George Michael - Faith

80年代半ば、幼ななじみアンドリュー・リッジリーとのユニット「ワム！」で一世を風靡（ふうび）したジョージ・マイケル。しかしながら、アイドル路線をひた走る人気先行型のポップデュオと見られてしまい、彼本来のヴォーカリスト、またソングライターとしての才能については、いまひとつ過小評価気味だった。

87年にソロとして本格的に活動を開始したが、そのプロローグとなった本作は、これまでのフラストレーションを解消するかのようなセルフプロデュース作品である。アコースティックギターのカッティングが小気味よいタイトルチューンの<1>、ジャジーなテイストが漂う<9>など、さまざまなアプローチを見せ、あらためて人々をうならせた

1. Faith

2. Father Figure

3. I Want Your Sex, Pts. 1-2

4. One More Try

5. Hard Day

6. Hand to Mouth

7. Look at Your Hands

8. Monkey

9. Kissing a Fool

10. Hard Day [Shep Pettibone Remix]

11. Last Request (I Want Your Sex, Pt. 3)

日本ではそのキャラからか微妙に色物扱いで残念なのだが、このアルバムを聴いてみると彼の優れたソングライティング力と唄に拍手喝采は確実。個人的にもっと再評価されても良いと思う。★★★★

The Bird and the Bee - Ray Guns are not Just the Future

昨年、大ヒット・シングル『アゲイン&アゲイン』が日本中のラジオを席巻し、一度聴いたら耳から離れない病み付きソングで一躍スターになったザ・バード&ザ・ビー、待望の2ndアルバム。ガーリーでキュートな歌声のイナラとカイリー・ミノーグやリリー・アレンも手掛ける売れっ子プロデューサーのグレッグからなる2人組。

個々のソロ活動を経てさらなる成長を遂げた、約2年ぶりとなる待望の2ndアルバム!!

1. Fanfare

2. My Love

3. Diamond Dave

4. What's In The Middle

5. Ray Gun

6. Love Letter To Japan

7. Meteor

8. Baby

9. Phil

10. Polite Dance Song

11. You're A Cad

12. Witch

13. Birthday

14. Lifespan Of A Fly

Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On The Stage Anymore, Volume 1

ディスク：1
1. Florida Airport Tape
2. Once upon a Time
3. Sofa No. 1
4. Mammy Anthem
5. You Didn't Try to Call Me
6. Diseases of the Band
7. Tryin' to Grow a Chin
8. Let's Make the Water Turn Black/Harry, You're a Beast/The Orange ...
9. Groupie Routine
10. Ruthie-Ruthie
11. Babbette
12. I'm the Slime
13. Big Swifty
14. Don't Eat the Yellow Snow
ディスク：2
1. Plastic People
2. Torture Never Stops
3. Fine Girl
4. Zomby Woof
5. Sweet Leilani
6. Oh No
7. Be in My Video
8. Deathless Horsie
9. Dangerous Kitchen
10. Dumb All Over
11. Heavenly Bank Account
12. Suicide Chump
13. Tell Me You Love Me
14. Sofa No. 2

60年代から80年代までの未発表ライブ音源を集めた2枚組アルバム。
個人的には(5) Sweet Leilani　(6) Oh No　(7) Be In My Videoあたりをよく聴きます。ザッパ入門用としても面白いアルバム。
★★★★

Katie Melua - The House

2010 album from the platinum-selling British singer/songwriter. Recorded at Air Studios in London, Katie's fourth studio album was produced by William Orbit and sees Katie writing on her own and with Guy Chambers, Rick Nowels, Mike Batt and school friend Polly Scattergood. William enlisted Katie's manager and record label boss Mike Batt for the string arrangements. 12 tracks including 'I'd Love To Kill You'. Dramatico.

歌良し、声良し、サウンド良しとなかなか聞かせるケイティのニューアルバム。
ジャンル不詳ながら逆に色々な音楽ファンにオススメ。★★★★

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Electro Pioneers, living legends and globally revered masters of electronic sound, Kraftwerk celebrate the 35th anniversary of their landmark 1974 hit 'Autobahn' by releasing digitally remastered versions of eight astounding albums. 8 x individual CDs presented in special slipcases featuring newly expanded artwork, including many previously unseen images all of which have been reproduced to the highest technical standards.


1. Autobahn
2. Kometenmelodie 1
3. Kometenmelodie 2
4. Mitternacht
5. Morgenspaziergang

クラフトワークが電子音楽というジャンルを初めて世間に認めさせた一作。20分を超えるAutobahnは聴き応えたっぷり。
リマスターで音質も向上。　★★★★

Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green

Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee's hyperactive guitar solos (fretboard attacks a speed-metal guitarist would be proud to unleash) caught the ear of British rock fans and built a bridge to the blues. The well-produced Cricklewood Green, consisting of all-original material by Lee, is the group's best studio effort. For a band that made its reputation with live performances, most conspicuously at the Woodstock festival, that's probably minor praise, but it's praise nevertheless. The extended workout of the hit single "Love Like a Man" is the centerpiece of the album, one that opens with the frantic buzz of the back-to-back road songs "Sugar the Road" and "Working on the Road." But Lee, ably assisted by keyboardist Chick Churchill, fleshes out the trademark Ten Years After blues frenzy with an assortment of atypical approaches and styles. "Me and My Baby" delivers Lee and the band in a relaxed, almost swinging, mode, while "Circles" is a rare ballad offering. The sci-fi blues of "Year 3000 Blues" and semi-psychedelia of "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and "As the Sun Still Burns Away" further extend the album's reach without sacrificing any of Lee's guitar excursions.

1. Sugar the Road

2. Working on the Road

3. 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain

4. Year 3, 000 Blues

5. Me and My Baby

6. Love Like a Man

7. Circles

8. As the Sun Still Burns Away

ご存じギター早弾きで有名なアルヴィン・リー率いるTen Years Afterですが、ブルース色が強いこのアルバムもなかなか味わい深いものがあります。

★★★★

The Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea

The Track that Sparked the Ambient Electronic Revolution of the Early 90's is Now Reissued with New Mixes by Remixes from Satoshi Tomiie, Hybrid, Simian, and Blue States.



1. Papua New Guinea [7" Original]


2. Papua New Guinea [Andrew Weatherall Mix]


3. Papua New Guinea [Dub Mix]


4. Papua New Guinea


5. Papua New Guinea [Graham Massey Mix]


6. Papua New Guinea [Dumb Child of Q Mix]


7. Papua New Guinea [12" Original]


8. Papua New Guinea [Hamish Mcdonald Mix]


初期のFSOLという事でなかなかノリが良くサウンドも気持ち良い★★★★

The Future Sound Of London - Papua New Guinea Translations

In 1992, Future Sound of London released the single "Papua New Guinea". Fueled by electronica-meets-dub rhythms, an insistent sequencer pattern, and the sampled voice of Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance, it floated alongside Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" as one of the signature sounds from those trippy years. On this disc, FSOL creates a "Papua New Guinea" canon with eight variations on the original theme. As opposed to the guest remixers who twiddle the tune on the reissue of FSOL's Accelerator, here, the boys retool their own work. There's an Isaac Hayes-like "Shaft" revision on a version called "The Lovers" and an ambient chamber music rendition with banjo on "Requiem." Filtered through acid rock guitars on "Wooden Ships," the original "Papua" is rendered completely unrecognizable. And if this isn't enough, the bonus CD of Accelerator Deluxe has 10 more versions. Translations also includes the original video of "Papua New Guinea." FSOL can be accused of milking their greatest hit for all it's worth, but the milk is still sweet.

1. 12" Original

2. Papsico

3. Lovers

4. Wooden Ships

5. Great Marmalade Mama in the Sky

6. Requiem

7. Things Change Like the Patters and Shades That Fall from the Sun

8. Big Blue

9. Original Papua New Guinea [Multimedia Track]

★★★

New Order - Singles

The massively influential band New Order formed in Manchester, England, in 1980, rising from the ashes of U.K. post-punk pioneers Joy Division (after singer Ian Curtis took his own life). Guitarist Bernard Sumner assumed vocal duties for the new unit, and with drummer Stephen Morris, bassist Peter Hook, and keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, made music history. Successfully fusing new wave, electronica, synth-pop, and club music earlier than many bands now seen as contemporaries, their unique sound was as insightful and soulful as it was perfectly suited for the dance floor. From their earliest singles to their latest hits, this historic double-disc collection offers a career-spanning portrait of one of the most enduring and distinctive bands in modern rock.

ディスク：1
1. Ceremony
2. Procession
3. Everything's Gone Green
4. Temptation
5. Blue Monday
6. Confusion
7. Thieves Like Us
8. Perfect Kiss
9. Sub-Culture
10. Shellshock
11. State of the Nation
12. Bizarre Love Triangle
13. True Faith
14. 1963
15. Touched by the Hand of God
ディスク：2
1. Blue Monday '88
2. Fine Time
3. Round and Round
4. Run
5. World in Motion
6. Regret
7. Ruined in a Day
8. World (Price of Love)
9. Spooky
10. Crystal
11. 60 Miles an Hour
12. Here To Stay
13. Krafty
14. Jetstream
15. Waiting for the Sirens Call
16. Turn
17. Temptation

factory時代のSubstance以降の曲も収録されリマスターされたベスト盤の決定版。
ただし今回も残念ながら12インチ音源のPerfect Kissは収録されず。★★★★

Everything But The Girl - Amplified Heart

Amplified Heart marked a number of changes in Everything but the Girl's career, the most obvious of which was their sudden popularity when a Todd Terry remix of "Missing" became a dance-floor hit. But before the album was even recorded, Ben Watt--who with Tracy Thorn is EBTG--was hospitalized for a life-threatening intestinal disorder (see his book, Patient: The True Story of a Rare Illness, for a full account). His recovery invigorates Amplified Heart, making the love songs that much more passionate, the relationship songs that much more tender, and "25th December"--the one song in which Watt sings lead--that much more heartbreaking. Thorn's captivating vocals are the focus on the rest of the album, and she's as smooth as ever; combined with the focus that she and Watt share here, it makes for EBTG's best album.

1. Rollercoaster

2. Troubled Mind

3. I Don't Understand Anything

4. Walking to You

5. Get Me

6. Missing

7. Two Star

8. We Walk the Same Line

9. 25th December

10. Disenchanted

11. Missing [Remix]

ドラムンベースが流行りだした頃かな。アコースティック以外も魅力的なEBTGで★★★

Suzanne Vega - Beauty & Crime

Suzanne Vega、レコード会社をBlue Note Recordsへ移籍しての第1弾となるニュー・アルバムをリリース!オリジナル・アルバムとしては、約6年ぶりとなり、レコーディングはニューヨークとロンドンで行われたようです。今作は、プロデューサーに、Corinne Bailey RaeやK.T. Tunstallを手掛けたJimmy Hogarthを迎え、ゲストミュージシャンとして、Sonic YouthのLee Ranaldo やPatti Smith BandのTony Shanahan、そしてK.T. Tunstallなどが参加している模様です。

1. Zephyr & I

2. Ludlow Street

3. New York Is a Woman

4. Pornographer's Dream

5. Frank & Ava

6. Edith Wharton's Figurines

7. Bound

8. Unbound

9. As You Are Now

10. Angel's Doorway

11. Anniversary

ご無沙汰なスザンヌ・ヴェガ久々のアルバム。歌もサウンドも全然OK　★★★

Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express

On Trans Europe Express, Kraftwerk celebrates a romantic, retro future of shimmering elegance and glistening decadence where travel and technology merge across infinite sonic vistas. This milestone in avant-pop modernism later becomes a crucial influence on the early pioneers of hip-hop & sampling, electro and industrial music. "With Trans Europe Express, they set out to reinvent a different legend: that of Europa itself. In the process, they changed pop music forever.

1. Europe Endless

2. Hall of Mirrors

3. Showroom Dummies

4. Trans Europe Express

5. Metal on Metal

6. Abzug

7. Franz Schubert

8. Endless Endless

予想以上にリマスター効果あり。★★★★

The Future Sound of London - We Have Explosive

1. We Have Explosive, Pt. 1

2. We Have Explosive, Pt. 2

3. We Have Explosive, Pt. 3

4. We Have Explosive, Pt. 4

5. We Have Explosive, Pt. 5

6. We Have Explosive [Oil Funk Remix]

7. We Have Explosive [Mantronik Plastic Formula #1]

8. We Have Explosive [Oil Dub]

9. We Have Explosive [Radio Edit]

The Future Sound of London - Environments

Trippy UK electronica legends FSOL add to their burgeoning catalogue with their latest release forJumpin & Pumpin. Originally released last year as an mp3 only bundle, 'Environments' comprises of twoextended FSOL head jams both clocking in at over 20 mins long.

1. Environments Part 1

2. Environments Part 2

Frank Zappa - Roxy & Elsewhere

マザーズ結成10周年記念ライヴを中心にまとめられた74年発表作品。パーカッションのルース・アンダーウッドやサックスのナポレオン・マーフィーたちによる変幻自在のグルーヴがぎっしり。

This mostly live set features Zappa performing with the popular Mothers of Invention line-up of the early 70's--including jazz-funk meister George Duke, Napolean Murphy Brock on saxophone, and Ruth Underwood on percussion. Highlights include the souped-up funk of "Pygmy Twylyte," burning renditions of favorites "Penguin in Bondage" and "More Trouble Every Day," and the hilarious monster movie tribute "Cheepnis." Duke steals the show on several tracks, and Zappa's guitar work and "master of ceremonies" showmanship is in top form.

1. Penguin In Bondage

2. Pygmy Twylyte

3. Dummy Up

4. Village Of The Sun

5. Echidna's Arf (Of You)

6. Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?

7. Cheepnis

8. Son Of Orange County

9. More Trouble Every Day

10. Bebop Tango (Of The Old Jazzmen's Church)

The Future Sound of London - ISDN

"They're so antisocial," said Mixmaster Morris of the reclusive Future Sound of London. "They won't even go to parties anymore--they do all their gigs over the telephone." After the success of their majestic "Papua New Guinea" single and the Accelerator album from which it was taken, FSOL retreated to the studio and never left. Their only communication with the outside world was through their music, an increasingly abstract Dadaist collage of overdubbed beats and noises that defied genres and stymied trend-happy journalists. While some of the material on ISDN was previously released under the pseudonym Far Out Son of Lung (the worst-kept secret in dance music), the bulk of the album was taped from performances delivered via digital telephone links to radio stations throughout Europe. Naturally, the ubiquitous and intrusive medium of radio encourages challenging and elaborate environmental music. So unlike their previous album, Lifeforms, whose closest earthly relation was techno, ISDN is the distant cousin of jazz, both in its blatant sampling of sax and drums and its freeform, exploratory nature.

1. Just a Fuckin Idiot

2. Far-Out Son of Lung and the Ramblings of a Madman

3. Appendage

4. Slider

5. Smokin' Japanese Babe

6. You're Creeping Me Out

7. Eyes Pop - Skin Explodes - Everybody Dead

8. It's My Mind That Works

9. Dirty Shadows

10. Tired

11. Egypt

12. Kai

13. Amoeba

14. Study of Six Guitars

15. Snake Hips

The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms

Gary CobainとBrian DougansFutureによるデュオSound of Londonのアルバム第2作には、『Dead Skin Cells』、『Cerebral』、『Spineless Jelly』nado』など、生物の教科書の見出しにありそうな言葉のタイトルが並んでいる。それも無理はない。前アルバムの『Accelerator』や、ヒット・シングル『Papua New Guinea』のにぎやかで華やかなテクノ・サウンドから成長して、この『Lifeforms』では、オーガニックなサウンドを繊細でしなやかにアレンジすることに専心した。 CurveのToni HallidayやパーカッショニストのTalvin Singh、ギターの巨匠Robert Frippがゲストとして参加しているが、そのサウンドは完全に一体化しているので、それぞれを聞き当てることは難しいだろう。「アンビエント・ミュージック」と呼ぶには元気が良すぎるが、これまでのSound of Londonの作品よりは落ち着いている『Lifeforms』の奥深い魅力は、聴けば聴くほどに増してくるだろう。

ディスク：1
1. Cascade
2. Ill Flower
3. Flak
4. Bird Wings
5. Dead Skin Cells
6. Life Forms
7. Eggshell
8. Among Myselves
ディスク：2
1. Domain
2. Spineless Jelly
3. Interstat
4. Vertical Pig
5. Cerebral
6. Life Form Ends
7. VIT
8. Omnipresence
9. Room 208
10. Elaborate Burn
11. Little Brother

The Future Sound of London - Dead Cities

This U.K. duo's landmark ambient techno album Lifeforms (1994) explored lush jungle vistas. Its follow-up opts for a much darker urban nightmare motif that makes it an ideal soundtrack while reading William Gibson. Progressive rockers by any other name, FSOL are highly respected innovators who rate with Orbital as the genre's leading exponent

1. Herd Killing

2. Dead Cities

3. Her Face Forms in Summertime

4. We Have Explosive

5. Everyone in the World Is Doing Something Without Me

6. My Kingdom

7. Max

8. Antique Toy

9. Quagmire/In a State of Permanent Abyss

10. Glass

11. Yage

12. Vit Drowning/Through Your Gills I Breathe

13. First Death in the Family

14. Through Your Gills I Breathe

15. First Death in the Family

Frank Zappa - The Yellow Shark

Released shortly after his death in 1993, The Yellow Shark represents one of the only accurate performances of Frank Zappa's "serious" orchestral music--at least as far as the composer was concerned. Assembled from a series of sold-out performances in Germany by the Ensemble Moderne, the set includes re-workings of old favorites like "The Dog Breath Variations" and "Uncle Meat," live arrangements of some of his hairiest computer music like "The Girl in the Magnesium Dress" and "G-Spot Tornado" and new works by Zappa composed specifically for the event. The performances are astonishing and the music? Pure Zappa.

1. Intro

2. Dog Breath Variations

3. Uncle Meat

4. Outrage at Valdez

5. Times Beach II

6. III Revised

7. Girl in the Magnesium Dress

8. Be-Bop Tango

9. Ruth Is Sleeping

10. None of the Above

11. Pentagon Afternoon

12. Questi Cazzi Di Piccione

13. Times Beach III

14. Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America, 1992

15. Welcome to the United States

16. Pound for a Brown

17. Exercise, No. 4

18. Get Whitey

19. G-Spot Tornado

Frank Zappa - Civilization Phaze III

Civilization Phaze III is a double album by Frank Zappa. It was the last album he completed before his death in 1993, and was released posthumously in April 1995 by The Zappa Family Trust on Barking Pumpkin Records. Categorized by Zappa as an "opera-pantomime", the project began as a vocal recording experiment in 1967, which Zappa describes in the liner notes (written in 1993):

ディスク：1
1. This Is Phaze III
2. Put a Motor in Yourself
3. Oh-Umm
4. They Made Me Eat It
5. Reagan at Bitburg
6. Very Nice Body
7. Navanax
8. How the Pigs' Music Works
9. Xmas Values
10. Dark Water!
11. Amnerika
12. Have You Heard Their Band?
13. Religious Superstition
14. Saliva Can Only Take So Much
15. Buffalo Voice
16. Someplace Else Right Now
17. Get a Life
18. Kayak (On Snow)
19. N-Lite
ディスク：2
1. I Wish Motorhead Would Come Back
2. Secular Humanism
3. Attack! Attack! Attack!
4. I Was in a Drum
5. Different Octave
6. This Ain't CNN
7. Pigs' Music
8. Pig With Wings
9. This Is All Wrong
10. Hot and Putrid
11. Flowing Inside-Out
12. I Had a Dream About That
13. Gross Man
14. Tunnel into Muck
15. Why Not?
16. Put a Little Motor in Em
17. You're Just Insultin' Me, Aren't You!
18. Cold Light Generation
19. Dio Fa
20. That Would Be the End of That
21. Beat the Reaper
22. Waffenspiel