This Is Soca – 14 Massive Carnival Hits

There´s no question about it, the Caribbean is one of the musical hothouses of the world and this is due to the amazing diversity of musical styles at work there. Thanks to ist history, each island is its own little orchid house of musical cross-fertilizations. Reggae is the musical export of Jamaica, whilst Soca is the good time party-music burning out of Trinidad and the surrounding islands.

While Jamaicanreggae inclines to expressions of suffering and anger, Trinidadian music tends to irreverent satire and abandoned hedonism of Carnival, a two-month annual party of which Soca has become the driving force. To risk a broad generalization, Reggae, with its steady beat, tends to be earthbound, whilstSoca, with its carefree spring, seems airborne.

“This Is Soca” is a collection featuring Chinese Laundry, Superblue, Tambu and some other artist with some of the best soca songs ever out. Also, Andy Stephenson’s great rework of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” (among other MJ songs) will make you laugh and move your body at the same time.

All Soca massiv… dis is de mad stomp!!

This Is Soca – 14 Massive Carnival Hits
(192 kbsp)

This Is Soca – 14 Massive Carnival Hits

There´s no question about it, the Caribbean is one of the musical hothouses of the world and this is due to the amazing diversity of musical styles at work there. Thanks to ist history, each island is its own little orchid house of musical cross-fertilizations. Reggae is the musical export of Jamaica, whilst Soca is the good time party-music burning out of Trinidad and the surrounding islands.

While Jamaicanreggae inclines to expressions of suffering and anger, Trinidadian music tends to irreverent satire and abandoned hedonism of Carnival, a two-month annual party of which Soca has become the driving force. To risk a broad generalization, Reggae, with its steady beat, tends to be earthbound, whilstSoca, with its carefree spring, seems airborne.

“This Is Soca” is a collection featuring Chinese Laundry, Superblue, Tambu and some other artist with some of the best soca songs ever out. Also, Andy Stephenson’s great rework of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” (among other MJ songs) will make you laugh and move your body at the same time.

All Soca massiv… dis is de mad stomp!!

This Is Soca – 14 Massive Carnival Hits
(192 kbsp)

Mas´ Hysteria – 14 Massive Soca Carnival Hits

Temperature is still high, so it´s time for some more soca…

This irresistibly sun-drenched compilation includes some soca tunes from one of the world´s biggest street parties – Mas´ or Carnival.

Tracklist:
01. Superblue – Bacchanal Time
02. Duke – Soca Have Me Tu Tul Bay
03. Mighty Sparrow – The More The Merrier
04. Black Stalin – Sundar
05. Barnett ‘Preacher’ Henry – Jump Up And Wave
06. Calypso Rose – Ju Ju Warrior
07. Gabby – Boots
08. Colin Lucas – Oh She Cassette
09. Chris Garoia – Chutney Bacchanal
10. Roaring Lion – Netty Netty
11. Nigel Lewis – Poowah
12. Grynner – Don’t Push Me Rosie
13. Iwer George – Yes Iwer
14. Crazy – Paul, Yer Mudder Cum

Mas´ Hysteria – 14 Massive Soca Carnival Hits (192 kbps)

Tom Robinson Band – Power In The Darkness

This is the album by which Tom Robinson’s works have been measured; its consistency is all the more remarkable, since he’d written several keynote tracks while toiling in the go-nowhere folk trio “Café Society” (such as Robinson’s defining anthem, “Glad to Be Gay”).

“Power in the Darkness” is proudly defiant as the era that inspired “Up Against the Wall,” “Ain’t Gonna Take It,” “Long Hot Summer,” or “The Winter of ’79,” which level fierce disdain for social hypocrisy.

So does the nearly five-minute title track and funk-rock tour de force, while Chris Thomas’ production is as razor sharp as the band itself. Guitarist Danny Kustow’s go-for-the-throat style is the driving force; it’s storming on the rockers yet suitably restrained on quieter fare like “Too Good to Be True,” Robinson’s lament for oft-delayed social change. Keyboardist Mark Ambler is equally assertive on colorful Hammond organ swashes, while Robinson plunks down simple, legato basslines, and Brian “Dolpin” Taylor keeps the beat pouncing, where others might let it loiter.

The live/studio bonus EP, “Rising Free”, demonstrates the band’s explosive nature. The Ambler-Kustow interplay works to thunderous effect on “Don’t Take No for an Answer,” Robinson’s bittersweet account of a soured publishing deal with the Kinks’ Ray Davies; the hit “2-4-6-8 Motorway,” one of rock’s great drive-all-night numbers; and a searing rearrangement of Bob Dylan’s plea for a wrongly accused inmate, “I Shall Be Released.” The forceful tone is sometimes undermined by a strident sloganeering streak, as typified by “Right On Sister” or “Better Decide Which Side You’re On,” but that’s a minor complaint amid the music’s unflagging strength. Think music and politics don’t mix? Listen to this album, and then decide.

Tom Robinson Band – Power In The Darkness (192 kbps)

Mas´ Hysteria – 14 Massive Soca Carnival Hits

Temperature is still high, so it´s time for some more soca…

This irresistibly sun-drenched compilation includes some soca tunes from one of the world´s biggest street parties – Mas´ or Carnival.

Tracklist:
01. Superblue – Bacchanal Time
02. Duke – Soca Have Me Tu Tul Bay
03. Mighty Sparrow – The More The Merrier
04. Black Stalin – Sundar
05. Barnett ‘Preacher’ Henry – Jump Up And Wave
06. Calypso Rose – Ju Ju Warrior
07. Gabby – Boots
08. Colin Lucas – Oh She Cassette
09. Chris Garoia – Chutney Bacchanal
10. Roaring Lion – Netty Netty
11. Nigel Lewis – Poowah
12. Grynner – Don’t Push Me Rosie
13. Iwer George – Yes Iwer
14. Crazy – Paul, Yer Mudder Cum

Mas´ Hysteria – 14 Massive Soca Carnival Hits (192 kbps)

Tom Robinson – Cabaret `79: Glad To Be Gay

Although his career had pretty much flamed out by the start of the ’80s, there were few punk-era major-label performers as intensely controversial as Tom Robinson.

Cutting his teeth with folk-rockers Café Society (who released a Ray Davies-produced record on the head Kinks’ Konk label in 1975), Robinson roared into the spotlight in 1978 with a great single (“2-4-6-8 Motorway”) and a much-ballyhooed contract with EMI. What was remarkable about this was that Robinson was the kind of politically conscious, confrontational performer that major labels generally ignored: he was openly gay and sang about it (“Glad to Be Gay”), vociferous in his hatred for then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, helped form Rock Against Racism, and generally spoke in favor of any leftist political tract that would embarrass the ruling ultraconservative Tory government. His debut album, 1978’s “Power in the Darkness”, was an occasionally stunning piece of punk/hard rock agitprop that, along with being ferociously direct, was politicized rock that focused more on songs than slogans.

“Cabaret `79 – Glad To Be Gay” is a live album recorded at a series of Gay Pride shows in 1979 marking the 10th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

It includes four bonus tracks: a rare indie single “Glad To Be Gay Part I” (renamed here ‘Good To Be Gay’). Also a live cover of Carlton Edwards’ AIDS classic “Last Rites” and the 1997 version of “Glad To Be Gay” by the present Tom Robinson Band, with updated lyrics.

Tom Robinson – Cabaret `79: Glad To Be Gay (192 kbps)

Country Joe & The Fish – The Collected Country Joe & The Fish 1965 – 1970

If you mention the name Country Joe & the Fish to Americans born in 1955 or earlier, chances are that they’ll know the band you’re talking about, at least to the degree that they know their most widely played and quoted song, “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.” The problem is, that particular song captured only the smallest sliver of who Country Joe & the Fish were or what they were about. One of the original and most popular of the San Francisco Bay Area psychedelic bands, they were also probably the most enigmatic, in terms of who they actually were, and had the longest and strangest gestation into becoming a rock band. And Joe McDonald may have written the most in-your-face antiwar, anti-military song to come out of the 1960s, but he was also one of the very few musicians on the San Francisco scene who’d served in uniform.

Country Joe & the Fish are well represented on this 19-track compilation that traces their development from a politically-oriented folk/jug band ensemble to a politically oriented rock and soul band. Most of the material comes from 1967, the band’s high-water mark, and the centerpiece is the still-cutting “I-Feel-like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.”

 

No link.

Country Joe & The Fish – The Collected Country Joe & The Fish 1965 – 1970

If you mention the name Country Joe & the Fish to Americans born in 1955 or earlier, chances are that they’ll know the band you’re talking about, at least to the degree that they know their most widely played and quoted song, “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.” The problem is, that particular song captured only the smallest sliver of who Country Joe & the Fish were or what they were about. One of the original and most popular of the San Francisco Bay Area psychedelic bands, they were also probably the most enigmatic, in terms of who they actually were, and had the longest and strangest gestation into becoming a rock band. And Joe McDonald may have written the most in-your-face antiwar, anti-military song to come out of the 1960s, but he was also one of the very few musicians on the San Francisco scene who’d served in uniform.

Country Joe & the Fish are well represented on this 19-track compilation that traces their development from a politically-oriented folk/jug band ensemble to a politically oriented rock and soul band. Most of the material comes from 1967, the band’s high-water mark, and the centerpiece is the still-cutting “I-Feel-like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.”

 

No link.

Maniacs vs. Sarkiat – Don´t Climb The Pyramids

Cram an electric trio and seven egyptian musicians in a little room in the heart of Cairo for ten days and see what happens. The first steps of egyptian hard core? An oriental version of end-of -the millenium electric rock`n`roll? The rebirth of arabic pop muisc?

It`s a dream Alain Croubalian, from the Maniacs (based in Geneva), and Fathy Salama, leader of Sharkiat (means “coming from the east), wanted to bring to life. They felt, more than they exactly knew, the common ground where egyptian folk music, international pop, electronic sounds and independent rock could meet. And they made it happen.

After concerts in the Cairo Opera House and a tour of swiss underground clubs they recorded 10 songs in an old studio in Shobra, the heart of popular Cairo.

Escaping the usual cliches about oriental music isn`t easy. When talking about Egypt, you automatically think of sand, camels and pyramids. But Cairo is a busy urban city where 13 million people struggle for everyday life. Traffic is hell and the pop muisc is all electronic beats twisted in a mayheim of selfish pop. This encounter doesn`t really fit your usual world music standards, where exotism counts more than reality. Maniacs and Sharkiat agree and sincerely feel this “Don`t climb the pyramids” album is as authentic as music gets; at the same time a strange encounter. At the end of the recording sessions everybody looked at each other wondering: “It`s great music ! But what is it ?” Neither of us had heard such sounds collide excepts in our wildest fantasies. Today they are reality.

.

Maniacs vs. Sarkiat – Don´t Climb The Pyramids (192 kbsp)

Maniacs vs. Sarkiat – Don´t Climb The Pyramids

Cram an electric trio and seven egyptian musicians in a little room in the heart of Cairo for ten days and see what happens. The first steps of egyptian hard core? An oriental version of end-of -the millenium electric rock`n`roll? The rebirth of arabic pop muisc?

It`s a dream Alain Croubalian, from the Maniacs (based in Geneva), and Fathy Salama, leader of Sharkiat (means “coming from the east), wanted to bring to life. They felt, more than they exactly knew, the common ground where egyptian folk music, international pop, electronic sounds and independent rock could meet. And they made it happen.

After concerts in the Cairo Opera House and a tour of swiss underground clubs they recorded 10 songs in an old studio in Shobra, the heart of popular Cairo.

Escaping the usual cliches about oriental music isn`t easy. When talking about Egypt, you automatically think of sand, camels and pyramids. But Cairo is a busy urban city where 13 million people struggle for everyday life. Traffic is hell and the pop muisc is all electronic beats twisted in a mayheim of selfish pop. This encounter doesn`t really fit your usual world music standards, where exotism counts more than reality. Maniacs and Sharkiat agree and sincerely feel this “Don`t climb the pyramids” album is as authentic as music gets; at the same time a strange encounter. At the end of the recording sessions everybody looked at each other wondering: “It`s great music ! But what is it ?” Neither of us had heard such sounds collide excepts in our wildest fantasies. Today they are reality.

.

Maniacs vs. Sarkiat – Don´t Climb The Pyramids (192 kbsp)