***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado (A Symphony) (74 ^ 99mb)
The group's name is an intended pun based not only on electric light but also using "electric" rock instruments combined with a "light orchestra" (orchestras with only a few cellos and violins)
In the late 1960s, Roy Wood, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter of The Move, had an idea to form a new band that would use cellos, violins, horns and woodwinds to give their music a classical sound, taking rock music in a new direction and "picking up where The Beatles left off. Jeff Lynne, frontman with fellow Birmingham band The Idle Race, was excited by the concept. In January 1970, Lynne accepted Wood's second invitation to join the band on the condition that they focus their energy on the new project. On the 12th of July 1970, when Wood added multiple cellos to a Lynne-penned song intended to be a Move B-side, the new concept became a reality and "10538 Overture" became the first Electric Light Orchestra song.
The debut album The Electric Light Orchestra was released in 1971 (1972 in the US as No Answer) and "10538 Overture" became a UK top ten hit. However, tensions soon surfaced between Wood and Lynne, Wood left the band, taking cellist Hugh McDowell and horn player Bill Hunt with him to form Wizzard. Despite predictions from the music press that the band would fold without Wood, Lynne stepped up to lead the band, with Bev Bevan remaining on drums, joined by Richard Tandy on the Moog synthesizer, Mike de Albuquerque on bass, Mike Edwards and Colin Walker adding cello and Wilfred Gibson replacing Steve Woolam on violin. The band released their second album, ELO 2 in 1973, which produced their first U.S. chart hit, a hugely elaborate version of the Chuck Berry classic "Roll Over Beethoven". During the recording of the third album, Gibson and Walker left the band. Mik Kaminski joined as violinist, while remaining cellist Edwards finished the cello parts before McDowell returned to ELO from Wizzard. The resulting album, On the Third Day was released in late 1973, with the American version featuring the hit "Showdown."
For the band's fourth album, Eldorado, A Symphony, a concept album about dreams, Lynne was finally able to stop overdubbing strings, and hire an orchestra and choir. Louis Clark joined the band as string arranger.The first single off the album, "Can't Get It Out Of My Head," became their first U.S. Billboard charts Top 10 hit, and Eldorado, A Symphony became ELO's first gold album. The integration of the orchestra would become even more thorough on future albums, but Eldorado was notable for mixing the band and orchestra (and a choir) in ways that did no violence to the best elements of both.
Despite Electric Light Orchestra's commercial success, the band remained relatively faceless; the lineup changed constantly, with sole mainstays Lynne and Bevan preferring to let their elaborate stage shows and omnipresent spaceship imagery instead serve as the group's public persona. 1975's Face the Music went gold, generating the hits "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic," . ELO had become successful in the United States at this point and they were a star attraction on the stadium and arena circuit, back in the UK they were still largely ignored until their sixth album, A New World Record, hit the top ten there in 1976. It contained the hit singles "Livin' Thing", "Telephone Line", "Rockaria!" and "Do Ya", a rerecording of a Move song, it sold five million copies internationally.
A New World Record was followed by another platinum selling album, the double-LP Out of the Blue, in 1977. It featured the singles "Turn to Stone," "Sweet Talkin' Woman," "Mr. Blue Sky," and "Wild West Hero," each becoming a hit in the United Kingdom. The band then set out on a nine-month, 92-date world tour, with an enormous set and a hugely expensive space ship stage with fog machines and a laser display. During the famous spaceship tour, The Big Night went on to become the highest-grossing live concert tour in music history up to that point (1978).The band also played at the Wembley Arena for eight straight sold-out nights during the tour as well, another record at that time. The first of these shows was recorded and televised, and later released as a CD and DVD. In 1979,the multi-platinum album Discovery (or "Disco? Very!", as fans refer to it), was released. Although the biggest hit on the album was the hard-rock song "Don't Bring Me Down", the album was criticised for its heavy disco influence. The Electric Light Orchestra finished 1979 as the biggest selling act in the United Kingdom.ELO had reached the peak of their stardom, selling millions of albums and singles.
In 1980, Jeff Lynne was asked to write for the soundtrack of the musical film Xanadu, with the other half written by John Farrar and performed by the film's star Olivia Newton-John. The movie performed poorly at the box office, but the soundtrack did exceptionally well, eventually going double platinum. In 1981, ELO's sound changed again with the science fiction concept album Time, a throwback to earlier, more progressive rock albums like Eldorado. With the string section laid off, synthesisers took a dominating role. Time topped the UK charts for two weeks and is the last ELO studio album to date to be certified platinum in the UK. Jeff Lynne wanted to follow Time with a double album, but CBS blocked his plan, claiming it would be too expensive. The new album was whittled down to a single disc and released as Secret Messages in 1983 (many of the outtakes were later released on box sets or singles). The album's release was dampened by a string of bad news - that there would be no tour to promote the LP, that drummer Bevan was to play drums for Black Sabbath, and that bassist Kelly Groucutt had left the band. By 1984, Bevan was expressing a desire to join Black Sabbath permanently, Lynne and Tandy were recording tracks for the Electric Dreams soundtrack under Jeff Lynne's name, and, with Groucutt's departure, ELO was assumed to be finished. However, Lynne was contractually obligated to make one more ELO album. Lynne, Bevan and Tandy returned to the studio in 1985 as a three-piece to record ELO's final album of the 20th century, Balance of Power, released early in 1986. Save the single "Calling America" placed in the Top 30, subsequent singles failed to chart.
However, as Electric Light Orchestra's career descended, Lynne emerged as a sought-after producer, helming well-received comebacks from George Harrison (1987's Cloud Nine) and Roy Orbison (1989's Mystery Girl) and additionally re-teaming with both rock legends as well as Bob Dylan and Tom Petty in the hit supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. Lynne made his solo debut in 1990 with Armchair Theatre but otherwise spent the decade out of the limelight, instead producing material for Joe Cocker, Tom Jones, and Paul McCartney in addition to working on the Beatles' Anthology project. Meanwhile Bevan formed his own band titled ELO Part II, initially with no other former ELO members except Clark. ELO Part II released their debut album Electric Light Orchestra Part Two in 1990. Mik Kaminski, Kelly Groucutt and Hugh McDowell joined the band for the first tour in 1991. Bevan, Groucutt, Kaminski and Clark recorded a second album in 1994 and toured extensively until 1999. Bevan retired from the lineup in 1999 and sold his share of the ELO name to Jeff Lynne in 2000. The remaining members continue to tour and record, renamed as The Orchestra.
In 2001, Zoom, ELO's first album since 1986, was released. Though billed and marketed as an ELO album, the only returning member other than Jeff Lynne was Richard Tandy. Zoom took on a more organic sound, with less emphasis on strings and electronic effects. Upon completion of the album Lynne reformed the band with completely new members including his then-girlfriend Rosie Vela and announced that ELO would tour again. Former ELO member Richard Tandy rejoined the band a short time afterwards for two television live performances, later titled Zoom Tour Live. The planned tour was cancelled and not rescheduled due to unknown factors, in mid-August 2001. Since ELO's back catalogue has been remastered and to further cash in on the success of the remasters, some ELO compilations have been released.
01 - Eldorado Overture (2:12)
02 - Can't Get It Out Of My Head (4:22)
03 - Boy Blue (5:19)
04 - Laredo Tornado (5:30)
05 - Poorboy (The Greenwood) (2:54)
06 - Mister Kingdom (5:30)
07 - Nobody's Child (3:56)
08 - Illusions In G Major (2:37)
09 - Eldorado (5:17)
10 - Eldorado - Finale (1:29)
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Eardrum - Last Light (99 * 99mb)
Eardrum are, essentially, two percussionists: Lou Ciccotelli and Richard Olatunde Baker. Over the last decade, Ciccotelli has quietly established himself as the most interesting avant-rock drummer in London, having put in time with, among others, ground breaking jazz-trance-industrialists God, Gary Smith's avant-rock power trio Mass, psycho-hiphop outfit Ice and the woefully-underrated Laika. Baker, meantime, has played with Cath Coffey, Akure Wall and sundry On-U projects.Three years after making their 1996 debut with a 12" on Soul Static Sound, Ciccotelli and Baker issued last Light on Leaf. They're joined occasionally on their debut by Nana Tsiboe (percussion and flute), bassist and electronics manipulator Gary Jeff (Ciccotelli's colleague in both Mass and God), trumpeter Matt Barge and Ike Leo on saxophone. Eardrum's m.o. is straightforward: to record, live, grooves and atmospheres - almost entirely on percussion - then in a rigorous editing process treat them electronically out of all recognition. The results have already earned Eardrum comparisons with Jon Hassell, 23 Skidoo and African Headcharge, and not unfairly. This music takes Hassell's Fourth World gauntlet very seriously indeed, creating a fetid, tropical musical Interzone from the fragments ironically recorded in London. It rocks, as well, rarely letting go of the dark grooves that underpin it.
A year later Last Night Remixes, Vol. 1 was released, a batch of reworkings from the likes of Monolake, Ashley Beedle, and the Sofa Surfers, was released in mid-2000. The duo made a full return in 2001, a year that saw the release of Side Effects, which featured contributions from renowned engineer Guy Fixsen (My Bloody Valentine, Laika), Nii Tagoe (African Head Charge), and Jason Yarde (Manu Dibango). Delving further into African-based musics, Eardrum again demonstrated a proclivity for tightly reined chaos.
01 - Swarm (6:25)
02 - Lizard (6:35)
03 - Roach (1:48)
04 - Swamp Doctor (5:21)
05 - City Collision (7:10)
06 - Nightblind (3:04)
07 - Plummet (5:02)
08 - Nightcrawler (6:14)
09 - From The Nucleus (4:13)
10 - Low Order (7:17)
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Echoboy - Giraffe (03 ^ 99mb)
Echoboy is Richard Daniel Warren who lives in Leicestershire. He was born on the 3rd June 1973 in Sutton-In-Ashfield (Nottinghamshire). Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Richard Warren is the driving force behind Echoboy, a psychedelic electronic project. The Nottingham, England native was also the singer/songwriter/guitarist for the Hybirds, who disbanded soon after their critically-acclaimed self-titled debut album was released in 1998. During the group's dissolution, Warren began working on Echoboy material and even handed out copies of the first single, Flashlegs, at the Hybirds' final gigs. Later that year Warren released the debut album Echoboy on his own Point Blank imprint. After releasing a 10 inch for Earworm and a 7 inch EP for the Rough Trade shop label he played an entire album of new recorded material to Daniel Miller (label boss of Mute), so he could sign a contract with Mute Records in March 1999. His label debut was the EP "Frances Says: The Knife Is Alive".In March 2000 his first album for Mute "Volume 1" followed. Just 6 months after the release of this critically acclaimed album, the follow-up "Volume 2" was published. After 2 single releases taken from "Volume 2" you didn’t hear from Echoboy for a while – til he released "Automatic Eyes" as a preceded single for his 2003 album "Giraffe".
With Giraffe, Echoboy commits to the ambitious synth pop that he flirted with on Volume One and Volume 2. While this may disappoint fans of his more experimental work, jettisoning that side of his sound gives Giraffe a focus and decisiveness that his previous albums lacked. Actually, Echoboy's more avant leanings aren't gone so much as incorporated into the album's '70s- and '80s-inspired vibe -- What makes Giraffe a subtly and increasingly compelling album is that Echoboy takes influences like Bowie, New Order, and Giorgio Moroder in a different direction than many other acts raiding synth pop for inspiration. That year's Lately Lonely EP continued in this new direction, three singles more were published but Richard thought it would be time for a change, so he left Mute and started to work on a new album. The current album "Elektrik Soul Psymphonie" was released in June 2005 on Earworm Records - he returned to his roots.
01 - Automatic Eyes (4:35)
02 - Don't Destroy Me (6:16)
03 - Comfort Of The Hum (5:01)
04 - Summer Rhythm (5:35)
05 - High Speed In Love (5:01)
06 - Fun In You (4:36)
07 - Lately Lonely (2:58)
08 - Good On T.V. (4:55)
09 - Wasted Spaces (7:21)
10 - Nearly All The Time (4:28)
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
No comments:
Post a Comment