Sep 26, 2007

Sunshine, Australia Boomer

Hello, autumn has come and my Sunshine series comes to an end with the third visit to down under . I start with a ethnic fusion act Nomad, an australian who found his way into the dream, 23 amazon reviewers cant be wrong...5 stars, AC/DC which got its name from a sewing machine so the story goes, made 'Whole Lot of Noisy' in the heavy metal scene of the seventies, Powerage would be the last in that succesful line up, after binging too much caused singer Bon Scott death (how stupid). How different the fairy world of 'heavenly creature' Louisa Krol, who's digital connection to Italy's Oophoi enabled them to create a mythical ambience. Ed Kuepper, one tends to overlook, which almost happened to me aswell, one of those artists that sell better when they're dead, (Van Gogh Complex), this Honey Steel's Gold is certainly one of his highlights, and if you think he sounds a bit like Robert Smith sometimes, its true, he should cover a few of Ed's great songs one day..Split Enz isnt Australian but from New Zealand, hey them Finn brothers made some great carstereo music and this certainly belongs up there aswell, how odd that they were a great live act aswell. Now the grand old master of the alternative music scene in Australia is of cause Nick Cave, i coudnt pass him by here and so here's one from his heroin days. The Go-Betweens have been incrowd favourites a long time but they didnt find the key to unlock public opinion until recently, and this whilst the produced several great albums in the eighties, notably this one Spring Hill Fair. And so i come to the end of the great southern land trip, and howelse to end then with the grand old master of the didgeridoo, a myth in his days and noone knows if these ended at all, he went into the bush and nobody has seen any of him since (6 years ago). Way to go David Blanasi !

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Nomad - Nomad
AC/DC - Powerage
Louisa John Krol & Oophoi - I Hear The Water Dreaming
Ed Kuepper - Honey Steel's Gold
Split Enz - True Colours
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral, My Trial
Go-Betweens, The - Spring Hill Fair
David Blanasi - White Cockatoo
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Nomad - Nomad ( 94 flac 254mb)

Nomad is Adam Plack a Melbourne-based musician who wondered of into the bush to learn to play the didgeridoo and pledged to abridge the cultural divide between the Aborigines and the Europeans.He has achieved some international success with this album. The driving force here is Nomad’s didgeridoo magic, enhanced by Native American vocalist Robert Mirabal and Senegalese drummer Mor Thiam. Divided into eight “walkabouts,” or spiritual quests.The music takes on a global roam, starting with an Australian base of indigenous music but mixing in a variety of exotic tastes, particularly West African and Native American, fleshing this out with dance-oriented synths. It sounds like a hotch-potch, but Nomad has in fact produced a smoothly textured blend of these tangy flavours. Take an Senegalese djembe drum sound and have it in an unadorned duet with the didgeridoo, and make the combination sound perfectly natural. Or, as in Gathering, the Senegalese element emerges even more strongly, while a Taos Pueblo Indian hunting song brings a vibrant colour to Tracking.
Throughout, synths and other instruments are added judiciously to give things a trance and/or dance edge, the result is a well-stated mix of tribal ritual and digital sophistication for an uplifting experience. Great music for the running (wo)man.



01 - Nomad (5:00)
02 - Mountain Walk South (4:38)
03 - River Crossing (6:06)
04 - Gathering (5:17)
05 - Wildlife (2:44)
06 - Mountain Walk East (5:18)
07 - Tracking (5:52)
08 - Follow The Sun (4:40)
09 - Trading Ground (5:22)

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AC/DC - Powerage ( 78 flac 279mb)

Powerage is the fifth studio album by AC/DC, released in May 1978. It is also AC/DC's fourth international studio album. Angus and Malcom Young have cited the album as their favorite, and many die-hard fans agree it's one of their strongest if not their best. It was also the first to feature the same track listing on all versions, with the exception of European vinyl editions. These included "Cold Hearted Man", a song that has not been officially released on any other AC/DC album, and some early releases ( mine) omitted "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation".

Powerage is the last album with Bon Scott, and it marked the debut of bassist Cliff Williams aswell . It was also the first AC/DC album to be co-produced by Angus Young, and the band's last to feature production work by Harry Vanda and George Young. In short a watershed album for AC DC.



01 - Gimme A Bullet (3:19)
02 - Down Payment Blues (5:38)
03 - Gone Shootin' (5:19)
04 - Riff Raff (5:10)
05 - Sin City (4:42)
06 - Up To My Neck In You (4:08)
07 - What's Next To The Moon (3:39)
08 - Cold Hearted Man (3:30)
09 - Kicked In The Teeth (3:55)

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Louisa John Krol ft Oophoi - I Hear The Water Dreaming ( 05 ^ 99mb) re-re-upped

Since the mid 1990s Louisa has been making an esoteric dream-pop that explores mystical realms in song based music that combines ambient, world music, folk and trance soundscapes. The closest well known comparisons might be aspects of Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Clan of Xymox, Kate Bush or Loreena Mac Kennit. Louisa though clearly has a singular voice and artistic vision. Her vision explores such curious areas of fairies and those who may exist in non-physical realms…In her lyrics they are half revealed, hushed and seeming to emanate from the ether. Louisa 's songs of centaurs, birds, seagiants, dragons, psychopomps, sirens and salamanders combine fiery energy with ambience, whimsy and humanity.
‘.
Louisa teaches English & Music at Dandenong High School, in the poorest urban region of Australia. Most students are immigrants or children of such, including refugees and asylum seekers from troubled regions, from Sudan to Sri Lanka, East Timor, Cambodia, the Balkans and Afghanistan.

This album is a transcontinental collaboration, Ooohoi is an Italian artist, who has been prolific in creating “space music” since 1995. He creates abstract and surrealist soundscapes that take the listener beyond any known borders. Which is on par with Louisa John-Krol, her voice ranging from soft and celestial, to very dark and goth-like. and singing about mystical animals and worlds The two team up on here to challenge the imagination and present the listener with soundscapes from otherworlds, and so a bit more demanding then just casual listening.



01 - The Narni Owl (6:43)
02 - Conversations Between A Wolf And A Firefly (10:43)
03 - The Hour Of Fauns (6:25)
04 - Let The Nightsky Envelope Us (7:13)
05 - Cavern Of Dreaming Shells (20:43)
5.1-The Dream Of Cydron
5.2-The Dream Of Kalyh
5.3-The Dream Of Narwal
06 - The Whispering Valley (3:42)
07 - A Vessel For Michael (11:31)

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Ed Kuepper - Honey Steel's Gold (92 flac 278mb)

Though he formed the Saints with Chris Bailey in 1975, Ed Kuepper left the band before its biggest popular success (though after its best recordings). The Saints were one of Australia's premier punk bands, and Kuepper played on two albums before leaving in 1979 to form the Laughing Clowns, a band whose sound was jazzier and quite a bit more experimental than his former group. The Laughing Clowns released three EPs during the early '80s before their debut self-titled album appeared in 1982. Kuepper led the band through four additional albums, but became a solo act beginning with the surprisingly pop-oriented Electrical Storm in 1986. After another pop album, Rooms of the Magnificent, Capitol took a chance on Kuepper and signed him; his response was Everybody's Got To, his third great pop album in a row. Nevertheless, it failed to click with radio programmers or the public. Capitol dropped Kuepper and he responded in 1990 with the acoustic, stripped-back Today Wonder.
One year later, he formed the Aints -- a jab at Chris Bailey, who continued to use the Saints name during the '80s and '90s -- to release Ascension. He returned to solo status in 1992, Honey Steel's Gold is Kuepper in many ways at his most dramatic and expansive. At the same time, there's hints of the calmer waters that he would explore in later years on albums like Character Assassination, though here there's more overt electric bite and tension, a mix of extended self-explorations (and sometimes eviscerations) , and he recoded a string of albums over the next four years, plus two mail-order-only albums and a best-of entitled Sings His Greatest Hits for You. Next came This Is the Magic Mile, which was released in 2006 Despite his very appreciative cult of fans and torrid release schedule, Kuepper has not managed a breakthrough to wide popular acclaim.



01 - King Of VIce (9:09)
02 - Everything I've Got Belongs To You (4:17)
03 - Friday's Blue Cheer / Libertines Of Oxley (8:02)
04 - Honey Steel's Gold (5:15)
05 - The Way I Made You Feel (5:17)
06 - Not To Soon (3:25)
07 - Closer (But Disguised) (4:23)
08 - Summerfield (4:00)

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Split Enz - True Colours ( 80 flac 250 mb)

The group formed in 1971 at the University of Auckland with the original lineup of Tim Finn,Mike Chunn, Robert Gillies, Phil Judd and Noel Crombie. From 1972 the band became a full-time occupation for the friends, and they called the band Split Ends. The spelling was later changed to Split Enz shortly before their first trip to Australia, to signify their New Zealand roots (as "NZ" is a common abbreviation for New Zealand). The group was widely known for their unique visual presentation. Their costumes and hair were wild, colourful and inventive. The costumes were designed by Noel Crombie, who also designed most of the group's other visual material, such as stage sets, posters, stickers and album covers, as well as directing many of the band's music videos.

In 1977, with the departure of Judd and the enlisting of Neil Finn, the group's sound began to change from a progressive rock sound to new wave with folk roots. The 1980s proved the group's most commercially successful period, with a string of popular albums in the New Wave style, the group further established a legacy that is still recognised as a distinct musical style after over twenty years from their departure. The group has reunited as Split Enz several times, though its members have gone on to create other successful musical groups with one another since the breakup in 1984, such as Crowded House or the Finn Brothers.
True Colours, recorded in Australia, the fifth album released by Split Enz, was their first major commercial success. The album was the first to ever use a technique known as "laser-etching". When light hit the holographic etched vinyl , the designs would protrude and spin about the room. An idea originally designed to discourage the creation of counterfeit copies, that didnt make it as only 2 albums ever got a likewise effect.



01 - I Got You (3:26)
02 - Shark Attack (2:49)
03 - What's The Matter With You (3:06)
04 - Double Happy (3:17)
05 - I Wouldn't Dream Of It (3:16)
06 - I Hope I Never (4:27)
07 - Nobody Takes Me Seriously (3:26)
08 - Missing Person (3:24)
09 - Poor Boy (3:24)
10 - How Can I Resist Her (3:26)
11 - The Choral Sea (4:32)


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Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral, My Trial (86 flac 248mb)

After the Birthday Party called it quits in 1983, singer/songwriter Nick Cave assembled the Bad Seeds, a post-punk supergroup featuring former Birthday Party guitarist Mick Harvey on drums, ex-Magazine bassist Barry Adamson, and Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist Blixa Bargeld. With the Bad Seeds, Cave continued to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America, and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock, and arty post-punk. Cave also allowed his literary aspirations to come to the forefront; gloomy lyrics, dark musical arrangements, and deep baritone voice obsessed over death and love with a frightening passion.

Cave released his first album with the Bad Seeds, From Her to Eternity, in 1984, which contained a noteworthy cover of Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto," foreshadowing much of Cave's style and subject matter on the follow-up The Firstborn Is Dead. Kicking Against the Pricks, an all-covers album, broke the band in England with the help of "The Singer," which hit number one on the U.K. independent charts. 1986's Your Funeral...My Trial, was originally released as two 12" EPs. The song "The Carny" is seen being played live by the band in the Wim Wenders film Der Himmel über Berlin, released one year later. During this period in his life, Cave was steeped in heroin addiction, perhaps evidenced by the melancholy, desperate mood of this album.Following that 'tour de force' Cave took a two-year hiatus from recording, and then returned with Tender Prey.

Cave's productivity picked up immensely over the next two years after he kicked a heroin habit. He had two books (1988's King Ink, a collection of lyrics, plays, and prose, and 1989's And the Ass Saw the Angel, a novel) published; appeared in the 1989 Australian film Ghosts...of the Civil Dead as a prisoner; recorded a soundtrack to the film with Harvey and Bargeld; and released 1990's The Good Son, his most relaxed, quiet album. Cave received his due as one of the leading figures in alternative rock when he was invited to perform on the 1994 edition of the Lollapalooza tour to promote his Let Love In album. Early in 1996, he released Murder Ballads, a collection of songs about murder. It became Cave's most commercially successful album to date, and, with typical perversity, he followed it with the introspective and personal The Boatman's Call in early 1997. A spoken word release, Secret Life of the Love Song, followed in 1999. Two years later, a rejuvenated Cave teamed up with the Bad Seeds once again for the piano-laden No More Shall We Part. Nocturama was released in 2003, and the double-album Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus followed by the end of 2004



01 - Your Funeral My Trial (3:58)
02 - Stranger Than Kindness (4:47)
03 - Jacks Shadow (5:43)
04 - The Carny (8:02)
05 - She Fell Away (4:33)
06 - Hard On For Love (5:21)
07 - Sad Waters (5:02)
08 - Long Time Man (5:48)
09 - Scum (2:54)

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The Go-Betweens - Spring Hill Fair ( 84 ^ 93mb) re-upped

Robert Forster and Grant McLennan began as a pair of teenagers obsessed with the earthy rock of Dylan, CCR, and the Velvet Underground and encouraged by the Australian punk of the Saints. As collected on The Able Label Singles, their first two singles show a fondness for scruffy, British Invasion/new wave-influenced pop/rock. The Go-Betweens were perhaps the quintessential cult band of the '80s: they came from an exotic locale (Brisbane, Australia), moved to a major recording center (in their case, London) in a sustained bid to make a career out of music, and earned considerable critical praise and a small but fervent international fan base. Although the Go-Betweens were absent throughout the '90s before re-forming in the new millennium, both of the band's songwriters embarked on respectable solo careers in the interim.

In 2000 the band reunited and released a new album, The Friends of Rachel Worth, which also featured all three members of Sleater-Kinney. It wasn't just a fluke, as the band recorded follow-up albums released in 2003 (Bright Yellow Bright Orange) and 2005 (Oceans Apart). Documenting a 2005 concert in their hometown, the DVD/CD package That Striped Sunlight Sound arrived in early 2006, just a few months before the death of McLennan in May.



01 - Bachelor Kisses (3:33)
02 - Five Words (3:57)
03 - The Old Way Out (3:38)
04 - You've Never Lived (3:52)
05 - Part Company (4:50)
06 - Slow Slow Music (3:03)
07 - Draining The Pool For You (4:15)
08 - River Of Money (5:04)
09 - Unkind & Unwise (3:04)
10 - Man O'Sand To Girl O'Sea (4:31)


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David Blanasi - White Cockatoo (01 * 358 mb)
David Blanasi was an Aboriginal man recognised for popularising the didgeridoo beyond the shores of Australia. This can be attributed to Blanasi's first television appearance in London in 1967, where he gave didgeridoo playing demonstrations in the popular Rolf Harris Show. He was the first full-blooded indigenous Australian to travel to England since 1792. He later co-founded the "White Cockatoo Performing Group" in conjunction with his life-long partner, songmaster Djoli Laiwonga. He taught the Australian-born entertainer Rolf Harris how to play the didgeridoo, Harris becoming perhaps the first notable non-Aboriginal Australian to master the instrument, collaborations and tours with Rolf Harris followed, in addition to Australian and international outings as part of the "White Cockatoo Performing Group" which variously included Djoli Laiwanga - a talented Aboriginal singer, and David Gulpilil - an Aboriginal dancer and actor. Prior to all this, Blanasi first came to public attention as one of a number of traditional Aboriginal didgeridoo players and singers recorded in 1961-62 by a US linguistic researcher Dr. La Mont West. These recordings were released commercially in 1963 on the vinyl LP Arnhem Land Popular Classics.

Blanasi is acknowledged as one of the great master mago (didgeridoo) players of the 20th century and as a master instrument maker his didgeridoos have become highly collectible. He lived in south-central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Australia, in a remote Aboriginal settlement variously known as Beswick, Bamyili and Wugularr. In 1998 Djoli Laiwonga died, and an emotionally stricken Blanasi retired in solitude to a home in Bamyili. David Blanasi went missing in August, 2001, reportedly after going out to search for wood to be used in instrument making. No trace of Blanasi has been found since 2001, although his body was never found, his family eventually held a funeral ceremony for him.



01 - Argument Song
02 - Gordo, the Brogla
03 - Didjeridu solo
04 - Djang
05 - Bush Potato - the Short Yam
06 - Mimi Spirit
07 - Mimi Spirit, Wapukurra
08 - Bini Bini
09 - Dingo Lonely for its Mate (1)
10 - Gordo, the Brolg (2)
11 - Gorro Gorro - The Kookaburra
12 - Waking Up Song and a Worry Song
13 - Bidgurdurr 1 - The Willy Willy
14 - The Big Shadow, the Spirit
15 - Kunkurra
16 - Big Storm
17 - Worry Song 1
18 - Dingo Lonely for its Mate (2)
19 - Wurrarl 1 - The Big Shadow or Spirit
20 - The Brolga
21 - Manngalinj, The Bush Potato
22 - Two Days Sleep
23 - Dry Land Devil Devil
24 - Top of the Palm Tree
25 - Short Argument
26 - New Rain, New Water Coming
27 - Foot Track
28 - Muk Muk - the Boobook Night Owl Song
29 - Mammorye, the Green Plum
30 - New Rain
31 - Bo Bo - the Goodbye Song

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

12 comments:

skids said...

nice Aussie stuff :-D

Anonymous said...

eah great stuff.

I don't want to start the trans-tasman inferiority thing again, but how can you include "Split Enz" in a show-case of Australian music?

So the album was recorded in OZ, does that make it Australian music?

Sorry, but it should be included in a separate thread on NZ stuff.

My 2 cents.

Ash

Rho said...

Hello Anon, well from here it's all down under, that said i think without the australian music scene there wouldnt be much to go on for New Zeelanders, as you probably know it was the escape route for those stuck in the victorian era still so present there 25 years ago, now with telecommunications its different. However, as far as im concerned not much music has bubbled up from there, so to give some space to the exception of the rule and a very popular band in Australiai think Split Enz deserves a spot, besides i really love the reacquintance with those true colours, brings me right back to a great holiday in Greece.

Best of Luck,
Rho

mr8382004 said...

Hi, thanks for the wonderful stuff
you posted. Hope you can repost The Go-Betweens its been erase. And hope you can post their other albums.
Thanks

Anonymous said...

Nice blog and posts :)

just a minor correction to the AC/DC powerage post.. Powerage was not the last album with Bon Scott..

in 1979 they released the last studio album with Bon Scott, "Highway To Hell" which is a cracker, as good as Powerage, with a snare drum that will take your head of like a crocquet mallet :)

If you have never heard it, go check it out.. you won't be sorry ;)

L said...

I've never come across that Go-Betweens album before. Thanks so much!

Anonymous said...

Hello, some geek deleted the previous Autralian- Outback page, at least i wasnt noticed by Google about it (yet?) Well have the links were dead and as i was updating all zshare drop outs, restated those too as i only just noticed the page missing...heres the titles ..

Shpongle - Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost ( 05 * 99mb)
The Church - The Blurred Crusade ( 82 ^ 99mb)
Hoodoo Gurus - Kinky
INXS - Kick (87 ^ 92mb)
XsXs ( 88 ^ 81mb)
Crime & The City Solution - The Adversary - Live ( 93 * 96 mb)
VA - Spirit Of The Outback ( * 98 mb)

best of luck,

Rho

carlo243 said...

Hi,
Could You pklease Re-Up the Ed Kuepper.
Thanks
Carlo

carlo243 said...

Thank You So Much for this Re Up.
Greetz
carlo

Anonymous said...

Hi Rho, the 2007 rhojust shows how much music there is and how hard it is to find out about it all. Australian rock tens more to have a solid beat suitable to keep the crowds in pubs happy. New Zealand indepndent music music has more of the Velvet Underground touch where the workout is in front of the home stereo. It's beer vs other substances. Try:

Toy Love
Chris knox
The Chills
The Clean
Straitjacket Fits
Jean Paul Sartre Experience/JPS Experience
Headless Chickens

(and Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance started in a rather good Auckland punk band)

http://www.elsewhere.co.nz/writingelsewhere/2970/100-essential-new-zealand-albums-by-nick-bollinger/

(You'd do better with Grant Smithies' book.)

Can you re-up the Kuepper, Crime and the City Solution, and Louisa John Krol ft Oophoi - I Hear The Water Dreaming (especially that Krol)...



Rho said...

As you can notice from the previous comments i already re-upped this page this year but as it is an ogg i specially re-upped Louisa John Krol ft Oophoi - I Hear The Water Dreaming

Anonymous said...

Please can you repost Nomad/Nomad and White Cockatoo/David Blanasi?