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Siouxsie & The Banshees - Kaleidoscope (80 ^ 99mb)
Throughout its numerous lineup changes and textural shifts, Siouxsie and the Banshees remained under the leadership of vocalist Siouxsie Sioux, born Susan Dallion on May 27, 1958. She and the Banshees' initial lineup emerged from the Bromley Contingent, a notorious group of rabid Sex Pistols fans; inspired by the growing punk movement, Dallion adopted the name Siouxsie and formed the Banshees in September 1976. In addition to bassist Steven Severin and guitarist Marco Perroni, the band included drummer John Simon Ritchie, who assumed the name Sid Vicious; they debuted later that year at the legendary Punk Festival held at London's 100 Club. Soon after, Vicious joined the Sex Pistols, while Perroni went on to join Adam & the Ants. The core duo of Sioux and Severin, along with new guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris, reached the U.K. Top Ten with their 1978 debut single, "Hong Kong Garden"; their grim, dissonant first LP, The Scream, followed later in the year. Two days into a tour for their 1979 follow-up, Join Hands, both McKay and Morris abruptly departed, and guitarist Robert Smith of the Cure (the tour's opening act) and ex-Slits and Big in Japan drummer Budgie were enlisted to fill the void; although Smith returned to the Cure soon after, Budgie became a permanent member of the group, and remained with the Banshees throughout the duration of their career.
Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin elected to soldier on with ex-Slits drummer Budgie and two guitarists, ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones and John McGeoch of Magazine as guest Banshees. Despite the personnel upheaval, the result is a surprisingly strong record: Kaleidoscope. While a number of the songs here are still dark-hued and feature bleak lyrics, they are made very palatable by extraordinarily imaginative production values featuring intricate synthesizer-flecked arrangements; psychedelic touches in "Christine," spaceship synthesizer swoops in "Tenant," and rhythmic camera clicks in "Red Light" all enliven their respective songs. Kaleidoscope was a make-or-break album for Siouxsie and the Banshees, and happily the band came through strongly. A year later, the Banshees released the psychedelic Juju, along with Once Upon a Time, a collection of singles; at the same time, Sioux and Budgie formed the Creatures, an ongoing side project. Following 1982's experimental A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, McGeoch fell ill, and Smith temporarily rejoined for the group's planned tour. Also in 1983, Severin and Smith teamed as the one-off project the Glove for the LP Blue Sunshine.
After his recovery, McGeoch opted not to return, so the Banshees recruited former Clock DVA guitarist John Carruthers after Smith exited following the sessions for 1984's dark, atmospheric Hyaena. With 1986's Tinderbox, Siouxsie and the Banshees finally reached the U.S. Top 100 album charts, largely on the strength of the excellent single "Cities in Dust." After 1987's all-covers collection Through the Looking Glass, Carruthers took his leave and was replaced by guitarist Jon Klein and keyboardist Martin McCarrick for 1988's Peepshow, a techno-inspired outing that gave the group its first U.S. chart single with "Peek-a-Boo." In 1991 -- the year in which Sioux and Budgie married -- the Banshees performed on the inaugural Lollapalooza tour; their concurrent LP, Superstition was their most commercially successful, spawning, "Kiss Them for Me." Another singles collection, Twice Upon a Time, followed in 1992 before the group returned after a long absence with 1995's stylish The Rapture, produced in part by John Cale. A year later, the nostalgia surrounding the reunion of their former heroes the Sex Pistols prompted Siouxsie and the Banshees to finally call it quits; Siouxsie and Budgie turned to the Creatures as their primary project, while Severin composed the score for the controversial film Visions of Ecstasy.
01 - Happy House (3:50)
02 - Tenant (3:38)
03 - Trophy (3:17)
04 - Hybrid (5:28)
05 - Clockface (1:49)
06 - Lunar Camel (2:51)
07 - Christine (2:56)
08 - Desert Kisses (4:12)
09 - Red Light (3:19)
10 - Paradise Place (4:30)
11 - Skin (3:31)
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Interview - Snakes & Lovers (80 ^ 99mb)
Imagine an album on which every track is a fully conceived and superbly executed pop gem, at once timeless and unique, with hooks to die for, gorgeous, chiming guitar breaks, compelling, literate, emotionally charged lyrics, and a passionate and driven vocalist who ties all these distinct elements together into a perfect package, without the slightest trace of gimmickry or trendiness. Now imagine that this record is released with virtually no record label support, is totally ignored by radio and the music press--even the "hip" music press--and subsequently stiffs in the racks, disappearing without a trace. Such is the tragic truth of Interview self-titled second LP (titled Snakes and Lovers overseas), released in 1980.
The Bath band's 1979 debut, Big Oceans, was a lackluster effort, notable primarily for interesting fretless bass work and some intellectually appealing subject matter. What an unexpected turn of events then, when the band re-emerged the following year with a great rock album. From the opening strains of "Adventurers," with its rhyming guitars sounding the album's arrival, the listener knows that something very special lies ahead. There is simply no let up in quality on this record. Starrs, and co-writers Alan Brain and Peter Allerhand never glorify, as other, less mature outfits might. They merely observe. By album's end, after eight overwhelming minutes of shame and personal wreckage in "Until I Hold Her," ("There's nothing that I can do until I hold her/And you must never tell her that I told you"), a musical equivalent of the destruction scene in Citizen Kane, the listener is exhausted, drained, but still hoping for more. Unfortunately, there is no more. INTERVIEW died as quietly as they arrived, and no one even showed up for the funeral.
Whose fault is it that Interview were never given a chance? Surely, their label, Virgin Records is the primary culprit, making no attempt whatsoever to market the band. The music press too is culpable. It's futile to wallow in such past blunders at this late date, unless, of course, some label decides to pick up the record for release on CD, in which case Interview might, just might, have the chance to finally be recognized for what they were. In the meantime you could buy Interview cd's directly from the source
01 - Hide and Seek (2:57)
02 - Adventurers (4:45)
03 - It's Over Now (3:16)
04 - Conqueror (4:06)
05 - To the People (3:35)
06 - Style on Seaview (4:08)
07 - A Gift (4:33)
08 - Hope It's Me (4:06)
09 - Crossing Borders (3:13)
10 - Until I Hold Her (7:23)
11 - Union Man (3:00)
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The Fun Boy Three - FB3 ( 82 ^ 99mb)
The Specials were one of the most popular and influential bands in the U.K., scoring a streak of seven straight Top Ten singles. Their popularity culminated with the prophetic "Ghost Town," which spent three weeks at number one in the summer of 1981. The "Ghost Town" single was the last to feature Terry Hall and the original lineup -- after its release Hall split with the group's other two vocalists, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples, to form the Fun Boy Three.
Where the Specials were a ska-revival band, the Fun Boy Three was a new wave pop group with distinctly weird, skeletal, and experimental overtones. The band released their first single, "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)," shortly after they departed from the Specials. The single peaked at number 20 late in 1981. Early in 1982, the group charted again with "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)," a duet with Bananarama on an old Jimmie Lunceford song. The Fun Boy Three finally released their eponymous debut in the spring of 1982. The album was built firmly around tribal drumming, whose percussive possibilities were inspiring a number of groups at the time.
The Boys, however, were taking the same African influence in an entirely different, and even more innovative, direction. Most surprisingly, was how minimalistic the music was. Many of the songs were stripped down to bare vocals and percussion. At the same time, the vocalists created their own rhythm, which cunningly counterpoints the main beats. The band used both vocals and rhythms to explode genre boundaries, as "Sanctuary" beautifully illustrates. Beginning as an exercise in African choral singing, it subtly evolves into a Gregorian chant, all the while pulsating with pounding tribal drumming. It says much about the state of the British music scene of the time that such innovative music was not only accepted, but reveled in. It also introduced the world to Bananarama, who provided backing vocals on many of the record's tracks. "One of the most wonderful recordings of our time," the album sleeve boldly stated, and it was absolutely true.
That summer, they had a hit with a cover of George Gershwin's "Summertime." The group recorded a second album with Talking Heads leader David Byrne late in 1982. The resulting album, Waiting, appeared in the spring of 1983, concurrently with the Top Ten singles "The Tunnel of Love" and "Our Lips Are Sealed," a song Hall wrote with Jane Wiedlin, who already made it into a hit the previous year with her group, the Go-Go's. By the summer of 1983, the Fun Boy Three were peaking in popularity and Hall disbanded the group.
01 - Sanctuary (1:21)
02 - Way On Down (2:53)
03 - The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum (3:12)
04 - Life In General (Lewe In Algemeen) (3:17)
05 - Faith, Hope And Charity (2:48)
06 - Funrama 2 (3:04)
07 - Best Of Luck Mate (3:18)
08 - It Ain't What You Do...( Feat.Bananarama) (2:50)
09 - The Telephone Always Rings (3:35)
10 - I Don't Believe It (3:23)
11 - Alone (2:57)
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12 - It Ain't What You Do..ext.( Feat.Bananarama) (5:44)
13 - Funrama 2 ext (5:54)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
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