Eros Plus Melody Vol. 12 (SC 121)

Eros Plus Melody 12 consists of many of the first tracks I fell in love with in the Italian/Euro OSTs genre. If not the tracks themselves, it is the style of theses songs that drew me to this great music by some unstoppable force. Track 2, Franco Micalizzi's Sospetto (Titoli di Testa) very much represents the feeling I wish to describe.

For me, while maybe not the album that would surprise or top the list of the most memorable in the EPM series, nor with a particular number of rare songs, this is the album which perfectly represents the balance between Eros and Melody in the classical sense. Hope you feel the same.

p.s. Thanks a lot for the comments. I enjoy them immensely and they serve as great motivators to keep the series going!

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 11 (SC 120)

The twentieth Sound Compendium release is in the books with the share of Eros Plus Melody #11!

This one, as the cover hints at, goes extremely deep into the Italian sound.

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 10 (SC 119)

Another Friday, another smokin' set of erotic songs to keep you warm this chilly winter!

Long ago on this site I upped a custom comp titled Erotic Italia... If you downloaded that one, this is basically the same comp. I wanted to include it into the Eros Plus Melody series for continuity of my comps, so apologies if this is nothing new to you this week.

EPM 10 is stacked full of Italian-only cinetrax (my buddy Easy Wind will aprreciate!)

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 9 (SC 118)

A souled-out, blaxploitation-style funk session busts out with Eros Plus Melody 9! The bulk of this installment exhibits a circa mid-'70s Euro take on soul and blax-leaning tracks, with American artists thrown in, from the likes of the New Sounds, Christian Bruhn, Freedom Power, Eddie Senay, Roy Ayers, and Ricardo Tubbs.

The single track mix is very, very highly recommended in this case as you will find the flow even more super groovy than the multi-tracks share. But by all means, take them both!

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 8 (SC 117)

Imagine a château in Lacoste, a libertine evening at the Marquis de Sade's.

This uniquely erotic installment with a sinister twist kicks off with Charles Bernstein's dark, swamp tune, Erotica, before slipping into Armando Sciascia's evil, dancing electrons in Assonanza in Mi, giving way to Sandro Brugnolini's Roxy, which sounds like a prelude to this "romantic" evening at the Marquis'.

Alberto Baldan Bembo's Cantata in Re commences the pageantry as the "victims" are paraded before the hungry inquisotors. Lesiman's Via Nel Autunno tastefully leads the performers into the evening's festivities...

Imagine the wonderfully sadistic Eros Plus Melody 8...

*LINK FIXED*

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 7 (SC 116)

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for!!! Or not. Well here it is anyway! Eros Plus Melody 7 carries the deepest grooves in the series so far. Very tight this one. You shan't be disappointed. Either way, shout me in the Comments!

Peace out.

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 6 (SC 115)

The passion album. This one is red hot. Red, red, red hot!

EPM 6 is probably most like Volume 4 of this series in that, though the music is from the same era as the other volumes, it has a slightly more studio polished sound in places. It's heavy on Italian composers as most in the series are, but with a generous helping of some outstanding French trax that will knock your socks off!

Fly away with Eros Plus Melody 6! Red, red, red hot!

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 5 (SC 114)

The Sound Compendium Home Library introduces the newest installment of the series presently taking the web by storm. EPM 5 is the most unique among the five releases to date. Compositions and instrumentation atypical of the genre make up a hefty portion of this mix. The romantic overtones, of course, are necessarily retained.

Several songs on this collection are absolute soul destroyers. Check track 3's guitar and sitar-driven, Mara Jats Love, by Alberto Baldan Bembo for an absolutely dripping-with-desire jazz number with a strong blaxploitation feel. Track 4 by Pierre Rachelet and Jean Schulteis picks up and carries the groove into more urgent territory. While the steady flow into the jarring rhythms of Piero Umiliani's Egiogabalus, merging into Fidenco's Besides, bring something of the crescendo to this section. For this reason, for a single, continuous listening experience, the single track mix comes highly recommended. If you're not a huge fan of single tracks, set your player to an appropriate cross-fade and grab the multi-tracks option.

Enjoy Eros Plus Melody 5.

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 4 (SC 113)

This mix leans towards a slighlty (strong emphasis) more polished mid-tempo groove sound. Have been listening to this one a week straight and it's grown to be one of my favorites of the series. There is a definite vibe to this one.

Enjoy Eros Plus Melody 4.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! Special post - EROS PLUS MASSACRE (SC 109)

Dearest reader & downloadership. All apologies for the delays in getting reposts of deleted links. You see, I'm stuck behind the Great Chinese Firewall and a certain New York Times article which has outed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's family's business dealings has the 50,000 strong internet censors in these parts throttling back speeds at unheard of rates. So, I sit stuck behind this VPN which is causing page load times that rival the days sitting of at dad's dial up connection on his black and white IBM computer in the late '80s. Times really can be tough in the Muddled Kingdom.

Luckily, this here little share was upped days beforehand, so we'll be able to enjoy it as long as it lasts.

One step back, two steps forward. Sound Compendium Home Library goes back in time a few volumes to bring you a spooky Halloween treat. Enjoy an hour and seven minutes of Eros Plus Massacre's 33 frightful, blood smearing, bone chilling tracks.

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 3 (SC 112)

Volume three, hot off the presses. This one is a definite shift in mood from volumes one and two. The word pastoral is on the tip of my tongue, but that's not quite right. It is more, how shall I put it...like a perfect summer day, sailing on a boat with two sunbathing beauties.

You WILL enjoy this one.

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 2 (SC 111)

The second installment of this massive series. Each and every one will blow your mind in its own way. Don't hesitate, gravitate...to the comments section and take it with you...

Eros Plus Melody Vol. 1 (SC 110)

**NEW LINK IN COMMENTS!!!***

Let the aural pleasures begin with volume one of the spectacular Eros Plus Melody set! We kick off the series with a mix showcasing Franco Micalizzi, Gianfranco Plenzio, Franco Bixio, Guido & Maurizio and co., plus some lesser known European practitioners of the sexiest, most romantic music ever committed to vinyl. These mixes, which currently sit at 20 volumes and growing, contain the hand-picked favorite tracks of my personal music catalog.

Here's a little sample of what's in store:



Now head over to the comments section for your DL options.

Coming Next Week...Eros Plus Melody

Twenty volumes of romantically inclined groove mixes are complete! Sound Compendium will release them at approximately one excruciatingly beautiful, dripping-with-romance album at a time.

These mixes are for Library/Cinematic Groove enthusiasts as they contain many of the usual suspects, Umiliani, Cipriani, Morricone, etc, but will focus more on some of the lesser known, underappreciated titles from those masters. Of course, there will be plenty of gems from rare artists along the way.

Check in next week as the journey will begin then. In the meantime, grab some of the laid back 'Thank You for Flying...' mixes in the posts below.

Sound Compendium (SC108): Thank You for Flying...Pacific Southwest Airlines

Previous shared albums with hot chicks on the cover are downloaded at approximately a 50% higher rate than those without. Curious of the connection, Sound Compendium 108 will explore this theory with some chilled '60s and '70s tunes from the USA, tunes no greater or lesser than the others of this series, but with some lovely ladies gracing the cover.

The results will be telling. Enjoy the full album in the Comments. In the meantime, here's a test run to ensure quality:

Sound Compendium 107 (SC 107): Thank You for Flying...British Overseas Airline Corporation

Today we bring you some vintage in-flight vibes from Great Britain. Artists include familiar Library and production music artists Syd Dale, Johnny Harris, David Snell, John Cameron and William Kimber.

Sound Compendium 106 (SC106 B): Thank You for Flying...Lufthansa

As promised, the second of the double album. Jazzier than the first. Enjoy in Comments...


Also note that the dead links to Sound Compendium 101 and 102 are fixed. See their respective Comments sections for fresh linkage.

Sound Compendium 106 (SC106 A): Thank You for Flying...Lufthansa

The second in the Sound Compendium in-flight listening series. These grooves all come from Germany, East and West from the '60s and '70s.

We start with the first of a double album. Part two will follow next week. Here's a sample from a Hamburg-born artist that those familiar with the Selected Sounds releases will possibly recognize (link to album in comments):

Sound Compendium 105 (SC 105): Thank You for Flying...Air France

This is the first of a series of thematic mixes I'm doing for in-flight listening entertainment. We start with some mid-tempo numbers from France.

I'm a bit short on patience to do a back cover or track list. You'll just have to trust me that this mix is top shelf. Artists include le meilleur des meilleurs musiciens Français.

Here's a sample (full album in the comments).

Sound Compendium (SC 104)

Found this little jewel while digging through my vinyl. Very spacey as the cover art would suggest. This mysterious comp must come from the late '70s to early '80s.


Sample:

Link in Comments.

Gustav Brom - Plays for You Pop Jazz and Swing (1976)

Considering my own Czech roots, I've always had a soft spot for anything Bohemian related. This is probably my favorite record from Communist-era Czechoslovakia. Gustav Brom was primarily a big band leader with the occasional penchant for groovier numbers, namely on several April Orchestra library releases. Sadly, to my knowledge I've only tasted two of the rumored 570 records Brom is rumored to have been on--this and his work on April Orchestra's Vol. 34 release. If anyone has anything else of Brom's, please link me up!

This is a fantastic album, with the coolly sideburned Brom suavely directing the orchestra, fantastically belying the sounds underneath. Check the sample and then go straight to the download in comments...and that's an order!

Sound Compendium (SC 103)

No rest for the wicked Sound Compendium series. The Library comps are flying off the web like hotcakes.

Where SC 102 took listeners to the frontiers of the universe, SC 103 brings you back to the cold, cold glaciers of the Antarctic.

This volume is inspired by the mysterious, dark place way down under. Below is a very brief, brief snippet (29 seconds to be precise) of what lies beneath the frozen tundra, and you won't need a pick-axe to get to it. You'll only need to find your way to the comments section for a link and a faint bit of praise.

Sound Compendium (SC 102)

While not exactly a tour of the astral traveling kind as suggested by this here album cover, I'm off to Ulaanbaatar tomorrow on business. Perhaps Mongolia could be imagined as the very opposite of outer space. I have no idea, but I'll find out tomorrow.

To celebrate I leave you this nugget, a little Sound Compendium experience that is sure to capture the spaced out Library sounds of former times.

Link in the comments.

Goodbye and Hello

As you can see, the name High Plains Drifter exists no more, replaced by the better-sounding, more appropriate Sound Compendium Home Library. Why? The latter simply sounds much cooler, while the former, for many, conjured the image of Clint Eastwood on a horse high above a blood-red painted western village. Not musical, and not the image I was aiming for.

The blog will be better than ever, more musical, and completely devoted to giving back the wealth of music that I've received over the years. The new theme kicks off with the spectacular share below.

Sound Compendium (SC 101)

In celebration of the blog's name change, but in keeping with the running Library and infectious beats theme, we present you with a fresh, home-sliced mix of Library recordings courtesy of the Sound Compendium Home Library. Not sure of the precise direction I'll be taking the Sound Compendium mixes long term, but you can expect a good 10-20 volumes of the current variety, updated about once a week.

I'm just starting to pick up on the basics of Photoshop. Hope you like the chunes and the artwork.

Here's a sample, an obscure Janko Nilovic tune which is unfortunate only in its rather scratchy recording quality. Alas, it's the only copy I can find.




Get the rest over at MF with the first ever installment, and sure to be collector's item. Link in comments and be sure to say hello while you're there.

MASS TRANSIT 3: MUSIC FOR LEISURELY AFTERNOON TRANSPORT

As the summer temperatures rise, Mass Transit 3 drops the tempo. This volume's beats and infectious grooves accompany your afternoon transit experience.

Here be a sample of thy goods within:



There's more where that came from! Get down with Mass Transit 3: Music for Leisurely Transport.

The one track mix is above. Check the comments if you prefer the individual songs.

mass transit 2: music for evening rush hour

 HPD is back for the attack with another installment of homespun Mass Transit tunes. This time its a spectacular mix of propulsive grooves to aide your evening rush hour transit woes.

The feelin'-like-a-badass factor goes way up when you're slicing through a sea of commuters like Barry Sanders with this baby in your ears. And this time we've even got a frickin playlist and a back cover courtesy of Photoshop, so you can decide rather easily that this album is definitely for you.

This sample could not possibly fail to convince...

MASS TRANIT 2

That's your link to the one track mix. A separate file broken up into individual songs is in the comments, so take the one you want, or both.

MASS TRANSIT 1: MUSIC FOR EARLY MORNING COMMUTES

6 AM. Public transport. Speeding metal. Blurs of steel. Dodging traffic. The knowing rider needs the accompanying soundtrack. This is one groovy mix tape if I do say so myself. Check back in a week or so for volume two.

MASS TRANSIT 1

Bernard Estardy (shared in the post below), Francois de Roubaix, Alan Parker and Bernard Fevre are some of the names that appear on this mix. If you dig '70s Library, waste no time in grabbing this one. Next time you need to drag your tired morning ass across a city, strap your headphones to this beast and ride the groovy train.

I recognize that a single track can be a bit annoying for those who don't like it that way. Count me among those who find themselves supremely disappointed when a completed download reveals a much anticipated  album on a single track. Thus you can go one or both. The single track link with proper crossfades, etc, is above. A link to the album with separate tracks can be found here.

Bernard Estardy: Electro Sounds Vol. 1 & 2

Prepare to be bombed out of your skull by two fantastic Early Electro albums courtesy of French sound engineer Bernard Estardy. These two are simply must-haves, though I slightly favor Vol. 2. The samples below are indicative of the quality of music throughout these two masterpieces.

Though I've not seen any reference to it, it would be one crazy coincidence if Architecture in Helsinki's "Tiny Paintings" wasn't taken from Vol. 2's "Asiatic Dream".

This first sample is titled "Tic Tac Nocturne". To be lazy with a reference, it's perhaps reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "Time".




 ...another brilliant piece:




Get the rest below...

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

NFL Films

I could sit for hours listening to the voice of NFL Films, John Facenda, describe the seemingly banal sweep to the sideline of a running back being pursued by an angry linebacker intent on knocking his block off. No joke, I actually HAVE sat hours upon hours rewinding and rewatching old clips from '60s and '70s NFL Films. Those decades for me were the halcyon days of pro football coverage, an era when commentary, music, poetry and narrative all came together to create a classical period. Many Americans' nostalgia and love for football, consciously or not, is not just for the game itself. Rather it is provided through the dramatic action depicted by NFL Films which sometime in the early '60s helped elevate the professional football drama, a collision of reality and fiction, into a truly unique American art form.

In that classical period, NFL Films relied on Library music labels like DeWolfe and KPM for the soundtracks that accompanied the signature slow-motion shots of man-on-man battles in the trenches, bleeding foreheads, dejected players with chinstraps dangling; closeups of hands, teeth and of tight spirals that seemed to hang in the air forever. A pirouette in the open field by Paul Warfield, the menacing eyes of Dick Butkus, a galloping Gayle Sayers, a man who ran which such beauty and form as to bring a tear to the eye. Those players were all before my time, but they were so much a part of my childhood because, thankfully, those timeless episodes have been aired and re-aired for the last 50 years. Not only will they be re-aired forever, they are already part of an American classical canon that should be allotted their rightful place in serious film or art history study.

In the last year I've been frantically compiling Library music along with any video footage I can get my digital fingers on. Much of the music has a familiar feel precisely because I no doubt heard it as a backdrop to one of those Facenda narrated programs at some point in my life. Names like Alan Hawkshaw, Keith Mansfield, Alan Moorhouse and Sam Spence would be unfamiliar to just about anyone not into the cult of Library music. But anyone who grew up in the last 50 years and a fan of pro football has undoubtedly heard a few of their tracks.

As an adult, my dedication to any particular team or player has waned considerably. I no longer live or die by the wins and losses of my favorite team. However, I appreciate the greatest, most dramatic sport on earth much more. The history, the poetry, the drama of the game often make me very emotional, perhaps similar to the way one might get when reading Shakespeare or listening to Mozart. The NFL, thanks in great part to the work of NFL Films and the Sabol family, is a combination of many arts...it is America's great operatic form.

Dig in to this sample of Facenda describing a Walter Payton run. Facenda refers to Payton as "the leading runner in the history if the NFC", so it must be circa 1982-'84.





The following collection of music (no narration) is primarily from the '70s. Can't remember where I got this excellent album from, so apologies for lack of attribution. Enjoy...

NFL

High Plains Drifter Is Back!

Posts may be sporadic, but back for now...

Sun Ra - Lanquidity (1978) / Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 1 (1965)

Currently sucked into Sun Ra's expansive space jazz universe. Two shares, a pair of mind-benders. It's astounding that Heliocentric Worlds was recorded in 1965. I don't usually buy the phrase 'ahead of its time', but that applies here in a way--at once of another time, the future notably--and timeless. There, you see, I'm even beginning to sound like Sun Ra.

The sample here should motivate you to get both of these masterpieces...

LANQUIDITY


HELIOCENTRIC I
Apologies. The folder you're about to snatch says Vol. III. It is most certainly Vol. I. Please fix this after you grab... I'll fix when I get a minute.

Pax Nicholas & the Nettey Family - Na Teef Know de Road of Teef (1973)

Here's some insanely grooving and pure-as-the-black-Nigerian-night Afrobeat. Nicholas Nettey was part of the Fela Kuti entourage throughout the 1970s. Apparently Fela was blown away by the record and hence had some issues with Nettey, ordering him to stay out of the studio, and the album was lost for 30-odd years until its recent release. Lovers of Fela and classic Afrobeat should waste no time in grabbing this.

Test run:





Link removed

OFEGE - TRY AND LOVE (1973)

Apologies for the gap between posts. I've been making the requisite tagging of all my music to facilitate the great migration over to iTunes and, truthfully, not listening to much Afro even though that's the running theme of the blog for the time being. I'm presently wrapped up and swimming through copious amounts of Library... De Wolfe, KPM, TeleMusic and the like. Perhaps a switch in High Plains Drifter's theme will lean that direction shortly. Though I've tended to keep the theme congruent with what I'm currently listening to, it's difficult to predict the cycle of musical events that lead to genre hopping.

Today I bring you one of the great Afro Rock albums. Once again, not much info out there on Ofege despite their being one of the biggest Afro Rock acts of the '70s. I've run into a couple middle-aged Africans who know Ofege, but its disturbing how these bands fell into oblivion until the recent internet phenomenon which has revived this great music. Sadly, this is all threatened by the most recent attack in the bogus piracy war which should not be aimed at responsible file sharing. If seizures of file sharing sites gets as Draconian as the powers that be would like it to and resembles anything like the unlawful Megaupload seizure, we risk the the curtailment of further buried treasures ever seeing the light of day, or at the very least risk a return to where the opportunity to hear such obscurities becomes impossible. If the allegations are true, I'm not in any way defending Megaupload's freak of a boss, only the unlawful tactics employed in its seizure. But seeing as how businessmen and women cannot make a buck off music like the stuff posted here and on other great blogs, it's unlikely, due to its relative obscurity, it will ever surface as long as there's no tangible way to share it.

To all responsible music bloggers out there I say, keep up the good fight.

So, Ofege. Great album. Several songs which, if they weren't, should have been rock n' roll anthems. Here's one that definitely is.







TRY & LOVE

African Brothers Dance Band International - Led by Paa Steel Ampadu (197x)

                                                                            *

This is the first album where Highlife music really clicked with me... and the rest is history. I was initially attracted by the album art which gives the appearance of a guitar attack about to be unleashed. The record plays like a best of...so many great songs on this one. Download and allow Ghana's Highlife to seep in.


First a Sample... The guitars on this are simply a MUST LISTEN!




AFRICAN BROS. INT.



















                                                                                                                                                      *

Bembeya Jazz National - Authenticite 73: Parade Africaine (1973)

                                                                                                                                                    *

After Guinea won independence in 1958, President Sekou Toure launched a cultural revolution he called Authenticite, which after more than 70 years of colonial rule and suppression of all things African, aimed to promote and celebrate authentic African culture. A primary area of focus was the arts, particularly music. Bands like Bembeya Jazz and Balla et Ses Balladins were subsidized by the government and Guinea saw an unparalleled flowering of creativity. Music and art festivals abounded...concerts--the nation was for the first time filled with hope and possibility.

The Authenticite movement began to fade along with Sekou Toure's descent into paranoia as his regime became increasingly violent and oppressive. But the music created in Guinea from the mid '60s to the late '70s is some of the greatest, most groundbreaking ever made. Most was recorded at the famed Syliphone recording studios. The songs recorded there have an entirely unique sound, an echoey, haunting down-the-hallway type feel. Gorgeous horns, floating electric guitars and ridiculously complex drum patterns weave sounds in and out of your head. Bembeye Jazz's N'Gnamakoro with "Diamond Finger" Diabate's magical guitar nicely demonstrates this feel:






AUTHENTICITE



















*

Alhaji K. Frimpong - Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu (197x)

                                                                                *

This appears to be a collection of Frimpong's work as recordings are clearly from different periods over the 1970s and probably early '80s. The title track is a mind blowing tour de force (sampled below) and was a huge hit in Ghana and West Africa in the 1970s. The haunting organ and unusual, infectious drum patterns will destroy your soul (apparently the drummer is a legend by the name of Kwaku Kung Fu). It's a timeless, indestructible piece of music. Frimpong's "Hwehe Mu" receives attention on the spectacular Ghana Soundz collection, where I and probably many others were first introduced to him.





K. Frimpong was a Ghanian Highlife musician who occasionally crossed over into Afrobeat and Afro-Cuban territory. The album--and this one is obviously from a cassette tape--has got to be one of the worst all-time in cover art. Hopefully one day when this record gets a proper release in tune with the times and funkiness of the music, it'll get a fitting jacket like the one below to a totally separate album. One day I might share it, but for now I offer it as something more representative of the spirit of the tunes.

Link removed
































*

THONY SHORBY NWENYI - SWEET FUNK MUSIC (1978)

*

I'll kick off Afro Session, which will feature my favorite Afrobeat-funk-soul-cuban albums, with this truly obscure gem of deep Afro-Funk. A quick search on the internet reveals a few hits featuring track lists, etc, but there is no detailed information at all on this album anywhere as far as I can tell. Making it even more mysterious is that I cannot even remember how this holy grail of funk albums found its way into my collection.

What I do know is that Thony Shorby Nwenyi was a Nigerian with a penchant for out-of-this-world groove driven wah-wah guitar and elongated funk jams. Unfortunately, it seems for the time being that all we have of Nwenyi is this vinyl rip, though some collectors out there may be lucky enough to be in possession of the original vinyl. Collectors of African music of a similar era and older will often run up against this kind of scenario in which we know almost nothing about the musician or the music's origin. Some find it frustrating; others, like myself, think it adds to the mystery and charm. One could feel they're in possession of something truly rare.

While I cannot speak highly enough of the quality of the album through and through, there are two absolute floor shaking tracks here that I routinely select in my own DJ sets. Here's one to get you moving...



This album needs to see the light of day. I hope this post will aid in helping point things in a direction that ultimately gets this album and Thony Shorby the notoriety it and he deserves. Somebody somewhere surely must know something more, if not Thony Shorby himself. Download, share, turn your friends on...


THONY SHORBY NWENYI - SWEET FUNK MUSIC




















*