SACD

Can – Soundtracks (1970) [2004 Remaster] [SACD / Spoon Records – SPOONSA5]

admin 312 Views

Can - Soundtracks (1970) [2004 Remaster]

Title: Can – Soundtracks (1970) [2004 Remaster]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Malcolm Mooney passes the baton to Damo Suzuki for Soundtracks, a collection of film music featuring contributions from both vocalists. The dichotomy between the two singers is readily apparent: Suzuki’s odd, strangulated vocals fit far more comfortably into the group’s increasingly intricate and subtle sound, allowing for greater variation than Mooney’s stream-of-consciousness discourse.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
1 min read
SACD

Can – Monster Movie (1969) [2004 Remaster] [SACD / Spoon Records – SPOONSA4]

admin 285 Views

Can - Monster Movie (1969) [2004 Remaster]

Title: Can – Monster Movie (1969) [2004 Remaster]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Though Monster Movie was the first full-length album in what would become a sprawling and often genre-defining discography, Can were on a level well ahead of the curve even in their most formative days. Recorded and released in 1969, Monster Movie bears many of the trademarks that Can would explore as they went on, as well as elements that would set the scene for the burgeoning Krautrock movement. This would be the only album Can’s first singer Malcolm Mooney would sing the entirety of, as he was replaced by Damo Suzuki by the time of 1970’s Soundtracks, leaving the band after going through a highly unstable time. Mooney was known for his erratic ways, and some of that mania undoubtedly comes through here, with his caterwauling howls on the unexpectedly garage-influenced “Outside My Door” as well as the sung-spoken pseudo-poetry rants of album opener “Father Cannot Yell.” Riding a particularly Velvet Underground vibe, “Father Cannot Yell” sounds like post-punk before punk even existed. Irmin Schmidt’s brittle keyboard squalls and dissonant rhythms and Mooney’s buried recitations predated the Fall, Swell Maps, the noise scene, and generations of difficult sound by years and in some cases decades. Holger Czukay’s pensive basslines are also an already distinctive calling card of the band on this debut, providing a steadfast glue for the barrages of noisy tones, edits, and pulses the record offers from all angles. The 20-minute album closer “Yoo Doo Right” is an enormous highlight, cementing the locked-in hypnotic exploration Can would extrapolate on for the rest of their time and come to be known for. Mooney’s raspy vocals range from whispery incantations to throaty rock & roll shouts, building with the band into an almost mantra-level meditation as the song repeats its patterns and multi-layered grooves into what feels like infinity. Legend has it that the final side-long version of the song was edited down from a six-hour recording session focusing on that tune alone. Given the level of commitment to experimentation Can would go on to show, it’s not hard to believe they’d play one song for six hours to find its core, nor is it unfathomable that Monster Movie was the more accessible album they recorded after their first attempts were deemed too out there to be commercially released. Even in their earliest phases, Can were making their name by blowing away all expectations and notions that rock & roll had limits of any kind.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
3 min read
SACD

Anna Malikova, WDR-Sinfonieorchester Köln, Thomas Sanderling – Camille Saint-Saëns – Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 (2007) [SACD / Audite – 10.012]

admin 276 Views

Anna Malikova, WDR-Sinfonieorchester Köln, Thomas Sanderling - Camille Saint-Saëns - Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 (2007)

Title: Anna Malikova, WDR-Sinfonieorchester Köln, Thomas Sanderling – Camille Saint-Saëns – Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 (2007)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The five piano concertos of St.-Saens are not frequently heard and that is a shame in view of the endless repeats of the Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Schumann warhorses. They are all well-composed examples of the best of French instrumental music of the later 19th century and full of lovely melodies that would appeal greatly to concert audiences. I hadn’t enjoyed any of them for some time and it was a pleasure to have these two concertos in enveloping hi-res surround. I don’t know how we missed out on Vol. I but plan to check into that. Brian Bloom talks in his Denon receiver review this issue about the people who often prefer the stereo mix on SACDs to the multichannel. I admit I seldom check either the CD or stereo options anymore because I always hear about the same thing in comparison. I really can’t imagine why anyone with five properly matched and located speakers would prefer the stereo mix to the multichannel mix! On these concertos the two-channel option is excellent and there is little one would miss. However, when switching to the multichannel option the soundstage takes on a depth and breadth it didn’t have, and the piano is better separated from the sound of the orchestra. There’s much more “air” around everything. The piano still sounds too wide but that’s a given. The first movement of the Third Concerto is so bombastic one might almost think the composer was humorously depicting a lion or elephant from his Carnival of the Animals. It’s slow movement is rather brooding, but the finale is a colorful showpiece for the soloist. The Fifth Concerto is sometimes subtitled “Egyptian Concerto” because that is where it was composed. St.-Saens frequently spent time in North Africa, which had started when he was a child with a medical problems. He indicated the middle movement was a sort of tour of the Orient. One theme in it is a Nubian love song which the composer had heard boatmen on the Nile sing. The opening and closing movements are however thoroughly French. Orchestration is very colorful, with solos originating in the winds and strings. 4/5 ~audiophile-audition

hraudio

(more…)

Read More
3 min read
SACD

Cameron Carpenter – Revolutionary (2008) [SACD / Telarc – SACD-60711]

admin 352 Views

Cameron Carpenter - Revolutionary (2008)

Title: Cameron Carpenter – Revolutionary (2008)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Cameron Carpenter has been lauded as “the Maverick organist”, “madly original”, and “a superstar of the 21st-century organ”. His debut recording, Revolutionary, showcases an artist who is not only breaking new ground, but who runs a musical gamut that any musician would be extremely hard-pressed to match. This album made Carpenter the first organist ever to receive a Grammy nomination in the category ‘Best Solo Instrumental Performance’ (without orchestra) for a solo album.

Revolutionary showcases an artist who is not only breaking ground, but who runs a musical gamut that any musician would be extremely hard-pressed to match. There are only four organ works included. Three are major pinnacles of the organ repertoire (the blistering, nearly unplayable Etude in Octaves by the French modernist Jeanne Demessieux; Prelude and Fugue in B major by Marcel Dupré; and Bach’s deeply moving chorale-prelude Now Come, Savior of the Gentiles, while the fourth is the world premiere recording of Cameron’s suggestive Love Song No. 1 (2008). The album’s major departures, though, are found in Duke Ellington’s Solitude (wittily combined with Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze); Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, and Vladimir Horowitz’ Carmen Variations. Here are two of Chopin’s Études in versions so convincing that they might have been organ music; and Cameron’s Evolutionary Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, an outrageous survey of the various instrumental arrangements that made Bach’s work famous. All this is recorded not on a pipe organ, but on the equally revolutionary Marshall & Ogletree Virtual Pipe Organ at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City – an organ that, rising out of the destruction of Trinity’s pipe organ on September 11, 2001, continues to challenge the status quo of the pipe organ and the artistic possibilities of organ playing in general.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
2 min read
SACD

Camel – Music Inspired by The Snow Goose (1975) [SHM-SACD 2011] [SACD / Decca – UIGY-9504]

admin 321 Views

Camel - Music Inspired by The Snow Goose (1975) [SHM-SACD 2011]

Title: Camel – Music Inspired by The Snow Goose (1975) [SHM-SACD 2011]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Camel’s classic period started with The Snow Goose, an instrumental concept album based on a novella by Paul Gallico. Although there are no lyrics on the album — two songs feature wordless vocals — the music follows the emotional arc of the novella’s story, which is about a lonely man named Rhayader who helps nurse a wounded snow goose back to health with the help of a young girl called Fritha he recently befriended. Once the goose is healed, it is set free, but Fritha no longer visits the man because the goose is gone. Later, Rhayader is killed in battle during the evacuation of Dunkirk. The goose returned during the battle, and it is then named La Princesse Perdue, symbolizing the hopes that can still survive even during the evils of war. With such a complex fable to tell, it is no surprise that Camel keep their improvisational tendencies reigned in, deciding to concentrate on surging, intricate soundscapes that telegraph the emotion of the piece without a single word. And even though The Snow Goose is an instrumental album, it is far more accessible than some of Camel’s later work, since it relies on beautiful sonic textures instead of musical experimentation.

 allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
2 min read
SACD

Camel – The Snow Goose (1975) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2016] [SACD / Decca – UIGY-15035]

admin 322 Views

Camel - The Snow Goose (1975) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2016]

Title: Camel – The Snow Goose (1975) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2016]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Camel’s classic period started with The Snow Goose, an instrumental concept album based on a novella by Paul Gallico. Although there are no lyrics on the album – two songs feature wordless vocals – the music follows the emotional arc of the novella’s story, which is about a lonely man named Rhayader who helps nurse a wounded snow goose back to health with the help of a young girl called Fritha he recently befriended. Once the goose is healed, it is set free, but Fritha no longer visits the man because the goose is gone. Later, Rhayader is killed in battle during the evacuation of Dunkirk. The goose returned during the battle, and it is then named La Princesse Perdue, symbolizing the hopes that can still survive even during the evils of war. With such a complex fable to tell, it is no surprise that Camel keep their improvisational tendencies reigned in, deciding to concentrate on surging, intricate soundscapes that telegraph the emotion of the piece without a single word. And even though The Snow Goose is an instrumental album, it is far more accessible than some of Camel’s later work, since it relies on beautiful sonic textures instead of musical experimentation.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
2 min read
SACD

Camel – Rain Dances (1977) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014] [SACD / Decca – UIGY-9544]

admin 319 Views

Camel - Rain Dances (1977) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014]

Title: Camel – Rain Dances (1977) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The band’s fifth release, Rain Dances is Camel at its best, offering the most consistent and representative package in their saga. The addition of Caravan-cofounder Richard Sinclair proves profitable, as do a few colorist touches by Brian Eno on “Elke.” Mel Collins’ woodwinds are among the highlights, especially on “Tell Me” and the title track. From beginning to end, this project flows gracefully.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
1 min read
SACD

Camel – Moonmadness (1976) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014] [SACD / Decca – UIGY-9543]

admin 318 Views

Camel - Moonmadness (1976) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014]

Title: Camel – Moonmadness (1976) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Abandoning the lovely soundscapes of Snow Goose, Camel delved into layered guitar and synthesizers similar to those of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here on the impressive Moonmadness. Part of the reason behind the shift in musical direction was the label’s insistence that Camel venture into more commercial territory after the experimental Snow Goose, and it is true that the music on Moonmadness is more akin to traditional English progressive rock, even though it does occasionally dip into jazz-fusion territory with syncopated rhythms and shimmering keyboards. Furthermore, the songs are a little more concise and accessible than those of its predecessor. That doesn’t mean Camel has abandoned art. Moonmadness is indeed a concept album, based loosely on the personalities of each member — “Chord Change” is Peter Bardens, “Air Born” is Andy Latimer, “Lunar Sea” is Andy Ward and “Another Night” is Doug Ferguson. Certainly, it’s a concept that is considerably less defined than that of Snow Goose, and the music isn’t quite as challenging, yet that doesn’t mean that Moonmadness is devoid of pleasure. In fact, with its long stretches of atmospheric instrumentals and spacy solos, it’s quite rewarding.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
2 min read
SACD

Caetano Veloso – A Foreign Sound (2004) [SACD / Universal Music – 0602498192283]

admin 323 Views

Caetano Veloso - A Foreign Sound (2004)

Title: Caetano Veloso – A Foreign Sound (2004)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

When an international artist records an English-language album, crossover is usually in the cards. For Caetano Veloso, however, it’s an entirely different matter. The statesman of Brazilian pop, a musical giant who is on track to record more in his fifth decade of artistic striving than in any other (not to mention his accompanying exploits in literature), Veloso has no need to begin an American campaign. He also has shown no wish to. Caetano Veloso has never courted an American audience, though he has drawn a sizeable one because of his prescient, emotionally charged songwriting and a performance style that can be studied or unhinged depending on the circumstances required. A Foreign Sound is not only an English-language album but an American songbook, one that explores Veloso’s long fascination with the greatest composers in American history. It began when he was a child in the ’40s and ’50s enamored of American culture, was strengthened when his hero João Gilberto began championing the great American songbook, and has remained steady if not continuous through his artistic career. The record is perhaps his most ambitious project ever, a 22-song album that ranges for its material from emperors of Broadway to the denizens of folk music, from the cultured (Rodgers & Hart’s “Manhattan”) to the torchy (Jerome Kern’s “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”) to the gritty (Nirvana’s “Come as You Are”). Veloso’s high tenor has only strengthened 30 years after his other English-language record — an eponymous 1971 LP, recorded in London as a forlorn postcard to the country he had been forcibly removed from by Brazil’s fascist-leaning government. Although few recordings in his discography (or any other’s) can rival that one’s emotional power, A Foreign Sound comes very close. Veloso transforms these standards by a clever combination of his subtle interpretive gifts, his precise, literate delivery, and his ability to frame each song with an arrangement that fits perfectly (usually either a small group led by his acoustic guitar or a small string group, though “Love for Sale” is given a spine-tingling a cappella treatment). Out of 22 songs, only Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” sounds like a mistake; every other performance here is nearly irresistible, the perfect valentine to a country with a strong songwriting tradition that Veloso unites and celebrates with this album.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
3 min read