What have you been listening to?

Anything you can hear or see.
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Corben Dallas
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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Re: What have you been listening to?

Post by pstrisik »

So I download a couple 'Dead albums...and, what can I say, this music is utterly fantastic! I guess people do change, or, at least their taste in music.
I'm a child of the 60's also and had always "kind of" liked the Dead. I was a New Englander. Then I spent a year in California '87-'88. I saw them at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View - a relatively small venue. :o Then I saw them at Altamont Speedway - outdoors on a beautiful sunny California day. :shock: Once I saw them live it was all over. I love the Dead!

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Re: What have you been listening to?

Post by Ray »

Pstrisik;

I've got American Beauty and Workingman's Dead recordings (From HDTracks)..what would your recommendations be for other albums, i.e your favorites, or less than favorites.
I'm not sure if HDTracks will be adding more music from them, I may buy a couple more recordings on CD.
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Re: What have you been listening to?

Post by pstrisik »

Ray wrote:Pstrisik;

I've got American Beauty and Workingman's Dead recordings (From HDTracks)..what would your recommendations be for other albums, i.e your favorites, or less than favorites.
I'm not sure if HDTracks will be adding more music from them, I may buy a couple more recordings on CD.
Ray,

I would start with Europe '72 for a great live recording during their heyday. Workingman's Dead and American Beauty are their two classic studio albums, both from 1970, and often regarded as their best studio work. But the live stuff just has a different energy.

For other sampling: "Terrapin Station" ('77) for something different and "In the Dark" ('87) for an excellent later studio album (next to last before Garcia's death). And it is worth hearing their self titled first album from '67 to see where they started from (the band formed in '65). Some great songs that have some rough edges but great dead all the way. Many of those first songs you'll still hear in later live recordings.

Here are those covers in chronological order........



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It's an interesting fact that they made more money in live performances than from albums. They played constantly. And they allowed people to set up recording - even provided an optimum location for those setups in many venues. As a result, there are dozens of legal bootlegs of concerts floating around. You can find many of them to download free if you google around. http://archive.org/details/GratefulDead, for example.

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Re: What have you been listening to?

Post by Ray »

Thanks very much for the suggestions...guess it's time to give Amazon some more $$ for CDs :)
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Re: What have you been listening to?

Post by eagle6014 »

My latest spin is Supertramp - Some Things Never Change. It came out in 1997. I also saw them on tour that year in Chicago. My fav track in #1, It's A Hard World. I just love that bass guitar opening. Even though it doesn't say so on anywhere on the disc or on the inserts, it is an HDCD coded disc and b/c of that it has an extremely spacious soundstage to it. I don't know how many of these HDCD discs are out there, but if you want to find one look for the label that says Oxygen/Silver Cab records catalog #63245-90002-2. I think you'll like it I know I always have. Pat
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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Listened to a Mark Isham CD that I bought recently. Very pleasent "new age" music. It reminded me of Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre in the 70's and 80's. If you like a mellow electronic sound, definitely recommend this one.

Mark Isham ‎– Vapor Drawings
Label: Windham Hill Records ‎– WD-1027
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 1983
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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Just got listening to this Vangelis album. Very nice and high quality recording. If you like Vangelis I would definitely recommend you pick this up.

Vangelis ‎– Direct
Label: Arista ‎– ARCD-8545
Format: CD, Album, Club Edition
Country: US
Released: 1988
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop, Ambient

Tracklist
1 The Motion Of Stars 4:17
2 The Will Of The Wind 4:41
3 Metallic Rain 6:10
4 Elsewhere 5:39
5 Dial Out 5:20
6 Glorianna (Hymn A La Femme) 4:20
7 Rotation's Logic 3:27
8 The Oracle Of Apollo 3:55
9 Message 7:07
10 Ave 5:02
11 First Approach 4:58
12 Intergalactic Radio Station 7:44
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Re: What have you been listening to?

Post by eagle6014 »

Got that Vangelis disc as well. I bought it when I was stationed at Misawa AB Japan in 1988 when it came out. Our post exchange had a really bad selection of discs, but that one showed up & I bought it. I like track 4 myself. Another disc in heavy rotation is Mark Knopflers Sailing to Philadelphia. I bought it used on eBay for $7. Another disc I've been listening to is Pink Floyd's The Final Cut. I got the remastered version with an added track (When the Tigers Broke Free). That wasn't on the original release. There's a lot of Michael Kamen orchestrations on this disc & the remix sounds really good on my c-j. I was at Best Buy today and I was very disappointed in the selection of CDs there. Soon I feel the only way to buy CDs anymore will be through the internet. Forget about buying one in person. I know that downloading HD tracks in the "in" thing, but I prefer the CD format b/c I will always have it no matter what the internet does or how many times I replace my pc. Plus an uncompressed SACD, HDCD, or reg CD sounds better every time. Oh well. Pat
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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Just got done listening to Billy Joel's Storm Front LP. Some very good songs, with the highlight being "We didn't start the Fire."

I also put my Genesis - Invisible touch LP, into the spin cleaner as it had a lot background noise. It did improve, definitely not the quietest album but an improvement. Click on the previous link for my review.
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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U2 ‎– Achtung Baby

I had not listened to this album in quite some time and put it in for a spin. Classic U2. Definitely recommend this album if you don't already own it.

Label: Island Records ‎– 314-510 490-2
Format: CD, Album, Digi-Trak
Country: US
Released: 19 Nov 1991
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock

1 Zoo Station
Engineer [Assistant] – Robbie Adams 4:36
2 Even Better Than The Real Thing
Engineer – Paul Barrett, Robbie Adams
Mixed By – Steve Lillywhite 3:41
3 One
Keyboards [Additional] – Brian Eno 4:36
4 Until The End Of The World
Percussion [Additional] – Daniel Lanois 4:39
5 Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Engineer – Robbie Adams
Mixed By – Robbie Adams 5:16
6 So Cruel
Arranged By [Strings] – Brian Eno, Edge, The
Mixed By – Brian Eno
Violin, Viola – Duchess Nell Catchpole, The* 5:49
7 The Fly
Mixed By [Assistant] – Robbie Adams 4:29
8 Mysterious Ways
Mixed By – Edge, The
Percussion [Additional] – Daniel Lanois 4:04
9 Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
Keyboards [Additional] – Brian Eno
Mixed By – Robbie Adams 3:53
10 Ultra Violet (Light My Way) 5:31
11 Acrobat 4:30
12 Love Is Blindness
Engineer [Assistant] – Robbie Adams
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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Various ‎– The '80s Hit(s) Back!

Ok so I was looking for something to listen to this morning, and came upon a CD I had no idea I even owned. I'm not even sure where it came from, I'm guessing from a larger lot purchase on ebay or someplace like that as I would never go out of my way to buy this particular disk.

Well, all I can say is that I feel like I just got out of the time machine! If anybody wants to visit the 80's, I recommend you pick this disk up at your local tag sale/flea market/etc...

Sound quality was actually pretty good, I can honestly say that some of these songs sounded the best that I ever heard them. And how about that cheezy cover art! Definitely not "serious listening", but very fun.


Label: Hip-O Records ‎– HIPD-40004
Format: CD, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 1996
Genre: Electronic, Funk / Soul, Pop, Rock
Style: New Wave


Tracklist:
1 Fine Young Cannibals – She Drives Me Crazy 3:37
2 Was (Not Was) – Walk The Dinosaur 3:40
3 Kim Wilde – You Keep Me Hangin' On 4:18
4 Men Without Hats – The Safety Dance 2:47
5 Katrina & The Waves* – Walking On Sunshine 4:00
6 Fixx, The – One Thing Leads To Another 3:20
7 Belinda Carlisle – Heaven Is A Place On Earth 4:09
8 Wang Chung – Everybody Have Fun Tonight 4:50
9 Bananarama – Cruel Summer 3:38
10 Oingo Boingo – Weird Science 3:52
11 Harold Faltermeyer – Axel F 3:03
12 Timbuk 3 – The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades 3:25
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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Cool 80's discus. I graduated H.S. in 86 so all I know is 80's music. Well not all, but plenty of it. My latest purchase is from Reference Recordings dot com, There'a A Time by Doug Macleod. I was buying from them and I bought this disc b/c it was new (disc was made in 2013) and I picked it at random along with 4 other discs. I like to do that b/c you just never know what your getting and new music is always cool especially if you've never heard any of it. Anyway, what a good choice I made. Now I'm not a blues fan, but I wanted to try it. It's a trio of dudes sitting at Skywalker Sound in a circle recording all instruments live. No headphones or overdubs (from the insert). Now if there ever was a disc made to be played back on c-j equipment, this is it. If you close your eyes you can see the musicians in literally a 3D setting. You can hear them move around as even a slight sway towards a mic was easily recorded as well. It is an HDCD coded disc so if you have a dac that can decode that, you have an added advantage. I'm still getting to know it so I won't make comments on what is my fav (track 3), but it's a great disc and highly recommended. Pat
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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Yesterday I finally got a SACD of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Comes in a nice hard cover book style case with post cards too. Nice touch at $34.99 through Music Direct. As remasters go, it's one of the better ones that I've heard. All I can say is that I'm very pleased with it and I recommend it. Also included with my order was some Norah Jones and Diana Krall SACD's. About three weeks ago I ordered off eBay Dire Straits Brothers in Arms SACD. That's a CD I know very well and the SACD really is an improvement. My original 20+ year old CD is not very impressive and the dynamics are terrible. But the SACD brings out everything I've been missing & I also recommend it. Those are the latest spins. Everything else in my c-j system is the same, no news to report there. Pat
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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eagle6014 wrote:Yesterday I finally got a SACD of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Comes in a nice hard cover book style case with post cards too. Nice touch at $34.99 through Music Direct. As remasters go, it's one of the better ones that I've heard. All I can say is that I'm very pleased with it and I recommend it. Also included with my order was some Norah Jones and Diana Krall SACD's. About three weeks ago I ordered off eBay Dire Straits Brothers in Arms SACD. That's a CD I know very well and the SACD really is an improvement. My original 20+ year old CD is not very impressive and the dynamics are terrible. But the SACD brings out everything I've been missing & I also recommend it. Those are the latest spins. Everything else in my c-j system is the same, no news to report there. Pat
I also had my eye on the Wish You Were Here SACD. I'm a big Pink Floyd fan and I own the Dark Side of the Moon SACD which is great. I wish the price of SACD's were more reasonable, it's like the record companies don't want SACD to ever succeed in the mass market! :(

Very cool, congrats on the purchase. I'll have to start looking for that album as well now, maybe it will go on sale soon....
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Re: What have you been listening to?

Post by eagle6014 »

Acquired this week through Music Direct is the SACD of Blade Runner soundtrack. I've got the original late 80's version of this soundtrack and I know it well. The SACD is a considerable improvement. My original has 8 tracks, the SACD has 12. Plus each track is longer. The quality of the re-mastering to SACD is top notch. I strongly suggest you put this on your "must have" list. It's not cheap, but well worth it. :D
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Re: What have you been listening to?

Post by Ian Millar »

For classical listeners I recommend any of the Jordi Savall/Le Concert des Nations/Hesperion XXI recordings on the AliaVox label. Rich ambient recordings - especially the SACDs. This one would be a great starter: http://www.amazon.com/Altre-Follie-Jord ... tre+follie
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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eagle6014 wrote:Acquired this week through Music Direct is the SACD of Blade Runner soundtrack. I've got the original late 80's version of this soundtrack and I know it well. The SACD is a considerable improvement. My original has 8 tracks, the SACD has 12. Plus each track is longer. The quality of the re-mastering to SACD is top notch. I strongly suggest you put this on your "must have" list. It's not cheap, but well worth it. :D
I just went and took a look. I am a huge Vangelis fan. Have a lot of his work (both CD and Vinyl). I think he has done some of the most amazing soundtracks and Blade Runner is right up there with the best. I can't believe they released this on SACD, that is great! I wish the price wasn't so steep! :) And they even have it on vinyl, wow.

Concerning the Blade Runner SACD, are they stereo tracks like the original recordings, or did they mix them up to 5.1?
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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There's nothing to indicate it's a multi-channel disc. Since the original was 2 ch, that's what I hear. $30 isn't that bad so go for broke and get it. You know you want it Admin. Pat
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Re: What have you been listening to?

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I have to admit that I am very tempted to just make the purchase (in addition to a few others that caught my eye there). I do feel a little guilty as in the past two weeks I have bought 15 CD's, 10 Blu-rays, and about 250 laserdiscs! Ah, I really have to pace myself a little! :)
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