RhoDeo 1748 Aetix

Hello,

Today's artists are one of England's more subtly original goth rock groups, that were initially branded as worshipful Joy Division acolytes, but came up with enough distinct variations to break free of their main influence. Their foundation always remained icy, droning post-punk, replete with sludgy, murky guitars and mumbled Ian Curtis-style vocals. However, as the Lorries evolved, they gradually sprinkled in elements of industrial dance, early rave music, and spaghetti Western soundtracks, as well as liberal doses of inventive, acid-tinged guitar work. .....N'Joy

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Taking their name from a British tongue twister, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry were formed in Leeds in late 1981 by guitarist/songwriter Chris Reed and vocalist Mark Sweeney, along with bassist Steve Smith and drummer Mick Brown (who would later join The Mission). Sweeney left the band in late 1981 and Reed permanently took over as vocalist, with Martin Fagan joining as a second guitarist. The group's sound, featuring a numbing guitar drone, powerfully throbbing bass, pounding drum machine, and Reed's cavernous vocal tones, caused the Lorries (as their fans came to call them) to be quickly lumped into the then-developing gothic rock scene by pop journalists, although the band themselves denied they were ever associated with goth and preferred to cite Wire as an influence, and said they "were primarily inspired by MC5."

In 1982, the Lorries' manager Dave Hall provided independent record label Red Rhino with a cassette of the group's demos. Impressed by the quality of the songs, Red Rhino label head "Tony K" (Tony Kostrzewa)[4] signed the band and immediately released "Beating My Head" unchanged from the demo as the band's debut single. The song made a strong appearance on the influential NME independent record chart. Fagan and Smith soon departed the band, to be replaced by Dave Wolfenden and Paul Southern respectively. Afterwards, bassist Southern was replaced by Leon Phillips. While numerous additional personnel changes would occur in the history of the band, Wolfenden became a mainstay and a frequent songwriting partner of Reed's during the band's most productive period. In 1983 and 1984, the band released several more singles (including "He's Read" and "Monkeys On Juice", which reached No. 9 on the NME indie chart[6]). John Peel was an early supporter, and the band recorded two radio sessions for him in March and November 1983 (released on CD in 2014 as BBC Sessions 1983 - 1984, part of the band's 3-CD compilation See the Fire).

In 1985, the band's debut album, Talk about the Weather, was released and peaked at No. 3 on the NME independent albums chart. The album, which most fans consider to be the band's best, received generally positive reviews and sold extremely well for a small label offering. "Hollow Eyes", a single taken from the album, attained good sales as well, as did follow-up non-LP singles "Chance" and "Spinning Round", the latter of which is generally felt to be the Lorries's strongest song.

The band released one more album on Red Rhino (Paint Your Wagon, which reached No. 3 on the NME indie chart in 1986, a single ("Cut Down") and a four track EP ("Crawling Mantra", utilizing the one-time band name change to "The Lorries"), before signing to Situation Two, an offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records. In 1986, Reed and Wolfenden regrouped with a new rhythm section of bassist Leon Phillips and drummer Chris Oldroyd. They were in place for the Lorries' second LP, Paint Your Wagon, which drew on imagery of the old American West and featured another indie hit in "Walking on Your Hands." Following one more non-LP single that year, "Cut Down," the band temporarily adopted its longtime nickname of the Lorries, and issued one single, 1987's "Crawling Mantra," under that moniker before reverting back to the original form. Later in 1987, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry signed a major-label deal with Situation Two, a subsidiary of RCA affiliate Beggars Banquet. They debuted in 1988 with the LP Nothing Wrong, which spun off the single "Only Dreaming (Wide Awake)."

On their second major-label album, 1989's Blow, the Lorries flirted with the sound and visual style of England's emerging rave culture, resulting in their clearest, most spacious production to date. There was more turnover in the rhythm section; drummer Oldroyd was replaced by Mark Chillington prior to the recording of the album, and bassist Phillips departed before the supporting tour, with his spot permanently filled by Gary Weight. Chillington, in turn, left during the tour, and George Schulz came onboard in his stead. The Lorries subsequently parted ways with Beggars Banquet and released their fifth LP, Blasting Off -- with several songwriting contributions from Weight -- in 1991, on the small Sparkhead label. The album didn't appear in the U.S. for another three years, until Relapse finally picked it up. By that time, faced with diminishing returns, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry had disbanded.

In 2003, Reed revived the name Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and released four new songs in 2004, available via internet download only on the band’s website. The band toured frequently in the UK during 2004 and 2005, but although journalist Mick Mercer wrote in 2014 that "new material is on its way", no additional Red Lorry Yellow Lorry music has subsequently been released. In 2005, the band released Thunder in the Black Cave, a live DVD recorded in Belgium during their 2004 European tour. In 2006, Reed released an acoustic-based album, Minimal Animal, under the name 'Chris Reed Unit'.

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The Lorries' first full album kicks off with the grinding title track -- steady, not punishing, but still aggressive beats, slashing guitar, Chris Reed's abrupt but not shouted vocals. In retrospect the band actually make a great case for being the slightly more romantic Big Black instead of just being the Sisters/Joy Division, Pt. 2 with this song, and keeping that in mind, Talk About the Weather has more going on for it than meets the eye. There's certainly more than a little ghost-of-Andrew Eldritch in the arrangements, not to mention Ennio Morricone (thus trumping the Fields of the Nephilim's own twist on that influence by a couple of years), but Reed's lyrics and singing definitely show the Ian Curtis touch more in their emotional roil as opposed to Hammer horror. As a result, compared to the Sex Gang Children or the like, the Lorries come across more straightforwardly, their music here sounding often brusque. The album's downside is that the basic sound doesn't really change much, but when it's on, as with the title track, it's very much on. "Hollow Eyes" is another one of the winners, taking the high-speed, nervous post-punk approach and adding on a great, simple, but effective chorus to the spiralling riffs and the hollow bass lope, while the sudden shift in velocity on "Strange Dreams" shows a great sense of drama. "Sometimes" ranks up there as well for being the secret winner -- it's the closest the album gets to a quiet and tender love song, which it really isn't per se. But Reed's singing aims at a warmer approach here on the chorus, as does the music, and there's definitely a tangled emotional interplay that comes through, love and hate in a few words.

 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About The Weather (flac  384mb)

01 Talk About The Weather 4:04
02 Hand On Heart 3:46
03 Feel A Piece 2:40
04 Hollow Eyes 3:37
05 This Today 3:20
06 Sometimes 3:01
07 Strange Dream 3:13
08 Happy 3:22
Bonus Tracks
09 Beating My Head 3:21
10 I'm Still Waiting 4:01
11 Take It All 2:54
12 Happy (Single Version) 3:37
13 He's Read 2:57
14 See The Fire 2:31
15 Monkeys On Juice 3:11
16 Push 3:01
17 Silence 2:28
18 Hollow Eyes (12" Version) 3:42
19 Russia 3:11

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk About The Weather   (ogg   152mb)

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The semi-Ennio Morricone touches and twangs on the band's earlier work get a little more foregrounded on the Lorries' second album, but then that had more than a little to do with the cover art and font style -- pure Old West (as filtered through TV and movies). Again, the Fields of the Nephilim may have made it more famous, but the Lorries probably had more outright fun (of a sort) with it in the end. Though that said, "Shout at the Sky" has Chris Reed sounding exactly like the Fields' Carl McCoy, which if intentional might not have been the wisest way to go. Trappings aside, Paint Your Wagon is another fine album and actually probably a better one in the end, with a bit more energy in the arrangements. Reed's guitar playing, supplemented by David Wolfenden, shows a touch more intricacy and flair this time around -- not a major leap forward but he often creates some inspired, epic, work, as on "Last Train" or the slow grind conclusion "Blitz." "Head All Fire" and "Save My Soul" are sharp examples of how Reed and company can rework what were already established approaches into something new and thrilling. "Which Side" goes that step even a bit further thanks to the use of the old "which side are you on" trope -- Billy Bragg did it one way, Reed aims for something a bit more in his echoed milieu. Even some of the semi-filler tracks like the instrumental "Mescal Dance" have enough spikiness to carry the day.

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Paint Your Wagon (flac 288mb)

01 Walking On Your Hands 2:44
02 Jipp 3:00
03 Last Train 2:23
04 Head All Fire 2:41
05 Mescal Dance 2:43
06 Paint Your Wagon 2:40
07 Shout At The Sky 3:09
08 Which Side 2:11
09 Tear Me Up 2:31
10 Save My Soul 2:48
11 Blitz 3:45
12 Hold Yourself Down 2:42
13 Generation 3:19
14 Spinning Round 2:53
15 Chance 5:19

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Paint Your Wagon   (ogg  110mb)

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On Nothing Wrong, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry glides through track after numbing track of quasi-industrial post-punk, once again smacking heartily of Joy Division. The relentless guitar and vocal drones create a claustrophobic feel, and Chris Reed's constant mumbling is among the most incoherent in all of rock. There's an especially shoddy feel on lesser tracks like "World Around" and the surprisingly dull title track. These many drawbacks completely overshadow stronger songs like the reckless "She Said" and "Only Dreaming (Wide Awake)," with its spacious arrangement and almost intelligible melody. In the end, many of the disc's facets that could be considered pop/rock hindrances are admired by fans of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. In fact, Nothing Wrong is a bit of a fan favorite. From the casual listener's perspective, however, this 1988 release probably won't contend with the Cure, Joy Division, or many other notable post-punk/goth artists of the '80s.

 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Nothing Wrong   (flac 250mb)

01 Nothing Wrong 2:38
02 Hands Off Me 2:32
03 Big Stick 2:39
04 She Said 2:50
05 Sayonara 3:30
06 World Around 2:19
07 Hard - Away 2:40
08 Only Dreaming 3:04
09 Do You Understand? 2:20
10 Never Know 3:28
11 Pushing On 2:49
12 You Only Get What You Pay For 3:04
13 Another Side 2:32
14 Calling 2:43
15 Open Up 3:40

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Nothing Wrong     (ogg  96mb)

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Lorry fans might've approached this record with trepidation after taking a gander at the neo-rave artwork of Blow. Had they done a 180 degree head spin, opting to give up their early, Factory-like doom in favor of peace and happiness? Not a chance, as Blow is another 45-minute bummer. The LP does, however, show a band progressing musically. The Lorries' muddled sound is all but done away with, and the band doesn't play on top of each other as much as they had in the past. Chris Reed's vocals rarely reach above a detached, half-awake state, and there's not a great deal of tempo variation throughout. It seems they were more desperate than ever to shed their Joy Division comparisons. They're still gloomy, doomy, and a little murky, but they're not quite as exciting or immediate as they were in their earlier days. Nonetheless, those who dread their fruitless part-time employment at Cinnabon -- the ones who wish they'd been born in the 17th century, anyway -- will surely find solace in Blow.

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Blow (flac  284mb)
 
01 Happy To See Me 3:15
02 Temptation 3:07
03 Shine A Light 3:10
04 Too Many Colors 3:38
05 Heaven 4:13
06 Gift That Shines 3:56
07 In A World 3:50
08 You Are Everything 4:01
09 West Wakes Up 4:18
10 It Was Wrong 3:10
11 Blow 4:33
12 Heaven (Acoustic Version) 3:46

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Blow   (ogg   104mb)

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Cherry Red's The Singles: 1982-1987 is a thorough double-disc set that chronologically compiles the ten A-sides (and their B-sides) released by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry before they left Red Rhino to sign with RCA. The inclusion of the 16 B-sides isn't something that only die-hard fans should rejoice about, as they are often just as strong as the A-sides and obviously stronger than a fair portion of the band's proper album material. While Red Lorry Yellow Lorry never wrote chirpy pop songs, it is rather surprising that their sound, as unrelentingly murky as it was, wasn't able to achieve more chart success in the U.K. The compilation also stands as a testament to a band who never placated the mainstream, all the while avoiding the derisive jokes that most goth rock bands were entitled to.

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - The Singles (82-87) (flac  507mb)

01 Beating My Head 3:16
02 I'm Still Waiting 3:58
03 Take It All Away 2:50
04 Happy 3:40
05 He's Read 2:59
06 See The Fire 2:30
07 Monkey's On Juice 3:13
08 Push 3:03
09 Silence 2:29
10 Hollow Eyes 3:03
11 Feel A Piece 2:39
12 Chance 5:19
13 Generation 3:07
14 Spinning Round 2:50
15 Spinning Round (Crash Mix) 2:54
16 Hold Yourself Down 2:23
17 Walking On Your Hands 2:40
18 Which Side 2:05
19 Jipp (Instrumental Mix) 2:58
20 Cut Down 3:47
21 Running Fever 2:28
22 Pushed Me 2:18
23 Crawling Mantra 2:40
24 Hang Man 3:15
25 All The Same 2:55
26 Shout At The Sky 3:04

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - The Singles   (ogg  205mb)

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RhoDeo 1748 Roots

Hello,

The coming months at Roots will be about the music from Chili, that country with probably the most oddly shape in the world. A 4000km long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. The arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. The relatively small central area dominates in terms of population and agricultural resources, and is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands.
Chile is today one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations, with a high-income economy and high living standards. It leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, and democratic development.



Today's artist is a Chilean band, highlighted by the combination of progressive rock with folk rhythms , along with the incorporation of Latin American instruments and rhythms , especially Chilean ones . They have often been considered "one of the most important and influential bands in Chile and the rest of South America ." In its 50 years of uninterrupted musical activity, Los Jaivas have been characterized by the exploration and fusion of different styles, from the tropical music of its beginnings, continuing with progressive rock , through improvisation in the style of avant garde and jazz , classic rock and Latin American fusion .  During his career, in addition to composing, arranging and performing a large number of his own songs.....N'Joy

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The origins of Los Jaivas are in the family nucleus formed by the brothers Eduardo, Claudio and Gabriel Parra, from Viña del Mar. Together with their friends and high school classmates at the Liceo Guillermo Rivera Cotapos, located on Calle Montaña (steps away) from Quinta Vergara in Viña del Mar), Eduardo "Gato" Alquinta and Mario Mutis, begin to discover music as a way to express their creativity and permanent restlessness.

This is how on August 15, 1963 , under the name of The High & Bass , which alluded to the differences in stature between the brothers Parra, Gato and Mario, 5 made their first presentation at the Municipal Theater of Viña del Mar, interpreting, among others, the theme "Sueña" by Luis Dimas . The presentation is disastrous and the audience strongly disapproves of them. 8 During the following six years, and with his stable formation (Eduardo on keyboards, Claudio on accordion and piano, Gabriel on drums, Gato on guitar and Mario on bass) the band develops its musical proposal at parties and social gatherings in Viñamarinas , interpreting mainly tropical music, cha cha cha , bossa nova and boleros , with good results.

After these years of testing and learning, the group strongly questions their work, and influenced by the university reform and Americanist ideals, decides to change their musical style, to go from mere performers to creators and make way for full musical improvisation and Vanguard. Between 1969 and 1971 , and with its name already Castilianized to "The Jaivas", 10 the concerts of the group are transformed into absolute improvisations, without scripts or prepared schemes, and with each musical instrument generating their own atmospheres, even with the help of the attending public. Improvisation leads them to the appreciation of Latin American musical roots and to the exploration of sounds from ancestral instruments, which allows them to combine seemingly irreconcilable styles, but which Los Jaivas decides to capture in their later musical creation.

Several concerts of this period, including those held at the Vanguardia Music Festival of Viña del Mar (January 1970),  are recorded in the five-disc collection entitled La Vorágine , which documents the stage known as Los Prehistoria. Jaivas. During this time, in addition, the group participates in the legendary hippie recital of Piedra Roja 6 and records its first official record label, homonymous, but known as El Volantín , for its characteristic cover. The album, published in 1971 , contains improvisations in the line of the avant-garde explored previously, but also includes the first sketches of composition, especially on topics such as "Photo of First Communion" and "That or the Tomb You Will Be". .

In April 1972 the group released the single " Todos Juntos ", which catapults them to fame throughout Chile. The group does not participate in the agitated political speeches of the time. The song, originally thought of as B-side, gains high radial rotation and repercussion in the music market due to the fusion it achieves between the lyrics of the call for unity and peace among human beings and the combined use of Latin American rhythms with rock instruments traditional. The fame of the band is increased in September 1972, with the release of " Mira Niñita " / "Leather and Skin", the second single of the group, whose face A also becomes a classic of Chilean popular music.

With the release of their second self-titled album in February 1973 (known, for its cover, as La Ventana and reissued with the title of Todos Juntos in several Latin American countries), which incorporates both sides A of the 1972 singles, in addition to A face full of totally improvised themes, the success of the group is even greater, in an era characterized by the idealism of the hippie ideology. The Jaivas are seen in Chile as a symbol of the times, and their prestige and popularity increase thanks to their participation in numerous concerts, including the recital Los Caminos that opens in February 1973 and another in August of the same year, in Viña del Mar, in which they present their first approaches with symphonic music.

The coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973 makes the group decide to move to live in community in the city of Zárate, in Argentina . Already consolidated in this country, and in partnership with the Brazilian musician Manduka, in 1974 they recorded a series of songs at the Odeón studios (Buenos Aires), which in 1979 would be released under the Movieplay label in Spain, within the album called Los Sueños de America, it contains formal compositions and improvisations that arise spontaneously between the musicians.

In September of 1974 , Mario Mutis must undertake the return to Chile, for personal reasons. Mario returns to the band at the end of November of that year; However, in May 1975 , after a brief return from Los Jaivas to Chile, Mario Mutis stayed in the country, and was replaced on the bass by Julio Anderson , who debuted at the end of this month. With this bass player, the group records another self-titled album, known as El Indio , and released in December. The album, which becomes a hit in Argentina, contains among others the song " Pregón Para Iluminarse ", the slow cueca " La Conquistada " and the extensive musical production "Tarka y Ocarina" which becomes a key point in the concerts of the group. It is this album that ends up defining the musical identity of Los Jaivas, in terms of the fusion of traditional Latin American sounds, those coming from progressive rock, such as electric guitar, organ and drums, and even elements of classical music, provided for the characteristic sound of the piano played by Claudio Parra.

The departure of Anderson in November 1975, favors the entry into the band of Canzani Bird in bass, guitars and choirs and Alberto Ledo in charango , other stringed instruments, percussion and choirs. With this formation, which allows to enrich the sound of the group in voices and arrangements, they edit the single " Mambo de Machaguay " (first version) / "En tus Horas", in 1976 , and the album Canción del Sur, in 1977. The album incorporates for the first time the minimoog executed by Eduardo Parra, in the theme that gives it title .

During their stay, Los Jaivas are recognized and respected as a group from Argentina. They make tours throughout the country, from the interior to Patagonia. The tours cover the eastern coast of the continent, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. His appearances in television become habitual, and they realize several symphonic concerts, experience unpublished in Argentina, next to the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Mar del Plata and the Symphonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires . One of these presentations is the farewell of the group of America, which already looked to Europe as its next stage, especially considering the difficult political situation in Argentina, which led, even, the temporary detention of Eduardo Parra.

At the end of 1977 a ship moved Los Jaivas to Europe, who settled in a house in Paris dating from the eighteenth century , to continue their life in community. As soon as they arrive, they begin a series of recitals in Theaters such as Le Palace, Athénee and Cité Universitaire, in Paris. In the Netherlands they perform at various outdoor clubs and parks, such as Vondel Park, at a large popular music festival. In mid- 1978 , a year after their arrival in Europe, they performed at the famous Olympia Theater in Paris, as a result of their work until that date, making trips to Belgium , Germany , Spain and Italy. In 1979 , they make their first tour to England . They make a season at the Shaftesbury Theater , right in the Piccadilly Circus . London receives them with unusual enthusiasm and excellent criticism. The specialized press catalogs Gabriel Parra as one of the three best drummers in the world. This same year, Mario Mutis rejoins the band and Pájaro Canzani abandons her to pursue a solo career. 1980 finds Los Jaivas on an extensive tour of Spain, a short time later, Alberto Ledo leaves the band.

In November of the same year, with its original formation, and as a product of an invitation from Radio France, the group conceives and prepares its own interpretation and arrangements of songs by Chilean singer-songwriter Violeta Parra , which will be released on record in 1984 , under the name of Obras de Violeta Parra , one of his most praised works.

Machu Picchu , located in southern Peru , gives its name to Pablo Neruda's poem belonging to his General Canto , on which the album Alturas de Machu Picchu is based . In this place also Los Jaivas recorded a musical movie. The idea of interpreting poems from Pablo Neruda's General Song , which emerged in 1981 , inspires Los Jaivas to record their most famous and transcendent album, Alturas de Machu Picchu, and enables them to return to Latin America to record the scenes corresponding to the special television that would accompany the album, which is conducted by the Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize for Literature Mario Vargas Llosa . The album features songs as important as " American Love ", " The Mighty Death " and " Come Up to Be Born with Brother ", who, through their complex musical structures, manage to fully interpret Neruda's torrential poetry. Alturas is still one of the best-selling Chilean albums in all of history, and the documentary, filmed in a joint collaboration between Canal 13 of Chile and Canal 7 of Peru , achieves a fusion of the poems, the landscape, the mysterious spirit and the legend of a disappeared civilization, with the natural effects of illumination, in such a way that the achieved images help to deliver a total work of great cultural magnitude, as few have been done in Latin America.

The 1981 tour takes them through Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay , and in 1982 they return to Europe to present Alturas in Germany , Spain , Holland and France , and to register a new album, Aconcagua , which would be released in Chile in the year following. The Chilean version of the album contains a new version of " Mambo de Machaguay ", which becomes a radio hit immediately; the editions of the other countries incorporate a re-recording of the now classic " Todos juntos ".

The group returns to Chile in October 1982, and says goodbye to the country in February 1983 with a great concert at the Quinta Vergara in Viña del Mar, before more than twenty thousand people. They then play for three days at the Sanitary Works stadium in Argentina, concerts that are recorded on the album Los Jaivas in Argentina , which was released that same year. Later, they continue with an extensive tour that takes them through Peru, Ecuador , Colombia , Venezuela , Mexico , Brazil , the Netherlands , and then to the then republics of the Soviet Union : Russia , Lithuania , Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan . From these performances the live album Los Jaivas in Moscow is recorded, which is published in all the Soviet territories.

After this Los Jaivas return to Chile in a lightning trip to record a special television in the Chilean Antarctic , and then embark on a new tour, which takes them through France, Switzerland , Belgium, Holland, Germany and Finland . This tour was interrupted by the invitation from Buenos Aires to represent Chile in the Meeting of Chilean-Argentine Fraternity before more than 80,000 people, between Chileans and Argentines, for the final agreement of the two countries on the border issue, which was point to unleash a fratricidal war.

In July and August of 1984 they return to Paris to register the Violeta Parra Works , which finally goes on sale as a double album with the participation of Isabel Parra and Patricio Castillo. In the following year, Mario Mutis returns to leave the band and to be replaced by Pájaro Canzani. With this formation, they realize their first tour by the United States and Canada , appearing in the famous and exclusive Carnegie Hall of New York (next to the legendary band RataJuana); in addition to Washington and Spriengfield. In 1985 the group decides to end their stay in Paris.

1986 and 1987 pass quickly with an uninterrupted activity. The tours follow one another. In addition to their usual circuit of France, Germany, Holland, Spain and Italy, they continue through Switzerland, Sweden , Austria and the Nordic countries. They perform a concert in Piazza San Marco , during the famous Carnival of Venice .In 1988 Los Jaivas, with the reinforcement of the charanguista and bassist Fernando Flores , returned to Latin America on a new tour. The farewell concert of Chile, at the Santa Laura Stadium , would also be the farewell to Gabriel Parra, his drummer, who died in a car accident on a road south of Lima .

The farewell is held in Viña del Mar, hometown of the entire group. More than 100,000 people attend their funerals, including an honor band formed by the drummers of many Chilean groups. Condolences are received from all over the world, and a few weeks later, the album Los Jaivas en Vivo is released: Tour 1988 , which is a tribute to the drummer from its cover.

In August of that same year, the rest of the group decides to go ahead, and meets in Paris to finish, with the help of bassists Pájaro Canzani and Mario Mutis and drummer Marcelo Muñoz , nephew of Gato Alquinta, the album started one year before next to Gabriel, that is published under the title of If You Are not . The plate, published in 1989 , turns out to be the most intimate of the group, and in it they explore sounds coming from electronic and programmable instruments. The album is presented with a great show at the Santa Laura stadium called Los Caminos que Abren II , in which Los Jaivas perform with Marcelo Muñoz on drums, Pájaro Canzani on bass, and Luis Núñez on charango, as a guest musician.

In the tour that takes place in Latin America during the summer of 1991 , a young Juanita Parra , daughter of Gabriel, participated in the group playing the song "Run that I get you". In spite of its youth it denotes exceptional conditions in the battery, that excite the public, who sees in her a natural continuation of the role his father. Upon her return to Europe, she officially joined the group as a drummer, but had to go through a stage of preparation and study that would last five years.

There are some European tours through Toulouse , Paris , Berlin , Munich , Brussels , Antwerp and Oslo , which allow the shooting with the brand new drummer. In 1992 , in addition, the group edits the soundtrack of the postponed film Palomita Blanca , which they had recorded during 1973.

This stage between 1990 and 1995 is the germ of the album Hijos de la Tierra , which means the reunion of Los Jaivas with its roots and with its audience, the consecration of Juanita as heir of the group's battery and the first places of popularity during several weeks.The lyrics of the 1999 album Mamalluca , written by Eduardo Parra , receive a strong inspiration from the Elqui Valley , in the image.

The group returns to settle in Chile and returns to record their classic song "Todos Juntos", with the help of several national musicians. This version, which is used as the official anthem of the VI Ibero-American Summit of Presidents in 1996 , generates the recording of the album Trilogía: El rencuentro , which contains new versions of previous songs by the band, recorded with the collaboration of several Chilean and Latin American artists. , among them Leon Gieco , The Three , Eduardo Gatti , Illapu , Javiera Parra and Congress . This album, in addition, means the definitive return of Mario Mutis to the band, in the bass.

A broad activity will come in the following years, during the reunion with Chile. The Jaivas participate in the collective album Tributo a Víctor Jara ( 1998 ) and also record, by order, songs such as "Todos Americanos", hymn of the Second Summit of the Americas, and "For the Children of the World", commissioned by UNICEF with reason for the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child . In addition, they perform, together with Illapu and Los Tres, the massive Made in Chile concert, which brings together more than 60,000 people at the National Stadium.

His next work, Mamalluca ( 1999 ), gathers the group's interaction with a complete symphonic orchestra, through the musicalization of a set of poems that the group's keyboardist, Eduardo Parra, composed inspired by the Elqui Valley , during one of the tours that the band made for the villages of the interior of Chile. Between 2000 and 2002 , the band edited the cuecas compilation In the Bar-Restaurant 'Lo Que Nunca Se Supo' and the album Arrebol , which brings together new compositions with all the songs recorded during their re-encounter with Chile; it also marks the entrance to the Carlos Cabezas band in charango, wind and percussion instruments and choirs; Arrebol would also be the last album of original songs released so far by Los Jaivas.

On that date, the double album " Recopilativos Obras Cumbres ",  was also published. In 2002 they appear in the Festival of the Song of Viña del Mar , appearing on Sunday , February 24 . On December 7, 2002 they performed a concert together with the Argentine singer Fito Páez . Both events were broadcast on the Canal 13 screens. In January of 2003 , the tragedy touches them closely again. Eduardo "Gato" Alquinta, his vocalist, dies unexpectedly on a beach in Coquimbo, northern Chile. His farewell is massive, more than 400,000 people wait up to five hours to say goodbye.

Again, the group decides to continue in spite of everything, incorporating three of Gato's sons, Ankatu (guitar), Eloy (flute, sax and wind instruments) and Aurora (voice), to replace him. With this formation, the group makes a national tour with the title of Gato Presente . Aurora leaves the group and the voice is in charge of Mario and Carlos. With this formation, the group continues its work and its tours throughout the country during 2003, year in which they receive the National Music Award, President of the Republic and the Pablo Neruda Medal.

Unexpectedly and only one year after his father, Eloy suffers a heart attack and dies at the age of 33, returning from a trip to Argentina, and he is replaced by his teammate Francisco Bosco. During 2004 , the band reissued its classic album Alturas de Machu Picchu , on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the poet Pablo Neruda, accompanying it with a DVD edition of the television special recorded in 1981, in the historic Machu Picchu "(Peru) a joint work between the National Television of Peru and Chile, and a tour around the country presenting this complete work, which is a success in attendance.

In 2005 , the compilation album Song of love is published , which brings together romantic themes edited throughout the discography of the band. Among several other activities, in 2006 the group made a historic concert on Easter Island , in addition to the Orguesta de la Armada de Chile, and in the framework of the celebrations for the month of the sea. On September 20, 2006, Channel 13 broadcasts the television special Los Jaivas in Rapa Nui: Eyes That See the Universe , which collects fragments of the recital, as well as interviews with the group and with inhabitants of the Island. The DVD that includes the event It was finally released to the market in November 2007 with the title of Los Jaivas in Rapa Nui . 17

2007 begins as a year with great activity in terms of presentations. It begins on January 6 , when they are
presented at the National Stadium of Chile at the summit of Chilean rock , a historic moment in which they met prominent Chilean artists, among whom were The Three , Saiko , Deceased Correa , The Bunkers , Javiera and Los Imposibles , Chancho in Piedra , Jorge González , Fahrenheit and others. During the same month, they reappeared at the Huaso Festival in Olmué , where they presented excerpts from their show Los Jaivas in Rapa Nui , and where they were chosen as the most popular artist of the event.
The Jaivas during his presentation at the Pichilemina Week of 2009.

They continue their participation in massive events with musicians of the new generations. Stresses the Santiago Rock in 2008, in that they even make versions of songs in conjunction with the group The Three ; a new appearance at the Festival of Huaso de Olmué , in 2009 and, without doubt, the Chilean Rock Summit II , in which time became scarce for its presentation, and which had as final a version of the classic " Todos Juntos " with a good part of the artists that participated during the event, before the crowded public of that day at the Club

During 2009 , Eduardo Parra , one of the founders of the group, announces his departure from the scenarios, as a result of the worsening of polio suffered since childhood. The band was making their presentations without his presence since 2007 , with Francisco Bosco replacing his instrumental parts in saxophone and synthesizer . In this regard, another founder, Mario Mutis, has pointed out that this new change in the composition of the band will not affect its continuity: " We have assumed it as it should, thinking that music should continue." Adapting to changes has been the key to our life as a group ", although within the framework of the Universal Forum of Cultures of Valparaíso 2010, where the group performed a concert mainly focused on the album Alturas de Machu Picchu , Eduardo was the rapporteur of the overture and also He joined the band to take his place in some of the songs. The group has presented together with Eduardo in the framework of the celebrations for the Bicentennial of the Republic of Chile , and in the Telethon 2010 , both events developed in the National Stadium .

T

he 22 of March of 2011 the Jaivas made a presentation in honor of the President of the United States of America Barack Obama in the courtyard of Canons of the Palace of La Moneda . In January 2013, Ankatu Alquinta is fired from the band, being replaced by guitarist Alan Reale . Ankatu last concert was in Santiago on 15 December 2012. On August 15, 2013, the group held a massive free concert to commemorate his 50 years in the Forest Park of Santiago , opposite the Museum of Fine Arts 22 where they were also showing an exhibition with photos and graphics in its history. The event was attended by over 60 thousand people.

In March 2013 the year of the celebration of 50 years of the band, the Chilean / Dutch filmmaker Erasmo Parra (son of Claudio Parra ), convinced the musicians to make a feature film dramatized based on the creative career of the band, from childhood to the time when they were known as the High Bass in Vina del Mar in the early 60s . The film is titled High Bass , will be released in 2019 and includes the participation of producers Belgian, Dutch and British. The cast is made up of artists Diego Noguera, Marina Mutis Parra and Celine Reymond , among others.

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In April 1972 , Los Jaivas decided to release their first commercial single , in which they thought to promote their first composition, "Ayer Caché". The theme, produced in groups, contained elements of Latin American ballad and bolero , with lyrics that evoke nature and the love themes typical of the 1970s . On their B side, they had decided to incorporate a written theme a little more quickly, with verses that showed idealistic longings for peace, and at a more dizzying pace. The song, called "Todos Juntos", was the one that the radio promoted, and it became a complete success, one of the best-selling singles in all of Chile's record history. Until today, "Todos Juntos" is one of the most well-known and symbolic songs of the country.

This success was followed closely, (September 21, 1972 ), the release of a second single, "Mira Niñita", composition mix of ballad , rock , Latin American folklore and progressive rock , devised by Gato Alquinta , although accredited to the whole group in its preparation. It turned out to be another success of unsuspected magnitude, although inferior to "Todos Juntos". Side B contains an improvisation in the style of those found in La Vorágine and El Volantín : "Cuero y Piel".

To capitalize on this good fortune, the group released its second LP , with a stamp and a run more important than those of its first delivery. This is how another self-titled album was published, whose cover, designed by Marco Antonio Hughes, gave it its popular name, La Ventana , which also serves to differentiate it from the previous album and the 1975 self-titled album. The album was a bestseller and launched Los Jaivas to the peak of Chilean popularity during the Popular Unity era.

Los Jaivas - Todos Juntos   (flac  366mb)

01 Marcha Al Interior Del Espíritu 2:28
02 Todos Juntos 5:52
03 Mira Niñita 6:57
04 Los Caminos Que Se Abren 9:40
05 Indio Hermano 6:10
06 Ayer Caché 4:25
07 La Quebrá Del Ají 4:43
08 Corre Que Te Pillo 4:37
09 Cuero y Piel 5:13
10 El Pasiilo Del Condor 0:25
Bonus
11 Cyclo Vital 9:46

Los Jaivas - Todos Juntos (ogg  149mb)

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El Indio comes from the approach of Los Jaivas to Latin American folklore, and its contact with the music of the continent, beyond its Chilean experience. It is one of his most successful albums, with great sales throughout Latin America , and the album that has more editions throughout the world. It is, in addition, the first disc of the group in which its original bassist Mario Mutis doesn't feature, he had to return to Chile for personal reasons, and was replaced by Julio Anderson. The themes " Pregón para Iluminarse " and "Un Día de Tus Días" have an eminently folkloric inspiration, although they develop rock ideas, especially in instrumental breaks. "Un Mar de Gente" has ideas of Latin American union anthem, while the most transcendental work of the album, the slow cueca " La Conquistada ", is a lyrics that Eduardo Parra , keyboardist of the group, composes from the destruction in the The city of Santiago de Chile remains after the military coup of 1973 . Its sense poem, musicalized by the whole band, allows the group to develop interesting instrumental improvisations, which reach their culminating point in the final theme, "Tarka and Ocarina", which is divided into three parts for the best understanding of the instrumental by part of the public. In April 2008 , the Chilean edition of Rolling Stone magazine placed this album in eighth place among the 50 best Chilean albums of all time.

Los Jaivas - Los Jaivas (El Indio) (flac  304mb)

01 Pregón Para Iluminarse 5:15
02 Guajira Cósmica 7:45
03 La Conquistada 7:15
04 Un Mar De Gente 4:06
05 Un Día De Tus Días 3:10
06 Tarka Y Ocarina (Diablada/Trote/Kotaiki) 15:15
Bonus
07 En Tus Horas 3:46
08 Mambo De Machaguay 4:15

Los Jaivas - Los Jaivas (El Indio) (ogg  121mb)

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Canción del Sur was born from the experience of Los Jaivas living in Buenos Aires between 1973 and 1977, from where they projected tours through different countries of Latin America, as well as the interior of Argentina, which allowed them to discover this culture, and its landscapes, generating images and feelings that marked the creativity of the group. In particular, his visits to Patagonia are what inspire the theme of the album's title. For this album the band is made up of six members: Pájaro Canzani, on bass, replaces Julio Anderson (who had replaced Mario Mutis for the sessions of El Indio), and the sixth Jaiva Alberto Ledo joins them on various string instruments and wind. As both sing, it is possible to increase the vocal harmonies developed in each theme, which is appreciable in several cuts of this album and the singles that followed.

There are three main themes on the album; the theme that gives it title evokes with a poetic and nostalgic lyrics the landscapes of the south of Latin America and serves as a stage for the irruption of the minimoog (executed in an extensive solo by Eduardo Parra) as a key instrument in the sound of Los Jaivas. "Dum-Dum Tambora" is an extensive rock improvisation based on a popular Uruguayan theme, and the extensive instrumental "Danzas" combines diverse elements of Latin American folklore with guitars and synthesizers from traditional rock. The other, shorter songs allow the musicians to explore other styles: "The Magic Life, Ay Sí!" it is an approach to the Chilean cueca; "Song for the Birds" has popular rhythms of the Amazon and "At the Summit of a Hill" and "Freshness Antigua" allow the group to connect with its more American side.
This edition of Canción del Sur contains, in addition, two singles: one, edited in Latin America with the permission of the group, brought as a side To the optimistic song "In Your Hours" and as side B a primitive version of "Mambo de Machaguay" , that later would be re-recorded in the sessions of Aconcagua (1983); the other, gestated by an external producer (Eddy Owens), is designated as one of the most bizarre recordings of Los Jaivas, having nothing to do with his style of creation: these are two songs that combine the album with Andean sounds , in a commercial and disposable mixture. The musicians record these two themes, but never interpret them live, and actually laugh when they remember their content.

Los Jaivas - Cancion Del Sur   (flac  289mb)

01 La Vida Mágica Ay Si! 3:17
02 Canción Del Sur 7:43
03 Canción Para Los Pájaros 3:12
04 En La Cumbre De Un Cerro 5:07
05 Danzas 8:46
06 Dum Dum Tambora 7:58
07 Frescura Antigua 3:20
Bonus
08 En Tus Horas 3:46
09 Mambo De Machaguay 3:34
10 Sueño Del Inca 3:39
11 Bebida Magica 2:55

 Los Jaivas - Cancion Del Sur (ogg  124mb )

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This is a true experimental work of art! The fact that these guys were able to create a blend of music one might call experimental/progressive folk rock to the epic, and Noble Prize wining poem of renown Chilean poet Pablo Neruda is a testament in its own right. But the fact is, that they also hauled all their instruments/gear up the staggering heights of Macchu Picchu in order to record the album!!! I'd like to see anyone even attempt to try that in this day and age!!! They are all masters of their craft and the unique blend of traditional folk and electronic instruments gives the listener textures both synthetic and organic, while using odd timing, and chunky rhythms for an all around effect that weaves an earthy tapestry that is not only gritty, but soulful as well... Alturas De Macchu Picchu has for over thirty years continued to blow listeners away. Life is short and time is fleeting...

Los Jaivas - Alturas De Machu Picchu (flac  215mb)

01 Del Aire Al Aire 2:14
02 La Poderosa Muerte 11:13
03 Amor Americano 5:15
04 Aguila Sideral 5:19
05 Antigua America 5:37
06 Sube A Nacer Conmigo Hermano 4:48
07 Final 2:34

Los Jaivas - Alturas De Machu Picchu (ogg  84mb)

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RhoDeo 1748 Lifehouse 2

Hello, the last F1 race this season was uneventful, halfway the race the only thing that changed the starting grid order was Ricciardo having a suspension failure. Mercedes Bottas and Hamilton were way upfront and Vettel on 3rd almost 20 sec behind at the finish, Raikonen had Verstappen on his tail all race long but Max lacked the power to overtake and Raikonen made no mistake. Hulkenberg got 6th and with that assured Renault the 5th place in the constructors championship.


Today's artist  is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Who. His career with the Who spans over 50 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the 20th century.

Townshend is the main songwriter for the Who, having written well over 100 songs for the band's 11 studio albums, including concept albums and the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia. He has also written more than 100 songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs. Although known primarily as a guitarist, he also plays keyboards, banjo, accordion, harmonica, ukulele, mandolin, violin, synthesiser, bass guitar, and drums, on his own solo albums, several Who albums and as a guest contributor to an array of other artists' recordings. He is self-taught on all of the instruments he plays and has never had any formal training. Townshend has also contributed to and authored many newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts, and he has collaborated as a lyricist and composer for many other musical acts. Due to his aggressive playing style and innovative songwriting techniques, .... N'joy.

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Everybody who hasn't been sleeping under an umbrella on some beach in the Greek Islands or on some rock off the coast of New Zealand has heard by now of the Lifehouse Chronicles. Lifehouse was a rock opera Pete Townshend worked on feverishly and then abandoned -- due to outside tinkering and betrayal -- between the issues of Tommy and Quadrophenia. According to legend, Townshend couldn't get anybody interested in his allegedly disjointed ideas. The truth was all wrapped up in music and film-biz politics. Townshend's Lifehouse was to be a rock opera all right, but it was to be a musical for screen with footage of the Who performing the story's soundtrack. This desire of Townshend's to move into film had a practical purpose: in part, it was to get the Who off the endless slogging of the road for sometimes years at a time. It was also Townshend attempting to move himself into other areas like fiction and theater and away from the constrictions placed on him as a "rock musician." This contradicted the ambitions of the Who's then-manager Kit Lambert, who wanted to make a film of Tommy by any means necessary -- even without the approval and participation of Townshend -- as his first feature, a project Townshend wanted nothing to do with. In short, according to Townshend, who had made contact with Universal about Lifehouse, Lambert made his own film, the disastrous Tommy, by derailing the Lifehouse project using his influence with people at the band's label and elsewhere by telling them the entire thing was too big and unruly for pop music, that Lifehouse was unworkable. The project was abandoned, but never let go of. The Who recorded a number of the songs for Lifehouse, produced by Glyn Johns, who talked them out of a concept album and into a strong pop album. Those sessions, minus the classic "Pure and Easy" also recorded then, resulted in the record Who's Next.

Townshend eventually became obsessed with telling the story of his greatest failure, the same great failure that gave us Who's Next, "Pure and Easy," and other Lifehouse ideas such as "Sister Disco" and "Who Are You?" Even later, when Townshend's radio play Psychoderelict was released in 1993 as an album, it contained ideas that had been adapted from the Lifehouse sessions. In 1999, Townshend worked with collaborators to create a two-hour BBC radio play for Lifehouse. The box set tells the story of the failure and presents the evidence for what he believed was possible in 1970 and up until the time Who's Next was recorded and released in 1971.

Lifehouse is the story set in a "near distant" future, where government was no longer interested in interpersonal relationships between humans; their interest was the complete dependence of the individual on the power structure. To that end, they manufactured a story of a pollution crisis so bad, everyone was required to wear "lifesuits." Lifesuits were articles of clothing that simulated all experiences so the person wearing it wouldn't have to leave her or his dwelling place if he or she didn't want to. They were designed, programmed, and plugged into a huge mainframe grid by a media mogul named Jumbo, who was more powerful than the government who appointed him to head this project. His media company provided medicine, sleeping gas, food, and programming so intense and compressed it would allow, according to Townshend's notes, "an individual to live out tens of thousands of lifetimes in a very short period." It also did away with any need for art. (Yep, virtual reality 15 years before William Gibson's novel Neuromancer.

The story begins when a dropout farming family in a remote part of Scotland hears about a subversive rock concert in London that their daughter runs away from home to attend. The farmers don't wear lifesuits because they live far to the north and are supposedly out of the pollution's range. They are tolerated by the power structure because the farmers grow produce the government is only too happy to buy. Bobby is the story's hero. He hacks into the grid and discovers its fatal flaw. He plans to stage a concert called the Lifehouse in which each individual will be able to become a unique, blueprinted part of a piece of music, a song that hacks into the mainframe of the grid, distorts its data, and short circuits its fictions, allowing everyone to shed their suits and start living again. That song would have the power of liberating not only their minds, but also their bodies from the lifesuits as well -- all through the power of rock & roll -- which would have been supplied by the Who, of course. His experiment succeeds better than he could have ever dreamed with totally unexpected results -- I'll leave the rest to those of you actually interested enough to purchase the set.

The Lifehouse Chronicles are six CDs of all the material associated with the project, past and present, including the original demos for the songs Townshend planned to include as he was developing it. It is divided into two CDs of demos of songs such as "Teenage Wasteland" -- that later evolved into "Baba O' Riley" -- with somewhat different lyrics -- at one time an instrumental conceived as a different song altogether. Others include virtually every song from Who's Next, and "Slip Kid," "Let's See Action," "Relay," as well as "Sister Disco" and "Who Are You?" among many, many others.

The first two discs are worth the price of admission alone. There isn't a weak second on either of them, and the sound is pristine, professionally recorded from the jump, and remastered for CD. Perhaps nothing is more revelatory about Townshend that hearing his sketch "Teenage Wasteland" become the "Baba O'Riley" we know -- a nine-minute instrumental version of "Riley" is on the demos, and it's awe inspiring. The song's lyrics and the tune's melody set out the story of a transition so profound it changes everything. It's the story of people moving into something from outside, having no idea what awaits them on the other side of "teenage wasteland." The instrumental track is more anthemic than anything the Who ever recorded. "Pure and Easy," "The Song Is Over," "Behind Blue Eyes," and others are not sketches, but fully realized versions of songs before they were given to the Who. Hearing Townshend sing them sends chills down the spine as the songs take on even deeper meanings. "Sister Disco" is radically different than the one the Who recorded -- the later one served the aims of a pop song far better than Townshend's original -- but in his hands, it's a novel.

Disc three is full of experiments and themes Townshend worked and reworked as he revisited the Lifehouse material years later. There is a remixed version of "Who Are You," and redone versions of "Baba M1" and "M5" as well as a redone "Pure and Easy" that is far superior to the originally released version. All of the material here was recorded in 1998 and 1999 when Townshend was conceiving and working on the radio play.

The fourth disc consists entirely of orchestral themes and arrangements employed both in the original concept and augmented in the radio play. The works are not only by Townshend, but by classical composers Henry Purcell, Corette, and Domenico Scarlatti as well. This CD might seem a stretch as interesting to some, but given Townshend's vision and sense of drama, it fits perfectly inside it. The emotional and dynamic range of the pieces, their colors and textural elegance in this particular sequence make for a deep -- and rousing -- listening experience.

Finally, there are the last two discs that comprise the radio play. These are what everyone is wondering about, if they're "worth it" for the price tag; if it is possible in the "sound and word byte" age to sustain listening to an almost two-hour bit of aural theater. Make no mistake, the radio play is brilliant, an essential addition to the literature of Townshend and the Who. Concept goes out the window when the voice of a young boy introduces the work, and gives way to a short orchestral reading of "Baba O'Riley." What replaces it is pure drama, worthy not only of a radio play, but if reworked slightly, for stage as well, and perhaps even a film. Whoops, been there already, better to let sleeping dogs lie. But the work is so compelling it would be wonderful as a film, with only one catch, finding the proper vintage footage of the Who performing the soundtrack, and melding it in, because it wouldn't work with any other band performing the material. Lifehouse is a chilling vision of a future where control and individuality no longer have a place in everyday life. This is the film the Matrix without the special effects or kung fu, and as a result, Lifehouse is far more subversive and instructive.

The Lifehouse Chronicles is a bit of rock history that finally gets its proper hearing and as a result begs the question in capital letters, "What if?" It's fitting that it's only available from Townshend's own website. The price is a bit steep, but the package was far from cheap to assemble and is a lavishly designed wonder. The set comes in a 12 by 12 box, with a corrugated impressed sleeve with and folds into a triptych. The CDs are laid out in individually colored and lettered glossy sleeves, four on the left panel, two on the right (the play), and a handsome 50-page book slips into its own spot in the middle bridging them. The book, with a long, no-holds-barred introduction by Townshend also contains Matt Kent's own, somewhat more objective history of the project, contains complete lyrics to all the songs, and the script for the radio play. Everything printed lavishly on different colored pages with no regard for expense. There isn't another item on the rock or pop market that resembles The Lifehouse Chronicles or even comes close to its vision or integrity.

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Pete Townshend - Lifehouse Demos II (flac  423mb)

01 I Don't Even Know Myself 5:27
02 Put the Money Down 5:50
03 Pure and Easy 8:35
04 Getting in Tune 4:04
05 Let's See Action 6:20
06 Slip Kid 3:57
07 Relay 4:15
08 Who Are You 7:37
09 Join Together 6:23
10 Won't Get Fooled Again 8:30
11 The Song Is Over 5:41

Pete Townshend - Lifehouse Demos II (ogg  161mb)

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In 1998, Townshend's dream of bringing Lifehouse to a wide audience finally came true, when BBC Radio approached him with the idea of developing a radio play based on Lifehouse and incorporating the original music written for the project. The play, just under two hours in length, was transmitted on BBC Radio 3 on 5 December 1999.

Lifehouse is the story set in a "near distant" future, where government was no longer interested in interpersonal relationships between humans; their interest was the complete dependence of the individual on the power structure. To that end, they manufactured a story of a pollution crisis so bad, everyone was required to wear "lifesuits." Lifesuits were articles of clothing that simulated all experiences so the person wearing it wouldn't have to leave her or his dwelling place if he or she didn't want to. They were designed, programmed, and plugged into a huge mainframe grid by a media mogul named Jumbo, who was more powerful than the government who appointed him to head this project. His media company provided medicine, sleeping gas, food, and programming so intense and compressed it would allow, according to Townshend's notes, "an individual to live out tens of thousands of lifetimes in a very short period." It also did away with any need for art. (Yep, virtual reality 15 years before William Gibson's novel Neuromancer.)

The story begins when a dropout farming family in a remote part of Scotland hears about a subversive rock concert in London that their daughter runs away from home to attend. The farmers don't wear lifesuits because they live far to the north and are supposedly out of the pollution's range. They are tolerated by the power structure because the farmers grow produce the government is only too happy to buy. Bobby is the story's hero. He hacks into the grid and discovers its fatal flaw. He plans to stage a concert called the Lifehouse in which each individual will be able to become a unique, blueprinted part of a piece of music, a song that hacks into the mainframe of the grid, distorts its data, and short circuits its fictions, allowing everyone to shed their suits and start living again. That song would have the power of liberating not only their minds, but also their bodies from the lifesuits as well -- all through the power of rock & roll -- which would have been supplied by the Who, of course. His experiment succeeds better than he could have ever dreamed with totally unexpected results -- I'll leave the rest to those of you actually interested enough to purchase the set.

Directed and produced by Kate Rowland

Cast

Ray ........... David Thredfall
Sally........... Geraldine James
Mary........... Kelly Mcdonald
Hacker........ Shaun Parkes
Caretaker.... Charles Dale
Rayboy........ Phillip Dowling

Pete Townshend - Lifehouse Chronicles 6-10 (flac  165mb)

06 Lifehouse Radio Play No. 6 6:35
07 Lifehouse Radio Play No. 7 4:10
08 Lifehouse Radio Play No. 8 5:02
09 Lifehouse Radio Play No. 9 7:20
10 Lifehouse Radio Play No. 10 5:27

previously

Pete Townshend - Lifehouse Chronicles 01-05 (flac  155mb)

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Sundaze 1748

Hello, Abu Dabi sees last F1 race of the season this weekend Hamilton left pole for his teammate Bottas, Vettel 3rd once more, Ricciardo pulled of a surprise beating Raikonen for 4th and Verstappen said his bolide slided too much to get any  further than 6th. Behind these 3 top teams the fight is on to score the last points, 3 teams with just 4 points between them and millions at stake for the final constructors reckoning.


Today's Artist is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released several albums of his own work. However, he is best known for producing albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Brandon Flowers. He also collaborated with Brian Eno: most famously on producing several albums for U2, including the multi-platinum The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Three albums produced or co-produced by him have won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Four other albums received Grammy nominations......N'Joy

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Daniel Lanois was born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec; his French-Canadian family was firmly rooted in music, with his mother a singer and both his father and grandfather noted for their prowess on the violin. Following his parents' 1963 separation, Lanois and his mother moved to the English-speaking suburbs of Hamilton, Ontario; there he learned to play guitar, and with his brother, Robert, began making primitive home recordings on a cheap cassette player. In 1970, the siblings purchased a four-track machine, setting up a recording studio in the laundry room of their home and offering their services to local bands for a $60 fee.

Regularly aiding their clients not only as producers but also as songwriters and arrangers, the Lanois brothers' reputation quickly spread, and as the decade drew to a close, they were able to graduate to larger recording facilities, which they dubbed Grant Avenue Studios.  He worked with a number of local bands, including Martha and the Muffins (for whom his sister Jocelyne played bass), Ray Materick, Spoons, and the Canadian children's singer Raffi. Daniel first worked with Brian Eno there, who in the decade to follow would emerge as Lanois' chief mentor and frequent collaborator. Together, they spent several weeks working on instrumental ambient material, experimenting heavily with sonic manipulation techniques; when Eno eventually returned to the U.K., Lanois remained in Ontario, recording a series of LPs for the local band Martha & the Muffins and, in 1983, producing improvisational trumpeter Jon Hassell's album Aka/Darbari/Java. In 1984, after working with Eno on Hybrid (a collaboration with guitarist Michael Brook) and The Pearl (another collaborative effort, this time with Harold Budd), Lanois responded to Eno's call to co-produce U2's The Unforgettable Fire; the album was a major hit, and it so impressed another superstar, Peter Gabriel, that he invited Lanois to co-produce the soundtrack to the motion picture Birdy. In 1985 he earned a CASBY award for his work on a Martha and the Muffins album.

Lanois next scored with 1986's So, Gabriel's brilliant commercial breakthrough. However, it was his and Eno's second collaboration with U2, 1987's The Joshua Tree, which launched him to true fame: after the album won a Grammy -- and after he subsequently co-produced Robbie Robertson's long-awaited solo debut -- Lanois emerged as one of the best-known and most respected producers in contemporary pop music. In 1989, he masterminded Bob Dylan's Oh Mercy -- widely regarded as Dylan's best work in over a decade -- as well as the Neville Brothers' Yellow Moon, an artistic watershed for the venerable New Orleans group. By this time. Lanois himself was a resident of the Crescent City, setting up Kingsway Studio in a mansion in the heart of New Orleans; there he crafted his own hotly anticipated solo debut, 1989's Acadie. Two years later, he reunited with U2 for the stellar Achtung Baby, and in 1992, re-teamed with Gabriel for the wonderful Us. In 1993, Lanois issued the lovely For the Beauty of Wynona; however, like Acadie, it failed to reap the same commercial awards as his other production ventures. Other albums of note include Emmylou Harris' 1995 masterpiece Wrecking Ball
his 1995 collaboration with Emmylou, won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. More productions for Luscious Jackson's Fever In Fever Out, Willie Nelson's Teatro, and Dylan's 1997 comeback Time Out of Mind; in between, Lanois also recorded the score to the 1996 film Sling Blade.

Lanois scored again with U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind at the end of 2000, along with working with Joe Henry and others in a support capacity. 2003 saw the year of his third and finest recording, Shine, which featured guest performances from Emmylou Harris and Bono. In 2005, he released the outtake-filled "renegade CD" Rockets through his website, which was followed quickly by Belladonna, a proper album release on Anti. Soon after, photographer Adam Vollick started filming the next year-and-a-half of Lanois' life, following him on the road, with celebrity friends, and in his second home, the recording studio. Lanois premiered the documentary entitled Here Is What Is at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007. The film chronicles the recording of his album of the same name, and includes footage of the actual recording. The album Here Is What Is was released, first by download, then in compact disc, in late 2007 and early 2008. Soon after, Lanois released a three-disc recording called Omni.

Lanois spent time working on a new band project for the next couple of years, with bassist Daryl Johnson, drummer Brian Blade, and vocalist/keyboardist Trixie Whitley. This culminated in the self-titled album Black Dub in 2010. The band toured internationally. Lanois was working on Neil Young's record Le Noise in June 2010 when he was hospitalized after suffering multiple injuries in a motorcycle crash in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. He has since recovered. Lanois' production is recognizable and notable for its 'big' and 'live' drum sound, atmospheric guitars and ambient reverb. Rolling Stone called Lanois the "most important record producer to emerge in the Eighties."

Daniel served as executive producer for Rocco DeLuca's self-titled album and released it on his own Red Floor label through 429 Records in August of 2014  On October 28 2014 Lanois, released an album, entitled Flesh and Machine on ANTI- Records, based on Brian Eno's Ambient albums. The fully instrumental album consists primarily of original atmospheric and process-based sounds, blending pedal steel guitar and a variety of digital and analog sound processing devices. He was assisted by the drummer Brian Blade. In 2016, he released the album Goodbye to Language with Rocco DeLuca..

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Thirty seconds into "I Love You," the first track off of Shine, Daniel Lanois' warm, watery guitar signature is already unmistakable, even before his voice entwines ecstatically with Emmylou Harris'. Shine is the third Lanois album to appear under his own name, and his first in a decade. What is immediately startling about Shine is how spare it is. There is a plethora of sounds and textures to be sure, but they are suspended in space, looking not outside to communicate but toward the heart as a mirror, as if to make certain that the music played is not necessarily accurate but is true. Folk, country, blues, psychedelia, and atmosphere are wound together into an inseparable knot. Lanois played almost all of the instruments here, with the exception of drums, handled by Brian Blade and occasionally his brother, Brady. Other musicians, such as longtime musical collaborator Malcolm Burn and bassist Darryl Johnson, make appearances. Beginning with "I Love You," with its acceptance and pleading need (lent great credence by Harris' singing) and on into "Falling at Your Feet," a duet co-written with U2's Bono during the All That You Can't Leave Behind sessions, to the third track, "As Tears Go By," with a sampled guitar line by blues guitar legend Charley Patton, it is clear that Lanois is writing from a place more vulnerable, more spiritually conscious, and yet more strident than ever before. Where Acadie was full of warmth and intimacy, it felt like a collection of songs that had been assembled from many sessions. For the Beauty of Wynona, with all of its experimentation and poetic songwriting, was a far more unified project, but it was reliant on its wide-ranging sonic attack to support those adventurous words and melodies. Here, everything is balanced; the scope is small, close, and textured by pedal steel guitars, very organic percussion, and Lanois' voice way up front. On the instrumentals, such as "Transmitter," "Matador," "Space Kay," and the closer, "JJ Leaves La," the same whispering feel is evident. The songs on Shine feel like confessions, prayers even, not only to a superior being, but to lovers, full of brokenness and the willingness to learn and heal; they are wrapped in the soil of North America, from Montreal to Mexico; they feel rooted in not only the earth, but in spirituality and a willingness to open to the forces of the heart itself. The instrumentals create a sense of movement through time and space to anchor the intent of the vocal tracks. His instincts are nearly perfect: When the weight of a particular series of songs begins to move the listener too far in one direction, an instrumental or two appears, allowing one to drift in its ambience for a short time. After a pair of instrumentals ("Matador" and "Space Kay"), "Slow Giving" and "Fire" are hymns to unseen angels who may indeed represent living characters or those who've passed after imparting some gift. Clearly Lanois' protagonist relies on them heavily in the dark times with a lyricism that is sophisticated, literate, poetic, and soulful. That's a rare combination. The album closes with the pedal steel tune "JJ Leaves LA." The steel guitar was Lanois' first instrument, and its gentility and sweetness are tempered only by its pervasive melancholy, leaving the listener with a sense of bittersweet longing and a sense that some kind of story has been told, a series of snapshots have been shown that reveal something, postcards have been sent and arrived unexpectedly, and the only way to unravel the mystery is play the record again.

Daniel Lanois - Shine (flac 219mb)

01 I Love You (feat. Emmylou Harris) 2:31
02 Falling At Your Feet 3:33
03 As Tears Roll By 4:28
04 Sometimes 3:16
05 Shine 3:02
06 Transmitter 3:05
07 San Juan 3:40
08 Matador 4:55
09 Space Kay 3:25
10 Slow Giving 3:42
11 Fire 3:21
12 Power Of One 3:39
13 JJ Leaves LA 4:17

Daniel Lanois - Shine  (ogg 102mb)

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Right from the onset of "Two Worlds" it's a refreshing splash in the face to hear Daniel Lanois' pedal steel playing dance around a bed of guitar feedback; it serves as a reference point to some of his work on U2's The Joshua Tree. Like 2003's Shine, Belladonna reveals a side of Lanois that is a treat to see. The vulnerable, contemplative side that was such a critical element to his work with Brian Eno is more than evident, and his slide guitar playing also highlights just how important his contributions were to the notable releases of Eno's solo catalog. The interplay between musicians on the full ensemble tracks is focused and meticulous, with each member knowing exactly when to play and more importantly, when not to. But above all this, it's Lanois' guitar that tells the story and is the anchor of the 13-song cycle; a homage to a lost love with Latin and desert country influences embedded within the center of the record. It's every bit as focused and accomplished as anything in Lanois' catalog, and die-hard fans will be wanting more long after the disc winds down.

Daniel Lanois - Belladonna   (flac  161mb)

01 Two Worlds 2:03
02 Sketches 4:23
03 Oaxaca 2:49
04 Agave 1:58
05 Telco 3:34
06 Desert Rose 1:51
07 Carla 2:02
08 The Deadly Nightshade 4:02
09 Dusty 1:38
10 Frozen 3:17
11 Panorama 3:01
12 Flametop Green 2:27
13 Todos Santos 5:31

   (ogg  mb)

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Here Is What Is is the soundtrack to a documentary film of the same name that basically follows artist Daniel Lanois around the world for a year. The album was originally released in late 2007 from Lanois' Red Floor records website in a variety of packages. Ultimately, while packages are nice for collectors and dedicated fans, it's the music that matters. There are 18 cuts, among them some ones, and some different versions of earlier ones. A slew of familiar namesappear as sidemen including Brian and Brady Blade, Garth Hudson, and Daryl Johnson. There are several spoken narrations and spoken interludes by Brian Eno, but the true beginnig is Lanois offeing an alternate version of "Where Will I Be." Though he wrote it, it first appeared on Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball, which he famously produced. It's a beautiful song, but this version pales in comparison; one wonders why he even bothered. While the title cut and "Not Fighting Anymore" are interesting, they are far from compelling. Supposedly this is a film about beauty, but the music here, while pleasant, certainly doesn't come across as the intimate creation that the demos that made up Acadie are, nor do they add up to the harsh yet melodic, blasted rock and rhythm soundscapes that appear on For the Beauty of Wynona. This is drift-along-in-the-background music. Lanois feels less and less like a songwriter, and more like someone who has sketches for them. "Harry" almost becomes a real song, but then jumbles itself up with a rambling bridge. "Lovechild" is a mess that can't make up its mind what it wants to be -- an ambient piece, a country ballad, a soft rock song, a psychedelic sound world -- and it goes on for over eight-and-a-half minutes. "Duo Glide" is the limpest attempt ever at offering a portrait of a Harley Davidson motorcycle in song, and "Bladesteel" resembles anything but its title as it shimmers along pedal steel country clichés--only the imaginative drum work by Brian Blade rescues it. Here Is What Is is for the hardcore Lanois fan. This is a collection of 18 tracks, not an album. They don't hold together as a listening experience. This is a disappointment; it doesn't feel like art so much as over-indulgence. If you like having that pillowy cluster of warm sounds that have no particular purpose in your ear, then this might be for you. If you still hold Lanois' earlier recordings to their rightfully exalted place, this set will likely frustrate you. Unfortunately, it offers considerable evidence that Lanois as a songwriter and musician has lost his way.

Daniel Lanois - Here is What is (flac  295mb)

01 Chest Of Drawers 0:24
02 Where Will I Be 4:04
03 Here Is What Is 2:51
04 Not Fighting Anymore 3:32
05 Beauty 1:57
06 Blue Bus 2:18
07 Lovechild 8:36
08 Harry 4:35
09 Bells Of Oaxaca 1:04
10 This May Be The Last Time 2:29
11 Smoke #6 2:46
12 I Like That 4:15
13 Duo Glide 6:29
14 Bladesteel 3:50
15 Moondog 3:45
16 Sacred And Secular 4:34
17 Joy 2:48
18 Luna Samba 3:24
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Daniel Lanois - Here is What is  (ogg  125mb)

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Black Dub generated significant excitement when they released stark, black-and-white videos of their rehearsals and leaked concert footage from a show at Bowery Ballroom in New York. The quartet, comprised of producer Daniel Lanois on guitar and vocals, jazz drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade, session bassist Daryl Johnson, and vocalist/keyboardist Trixie Whitley (daughter of the late great Chris Whitley) make a beguiling, seductive music that blurs rock, soul, blues, gothic Americana, New Orleans funk, and dubwise reggae. The videos portrayed an accomplished group of musicians delivering new originals, a smoking cover of "I'd Rather Go Blind," and a few Lanois' nuggets from older recordings in a bubbling, smoky, passionate yet understated manner. This self-titled debut was mostly written by Lanois save for "Last Time," which is a band composition. Rather than the stark immediacy of the rehearsals, much of this music is draped in Lanois' signature warm, syrupy, murky production; all the edges -- save for those glorious ones in Whitley's voice -- have been rounded off with dense layers of effects and loops. The ballads "I Believe in You," "Surely," "Silverado," and "Nomad" are stellar showcases for Whitley's deeply soulful contralto. She rises above the band and soars, delivering these lyrics as if they are her own; she goes straight to the heart of the listener with that voice, regardless of genre. She stands out here and shines. The mercurial ethereal funk in "Last Time" places Whitley's and Lanois' vocals opposite those of guest Brady Blade, Sr.'s in a weave of bluesy, swampy, narcotic funk. "Ring the Alarm," one of the album's few straight-out rockers, suffers from production excesses: check the video version, this one pales in comparison. The two instrumentals here, "Slow Baby" and "Sirens," are pleasant enough, but seem more like ideas edited from jam sessions rather than full-fledged ones. Still, for a debut, Black Dub is compelling; it gives up its secrets only with repeated listening.

Black Dub - Black Dub  (flac 263mb)

01 Love Lives 3:39
02 I Believe In You 4:28
03 Ring The Alarm 6:30
04 Last Time 3:02
05 Surely 5:09
06 Nomad 4:17
07 Slow Baby 4:19
08 Silverado 3:43
09 Canaan 4:14
10 Sing 3:24
11 Sirens 2:32

  Black Dub - Black Dub   (ogg  100mb )
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RhoDeo 1747 Grooves

Hello,

Todays Artists  are the renowned horn-driven funk outfit Tower of Power have been issuing albums and touring the world steadily since the early '70s, in addition to backing up countless other musicians. The group's leader since the beginning has always been tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo, who was born in Detroit but opted to pursue his musical dreams in Oakland, California. They played regularly in the Bay Area throughout the late '60s, as their lineup often swelled up to ten members, including such other mainstays as Greg Adams on trumpet and vocals, Lenny Pickett on sax, and Rocco Prestia on bass. ........ N'joy

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In the summer of 1968, tenor saxophonist/vocalist Emilio Castillo met Stephen "Doc" Kupka, who played baritone sax. Castillo had played in several bands, but Castillo's father told his son to "hire that guy" after a home audition. Within months the group, then known as The Motowns, began playing various gigs around Oakland and Berkeley, their soul sound relating to both minority and rebellious listeners. Castillo wanted to play Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, but he realized he would never get in with a name like The Motowns. The band agreed on Tower of Power and the name stuck.

By 1970, the now renamed Tower of Power—now including trumpet/arranger Greg Adams, first trumpet Mic Gillette, first saxophone Skip Mesquite, Francis "Rocco" Prestia on bass, Willie Fulton on guitar, and drummer David Garibaldi—signed a recording contract with Bill Graham's San Francisco Records and released their first album, East Bay Grease. Rufus Miller performed most of the lead vocals on this debut album. The group was first introduced to the San Francisco Bay area by radio station KSAN, which played a variety of artists such as Cold Blood, Eric Mercury and Marvin Gaye. The single "Sparkling in the Sand" received airplay on the Bay Area soul station KDIA.

Augmented by percussionist/conga/bongo player Brent Byars, Tower of Power was released from their San Francisco label contract and moved to Warner Bros. Records. With Rick Stevens now replacing Rufus Miller as lead singer, 1972's Bump City gave the band their first national exposure. This album included the hit single "You're Still a Young Man", which peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Stevens' pinnacle vocal performance before leaving the band.

Tower of Power, released in the spring of 1973, was the third album for the band. It featured Lenny Williams on lead vocals and Lenny Pickett on lead tenor saxophone. Bruce Conte replaced guitarist Willie Fulton and keyboardist Chester Thompson also joined the band during the recording of the album. This was the group's most successful album. It peaked at #15 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and was RIAA certified as a gold record (for sales in excess of 500,000 copies). The album also spawned their most-successful single "So Very Hard to Go". Although the single peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, it landed in the Top 10 on the surveys of many West Coast Top 40 radio stations, hitting #1 on many of them.

1974's Back to Oakland spawned another hit, "Don't Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)", that reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Time Will Tell", which charted at #69. The funk-jazz classic instrumental "Squib Cakes" also came from this album. On Urban Renewal (1974), the band moved more toward funk than soul; however, they continued recording ballads as well. Williams left the band in late 1974, and was replaced as vocalist by Hubert Tubbs. While Tower of Power remained a must-see live act, as disco became the new trend in R&B the group's original funk-laden style fell out of favor, and disco-oriented albums like 1978's We Came to Play and 1979's Back on the Streets didn't please critics or fans, and the band would go nine years without releasing an album.

Despite it all, Tower of Power -- in particular their horn section -- remained a much in-demand backing group for some of pop/rock's biggest names, including Elton John, Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Huey Lewis, Little Feat, David Sanborn, Michelle Shocked, Paula Abdul, Aaron Neville, Aerosmith, Public Image Ltd., and many others. In 1988, Tower of Power returned to the studio for the album Power, and in 1991 they signed with Epic Records, where they released five albums by the end of the decade.

Into the new millennium, Tower of Power kept up their reputation as a strong live band, maintaining a steady touring schedule, and in 2009 they launched their own TOP Records label with The Great American Soulbook, in which they covered a dozen soul and R&B classics in the trademark Tower of Power style. In 2007, Tower of Power celebrated their fourth decade together with a special concert at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium, and a year later the show was issued in a special CD/DVD package, simply titled 40th Anniversary. In 2013, Tower of Power took a look back with the release of Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, which documented a live radio broadcast from 1974. The bandmembers also announced they would be touring in 2013 and 2014 with two other iconic acts from Northern California, Journey and the Steve Miller Band.

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Tower of Power was very much in its prime in 1974, when the Bay Area outfit tore up the soul charts with the outstanding Urban Renewal. Lenny Williams, a passionate, wailing, gospel-influenced dynamo of a singer, had joined Tower the previous year, and he worked out remarkably well; whether digging into tough funk or romantic ballads, Williams is in top form. Funk doesn't get much more invigorating than horn-driven gems like "Maybe It'll Rub Off," "Give Me the Proof" and "Only So Much Oil in the Ground" (a commentary on the mid-'70s energy crisis), and soul ballads don't get much richer than "Willing to Learn" and "I Won't Leave Unless You Want Me To." Tower (an influence on everyone from L.T.D. to the Average White Band) recorded a number of essential albums in the '70s, and Urban Renewal is at the top of the list.

Tower Of Power - Urban Renewal      (flac  221mb)

01 Only So Much Oil In The Ground 3:46
02 Come Back, Baby 3:21
03 It's Not The Crime 1:45
04 I Won't Leave Unless You Want Me To 3:28
05 Maybe It'll Rub Off 3:15
06 (To Say The Least) You're The Most 2:28
07 Willing To Learn 4:35
08 Give Me The Proof 2:35
09 It Can Never Be The Same 4:43
10 I Believe In Myself 2:00
11 Walkin' Up Hip Street 5:30

Tower Of Power - Urban Renewal  (ogg  85mb)

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In the Slot came off a four-year string of classic singles and albums. As Bump City era lead singer Rick Stevens exited, the phenomenal Lenny Williams replaced him. With Williams, Tower of Power became a hit-making machine as albums like Back to Oakland and Urban Renewal became R&B standards. In the Slot marks the first album of vocalist Hubert Tubbs. he possessed a throaty more muscular voice a few shades lower than his predecessor. While it was serviceable, Tubbs' voice didn't have the same grace and agility as Williams'. On the rollicking "Just Enough and Too Much" the difference is slight and the track is one of the band's most potent tracks. The ballads were where the contrast is most striking. "As Surely As I Stand Here" and the "The Soul of a Child" display not only a drop off in lyrical quality, but also the clearest indication that the band did indeed miss Williams' skill at making even bromides ring. Oddly enough, the great and too brief B-side "Stroke '75" wasn't included here. After many failed attempts, band and singer do end up on the same page. On "Drop It in the Slot" and "On the Serious Side" the groups' trademark rhythm section and the horns come on stronger and match Tubbs' more volatile style. This effort in effect put an end to the string of "classic" albums from the group. In The Slot, despite its enviable firepower, finds the band missing Lenny Williams' skill at putting all of the pieces together.

 Tower Of Power - In The Slot      (flac 221mb)

01 Just Enough And Too Much 3:25
02 Treat Me Like Your Man 3:08
03 If I Play My Cards Right 3:12
04 As Surely As I Stand Here 5:15
05 Fanfare: Matanuska 0:16
06 On The Serious Side 2:51
07 Ebony Jam 6:44
08 You're So Wonderful, So Marvelous 3:51
09 Vuela Por Noche 1:34
10 Essence Of Innocence 0:36
11 The Soul Of A Child 4:58
12 Drop It In The Slot 3:13

Tower Of Power - In The Slot  (ogg  87mb )

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Edward McGee turned in mostly above-average performances on their first post-Lenny Williams release, but it was the beginning of the end for the group. With funk losing its foothold among R&B audiences, they couldn't keep it together. Hearing this on compact disc (and it's not one of Columbia's better mastering jobs) reveals that McGee was an energetic, exuberant vocalist who held his own on uptempo tunes like "You Ought To Be Havin' Fun" and the title song, but lacked Williams' range or tonal quality on ballads. The group always had a weakness for ponderous message cuts, and "Can't Stand To See The Slaughter" and "While We Went To The Moon" were well-intentioned but clumsy tracks. This was almost The Tower of Power's swan song.

Tower Of Power - Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now   (flac 229mb)

01 Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now 3:53
02 By Your Side 4:29
03 Make Someone Happy 2:45
04 Doin' Alright 4:46
05 Because I Think The World Of You 2:58
06 You Ought To Be Havin' Fun 3:05
07 Can't Stand To See The Slaughter 2:47
08 It's So Nice 5:39
09 Deal With It 3:20
10 While We Went To The Moon 4:00

. Tower Of Power - Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' Us Now  (ogg  86mb)

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The band's final album for Warner Bros. before it decamped to Columbia, the absolutely stunning 1975 Live and in Living Color ensured that Tower of Power left in a blaze of glory. Recorded at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium and Cerritos College, the group brought what remains one of the era's finest live albums to glorious fruition. Leaving behind the dismal soul of its previous In the Slot, the band fell back on its two great strengths -- classy live performance and unerring funk. With every ounce of the group's full energy packed into the grooves and a little more added for emphasis, Live squeezes out five tracks of epic proportions. Reaching back to its debut LP, East Bay Grease, Tower of Power jammed on a majestic 23-minute rendition of "Knock Yourself Out" and the sleepy classic "Sparkling in the Sand," before continuing its sonic domination across two songs pulled from Bump City. "Down to the Nightclub (Bump City)" is effusive, while "You're Still a Young Man" is an absolutely outstanding performance of one of TOP's finest songs -- and judging by the audience enthusiasm, it packed as much power in 1976 as it did in 1972 (and indeed, still does today). Courageously, only one track, "What Is Hip?," emerges from the group's most successful era, but with its rock riffing slices and roiling organ solo, you really don't need anything else -- it stands well as a lone representative of what many hail as TOP's finest hour. There's nothing to fault here except, possibly, the decision to release a mere single disc at a time when live double albums were becoming de rigueur, a move guaranteed to leave listeners crying for more. But perhaps that was the intent all along -- too little is always sweeter than too much.

Tower Of Power - Live And In Living Color   (flac 259mb)

01 Down To The Nightclub (Bump City) 2:26
02 You're Still A Young Man 5:12
03 What Is Hip? 6:25
04 Sparkling In The Sand 8:05
05 Knock Yourself Out 23:40

.Tower Of Power - Live And In Living Color  (ogg  102mb)

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