Sunday 6 November 2011

SAMANTHA MUMBA - BODY II BODY


"Body to body, funk to funky - we know how to rock your party!"
Was quite literally stunned when this single was released in 2000. Bowie was pretty cool in allowing his introspective masterpiece "Ashes To Ashes" to be sampled for a light piece of r&b-dance-pop such as this. "Body II Body" is a great single, seeing as it borrows heavily off the original Bowie track. Whilst the original had mama saying "to get things done you better not mess with Major Tom", Mumba's version has mama saying "to get things done, you gotta go to school - ain't gonna have no fun!". Priceless! Three tracks altogether - the other two being dance remixes c/o Robbie Rivera and Tall Paul - neither of which use any of the Bowie music.


SAMANTHA MUMBA - BODY II BODY
2000
VBR kbps
22 mb


Ripped & encoded by The Glass Humanoid.

NINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS - 20 KICKINGS OF THE CORPORATE ARSE


Sampler of 7" inchers from indie label Fierce Panda. 20 tracks altogether. Worth picking up for China Drum's cover of "Wuthering Heights", Pullover's cover of "Last Christmas" and an early version of Placebo's "Bruise Pristine", amongst many other obscure pearls.

1999
VBR kbps
92 mb

Ripped & encoded by The Glass Humanoid.

MONEYBROTHER - TO DIE ALONE


Absolutely superb album from Swedish rocker Anders Wendin which performed well in his native Sweden (#1) and Germany (#37). Highlight is undoubtedly the rocking disco-soul stormer "They're Building Walls Around Us" which, in my opinion, is one of THE best songs/singles I've heard in the last decade (I'd go as far as to say it's a classic) and, yet sadly, barely anyone has heard of either Moneybrother or Anders outside of a few European countries. Treat yourself and download this superb album and hear what you and everyone outside Sweden and Germany have been missing!

2005
VBR kbps
53 mb

Ripped & encoded by The Glass Humanoid.

Saturday 5 November 2011

THE BEST OF AUF WIEDERSEHEN PET


Superb collection of music - a whopping 29 tracks - used in the various series of British tv classic Auf Wiedersehen Pet including incidental music and all the excellent hit songs recorded by Joe Fagin for the show such as "That's Livin' Alright" and "Back With The Boys Again".

2002
VBR kbps
74 mb

Ripped & encoded by The Glass Humanoid.

Thursday 3 November 2011

LOVING THE ALIEN - ATHENS GEORGIA SALUTES DAVID BOWIE


Being a lifetime Bowie fanatic, I'm forever a sucker for Bowie tribute albums! I purchased this some years back when there seemed to be a whole load of Bowie tribute albums coming out at once (I bought them all, of course!). This one is definitely one of the better ones featuring as it does a great batch of unknown bands/artists all hailing from the great Athens, Georgia. Featuring 10 tracks and not one of them actually being "Loving The Alien"(!), Loving The Alien flows very nicely from start to finish. The decidedly REM-ish Robert Lurie Collective do a brilliant cover of Bowie's obscure classic "I Can't Read", The Quiet Men superbly rendition "Big Brother" (although sadly don't end it with "Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family" so the song feels a bit sudden when it reaches the end), Mime has a refreshingly unique take (which might not be everyone's cup of tea!) on one of my all time fave Bowie songs - the Bowie standard "John, I'm Only Dancing", Ceiling Fan do a superb, grungy and ever-so-faithful version of "Hang Onto Yourself" (one of my favourite tracks on this abum) and the same goes for Slackdaddy's excellent version of "Starman". Don't Analyse really does something (I'm not sure what but I like it!) to the Low instrumental "A New Career In A New Town". Ultimate fave track on here though is Simultaneous Discs' unique, epic, downbeat take on Bowie's upbeat pop classic "Modern Love". What makes Loving The Alien a winner is the way each artist has covered the song with an obvious passion for the material but injecting it with something fresh/different without taking away what made the original what it was in the first place. In other words, they haven't ruined a good song - they've just added another flavour to it. A must own for Bowie fans.

1999
VBR kbps
64 mb

Ripped & encoded by The Glass Humanoid.

Monday 31 October 2011

JOHN SHUTTLEWORTH - THE YAMAHA YEARS


Back around the mid-late 80s, ex-"Jilted John" Graham Fellows regenerated into one of my favourite comedy characters: the self "styled singer songwriter from Sheffield, South Yorkshire" and "ex-security guard for a sweet manufacturer in the Rotherham area (which he can't mention for security reasons!)": John Shuttleworth. I first discovered the character when he appeared semi-regularly on Channel 4's Saturday Zoo in the early 90s in which he performed - on his Yamaha PSS portable keyboard - some of the self-penned comedy song classics that have been compilated on this must-own album called The Yamaha Years. Shuttleworth's uniquely British brand of comedy and music is always guaranteed to put a smile on my face. Fave tracks: "The Christmas Orphan", "My Wife Died In 1970", "Up And Down Like A Bride's Nightie" and, of course, the anthemic Eurovision entry wannabe "Pigeons In Flight".

1999
192 kbps
63 mb

Ripped & encoded by The Glass Humanoid.

MICHAEL NYMAN - A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS



My all-time favourite movie score (besides Danny Elfman's score for Tim Burton's 1989 masterpiece Batman) for, likewise, one of my all-time favourite movies: Peter Greenaway's surreal, avant-garde masterpiece A Zed And Two Noughts. The entire score has remained constantly in my head ever since the movie was first shown on Channel 4 back in 1985. Favourite tracks: "Car Crash", "Prawn Watching" and the sublime "L'Escargot". Sublime is the word I would use to describe both the movie and the entire score.


MICHAEL NYMAN - A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS
1985
320 kbps
59 mb


Ripped & encoded by The Glass Humanoid.