Youssou N'Dour‎ - Set

Some of the most exciting sounds to come out of Africa in the late '80s and 1990s were produced by Senegal-born vocalist Youssou N'Dour. Although rooted in the traditional music of his homeland, N'Dour consistently sought new means of expression. In addition to recording as a soloist, N'Dour collaborated with a lengthy list of influential artists including Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Neneh Cherry, and Branford Marsalis.                

The title tune "Set" became the anthem of Senegalese youth in 1990. This is the first album N'Dour hasn't re-recorded for the international market. It's very African and his best recorded work to date.                

Tracklist:                                                     

1	Set (Clean)	2:45
2	Alboury	4:15
3	Sabar	2:32
4	Toxiques	3:28
5	Sinebar	4:45
6	Medina	3:22
7	Miyoko	3:42
8	Xale (Our Young People)	4:17
9	Fenene (Another Place)	5:17
10	Fakastalu (Watch Your Step)	3:52
11	Hey You!	3:38
12	One Day (Jaam)	3:26
13	Ay Chono La (Love Is)	3:12

Youssou N'Dour - Set                                   
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Sun Ra - St. Louis Blues (Solo Piano, Vol. 2) (1977)

On July 3, 1977, Sun Ra shared a bill with Paul Bley at Axis-In-Soho as part of the Newport in New York Festival, which was recorded by Bley’s "Improvising Artists" label. A portion of Sun Ra’s set was released on LP in 1978 as St. Louis Blues: Solo Piano, Volume 2. If Solo Piano, Volume 1 was an introspective studio album, Sun Ra is in an expansive, playful mood in front of a live audience. As Szwed points out in his biography, “Bley was surprised to see that once he was alone on stage, ‘Sonny was a ham who liked to clown and surprise the audience’” (Szwed p.343) and there is a bit of that to be found here.

This set finds the normally forbidding keyboardist digging not only into four fairly accessible originals, but "St. Louis Blues," "Three Little Words" and "Honeysuckle Rose." By this time, Ra was starting to reinvestigate his roots in Fletcher Henderson's music and in swing, but these occasionally traditional interpretations remain full of surprises. There is definitely a charm to Sun Ra's solo piano sets.

Tracks:
01 - Ohosnisixaeht (05:50)
02 - St. Louis Blues (05:00)
03 - Three Little Words (05:40)
04 - Honeysuckle Rose (03:20)
05 - Sky and Sun (06:05)
06 - I Am We Are I (06:15)
07 - Thoughts on Thoth (06:27)

Sun Ra - St. Louis Blues (Solo Piano, Vol. 2) (1977)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Lightnin´ Hopkins - Same (Smithsonian / Folkways 1959)

Originally released as "The Roots of Lightnin' Hopkins", Smithsonian/Folkways' "Lightnin' Hopkins" was recorded in 1959. Upon its initial release, it was a pivotal part of the blues revival and helped re-spark interest in Hopkins. Before it was recorded, the bluesman had disappeared from sight; after a great deal of searching, Sam Charters found Hopkins in a rented one-room apartment in Houston. 

Persuading Lightnin' with a bottle of gin, Charters convinced Hopkins to record ten songs in that room, using only one microphone. The resulting record was one of the greatest albums in Hopkins' catalog, a skeletal record that is absolutely naked in its loneliness and haunting in its despair. These unvarnished performances arguably capture the essence of Lightnin' Hopkins better than any of his other recordings, and it is certainly one of the landmarks of the late-'50s/early-'60s blues revival.                 

Tracklist:

01. Penitentiary Blues       

02. Bad Luck and Trouble       

03. Come Go Home With Me       

04. Trouble Stay 'Way from My Door    

05. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean      

06. Going Back to Florida      

07. Reminiscenses of Blind Lemon      

08. Fan It      

09. Tell Me, Baby      

10. She's Mine 

Lightnin´ Hopkins - Same (Smithsonian / Folkways 1959)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Rhythm And Blues - No. 1 Chart Hits 1949-1955

During the first half of the 1950’s, before the children of the white middle class began to question the musical tastes and listening habits of their parents, before the Haleys and the Presleys got a chance to upset established rules, Black artists were busy opening doors.

Nothing reflects this transitional moment better than the charts of the African-American community, where the seeds of this insurgency were planted. The best-sellers of that time, and more particularly the Number One rhythm & blues hits, clearly depict a movement that took the swing-infused rhythms of the immediate postwar era right up to the threshold of rock and soul.

Tracklist:

	Part I - Swing & Ballads
01	–Percy Mayfield	Please Send Me Someone To Love	2:53
02	–Joe Liggins	Pink Champagne	3:01
03	–Ruth Brown	Teardrops From My Eyes	2:53
04	–Ivory Joe Hunter	I Almost Lost My Mind	3:11
05	–The Four Blazes	Mary Jo	2:34
06	–The Platters	Only You (And You Alone)	2:38
07	–Little Esther & Mel Walker	Cupid's Boogie	2:34
08	–Peppermint Harris	I Got Loaded	2:27
09	–Roy Brown	Hard Luck Blues	3:00
10	–Joe Morris	Any Time, Any Place, Anywhere	3:04
11	–Louis Jordan	Blue Light Boogie - Parts 1 & 2	5:09
12	–Johnny Ace	Pledging My Love	2:45
		Part II - Blues & Rock
13	–The Dominoes	Have Mercy Baby	2:22
14	–B.B. King	You Upset Me Baby	3:00
15	–Lowell Fulson	Blue Shadows	2:48
16	–Little Walter	My Babe	2:39
17	–Hank Ballard	Work With Me Annie	2:48
18	–The Drifters	Honey Love	2:24
19	–Eddie Boyd	Five Long Years	2:40
20	–The "5" Royales	Baby Don't Do It	2:44
21	–Joe Turner	Honey Hush	2:41
22	–Jimmy Nelson	"T" 99 Blues	3:06
23	–Willie Mabon	I Don't Know	3:08
24	–Etta James	The Wallflower	2:48

VA - Rhythm And Blues - No. 1 Chart Hits 1949-1955

(192 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Madchester - The Manchester Story '88 - '91

Madchester is a music and cultural scene that developed in the Manchester area of the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, in which artists merged alternative rock with acid house culture and other sources, including psychedelia and 1960s pop. The label was popularised by the British music press in the early 1990s, and included groups such as Happy Mondays, the Stone Roses, the Inspiral Carpets, Northside, 808 State, James and The Charlatans, amongst others.
The rave-influenced scene is widely seen as heavily influenced by drugs, especially ecstasy (MDMA). At that time, the Haçienda nightclub, co-owned by members of New Order, was a major catalyst for the distinctive musical ethos in the city that was called the Second Summer of Love.

The Beechwood label's 16-track "Manchester Story '88-'91: Madchester" presents a pretty faithful re-telling of the Factory-led Brit-pop explosion that consumed college radio in the late '80s early '90s.

Usually relegated to late-night appearances on MTV's 120 Minutes, bands like New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Charlatans UK, 808 State, and New Order nevertheless found a way to break out internationally, influencing the myriad of shapes that alternative rock would assume in the coming years.

Though there are many holes in the story (where are Blur, Ride, Primal Scream or the Manic Street Preachers?) presented here, the inclusion of various remixes, original 12" versions, and extended mixes keeps things interesting, and the songs themselves are all top-notch, resulting in a formidable gateway drug for anybody looking to immerse themselves in genre.        
 

   

Fear won't prevail. We will continue to enjoy our love for life, freedom & joy.

Tracklist:

1	–Happy Mondays	W.F.L. (The Vince Clark Mix)	6:10
2	–The Stone Roses	Elephant Stone	4:47
3	–The Charlatans	Indian Rope	4:30
4	–Northside	Shall We Take A Trip	4:20
5	–Inspiral Carpets	Joe	3:21
6	–New Fast Automatic Daffodils	Big	6:04
7	–New Order	True Faith (Original 12" Mix)	5:13
8	–Paris Angels	Perfume (Loved Up)	4:10
9	–MC Tunes Versus 808 State	Tunes Splits The Atom (Original Rap)	3:09
10	–Happy Mondays	Step On (Stuff It In Mix)	5:45
11	–James	Come Home (Extended Flood Mix)	6:07
12	–The Mock Turtles	Can You Dig It?	4:08
13	–The Charlatans	Then	4:10
14	–New Order	Bizarre Love Triangle (Original 12" Mix)	6:42
15	–808 State	Pacific State (Origin)	4:27
16	–The Stone Roses	Fools Gold	4:15

VA - Madchester - The Manchester Story '88 - '91  
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Midnight Band - The First Minute Of A New Day (1975)

Producer, composer, and musician Brian Jackson collaborated with Gil Scott-Heron on several influential and popular '70s releases. The two met at Lincoln University, and later teamed on such songs as "The Bottle," "H20 Gate Blues," and "Johannesburg," which was their most successful commercial single.

This follow-up to the righteous and soulful "Winter In America" LP continues with the solid, decidedly left-of-center jazz-R&B that made him a cult figure throughout the '70s.

This output, with the opening meditation of "Offering" and the right-on "Ain't No Such Thing as Superman," solidifies Heron's place in the pantheon of jazz poets. Dig the recited (possibly improvised) live take of "Pardon Our Analysis," a follow-up to his seminal "H2O Blues."


Tracklist

Offering	3:34
The Liberation Song (Red, Black And Green)	6:18
Must Be Something	5:16
Ain't No Such Thing As Superman	4:13
Pardon Our Analysis (We Beg Your Pardon)	8:01
Guerilla	7:49
Winter In America	6:09
Western Sunrise	5:16
Alluswe	5:04

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - The First Minute Of A New Day (1975)
(320 kbps, cover art included))

The Mamas And The Papas - Monterey International Pop Festival (1971)

With the lengthy title of "Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival", this 1971 release was recorded at the event held at Monterey, CA, between June 16-18 in 1967. Six of the eight tunes appear on the box set Rhino released of the mega concert, excluding "Somebody Groovy" and "Spanish Harlem." John Phillips' arranging and songwriting genius has never been properly recognized as the inspiring force that it was and continues to be, and though this Wally Heider remote recording (mixed in the studio by Erick Weinberg) is deficient, the performance by the original group at this important point in time is enthusiastic and worthwhile.

As this writer put it in the liner notes requested by Dinky Dawson for his production of the latter-day version of the band's "Sold Out: Live at the Savoy 3/12/82" on Rykodisc, "The highly influential group has not had the luxury of each and every live cassette and studio outtake traded the way Lou Reed, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones get studied, sought after, and talked about." At Monterey the band included many of the musicians from the "Deliver" album -- future Bread keyboard player Larry Knechtel was utilized along with Joe Osborne on bass and Dr. Eric Hord on guitar. Replacing Captain & Tennille drummer Hal Blaine was Chicago area percussionist Fast Eddie.

The disc is vocal-heavy, as it should be for a harmony quartet, and the bootleg quality actually adds a sort of charm. Dunhill/ABC was desperate for more Mamas & Papas product and the drive of the live version of "Got a Feeling" didn't deny the label something substantial to offer the fans. A band so slick in the studio is fun heard letting it all hang out at this monumental event, and the bottom line is that for fans this is a wonderful, if all too brief, glimpse of the four in performance at the height of their fame. It's 33 minutes and 29 seconds -- including on-stage chatter -- that becomes more valuable as time goes by. Listen to the band cook on "California Dreamin'" and John Phillips belt it out with Mama Cass countering his moves. As credible as any garage rock group churning out "Pushin' Too Hard" and hoping for stardom, these stars shine perhaps because the performance is somewhat ragged. Who wants a clone of the studio stuff anyway?       (allmusic.com)

Tracklist:

A1	Straight Shooter
A2	Got A Feelin'
A3	California Dreamin'
A4	Spanish Harlem
B1	Somebody Groovy
B2	I Call Your Name
B3	Monday, Monday
B4	Dancing In The Street

     
The Mamas And The Papas - Monterey International Pop Festival   
(320 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Memphis - Thats All Right! From Blues To Rock´n´Roll

If Memphis is remembered as the place where Elvis Presley ignited the rock’n’roll revolution in the mid-fifties, the city is forever linked to the rise of the musical idiom that shaped the future of western popular music, the blues.

From the colorful bards of the roaring twenties (Furry Lewis, the Memphis Jug Band, Memphis Minnie) and the one-man-band figures who performed for change on the sidewalks of Beale Street to the inventors of modern electric blues (Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Little Milton), the main purveyors of the blue note ruled over the nights of Memphis before this great cotton capital became a haven for soul music.

This 24 track compilation recognizes the importance of Memphis in the development of the blues, from the early 1920s to the inventors of modern electric blues and the roots of soul music.


VA - Memphis - Thats All Right! From Blues To Rock´n´Roll
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Mississippi John Hurt - Worried Blues 1963

Together with 1963's "Avalon Blues" (as opposed to the similarly titled compendium of 1928 recordings), "Worried Blues" represents the best of Mississippi John Hurt's later work, following his rediscovery in the early 1960s.

As much a folk musician as a bluesman, Hurt included traditional and devotional music as well as blues in his oeuvre. His wide-ranging repertoire here is highlighted by "Farther Along" and "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep." Accompanied only by his guitar, Hurt is a compelling, engaging performer who eschews gimmickry. The ease with which he plays creates a peacefulness at the center of this music that's undeniably appealing. --Genevieve Williams

Tracklist:

1	Lazy Blues	3:20
2	Farther Along	3:51
3	Sliding Delta	5:09
4	Nobody Cares For Me	3:38
5	Cow Hooking Blues No. 2	3:46
6	Talkin' Casey	4:51
7	Weeping And Wailing	4:11
8	Worried Blues	4:43
9	Oh Mary Don't You Weep	3:26
10	I Been Cryin' Since You Been Gone	3:09

Mississippi John Hurt - Worried Blues 1963
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Lee Perry Presents Megaton Dub Vol. 1

Certainly eccentric, Lee "Scratch" Perry is reggae's most influential producer, with a career that spans the entire history of the music.
He started at Coxsone Dodd's Studio One label, first as a talent scout, then as producer. Moving on to other labels, he recorded hit after hit for Jamaican artists, assembling the original Wailers and producing their earliest — some say best — tracks.

Perry has also done extensive solo work, composing, arranging and singing his own records. With the help of a studio band, the Upsetters (named for one of his aliases), Perry has forged a dub reggae style that's idiosyncratic and revolutionary — full of shifting, echoey rhythms and weird sound effects. His characteristic sound is unique — extended grooves layered like fog, with odd vocals and percussion shimmering in the dense mist.

This hard-to-find album collects 10 tracks of pure Scratch dub: Sometimes odd, sometimes wonderful and crucial.

Tracklist:
Dem No Know Dub
Conscious Man Dub
Such Is Dub
Corn Picker Dub
Rasta Dub
Freedom Dub
Megaton Dub
Dreamer Dub
School Girl Dub
Simon The Sorcerer

Lee Perry Presents Megaton Dub Vol. 1
(192 kbps)

James Booker - Junco Partner (1976)

This solo disc by arguably the most brilliant of New Orleans' resplendent pianists shows off all the edge and genius he possessed. There may be moments on other discs of slightly more inspired playing (and this is arguable), but for a whole disc this one stands far from the crowd. You can hear some of the most awe-inspiring playing here that reflects the extremely broad background that he could, and did, draw from.

You can hear his classical training and the brilliance of his interpretive skills in "Black Minute Waltz." He follows this with a version of Leadbelly's "Good Night Irene," which shows off his raucous bordello style of playing and voice. The disc goes on showing off the eclectic variety of influences that make up this man's music.

This disc also displays the man's prodigious composing and arranging talents. Though he was regarded as eccentric and crazy, even by New Orleans' accepting standards (he was a flamboyant, black substance abuser, and a homosexual, who spent time both in Angola State Prison and a mental institution), he was considered a musical genius and thus given a certain amount of leeway.

An absolute must if you like New Orleans music.      


Tracklist:

01. Black Minute Waltz
02. Good Night Irene
03. Pixie
04. On The Sunny Side of the Street
05. Make a Better World
06. Junco Partner
07. Put Out the Lights
08. Medley
09. Pop´s Dilemma
10. I´ll Be Seeing You

 
James Booker - Junco Partner (1976)     
(256 kbps, cover art included) 

VA - Original Jamaican Soundsystem Style - 21 R'n'B Scorchers

It'll take a while to explain this record to your friends, but what a concept. To be brief, Jamaican sound systems were once hungry for music (hard to imagine since rocksteady and reggae records would soon be issued as fast as newspapers), so the DJs turned to the world of American R&B.

"Original Jamaican Sound System Style" features many of the American tunes Jamaican DJs were spinning in the '50s, and it's evidence that they had excellent taste. The liner notes are fantastic, and you can't even pretend that every song on here isn't anything but jaunty and rollicking Friday night fish-fry fun. But don't forget that the sound systems overdrove these tracks through monolithic but cheap speakers; they mixed the tracks in with their own Jamaican R&B, and entranced audiences with shouts of babble. To hear it would be amazing but the ultraclean digital remasters here only hint at the experience. It's unfortunate that no one dug up a tape of the real deal, but this is evidence that someone should try.

Tracklist:
       1. Safronia B - Calvin Boze
2. Monkey Speaks His Mind - Dave Bartholomew
3. Live It Up - Ernie Freeman
4. Let's Make A Whole Lot Of Love - Dodgers
5. I'm Gone - Shirley & Lee
6. I'm In The Mood For Love - Fats Domino
7. Little Bitty Pretty One - Thurston Harris
8. Tears On My Pillow - Little Anthony & The Imperials
9. Strator-Cruiser - Joe Lutchers
10. Secretly - Jimmie Rodgers
11. Someone Like You - Faye Adams
12. It's Over - James 'SugarBoy' Crawford
13. The Vow - Gene & Eunice
14. If You Don't Want Me Baby - Ray Johnson
15. Blue Moon - Lynn Hope
16. One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer -Amos Milburn
17. Waiting & Drinking - Calvin Boze
18. One Night - Smiley Lewis
19. Be My Guest - Fats Domino
20. 3 x 7 = 21 - Jewel King
21. Return To Me - Ernie Freeman

VA - Original Jamaican Soundsystem Style - 21 R´n´B Scorchers
(192 kbps, cover art included)
                

Opal - Happy Nightmare Baby (1987)

The neo-psychedelic group Opal formed in the mid-'80s, featuring former Rain Parade guitarist David Roback and former Dream Syndicate bassist Kendra Smith. Initially, the group was called Clay Allison, but the group dropped the name after one single; Roback, Smith, and drummer Keith Mitchell released the remaining Clay Allison tracks under their own name in 1984 on the "Fell From the Sun" EP. After its release, the group adopted the name Opal and released an EP, "Northern Line", in 1985.

"Happy Nightmare Baby", their first full-length album, followed in 1987. Smith left the group during the "Happy Nightmare" tour, effectively putting an end to the band. Roback continued with vocalist Hope Sandoval; the group then metamorphosed into Mazzy Star.

At once drowsy, psychedelic, entrancing, and possessed of a sinuous spark, "Happy Nightmare Baby" may have been Opal's only album but deserves more attention than merely being a blueprint for Roback's later work in Mazzy Star. For one thing, Opal was very much its own band, with Kendra Smith's particular lyrical visions of mystic power and universe-scaling dreams and nightmares its own entity. As is her singing, though she's got less of Hope Sandoval's wistful drift and more focused control - check out the brief "A Falling Star," where the comparatively stripped-down arrangement places her singing in the foreground, notably without much in the way of echo. Roback's playing certainly won't surprise anyone per se who backtracks to this group from albums like "She Hangs Brightly", and the atmosphere of textured, moody power is evident right from the start with the wonderful early T. Rex tribute, "Rocket Machine." The compressed string swirl and steady stomp is pure Marc Bolan-via-Tony Visconti, though Smith avoids Bolan's style of warble for her own cool, something also quite evident on the slow-groove stomp of the great "She's a Diamond" and the concluding "Soul Giver." Meanwhile, other familiar elements Roback would later use are present aplenty - very Ray Manzarek-like organ lines on the mantra-chugs of "Magick Power" and "Siamese Trap," compressed acid rock solos and lots of reverb. The title track itself stands out a bit as being a bit more of a '60s Europop confection in a stripped-down 1968 setting - Roback's electric guitar adds some fire, but it's the slightly jazz-tinged rhythm and easy delivery from Smith that helps establish its own character. It's a release that stood out both in time and place (a 1987 release on SST Records, of all places!), but it stands up to future years and listens darn well.

Tracklist:

A1	Rocket Machine
A2	Magick Power
A3	Relevation
A4	A Falling Star
A5	She's A Diamond
B1	Supernova
B2	Siamese Trap
B3	Happy Nightmare Baby
B4	Soul Giver

Opal - Happy Nightmare Baby (1987)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Paul Robeson - Sings Negro Spirituals (1962)

Paul Robeson excelled as an athlete, actor, singer, and activist, qualifying him as a contemporary renaissance man. His early accomplishments as a professional football player, Columbia law school graduate, and an actor on Broadway in the 1920s seemed but a prologue to even greater achievements to come. Involvement with the political left in the 1940s, however, led to a confrontation with the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the late 1940s. He was blacklisted, his passport was revoked, and his career came to a halt.              

"Sings Negro Spirituals" is an album showcasing Paul Robeson's inimitable baritone voice across a range of folksongs and spirituals with piano accompaniment from Alan Booth.

Tracklist:

A1	Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
A2	Scandalize My Name
A3	There Is A Balm I Giliead
A4	No More Auction Block For Me
A5	Bear The Burden In The Heat Of The Day
A6	Amazing Grace
A7	Who'll Be A Witnnes For Our Lord
A8	We Are Climbing Jacobs's Ladder
B1	There's A Man Goin' Round Takin' Names
B2	Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?
B3	On Our Knees
B4	The End Of My Journey
B5	I'm Gonna Let It Shine
B6	Unchanging Grace
B7	Stand Still, Jordan
B8	Mount Zion

Paul Robeson - Sings Negro Spirituals (1962)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Quilapayun - 20 Grandes Exitos

Born in Chile in 1965, QUILAPAYUN is today one of the best known latin-american music groups in the world. On an artistic level, the group´s fundamental value is based on its decisive contribution to the modernization of the popular music of the continent.

Initially identified with the popular government of Salvador Allende (who would later name them cultural ambassadors of the government of Chile) and later with the democratic fight against the dictatorship, QUILAPAYUN have managed to preserve the tone and meaning that this name has meant to each one of them, in spite of their age and experiences.

Based in France since 1973, the group has continued its renovation of traditional latin-american music, expressing the creative tensions between nation and universe, identity and diversity, tradition and innovation.

Their compositions mix folk music with popular music, the academic and the experimental, invoking an original reaction to the rich cultural diversity which is latin-america today. To demonstrate this we have their recreation of indigenous music (¨Yaravi and huayno¨), their vast production of up to date popular music (´La muralla¨, ¨Plegaria a un labrador¨, “Allende”, “La batea”), their work with academic musicians which resulted in a series of “cantatas populares” (popular songs), the best known of which would be “La cantata Santa Maria de Iquique”, and last but not least their embracing of contemporary music evident in their latest compositions “Fuerzas naturals”, “El hombre de hoy”, “Temporia”.

It is not then surprising that during a QUILAPAYUN concert we find the charango, the quena (indigenous flute) the zampoñas (pan flutes) and the different latin-american guitars, including the Spanish guitar. The piano is present as are synthesizers, semi-acoustic guitars, electric bass and carribean percussion pieces among many other instruments. All of the above are accompanied by the powerful, intensely harmonized voices which are and have always been the principal characteristic of the group. The lyrics continue to narrate the fundamental aspects of life and to express sensibility to the injustices faced by Man in today´s world.

QUILAPAYUN´s music has crossed the five continents of the world and received the same warm welcome in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia etc….. and of course in its native Latin-America. So far QUILAPAYUN have recorded 29 albums which have been reproduced throughout many European and American countries. In each album the great musical versatility and creative capacity of the group is demonstrated.

Nowadays, the shows put on by this now legendary Chilean group are a concentration of passion and vocal emotion, colours and rhythms. The spectator is not only permitted to enjoy the pleasure of listening to these professional at work but to also participate in the revival of the popular Latin-American music.

(Thanks to http://www.eyefortalent.com),


Tracklist:

01. El canto del Cuculí
02. Yaraví y Huayno de la Quebrada de Humahuaca
03. Guaren
04. Huayno 1,2,3,4
05. Las Obreras
06. En que nos parecemos
07. El borrachito
08. Gringa
09. Duerme Negrito
10. A mi palomita
11. Plegaria a un labrador
12. El Carrero
13. Dos palomitas
14. Tres bailecitos
15. El buen Borincano
16. Bailecito
17. Gira, gira, girasol
18. Tan alta que está la luna
19. Tú
20. La paloma

Quilapayun- 20 Grandes Exitos
(256 kbps, front & back cover included)

Sun Ra - Cosmos (1976)

Sun Ra has always been an explorer, venturing out among the cycles and frequencies of the musical cosmos like a wild astronaut, bent on rejoicing and celebrating the wonders of the universe. The extended metaphor of space travel permeates the emotional climate of this masterful recording, as Sun Ras Arkestra reaches out to express the vibrations of the stars as in Interstellar the adventure of travel as in "Moonship" and "Unknown Planet." Sun Ra has always been ahead of his time, musically and spiritually, and has suffered somewhat at the hands of fashionable critics who disdained his attempts at cosmic communications.

LeRoi Jones, in his perceptive book Black Music, understood Sun Ras quest better than most contemporary observers, and made these comments in 1966. All the concepts that seemed vague and unrealized in the late 1950s have come together in the mature and profound music and compositions of this philosopher-musician. Sun Ras Arkestra is really a black family. The leader keeps fourteen or fifteen musicians playing with him, who are convinced that music is a priestly concern and vitally significant aspect of black culture. Some of the musicians like tenor man John Gilmore, might have jobs with other bread bands, but their strongest dedication is to the beautiful black sound-world of Sun Ra.

"Recorded in Paris in 1976, this album is one of Ra's more accessible efforts - and no less enjoyable for all that. The line up includes such luminaries as John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Danny Davis, Danny Thompson, Elo Omoe and others in a full brass section, backed by some absolutely stomping rhythm section work from electric bass and drums played by a couple of unknown session musicians. In fact, this rhythm section lends the album much of its flavour - supplying a driving, urgent, up-tempo, post-bop backbone to most of the tracks. Throughout, Ra plays just one instrument - the Rocksichord - which sounds very much like a harpsichord filtered through various electronic processes. Indeed, some of the album's more reflective moments come in two unaccompanied pieces which maintain a calm and almost melancholy tone, while never straying far from Ra's cosmic vision.
The highlight of the album, however, has to be 'Moonship Journey', a rolling mid-tempo romp which features the band singing in broad Bronx accents the refrain: 'Prepare yourself for the moonship journey, Journey of the moonship,' with such verve and syncopation that you can almost imagine Sinatra adopting the tune.
A rare corker!" - Mr. Daniel Spicer

"A hard-to-find, alternately chaotic and tightly organized mid-'70s session that was issued on the Cobra, and then Inner City labels. Sun Ra provided some stunning moments on the Rocksichord, while leading The Arkestra through stomping full-band cuts of atmospheric or alternately hard bop compositions, peeling off various saxophonists for skittering, screaming, at times spacey dialogues."  - allmusic  

Tracklist:

A1	The Mystery Of Two	5:47
A2	Interstellar Low-Ways	4:45
A3	Neo Project #2	5:15
A4	Cosmos	2:50
B1	Moonship Journey	6:30
B2	Journey Among Stars	5:50
B3	Jazz From An Unknown Planet	8:10

Sun Ra - Cosmos (1976)      
(320 kbps, cover art included)  

Dakar Sound Vol. 1 - Etoile 2000

.It was in the 70s that Dakar-businessman Mass Diokhane, dealer in cars and radio-cassete players, got the idea to produce young talents of his nieghbourhood on a label called "Touba Auto K7". So he hired a technician and they started to record the new sound of booming Dakar.

With these recordings and performances in the Jandeer night-club, Etoile de Dakar (with singer Youssou N´Dour) emerged as teh most popular group of Senegal. In the weekends they played all over the country. Diokhane as manager of the club asked singer Eric M´Backe N´Doye, guitarist Badou N´Daye and Etoile de Dakar´s star -singer El Hadji Faye to come up with a new band that could make the trees of Dakar swing. Diiokhane would supply all the neccesary equipment.

One night, during rehearsals in his garage, Diokhane came in with a tapedeck, plugged it into the mixing table, and the song "Boubou N´Gary" was taped. At 6 o´clock the musicians were send off to have breakfast and an apprenti took the tape to Golo Gaye, the most popular DJ of ORTS (national radio of Senegal). He baptised the new group the Etoile for the year 2000. Once played "Boubou N´Gary", he played it again, by public demand. And then again, all day long. At night Etoile 2000 played for a packed Yandeer. Diokhane wanted to record more, but due to some technical problems the only song recorded was "Niety Noon".
Next day Sama Xarit and Yaye Time were added to the master-tape which was flown to Paris right away. The following day 5000 copies of volume 1 of the Etoile 2000 were sold in Dakar. A major event in Senegal´s music industry.

Here you have a digitized "best of" selection from Etoile 2000´s first three cassettes. Listen to the psychedelic "guitare fuzz" of Badou N´Daye, the heavy tama of Yamar Thiam and above all the irresistable high voice of El Hadji Faye.

Dakar Sound Vol. 1 - Etoile 2000
(192 kbps, ca. 63 MB)

Fela Kuti & Africa 70 - No Bread (1976)

Pioneering musician, activist, and bandleader Fela Kuti is the first word in Afro-beat, making such strides in the genre over the course of his career that his contributions are foundational and nothing less than legendary.

"No Bread" (also known as "Unnecessary Begging") comes at a formative time in Fela's massive discography, between two of his most championed releases, 1975's "Expensive Shit" and 1977's "Zombie". While "No Bread" was one of no less than five albums Kuti released in 1976, its use of wiry synthesizers intermingled with bright horns and energetic Afro-beat rhythms makes for a bedding of increasingly interesting sounds on top of which Fela lays down his sung-spoken political poetry lyrics.                

Tracklist:

A	No Bread	13:57
B	Unnecessary Begging	16:00

Fela Kuti & Africa 70 - No Bread (1976)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Mahotella Queens - Township Idols - The Best Of

Mbaqanga, a fusion of rural and urban musical styles that emerged in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, has no more important or influential exponents than the Mahotella Queens, who have been recording and performing together, with and without male lead singer Simon Nkabinde Mahlathini, for almost 40 years. They have been superstars in their own country for decades, and the European and American markets began to take notice of them as well following the explosive success of Paul Simon's Graceland album in 1986 (on which they did not appear).

This long-overdue best-of collection purports to "cover their entire career," but most of the tracks are not dated and almost all of the material sounds like it was recorded no earlier than 1985. Regardless of its completeness as an overview, though, it offers an excellent sampler of the group's various sounds and styles, from the traditional mbaqanga flavors of "Jive Motella" and "Josefa" to the reggae-influenced "I'm in Love With a Rastaman" and the resolutely forward-looking "Kumnyama Endini" (recorded after Mahlathini's death in 1999). Many tracks feature Mahlathini's trademark "groaning" vocals, but the album's focus is on the women: their sweet and powerful voices, their skillfully composed melodies, and their soaring harmonies. Very strongly recommended.               

Tracklist:

1. Malaika
2. Amabhongo
3. Matsole a Banana (Female Soldiers)
4. Jive Motella
5. I'm in Love With a Rastaman
6. Stop Crime
7. Women of the World
8. I'm Not Your Good Time Girl
9. Ifa Lenkosana [Heir to Wealth]
10. Kumnyama Endlini [It's Dark in the House]
11. Umculo Kawupheli (No End to Music)
12. Zibuyile Nonyaka (Things Have Happened This Time)
13. Uthuli Lwezichwe (Dance Up a Dust Storm)
14. Mbaqanga
15. Thina Siyakhanyisa (Bringing the Lights)
16. Josefa
17. Gazette
18. Senon-Nori (Porcupine!)
19. Sebai- Bai (Spinster)
20. Dilika Town Hall
Mahotella Queens - Township Idols - The Best Of
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Francesco Lotoro - Shoah - The martyred musicians of the Holocaust

Today Germany is reflecting upon the genocide and atrocities of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime with ceremonies around the country and beyond. Nazi Germany’s Holocaust claimed the lives of more than six million mainly Jewish victims, killed systematically through gas chambers, mass shootings and other brutal methods.

 

Germany has gone through different phases of self-examination in coming to terms with Adolf Hitler’s regime, and it wasn’t until 40 years after the end of the Second World War that Germany named an official day to remember victims of the Nazis’ genocide.

  The 1968 student movement in West Germany during the Cold War played a large part in bringing discussions of the Nazi history to the forefront of debates.

In 1996, German President Roman Herzog - who died earlier this month - first declared January 27th as the official day of remembrance, marking the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

It was a time of deep reflection for the country, with the official remembrance day declaration preceded the year before - on the 50th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation - by numerous speeches, television documentary specials and reflective newspaper think pieces.

"The darkest and most awful chapter in German history was written at Auschwitz," then Chancellor Helmut Kohl said in 1995. "Above all, Auschwitz symbolizes the racial madness that lay at the heart of National Socialism and the genocide of European Jews, the cold planning and criminal execution of which is without parallel in history."

On that first memorial day, politicians and former concentration camp prisoners laid wreaths at sites across the country, but some members of the Central Council of Jews in Germany criticized the ceremonies as insufficient.

About a decade later in 2005, the United Nations also declared the day as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

 

 

Since 1991, the Italian pianist Francesco Lotor has traveled the globe to seek out and bring to light symphonies, songs, sonatas, operas, lullabies and even jazz riffs that were composed and often performed in Nazi-era concentration camps.

“This music is part of the cultural heritage of humanity,” Lotoro, 48, said after a concert in Trani, a port town in southern Italy, that featured surprisingly lively cabaret songs composed in the camps at Westerbork in the Netherlands and Terezin (Theresienstadt) near Prague.

 

Lotoro has collected original scores, copies and even old recordings of some 4,000 pieces of what he calls “concentrationary music” — music written in the concentration camps, death camps, labor camps, POW camps and other internment centers set up between 1933, when Dachau was established, and the end of World War II.

This album features music of the Czech composers Rudolf Karel, Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein and Viktor Ullmann. They were excellent composers , whose lives and works were cut short by Nazism.

Tracklist:
01. Rudolf Karel - Theme et Variatoions, op. 13
02. - 06. Pavel Haas, Suite, op. 13
07. - 09. Gideon Klein - Sonate pour piano
10. - 12. Viktor Ullmann - Sonate pour piano no. 6 op. 44

Francesco Lotoro - Shoah - The martyred musicians of the Holocaust
(320 kbps, front & back cover included)