Külföldi torrent oldalak What.cd | WCD The What.cd Fifth Birthday Celebration: Day Three

The What.CD Fifth Birthday Celebration: Day Three

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Day three begins! Today we have quite a lot to offer you, so let's skip the formalities and jump right to the overview. Below you'll find a large update to The What.CD Online Store, a new contest that'll give you the opportunity to become a part of What.CD history, another blast from irredentia's stats overdrive project, yet another special gift and a jumbo-sized round of picks from our Alpha, Delta and Interview Teams. Have fun!

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We're very enthused to announce the largest update to The What.CD Online Store (FAQ) since its inception. There's a lot to get to, so we'll begin with an overview, but before we do, heed the warning: many of our items are being discontinued on December 14th, 2012. This effectively makes all of our current apparel limited edition, and if you want to get your hands on a design you've been eyeballing for awhile, now is your chance! A reminder: all profits from The What.CD Online Store are reinvested into the store itself, and otherwise go to support the ever-increasing costs of maintaining What.CD. No staff member is paid for the work they do on the site. So how about it? You'll be able to look gorgeous and support What.CD at the same time. Make your mother proud and pick something up today.

• LIMITED EDITION (NEW HOODIE): We're offering a limited edition hoodie in celebration of What.CD's fifth birthday! For a design, we turned to onionjack's stylish retro logo from our first mug contest. The What.CD Fifth Birthday Limited Edition Hoodie costs $50 and is printed in yellow on a black American Apparel Flex Fleece hoodie. It's our first hoodie - something many of our users asked for - and we're pretty proud of it. This item will be available until December 14th, 2012, after which point it will no longer be sold in the store.
• LIMITED EDITION (NEW SHIRT #1): Due to popular demand, we've also decided to work with the old t-shirt crew in order to stock two throwback designs. The first t-shirt is the classic Retro Candy Shirt, and it's printed on sexy American Apparel fabric. This limited edition shirt is being sold for $30. This item will be available until December 14th, 2012, after which point it will no longer be sold in the store.
• LIMITED EDITION (NEW SHIRT #2): Our second retro shirt is our Retro ? Shirt, brought back by popular demand. This shirt has been around since the olden days, and we couldn't celebrate our fifth birthday without making it available for you nostalgic folks out there. This shirt is being printed on American Apparel, and is available for $25. This item will be available until December 14th, 2012, after which point it will no longer be sold in the store.
• LIMITED EDITION (4x SHIRT SALE): It feels like it wasn't that long ago that we held our first apparel design contest, but time has flown by. achifari, Fire_Couch, monotoo and vulgarbulgar each submitted terrific designs in that contest, and we honored them by making their contributions our 'Original Four' designs, each put into regular print in the store. Well, the time has come to retire these designs, and make room for new surprises. The Original Release Shirt, Headphones Shirt, Hexagon 27 Shirt and The What Network Shirt - each printed on American Apparel stock - have had their prices slashed from $25 to $22. This is your last chance to pick them up, so let's give them a proper send-off. These items will be available until December 14th, 2012, after which point they will no longer be sold in the store.
• LIMITED EDITION (L.E. SALE): We have roughly 120 prints left of P1um's stellar This is My Jam! Shirt. The design is printed on American Apparel, and we've decided to enact a birthday discount, cutting the original price of $30 to $26. They're going fast, and when supplies are gone, they're gone. This item will be available until stock is depleted, after which point it will no longer be sold in the store.
• INVENTORY CHANGE (STICKERS): Our beloved Rippy Stickers have been replaced by awesome Onionjack Sticker Packs. This design is the same as that featured on our introductory hoodie. These two-color stickers are 3"x3" squares printed on durable vinyl. A pack of 5 stickers costs $6.50, and a pack of 10 costs $10. As a bonus, you'll be able to get stickers 40% of when you add them to a shirt order. Lastly, these are also donor items, meaning that you'll qualify for donor status on site when you purchase them (please see the FAQ for more information about Donor Items).
• INVENTORY CHANGE (KOOZIES): We're also retiring our collapsible Rippy Koozie, and replacing it with our Retro Logo Koozie. This collapsible can holder will keep your beverages frosty, and features our classic login page logo on both sides. These koozies are being sold for $5 each.

[The What.CD Fifth Birthday Onionjack Hoodie]



[Retro 'Candy' Shirt] --------------------------------------------- [Retro '?' Shirt]


[Original Release Shirt] ----- [Headphones Shirt] ----- [Hexagon 27 Shirt] ----- [The What Network Shirt]


[Retro Logo Koozie] -------------------- [This is My Jam! Shirt] -------------------- [Onionjack Sticker Packs]


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We have a quick update from the Developers. First, we neglected to mention outside of the Fifth Birthday Features Wiki that we've implemented Artist Comments! Artist pages now work like torrent group pages in that you can write and reply to comments. We hope that this feature will encourage thoughtful conversations about artists themselves, as opposed to individual releases alone. Take advantage of this new feature and discuss your favorite artists with fellow Whatters!

We'd also like to offer a few thoughts about the recently implemented Album Voting System. First, we strongly encourage users to submit their votes for albums they like or dislike, as the system's results grow stronger with the number of votes it receives. At the time of writing this, only a paltry 618 users have 5 or more votes under their belts. Secondly, if any of you have questions about the system's mechanics, please review this wiki article written by Changles. In it, you'll find an explanation of the system's core features in easily digestible language, and a comparison of this system to other rating methodologies.

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What.CD is more than just a tracker to many. For some, it's a community. For others, it's the manifestation of a musical ideal. Whatever your feelings, if you're reading this it is likely that What.CD means something unique to you.

Each and every member of the staff couldn't be prouder that What.CD has made it to its fifth birthday and it is our hope that you share this pride. Time seems to pass more and more quickly and the site continues to grow. We once said that "our grand project has become greater than the sum of its parts." That couldn't be truer today.

Development is an uneven affair, however, and while certain areas of the site have been continually updated, others have been allowed to rest quietly. Our humble and mysterious login page is an example of something which has remained virtually untouched for years. That's all about to change.

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In this contest, we're asking our users to give the login page a serious facelift in celebration of our fifth birthday. The winner of this contest will truly become a part of What.CD history, and his or her design will be seen by thousands upon thousands of people. This is a tremendous opportunity to participate in the shaping of the site's image. Designers are being given the option to simply craft a new logo, or to revise the entirety of the login page itself. We urge anyone with the requisite skills to take part. Submissions will be closed on December 21st, 2012 at 12:00 AM (Site Time). If you're interested, please check out the contest thread.

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irredentia's stats overdrive project is kicking into high gear in day three. First up is his Top 106 Releases by Chart Collages: September 2012 thread, which presents the top albums as ranked by their presence in chart collages only. Second is his Top 102 Releases by Personal Collages: September 2012 thread, which presents the top albums as ranked by their presence in personal collages only. Check out both threads and let us know what you think. More to come...

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You know, we're getting a bit used to this. It just doesn't feel like it would be proper to let a day of celebration pass without handing out more Freeleech Tokens for you to spend at your leisure! These shiny coins are on the house: every user has been awarded Five (5) additional Freeleech Tokens. Remember: FL Tokens are intended to help you snatch albums you can't afford, so use them! Far too many of our users hold onto their tokens, and we want you guys to enjoy the benefits. Please read the token wiki to better educate yourself about how the token system works.

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As this announcement comes to a close, we leave you with our third helping of picks. For today's feast, we've enlisted the help of the Alpha, Delta and Interview Teams. These picks are Neutral Leech selections. Feel free to discuss your favorites in the Day Three Announcement Thread, and remember to use our new album voting feature if you hear something which inspires you to vote.



sfxdude's Alpha Team Pick

Duncan Sheik & Steven Sater - Spring Awakening

Genre: Musical, soundtrack

Torrents: torrents.php?id=82536

Review:

Who would have thought that Duncan Sheik would succeed where Paul Simon and Randy Newman failed, successfully transitioning from the pop-rock world to the Broadway stage? With Spring Awakening, Sheik and book writer/lyricist Steven Slater (who had already worked on Sheik's 2001 album Phantom Moon) have created a thoroughly exciting show that incorporates a contemporary art-indie idiom (including a small rock band instead of an orchestra) into a dramatic musical-theater context.

The unlikely setting is that of a Frank Wedekind adaptation, but as it turns out, teenage angst is perennial, whether it's in contemporary America or in a 1891 German boarding school. Songs such as "The Bitch of Living" ("with nothing going on, asking just what went wrong"), "The Word of Your Body," "I Don't Do Sadness," and "Totally Fucked" ("You're fucked if you speak your mind and you know you will") resonate with the rage, frustration, confusion, excitement, joy, anger, and of course budding lust of those hormone-driven years. The show is greatly enhanced by its youthful cast members (they're all pretty close in age to their characters), who sing their hearts out.​

rhubarb's Alpha Team Pick

Clint Mansell - Moon (Original Score)

Genre: Classical, Soundtrack

Torrents: torrents.php?id=537446

Review: nme.com wrote:

...this is a truly beautiful ambient work, achingly sad and really quite eerie.​

dewey's Alpha Team Pick

Ursprung - Ursprung

Genre: Electronic

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72224993

Review:

As Pantha du Prince, Hendrik Weber's music is made up of sharp but delicate sounds, digitally sheared slivers of drum or bell that ring out crystal clear against the inky emptiness of his tracks.
complete version: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16780-ursprung/​

Fawk's Alpha Team Pick

The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Genre: alternative, rock, grunge

Torrents: torrents.php?id=62826

Review:

One of my all time favorite albums (one of the very first few CD's that I actually bought as well). If you have never listened to this album before and if you like it hard, start with Zero. If you like it slow start with By Starlight. If you like a mixture of try Porcelina of the Vast Oceans. Before you go to bed, you'll definitely want to listen to Farewell and Goodnight.​

NousWanderer's Alpha Team Pick

Curve - The Way of Curve

Genre: Electronic, Shoegaze, Alt. Rock, Dance, Industrial

Torrents: torrents.php?id=108885

Review:

Too few actively appreciate Curve, so here you are. There's no ideal starting point given the breadth of their output, but I've selected this anthology as a strong, quasi-representative overview. Some of their weaker tracks are included, but you'll find plenty of gems. Don't be mistaken, though: if you want the full experience, grab everything they've done, as countless brilliant songs are excluded from this collection. Video sampler: Ten Little Girls, Coast is Clear, Clipped, Horror Head, Faît Accompli, Missing Link, Superblaster, Chinese Burn​

detemps's Alpha Team Pick

Frederic Rzewski performed by Marc-André Hamelin - The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

Genre: Classical

Torrents: torrents.php?id=111388

Review:

'My new piano CD of the week - possibly of the year - has to be Marc-André Hamelin's extraordinary traversal of the 36 variations on a Chilean song' (The Independent)
'I would urge all readers to hear this extraordinary recording' (Gramophone)

'A truly riveting piece of contemporary piano music' (Evening Standard)

'Canadian super-virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin has done it again, giving another rarely heard masterpiece of piano repertoire the public attention it deserves' (Billboard)

'Not to be missed on any account' (Musical Opinion)

'Never likely to be equalled, let alone surpassed' (Gramophone)

'Virtuose et artiste accompli, Marc-André Hamelin les laisse se chamailler avec une superbe et une énergie aussi aristocratiques qu'endiablées.' (Le Devoir, Canada)

'Hamelin is more than a match for this music; his art lifts it off the page and releases its intense communicative power.' (Hi-Fi News & Record Review)​

Agathon's Alpha Team Pick

Ween - GodWeenSatan: The Oneness

Genre: eclecticism, indie.rock, alternative, experimental, punk, avant.garde, psychedelic.rock, punk, heavy.metal

Torrents: torrents.php?id=167758

Review: Heather Phares on AllMusic.com wrote:

Dean and Gene Ween were barely out of their teens when they recorded GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, and it shows: it's juvenile in the best sense of the word, mixing their sprawling sense of humor with punk, heavy metal, and a surprising amount of pop literacy. At a whopping 23 tracks long, the album features a lot of noodling and lots of whacked-out pop, including "Nan," a dweeby tale of unrequited love, and the jazzy "Never Squeal," which shows off Ween's musical prowess and versatility. GodWeenSatan: The Oneness also introduces many of the song styles the band included on their later releases, such as the prog-rock-inspired ballad "Squelch the Little Weasel," the Prince homage "L.M.L.Y.P.," the playful, helium-laced pop of "Don't Laugh" and the funky, soulful "Nicole." "El Camino"'s pseudo-flamenco, "Birthday Boy"'s surprising vulnerability, and the rambling, silly stoner-folk of "Puffycloud" also set the tone for Ween's future work.​

senatortom's Alpha Team Pick

Taylor Swift - Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection

Genre: Country, Pop, Christmas

Torrents: torrents.php?id=330183

Review:

Let's be realistic here. Who doesn't like T Swizzy?​

NeverWorker's Alpha Team Pick

Charles-Valentin Alkan performed by Jack Gibbons - 12 Etudes, Op 39

Torrents: torrents.php?id=584176

Genre: Classical, Piano, Romantic Era

Review from Gramophone:

[...] Moving on to the Concerto for Solo Piano (Etudes Nos. 8-10) Gibbons faces daunting competition from Marc Andre Hamelin. Technically their readings are pretty well matched; however, I find Hamelin crisper and more classical in approach compared with Gibbons's more wildly romantic reading, which to my mind is close in spirit to John Ogdon's 1970 RCA recording (never released in the UK). The fact that Gibbons's account is contained within a complete recording of the Etudes makes it unfair to give preference to one or the other, though I suspect that Alkan enthusiasts will want both recordings anyway. [...] All in all, an exceptionally impressive issue that can be highly recommended to both Alkan devotees and newcomers alike. The recorded sound is excellent. More Alkan from this pianist please!​

refreshingapathy's Alpha Team Pick

Disfiguring the Goddess - Sleeper

Genre: slam, grindcore, brutal.death.metal

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72183390

Review:

Need your blast beat fix for the day? Death metal turned electronic producer Cameron "Big Chocolate" Argon churns out slam like nobody's business, and it's not half bad either.​

TKD's Alpha Team Pick

The Partridge Family - Come On Get Happy!: The Very Best of the Partridge Family

Genre: 70s, rock, bubblegum

Torrents: torrents.php?id=485472

Review:

This is a happy anthology from a happy sounding musical group. It's fun to sing along to music. It's fun to smile. It's fun to be happy. I like bobbing my head back and forth while listening to and singing along with this music. Be happy too. Listen to this.​

morn's Alpha Team Pick

Säkert! - På Engelska

Genre: pop, rock, indie

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72036619

Review:

In 2010, we released "Facit", our second album with my band Säkert! (Säkert! is a band where I've sung in Swedish. I also have a band where I sing in English - Hello Saferide.) We are lucky enough to have super sweet listeners in different countries and some of them wrote me, saying they were google translating "Facit" and babelfishing it and asking their grandfather with Norwegian ancestors for translation, and it all turned out very weird.

About the album, then. Well, "På Engelska" mostly contains songs from "Facit", but it also features two tunes from our first album, Säkert!. The songs are about working too hard, loving too much, talking too little, growing up too slow in the northern parts of Sweden, and about fearing your country's politics is going somewhere where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. They're about crying at a wedding. They feature a lot of sad guitars and folk-ish violins. Every time I go abroad I meet someone who asks me about the famous Scandinavian melancholia and I guess this album pretty much embraces that. The songs are simple and sad. In a fun way, hopefully.​

ars3nic's Delta Team Pick

Harvard - The Inevitable and I

Genre: Alternative, Indie, Post.Rock, Experimental

Torrents: torrents.php?id=647604

Review:

For fans of: As Tall As Lions, Minus The Bear, Circa Survive

The illustrious psychologist, Maslow’s, “Hierarchy of Needs” ends, at last, with the concept of “self-actualization”. This psychology term is acknowledged as a concept that pertains to one’s ability to fully understand themselves and is recognized as the final level of one’s inner psychological development. It would be absurd to propose that a quintet from North Carolina has achieved such a lofty musical equivalent merely with their first full-length, but it’s hard not to grant Harvard such a distinction. Produced by Brian Mcternan (Thrice, Circa survive, Hot Rod Circuit, Movielife, Senses Fail), the expectations are bound to be towering. Luckily, Harvard doesn’t disappoint. An incredible blend of post-hardcore and indie that you don’t need to study your ass off to get into, The Inevitable And I is the new epitome of a sound that incorporates an expansive, grandiose, indie-rock sound with an edgy, produced touch. Add that intelligent aesthetic that distinguishes art from entertainment, and you’ve got yourself a record. It’s hard to believe, but a groovier vibe hasn’t been produced like this since Minus the Bear’s Planet of Ice. Those are some very lofty comparisons, but Harvard fit the build very well. While it does carry on a little long, The Inevitable And I is an impressive debut that transcends genres and creates a cozy little niche all for itself.​

Guardian's Delta Team Pick

Jim Croce - The 50th Anniversary Collection

Genre: Folk, rock, blues

Torrents: torrents.php?id=157183

Review:

In the music industry, arguably the worst tragedy that can befall an artist is to die in their prime, when he or she is just beginning to break through to the mainstream and reach people on a national level. One such artist was Jim Croce, a songwriter with a knack for both upbeat, catchy singles and empathetic, melancholy ballads. Though Croce only recorded a few studio albums before an untimely plane crash, he continues to be remembered posthumously. Croce appealed to fans as a common man, and it was not a gimmick -- he was a father and husband who went through a series of blue-collar jobs. And whether he used dry wit, gentle emotions, or sorrow, Croce sang with a rare form of honesty and power. Few artists have ever been able to pull off such down-to-earth storytelling as convincingly as he was.​

DeepseaTorpedo's Delta Team Pick

Everything but the Girl - Idlewild

Genre: Alternative Pop/Rock, Singer-songwriter

Torrents: torrents.php?id=40163

Review: William Ruhlmann, AMG wrote:

Thorn and Watt made a couple of albums with a cocktail-jazz backup and one with strings before trying a small unit for the intimate songs of their most accessible recording. The setting is perfect for such moving compositions as "Love Is Here Where I Live" and "Apron Strings." Start here, then go on to the rest of this remarkable group's catalog.​

Deadmarsh's Delta Team Pick

Light FM - Let There Be Light FM

Genre: Indie, Rock, Pop, Nugaze

Torrents: torrents.php?id=682721

Review: Brad Roberts - Radio Free Silverlake wrote:

A big giant burst of sunny indie pop starts off Light FM's new CD, Let There Be Light FM and sets the stage for a beautifully produced collection of Josiah Mazzaschi's catchy melodies where the lyrics explore the darker and more mysterious aspects of human nature and together form the album's duality.

The sound of the album is not unlike an Earlimart album, which is to say one can feel the influence of Josiah's friend Aaron Espinoza in the polished production values and occasional orchestral sweep of the arrangements. It's a densely packed CD with 14 tracks that starts off with a bang with "Death Toll Rise". Immediately arresting, it's high spiritedness reminds me of the way The Happy Hollows' Spell begins, and that energy permeates the whole album.​

winslow100's Delta Team Pick

All About Chad - Down in Front

Genre: Indie Pop, Power Pop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72036466

Review:

Perpetually eccentric quartet All About Chad assembled a 14-song collection of lively songs on Down in Front. The Brooklyn band starts off with the folky "Embarrassing Moments," with references to Star Trek and concert t-shirts. That is quickly followed by the punky and aggressive "You're Too Popular." Ben Reiser wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on Down in Front. His vocal style is offbeat, yet it works well in a way similar to Tullycraft's Sean Tollefson's vocals. Silly and playful songs like "Sleepover" and "Meet Me in the Hallway" require a playful vocal style. The bass-heavy "Chad's Driving Me Home" epitomizes the band's relentlessly bouncy and upbeat style. The male-female vocal interplay on "That Would Be Ducky" is an indie pop version of "I Got You Babe." The disc comes to a close with the pop-punk antics of "My Sister Hates the Band," which is reminiscent of some of the punkier Boys Star Library songs. Asif Chaudhri plays guitar, while Chad Pilieri checks in on bass and Jason Schreiber performs drums. By this point, the band had been together long enough to be able to gracefully perform their style of sloppy pop. Big Pop Records released Down in Front in 1995.​

digbycaeser's Delta Team Pick

Chilly Gonzales - Ivory Tower

Genre: alternative, pop, hip.hop, classical, electronic, rap, house

Torrents: torrents.php?id=836875

Review: Jeremy Allen, NME wrote:

Throughout time the ancient and noble art of chess has awakened intellects, confounded Chinese emperors and inspired great art (as well as the odd dodgy song by Chris de Burgh). This is the soundtrack to a brilliant forthcoming movie starring the man himself, apparently written “in the back of a piss-powered taxi”. Chilly once again proves he is no pass master on ‘Ivory Tower’. Produced by Boyz Noize, this is the sound of a rook shuffling with a maverick king, full of harpsichords and pianos and sexy European beats; it will arouse the mind and stimulate interesting positions. Check, mate.​

caaok's Delta Team Pick

Zero 7 - Simple Things

Genre: Downtempo, Electronica, Trip-hop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=33425

Review:

I love this album, it's an incredibly chill collection of songs great for studying, or a nice lazy day out and about. It's a bit of a deviation from Zero 7's later work, harkening more toward Trip-hop groups like Massive Attack or Portishead. The haunting female vocals on tracks like In The Waiting Line showcase a wide array of guest artists and diverse musical styles. Enjoy!​

Pringo's Delta Team Pick

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Genre: Doom Metal, Psychedelic Rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72009429

Review: Sputnikmusic wrote:

In closing, the second album from Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats is as vintage as it can possibly get. Uncle Acid and Co. prove that they are not a one record wonder, as they wisely use the occult rock legacy that peaked in the first half of the ’70s, to their benefit. Except for managing to forge a unique identity of its own, while being different from its predecessor, Blood Lust has all it takes to get the band to the next level. Which is to get an even better record deal than that with Rise Above, as the 350 copies of Blood Lust are too little in quantity to ease the ever increasing thirst for this band.​

Bezvezenator's Delta Team Pick

Madam Trashy - Book of Dead

Genre: Rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=71972183

Review: phantomchannel wrote:

It’s difficult to put a finger on their modus operandi, their sound is eclectic and unique, yet alluringly familiar. ’Book of Dead’ instantly rocks, yet takes more than a customary spin to digest. Their compositions segue from light to dark, sometimes in the space of mere seconds. While, there’s a certain finesse to their compositions too, yet they’re not afraid to let loose (check the frenzied end of ‘In The Dark’ for hard evidence). Madam Trashy are clearly a band of many contrasts.

http://youtu.be/um6j2Yp_ZY0​

bobolarue's Interviewer Pick

The Dream Academy - The Dream Academy

Genre: Dream Pop, 1980s, Rock

Torrents: torrents.php?id=39335

Review:

Nick Laird-Clowes's penchant for writing odes to tragic icons like Nick Drake and Edie Sedgwick paid off with the success of 1985's "Life in a Northern Town," a sleeper hit that brought the group's commercially stillborn debut album back to life. Dedicated to Drake, the lead track sets the tone for the British trio's dreamy set of sensitive baroque-pop excursions. On tracks like the pastoral "One Dream," Kate St. John's arsenal of classical instruments adds color to Laird-Clowes's folk-rock strummings, while Gilbert Gabriel's keyboards give an '80s sheen to the '60s sentiments of "Love Parade." Dream Academy even lured Pink Floyd's David Gilmour into the production booth, ensuring the group its own little niche in art-rock history.​

NotSpish's Interviewer Pick

Ólafur Arnalds - Living Room Songs

Genre: Modern Classical, Ambient

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72098931

Review: Sputnik Music wrote:

Olafur Arnalds has always had a penchant for producing subtly immense and tragically beautiful minimalistic compositions. Approaching his music with an ear for getting a profound and grand sound out of as little as possible, Arnalds has become a contemporary darling. Since his humble beginnings somewhere around the middle of the last decade, the Icelandic artist has since rose to great prominence, with the full scope of his musical prowess becoming clear in last year’s exceptional …And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness. In creating his boldest record yet, Arnald discovered the power of sonic expansion, and the brilliance in experimentation. Yet unexpectedly, Arnald has shied away from his bolder sound, instead opting to find the beauty in introversion.

Living Room Songs is Olafur Arnalds latest release, and perhaps his most focused to date. It differs from everything he’s done before, but it’s certifiably his own sound. One can’t help but notice the techno emphasis featured on his earlier work rear their head hear, as well as the more minimalist aspects seen there as well. Despite sharing a more retracted sound with Eulogy for Evolution, Living Room Songs features the same focused feeling of his previous work. It’s in this mixture that Arnalds has crafted some of his best material to date.​

Samizdat's Interviewer Pick

O.V. Wright - O.V. Box - The Complete Backbeat and ABC Recordings

Genre: Deep Soul

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72324644

Review:

O.V. Wright is one of the most overlooked figures in soul music and music as a whole. Had things worked out a little differently, he would be a household name the same as Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and the great Sam Cooke. However he ended up ODing in the early '80s, knowing that he should have been one of the greats. This is Deep Soul which is a branch of southern soul. It shares a lot of the characteristics, driving beat, dirty sound, almost bordering on funk at times. It differs in there is a more noticeable gospel tinge to the music (in style, not theme) and the vocals are very out-front. These albums and 45s are from his best years, though he did have a couple of good records afterwards. I recommend starting with Memphis Unlimited or A Nickle Nail and the Ace of Spades and exploring from there. If you like dirty, scratchy soul or are a fan of any of the aforementioned artists, I cannot recommend this to you strongly enough. It's a request of mine from months ago that was just filled by 3425. Please enjoy responsibly.​

jofwolves's Interviewer Pick

Gomez - Bring It On

Genre: Rock, Alternative, BritPop, Blues

Torrents: torrents.php?id=30901

Review: allmusic.com wrote:

On their debut album, Bring It On, England's Gomez introduce their original take on bluesy roots rock. Unlike Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, this isn't amphetamine-fueled freak-out music but similar at times to Beck's acoustic-based work (One Foot in the Grave), with more going on vocally. The band has a total of three strong vocalists, who can switch from pretty harmonies to gutsy blues outpourings in the blink of an eye. The band manages to cover a lot of ground convincingly on Bring It On, which is unusual, since it commonly takes bands the course of a few releases to hone their sound. The three British singles released from the album are definite highlights -- "Get Myself Arrested," "Whippin' Piccadilly," and "78 Stone Wobble," the latter containing a beautifully haunting acoustic guitar riff similar to Nirvana's unplugged version of the Meat Puppets' "Plateau." All the praise that Gomez's debut received is definitely not hype. The album is consistently great, as proven by such tracks as "Tijuana Lady," "Love Is Better Than a Warm Trombone," and "Get Myself Arrested."​

nodisco's Interviewer Pick

The Crookes - Hold Fast

Genre: Alternative, Indie-rock, Jangle-pop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72250451

Review:

[...] The Crookes have managed to create a homogenous and varied album that might have fit better into the 60s but is nonetheless utterly listenable with its characteristically retro feel, abundance of jangly guitars and soaring vocals. Framed by vibrant harmonies and perfect pop, The Crookes definitely deserve their break-through this time around.​

blablabla's Interviewer Pick

Perquisite & Pete Philly - Mystery Repeats

Genre: Hip Hop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72563

Review:

This new album is 2 years on from their debut Mindstate and shows a totally different approach to Cadence Weapon, who has also released two albums over the same time span. The sound of Producer Perquisite and Pete Philly is more of a live version using the heritage of Droppin’ Science with smooth a mix of rap, soul and funk.​

Ichabod's Interviewer Pick

Colllege - Secret Diary

Genre: electronic, space.synth, space.pop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=312415

Review:

College is the artist responsible for the amazing track on the Drive soundtrack with Electric Youth. I His usage of the synthesiser in his songs bring gs them to another level, and is amazing to listen to. This is his debut CD, but the amount of awesome is incredibly high. This truly is some of the best non-house electronic music coming out of France, together with his other project Valerie.​

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The What.CD Fifth Birthday Celebration: Day Two 1 day, 17 hours ago

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Though the first day of our birthday festivities has passed, don't fret - there's plenty more to come! We have quite a few surprises in store for you as we kick off the second day of celebration. Scroll down to explore the update.

Today's offerings include an amazing new album voting feature designed and coded by Changles, a very special announcement regarding a new partnership, more from irredentia's statistics visualization project, another special gift and a round of picks from both our Build Team and Forum Moderators. Enjoy!

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We're pleased to announce a new album voting system. You'll now notice a 'Favorite Album Votes' section on each torrent group page. The system is simple: you can upvote or downvote a given torrent group, and you can vote on as many torrent groups as you like.

With this comes a host of new, related features. For one thing, you'll find a new Top 10 page based on the torrents deemed most popular by votes. Another feature we're very excited about is recommending new music based on votes. On every torrent page, you'll soon see a box of listing the 10 most popular albums among people who upvoted that torrent, and plans for recommending users with similar taste are in the works. We're also quite excited about how we're calculating the rankings. Rather than just counting upvotes (which prioritizes better-known but perhaps less loved albums) or the ratio of upvotes to downvotes (which is unreliable for albums with few votes), we're using binomial confidence intervals to handle our ranking like Reddit handles theirs (more information here). A layperson's explanation of the new system's mechanics can be found at this wiki article. Please discuss our new ranking system in this update's discussion thread, as we'd love to hear your thoughts. We also welcome you to visit the running tally of fifth birthday features being documented in the wiki.

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Given What.CD's focus on access and organization, it's no surprise that we would attract the attention of other archival organizations. One such organization is the phenomenal Internet Archive, which shares our vision of universal access to art, culture and knowledge.

So, for the past several months, we have been quietly collaborating with the Internet Archive team, helping them to back up as much of our vast accumulation of metadata as possible. We hope that this collaboration will both improve the state of music organization in the present and benefit other archivist organizations one day when this site is gone. For the official announcement of this collaboration, we would like to share a message from Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle:

Brewster Kahle wrote:

The achievements of the What.CD community are astonishing, and the site's superb metadata can significantly help open-source projects such as MusicBrainz.org and acoustid.org to make a catalog of all recordings.

To that end, the What.CD archive project is a continuation of the Internet Archive's goal of preserving the cultural zeitgeist of the world through time. Along with our book scanning projects and web archival projects, this well curated repository assists us in our mission of obtaining an archival quality copy of every piece of culturally-relevant information. We attempt to make all material as accessible as possible and appropriate.

Please let us know what you think the Archive should do to serve the goals of preservation and access.​

We at the What.CD staff are immensely proud to work with the Internet Archive team, and we hope our work here will eventually benefit music fans all over the internet.

And of course, we want to thank you, the users. Our dedicated uploaders and editors ensure that our 276 terabytes of content is well-tagged and well-organized for the benefit of others, and of course our entire userbase helps to keep this content available. You guys make the Internet Archive's work possible, and we are working hard to bring tangible benefits back to you, the users. We are very excited for the possibilities this collaboration will bring! Stay tuned.

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irredentia's stats overdrive project bursts into our day two announcement with a special list of the Top 100 Releases by Collages as of September 2012. This is a list of the top albums as ranked by their presence in all collages. We'd love it if you gave the list a look and shared your thoughts. Our sultan of stats is just getting warmed up, so expect even more interesting statistical visualizations in the days ahead.

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Here's five more Freeleech Tokens to spend at your leisure! Remember: FL Tokens are intended to help you snatch albums you can't afford, so use them wisely. Every user has been awarded Five (5) additional Freeleech Tokens. Please read the token wiki to educate yourself about how the token system works.

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The day wouldn't be complete without another round of picks. This time we've turned to our Build Team and Forum Moderators for inspiration. These picks are Neutral Leech selections. Check out the picks below, and remember to discuss your favorites. We recommend that you test out the new album voting system after listening!



DutchDude's Build Team Pick

Dusky - Stick By This

Genre: Deep house, Progressive House

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72067731

Review:

If you were to create a soundtrack for your life, where would you begin? What landscape would provide the canvas? Which songs would represent the most important moments – the trying, the difficult, the eye-opening, terrifying, joyful periods of your life? Most likely, not one of these songs would be like the other, and yet they make up one identity. Dusky’s debut album, Stick By This, released on Anjunadeep in late October is an enchanting audial journey through stories of landscapes and sound-scapes, exuberant self-discovery and emotional exploration. Also known as Solarity, London-based duo Alfie Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman, present 14 eclectic, production-perfect stories, each one introducing a new moment and complimenting the last.​

hateradio's Build Team Pick

Zomby - Where Were U in '92?

Genre: breaks, electronic, rave, jungle, dubstep

Torrents: torrents.php?id=300765

Review:

Remember when you were a kid living in the early 90s? No? Then you shouldn't be on this site! But, really, this album should allow some of us to reminisce on our childhoods. Music such as this was on the periphery of our ears, but once in a while, you'd hear great beats, futuristic beeps, and strange noises that made you go SONIC BOOM!​

Gwindow's Build Team Pick

Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues

Genre: blues

Torrents: torrents.php?id=223068

Review:

Snatch it back and hold it. ​

Theophylaktos's Build Team Pick

Popa Chubby - How'd a white boy get the blues

Genre: Blues

Torrents: torrents.php?id=654224

Review:

...The genius of Popa Chubby, as he exhibited on this night, is how he can move from Hendrix straight into an instrumental version—delicate at first, then artfully raucous--of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and make it seem like a perfectly natural development. Chubby then offered up an emotionally compelling rendition of Leonard Cohen’s dystopian “The Future,” showing that while he is known for his guitar playing, he’s no slouch in the vocal department either. He bellowed the line, “When they said repent / I wonder what they meant?” with particular ferocity. “Hey Joe,” which followed, was funky and Stevie Ray Vaughan-like, with some nifty wah-wah guitar spicing up this well-worn rock classic.

After slyly requesting a hand for the man who “took the biggest dose of LSD in history,” Chubby and his band kicked into perhaps the highlight of the set, the new “Pound of Flesh,” a simmering, dark rocker about the emotional desperation of a man who is losing the love of his life. The dramatic intensity conjured up here was reminiscent of greats like the aforementioned Cohen but also Townes Van Zandt, with Popa Chubby proving to be a very talented lyricist as well as a gifted guitar slinger and singer. “Pound of Flesh” is an instant classic, and would be a hit single in a better world than this one. Providing a lyrical contrast from those explored in "Pound of Flesh," a new blues ballad called “A Love That Will Not Die” allowed more room for Chubby to stretch out with some searing guitar solos. So did "She Made Me Beg For It," the funky instrumental workout that followed.​

ipof's Forum Moderator Pick

Peter Evans Quintet - Ghosts

Genre: avant-garde jazz, post-bop

Torrents: torrents.php?id=72022380

Review:

Peter Evans has been featured on a lot of albums this year. I don't like most of them. In fact, of the four or five I heard, Ghosts is the only one I like. The ones I don't like are all different variations on meandering, near-formless noodling. They assault the ears and mind without challenging either, and, as a result, they fall flat. What makes Ghosts different is that its tracks all have a clear form. First and foremost, this is gleefully perverted hard bop. That foundation gives the music the structure necessary to support its experimentation, which is where it comes alive. ...One to Ninety-Two is a seething opener that captures Evans at his best, blazing through themes and spinning off into wild solos (Carlos Horns on piano gets some time in the spotlight in the middle). On the opposite side of the spectrum is the restrained Ghosts, in which Evans makes deliberate and phenomenal use of space (and, again, Horns uses his solo marvelously). In the midst of a breakneck album, Ghosts lets it breathe. On Articulation, Jim Black shines on drums, hopping from rhythm to rhythm, establishing each but never settling into a groove (and each of the rhythms could easily sustain an extended groove). His performance here is the album in miniature: restless. Ghosts is certainly a "heady" album in many respects, but it also very vibrant and isn't a purely or even primarily intellectual pleasure.​

Falconor's Forum Moderator Pick

Hossein Alizâdeh and Djivan Gasparyan - Endless Vision

Genre: World, Persian, Armenian

Torrents: torrents.php?id=623098

Review: Christina Roden wrote:

Any recording featuring elderly Armenian duduk (an ancient, nine-holed shawm-oboe made of apricot wood) virtuoso Djivan Gasparyan is worth treasuring. But this time out, he was heard in particularly august company and under extraordinary circumstances. In September, 2003, the maestro, along with Grammy-nominated Iranian plucked string virtuoso Hossein Alizâdeh and a hand-picked group of collaborators, gathered at Tehran's Niavaran Palace. The personnel included Alizâdeh's own Hamavayan Ensemble, with Armen Ghazarian and Vazgen Markaryan on duduk and bass duduk, plus vocalists Afsaneh Rasaei, Hourshid Biabani, and Ali Samadpour. Alizâdeh is a renowned composer and a foremost living exponent of the tar and other members of the Persian lute family. However, for this recital, he is heard on the six-stringed shurangiz, a relatively recent and notably resonant descendent of that clan. Gasparyan’s mature grace ignites Alizâdeh's impetuosity as the two men negotiate the highest peaks of passion and inspiration; both are captured at their best and that’s saying a lot. But aside from the musical brilliance on hand, the event also constituted a social breakthrough, in which a female singer performed live with an otherwise male roster and appeared before a mixed-sex audience. (review from Amazon)​

mubydram's Forum Moderator Pick

Howlin Rain - Howlin Rain

Genre: indie, rock, psychedlic, stoner

Torrents: torrents.php?id=84864

Review:

Howlin Rain is the psychedelic country/garage rock side project of Comets on Fire guitarist Ethan Miller with Sunburned Hand of the Man drummer John Moloney and bassist Ian Gradek -- described as an "iron worker." If sunshine visions of a West Coast acid-drenched flannel-garbed truck-stop confab hanging out and letting it rip are your thing, then this one's for you. For a defining moment, one need not go any further than "Calling Lightning with a Scythe." While the cut opens with strolling banjos and shuffling drums as acoustic and electric guitars gurgle in a midtempo country ramshackle choogle, the tension begins to build until about three minutes in, when the laid-back hedonism gives way first to empty space and detuned slide guitars that explode a few seconds later into pure squalling psych overload guitar chaos -- as the acoustics continue to strum the melody, of course. If anything, this music reminds one of the greatest country-fried moments of Tucson's Giant Sand, but drenched in post-rock humidity. There's also a bit of the Grateful Dead in here, but make it the Dead of the American Beauty tour -- guys who still understood what rock & roll was instead of noodling themselves to death. Miller's a ragged-as-hell lead singer, but it works splendidly for this material. These songs are loose and shambolic but well crafted; other favorites are "The Hanging Heart" and "Indians, Whores and Spanish Men of God." The overall feel is a bit reckless but utterly lyrical. This isn't alt-country; it's dope-fueled country-rock -- perfect for the acid folk generation who like their genres mixed up -- produced by the band and engineered by Comets on Fire boardman Tim Green, with sax on a few cuts played by Tim Daly (who guests regularly with the Comets). This is rough, woolly, and utterly hummable music that wears its mange proudly but not pretentiously. Howlin Rain's debut is rather timeless. It feels like it could have come from anywhere in any present rock era and that's one of its strengths. In five or ten years you'll still be scratching your head as to why it sounds both so timely and dated. Highly recommended. - AllMusic​

cluck_u's Forum Moderator Pick

Double Dagger - More

Genre: post punk, punk, graphicdesigncore

Torrents: torrents.php?id=451850&torrentid=988031

Review:

Basically this will blow your socks off and make you want to move to Baltimore (AKA the coolest city on Earth).

What genre is this album? Post-punk is probably the most apt label. It's often loud, mostly fast, and while it often hearkens back to your standard punk chord progressions, you'll also find a lot more depth and texture here. And it's not always loud and fast - it just happens to be most of the time. Oh, and there ain't no guitar in this album. It's bass, drum, and vocals.

Finally, I was going to use the word "anthemic" in this review, but when I googled, I discovered the following definition....

dictionary.com wrote:

a musical composition for a choir [...] sung as part of a church service
a religious chant sung antiphonally
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Wait a second. That's perfect. This shit is anthemic. Check out "The Lie/The Truth" to see what I mean.

No, scratch that. Check out the whole album, because it fucking rocks.
PS: Double Dagger called it quits about a year ago. RIP
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