VA - The Revolutionary Hymns (1991)

"Jazz was created in America. Not through any great educational force, but from the Souls of People who were brought here under protest" (Dizzy Gillespie)

Black musicians in the `60s more than in anay previous, and even recent, period, were sharing a sense of community with their fellow blacks and were attempting to unite the black community in its pursuit of self-determination. Because they realized that the cuts alone could´nt replace politics and economics, they demonstrated their political commitment by activities in the community as well as in their music.

In his article in Downbeat, "Racism in Jazz", Brooks Johnson commented on this: "(...) jazz always has been a mirroc of mainstream Americna. Many jazz musicians would like to think that they are above and beyond the current trends, but the truth is that most of the products of their times, and teir works are the essence of the period. But jazz, as a form of expression, must have a background from which to draw substance. Because the principle thrust of jazz is succesfully concernded with capturing the contemporary and the current it manifests and crystallizes the prevailing `isms´ and thei major concers of the day. Thus jazz mirrors much of what is today."

"The Revolutionary Hymns" is a great compilation featuring Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Charles Mingus, Charlie Haden, John Coltrane, Max Roach, Ornette Coleman, The Black Voices, The Last Poets and others.


Tracklist:

CD1:
1. Listen - The Black Voices 0:13
2. Black is Chant - The Last Poets 0:56
3. Introduction - Charlie Haden Liberation Orchestra 3:08
4. Pretty Nigger - The Last Poets 2:22
5. Man From South Africa - Max Roach 5:08
6. Hands Off - The Last Poets 4:01
7. Pickaninny - Archie Sheep 7:18
8. I´ll Stop Calling You Niggers - The Black Voices 1:19
9. Clowns All Around - The Black Voices 1:33
10. Change Has Come - Albert Ayler 6:11
11. Black Wish - The Last Poets 1:42
12. Freedom - Charles Mingues 3:38
13. It´s A Trip - The Last Poets 4:45
14. I Got It Bad And That Ain´t Good - Archie Sheep 5:11
15. When The Revolution Comes - The Last Poets 2:28
16. Lonesome Lover - Max Roach 7:00
17. On The Subway - The Last Poets 1:31
18. Sadness - Ornette Coleman 4:05

CD2:
1. Listen - The Black Voices 0:13
2. Run Nigger - The Last Poets 1:09
3. We Shall Overcome - Charlie Haden Liberation Orchestra 1:17
4. Wake Up Niggers - The Last Poets 2:44
5. It´s Time - Max Roach 6:41
6. Niggers Are Scared Of Revolution - The Last Poets 5:12
7. Attica Blues - Archie Shepp 4:47
8. Just Because - The Last Poetgs 1:30
9. Song For Che - Charlie Haden Liberation Orchestra 9:33
10. The Meek - The Black Voices 0:05
11. Holy Ghost - Albert Ayler 7:27
12. Birds Words - The Last Poets 6:12
13. Nearer My God To Thee - The Black Voices 2:34
14. A Love Supreme - John Coltrane 7:38
15. Jazz Is - The Last Poets 3:21

VA - The Revolutionary Hymns (1991)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Thommie Bayer Band - Silchers Rache (1978)

Thommie Bayer (Thomas Bayer-Heer, born 22 April 1953) is a German writer, musician and painter.

Bayer was born in Esslingen am Neckar, near Stuttgart (where he attended school). From 1972 to 1978, he studied painting at the "Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart" (Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design).

From 1974, he was a musician and songwriter, first with the duo Thommie und Tomaske, then with his own band, the Thommie Bayer Band. He often shared the stage with friends Thomas C. Breuer and Bernhard Lassahn. His most successful hit was in 1979 with "Der letzte Cowboy kommt aus Gütersloh". His work is affected by the idea that we all are cowboys (bad!) or indians (good!).

During the 80s he was bound by the divorce from his first wife and lots of individual problems. He reduced his engagement in music and began a career as book author ("Das Herz ist eine miese Gegend").

The album "Silchers Rache" was released in 1978 on the Bellaphon label. Alex Köberlein from the band "Schwoißfuaß" played saxophon and was part of the background singers.



Tracklist:
A1 Ich hab das alles mitgemacht Teil 1 3:26
A2 Litanei 2:06
A3 Ich hab Lise gesehn 3:27
A4 Wir, die wir mitten im Leben stehn 2:52
A5 Ich hol dir keine Sterne mehr vom Himmel 3:48

B1 Dann und danach 3:17
B2 Mich juckt’s 2:43
B3 Wenn ... 2:27
B4 Heinrich der Adler 5:29
B5 Brief einer Mutter 3:05
B6 Ich hab das alles mitgemacht Teil 2 2:17

Thommie Bayer Band - Silchers Rache (1978)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Staple Singers - This Land (1963)

One of the most powerful vocal groups of the '60s and '70s, the Staple Singers embraced an impressive stylistic diversity while always staying true to their roots in gospel harmonies. Led by Roebuck "Pops" Staples, the quartet first rose to stardom in the gospel music community before detouring into folk and a socially conscious gospel and R&B hybrid, then enjoying their greatest success with a handful of soul music hits for Stax Records in the '70s. 

Throughout their evolution, the constants in their work were the rich blend of their vocals, delivered with a churchy mix of joy and restraint, Roebuck's subtle but emphatic guitar textures, and in the Stax era, the glorious lead vocals of Mavis Staples. The compilation "The Best of the Vee-Jay Years" is a superb overview of their early gospel sides, 1965's "Freedom Highway" marks the point where their gospel and folk leanings merged with a growing political consciousness, 1972's "Be Altitude: Respect Yourself" was the high point of their hitmaking years at Stax, and 1984's "Turning Point" was an impressive late-career effort that included an excellent cover of Talking Heads' "Slippery People."

"This Land" was released in 1963. In the early 60s the Staples Singers, now with Riverside Records, looked for an audience "beyond the ghetto", recording coffeehouse favourites such as Cotton Fields, Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind and Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land. Such choices were mildly controversial at the time, but Staples was quick to defend them. "I think they're good material. I think it's time for the whole nation to start listening to something that means something, and think that this land belongs to everybody. If they would think like that we'd have a better United States."

Tracklist:

A1 This Land 2:39
A2 Old Time Religion 2:29
A3 Blowin' In The Wind 2:26
A4 Wish I Had Answered 2:47
A5 Twelve Gates To The City 2:40
A6 Gamblin' Man 2:39
B1 Didn't It Rain 2:46
B2 Swing Down, Chariot! 2:38
B3 Let That Liar Alone 2:43
B4 Cottonfields 2:10
B5 Motherless Children 3:00
B6 A Better Home 3:18


The Staple Singers - This Land (1963)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 13, "Babi Yar" (Conductor: Saulius Sondeckis)

Babi Yar (Russian: Ба́бий Яр) or Babyn Yar (Ukrainian: Бабин Яр) is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and a site of massacres carried out by Nazi Germany's forces during its campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. The first and best documented of the massacres took place 81 years ago on 29–30 September 1941, killing some 33,771 Jews.

We must never forget the heinous crime against humanity that occurred 81 years ago when nearly 34,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices at Babyn Yar.

This is a recording of Saulius Sondeckis conducting Dmitri Shostakovich´s  Symphony No. 13 ("Babi Yar") from 1994.

In 1961 the then tewenty-nine-year-old Yevgeny Yevtushenko pubished a poem entitled "Babi Yar". This was the name of a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev which in 1941 had been the scene of a mass execution where, within thirty-six hours, 34.000 Jewish men, women and children were shot by a special unit of the German SS. In his poem Yevtushenko used the National Socialists´ act of genocide as the starting-point of an attack on anti-Semitism in general, which he pilloried as a timeless evil that was widespread throughout the world, but which, he implied, was especially rife in Russia.

Shostakovich´s Thirteenth Symphony took a long time to establish itself in the concert hall. The first performance in Moscow on 18 December 1962 was conducted by Kirill Kondrashin and was beset by intrigue until the very last moment; the bass soloist Viktor Nechipaylo, for example, was ordered to report to the Bolshoi on the evening of the concert in order to stand in for an ailing colleague and had to be replaced at the eleventh hour by Vitaly Gromadsky. According to the reports of all the participants, the first-night audience was deeply moved by the work, but the press adopted a hostile tone, directing its fury at Yevtushenko´s words and not at Shostakovich´s generally traditional music. Finally, Yevtushenko saw himself obliged to revise "Babi Yar" and "Fears", a revision that Shostakovich accepted with reluctance. This bowdlerized version was heard a numer of times in 1965/66 and only printed in 1971, in which form the work was later recorded. For the present recording, the original version of Yevtushenko´s words has been restored.

Sergei Baikov, Bass Estonian National Male-Voice Choir St. Petersburg Camerata Saulius Sondeckis, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra

Tracklist:

1 Babi Yar 15:43
2 Humour 7:48
3 In the Store 12:21
4 Fears 11:19
5 Career 12:22

Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 13, "Babi Yar" (Conductor: Saulius Sondeckis)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Selecter – Celebrate The Bullet (1981)

"Celebrate the Bullet" is the second album by British ska band The Selecter, released in February 1981 on Chrysalis Records after the band had left the 2 Tone label. The album was recorded with producer Roger Lomas, who plays bass on some songs, and frequently seeks a more slow, eclectic sound, with new wave influences. Band members Charley Anderson and Desmond Brown, uncomfortable with the new approach, left the band during production and after the release of 1980 single "The Whisper" to form the band The People. They were replaced by keyboard player, James Mackie, and bass player, Adam Williams. Ian Dury and the Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy played bass on the title track and "Washed Up and Left for Dead".

The album's lyrical content is frequently bleak, taking inspiration from early 1980s racial and social conflicts, economic problems and war. Upon release, the album was a critical and commercial failure. The release of the title track as a single unintentionally coincided with the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, and "at such a time it would have been a brave radio producer who would have earmarked a track titled 'Celebrate the Bullet' for a prime time slot." As a result, the single and album flopped and the band subsequently split up. Nonetheless, the album has more recently been reappraised, and is considered by lead singer Pauline Black to be among the band's best work.

Celebrate the Bullet is a dark and tense album, featuring a "less lively sound" than previous releases, and is strongly political, with lyrics focusing on social and racial relations, "cold war paranoia and fear for the future." In the words of Martin C. Strong, the album was a "more lugubrious state-of-the-nation musing" than "Too Much Pressure". In the Rough Guide to Rock, Peter Buckley said, "with a title like Celebrate the Bullet, we knew we were in for a serious sit-down talking-to. Sure, it was still pop music, it was still Britska (a term that, thankfully, was never widely used), it was still Pauline and the lads dancing around with lots of brass and a beat you could lean against, but it wasn't happy, not at all." One interviewer, whilst interviewing Black, described it as "a dark, haunting, bluesy iteration of ska that to my knowledge has never been attempted before or since." He said that "at times the songs have a new wave feel via synthesized keyboard melodies that buzz over Neol Davies' blistering, bluesy and soulful guitar solos and riffs. Other times its almost undefinable as the songs are driven by a seamless melting pot of rock, reggae and new wave via memorable melodies that stick in your head."

"Bristol & Miami" concerns the racial riots that had occurred in spring 1980 in Bristol (the 1980 St. Pauls riot) and Miami (the 1980 Miami riots), and is said to slightly predate fellow 2 Tone band the Specials' "Ghost Town", a documentation of UK riots released later on in 1981. The energetic song features "punky ska rhythms", which are "typical of the 2 Tone sound". According to one journalist, "the song can’t be read as encouraging rioting, but there is an eerie embattled exuberance to it, which complements the tension in the lyrics. The strangely uplifting ending reflects this contradiction of styles and thoughts." "Red Reflections" is a "joyous" song. The title song has a "staunch anti-violence, anti war-theme."

"Deep Water" has been interpreted as "the inner monologue of a person here in the U.S. contemplating the loss of their home in the sub-prime mortgage crisis." Black, who sees the song as working "on many different levels," was named after a town that Black saw a highway sign for whilst riding on the band's tour bus during their first American tour. She explained "The name just struck a chord with how I was feeling at the time. That tour was fraught with internal problems among us and I was deeply unhappy for most of the time, so I began to pen a song to reflect those inner feelings. I finished writing the song just around the time that keyboardist Desmond Brown finally walked out of the band for some unknown reason, just prior to the sacking of Charley Anderson. Believe me, it really did feel as though we were in ‘deepwater’ back then."


Tracklist:

1 (Who Likes) Facing Situations
2 Deepwater
3 Red Reflections
4 Tell Me What's Wrong
5 Bombscare
6 Washed Up And Left For Dead
7 Celebrate The Bullet
8 Selling Out Your Future
9 Cool Blue Lady
10 Their Dream Goes On
11 Bristol And Miami

Bonus tracks:
12 The Whisper
13 Train To Skaville
14 Last Tango In Dub
15 Train To Skaville (12" Version)


The Selecter – Celebrate The Bullet (1981)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Slime - Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland (1993)

Slime is a German punk band from Hamburg. Founded in 1979, they became one of the style-defining bands of the 1980s. Slime was one of the most influential German punk bands of the early movement and thus shaped the political attitude of a large part of the German scene. With their anti-fascist texts they influenced the history of the German punk movement. Individual slogans, especially from their early phase, were spread in the autonomous scene. Musically and textually, they changed from a band with simple, catchy songs in the style of British punk rock of the late 1970s to a group with more sophisticated song structures and complex lyrics.Slime was controversial at times. The group was accused of “selling out” in the course of its growing success. Their anti-American texts also caused criticism in the left-wing scene. Several songs, particularly the 1980 "Wir wollen keine Bullenschweine", ("We Want No Bull Pigs" aka cops), have been the subject of investigation.

After the dissolution in 1984, under the impression of xenophobic pogroms, Slime reunited, but only lasted for two albums. It was only then that the band had commercial success. But they disbanded again in 1994. After a break of fifteen years, the group reunited in 2009 for live performances, 30 years after the date of its first formation.

Because of an enormous reunion tour success the new band with three founding members Michael Mayer aka ELF, Dirk Jora and Christian Mevs and two new members, bass player Nici and drummer Alex Schwers, decided to release a sixth studio album in 2012, using texts from anarchist, outlaw, writer and poet Erich Mühsam, because their main lyricist and ex-member Stephan Mahler didn't want to be part of the reunion.


The single "Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland" was released in 1993.


Tracklist:

A Der Tod Ist Ein Meister Aus Deutschland 3:59
B Schweineherbst 3:19

Slime - Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland (1993)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Augustus Pablo ‎– Dubbing In A Africa (1975)

As any business person will tell you, the way to success is through the discovery of a niche or a previously unexploited market. Still, few business people, and even fewer musicians, would have believed that there was a market for the sound of the melodica. What next, they would have sniggered, a kazoo? Yet Augustus Pablo would take this child's toy and launch a revolution in Jamaican music. Not only was Pablo's melodica unique, it would sweep the entire island's scene and become an integral part of the music of the era. But Pablo was no one-trick pony, he was also a virtuoso keyboardist and his playing permeated the island across myriad of his own releases and as a session man for others. He was equally talented on the other side of the recording desk and his production work was as inspired as his playing.

Originally released in 1975, "Dubbing in Africa" features arrangements from Charles Reid, while Pablo, playing organ, leads a strong cast of musicians including Sly Dunbar (drums), Robbie Shakespeare (bass guitar) and Melodice Gladdy (piano) on another journey into African-themed dub sound. "Dubbing in Africa" is an essential addition to any dub fan's music library.


Tracklist:

A1 Dubbing In A Africa
A2 Nigerian Love Dub
A3 Mount Of Olives Dub
A4 Dub In Ethiopia
A5 I And I Dub
B1 Everlasting Dub
B2 Trench Town Dub
B3 Universal Love
B4 King Of Kings Dub
B5 Herbal Weed Dub


Augustus Pablo ‎– Dubbing In A Africa (1975)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Pharoah Sanders – Thembi (1971)

Pharoah Sanders, the giant of spirit-driven jazz, died today at 81. Thanks a lot for all the inspiring music!

"Thembi" is the seventh album by free jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, released in 1971. Recorded with two different ensembles, "Thembi" was a departure from the slowly developing, side-long, mantra-like grooves Pharoah Sanders had been pursuing for most of his solo career. It's musically all over the map but, even if it lacks the same consistency of mood as many of Sanders' previous albums, it does offer an intriguingly wide range of relatively concise ideas, making it something of an anomaly in Sanders' prime period. 

Over the six selections, Sanders romps through a tremendous variety of instruments, including tenor, soprano, alto flute, fifes, the African bailophone, assorted small percussion, and even a cow horn. Perhaps because he's preoccupied elsewhere, there's relatively little of his trademark tenor screaming, limited mostly to the thunderous cacophony of "Red, Black & Green" and portions of "Morning Prayer." 

The compositions, too, try all sorts of different things. Keyboardist/pianist Lonnie Liston Smith's "Astral Traveling" is a shimmering, pastoral piece centered around his electric piano textures; "Love" is an intense, five-minute bass solo by Cecil McBee; and "Morning Prayer" and "Bailophone Dance" (which are segued together) add an expanded percussion section devoted exclusively to African instruments. If there's a unifying factor, it's the classic title track, which combines the softer lyricism of Sanders' soprano and Michael White's violin with the polyrhythmic grooves of the most Africanized material (not to mention a catchy bass riff). 

Some fans may gripe that "Thembi" isn't conceptually unified or intense enough, but it's rare to have this many different sides of Sanders coexisting in one place, and that's what makes the album such an interesting listen.



Tracklist:

"Astral Travelling" (Lonnie Liston Smith) - 5:48
"Red, Black & Green" (Sanders) - 8:56
"Thembi" (Sanders) - 7:02
"Love" (Cecil McBee) - 5:12
"Morning Prayer" (Sanders, Liston Smith) - 9:11
"Bailophone Dance" (Sanders) - 5:43



Pharoah Sanders – Thembi (1971)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Singers & Players - War Of Words (1981)

Singers and Players is a reggae collective formed by Adrian Sherwood and featuring various members of the New Age Steppers, Creation Rebel, the Roots Radics, and other musicians affiliated with the On-U Sound label. 

After a brief period of creativity in the early '80s, the collective was stagnant until 1998's "Revenge of the Underdog", which featured vocals from Bim Sherman and Prince Far I. "Staggering Heights" followed in the spring of 2000.

"War Of Words" is the classic debut album by Singers & Players, a loose collective featuring top Jamaican deejays Prince Far I and Jah Woosh, plus members of the Arabs and Roots Radics. The mic is dominated on this record by the sweet vocals of cover star Bim Sherman.

Whilst very much based on a dub reggae blueprint, the record also features Keith Levene from Public Image Limited on guitar and Ari Up from The Slits on backing vocals. Kingston sound system culture as viewed through the prism of the London post-punk squat scene, and championed by the quintessential downtown NYC no wave record label.

Tracklist:

Devious Woman
Quanté Jubila
Sit & Wonder
Fit to Survive
Other Side -
Reaching the Bad Man
World of Dispensation
91 Vibration

Singers & Players - War Of Words (1981)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Jackie Mittoo And The Soul Vendors ‎– Evening Time

Featuring a particularly natty cover photo of Mittoo set off by a very mod-looking standup organ, palm trees, and a trio of island lovelies, "Evening Time" further plies its groove exotica theme with bounce-and-grind gems from the rocksteady and early reggae days. The year was 1968, and Mittoo had already risen to the top of the competitive Kingston music scene, first as a member of the Skatalites and then as a the session leader of Clement Dodd's venerable Studio One label. This collection includes 12 tasty instrumentals culled from the slew of material he cut with such Studio One bands as the Soul Syndicate, Sound Dimension, and the Soul Defenders. The top-notch solos and infectious grooves make it clear why Mittoo -- both as an organist and arranger -- helped make Studio One rhythms the most heavily versioned in reggae's long history. And with such highlights as the noirish "Drum Song" and a fine take on the Prince Buster hit "One Step Beyond" topping things off, "Evening Time" qualifies as the perfect record for Mittoo fans in need of something beyond the handful of retrospectives currently available.

Jackie Mittoo's second album for Studio One (credited to Jackie Mittoo and the Soul Vendors) following "JACKIE MTOO IN LONDON", released the previous year is an absolute killer funky Reggae album!

Tracklist:
A1 Evening Time
A2 One Step Beyond
A3 Napoleon Solo
A4 Best By Request
A5 Love Is Blue
A6 Hip Hug
B1 Hot Milk
B2 Autumn Sounds
B3 Full Charge
B4 Hot Shot
B5 Rock Steady Wedding
B6 Drum Song


Jackie Mittoo And The Soul Vendors ‎– Evening Time
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Singers & PLayers - Leaps & Bounds (1984)

Singers & Players were a reggae collective made up of vocalists and musicians associated with Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound Records. They recorded five albums between 1981 and 1988.

Including artists such as Bim Sherman, Prince Far I and Mikey Dread they were regarded as a dub music supergroup. There was never any fixed line up to the group, and many different artists featured on each track and each album.

The fourth Singers & Players album was, in terms of continuity and attack, also the last. Although subsequent albums would appear beginning in 1988, "Leaps & Bounds" marked the end of an era, as Adrian Sherwood mourned the recent murder of Prince Far I by all but abandoning reggae for the next four years.

Far I is a tangible presence on the album, of course. His distinctive growl powers the apocalyptic "Alla-La Dreadlocks Soldier" and the seemingly autobiographical "Dog Park," although the bulk of the vocals are handled by Congo Roy Ashanti, while there's also an appearance from Mikey Dread, whose lightly mocking and gibberish-laden tones give the exhilarating "Autobiography (Dread Operator)" an almost Eek-a-Mouse-y feel, before Congo Roy takes over the same rhythm for the equally ecstatic "Breaking Down the Pressure." (Both tracks, incidentally, are re-recorded from the 1983 single that first paired them.) Other highlights include a gorgeous revamp of "Make a Joyful Noise," and "Striving," with a horn section straight out of some great lost '70s soul puncher. Across the board, then, "Leaps & Bounds" is a mighty album, and one that lives up to its dedication to the late Prince in every way.

Tracklist:

A1 Moses
A2 Make A Joyful Noise
A3 Alla La - Dreadlocks Soldier
A4 Autobiography (Dread Operator)
B1 Breaking Down The Pressure
B2 Dog Park
B3 Vegetable Matter
B4 Striving

Singers & Players - Leaps & Bounds (1984)

(192 kbps, cover art included)

Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus – Freedom Sound (1974)

Michael George Henry (born 1943), better known as Ras Michael, is a Jamaican reggae singer and Nyabinghi specialist. He also performs under the name of Dadawah.

Negus is a title of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the Almighty God of the Rastafarian movement, and no one pays him more eloquent homage than Ras Michael and his group, the Sons of Negus. This is the beat of the heart, based on the original "instrument of ten strings," the hand-beaten drum. On 1975's "Dadawah", Michael took a religious ceremonial gathering as the basis for an album of elegant poetry with raw, visceral power. Later, eschewing minimalism, such works as "Promised Land Sounds" added electronics; it produced a primeval neo-psychedelia rivaled only by the experiments of Lee Perry.

Tracklist:

A1 Watch And Pray
A2 Written Down There
A3 Holy Mount Zion
B1 I Shall Not Remove
B2 Roll River Jordan Roll
B3 Tenoryestiling

Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus – Freedom Sound (1974)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Sun Ra Arkestra – Sunrise In Different Dimensions (1980)

"Sunrise In Different Dimensions" is a 1980 live jazz album by the Sun Ra Arkestra documenting a concert at the Gasthof Morhen in Willisau, Switzerland from February 24, 1980. The album intermingles a variety of Sun Ra originals with covers of jazz standards.

This was the opening date on a European concert tour. The album was issued  in several different configurations, with tracks dropped on certain reissues.

Critical response to the album has been largely positive, with some dissent. In a 1983 review of the album, The Boston Globe described it as a "tour de force", "one of Sun Ra's best." Scott Yanow in his Allmusic review characterized it as "one of the better examples of [Sun Ra's] late-period band." Ajay Heble, author of "Landing on the Wrong Note: Jazz, Dissonance, and Critical Practice", indicates that the album "does seem to me to do justice to the energy of Ra's performances." 

The album is featured in the 2000 book "The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to Postmodernism", where contributor Eric Thacker indicates that it is the cover songs that establish the record's "value as a breathless and windswept view astern from a supersonic jazz roadster's dickey-seat". Fred Kaplan, in Slate, described Sun Ra's arrangements here of Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins and Jelly Roll Morton as "inspired". But critic Stanley Crouch finds the band in this performance "woefully out of tune and botching the leader's arrangements".


Tracklist:

"Light from a Hidden Sun" – 3:52
"Pin-Points of Spiral Prisms" – 4:41
"Silhouettes of the Shadow World" – 7:20
"Cocktails for Two" (Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston) – 3:21
"'Round Midnight" (Bernie Hanighen, Thelonious Monk, Cootie Williams) – 6:39
"Lady Bird/Half Nelson" (Tadd Dameron, Miles Davis) – 7:58
"Big John's Special" (Horace Henderson) – 3:37
"Yeah Man!" (Fletcher Henderson, Noble Sissle) – 3:29
"Disguised Gods in Skullduggery Rendez Vous" – 9:05
"Queer Notions" (Coleman Hawkins) – 2:44
"Limehouse Blues" (Philip Braham, Douglas Furber) – 3:44
"King Porter Stomp" (Jelly Roll Morton) – 3:32
"Take the "A" Train" (Billy Strayhorn) – 5:07
"Lightin'" (Duke Ellington) – 2:43
"A Helio-Hello! And Goodbye Too!" – 3:12


Sun Ra Arkestra – Sunrise In Different Dimensions (1980)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

The Ex - Disturbing Domestic Peace (1980)

Emerging out of Amsterdam's vibrant squat scene in 1979, The Ex – a name chosen for the ease and speed with which it could be spray-painted onto a wall – have for four decades been an entirely self-sustaining musical entity, charting a course through the global underground with a spirit of freedom and radical exploration.

"Disturbing Domestic Peace", The Ex's debut album, appeared mere months after their first single, 1980's "All Corpses Smell The Same". Originally released on the band's own Verrecords (they made up different label names with each record), the LP falls squarely within a punk idiom and, at the same time, shows this influential Dutch group's restless energy. Terrie Ex's guitar serves up vectors of percussive pulse, fraying the edges of the music's squared-off rhythms. Vocalist G.W. Sok – an anarchist Dziga Vertov with a mic – observes, declaims and condemns across a set of interrelated political concerns that would return in Ex-music for years to come.

While The Ex channel the poise and principled attack of Crass or Flux Of Pink Indians, they create a unique declamatory sound all their own – trailing brilliant flashes of color in the wake of punk's monochrome palette. Offering ten songs in only twenty-two minutes, "Disturbing Domestic Peace" lays bare a vivid snapshot of a truly singular band who (at the time) were just finding their feet.

This album comes with free bonus live 7" "Live~Skive" (on Eh Records).

Tracklist:

A1 The Sky Is Blue Again 2:01
A2 Map 1:14
A3 Outlook-Army 0:39
A4 Sucking Pig 1:58
A5 A Sense Of Tumour 4:00
B1 Meanwhile 3:54
B2 Rules 1:41
B3 Squatsong 1:51
B4 Warning-Shot 2:55
B5 New Wars 2:46

Live~Skive:
C1 Introduction
C2 Human Car
D1 Punk
D2 Horse

The Ex - Disturbing Domestic Peace (1980)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Manderley - ...fliegt, Gedanken, fliegt... (1976, Pläne)

The Dortmund based Folkrock ensemble "Manderley" belonged to the best that the german folkscene offered in the seventies. They only recorded this one album, which was released by Pläne Records. Guitarist Pit Budde and violinist Klara Brandi went ahead and founded the more famous Cochise band - probably the hottest political folk rock band in Germany from the late seveties to the mid-eighties.   

Manderley was found in 1975 in Dortmund. The band played folk and rock music with political lyrics. In 1976 they recorded in just two weeks at "Ton am Dom", Cologne the album "...fliegt, Gedanken, fliegt...", which was releasd on the Pläne label.

The re-release on CD contained two bonus tracks that were recorded Jan. 1986 live at the Fritz-Henssler-Haus, Dortmund.

Tracklist:

1	Sagt mir, wer sie sind
2	Bluhs
3	No. 6
4	Der Traum des Schmieds
5	Eine andere Frau
6	Fliegt Gedanken, fliegt
7	Da muss doch wohl ein Ausweg sein
8	Ballade vom kleinen Florestan
9	Erinnerungen an Les Saintes Maries de la Mer
10	Sacco's Brief
11	Komm mit mir
12	You'd better listen
	Bonus Tracks:
13	You'd better listen (live)
14	Jeder Traum (live)

Manderley - ...fliegt, Gedanken, fliegt... (1976, Pläne)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Klaus Lenz - Für Fenz (Amiga, 1970)

Klaus Lenz (born March 22, 1940 in Berlin ) is a German jazz musician , band leader and composer, mainly in the modern jazz style . He lived in the GDR until 1977 and is considered the nestor of the GDR jazz scene. 

Many well-known performers such as Manfred Krug, Günther Fischer, Reinhard Lakomy, Henning Protzmann ( Karat ), Günter "Baby" Sommer and Ulrich Gumpert learned the musical craft from him and recorded successful albums with him. Klaus Lenz played with constantly changing line-ups, a testament to his constant search for new musical forms of expression. With every formation he achieved a high standard. In addition to his engagement as a jazz musician, he composed in the pop area, he arranged for well-known orchestras and wrote film and theater music, including for the DEFA films Wedding Night in the Rain (1967), Käuzchenkuhle (1968), Not with me, Madam! (1969), Sleeping Beauty (1970), Hey, You! (1970) and Stülpner legend (1972/1973).

Due to problems with the authority he left East Germany in 1977 and settled down in the western part of Germany where he would record only two more albums (both with another giant, Zbigniew Namyslowski). 



Tracklist:

01. Glückliches Mädchen (2:55)
02. Weselmy sie (3:33)
03. Warum willst du denn anders sein? (2:38)
04. Tornado (2:24)
05. Es steht ein Haus in New Orleans (4:37)
06. Zottos (3:20)
07. Sei so, daß ich dich lieben kann (3:17)
08. Grashalme (3:20)
09. Goldocker (2:27)
10. Lachen oder weinen (3:05)
11. Nanette (3:22)
12. Pimo (2:34)

Klaus Lenz - Für Fenz (Amiga, 1970)

(320 kbps, cover art included)

Cochise - Rauchzeichen (1979)

Cochise from Dortmund played folk music with mostly political lyrics inspired by left wing perspective.The band was founded in 1979 and became one of the musical voices of the alternative movement in Germany.

They developed an unique lyrical and musical language connecting the political contents of the 70s and 80s with powerfull, delightfull music and the rebellious attitude of a whole generation.

"Rauchzeichen" was their debut album, recorded in August 1979 at Ton Studio St. Blasien, Northeim.
These are the lyrics of the title track of the album, a cover of "Rauchzeichen" by Ape, Beck & Brinkmann.

"Rauchzeichen

Wenn ihr den letzten Baum zerstört
Dem letzten Fluss die Klarheit nehmt
Den letzten Wilden habt bekehrt
Der Vogel nicht mehr singt
Die letzte Straße angekommen
Der letzte Wald zum Parkplatz wird
Der letzte Krieg endlich gewonnen
Der letzte Strand mit Öl verschmiert

Werdet ihr erst dann einseh'n
Dass ihr euer schönes Geld
Auf der Bank nicht essen könnt –
Welch Menge ihr auch nennt?

Wenn ihr den letzten Fisch gefangen
Die letzte Erde aufgeteilt
Die letzte Bombe hochgegangen
Die letzten Ernten sind verseucht
Die letzte Mutter Kinder liebt
Der letzte Mensch durch Folter stirbt
Der letzte Gott den Segen gibt
Der letzte Hitler für sich wirbt

Werdet ihr erst dann einseh'n
Dass ihr euer schönes Geld
Auf der Bank nicht essen könnt –
Welch Menge ihr auch nennt?

Wenn das letzte Meer voll Abfall ist
Die letzte Erde ausgehöhlt
Der letzte Tanker langsam bricht
Das letzte Paradies zerstört
Die letzte Menschlichkeit besiegt
Das letzte Hochhaus hoch genug
Die letzte Lüge Beifall bringt
Die letzte Blume fault im Wind

Werdet ihr erst dann einseh'n
Dass ihr euer schönes Geld
Auf der Bank nicht essen könnt –
Welch Menge ihr auch nennt?

Werdet ihr erst dann einseh'n
Dass ihr euer schönes Geld
Auf der Bank nicht essen könnt –
Welch Menge ihr auch nennt?"



Tracklist:

1 Rolltreppe abwärts 4:13
2 Was kann schöner sein...! 5:13
3 Ballade von der Hester Jonas 4:26
4 Der bitterböse Friederich 3:44
5 Das Anarchistenschwein 2:46
6 Kannst Du das mitansehen 5:02
7 Rauchzeichen 4:22
8 Im Laufe der Woche 7:14
9 Jeder Traum 3:55


Cochise - Rauchzeichen (1979)
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Hanns Eisler - Septett Nr. 2, Nonett Nr. 1 & 2 (Nova, 1973)

Hanns Eisler died 60 years ago, September 6, 1962. Thanks a lot for all the inspriring music!

As a Schoenberg pupil, political musician, peripatetic travellerand emigrant, musical and administrative visionary, and Brecht‟s closest musical collaborator, Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) inhabited many worlds. As a composer, he constantly sought to bridge the gaps between popular and “classical,” between the street and the concert hall, and between music for the masses and music for private, individual experience. He accompanied his prolific musical output with a steady of stream of writings and interviews characterized by the same sharp wit and dialectical thinking found in his music. 

For Eisler, a committed Marxist, these different spheres were all part of the same conceptual universe, and sprang from his lifelong aim to create music useful to Socialism. Any composer, he believed, should be able to compose a marching song for a political demonstration, easy piano pieces for children, music for a Hollywood film, a large-scale symphony for chorus and orchestra, a lyrical song cycle, or a string quartet, depending on need and circumstances.

Eisler´s deportation from the U.S. after hearings before the House Committee on Un-American Activities as well as his status as East Germany‟s leading composer have colored his reception in western countries. Although Eisler has received increasing attention in recent years, his output of 15 orchestra works, 50 choruses, 23 chamber music works, 20 cantatas, c. 250 Lieder, 37 stage works und 39 film scores was largely neglected in the West during the Cold War, when the composer was known primarily as the composer of the East German naional anthem, “Auferstanden aus Ruinen.”


Tracklist:

Septett Nr. 2 "Zirkus", aufgenommen 1965
Nonett Nr. 1 , aufgenommen 1967
Nonett Nr. 2, Suite für neun Instrumente, aufgenommen 1967

Hanns Eisler - Septett Nr. 2, Nonett Nr. 1 & 2 (Nova, 1973)

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Víctor Jara - El Derecho De Vivir En Paz (1971)

Chileans are voting today in a referendum on whether to adopt a progressive new constitution that would enact broad institutional reforms, transforming a market-driven society into one that is more welfare-based.

"El derecho de vivir en paz" ("The right to live in peace") is an album by Víctor Jara released in 1971.

The title song from this album,"El derecho de vivir en paz" (The right to live in peace), was originally dedicated to the Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh, as the United States waged war in Vietnam. After the Pinochet regime took power in Chile, Victor Jara was subsequently tortured and murdered. 

In the wake of Jara’s death, “El Derecho de Vivir en Paz” has since served as a chilling memento for the Chilean people. 

The song was widely sung by protesters during the 2019 Chilean protests including by a people's ensemble of almost a thousand guitarists. Subsequently to lend their support to the protesters, Chilean musicians living around the world released their own version on Facebook. Another rendition of the song was released by a Chilean all-stars ensemble with artists including Francisca Valenzuela, Mon Laferte and Gepe to show their support for the Chilean resistance.


Tracklist:

"El derecho de vivir en paz" [The right to live in peace] – 4:34
"Abre la ventana" [Open your window] – 3:55
"La partida" [The departure] – 3:26
"El niño yuntero" [Boy of the Yoke] (Miguel Hernández, Jara) – 3:44
"Vamos por ancho camino" [Making our way via broad avenues] (Jara, Celso Garrido Lecca) – 3:17
"A la molina no voy más" [I won't go back to the mill] (popular Peruvian song) – 3:13
"A Cuba" [To Cuba] – 3:59
"Las casitas del barrio alto" [lit. Uptown neighbourhood, adap. of Little Boxes] (Malvina Reynolds, Jara) – 2:30
"Con el alma llena de banderas" [Our hearts are full of banners] – 4:00
"Ni chicha ni limoná" [Nor fish nor fowl] – 3:23
"Plegaria a un labrador" [Prayer to a laborer] – 3:16
"B.R.P." [Brigada Ramona Parra] (Jara, Víctor Rojas, Lecca) – 3:14

Víctor Jara -  El Derecho De Vivir En Paz (1971)

(256 kbps, cover art included)

Davy Graham - Large As Life and Twice As Natural (1968)

Original sleeve notes by Ray Horricks:

"This is Davy Graham's third adventure on an LP …and along roads that are folk, blues, jazz, Arabic, Indian-and one or two more things. Travelling with a guitar and also Danny Thompson, bass Jon Hiseman, drums, Harold McNair, flutes, and Dick Heckstall-Smtih, saxophones. Travelling like Baudelaire's travellers; 'who move simply to move'. The man himself is equally at home in Edinburgh ('a stately city'); Glasgow ('such warm acid'); or in Athens ('gold and purple in the evening. Smooth as marble hollow solid eyes of panthers. So exhausting for strangers.') But he is never at home in any one place for very long. And this seems to be in exact parallel with his music. For he cannot be pigeonholed: fortunately.

He is a life-member on the roundabout of alteration. Like his deep-down blues, and you have to accept his setting of a 1000 year old Romeo and Juliet story. Go with him on a musical flight to Morocco ('Jenra' : pavilion'd in splendour) and the return journey will be via an extended raga. But always-I should add-in the company of originality. For after introducing North African music to Western guitar, he has now done the same for India. It's a bit like Dr Bannister running his 4-minute mile and then going off in search of another distance. All of which is quiet disparate, but also very thorough and exciting and satisfying. In the past few years Davy has played his folk at the Edinburgh Festival, his jazz in some of the best clubs in London, his Arabic interpretations in Tangier and his ragas to people who know Ravi Shankar's records. (Unlike those who have gone to India for a 3-week Sitar course, he has investigated the form of ragas.) So far nobody who has listened has found his music a disappointment. And certainly not the many who have brought his two previous LPs.

Following this later collection I know have no idea where his next stop will be. He might take a bicycle to Mexico or slip inside a carrier pigeon's message to Senegal. Or it could be Canterbury. At least I know it will be fascination though as his producer of records, apart from supervising the sessions, I have found myself becoming more and more an editor of the ideas, which zoom out from him like flying saucers, with there origins just as mysterious. He will sometimes break off in the middle of a 'take' that another guitarist might become a Faust for, to tell me about three points of recording and it is preserved there for everyone to buy-he rarely performs it before an audience again. "I have to avoid the cliche," he says. "I want to keep them on the move…"

Well on behalf of those of us who have done cur best to keep up with him. I hope he does."


Tracklist:

01. Both Sides Now (Mitchell)
02. Bad Boy Blues (Trad.; Arr. Graham)
03. Tristano (Graham)
04. Babe, It Ain't No Lie (Trad.; Arr Graham)
05. Bruton Town (Trad.;Arr Graham)
06. Sunshine Raga (Graham)
07. Freight Train Blues (McDowell)
08. Jenra (Graham)
09. Electric Chair (Unknown)
10. Good Moring Blues (Trad.; Arr. Ledbetter)
11. Blue Raga (Graham)


Davy Graham - Large As Life and Twice As Natural (1968)
(256 kbps, cover art included)