Btw, if you want to fix the years, the discogs and allmusic entries are handy. I couldn't find an image at all of the original Ahkreavention lp - if anyone does, post it!
Edit - I think these sets must not have had album pricing initially because they were buried on the last page of my SFL:
Another 4 disc set up for $8.99 at 7dig - 100 Greatest Bluegrass Hits from the CMH label. Nice collection from which I have downloaded some individual tracks at eMu - I'll check them out tonight and report back. I recall being happy with them.
Also, Friends of Old Time Music:The Folk Arrival 1961-1965 from Smithsonian Folkways, 3 disc set, $8.99 at 7dig. (2nd edit - put in the link to the right seller, oops - should teach me to be more tolerant, then again this isn't my job, eh?)Here's the link for the Emu page for artist listings - I usually find 7digital's listings are good once downloaded but the page often doesn't display the artists on these V.A.comps.
Has anyone else noticed how strange the Search function is at 7dig when it comes to titles/phrases rather than artists? For instance, I've found that with say 100 Essential as the search you can get all kinds of crap displayed first, including 50 Essential, before you ever get to the 100 Essential you were looking for. There have been occasions where the title I wanted didn't show up until the third or fourth page of results, even using a complete title (a less obsessive person might think they didn't have the title), so I figured I'd pass that along to the rest of you searchers out there.
3rd Edit - As promised I reviewed the handful of tracks I downloaded from each of the above several years ago and after listening to a little Joe Maphis, Johnny Gimble, Doc Watson, and Fred McDowell it was very easy to say hell yeah for the entire collections, and they are not even the fly-by-night comp labels I so often favor. Very good music if you like the genre.
Thanks BDB - the great thing for me is that 7 digital have all the same releases in the UK, often at very similar prices once exchange rate is taken into account. Being a UK company obviously helps, but if they can do it why can't Amazon, for example, have the same offers in USA and UK?
Greg: all my purchases at 7dig produce an additional charge for currency conversion. I think that 7dig essential "ships" its downloads overseas to the US, allowing US customers to enjoy the UK prices for at least some of its product (from labels not in the US). It also allows eMusic to price some of the same labels lower, like JSP. However, Amazon UK may operate as separate shops in the US and the UK, selling product "locally".
Thats interesting BT, I hadn't realised that about 7 digital. Amazon UK is a separate operation. They have an incredibly massive warehouse only about 20 miles away from where I live
BB: Wow you're right. I'm listening to this Shostakovitch Concertos Orchestral Suites and Chamber Symphonies Box set on Spotify and was curious to see if it's on 7digital. I don't think so, but who knows for sure. Odd that they have no classical tag.
Definitive collection of Villa-Lobos' string quartets.
Easily one of the most consistently prolific Latin American composers, Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote for an extensive variety of instrumental combinations from symphonies to operas. While he is today most often remembered for his set of Baroque-inspired Bachianas Brasileiras, his contribution to the more "traditional" chamber music forms was just as important. Curiously and disappointingly absent from the standard concert repertoire, Villa-Lobos wrote a total of 17 string quartets and was working on an eighteenth at the time of his death in 1959. Their composition spans more than four decades and are filled with the composer's skillful experiments with tonality, polyrhythm, color, sonority, texture, and, of course, his much beloved and ubiquitous Brazilian folk idiom. None of the quartets appear as mere compositional exercises but rather as displays of Villa-Lobos's ability to synthesize his wide-reaching influences. This Dorian reissue of the complete string quartets, which originally garnered two Grammy nominations, features the fiery and energetic Cuarteto Latinoamericano. As rhythm and a "folksy" feeling play such a dominant role in these scores, Cuarteto Latinoamericano is an ideally suited ensemble. While the intonation is not flawless, rhythmic intensity and crispness of articulation are more than enough to grip the attention of listeners. Balance within the quartet is quite nice and the sound quality features both a present, punchy bass and a strong, crisp offering from the upper strings.
Some of the earliest examples of electronic music from Netherlands
Boomkat:
Back in stock. At long last this is re-pressed, one of the most essential collections of early electronic music ever compiled!! Raymond Scott's 'Manhattan Research Inc' boxset from 2000 is one of the finest reissues to have appeared in the last ten years. This new set from Basta is the unofficial follow up, easily their most perfectly realised project to date consisting of 4 cd's, seven booklets, posters, stickers, transcriptions and a time chart all contained within a high gloss stiff card box. It focuses on the early electronic music works from the Dutch company Philips electronic music research facility (Natlab) in Eindhoven and later at the STEM laboratory at Utrecht, tampering with their glowing wires around the same time as Raymond Scott was doing the same across the Atlantic. The artists featured are Henk Badings, Tom Dissevelt and Dick Raaijmakers also known as the electronic pop originator Kid Baltan. In the early days of electronic music exploration many musicians passed through these Dutch theatres of sound including Edgard Varese who in 1956 composed his classic 'Poeme Electronique' there. GRM supremo Pierre Schaeffer was also known to pay a visit to compare notes. Musically this is complete magic, from the seriously advanced for it's time work of Henk Badings whose truly next world level 'Kain en Abel' is a blast of seriously contemporary music composed in the most laborious way possible, you need to hear this music. Rusted live piano over glowing drones, hands on tape manipulation and beautifully abstract noises, amazing. Next up is the first reported instance of electronic music being made solely for the populous. From 1957 Kid Baltan includes his reading of 'Colonel Bogey' aka the main theme and famous wartime song from Bridge On The River Kwai, this particular artist's music is a massive influence on Jean-Jacques Perry who writes the forward to this set. 'Night Train Blues' for three ondes martenots' is hilarious but also check Dissevelt's spooky rewiring of 'Waltzing Matilda' later on in this set, wow. Tom Dissevelts numbers sound like a rawer advancement of Raymond Scott's poppy electronic works, check 'Drifting', sublime and 'Intersection' whose blasts of sound are revelatory. The second CD is arranged into concert music, film music and sound scenery. The third CD contains all of Tom Disselvelt's classic and hellishly rare 'Fantasy In Orbit' album, one can easily imagine this being a massive influence on Brian Eno's early work. The fourth CD features alternate versions, television soundtrack music and even a Gil Evans styled big band jazz track. The eight 'STER tunes' each lasting nine seconds each are like early works in progress for Wendy Carlos' 'A Clockwork Orange' soundtrack. Also featured on the fourth CD are the individual parts for certain tracks, completely fascinating. One can't imagine a more worthy reissue this year maybe except for the imminent Ilhan Mimaroglu CD on Locust. We only have a small number of these very special sets in stock so please be quick. Absolutely unmissable.
From what I understand, this is a solid and thorough (11 hours) collection of Medieval European polyphony.
Classics Today:
This ambitious project was initiated by Jean Salkin, founder of Belgium's National Sound Recording Library, and fulfilled by conductor Guy Janssens and his Renaissance vocal group Laudantes Consort. The result of Salkin's dream--"to publish a series of 12 digital recordings representing the Golden Age of European vocal polyphony"--is realized in this extraordinary boxed set, which effectively offers listeners a highlights tour of European vocal music and its most renowned composers from the Middle Ages to the end of the Renaissance. Janssens' group spent six years on the project--from 1994 to 2000--and the recordings, 11 altogether, with an additional CD-ROM containing extensive notes, texts, sound clips, and other information, are remarkably consistent in sound quality and ensemble uniformity. Ten of the discs are devoted to single composers (Machaut, Dunstable, and Dufay share the first CD), and while complete works are the norm, there are occasional excerpts from larger pieces such as Masses and service music.
It would take too much space just to list the most interesting and memorable selections and performances, but here are a few: Machaut's Messe Nostre-Dame; Dunstable's Magnificat; Dufay's Missa Se la face ay pale; motets by Josquin Desprez; all the Tallis pieces (Latin and English motets, as well as the Lamentations of Jeremiah); Lassus' secular songs; Byrd's Ave verum corpus. But perhaps the most compelling reason to own this set is the last disc, which contains 27 songs and madrigals from the 16th and 17th centuries. Included are first-rate performances of such favorites as Passereau's "Il est bel et bon", Josquin's "Mille regrets", Lassus' "Bonjour mon coeur", Dowland's "Come again", Gibbons' "The silver swan", and Morley's "Now is the month of Maying". But we also hear many lesser-known yet equally fine and entertaining songs, such as Certon's lively "La, la, la, je ne l'ose dire" and others by such composers as Jannequin, Bartlet, Le Jeune, Senfl, Arcadelt, and Hassler.
One of the benefits of the collection is that it offers a convenient means of comparison of sacred and secular styles and regional differences while also revealing changes over time. It's also interesting to hear side by side the starkly contrasting styles of contemporaries such as Lassus, with his astonishing harmonic mannerisms, and the more structurally formal, elegantly melodic Palestrina, or Tallis, in his most masterfully concise and beautifully expressive Latin and English motets.
The singing is consistently excellent, an achievement that's especially commendable given the sheer quantity and variety of repertoire and the years it took to complete the project. The performances show a concern for mastery of the works (not always the case in long-term efforts such as this!), which includes not only the notes but stylistic understanding and intrepretive point of view. Of course, there are individual moments and performances that a given listener could quibble about--I found the Victoria O magnum mysterium a bit rushed, soprano intonation a bit under pitch here and there, and the sound on the Palestrina disc not quite as warm and well-balanced as elsewhere--but it would be difficult if not impossible to find a better-performed or more richly rewarding collection of similar repertoire, or one more intelligently chosen and programmed.
BT, thanks for the tip on using the Amazon Advanced Search - I realize now I have not been taking advantage of its full capacities, though I used it to help search for those JSP sets at the bottom of page 3 of this thread - but it looks like I missed one - 5 disc Big Joe Williams and the Stars of Mississippi Blues for $8.99, not to be confused with the individual disc sets they also have for $8.99 each. Ooops.
Edit - hard to tell who the artists are on the different discs, the covers for the individual CD releases are the only clue so far unfortunately. JSP Records website - it's overwhelming my homely old laptop here but there must be some info there.
@BigD: happy to help. There are things I don't think to look for that I'll want down the line. I still need to get that R&B retrospective. Maybe that'll be my gift to myself after closing and moving in.
This is a nice collection of classical guitar featuring very very good players - The Classical Guitar - at $8.99 for over 3 hours I thought it a fairly good deal, until I looked it up on Amazon where I see it is a 5 disc set that they have for over $40 and now it looks like a very good deal.
I would ordinarily run from anything that said K-Tel like I'd run from a skunk but I stumbled across this - A Calender Of Classics - A 12 CD Set Of Romantic Classics - and since you don't often see 12 hours of music for $9.99 I figured I'd post it for the heck of it. This must have been one of those late night infomercial specials or something - "You know it as Stranger In Paradise but......" Just to make it funnier I'm now finding individual month releases from the Calender which are also $9.99 each...zounds!
No, BT, but that site has been squirrelly as hell lately. It's back to telling me to upgrade Flash to preview samples again, which it was doing on and off the last couple of days, but not half an hour ago. The auto pulldown when you start typing in a name was working before, not now or yesterday though. Also when I tried to go to an album it just kept returning to the artist page over and over. Downright weird.
Here is something more serious on the Denon label - 100 Most Essential Classical Favorites - 11 hours, $5.99.
I seem to have stumbled onto a useful search tool here (Search by title has been nightmarish there lately) - if you choose Compilation, then add the genre of your choice, say classical, to that, and then reorder by Title it will display useful titles like 100 at the beginning, which is how I found this. Just in case you are afflicted with an obsession to find deals.
Big Freakin' Note To Self type post - memory jogged by eMu thread - how did I forget about 8 hours of Ellington - the Storyville Duke Box, $8.99. Doh!!
Edit Doh! Also these two Art Tatum - vol.1 and vol.2. Link to eMu thread with Tatum description.
You mean this one? The 4 volume set, oops, at the same price as the four individual volumes? Not the first Smithsonian Folkways situation I've encountered like this. I feel a search coming over me.
Edit - got ahead of myself below - 5 disc Pete Seeger, $8.99. Not my bag but that's a deal.
Hell, yeah, oops - 4 disc Wade In The Water, $8.99. ***EDIT - This is really good..***
I don't think we're getting lucky on any other big box sets but there are some 2 disc possibilities -
1. Mississippi River of Song $8.99
2. 3 disc New Lost City Ramblers, $8.99
3. Don't you electronic lovers say I never did anything for you - John Cage and David Tudor $3.96 - this is $17.98 over at the Am.
4. Mountain Music of Kentucky - 2 disc, $8.99.
Appears that's all folks.
Came across this French label 5+ hour jazz sampler - Les 100 Tubes du Jazz - $13.99, but a fairly impressive roster of songs and artists.
This also is nice - 100 Jazz Guitar Favorites - $8.99, nice assortment, mostly earlier stuff (pre-1960's), not just the usual suspects. Not to be confused with 100 Jazz Guitar Classics over at eMu - different selection, different label, nearly identical album covers - OK similar theme with a lot of Django, $11.98.
Then this is at 7dig - An English Folk Music Anthology, a 2 disc from Folkways for $8.99. Twice that at Amazon, didn't find on eMu.
Having a very slow week at work in case you were wondering.
Just happened to notice that both these majorly excellent albums are available at 7dig for $8.99 - Back To Peru Vol.1 and Back To Peru Vol.2. Just a public service announcement since eMu has them at $11.98.
Same with this Nigerian/Ghanaian comp Highlife Time which eMu has for $11.38. On the bright side eMu has the freshly dropped Highlife Time Vol.2 for $4.40 which I am currently downloading (EDIT- got to listen to about half at work and liked, and got a lot of Ooh, what is that? from co-workers).
Comments
Btw, if you want to fix the years, the discogs and allmusic entries are handy. I couldn't find an image at all of the original Ahkreavention lp - if anyone does, post it!
Another 4 disc set up for $8.99 at 7dig - 100 Greatest Bluegrass Hits from the CMH label. Nice collection from which I have downloaded some individual tracks at eMu - I'll check them out tonight and report back. I recall being happy with them.
Also, Friends of Old Time Music:The Folk Arrival 1961-1965 from Smithsonian Folkways, 3 disc set, $8.99 at 7dig. (2nd edit - put in the link to the right seller, oops - should teach me to be more tolerant, then again this isn't my job, eh?)Here's the link for the Emu page for artist listings - I usually find 7digital's listings are good once downloaded but the page often doesn't display the artists on these V.A.comps.
Has anyone else noticed how strange the Search function is at 7dig when it comes to titles/phrases rather than artists? For instance, I've found that with say 100 Essential as the search you can get all kinds of crap displayed first, including 50 Essential, before you ever get to the 100 Essential you were looking for. There have been occasions where the title I wanted didn't show up until the third or fourth page of results, even using a complete title (a less obsessive person might think they didn't have the title), so I figured I'd pass that along to the rest of you searchers out there.
3rd Edit - As promised I reviewed the handful of tracks I downloaded from each of the above several years ago and after listening to a little Joe Maphis, Johnny Gimble, Doc Watson, and Fred McDowell it was very easy to say hell yeah for the entire collections, and they are not even the fly-by-night comp labels I so often favor. Very good music if you like the genre.
http://us.7digital.com/artists/ton-koopman-(1)/
Definitive collection of Villa-Lobos' string quartets.
Some of the earliest examples of electronic music from Netherlands
Boomkat:
From what I understand, this is a solid and thorough (11 hours) collection of Medieval European polyphony.
Classics Today:
Edit - hard to tell who the artists are on the different discs, the covers for the individual CD releases are the only clue so far unfortunately. JSP Records website - it's overwhelming my homely old laptop here but there must be some info there.
Another CMH bluegrass collection - The Essential Bluegrass Collection - $8.99, 64 tracks, twenty something at Amazon.
BT, you are the King of Polyphony. Wow.
I would ordinarily run from anything that said K-Tel like I'd run from a skunk but I stumbled across this - A Calender Of Classics - A 12 CD Set Of Romantic Classics - and since you don't often see 12 hours of music for $9.99 I figured I'd post it for the heck of it. This must have been one of those late night infomercial specials or something - "You know it as Stranger In Paradise but......" Just to make it funnier I'm now finding individual month releases from the Calender which are also $9.99 each...zounds!
EDIT - Oh, merde, it's at eMu for $5.99 - le link.
I seem to have stumbled onto a useful search tool here (Search by title has been nightmarish there lately) - if you choose Compilation, then add the genre of your choice, say classical, to that, and then reorder by Title it will display useful titles like 100 at the beginning, which is how I found this. Just in case you are afflicted with an obsession to find deals.
Edit Doh! Also these two Art Tatum - vol.1 and vol.2. Link to eMu thread with Tatum description.
Edit - got ahead of myself below - 5 disc Pete Seeger, $8.99. Not my bag but that's a deal.
Hell, yeah, oops - 4 disc Wade In The Water, $8.99. ***EDIT - This is really good..***
I don't think we're getting lucky on any other big box sets but there are some 2 disc possibilities -
1. Mississippi River of Song $8.99
2. 3 disc New Lost City Ramblers, $8.99
3. Don't you electronic lovers say I never did anything for you - John Cage and David Tudor $3.96 - this is $17.98 over at the Am.
4. Mountain Music of Kentucky - 2 disc, $8.99.
Appears that's all folks.
This also is nice - 100 Jazz Guitar Favorites - $8.99, nice assortment, mostly earlier stuff (pre-1960's), not just the usual suspects. Not to be confused with 100 Jazz Guitar Classics over at eMu - different selection, different label, nearly identical album covers - OK similar theme with a lot of Django, $11.98.
1.American Banjo - Three Finger and Scruggs Style $5.99 from Smithsonian Folkways.
2.American Banjo - Tunes and Songs in Scruggs Style from Folkways, $5.99.
Then this is at 7dig - An English Folk Music Anthology, a 2 disc from Folkways for $8.99. Twice that at Amazon, didn't find on eMu.
Having a very slow week at work in case you were wondering.
R&B comp of potential interest - 100 Rare R&B Masters of the '40's & '50's, $8.99. See on Amazon for artist listings.
Same with this Nigerian/Ghanaian comp Highlife Time which eMu has for $11.38. On the bright side eMu has the freshly dropped Highlife Time Vol.2 for $4.40 which I am currently downloading (EDIT- got to listen to about half at work and liked, and got a lot of Ooh, what is that? from co-workers).