Bon Jovi's sophomore release found the New Jersey group continuing with its engaging mix of hard rock dynamics and blatant pop-metal overtones, and primed the pump for the coming popular explosion of Slippery When Wet. Ever since the keyboard call to arms of the breakthrough "Runaway," Bon Jovi had understood that real success lay in a billowing smoke, soft-focus derivation of true metal, where Journey-style synthesizers and soft rock chorus vocals were the name of the game. To that end, 7800° Fahrenheit tempered its black-leather rock & roll with a rudimentary form of the sound that would make Bon Jovi superstars.

The project consists mostly of Tim Booth's vocals and lyrics washing over layers of Angelo Badalamenti keyboard and orchestra treatments, with trippy rhythms and some intriguing guest performances fleshing out the structure. Fans of the first Suede album will be pleased to hear prodigal guitarist Bernard Butler serving as supple ligaments for five tracks, especially taut on the assertive "Heart" and relatively cutting "Butterfly's Dream" (James producer Brian Eno and Badalamenti on background vocals). There's nothing overly challenging here, in fact, some of it is annoyingly lightweight, but Booth and the Bad Angel makes for an overall pleasant confectionary of influences, moody pop, and melodic, cocooning atmosphere.

For most intents and purposes, Sugarloaf was finished after their 1973 album I Got a Song failed to generate any attention, but the band continued to push ahead, channeling their frustrations into the bubblegum sarcasm of “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You.” The song became a fluke hit in 1975, prompting a re-release of I Got a Song under a new title borrowed from the hit, which also was prominently featured on the new release. Of course, the fizzy pop of “Don’t Call Us” sounded very little like the rest of the earlier record, which itself wasn’t all that reminiscent of their percolating 1970 hit “Green Eyed Lady,” either. It was a curious mix of pompous neo-prog – best heard on the charging instrumental “Myra, Myra” – light hippie funk, and coolly trippy soft rock, all sounds redolent of the early ‘70s, but certainly not the epitome of it. Which isn’t to say that lead singer/songwriter Jerry Corbetta couldn’t write – in addition to the hits, he knocked off Billy Joel/Elton John’s Western fantasia quite well on “Colorado Jones” – but this album tends to drift in and out of focus, making it a period piece but not much more. [Fuel 2000’s 2010 reissue added a host of worthwhile bonus tracks, including a live version of “Green Eyed Lady.”]

An impressive debut from a charismatic young pianist with a passion for Schumann.

World premiere recordings of psalms and hymns by a forgotten luminary of the Florentine Baroque.

As with many composers from the early modern period, very little is known about Grégoire Brayssing. This recording features his only surviving work, printed in Paris in 1553 as the fourth volume in a series dedicated to the guitar published by Adrian Le Roy and Robert Ballard. Brayssing’s collection provides us with a few clues about his life: the frontispiece describes him as ‘de Augusta’, meaning he was born in the German city of Augsburg.

A Brilliant Classics debut for one of today’s most accomplished Italian string quartets, in 20th-century masterpieces which make a compelling introduction to the troubled private world of Shostakovich’s chamber music.

Leonard Bernstein conducts three of his own works: 'Divertimento', 'Serenade for Violin and Orchestra (after Plato's Symposium)' featuring violinist Gidon Kremer and 'Symphony no. 2 - The Age of Anxiety' featuring pianist Krystian Zimerman. The programme also includes 'Teachers and Teaching', a documentary in which Bernstein rehearses, reminisces about his mentors and interacts with pupils and colleagues.

For a work composed originally as independent items, Roussel's impressionist First Symphony (1904-06) works surprisingly well. True, its structure is unorthodox, each of the four movements – which form a seasonal cycle from winter to autumn – larger than its predecessor, but it all flows together remarkably well, adding up to rather more than a picturesque set of tonepoems or suite. Small wonder it so impressed early audiences.

Merceditas Valdés (1928-1996), was a Cuban singer who specialized in Afro-Cuban traditional music. Under the aegis of ethnomusicologists Fernando Ortiz and Obdulio Morales, Valdés helped popularize Afro-Cuban music throughout Latin America. In 1949, she became one of the first female Santería singers to be recorded. Her recording career, which continued until her death in 1996, was especially prolific in the 1950s and 1980s.

Marvin Hamlisch was extremely prolific in the 1970s scoring a number of films including Bananas, Kotch, The Spy Who Loved Me, and The Way We Were. He also won three Oscars in 1973 alone, as well four Grammys, and a Tony Award during that particular decade. Hamlisch's biggest success both commercially and critically was his soundtrack for the now-iconic film, The Sting. Most of the tunes here were originally written by famed ragtime composer Scott Joplin except "Little Girl," and Hamlisch's "The Glove," "Hooker's Hooker," and "Luther." The well-crafted, lyrical opener, "Solace[Orchestra Version]" easily captures the movie's 1930s setting and adds just a touch of melancholy and nostalgia.

Alejandro del Valle-Lattanzio, born in Bogotá, Columbia in 1986, moved to Vienna in 2007 to complete his studies. It was in 2013 at the latest that Alejandro del Valle-Lattanzio became known to a public with an interest in music by winning the Ö1 Talentebörse composition prize, which is organised by ORF (Austrian state radio). The jury statement says: "The jury appreciates the emphatically independent, if not to say idiosyncratic musical language. Fantastical invention and unusual sound colours shape his pieces. In his creative use of unusual producers of sound and the occasional use of video material his twin talents as a student of both composition and visual art are evident".

The Magic of Boney M was originally the title of a 1980 best of, although of the “20 Golden Hits” of 42 years ago, only 14 are repeated here, with the double A-side ‘I See A Boat On The River’ / ‘My Friend Jack’ being a notable omission (even if it wasn’t a hit in the UK).
1976 - the year of Boney M.'s first #1 hit "Daddy Cool" and the birth of an extraordinary music career that was to follow.
Boney M. can be considered the heroes of the disco era and there's no question why their best-of release was called "THE MAGIC OF BONEY M." was called
It has always been a memorial to this super group as it gathers the treasures of that era and definitely has its own magic!

Changing their band name as often as they changed the genre of music they played, Spandau Ballet began as a punk rock band calling themselves The Cut. Shortly after they changed their name to The Makers, and again In 1978 they changed their sound to a more power pop renaming themselves Gentry. Changing their sound once again to a more polished, synth heavy pop with an emphasis on the romantic the band changed their name for a last time to Spandau Ballet after (as the story goes) seeing the name "Spandau Ballet" written on a lavatory wall in a bar in Berlin…