Rhotation (39) Into BPM

Hello, it's Rhotation 39 this week and Into BPM today is all about remixes. Some people dislike remixes, i'm not one of them, in fact i like the concept of remixes. Obviously it does not always turn out well, but then often it enhances the power of a track, giving it more life. The albums here are all remixes of one artist and these showcase were remixers can go with material. With Blondie they had a hard time as the tracks had all been big hits, some previously remixed in early eighties dance fashion, coming up with a real innovative view turned out diffecult for most, and dare i say i got the impression the label that hired them wasnt that interested in spending money either....How different the attitude towards Sarah McLachlan's remixed album, here a successful crossover to trancemusic was achieved, triggered by the success of a previous single with trance band Delerium and specially thru the remix by trancemaster Tiesto. It clearly inspired the other remixers to give it their best shot aswell....Laibach have a name when it comes to reworking old material, which gave the remixers all the room to take out all registers and make this remix collection well worth the time...Reinventing James Brown can be dangerous and when this album came to market a month after his death it got largely ignored by the press and public. A pity because there's really good remix work at hand and i think had he lived single success would have been on the cards. It was not to be, despite the outstanding work that left the hardest working man in showbusiness right in the middle.....

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Blondie - Beautiful - The Remix Album (95 ^ 135mb)

In the early 1970s, Chris Stein moved to New York City and, inspired by the New York Dolls, aimed to join a similar band. He joined The Stilettos in 1973 as their guitarist and formed a romantic relationship with the band's vocalist, Deborah Harry. A former waitress and Playboy Bunny. Stein and Harry formed a new band with drummer Billy O'Connor and bassist Fred Smith. By 1975, Smith and O'Connor had left, and the line-up was Stein and Harry plus drummer Clem Burke, keyboard player Jimmy Destri and bass player Gary Valentine. Originally billed as Angel and the Snake the band renamed themselves Blondie in late 1975. They became regulars at New York's Club 51, Max's Kansas City and CBGB. Blondie got their first record deal with Private Stock Records in the mid-'70s and released their debut album Blondie in 1976

In August 77, Chrysalis Records bought their contract from Private Stock and in October reissued Blondie and released the second album, Plastic Letters. Blondie expanded to a sextet in November with the addition of bassist Nigel Harrison (born in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, England), as Infante switched to guitar. Plastic Letters was promoted extensively throughout Europe and Asia by Chrysalis Records. The album's first single, "Denis", was a cover version of Randy and the Rainbows' 1963 hit. It reached number two on the British singles charts, while both the album and its second single, "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear", reached the British top ten. That chart success, along with a successful 1978 UK tour, made Blondie one of the first American new wave bands to achieve mainstream success in the United Kingdom.

Parallel Lines, Blondie's third album, was produced by Mike Chapman. Its first two singles were "Picture This" and "Hanging on the Telephone". "Heart of Glass" was their first U.S. hit. It was a reworking of a rock song that the group had performed since its formation, but updated with strong elements of disco music. Clem Burke later said the revamped version was inspired partly by Kraftwerk and partly by the Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive". Heart of Glass became a popular worldwide success. Selling more than one million copies and garnering major airplay, the single reached number one in many countries including the U.S., where, for the most part, Blondie had previously been considered an "underground" band. The song was accompanied by a music video that showcased Deborah Harry's hard-edged and playfully sexual persona, and she began to attain a celebrity status that set her apart from the other band members, who were largely ignored by the media, and thereby laid the groundwork for Blondie's demise......

Their fourth album, Eat to the Beat, was well received by critics as a suitable follow-up to Parallel Lines, but in the U.S. it failed to achieve the same level of success. In the UK, the single "Atomic" reached number one, "Dreaming" number two, and "Union City Blue" was another top 20 hit, while in the U.S. their singles did not chart as strongly.

Meanwhile, Harry was collaborating with German disco producer Giorgio Moroder on "Call Me," the theme from the movie American Gigolo. It became Blondie's second transatlantic chart-topper. Blondie's fifth album, Autoamerican, was released in November 1980, and its first single was the reggae-cover "The Tide Is High," which went to number one in the U.S. and U.K. The second single was the rap-oriented "Rapture," which topped the U.S. pop charts and went Top Ten in the U.K. But the band's eclectic style reflected a diminished participation by its members -- Infante sued, charging that he wasn't being used on the records, though he settled and stayed in the lineup.

In 1981, the members of Blondie worked on individual projects, notably Harry's gold-selling solo album, KooKoo. The Best of Blondie was released in the fall of the year. The Hunter, Blondie's sixth album, was released in May 1982, preceded by the single "Island of Lost Souls," a Top 40 hit in the U.S. and U.K. "War Child" also became a Top 40 hit in the U.K., but The Hunter was a commercial disappointment. At the same time, Stein became seriously ill with the genetic disease pemphigus. As a result, Blondie broke up in October 1982, with Deborah Harry launching a part-time solo career while caring for Stein, who eventually recovered.

In the nineties EMI and Chrysalis Records cashed in some more and released several compilations and collections of remixed versions of some of their biggest hits. One of which is Beautiful, a rather ironic title when at the time 95, Debbie was rather volumunous. The remixes on the album which was re-released in a slightly different order and tracklisting are rather inconsistant, Blondie deserved better i think.

In 1998, the original lineup of Harry, Stein, Destri, and Burke reunited to tour Europe, their first series of dates in 16 years; a new LP, No Exit, followed early the next year. After more touring, this was followed by another album the dissapointing, The Curse of Blondie, in 2003, and a DVD of the Live by Request program from A&E was released in 2004. In 2006, Blondie celebrated their 30th anniversary with induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the release of Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision, a best-of collection that contained all their classic videos as well. This week they kicked off a new world tour at the amphitheatre in Ra'anana, Israel.



01 - Union City Blues (Diddy's Power And Passion Mix) (8:34)
02 - Dreaming (Utah Saints Mix) (6:21)
03 - Rapture (K-Klassic Radio Mix) (4:21)
04 - Heart Of Glass (Diddy's Adorable Illusion Mix) (7:26)
05 - Sunday Girl (Hardly Handbag Mix) (7:35) 
06 - Call Me (Debbie Does Dallas) (6:19)
07 - Atomic (Diddy's 12" Mix) (6:50)
08 - The Tide Is High (Sand Dollar Mix) (7:04) 
09 - Hanging On The Telephone (Blu Peter Nose Bleed Handbag Mix) (6:10)
10 - Fade Away & Radiate (Black Dog 108BPM Mix) (5:18)
11 - Dreaming (The Sub-Urban Dream Mix) (5:57)
12 - Atomic (Armand's Short Circuit Mix) (5:07)

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Sarah McLachlan - Remixed( 01 ^ 162mb)

Sarah McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968, and adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. McLachlan signed to Nettwerk in 87 before having written a single song.This prompted her to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. There she recorded the first of her albums, Touch, in 1988, which received both critical and commercial success and included the hit song "Vox". Her 1991 album, Solace, was her mainstream breakthrough in Canada, spawning the hit singles "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into the Fire". 1994's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was an immediate smash hit in Canada. From her Nettwerk connection, her piano version of the song "Possession" was included on the first Due South soundtrack in 1996. Over the next two years, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy quietly became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the charts in a number of countries.

McLachlan returned in 1997 with Surfacing, her best selling album to date. Earning her two Grammy awards and four Junos, the album has since sold over 11 million copies worldwide and brought her much international success. Still in the spotlight from the album, McLachlan launched the highly popular Lilith Fair tour. It brought together 2 million people over its three-year history and raised more than $7 million for charities. It was the most successful all-female music festival in history. In 1997, McLachlan co-wrote and provided guest vocals on the Delerium song "Silence" for their album Karma . This song achieved a massive amount of top 40 airplay when released as a single in late 2000. 1999's multi-platinum Mirrorball chronicled McLachlan's performances on that tour and was her first live release. 

In 2001 she released a trance-remix album, certainly not the style of music McLachlan is known for, but it would reach a new audience demographic that can at the very least appreciate her gorgeous voice. Once McLachlan's vocals are introduced to these generic trance-dance pieces, there's no mistaking what songs they are from, since verse and chorus are left mostly intact., The DJs work hard to give more dynamics to her ethereal, waif-like voice, lifted from four different albums' worth of material. In 2003, after a short hiatus from the business, she put out the successful Afterglow, followed by the live CD/DVD Afterglow Live. The album eventually went four-times platinum, the DVD double platinum, and McLachlan continued to tour through 2005.



01 - Fear (Hybrid's Super Collider Mix edit) (6:48)
02 - Sweet Surrender (DJ Tiësto Mix) (7:03)
03 - Angel (Dusted Remix) (5:29)
04 - I Love You (BT Mix) (9:00)
05 - Silence (DJ Tiësto's In Search Of Sunrise Remix) (11:31)
06 - Black (William Orbit Mix) (6:58)
07 - Possession (Rabbit In The Moon Mix) (5:52)
08 - Hold On (BT Mix) (7:43)
09 - Plenty (Fade Mix) (10:23)

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Laibach - Anthems Remix ( 04 ^ 179mb)

I posted Anthems one two days ago and as announced then here's the other. The two descriptors Laibach dislike the most -- Teutonic and Wagnerian -- best describe the Slovenian band for newcomers, but as Anthems displays, they're much more than that. The second disc of remixes is the real treat for the faithful, rounding up hard to find 12"s and offering a fractured, aggressive, and even more menacing view of the band. Smart choices like Umek, Richie Hawtin, and Philipp Erb strip the music down to the bare essentials and Detroit the heck out of the tunes. Sounding unlike any of the other remixes but just as welcome, the mysteriously named Kraftbach rip apart "Geburt Einer Nation" with equal parts smirk and scowl and enough robotic bleeping to make you think a Ralf or Florian were involved. For an impossible-to-compile band, Anthems is as good as it gets and fully justifies itself.





01 - Das Spiel Ist Aus (Ouroborots Mix) (4:06) 
02 - Liewerk - 3.Oktober (Kraftbach Mix) (4:21) 
03 - Wir Tanzen Ado Hynkel (Zeta Reticula Remix) (5:39)
04 - Final Countdown (Beyond The Infinite Juno Reactor Mix) (7:38) 
05 - God Is God (Optical Vocal Mix) (5:44)
06 - War (Ultraviolence Meets Hitman Mix) (6:19) 
07 - God Is God (Diabolig Mix) (3:36) 
08 - Final Countdown (Mark Stent Alternate Mix) (5:48) 
09 - Wirtschaft Ist Tot (Late Night Mix) (5:23) 
10 - Jesus Christ Superstar (Random Logic Mix) (6:22)* 
11 - Wirtschaft Ist Tot (R. Hawtin Hardcore Noise Mix) (5:18) 
12 - Brat Moj (Random Logic Mix) (5:10) 
13 - Smrt Za Smrt (Octex Mix) (7:02) 
14 - Wat (iTurk Mix) (5:29)

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James Brown - Dynamite X (07 ^ 99mb)

In 2006, a select group of international producers, musicians and DJs set out to pay tribute to "Soul Brother Number One." For once "The Hardest Working Man In Show Business" was able to kick back and let others do the work. Unfortunately upon release jan 07 JB passed the peas for the last time and all nostalgic attention was on his great body of work, remixes were close to sacrelige. Hence this collection of fascinating remixes of James Brown's classic hits got largely snubbed..understandible at the time but undeservedly. The variety of approaches in these reworkings is outstanding; each artist explores his own personal "James Brown cosmos" and leaves behind an exceptional musical fingerprint. Still "Soul Brother Number One." rose above it all "It's got to be funky!"...and it is.



01 - Sex Machine (Readymade Jazz Defector Remix) (5:37)
02 - Give It Up Or Turn It Lose (Dzihan & Kamien Remix) (4:02)
03 - Call Me Superbad (Cay Taylan Remix) (5:01)
04 - Give It Up Or Turn It Loose (Fantasista Re-Formation) (4:19)
05 - Funky Drummer (Listen To The Muro Mix) (4:35)
06 - Cold Sweat (Captain Funk Dry Mix) (4:02)
07 - Sunny (Funk Master Jb Vs Funk Master Js Hardboiled Remix) (5:24)
08 - Soul Power (Jungle Funk Mix) (4:35)
09 - Get On The Good Foot (Mr Drunk Remix) (5:46)
10 - Soul Power (Co Fusion Mix) (4:08) 
11 - Call Me Superbad (Cornelius Rework) (6:16)

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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 !

Into The Groove (38)

Hello, Into the groove spotlight today are CHIC. Their commercial career hasn't been that long, but what they did in the late seventies got everybody moving. This impact on the music scene was expanded into the eighties with highly succcesful productionwork.In addition to refining a relatively minimalist take on the disco sound, they helped to inspire other artists to forge their own sound. Edwards died age 43 ..practically on stage..of pneumonia..only the good die young. Well my vinyl was beyond ripping..too freaked out..fortunately a few years ago an excellent 2 disk compilation came out..the party goes on..

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CHIC - The Definitive Groove Collection (154min ^ 298mb)

Rodgers and Edwards first met in 1970, when both were jazz-trained musicians fresh out of high school. Edwards had attended New York's High School for the Performing Arts and was working in a Bronx post office at the time, while Rodgers' early career also included stints in the folk group New World Rising and the Apollo Theater house orchestra. Around 1972, Rodgers and Edwards formed a jazz-rock fusion group called the Big Apple Band. Despite interest in their demos, they could not get a record contract, and so they moonlighted as a backup band, touring behind smooth soul vocal group New York City after they broke up, the Big Apple Band hit the road with Carol Douglas for a few months, before Rodgers and Edwards decided to make a go of it on their own toward the end of 1976. At first they switched their aspirations from fusion to new wave, briefly performing as Allah & the Knife Wielding Punks, but quickly settled into dance music. They enlisted onetime LaBelle drummer Tony Thompson and changed their name to Chic in summer 1977 so as to avoid confusion with Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band (who'd just hit big with "A Fifth of Beethoven"). 

The trio needed a singer to front the band. That singer was Norma Jean Wright, who sang lead on their demo single "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" they shopped it around to several major record companies, all of which (obviously) declined it. The small Buddah label finally released it as a 12" in late 1977, and as its club popularity exploded, Atlantic stepped in, signed the group, and re-released the single on a wider basis. "Dance, Dance, Dance" hit the Top Ten, peaking at number six, and made Chic one of the hottest new groups in disco. The self-titled album (1977) was an immediate success and sent Chic out on the road. They performed as a quartet until February 1978, but Rodgers and Edwards thought that their live performances would improve both in sound and visuals if they added another girl to front the band. Wright suggested her friend Luci Martin, who became a member in late winter/early spring of 1978.

Right after the sessions ended for its debut album, the band members began to work on Wright's self-titled debut solo album Norma Jean, released in 1978. To facilitate Wright's solo career, the band had agreed to sign her to a separate contract and label. Unfortunately the legalities of this contract eventually forced Wright to leave the band in mid-1978, she was replaced by Alfa Anderson, who had been on back up vocals on the band’s debut album. In late 1978, the band released C'est Chic, containing one of its best-known tracks, "Le Freak". The famous refrain "Aaa, freak out".That single was a massive success, topping the US charts and selling over 6 million copies. It is still the biggest-ever selling single ever of Atlantic's parent company, Warner Music. Follow-up "I Want Your Love" reached number seven, cementing the group's new star status, and C'est Chic became one of the rare disco albums to go platinum.

1979's Risqué was another solidly constructed LP that also went platinum, partly on the strength of Chic's second number one pop hit, "Good Times." "Good Times" may not have equaled the blockbuster sales figures of "Le Freak," but it was the band's most imitated track: Queen's number one hit "Another One Bites the Dust" was a clear rewrite, and the Sugarhill Gang lifted the instrumental backing track wholesale for the first commercial rap single, "Rapper's Delight," marking the first of many times that Chic grooves would be recycled into hip-hop records.

At the same time, Edwards and Rodgers composed, arranged, performed, and produced many influential disco and R&B records for both established artists and one-hit wonders, including Sister Sledge's albums We Are Family (1979) and Love Somebody Today (1980); Sheila and B. Devotion's "Spacer"; Diana Ross's 1980 album diana, Carly Simon's "Why" and Deborah Harry's debut solo album, Kookoo.

The disco fad was fading rapidly by that point, and 1980's Real People failed to go gold despite another solid performance by the band. Changing tastes put an end to Chic's heyday. Take It Off (1981), Tongue in Chic (1982) and Believer (1983) all suffered the same fate, with diminishing creative and commercial returns, and Rodgers and Edwards disbanded the group in 1983. Later that year, both recorded solo LPs that sank without a trace. Hungry for acceptance and respect in the rock mainstream both Rodgers and Edwards sought out high-profile production and session work over the rest of the decade. Rodgers produced blockbuster albums like David Bowie's Let's Dance, Madonna's Like a Virgin, and Mick Jagger's She's the Boss. Edwards wasn't as prolific as a producer, but did join the one-off supergroup the Power Station along with Tony Thompson as well as Robert Palmer and members of avowed Chic fans Duran Duran; he later produced Palmer's commercial breakthrough, Riptide. Edwards also worked with Rod Stewart (Out of Order), Jody Watley, and Tina Turner, while Rodgers' other credits include the Thompson Twins, the Vaughan Brothers, INXS, and the B-52's' comeback Cosmic Thing.

After a 1992 birthday party where Rodgers, Edwards, Paul Shaffer, and Anton Fig played old Chic hits to rapturous response, Rodgers and Edwards organized a reunion of the old band. They recorded new material—a single, "Chic Mystique" (remixed by Masters at Work) and subsequent album Chic-Ism, both of which charted—and played live all over the world, to great audience and critical acclaim. In 1996 Nile Rodgers was named JT Superproducer of the Year in Japan, and was invited to perform there with Chic in April of that year. Just before the concert at the Budokan Arena in Tokyo, Edwards fell ill, but despite Rodgers' insistence, he refused to cancel the gig. He managed to perform but had to be helped at times. After the concert he retired to his hotel room where he was later found dead by Rodgers. The cause of death was ruled to be pneumonia. Rodgers and CHIC continue to perform to venues worldwide.



CHIC - Groove Collection I

01 - Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) (8:21)
02 - Everybody Dance (6:42)
03 - Strike Up The Band (4:34)
04 - Le Freak (5:31)
05 - Savoir Faire (5:04)
06 - Chic Cheer (4:44)
07 - At Last I Am Free (7:13)
08 - I Want Your Love (6:56)

CHIC - Groove Collection II

09 - Good Times (8:15)
10 - My Forbidden Lover (4:42)
11 - What About Me (4:13)
12 - My Feet Keep Dancing (6:41)
13 - Chip Off The Old Block (5:00)
14 - Rebels Are We (3:21)
15 - Real People (3:45)
16 - Will You Cry (When You Hear This Song) (4:09)
17 - 26 (4:06)
18 - You Can't Do It Alone (4:47)
19 - Stage Fright (3:39)

CHIC - Groove Collection III

20 - Just Out Of Reach (3:47)
21 - Flash Back (4:29)
22 - Your Love Is Cancelled (4:16)
23 - Soup For One (5:36)
24 - When You Love Someone (5:09)
25 - Hangin' (3:38)
26 - Give Me The Lovin' (3:32)
27 - Believer (5:07)
28 - You Are Beautiful (4:37)
29 - Chic Mystique (6:39)
30 - Your Love (5:57)

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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 !

Alphabet Soup II (L)

Hello, Alphabet Soup is on L today , and this time that spells..one of if not the biggest rock act of the seventies, Led Zeppelin, they racked in billions for the industry..selling 300,000,000 million albums worldwide and they achieved this on their own terms..not that those A & R clowns ever got that into their skulls busy as these are 'making' artists. I decided on Physical Graffity, a double album because the eight tracks extended beyond the length of a conventional album, and therefor included several unreleased songs which had been recorded during the sessions for previous Led Zeppelin albums.....Lamb fused trip hop with drum & bass and it worked out very well: classy, detached, and cool -- downtempo and ambient-ish electro-jazz....Finally Laibach, controversial EBM they kept up a style like no other, unhindered by western sensetivities and A & R clowns....Anthems is a good compilation of their work, i will post the remixes version coming saturday...

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Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti ( 75, 82 min. ^ 194mb)

The beginnings of Led Zeppelin can be traced back to the The Yardbirds, after Jimmy Page joined them in 1966 to play bass guitar. Shortly after, Page switched from bass to second lead guitar, creating a dual-lead guitar line up with Jeff Beck. Following the departure of Beck, Page wanted to form a supergroup with himself and Beck on guitars, and The Who's rhythm section—drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle. That group never formed, although Page, Beck and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Beck's Bolero"(see Singles time). The recording session also included bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, who told Page that he would be interested in collaborating with him on future projects.

In the summer of 1968, the Yardbirds' Keith Relf and James McCarty left the band, leaving Page and bassist Chris Dreja with the rights to the name, as well as the obligation of fulfilling an upcoming fall tour. Page set out to find a replacement vocalist and drummer. Initially, he wanted to enlist singer Terry Reid who turned him dopwn but suggested that Page contact Robert Plant, who was asked to join the band in August of 1968, the same month Chris Dreja dropped out of the new project. Following Dreja's departure, John Paul Jones joined the group as its bassist. Plant recommended that Page hire John Bonham, the drummer for Plant's old band, the Band of Joy, who by September, agreed to join the band. Performing under the name the New Yardbirds, the band fulfilled the Yardbirds' previously booked engagements in late September 1968. The following month, they recorded their debut album in just under 30 hours. Also in October, the group switched its name to Led Zeppelin. Their name was derived from a remark John Entwistle made about a playing a bad gig "going down like a lead zeppelin" the 'a' in Lead was dropped at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant- e presto. Grant meanwhile had secured a great contract with all artistic freedom and a huge advance (for the time) 200,000 $ from Atlantic records, eager to expand to the UK. They signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them, largely on the recommendation of the white queen of soul, Dusty Springfield.

Led Zeppelin's eponymous debut album was released on 12 January 1969, during their first US tour. The album's blend of blues, folk and eastern influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the creation of heavy metal music. However, Plant has commented that it is unfair for people to typecast the band as heavy metal, since about a third of their music was acoustic. In their first year, Led Zeppelin managed to complete four US and four UK concert tours, and release their second album, entitled Led Zeppelin II. Recorded almost entirely on the road at various North American recording studios, the second album was an even greater success than the first and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK. Following the album's release, Led Zeppelin completed several more tours of the United States. Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire.Many of these shows have been preserved as Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings. For the composition of their third album, Led Zeppelin III, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, in 1970. The result was a more acoustic sound strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music, it revealed the band's versatility. This rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with many critics and fans surprised at the turn taken by the band away from the primarily electric compositions of the first two albums. The album's opening track, "Immigrant Song", was released in November 1970 by Atlantic Records as a single against the band's wishes.

Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released on 8 November 1971 with several songs referencing elements of J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Lord of the Rings, which was popular at the time. There was no indication of a title or band name on the original cover, but on the LP label four symbols were printed. The band was motivated to undertake this initiative by their disdain for the media, which labelled them as hyped and overrated. In response, they released the album with no indication of who they were in order to prove that the music could sell itself. The album is variously referred to as Four Symbols and The Fourth Album which further refined the band's unique formula of combining earthy, acoustic elements with heavy metal and blues emphases.

 Led Zeppelin's next album, Houses of the Holy, was released in 1973. It featured further experimentation, with longer tracks and expanded use of synthesisers and mellotron orchestration. The song "Houses of the Holy" does not appear on its namesake album, even though it was recorded at the same time as other songs on the album; it eventually made its way onto the 1975 album Physical Graffiti. The striking orange album cover of Houses of the Holy features images of nude children climbing up the Giant's Causeway (in County Antrim, Northern Ireland). Although the children are not depicted from the front, this was highly controversial at the time of the album's release, and in some areas, such as the "Bible Belt" and Spain, the record was banned. The album topped the charts, and Led Zeppelin's subsequent concert tour of the United States in 1973 broke records for attendance, as they consistently filled large auditoriums and stadiums

In 1974, Led Zeppelin took a break from touring and launched their own record label, Swan Song, named after one of only five Led Zeppelin songs which the band never released commercially February 1975 saw the release of Led Zeppelin's first double album, Physical Graffiti, which was their first release on the Swan Song Records label. It consisted of fifteen songs, eight of which were recorded at Headley Grange in 1974, and the remainder being tracks previously recorded but not released on earlier albums. ( "Bron-Yr-Aur" was recorded in July 1970 for Led Zeppelin III. "Night Flight" and "Boogie with Stu" and "Down by the Seaside" recorded for Led Zeppelin IV. "The Rover" and "Black Country Woman" and "Houses of the Holy" were recorded May 1972.)

In August 1975, Robert Plant and his wife Maureen were involved in a serious car crash while on holiday in Rhodes, Greece. It was during this forced hiatus that much of the material for their next album, Presence, was written.Released in March 1976, the album marked a change in the Led Zeppelin sound towards more straightforward, guitar-based jams, departing from the acoustic ballads and intricate arrangements featured on their previous albums. Though it was a platinum seller, Presence received mixed responses from critics and fans. Despite the original criticisms, Jimmy Page has called Presence his favourite album, and its opening track "Achilles Last Stand" (sample (info)) his favourite Led Zeppelin song. Later that year they finally completed the concert film The Song Remains The Same, and the soundtrack album of the film. It would be the only official live document of the group available. 

In 1977, Led Zeppelin embarked on another major concert tour of North America. Though profitable financially, the tour was beset with off-stage problems. The second Oakland concert would prove to be the band's final live appearance in the United States. After the performance, news came that Plant's five year old son, Karac, had died from a stomach virus. The rest of the tour was immediately cancelled. December 1978 saw the group recording again, this time at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The resultant album was In Through the Out Door, which exhibited a degree of sonic experimentation that again drew mixed reactions from critics. Nevertheless, the band still commanded legions of loyal fans, and the album easily reached #1 in the UK and the U.S. 

In August 1979, after two warm-up shows in Copenhagen, Led Zeppelin headlined two concerts at the Knebworth music festival, where crowds of close to 120,000 witnessed the return of the band. However, Robert Plant was not eager to tour full-time again, and even considered leaving Led Zeppelin. He was persuaded to stay by Peter Grant.On 24 September 1980, John Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King to attend rehearsals at Bray Studios for the upcoming tour of the United States, the band's first since 1977. He continued to drink heavily when he arrived at the studio. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. Benji LeFevre and John Paul Jones found Bonham dead the next morning, he was 32 years old. The cause of death was asphyxiation from vomit, the subsequent autopsy found no other drugs in Bonham's body, alcoholism that had plagued the drummer since his earliest days with the band ultimately led to his death. The remaining members decided to disband ,they issued a press statement on 4 December 1980 confirming that the band would not continue without Bonham. "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.

In 1994, Page and Plant reunited in the form of a 90 minute "UnLedded" MTV project. They released an album called "No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded", which featured some reworked Zeppelin songs, and embarked on a world tour the following year. On 10 December 2007 the surviving members of Led Zeppelin reunited for a one-off benefit concert held in memory of Atlantic Records executive Ahmet Ertegün, with Jason Bonham taking up his late father's place on drums. It was announced on 12 September 2007 by promoter Harvey Goldsmith in a press conference. The concert was to help raise money for the Ahmet Ertegün Education Fund, which pays for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey. Earlier this year Jimmy Page revealed that he is prepared to embark upon a world tour with Led Zeppelin, but due to Robert Plant's tour commitments with Alison Krauss, such plans will not be announced until at least September....



Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti ( ^ 95mb ) 

01 - Custard Pie (4:11)
02 - The Rover (5:35)
03 - In My Time Of Dying (11:01)
04 - Houses Of The Holy (4:02)
05 - Trampled Under Foot (5:35)
06 - Kashmir (8:26)

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti -2 (^ 99mb)

07 - In The Light (8:48)
08 - Bron-Yr-Aur (2:06)
09 - Down By The Seaside (5:15)
10 - Ten Years Gone (6:27)
11 - Night Flight (3:35)
12 - The Wanton Song (4:07)
13 - Boogie With Stu (3:53)
14 - Black Country Woman (4:25)
15 - Sick Again (4:40)

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Lamb - Lamb (96 ^ 150mb)

Although getting their start in Manchester, Lamb are more commonly associated with the Bristol-based trip hop sound that was popular during the nineties. Aside from trip hop, their musical style is a distinctive mixture of jazz, dub, breaks and drum and bass, with a strong vocal element and, in their later works especially, some acoustic influences. Lamb's core members were Andy Barlow and Louise Rhodes, although the band subsequently expanded to include bassist Jon Thorne, Icelandic guitarist Oddur Mar Runnarson, and Danish drummer Nikolaj Bjerre. London-based string trio Chi 2 Strings and trumpet player Kevin Davy were frequent guest musicians.

Lamb's self-titled debut released in the fall of 1996 to widespread acclaim. Like the previous singles, much of Lamb explores song-oriented deployments of jungle, but the album also adds elements of downtempo and ambient-ish electro-jazz as well. Second album Fear of Fours appeared in 1999, and consolidated the band's appeal with forward-thinking electronica listeners. Another inventive record, What Sound, landed in 2001. Between Darkness and Wonder followed in 2003. These three albums and a cache of singles over the next eight years, culminated in the release of a greatest hits album, "Best Kept Secrets", in June 2004. Lamb performed what was billed as their final live appearance at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in September 2004. 

Lamb had a number one hit with "Gabriel," the lead single from 2001's What Sound in Portugal . By far, their best-known track to date is "Gorecki," from their eponymous debut album. The song is inspired by Henryk Górecki's Third Symphony, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Part of the lyrics to Gorecki were used by Baz Luhrmann for some of Satine's final lines in Moulin Rouge!, and the track is rumoured to have been covered by Nicole Kidman. It has also been used in a tv advert for the world famous Irish drink Guinness.




01 - Lusty (4:09)
02 - God Bless (5:54)
03 - Cotton Wool (5:07)
04 - Trans Fatty Acid (7:37)
05 - Zero (5:31)
06 - Merge (5:44)
07 - Gold (5:40)
08 - Closer (3:57)
09 - Gorecki (6:30)
10 - Feela (6:40)
11 - Cotton Wool (Fila Brazilia Mix) (8:23)

diet version

Lamb - Lamb ( * 99mb)

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Laibach - Anthems (04 * 134mb)

Formed the same year longtime Yugoslavian leader Marshall Josip Broz Tito died, Laibach started activity in 1980 in the industrial coal-mining town of Trbovlje in the center of what is now Slovenia. They took their name from the nearby city Ljubljana = Laibach in German. Their first performance was canceled by authorities for their controversial use of symbols, and military service kept them away from performing until June of 1981. The Laibach/Last Few Days cassette from 1983 was the group's first proper release, and cassettes from labels like Staal Tapes and Skuk followed. Milan Fras joined as vocalist, and his distinctive growl and grim stare still makes him the group's most recognizable member.  

Laibach has frequently been accused of both far left and far right political stances due to their use of uniforms and totalitarian-style aesthetics and also due to the Wagnerian influence found in some of their music, notably the thunder in "Sympathy for the Devil (Time for a Change)" and releases such as Macbeth. Laibach joined the likeminded artist collective Irwin and theater group Scipion Nasice Sisters to form the organization Neue Slowenische Kunst, or NSK in 84. NSK became involved in the group's concerts and Irwin's artwork would often be displayed at venues. The group's debut studio album, which also featured the cross only, was released in 1985. Some early Laibach albums were pure industrial, with hard industrial percussions, heavy rhythms, and roaring vocals. Later in the mid-80s, the Laibach sound became more richly layered with samples from classical music—including from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. The band began their tradition of cover songs in 1987 with the album Opus Dei, where their sound was changed again to take on a more pop sound with classic pop structures

Wax Trax! in America and Mute in the U.K. gave 1987's Opus Dei Laibach's first widely available release. Included were bizarre thumping cover versions of Queen's "One Vision" and one-hit wonder Opus' "Life Is Life," and videos of both were shown on MTV. A worldwide tour followed, and Laibach was invited by John Peel to do a Peel Session and Michael Clark commissioned the group to provide music for his dance company. The idea of covering pop music in Wagnerian style was expanded on 1988's Sympathy for the Devil EP, which included multiple versions of the Rolling Stones' classic, and Let It Be, which reproduced the whole of the Beatles' album, minus the title track. Released in 1992, Kapital fully embraced minimal techno and focused on the growth of capitalism in Eastern Europe.

A return to the bombastic cover versions was heard on the war-focused NATO as the former Yugoslavia fell apart. The NATO world tour was documented on the limited-edition CD and video box set Occupied Europe NATO in 1996, the same year the band released the religious-themed and cover version-filled Jesus Christ Superstars. That album's live show toured the world on and off until the release of 2003's WAT, a return to techno and the band's first pop album to contain primarily self-penned material in a while. The 2004 compilation Anthems featured two CDs: one compiling singles, the other remixes. Volk from late 2006 reimagined national anthems from around the world. May this year they've released Laibachkunstderfuge...taking on Bach..



01 - Das Spiel Ist Aus ( iTurk Remix) (3:17)
02 - Tanz Mit Laibach (4:17)
03 - Final Countdown (5:39)
04 - Alle Gegen Alle (3:53)
05 - Wirtschaft Ist Tot (3:46)
06 - God Is God (3:43)
07 - In The Army Now (4:31)
08 - Get Back (4:23)
09 - Sympathy For The Devil (5:43)
10 - Leben Heisst Leben (5:27)
11 - Geburt Einer Nation (4:21)
12 - Opus Dei (5:02)
13 - Die Liebe (Edit) (3:52)
14 - Panorama (4:52)
15 - Drzava (4:20)
16 - Brat Moj (6:03)
17 - Mama Leone (4:51)

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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 !

Eight-X (38)

Hello, ready for some more Eight-X vinyl ? For starters there's a request i got some weeks ago for Romeo Void's great debut album, well here it's..the band unfortuately didnt last that long, just 3 albums, lacking the babewatch MTV appeal certainly blocked their progress as form once more blocked sight of content..that said It's a Condition is a very strong debut album.... The Smiths had no such worries, but then they were by enlarge a huge but local (UK) phenomenon...the album here, Hatful Of Hollow, wasn't even released in the US. I have to admit, myself i wasnt that big a fan, Morrisey's voice nerved me, though not as much as his 'cold meat' fans yeez....however, this album contains a number of great tracks....Play Dead was one of those bands that grew out of the fading UK punkscene, got labelled Gothic Rock something they didnt like. Anyway they had the usual release problems with labels and never really got to build on anything save their renowned live shows. After they folded in 85, Caught From Behind was released in 86, a compilation of the liveshows they did all over Europe the year before...

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Romeo Void - Its A Condition ( 81 ^ 98mb)

Debora Iyall, a Native American (from the Cowlitz tribe) born in rural Washington and raised in Fresno, CA, moved to San Francisco in the mid-'70s to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Intrigued by the burgeoning local punk and post-punk scenes, Iyall, Zincavage, Woods, and Derrah formed Romeo Void in 1979. Iyall has said that the name, meaning "a lack of romance," was inspired by a headline on the cover of a local magazine that read "Why single women can't get laid in San Francisco." The combination of Iyall's powerful vocals and searing imagery with the band's muscular blend of dark atmospherics and a rattling momentum, with Benjamin Bossi's splattering free jazz saxophone coloring everything, made Romeo Void one of the strongest of the American post-punk bands.

Shortly after the group's formation, saxophonist , Benjamin Bossi, teamed up with Romeo Void. The revised lineup recorded their debut single, "White Sweater," and a cover of Jorgen Ingmann's atmospheric 1961 twang-guitar instrumental hit "Apache," for the new local indie 415 Records in 1980. Before sessions commenced for their first album, 1981's It's a Condition, Derrah left the group, replaced by ex-Explosions drummer John "Stench" Haines. One of the masterpieces of American post-punk, It's a Condition received rave reviews upon its release. Perhaps even more importantly, Cars leader Ric Ocasek heard the album and invited the group to his Synchro Sound studio in Boston. The resulting Ocasek-produced EP, Never Say Never, on the back of the enormous dance club and college radio airplay of the single, led directly to 415 Records' ongoing association with Columbia Records.
 
1982's "Benefactors" kicks off with a less-impressive shortened mix of "Never Say Never," almost completely eliminating Bossi's squalling, Albert Ayler-like solo, fading out before the hypnotic ending and bleeping out a rude word in the second verse. A denser album than the sparse It's a Condition, Benefactors is nearly the equal of the earlier record, with the hyperactive dance-pop of "Undercover Kept" signaling a new interest in musical directness that would reap commercial benefits on their next album.

Like It's a Condition, that third album, 1984's Instincts, was produced by 415's former house producer David Kahne, but it's far slicker than the debut, this newly commercialized approach scored the band their only Top 40 hit, "A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)," which Iyall claimed is an answer song to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," the album is a disappointment in comparison to the stellar work that had preceded it. By the time of these sessions, relations had become strained in the group subsequently Romeo Void broke up in early 1985. Romeo Void reunited for a few benefit shows in 1992 and later that year released a career-summary compilation, Warm in Your Coat.



01 - Myself To Myself (3:44)
02 - Nothing For Me (3:37)
03 - Talk Dirty (To Me) (4:46)
04 - Love Is An Illness (3:42)
05 - White Sweater (4:44)

06 - Charred Remains (3:03)
07 - Confrontation (2:40)
08 - Drop Your Eyes (3:37)
09 - Fear To Fear (2:40)
10 - I Mean It (5:41)

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The Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow ( 84 ^ 134mb)

The Smiths were an English rock band active from 1982 to 1987, The Smiths were formed in early 1982 by two Manchester residents: an unemployed writer named Steven Patrick Morrissey, and Johnny Marr ( John Maher ), a guitarist and songwriter. After recording several demo tapes with the drummer from The Fall, Simon Wolstencroft. they recruited drummer Mike Joyce in fall of 1982 and bassplayer Dale Hibbert.The band picked their name in part as a reaction against the fancy and pompous names used by popular Synthpop bands of the early 1980s. Critics have called them one of the most important alternative rock bands to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s, and the group has had major influence on subsequent artists.They released four studio albums and several compilations, as well as numerous non-LP singles. Although they had limited commercial success outside the UK while they were still together, and never released a single that charted higher than number 10 in their home country, The Smiths won a growing following, and they remain cult

Signing to indie label Rough Trade Records, they released their first single, "Hand in Glove", on 13 May 1983. The record was championed by DJ John Peel, as were all of their later singles, but failed to chart. The follow-up singles "This Charming Man" and "What Difference Does It Make?" fared better. Aided by praise from the music press and a series of studio sessions for John Peel and David Jensen at BBC Radio 1, The Smiths began to acquire a dedicated fan base. By February 1984, The Smiths' fanbase was sufficiently large to launch the band's eponymous debut album to number two in the UK chart. Its mood was generally bleak. Shortly after the release of the album, Morrissey idol Sandie Shaw recorded "Hand in Glove" backed by Marr, Rourke and Joyce. The hit single resulted in the band performing barefoot (a Sandie Shaw trademark) on Top of the Pops.

In 1984, the band released several singles not taken from the album: "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and "William, It Was Really Nothing" (hommage to Billy 'Associate'McKenzie) , it featured "How Soon Is Now?" as a B-side. The year ended with the compilation album Hatful of Hollow. This collected singles, B-sides and the versions of songs that had been recorded throughout the previous year for the Peel and Jensen shows. The radio session versions were felt by many (including the band) to be better than those released as singles and on the debut album. Early in 1985 the band released their second album, Meat Is Murder. This album was more strident and political than its predecessor, including the pro-vegetarian title track. Meat Is Murder was the band's only album (barring compilations) to reach number one in the UK charts.

Morrissey brought a political stance to many of his interviews, courting further controversy. Among his targets were the Thatcher government, the monarchy and the famine relief project Band Aid. Morrissey famously quipped of the latter, "One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it's another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of England." During 1985 the band completed lengthy tours of the UK and the US while recording the next studio record, The Queen Is Dead. The album was released in June 1986, shortly after the single "Bigmouth Strikes Again". The single again featured Marr's strident acoustic guitar rhythms and lead melody guitar lines with wide leaps. The record reached number two in the UK charts, using a mixture of mordant bleakness and dry humour.

A legal dispute with Rough Trade had delayed The Queen Is Dead by almost seven months (it had been completed in November 1985), and Marr was beginning to feel the stress of the band's exhausting touring and recording schedule. In early 1987 the single "Shoplifters of the World Unite" was released to chart success, it was followed by a second compilation, The World Won't Listen. Despite their continued success, personal differences within the band — including the increasingly strained relationship between Morrissey and Marr — saw them on the verge of splitting. In August 1987, Marr left the group, and auditions to find a replacement for him proved fruitless. By the time Strangeways, Here We Come (named after Strangeways Prison, Manchester) was released in September, the band had split up. The breakdown in the relationship has been primarily attributed to Morrissey becoming annoyed by Marr's work with other artists and Marr growing frustrated by Morrissey's musical inflexibility. Strangeways peaked at number two in the UK but was only a minor US hit. The album received a lukewarm reception from critics, but all four members name it as their favourite Smiths album. A couple of further singles from the album were released with earlier live, session and demo tracks as B-sides, and the following year the live album Rank (recorded in 1986) repeated the UK chart success of previous albums.

In 1996, Joyce took Morrissey and Marr to court, claiming that he had not received his fair share of recording and performance royalties. Morrissey and Marr had claimed the lion's share of The Smiths' recording and performance royalties and allowed ten percent each to Joyce and Rourke. The judge in the case described Morrissey as "devious, truculent and unreliable", the court found in favour of Joyce and ordered that he be paid over £1 million in back pay and receive twenty-five percent henceforth. Needless to say that closed the door on any reunion/tour even if millions of pounds have been offered for it. 



01 - William, It Was Really Nothing (2:09)
02 - What Difference Does It Make ?(Peel, May 83) (3:12)
03 - These Things Take Time (Jensen, July 83) (2:32)
04 - This Charming Man (Peel, September 83) (2:42)
05 - How Soon Is Now? (6:43)
06 - Handsome Devil (Peel, May 83) (2:46)
07 - Hand In Glove (3:11)
08 - Still Ill (Peel, September 83) (3:32)

09 - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (3:32)
10 - This Night Has Opened My Eye (Peel, September 83) (3:38)
11 - You've Got Everything Now (Jensen, July 83) (4:14)
12 - Accept Yourself (Jensen, September 83) (4:01)
13 - Girl Afraid (2:47)
14 - Back To The Old House (Peel, September 83) (2:59)
15 - Reel Around The Fountain (Peel, May 83) (5:49)
16 - Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (1:48)

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Play Dead - Caught From Behind - Live (86 ^ 97mb)

Play Dead (Rob Hickson (vocals), Pete Waddleton (bass), Mark "Wiff" Smith (drums), and Steve Green (guitar ) ) were a band from Banbury (Oxfordshire) that grew out of the fading English punk scene in 1980. Play Dead made three studio albums ..."The First Flower" (83), "From The Promised Land"(84), and "Company Of Justice", which appeared on their own label Tanz in 1985. That year two live albums were released Into the Fire Live - The Final Epitaph Live .Waddleton left the group in 1986 and moved to India, after a brief period as "The Beastmaster Generals" the Playdead dissolved.

In 86 a collection of various live concerts by Play Dead recorded from October 1984 to September 1985 was released after they had folded officially ..Caught From Behind: Live In England, France, Germany, And Switzerland. A year ago "From The Promised Land" has been rereleased with nine bonustracks.



01 - Break (3:43)
02 - Last Degree (3:20)
03 - Solace (4:54)
04 - Shine (3:43)
05 - Isabel (4:29)

06 - Sin Of Sins (4:35)
07 - Torn On Desire (4:21)
08 - This Side Of Heaven (3:12)
09 - Sacrosanct (3:20)
10 - The Tenant (5:21)

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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 !

Away from Blogging + FISA Mess + Cauleen Smith's The Fullness of Time TONIGHT!

It's been a while, I know. I've been recuperating, writing, reading, wending my way to the library, wrangling with grant applications and budgets, trying to wrap up lingering threads from the school year, and so forth, and while my interest in blogging never wanes, my ability to do so often dwindles to intent without action. (I have some stubs from the last week I'll try to fill in.)

I do browse others' blogs, though, and continue to be inspired by the rich range of voices, thoughts and ideas, approaches, and skills out in the blogosphere. The media like to portray blogs as nothing more than digital diaries, and bloggers (still-sigh!) as unwashed narcissists, but the reality is that some of the freshest, most interesting writing I come across across a range of topics, but especially on the political front, exists on blogs. The establishment media, especially the people who are affiliated with print publications and TV, long ago ceded the sharpest critical acumen to netizens, though you'd never guess that if you took the mainstream punditocracy appraisal of blogging at face value. I don't, and ceased to long ago. And I know I'm not the only one.

***

The FISA bill shenanigans aren't over yet. The Democratic-led Senate, after giving George W. Bush all he hoped for and more with this horrible excuse for a bill, has postponed a vote on the bill until after July 4, 2008.

As I wrote before and also posted on the CC list, anyone and everyone can contact the Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign directly at:

1 (866) 675-2008 [Dial 6, then 0, on the menu] (They do pick up quickly.)

I've called and I urge others to do so as well. If you have or intend to support him, please call his campaign, let it know you are or will be a supporter and then register your strong disapproval against his position that this horrible bill is a "compromise" deserving of his vote. If you do not support him but also do not support the Republican Party's delight that this bill is on the verge of being passed, please let his campaign know this as well.

There is no reason for him to support this bill unless he believes it's a good idea. He has previously said he does not support telecom amnesty, and he's said that he does not support warrantless wiretapping of Americans. The former would kill pending civil lawsuits, while the latter, which is likely illegal, would be quashed So why is he supporting this bill? Tell him that you think it's a bad idea.

If you're an Illinois resident, you can contact his Senate offices at:

1 (202) 224-2854 / Fax: (202) 228-4260

And if you can contact all the other Senators at the following Congressional toll-free numbers. You just ask to be connected to your Senator:

1 (800) 828-0498
1 (800) 459-1887
1 (800) 614-2803
1 (866) 340-9281
1 (866) 338-1015
1 (877) 851 - 6437

Several Senators, including New York's senior Senator, Chuck Schumer, have now stated that they'll oppose this horrible legislation. Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold has called it "capitulation" to Bush. Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd, who'd previously promised to filibuster it, has said he'll again consider filibustering it. But Barack Obama is now the leader of the Democratic Party, and he could quash this monster if he dared. So he needs more pressure. Apply it, please.

***

Cauleen Smith's The Fullness of Time is at screening tonight at The Kitchen in NYC.

Tisa says:

You must try to come see Cauleen Smith's new film, Tuesday, July 1,
at the Kitchen, for FREE.

I met Cauleen while she was filming DRYLONGSO in Oakland, CA, back of the day, and realize now that certain folks in her creative community at that point became the nexus for some of my most enduring Bay Area friendships.

Anyway, I'm so down with the Afrofuturists (bump postmodernity), and supporting Cauleen's work...

Audiologo writes:

This coming Tuesday, July 1st, Cauleen Smith, one of my favorite filmmakers is coming to town to premier her latest work THE FULLNESS OF TIME at the Kitchen in NYC at 8pm. Afterwards there will be a discussion with Cauleen and Executive Producer Paul Chan.

I got to program Cauleen's work back in the day when I was running the Women of Color Film and Video Festival in Santa Cruz. She was brilliant and singularly visioned even back then. Having started out as a visual artist and set designer, filmmaker/writer Smith has a wonderful sense of story, and an amazing eye for color and light.

She has a feature film to her credit, DRYLONGSO, that starred Will Power and a number of artists from the Oakland, California area. It's one of the rare films to present an intelligent portrayal of young black people, and a black female artist, that also deals with questions of race, gender, cultural access, violence, class, and intergenerational dynamics, and even budding romance. The casting and acting is spot on, and similar to the complex issue-filled work of Charles Burnett, the film excels as a piece of cinema. Since then she's returned to her roots in more experimental narrative fare, and has continued to make compelling art.

This latest work concerns Cauleen's ongoing futurist explorations (she's a founding member of Carbonism, a post-Afrofuturism arts ethos) with the story of "sister-from-another-planet" who has traveled to Earth to learn about its way and lands in post-Katrina New Orleans. Smith shot the work in New Orleans and collaborated worked with New Orleans resident poet/educator Kalamu ya Salaam and the Students At the Center group.

I would go a long way to see a film by Smith even if it was just about snaking a drain, so I'm definitely going to see this. If you're in the area I hope to see you there. For more info, see the attached flyer.

These are two folks to listen to. I won't be able to catch it, but I hope it'll be screening again in NYC. (Or Chicago.) Soon.

Around the World (38)

Hello, Around the World stays in the sunshine with reggae from Jamaica, a double bill with a dubversion on the original another cracker from 77 by Horace "Sleepy" Andy ...get In The Light..Light..Light.... 

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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 !

Aldous Huxley (2)

Hello, part two of Brave New World coming up, aswell as a insightful speech Huxley held march 62, in which he further explores the Brave New World scenario.. followed by a 10 min video about the ongoing application of chemicals to control and dumb down the populace...

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 !