Külföldi torrent oldalak What.cd | WCD Staff Picks!

Re: What.CD

Staff Picks! 14 hours and 58 mins ago
We'd like to thank everyone for their patience through the recent downtime, and thought it was high time for some random staff picks! All picks in this post are Freeleech, enjoy! Be sure to head to the thread for more information about each album, longer staff reviews and to comment/thank the staff if you enjoy their picks. We appreciate the comments!

(and Seethewaves and MrE2Me love you all)

sarky's Surprise Pick

Tujiko Noriko - Solo

Genre: experimental, electronic, glitch

Torrents: torrents.php?id=42845

Review -
David Orme, StylusMagazine.com, 2007 wrote:

The Japanese laptop musician, singer, and offbeat sex symbol Tujiko Noriko is often compared to a certain other female electronic pop artist, but Tujiko doesn’t have as much in common with Björk as critics might have you believe...Tujiko whispers playful melodies almost completely in Japanese against an electronic landscape that often sounds alien, but never announces itself as unnatural. Sludgy beats lurch the album forward, while synths and glitches envelop her voice without ever overwhelming it. Static is looped, processed, and transformed into instrumental flourishes just as naturally as if she had been playing the flute or strumming the guitar. Her songs are pop, but more than that, they’re also multi-dimensional sound sculptures, revealing new complexities at every angle of observation. Solo finds her near the top of her game with the most immediately rewarding group of melodies and vocal performances she’s ever released. Tujiko is by her very nature a background listen, but Solo’s striking vocals claw their way to full consciousness, tumbling out of controlled dreams into waking life.



Marienbad's Pick

Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Ecophony Gaia

Genre: Everything

Torrents: torrents.php?id=158191

Review - There is no easy way to summarize this band. Those of you who have seen Akira though, already have some experience with them. If you remember that film's extraordinary score, you've probably stopped reading this and downloaded the pick. For the rest of you: Geinoh Yamashirogumi was a project spearheaded by Tsutomu Ohashi, who found hundreds musicians in Japan who could play instruments and in styles from cultures around the world, and wove their music together into breathtaking suites. If the synthesizers sound dated, remember they were modified to be considerably more advanced than anything commercially available. Ohashi has an unwavering vision on this album and it shows in every minute.

skullmuffins's Pick

The Gathering - How to measure a planet?

Genre: Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock, Trip Rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=71255

Review

"This is when The Gathering decided to experiment with a mellower style of music drifting further away from their death metal roots, and interestingly enough, this is their most sublime delivery to date. On 'How To Measure a Planet?' The Gathering dive, in elegance, into the most refined progressive metal music I have come across in years. Every song on the first CD of this double-album is drenched with atmospheric sensibility, with a background of metal riffs, and as always, the exquisite high soaring voice of Anneke. Unfortunately the second CD has very little to offer, especially the superfluous 28-minute long title track, which almost sounds like an improvised track that refuses to end. The song Illuminating rescues the second CD from being entirely dismissable.
Musicfolio Picks: CD1 - Frail, Great Ocean Road, Marooned, Travel. "
-- Said Sukkarieh, musicfolio.com, 3/03



Seethewaves's Pick

Porcupine Tree - Nil Recurring

Genre: Rock, progressive rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=2735

Review - First: shoutout to #prog on our IRC network! Second: unlike my usual insanely lengthy picks, this one is an EP and runs for less than half an hour. So why this instead of Porcupine Tree's other incredible albums? Nil Recurring, the 4 bonus songs left off Fear of a Blank Planet, may not be as mindblowing as the album itself, but the songs are still good. It's a great introduction for someone unfamiliar to Porcupine Tree; it's short, and if you like this, you're bound to like their other recent material. It's also nice for someone more familiar with Porcupine Tree, since some of the songs are lyrical companions to ones on the main album. Oh... and stay tuned towards the end of Normal.

Wulvaine's Pick

David Bowie - A Reality Tour

Genre: Classic Rock, Glam Rock, Alternative Rock

Torrents: torrents.php?page=2&id=686498

Review - This live album is stunning in scope: 33 tracks covering almost every inch of his long career, and there's not a miss in the lineup. At the time of recording, Bowie was 56, and in stunningly good form. His voice has never sounded better, and he's an undeniable master showman. Whether you watch the DVD or listen to the album, it's impossible not to get into the spirit of the show. A few major hits are missing (fans may be bothered at the absence of Suffragette City and Space Oddity), but it's shocking how little they're missed in context, and perhaps even more shocking how neatly Bowie's more recent material slots in with the classics. I can't recommend this album highly enough. In my opinion, it's one of the best live documents to come out of the 2000s.

ipof's Pick

David S. Ware - Godspelized

Genre: Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz

Torrent: torrents.php?id=498617

Review

An interesting psychological fact about humans is that, when we use tools, our brains treat them as an extension of our bodies, as quite literally a part of ourselves. This in part accounts for our great facility with tools. There are cases when this dry, if interesting, fact can be vividly and stunningly seen or heard—think of LeBron James with a basketball or Roger Federer with a tennis racket. I submit Godspelized as an auditory example of this phenomenon. Ware takes his saxophone and makes it animate, no longer merely a tool. This is most in evidence on the title track, where Ware spends 15 minutes sheerly emoting with his saxophone in a way that (risking reviewer's laziness) really must be heard to understand. (In my defense, all I have to say about what it sounds like consists of boring facts like "owes a clear debt to John Coltrane"—precisely the sort of fact that gets swallowed up in the actual experience of listening.)



Changles's Pick

Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town

Genre: Rock, Heartland Rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=47407

nando's Pick

Stateless - Matilda

Genre: Trip hop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=71829454

Review - Welcome to “Matilda,” then, an eleven track, fifty minute follow-up to 2007’s eponymous debut, which takes all of those easy words and makes something concrete out of them. “Matilda” ties together classic songwriting with rhythmic drive, slatherings of sub-bass and enough electronic interference to satisfy the most anal of glitch-nerds. The results are spectacular. From the atmospheric opening of “Curtain Call” you know you’re in for something special. “Junior” aches with longing and throbs with out-of-focus electronica. “I Shall Not Complain” finishes the album back somewhere in Eastern Europe, piano combining with one of the most beautiful melodies on the record to take us out on a melancholy, uplifting high.

Seraphiel's Pick

The Fifteenth - In Foxholes We Dug Ourselves

Genre: indie, pop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=582278

Review - I found this album quite a while ago on lhnz's profile and it's stuck with me ever since then. Quite simply, beautiful.

Kopitiam's Pick

Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo - Almanac

Genre: Indie, Folk and Country

Torrents: torrents.php?id=71913691

bionicsocks's Pick

Various Artists - The Wire 20 Years 1982-2002: Audio Issue

Genre: Electronic, Jazz, Non-Music, Reggae, Spoken Word, Experimental

Torrents: torrents.php?id=567099

Review

Commemorating 20 years of THE WIRE magazine, this triple-CD compilation presents 42 avant garde and experimental tracks championed by the fanzine.

The Wire Magazine first appeared on news stands in 1982 and over the last 20 years it has developed from a quarterly fanzine specializing in avant garde jazz and modern composition into an award-winning and widely influential monthly that covers a vast array of underground, experimental and alternative music and culture. This 3 CD box set is the Audio Edition and spans the magazine's 20-year history. Artists include Ennio Morricone, Coil, David Toop & Max Eastley, Fela Kuti, Pan Sonic, AMM, Derek Bailey, John Cage, Diamanda Galas and more. Slipcases housed in a slimline box embossed with the word Adventures. Mute. 2002.



SupDimForFer's Pick

Various Artists - Les Misérables - The Complete Symphonic Recording

Genre: Soundtrack, Musical, Broadway, Theatre

Torrents: torrents.php?id=96873

Review - Sarah Erlewine (for allmusic.com) wrote:

Originally conceived as a simple recording production, Les Misérables evolved quickly into one of the premiere theatre events of the 1980s. Theatrically on par with Phantom of the Opera, Les Miz is drawn from the Victor Hugo novel of the same name. The story chronicles the life of Jean Valjean, a simple Frenchman who was arrested as a youth for stealing a loaf of bread. After serving five years for that crime, as well as an additional 14 for attempted escape, Valjean is released on parole. Upon changing his name and eluding his parole officer, Valjean becomes the surrogate father of a young girl and a mayor as the French Revolution sets in. As the war rages, he finds that he cannot change the man he is. Les Misérables is typical of theatre in the '80s, with extravagant effects and large, full cast numbers. The beautiful score is brimming with emotion and humor, including such memorable and noteworthy songs as "Look Down," "Do You Hear the People Sing?," "Bring Him Home," "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" and the ubiquitous "On My Own." The international studio cast includes members from the London, Broadway, and Tokyo productions and was recorded at three different locations. Often referred to as the "symphonic" recording, this is far more complete than other releases. Instead of just two discs containing the major numbers, this three-disc collection covers the entire show, and its 1999 remastered reissue features bonus video clips from productions around the world.


Of course, there are no video tracks in this torrent, as per Rule 1.2.3.

alderaan's Pick

Underworld - Everything, Everything

Genre: Live, Electronic, Techno, Club/Dance, House

Torrents: torrents.php?id=20901

Review - Louis Pattison wrote:

At the end of 1999, Underworld returned from their international Beaucoup Fish tour utterly exhausted. They had spent almost two years on the road, and that was enough for deck wizard Darren Emerson, who picked up his record box, jetted off to Uruguay, claimed his mantle as a globe-trotting international DJ, and turned his back on Underworld forever. Rick Smith, however, reacted to the experience of coming off the tour in a very different way. Locking himself in the studio for eight months, he watched and listened to tape after tape of the Underworld live experience, examining it, dissecting it, evaluating it. The result is "Everything, Everything", a 75-minute compilation of the band's greatest on-stage moments, from a rampant, super-fast "Shudder/King of Snake" to a breathtaking closing hybrid of techno milestones on "Rez/Cowgirl"--and not forgetting, of course, a frenetic thunder through the band's ultimate crowd-pleaser, the heavenly prototrance anthem "Born Slippy." To the Underworld disciple, this offering will surely come as manna from heaven.



Interstellar's Pick

Leonidas Kavakos & Peter Nagy perform
Maurice Ravel Sonate posthume / Tzigane – Rapsodie de concert
George Enescu Impressions d’enfance, op 28, Sonata No 3, op 25 “dans le caractčre populaire roumain”

Genre: Classical

Torrents: torrents.php?id=739183

Review – This album features the most ravishing interpretation of Tzigane I have encountered. It features another limpid Ravel composition, his Sonate posthume. Both glisten in Kavakos's interpretations. Kavakos's tone is silvery, tempered, perfectly measured, and gorgeous. The less-common material, Enescu's Impressions d'enfance and Violin Sonata No. 3, is navigated deftly by Kavakos, who doesn't lose Enescu's Romanian folk motifs but manages to bring out the more abstract nuances in these compositions.

I had the great pleasure of seeing Kavakos perform live, and what struck me was his understated brilliance. Not as showy as, say, Anne-Sophie Mutter, his performance instead is of rare refinement and meticulous preparation. These performances are of the same breed and are not to be missed.

The Guardian, reviewing Leonidas Kavakos’ performance of Ravel’s “Tzigane” at the London BBC Proms wrote:

“Unwavering commitment, superb clarity, and an exhilarating impetuous streak”



Marigolds's Pick

Various Artists - Ata Tak - The Collection Box 1 (Genesis/The Beginning)

Genre: Electronic, Experimental, German, Pop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=71994249

Review - The first in a series of five boxset releases, reissuing the Ata Tak label's back-catalogue. Essential for fans of the Neue Deutsche Welle, or anyone with an interest in electronic, experimental pop music.

clapton's Pick

Isolée - We Are Monster

Genre: Microhouse

Torrents: torrents.php?id=7922

Review - pitchfork wrote:

As for loving this record-- letting it problematize itself with spins and learning to let it offend-- well, We Are Monster has the depth if you have the time. Yep, here's a fun record that's a work-for-it, in-the-details record, too. Behind the choked-vocals groove of, say, "Enrico" are countless micro-surprises (check how the kicks break down differently each turnaround, or how the downbeat finally drops deceptively mid-bar instead of on the loop's head), structured flips with chess-like anticipation (the guitar-like scratches function percussively at first, their color stuck in overtones until the song needs them in full), and avalanching momentum not from Isolée stuffing ideas half-baked, but from letting the seeds of lines grow, branch out, and tangle. Not sure we can talk of "Golden Age IDM" or even "Golden Age Techno" yet, but something like the Copeland-does-Glam gem "Schrapnell" seems so effortless, breathes so carefree, years from now crits might accuse it of sounding timeless-- maybe even of being so.



Theseus's Pick

The Streets - Original Pirate Material

Genre: Garage

Torrents: torrents.php?id=42006

Review - It's not an obscure choice, nor a novel one, but this album and Burial's Untrue are the two albums that best evoke the England (and especially major cities) that I know and have known.

WhyNotMice's Pick

J Dilla - Donuts

Genre: Hip-hop, trip-hop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=111582

Review - Allmusic wrote:

Donuts was made on a hospital bed and in a home studio, on a stripped-down setup with a stack of vinyl. Released on its maker's 32nd birthday, three days before he passed away, the album has a resonance deeper than anyone could've hoped for or even imagined. Some who were close to Dilla have said that there are hidden messages in the samples, the track titles, and who knows where else. ... It's easy to be overwhelmed, or even put off, by the rapid-fire sequence, but it's astounding how so many of the sketches leave an immediate impression. By the third or fourth listen, what initially came across as a haphazard stream of slapped-together fragments begins to take the shape of a 44-minute suite filled with wistful joy. ... Donuts just might be the one release that best reflects his personality.



weisguy's Guest Pick

Dan Kaplan - Year of the Swallowtail

Genre: Rock, Folk

Torrents: torrents.php?id=71853876

Review

With influences ranging from traditional folk music and Americana to more contemporary alt-country and pop, Dan Kaplan's sound is at once familiar, but altogether his own. Exploring recognizable themes of love and loss, emotional insecurity and mortality, Kaplan manages to survey the landscape of twentysomething trials by fire without sounding derivative.

Coupled with a delivery that is both heartfelt and honest, Kaplan’s tales of longing, youth, and world-weariness defy categorization into any one genre. "I’ve always been drawn to the idea of not being constrained by any preconceived ideas of what music has to be...the goal has always been to figure out how to break the patterns that are so easy [for me] to fall into - to constantly challenge myself to write better melodies, better songs". And with an extensive back catalogue already, including 3 solo EPs and a newly released full length album, it’s clear that there’s no end in sight to his creative potential.


Discuss this post here