Monday, July 27, 2009

Music News & Notes

Classical Gas

Classical music fans now have a fantastic site to find their favorite music, all for the price of $9.95 a month or $99.50 a year.

Classical Archives (www.classicalarchives.com) bills itself as "the ultimate classical music destination."

"Archives" delivers just about everything that today's classical-music fan might desire, and it does so in one, easy-to-navigate place. This includes both information galore and recordings that can be streamed (for free) or downloaded onto an mp3 player. Downloading an entire album ranges in price from under $10 to over $20. The cost of downloading a single movement is often less than a dollar. The quality of the streaming revealed a solid flow of sound, free of the breakups that are common on many radio-station sites.

The quantity of material at Classical Archives is formidable. This includes at least 620,000 tracks, 7,800 composers, 27,000 artists and 110 labels. That's more than enough material to keep even the most avid aficionado occupied his entire life.

The site provides detailed musicological information for each work: movements, genre, principal instruments, year of composition and key. Users may compare various recordings of a given work. Various terms are explained clearly, concisely and accurately, including instruments, genres and stylistic periods. Almost every composer gets a bio as well as a list of works, albums and "essentials," which are must-have items.

Some people may find all this overwhelming and not know where to begin. Fortunately, "Archives" offers several entry points. The site's homepage includes "featured" sections for composers, performers and new releases, with each one offering a column of recordings.

When it comes to composers, the site seems intent on serving all kinds of listeners, including the novice, the traditionalist and the more adventurous sort. You'll find the masters most everyone has heard of in a category called "The Greats," and you'll find them (and seemingly everyone else) in a "Composers" category.

Now, if they can only get with a company to re-release some of the classic music on 180 gram (or better) vinyl.

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Deep Purple To Record New Album In February 2010

British hard rock legends Deep Purple has announced that they will begin recording their next studio album next February. Lead vocalist Ian Gillan stated: "I think we are ready to make another album. We’ve been talking about it for some time already. I think we’ll start to work on it next February."

"We go into the studio with absolutely nothing, no music or lyrics whatsoever. We sit in the kitchen, having some cup of tea, talk about families and football… Then we go into the room and play; six hours a day. After three days, some ideas begin to shape and we start to turn them into songs. To prepare the main lines takes about three weeks, to deal with lyrics, recording process and mixing also take two weeks. Since there have been many technological developments recently and we use them by recording the music in analog and mix it in digital to achieve the best result."

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Led Zeppelin Singer Robert Plant Injured In Car Crash

Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant had a car crash with a drugs counselor. The rocker was driving his Audi A8 car when he collided with driver Richard Grant at a junction in North West London.

Grant - who is a counselor for charity Turning Point - was knocked unconscious and suffered whiplash in the smash, but came round to find the singer standing nearby.

Plant – whose car was damaged beyond repair in the accident - said: "My Mercedes is smashed up and I'm not in a good way."

Plant, 60, is not thought to have been seriously hurt in the accident.

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Mute Math Reveal Album Cover For ‘Armistice’

Mute Math have revealed the album art for their upcoming new album ‘Armistice‘ due out August 18th, 2009.

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