Monday, June 30, 2008
Around the World (38)
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Horace Andy ( Horace Hinds) started with his first recordings, "Blackman's Country" and "I May Never See My Baby" in 1967 for producer Phil Pratt, but he didn't gain instant success, to some extent maybe because he tried in vain to sound like his then idol, rocksteady singer Delroy Wilson As with so many reggae artists, Studio One helped Horace Andy to make himself a name as a singer with several singles and records he cut for Studio One producer Clement Dodd (who also gave him his stage name), notably such songs as "Skylarking", "See A Man's Face" and "Every Tongue Shall Tell". Another Studio One classic is "Mr.Bassie", his respect to bassist and member of The Heptones, Leroy Sibbles.
Very soon many of the leading producers wanted to make records with Sleepy, as Horace Andy is also known. He then recorded - among others - for Phil Pratt again. Many tunes for those and other producers were available only as Jamaican 45s and have disappeared long ago, after the first pressing was sold out. In 1977 Horace Andy teamed up with New York based producer Everton DaSilva and from this collaboration comes the outstanding set "In the Light", which was produced together by Andy and DaSilva with the stellar backing band of Michael Taylor and Leroy Sibbles on bass, Leroy Wallace and Noel Alphonso on drums, the legendary Augustus Pablo on keyboard, and Privy Dread on guitar. In the Light Dub was given the dub treatment from King Jammy. Tragically this partnership, which also gave birth to a bunch of singles and 12", came to a sudden end when Everton DaSilva was murdered in 1979.
During the Eighties Horace Andy continued releasing music on a regular basis both in Jamaica(among others for Jammy, Sly & Robbie and Bobby Digital) and in the USA on his own Rhythm imprint and for 'indie'-label Rough Trade. A highlight of this period is the album "Dance Hall Style", one of two records Horace did with producer Lloyd 'Bullwackie' Barnes.
In 1990 he was approached by Bristol-based hitmakers Massive Attack to join them for recordings. Since then he contributed vocals to all of Massive Attack's records and they even reworked some of his earlier tunes. Other work of the 90s are two sets produced by Mad Professor and various singles with drum & bass partnership Mafia & Fluxy in Kingston, JAM.
October 99 saw the release of "Living In The Flood", with the title track co-written by Joe Strummer. Mek It Bun was released in 2002. Horace Andy's latest album This World saw the light in 2005. He also featured on the world music project, 1 Giant Leap, and on the Easy Star All-Stars 2006 album, Radiodread.
Horace Andy - In The Light ( 77 ^ 96mb)
1 Do You Love My Music (4:01)
2 Hey There Woman (4:44)
3 Government Land (3:29)
4 Leave Rasta (4:05)
5 Fever (2:54)
6 In The Light (3:35)
7 Problems (4:09)
8 If I (4:05)
9 Collie Herb (4:16)
10 Rome (3:55)
Horace Andy - In The Light Dub ( 77 ^ 95mb)
11 Music Dub (4:02)
12 Dub There (4:48)
13 Government Dub (4:10)
14 Rasta Dub (3:51)
15 Fever Dub (2:38)
16 Dub The Light (3:12)
17 Problems Dub (3:10)
18 I & I (3:53)
19 Collie Dub (4:57)
20 Dub Down Rome (4:05)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Aldous Huxley (2)
Huxley was a humanist and pacifist, but was also latterly interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism. By the end of his life Huxley was considered, in some academic circles, a leader of modern thought and an intellectual of the highest rank.He was also well known for advocating and taking hallucinogens.
Aldous Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, England on 26 July 1894. He was the third son of the writer and professional herbalist Leonard Huxley and first wife, Julia Arnold who founded Prior's Field School. He was grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, one of the most prominent English naturalists of the 19th century, a man known as "Darwin's Bulldog." Following his education at Oxford, Huxley was financially indebted to his father and had to earn a living. He taught French for a year at Eton, where Eric Blair (later known by the pen name George Orwell) was among his pupils, but was remembered by another as an incompetent and hopeless teacher who couldn’t keep discipline.
Huxley completed his first (unpublished) novel at the age of seventeen and began writing seriously in his early twenties. His earlier work includes important novels on the dehumanizing aspects of scientific progress, most famously Brave New World, and on pacifist themes (for example, Eyeless in Gaza). During World War I, Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor, home of Lady Ottoline Morrell, working as a farm labourer. Here he met several Bloomsbury figures including D. H. Lawrence, Bertrand Russell and Clive Bell. Later, in Crome Yellow (1921 age 27) he caricatured the Garsington lifestyle. In 1919 he married Maria Nys, a Belgian woman he had met at Garsington. They had one child, Matthew Huxley (1920 – 2005)
In 1937, Huxley moved to Hollywood, California with his wife Maria, son Matthew, and friend Gerald Heard. He lived in the U.S., mainly in southern California, till his death, but also for a time in Taos, New Mexico, where he wrote Ends and Means (published in 1937). In this work he examines the fact that although most people in modern civilization agree that they want a world of 'liberty, peace, justice, and brotherly love', they have not been able to agree on how to achieve it. Heard introduced Huxley to Vedanta, meditation, and vegetarianism through the principle of ahimsa. In 1938 Huxley befriended J. Krishnamurti, whose teachings he greatly admired. Not long after, Huxley wrote his book on widely held spiritual values and ideas, The Perennial Philosophy, which discussed the teachings of renowned mystics of the world.
Huxley spent much time at the Occidental college, it appears as "Tarzana College" in his prized satirical novel After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939). For most of his life, since the illness in his teens which left Huxley nearly blind, his eyesight was poor . On 21 October 1949 Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, congratulating Orwell on "how fine and how profoundly important the book is." In his letter to Orwell, he predicted that "Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience.
During the 1950s Huxley's interest in the field of psychical research grew keener, and his later works are strongly influenced by both mysticism and his experiences with the psychedelic drugs. He was introduced to mescaline by the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in 1953. On 24 December 1955 Huxley took his first dose of LSD. Indeed, Huxley was a pioneer of self-directed psychedelic drug use "in a search for enlightenment", famously taking 100 micrograms of LSD as he lay dying. His psychedelic drug experiences are described in the essays The Doors of Perception, and Heaven and Hell. Some of his writings on psychedelics became frequent reading among early hippies.
In 1955 Huxley's wife, Maria, died of breast cancer. In 1956 he married Laura Archera (1911-2007), also an author, she wrote a biography of Huxley. In 1960 Huxley himself was diagnosed with cancer, and in the years that followed, with his health deteriorating, he wrote the Utopian novel Island, and gave lectures on "Human Potentialities" at the Esalen institute, which were fundamental to the forming of the Human Potential Movement. On his deathbed, unable to speak, Huxley made a written request to his wife for "LSD, 100 µg, intramuscular.". According to her account of his death (in her book This Timeless Moment), she obliged with an injection at 11:45 am and another a couple of hours later. He died at 5:21 pm on 22 November 1963, aged 69. Media coverage of his death was overshadowed by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on the same day, as was the death of the Irish author C. S. Lewis.
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Aldous Huxley - Brave New World pt 2 23mb
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Aldous Huxley - 'The Ultimate Revolution' 39mb
"Today we are faced, I think, with the approach of what may be called the ultimate revolution, the final revolution, where man can act directly on the mind-body of his fellows. We are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy, who have always existed and presumably will always exist, to get people to love their servitude. This is the, it seems to me, the ultimate in malevolent revolutions."
A talk about psychological conditioning, the development of new behavioural controls which operate directly upon the psycho/fysicals organisms of man, replacing external constraint.
Aldous Huxley presentation March 62- 'The Ultimate Revolution' (44:08)
Aldous Huxley presentation March 62- 'The Ultimate Revolution' Q & A (28:50)
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In the light od the talk by Aldous Huxley you may find it rewarding to view the following 10 min video and then do a little thinking about what is really going on in the U.S. today...
Chemical Dumbing Down of America
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Sundaze (38)
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Laswell's artistic and commercial breakthrough came via jazz icon Herbie Hancock's Future Shock album (1983); Laswell produced the album, played bass on all the songs, and co-wrote most of the material. Its track "Rockit" has frequently been regarded as a pivotal moment in the influence of hip hop and turntablism (via Grand Mixer D.ST). The track was the first hit song to feature turntable scratching. The remainder of the 80’s saw Laswell produce albums for people like Sly & Robbie (who Laswell continues to work with) Mick Jagger, PiL, The Ramones, Iggy Pop and Yoko Ono. Many of these projects afforded Laswell the opportunity to bring in some of his normal working crew to record on more mainstream records.
The later part of the ‘80s also saw Laswell completely sever ties with the Celluloid label, which has since been sold several times. 1990 marked a watershed year in Laswell’s control and ability to produce high-quality recordings controlled by himself. In addition to purchasing his own studio (the famed Greenpoint Studio in Brooklyn), Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and longtime Laswell booster, gave Laswell the opportunity to begin a new label with the backing of Island Records. Thus, Axiom Records was born. Axiom played the ‘Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted’ credo to its fullest. With a sizable budget and minimal interference from Island executives, Laswell had the means to make arguably some of the most important music of his career. In addition to albums by Material that featured players ranging from Sly & Robbie, William S. Burroughs, Wayne Shorter, Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell, he produced and released albums by drummer and Ornette Coleman acolyte Ronald Shannon Jackson, Sonny Sharrock (featuring Pharoah Sanders and Elvin Jones), Laswell main-stay Nicky Skopelitis, Last Poet Umar Bin Hassan and Ginger Baker.
The most successful project and one of the few still in print on Axiom – where the first release was produced, was Praxis. Originally the moniker that an experimental Celluloid 12” by Laswell was released under in 1984, Praxis now became a full-fledged band, The release, ‘Transmutations (Mutadis Mutandis)’ featured the enigmatic guitarist Buckethead, drummer Brain, Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins. The project has spawned other releases, never with the same line-up twice, generally consisting of the core trio of Buckethead, Brain and Laswell supplimented by others. 1994/1995 saw a bit of a slow-down in Axiom’s output, but a number of genre-shattering 2CD compilation sets were released. Axiom Funk’s ‘Funkronomicon’ saw previously released tracks by Praxis and Nicky Skopelitis paired with a host of tracks mainly featuring various members of the Parliament/Funkadelic crew. Axiom Dub was another compilation, Laswell also remixed the whole of the Axiom catalog into a 2 disc ambient mix called Axiom Ambient
The ‘90s also saw a number of other labels associated with Laswell, most prolific of these was Subharmonic. Though not owned by Laswell, the label was essentially a release house for his projects, most of which fell into the ambient or ambient-dub catagories, notably Psychonavigation (with Pete Namlook) and Cymatic Scan (with Tetsu Inoue). The label also released albums from Praxis and Laswell’s new project, Divination, an ambient dub project (umbrella moniker for releases of ambient compilations).
Laswell released two albums of remixes from dead artists – Bob Marley’s Dreams of Freedom on Axiom and Miles Davis’ Panthalassa. The first contained airy, ambient dub translations of some of Marley’s Island catalog, largely sans Marley’s voice. Chris Blackwell requested the album as part of a planned series of remix albums by various producers who were rooted in the reggae/dub tradition. Blackwell’s departure from Island killed any further albums. For Panthalassa, Laswell took the tapes from Miles’ ‘electric period’ and re-imagined (cut-up and remix) them. The impetus for the project being that the original releases were just mixes made by Teo Macero from long in studio sessions. Needless to say, critic and fan responses varied wildly.
The late ‘90s saw two other major changes, Chris Blackwell left Island Records. Although he took the Axiom imprint with him to his new Palm Pictures label, the back catalog stayed with Island. Many of the albums are now out of print, efforts to obtain master recordings and new distribution has been unsuccessful. The other change came in the form of studio space. Laswell, seeing that Greenpoint had turned into a sort of hangout, moved his studio to West Orange, New Jersey, now calling it Orange Music or alternately, Orange Music Sound Studios......to be continued
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Laswell & Namlook - Psychonavigation ( 94 ^ 137mb)
Sonic hallucinogens that permeate the psyche, sequences and atmospheres full of experimental sounds, strange samples, and overt space music riffs, nothing earthly about it. The atmospheres are metallic and robotic evocations. The flow, however, is smooth and fluid. This is one of the best Namlook/Laswell collaborations, essential space music. It bore four more Psychonavigations.
1 - Psychic And UFO Revelations In The Last Days (38:46)
2 - Angel Tech (10:17)
3 - Black Dawn (21:22)
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Jah Wobble • Bill Laswell - Radioaxiom – A Dub Transmission ( 01 ^ 99mb)
Featuring a cast of characters that includes Nils Petter Molvær, Hamid Drake, Sly Dunbar, Aiyb Deng, Nicky Skopelitis, and vocalist Gigi Shibabbaw (later mrs.Laswell), this collaboration between bassists Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble is many things, but a far cry from the stripped-down, spooky reggae. This is a mind journey of an album that extends the time-space continuum, or at least gives the illusion it does. This may not be the heavy-duty dub blowout expected by some fans of this pair, but it is an elegant, and very tasteful record, assembling a plethora of melodies, textures, instruments, and rhythms with taste and attention to detail, in short beautiful mind music.
1 - Subcode (7:36)
2 - Alsema Dub (5:48)
3 - Virus B (8:06)
4 - Orion (7:51)
5 - 6th Chamber (7:09)
6 - Alam Dub (6:49)
7 - Second Sight (8:35)
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The Golden Palominos - Drunk With Passion (91 ^ 99mb)
Golden Palominos first featured Fier, singer-guitarist Arto Lindsay, saxophonist John Zorn, bass guitarist Bill Laswell and violinist/guitarist Fred Frith. Their self-titled debut album was released on New York's Celluloid Records in 1983, the album is notable for having some of the first recorded turntable scratching outside of rap music, courtesy of Laswell and M.E. Miller. The Palominos' next album, 1985's Visions of Excess, would sound vastly different, leaning towards songs more in a folk vein, with a sound in some respects pre-dating the emergence of the alt-country genre by a few years. This record was also noteworthy as the debut of singer Syd Straw, whose songwriting and vocals would be featured prominently on this record and the next, Blast Of Silence. Cream's Jack Bruce, guitarists Richard Thompson and Jody Harris, and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe also appeared on the record. Of the band members that were on the first record, only Fier and Arto Lindsay had remained. Blast Of Silence was released the following year, carrying on in much of the same vein as Visions Of Excess and with appearances by many of the same personnel.
A Dead Horse (1989) carried on in the sound of its predocessors slightly, but some of the songs also crossed into a darker, more ambient and ethereal sound, a sound which would dominate the Palomino records of the 1990s. Syd Straw had moved on and was no longer in the band, with most of the vocals now handled by Amanda Kramer. It saw the return of Bill laswell who brought Bernie Worrell and Aiyb Dieng along. Drunk With Passion marked the first record not on Celluloid Records, with its sound taking from some of the darker cues heard on A Dead Horse and also using more processed and electronic sounds, giving many of its songs an ethereal feel. This album could be argued was more influenced by its guest appearances than any of the others, who included Hüsker Dü's Bob Mould, Richard Thompson, and Michael Stipe.
This Is How It Feels, released in 1993, continued on in much of the ambient sound of Drunk With Passion, but it also incorporated many elements of club and trance music. It also marked the introduction of new lead vocalist Lori Carson, who co-wrote nine of the CD's tracks with Anton Fier. Bill Laswell's production work on this and on the following record, Pure, would heavily influence his own remix work of the late 90's, as seen on the CDs Emerald Ather and City Of Light. Pure, released a year later, is seen by many as the band's most focused work, due much to the strong contributions once again of Carson, Laswell, and Skopelitis. Tracks such as "No Skin" and "Pure" continue in the dance/ambient style of the previous album. The CD would also stir a minor controversy over the bare female breast on its cover. The song "Little Suicides", from Pure showed much of same sparse sound, production, and strong yet quiet vocals (albeit less electronic) that would influence Carson's solo work. Anton Fier would produce Carson's 1995 solo record, Where It Goes.
Dead Inside (1996) was another stylistic turnaround for the Palominos, and their last proper album. This time, the record had a deathly, industrial sound, with the line-up consisting only of Fier, multi-instrumentalist Knox Chandler (who before joining the Palominos, was also in a band with Lori Carson), Nicky Skopelitis, and poet Nicole Blackman. Much of the Golden Palominos work has become increasingly hard to find, and compilations do not provide a complete overview of their work.
1 - Alive And Living Now (Voc.Michael Stipe) (5:38)
2 - The Haunting (5:30)
3 - When The Kingdom Calls (Voc. Amanda Kramer) (6:26)
4 - A Sigh (Voc. Amanda Kramer) (8:36)
5 - Thunder Cries (Voc. Amanda Kramer) (4:22)
6 - Hands Of Heaven (Voc. Amanda Kramer) (5:22)
7 - Dying From The Inside Out (Voc.Bob Mould) (8:18)
8 - Begin To Return (Voc.Bob Kidney) (6:12)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
Friday, June 27, 2008
Rhotation (38) Into BPM
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Felix da Housecat - Kittenz and Thee Glitz (01 ^ 149mb)
Felix da Housecat (Felix Stallings Jr August 25, 1971 in Chicago) He taught himself keyboards by the age of 14, and a year later stepped into a studio and was introduced to Acid House pioneer DJ Pierre, who gave 15-year-old Stallings his break, and under the patronage and guidance of Pierre, he released his first single, "Phantasy Girl," in 1987. Felix gave up house music to go to Alabama State University to study media and communication. However, by 92 DJ Pierre, had him producing and mixing again and a first hit with the single "Thee Dawn". One of the defining moments of the 90's for Felix was his single, "In The Dark We Live (Thee Lite)" under one of his many pseudonyms, Aphrohead, the Dave Clarke remix of it became huge.
During 1995, he released his debut full-length Alone in the Dark (as Thee Maddkatt Courtship), followed by the Radikal Fear compilation, The Chicago All Stars and a mix album entitled Clashbackk Compilation Mix. Another LP, Metropolis Present Day? Thee Album, followed in 1998. After a lengthy break from the dance scene, Stallings returned in 1999 under his Thee Madkatt Courtship moniker with I Know Electrikboy. 2001 saw the release of Kittenz and Thee Glitz, a critically-acclaimed LP that gained Felix mainstream exposure and worldwide coverage in dance music and fashion circles, and has often been mentioned as one of the pioneering releases of the electroclash movement.The second concept album from Felix da Housecat, for this one he moved from dance culture to sex culture, recruiting a bevy of detached, vaguely European-sounding female vocals (including starlet Miss Kittin) and producing a dozen songs on self-explanatory themes.
At the end of 2001, Felix won Best Album at the now-defunct Muzik Awards, beating the likes of Daft Punk that day. The ensuing fame brought Felix widespread popularity and remix work for superstars like Madonna and Kylie Minogue. The proper follow-up, Devin Dazzle & the Neon Fever, didn't arrive until 2004, but Stallings released a pair of mix albums, 2002's Excursions and 2003's A Bugged Out Mix. Devin Dazzle, really caught the mood of the moment in clubland. Not only did he resurrect Vanity 6 with his own girl group, Neon Fever, he also managed to encompass DFA-like disco-punk along with his more familiar ‘80s reference points. Felix's latest album, Virgo Blaktro and the Movie Disco, was released on October 2, 2007. It represents a back-to-basics move and a firm step forward. Felix opted to keep it to a handful of collaborators new and old, none of whom are famous indie or dance music figures, so it has the feel of his releases prior to Devin Dazzle. It was, however, executive produced by famous R&B producer Dallas Austin. Since then, he's just released his first Global Underground compilation GU 34 'Milan', his first for the compilation and club label. The compilation is split into 'Milanfuck Rock Europa' and 'Fuck Rave (Americas)' section.
01 - Harlot (Intro) (Voc.Melistar) (3:10)
02 - Walk With Me (Voc.Electrikboy) (4:15)
03 - Analog City (1:18)
04 - Pray For A Star (Voc.Harrison Crump) (3:54)
05 - Voicemail W/ Ms Kittin (Voc.Miss Kittin) (0:47)
06 - Madame Hollywood (Voc.Miss Kittin) (2:51)
07 - Silver Screen (Voc.Miss Kittin) (4:40)
08 - Control Freaq (5:11)
09 - What Does It Feel Like? (Voc.Melistar)(2:36)
10 - Happy Hour (Voc.Melistar) (5:02)
11 - Thee Enter View (1:14)
12 - Glitz Rock (4:00)
13 - Sequel2Sub (3:50)
14 - Magic Fly (3:00)
15 - She Lives (3:03)
16 - Runaway Dreamer (Voc.Harrison Crump) (3:20)
diet version
Felix da Housecat - Kittenz and Thee Glitz ( * 99mb)
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Ladytron - Light & Magic (02 ^ 148mb)
Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu, (rhythm boxes and keyboards) settled in Liverpool after a spate of DJ work in Japan and world travel, in Bulgaria they met vocalist Mira Aroyo. Helena Marnie, who also sings and plays keyboards for the group, also joined them and they began work on their first single, "He Took Her to a Movie," which was recorded for 50 pounds. Ladytron toured throughout the continent before beginning work on their debut EP, Commodore Rock, which was released in the summer of 2000, providing their fans another foray into the noisy world of early-'80s sound. Ladytron makes electronic pop music, using an array of vintage analogue equipment to achieve its distinct sound. Albums so far have focused on a balance between pop structures and digitally edited analogue electronic sound, along with some more experimental leanings.The studio full-length 604 followed a year later, and gained many positive reviews.
The follow up, Light & Magic, was released in Autumn 2002 , on it Ladytron do bring on the special effects, adding denser arrangements, more complex melodies, and processed vocals to their brand of spooky, stylish synth pop. Even more so than on 604, Light & Magic makes the most of Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo's contrasting vocal styles. It spawned the underground hits "Seventeen", "Evil", and "Blue Jeans". Following 18 months on tour supporting that album, they recorded their third album, Witching Hour released in 2005, followed by an extensive tour in support from mid-2005 to mid-2007. Ladytron's aloof, glamorous, slightly sinister and bittersweet music has a cult audience worldwide and this distinctive sound resulted in them being in demand to produce remixes for a wide array of artists including Placebo, Blondie, Gang of Four, David Gahan, Goldfrapp, Bloc Party, Kings of Convenience, Indochine, Apoptygma Berzerk, She Wants Revenge, Soulwax, Nine Inch Nails and Simian. The band finished work on their fourth studio album, Velocifero, in February 2008, it was released in the US on June 3, and contains 13 tracks. Velocifero was recorded in Paris, with the band handling production duties.
01 - True Mathematics (2:22)
02 - Seventeen (4:37)
03 - Flicking Your Switch (3:26)
04 - Fire (2:49)
05 - Turn It On (4:46)
06 - Blue Jeans (4:13)
07 - Cracked LCD (2:32)
08 - Black Plastic (4:17)
09 - Evil (5:34)
10 - Startup Chime (3:30)
11 - Nuhorizons (4:03)
12 - Cease2xist (4:37)
13 - Re:Agents (4:53)
14 - Light & Magic (3:35)
15 - The Reason Why (4:14)
diet version
Ladytron - Light & Magic( * 99mb)
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Client - City (04 ^ 99mb)
Client are a futurist British musical group from Rotherham, England, members were formerly known only anonymously as Client A and Client B, to the extent that their faces were not shown on any publicity photos; it has since been revealed that they are Kate Holmes, formerly of Frazier Chorus and Technique, and Sarah Blackwood, lead singer of Dubstar. Kate Holmes is married to Alan McGee (founder of Creation Records). They were the first signings to Andy Fletcher's (of Depeche Mode fame) Toast Hawaii label.
Client retains a strong penchant for the lost days of synth pop, when the likes of the first Human League albums were all the rage. Further inspirations according to Client B include "decadent artists..." Their first single, "Price of Love," mimics the robotic, bloodless vibe of that era backed by an intensely catchy melody. A second single, "Rock and Roll Machine," attempts a less pop-oriented groove that focuses on the seedier side of their persona. Client have toured extensively throughout Europe and Asia, and are most popular in Germany where they have had the most commercial success. Client combine Scandinavian airline hostess uniforms with glamour-girl aesthetics and harsh electronics to create a sound reminiscent of early forays into electronic sound manipulation and New Wave. Their uniforms have become their trademark.
In September of 2004 the duo returned with City. The icy and tawdry tunes are tempered with Yaz-esque sereneness. "Theme" is their best beat yet, and the simple "Radio" is nothing if not infectious. The high-on-concept duo is now offering more than just clever, thoughtful production, meatier music, and broader scope makes City well worth hearing. A third member, Client E (Emily Mann), joined for the third album, Heartland, synth-pop flashback music is still the rule, and almost everything seems written towards a clever, edgy comment. This album also marked a change of label as it was released by dark dance and retro wave specialists Metropolis. . Meanwhile E is no longer a Client.
01 - Radio (4:16)
02 - Come On (4:02)
03 - Overdrive (Voc. Martin L. Gore) (3:50)
04 - One Day At A Time (4:40)
05 - Cracked (0:48)
06 - In It For The Money (3:35)
07 - Pornography (Voc. Carl Barat) (4:07)
08 - Down To The Underground (Voc.Pete Doherty) (3:02)
09 - The Chill Of October (4:51)
10 - Theme (2:25)
11 - Don't Call Me Baby (4:04)
12 - It's Rock And Roll (Voc.Joe Wilson) (3:25)
13 - Everything Must End (4:41)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Into The Groove (37)
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Madhouse - 16 (87 ^ 94mb)
Prince had caressed the idea of an instrumental jazz-funk album ever since he recorded his first tracks with Eric Leeds for his 1985 side-project, The Family. In late 1985-early 1986, he recorded hours of instrumental music with Leeds and other musicians from his band, Sheila E. and musicians from her own band, as well as members from Wendy & Lisa's families. From these sessions, Prince compiled an album called The Flesh, supposed to be released by an eponymous pseudo-band, but the project was abandoned and its concept lightly modified to become Madhouse. As he did with most of his side projects, Prince created an alter ego, named Austra Chanel, who was said to have been the mentor/producer for Madhouse.
All instruments on "8", the first Madhouse album, were performed by Prince except for the saxophone and flute parts which were performed by Eric Leeds. The albums consists of instrumental jazz-fusion tracks. A remix of the track "Six" was released alongside with the b-side "Six & 1/2", composed by Leeds and featuring Atlanta Bliss on trumpet. "16", the second Madhouse album, featured contributions by Eric Leeds on saxophone and flute, Sheila E. on drums and Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass guitar (the three of them co-composed a few tracks besides playing on the album.) "Doctor" Matt Fink (keyboards) and John Lewis (drums) are also credited in the album's booklet but their participation to the recording is more than uncertain (though both were part of the short-lived live-version of the band.) "16" features more aggressive and minimalist jazz funk tracks than its predecessor.
Cover art for both albums featured a voluptuous woman playing with a small dog, reminiscent of a 1940s pinup photograph. The videos from "16" were more 1940s gangster-themed. The cover of "16" features the subtitle "new directions in garage music", which is a homage to Miles Davis' Directions In music series. The only vocals on either album consisted mainly of choice snippets of audio lifted from the first two Godfather films and samples of Vanity simulating an orgasm (from the Vanity 6 outtake "Vibrator", later used on Prince's own song "Orgasm" from Come.) In 1987, Madhouse served as an opening act for Prince’s headlining tours, with each of the musicians heavily disguised in baggy cloaks and sunglasses, to be removed for the final set. Prince himself often guested with Madhouse, incognito.
At least three other Madhouse albums were later recorded and remain unreleased to this day, all three of them being named "24". The first one was recorded in 1988, mostly by Prince and Eric Leeds. Only one track eventually emerged, severely edited, on Eric Leeds'1991 solo-album Times Squared. The second one was recorded in 1993 with a line-up consisting of Prince (keyboards), Eric Leeds (saxophone), Levi Seacer, Jr. (guitar), Sonny T. (bass) and Michael B. (drums.) Only two tracks were officially released, "17" and"Asswhuppin' In A Trunk" in 2001, via Prince's website. . The third unreleased album is almost unknown since only two tracks are circulating: one was released in 1998 on a very rare promo-CD, and another one in 2001 on Prince's website. The two released tracks feature even more complex arrangements than the 1993 album, sort of announcing Prince's "New directions In Music" series from 2002-2003.
1 - Nine (2:06)
2 - Ten (5:04)
3 - Eleven (6:14)
4 - Twelve (5:14)
5 - Thirteen (4:46)
6 - Fourteen (5:12)
7 - Fifteen (3:49)
8 - Sixteen (4:17)
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Jesse Johnson - Every Shade Of Love ( 88 ^ 96mb)
Jesse Woods Johnson (born May 29, 1960 in Rock Island, Illinois) He moved to St. Louis at the age of 9 and was raised by foster parents after his parents split up. At age 16 he moved back to Rock Island to live with his father. Johnson began playing guitar when he was 15. On a friend's recommendation, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1981, where he met Morris Day and became the lead guitarist for the city's funk-rock group, The Time. Although Prince basically recorded the first two Time albums on his own with Morris Day, Johnson did contribute to the Vanity 6 project with a song called "Bite The Beat" co-written with Prince. On The Time's third album, Ice Cream Castle, Johnson contributed to the smash singles "The Bird" and "Jungle Love".
At the height of The Time's popularity following the Purple Rain, Johnson left the band and signed a solo deal with A&M Records in 1984 and released Jesse Johnson's Revue. Shockadelica containing the hit "Crazay", the duet with Sly Stone, and Every Shade of Love followed over the next 3 years, building on the inventive, elaborate sound he forged with The Time. Throughout the late eighties and early 1990s Johnson also featured on the soundtracks to The Breakfast Club contributing "Heart Too Hot To Hold", a duet with Stephanie Spruill, Pretty In Pink, Another 48 Hours and White Men Can't Jump.
By 1990 The Time reformed and issued Pandemonium, which was even more of a group effort than Ice Cream Castle. The album allowed Johnson to contribute his heavy hard rock guitar sound to several tracks. After the band dissolved once again, Johnson remained in the background for several years, quietly contributing to soundtracks and other artists. Finally in 1996, Johnson released another album, . The album was a departure from his funk-filled albums from the 1980s and instead verged into blues and hard rock. It is considered to be the true guitar album that Johnson fans had wanted from him since the beginning of his career.
1 - Love Struck (5:18)
2 - So Misunderstood (6:08)
3 - I'm The One (4:51)
4 - Color Shock (3:43)
5 - Every Shade Of Love (4:44)
6 - Everybody Wants Somebody To Love (3:49)
7 - I'm Just Wanting You (5:43)
8 - Stop-Look-Listen (3:30)
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Wendy & Lisa - Fruit At The Bottom ( 89 ^ 99mb)
Wendy Melvoin (vocals, guitar, bass guitar) and Lisa Coleman (vocals, keyboards) Best known for their collaborations with Prince in the early-mid 1980s, Melvoin and Coleman began their career as Wendy & Lisa in 1986. The two were childhood friends, both from musical families which often performed together; Wendy's father, Mike Melvoin, was an in-demand session musician, while Lisa's father, Gary Coleman was also an in-demand session musician for jazz artists. In 1980, Lisa Coleman replaced Gayle Chapman in Prince's touring band. In 1983, Dez Dickerson left, Lisa suggested Melvoin as a replacement. Prince accepted Melvoin into the band as they began to record Purple Rain. The film and album were a phenomenon, turning Prince and the newly named The Revolution into superstars. Prince's personal life also became intertwined with Melvoin's when he began dating her twin sister Susannah.
The team of Coleman and Melvoin worked extremely well together. Prince saw this and tapped their talents for the albums following Purple Rain. Their influence was particularly heard on several tracks on the Parade album, the soundtrack to Prince's film Under the Cherry Moon. In an ironic parallel to the conflicts in the film Purple Rain, the duo felt they were not getting the recognition and credit they deserved despite their growing contributions. During 1986 Wendy and Lisa became increasingly disillusioned with Prince, unhappy and vocal about their feelings, they were eventually convinced to remain with the band and to go on tour that year. By the end of the tour Prince had already decided he would dissolve The Revolution once the tour was complete. Hence, by October 1986, Coleman and Melvoin (along with Bobby Z.) were dismissed by Prince.
"Wendy and Lisa" (much like Sheila E.) are often miscategorized as being part of Prince's protégé harem. However, Melvoin and Coleman (like Sheila E.) were clearly professional musicians in their own right. Regardless of critical assessments of either Wendy and Lisa's or Prince's work, the duo definitely had an influence and impact on Prince's sound. The pop/blue eyed soul/funk hybrid can be heard on Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Parade. The next year, the duo released an album simply entitled Wendy and Lisa with Columbia Records. The lead single, "Waterfall" received some airplay, leaving the album a moderate success. Wendy and Lisa played almost all of the instruments on their self-titled debut and co-wrote most of the material with ex-Revolution drummer Bobby Z. The sound was a continuation of the ethereal/dance/R&B fusion that had been the hallmark of their work with Prince. In 1988, the duo added Melvoin's twin sister Susannah and recorded Fruit at the Bottom, a song cycle about the ups and downs of romance, the duo decided to incorporate dance-club beats and synthesizers into their music. The results were mixed. Though the album sounds more lively and slick than the debut, Wendy & Lisa came up short in the songwriting department.
After a few years, the duo signed with Virgin Records and released Eroica, an album with a more alternative rock feel. They had a minor radio and dance club hit with the single "Strung Out". In 1991, Virgin UK released Re-mix-In-a-Carnation, a selection of club mixes from the first three albums as remixed by producers like The Orb, William Orbit, and Nellee Hooper.
In the mid-Nineties, Wendy and Lisa worked on several movie projects with record producer Trevor Horn, and their first scoring work, for Dangerous Minds. During this period, they worked to record a full length album under Horn's production, however the project has never been released.
Feeling confined by the "Wendy and Lisa" moniker, and released a CD in 1998 under the name "Girl Bros". Their sound had begun to evolve on "Eroica" and while Girl Bros was still pop/funk based, it also could be categorized as alternative music. Melvoin and Coleman have made numerous contributions to film scores and to television themes (for example, they wrote theme music and background scores for TV-shows such as Crossing Jordan, Carnivàle and their newest venture Heroes.
The duo's somewhat erratic relationship with Prince has continued; in 2006, the duo accompanied Prince on-stage during his performance at the 2006 Brit Awards in London.. It was the first time in 20 years that the three had played together in front of a live audience (Sheila E. also joined the band on-stage).Prince's 2007 album "Planet Earth" features appearances by Wendy & Lisa on the songs "The One U Wanna C" and "Lion of Judah".
01 - Lolly Lolly (4:08)
02 - Are You My Baby (5:06)
03 - Satisfaction (4:53)
04 - Always In My Dreams (4:08)
05 - Everyday (4:04)
06 - From Now On (We’re One) (4:29)
07 - Tears Of Joy (4:38)
08 - Someday I (3:08)
09 - I Think It Was December (4:49)
10 - Fruit At The Bottom (4:25)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Alphabet Soup (K)
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King Crimson - Red (74 ^ 94mb)
King Crimson have typically been categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, although they incorporate diverse influences ranging from jazz, classical and experimental music to psychedelic, New Wave, hard rock, gamelan and folk music. King Crimson have garnered little radio or music video airplay, but gained a large cult following. Their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, is widely regarded as a landmark in progressive rock. Their later excursions into even more unconventional territory have been influential on many contemporary musical artists. Bands such as Genesis and Yes were influenced by the band's initial style of symphonic mellotron rock.Tool are widely held to have been heavily influenced by King Crimson. Nirvana are known to have been influenced by King Crimson as a result of Kurt Cobain having mentioned the importance of the Red album to him. The band Porcupine Tree is influenced by King Crimson, and as with Tool, King Crimson (in the form of ProjeKct Six) has been the support band at their shows. The angular, dissonant guitar patterns associated with Fripp’s distinctive approach are also evident in the music of Alt-Metal pioneers, Voivod, Primus is heavily influenced by the King Crimson sound, and Iron Maiden members credit the band as a reference for them....
King Crimson's membership has fluctuated considerably throughout their existence, with eighteen musicians and two lyricists passing through the ranks as full band members. Fripp, the only constant member of King Crimson, has arranged several distinct lineups, but has stated that he does not necessarily consider himself the band's leader. The new King Crimson that evolved in July 1972 (again with some personnel changes) marks a turn toward a heavier progressive sound, with experimental and fusion overtones, that climaxes mostly on their unique semi-improvisatory live performances throughout the whole 1973 with the release of Starless and Bible Black, January 1974. Most of that album was recorded from live performances with the live factor dismissed.
David Cross left and so John Wetton, Bill Bruford and Robert Fripp were left to record the new album, Red, be it with the help of musicians from previous KC albums.(David Cross - violin, Mel Collins - soprano saxophone, Ian McDonald - alto saxophone, Robin Miller - oboe, Marc Charig - cornet). Red has been described as "an impressive achievement" for a group about to disband, with "intensely dynamic" musical chemistry between the band members that resulted in a record "aggressive and loud enough to strip the wallpaper off your living room wall". Fripp, increasingly disillusioned with the music business, was turning his attention to the writings of the mystic George Gurdjieff, and did not want to tour as he felt that the "world was coming to an end". The Red line-up never toured, and two months before the album's release Fripp announced that King Crimson had "ceased to exist" and the group disbanded on September 25, 1974
Early in 1981, Fripp considered forming a new group, with no intention of reforming King Crimson. However, a step that led to this was contacting Bill Bruford to ask if he wanted to join the new band.Bruford agreed and the pair recruited Tony Levin, he brought a new sound with the use of the Chapman Stick, described as an "utterly original style" created by "one of New York City's most sought-after studio musicians".Fripp also contacted guitarist Adrian Belew, who was on tour with Talking Heads ] Fripp had never been in a band with another guitarist before so the decision to seek a second guitarist was indicative of Fripp's desire to create a sound unlike previous incarnations of King Crimson.Belew, who also became the band's singer and lyricist, joined following his tour with Talking Heads. The four played live in the first half of 1981 using the name Discipline.
By October 1981, the band had begun using the name King Crimson. The group released a trilogy of albums: Discipline in 1981, Beat in 1982, and Three of a Perfect Pair in 1984. Beat marked the first King Crimson album to have been recorded with the exact same band members as the album preceding it. After Three of a Perfect Pair, King Crimson disbanded for around a decade, during which time Fripp formed the record label Discipline Global Mobile for King Crimson and related projects, besides starting the Guitar Craft music school in 1985.
Ten years after (May 1994), King Crimson start rehearsing again, this time as a double trio (added to the four above, are Pat Mastelotto on percussion, and Trey Gunn on stick). It is in this time that the Discipline Global Mobile label is started, enabling for the first time Mr. Fripp and associates to release their own music by their own (high) standards. This "double trio" formation released the EP VROOOM in 1994, followed by the studio album THRAK in 1995, and the challenging avantgarde live album THRaKaTTaK in 1996. The new King Crimson sound featured elements of the interlocking guitars on Discipline and the heavy rock feel of Red
The double trio scheme will only release two full albums and various ep’s, yet it will lead to its “fractalization” to groups of three (or four), thus forming the ProjeKcts. Five such ProjeKcts will live and flourish (One, Two, Three, Four, and X), and their live and studio sessions will be released by DGM, along with numerous other recordings from all periods of King Crimson (some under the King Crimson Collector’s Club; bi-monthly releases for members only). In the hands of DGM, the King Crimson back catalogue (most late additions only on FLAC/MP3 format) grows enormously, making it one of the biggest for any rock group ever. By the time the ProjeKcts were complete, Bruford and Levin had ceased to be involved with King Crimson, Belew, Fripp, Gunn, and Mastelotto remained, releasing the studio album The ConstruKction of Light (2000), accompanied by the album Heaven and Earth released under the name ProjeKct X in the same year.
The band continued their activity throughout the decade. In 2002 the EP Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With was released,[51] and in 2003 the studio album The Power to Believe came out with the band touring in support of it. November 2003, Trey Gunn announced his departure from the band. Levin would become the active bassist of King Crimson again, with the subsequent line-up scheduled for rehearsals in 2008 and consisting of Fripp, Belew, Mastelotto, Levin plus a second drummer, Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree, who joined King Crimson in November 2007. They began rehearsals in March 2008.
01 - Red (6:20)
02 - Fallen Angel (6:00)
03 - One More Red Nightmare (7:07)
04 - Providence (8:08)
(Recorded at Palace Theatre, Providence, USA, 30 June 1974)
05 - Starless (12:18)
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Lenny Kravitz - Mama Said (91 ^ 99mb)
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz (born May 26, 1964, New York City) Lenny began banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, playing them as drums at the age of three, at the age of five, he wanted to be a musician. Kravitz grew up listening to the music his parents listened to: R&B, jazz, classical, opera, gospel, and blues. He began playing the drums and soon added guitar. In 1974, the Kravitz family relocated to Los Angeles when Kravitz's mother landed her role on The Jeffersons. At his mother's urging, Kravitz joined the California Boys Choir for three years, where he performed a classical repertoire, and sang with the Metropolitan Opera.
At the age of 15, determined to have a music career, Kravitz moved out , he stayed with friends, slept in friends' cars. Inspired by David Bowie and The New York Dolls, Kravitz adopted the nom de guerre, "Romeo Blue," a new persona complete with straightened hair, eyeliner and mascara, blue contact lenses, and began performing. Kravitz's music at this time was heavily influenced by the synth-laden funk pop of Prince. With his first demo, Kravitz received offers from several record labels, including I.R.S. Records, but was told he needed to change his music to either make it "black enough" to fit in with current radio-friendly R and B styles or to make it "whiter" to work as a rock artist "I refused," Kravitz told the Los Angeles Times in 1989. With record labels still telling him his music wasn't "black enough" or "white enough," Kravitz decided to record an album on his own. Kravitz began working on his debut album with Hirsch over the next year and a half, with his father paying for the studio time.
Kravitz released his debut album Let Love Rule on September 19, 1989, a combination of rock and funk with a general 1960s vibe. Music critics were mixed: some felt Kravitz was a gifted new artist, others felt he was overpowered by his musical influences. The album was a moderate success in the United States, but much bigger outside of the US, especially in Europe. In 1990, Kravitz co-wrote with Ingrid Chavez and produced the song "Justify My Love" for Madonna. The song, created controversy because of its explicit video, and thus went to #1. Kravitz separated from Lisa Bonet in 1991, amid rumors of an affair between him and Madonna. In 1991, he produced, played most of the instruments, and co-wrote most of the songs on the self-titled album of French singer Vanessa Paradis He also released his second album, Mama Said, which was his first album to reach the Top 40. The songs on the album were about Bonet and dedicated to her, documenting his depression over their breakup. Kravitz's biggest single yet, "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over", went to #2
In 1993, Are You Gonna Go My Way was released, reaching #12 on the Billboard 200 and Kravitz earned a BRIT Award for best international male artist in 1994. He released the album Circus in 1995, which went to number 10 on the Billboard chart on the back of his past achievement. However, the album only had two hit singles: "Rock and Roll Is Dead" and "Can't Get You Off My Mind". With 5 (1998), Kravitz embraced digital technology such as Pro Tools and samplers for the first time. The single "Fly Away" reached #1 on multiple charts. He would win the first of his four consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1999. His cover version of The Guess Who's hit "American Woman" won him another Grammy at the Grammy Awards of 2000 and helped The Guess Who's song reach a new audience. Kravitz's version of the song originally came from the soundtrack of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and was later added to 5 as a bonus track. The single "Again" earned him his third consecutive Grammy for the Best Male Rock Vocal in the Grammy Awards of 2001
Kravitz sixth album, Lenny was recorded in Miami and released in October 2001. He won his fourth Grammy in 2002. "Stillness of Heart", "Believe in Me", and "If I Could Fall In Love" were subsequent singles from the album. Kravitz's seventh album Baptism was released in May 2004. The first single was "Where Are We Runnin'?", "Storm", featuring Jay-Z, reached the charts. "Calling All Angels" was successful in various countries and a huge hit in Brazil, however it was "Lady", dedicated to his then girlfriend Nicole Kidman, became the album's surprise hit, making the US Top 30 and propelling "Baptism" to gold status. Lately, Kravitz has founded a design firm named Kravitz Design, focused on interior and furniture design, stating if he hadn't been a musician he would have been a designer. On January 17, 2008, Kravitz embarked on a 9 city mini-tour to promote his new album It Is Time for a Love Revolution. The tour started in Santa Monica, California and ended in New York City on February 1st. Ten days later he was in hospital with a severe bronchitis, which caused cancelling the European and South -Amercican tour to be cancelled. Not to worry the 44 year old is still alive and well working on his next bum, Funk
01 - Fields Of Joy (4:03)
02 - Always On The Run (3:57)
03 - Stand By My Woman (4:16)
04 - It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over (3:55)
05 - More Than Anything In This World (3:43)
06 - What Goes Around Comes Around (4:40)
07 - The Difference Is Why (4:48)
08 - Stop Draggin' Around (2:37)
09 - Flowers For Zoe (2:45)
10 - Fields Of Joy (Reprise) (3:57)
11 - All I Ever Wanted (4:04)
12 - When The Morning Turns To Night (2:58)
13 - What The .... Are We Saying? (5:10)
14 - Butterfly (1:45)
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Kaiser Chiefs - Employment ( 05 ^ 99mb)
When they were around eleven years old, Nick Hodgson, Nick Baines and Simon Rix met in the same class at St. Mary's School, Menston just outside Leeds. After leaving school, Rix and Baines left for university in 1996 whereas Hodgson remained in the Leeds area, meeting both Andrew White and Ricky Wilson. Hodgson, White and Wilson formed the band Runston Parva. The group would re-form as Parva upon the return of Rix and Baines from university. Parva's career would go beyond the boundaries of Leeds, and the band was able to obtain a record deal in 2001. However, the label closed down soon after, leaving Parva desolate and without any direction. The band decided that they would would aim for a longer term record deal and started afresh with new songs and a new name: Kaiser Chiefs. The new name was taken from South African football club Kaizer Chiefs, where former Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe had once played.
The group's debut album Employment was released in March 2005, on the B-Unique record label and went on to becoming the fourth best-selling album in the United Kingdom that year. Being primarily inspired by new wave and punk rock music of late 1970s.[3] The album was well received by music critics, described as "thrilling from beginning to end" and "quintessentially British, without pretension and most importantly, a whole lot of fun. The first single released from the album was "Oh My God" in 2004, which reached number six on the UK singles chart when it was reissued in February 2005. "I Predict a Riot" soon followed as the album's second release.Originally the album charted at #3 in the UK Albums Chart, but charted one place higher at #2 almost a year after its release, due to the bands success at the Brit Awards. Glastonbury 2005 was the Kaiser's festival. With dreaded weather the band played the main stage on the Saturday afternoon and again had the crowd eating out of the palm of its (collective) hand.
Kaiser Chiefs' second album Yours Truly, Angry Mob was released in February 2007. The group recorded the album throughout the September and October of 2006, and recorded over twenty-two songs at Hook End Studio in Oxfordshire.
Unlike Employment, the album received mixed reviews from critics who found it to be "an album full of jukebox hits" and "predictable". "Ruby", the album's lead single, became Kaiser Chiefs' first UK number one single. Yours Truly, Angry Mob reached number one on the UK albums chart and number forty-five on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Kaiser Chiefs recently scrapped most of their autumn US tour saying they were too anxious to begin recording their third full length album. Mark Ronson along with Eliot Jameswill be producing the forthcoming third album to be released coming fall. They can be seen at several festivals this summer , and headline the Friday night of this years Isle of Wight Festival.
01 - Everyday I Love You Less And Less (3:37)
02 - I Predict A Riot (3:53)
03 - Modern Way (4:03)
04 - Na Na Na Na Naa (3:00)
05 - You Can Have It All (4:35)
06 - Oh My God (3:34)
07 - Born To Be A Dancer (3:30)
08 - Saturday Night (3:26)
09 - What Did I Ever Give You? (4:09)
10 - Time Honoured Tradition (2:45)
11 - Caroline, Yes (4:10)
12 - Team Mate (3:24)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Eight-X (37)
Hello, Eight-X and more eighties vinyl coming up. The first band wasn't very clever coming up with a geriatric name like Music For Pleasure, music for money lads, or music for a future ..to prod them punks a little.. it didn't happen for them, by 82 /83 the market became flooded by major labels pushing their bands against the independents. Into The Rain, again an odd choice for a title, it did get a succesful producer, so the resulting synth wave certainly didn't dissapoint...How time flies, its been 15 weeks already since i posted Thomas Dolby debut album, his quality follow-up here seemed to establish him as a new force in synth pop, but productionwork and filmscores derailed that career...Finally a band taking their name from the answer to the universe and everything ..42 (HitchHikersGuide To The Galaxy), i picked up Level Best a few weeks ago and i thought i'd share it with you'll...
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Music For Pleasure - Into The Rain (82 ^84mb)
Founded in Leeds circa 1979 by Mark Copson (Vocals), David Whitaker (Keyboards), Martin King (Bass) and Christopher Oldroyd (Drums). (Obviously) influenced by the punk scene, Krautrock and sounding very "new wave-ish" they went on to release a couple of singles on the Rage label.
In 1982 they signed a contract with Polydor (Martin King was replaced by Ivor Roberts) and released their first Lp "Into The Rain", great synth wave/pop, produced by legendary Mike Hedges. "Blacklands". was releassed the following year, meanwhile Polydor lost interest and dropped them. Music For Pleasure went on to release some records on their own label called Whirlpool, before disbanding in 1985. Mark Copson and David Whitaker have been involved with The Danse Society (circa '86), and drummer Christopher Oldroyd appeared on Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's "Paint The Wagon"
01 - Light (3:34)
02 - Switchback (3:23)
03 - Nostalgia (3:18)
04 - Time (3:27)
05 - New Day (5:18)
06 - Lost Detail (3:07)
07 - Winterscene (3:24)
08 - Aim To Life (2:58)
09 - Warehouse (2:53)
10 - Underworld (5:01)
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Thomas Dolby - The Flat Earth (84 ^99mb)
Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson, on 14 October 1958) is an English musician, producer, and inventor. Thomas was father, Martin Robertson, was an internationally-distinguished professor of classical Greek art and archaeology at the University of London and Oxford University, and in his youth Thomas lived or worked in Greece and France. Thomas married actress Kathleen Beller in 1988; the couple have three children together.
Dolby's interest in music arose through his interest in computers, electronics and synthesizers. He originally attended college to study meteorology, but he was soon side-tracked by electronics, specifically musical equipment. He began building his own synthesizers when he was 18 years old. Around the same time, he began to learn how to play guitar and piano, as well as how to program computers. The "Dolby" nickname comes from the name Dolby Laboratories, and was given to him by school friends due to his seemingly inseparable relationship with his cassette machine. Dolby Laboratories tried to stop him from using the name Dolby entirely. Eventually, the case was settled out of court and it was agreed that he would refrain from using the word Dolby in any context other than with the name Thomas.
In his late teens, Dolby was hired as a touring sound engineer for a variety of post-punk bands, including the Fall, the Passions and the Members; on these dates, he would use a PA system he had built himself. In 1979, he formed the arty post-punk band Camera Club with Bruce Woolley, Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Matthew Seligman. Within a year, he had left the group and joined Lene Lovich's backing band. Dolby gave Lovich his song "New Toy," which became a British hit in 1981. That same year, he released his first solo single, "Urges," on the English independent label Armageddon. By the fall, he had signed with Parlophone and released "Europa and the Pirate Twins." Dolby started playing synthesizer on sessions for other artists in 1982. He wrote and produced "Magic's Wand" for Whodini; the single became one of the first million-selling rap singles. Even with all of these achievements, 1982 was most noteworthy for the release of Dolby's first solo album, The Golden Age of Wireless, in the summer of 1982; the record reached number 13 in England, while it was virtually forgotten in America. "Windpower," the first single from the record, became his first Top 40 UK hit .
Dolby's second album, The Flat Earth holds up considerably well since its 1984 release. This staying power belongs to a fantastic ensemble of supporting players as much as to Dolby's songwriting and crisp production. The album was supported by the single "Hyperactive." The single became his biggest UK hit. Though The Flat Earth did relativly well in the US , Dolby's momentum was already beginning to slow -- none of the singles released from the album cracked the American Top 40. Nevertheless, Dolby was in demand as a collaborator and he worked with Herbie Hancock, Howard Jones, Stevie Wonder, George Clinton, and Dusty Springfield. During 1985, he produced Clinton's Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends, Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen (Two Wheels Good in the US), and Joni Mitchell's Dog Eat Dog, as well as supporting David Bowie at Live Aid. Also in 1985, he began composing film scores, starting with Fever Pitch. In 1986, he composed the scores for Gothic and Howard the Duck, to which he credited himself as Dolby's Cube. Aliens Ate My Buick, Dolby's long-delayed third album, appeared in 1988 to poor reviews and weak sales, even though the single "Airhead" became a minor British hit.
For the rest of the late '80s and early '90s, Dolby continued to score films, producing and he began building his own computer equipment. His fourth album, Astronauts & Heretics, was released in 1992 on his new label, Giant the album was a flop. The following year, Dolby founded the computer software company Headspace, which released The Virtual String Quartet as its first program. For the rest of the '90s, Headspace occupied most of Dolby's time and energy. In 1994, he released The Gate to the Mind's Eye, a soundtrack to the videotape Mind's Eye. Also that year, Capitol released the greatest-hits collection, Retrospectacle.
1 - Dissidents (4:57)
2 - The Flat Earth (6:41)
3 - Screen Kiss (5:33)
4 - White City (5:20)
5 - Mulu The Rain Forest (5:00)
6 - I Scare Myself (5:36)
7 - Hyperactive! (4:14)
--Xs
8 - Dissidents (the search for truth pt 2) (5:54)
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Level 42 - Level Best ( 89 * 99mb)
Before Phil Gould, Mark King and Wally Badarou were members of the pop band M, during 1979. Level 42 was formed in 1980 as a jazz-funk fusion band. The Gould brothers, drummer Phil and guitarist Boon, together with then drummer Mark King all came from the Isle of Wight and had played together in various bands during their teenage years. Initially the band was signed to a small independent record label, Elite Records, after being seen jamming together. Shortly after they released the single "Love Meeting Love", they came to the attention of Polydor Records and signed to them. One of the performers on that track, renowed synthesiser / instrumental keyboardist Wally Badarou, would later become Level 42's longtime co-producer and although he only ever played in the studio with them, he was known as the band's unofficial "fifth member".
In 1981 they released "Love Games", a top 40 hit. They then cut their critically acclaimed, self-titled debut album. This became an immediate success throughout Europe. The following year, a second album The Pursuit of Accidents was made, and singles from the album, first "Weave Your Spell" and then "The Chinese Way" were released, both charting. The album went on to become a huge seller. In between, Polydor released The Early Tapes, recorded in the early days of the band when they were signed to the Elite label. A fourth album Standing in the Light generated their first top ten hit in the UK in 1983, "The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up)". This album debuted a new era for the band, less experimental and jazzy than previous releases. The quartet followed that with the album True Colours in 1984, which veered between funk, power pop, midtempo rock and moody ballads. It yielded the singles "The Chant Has Begun" and "Hot Water"
Released in late 1985, World Machine broke the band worldwide; "Lessons in Love" hit number one in Britain and "Something About You" hit number seven in America. Their next two records, Running in the Family became their biggest seller, reaching the top five in numerous countries, and cemented this poppy musical direction, with King's bass and Lindup and Badarou's chugging keyboards, it made little headway in the U.S. Both of the Gould brothers left the band in late 1987, exhausted and dissatisfied with the musical direction the band had taken. They were replaced by guitarist Alan Murphy and drummer Gary Husband. Murphy died of AIDS-related diseases in 1989. During the early 1990s, the group tried to blend more of their earlier influences, into their sound and Husband asked Allan Holdsworth to provide some guitar work for the album Guaranteed. Though well-received, especially by US music critics, many of their jazz-funk fans did not like the set's mostly progressive / rock-oriented style, and meanwhile the pop music scene in the UK had moved in a different direction. 1994's Forever Now album marked the return of Phil Gould (as studio drummer and principal lyricist), the album saw the group move closer to its R&B-jazz roots. Alas, the fruitful (part) reunion was short-lived and musicians had to be sought for the live -tour which fell apart halfway as Level 42 disbanded.
Mark King went on and formed his own band, increasingly King and his band were playing more and more Level 42 tracks, so in late 2001, King came to a business agreement with Mike Lindup for the rights to the name Level 42 (Lindup agreed to play on future albums, but did not want to tour). A new album, Retroglide was announced in February 2006 with a supporting tour, chiefly recorded by King and co-written by Boon Gould. It also has some contributions from Mike Lindup on keyboards/vocals, May 2006, just prior to the start of the tour in October, it was announced that Mike Lindup would return full time on keyboards.
Level Best is a thorough overview of the smooth, jazzy sophisti-pop outfit, containing all of their biggest hits and best material, it's as comprehensive a summary of Level 42's career as could be hoped.
01 - Running In The Family (3:53)
02 - The Sun Goes Down (3:40)
03 - Something About You (3:39)
04 - Tracie (3:20)
05 - Starchild (3:47)
06 - It's Over (4:32)
07 - Hot Water (3:31)
08 - Take Care Of Yourself (4:28)
09 - Heaven In My Hands (4:03)
10 - Children Say (4:17)
11 - Love Games (4:21)
12 - The Chinese Way (3:52)
13 - Leaving Me Now (3:27)
14 - Lessons In Love (3:53)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
Monday, June 23, 2008
Around the World (37)
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Adrian Sherwood and his famed On-U Sound label pioneered a distinctive fusion of dub, rock and dance which made waves not only in roots circles but also in the pop mainstream. Born in 1958, Sherwood first surfaced during the late '70s at the helm of a series of disastrously short-lived labels; he formed On-U Sound in 1979, counting Creation Rebel, Prince Far I, Bim Sherman, and the Mothmen (later to form Simply Red) among the roster's earliest additions. While the On-U Sound crew's original focus was on live sound system performances, the emphasis soon switched to making records; when none emerged as a breakout success, Sherwood began mixing and matching line-ups, resulting in new acts including New Age Steppers, African Head Charge, Mark Stewart & Maffia and Dr. Pablo & the Dub Syndicate.
Sherwood's distinctive production style soon began attracting interest from acts outside of the dub community, but reggae remained the label's focus. In 1984, while working for US label Tommy Boy (remixing) , he met Keith LeBlanc, after a productive meeting, McDonald and Wimbish later joined them in London, to begin work on a new project which they christened, Fats Comet. LeBlanc's beat, pitched with Sherwood's dub methodology, taken it to the limit created a unique media where the heavily distorted sound of McDonald s guitar and Wimbish's funky bass made things complete. Sherwood soon recruited the onetime house band at the famed rap label Sugar Hill, the trio brought new power and definition to the On-U's densely-textured recordings. Not only as a band (Fats Comet, Tackhead, Strange Parcels and Little Axe) but as On U studio musicians aswell.
By the mid-1980s, Sherwood was among the most visible producers and remixers in all of contemporary music. He became increasingly involved in industrial music as the decade wore on, producing tracks for Cabaret Voltaire, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM and Nine Inch Nails, and although On-U Sound continued to reflect its leader's eclectic tastes the label remained a top reggae outlet. In 1994, Sherwood mounted Pressure Sounds, a new label dedicated to reissuing seminal reggae and dub releases from the likes of Lee "Scratch" Perry, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo, Jackie Mittoo and Horace Andy. 1997 also saw the first in a new series of reissues known collectively as the On-U Sound Master Recordings, complete with CD-ROM tracks.
The On-U vibe was democratic, leftfield, determinedly non-materialistic and unashamedly idealistic. With it, Sherwood created a niche. "It gave us an identity among like-minded people," he offers. "Anything with the On-U tag on it will sell a few thousand copies around the world, to people who know that we"ve been true to our spirit of making things. The legacy of his use of technology, particularly the then unheard of use of ambience and delay, is evident to anyone familiar with today"s club scene.
the master at work
Adrian Sherwood RBMA video lecture session Pt.1
Adrian Sherwood RBMA video lecture session Pt.2
Productions page at Rho-Xs , discover Sherwoods Forest, here .
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Adrian Sherwood - Becoming A Cliché / Dub Cliché ( 06, 120min ^ 249mb)
It's taken him long to finally release an album under his own name. It's a much more vocal record than his debut solo effort, 2003's Never Trust a Hippy( as in babyboomer) . On Becoming A Cliché he expands his musical horizons, keeping most of his grooves in an adventurously dubwise but still deeply rootsy reggae-funk vein while promiscuously incorporating any other musical tradition that happens to strike his fancy at the same time. Being the modest man that he is he kind off showcases some new talent, like the multi-talented French-Tunisian singer/songwriter Samia Farah whose paintings and design provides the artwork for ‘Cliché’ aswell. This is an album where Gregorian chants meet melodica solos, where cinema soundtrack samples collide with analogue distortion, it's an exuberant mixture from a true sonic pioneer, one that serves as a thrilling reminder of the possibilities of reggae in the 21st century.
Adrian Sherwood - Becoming A Cliché ( ^ 149mb)
01 - Animal Magic (Voc.Lee Perry) (4:20)
02 - Two Versions Of The Future (3:57)
03 - A Piece Of The Earth (Voc.Little Roy)(5:25)
04 - Monastery Of Sound (4:53)
05 - Dennis Bovine Part 1 (Tribute To Blackbeard) (Voc.Dennis Bovell ) (4:55)
06 - J'Ai Changé (Voc.Samia Farah) (5:35)
07 - You Wonder Why (Voc.LSK Kenny) (5:21)
08 - The House Of Games (4:40)
09 - Nu Rizla (Voc.Bim Sherman) (4:29)
10 - St Peter's Gate (Voc.LSK Kenny) (5:33)
11 - Home Sweet Home ( Voc. Mark Stewart) (4:34)
12 - Forgive Yourself (3:41)
13 - All Hands On Desk (3:59)
14 - Stop The Bloodshed (Voc.Raiz)(5:30)
diet version
Adrian Sherwood - Becoming A Cliché (* 99mb)
Adrian Sherwood - Dub Cliché ( ^ 99mb)
2-01 - Monkey See, Monkey Dub (4:02)
2-02 - Dubshed (Voc. Dennis Alcapone) (4:44)
2-03 - Zoo Time (4:31)
2-04 - Clichéd Dub Slave (Voc.Dennis Bovell ) (3:52)
2-05 - The Noise From Brazil (4:41)
2-06 - Stepping Crowd (5:06)
2-07 - Sans Toupee (3:58)
2-08 - Silly Billy Remix By Activator (Voc. Simon Bogle) (4:41)
2-09 - Moving House (5:15)
2-10 - J'Ai Dubé (3:58)
2-11 - Dennis Bovine Pt 2 (Voc.Dennis Bovell ) (3:59)
2-12 - Silly Old Dub (4:29)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
In the Garden + Oe & Pamuk on Writing
So far, most of the perennials have returned: among the herbs, two types of sage, African and pineapple, are back, as is the lavender, the rosemary, the mint, the lemon balm, and the thyme. C. planted dill and basil, which are also flourishing. A colleague asked how to keep basil growing from year to year, and I haven't figured out an answer yet; every time I've planted and harvested it that's been the ended of it, but perhaps other gardeners have some thoughts on this. Slightly limey soil does seem to help it take root.
Among the flowers, the roses, rhododendrons, azaleas, and honeysuckle have all bloomed, and the hydrangeas are now in spectacular form. The fruits and vegetables are also in very good shape: the blueberry bush I bought is in the ground, alongside the other, the two different types of strawberries are already growing, as are the blackberries, whose bushes are again creeping across the lawn, and brussel sprouts, red cabbage, collard greens, tomatoes, and peppers are also emerging.
In general, the backyard is turning into an English garden. I will take more photos when we get a respite from the rain and I can take the lawnmower to it.
Here are some photos:
The hydrangeas, after a rainstorm
The blackberry bushes in front (the blueberries are hidden), with the honeysuckle canopy behind it
Mint
Two types of hosta, growing in what was once a bare patch at the back of the yard
Red cabbage (some of the leaves have proved delicious for caterpillars)
Rosemary and pineapple sage
Budding strawberries (which have since disappeared--a cat? a rabbit? an opossum?)
African sage, with tiny basil sprigs at left, and peppers (?)
Tomatoes and dill (the wispy sprigs at right)
Brusssel sprouts (at left), peppers, African sage
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Daily Yomiuri Online newspaper offers a brief snippet of a conversation with two of the leading international writers, Turkish Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk (whose highly praised novel Snow I finally finished after months of sustained effort), and Japanese Nobel Laureate Oe Kenzaburo (whose Seventeen is one of the best novels I've ever read about a far-right young nut). From the interview:
Oe: I believe poetry is the best kind of literature. I wrote my first poem as a primary school student. I looked inside a dewdrop on a persimmon leaf and found another world inside it, and wrote about it in a short poem. Unfortunately, I could not become a poet, but in my novels I continue to claim the existence of other worlds.
My writing style involves repeated rewrites. These revisions comprise 80 percent of my life as a novelist. I am trying to achieve a kind of polyphonic expression that I learned from [Russian novelist Fyodor] Dostoyevsky. I want to create a collective voice expressing a truth that transcends the voices of individuals. This can be achieved in a novel, but not in poetry.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Aldous Huxley (1)
*****
Aldous Huxley was born in 1894 in England to two very aristocratic parents, Leonard and Julia Huxley. Huxley’s family possessed both scientific and literary fame throughout Europe. Indeed young Aldous had much to live up to. As a teenager, Huxley was enrolled in Eton, the legendary university. Soon he developed a bizarre eye disease which left him blind for over two years. Needless to say, this event dramatically changed Huxley, who decided to be a writer instead of a medical doctor. He reminisces, "...I should infallibly have killed myself in the much more strenuous profession of medicine." However, Huxley was no stranger to work, even in the literary world. The great author had an incredibly productive writing career for nearly four decades, concluding at the time of his death in November of 1963.
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1932 while he was living in France and England (a British writer, he moved to California in 1937). By this time, Huxley had already established himself as a writer and social satirist. He was a contributor to Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, had published a collection of his poetry (The Burning Wheel, 1916) and four successful satirical novels: Crome Yellow in 1921, Antic Hay in 1923, Those Barren Leaves in 1925 and Point Counter Point in 1928. Brave New World was Huxley's fifth novel and first attempt at a dystopian work.
The world the novel describes is a dystopia, presented satirically: humanity lives in a carefree, healthy, and technologically advanced society; however, art, science, religion, and all other forms of human expression have been sacrificed to create this "Brave New World". Warfare and poverty have been eliminated and everyone is permanently happy due to government-provided conditioning and drugs. The irony is that all of these things have been achieved by eliminating many things that humans consider to be central to their identity - family, culture, art, literature, science, religion (other than idolization of "our Ford", Henry Ford, who is seen as the father of their society), and philosophy. It is also a hedonistic society, deriving pleasure from promiscuous sex and drug use, in the form of soma, a powerful psychotropic rationed by the government that is taken to escape pain and bad memories through hallucinatory fantasies, referred to as "Holidays".
Huxley was able to use the setting and characters from his futuristic fantasy to express widely held opinions, particularly the fear of losing individual identity in the fast-paced world of the future. An early trip to the United States gave Brave New World much of its character.
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"Brave New World" was originally broadcast as the series premiere, in two parts, on January 27 and February 3rd, 1956. Aldous Huxley himself narrated this hour long adaptation of his dystopic novel of a quickly nearing future in which society manufactures babies for specific roles in life and people control and mellow their experience with the drug Soma.... The government uses technology and science, not threats and bribes, to control its population.
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World Pt 1 (23mb)
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Some quotations by Aldous Huxley...
"We are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy, who have always existed and presumably will always exist, to get people to love their servitude. This is the, it seems to me, the ultimate in malevolent revolutions."
"Given the fact that there are these 20% of highly suggestible people, it becomes quite clear that this is a matter of enormous political importance, for example, any demagogue who is able to get hold of a large number of these 20% of suggestible people and to organize them is really in a position to overthrow any government in any country."
"If there are 20% of the people who really can be suggested into believing almost anything, then we have to take extremely careful steps into prevent the rise of demagogues who will drive them on into extreme positions then organize them into very, very dangerous armies, private armies which may overthrow the government."
"The really interesting thing about the new chemical substances, the new mind-changing drugs is this, if you looking back into history it’s clear that man has always had a hankering after mind changing chemicals, he has always desired to take holidays from himself, but this is the most extraordinary effect of all that every natural occurring narcotic stimulant, sedative, or hallucinogen, was discovered before the dawn of history. "Man was apparently a dope-bag addict before he was a farmer, which is a very curious comment on human nature."
the full text of Aldous Huxley - Brave New World (rtf) (220kb)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !