* Well while cleaning in the D folder I found this, so I thought ok will share here on Vibes, the bit rate said 320 ok great, well tested it once into the laptop and in fact it's only 192, well good enough to listen too!! But I decide to search for a better copy to share here for you @320 (supplied by a good friend via email and a link for a flac copy) cheers Craig D (sorry 8m Burnley are going down). *
*A few years ago in a very old HD I discovered a lot of wma files and they were all ripped at 64 only, it was when I first got a computer and the HD was so small ( I later exchanged it for a much bigger one) so to have more music in there I ripped everything at 64, when I took a listen, they were ok to be honest, so transferred many onto a pen drive for use in the car. Many tracks for very little space. *
* The Dancing Did were an English folk influenced post-punk group. Formed in Evesham, Worcestershire in 1979 by Tim Harrison (vocals) and Martyn Dormer (guitar). And Did Those Feet was the only album they released in 1982. This is the expanded CD reissue from 2007, with many bonus tracks. I did have a copy ripped fron the original vinyl, but that seems to have disappeared in the mist somewhere. If you don't know this band, I think you will find it an interesting listen. *
* This CD is Cherry Red's re-release of the band's sole vinyl album, "And Did Those Feet", with bonus material.
The bonus material collects some songs from the band's 7" vinyls (originally released on Fruit & Veg, Stiff, and Kamera Records) plus previously unreleased live recordings made at Cheltenham College in 1981. *
* This promo set was submitted to Vibes by friend of the blog Moezeke, what a fine selection of tunes there is on this two CD set, I don't think it ever had an official release, there are no dates on the back cover or in discogs. It is currently selling for between 40 and 60 pounds a copy on discogs, but none are available at the momment. *
* He has just ripped these from the CD's in the last few days, I have never seen this set posted anywhere on the net before and neither has Moezeke. Thank you for another great submission to Vibes. *
* If you would like to share an album here on Vibes, then it's very simple, just upload it, and email us the link, together with details of the share, Artist/band, album title and what format and bit rate Flac, Wav, Mp3 to the site email address, also stating your name so we can thank you on the post, if you wish to remain anonymous then that's fine, but say that. Site email is 4vibessite(at)proton.me, just swap (at) with @ *
1972 - Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges – Clube Da Esquina (Flac)
The cover of 1972’s Clube Da Esquina perfectly encapsulates the music and the context that surrounds it. In the photograph, two young boys perch by the side of a dusty Brazilian road, both staring into the camera with differing expressions. Above this image of rustic innocence, a barbed wire ominously hangs. The picture perfectly complements the record’s playfulness, its quiet sensitivity, and the horrendous circumstances under which it came to be. Indeed, by 1972, Brazil was eight years into an aggressive US-backed military junta, unable to mount any meaningful opposition, and left stranded by most international powers. Though the key architects of Clube Da Esquina – Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges – were not as overtly rebellious as their contemporaries in the Tropicalismo movement, the artists remained under the watchful eye of right-wing authorities, often facing extensive censorship.
Clube Da Esquina is MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) that both subtly reflects this context and exists well beyond its shadow. The record begins with “Tudo Que Você Podia Ser,” a buoyant introduction to the album’s shapeshifting. The following “Cais” is a perfect example. It starts as a beautifully sparse track, allowing space for Nascimento’s delicate vocals. Its abrupt segue into a simple piano melody makes for one of the understated highlights of the record. Similarly, the Spanish bolero “Dos Cruces” is initially stripped back and mournful, but soon explodes into grand progressions.
Nascimento’s voice is a highlight throughout, especially on the gently affecting “San Vincente,” which features both a stunning performance and subtly unpredictable phrasing. The song makes plain that this album is built on compatible opposites. It is at once accessible but experimental, warm but haunting, ebullient but melancholic, gentle but deeply resonant, fragile but righteous. Often this duality is held just within Nascimento’s voice.
One of the most impressive things about Clube Da Esquina is its sheer ambition and range of influences. Given Nascimento and Borges’ upbringing in the state of Minas Gerais, there is a rural folk influence, a trace of the local church music, and a love of the popular bossa nova that had dominated Brazil’s charts. But this is far from adequate in explaining the intricacies of Clube Da Esquina’s unique sound. Throughout the record, you can also hear traces of the adventurous pop of The Beatles, as well as an incorporation of the many regional variants of toada (a style of Amazonian folk music); there is orchestral psychedelia, an understated compositional complexity, and experiments that were uncommon in much MPB. Through it all, Nascimento’s voice brings a vital cohesion. Though the compositions and arrangements by Lô Borges, Márcio Borges, Eumir Deodato, and Wagner Tiso are remarkable on their own terms, it’s Nascimento’s affecting navigation of the tracks that elevates the record to its current status as one of the most important Brazilian records of the 20th century.(Discover Music)
1969 - Fairport Convention - Liege And Lief (Deluxe) (Flac)
It was inevitable that something special would emerge from the six individuals who made up Fairport’s 1969 line-up. Indeed, Liege & Lief immediately became the group’s definitive statement of traditional folk electrified, selling steadily for decades. All eight tracks complemented each other, with the rousing Come All Ye and the dance tunes balancing the extended tales of Matty Grovesand Tam Lin.
Universal have issued this deluxe set in time for Fairport’s 40th anniversary, delving into their recently acquired BBC archives. We get the original album on Disc One, and 10 outtakes and BBC recordings on Disc Two. Any fan will have Sir Patrick Spens, Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood, and Fairport’s last nod to their West Coast influences with The Byrds’ Ballad Of Easy Rider. The Sept ’69 Peel sessions tracks have recently appeared on the Live At The BBC set. We get another run at Brotherhood, with its restrained, droning track, and a quirky off the cuff instrumental take of Fly Me To The Moon to round things off, all newly and attractively packaged by the wonderful Phil Smee.
In its original form this is a fivestar album and essential for new converts, but one wonders how many existing fans will buy it again.
* Oysterband (originally The Oyster Band) is a British folk rock and folk punk band formed in Canterbury around 1976.
The band formed in parallel to Fiddler's Dram, and under the name "Oyster Ceilidh Band" played purely as a dance band at first. The name Oyster comes from the group's early association with the coastal town of Whitstable in East Kent, known for the quality of its oysters. Their first album, released under the Oyster Ceilidh Band name, was Jack's Alive (1980) on the Dingles record label. Subsequent albums, as "Oyster Band" (sometimes "The Oyster Band") were released on the band's own Pukka Music label: English Rock 'n' Roll: The Early Years 1800–1850 and Lie Back and Think of England, followed by Liberty Hall and 20 Golden Tie-Slackeners. *
LINER NOTES FOR PHIL OCHS'S PLEASURES OF THE HARBOR
By Richie Unterberger
If ever a record by a major 1960s artist was a "transitional" album, Phil Ochs’ Pleasures of the Harbor was it. The LP was his first recording to use full band arrangements; his first to almost entirely depart from the topical protest folk songs with which he had made his reputation; his first to be recorded for a then-young A&M label; and his first to be recorded in Los Angeles, the city to which he moved from New York in the late 1960s. It is undoubtedly his most sonically ambitious work, and if the almost ludicrously huge scope of his ambitions guaranteed an uneven album, it nevertheless contained some of his most enduring and successful songs and performances.
When Ochs began working on Pleasures of the Harbor in August 1967, he was among the last of the major American folk singer-songwriters of the early-to-mid-1960s who had yet to make the leap from folk to rock. With the exception of a (very good) electric version of "I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore" on a 1966 single, all of his prior recordings-including three full albums for Elektra-had featured plain acoustic guitar-and-voice arrangements. In fact he had not done any recording at all since the sessions (actually a mixture of live and studio taping) in early 1966 that had been issued as Phil Ochs in Concert. In the interim (and even by early 1966), acoustic folk music had been totally overtaken by the folk-rock of his chief rival Bob Dylan and the likes of the Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Mamas & the Papas. By the summer of 1967, even folk-rock was passing its peak as the psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper, the Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow, and the Doors’ debut album shook the top of the charts. Ochs continued to write songs at a good clip, but recording-wise sat on the sidelines during these crucial 18 months, in part due to prolonged business machinations that saw him switch both managers and record companies.
Pleasures of the Harbor may have been the first Ochs album to use electric instruments and elaborate arrangements, but it would not be folk-rock, exactly. Influenced by rock’n’roll, jazz, soundtrack music, classical composition, and even the electronic avant-garde, Ochs sought elaborate, sometimes orchestral settings that would complement the progressively complex poetry of his lyrics. Moreover, he wanted each song to be strikingly different from each other in mood and production, and yet wished the album to flow together well as a whole. Instrumental collaborators in this process would be producer Larry Marks, arranger Ian Freebairn-Smith (responsible for translating Ochs’ countermelodies into finished products utilizing numerous instruments), and pianist Lincoln Mayorga, who gave classical, ragtime, and lounge jazz spices when needed.
Baroque pop-rock production-and, perhaps, over-production-was fully in evidence on the opening track, "Cross My Heart," with its drums, harpsichord, flutes, strings, orchestral horns, and vocal overdubs. The song served notice that Ochs was largely abandoning explicit social comment for more abstract statements whose lyrics demanded multiple listenings to absorb all the nuances. Ochs was beginning to write long songs at this point, and in fact Phil might have gotten carried away with "Cross My Heart," as he cut several verses from the number after the album was finished (one of those verses appears on the demo version of the tune on Rhino’s Farewells & Fantasies box set). Nothing in the six minutes of "Flower Lady" was a waste, however, the track-with strings, oboe, and piano-standing as the best of the several pseudo-chamber classical arrangements that Ochs and Marks would attempt in the late 1960s. The moving, just-this-side-of-maudlin composition, with its almost cinematic narrative of a flower lady all but ignored amongst the bustle of numerous contrasting characters, also boasted one of Ochs’ best melodies. Even before Pleasures of the Harbor, cover versions had already appeared by British Invasion stars Peter & Gordon and folk-rock duo Jim & Jean; the Byrds, unfortunately, declined to record it although they had considered doing so.
"Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" is perhaps Ochs’ best-known song, and certainly the most celebrated track from his post-acoustic folk recording career. Inspired by the murder of Kitty Genovese in New York, during which several witnesses did nothing to stop the killing for fear of getting involved, it was also Ochs’ most imaginative arrangement. The appalling apathy of idle bystanders doing nothing to stop a woman getting stabbed, and several other similar situations laid out by the subsequent verses, was juxtaposed with a jaunty Dixieland-style backup (with Mayorga on tack piano) and Ochs’ splendidly deadpan vocal. Where most songwriters would have let the statement boil over into self-righteous rage, Ochs shrewdly realized that the message would hit home with a far more chilling punch via understatement and gallows humor. This should have been a hit single, and in fact did become popular in Los Angeles and Seattle. Its chart prospects, however, were scotched by a reference to marijuana. No less than three separate releases of the cut on 45-an unedited one, a version which took out the verse containing the offending word, and another that simply removed the word "marijuana"-were to no avail, as the single failed to break nationally.
"I’ve Had Her," a song of bitter romance with a devastating (and heartless) putdown line, had one of the album’s more lugubrious arrangements, highlighting Mayorga’s classical-style piano. It was back to lighthearted Dixieland jazz, however, for "Miranda," one of the few songs from this period of Ochs’ development that could be fairly characterized as fun, though it didn’t dispense with acute narrative detail. Certainly Ochs’ eye for savage yet witty character sketches reached an apex in the eight-minute "The Party," which like "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" was a perfect match of lyric and arrangement. Ochs took the (singing, not playing) role of the pianist at a party of upper-class snobs, though he didn’t exclude himself from criticism either. Lincoln Mayorga played the role of lounge lizard to the hilt, mimicking the styles of Bach, Beethoven, and Schumann, and purposefully misquoting standards such as "Stardust" to lounge jazz backing. The title cut returned to rich, somewhat overblown orchestration, however, with its bittersweet tales of sailors seeking escape on shore leave, though this was probably a metaphor for escapes of all sorts by everyone, not just sailors.
No track in the Phil Ochs canon is more controversial than "Crucifixion," not so much for its lyrics-although those were plenty controversial-as its musique concrete-like arrangement. Its ten verses of martyred heroes couldn’t help but be interpreted as a comment on the still-fresh assassination of President Kennedy. In fact it did bring tears to the soon-to-be-slain Robert Kennedy when Ochs sang it to him. In keeping with the eclectic experimentalism of Pleasures of the Harbor, however, Ochs decided to set his vocal against an eerie morass of loops, electric harpsichord, and washes of electronic distortion, arranged by Joseph Byrd (leader of the excellent late-1960s experimental electronic rock group the United States of America). This made him sound for all the world like a lone voice drowning in an avant-garde thunderstorm, which in the eyes of many fans obscured the terrible beauty of the song as heard when played solo, on acoustic guitar, in concert. The point is now moot as live acoustic versions of the song were eventually released, from 1968 (on There and Now: Live in Vancouver, 1968) and 1970 (on the Chords of Fame anthology and the Farewells & Fantasies box).
Pleasures of the Harbor, clocking in at more than 50 minutes, was an outrageously long album for 1967, with most of songs exceeding five minutes and some approaching the ten-minute mark. It was also not terribly successful, peaking at #168 in the charts. While Ochs would not retreat to acoustic folk for his subsequent A&M LPs, and would continue to write songs as unusual (and often lengthy) in construction throughout the rest of the 1960s, he would never again employ textures as recklessly varied as those heard on Pleasures of the Harbor
The Incredible String Band - 1968 - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter @320
The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter stands as the Incredible String Band's undisputed classic among critics and musicians alike -- ask Robert Plant, who touted its influence on Led Zeppelin's first album and general direction. Recorded and released in 1968, the album hit number five on the U.K. album charts, and was nominated for a Grammy in the U.S. It was produced by Joe Boyd, and engineered by John Wood using 24-track technology. Robin Williamson, Mike Heron, and Licorice McKechnie also utilized the talents of Dolly Collins (vocals, flute, organ, and piano), and David Snell (harp). Williamson and Heron employed a vast array of instruments on these songs including sitar, gimbri, pan pipe, oud, chahanai, mandolin, guitars, Hammond B-3, dulcimer, harpsichord, pan pipes, oud, water harp, and harmonica. The songs were much more freeform and experimental. Check Heron’s 13-minute “A Very Cellular Song,” which incorporates elements from a Sikh hymn and a Bahamian spiritual. Using the Hammond, a gimbri, pan pipes, handclaps, and other instruments, it begins on a two-chord vamp that employs a vocal round in five-part harmony, with secular and spiritual lyrics. It’s simply infectious. Other notables include the stellar “The Minotaur’s Song,” with its call and response chorus played on guitars, upright piano, and six-part harmonies. It melds a children's song with a drinking song to humorous and utterly memorable effect. Elsewhere, “Waltz of the New Moon,” employs two-chord drones on acoustic guitar with a meld of Middle Eastern vocal styles and Scottish field songs. “Three Is a Green Crown” is a psychedelic folk song in all its hypnotic droning glory with Williamson’s primitive sitar playing featured prominently. The tender, exotic, "Nightfall,” the album’s closer, is a lullaby, with guitar and sitar accompanying the vocal in whole tone intervals. The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter is the most ambitious, focused, and brilliantly executed record in ISB’s catalog. (AllThingsMusicPlus)
