Author Topic: Loads of instrumental music (Easy listening, Big band, Jazz, schlager...)  (Read 4428 times)

Bronic

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h---s://tunnel.ru/user/Vladimir68/1

This blog is updated frequently since 2016. Each one of the >300 pages have up to 15-20 albums!! Each album has its own page, tracklist, music player and download button.

There is a few library albums but it's more in the orchestral music realm. Check it out.

bardwell64

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They appear to be all in MP3 format.

Psyclon

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(Final results of my browsing can be found in the last post)
« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 10:07:59 AM by Psyclon »

nidostar

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They appear to be all in MP3 format.
Funny. As someone who takes internet security seriously my main concern would be the country the site appears to be based in.

Psyclon

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I
Thanks For The Tip Bronic! and Thanks 2 Psyclon! I like Deutsch Elektronische Musik!

I am not completely done with my list, I am at page 60. I might add more electronic / synthy stuff later :D
But the vast majority seem to be jazz and swing disks usually from the "usual culprits".

They appear to be all in MP3 format.
Funny. As someone who takes internet security seriously my main concern would be the country the site appears to be based in.

I fully understand your concerns as I am also concerned, but I turned down my paranoia into healthy distrust. The servers are CloudFlare ones (jill.ns.cloudflare.com and todd.ns.cloudflare.com to be precise), the files themselves clean. Yes, there is Yandex involved (Russian Google sort of with cloud storage, mail, et cetera) and probably some files come from there, but even then, I highly doubt my computer to turn into a Putin bot spammer by downloading a clean MP3 and a bunch of truncated cookies. Apart from PrivacyBadger and NoScript (which both actually alert me to much stuff that I whitelisted manually), there is not much you can do about it. There is not much of a difference if I get spied on by the USA, Russia or China. I mean, this is the internet - interconnected network. We all will meet people from super powers like China (like ChinYinZi), Americans, Russians et cetera. By that logic, I should never receive any files and turn off my Microsoft Windows-operated PC.

In general that is like COVID - you meet sick people, vaccinated people, vaccinated sick or unvaccinated healthy people. Having an EU certificate of my 3 Moderna shots didn't make me less infectious; the alternative would be to stay at home - or, to go back, pull the internet plug. I mean this in a neutral tone by the way, not in any way condescending. I just opened Mediafire and 7 Javascripts and 3 Trackers on that website, 4 of them belong to Google - an US company knowing to spy into people's lives. . . . .

EDIT: Just as I posted this, my browser waited for this:

What is that service, what does it do? Do I want it? Nope. Do I have a change? Nope either..

When looking up, it's this - and immediately wants Scripts to be executed, but aforementioned NoScript stopped it:

So that above was connecting to my session just by editing a thread on LMT. Makes you think...

Alternatively, I would honestly suggest you a sandbox VM or something. There you can put these files literally into quarantine and only fiddle out the audio files onto your real system after you checked them thoroughly. I often enter dubious websites because Google got me into some slavik forums, but these happen to have LP recordings found in their attics from behind the Iron Curtain, but actually is a clean forum. It just "feels" dubious, and often less dubious than Google and Amazon spy networks form the USA. And DuckDuckGo unfortunately does not yield the same obscure results, and I am using Youtube (and thus Google) anyways, so the ship has sailed there :/
« Last Edit: March 21, 2023, 12:10:17 PM by Psyclon »

Bronic

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LMT's looks very clean to me:



Some odd behavior is often caused by user installed extensions that go rogue after changing ownership. Recently I had an once trusted old extension redirecting Google searches.

Tunnel.ru looks like standard ad tracking stuff to me:



And it behaves like a user-driven community/social media of shared content. Russia is indeed very sketchy but there are many legit websites. The most risky MP3 sites are in fact the ones that do not serve any files. They scrap discogs' album metadata and create a page with fake download links.

Greta

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IN ORDER NOT TU RUN IN ANY RISK, I'M GONNA EDIT PSYCLON POSTS, ERASING ALL THE LINKS TO THE RUSSIAN SITE.

PSYCLON, PLEASE, DO NOT POST ANY MORE LINK TO THAT SITE.

THANKS.
G.

Psyclon

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LMT's looks very clean to me:

Oi, that tool is pretty cool!
Nonetheless, why did my post entry got stuck on that weird Thai/Indian sharing website? I had time to take that screenshot because it took it's sweet time, probably timed out. Why was the forum waiting for it instead of proceeding me through? It just shows how much stuff is being funnelled through with the usage of basically almost any webpage.




Yep, there is Yandex, but as said, Yandex is probably one of the more/most legit pages. I mean, let's look from the other side: You are a Russian resident and you access mediafire - do they think it's the US government that would destroy that Russian computer just for the sake of being connected via a Russian ISP? Or shying away from ChinYinZi's shares because he is a Chinese resident? Isn't Mega from New Zealand? As a German/EU resident, basically all these are "foreign". There are governments more dodgy then others, but especially the USA is known to even spy on Merkel's phone, and Germany is an "ally" to the US. Allegedly.

Just to close things up with some thoughts.

PSYCLON, PLEASE, DO NOT POST ANY MORE LINK TO THAT SITE.

I don't think that it matters really much at all, it's a privately owned page on CloudFlare servers and Yandex is fetching from the tunnel.ru webpage. LMT is just too far away in that chain. But I absolutely understand the caution and obviously I will follow those rules.

A different thought:
Can't you just disable hotlinks in the forum's control panel? I read that you can also enter a "censor" filter list on SMF forums like this one, which is usually is used to blocks e.g. swearwords. If you add your typical culprits into the censor dictionary and some user posts "tttp" or "https:", it should be auto-changed to askerisks. Seems to be in the control panel. Then, everyone is forced to copy/past the URL. And by doing so, the referrer header you are - understandably - afraid of is not a thing anymore. Entering URL and hitting enter is clean compared to clicking the link. If you want to be 120% sure, start from a clean tab. By making it "Pixeldr@in", you kind of do the same thing: Forcing people to paste, not to click the link. However, anyone can still find Pixeldr@in as stated in one of my other posts, so you are safe on the referral links but lawyers (or whatever you are afraid of) still can comb the web with a simple Google search and find LMT and the links here.

I already also mentioned to base64'ing links. It's a common thing on the web to do so to avoid links being found by combing the web with "plain text searches". Googling "Pixeldr*in" is easy, but who searches for cGl4ZWxkcmFpbg== (< "Pixeldrain" in base64 code). Also, by having a string of characters, there are no links yet again, and thus no referrals being called and tracing to LMT is again ruled out. NOT CLICKING links is what you actually want and need. So we can both keep URLS - encrypted - for convenience while actually being not traced by your browser at the same time and not "Google'able". This could increase the safety from what is currently standard yet I or anyone could post URLs - even to APM or SONOTON.

For the ones that still want to get there on my noteworthy albums above, the title of the disk can be put into the tunnel.ru URL with ease once you understood how it's set up. Basically it's a syntax that goes like /post-PART-OF-THE-ALBUM-NAME [Enter button]

« Last Edit: March 21, 2023, 04:56:28 PM by Psyclon »

Psyclon

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Oof!

After finishing my journey through these over 6,000 albums (328 pags ŕ 20 albums) I am dead inside, uh, I-I mean, here is what I could find that counts as 80s instrumental synth pop or synth rock. Not much, but all of them are new to me and it's like fishing - sometimes they bite, sometimes not. This time, I could haul some nice tracks to my meanwhile renamed "Rare Grooves and Production Music" (a.k.a. THE TREASURE CHEST) folder. I mean, these groups might not be "rare" if you know them as I suspect "PERU" for example to be known to the one or other, but they are also obscure and hidden deep inside long lists or being lost and pale compared to the (manipulated) so-called "chart hits" of each decade, but these albums add so much to the mix.

Oh boy, was that a journey. The amount of instrumental cover albums from "Synthesizer Hits" like "Tubular Bells" and "Chariots of Fire" on a kid's CASIO keyboard, Donald Trump-esque manboys with a trumpet on the cover looking to seduce aunt Maude to buy into this subpar performance of "Amacing Grace", literal shovelware of disgustingly cheap tracks, the 156th FRANK POURCEL album, releases with the name "SAX and SEX" with more naked breasts on the cover than actual audio content on the disks (and there were 8 volumes or so of that rubbish), psychadelic nonsense albums that a bonobo could produce where you get high from the smell of the spliffs the cardboard cover emits from looking at the JPG alone, the 246 wipe out surf muzak cover bands - of course only in "high fidelity stereo" of 1967 and "Rare Tracks" that sound like the first Edison records rather than enjoyable music (from cassettes probably found between the seats in the tunnel.ru admin's USSR-built LADA) with 98% surface noise and 2% music, much of that blog can be called "Cassette Hiss, Record Crackle and White Noise - Best Of".

Inbetween there are some absolutely cringeworthy albums of some Bavarian/Swiss brass bands where you can see how uncomfortable the men on the cover were - maybe they are self-aware of the quality of it and regret both the recording session and the photo. [And there are great library recordings in that range - Intersound ISST 189 for example] And I say this as Bavarian who grew up with "Blasmusik" at every "Volksfest" we have, hearing that "Oompa Oompa" coming through the ventilation shafts of the mobile toilet where the beer wants to get out the way it came in, but also a 16-year retail employee and 6-year manager has his limits and I don't want to reach them ever again like that. I was relieved to see some Freddy Mercury-wannabe Russian singer inbetween that just wants to express the hardship of life that should not exist in the self-proclaimed glorious society of the communist and socialist countries behind the Iron Curtain in the first place.

I'd mostly sit on the couch with my tablet and scroll through the lists while watching TV, both my brain and my right thumb are so numb I need to listen to some CAVENDISH tracks to rekindle my will to live.

But inbetween here some remarkable albums that I might want to bring to attention.


Due to tracing reasons, I can't put links here.
I will put the post id up instead. Enter the webpage and after .ru/, paste the ID listed.


PERU is a Dutch synthesizer group and they created these great albums of music that could well fit into the big libraries of SONOTON, BRUTON and the likes. The sound is high-quality and great to listen to, these people knew their trade. For the one 128 kBit/s release, I suggest to actually buy the album for real, even though I wonder how much that even benefits the actual creators.

> [METRONOME] Peru - Continents (1983)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-Peru-Continents

> [CNR RECORDS] Peru - Points of the Compass (1986)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-PERU-POINTS-OF-THE-COMPASS

> [RED BULLETT] Peru - Forlian(1988)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-peru-forlian [128 KBit/s only]

> [RED BULLET] Best of Peru 1979-1999 // Synth pop, Space Pop, New Age
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-Peru-Best-Of-Peru-1979-1999


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Mario Mathy (from Belgium) is a special oddity. To me, as a German, this kind of music was very common in the 80s and 90s here in Europe both in TV as well as some radio stations. This cheerful and innocent tone of his music is really bouncing between "muzak" and "music", but for some reason, it's this cheerfulness of a person "just making music" that gets me good mood. If you'd turn on public television in Germany in the 80s and 90s, chances are that some Alfred J. Kwak or Nils Holgerson episode (or other more obscure anime productions) featured musik like that.
Not for everyone for sure, but I kinda like it.

> [BLENCO RECORDS] Mario Mathy - De Beste Van (1996; compilation album, release date my vary per track!)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-mario-mathy-de-beste-van

> [LIMBO RECORDS] Mario Mathy - Breakout (1988)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-mario-mathy-break-out


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Caravelli is normally known for his orchestral tracks from 60s and 70s. In this late 1980s album he gets full electronic synthesizer'ish and creates a nice fusion between classic and pop. This is not new - Rondo Veneziano (don't quote my spelling on them!) is a thing - but still refreshing and nice. I can only assume the poor rating (2/5) on Discogs is due to leaving the known trails and yet becoming a Rondo Veneziano clone, but to me, these tracks are really worth a listen!

> [CBS] Caravelli - Passions (1987)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-Caravelli-Passions


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Klaus created a nice instrumental album with great, energetic tunes that are ranging from pop to rock. The fantastic and very distinctive late-80s sound is off-set a bit by both the not-so-great quality of the medium and a mastering that could be done better, but eh, it also adds to the vibes.

> [Europhon Records] Klaus Brendel - Waiting (1987)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-klaus-brendel-waiting

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Fritz Köberl und Peter Janda, famous SONOTON/Orange power composers, are doing "their thing" :D Some of it is super cheesy, but that is up to everyone to judge. It is really a mixed bag, so I suggest to check out every song and not giving up after trying one or two.

> [Azur] Background 1, 2 and 3 (1987)
DISCOGS LINK
DISCOGS LINK
DISCOGS LINK
POST IDs: post-various-background-3 / post-various-background-2 / post-various-background-1


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Mostly intrigued by the funky cover art, the music on this album is not any different. 80s space synths, some breaks in there, harsh and cold tunes and experimental sound go hand in hand with fast-pace rock themes. Really worth it and a real kicker for me, especially tracks like "Robomanie".

> [Editions 23] Francis Lai - Astrolab 22 (1985)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-francis-lai-astrolab-22

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This Claudia Hirschfeld album is, I know I repeat myself here, a bit odd again. I think this is coming from commercial releases that are instrumental and often don't seem to know where to go to, and I also expect the higher ups in the record labels are often unsure to release instrumental tracks as the voice and person is what sells (e.g. on the shelf in a record store). But anyways, this disk has some odd and quirky tunes in it that might catch with the one or other - like me :D

> [Wersi] Claudia Hirschfeld - Impressionen/Impressions (1990) (I recommend you using the cover art from the website and not Discogs')
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-claudia-hirschfeld-impressionen-1990

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Polish New Wave sounds from the mid 80s (Discogs says '85, the website '84). As it's a SP it has only two tracks on, but both are 6 minutes each. It is rare that such long songs keep my attention, but holy moly, once I hit the play button, it keeps me interested all the way through.

> [Pronit] KLINCZ - Latarnik (1984)
DISCOGS LINK
POST ID: post-klincz-latarnik-1984-sp


nidostar

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My goodness Psyclon you really took one for the team there! I've had a glance at some of the links you listed and I'm not surprised you feel dead inside. So far they sound pretty uninspiring but I'll keep going. BTW I love your piece at the beginning esp your description of the Volksfest. And poor Aunt Maude! Thanks for your hard work.

Psyclon

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In retrospect, I apparently turned into some form of automatism. Granted, scrolling with the right thumb on a tablet is much more bearable than anything else, but I don't think I would ever want that to happen again, and I went through all the big libraries twice in the past 5 years. Also, I used the Google Translator, so each page had some time to load, with occasional Cyrillian messages (ads) popping up where I was kind of trapped with gibberish choices to choose from, so I had to F5 a lot.

Of course, each person has to look for "their thing". Also, after all, it's free stuff. But it's filled with so much crap stuff, and I with due respect to the different tastes of people, you will come through the shovelware rubbish yourself pretty quickly. Not only the music itself, the quality of some is abysmal and everyone with the right mind would write them off. I was surprised how many Pourcel albums were "Best of" with apparently the best of the Best ofs, just for the best of the best of the Best ofs. And the vast amount of records people would deny to take even if you give them for free. I...start to get PTSD again.

If you are exactly looking for that, for like the worst for shits and giggles, that blog is amazing, you don't know what to be afraid of more: The quality, the "music" or the cover arts. However, looking for rare pieces means to dive into the pile of garbage - that's why they are rare. If the gems would be on plain sight, they would be mainstream. I am also very sure each one of us will find something of personal taste - just like I did with the albums above where I can pick the one or other track which are great/quirky enough/actually really good whilst the majority is still uninspired as you correctly called it.

Also, I obviously skipped the well-known commercial releases like DSCHINGHIS KHAN or THE SCORPIONS, BACCARA and all these. I am strictly talking about like niché labels with equally niché artists - or those that want to be.

Maybe we are just kind of used to get quality here. No Retromatic or Ice8 or Greta or Fuzi would offer us such bargain bin cheapstuff. Also, when it reads KPM or BRUTON or KOKA, you also know the labels had high standards. All these "safety and quality measurements" are obviously not in place with that blog. For example in the Fritz Köberl/Peter Janda albums, why were these not licences with SONOTON? Maybe too random/too low quality for that library? Got refused despite well-known artists worked on these 3 disks?

I am still kind of happy for the tracks I got off of them due to their obscure yet cool sounds, but it also showed me the abyss of quality and that people call such stuff "Muzak".

Bronic

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You are quite the madman Psyclon! I went through 1/3 of the pages it before calling it quits.

I posted a new challenge for you. ;D

bardwell64

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As soon as I discovered they were all in MP3 format I lost all interest. I'm still hoping to find a huge music archive in wav or flac format somewhere!

comicsrovio

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As soon as I discovered they were all in MP3 format I lost all interest. I'm still hoping to find a huge music archive in wav or flac format somewhere!

I prefer listening music so MP3 format is enough for me, but I'll not say that much in this topic.