LOUIS ARMSTRONG & HIS ALL STARS-FINE AND DANDY FLAC
In April of 1950, Satchmo and his all stars recorded 10 songs in New York City that were intended to be mainly for inclusion on an LP album.  The songs were recorded over just 2 days, and are in my opinion, their best studio set ever.  Every song is quality material, played with an abundance of energy.  Many of the songs are longer than the average 3-4 minute singles he usually recorded, the goal, I believe, was to make a unique double LP of long jamming songs.  Sadly, many of these songs were cut in half to be issued as singles, and no album of these 10 tunes together has ever been released.  This great era of Satchmo's career is somewhat obscure.  So I have searched for over a year for the finest CD masters of these tracks, and then remixed them slightly to improve sound quality further.  So basically this is a fictional album that should have been.  I made the front cover artwork in a mock 50s style illustration, and added a Decca logo from roughly that time period.  These songs are some of Satchmo's most rocking and jamming studio recordings of his career.  They show that being "middle-aged" doesn't have to mean slowed down or mellowed.  Even the mellow songs often end up rocking out before they are over, like in the song, "I Surrender Dear".  There are plenty of fine drum solos by Cozy Cole, and even a bass solo or two.  It's also quite nice to hear Earl Hines piano in a high fidelity setting.  I highly recommend you buy the album called New Orleans Nights, it has some of these fine songs from these recording dates.  I remixed my tracks from the Out of print Mosaic box set, I reduced the loudness and distortion, and added a pinch of reverb to compensate for the noise reduction that Mosaic used. Finally the songs were Equalized to reduce distortion of the highs and bass frequencies, and hopefully make the quieter instruments stand out better.
Song Listing: Panama, New Orleans Function, Twelfth Street Rag, That's For Me, Bugle Call Rag / Ole Miss, I Surrender Dear, Russian Lullaby, Baby Won't You Please Come Home? Fine And Dandy, My Bucket's Got A Hole In It

Fine And Dandy Part 1 FLAC
Fine And Dandy Part 2 FLAC

Making changes

Many of my recent posts aren't available any longer for download, they were taken down because of Megaupload. There are so many things that I was sharing that I am only going to re-upload what is requested. So if you see something you like here and the link is no longer active, then make a request and I'll see what I can do.

Many of my shares are gone

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)

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

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

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)

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

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

Björk MegaRemix

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

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)

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

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)

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

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

Killing Joke - Requiem (Synthetic's Space Mix)

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

Check out these songs from Steve E. on Indaba Music

Blue Cat Cinema - EP1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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