Wu-Tang Clan - Once Upon A Time In Shaolin (2023)

Every so often I check Youtube to see if any more tracks have leaked from from the Wu-Tang Clan's legendary 'Once Upon A Time In Shaolin' album. This was the seventh studio album by the American hip hop group, and only one physical copy of the disc was created, with no ability to download or stream it digitally. The music was recorded in secret over six years, and a single two-CD copy was pressed in 2014 and stored in a secured vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco, then auctioned through auction house Paddle8 in 2015. A legal agreement with the purchaser stipulated that the album cannot be commercially exploited until 2103, although it can be played at listening parties. The winning bidder was Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who paid a reported $2 million to win this rarity. In March 2018, following Shkreli's conviction for securities fraud, a federal court seized assets belonging to him, including 'Once Upon A Time In Shaolin', and in July 2021 the US Department of Justice sold it to non-fungible token collectors PleasrDAO for $4 million to cover Shkreli's debts. Recording of the album began in the late 2000's with producer Cilvaringz, and it took about six years to complete. It features the entire Wu-Tang Clan, plus rapper Redman, the Wu-Tang Killa Beez, FC Barcelona soccer players, Game of Thrones actress Carice van Houten, and two appearances from Cher. Inspired by musical patronage in the Renaissance, Wu-Tang producer Cilvaringz decided to create 'Once Upon A Time In Shaolin' as an art object, and feeling that the value of music had been cheapened by streaming and online piracy, he and co-producer RZA hoped to return music to the value of fine art. 

The album was held in a silver jewel-encrusted box with a wax Wu-Tang Clan seal and leather-bound liner notes, and as part of the 'art' concept, it was exhibited to a crowd of around 150 art collectors, dealers, and critics in Queens, New York, and about 13 minutes of the album were played to the audience. In January 2016, Shkreli told Vice that he had considered destroying the record or "installing it in some remote place so that people have to make a spiritual quest to listen", but he also promised to release the album free if Donald Trump won the 2016 US presidential election, and after Trump was elected he did stream excerpts of the album online. So far that's all we have heard of it, but Rolling Stone critic Christopher Weingarten wrote that, based on the 13 minutes played in Queens, 'Once Upon A Time In Shaolin' had the potential to become the Wu-Tang Clan's most popular album since 1997. While searching online I stumbled across this album with the same name, and while I was dubious that it was the actual record, I gave it a listen and was pretty impressed with what I heard. It's actually been put together with music produced by @ProjectStrum, and mixed by Youtuber @hidden-chamber. Most of the lyrics comes from the lesser known songs, and from Wu-Tang collaborations with other artists, and it links to the real record by the first track being a commentary on the history of the real album. @ProjectStrum has given some background on his recording process, saying that by 2000 he felt that the classic RZA sound that made the Clan was long gone, so he started to really listen\study his technique and sound, and to make a few remixes with other producer's instrumentals and Wu-Tang a cappella's, and around 2008 he started making his own beats, which have then been remixed by @hidden-chamber. It's all housed in a brilliant retro-looking sleeve, and while it's not what I was originally looking for, it will tide me over until 2103, when we get to hear the real thing.  

Track listing 

01 Intro
02 In Your Neighborhood
03 Fake Favorites (feat. Killa Sin)
04 11th Chamber
05 Bigger Than Gunz
06 Wu Killahs
07 Lethal Dose
08 Chessboxin'
09 Deadly Scenario (feat. Kool G Rap & Killa Sin)
10 Crane Style
11 Brutality Of War (feat. Killah Priest)
12 Who Want Some
13 Iron Fist

Boards Of Canada - Hooper Bay (1994)

Boards Of Canada's earliest website included a list of their albums, many of which are shrouded in mystery. They included 'Catalog 3', 'Acid Memories', 'Closes Vol 1', 'Play By Numbers', and finally 'Hooper Bay', and these albums were claimed to have around100 copies, or less, made and distributed to friends and family. 'Hooper Bay' is the band's fifth known release, issued on 12" vinyl and cassette in 1994. It introduced the use of children's voices, a technique which would remain a staple of the band's style through the release of 'Geogaddi', and is named after the Alaskan village of Hooper Bay, which is a Cup'ik Eskimo settlement. Of the EP's five tracks, only a 35-second excerpt of 'Circle', posted on the EHX website in the late 1990's, has ever been heard by those outside of the band's friends and family. In the years since, many fakes have gone up online claiming to be these albums, in particular a set of mp3's labelled 'Hooper Bay' but with significantly shorter track times than the actual EP, can be found on P2P networks, but like most of these, this set is mis-labelled and is not music by Boards of Canada. There's always a slight air of legitimacy considering that three additional albums, 'A Few Old Tunes', 'Old Tunes Vol 2', and 'Random 35 Tracks Tape' have been found (see previous posts here), and confirmed by "mdg", the mysterious user who's friends with the brothers, and who comments on matters for the band on the fan-forum Twoism. Recently someone tried to upload a record to the Discogs database, a website cataloguing every piece of physically released music in history, and although initially his submission was rejected, he provided a backstory, additional details, as well as three videos. One of the videos was the snippet of 'Circle' that we know about, but the other two videos were of side A and side B of the 12" vinyl being played. While the quality is poor (a potential strike into the fake column), it's also coming hot on the heels of last year's 25th anniversary of their debut big label album 'Music Has The Right To Children', so did the band leak this as part of the celebration? Here are those two videos, split into individual tracks, and 'Circle' does sound very similar to the clip that we already have, so it's now up to BOC mega-fans to let us all know if this is real or not. The only thing I'll say is that I can't hear the children's voices which are supposed to be an integral part of the music.  

Track listing

01 Seward Leaf 
02 Geiser 
03 Circle 
04 Noatak 
05 Point Hope 

Ellie Goulding - Bittersweet (2019)

As you will have seen if you've read the notes for the last two Ellie Goulding posts, right from the start of her career she was providing songs to be included in the soundtracks to films and TV series. Sometimes there were taken from her albums, but often they were written specifically for the film, and so I've collected them all here for an album that could be called 'Ellie Goulding At The Movies'. A couple of her tracks have appeared in US or UK TV shows, but the majority of the songs featured in films from 2010 to 2019, and many of them had never appeared on her albums until they were sometimes added to deluxe re-issues. 

Track listing

01 Starry Eyed (from the film 'Kick-Ass' 2010)
02 A Day At A Time (from the film 'Life In A Day' 2011)
03 I Know You Care (from the film 'Now Is Good' 2012)
04 Bittersweet (from the film 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2' 2012)
05 You My Everything (from the TV series 'Skins' 2013)
06 How Long Will I Love You (from the film 'About Time' 2013)
07 Hanging On (from the film 'The Host' 2013)
08 Mirror (from the film 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' 2013)
09 Beating Heart (from the film 'Divergent' 2014)
10 Heavy Crown (with Iggy Azalea) (from the film 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' 2014)
11 Love Me Like You Do (from the film 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' 2015)
12 When Your Feet Don't Touch The Ground (from the Broadway show 'Finding Neverland' 2015)
13 Still Falling For You (from the film 'Bridget Jones's Baby' 2016)
14 Do You Remember (from the film 'Fighting With My Family' 2019)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Paul Simon (2000)

Paul Simon met Art Garfunkel when they were both 10, when they performed in a production of Alice in Wonderland for their sixth-grade graduation, and they began singing together when they were 13, occasionally performing at school dances. It was around this time that Simon wrote his first song, 'The Girl For Me', for him and Garfunkel to sing, and in 1957, while still in their mid-teens, they recorded the song 'Hey, Schoolgirl' under the name 'Tom & Jerry', which reached number 49 on the pop charts. Between 1957 and 1964 Simon wrote, recorded and released more than 30 songs, occasionally reuniting with Garfunkel as Tom & Jerry for some singles, including 'Our Song' and 'That's My Story'. Most of the songs Simon recorded during that time were performed alone or with musicians other than Garfunkel, and they were released on minor record labels including Amy, Big, Hunt, King, Tribute and Madison under several pseudonyms, such as Jerry Landis, Paul Kane and True Taylor. In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel auditioned for Columbia Records, whose executive Clive Davis signed them to produce an album. Columbia decided that the two would be called Simon & Garfunkel instead of Tom & Jerry, and their first album, 'Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.', was released in October 1964. It contained five Simon compositions, but it was not successful, and so after its release Simon moved to England and performed in folk clubs. While in London he recorded 'The Paul Simon Songbook', which was a collection of his songs, a couple of which had already appeared on the first Simon & Garfunkel album.  The album was released along with the single 'I Am A Rock'/'Leaves That Are Green' in 1965, and as many of these songs were later re-recorded for Simon And Garfunkel albums, this is the perfect collection to offer to other artists to hear their takes on these early works. As often happens, these artists could see the quality of the songs from the start, and so most of these covers appeared between 1965 and 1967, and to round out what is rather a short album I've added two contemporary songs to the end.  

Track listing 

01 I Am A Rock (The Grass Roots 1966)
02 Leaves That Are Green (The Coterie 1969)   
03 A Church Is Burning (Cy, Maia & Robert 1965)
04 April Come She Will (Hamilton Camp 1969) 
05 The Sound Of Silence (The Ravers 1966)   
06 A Most Peculiar Man (The Cowsills 1967)
07 He Was My Brother (The Pilgrims 1964)
08 Kathy's Song (Eva Cassidy 2000)
09 The Side Of A Hill (The Paravrim 1972)
10 A Simple Desultory Philippic (Swamp Zombies 1988)
11 Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall (The MacDonald Folk Group 1968)  
12 Patterns (Tir Ni Nog 1970) 
13 We've Got A Groovey Thing Going (The Racket Squad 1968)
14 Homeward Bound (The Quiet Five 1966)

Fifth Harmony - Girls Like Us (2016)

After the tour supporting 'Reflection' was complete, Fifth Harmony decamped to the recording studio to begin work on their second album, which was given a provisional release date of 20 May 2016. It was to be named '27/7', after the date that they were formed on The X Factor, and in keeping with this theme of '27', it was later announced that the album's release had been pushed back a week to 27 May. The lead single, 'Work From Home', which featured American singer Ty Dolla Sign, was released in February 2016, and it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's highest-charting single in the United States. As announced, '27/7' was indeed released on 27 May, and debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, as well as achieving their first chart appearances in Japan and South Korea. A tour supporting the record started in June, and covered South America, North America and Europe, with supporting artists Victoria Monét and JoJo. The group's last performance of 2016, and as a quintet, was on the previously taped 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve', during which they performed 'Worth It', 'Work From Home' and 'That's My Girl'. On 18 December 2016, the group announced that Camilla Cabello had left, and that the remaining four members would continue as a four-piece. As before, while recording songs for the '27/7' album, they taped more than they needed, and while some were later added to exclusive Japanese pressings of the album, or given away by Napster, others have yet to make an official appearance, so I've added those unreleased tracks to the Japanese and Napster rarities for one last album by the original five-piece Fifth Harmony. They made one further recording as a quartet, with the eponymously titled 'Fifth Harmony' album being released in 2017, but this time they kept a tighter rein on the out-takes, and although we know the titles of some of the rejected songs, most of them are yet to make an appearance online, apart from one solitary track 'Better With You', which I've slotted in here so as not to waste it. On 19 March 2018, the group announced their decision to take an indefinite hiatus to pursue solo projects, so this is the final post from the girls, although out-takes from some of those solo projects will make an appearance in the future. 

Track listing

01 Girls Like Us

02 No Way

03 Feel So Right

04 PSA

05 Voicemail

06 1000 Hands

07 Come Get It

08 Better With You

09 Monies (feat. Tory Lanez)

10 Big Bad Wolf

11 All Again

12 Ladder

Sam Salter - The Little Black Book (2000)

Samuel Salter was born on 16 February 1975 in Los Angeles, and at a young age he won several local talent shows, with a vocal style that was influenced by Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. In 1997, after his demo tape found its way into the hands of L.A. Reid of LaFace Records, he was quickly signed to the label and he began to work on his debut album with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. He ended up working with Tricky Stewart and Laney Stewart who produced the majority of the album, as well as Tony Rich, Robin Thicke and Gordon Chambers, and the first single from the sessions was released in early 1997, with 'After 12, Before 6' becoming a Top 20 R&B hit. His debut album, 'It's On Tonight', was released on 23 September 1997 and garnered positive reviews, while a second single from the album, the ballad 'There You Are', was released and hit the Top 40 on the R&B charts. Around this time, he continued to work on his songwriting, providing songs for 98 Degrees, Aaron Skyy, and Kandi Burruss' solo debut. In 1999 Salter began preparing for his sophomore album with LaFace Records, and the lead single 'Once My Sh.. (Always My Sh..)' was released and featured a steamy music video, but the song only received moderate airplay. He completed work on the album, titled 'The Little Black Book', and it was set for release in 2000, but due to a re-shuffle at the label, along with some other issues, it was shelved. Despite this outcome, a few of the songs ended up being recorded by other artists such as Boyz II Men, who recorded 'Color Of Love', and Sisqó, who recorded the non-album song 'Incomplete'. With this validation that it was not the quality of the songs which was the problem, here is what would have been Salter's frankly superb second album for LaFace in 2000. 

Track listing

01 Intro  
02 Make Me Stay  
03 Once My Sh.. (Always My Sh..) 
04 Dime Piece 
05 Go Down 
06 Another Man's Got You 
07 Best Friend 
08 Did I Die 
09 Your Side Of The Bed  
10 Money Can't Buy You  
11 Color Of Love 
12 You Don't Have To Be Lonely 
13 Love Again

Pearly Gates - Fading Into The Night (1979)

The final post in this short celebration of the productions of Ian Levine is 'Fading Into The Night' by Pearly Gates. Viola Billups (aka Pearly Gates) was born on 4 July 1946 in Alabama, and she joined The Flirtations with sisters Earnestine Pearce and Betty Pearce in 1964, moving to London in 1968, where their music was popular. She left the group in 1973 and released her first single 'Sad Old Shadow', written by Lynsey De Paul and Don Gould, on Polydor Records under the name Vie, taking up the Pearly Gates name for her second record 'Johnny And The Jukebox' in 1974. Several more singles followed in the late 70's on RCA Records and Bronze Records, and she was a popular artist on TV, being a regular performer on the Cliff Richard show, until in 1979 she completed her first disco album 'Fading Into The Night' with producer Ian Levine. The album was supposed to have been released by American singer Cobie Jones, who didn't make it to the sessions so Gates took over, but as with the other albums that Levine recorded in 1979, it became a victim of the disco backlash, and was shelved. In 1985 she enjoyed a Hi-NRG hit with the song 'Action', and she toured with Madeline Bell and Katie Kissoon, performing with the James Last Orchestra. Two of her unreleased disco tracks were eventually released on 12" singles in Levine's Nightmare Gold series in 1987, and other tracks appeared on a 'best of' CD in 1995, but here is the original full album as recorded in 1979, to close this celebration of the productions of Ian Levine. 

Track listing

01 No Two Ways About It
02 Caught In A Love Trap
03 Fading Into The Night
04 The Race Is On
05 Home Is In The Streets

Various Artists - Criminal Records (2023)

2023 was a great year for TV drama, with second series being granted to 'Only Murders In The Building', 'Good Omens', 'From', 'Vigil', 'The Afterparty', and 'The Lazarus Project', while intriguing new dramas included 'The Big Door Prize', 'Severance', 'Bodies', and 'Deadloch'. I enjoyed 'Squid Game: The Challenge' almost as much as the original series, and both 'Succession' and 'Better Call Saul' ended on a high after gripping finales. Once again, some of the best things about these shows are the theme tunes, and so here is a second collection of my favourites, including two from sci-fi shows that I've enjoyed over the past few years - 'The Orville' and 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' (OK, I know it's an animated show but it's really well done and doesn't just play it for laughs), plus the superb comedy/drama 'What We Do In The Shadows'. Where the piece is only about a minute or so long I've extended them so that most are now around the two-minute mark, with the seventeen tracks making up a reasonable 40-minute album of mostly crime-related TV shows, and if there are any here that you don't know then do check them out as they are all well worth seeing. 

   

Track listing

01 Fuel To Fire (Agnes Obel) [from 'Vigil']

02 Good Omens (David Arnold)

03 Severance (Theodore Shapiro)

04 Pink Soldiers (Paddy Fletcher) [from 'Squid Game: The Challenge']

05 Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) (Pixies) [from 'From']

06 Criminal (Robin Foster)

07 The Orville (Bruce Broughton)

08 Deadloch (Amanda Brown)

09 Succession (Nicholas Britell)

10 Walking My Cat Name Dog (Norma Tanega) [from 'What We Do In The Shadows']

11 The Lazarus Project (Ben Lukas Boysen)

12 Only Murders In The Building (Siddhartha Khosla)

13 Better Call Saul Theme (Little Barrie) [from 'Better Call Saul']

14 Bodies (Jon Opstad)

15 Dusty's Lecture (Zachary Dawes & Nick Sena) [from 'The Big Door Prize']

16 The Afterparty (Daniel Pemberton)

17 Star Trek: Lower Decks (Chris Westlake) 

Soukseek hint   criminal aiwe

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Neil Young (2016)

Neil Young had been recording music since 1963, when he had his first local hit single with 'The Sultan' by his band The Squires, through the late 60's with Buffalo Springfield', and then when he started his solo career in 1969. However, it could arguably be said that it wasn't until 1970's 'After The Goldrush' that he came up with a set of songs which could be said to stand the test of time as classics. The songs on that album have become some of his best-known works, and because of that have attracted numerous other artists attempts to give us their own take on them. Most of these artists recognised the quality of the songs straight away, and so the majority of the better covers come from 1970 and 1971, although it was worth the wait to hear Died Pretty's take on 'When You Dance'. Prelude even garnered a hit single with their a cappella version of the title track, and Francois Hardy's Gallic rendering of 'When The Morning Comes' just makes you wish that Young had written some verses to go with it, while Danish garage rockers The Teenmakers decided to add their take on 'Southern Man' to the flip a 1970 single. There's not much more that I can say about these songs, so I'll let the music do the talking, and as 'Oh Lonesome Me' from the album was itself a cover, I've added a couple of extra songs from his CSN&Y phase from the same period to make up the time.    

 

  
Track listing

01 Tell Me Why (Matthews Southern Comfort 1970)  
02 After The Goldrush (Prelude 1973)  
03 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Jackie DeShannon 1972)  
04 Southern Man (The Teenmakers 1970)  
05 Till The Morning Comes (Francois Hardy 1972)  
06 Don't Let It Bring You Down (Hookfoot 1971)
07 Birds (Linda Ronstadt 1972) 
08 When You Dance I Can Really Love (Died Pretty 1988)
09 I Believe In You (Rita Coolidge 1971) 
10 Cripple Creek Ferry (Anonymous Choir 2016)
11 Helpless (Buffy Sainte-Marie 1971)
12 Everybody I Love You (Morningstar 1979)
13 Ohio (The Isley Brothers 1971)

Ellie Goulding - Tainted Memories (2016)

In 2012, Ellie Goulding appeared on 'Fall Into The Sky' from Zedd's debut album 'Clarity', and on Calvin Harris's song 'I Need Your Love', as well as releasing a cover of Active Child's song 'Hanging On' as a free download on her SoundCloud page. In late July 2012, it was announced that her second album was to be titled 'Halcyon', and it would be released on 8 October 2012, preceded by the lead single 'Anything Could Happen' on 21 August. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented Goulding's more aggressive showcase of her voice and the album's bold production, and it debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart. In November she contributed a track titled 'Bittersweet' (produced by Skrillex) to the soundtrack of 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2', and in May 2013 she released a cover of Alt-J's song 'Tessellate' via her SoundCloud page. In July she premiered a song called 'You My Everything' in the first episode of the TV series 'Skins', and that same day she confirmed that 'Halcyon' would be re-released later that year as 'Halcyon Days', appearing on 23 August. The re-release featured ten additional tracks, and was preceded by the single 'Burn', which had been uploaded to her SoundCloud page the previous day. 

She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' with the track 'Mirror', and on 15 October 2013, she confirmed on Fearne Cotton's radio show that 'How Long Will I Love You' would be the next single for BBC's Children in Need. On 22 January 2014, Goulding confirmed through her Facebook page that she had contributed the song 'Beating Heart' to the soundtrack for the film 'Divergent', and on 3 February she released a cover of the James Blake song 'Life Round Here' through her SoundCloud page. In November 2014 she announced that she was focusing on a third studio album, and in early 2015 she released the song 'Love Me Like You Do', which was featured on the soundtrack to the film 'Fifty Shades Of Grey'. Having finished recording new material on 27 July 2015, Goulding tweeted a link to an Instagram post of her leaving Abbey Road Studios captioned, "That's a wrap!", and 'Delerium' was released on 6 November 2015 by Polydor Records. Music critics were generally impressed by the overall production of the record, although they were ambivalent in regards to its originality, but it still debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart. Three singles were taken from the record, with 'On My Mind' as the lead single, followed by 'Army' and 'Something In The Way You Move', and on 19 August 2016 she released the song 'Still Falling For You' for the soundtrack to the film 'Bridget Jones's Baby'. As you can see by the number of songs that she gifted to movie soundtracks, Goulding was writing and recording way more than was needed for 'Delerium', and so once again there were demos and out-takes left over after the album was released, which are collected here for another companion album, this one from 2016. 

Track listing

01 Closed For Love
02 Kingdom
03 Mosaic
04 I've Done Chamber
05 President
06 You Don't Know
07 Tasting Colour
08 Over Me
09 Beautifully Numb
10 Electricity
11 Hush
12 Real Love
13 Tainted Memories

Aimee Allen - I'd Start A Revolution (If I Could Get Up In The Morning) (2003)

Aimee Allen was born in Montana 2 February 1982, and began singing in bands in her hometown, before moving to Los Angeles at the age of 18 to pursue a career in music. In Los Angeles, she was lead singer of a punk band with members of No Motiv called Forum. After the band's record deal with MCA fell through in 2002, Allen signed a solo deal with Elektra Records, after she was spotted by producer Randy Jackson. Her debut album 'I'd Start A Revolution (If I Could Get Up In The Morning)' was recorded in 2003, and featured tracks produced by Mark Ronson and Don Gilmore, but it was never released due to the label being absorbed by Atlantic Records in 2004. The label did, however, release her first single 'Revolution', which was the theme for the WB television series 'Birds Of Prey'. She co-wrote 'Save Me (Wake Up Call)' with Linda Perry for Unwritten Law's 2005 album 'Here's To The Mourning', and in 2007, her song 'Stripper Friends' was re-worked and recorded by Kevin Michael featuring Lupe Fiasco as 'We All Want The Same Thing', while Allen herself sang the song 'Cooties' on the soundtrack to the 2007 film 'Hairspray'. In 2011, Allen formed the ska/punk band the Interrupters with brothers Kevin, Justin, and Jesse Bivona, singing as Aimee Interrupter. The Interrupters' debut self-titled record was released on 5 August 2014 on Hellcat/Epitaph Records, and the band are still working today, with their 'In The Wild' album coming a couple of years ago. For anyone who wants to hear Allen at the start of her career, here is that cancelled album that should have come out on Elektra  in 2003. 

Track listing

01 Revolution
02 I'm Not Your Girlfriend
03 In The Sun
04 If It Feels Right (Do It)
05 Oblivion
06 Silence Is Violence
07 Good Times
08 Stripper Friends
09 Too Fucked Up For Love
10 Wasting My Youth
11 A Little Happiness

Loretta Stokes - Kidnap Me (1979)

The next abandoned disco album produced by Ian Levine in 1979 is by Loretta Stokes. Stokes was working as an air stewardess when she was discovered by DJ Rick Gianatos in Chicago in 1979, who presented her to his partner, British producer Levine, who already had a number of hits on his hands with James Wells, Barbara Pennington, Seventh Avenue and others. Levine signed Stokes to United Artists and recorded the 'Kidnap Me' album, only to find executive Artie Mogul of United Artists backing out of the contract, and with the erupting disco backlash of late 1979, Levine soon found himself with an album he couldn't sell, and Stokes' album remained in the can. By 1987, Levine was a successful Hi-NRG producer with his own label, Nightmare Records, when he decided to create the sub-label Nightmare Gold to release a series of 34 12"s with all his lost disco material from the late 70's. All 5 tracks from Stokes' album had been scheduled for individual 12" releases, and although four of them were actually pressed, only 'You'll Never Escape My Love' eventually came out, to minimal attention. The album did make a limited appearance on VCD in 1996, but it too passed most people by, and so here it is in full in this short celebration of Levine's productions. 

Track listing 

01 Kidnap Me
02 You'll Never Escape My Love
03 Restless For You
04 My Conscience Won't Let Me
05 Falling Off The Edge Of The World

Nas - Death Of Escobar (2001)

As fans of rapper Nas are probably aware, rumours have surrounded his enigmatic album 'Death Of Escobar' for many years, with no-one quite seeming to know exactly what it is... A concept album? The original title for 'Stillmatic'? A fan made-up fake title? There's been a lot of bogus tracklists and downloadable bootlegs floating around the internet for years now - none of them giving a proper representation of what the project really was, including opinions that it was just a working title that Nas and Columbia used when working on and building up hype for 'Stillmatic', or that Nas had intended to release two albums together, one as an introduction to the other. In 2014 information came to light implying that 'D.O.E.' was in fact a proper album that was completed and scrapped close to its original release date. It was actually reviewed in VIBE magazine in their February 2001 issue, where it was awarded a glowing 4* review. In this review the album is titled as 'D.O.E. Limited Edition - Volume 1 (Death Of Escobar)', and it speaks of it as a project made up from new tracks, bootlegs and remixes while completely lacking skits. Specific tracks mentioned there are 'The Foulness', 'The Rise & Fall', 'Tales From Da Hood', 'Your Mouth Got You In It', and 'Poppa Was A Playa'. This was followed by a news update sent out by Sony Music Street Team UK to those signed up to their mailing list back in early 2001, providing an early tracklist for the project (including producers and publishing credits) along with the following message: 

"THE FORTHCOMING NAS ALBUM IS ON HOLD AT THE MOMENT, HERE'S THE LATEST PLAN - Nas wants to release 'Death of Escobar' first with 'Stillmatic' to follow. 'Death of Escobar' is the bootleg/sessions project. The project will feature the tracklisting below plus three new tracks. This tracklisting could and probably will change. The three new tracks will explain Escobar's death." 

From this, we can conclude that 'Death Of Escobar' was likely a kind of introduction album, explaining the death of Nas's alter-ego, while 'Stillmatic' was intended to be a re-birth album, with contrasting styles respectively. The tracklist from the Sony update has been used for the basis of this reconstruction, although it was noticed that although 'Poppa Was A Playa" wasn't included in the Sony update, it was mentioned in the VIBE review, so that's on here as well. The three new tracks that were not yet completed when the announcement was made might never have been completed for all we know. On listening to the album it's evident that the majority of the tracks find Nas in an introspective mood, reflecting on his life and career over moody, midtempo beats, often favouring piano and/or string samples. This actually works well in the context of the record, as the depressive mood pieces like 'Rise & Fall', 'Drunk By Myself' and 'My Own Worst Enemy' are intercut with straight up boom bangers like the underrated 'The Foulness', 'Tales From Da Hood' and the 'Hard 2 Tell' remix. Thanks go to The Lost Tapes blog for all the info, and for putting this together.  

Track listing

01 My Way  
02 You Don't Know Me (Hardest Thing 2 Do) 
03 Your Mouth Got You In It 
04 Rise & Fall  
05 U Gotta Love It 
06 Make It Last Forever
07 Worst Enemy Is Me 
08 The Foulness (Interlude) (feat. Nature) 
09 Sinful Living 
10 Never Gonna Give It Up (feat. The Product G&B) 
11 Tales From Da Hood 
12 Drunk By Myself 
13 Hard 2 Tell 
14 Projects 2 Hot (feat. 50 Cent & Nature) 
15 Poppa Was A Playa 
16 Seeds Of Heaven