What are you listening to at the present? (genres helpful)

[marurun]

Van Halen: 5150

[Sano]

Fragma - You are alive

[TSTR]

For those of you into synthwave, there's a Groupees bundle running right now with some badass stuff. Check it out: https://groupees.com/synth4

Thanks for the heads up TSTR! I got this and have enjoyed what I have listened to so far. There are 2 more days on the sale for any other fans of 80s sounding synthesizer music.

u kno i got u bb

[Sano]

Alice Deejay - Back In My Life

[marurun]

For those of you into synthwave, there's a Groupees bundle running right now with some badass stuff. Check it out: https://groupees.com/synth4

Thanks for the heads up TSTR! I got this and have enjoyed what I have listened to so far. There are 2 more days on the sale for any other fans of 80s sounding synthesizer music.

I also decided to bite. Don't regret it at all.

[Stark]

Trampled by Turtles - Risk


Bluegrass

[noiseredux]

Oliver Nelson
The Blues And The Abstract Truth
1961, This was an album recommended to me and pitched as a sort of companion piece to Davis' Kind Of Blue. And I can hear that, sure. There's obviously some overlapping personnel with Bill Evans and Paul Chambers. But it also has a pretty similar vibe. And with that in mind I would kind of give it some pretty similar feedback. Which is to say that I like it. It's perfectly pleasing to my ears. But all in all it doesn't really demand that I keep coming back to it. I think that "Stolen Moments" is fantastic. There's no doubt on that one. But I also think "Hoe-Down" is kind of silly sounding, so there's that. The rest is just kind of there to me. It's the sort of album I'd put on to not really pay close attention to. Not a great compliment I suppose, but it is what it is.


Cal Tjader
The Prophet
1969, I have to admit that the only reason I hunted down The Prophet was because it was sampled so prominently on A Tribe Called Quest's interludes on Midnight Marauders. The track "Aquarius" here is the familiar tune, and it sounds great in its full glory. Soothing, yet strangely creepy and weird. Unfortunately the rest of the album suffers from a bit too much of the same in my opinion. It never really goes anywhere, and instead feels a bit like elevator music to me. I suppose it has a certain breezy Summery vibe to it, but maybe even just a bit more variance in instrument line-up could have made this half-hour feel less monotonous.


Prestige Jazz
2007, I almost hate to admit how much time I've been spending at Starbucks lately. But whatever. These Starbuck compilations have been kind of fun to collect. Not that they're especially extraordinary, but I must admit that they're put together with care. In fact it even goes the extra mile of lovely liner notes that talk a bit about each track selected. And with that in mind pretty much whatever I wrote about the Riverside Jazz one would apply here. These are mostly safe picks, but that doesn't change the fact that they're good ones. And going through the tracklist there's all kinds of stuff I could point out: the great opener that The Modern Jazz Quartet's "Django" is; how utterly beautiful Coltrane's "Like Someone In Love" is; how cool and borderline gimmicky the opening to Red Garland's "If I Were A Bell" is; and on and on. It's really a top notch collection of songs, even if they are safe picks as I had said. Look at the rest of the contributors: Davis, Hawkins, Monk, Dolphy, Burrell... Like I said this isn't the best compilation in the world. But it is damn good, and if nothing else a reminder that I really love a lot of stuff that Prestige released.

[Stark]

The Pixies - Where Is My Mind?



Where is. my MIND?

[noiseredux]

aw man, Rudy Van Gelder passed away. He was 91 - and he lived a long and legendary life. Dude was a true genius and his hands and ears touched an astonishing number of incredible albums. I can't even guess how many CD's I own with the RVG name on them.

[J T]

aw man, Rudy Van Gelder passed away. He was 91 - and he lived a long and legendary life. Dude was a true genius and his hands and ears touched an astonishing number of incredible albums. I can't even guess how many CD's I own with the RVG name on them.

I'm so glad he was with us for as long as he was. So many of the jazz greats released beautifully recorded and produced material thanks to his studio magic. While the jazz musicians themselves are the true stars, I don't think I would know of them if it weren't for RVG making timeless recordings of them with his studio engineering skills.