Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others CD

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others The Bravery tried to expand their new wave-inspired dance-rock on The Sun and the Moon with decidedly mixed results: for every experiment that broadened their music, another left them sounding completely out of their element. With Stir the Blood, they return to the style they know best -- in fact, they may be even more emphatically shiny and electronic here than they were on their debut. Bravery frontman Sam Endicott co-produced the album with John Hill (who has also worked with Shakira and Santigold), and they coat Stir the Blood in a sheen that suits the band's more pop-oriented writing. These songs are pared down to the sharpest hooks and the most earworm-like choruses -- all the better to let the fizzing electronics take over, especially on "I Have Seen the Future," which cruises along on a shuffle beat and laser-tag synths; meanwhile, "The Spectator"'s brooding comes wrapped in a sleek pop coating. When the Bravery switch to rock, as on "Hatef--k" and "Jack-O'-Lantern Man," Endicott's yelp gets a little strained. However, Stir the Blood's slower side allows the band to stretch a little without sounding forced. The single "Slow Poison" evokes Heroes-era Bowie, "She's So Bendable" reboots the fuzzed-out chug of the Velvet Underground, and "Sugar Pill" closes Stir the Blood with narcotic bliss. Even on its mellower moments, the Bravery sound more excited about making music on this album than they have since their debut, making Stir the Blood a fine return to form. ~ Heather Phares Recording information: A Tour Bus; Clinton Recording Studios, New York, NY; DNA Downtown, New York, NY; Dreamland, West Hurley, NY; Rusty Bronson's Pleasure Cave, New York, NY; The Joint Studios, London, England; Various bedrooms. Photographers: Brantley Gutierrez; Chris Angell; Hugo Marcotte; The Bravery. Personnel: Sam Endicott (vocals, guitar, programming); Michael Zakarin (guitar); John Conway (keyboards, programming); Anthony Burulcich (drums). Audio Mixer: Michael H. Baruer.

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others  

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others Buzz is a contemplative singer-songwriter whose introspective work focuses on topics that include a search for truth, recognition of lifes challenges, and belief in a better future. The artist, whose music reflects his heritage from Americas midwestern heartland, employs his ample skills as a blues and roots guitarist along with his evocative and distinctive vocal stylings to create a stunning first collection of songs on his debut CD "Let Go" . The messages in these songs will ring true for a broad spectrum of listener/thinkers looking for a fresh new sound. --Kyle David Watts--Singer/songwriter/engineer

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others THE TOTEM IS STRONG"The Fucking Eagles are the niftiest fake band of the half-moment. A mutantry of contentious quality that proffer the new old-timey, void of a coherent thrill line. Posing interlopers, hack-happy chancers. Self-aware maladroits ghost-smithing varied scraps and hooks yoinked from a dusty American R&R narrative to scratch out a shameless howl & dumb wholly steeped in barren third-world city sophisticrap affectations. Starting as the unfunniest of jokes in 2005 in the arsenic drenched, barren landscapes and history-heavy bar back-rooms of industrial old town Tacoma, Warshington and imbibed on shared no-lifetimes of toxic smelter air and Rosalie ghost stories, the quattro seek to serve up all that smoky sweet raw-packed haunted-city ware in loud, can't danceable, junk soul form. Never mind the caustic name and the faux-tough airs. Ragged good-timey frug & shug is the totem - cooing with the excellently bedheaded masses to unfold arms, unfurrow brows, get on the feets and fuck out loud right along with as they lame their place in rock'n'roll non-history. The soul-full-of-it and the soul-less, the doo wop and the doo wrong, Brill Building tenant discards, and all manner of clunky rhythm'n lose not-so-originals and shoulda-beens/sorta-weres from a mutant cadre of inspirators: Gino Washington, Kitty Love, Oblivians, The Syndicate, Bobby Long, Chuck Willis, Flat Duo Jets and more we won't implicate here - all now unwilling recipients of an expertless musical mistreatment and stuffed into the mercilessly contrived and ineptly fuckocted Fucklets' repeturd."

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others Recording information: Ludwigshafen, Philharmonie (02/05/2007-02/09/2007).

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others  

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others FARAWAY FLARES Faraway sounds of lost memories....

Atterberg: Symphony No. 6; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Fernandez: Reisado do Pastoreio Batuque & Others Track Listing of songs: Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 1 in C major, 'Reunion'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 2 in A minor, 'Presentiment of Death'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 3 in G major, 'Thou art so like a flower'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 4 in E minor, 'Suffocation'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 5 in D major, 'Uncertainly'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 6 in B minor, 'Tolling Bells'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 7 in A major, 'The Polish Dance'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 8 in F sharp minor, 'Desparation'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 9 in E major, 'Vision'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 10 in C sharp minor, 'The Night Moth'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 11 in B major, 'Dragon Fly'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 12 in G sharp minor, 'Duel'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 13 in F sharp major, 'Loss'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 14 in E flat minor, 'Fear'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 15 in D flat major, 'Raindrop'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 16 in B flat minor 'Hades'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 17 in A flat major, 'A Scene on the Place de Notre Dame de Paris'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 18 in F minor, 'Suicide'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 19 in E flat major, 'Heartfelt Happiness'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 20 in C minor, 'Funeral March'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 21 in B flat major, 'Sunday'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 22 in G minor, 'Impatience'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 23 in F major, 'A Pleasure Boat'; Preludes 24 for piano, Op. 28, CT. 166-189: No. 24 in D minor, 'The Storm'; Ballade for piano No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, CT. 2; Fantasy for piano in F minor/A flat major, Op. 49, C. 42; Scherzo for piano No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20, CT. 197;