Grace Kennedy – Grace Kennedy (1979/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 34:27 minutes | 716 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Crimson
Grace Kennedy was born at Montego Bay, Jamaica on 2 March 1958. She first came into the public eye after winning the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1977 and then also featuring in a 1979 episode of Star Treatment. She was subsequently signed by the BBC to present her own Saturday night primetime[citation needed] entertainment show, The Grace Kennedy Show, which ran for six series[citation needed] between 1981-1983 and won a BAFTA award. Guests included Bruce Forsyth, Al Jarreau, The Pointer Sisters and Derek Griffiths.
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Grace Jones – Warm Leatherette (Deluxe) (1980/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:55:44 minutes | 4,62 GB | Genre: Pop, Disco, Dance
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Group International
Warm Leatherette represents a watershed moment in the career of Grace Jones. It was the first of her much loved and critically-lauded ‘Compass Point trilogy’ and also very much a leap into the unknown when it was released on Island Records in May 1980. At that time, Jones had a reputation as a disco-diva second to none, a fact underlined by her first three Island albums (Fame, Portfolio and Muse). But, by the end of the 70s, disco was over. It was time to move on.
This is a beautiful newly-remastered collection, bringing together the entire Warm Leatherette album, b-sides and rare in-era mixes and instrumental versions (to fit the album on to the 39 minutes prescribed for vinyl at the time, a considerable amount of editing had to be done). It is a perfect demonstration of players, writers, producers, at the very apex of their game, headed up by the most singular performer, singing as if her life depended on it.
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Grace Jones – Portfolio (1977/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:06 minutes | 1,60 GB | Genre: Disco, Soul, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Island Records (The Island Def Jam Music Group / Universal Music)
Disco mix king Tom Moulton produced these tracks at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia using the same musicians Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff held hostage for their sessions. The results are quite different: though polished, these tracks don’t jump out at you. It’s really a producer’s album. Moulton probably had these tracks completed long before he knew who was going to sing them. Give Grace Jones credit though, she gives credence to old fuddies like “Send in the Clowns,” “La Vie en Rose” is lilting, and “I Need a Man,” displays a vulnerable Jones.
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Grace Jones – Nightclubbing (Deluxe Edition) (1981/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:55:10 minutes | 2,48 GB | Genre: Pop, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Island Records
By all means a phenomenal pop album that hit number nine on the black albums chart and crossed over to penetrate the pop charts at number 32, Nightclubbing saw Grace Jones working once again with Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, and the remainder of the Compass Point team. Nightclubbing also continues Jones’ tradition of picking excellent songs to reinterpret. This time out, the Police’s “Demolition Man,” Bill Withers’ “Use Me,” and Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing” receive radical reinterpretations; “Nightclubbing” is glacial in both tempo and lack of warmth, while both “Use Me” and “Demolition Man” fit perfectly into Jones’ lyrical scheme. Speaking of a lyrical scheme, “Pull Up to the Bumper” (number five black singles, number two club play) is so riddled with naughty double entendres — or is it just about parallel parking? — that it renders Musique’s “In the Bush” as daring as Paul Anka’s “Puppy Love.” Drive it in between what, Grace? It’s not just lyrics that make the song stick out; jingling spirals of rhythm guitar and a simplistic, squelching, mid-tempo rhythm make the song effective, even without considering Jones’ presence. Sly & Robbie provide ideal backdrops for Jones yet again, casting a brisk but not bristly sheen over buoyant structures. Never before and never since has a precisely chipped block of ore been so seductive.
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Grace Jones – Nightclubbing (1981/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:24 minutes | 811 MB | Genre: Pop, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Island Records (The Island Def Jam Music Group / Universal Music)
Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Jamaican singer and songwriter Grace Jones, released on 11 May 1981 by Island Records. Recorded at Compass Point Studios with producers Alex Sadkin and Island Records’ president Chris Blackwell, as well as a team of session musicians rooted by rhythm section Sly and Robbie, the album marked her second foray into a new wave style that blends a variety of genres, including reggae, art pop, dub, synth-pop and funk. The album has cover versions of songs by Bill Withers, Iggy Pop, Astor Piazzolla, and others, and original songs, three of which co-written by Jones.
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Grace Jones – Muse (1979/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 42:49 minutes | 1,88 GB | Genre: Disco, Soul, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Group International
„Muse“ was the last album of Jones’s disco trilogy recorded with producer Tom Moulton, which began in 1977 with debut „Portfolio“. As in the case of two previous records, the first side of the album is a continuous medley of four songs, joined by a narrative about someone who has sinned. The second side, however, consists of disco songs with no lyrical relation to one another. All album art, including the cover image, is by Richard Bernstein.
Great work from Grace Jones – still riding high on a disco wave here, but also finding her own space and sound too! The mighty Tom Moulton produced, ensuring some great sound for the set – and arrangements are by Thor Baldursson and John Davis, both of whom bring in nice sense of fullness, but never smother Grace too much – a key factor, given that her vocal approach is often a bit more restrained than some of the other disco divas of the time. There’s less covers here than before, and Grace herself even penned some of the tunes. Titles include ‘Suffer’, ‘Sinning’, ‘Saved’, ‘Atlantic City Gambler’, ‘On Your Knees’, and ‘Don’t Mess With The Messer“.
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Grace Jones – Fame (1978/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:21 minutes | 1,76 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Group International
„Fame“ is a classic disco stormer from Grace Jones – recorded at Sigma Sound with a real Philly groove, thanks to arrangements from John Monster Davis – and produced with a full, soaring sound from the legendary Tom Moulton!
The set may well be Grace’s true club classic from the late 70s – a record that works both on the quirky levels of her early rise to fame, and on the more soulful expectations mainstream clubgoers had at the time – a beautiful balance that owes plenty to the input from Davis and Moulton!
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Grace Jones – Disco (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:47:29 minutes | 4,86 GB | Genre: Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music Group International
Disco is newly digitally remastered 3-CD set featuring editions of her “Portfolio” (1977), “Fame” (1978), and “Muse” (1979) albums expanded with unreleased tracks and rare mixes.
“The Disco Years” is a beguiling time capsule, bringing together Ms Jones’s three pivotal, era-defining albums recorded for Island Records from the late-‘70s, Studio 54 disco epoch. Produced by Tom Moulton, the undisputed ‘father of the disco mix’, and recorded at Sigma Sound studios in Philadelphia, ‘Portfolio’, ‘Fame’ and ‘Muse’ are three of the most disco-sounding records of all time. Only sporadically available as single CD albums for many years, ‘The Disco Box’ re-presents them as a single collection over three discs, lovingly remastered with a host of bonus B-sides, edits, instrumentals and in-era and extended mixes, some of them were previously unreleased!
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Grace Davidson & David Miller – Dowland: First Booke of Songesor Ayres (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:19 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Following her debut release of Baroque works by Vivaldi and Handel earlier this year, Grace Davidson returns to disc on Signum with an intimate disc of Dowland’s first book of lute songs, accompanied by David Miller. Blending melancholy with wit in his writing for both lute and voice, John Dowland’s songs have continued to enchant audiences and singers for nearly 400 years. The First Booke includes some of Dowland’s less well-known works, and was recorded in the sensitive acoustic of Ascot Priory in Berkshire, UK.
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Grace Davidson, Academy Of Ancient Music – Vivaldi & Handel (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:08 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Signum Records are proud to present the debut orchestral recording from Grace Davidson, one of the UK’s leading British sopranos specialising in Baroque music. She is joined by some of Europe’s leading Baroque musicians from the Academy of Ancient Music to perform a selection of works by Handel and Vivaldi, with performaces led by violinist Bojan Čičić under artistic director Joseph Crouch.Grace won the Early Music Prize while studying singing at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Since then, she has worked with the leading Baroque ensembles of our day, singing under the batons of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Paul McCreesh, Philippe Herreweghe and Harry Christophers. Her discography includes a decade of CDs with The Sixteen, many of which feature her as soloist – Handel’s Jeptha (as Angel), Dixit Dominus, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Pianto della Madonna, and the Lutheran Masses of Bach.
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Gov’t Mule – 2019-07-07 Roanoke Island Festival Park, Manteo, NC, USA (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:29:14 minutes | 1,68 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © nugs.net
If there is such a thing as classical rock music, then Gov’t Mule is the maestro of the method. I’m not talking about classic rock, those hit songs from 15, 20 or 30 years ago. What Gov’t Mule brings to the stage is a way of viewing music that weaves together different styles and genres into a seamless and remarkable evening of music. Given the weather last night at Roanoke Island Festival Park, it was probably a good thing the music was remarkable. There was a constant light rain, yet no one left. The band was that compelling.
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Gotye – Making Mirrors (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:25 minutes | 485 MB | Genre: Alternative, Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal-Island Records Ltd.
Stepping out from behind the piano/drums of Melbourne indie pop three-piece the Basics for the third time, Belgian-Australian multi-instrumentalist Wally De Backer, aka Gotye’s first solo record in five years, Making Mirrors, reveals a love of the ’80s pop scene, which extends far beyond the usual influences of the current nu-synth brigade. The hugely experimental follow-up to 2006’s Like Drawing Blood doesn’t discriminate against other decades, as evident on the impossibly uplifting ’60s retro soul of “I Feel Better,” the ’70s West Coast harmonies of the ethereal lullaby-like closer “Bronte,” the ’90s Beck-esque scuzzy garage rock of “Easy Way Out,” and the 2000s hushed, claustrophobic dubstep of “Don’t Worry, We’ll Be Watching You.” But seemingly unaffected by the constant comparisons with the likes of Sting and Peter Gabriel, it’s the era of early new wave, dub, and worldbeat which defines its 12 tracks. Unexpected chart-topper “Somebody That I Used to Know,” a collaboration with New Zealand vocalist Kimbra, is an oddball break-up song whose stuttering rhythms, reggae hooks, and hushed vocals sound like the Police as remixed by the XX, “Smoke and Mirrors” echoes the avant-garde pop of Gabriel’s So, with its pounding tribal drums, orchestral flourishes, and new age melodies, while there are also nods to George Michael’s “Faith” on the acoustic gospel-pop of “In Your Light”; the impassioned Aussie rock of Midnight Oil on the ecologically themed “Eyes Wide Open,” and electro pioneer Thomas Dolby on the strange, vocodered vocals, spoken word samples, and skank guitars of the trippy “State of the Art.” Familiar they may be, but some credit has to go to De Backer for managing to weave these eclectic retro sounds into a cohesive affair, which proves that along with recent efforts by Art vs. Science and Architecture in Helsinki, Australia is fast becoming one of the biggest purveyors of quality experimental pop. ~ Jon O’Brien
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Freiburger Barockorchester & Gottfried von der Goltz – Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 – Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:43:13 minutes | 2,00 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
In the words of Richard Wagner, Beethoven’s Seventh is a true “apotheosis of the dance”. It has enjoyed perennial popularity ever since it’s premiere, unlike his sole ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, of which only the overture has remained (more or less) familiar to us. The musicians of the Freiburger Barockorchester, under the direction of their Konzertmeister Gottfried von der Goltz, offer a brillant new version of this key work in Beethoven’s corpus while reviving the complete version of one of his most unjustly forgotten masterpieces.
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Gothic Storm – Neoclassical Danger (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 27:03 minutes | 303 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Gothic Storm
Exciting danger in a modern dark neoclassical style with live strings by the Vienna Session Orchestra
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Neeme Järvi, Göteborgs Symfoniker – Stenhammar: Sången, Reverenza & Romeo och Julia Suite (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:08 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
The collaboration between Gothenburg Symphony, Neeme Järvi and BIS began in 1982 with the recording of Wilhelm Stenhammar’s First Symphony, originally released on vinyl and then re-released on CD in 1986. By that time, Neeme Järvi and the orchestra had already started on the many Sibelius recordings that would contribute to the team’s rise to fame. In total, the orchestra and Järvi would go on to record some 45 discs for BIS, including several with music by Stenhammar. It would however take until 2018 – 36 years after that first disc – before the opportunity arose to record that late, great work of his – the symphonic cantata Sången (The Song) for four vocal soloists, mixed choir, children’s choir and large orchestra.
Because of the large forces involved, Sången is a rarity in the concert hall as well as on disc – there has only been one previous commercial recording, made in 1988. As might be expected there was a sense of occasion in the Gothenburg Concert Hall during the concert and recording of this all-Stenhammar programme – a sense of occasion that audibly comes across in this present disc. Also included are the well-loved Two Sentimental Romances for violin and orchestra with the orchestra’s eminent leader Sara Trobäck as soloist and the rarely heard suite from the music to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
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