Etta James - At Last! (1961) (@320)

Another major loss, Etta James. A great voice, a great woman and, here, a monumental album. It was her first lp and it was released by Argo, a Chess subsidiary. Her influence to a bunch of artists from Janis Joplin to Diana Ross to Amy Winehouse to Adele is apparent. You can also find bits of her story at an older post.

review link: here

download link: here (link removed)

Various - Rap Classics (EP) (@320)

This post is dedicated to Sylvia Robinson who passed away some months ago. Although her singing career cannot be overlooked (mainly for Love Is Strange in the 50's and for Pillow Talk in the 70's), her contribution in the birth of rap, as the co-founder of Sugar Hill Records and as the producer of many of the songs that are considered as core material of the genre is immense. The relevant upload (a premium of a greek music magazine some ten years ago) combines three groups of the company, her two most important productions (namely Rapper's Delight and The Message) along with the Sugar Hill Records logo on the front cover.

Tracklisting:
1-Grandmaster Flash & The Furius Five - The Message
2-Treacherous Three - Gotta Rock
3-The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight
4-The Furius Five Meets The Gugarhill Gang - Showdown

download link: here (link removed)

OST - The Beekeeper (1986) (@320)

This post is a tribute to the Greek movie director Theodoros Angelopoulos who died recently when he was hit by a motorcycle while shooting his new movie. Although his slow and dreamlike filming style has caused endless arguments among movie aficionados, he is considered as one of the most important European directors. He has worked with famous actors such as Marcello Mastroianni, Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, Bruno Ganz and Jeanne Moreau. In 1998, he won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, with his film Eternity and a Day.
The offered upload is the soundtrack of his movie "The Beekeeper", one of the many times he collaborated with the composer Eleni Karaindrou. On the other hand, The Beekeeper is also a very fruitful collaboration between Karaindrou and Jan Garbarek which initiated a mutual respect between the two artists; as a result Karaindrou followed Garbarek and signed in ECM.

Read also: NY Times obituary

download link: here (mirrorcreator) and here (rapidshare)