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Kick starting the Nite Life series
NRK's Nite Life mixes cull some of the best underground house DJs around, as standout work from colleagues H-foundation and Nick Holder have proven. Jon Marsh (production member of the initially-new wave band The Beloved) actually got the call for kicking off this series, now seeing domestic release.

What's it sound like? Pleasure-seeking 4/4 house music, with Nick Holder's "inside Your Soul" blasting off and Adam & Eve's "All That Jazz" one of the best glitterball stompers you've never heard. Not to mention Aaron Carl testament "My House," David Alvarado's minor masterpiece "Klugh," and Halo Varga's massive "Future." Too bad Sirus' deep house noodle "Big Ben" sounds so fey in an otherwise up for it set.

Bottom line, you can't go wrong with any of the Nite Life series, and this older title serves a good starting point. ... Read more

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Ã"tima performance de todas as bandas militares.
Gostei muito dos CD's e indico para quem goste de música de bandas militares. Ouvindo relembro as paradas quando era para-quedista e sempre dividia a semana da asa com os militares da aviação em Belo Horizonte-MG. ... Read more

Album Description

This five CD box set to commemorate Sousa’s sesquicentennial includes Volumes 1-5 in this ongoing American Classics series. Highlights include: Looking Upward Suite, King Cotton, The Fairest of the Fair, The National Game, The Glory of the Yankee Navy, The Atlantic City Pageant, Cubaland, Semper Fidelis and The Stars and Stripes Forever. ... Read more

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Ensemble Unnamed for a Reason
It sounds like a mediocre college (or pretty good high school) band. Clams and clunkers (wrong or misplaced notes) abound. The director had so little confidence in the piccolo that he had it lay off of the solo the first time through (when the rest of the band plays softly) the famous part of Stars & Stipes Forever. The recording quality is on a par with the musicianship. Sousa deserves much better.

Correction (1/5/03): They didn't have the piccolo lay out, but they didn't take the last repeat (which is indicated pianissimo the first time through and fortissimo the second) - they play it once, loud. As written, the famous melody ("be kind to your web-footed friends") occurs three time, the first in the Trio, with no piccolo obligato. It's still wrong. ... Read more

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The Music of the Corps of Drums
The fife and drum has always been the earliest form of military music. Long before there were regimental and military bands there was the fife and drum. In this fine collection of fife and drum music, the corps of drums of the 1st battalion, the Grenadier Guards, provide a stirring collection of many old and new tunes. The CD starts off with the old bugle calls of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Grenadier Guards. In the 18th and 19th century these bugle calls played important functions within the battalions they belonged too. This is followed by a classic medley of old fife and drum music stretching back through the ages to the 17th century and earlier. the old is also mixed with the new, and several modern selections are also included. One of the most interesting aspects of the recording as the selection of tunes played by the 18th Century band. Here one gets to hear what a Guards band might have sounded like in colonial America, or at Horseguards in London in the 1770s. The orchestration for bands in those days was vastly different, and the music resembles classical or chamber music. Nonetheless, these pieces are quite stirring, and one can imagine the red-coated lines marching in dressed ranks toward the French at Minden in 1759, or any of the other battles of this period. The listener won't find better fife music than this anywhere. Highly recommended for all serious listeners. ... Read more

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find better for your money
This album is a collection of many Sousa Favorites, true; but they are not performed well. I think the Paul Washington Marching Band should have spent a little more time in the studio before leetting this one hit the stores. In every song there are notable blips or cracks by trumpeters, trombonists, piccoloists, or all of the above. In many the feel for time is staggering, as if the musicians decided to each go at their own tempo. Even in that classic favorite 'The Washington Post March', there are major tuning problems.

If you want a high quality recording of Sousa marches, buy a better CD.

~C~ ... Read more