Külföldi torrent oldalak What.cd | WCD Now! That's What I Call Staff Picks Volume 1337: The Power Tm Edition

Re: What.CD

NOW! That's What I Call Staff Picks Volume 1337: The Power TM Edition 4 hours and 12 mins ago
jowa's Staff Pick:

Tha Dogg Pound - Dogg Food

Genre: hip.hop, g.funk

Torrents: torrents.php?id=36484

Review:
Pete T., rapreviews.com wrote:

It's probably true that "Dogg Food" could not have existed without "The Chronic" and "Doggystyle," a reason that Daz and Kurupt never became the icons that Dre and Snoop did, but "Dogg Food" is a landmark album on its own. It is a brilliant exercise in style—Kurupt's smooth flow and sly humor, Daz's thumping production—and their appeal is much more subtle than their mentors'. Showcasing the best of the duo, their label, their city, and their coast in the great year of '95, "Dogg Food" is an essential debut from two can't-miss talents with splendid production, excellent rapping, classic singles, and a whole lot of fun.



MasterHarsh's contest pick:

The Who - Tommy

Genre: rock, rock.opera, classic.rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=68471

Review - This is the Album that altered my appreciation for music. It made me realize there was more than words and music. This album has remained a driving force in the music world since it's release in 1969.

Read review by B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold

Pete Townshend possibly feels a lot like David O. Selznick, the producer of the movie `Gone With The Wind' in fearing that he will only be remembered in his obituary by his creating that one work, as Townshend, like Selznick, seems to have been spending his time after completing their most important work in trying to top it.

To my mind, Townshend should have no regrets about not topping `Tommy', as it is easily one of the two or three most important albums and works in the entire Rock canon, similar in importance and possibly superior in quality to `Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and `Blond on Blond', to name just two others high in the ranks of great Rock albums.

One thing which surprises me about writing on `Tommy' is how little deep analysis has been essayed about the story behind the songs. In a nutshell, the story is this:

Tommy Walker is born while his father is off on some journey (`It's a boy') from which he becomes several years late in returning. Tommy's mother takes up with a lover, father returns, mother and lover kill father with Tommy as a witness, and mother and lover tell Tommy he saw and heard nothing (`You didn't hear it'). Tommy becomes functionally blind, deaf, and dumb to all outside appearances, however, it is evident that within his own head, he can see and hear everything (`There's a doctor I've found'). He is tormented by various malicious relatives (`Cousin Kevin' and `Fiddle About') and `treated' by various attempts, including hallucinogens (`Acid Queen'). As he grows up, the only outside experience to which he responds is a pinball machine, at which he becomes expert (`Pinball Wizard'). Tommy is finally cured by watching his image in a mirror smashed by, I believe, his mother's lover (`Smash the Mirror'). Being released from his isolation for Tommy is like being released from a practically lifelong mystical experience heightened by pinball. The charisma with which Tommy is imbued by this experience leads him to become a `New Messiah' (`Sally Simpson') creating a movement which expands beyond local resources (`Welcome') and becomes institutionalized into a ritual modeled after playing pinball while deaf dumb and blind (`Tommy's holiday camp'). The story ends with a revolt of Tommy's disciples against his new religion (`We're not gonna take it').

The theme of being oppressed runs throughout practically all of Townshend's work, although in `Tommy', it takes a back seat to mysticism. The people who dote on the philosophical background of `The Matrix' should sink their teeth into the `Tommy' story and ruminate on that a while. The major musical theme of the work seems to be Townsend's search for a magical chord. And, anyone who, like myself, has seen `Tommy' performed live by the original Who will have no trouble believing Townsend has found his chord as he hits that first great whirlwind chord in `Pinball Wizard'. Talk about a rush! In general, a lot of the music echoes earlier Who works. Townshend seems to constantly cut and paste phrasings from one work to another and I have no problem with this except in the most tedious of the three instrumental pieces (`Underture') in the album.

Some writers have said that 'Tommy' is more like an Oratorio or a Song Cycle than it is an Opera, but I disagree. Neither of these other two genres requires a plot, and an Opera does, and Tommy has a plot. I prefer to think of it as a selection of arias and instrumental passages from which some bridging dialogue has been left out. My biggest problem with this plot is that the actual event that triggers Tommy's autism is only hinted at in the most vague of terms. It is easy to believe that it was a murder, but the lyrics of `You Didn't Hear It' never come even close to saying exactly what the event was. On the other side of the coin, the great majority of the songs on the album `Tommy' directly support carrying the story forward. Practically the only exception is the Sonny Boy Williamson classic `Eyesight to the Blind'. It is probably symptomatic that only `Pinball Wizard', `I'm Free', and `Sensation' out of the 24 cuts in `Tommy' really work for the Who outside the context of the whole work. That's why I'm especially happy to have seen The Who perform virtually the whole album live, four days after it was initially released. It is also interesting to see that the two cuts describing episodes of sadism were written by Entwistle and not Townshend.

This CD contains exactly what was on my original vinyl two record album bought in 1969, suitably enhanced with modern electronics. My greatest respect for Townshend is for creating a classic musical form, the Opera, using an entirely ROCK instrument, with the slightest classical leavening from John Entwistle's French horn on a few early numbers. So many `rock' versions of traditional forms simply overlay rock performances on classical arrangements or make classical arrangements of rock melodies. Aside from `Quadrophenia', the only other work which succeeds at doing this is Spooky Tooth/Pierre Henry work `Ceremony An Electronic Mass'.

Listening to this album and every other early Who album reminds one just how much their performances were a collaborative effort between the original four, and how much we miss Keith Moon and John Entwistle today. We can only say that with `Tommy' and numerous other works and recorded performances, the memory of The Who will live forever.



kukushka's Power TM Pick:

Traveling Wilburys - Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1

Genre: Pop rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=127610

Review

Pound for pound, the Traveling Wilburys contained more sheer musical genius than a Lollapalooza of lesser bands. A Beatle, a Dylan, a Heartbreaker, a legendary voice and an Electric Light Orchestrator? It sounds like rock star fantasy camp, but it was reality nearly 20 years ago now.

The combination of George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne made for one of the finest "supergroups" of all time. Their first album, The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, and to a lesser extent, their second, teasingly labeled Vol. 3, represent a shining high point in each of the artists' careers.

The Wilburys sprang out of sessions for Harrison's 1987 comeback disc Cloud Nine. In 1988, Harrison and Lynne were putting together a B-side for the single "This Is Love" at Dylan's home studio. Roy Orbison and Tom Petty just happened to be hanging about, and the five slapped together a little song.

But the result, "Handle With Care," was far from a mere B-side – catchy, wistful, anchored by Harrison's sweet guitar solos, the crooning chorus from Orbison, Dylan popping up to blow a harmonica and croak a few lines like a subterranean oracle. It had the ramshackle feeling of a road trip anthem, the universal appeal of a forgotten classic rock tune, and it was way too good to toss away as filler. The group reconvened to record an entire album. Legend has it that "Wilburys" was coined by Harrison and Lynne during the recording of Cloud Nine as a reference to recorded "flubs" that could be eliminated during the mixing stage (as in, "'We'll bury' them in the mix").

Even Dylan, who one would imagine the least likely of the quintet to take part in such a goofy lark, seemed to have a blast – the charmingly lovelorn "Dirty World," or his "Tweeter and the Monkeyman," a rollicking Springsteen-meets-Bob parody that's light years above most of Dylan's other '80s output. Orbison hadn't had a real hit in decades, and this disc helped launch the career revival that came too late – he died suddenly at age 52 in 1988 mere months after the recording of this set. Some of his tracks here, like the lovely "Not Alone Any More," stand with the best of his work.

What was so remarkable about Vol. 1 is that it's a "supergroup" album almost entirely lacking in pretension – just simply gorgeous, honest soundcraft, polished to a fine shine by Jeff Lynne's typically slick production. Everyone takes turns on vocals and songwriting, and the result is that no one artist pulls rank on the others.



Vidolz's Power TM Pick:

Closure in Moscow - First Temple

Genre: Post-hardcore, Emo, Progressive Rock, Experimental

Torrents: torrents.php?id=471463

Review - Andrew Martin of emotionalpunk wrote:

Undoubtedly, the folks in the Equal Vision Records A&R department sure have a type. Their tendency to sign bands with soaring vocals, obvious technical prowess, and a focus on intensity and melody is obvious. Take a few of their early releases—Coheed and Cambria, Fairweather, or Chiodos. And while a few bands along the way tended to stray from this formula (two of my personal favorite artists The Snake The Cross The Crown, and Dear And The Headlights for example) even the label’s most recent releases and new signings have followed this progression.
It works; I’m always eager and excited to hear that new band. Closure In Moscow, a band I only recently discovered, was no different. Even when some of the riffs on Closure In Moscow’s latest are all too reminiscent of the last EVR records I’ve spun (Pierce The Veil’s “A Flair For The Dramatic” and Damiera’s “Quiet Mouth Loud Hands”), I can’t help but be lit up and enjoy the subtle differences; as well as the (fewer) not-so-subtle altercations.
“First Temple” is the band’s follow-up to “The Penance And The Patience,” and picks up right where the EP left off. Fast, aggressive, and highly technical guitars go hand in hand with soaring, constant vocal harmonies. Clear comparisons are immediately drawn to bands like At The Drive-In (and even more so, The Mars Volta).



zopatista's Power TM Pick:

The Peptones - Songs About Love

Genre: Rock 'n Roll, Punk, Garage

Torrents: torrents.php?id=634179

Review -

Once upon a time The Hague was Beatcity #1 in The Netherlands and if it's up to The Peptones, the title will be recaptured 40 years later. Even if we are now more likely to call it punkrock, garagerock or just plain rock 'n roll. Because that's what this The Hague trio produces; no nonsense rock 'n roll with spirit wrapped in 2 to 3 minute songs that blast from your speakers. Songs About Love sounds exactly as it should, and to accomplish this The Peptones moved to the Spanish Gijón to record the album with Jorge Explosion and Mike Mariconda.
The latter two previously produced records for The New Bomb Turks and The Cynics, so they know their stuff. The same for the pep in Peptones: Songs About Love flies by at supersonic speeds with gripping songs stuffed full of testosteron. The Madd from Rotterdam are the Dutch Beatles of 2009, and The Peptones are The Stones. If Songs About Love were to quickly be forgotten - undeservedly - then it hereby has earned its place on a Nuggetbox in some thirty years.



Lychee's Power TM Pick:

Psykovsky - Da Budet

Genre: Electronic, Experimental, Psytrance, Dark Psy

Torrents: torrents.php?id=365480

Review -

Prepare to discover undiscovered forgotten realm

This is an amazing and complex psy-trance I came across...
Music is well orchestrated sometimes ultra-aggressive and all the way Trippy (and you can easily notice the classical music influences) so you can find one good detail, that you hadn't noticed before, every time you listen to it, making it a long-term song. By looking at cover you will think it's reminds you of folklore and goa...Well it is only in very, very twisted way... When you are listening to this album you are on a different plane. In some ruined magical world where everything went horrific and hellish way...Sometimes you can notice sadness and melody.
As soon as The wild Thyme Blows starts you are on bridge between planet earth and Vasilij's disturbed world.

Outstanding. My highest recommendations
There is one problem, that people unfamiliar to dark psy-trance or just dislike it, might not understand it.
Da Budet...

(Review by Drakulya @ Discogs)



stones2621's Power TM Pick:

Ry Cooder - Into The Purple Valley

Genre: blues, rock, country

Torrents: torrents.php?id=25156

Review

Ry Cooder is known as a virtuoso on almost every stringed instrument, and on Into the Purple Valley, he demonstrates this ability on a wide variety of instruments. The main focus of the music here is on the era of the Dust Bowl, and what was happening in America at the time, socially and musically. Songs by Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, and a variety of others show Cooder's encyclopedic knowledge of the music of this time, combined with an instinctive feel for the songs. 'Phenomenal' is the descriptive word to describe his playing, whether it is on guitar, Hawaiian "slack key" guitar, mandolin, or the more arcane instruments he has found. This is a must for those who love instrumental virtuosity, authentic reworkings of an era, or just plain good music.



WichitaQ's Power TM Pick:

Sting - The Dream of the Blue Turtles

Genre: Rock, Pop Funk, Jazz, Pop Rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=48018

Review

From one spin of The Dream of the Blue Turtles, Sting's first solo release, it's obvious that for him there would be life beyond the Police. Teamed with a band of top jazz players, he presents his musical visions that had gone unrealized while he was still constrained by his former ensemble. In style and subject matter, it's a decidedly diverse collection of songs and the playing is excellent throughout. The love songs are mostly focused on endings or escapes, and it's quite possible to interpret much of the imagery in reference to the bitter breakup of the Police. Sting's concern with history and politics is in evidence: he makes a father's plea for sanity and restraint in the nuclear age, takes up for the U.K.'s much-abused coal miners, and relates the savage stupidity of World War I to the destructive effects of adolescent heroin addiction. Songs that seem elaborately constructed and recorded contrast with others that are presented as one-take jams. Seen as a whole, The Dream of the Blue Turtles is eclectic, ambitious--sometimes pretentious--but altogether worth owning. --Al Massa

Having shed the pop shackles of his popular British rock trio the Police, Sting released a 1985 solo debut foreshadowing both the artistic quality and the pretentiousness of his lucrative solo career. Accompanied by saxophonist Branford Marsalis and other superb players, the singer/bassist pulls off an occasionally excellent mixture of pop and jazz--the radio hits "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" and "Fortress Around Your Heart" are gentle and compelling. But Sting's can't-we-get-along lesson about global politics ("Russians") and his occasional stabs at fusion are overbearing kinks that would take years to work out. (Trivia: Darryl Jones, who would replace Bill Wyman in the Rolling Stones a decade later, plays bass here.) --Steve Knopper



muteant's Power TM Pick:

Foetus - Love

Genre: Industrial, Rock, Electronic, Experimental

Torrents: torrents.php?id=25706

Review -

"…The album as a whole may feel like a far less dissonant and troublesome offspring than previous Foetus outings, which in some ways brings it closer to the spirit of the cinematic, orchestrated sound orgies of Steroid Maximus or the creeping electronic tension of Manorexia, Thirlwell’s two major para Foetus projects. But Thirlwell has kept his morbid sense of humour intact as well as his penchant for combining musical elements that few other artists would be able to manage to fuse together in the same song. Thus “Love” collides the sensual with the brute, the minimalistic with the baroque, harpsichord en masse with brutal guitars. What truly astonishes me is the way Thirlwell manages to push his skills as a producer and arranger as well as songwriter. The songs bristle with nuances, and the orchestral elements appear more fully fleshed out and realised than ever. “(not adam)” and “Blessed Evening” are perfected cinematic scenarios, with Thirlwell’s voice taking center stage supported by back projected orchestras going through the moves in a noir soundscape. “Mon agonie douce” sees him adopting a perverted Jaques Brel persona, but everything mutates into a blurry scenario where harpsichords are strangled in backalleys while Thirlwell’s sampler gets blackmailed into committing indescribable acts of perversions. “Aladdin Reverse” isn’t just a pun on David Bowie’s already punning “Aladdin Sane”, but also the most conventionally Foetus-sounding track – if there even is such a thing – in its anguished aggression. Over crashing guitars and roaring strings, a tormented Thirlwell lets us know that he’s not just “a lad in reverse”, but also “Dorian Gray in reverse”. It might be ironic, but it’s the most intense moment of an album that impresses with its ability to alter the Foetus DNA even further, bringing Thirlwell’s most persistent project farther into the evolutionary maze he’s been strolling through since 1980." —Krisstoffer Nohedon, Release Mag



hosewater's Power TM Pick:

Sloan - Between The Bridges

Genre: Alternative, Rock, Indie

Torrents: torrents.php?id=23365

Review -

Sloan managed to tinker with its signature sound -- '60s pop meets '90s indie pop -- while pleasing its current fans and gaining new ones. The band's fifth studio album, Between the Bridges, is one of its best and most consistent -- it's Navy Blues with better production, higher-quality songs, and a polished (but definitely not slick) sound. Sloan returns to producer/engineer extraordinaire Brenndan McGuire, who produced Twice Removed and One Chord to Another, to illustrate how the band's sound has improved and evolved since OCTA and even Navy Blues. The tighter arrangements and the band's naturally engaging songwriting make Between the Bridges a standout in the band's already impressive discography. This progression is most obvious on tracks like Andrew Scott's blues-rock anthem "Sensory Deprivation," Patrick Pentland's rocking "Friendship," Chris Murphy's Television/Halifax club ode "The Marquee and the Moon," and Jay Ferguson's mellow and bouncy "Waiting for Slow Songs." Sloan is making harder-edged, bluesier albums, but the guys still sound like a pop band: innovative, pure, and energetic. Scott's tracks, in particular, have developed from simple Beatlesque numbers into astonishingly genuine, multi-layered pop songs. Between the Bridges sounds eclectic, energized, and cohesive, even if the individual artists don't always stretch out their own compositions. Somehow the group gets better and better while still experimenting with new concepts and sounds, which is not something many bands do gracefully.



Pandemonium273's Power TM Pick:

The Future Sound of London - Dead Cities

Genre: electronic, ambient, IDM, drum and bass, modern classical, trip-hop, liftfield, abstract, experimental, downtempo

Torrents: torrents.php?id=114276

Pandemonium273 wrote:

This is the album that will (if you haven't heard it) change your view to electronic music. Collage cuts, dark ambience, alien music structures - just pay attention and don't skip tracks.



Ross Baker wrote:


Dead Cities is the city to Lifeforms' natural expanse. A variety of styles are present on the album, including their typical ambience, but also dark trip-hop grooves, glitchy IDM, drum'n'bass and even a modern-classical piece written with composer Max Richter. The piece, "Max", was named after him. The album is probably the band's darkest work. Samples are from various sources, including Run DMC, Rebecca Caine, Ozric Tentacles, Ennio Morricone and Vangelis. Also present are the group's large pool of friends and co-workers, including Craig Armstrong, Richie Thomas, Philip Pin, Riz Maslen, Byron Con, Leon Mar and Simon Wells. Wells contribues the hidden track, "Dead Cities Reprise" under his Headstone Lane moniker, which he also used to record a mini-album for FSOL's EBV label. The artwork is more advanced than ever, and over the standard booklet there are the usual CG images and photographs, portraying, as usual, Vit, Shaueen and the Electronic Brain, as well as some hand drawings this time around. The 196 page booklet features even more art in the same vein, as well as some short, paranoid stories, written by Gaz. Artwork, as ever, by Buggy G. Riphead and FSOL. The credits page is quite hilarious at times, full of bizarre references and in-jokes that seem to make little sense (for example, "Mouth whistle by inert armchair sampling from The Best Selling Show Laughter - 'honey sunshine' from a hi-8 'putts goes to Sri-Lanka'.").



thebaron's Power TM Pick:

Day Of Contempt – See Through The Lies

Genre: Hardcore, Australia, Metal.

Torrents: torrents.php?id=45276

Review –
thebaron wrote:

Day Of Contempt changed music for me. Our family always listened to music, predominantly Brit Pop and Rock n Roll. Discovering Day of Contempt and hardcore was incidental, but something I am forever grateful of. I was taken along to a hardcore show by a mate, and music was never the same for me again. These guys played with fury, passion and genuinely believed in the lyrics that they sung.
What got me coming back again and again (Day Of Contempt frequently played local shows) the music was furious but melodic and I could always seem to hear a new hook, note or melody each time I heard them play.
I do acknowledge that the first four tracks of this album are far stronger than the last six tracks, but I listened to this album on constant repeat for over four months and I still listen to at least once a month! I hope you enjoy this fantastic Australian release. If you do enjoy this release and are thinking of getting your hands on another release of theirs, I suggest going old, Where Shadows Lie. Their newest release The Will To Live is easy to listen to, but went in another direction.