Arditti Quartet - Helmut Lachenmann: Grido; Reigen seliger Geister; Gran Torso download album

Arditti Quartet - Helmut Lachenmann: Grido; Reigen seliger Geister; Gran Torso

Artist: Arditti Quartet

Album: Helmut Lachenmann: Grido; Reigen seliger Geister; Gran Torso

Release Date: 2007

Genre: Classical

Format: mp3 / FLAC

This disc of Helmut Lachenmann's three string quartets played by the Arditti String Quartet presents the works in reverse order of composition. Thus, Grido from 2002 comes first, Gran Torso from 1972 comes last, and Reigen seliger Geister from 1989 comes between the two. It hardly matters. With their unrelenting obsession with deconstructing and destroying any and every traditional means of composing and performing music, Lachenmann's quartets could come in any order or even no order at all. And yet, as the Arditti String Quartet's masterful performances demonstrate, deconstruction does not mean Lachenmann's music is without logical and dramatic form, nor does destruction mean it is without emotional expression or effect. What exactly that form might be and what precise emotions it might express are unknowable, but Lachenmann's quartets are still so unbearably intense and so overwhelmingly articulate that no one could fail to feel moved by them. Though Lachenmann composed his quartets at the extreme edge of instrumental technique -- there are sounds that seem to come from another plane of existence altogether -- the Arditti's dedicated performances transform what could have been noises into a coherent and compelling aesthetic whole. Recorded so that the listener seems enveloped in the music, this disc is not for the timid. But those who enjoy the music of Rihm and Nono will likely enjoy Lachenmann's quartets.

Iggy Pop - Holiday Gift Pack download album

Iggy Pop - Holiday Gift Pack

Artist: Iggy Pop

Album: Holiday Gift Pack

Release Date: November 6, 2007

Genre: Pop/Rock

Format: mp3 / FLAC

A MILLION IN PRIZES: THE ANTHOLOGY confirms what many rock fans already know, that singer, songwriter, provocateur, and rock & roll shaman Iggy Pop was a force of nature, who collected the molecular essence of the music and gave it back to the audience in a purer, more powerful form. Suspicions that such claims overstate the case will be put to rest by one listen to A MILLION IN PRIZES, a career-spanning retrospective that encompasses Iggy's work with the Stooges and as a solo artist (up to 2003). Beginning, appropriately enough, with "1969" from the Stooges' debut album (released that year), A MILLION IN PRIZES delivers 12 Stooges tracks that might quite literally blow listeners' minds if played at high volume. Iggy's first solo outings produced some of the finest music of his career (underpinned by David Bowie's superb production), including the tongue-in-cheek slink of "Nightclubbing" and the ecstatic, celebratory blast of "Lust for Life." Iggy's output in the '80s was spotty, but A MILLION cherry-picks some of the gems, including surprise collaborations with Kate Pierson, Debbie Harry, and Medeski, Martin, and Wood. This superb anthology not only reveals Iggy's tireless energy--that's a foregone conclusion--but how relevant, vital, and necessary his music remains.

Cypress Hill - Live at the Fillmore download album

Cypress Hill - Live at the Fillmore

Artist: Cypress Hill

Album: Live at the Fillmore

Release Date: December 12, 2000

Genre: Rap

Format: mp3 / FLAC

While Cypress Hill's Skull & Bones album showcased their sudden interest in merging hard rock with rap, Live at the Fillmore stands as a better testament to the group's newfound ability to synthesize the two styles into an invigorating formula. The album gets off to a fiery start with some rowdy renditions of the group's early-'90s material -- "Hand on the Pump," "How I Could Just Kill a Man," "Insane in the Brain" -- before the sound of heavy metal guitars appears mid-set. Besides integrating guitar riffs into Muggs' already adrenalized beats, the group reinterprets older songs such as "A to the K," making them sound new. Of course, Cypress Hill wouldn't be Cypress Hill without their adamant smoking advocacy, and starting with the trippy siren intro to "I Wanna Get High," the group moves through a medley of bud-smoking songs before the mosh-inciting conclusion of "Riot Starter" and "(Rock) Superstar."

Showaddywaddy - The Bell Singles, 1974-1976 download album

Showaddywaddy - The Bell Singles, 1974-1976

Artist: Showaddywaddy

Album: The Bell Singles, 1974-1976

Release Date: September 18, 2001

Genre: Pop/Rock

Format: mp3 / FLAC

As it includes both sides of their first ten singles, all but one of which charted in Britain, this could be considered almost as a best-of for Showaddywaddy's early years. "Hey Rock and Roll," "Sweet Music," "Three Steps to Heaven," and "Under the Moon of Love" (the last of which was originally recorded by Curtis Lee) were all Top Ten hits in the mid-'70s. The band actually usually recorded pastiches rather than bona fide '50s rock & roll covers, coming up with a peculiar '50s rock revivalism tinged with hollow-reverbed glam pop production (particularly in the Gary Glitter-type beats). It's not much to get excited about, with Buddy Holly an obvious big songwriting influence in both the melodies and the frequent use of hard acoustic guitar chords to drive the songs along.

Django Reinhardt - H.C.Q. Strut download album

Django Reinhardt - H.C.Q. Strut

Artist: Django Reinhardt

Album: H.C.Q. Strut

Release Date: May 18, 2004

Genre: Jazz

Format: mp3 / FLAC

Volume five of Naxos' tour through the works of the Hot Club Quintette of France goes from the middle of 1938 to the group's breakup in the summer of 1939, divided between releases on the Decca and Swing labels. Nowhere is there any sign that the band was beginning to exhaust its endless supply of fresh hot licks and irresistible Continental swing. "Swing From Paris" starts the disc off swinging with three cuts from the Quintette, which then gives way to three duets with Django Reinhardt backed by Stephane Grappelli's thumping yet accomplished piano (his actual first instrument, one that he would play in public for the rest of his life). Django also demonstrates his abilities as a self-contained musician with three unaccompanied solo guitar tracks, including a lovely improvised piece featuring chords and whole-tone scales that is simply called "Improvisation" and an Andalusian-drenched "Echoes of Spain." The Quintette returns, with replacement third guitar and bass players, in "Hungaria," its madly uninhibited swing unimpaired by the changeover. Django displays an especially crafty gift for economy on "Jeepers Creepers" and trucks at full speed through his not-well-known, rapid-fire original "Twelfth Night." For some reason, Grappelli and guitarist Eugene Vees are not present on "I'll See You in My Dreams," leaving Django in charge of a trio and not losing an iota of propulsion. As usual in this series, the transfers are truer to the bass-rich original sources than most.