NADA SURF

NADA SURF
THE PROXIMITY EFFECT (2000)
320 KBPS

Nada Surf are definantly one of the highlights of the post Nivana period in album. There debut high/low was filled with highs, but no lows. This album is much of the same thing, however it doesn't manage to reach the rock perfection of its predecessor.
The album starts off with hyperspace, one of the best tracks, its what we love Nada surf for, infectious tune and that brilliant voice. Next is ameteur, an average verse with great chorus, still going strong then. 80 windows is another highlight, infact probably the best on the album, i really can say nothing bad about it (includs the supoib lyric "the moon is closer to the sun then i am t anyone") Mothers day however, lets the album down. Its almost too rock to suit nada surf, and its border line rap verses are just plain wierd. Its a good idea, and a good riff, but never kicks off.
Unfortunantly the album then goes on to give us, basicly, average tracks which don't really hold there own, unlike high low where every song was stRong on there own. The band don't get back there flow until "fircracker" which is an amazing rocker, fully succesful this time. Slow down follows, another highlight, a real stand out track, this is true pop rock at its best kids. Robot follows, and along with "spooky" ends the album on a spectacular note, and Nada Surf is back on form.

1. Hyperspace
2. Amateur
3. Why Are You So Mean to Me?
4. 80 Windows
5. Mother's Day
6. Troublemaker
7. Bacardi
8. Bad Best Friend
9. Dispossession
10. Voices
11. Firecracker
12. Slow Down
13. Robot

JUDAS PRIEST

JUDAS PRIEST
POINT OF ENTRY (1981)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

Judas Priest's 1981 Point of Entry was the follow-up to the classic British Steel. Speaking in vinyl terms, if Point of Entry consisted of the entire first side and "Solar Angels" from side two, it would be 5-star and Priest's most solid album. Unfortunately, it continues with some of Priest's worst tracks.
First, the best stuff: The first three songs also sport music videos available on the video Fuel for Life. "Heading Out to the Highway" is the best of the bunch, but "Don't Go" and "Hot Rockin'" are also excellent, catchy tracks. I really like "Turning in Circles." It is a fun, kick back rocker. "Desert Plains" is excellent. It is a slower track dominated by some thundering drums by Dave Holland (now serving 8 years for a sexual assault conviction). The song transports its listener across desert plains. It is very well done. "Solar Angels" doesn't blow one away but is a solid, catchy track. It is almost of the style of a British Steel song as it is a driving, repetitive song with no chorus (like "Rapid Fire" and "Steeler"). If it had the grinding guitar sound, it would fit very well on British Steel.
Now for the bad stuff: The rest of the album is terrible. "You Say Yes" is just annoying, especially the chorus. The quiet bridge is the best part. Parts of "All the Way" sound a little like "Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise," but it is not in the same league as that excellent British Steel track. "Troubleshooter" is also annoying and "On the Run" is a little better, but not by much. Although this album breaks down at the end, the best tracks are so good that this album is still worthy of your attention.

1. Heading out to the Highway
2. Don't Go
3. Hot Rockin'
4. Turning Circles
5. Desert Plains
6. Solar Angels
7. You Say Yes
8. All the Way
9. Troubleshooter
10. On the Run
Bonus Tracks
11. Thunder Road
12. Desert Plains [Live]

SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE (1982)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

After releasing Screaming for Vengeance in 1982, Judas Priest began a creative slide, from which they've never recovered. However, if you're gonna be remembered for something, it might as well be a record as heavy, incisive and melodic as Screaming. The disc featured the band's biggest hit, "You've Got Another Thing Coming," a sonic inferno that was as hook-laden as it was heavy. But the album also contained uncompromising turbo-blasts like the title track and the steely "Electric Eye." Throughout Rob Halford growls and sings in a voice that could at high volumes kill rodents and small dogs, and guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton unleash their arsenal of inspired and engaging riffs. Classic.

1. The Hellion
2. Electric Eye
3. Riding On The Wind
4. Bloodstone
5. (Take These) Chains
6. Pain And Pleasure
7. Screaming For Vengeance
8. You've Got Another Thing Comin'
9. Fever
10. Devil's Child
Bonus tracks
11. Prisoner Of Your Eyes
12. Devil's Child (Live)

JOHN COLTRANE

JOHN COLTRANE
GIANT STEPS (1960)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

History will undoubtedly enshrine this disc as a watershed the likes of which may never truly be appreciated. Giant Steps bore the double-edged sword of furthering the cause of the music as well as delivering it to an increasingly mainstream audience. Although this was John Coltrane's debut for Atlantic, he was concurrently performing and recording with Miles Davis. Within the space of less than three weeks, Coltrane would complete his work with Davis and company on another genre-defining disc, Kind of Blue, before commencing his efforts on this one. Coltrane (tenor sax) is flanked by essentially two different trios. Recording commenced in early May of 1959 with a pair of sessions that featured Tommy Flanagan (piano) and Art Taylor (drums), as well as Paul Chambers — who was the only band member other than Coltrane to have performed on every date. When recording resumed in December of that year, Wynton Kelly (piano) and Jimmy Cobb (drums) were instated — replicating the lineup featured on Kind of Blue, sans Miles Davis of course. At the heart of these recordings, however, is the laser-beam focus of Coltrane's tenor solos. All seven pieces issued on the original Giant Steps are likewise Coltrane compositions. He was, in essence, beginning to rewrite the jazz canon with material that would be centered on solos — the 180-degree antithesis of the art form up to that point. These arrangements would create a place for the solo to become infinitely more compelling. This would culminate in a frenetic performance style that noted jazz journalist Ira Gitler accurately dubbed "sheets of sound." Coltrane's polytonal torrents extricate the amicable and otherwise cordial solos that had begun decaying the very exigency of the genre — turning it into the equivalent of easy listening. He wastes no time as the disc's title track immediately indicates a progression from which there would be no looking back. Line upon line of highly cerebral improvisation snake between the melody and solos, practically fusing the two. The resolute intensity of "Countdown" does more to modernize jazz in 141 seconds than many artists do in their entire careers. Tellingly, the contrasting and ultimately pastoral "Naima" was the last tune to be recorded, and is the only track on the original long-player to feature the Kind of Blue quartet. What is lost in tempo is more than recouped in intrinsic melodic beauty.

1. Giant Steps
2. Cousin Mary
3. Countdown
4. Spiral
5. Syeeda's Song Flute
6. Naima
7. Mr. P.C.

Bonus tracks
8. Giant Steps (Alternate Version, Take 1)
9. . Naima (Alternate Version, Take 1)
10. Cousin Mary (Alternate Take)
11. Countdown (Alternate Take)
12. Syeeda's Song Flute (Alternate Take)
13. Giant Steps (Alternate Version, Take 2)
14. Naima (Alternate Version, Take 2)
15. Giant Steps (Alternate Take, Take 3)

HONEY FOR PETZI

HONEY FOR PETZI
NICHOLSON (2003)
320 KBPS

Following the successful and monumental album "Heal All Monsters" released on Gentlemen records in May 2001, nobody can pretend not to have heard of the brilliant and unique post-rock/rock music of the Lausanne-based band HONEY FOR PETZI. They have released 3 albums up to now. 2001 was the year of the "Heal All Monsters" full length recorded by STEVE ALBINI.
Since that album, one of the most original and entertaining albums of our time, the band has been brought to the front of the Swiss indie rock scene and received massive press exposure while gaining a growing and solid fan base.
After the release of "Heal All Monsters", the young trio hasn't taken a break, but instead toured in Switzerland, France and Germany performing their incredibly precise and brilliant shows and then worked hard on some new materials, while recording the original soundtrack for Emanuelle Antille's movie "Angel's Camp".
At last, the "?post-rock?" heroes are back with the marvelous mini album "Nicholson" that contains 8 stunning tracks from their brand new material, recorded in February in Geneva by TVO in four days. Fans of "Heal all Monsters" will be far from disapointed, and everybody is bound to agree that the band's compositions are becoming even more mature and accomplished. This new release still explores unknown musical territories. With their entertaining, intelligent and original instrumental rock music, the band has definitely found a particular and new way to play music that has become impossible to classify among the variety of nowadays' pre-defined actual music.
"Nicholson" is more aggressive sounding, and has efficient angular rock structures, imaginative sound landscapes, hypnotic feelings, autistic atmospheres, static or rocking bass lines all of this supported by heavy precise drum patterns… HONEY FOR PETZI happily destroys all the clichés related to the present day rock scene, thus bringing something fresh, new and innovative.

1. Nicholson
2. Golem
3. Hazel
4. Sauvabelin
5. La Maison
6. Minibiche
7. Les Impôts
8. Easy Rider

HEAL ALL MONSTERS (2001)
320 KBPS

And here's the band's debut full length. Together with Nicholson, this constitutes some of the best post/math rock to ever come from Switzerland. Enjoy!

1. Structurotron
2. Snakes & Scorpions
3. Morgan's Thrill
4. Post-Teenage State
5. Télécabine
6. Safari Deluxe
7. Labrador
8. Formes Flottantes
9. Kraken
10. Pandor
11. Facteur Cheval
12. Thalassa
13. Alvéole
14. Leviathan

JUDAS PRIEST

JUDAS PRIEST
KILLING MACHINE (1978)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

"Killing Machine" was released in 1978, and it was the first time Judas Priest delivered the goods all the way from start to finish. The album holds a lot of strong songs and it fits in naturally time wise regarding the band's development from a more or less progressive rock band to metal gods. I would say that there are no weak spots to be found anywhere on this solid effort where the song writing seems to have been in focus. The furious "Hell bent for leather" might be the most known track here, but there are plenty of other highlights to explore. The ballad "Before the dawn" with its beautiful vocals and guitar play is really a gem, and there is no similarity at all to the ballads metal bands used to put on every album during the hair metal days. "Take on the world" is built like "United" from the "British Steel" album, and serves as a sing-along-with-the-band with its melodic and catchy chorus. Other great tracks are "Delivering the goods", "Evening star", "Burnin' up", "Killing machine" and "The green manalishi". I could go on and on, giving you examples of this album's greatness. With such variation in the material, Judas Priest really capture the attention of the listener, and "Killing Machine" is an album you will never grow tired of. I consider this one almost equally great as the classic masterpiece "British Steel", and it's without doubt one of the finest efforts from Judas Priest. This album reminds of a time when the band had too much pride to put out any song that can be seen as a mediocre filler. My advise is: Get it, you won't be sorry!

1. Delivering The Goods
2. Rock Forever
3. Evening Star
4. Hell Bent For Leather
5. Take On The World
6. Burnin' Up
7. Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)
8. Killing Machine
9. Running Machine
10. Before The Dawn
11. Evil Fantasies
Bonus Tracks
12. Fight For Your Life
13. Riding On The Wind (Live)

BRITISH STEEL (1980)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

With Hell Bent for Leather, Judas Priest had begun the task of developing their image for increased mainstream attention, reveling in leather-and-motorcycle trappings while beginning to simplify and streamline their sound. British Steel brings that process full circle, offering the band's catchiest, most accessible set of tunes yet, while retaining the precision guitar assault and quasi-operatic vocals that had come to define their sound. It was the simplest music Priest had yet attempted, but thanks to the (mostly) top-notch songwriting and AC/DC-like willingness to allow the songs' grooves room to breathe, the record is a smashing success overall, with maybe one or two subpar tracks. There are a couple of trends beginning here that would take their toll later on — the lyrics are a bit more juvenile, and the music seems to prize commercialism over complexity — but in this context, neither really matters, as Priest display a real penchant for stadium-ready anthems. "Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight" became genuine hit singles in the U.K., and deservedly so, while the album became their first to reach the U.S. Top 40, going platinum in the process.

1. Rapid Fire
2. Metal Gods
3. Breaking The Law
4. Grinder
5. United
6. You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise
7. Living After Midnight
8. The Rage
9. Steeler
Bonus tracks
10. Red, White & Blue
11. Grinder (Live)

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN
IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER (1996)
320 KBPS

Belle & Sebastian's second record, If You're Feeling Sinister, is, for all intents and purposes, really their first, since their debut in 1996 was not heard outside of privileged inner circles. And If You're Feeling Sinister really did have quite a bit of an impact upon its release in 1996, largely because during the first half of the '90s the whimsy and preciousness that had been an integral part of alternative music was suppressed by grunge. Whimsy and preciousness are an integral part of If You're Feeling Sinister, along with clever wit and gentle, intricate arrangements -- a wonderful blend of the Smiths and Simon & Garfunkel, to be reductive. Even if it's firmly within the college, bed-sit tradition, and is unabashedly retrogressive, that gives Sinister a special, timeless character that's enhanced by Stuart Murdoch's wonderful, lively songwriting. Blessed with an impish sense of humor, a sly turn of phrase, and an alluringly fey voice, he gives this record a real sense of backbone, in that its humor is far more biting than the music appears and the music is far more substantial that it initially seems. Sinister plays like a great forgotten album, couched in '80s indie, '90s attitude, and '60s folk-pop. It's beautifully out of time, and even if other Belle & Sebastian albums sound like it, this is where they achieved a sense of grace.

1. The Stars of Track and Field
2. Seeing Other People
3. Me and the Major
4. Like Dylan in the Movies
5. The Fox in the Snow
6. Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying
7. If You're Feeling Sinister
8. Mayfly
9. The Boy Done Wrong Again
10. Judy and the Dream of Horses

CAVE IN

CAVE IN
JUPITER (2000)
320 KBPS

An undeniable masterpiece, this album met with both praise and disdain from long-term fans upon release. Previously, on their godly Dillinger-esque calculus-core debut, Until Your Heart Stops, Cave In carried tormenting aggression and blended it with creative genius. Signs of avant-garde progression could be seen on tracks like "Juggernaut," but these ideas did not come to fruition until the Creative Eclipses EP. Drawing upon indie rock act Failure, the album shocked some, with its landslide progression toward a Radiohead-meets-hardcore sound. Off-kilter and half bloomed, they failed to reach full potential, until Jupiter, which should engulf the masses. Losing the hardcore vocals almost entirely, except for the emotionally astonishing rasps on "Big Riff," the band has begun to experiment with a gorgeous, emotive Thom Yorke styling. Conveying a patient vulnerability few veteran bands possess, emotional layering seems to form the nucleus of Jupiter. Steve Brodsky's haunting notes break like crashing waves against his lush soundscape of gentle noise, brilliantly exemplified in tracks like "Innuendo and Out the Other" or "In the Stream of Commerce." This last song begins by drowning the listener in meticulous, disharmonic beauty. Suddenly clean channel melodic guitar pours forth, bridging with the centerpiece chorus and cutting through the heart with a sharp emotional blade. This album is 100 percent pure blackened expressionism shrouded in silent shadows. "Requiem," an epic quiet climax, feels like a healthy dose of Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia, both musically and lyrically — not vocally. Clean picking struggles to stay afloat in a sea of noise as Brodsky belts "Do you feel it's true that you're always this doomed?" This band puts a whole new spin on tormented emotion and broken spirits. Crushing Neurosis, with Dillinger sensibility meets Radiohead as a doom hardcore outfit? Jupiter is captivating and is something imperative for all metal and non-metal fans to behold. Best album of 2000? Maybe. Accessible to all? Probably not. Worth the experience? Definitely!

1. Jupiter
2. In the Stream of Commerce
3. Big Riff
4. Innuendo and Out the Other
5. Brain Candle
6. Requiem
7. Decay of the Delay
8. New Moon

ICE T

ICE T
O.G. ORIGINAL GANGSTER (1991)
320 KBPS

One of gangsta rap's defining albums, O.G. Original Gangster is a sprawling masterpiece that stands far and away as Ice-T's finest hour. Taken track by track, O.G. might not seem at first like the product of a unified vision; perspective-wise, it's all over the map. There's perceptive social analysis, chilling violence, psychological storytelling, hair-trigger rage, pleas for solutions to ghetto misery, cautionary morality tales, and cheerfully crude humor in the depictions of sex and defenses of street language. But with a few listens, it's possible to assimilate everything into a complex, detailed portrait of Ice-T's South Central L.A. roots — the album's contradictions reflect the complexities of real life. That's why the more intelligent, nuanced material isn't negated by the violence and sexism — both of which, incidentally, are held relatively in check, with the former having been reshaped into a terrifying but inescapable fact of life. That isn't to say that O.G. Original Gangster is designed to appeal to delicate intellectual sensibilities; it's still full of raw, street-level aggression that makes no apologies or concessions. That goes for the music as well as the lyrics. The beats are a little too hard-driving and jittery to really breathe like funk, which only adds to the dark, claustrophobic feel of the production. Ice smoothly keeps up with the music's furious pace and also debuts his soon-to-be-notorious metal band Body Count on one track. That kind of artistic ambition is all over the album, whether in the lean musical attack or the urgent rhymes. O.G. Original Gangster is a certifiable gangsta rap classic, and arguably the most realistic, unvarnished representation of a world Ice-T was the first to chronicle on record.

1. Home of the Bodybag
2. First Impression
3. Ziplock
4. Mic Contract
5. Mind over Matter
6. New Jack Hustler
7. Ed
8. Bitches 2
9. Straight Up Nigga
10. O.G. Original Gangster
11. House
12. Evil E-What About Sex?
13. Fly By
14. Midnight
15. Fried Chicken
16. M.V.P.s
17. Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous
18. Body Count
19. Prepared to Die
20. Escape from the Killing Fields
21. Street Killer
22. Pulse of the Rhyme
23. Tower
24. Ya Shoulda Killed Me Last Year

RAINBOW

RAINBOW
STRAIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES (1982)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

Straight Between the Eyes undoubtedly has one of the worst album covers in rock history, but the record is an unexpected return to form from the journeyman hard rockers. Just a record before, Rainbow sounded as if they were verging on Billy Squier territory, but here, they reverse course and deliver a solid, no-frills hard rock record. It isn't just that the material is stronger, though it certainly is, it's that Roger Glover abandoned his smoothed-out, radio-ready production that marred Difficult to Cure. That's not to say that Straight Between the Eyes doesn't sound dated — Rainbow was a band that was forever tied to its era — but the album does have a harder-hitting, muscular sound that is more appropriate for the band. Similarly, vocalist Joe Lynn Turner sounds more comfortable with the group, and the entire band just seems to gel, turning even the generic numbers on the album into enjoyable, straight-ahead hard rock. There may not be any specific showcases for Ritchie Blackmore, but his playing is better heard in this setting, where he's not only soloing, he's propelling the band with his powerful riffs. As always, he's the driving force behind the band, but this is truly a band effort, which is one of the reasons why Straight Between the Eyes is one of the strongest albums the group ever cut.

1. Death Alley Driver
2. Stone Cold
3. Bring on the Night (Dream Chaser)
4. Tite Squeeze
5. Tearin' Out My Heart
6. Power
7. Miss Mistreated
8. Rock Fever
9. Eyes of Fire

BENT OUT OF SHAPE (1983)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

With Joe Lynn Turner on board, Rainbow tried one crossover record and one no-frills hard rock record — which meant that Bent out of Shape, their third album with Turner, provided a fine opportunity to get a little arty. Not that the band has turned into Genesis or even returned to the mystical pretensions of its early work; they have merely broadened their horizons. Ironically, that means that they've retreated, at least partially, to the radio-ready sound of Difficult to Cure, but this time, they aren't just trying for a crossover hit. As producer, Roger Glover has widened their sonic horizon without losing sonic muscle, making sure that the album is, at its core, hard rock. His production works, since the record hits pretty hard even when it gets a little fruity, which it does quite often — the stately, silly church organs that "Can't Let You Go," the fugue-like cadences of "Fire Dance," the mock-classical instrumental "Anybody There." Those instrumental flourishes highlight Bent out of Shape's true strength, which is its sonics — the record sounds good and the music flows well. However, beneath that surface, there's not much there — the songs don't have strong hooks, or are memorable in and of themselves. With that in mind, it's not entirely surprising that this is the last studio record Rainbow cut (although they would later reunite in the '90s), but it's not a bad way to go out. It sounds good and has some prime Ritchie Blackmore performances, plus it rocks pretty hard — all essential ingredients for a good Rainbow record, even if this time it adds up to a record that's merely solid, not remarkable.

1. Stranded
2. Can't Let You Go
3. Fool For The Night
4. Fire Dance
5. Anybody There
6. Desperate Heart
7. Street Of Dreams
8. Drinking With The Devil
9. Snowman
10. Make Your Move

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
BALANCE OF POWER (1986)
REMASTER
320 KBPS

I am glad that this CD is out. I remember how badly this album was slammed when it came out. I know in reading comments by Jeff Lynne over the years that this album was pretty much an "end the contract" type of album that he needed to do when he wanted to cease recording as ELO.It's not nearly as bad as the critics reviewed it at the time. While I wouldn't recommend it to someone as an introduction to ELO's catalogue, I think every ELO fan should have it.

1. Heaven Only Knows
2. So Serious
3. Getting to the Point
4. Secret Lives
5. Is It Alright
6. Sorrow About to Fall
7. Without Someone
8. Calling America
9. Endless Lies
10. Send It
11. Opening
Bonus Tracks
12. Heaven Only Knows [Alternate Version]
13. In for the Kill
14. Secret Lives [Alternate Take]
15. Sorrow About to Fall [Alternate Take]
16. Caught in a Trap [U.K. B-Side]
17. Destination Unknown [U.K. B-Side]