What a Feeling: Giorgio Moroder Rarities Due from Repertoire

What could be cooler than the recent news that disco super-producer Giorgio Moroder joined music-sharing site SoundCloud and started posting high-quality rare and unreleased tracks for fans to stream? How about Moroder making not one, but two more accounts holding such audio treasures?

But what could be cooler than that for fans of physical discs? Simple: Repertoire Records is releasing a double-disc set of rare gems produced by the man who gave us the greatest hits of Donna Summer, Blondie’s “Call Me” and the soundtracks to Flashdance, Top Gun and Scarface.

On the Groove Train Volume 1: 1975-1993 focuses on some of the least-known works Moroder had a hand in during his early and later career, including producing singles for artists on his Oasis Records label, including Trax, Roberta Kelly and Munich Machine, as well as a handful of instrumental tunes under his own name. That’s not to say his most famous collaborators are ignored on this compilation, though; the first disc closes with the sought-after 1975 Netherlands-only single “Virgin Mary” by the late, great Donna Summer (included on Dutch pressings of The Queen of Disco’s Love to Love You Baby album), while the second CD features “Carry On,” Summer and Moroder’s collaboration for the producer’s Forever Dancing album in 1992. (That track was included on a U.S. compilation, The Donna Summer Anthology, the following year.)

Also present is Keith Forsey, who cut two solo singles produced by Moroder in 1981 but was of course far better known as a drummer on Summer’s recordings, a co-writer of Summer’s “Hot Stuff,” Irene Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feeling” and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds and a producer for Billy Idol. Helen St. John makes a few appearances, including her “Love Theme from Flashdance,” as does Paul Engemann, best known for the Moroder-produced “Push It to the Limit” from Scarface but featured as a vocalist on the European single “Shannon’s Eyes.”

This 33-song compilation has an October 30 release date in America, but a November 12 street date in the U.K.; odd, considering Repertoire is a European label. Order it from Amazon U.S. and U.K. and hit the jump for a detailed look at the track list.

Gems from the Diamond Mine: Blue Rodeo Collect Early Albums, Unreleased Demos on New Box

Fans of Canadian country-rockers Blue Rodeo have something to get excited about, with the recent release of a box set collecting their first five albums with another three discs of unreleased material.

Blue Rodeo 1987-1993 celebrates the Northern rockers, who have won 11 Juno Awards in their native Canada and placed 10 singles in the Top 10 of the Canadian charts, including “Try,” “Til I Am Myself Again,” “Lost Together” and “5 Days in May.” Anchored by singer/songwriter/guitarists Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, Blue Rodeo have been one of the country’s preeminent bands for some time. (They’re also partially responsible for giving an early push to a young singer-songwriter and fellow countrywoman, Sarah McLachlan, who guested on tracks on Five Days in July, released the same year as her landmark Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.

The band’s new box, put together by the band in conjunction with Warner Music Canada, features remastered editions of Outskirts (1987), Diamond Mind (1989), Casino (1990), Lost Together (1992) and Five Days in July (1993), along with a new remix of outskirts produced and overseen by Keelor and two discs of demos – one focusing on the Casino era and another entitled Odds and Ends. In total, 30 rare and unreleased tracks appear on those demo discs. The set also includes a 44-page book of liner notes by Jason Schneider of Exclaim! magazine.

Blue Rodeo 1987-1993 is available now from Amazon U.S., a full track breakdown is after the jump.

T Stands For “Trouble Man”: Marvin Gaye Classic Gets Expanded on CD

At long last, Trouble Man.

With the upcoming 40^th anniversary edition of Marvin Gaye’s 1972 album currently slated for November 13 release, each one of the Motown legend’s studio albums between 1971’s seminal What’s Going On and 1982’s Midnight Love has been expanded as a 2-CD set.  (In the case of What’s Going On, an even more deluxe edition was released in 2011.)  Trouble Man, the soundtrack to the 20^th Century Fox “blaxploitation” film, turned out to be Gaye’s only excursion into movie scoring.  It followed the enormous success of What’s Going On and earned Gaye a No. 12 Pop/No. 3 R&B chart placement, proving that he could hold his own against the other soul stars-turned-film composers such as Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield – as if there was ever any doubt.

A largely instrumental, soul/jazz soundtrack might not have been the most expected move for Gaye in 1972.  But after emerging triumphant in his hard-won battle for creative control, and with a hefty contract in tow, Gaye was free to follow his muse.  Trouble Man, the film, starred Robert Hooks, whose credits range from A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock on the silver screen.  Hooks’ “Mr. T” is a private detective who’s not afraid to take the law into his own hands even as he becomes embroiled in a power play between rival crime lords.  Paul Winfield (Sounder, The Terminator) and Ralph Waite (The Waltons) joined Hooks as two of those gangland figures, while Paula Kelly (Sweet Charity, The Andromeda Strain) portrayed T’s love interest.  Gaye might have identified with T, crafting much of his score around the character with compositions like “T Plays It Cool,” “T Stands for Trouble,” “Don’t Mess with Mister T” and “There Goes Mister T.”  Gaye recorded the Trouble Man album at Motown’s Los Angeles Hitsville West outpost, with his score arranged by such esteemed personnel as Jack Hayes, Leo Shuken and Gene Page.

Critics weren’t kind to the film Trouble Man; in The New York Times, Vincent Canby noted that “it’s not a bad film” but “represents such a peculiar collaboration of interests that it should be of concern to both black and white film sociologists.  Also, it dramatizes such a wild confusion of values, I’m not sure it wants to be described as cool or uppity.”  Yet Gaye remained rightly proud of his score, which melded funk, jazz, soul and orchestral writing into a seamless and often stunning whole.  Hip-o Select’s 2-CD expansion of the 1972 Trouble Man album should go a long way in furthering even a diehard fan’s appreciation of Gaye’s multi-layered score.  The remastered original LP will be joined by 29 previously unreleased recordings including alternate takes and for the first time anywhere, the original film soundtrack performances as actually heard in the movie.

What else will you find?  Hit the jump!  We’ve also got a full track listing and pre-order links!

WE HAVE A WINNER of Rare Jellyfish Vinyl LPs from Omnivore Recordings!

CONGRATULATIONS TO DEREK MINER, WINNER OF A PRIZE PACK OF FIVE JELLYFISH VINYL LPs FROM OMNIVORE RECORDINGS!