Sam Brown - 43 Minutes (1993)

43 Minutes is the third studio album from English female singer-songwriter Sam Brown. It was released in 1993 by Brown's own label, Pod Music.

43 Minutes peaked at No. 132 on Australia's ARIA Charts. "Fear of Life" was released as the album's only single, and reached No. 135 on the ARIA Charts. In 2019, a remastered edition of 43 Minutes was reissued on CD through Pod Music.

Brown began writing 43 Minutes in 1991, during which time her mother was dying of cancer. Once writing was completed, Brown's label, A&M Records, provided the singer with £11,000 to demo her new material, with recording taking place in the summer of 1992. When presented to A&M, the label 

raised concerns over the material not being commercial enough. They requested Brown record a cover version of a song with hit potential and include it on the album, but Brown refused and split from the label. She told the Windsor Star in 1994: "I made a creative decision that I'd rather have artistic fulfillment than financial success."

Brown then looked at releasing her new material independently. She bought back the rights from A&M, and worked some more on the existing recordings. 43 Minutes was released in 1993 through Brown's own label, Pod Music, and through All At Once Records in Europe. The initial release 

sold 4,000 copies, and Brown embarked on a 22-date UK tour in early 1993 to promote it.

Speaking of the album, Brown told Staines and Ashford News in 1992: "Musically it's very different to what I have done before. It's all piano with other instruments and quite mellow." She added in 2000: "43 Minutes is the first album that really represents me. It's not directly about my mother's death, but it is a whole piece and very fierce. It really homed in on what I thought, what death chucks up at you."

Goran Bregovic - Karmen with a Happy End (2007)

Bosnian composer Goran Bregovic is fairly familiar even to a broad swath of Western audiences that do not know his name: his high-energy, rather anarchic music was featured in the film Borat, and he provided the zany quasi-Romani soundtracks for the films of Bosnian Serb director Emir Kusturica. In the 2000s decade he composed several more extended works that are "classical" only their greater length and reconciliation of a diversity of elements -- the basic sound of Bregovic's music continues to be characterized by blaring brass bands playing minor-mode gypsy-inspired tunes (Bregovic himself is not of Romani descent). This disc, like others by Bregovic, serves admirably as party music; his brass pieces sustain high energy over unusually long stretches. It's also quite an accomplishment, however, to adapt this language, however loosely, to the story of Bizet's Carmen and to a somewhat dramatic presentation: Karmen...with a Happy End is billed as an opera and is performed as one, although the sequence of events instead brings to mind the freewheeling structure of Kusturica's films and their wandering gypsy troupes. The modeling on Bizet is loose; there are no bullfights but rather a musical duel at the end. Carmen (here Karmen) does indeed start out working in a tobacco factory, and a few minor characters are taken from Bizet, but the story takes a new turn with the appearance of a Rumanian mobster named Ceausescu who forces Karmen into prostitution. Worrying too much about the correspondences with Bizet (there are a few purely musical linkages as well) is not the way to enjoy this score; inviting a large group of friends over to sample Eastern European hard liquor and listen to the disc is better.

Kalacakra - Crawling To Lhasa (1972)

This is not the sole album from this band as such, but the one and only worked out in the 70's by the acid krautrock duo Heinz Martin and Claus Rauschenbach coming from Duisburg/Germany. Both were autodidacts with a freaky approach and used a lot of indo/raga elements. At first completely underrated 'Crawling To Lhasa' is an attractive collectors' item today ... at least when it comes to the original vinyl print. The songs were recorded by Willy Neubauer in his Düsseldorf studio during two days. Whatsoever has survived about the circumstances - they performed in a totally spaced out mood for sure, obviously inspired by Buddhistic mantras.

The trippy meandering Nearby Shiras opens the album, reflecting a multiple catastrophe, the Black Plague, coming over the Persian town called Shiraz hundreds of years ago. A sinister creature ... probably a witch ... is whispering and shouting some rezitative, repeating 'morgen kommt die Schwarze Pest' (tomorrow comes the Black Plague) all the way through. Definitely frightening and provided with some infatuating dramaturgy - however the instruments are also smooth on the contrary, speaking of flute, cymbal and acoustic guitar. And all this is made with a significant eastern touch.

On Jaceline Martin's vibraphone is striking, it serves a pleasant spacey/ambient atmosphere. Possibly improvised from start to finish, the lyrics about a girl seem to be completely pointless. The trance-like Raga No.11 features the Minimoog synthesizer, a novelty because nearly uncommon at that time in Europe. A nice song including electric guitar which has some speed this time and proves their technical skills. As from now it all runs out of inspiration a bit with simple folk impressions mainly ... until the blues based Tante Olga shows some new crazy weird vocal ideas, for example including Captain Beefheart reminiscent vocals in English.

That's it ... concerning the original vinyl. The digital releases additionally cover two songs from 1993 recorded by Heinz Martin with a better sound quality. The acid blend of folk, psych and raga is completely missing here to the benefit of a spacey new age atmosphere where Vamos is definitely enjoyable. The Garden Of Delights re-issue of this ethno trance effort is featuring a detailed history of the band and their community in Duisburg including several pictures, which are reflecting the stoned atmosphere of the recording sessions. Not a ground-breaking album because running out of breath in between - nevertheless a worthwhile purchase for krautrock and indo/raga lovers.

Waylon Jennings - The TakerTulsa (1971) Honky Tonk Heroes (1973)

When Waylon Jennings hooked up with songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, he found the perfect author for his obsessions, his fascinations, and his very image. Waylon had always been looking, perhaps unintentionally, for a common ground between country and rock, and Shaver's songs -- sketching an outlaw stance with near defiance and borrowing rock attitude to create the hardest country tunes imaginable -- were perfect. On his previous album, Waylon had sung that "ladies love outlaws," but now he found the music that would soon be called outlaw country, a defiant, ballsy blend of mythmaking and truth-telling. Shaver never had a better voice for his songs, and Jennings never had better songs for his style. Honky Tonk Heroes arrived at a crucial moment, a time when true honky tonk was fading, so only a dose of rock & roll could save it. And, no matter how much rock attitude is here, this is pure country in its stance and attitude -- yet Honky Tonk Heroes' very defiance makes it a perfect discovery album for listeners who never thought they would like country music. And the songs! Shaver earned his stripes here, with songs that were emotional, funny, and clever, utterly bringing the mythic outlaw ethic to life. "Black Rose," "You Asked Me To," and "Honky Tonk Heroes" remain among the greatest things Waylon ever cut, and every other song here matches them. Few country albums have ever been this consistent, and few records, from any genre, have been as consistently compelling. A wonderful album -- one that's hard to tire of.

Mike Marshall - Gator Strut (1987)

Mike Marshall (born Michael James Marshall, July 17, 1957 in New Castle, Pennsylvania) is a bluegrass mandolinist who has collaborated with David Grisman and Darol Anger.

He grew up in Lakeland, Florida. When he was 18, he won Florida state contests on fiddle and mandolin. He considers his discovery of David Grisman's music a significant event in his life, admiring how Grisman combined jazz and Latin styles into his own form of bluegrass. After Marshall moved to California, he collaborated with Grisman on film music and soon after was invited by Grisman to join the quintet. He was a member of the David Grisman Quintet from 1985–1990, touring with Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Tony Rice, Mark O'Connor, Stéphane Grappelli, and Darol Anger.

Marshall and Darol Anger collaborated often during their careers. They founded Montreux, with Barbara Higbie and Michael Manring, and the supergroup Psychograss, with Tony Trischka and Todd Phillips. Like Grisman, both groups played an eclectic style of music that combined classical, folk, jazz, and bluegrass. Marshall has performed Brazilian music with the band Choro Famoso and on his second solo album, Brazil: Duets. He released his debut solo album, Gator Strut, in 1989.

Marshall is a virtuoso on the mandolin. He plays a 1924 Gibson F-5 mandolin that was signed by Lloyd Loar. He helped start the Modern Mandolin Quartet. His wife, Caterina Lichtenberg, is a German mandolinist. He collaborated with mandolinist Chris Thile on Into the Cauldron (2003). Both he and Caterina teach online mandolin lessons through ArtistWorks.

Gurnemanz - No Rays Of Noise (1977)

Gurnemanz, was a German folk rock band, who have recorded and pressed privately two excellent albums during the mid 70s. Their delightful music is somewhere between first Broeselmaschine, Hoelderlin and Ougenweide. All ingredients are there, sitar, flute, lute, lyre, mandolin etc played by master musicians, but above all is this stunning female voice of Manuela Schmitz. This is their second album, originally pressed privately in 1977, all tracks are sung in English and it includes one of the best versions of the JOHN BARLEYCORN song, ever heard. Deluxe 180g vinyl, from the original analogue master tapes, exact reproduction of the original first pressing.