VA – SACD-LAB Demo Disc 1-3 (2008) [DVD-Audio ISO]

VA – SACD-LAB Demo Disc 1-3
Artist: Various artists | Album: SACD-LAB Demo Disc 1 | Style: Electronic, Rock, Classic | Year: 2008 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 3+3+6 | Size: 914+903+ 1630 Mb | Recovery: 5% | Release: © SACD-LAB, 2008 | Note: Not Watermarked

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VA – DVD-Audio Music Sampler Vol.2 (2003) [DVD-Audio ISO]

VA – DVD-Audio Music Sampler Vol.2
Artist: Various Artists | Album: DVD-Audio Music Sampler Vol.2 | Style: Rock, Blues, Hip-Hop | Year: 2003 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 48kHz/24Bit, DTS 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, DTS 5.1 48kHz/24Bit, DTS ES 6.1 48kHz/24Bit, LPCM 2.0 48kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 9 | Size: 3.49 Gb | Recovery: 3% | Covers: in archive | Release: DTS Entertainment (DTS DVA 6516024600), 2003 | Note: Not Watermarked

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VA – Acura RDX Demonstration Disc (2006) [DVD-Audio ISO]

VA – Acura RDX Demonstration Disc
Artist: Various Artists | Album: Acura RDX Demonstration Disc | Style: Electronic, Funk, Soul, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Rock | Year: 2006 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 48kHz/24Bit, MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 25 | Size: ~3.93 Gb | Recovery: 5% | Covers: in archive | Release: © Rhino Special Products, 2006 | Panasonic (OPDA-7826), 2006 | Note: Not Watermarked

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Van Zant – Brother To Brother (2003) [DVD-AUDIO ISO]

Van Zant – Brother To Brother
Artist: Van Zant | Album: Brother To Brother | Style: Country, Southern Rock | Year: 2003 [1998 original] | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 11 | Size: 3.4 Gb | Recovery: 5% | Covers: in archive | Release: Sanctuary | Silverline Records (288186-9), 2003 | Note: Not Watermarked

Brother to Brother marks the first time Johnny and Donnie Van Zant have ever collaborated together, and the results are exactly what fans of either Lynyrd Skynyrd or .38 Special would expect — a set of tough, bluesy Southern rock. Instrumentally, it nearly achieves its full potential, capturing both of the guitarists in fine form. However, the material is a bit inconsistent, with several songs lacking memorable hooks or melodies. Still, the songs that do work are dynamite, and even the weaker tracks have their moments. And that means Brother to Brother is a worth a listen by any serious Skynyrd, Special or VanZant fan. (more…)

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Andrea Bocelli, Renee Fleming, Valery Gergiev – Verdi: Requiem (2003) [DVD-Audio ISO]

Andrea Bocelli, Renee Fleming, Valery Gergiev – Verdi: Requiem (2003)
Conductor: Valery Gergiev | Composer: Giuseppe Verdi | Orchestra: Kirov Orchestra and Chorus | Album: Verdi – Requiem | Style: Classical | Year: 2003 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 48kHz/24Bit, MLP 2.0 48kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 15 | Size: ~6.46 Gb | Covers: in archive | Release: Philips | Decca (B0001571-19 PDA), 2003 | Note: Not Watermarked

Giuseppe Verdi is one of the most tuneful, beloved composers of vocal music Italy has produced. Verdi wrote REQUIEM in honor of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist he greatly admired. Acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli and soprano Renee Fleming, along with conductor Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra, perform a moving rendition of this heartfelt work, perfectly capturing the depth of emotion and challenging musical requirements of this work. Any classical-music lover will appreciate this performance. (more…)

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The Mavericks – The Mavericks (2003) [DVD-AUDIO ISO]

The Mavericks – The Mavericks
Artist: The Mavericks | Album: The Mavericks | Style: Rock, Country | Year: 2003 [1998 original] | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1 48kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 11 | Size: 3.22 Gb | Recovery: 3% | Covers: in archive | Release: Sanctuary Records/ 5.1 Label Group / Silverline Records (288213-9), 2003 | Note: Not Watermarked

On their first studio album since leaving MCA in 1999, the Mavericks find themselves at a creative crossroads. While vocalist and songwriter Raul Malo is able to freely indulge his muse on any number of projects, the band as whole has been making numerous musical decisions. The results are not always positive. First, the good news: when at their best, as they are for a good part of this recording, the Mavericks are simply the best there is. On tracks such as “In My Dreams,” informed as it is by Roy Orbison’s ghost and Malo’s deeply expressive singing, the band becomes larger than life. Singing a midtempo ballad, the band gathers around him and allows him to walk out on the emotional edge of his vocal and dig a lot deeper than the arrangement would normally suggest. Likewise, on the son-infused “Shine a Light” sheeny Cuban soul acts as the fiber the tune builds upon. A well-placed horn section and numerous strains of polyrhythmic drive make this the party tune everybody’s been waiting to hear from them. Likewise, the slow rumba feel of “Wondering” with Malo’s ’50s-influenced singing makes this the greatest song k.d. lang never recorded. “By the Time” showcases the band’s still deep country waltz roots, and the B-3 touch that hovers in the background is positively haunting. The slightly funky country AOR root of “Time Goes By” is one of the dirtiest and most emotional tunes the group has ever recorded. The Latin lounge of “San Jose” — not the Bacharach tune — would be the best thing on the album if it weren’t for the badly intoned synthed-out strings. Likewise, “Would You Believe” and “Because of You” with their thickly textured busy-ness draw away from the emotion inherent in them, and they are swallowed by arrangements. The performance of “Air That I Breathe,” while valiant and seemingly heartfelt, cannot redeem this song from the shmaltz pile. The Mavericks are still more than capable of coming up with the goods when it comes to fine songwriting and performances, but next time they should hire a producer to rough up their overly rounded surfaces. Malo may indeed be the problem, trying to maneuver his band into playing for his solo moods, but with a unit this fine, he should be writing for them. (more…)

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The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed (2006) [DVD-AUDIO ISO]

The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed
Artist: The Moody Blues | Album: Days of Future Passed | Style: Progressive rock | Year: 2006 [1967 original] | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 7 | Size: 2.84 Gb | Recovery: 3% | Covers: in archive | Release: rip of SACD by © Decca | Deram (983 215-0), 2006 | Note: Not Watermarked

This album marked the formal debut of the psychedelic-era Moody Blues; though they’d made a pair of singles featuring new (as of 1966) members Justin Hayward and John Lodge, Days of Future Passed was a lot bolder and more ambitious. What surprises first-time listeners — and delighted them at the time — is the degree to which the group shares the spotlight with the London Festival Orchestra without compromising their sound or getting lost in the lush mix of sounds. That’s mostly because they came to this album with the strongest, most cohesive body of songs in their history, having spent the previous year working up a new stage act and a new body of material (and working the bugs out of it on-stage), the best of which ended up here. Decca Records had wanted a rock version of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” to showcase its enhanced stereo-sound technology, but at the behest of the band, producer Tony Clarke (with engineer Derek Varnals aiding and abetting) hijacked the project and instead cut the group’s new repertory, with conductor/arranger Peter Knight adding the orchestral accompaniment and devising the bridge sections between the songs’ and the album’s grandiose opening and closing sections. The record company didn’t know what to do with the resulting album, which was neither classical nor pop, but following its release in December of 1967, audiences found their way to it as one of the first pieces of heavily orchestrated, album-length psychedelic rock to come out of England in the wake of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s and Magical Mystery Tour albums. What’s more, it was refreshingly original, rather than an attempt to mimic the Beatles; sandwiched among the playful lyricism of “Another Morning” and the mysticism of “The Sunset,” songs like “Tuesday Afternoon” and “Twilight Time” (which remained in their concert repertory for three years) were pounding rockers within the British psychedelic milieu, and the harmony singing (another new attribute for the group) made the band’s sound unique. With “Tuesday Afternoon” and “Nights in White Satin” to drive sales, Days of Future Passed became one of the defining documents of the blossoming psychedelic era, and one of the most enduringly popular albums of its era. (more…)

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The Foundations – The Very Best of the Foundations (2002) [DVD-Audio ISO]

The Foundations – The Very Best of the Foundations
Artist: The Foundations | Album: The Very Best of the Foundations | Style: R&B, Soul, Pop | Year: 2002 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 14 | Size: ~2.37 Gb | Recovery: 5% | Covers: in archive | Release: Silverline Records (288092-9), 2002 | Note: Not Watermarked

This budget compilation contains some of the best-known work from this English soul group. Put together in DVD audio, it’s a nice treat for longtime fans of the band. Those new to the Foundations or just looking for a particular song might be better off with a standard compilation. (more…)

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The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin (2005) [DVD-Audio ISO]

The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin
Artist: The Flaming Lips | Album: The Soft Bulletin | Style: Rock, Experimental, Psychedelic | Year: 2005 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 88.2kHz/24Bit, MLP 2.0 88.2kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1, Dolby AC3 2.0) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 13 | Size: ~7.55 Gb | Recovery: 5% | Release: © Warner Brothers Records, 2005 | Note: Watermarked

So where does a band go after releasing the most defiantly experimental record of its career? If you’re the Flaming Lips, you keep rushing headlong into the unknown — The Soft Bulletin, their follow-up to the four-disc gambit Zaireeka, is in many ways their most daring work yet, a plaintively emotional, lushly symphonic pop masterpiece eons removed from the mind-warping noise of their past efforts. Though more conventional in concept and scope than Zaireeka, The Soft Bulletin clearly reflects its predecessor’s expansive sonic palette. Its multidimensional sound is positively celestial, a shape-shifting pastiche of blissful melodies, heavenly harmonies, and orchestral flourishes; but for all its headphone-friendly innovations, the music is still amazingly accessible, never sacrificing popcraft in the name of radical experimentation. (Its aims are so perversely commercial, in fact, that hit R&B remixer Peter Mokran tinkered with the cuts “Race for the Prize” and “Waitin’ for a Superman” in the hopes of earning mainstream radio attention.) But what’s most remarkable about The Soft Bulletin is its humanity — these are Wayne Coyne’s most personal and deeply felt songs, as well as the warmest and most giving. No longer hiding behind surreal vignettes about Jesus, zoo animals, and outer space, Coyne pours his heart and soul into each one of these tracks, poignantly exploring love, loss, and the fate of all mankind; highlights like “The Spiderbite Song” and “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate” are so nakedly emotional and transcendentally spiritual that it’s impossible not to be moved by their beauty. There’s no telling where the Lips will go from here, but it’s almost beside the point — not just the best album of 1999, The Soft Bulletin might be the best record of the entire decade. (more…)

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The Doobie Brothers – The Captain and Me (2001) [DVD-Audio ISO]

The Doobie Brothers – The Captain and Me
Artist: The Doobie Brothers | Album: The Captain and Me | Style: Classic Rock | Year: 2001 [March 2, 1973 original] | Quality: Surround DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, DTS 5.1, Dolby AC3 5.1) Stereo DVD-Audio (MLP 2.0 192kHz/24Bit, PCM 2.0) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 11 | Size: ~5.85 Gb | Recovery: 5% | Covers: in archive | Release: Rhino / Warner, 2001 (8122-78347-9), 2001 | Note: Watermarked

The Doobie Brothers’ third long-player was the charm, their most substantial and consistent album to date, and one that rode the charts for a year. It was also a study in contrasts, Tom Johnston’s harder-edged, bolder rocking numbers balanced by Patrick Simmons’ more laid-back country-rock ballad style. The leadoff track, Johnston’s “Natural Thing,” melded the two, opening with interlocking guitars and showcasing the band’s exquisite soaring harmonies around a beautiful melody, all wrapped up in a midtempo beat — the result was somewhere midway between Allman Brothers-style virtuosity and Eagles/Crosby & Nash-type lyricism, which defined this period in the Doobies’ history and gave them a well-deserved lock on the top of the charts. Next up was the punchy, catchy “Long Train Runnin’,” a piece they’d been playing for years as an instrumental — a reluctant Johnston was persuaded by producer Ted Templeman to write lyrics to it and record the song, and the resulting track became the group’s next hit. The slashing, fast-tempo “China Grove” and “Without You” represented the harder side of the Doobies’ sound, and were juxtaposed with Simmons’ romantic country-rock ballads “Clear as the Driven Snow,” and “South City Midnight Lady.” Simmons also showed off his louder side with “Evil Woman,” while Johnston showed his more reflective side with “Dark Eyed Cajun Woman,” “Ukiah” and “The Captain and Me” — the latter, a soaring rocker clocking in at nearly five minutes, features radiant guitars and harmonies, soaring ever higher and faster to a triumphant finish. (more…)

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The Crystal Method – Legion of Boom (2004) [DVD-Audio ISO]

The Crystal Method – Legion of Boom
Artist: The Crystal Method | Album: Legion of Boom | Style: Electronic | Year: 2004 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 48kHz/24Bit, DTS-ES 6.1 48kHz/24Bit, PCM 2.0 48kHz/16Bit) + DTS 5.1 (.wav+.cue, 44.1kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 14 | Size: ~7.21 Gb + 704 Mb | Recovery: 5% | Covers: in archive (only DVD-Audio) | Release: DTS Entertainment, 2004 | Note: Not Watermarked

By late 2003, the bombastic sonic signature of big beat had finally been fully co-opted by the advertising and extreme sports industries. The style’s roots had never run much deeper than a few adventurous breakbeats anyway, but attached to everything from pricey spots for cell phones and sports cars to hyper-edited snowboarding highlight reels, big beat inevitably plateaued. When it did, the formula established by the Crystal Method with their 1997 debut became the accepted template. Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland have remained busy children since Vegas, issuing a sophomore full-length and a well-received mix record. They’ve returned with Legion of Boom, an album that breaks little new ground, but further entrenches the Method as America’s finest producers of dance music made for rock & roll people. “Born Too Slow” chops up a slick and dirty Wes Borland guitar riff over thumping bass beats and the decidedly rock yowl of John Garcia (ex-Kyuss); Borland’s discordant mayhem later resurfaces for “Weapons of Mass Distortion,” which breaks exactly where you expect it to but is nevertheless the kind of throbbing, hedonistic track expensive nightclub sound systems were invented for. The Method tap DJ Swamp for an assist on “The American Way,” which establishes a methodical, percussive groove for Rahzel to rap over, and manipulate the moans of Milla Jovovich for the moody “I Know It’s You,” which glints and flashes like pink neon off the tinted windows of a speeding limo. This is ultimately what separates Jordan and Kirkland’s music from the tinfoil beats and breaks of the average advertisement clamoring for hip. Legion of Boom is definitely a product of formula, but it packs the promise of afterhours hanky panky. It causes nocturnal groove instead of shilling for green shaving cream. In short, the Crystal Method’s tracks deliver on the escapism their followers can only suggest. Legion of Boom: coming soon to a late-night lounge near you. (more…)

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The Carl Verheyen Band – Take One Step (2006) [DVD-AUDIO ISO]

The Carl Verheyen Band – Take One Step
Artist: The Carl Verheyen Band | Album: Take One Step | Style: Blues, Rock | Year: 2006 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1 48kHz/16Bit, DTS 5.1 48kHz/24Bit, LPCM 2.0 96kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 10 | Size: ~7.89 Gb | Recovery: 3% | Release: AIX Records (AIX 810076, 7 0433-81007-9 0), 2006 | Note: Not Watermarked

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The Count Basie Big Band – Basie Swings (2002) [DVD-AUDIO ISO]

The Count Basie Big Band – Basie Swings
Artist: The Count Basie Big Band | Album: Basie Swings | Style: Jazz | Year: 2002 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, Dolby AC3 5.1) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 14 | Size: ~3.75 Gb | Recovery: 3% | Release: © DENON Digital | Savoy Jazz (SVY 17154), 2002 | Note: Not Watermarked

This audio DVD features the Count Basie big band performing various songs from his career. While these performances are available elsewhere, collectors may be interested in the remastered sound. (more…)

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Konstantin Scherbakov, Dmitry Yablonsky, Russian Philharmonic Orekstra – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 3 (2004) [DVD-AUDIO ISO]

Tchaikovsky – Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 3
Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Artists: Konstantin Scherbakov, Dmitry Yablonsky, Russian Philharmonic Orekstra | Album: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 3 | Style: Classical | Year: 2004 | Quality: DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1 96kHz/24Bit, DTS 5.1, Dolby AC3 5.1) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 6 | Size: 3.39 Gb | Recovery: 5% | Release: © Naxos (B0001N9Z8Y), 2004 | Note: Not Watermarked

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Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – Mojo (2010) [DVD-AUDIO ISO]

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – Mojo
Artist: Tom Petty, The Heartbreakers | Album: Mojo | Style: Classical Rock | Year: 2010 | Quality: DVD-Audio (PCM 5.1 48kHz/24Bit, PCM 2.0 48kHz/24Bit) | Bitrate: lossless | Tracks: 15 | Size: 4.36 Gb | Recovery: 3% | Covers: only front | Release: rip and authoring to DVD-Audio by zzayyazz from Blu-Ray Reprise (PET49407), 2010 | Note: Not Watermarked

Tom Petty has been fronting the Heartbreakers off and on (mostly on) for over 30 years now, and he and his band have been delivering a high level of no-frills, classy, and reconstituted American garage rock through all of it. Petty often gets lumped in with artists like Bruce Springsteen, whose careful and worked-over lyrics carry a kind of instant nostalgia, but Petty’s songwriting at its best cleverly bounces off of romance clichés, often with a desperate, lustful drawl and sneer, and he’s usually been more concerned with the here and now than he is about musing about what’s been abused and lost in contemporary America, although he’s certainly not blind to it. Petty has always been more immediate than that — until now, that is. Mojo is Petty’s umpteenth album, and technically the first he’s done with the Heartbreakers since 2002’s sly The Last DJ. This time out he’s tackling the blues, trying to graft the Heartbreakers’ (Mike Campbell on guitar, Scott Thurston on guitar and harmonica, Benmont Tench on keyboards, Ron Blair on bass, and Steve Ferrone on drums) patented 1960s garage sound to the Chicago blues sound of Chess Records in the 1950s. Sonically it certainly works, mostly because this is a wonderful band, but then it all seems a little tired, worn, and exhausted, too, and not a single song here has that certain desperate, determined defiance that Petty has always delivered in the past with a knowing sneer and a little leering wink. The opener, “Jefferson Jericho Blues,” is a case in point. It starts by being a song about Thomas Jefferson’s dalliance with one of his black maids, and it could have been a scathing indictment of an out-of-date Southern attitude, contemporary racism, and so much more. Instead, it tumbles unfocused into, well, a song about missing a girl and how time moves slow, and one can’t help but wonder why Petty dragged Thomas Jefferson and his maid into any of it in the first place. Petty has never sounded so emotionally drained and detached as a vocalist as he does on this album, and while it’s nice to hear the Heartbreakers flirt with the blues — and to hear Campbell’s clear, precise slide guitar playing — there’s no excuse for not having solid songs to scaffold it. There’s a worn-out, regretful, and boringly meditative tone to so many tracks here — this is not what one expects from a band that rocks as fine as this one can. Again, the playing is solid, but one wishes Petty & the Heartbreakers had simply covered some of those old Chess classics rather than trying half-heartedly to write their own — it would have made for an album closer to intent. (more…)

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