International music reviews

this album rocks! not only are the songs great but it gives u the feel of being at one of the concerts.besides back to good you get kody and damn which are both live and from mtv's 10 spot. this album deserves a 5 star rating because of the sense of being at their concert that you can get from it. a great cd for all matchbox20 fans.

I am a huge Matchbox20 fan and this import totally wiped me away! Not only does it have their hit single "Back2Good" but two live tracks, "Kody" and "Damn" which are recorded from MTV's Live From The Ten Spot. These two live songs show that these boys are not some computer enhanced talentedless musicians but that they can sing just as well live. I really like how Damn sounds live on this, real sassy and with a huge attitude! These 3 songs really show off Rob Thomas' talent musically and lyrically. He is one of the few today who write music from his soul and not a bunch of cheesy songs. Definitely go out and get this import, you will be glad you did!!! If not come over to my house and I'll give you your money back (OK well maybe not) :-)

"Back 2 Good" is just one of many "Matchbox 20" singles coming from their debut album, "Yourself Or Someone Like You." I guess it says something, huh? The term, "One Hit Wonders" seemed to fly out the window when "Push" escaped off the album. So the critics can stop hassling them now. Rob Thomas is my all-time favorite singer, and Matchbox 20 is my all-time favorite group. Their lyrics are so powerful; it's like they tell you a story. They bring you into their own worlds and explain short stories of their lives. Anyone who hasn't bought the album yet, I only have one thing to say . . . What are you waiting for??

EL CD DE BARBARA HIGUERA ME FASCINO. TIENE VARIEDAD DE CANCIONES, Y ELLA TIENE UNA VOS EXCELENTE. LO RECOMIENDO A TODO MUNDO. SI QUE VALE LA PENA COMPRARLO. GRACIAS, ELISSA TASSIN, MANDEVILLE, LA

I'm american, and I don't speak spanish but this CD will bring out the latin in ya! Barbara's voice is fantastic and her energy level is dynamic. This CD is a must buy if passion and excitement are among the attributes that keep you smiling!

EL CD ESTA EXCELENTE! LO RECOMIENDO. NO SE VAN A ARREPENTIR DE COMPRARLO. BARBARA CANTA COMO NUNCA! LAS CANCIONES ESTAN PRECIOSAS.

Close your eyes and float away to the music of this fabulous pianist and composer. Di Blasio is the best ivory tickler you will ever hear. He is truly sensational. (I own this and several others of his CDs)

One of my first albums... ever since I learned about Di Blasio I've always been a fan. He's a great pianist and great composer.
I just wish he could give us more in the composing side...

I also found out this song from Maria Butyrskaya using it at Worlds...she is my favorite skater and Otonal is a great song!!! The only problem was thats Marias recording sounded AWFUL when she skated to it (hey, thats what hapeens when you use the same thing for 2 1/2 years! It sounds wonderful on the CD though and I reccomend it to anyone that likes piano concertos!!!

Excelente selecci�n de canciones, aunque faltar�a otro disco para incluir otras 14 muy buenas (Canoa Ranch�, Etnia, la magia de tus besos entre otras).

The review by Mr. Canestro should be corrected as the country of Grupo Niche is Colombia (not Columbia) so Colombian is the right term; typical from one that thinks America is only USA ignoring it is a much larger continent (and can't spell spanish names right).

Grupo Niche "The Best" is a very good CD. I say this with reason, read on.
The list of songs will keep you dancing all night. I consider this compilation of songs to be a very good sample of their versatility of Columbian music.
The lead vocal and harmonic background vocals, are in a class of their own, along with an orchestra that kicks, (BIG TIME)!
Although I like this CD very much, I consider their CD "La Danza de la Chancaca" (The Dance of the Brown Sugar) to be their finest work to date! It contains most of these hits plus many more fantastic songs.
Being that the title "The Best" has already been used on the above featured CD, "La Danza de la Chancaca" should have been considered being called Grupo Niche's "COLUMBIAN GOLD".
One will never regret purchasing either of these two fine treasures! Dance-on amigo!

Hi Everyone: This is a great album for Salsa dancers!! Every song has a perfect rhythm for the beginner to the advanced salsa dancer. The other Grupo Niche album for more salsa dancing material is `A Golpe de Folklore'. I heard this album while dancing on one of 8 Salsa Boats in up the Rhine in Germany, and loved it immediately!! (Germans are crazy for Salsa and Argentine Tango). You won't be disappointed buying this one!

Enjoy,

Monique

D:Ream is sooo D:Reamy!! He's holding a radar detector and singing lyrics like "Shoot Me!!!" In one picture he looks like Spiderman, just because he's THAT cool. And in this other picture, he's on the moon with a dog! A DOG!!! I used to have his picture taped to my friend's dashboard, but it fell off! I am D:Ream's biggest fan! And this one time, I got eggsummuhh!! Chi-Chi's had to shut down because I stole all their knives and forks! Pantaloons!!

It's unfortunate that D:ream was never that popularized. I have On Vol 1 and World, among all their 12" singles. When I first hear THIGNS CAN ONLY GET BETTER, it was the best feel good club song to ever come out of it's time. The funny thing is that the 12" mix only consists of the lyrics THIGNS CAN ONLY GET BETTER. But the song doesn't get tired from that. It took me 2 years to find WORLD after it's release in Vancouver BC. Both albums are phenomenol and it's too bad people haven't had a taste of this D:REAM. This BEST OF album contains their pop hits, so you can't go wrong.

I had the opportunity to study in Holland, Europe when this group hit the big time with their single, "Things Can Only Get Better". I immediately flew out to a local shop to buy the album. (I guess I have a rarer than rare copy of a foreign release. Lucky me!) What a great album!! For the past 6 years, I've waited with anticipation for a follow up release. I've only recently heard that the group is no longer together. I hope this isn't true. This would be a real pity, as they had a pure and clean sound. (Besides the fact that it's hard, if not impossible, to sit or stand still when the ablum is spinning in your cd drive.) Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. You WILL enjoy it!

When Junkie XL came onto the music scene with 'Saturday Teenage Kicks' we in Holland knew we had something special. The two-man team of Tom Holkenborg and Rudeboy had already shown us what they could do in the decade before. Tom was a member of the bands Weekend at Waikiki and the industrial group Nerve. Rudeboy of course was the frontman of the now legendary Urban Dance Squad, that's right, the band Rage vs the Machine blatantly ripped off making them the worlds most unoriginal band.

Brilliant live shows made them a wanted guest at festivals and later with the Little Less Conversation commercial (with Elvis) more recognition came, also in computer games.

Rudeboy now has left Junkie XL and this album is their last work together, a great fin-de-siecle piece of music.

This CD does not have great songs like 'Billy Club' or 'Saturday Teenage Kicks' but the overall quality is outstanding. You almost feel like you are at their show. 'Check Your Basic Groove' is carried by a funky bassline and Rudeboy's shouts to awaken us all. 'Synasthesia' is a good piece of big beats with another melodic bassline. The song changed dramatically after about 3,5 minutes when it slowly drifts into a symphonic, almost new age like, piece. Strings, horns have a solo before they are mixed into the big beats again.

'Zerotonine' was the first single and is carried by little pieces of violin and Rudeboy's raps, like he also does on 'Legion' (with acoustic guitar)

And it goes on, there is not a bad track on the CD and it's a very worthy succesor to "Saturday Teenage Kicks".

If only there were more people as inventive as Junkie XL...

Rock is the place to be!

This album is fantastic... I can't get enough! This was the first JXL CD I bought (a while ago), after hearing somebody tried to palm off some Junkie XL tracks and some Lunatic Calm tracks, as a new Prodigy CD. Now I loved Prodigy, so thought I'd check these guys out...

GREAT idea. It's quite different to prodigy, but damn awesome, groovy and VERY danceable. My favourite track is Love Like Razorblade, and Future in Computer Hell is a close second, but it's all good!

Lunatic Calm is also a worthwhile listen. They had that song Leave you Far Behind (I wanna take you on a rollercoaster) that has been on about 8 movie soundtracks).

But yeah, check these guys out... be warned though, their latest offering is very poppy, and very different to this genius!

I first heard "Action Radius" on Need for Speed Underground and it blew me away. XL's use of rock/punk elements spliced with Big-Beat and hard Techno grooves are amazing. Nothing I have heard in recent months comes close. In a world filled with Ushers, Britneys and J.Lo's, it is delicously refreshing to find an album like this. Look out for the "The power of big slacks," a symphonic master piece swirling with emotion! A big highlight!
Buy it, blast it, enjoy it! This album rocks!

I read a review in a magazine that described Chiaroscuro as a cross between Dream Theater and (I think) Rage Against the Machine. I don't care for RATM, but at that point Dream Theater *was* my second favorite band. I bought the CD, my best investment in the last year.

Chiaroscuro offers a wide range of progressive sounds. They offer songs with driving fast paced rythms and slower songs with an awesome melodic flavor. The singing is great, and their musical ability is awesome. If you like Dream Theater, you will probably love Chiaroscuro. This band has been my second favorite since almost the day I received the album.

In a world of metal bands (yes, this band is metal) that tend to form themselves in the vein of the many crotch level "pimp-rock" bands out there, this young band sets a new standard of musicianship and brilliance. Definitely influenced by the progressive leanings of Dream Theater, Chiaroscuro actually takes their music in a VERY progressive step. They add the animosity of some of the current heavyweights while never going into the sad, tired funk inclinations that abound in current "hard" music. The one exception to this is the chorus to "Crucifixion", where lead vocalist Aaron does his best Korn-ism. Unfortunately, his voice is just too incredible to bring it down to this level of non-musicality.

This is what we've been waiting for. It's almost impossible to measure up to Dream Theater's standards, but this band puts together some impressive tracks that are sure to satisfy finicky prog fans.

Este disco de Kinito Mendez no solo es un homenaje a Johnny Ventura sino un homenaje por lo general al genero musical llamado "el merengue". Kinito uso su propia experiencia y conocimiento musical combinados con lo que aprendio de uno de los grandes a traves de los anos para crear este disco que es un triunfo sin duda. Lo compre porque siempre me ha gustado el ritmo de la musica de Kinito pero que placer fue cuando escuche "A caballo". El cd esta lleno de espiritu, fervor y brio. Todas las canciones son merengues para que te rias, goces y bailes. Asi que no dudes en comprar este disco de Kinito Mendez. Creo que es uno de sus mejores y es fiel exponente de la alegria dominicana y el poder del merengue.

He gets better and better every time. This is a must have CD. Si eres Dominicana/o - REPRESENTA!! Don't forget to pay attention to the lyrics, he'll catch you by surprise.

EL K LE GUSTE EL MERENGUE K COMPRE ESTO PORQUE EN ESTE CD KINITO LA BOTO!!! (CUANDO NO) TA BUENISIMO ASI K NO DEJEN DE COMPRARLO, PA' K BAILEN HASTA EL AMANESCA.....

I'm a pretty tough person to talk into buying a cd. A buddy of mine owns every round piece of plastic ever made, and this was one of them. One night we were smokin non filters and watching some tapes from the gulf war...and this the perfect loungin music. I bet 5 of every 7 tracks get your head swingin.

I love this album. If you want to relax buy Cafe Mambo - one of the best chillout compilations, that I ever heard.

This is by far the best chillout/ambient cd i have ever listened to. I find with chillout/ambient albums or compilations that either A: the tracks are to up beat/club or B: just plain boring. Every track selected for this cd is relaxing, soothing and filled with feeling and warmth. When i close my eyes all i can visualize is warm, sandy, beautiful beaches. Ive owned Cafe Mambo 2000 for almost a year now and it still does the trick. If your looking for an album to relax or if you just enjoy ambient music then definately pick this one up.

i can agree to the other reviewers that the music is good and fitting for pirates but i wanted something more lyric like. they hardly have any text. if your fine with that good cd, if you wanna more of a sdong rather than instrumental tune dont get it.

This is a very solid showing in the pirate music catagory. Pirate music is hard to find and good pirate music is almost impossible to find. Worth the money. Arg.

If you want piratey music that isn't a children's sing-along album, this is perfect! Good music. Sound effects and "story" just set the mood.