – Reflections (1981)

"Reflections" is an album by the American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, released in 1981. It was his second album without Brian Jackson. Scott-Heron supported the album with a North American tour. The album peaked at No. 106 on the Billboard 200.

Arista Records mailed a copy of "'B' Movie'" to every member of Congress. "'B' Movie" was a hit on Black radio stations.

Recorded at TONTO Studio, the album was coproduced by Malcolm Cecil. Scott-Heron was backed by the Midnight Band. "'B' Movie" is a criticism of Ronald Reagan, whose image appears on the album cover in one of the lenses of Scott-Heron's glasses. "Inner City Blues" is a version of the Marvin Gaye song. "Grandma's Hands" is a cover of the Bill Withers song.

Robert Christgau called "'B' Movie" Scott-Heron's "smartest political rap ever"; Knight Ridder deemed it "a bitter tour de force." The Tucson Citizen labeled the album Scott-Heron's "slicing philosophy of America's determined return to the years before social conscience and civil rights." The Philadelphia Daily News praised the "brilliantly articulated bad-tidings."

The Independent deemed the album "a classic." The Guardian concluded that, "unlike some of those he influenced, Scott-Heron had enough intellectual and musical flexibility to ensure that his medium wasn't crushed under the ponderous weight of his message."

Tracklist:

1."Storm Music" 4:51
2."Grandma's Hands" 5:24
3."Is That Jazz?" 3:43
4."Morning Thoughts" 4:37
5."Inner City Blues (Poem: 'The Siege of New Orleans')" 5:46
6."Gun" 4:00
7."'B' Movie" 12:10

Gil Scott-Heron – Reflections (1981)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Scritti Politti – Songs To Remember (1982)

One needn't look much further than the song titles on the back of Songs to Remember to be struck with the thought that Scritti Politti had changed their scheme. Gone were the days of "Bibbly-O-Tek" and "Skank Bloc Bologna," replaced by brow-raising titles like "Gettin' Havin' and Holdin'" and, er, "Sex." Then there's the photo of Green Gartside -- he looks chipper! And at what point did his shoulders get so big? Oh, those must be shoulder pads. During a lengthy recovery process necessitated by a physical meltdown, 

Gartside found himself rejuvenated with a new agenda to become less like the Pop Group in favor of being more like a pop group; young communism would now be replaced by young romanticism. Influenced heavily by R&B and lovers rock reggae, Gartside opted to aim his group at the pop charts. After cajoling his returning mates to go with the flow, Gartside took advantage of producer Adam Kidron's rare availability and went about recording Scritti Politti's first LP with most of the material far from realization. With the addition of a saxophonist and a trio of backing singers, Scritti resurfaced with a rather scatterbrained record. Sometimes it sounds like T. Rex in miniature form ("Jacques Derrida"); sometimes it sounds like wannabe Dirty Mind-era Prince ("Sex"); sometimes it sounds like wannabe Young Americans-era David Bowie ("A Slow Soul"). 

Despite the well-intended but overt appropriations, there are moments of full-on glory that aren't sunk in their influences. The infectiously naïve "Asylums in Jerusalem" matches sunny reggae with '70s Stevie Wonder; the blue-eyed soul of "Faithless" is simply good, not simply red; and then there's the closing dessert of "The Sweetest Girl," a peerless block of lovers rock-inspired synth pop. In sum, there's as much to love as there is to skip. (allmusic.com)


Tracklist:
A1 Asylums In Jerusalem 3:12
A2 A Slow Soul 3:15
A3 Jacques Derrida 4:58
A4 Lions After Slumber 6:08
A5 Faithless 4:13
B1 Sex 4:20
B2 Rock-A-Boy Blue 5:49
B3 Gettin' Havin' & Holdin' 5:16
B4 The Sweetest Girl 6:16

Scritti Politti – Songs To Remember (1982)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Holger Hiller - Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube (1983)

Holger Hiller studied art at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, where he met Walter Thielsch and Thomas Fehlmann and recorded first works with them. With Fehlmann he later founded the band Palais Schaumburg in 1980, of which he was the singer. At the same time his solo career began. Hiller was one of the first musicians in Europe to use the sampler as his main or sole instrument.

From 1984 on, he lived in London, eventually working as producer for Mute Records. In 1988, he started a band project called Ohi Ho Bang Bang with video artist Akiko Hada, recording a song/video called "The Two," releasing it as both a 12" single and a CD Video. The video shows Hiller and Karl Bonnie creating different sounds from every item in a room, which Hada edited together to make a song out of the sounds whilst keeping the video footage of their creation intact. This transfer of sampling techniques from music to video might have been pioneering; only 10 years later, it got popular with "Timber" by Coldcut, who used custom-made software to create it.

Since 2003, Hiller lives in Berlin, working as an English language teacher.

With „Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube“, Holger Hiller presented his solo debut having left Palais Schaumburg. Originally released in 1983 on the Düsseldorf scene label Ata Tak, an international release followed in 1984 via Cherry Red Records. Combining electronic sequencer sounds and sampling fragments with unconventional lyrics its multidisciplinary approach locates it somewhere between the pop and avant-garde. 

Tracklist:

01. Liebe Beamtinnen und Beamte
02. Blass schlafen Rabe…
03. Budapest - Bukarest
04. Jonny (du Lump)
05. Akt mit Feile (für A. O.)
06. Hosen, die nicht aneinander passen
07. Chemische und physikalische Entdeckungen
08. Mütter der Fröhlichkeit
09. Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube
10. Das Feuer
11. Ein Hoch auf das Bügeln


Holger Hiller - Ein Bündel Fäulnis in der Grube (1983)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Lord Kitchener – Klassic Kitchener Volume One (1993)

Lord Kitchener (born Aldwyn Roberts) shares with Mighty Sparrow the title of the world's best known Calypso singer.

He began his career in Trinidad and won his first Road March award for singing in 1946. In 1948, Kitch emigrated to England in the company of singer Lord Beginner and newsreel footage of the time shows him singing "London Is the Place for Me."

This Kitchener compilation is a gem with all the obvious reasons why Kitchener's musical compositions were always favored at Carnival by steel pan orchestras. Pannists trained on Calypso, Jazz and Tchaikovsky always choose Kitch! He seems the only composer who consistently makes songs that lend themselves to the complex arrangements of an orchestra. This is the most sophisticated side of Calypso music, but the lyrics are as loaded with innuendo and social critique as ever.


Tracklist:
1 When A Man Is Poor 3:07
2 Nora 3:53
3 Trouble In Arima 2:51
4 Tie Tongue Mopsy 2:52
5 Cricket Champions 3:51
6 Old Lady Walk A Mile & A Half 3:36
7 Chinese Never Had A VJ Day 4:03
8 Steel Band Music 3:04
9 If You're Brown 3:08
10 Doctor Kitch 3:51
11 Batty Mamselle 3:57
12 Law And Order 3:47

Lord Kitchener – Klassic Kitchener Volume One (1993)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Love Inc. – Life's A Gas (1996)

If you want to get a glimpse of 90s german techno I would take this cd and the Maurizio compilation. A seriously damn fine album with real nice minimal house/techno tracks and enuff going on for both the head and the body.

Everyone talked about the prophetic vaporwave of the title track epic in regards to this record, But I think many people underrate just how good Voigt's sampling and production is on the whole. Seriously, this record is so ahead of the curve in places that I'd believe it was released in 2016, not two decades earlier.

And then there´s "Life´s a gas", the outstanding ending track of th album. I could live in there. I could live inside its blue lava lamp walls til i fade away, and not have wasted a day of my life...


Tracklist:

Income 5:05
Club N.C.N. 5:33
Back To Life 6:16
Hot Love (Mike Mix) 4:52
Where It's At 5:23
R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Rmx 6:22
Lady Democracy 6:26
Contradition 8:44
Hot Love (Gas Mix) 8:03
Life's A Gas 14:53


Love Inc. – Life's A Gas (1996)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Dave Van Ronk - Van Ronk (1971)

"Dave and I both had a love/hate relationship with this album, because it had some of his greatest material but the arrangements keep undercutting or overwhelming his vocals. His take was, "they gave me impressive recording budgets, and we worked out some pretty interesting arrangements, with strings and horns and what-all. I enjoyed that, at times, and it gave me a chance to do some material that I would not have otherwise done, though I also was coaxed into doing some arrangements that even at the time seemed overblown and buried the material."

In this period he had fully committed himself to the new styles being created by friends like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, which he thought of as a new kind of art or cabaret song and mixed with Brecht and Jacques Brel. His version of Mitchell's "Urge for Going" stays pretty close to his guitar chart, with nice strings, and is altogether a good example of what he could do with full orchestration (though he hated the drums), and "Legend of the Dead Soldier" is one of his most frighteningly powerful versions of a Brecht lyric. Peter Stampfel's "Random Canyon" is Dave at his most intentionally and ridiculously bombastic, and works just fine. "Fox's Minstrel Show" is a strange piece of material, but well suited to the big arrangement, and although Dave eventually decided that Brel's "Port of Amsterdam" was too drenched in nostalgie de la boue, he sings it well. Dave kept toying with the idea of rerecording the material he liked best from this album, but was held back by the fact that he never worked out his own ways of performing things like the Brel or Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going To Rain Today. All in all, this is a mixed bag, but well worth hearing after one knows his basic repertoire--I find it exciting to revisit it once and a while and wonder what he might have done if he'd had the chance to go on experimenting with these kinds of production values."  - Elijah Wald

Tracklist:

Bird On The Wire 3:55
Fox's Minstrel Show 3:05
Port Of Amsterdam 3:25
Fat Old John 1:06
Urge For Going 4:37
Random Canyon 2:05
I Think It's Going To Rain Today 3:50
Gaslight Rag 2:55
Honey Hair 3:15
Legend Of The Dead Soldier 4:05
Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive 2:30

Dave Van Ronk - Van Ronk (1971)
(ca. 256 kbps, cover art included)

Die Conrads – Brecht die Macht der Monopole (1971)

"Brecht die Macht der Monopole", released in 1971 by "Die Conrads" on the Pläne label is one of the most underrated and unknown german polit rock LPs -  "Break the power of the monopolies": Propaganda against capitalism, imperialism and fascism, for socialism, communism and the peace movement, served with folk rock and acid kraut.

The German lyrics are often not sung but spoken. If you fancy Lokomotive Kreuzberg, Floh de Cologne or 3 Tornados, don't miss it.

Tracklist:
01. Holzhammerlied 1 03:28
02. Ein Schwein bleibt ein Schwein 04:48
03. Lied vom Aufmucken 03:39
04. Mieter-Song 05:02
05. Lied vom roten Punkt 04:27
06. Familienballade 05:32
07. Giftgas 06:25
08. Als die Nazis frech geworden 04:08
09. Wem soll getraut werden 03:54
10. Holzhammerlied 2 02:49
Total time: 44:07

Musicians
Reinhold Conrads: guitar, harmonica, vocals
Herrmann Conrads: banjo, bass, vocals
Heinz Conrads: guitar, bass, vocals
Josef Schmitz: drums, percussion

Die Conrads - Brecht die Macht der Monopole (1971)
(ca. 256 kbps, cover art included)

Eartha Kitt - That Bad Eartha (1953)

"That Bad Eartha" is a twelve-song reconfiguration of material from American singer Eartha Kitt's first two eight-song, 10-inch albums issued by RCA Victor. It contains all eight songs from the 1953 album RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt. It repurposes the cover image and title, and four of the songs from Eartha's 1954 second 10-inch album, That Bad Eartha (10-inch, 8-song album). In this way, it could be considered an expansion of the first short-length album, supplementing it with packaging and selected songs from the second.

In May 1953, RCA Victor released the 10-inch vinyl album RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt, which reached No. 2 on the pop albums chart and featured 8 songs. The album was recorded in four sessions between March and October 1953 with Henri Rene and His Orchestra

RCA released her second album, That Bad Eartha, in the 10″ popular format, in 1954. It was also released in a 45 RPM extended play version with two songs on each side of two disks. That Bad Eartha spent 12 weeks on the pop albums chart, peaking at No. 5.

Long-playing records were introduced in 1948 by Columbia with 10-inch albums as the popular music format and the 12-inch album the format for classical music. RCA introduced the 45 RPM format shortly afterwards. By the mid-50s, 10″ LPs were phased out, replaced by 12″ ones for popular as well as classical music. At this point, in approximately 1956, RCA Victor reconfigured these two 8-song albums into a 12-track album, jettisoning 4 songs. This then became the standard version of the album.

Several singles were issued from various configurations of these albums. "Under the Bridges of Paris" charted in the UK Singles Chart in 1955 at #7.

Tracklist:

Want To Be Evil
C'est Si Bon (It's So Good)
Angelitos Negros
Avril Au Portugal (The Whispering Serenade)
Let's Do It
My Heart Belongs To Daddy
Uska Dara
African Lullaby
Mountain High, Valley Low
Lilac Wine (Dance Me A Song)
Under The Bridges Of Paris
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes


Eartha Kitt - That Bad Eartha (1953)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Almanac Singers - Their Complete General Recordings (1941, reissued 1996)

They were only together for about a year in the early '40s, but the Almanac Singers' repertoire, and individual members, would go on to much later greatness in the decades that followed. Comprised of folk legends Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Pete Hawes, and Millard Lampell, the group performed mostly at left-wing political conventions and labor rallies with a set list that mixed the traditional with the political.

The songs contained on "Complete General Recordings" are some of their finest moments, and many of the tunes would see later life covered by the Weavers (Seeger and Hays's future band) and even - in the case of "House of the Rising Sun" - the Animals.
Produced by another music legend, Alan Lomax, "Their Complete General Recordings" is an essential document of folk music's history and a great chance to these classic numbers in a raw, unadulterated form. The Almanac Singers may not have sold as many records as their contemporaries (blame that on the unpopular pacifism they preached as the United States entered World War II), but their versions of these tunes are simply timeless.


Tracklist:
1. Blow Ye Winds Heigh Ho - Pete Seeger
2. Away, Rio - Pete Hawes
3. Blow The Man Down - Woody Guthrie
4. House of the Rising Sun - Woody Guthrie
5. Ground Hog - Pete Seeger
6. State of Arkansas - Lee Hays
7. The Weaver's Song - Ensemble
8. I Ride An Old Paint - Woody Guthrie
9. Hard, Ain't It Hard - Woody Guthrie
10. The Dodger Song - Lee Hays
11. Greenland Fishing - Pete Seeger
12. The Golden Vanity - Pete Seeger
13. The Coast of High Barbary - Pete Seeger
14. Haul Away, Joe - Pete Hawes

(The name of the artist at the end of each track indicates the lead singer)

The Almanac Singers - Their Complete General Recordings (1941)
(320 kbps, booklet fully scanned)

Ernst Busch - Spanien - Venceremos (Aurora, 1967)

Ernst Busch was called "the singing heart of the labor movement". He was, along with Helene Weigel, one of the best-known singer/actors who popularized Brecht's political plays in the early 30s. His powerful, "metallic" voice was a perfect instrument for outdoor rallies and large performance halls in a time when amplification was generally unavailable. Busch spent the last years of the war in a Nazi prison and, following his release, resumed his singing and acting career in East Germany.

On March 9, 1933, Busch escaped Nazi Germany for the Netherlands, where he worked at Radio Hilversum. His exile took him to Belgium, France and Switzerland; in 1935 he moved on to Moscow, working for the Comintern radio station. From January 1937 to August 1938, he worked as an artist entertaining the International Brigades in Spain and on Radio Madrid. In 1938 he took part in concerts held in Belgium to support volunteers in the Spanish civil war and Jewish refugees from Germany. Busch was arrested in Antwerp on May 10, 1938 and deported to France, where he was interned in the St. Cyprien and Gurs camps.

This EP is a part of Ernst Busch´s recordings on the "Aurora" label between 1964 and 1974 for his wonderful "Chronicle of the first half of the 20st century in songs and ballads".  It features songs rememebering the fight of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil war. The songs were recorded between June, 1966 and January, 1967, with the conductor Adolf Fritz Guhl.

Tracks:
A1 Riego-Hymne
A2 Söhne des Volkes
A3 Las Companias de Acero
A4 Halt´ stand, rotes Madrid

B1 Wenn das Eisen mich mäht
B2 Hans Beimler, Kamerad
B3 Abschied von der Front
B4 Es wird die neue Welt geboren

Ernst Busch - Spanien - Venceremos (Aurora, 1967)
(320 kbps, cover art included, vinyl rip)

Teresa Stratas - The Unknows Kurt Weill (1981)

Kurt Weill was both well respected and popular in his own day, and in the years since his death in 1950 his reputation has only increased. As a result, many of the songs on "The Unknown Kurt Weill "(recorded in 1981) are no longer quite so unknown.
Perhaps that's because Weill's melodies are so catchy that they take up residence in your brain after just a listen or two. No wonder "Mack the Knife" (not included here) became an enormous pop hit for Bobby Darin. But crossover appeal aside, these are songs that beg for individual interpretation.

Teresa Stratas is a Weill specialist, having been tapped by Weill's widow - the gravel-voiced chanteuse Lotte Lenya - to carry the musical torch. The notoriously volatile Stratas is no longer singing (due to a faulty throat operation), but on this recording, she sounds terrific, sinking her teeth into stunning songs like "Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib" (Ballad of the Soldier's Wife) and "Nanna's Lied" (both with texts by Bertolt Brecht).

Of this production Harold Lawrence writes "Easily one of the outstanding early digital releases is this Nonesuch recording of 14 songs of Kurt Weill's theater music. The soprano, Teresa Stratas, who made such a deep impression in the role of Jenny in the Metropolitan Opera's revival of "Mahagonny", sings 14 songs by Weill in this release, Kurt Weill's widow, Lotte Lenya, was in the audience on opening night and wrote Miss Stratas that 'nobody can sing Weill's music better than you do.' She offered Stratas a number of unpublished songs that she had guarded since her husband's death in 1950. The result was a New York concert in January 1980 in which these songs formed the nucleus of the program. The event attracted the interest of Jac Holzman, Nonesuch's enterprising director. Holzman lost no time in signing up Teresa Stratas and pianist Richard Woitach to commit the concert to disc. The album is a fascinating collection, spanning some 20 years. Teresa Stratas sings with total understanding of the different sides of the composer and the recording, on Nonesuch Records, ranks as one of the best early digital efforts."
.
This recording is a revelation because it testifies to Weill's heritage and place in music: from the profane to the metaphysical, the seedy to the classic, it connects Weill to both the German dance- and concert-halls. Stratas interpretation places this music in the Berg tradition, using a wide range of color and emotion that rushes the melodious songs at you in a brilliant and immediate way. This is an album that I would grab first in a fire and I believe is a true classic in recording history.

Teresa Strata - The Unknown Kurt Weill (1981)

(192 kbps, front cover included)

VA – Chansons De Kurt Weill - De L'Opéra De Quat' Sous A September Song (Phillips, 1958)

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) began his career in the early 1920’s, after a musical childhood and several years of study in Berlin. By the time his first opera, The Protagonist (Georg Kaiser), was performed in April 1926, he was an established young German composer. But he had already decided to devote himself to the musical theater, and his works with Bertolt Brecht soon made him famous all over Europe. 

He fled the new Nazi leadership in March 1933 and continued his indefatigable efforts, first in Paris (1933-35), then in the U.S. until his death. 

Certain common threads tie together his career: a concern for social justice, an aggressive pursuit of highly-regarded playwrights and lyricists as collaborators, and the ability to adapt to audience tastes no matter where he found himself. His most important works: the Violin Concerto (1925), The Threepenny Opera (Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann, 1928), Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Brecht and Hauptmann, 1930), The Pledge (Caspar Neher, 1932), The Seven Deadly Sins (Brecht, 1933), Lady in the Dark (Moss Hart and Ira Gershwin, 1941), Street Scene (Elmer Rice and Langston Hughes, 1947), Lost in the Stars (Maxwell Anderson, 1949). 

He died of heart failure in 1950, shortly after he and Anderson began work on a musical adaptation of Huckleberry Finn, leaving behind a large catalogue of works and a reputation that continues to grow as more of his music is performed.

Weill was raised in a religious Jewish family in Dessau, Germany. Although he was not observant, he composed a number of “Jewish” works, from a vast score to The Eternal Road (1937, Franz Werfel) to a setting of the Kiddush. 

He married actress Lotte Lenya in 1926; they maintained a close relationship throughout his life despite their divorce in 1933 (they remarried in 1937).


Tracklist:

A1 Les Quatre Barbus– Chant Des Canons
A2 Catherine Sauvage– Bilbao Song
A3 Yves Robert – Complainte De Mackie
A4 Catherine Sauvage– Chanson de Barbara
A5 Les Quatre Barbus, Christiane Legrand– Le Roi D'Aquitaine
A6 Catherine Sauvage– La Fiancée Du Pirate
A7 Franck Aussman Et Son Orchestre– Grandeur Et Décadence De la Ville De Mahagonny
A8 Christiane Legrand– Speak Low (Tout Bas)
B1 Franck Aussman Et Son Orchestre– Ballade De La Vie Agréable
B2 Catherine Sauvage– Sorabaya Johnny
B3 Les Quatre Barbus– Le Grand Lustucru
B4 Catherine Sauvage– Nanna's Lied
B5 Franck Aussman Et Son Orchestre– Tango Des Matelots
B6 Christiane Legrand– J'attends Un Navire
B7 Catherine Sauvage– Alabama Song
B8 Franck Aussman Et Son Orchestre– September Song (J'ai Peur De L'Automne)

VA – Chansons De Kurt Weill - De L'Opéra De Quat' Sous A September Song (Phillips, 1958)

(705 kbps, one track each album side, cover art included)

Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny

In the 1920´s Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht worked togehter on the "song-play" "Mahagonny", based on poems taken from Brecht´s "Hauspostille". They interrupted adapting the song-play into a "Mahagonny" opera in May 1928 so that they could concentrate on a new version of the classical "Beggar´s Opera", which enjoyed its premiere performance as "The Threepenny Opera" in autumn 1928 in Berlin. The piece took the rest of Europa by storm and Brecht and Weill were alredy working on their next project - The "Mahagonny" opera.

This opera tells the story of three criminals (Leokadja Begbick, Trinity Moses and Fatty) creating the city of Mahagonny. Drinking, gambling, prize-fights and similar activities are the sole occupation of the inhabitants, and money rules. The implications for a society organized on such a value system is the overarching theme of the opera, which explores scenarios of greed, gluttony, lust, and a justice system in which a murderer can buy his way to freedom, but inability to pay a bill results in conviction and a death sentence.
There are only two main characters, Jenny, a prostitute, and Jim Mahoney, a lumberjack. Mahagonny is threatened by a hurricane at the end of Act 1, which despite much anticipation & causing much distress simply bypasses the city. In Act 2 following the hurricane nothing is forbidden and various scenes of debauchery occur. Jenny and Jim try to leave but Jim cannot pay his debts and is arrested. Another character arraigned for murder, bribes his way out of it, but Jim has no money and is condemned to death for not paying for his whisky. The opera ends with discontent destroying the city, which burns as the inhabitants march away.
The music uses a number of styles, including rag-time, jazz and formal counterpoint, notably in the "Alabama Song" (covered by The Doors and later David Bowie).
The lyrics for the "Alabama Song" and another song, the "Benares Song" are in English (albeit specifically idiosyncratic English) and are performed in that language even when the opera is performed in its original German language.

This opera enjoyed its premiere performance in 1930 as "The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny". This event became one of the greatest theatre scandals in the history of the Weimarer Republic. Organized groups of Nazi troublemakers attended the performance and caused such tumultuous scenes that the performance could only be completed with the greatest of effort. The reaction of the right-wing press also made it clear that "Mahagonny" was not only considered an opera but also a political issue. Weill left Germany in 1933.

Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny pt 1
Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht - Rise And Fall Of the City Of Mahagonny pt 2
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Kurt Weill - From Berlin To Broadway

Kurt Weill died 74 years ago.

British archival label Pearl's "Kurt Weill - From Berlin to Broadway: A Selection" is a single-disc condensation of a pair of two-CD sets, "Kurt Weill - From Berlin to Broadway" (GEMM 9189) and "Kurt Weill - From Berlin to Broadway, Vol. 2" (GEMM 9294).

It presents recordings from seven of Weill's stage musicals made around the times the shows were produced and sung in most cases by the performers who introduced them onstage. There are also private recordings by Weill himself, by his German collaborator Bertolt Brecht, and by his wife Lotte Lenya.

The collection begins with two songs, "Moritat von Mackie Messer" (Mack the Knife) and "Kannonensong" (Cannon Song) sung by Harald Paulsen, who first played the part of Mack the Knife in "Die Dreigroschenoper" ("The Threepenny Opera") in 1928, and recorded the same year. Lenya and Brecht are also heard performing songs from the show. Lenya handles most of the songs from the other two German musicals included, "Happy End" and "Aufstieg und Fall des Stadt Mahagonny" ("Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"), two of them in scratchy private recordings.

After the initial nine tracks, the rest consists of Broadway material. Though the recording of full-length original cast albums did not become common until after the success of the "Oklahoma!" album in 1943, it was not uncommon before that for labels to make records of individual songs from Broadway shows using those shows' principals, and that is largely what one hears here, including a single of "September Song" that Walter Huston recorded for Brunswick in 1938 and selections from "Lady in the Dark" recorded by Gertrude Lawrence for RCA Victor and Danny Kaye for Columbia.

Decca recorded a five-record 78 rpm cast album of "One Touch of Venus" in November 1943, and five of the songs are here, sung by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker. "Lost in the Stars", Weill's final show, actually began life years earlier as "Ulysses Africanus", and Walter Huston recorded a version of the song "Lost in the Stars" for Decca in 1944, five years before the musical opened. In a private recording, Lenya sings "Lover Man," an early version of "Trouble Man" from the show.

The CD closes with four performances by Weill himself of songs for "One Touch of Venus", one of which is an early version of "Way Out West in Jersey," here called "Jersey Plonk."

One can hear the change in Weill's approach from the innovative sound of "Die Dreigroschenoper" and the other German shows to the more conventional style of the Broadway material. But Weill's individual style is always apparent, no more so than in his own performances and those of his wife when his music is stripped to just a piano and voice. These vintage recordings are crucial to an appreciation of Weill, even if they are not always in the best fidelity, and since they range from available commercial recordings to acetates in private hands, the compilation has unparalleled breadth.

Kurt Weill - From Berlin To Broadway

(192 kbps, front cover included)