The Music of “The Lord of the Rings”

To veer off the beaten path again for a brief moment, I would like to draw your attention to a site I literally “tripped” over the other day, “The Music of ‘The Lord of the Rings’“.

This website, oddly enough hosted on a student sub-domain, although copyrighted and supposedly licensed (which I somehow doubt, myself being the eternal cynic and all), gives you a detailed insight into the conception and composition of the entire score which did, if you recall, garner two Academy Awards and got quite a bit of praise from critics around the globe. Many people would consider this to be Howard Shore’s masterpiece. Continue Reading →

DFTMC: “Don’t forget the Motor City”

Once in a while, one stumbles upon a fabulous website unsuspectingly.

“Don’t Forget the Motor City: The Ultimate Guide to Motown (and related) recordings 1956-1972. Eigth Edition (June 2011)“, compiled by Keith Huges and published by Richie Hardin, is such a website. From the first click into the staggering wealth of discographical information on this website you just know that you have landed on an Internet presence that has been and is a real labor of love. Continue Reading →

The Complete Joe Newman RCA-Victor Recordings (1955-1956): “The Basie Days”

I love this double-CD and it is probably one of the most frequently-played reissues in my home. It’s also the one that made me search out many more double-CDs from this wonderful early 90s reissue series, “Jazz Tribune” (later sold under the title “Indispensable”) by RCA/BMG France.Joe Newman (1922-1992) was best-known for his lengthy stay with Count Basie’s Orchestra. Newman started fronting pick-up groups from March 1954 onwards, but these sessions here start with the first ones for the giant RCA-Victor, starting in early 1955. Newman built an octet around fellow Basie members Wilkins, Green and Wilson by adding representatives of the swinging Kansas City style. The recording was done with one single microphone and soloists were brought to the forefront by simply making them stand up. The group’s sound was recorded exceptionally well and this reissue has more than decent sound, although I could imagine that a label like “Mosaic Records” could remaster this material to really make it shine. Still, this early 90s BMG reissue is a fairly flat transfer and is the better for it (you can really turn this one up without your ears starting to bleed), especially since you can still find this one at relatively cheap prices ranging from about $10 to $20 via second-hand sites or Amazon marketplace dealers. Continue Reading →

The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (Deluxe Edition)

OK, OK, I like ambient music. My PC is filled to the brim with it and I’ve always been a big fan of electronic music, although I don’t have many CDs that fit the description. I bought this Universal Deluxe Edition recently for next to no money on sale and to be quite honest, I didn’t hesitate a single second because The Orb did not only invent and define ambient-house music but also put out one of the best albums ever – this one. When it came out, it was new, energetic, surprising, hip, cool and whatnot and it paved the way for a slew of other recordings I started to hunt for once I was bitten.Yes, this concept album was also more than controversial. The tracks are loaded with samples and, for example, Rickie Lee Jones wasn’t all too happy about her being sampled, especially because she sounds way out there (she only had a cold) when she appeared on an American TV talk show from which this sample was taken. You can find The Orb spinning Sergio Leone, Allegri, Steve Reich, Pink Floyd and a ton of others and one can safely say that they at least helped kick off the heated copyright debate that followed when sampling really took hold after the release of this double-album. Unfortunately, the samples remain largely uncredited on this Deluxe Edition as well. Continue Reading →

Fathead: Ray Charles Presents David Newman

This is one of those albums I pull out regularly, especially because it is mostly an up-tempo bebop romp with oodles of soul thrown in for good measure. The sound is excellent on this Atlantic reissue that in 1958 marked David “Fathead” Newman’s debut as a leader. Newman was in Ray Charles’ band at the time and hence Charles and some of his musicians are also present on this album. Everyone delivers a more than solid job and the tight ensemble sound is just fun to listen to. At times one gets the impression that one is listening to a much larger band: Hank Crawford’s charts, apparently also added to by Quincy Jones, are invariably excellent. Continue Reading →

UFO: Walk on Water

The other day I basically ransacked the various online stores I frequent, hunting for special offers. January and February are my busiest shopping months, simply because the various stores do their spring cleaning early, throwing out their stock to make space for the new year’s upcoming releases. These past years, a pattern began to emerge: January is clearance sale around the globe and end January and beginning February, at times, is extra clearing sale, getting rid of the stuff that wasn’t sold the weeks before.

So, I was clicking my way around the globe and I came across a name that I hadn’t heard for quite some years, UFO. It should come as no surprise to you regular readers that I decided to jump on this one, especially since it cost the equivalent of about two dollars (good for me, perhaps not good for the band, although the record label probably sold the copies at a fixed price). Continue Reading →

Organissimo

To be quite honest, I used to hate the organ. When I was a kid, we had this neighbour who liked to open up his windows in the summer and blast out this insanely irritating organ muzak for hours, scaring away just about any approaching summer breeze that had managed to survive its journey across the German-French border. It was one of those German guys, 150 kilos and all, who played one of those entertainment organ thingies, noodling through a trillion standards that he managed to reduce to the most nerve-wrecking basics. The only thing missing – and he got none of that in our neighborhood – were a large number of sufficiently drunk Germans in “Lederhosen”, clapping along as offbeat(edly) as possible. If you’ve ever been to the Oktoberfest, you know what kind of people I mean. Continue Reading →

Bands I Useta Like

[Disclaimer: If you are easily offended by (mild) graphic violence, tasteless details and a load of swear words, please abstain.]

The other week I wrote the first part of my “Guilty Pleasures” series (more coming soon) and while surfing the Net around that time I also came across a site that showcased a number of comic strips which altogether seemed to add a visual and textual twist to what I had in the back of my mind (but often didn’t say outright).

“BANDS I USETA LIKE” by “Matty Boy” Anderson might already be familiar to many of you, especially if you are a reader of “Stomp & Stammer” magazine, which I’ve never even heard of, but the strips were completely new to me, and after having spattered my screen with coke and other beverages while in fits of laughter, I thought I’d briefly feature the site here. Continue Reading →