Lee Hazlewood - The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes & Backsides (1968-71) (Light In The Attic - 2012)

LHI stands for Lee Hazlewood Industries. The label was created by the singer in 1967 to support his own releases and a few others. IN 1971, the adventure was over. This compilation focuses on the sides released by Lee during this three years ventures as singles or on the albums The Bed, Cowboy In Sweden, Requiem For An Almost Lady and The Cowboy & The Lady. You can find as well a previously unreleased song, I Just Learn To Run. For those who still doubted, those 17 magnificent songs, between luxuriant country and magnificately crafted and orchestrated pop, prove that Lee Hazlewood was one of the brightest composer and musician of the era. The record cover is brilliant and sums up perfectly what's inside. One of the best new record I bought this year.

 Download => Lee Hazlewood - The LHI Years

Star Band De Dakar - Star 70s (Frochot Music Cantos/Bellot Records) - 2010)

The Star Band was created by Ibra Kassé in the 60's as an house band for his club, the Miami, set in Dakar, the capital of the then newly independent Senegal. The orchestra was  playing latin music (cha-chas, pachangas, merengués or rumba) for the youth of Dakar elite. The Star Band will nurture Senegalese greatest musicians (Pape Seck, Balla Sidibé, Youssou N'Dour, Pape Fall, Laba Sosseh, etc.) before they leave  to create their own orchestra. That in the star band that Pape Seck will mix latin music with sabar drums and m'balax rythms, signing in Wolof as well as in Spanish, giving birth to Afro-feeling and M'balax.This compilation features tracks recorded between 1975 and 1979 just before The Star Band De Dakar definitely disbands. I don't know if their best titles are featured here, as I am not a specialist of African music, but this record is refreshing, excellent and a good way to discover this great band.

 Download => Star Band De Dakar - Star 70s

Jean-Michel Jarre - Les Granges Brûlées (Dreyfus - 1973)

Les Granges Brûlées is a 1973 movie by Jean Chapot with some of the best French actors of the era, Alain Delon and Simone Signoret. It is the story of a judge (Alain Delon) who is investigating the murder of a young girl in the French country. Her body is discovered near a farm run by a strong woman, Simone Signoret and quickly the judge suspects a member of the family being the murderer.  Jean Chapot and Alain Delon didn't get well together and quickly the movie was finished by the star himself without Jean Chapot who had left the set. The music is the first record released by French king of keyboards, Jean-Michel Jarre. Jean-Michel Jarre is the son of French soundtrack composer Maurice Jarre so it must have been a real challenge for him to dare releasing a soundtrack. Jean-Michel Jarre only used keyboards for the soundtrack, making proto electronica. Jean-Michel Jarre then mixed his electronic song with pop FM and became a billionaire. But this another story and Les Granges Brûlées is still a landmark in electronic music history.

 Download => Jean-Michel Jarre - Les Granges Brûlées