Eclectic Synthetic

Many of my shares are gone

2012-01-24T12:12:00.000-08:00

Very sorry but most all of my shares here aren't available at the moment. I will start to re-upload things ASAP.

Non-Dairy Creamer (Loss Leaders Sampler)

2011-09-23T01:39:00.000-07:00

Non-Dairy creamer was the eighth Loss Leader sampler from Warner/Reprise records, it came out in 1971. This sampler was mainly to introduce listeners to some of the labels newer acts such as Little Feat, Curved Air and Brownsville Station (to Name a few). I took the liberty of adding 12 more tracks to this compilation by artists like Deep Purple, Captain Beefheart and Van Morrison. The front artwork is a cropped scan of actual cover, and back art is new to this compilation, made to fit CD size format. Track listing is

1. Little Feat - Snakes On Everything
2. Rosebud - Panama
3. Peter Green - Hidden Depth
4. Curved Air - It Happened Today
5. Tony Joe White - Five Summers For Jimmy
6. John & Beverly Martyn - Primrose Hill
7. Ohio Knox - Pound Or My Dog Dad For Robert Downey (A Prince)
8. Jeffrey Cain - Mr. Governor
9. Zephyr - Going Back To Colorado
10. Ron Nagle - Family Style
11. Brownsville Station - Rumble
12. Deep Purple - The Mule
13. The Ides Of March - Factory Band
14. Hard Meat - On The Road
15. John Simon - Tannenbaum
16. Ry Cooder - Dark Is The Night
17. Essra Mohawk - It's Up To Me
18. Lovecraft - Take Me By The Hand
19. Sweetwater - In A Rainbow
20. Pentangle - A Maid That's Deep In Love
21. Captain Beefheart - The Smithsonian Institute Blues
22. Van Morrison - Domino
23. Don Rickles - Comedy Excerpt

Tracks come from Vinyl and CD sources, compiled by Steve E Denver aka Synthetic

Get It Here in FLAC

Filet O' Soul

2011-06-24T07:30:00.001-07:00

Many years ago I lucked into getting this promo CD at a record store. The CD was packaged in a Styrofoam container and made to look like a package of fresh meat from the grocery store. Fortunately I got 2 copies, 1 that I could open and listen to, the other to keep as a package of meat. This is a sampler put together by The Right Stuff label celebrating some of the fine soul artists that they would be re-releasing. The music is awesome, fine artists like Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass and Lou Rawls to name a few. This sampler has some of these fine artists hits, not lesser known tracks. So it is a very excellent sampler both for it's unique packaging and quality music included. I am only offering this in mp3 format since most of these songs are still available to purchase. I highly recommend that you pick up some of these fine artists on CD format.

Download Filet

Rainy Day Soundtrack I

2011-06-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

Last Fall, I woke up to some very rainy weather, and it looked certain that the weather would stay rainy for the entire day. I felt it was the perfect time to make a mix consisting of Shoe-gaze and similar music. The great tunes made it one of the best rainy days of my life. This collection consists of some of my favorite music of all time. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do. It is presented in a continuous mp3 mix because the songs flow into each other and many of the tracks are still available to purchase. It is offered in 160-256 VBR mp3 format. The tracks are:
Ride - Leave Them All Behind
Pale Saints - A Thousand Stars Burst Open
Comsat Angels - I Come From The Sun
Chapterhouse - Something More
Red House Painters - Mistress (Remix)
The Chills - Singing In My Sleep
Revolver - Heaven Sent An Angel
Cocteau Twins - Musette And Drums
Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic
The Choir - Consider
Curve - Missing Link
Markus James - Everything Is Different Now
Twice Wilted - Brighter
Levitation - Smile
Inspiral Carpets - Niagara
Lush - Breeze

The awesome image came from an artist named squirrell on redbubble.com

Download Rainy Day Soundtrack I

Very Best Of Pat Suzuki (Fan Mix)

2011-06-09T06:22:00.001-07:00

I watched Biloxi Blues a few days ago, and instantly fell in love with the enchanting song on the opening credits. The song is "How High The Moon" by the wonderful Pat Suzuki.
I am so captivated by the song that she is now in my top 20 favorite female vocalists of all time. There was a nice best of on Compact Disc, but the songs were mastered very loud so I felt a fan remix was in order. The volume has been lowered, new EQs given to each song, and a small amount of reverb and stereo reduction has been applied where needed. I also took the liberty of adding stretched versions of "How High The Moon" and "Poor Butterfly".
I hope you will enjoy this album, if so buy a copy when you get a chance. Thankfully she is still alive and performing, so definitely see her if possible. I found five tracks that weren't on the Very Best Of collection so I will offer those under the regular link, they were remastered on Acid Pro.

Download fan mix

More By Pat Suzuki

Skip Martin-Perspectives In Percussion Volume 1

2011-05-13T21:39:00.001-07:00

This little gem of an album came out on the Somerset budget record label in the early 1960s. I recently bought the album for less than a dollar, and was so pleased when I heard it today. This is quality lounge music, not a single song that I dislike. I believe this will always be in my top 5 favorite lounge LPs from now on. The conductor is Skip Martin and the musicians are top notch session players. I transferred the vinyl to 16 bit waves using a Stanton turntable and cartridge. The waves were created via a Roland Edirol recorder. I made a master CD using Nero with custom EQ, reduced stereo separation, slight noise reduction and subtle fade ins and outs. I am offering this in 160-320k VBR MP3s as well as a FLAC version. There are some slight scratches, but I am very pleased with the overall quality.

download MP3 version

download FLAC version

2011-04-27T23:42:00.001-07:00

Björk MegaRemix

2011-04-02T03:22:00.000-07:00

This is a single continuous mix consisting of Björk remixes. These are some of my personal favorite remixes from this fine artist.

Baenin (Excerpt)
Human Behaviour (Close To Human Mix)
Venus As A Boy (7" Dream Mix)
Come To Me (Black Dog Productions)
Violently Happy (Massey Long Mix)
Army Of Me (Featuring Skunk Anansie)
One Day (Endorphin Mix)
Isobel (Burst Into Flames Mix)
Hyperballad (Fluke Mix)
Enjoy (Dom T Beats Mix)
Smith & Wesson (Stretched Excerpt)
Cover Me (Dillinja Mix)
Possibly Maybe (Calcutta Cyber Cafe Dub Mix)
I Miss You (Photek Mix)
Big Time Sensuality (Plaid Remix)
Jòga (Buzz Water Mix)
Baenin (Excerpt 2)

The songs overlap slightly so it is offered only as one large megamix mp3. I highly recommend that you purchase your favorite tracks and albums by this very talented artist.

Megamix mp3

Moody Blues Album Art

2011-03-12T01:37:00.001-08:00

I may eventually share my fan mix of this fine album but until then, here is some retouched scans of the 1986 US CD art. I attempted to reduce the seams that occurred from aging and wear.

If you can find the 1986 and 1997 versions of their albums, I highly recommend it. I am very disappointed in how their recent "deluxe" editions are sounding on a regular CD player. They have mastered this album too loudly which is causing unwanted compression, and making it very hard to hear the little details that the group put so much thought in to. Basically, every "Deluxe Edition" I have purchased is too loud on regular CD players.

Earl Grant - Just For A Thrill (Instrumental favorites)

2011-02-20T05:58:00.000-08:00

I purchased this album for only a dollar a few weeks ago. I gave it a listen a few days ago and had to make a recording. I figured the music would be good, since I knew Grant was a very talented musical performer. What I didn't expect was for the fidelity to be so stunning. It sounded like Earl had a small Jazz combo performing right in front of me. The recordings had less distortion than on his major label CD compilation. The record doesn't say who produced and engineered but they did a superb job. He has a wonderful small combo on this album, and I'm betting the saxophone work is by Plas Johnson, since he worked on a previous Grant album. This album really gives the feeling of being in a cool bar very late at night. He does mainly old standards, but gives them a nice touch of hipness. I used a Stanton turntable and cartridge and recorded on a Roland Edirol. I gave it some equalization to boost the low end and soften the highs a bit, but didn't use noise reduction. I am offering it in both FLAC and 320 KBPS MP3 formats. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I am. Earl was a rare talent, and has been unfairly forgotten by many of us. I also stretched 2 of the songs and included those versions as well.

FLAC version

MP3 version

Spanish Inferno

2011-01-20T10:26:00.001-08:00

This LP from the early 1960s was recorded on 4 channel 35mm film.
It is a very expensive and brilliant sounding way to record. This album boasts lush orchestral arrangements of popular Spanish songs like Malaguena and Espana. Little is said about the fine International Pop Orchestra or their conductor Alvarez. But the arrangements fall half way between Classical and Lounge. This was released on the Cameo label which was related to Parkway records where Chubby Checker issued The Twist. I'm sorry the record is scratched and old, but I still think it sounds pretty fine at times. I transferred this from a Stanton turntable to a Roland Edirol wave recorder while adjusting the EQ somewhat. It was rendered to mp3 at 320kbps

GET IT HERE

Danielle Dax-Tomorrow Never Knows (Synthetic Mix)

2011-01-13T05:31:00.001-08:00

Here is a mix of Tomorrow Never Knows that I put together using my favorite aspects of the various 1990 mixes of the song. If you don't know who Danielle Dax is, you are missing out. She is a very unique and beautiful talent, and I never stop hoping that she will grace the World with more music some day. The mix is in flac format.

GET IT HERE

The Ink Spots-Street Of Dreams

2010-12-17T05:33:00.001-08:00

This little gem of an album is an EP of 8 classic Ink Spots recordings. It is a British 10" album released in 1955 on the Brunswick label. Whereas most EPs contain a good amount of filler songs, this one is all good tunes. Thankfully it has the famous tune, "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire". I've loved this album for many decades now. I always thought that the cover art was particularly nice, and it beautifully matches the mood of the music. My album was rather worn, so I culled this from digital sources. I also needed to crop some of the cover art because there were major cracks around the edges. I EQd the tracks, adjusted the volumes and ripped to 320 kbps mp3, enjoy! Definitely play this late at night sometime, preferably by moonlight.

Get It Here

Justin Bieber Experimental Remixes

2010-09-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

This post is entirely inspired by the popular stretched remix of U Smile that has been on the internet recently, you know the one that is referred to as U Smile slowed by 800%. I am puzzled by that description since the version I found was around 35:28 which would actually be a stretch of around 10.796 depending on the sample widow size used on Paul's Extreme Stretch Software. So I don't understand how a 10.796 stretch can equate to slowed 800 times. The important thing for me is that it inspired me to finally stop using stretch software exclusively for songs that I really love and try using it on all types of music. So I got my hands on Bieber's 2 My World CDs and decided to see if there was more material that could be played with. It turns out there was.

I have made 2 CDs worth of experimental mixes, utilizing stretch functions as well as shortening functions on Paul's software. I am not doing this to become an overnight sensation but to allow people to hear these experiments in a high fidelity lossless format and to report some of the specs involved in the stretching process. I also made 3 condensed mixes which basically incorporates all 17 tracks from the 2 CDs at the same time. So for those that don't like long, mellow ambient tracks, there is something loud, wild and short included here for you. I mean no disrespect to whoever stretched U Smile the first time around, I admit that this project is inspired by that mix. I have been using Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch Software for years now, stretching only music that I really liked like for instance Peter Gabriel's Shock The Monkey as can be heard here. But the U Smile Slowed made me realize that music which I might not normally listen like can become something wonderful when stretched or shortened at the proper amount.

So I am giving links for you to download flac versions of my Bieber remixes, to enjoy in high fidelity and including some of the details of the stretching parameters that I used. I took the liberty of stretching U Smile as well but did at at a slightly faster rate of 10.795 so as to give an alternate version to the one that already exists. I am most likely using a different stretch type and different sample window size than the original mix but am using the same wonderful software which is still free shareware. On some tracks I added reverb and applied an equalizer where it seemed appropriate. On my condensed mixes I added effects to a few of the tracks that would be heard more clearly to keep the mix sounding experimental throughout.

I scanned 2 images from the albums and manipulated them on the awesome Gimp software which is also free. I felt that an experimental album should have some more experimental images to go with them, so hopefully I have created an album which others will enjoy like I am. My respect and thanks goes out to Justin Bieber and whoever stretched U Smile for the first time (it is widely reported to be an artist named Shamantis AKA Nick Pittsinger). If you listen to no other tracks on this album please check our Down To Earth Stretched or Condensed Worlds, they are in my opinion the finest pieces on here. If you are more fascinated by stretching than anything else, check out Stuck In The Moment Excerpt because it was stretched to 100 times it's normal length, I simply took a passage where Bieber sings "Stuck In The Moment" and made it last over 6 minutes in length. Quite appropriate considering the lyric.

Strange Worlds 1a

Strange Worlds 1b

Strange Worlds 2a

Strange Worlds 2b

Bieber - Down To Earth (Stretched X 5.5555) MP3

Bieber - Condensed Worlds MP3

Bieber - U Smile (19 Second Mix By Synthetic) MP3

Killing Joke - Requiem (Synthetic's Space Mix)

2010-06-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

I just recently discovered some of the great remixes for the group Killing Joke, and I decided to have a go at remixing "Requiem". I started with the Acapella mix and added synths, slowed down the tempo, added more effects and reversed the middle section. I highly recommend buying some of the fairly recent remastered versions of their albums. Not only is the sound quality quite good, but there are some great bonus tracks included.

get remix here

Check out these songs from Steve E. on Indaba Music

2010-05-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

Check out these songs from Steve E. on Indaba Music

Blue Cat Cinema - EP1

2010-05-01T23:58:00.001-07:00

I am in a rather eclectic recording project with a very ambitious nephew of mine. This is our first album, EP1 which incorporates a strange blend of old and new styles and sounds. A musician friend from Slovakia described the feeling as "swimming in the air" which I liked quite a bit. We are attempting to be both experimental and poppy (in more of a mid 1960s sense). If you like music by Cornelius, Minotaur Shock and Plaid chances are you will dig this too. We are pleased to be on the French net-label Vaatican Records, where we are label mates with the Japanese group Satanicpornocultshop. I will give 2 links here, one for the album as we sent it to Vaatican (with 5-6 art files included), and one for the album as Vaatican has published (with their preferred cover art).

Extra art version

Vaatican version

Kinks Synthetic Fan Mix 3 - The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

2010-04-03T05:11:00.001-07:00

This is the final Kinks' album that I have made a special fan mix of, it comes from 4 different digital sources. It was reported that Ray Davies had considered making this a double album when it originally came out. This mix consists of 31 tracks and nearly fills an 80 minute CD. The songs flow together with overlaps, everything is remixed with altered panning and equalization. The Kick drum comes across more clearly than usual, and the hiss from vocals is reduced. This should not replace a real CD of this incredible album. I hope these fan mixes will increase people's desire to buy am authentic copy. This will be offered for a limited time only it is in high quality FLAC format.

Village Green Fan Mix Part 1

Village Green Fan Mix Part 2

Kinks Synthetic Fan Mix 2 - Something Else

2010-04-03T05:00:00.001-07:00

After completing a fan mix of Face To Face, I decided to do the same with Something Else By The Kinks. This is remixed from about 5 different digital sources. This is mainly from the stereo sources though the separation is reduced, songs are given a new equalization, and sometimes the panning is changed. Once again the songs overlap slightly, to increase the concept album feeling. Every song has been remixed somewhat so it hopefully won't replace an actual CD of this album. As with my other fan mixes, there are lots of related bonus tracks that were remixed as well. This is in high quality FLAC, if you burn it to CD the songs will flow seamlessly like they should. I will probably only offer this for a short time so as to not upset the labels that have issued the proper versions of this album.

Something Else Fan Mix Download

Kinks Synthetic Fan Mix 1 Face To Face

2010-03-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

Face To Face by The Kinks is one of the great rock albums of all time. It is one of the first album oriented rock albums in history. As great as this album is, there were many compromises in the way the album has always been presented. For starters reportedly Ray Davies leader of The Kinks wanted the songs to be tied together more closely and sometimes with sound effects. He also was hoping for a stark black cover as opposed to the somewhat psychedelic cover art that graced the album. I have made a remix that takes the stereo and electronically processed stereo tracks and makes them sound more integrated. I have made a special remixed version of this album that blends the songs together without pauses of silence in between. In many cases I even overlapped the tracks slightly to give it a greater concept album feel. I also adjusted the stereo separation so that songs fit better together. Reducing separation on some tracks so that they sound better paired with the mono tracks. The volume falls in between the 1980's CDs of this album and newer versions distributed by Castle communications. I took the artistic liberty of starting the album with "She's Got Everything" which was recorded during the Face To Face sessions but only released as a B-side a couple of years later. This way the album begins with 2 lively numbers in a row before settling into the introspective feel of the later tracks. After that the album falls into the same track listing as the original UK vinyl release, and has about 4 bonus tracks after that. Purists should be informed that every track was remixed somewhat, so this is mainly just a fan mix of the Face To Face album. I hope this will lead people to go buy one of the official releases of this great album, it is not intended to be a replacement. The cover art was made to more closely reflect what Ray Davies said he wanted for the album. Since this album is in print, I will only offer this remix for a limited time. I strongly suggest that you buy the CD somewhere and treat this as a fan mix only. That being said please enjoy this labor of love. It is in flac format so that the album will keep the smooth continuity.

Get It Here

Pop Art I Mix

2010-02-24T02:42:00.000-08:00

I was a radio DJ in Malibu several years ago, and ever since I have wanted to do something like that again. I discovered some Mix CDs by Squarepusher, Atlas Sound and Caribou that incorporated lots of great stuff from the late 60s and early 70s, and they were quite inspiring. So I decided to make some of my own where the songs overlap somewhat and there is a good sense of flow to it. I thought about some of my biggest influences from that era and I decided it could aptly be described as Pop Art. That music that has elements of Psychedelic, Garage, Pop, Bubblegum and Folk. This is the stuff that is too aggressive to be called Pop but not trippy enough to be called Psychedelic. Close to what would become Prog Rock but with a more inherent sense of humor. So I made some mixes that incorporate my favorite songs that sort of fit in this unofficial category of music. This is Pop Art I:
1. The Who - Armenia City In The Sky
2. The Rolling Stones - Dandelion
3. J. K. & Co. - Fly
4. Os Mutantes - Minha Menina
5. The Beatles - Excerpt Montage
6. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
7. The Pretty Things - She Says Good Morning
8. Del Shannon - Silver Birch
9. Del Shannon - I Think I Love You
10. The Bee Gees - Lemons Never Forget
11. Vanilla Fudge - Things Go Better With Coke
12. Bill Holt - Dreamies Program 10 Part 6
13. Pink Floyd - Funky Dung
14. Bruce Haack - Program Me
15. Clear Light - Black Roses
16. Gong - Castle In The Clouds
17. Manfred Mann - It's So Easy Falling
18. Man - The Future Hides It's Face (Excerpt)
19. Badfinger- Flying (Original Version)
20. The Turtles - You Don't Have To Walk In The Rain
21. The Electric Prunes - The Great Banana Hoax
22. The Troggs - I Can Only Give You Everything (Faster Mix)
23. Soft Machine - Alphabet / Hulloder
24. Soft Machine - Dada Was Here
25. Tomorrow - Revolution
26. Man - The Future Hides It's Face (Excerpt)

Now this is presented in one 80 minute continuous mix mp3, because the purpose is to present it as a broadcast. I also included radio jingles and ads from the 60's to keep the fun feeling that The Who had on their "Sell Out" LP. I have remixed most of the songs, reducing or increasing stereo separation, equalization and sometimes changing the tempo of the song. Also all of these songs are in print, so please buy CDs or downloads of the artists you hear on these samplers. I will only offer this in mp3 to keep from distributing copyrighted music in a high fidelity format. That being said, please enjoy! It was fun to make and should be fun to hear. I just noticed that there are no Beach Boys songs on this mix, kind of a screw up on my part since they are such a big influennce on me. I have made 7 of these Pop Art Mixes now so be assured that there are Beach Boys' songs on most of the other volumes. I will post some more of these soon.

The Artwork shown is some modified Pop Art by Andy Warhol

Download Pop Art I Mix mp3

Rubber Soul Synthetic Hybrid Fan Mix

2009-12-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

This winter I finally took my various CD versions of Rubber Soul and made myself a copy which incorporates every track from the US and UK versions of the LP. I used my favorite mixes of each and then remixed them by lessening the stereo separation and reducing distortion. I also decided to bring up the drum and bass volume a bit more. Mostly this post is just to show you a really nice track order to listen to these songs in. For a week or two as a Holiday gift, I will offer a link to download this Hybrid version I am referring to. I can't believe I never thought to mix the US and UK albums before now, it makes for such a fun listening experience. I include the false start on "I'm Looking Through You" but subtly cross-fade into the less compressed UK version. So if you're like me and grew up with the US version, you should really enjoy this mix. The running order is made to closely match the flow of the US version. The art work you see is made to go with the Hybrid mix, it doesn't list the bonus track "12-Bar Original" because I treat that like a bonus hidden track. The temporary link is for a flac version of my fan mix. I realize that there are many fan mixes of this album, most are already excellent. I just made this mix for myself, but felt it was too good not to share for a limited time. If you like stereo, but not the drastic separation that was on the original CDs, then this mix should please you as well. If you do like it, please share it. If you don't enjoy it, sorry, that's the way it goes sometimes.

Click here for temporary download

Ella Mae Morse-Barrelhouse, Boogie & The Blues LP

2009-10-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

What you see pictured here is an EP by the legendary Ella Mae Morse. She was one of the most versatile and talented singers of her era. She could sing blues, pop, swing, boogie, ballads and even rock & roll. She recorded the very first single for Capitol records, "Cow Cow Boogie" and it was a big success. She started recording as a teenager, and really developed quickly into a phenomenal singer. Her popularity was mainly in the early 1940s. This album was one of her few LPs and it shows her full range as a performer. Her band leader during this era was "Big Dave" Cavanaugh. As far as I know this LP in it's original lineup has never been released on CD. There is a box set of the same name, that is basically everything she ever recorded with Capitol records. I have a copy of the EP seen here, and found the additional tracks needed to make up the complete LP she issued in the mid 1950's. I picked 3 more tracks that seemed to go well with the original LP and am offering it here for your enjoyment. If you have the money to spare, get the box set on Bear Family records, or a used copy of the Capitol Collector's Series it is highly recommended. My vinyl copy has a lot of hiss that is unpleasant so I am offering a version with songs taken from CD.

get it here

UPDATE, I just found out someone is sharing the actual vinyl version of this 10" EP, so if you'd like to hear it from vinyl please visit the real cool blog called Big 10-inch record

Mimi-Soak

2009-09-30T00:33:00.000-07:00

I am shocked that this album is out of print. This is such a fine album from the lead singer of Hugo Largo. Half of the songs are produced by the late Hector Zazou and the other half are produced by fellow Hugo Largo member Hahn Rowe. This album is simply beautiful and intoxicating, give it a listen.

Get it here

Hypnolovewheel-Space Mountain

2009-07-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

This is a really good album, and is criminally under-appreciated, I have never seen it show up on Soulseek or other P2P sites. My copy is from CD released on the Alias label. The playing is tight, the lyrics are clever, it is a really fun album. I can't find out who all is on this album, but there is definitely Chris Xefos (who also played with King Missile) and Lou Giordano (who is a respected producer and engineer). I recommend this album highly as well as their Altered States album.
Thanks goes out to Army anesthesiologist Hank Wilson for turning me onto this music.

Get it here!

Woody Herman & The New Third Herd - Men From Mars 10 inch LP

2009-06-21T21:17:00.001-07:00

This is a 10 inch album which was purchased by my Mom in England around 1955. I listened to the album since I was very young because I liked the cover illustration so much. I scanned the cover with a friend's camera and figured I would download the songs somewhere quite easily, after all this is the famous Woody Herman. I quickly realized that this is a very rare album, especially for downloading. Fortunately that same friend had just purchased a Roland Edirol recorder so we hooked it up to my Stanton turntable and got down to work. I also looked up recording dates for The Third Herd and proceeded to find a few more tracks which were recorded for the US Verve 12 inch release of this album. I found 5 tracks which were recorded around the same time and by the Third Herd to the best of my knowledge. I really hope you will enjoy this rare gem the way I have over the years. "Marakeesh" is the track that my Mom purchased this album for, and it is a beautiful piece of exotica. The flautist, Sam Staff really shines on this track, and sadly died at age 34 before this album was released in England. This album seems to fit stylistically in between Cool Jazz and Lounge Music, it is bouncy, sophisticated and modern. The title track features an unusual Organ/Electric Piano combination which helps give it a modern otherworldly quality. Woody was in his early 40s around the time he assembled his Third Herd and I think that is reflected in the music here, it is mature, somewhat restrained but forward looking collection.

get it here

new download link

Ghosts Inc.

2008-10-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is a project I have been involved in this year, and am extremely proud of. 2 years ago I made an EP of songs that incorporated EVPs (unexplained voices) with electronica music. That album entitled Ghost Suite will be available here before long. Two very talented recording artists, Norbert Croonenberg (HaveMercy) and Mikael Hannson (Colab) decided they would like to remix the songs from my Ghost Suite album and eventually Ghosts Inc. was born. The album that we have so far is 6 songs and they are really something special. Eventually there may be 2-4 more songs on the album, so we are calling this album Sounds From The Attic version 1.0. Our MySpace page is HERE so give us a visit and say hello, I hope you like the album.

download sounds from the attic v 1.0 (320kbps)

RIP to 3 great musicians

2008-10-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

This remix of a song called Sima Edy by Dub Colossus was made largely as a memorial to the late greats Earl Palmer, Richard Wright and Hector Zazou. To hear many great remixes of artists on Peter Gabriel's Real World label visit Real World Remixed.

Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club

2008-09-19T14:04:00.001-07:00

This LP from 1979 features one of the writers of the famous song "Video Killed The Radio Star". Ironically, the song became somewhat of a self fulfilling prophecy for Bruce Woolley. He released a rocking version of the song in 1979, but it was eclipsed by The Buggles version thanks to MTV showing their music video repeatedly.
BW&TCC were similar to The Buggles but rocked harder and also featured Thomas Dolby who would become famous very shortly with his solo LPs. The album shows similarities to Bowie, Sparks, Devo, Talking Heads and Brian Briggs. The band is tight and lively and Woolley's singing and lyrics are a lot of fun. The album was released in the US as a self titled LP and released in Europe as "English Garden". Sadly, this classic artifact from the New Wave era is long since out of print, and quite expensive to get on CD. I sincerely hope this will be available again on CD in the future, but until then, here's a copy to enjoy from vinyl.

UPDATE- Bruce Woolley now has 2 web pages that are really worth visiting and joining:

www.brucewoolleyhq.com
www.brucewoolleyhq.ning.com

Download Album

Steve Miller Band-Rock Love

2008-09-09T07:08:00.001-07:00

This is SMB's 6th album, and thanks to the tendency of music critics to completely "ape" each other, it is his least popular of their first 10 albums. The album gets a bad rep possibly because it is half studio half live recordings, but it is a diverse album with memorable moments. Don't believe all the negative hype behind this record, it is still classic SMB and should be regarded much more highly than it is. The live songs show the side of Steve Miller that later blues/rock guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughan would become famous for. The studio tracks are all strong and the tune "Rock Love" is almost pure pop perfection. I am stunned that none of these tracks were released on SMB's box set a few years back, they really don't deserve to be this obscure. I found a copy on Soulseek and it was ok but had too much noise reduction and not enough stereo separation, so I remastered that copy quite a bit, and re-ripped it to LAME 3.98. The artwork was also tweaked a bit, but comes pretty close to the original. I hope you will agree that this is a good album that does not deserve to remain out of print forever.

Rock Love LP in LAME

Flaming Lips-Hell's Angels Cracker Factory

2008-07-18T02:18:00.000-07:00

A few years back, Flaming Lips released a box set which contained most of the LPs and EPs from the early years of their career. Sadly, they did not include the full 23 minute version of their song "Hells' Angels Cracker Factory". It is one of the best pieces included with previous editions of "Telepathic Surgery" LP. This is an ambitious psychedelic song that helps keep the album from sounding too "sold out" or radio friendly. There are lots of things going on to keep the listener interested, and it shows the sort of ambition which would eventually win the group critical acclaim. There is a link listed in the comments section for downloading the full track.

More music from "Until The End Of The World"

2008-06-30T02:12:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I started talking to Kevin Sartori creator of the great blog, Psychotic Leisure Music (One of the biggest inspirations for my blog). We decided to pool our resources and come up with as many of the songs from UTEOFTW as we could find. Together we came up with most every song that was on that fine film including the music that the actors made. Now the official OST is still in print so we decided not to offer the complete collection we assembled, but it did seem appropriate to offer the songs that aren't on the OST. So here is a link to a file of nearly everything that was on the film that isn't already on the OST or the unreleased score (which you can get at Psychotic Leisure Music). This collection does feature a few of Graeme Revell's unreleased score tracks, all of the AKA Pygmy music, aboriginal music and most of the actor's jams. Combine this with the official OST and score and you have almost everything that was on this fine film. Thanks again to Kevin for his fine contributions to this project, be sure and get the unreleased score from his fine blog.

Download Missing From UTEOTW
check out unreleased score

Lilliput Revisited, A Christmas present in June

2008-06-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is 4ADs 1993 compilation album with some extra bonus tracks and a pdf file of the complete booklet and cover art. The pdfs and 2 songs came from a download shared by Alexei Luther on his great blog, Difficult Listening. 75% of the songs came directly from my CDs, and the rest came from Limewire and Emule. I arranged CD2 so that every artist now gets 2 songs, and included 2 by the group Belly as well as 2 more by Dead Can Dance. the final 2 songs on CD2 are both by the Tintwhistle Brass Band covering 2 Pale Saints songs. CD 1 has the additions of "Lolita" by A.R. Kane and a rare track by Bettie Serveert called "Get The Bird". I wanted to take this opportunity to mention an incredibly cool website that is all about 4AD. It is called Eyesore, and it has a huge database listing nearly every 4AD release/artist since the label first began. You can find out what albums each song/artist has appeared on. They also have the Rare 4AD series and lots of beautiful album art and more, do yourself a favor and check it out, http://eyesore.no

Download Lilliput

The Crazy Beat Of gene Vincent (1963)

2008-06-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

This excellent album went out of print very soon after it's release and has not ever made it to CD in the US. The recording sessions vary in age quite a bit. Lonesome Boy was recorded about the same time that Eddie Cochran was helping him out, while Weeping Willow and some others were recorded after Eddie's tragic death. Although it is one of his less cohesive LPs, it is a great one nonetheless and deserves to be heard in High Fidelity. The download is a 256 kbps copy of songs that appeared on The Gene Vincent Box Set of Capitol and Columbia recordings, it is recommended highly. The tracks leave on extraneous material like studio talk, and an occasional false start. I also added 2 bonus tracks and 2 alternate takes. This album boasts a huge number of respected musicians and session players from both The United States and Europe. It features at least 2 eras of Blue Caps as well as Sounds Incorporated (who played on The Beatles Sgt. Pepper Album). Weeping Willow is a British all-star tribute to the recently deceased Eddie Cochran. I hope you'll enjoy this LP as much as I do. Notice that the production, arrangements and vocal performances exceed that of the early 60's British Invasion groups in sophistication. The Beatles wouldn't come close to this level of excellence until the mid to late 60's. I own every song Vincent has released during his lifetime with the exception of his last 2 LPs for the Kama Sutra label. If anyone has those albums they want to share let me know please.

Download 256 kbps

Orbital-Snivilisation

2008-05-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

I was completely shocked to find out that this album is currently out of print in the US. So while that is the case, I thought I would share a link to a FLAC copy. This was Orbital's 3rd LP, released in 1994, it is, in my opinion, the closest they have come to a concept album. Get it while you can, because this probably won't stay out of print for long. Then, of course, get yourself a new CD.

Snivilisation FLAC (500 Meg)

R.I.P. OUIM.net ?

2008-05-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

I was saddened yesterday to discover that a real nice net label that I have released 2 albums on seems to be calling it quits. The label is OUIM they were founded in Bulgaria in 2005 and have consistently offered some very fine electronica from all over the world. The quality is high on every release I have heard from composition to presentation of the final product, with very nice looking cover art and high bit-rate downloads. The label hasn't offered a new release since my early January offering called "Winter LP" and the site says we are closed, sorry. Fortunately all their fine music is still available there to download for free, and I strongly recommend the works highly. For killer modern hard stuff try Death On Glamours LP, and for the most atmospheric ambient check out any of Observation Point's releases. I can only hope, that continued support may bring this fine label back from closure. In the meantime, if someone can recommend a similar net label, I need a new home for my free original music.

UPDATE: I am happy to report they are back and releasing free albums and live sets for your listening enjoyment.

Old Skull-CIA Drug Fest

2008-05-08T05:09:00.000-07:00

At the request of a few folks here, I decided to share the 2nd and final album by Old Skull. By the time of this album Jesse Collins-Davies had left the group as well as Graham Lindsey, and Chris and Josh Scott became lead vocals and guitarist. This is the album where father/manager Vern Toulon wrote some of the lyrics. The album was released in 1992, after which they embarked on a Japanese tour but broke up shortly thereafter. The biggest difference in this album from Get Outta School is that there is more polish in the playing and actual chord progressions. The vocals are scratchy and angry enough to impress even Al Jourgensen of Ministry and possibly scare Freddy Krueger. What I miss is the reckless abandon and virtual anarchy of the first LP. Most of these guys have re-appeared in adult musical acts in recent years, although nothing is reported about this LPs lead vocalist and guitarist, if anyone knows what became of Chris and Josh Scott, please leave a comment here. Old Skull's most thorough bio can be found at wikipedia. The cover scan was supplied to Amazon.com by Escapist. If you'd like to hear or read about their first LP (My Favorite) click HERE.

CIA Drug Fest (VBR LAME)

Exotic Moods Of Les Baxter (Review)

2008-04-28T03:30:00.000-07:00

The Exotic Moods Of Les Baxter was released by Capitol in 1996, and is my opinion the finest Les Baxter collection of all time. It is superior sound quality to some of Capitol's previous Baxter releases, and the song selections are terrific. This is 40 of Baxter's finest soundscapes from his years at Capitol records spanning from the 1940s - 1960s. This is over 2 hours of rich, vibrant exotica and a few lounge tracks. The only the thing I wish had been added are the songs "Tropicana" and "Atlantis", otherwise it is an impeccable sampler. The unbelievable thing is that this album is not in print, and it costs a pretty penny to buy it used. Prices seem to fluctuate between $55 to $90. I am in complete hopes that Capitol will reissue this gem of a collection as well as their similar Martin Denny collection. Until that happens there will be a link located in the comments section to hear this wonderful collection in Hi-VBR LAME MP3s. I do not know the original source of this copy, it was acquired on Daemonoid back in the day. There is on CD2 an additional bonus track of "Atlantis" which I added. The cover pictured here is from the great exotica blogpage Xtabays World. This finishes my posts about exotica for the time being, I will return back to my eclectic offerings.

The Deviants-Metamorphosis Exploration (Synthetic Mix)

2008-04-24T00:53:00.001-07:00

This is the final song on the final album by the original line-up of The Deviants. Most of these musicians would soon become known as The Pink Fairies. This is not a very popular album amongst Deviants fans mainly because it is a radical departure from their Fugs inspired classics. I like this song quite well because it does capture the feeling of progressive rock which these musicians would soon be doing full time. I only remixed the song slightly, speeding it up without changing the pitch. I feel it captures the energy these guys were capable of, and soon would become better known for. I also tweaked the cover a bit so that it is seamless now. I recommend this LP to anyone who loves progressive rock and The Pink Fairies.

Download remix (256 kbps wma)

Les Baxter-Bora Bora OST (VBR)

2008-04-20T01:31:00.001-07:00

Bora Bora was a romantic film directed by Ugo Liberatore filmed in 1968 and released in 1970. This is an excellent soundtrack by the renowned Les Baxter, and exceptional in that it is a real return to his exotica sound. There is a 1960's vibe that makes his lush sound more modern, but it is classic Baxter magic otherwise. There is a good copy of this on Xtabay's World, it is a 128 kbps rip direct from vinyl and it is best for vinyl purists. I remastered his copy so that the eq brings out the highs a bit more, adjusted volumes and stereo seperation and added fades to the end of tracks. LAME assigned a higher bitrate to these remasters, but it is audibly the same as the 128kpbs version. No disrespect is intended to the amazing Xtabay blog, and I will remove this if the original ripper or author wishes.

Download Bora Bora

The End Of Violence (OST and Score)

2008-04-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

Wim Wender's films are such a treasure, not only are they cinematic masterpieces, but the soundtracks are always exquisite. I was sickened to discover that both the Songs and Score to this film are both out of print in the US. There is music by U2, Tom Waits, Eels, DJ Shadow, Los Lobos and a Brian Eno remix of a previously unreleased Roy Orbison tune just to name a few of the gems on the Soundtrack. Also there is another CD of the original score written and performed by Ry Cooder and his son Jachim, with the help of Jon Hassel, Howie B, and Jim Keltner to name a few. Both Soundtrack and score are out of print which is inconceivable to me. So here is a link to download both. I also recommend the film to anyone who hasn't seen it, it may not be one of Wender's finest films, but it offers plenty.

Download Soundtrack and Score

Homer And Jethro Collection

2008-04-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is everything I could find by Homer & Jethro, I own their best of collection on vinyl and a couple of songs on CD collections, everything else was found on the internet. 33 songs spanning almost their entire career including 2 instrumental numbers that showcase their talents as musicians. The quality of the sources varies drastically, but I have attempted to smooth out the scratches, eq and volume differences. I would love to find a copy of them doing I Want To Hold Your Hand so if anyone has that, please let me know. These fellas were funny, talented and deserving of more CD releases than they currently have. For more information on these two go to their wiki link, or their page at the Country Music Hall Of Fame.

Download Link (VBR LAME)

Les Baxter-Kaleidoscope (1955)

2008-04-03T23:23:00.000-07:00

This was an LP that my parents bought to play at parties, and I loved it since I was very young. Instead of being a concept album it is mostly a very mixed bag with a wide range of styles. The biggest treats on this album are Tropicana, Blue Tango, Julie and Atlantis. Tropicana was the song that really turned me on to this album and Les Baxter as an artist. It displays most of Baxter's best talents in a very quick and concise number. Plus the percussion and arrangement show more reckless abandon than most other songs from around 1955. Not to say that the song is sloppy though, it is very tight and precise. But the tom toms and timbales duke it out now and then as if in a boxing match against each other. The dynamics also make the piece seem ferocious at times, sometimes getting louder to really punctuate the ending of a phrase. I can't say enough good things about the song, so I'll leave any further observations up to the listener. Blue Tango is one of his better known pieces and it speaks for itself. Atlantis features really strong lively hand percussion that contrasts beautifully with an exotic flute passage. I didn't expect to share lounge music on my blog, but I noticed that this LP and the song Tropicana are very difficult to find on the internet, so here's my copy. Unfortunately this is the same exact copy that I have been playing since around age 7, so some of the quieter songs suffer from scratches and static. If someone out there has a cleaner copy let me know, I would love to have a copy, until then enjoy this one. I just noticed another vinyl version at a lower bit-rate is available from Thrift Shop DJ .

Download vinyl album (VBR LAME)

UPDATE- I just realized that I owned 5 of these songs on CD so I now made a Hybrid version incorporating my old vinyl with the CD masters, so 5 songs are now from a digital master. If someone has Tropicana from a digital master, I'd love to get a copy.

Download digital/vinyl hybrid (VBR LAME)

URDATE - I made one final version that adds a bit of reverb to the tracks to compensate for noise reduction that was used.

Download Reverb Version

Can-Out Of Reach (1978)

2008-03-24T06:43:00.000-07:00

This is the second to final Can album before the musicians took about a decade off for side and solo projects, it is also the only album to have no involvement from Holger Czukay. I assume it is the last fact that makes this album the only one of their original releases to not be in print. It is very unfortunate that Czukay is not on this album, but it is still a fine piece of work. there are 4 songs that I feel still capture that audio magic that these fine musicians were so capable of conjuring. Michael Karoli's guitar solos on the songs Serpentine, November and Seven Days Awake stack up along with some of his finest recorded moments. The rhythm section delivers exceptional playing as well as keyboardist Irmin Scmidt. Rumor has it that Jaki Liebzeit had a very limited role on this album, but he is credited on 5 of the 7 songs, so I tend to feel that rumor is false. This version originally comes from the old TKO magnum CD release which unfortunately was taken from a so-so vinyl copy. I went and remixed these tracks so that the high end is brought out more, and I increased the stereo separation as well. The cover art here was also taken from that CD but was retouched to look more like the original 1978 release. I Hope you will enjoy it like I do.

Download Can-Out Of Reach

Album Art

2008-03-02T23:13:00.000-08:00

I restored some classic record covers to print up for CD size. I don't have my own scanner, so I had to use the best versions I could find. So none of it is high Resolution. Hopefully it may prove useful or entertaining regardless. These are all great LPs and highly recommended for purchase. Two covers here are collages that I made to be used for whatever. Click on the 2 panel covers to see them in CD size. I hope to get better at this when I have a scanner and a program more sophisticated than Window's Paint. If you use these scans on your website, please give me a mention, thanks! the top picture is courtesy of a great blogspot called Xtabay's World.

Side Show

2008-02-29T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is an album I owned as a boy, I believe it was the first group I ever bought a record by without my older brother's prior recommendation. Since it was my own "discovery", I earnestly tried to enjoy the album, but I must admit, it isn't the kind of music most kids would like, and I soon traded the album away. I found the record again on Ebay a few years ago, I snagged it to bring back forgotten memories, and now I appreciate the music much better. The album came out on Atlantic records I believe around 1969, and I'm guessing didn't do very well. The album pictured a group on the front, but didn't say anywhere who the members were and what they did. I determined from the individual song credits that the band consists partly of: Paul Giovanni, Gregg Kreutz and Ken Zeserson. Paul Giovanni appears to be the lead vocalists, and he went on to create the score for the original "Wicker Man" film with a group called Magnet. The vocals on that soundtrack are remarkably similar to those on this album, leading me to the conclusion he was the lead vocalist with Side Show. Giovanni went on to become a writer, and has since passed away. Gregg Kreutz (Bass) went on to become a Master painter and playwright he has a website here. Ken Zeserson is still a musician and has played with The Purple Valley and Radio London. The music on this album is hard to categorize, it reminds me of mellow progressive rock and also the folk/rock songs of the late 1960s. I think what I like best is the tasteful arrangements and the instrumental touches which were recorded very clearly. The album was produced and conducted by Arif Mardin, so there are a few nice string arrangements occasionally. The overall feeling of the album is mellow and restrained which may have been a factor in the group not becoming famous, but it does make this a worthwhile album nonetheless. If you love the soundtrack to "Wicker Man" you will enjoy this album since it has a similar maturity and the same lead vocalist. If you know any more about this group, or if you also owned this LP let me know, I have never met anyone else who had even heard of them.

Side Show LP

Bruce Haack-Moog Medicine Man

2008-02-27T06:27:00.000-08:00

If you are not aware of Bruce Haack read up on him a bit at Wikipedia. He was a very talented and inventive composer and his album Electric Lucifer is for my tastes the highpoint of his career. The LP is now available on CD so I am only going to offer one song to help promote and showcase the album. All downloads I found taken from the vinyl release have a skip on track 4 making it less than enjoyable. The new CD release was taken from the original source tapes recently found in the Columbia record's vaults. It is stunning audio quality and I recommend it highly.

Program Me

SMILE 1966-2004 HybridVersion

2008-02-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

In spring of 1966 after riding high on the artistic triumph of Pet Sounds and the commercial triumph of Good Vibrations, Brian Wilson set out to make a Beach Boys album that would surpass The Beatles' Revolver album in sonic artistry. The album ended up not getting completed for over 3 decades due to a wide array of problems that overtook it's author Brian Wilson. Finally in 2004 he released a completely reworked version with all new musicians, and none of the other original Beach Boys assistance. Also it was made with a different style of production than the original Smile recordings had and sounds quite different for that reason as well. I became obsessed with the unfinished album when I purchased Smiley Smile on CD about 6 years ago, I wanted to have every original recording from the 1966 sessions that I could find. I possibly even started praying that Wilson would find the motivation to finally complete his unfinished masterpiece, but I'd always hope he would use as much of the original recordings as was possible. I suspect that for legal reasons he chose to redo the whole project with his new musicians and vocalists. So I of course bought the new Smile album as quick as it was released and really like it a lot, but still miss the Beach Boys versions of songs like Heroes and Villains, Good Vibrations, Cabinessence and Surf''s Up. What I did was marry the completed 1966 Beach Boy recordings with the 2004 recordings so that they still flow seamlessly wherever the 2004 album did. I also adjusted the eq and reverb somewhat to make the 2004 recordings sound a bit more like the 1966 recordings. I made a whole new version of Heroes and Villains that is longer than any currently available versions, and I gave a choice of 2 true stereo versions of Good Vibrations. So here is a link to a sampler of what both eras of recordings sound like, and it just happens to be a complete Smile album in it's own right. I highly recommend that you purchase the Capitol reissue of Smiley Smile, the Beach Boy's box set called Good Vibrations and Brian Wilson's album Smile. I don't expect to offer this link for very long so get it while it's here. The VBR LAME mp3s may not play seamlessly unless transferred to wave or flac files first.

Track Listing:

Section One
1. Our Prayer (Beach Boys)
2. Gee (Brian Wilson)
3. Heroes And Villains (Beach Boys & Brian Wilson)
4. Roll Plymouth Rock (Brian Wilson)
5. Barnyard (Brian Wilson)
6. Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine (Brian Wilson)
7. Cabin Essence (Beach Boys)

Section Two
8. Wonderful (Beach Boys & Brian Wilson)
9. Song For Children (Brian Wilson)
10. Child Is Father Of The Man (Brian Wilson)
11. Surf's Up (Beach Boys)

Section Three
12. I'm In Great Shape (Beach Boys & Brian Wilson)
13. Vega-Tables (Beach Boys & Paul McCartney)
14. On A Holiday (Brian Wilson)
15. Wind Chimes (Brian Wilson)
16. Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (Brian Wilson)
17. Fire (Brian Wilson)
18. In Blue Hawaii (Brian Wilson)
19. Good Vibrations [45 Single Stereo Mix (Beach Boys)]

Bonus Tracks
20. Good Vibrations [2004 Album Version (Brian Wilson)]
21. Heroes And Villains [45 Single Stereo Mix (Beach Boys)]

SMILE Revisited

Wall Of Voodoo - There's Nothing On This Side / Mexican Radio (Dub)

2008-02-04T15:33:00.001-08:00

In the early 1980s Wall Of Voodoo released their hit single "Mexican Radio" on 12" vinyl. The B-side of the album contained 2 very interesting tracks that captured my imagination for many years. Track 1 is called "There's Nothing On This Side" and Track 2 is "Mexican Radio (Dub)". TNOTS is a track that incorporates strange synthesized noises, a simple electronic rhythm and snippets of conversation mostly taken from Telephone recordings. I had a friend play the track for me several years ago, and I never stopped thinking about how different it was. I believe that track paved the way for me embracing Industrial music a few years later. The second song is a simple remix of "Mexican Radio" that is just experimental enough to go really well with track 1. Since the A side is easy to find and still in print, I did not include that, but Side 2 is somewhat hard to find so I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do. I just realized that the A-side is a different edit than what appears on their "Call Of The West" LP so a link is listed in the comments for that version.

get it here

Chrome-Raining Milk (Revisited)

2008-01-31T00:04:00.000-08:00

Chrome was a very dynamic group that formed in San Francisco in the late 70s. Their sound incorporated Progressive Rock, Heavy Metal, Psychedelic, Post Punk, Gothic, Kraut Rock and Industrial. I discovered this group through Ralph Records, although they are not actually on that label. This is the last music the classic line-up of Chrome made before a long split up. It was recorded at San Francisco's famous Hyde Street Studios. This is the first album I bought by the group back in the early 80's. It took around 25 years for me to really appreciate the group, but I am a huge fan now. This album is generally considered to be their worst LP, but I have a soft spot for it since it is the first one I heard by them, plus the music is still top notch. The album was issued with incorrect track listing, a deceptively titled song and abridged mixes of songs that previously appeared on the albums "Chronicles 1" and "Chronicles 2". That is the main reason it is not a highly regarded album, however the music is still first rate. I seem to have lost my original vinyl copy of this album, so I downloaded a version on Demonoid (RIP). It was created using the original unedited Chronicles versions of the songs and was taken off pristine vinyl. So, although this isn't actually what the album sounded like exactly, it is the same songs, just properly titled and not edited for time. I added "Future Ghosts" as a bonus track. For those that want an abridged version taken from CD sources, I am offering that as well, it is nearly identical to the original LP. I can't remember the name of the man who shared the long version at Demonoid, but thank you again whoever you are. The top cover shown is from the original 1983 release the lower cover was assembled by me to accompany the revisited 75+ minute version.

Download 75+ Minute Version (From Vinyl)

Download 40+ Minute Version (From CD)

Blind Willie Johnson -Dark Was The Night Remix

2008-01-23T00:28:00.000-08:00

Blind Willie Johnson-Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground) remixed by Synthetic. I stumbled onto this fine recording artist from the late 1920's after hearing Wim Wender's commentary on his masterpiece film, Paris Texas. This song really moves me on several different levels, and I never tire of hearing it, so I hope this remix will do it some justice. Buy the album "Dark Was The Night" from CBS/Legacy, it is a fine collection. This song is virtually without lyrics, yet it conveys raw human emotion so powerfully. Also there is an otherworldly quality to Johnson that makes me feel like I am hearing deep testimonies from beyond the grave. I intended for this remix to draw out the raw emotion, and the otherworldly quality as well. The remix is only intended to make people more aware of BWJ and not for self promotion, I will not be offering this song on any profit albums, and will remove link upon request of any person (with the exception of anonymous persons).
Download Remix

Old Skull-Get Outta School (1989)

2008-01-03T06:49:00.000-08:00

These 3 Wisconsin tykes with the help of their dads Vernon Toulon and Robin Davies (who had both been punk musicians) got a recording contract with Restless records. The result was an album that some consider to be pure garbage, but I've always liked this one. For me, the main thing I like about old School punk is the raw energy and feeling of sonic nihilism, these kids had that in spades! By their next album the group's personnel would almost completely change and the lyrics would be much more influenced by their fathers. But on this album when the kids were around 9-10 years old, the kids sound almost completely unhindered by adult supervision. Think about it, who is better suited to making a noisy, pure energy music nihilism than untrained punk kids? Because of their lack of any polish, I do admit this sounds much more closely related to No Wave music of late 70's New York than any of the well known old school punk bands. Alternate playing this album with the album "No New York" and I bet you'll find a striking similarity. I once spoke to father and agent Vern Toulon about making a music video for the band, but our distance in miles kept that from being a reality, they did make at least 1 video however called Homeless and it aired occasionally and is now on YouTube. These kids are now young men and almost all of them seem to be continuing in their musical aspirations. Take a look at their page on Wikipedia for more complete information. It is being reported that Vern Toulon ghost wrote most of the material on Get Outta School, which I disagree with. I asked him about that back in 1993 and he suggested the kids wrote most of these songs with some topic suggestions from Vern, and he helped much more on the 2nd album "CIA Drug Fest". The lyrics really are very different on both albums which supports that as well. Here you mostly just hear overly caffeinated kids singing about what's cool to them (hot dogs, pizza, skating, kicking ass) and it makes for some twisted fun. There is already a good post of this album on blogger at Outside My Scene, but I thought I would post a higher bit-rate version and share some of my knowledge and opinions about the group as well. You'll want to go to that page if you want the record cover in it's original layout, I just put this one together for those that like a larger version.
DOWNLOAD Album (VBR LAME mp3s)

Happy Holidays! Synthetic-"Winter" LP

2008-01-01T01:54:00.000-08:00

Synthetic-Winter
Hey friends I have a new album available for download at 20kbps rec. at a bit-rate of 32 kbps, and from OUIM.net at 256-320 kbps VBR. It is a selection of mind-numbingly chill music to make you dance or get mellow. 4 dance numbers and 2 very ambient soundscapes for your enjoyment. I cannot easily put the dance numbers into one category, there are elements of IDM, trip hop, ambient, illbient and motorik. 5 of the songs are variations on 2 different themes. The odd track out "Birds Of Doom Winter Dance" is based around a recording of a music software malfunction. "Snow Angels" is a 50+ minute soundscape which I created by stretching a Synthetic tune 5 times in length using Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch software.
32 kbps version
256-320 kbps VBR version

Gene Vincent - Pretty Girls Everywhere

2007-11-05T02:13:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite obscure track performed by the late great legend of rock & roll, Gene Vincent. This was recorded in 1965 for a BBC radio program, his backing band is The Shouts, who are probably the least famous backing band Gene ever worked with. Sad, because their playing is in top form here, and the drum beat is one of my favorites of all time, the variety of difficult drum rolls really keeps the song moving. Gene is singing particularly skillfully on this cut, hopping from rich baritone to high falsetto seamlessly. Almost all of gene's music is in print, I would love to share his best works with the world, but alas it's all in print. This song however doesn't appear on any major label box sets so I think it should be kosher to share this. The song can be found on Rebel Heart and Shakin' Up A Storm CDs offered by indie labels, and hopefully in higher fidelity than my version, but I can't promise that. I've heard 3 different sources for this song, and they all sound as if lifted from an acetate demo copy. I heartily recommend Shakin' Up A Storm though because it gives a full album of Gene with the drastically forgotten backing band The Shouts. Please look around for a collection of this legend's greatest hits, you won't be disappointed.
Dowload Song VBR LAME MP3

Comsat Angels - Chasing Shadows

2007-10-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

Sheffield's Comsat Angels were masters of dark, atmospheric alternative music. The drums are almost always very muscular and simple. The guitar work is rich and colorful and very expressive. The keyboard work is modern and mature, on this album there is a lot of beautiful acoustic piano. Finally their vocals/lyrics are sensitive, intelligent and personal. This is their 6th studio album, and the first to show a good compromise between their artful side and the alternative pop market. The album was produced by Comsat Angels and Robert Palmer who sings backing vocals on You'll Never Know. It has been out of print for too long. Mine comes from a British pressing and is mastered to 20bit Sony Pro CD from a Stanton Pro turntable/cartrifdge, then transferred to VBR LAME mp3. There already is a nice version on the blogspot page, The Subversive Sounds, but I found almost all of the songs to have minor vinyl skipping (at least on my download of it). So I decided to offer mine, with a pinch more crackle at times, but no skipping that I could detect. I really hope this album comes out on CD someday, until then... enjoy!
Download Link

Hairspray (1988) OST Revisited

2007-10-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

I am fan of the old original John Water's 1988 film, Hairspray but haven't cared for any of the remakes/spinoffs. They do however, reinforce my liking for the original. What I particularly liked about the film was the eclectic soundtrack. The album that was released featured only 12 of the 29 Songs featured in the film. So I have searched exhaustively for the other songs and give you a collection of 26 songs from the original film. Chubby Checker was featured repeatedly on the soundtrack, which is nice because many of us only knew The Twist and Limbo Rock. The other tracks by Chubby Checker were also minor hits in their time and deserve to be remembered. I strongly recommend you purchase a best of Chubby Checker from the Cameo Parkway years. Some of the other artists appearing here are Gene Chandler, Gene Pitney, Barbara Lynn and Leslie Gore. These songs came from a variety of sources, about 15% came straight from CD, the rest from P2P sources. If anyone knows how to get the missing 3 songs please let me know. They are:
The Bracelettes - Waddle Waddle
The Two Du-Tones - The Bird
The Dovells - Do The New Continental

Download Album

This Is 20kbps!

2007-09-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the swiss label 20kbps rec. in my post regarding the Colorsmoke EP. Now I felt it was time to show some of my favorite tracks from that dynamic, underground label. I have made a mega mix consisting of some of my very favorite works that are available for free on this label. Some of the tracks here are at a lower bitrate than the original, so some songs will sound better downloaded directly from the label. There is just something very other worldly about these delicious lo-bit pieces. The label has a wide variety of artists from all over the world. It is the most independent and diverse label I have ever stumbled on to, and constantly surprises me. The cover art shown here is available at Plan 59 for viewing or purchase, it just seemed to go well with the strange mega mix I created.

01 - Olga & Fritz - Track 1 (Mio Star EP)
02 - Agent Orange - Micrology
03 - Copyright Killer - In Misery We End
04 - Deemage - Coriander
05 - Is....Dead - Chemical Scent Imprint
06 - Agent FF6600 - Heizung An
07 - Old Oldman - Noss
08 - Pimuri - Kitchenbeat
09 - JKP - Vivaldi's La Primavera Excerpt
10 - Vivcaro - Erna
11 - Maiden China - How To Be Reflected In A Puddle Full Of Dirt
12 - eVADE - Summer
13 - No Artist - I Retrieve Cereal From High Voltage Systems
14 - Idle Flight - Alaska Beckoned
15 - Death On Glamour - Refresh Yo Mind
16 - Deemage - It Will Never happen
17 - Agent FF6600 - Ninja
18 - Synthetic - Brown Smoke
19 - Mr Dee - Shot #10
20 - Overthruster - Lamers
21 - Vivcaro - Majong's Garden
22 - Pharmacon - Bach's Fugue 02
23 - Agent FF6600 - Cotton Walk On Sparks
24 - Maiden China - That's The End, Thank You

Link to 20kbps MegaMix
Link to Separate Tracks

Magnetophone-Lost In Edit

2007-08-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

4AD is an extremely diverse and rich label that doesn't have many electronica artists affiliated with them. But the ones they do have are sensational: Gus Gus vs. T-world, Minotaur Shock and Magnetophone to name a few of the few. Magnetophone's 2006 release, "The Man Who Ate The Man" is a vibrant, eclectic album full of surprises and rewards. JM Lapham (of The Earlies) came across the music and was so impressed that he offered to make a remix collage of the entire album. 4AD is kind enough to offer a link to downoad this collage called "Lost In Edit" for free. The link is getting increasingly hard to find on their website, so I am offering a link to their link. More information can be found on Magnetophone at the 4AD site, they are a diverse and extremely worthwhile group. I strongly recommend buying Their albums.

LINK to Lost In Edit

Magnetophone's MySpace Page

The Great Lost Kinks Album (and Bonus Track)

2007-08-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Those doggone Kinks, before discovering them, I didn't use to care about having every song by an artist. The Kinks are one of those rare bands that make such consistently great music. I find myself needing to own their entire recorded output. The Great Lost Kinks Album is an album I have owned since childhood, and have found it very hard to acquire all of these songs on CD. I own about 50 separate Kinks CDs, yet some of these songs are still proving to be quite elusive to find. There is another blog called Blues Town, that offers a link to the pure vinyl version exactly as it sounded in 1973. I recommend this link to the vinyl purists out there. For those like myself who want to hear how it might sound if Warner or Castle would ever issue it on CD, I am offering a link to a remastered edition. Only 3 songs on this version are taken from vinyl copies, the rest come from various Castle & Rhino CDs of expanded Kinks albums. A few songs are now in true stereo for the first time with this album. A portion of these tracks were intended to be released on an album to be named "Four More Respected Gentlemen" which was never released. Many of the other tracks were probably intended to be on "The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society", which Ray Davies Supposedly originally intended to make into a double LP. Many of these songs only appeared officially as b-sides to import singles. As an album it is not exceptionally strong, and differs greatly from the harder rock that The Kinks were usually known for. It does serve as a nice companion piece to The Kink Kronikles collection. Ray Davies was outraged at Warner/Reprise issuing this LP without his consent, and that is probably why it is such a rare album to this day. But for those of us that appreciate even The Kinks weaker songs, this is a must have LP. "Animals In The Zoo" has been offered as a bonus track, to hopefully make the LP stronger as a whole. It is from the same soundtrack as "The Way Love Used To Be", so it fits in conceptually as well. the album art shown here has been retouched by me so that the album title will be visible at jewel case size. To Ray or Dave and license holder, if you disapprove of this link, I will remove it immediately.

1 Till Death Do Us Part
2. There Is No Life Without Love
3. Lavender Hill
4. Groovy Movies
5. Rosemary Rose
6. Misty Water
7. Mister Songbird
8. When I Turn off the Living Room Light
9. The Way Love Used to Be
10. I'm Not Like Everybody Else
11. Plastic Man
12. This Man He Weeps Tonight
13. Pictures in the Sand
14. Where Did My Spring Go?
15. Animals In The Zoo (Bonus Track)

The Great Lost Kinks Album (LAME VBR mp3s)

Captain Groovy & His Bubblegum Army (1969)

2007-08-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

There are a few folks around here offering either the a-side of this 45 or the b-side. As far as I can tell, no one is offering the complete 45, so here's a link for it. This was put together by some of the same folks who created Crazy Elephant. It is a Kasenetz-Katz production with the help of Ritchie Cordell and the same session players who graced much of the Crazy Elephant LP. Side a is Captain Groovy And His Bubblegum Army, which was intended to be the theme song for an animated TV series which never happened. Side b is Dark Part Of My Mind (Part 1), part 2 of which was released on a Crazy Elephant single. Dark Part is in my opinion the most psychedelic music produced by The Super K folks, and it really is groovy.

Captain Groovy 45

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kontakte (Electronics Only)

2007-08-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

A Closet Of Curiosities has posted a link to an exceptional collection of actual Stockhausen recordings. The sound is superb and the selections are exquisite. The only problem is that Kontakte is broken down into several seamless tracks, which lost their seamlessness in the mp3 transfer. So I'm offering a link to a re-patched, seamless version in one track. The tracks were painstakingly re-joined on Acid Pro 5. This is the version of Kontakte that features Stockhausen's Electronic sound with no orchestral accompaniment. I recommend highly that you check out their link to the complete album, and of course, buy it if you can, it was issued on Verlag. The front cover art here is by me - Steve Engler.

Download Link

Simpsonized self portrait

2007-07-30T04:05:00.000-07:00

This is what I look like in The Simpson's universe. Done at the Simpson's Movie website.

Inserts - Out Of The Box (1983)

2007-07-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

When I was a young teen, I went into Denver's Wax Trax record shop (Owned by the same people who founded the Wax Trax label, I believe). They had started a new section simply called Electronic. I looked through this section and saw this very cool looking record cover (Done by Cal Shenkel), so I just had to get it for myself. I'm sure glad I did because this extreme rarity is a real gem. This quartet put out 4 live improvisations that resemble the 80's King Crimson, Frank Zappa and Robert Fripp's albums with Andy Summers.
The quartet consists of: Richard Isgrigg (Guitar, Guitar-Synthesizer & Rhodes Piano), Tom Cranor (Guitar & Guitar-Synthesizer), Mark Murrell (Bass) and Sam Simon (Drums). This was released by a small label called Nozzle Records in 1983 on Vinyl, Cassette and PCM Digital Cassette formats. I have not found out any information on this group except what is printed on the back sleeve. The artwork was exceptional both front and back, and the art was available for a limited time as a poster from Cal Shenkel. The sound quality is less than perfect as the vinyl album has been played frequently over the last 24 years. It was transferred to a Sony pro CD recorder, then encoded to VBR LAME mp3s.

1. Out Of The Box
2. Fog Bank
3. Space Mambo
4. The Bending World

UPDATE-I was recently contacted by Richard Isgrigg, lead guitarist of Inserts, and they are still a functioning band, and this album will be made available again in the near future. In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out their web pages at bandmix.com and MySpace. I borrowed a copy of the album art from their bandmix page.

Link to Inserts-Out Of The Box

Synthetic-Colorsmoke EP (2007)

2007-07-29T04:35:00.000-07:00

This is my first release for the Swiss net label 20kbps rec. It is an attempt to fuse electronica and psychedelic music. The label is one of the most famous lo-bit labels in the world, meaning that the music is encoded at 8-40 kbps. I decided to treat lo-bit almost as an effects pedal, utilizing the low fidelity to my advantage. Songs 1, 3 & 5 are dance numbers that admittedly would probably sound better at higher bit-rates, but songs 2 & 4 are actually better at the low bit-rate of 20kbps. The song titles were somewhat influenced by Davis Redford Triad's Blue Cloud, as well as Miles Davis's Aura album. Purple Smoke is influenced by Neu and Weasels era Zappa, Yellow and Brown Smoke are inspired by Eraserhead, Psychedelic music and Skinny Puppy. Red and Green Smoke features an old Casio VL-1 synth/calculator playing a random melody in the background. To give listeners a choice, I gave 2 versions of Song 5 to choose from, one is in stereo, the other is made to simulate being played on an old suitcase style turntable. I also gave a choice of 3 different CD covers to choose from, one of which was designed by Dutch graphic artist Norbert Croonenberg (lower picture shown).

The album is available free at 20 kbps rec. and I highly recommend some of my labelmate's albums like: Old Oldman's The Tender Ass and Deemage's Nothing Happens Everything Changes.

Link to 20kbps rec.

Crazy Elephant LP (1969)

2007-07-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

This LP came out at the end of the 60's, and was rare enough that many record collectors used to tell me it didn't exist, I suspect it went out of print very early on. Crazy Elephant had one big hit called "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin", and a very minor hit called, "Sunshine, Red Wine" they released some more singles that didn't do very well. The band is almost always unfairly compared to the Bubblegum music that their producers Kasenetz-Katz were widely known for. Unfair because to this day I still haven't heard a pure Bubblegum style song out of this diverse and talented group. They sounded similar to Vanilla Fudge and The Rascals but to the best of my knowledge they didn't sound Bubblegum. The LP is sometimes referred to as a collection of singles, but it stands up nicely as an album in it's own right. The strongest element running throughout the album is strong keyboard work. Much of this album was put together by Ritchie Cordell, who worked on many Super K projects. Three performers of note on this album are Robert Spencer (vocals) who had previously performed with The Cadillacs (post "Speedo"), Kenny Cohen (Flute, Sax, Vocals) who went on to perform with The Eagles, Santana, Rod Stewart and BB King, and Bob Avery (Drums) who also played with The Music Explosion ("A Little Bit Of Soul"). Larry Laufer (Keyboards, Vocals) is designated as the leader of the group on this LP. Hal King (vocals) and Ronnie Bretone (Bass) are the other performers credited on this LP. Larry Laufer was asked to put together a touring version of the group, The Music Explosion and eventually that group evolved into the Crazy Elephant band credited on this LP. Production is by Jeff Katz and Jerry Kasenetz which apparently is the main reason this group is considered by many to be Bubblegum. Very ironic considering that at least one song would sound totally in place on the original "Nuggets" box set. For some reason Buddha records declined to represent Crazy Elephant, and they instead ended up on Bell Records. Crazy Elephant was once cited as an influence on Talking Heads, I'm assuming because of the jangly rhythm guitar work and youthful lyrics. There are also a few singles here which I believe were released around the same time as the LP. The single, "There Ain't No Umbopo" was written, performed and produced by the guys who would eventually become Hotlegs and then 10cc, the song reminds me of Side 2 of Small Faces "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" album. During this era they put out several singles for Kasenetz-Katz as well as some British bubblegum producers. I believe that Laufer, King and Bretone went on to perform on more of Kasenetz-Katz bubblegum classics. I would bet that at least one of them ended up on Captain Groovy & His Bubblegum Army, since they also issued a single called "Dark Part Of My Mind".

Contents
1. Respect
2. Pam
3. Come To The Farm
4. Somewhere
5. My Baby (Honey Pie)
6. Sunshine, Red Wine
7. Heartless (Hertie Gertie)
8. Love Strike
9. Try This When You're Ready
10. Higher & Higher
11. Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' (Stereo LP Version)
12. Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' (Mono Single Version)
13. Dark Part Of My Mind (B-Side)
14. Gimme Some More (A-Side)
15. There's A better Day A Comin' (A-Side)
16. Space Buggy (B-Side)
17. There Ain't No Umbopo (A-Side)
18. Landrover (B-Side)
19. Splif Dna Spih (B-Side)

Download Link for CRAZY ELEPHANT LP