Aztec Camera & Polyrock

Aztec Camera

Bio (From Allmusic.com) :

For most intents and purposes, Aztec Camera is Roddy Frame, a Scottish guitarist/vocalist/songwriter. Several other musicians have passed through the band over the years -- including founding members Campbell Owens (bass) and Dave Mulholland (drums) -- but the one constant has been Frame. Throughout his career, he has created a sophisticated, lush, and nearly jazzy acoustic-oriented guitar pop, relying on gentle melodies and clever wordplay inspired by Elvis Costello.

Aztec Camera released their debut album, High Land, Hard Rain, in 1983. Before its release, Owens and Mulholland had left the group, leaving Frame to assemble the record himself. Upon its release, the album won significant amounts of critical praise for its well-crafted, multi-layered pop. After releasing a stop-gap EP, Oblivious, the group's second full-length record, Knife, appeared in 1984. Produced by Mark Knopfler, the album was more polished and immediate than the debut, featuring horn arrangements and a slight R&B influence. Three years later, Roddy Frame returned with Love, which featured musical support from several studio musicians. Love was a synthesized stab at pop-R&B, resulting in his greatest commercial success -- the album launched four hit singles, including the Top Ten "Somewhere in My Heart."

Two years later, Aztec Camera returned to a more guitar-oriented sound with Stray. It wasn't as commercially successful as Love, yet it was a hit with fans who missed the chiming hooks of Frame's early work. Dreamland, released in 1993, followed the same pattern as Stray and achieved about the same amount of commercial and critical success.

Genre: Rock Style: Alternative pop.


High Land, Hard Rain (1983)


Review by Ned Raggett

Some performers never make a bigger splash than with their first record, a situation which the Ramones and De La Soul know all too well. If that's the case, though, said musicians had better make sure that debut is a doozy. Aztec Camera, or more specifically, Roddy Frame, falls squarely into this scenario, because while he has doggedly plugged away ever since with a series of what are, at times, not bad releases, High Land, Hard Rain remains the lovely touchstone of Frame's career. Very much the contemporaries of such well-scrubbed Scottish guitar-pop confectionaries as Orange Juice, but with the best gumption and star quality of them all, Aztec Camera led off the album with "Oblivious," a minimasterpiece of acoustic guitar hooks, lightly funky rhythms, and swooning backing vocals. If nothing tops that on High Land, Hard Rain, most of the remaining songs come very close, while they also carefully avoid coming across like a series of general soundalikes. Frame's wry way around words of love (as well as his slightly nasal singing) drew comparisons to Elvis Costello, but Frame sounds far less burdened by expectations and more freely fun. References from Keats to Joe Strummer crop up (not to mention an inspired steal from Iggy's "Lust for Life" on "Queen's Tattoos"), but never overwhelm Frame's ruminations on romance, which are both sweet and sour. Musically, his capable band backs him with gusto, from the solo-into-full-band showstopper "The Bugle Sounds Again" to the heartstopping guitar work on "Lost Outside the Tunnel." Whether listeners want to investigate further from here is up to them, but High Land, Hard Rain itself is a flat-out must-have.

Tracklisting:

Tracklisting

1 Oblivious 3:12
2 The Boy Wonders 3:15
3 Walk Out to Winter 3:25
4 The Bugle Sounds Again 2:58
5 We Could Send Letters 5:49
6 Pillar to Post 4:02
7 Release 3:41
8 Lost Outside the Tunnel 3:42
9 Back on Board 4:53
10 Down the Dip 2:23
11 Haywire 3:58
12 Orchid Girl 2:35
13 Queen's Tattoos 2:10


Download Link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/3134773/Aztec_Camera_-_High_Land__Hard_Rain__1983_.rar.html

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Polyrock

The New York-based new wave/synth pop band Polyrock formed in the late '70s with a lineup including vocalist Catherine Oblasney, guitarists Billy Robertson and Tommy Robertson, drummer Joseph Yannece, and keyboard player Lenny Aaron. The group signed with RCA by 1980, and delivered their eponymous debut album that same year. Two albums followed in 1981 (Changing Hearts and Electro-Romantic), but Polyrock was broken up by 1982. ROIR released the retrospective No Love Lost in 1986.

Genre: Rock
Styles: Synth pop, new wave.


Polyrock (1980)

Review.

Polyrock could be pitched as Talking Heads under the tutelage of Philip Glass. Their music owes as much of a debt to Television and Brian Eno (specifically �Third Uncle�), but the Heads/Eno parallel seems to hold up the best. Yet by the time Polyrock arrived at the party (1980), the best hats were already taken, and somehow they got swept into the second wave of new wave artists like Suburban Lawns and Flying Lizards. Polyrock deserved better, but timing is everything in music. Led by brothers Billy and Tommy Robertson, this sextet made intelligent, agitated music that threw giddy melodies into the boiling stew of atonal angst and restless rhythms. Equally at home with instrumentals that sound like Peter Gunn on speed (�Bucket Rider�) and songs that suggest Ric Ocasek having a very bad day (�Romantic Me�), it�s still not a very big home. The eleven songs are driven by the same engine, loopy but never silly, as if in an alternate universe somewhere The B-52�s took themselves seriously. With all the name dropping I�m doing, you may be tempted to pick this up, and I sure wouldn�t stop you. Just a caveat: For me, Polyrock�s music has never come from musicians, and without a recognizable brand behind the band, this becomes principled and intelligent but ultimately faceless product. It�s not their fault, but if the band ever did any marketing (videos, radio singles, tours) it missed me, and I was paying attention to this sort of thing in 1980. Maybe it won�t trouble you this long after the fact, but I�ve always felt unsure about according them a high place in the heavens, maybe because sometimes the brightest stars aren�t the biggest, just the closest. If Philip Glass� tight organ patterns push some of your buttons, however, Polyrock might push all of them.

Tracklisting:

1 Romantic Me
2 Green for Go
3 This Song
4 Go West
5 Your Dragging Feet
6 No Love Lost
7 Body Me
8 Sound Alarm
9 Bucket Rider
10 Shut Your Face
11 #7

Produced by Philip Glass & Kurt Munkacsi

LENNY AARON -- keyboards
CURT COSENTINO -- bass machine, synthesizer
CATHERINE OBLASNEY -- vocals, percussion
BILLY ROBERTSON -- guitar, vocals
TOMMY ROBERTSON -- guitars, electronics, violin
JOSEPH YANNECE -- drums, percussion, backing vocals
Philip Glass -- piano, additional keyboards

Information taked from 'Progrography'
http://www.connollyco.com

Download link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/3134774/polyrock__1980_.rar.html

Greetings for all!