Various Artists – Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds in the Diaspora, 1980-93 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:51:52 minutes | 2,22 GB | Genre: Highlife, Funk, Afrobeat
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Soundway Records Ltd
In the early 1980s, a particular alchemy between new musical technologies and significant social, cultural, and political transformations in Ghana gave rise to a new style of highlife. Drum machines and synthesisers appeared alongside lilting guitar lines and punchy horns, and the emerging Ghanaian diaspora began incorporating US disco and boogie, R&B, European new wave, and Caribbean zouk and soca into their music.
This style soundtracked the birth of a new, proud Ghanaian identity and captured the idiosyncrasies of a rapidly changing postcolonial society, marked by increased migration and wider access to global sounds and modern technology.
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Various Artists – Havergal Brian: The Cenci – Opera in Eight Scenes (Live) (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:41:24 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Toccata Classics
The Cenci (1951–52) is Havergal Brian’s operatic realisation of Shelley’s gruesome tale of incest and parricide in Renaissance Italy. The score calls it simply ‘Opera in Eight Scenes’, but it rarely goes in for grand tunes; instead, its dark colours reflect Shelley’s fascination with the struggle between good and evil. Stylistically, it is an unusual but highly effective hybrid: a music-drama focused on the intense delivery of Shelley’s text, with the declamatory style of the vocal lines echoing such recent oratorios as Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, and the freewheeling orchestral writing producing something of a vocal symphony.
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Various Artists – An All Star Salute to Lee Greenwood (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:08:40 minutes | 781 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © StarVista Music
An All-Star Salute To Lee Greenwood was filmed in Huntsville, Alabama to celebrate the 40+ year career that Grammy award-winning artist Lee Greenwood has accomplished. Throughout the presentation, music artists of various genres perform some of Lee’s biggest hits plus special guests like Paula Deen, Kid Rock, Dolly Parton, and Pres George W. Bush provide video messages and introductions. Lee’s song “God Bless The USA” has become a patriotic anthem helping bring America together after 9/11 and other tragic moments in US history. The night this special was filmed, Lee was able to award two (2) veterans with an adapted home in conjunction with Helping A Hero, a 501c3 org.
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