MURDERS was one of many mod revival hopefuls in the late 70s/early 80s. (The band split in the mid-80s, but reunited in the 90s and has proceeded apace every since.) As with most acolytes of the JAM, the quartet’s influences were the pre-_Tommy_ WHO, the KINKS and the particularly British transmogrification of American R&B into pop – all of which came naturally to U.K. native Griffiths. In that sense, one supposes, Little Murders were hardly doing anything new or original. But Griffiths clearly loves this kind of power pop, and if he’s no innovator, he’s still quite good as what he does – there’s not a clunker amongst the 26 songs documented on this album + singles compilation. Though it sounds like the band fought against thin production most of the time, it still manages to shine on superlative pop tunes like “This is Your Life,” “Dancing Away,” “Bleeding Heart” and “Things Will Be Different.” Forget looking for pioneers and just revel in the sharp, catchy songs. Fans of the REAL KIDS or the LEN PRICE 3 will seriously dig this.

This extensive collection gathers together four volumes of demos, live performances, interviews, and other ephemeral material from the earliest phases of Detroit shock-glam legends Alice Cooper, and even traces their roots before the band as most know it came to be. The collection begins with the stompy garage psych number "No Price Tag" from Vincent Furnier's pre-AC 1966 band Spiders. Early demos from 1969's Pretties for You album follow, as do radio spots and raw live recordings from the earliest eras of the band, including an 11-minute organ-drone version of "I'm Eighteen," introduced as "a brand-new song" and sounding more like some bastardized take on the Doors than the three-minute confused coming-of-age rocker that wound up on 1971's Love It to Death album.

Spin is the first solo album released by former Savage Garden member Darren Hayes. The album was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge and produced by Walter Afanasieff. It was released in Australia in March 2002 and reached the rest of the world later that year.

The Catalan composer Frederic Mompou (1893-1987) is hardly a household word (though Segovia performed his guitar pieces), probably because, unlike other Spanish composers of folkloric bent like de Falla, Albeniz and Granados he never wrote for the stage, which can be the ticket to immortality. But working in small forms doesn't make him a lightweight; miniatures don't lack drama or emotional interest – just look at what Chopin, Faurè and Schubert did. This new CD of Mompou's solo piano music joins a relatively select few by Europeans like Laurent Martin, Gustavo Romero, Stephen Hough, Alicia de Laroccha, and there's even one by the composer himself. This outing, by young Spanish pianist Jordi Masó, certainly seems to have captured Mompou's very special poetry.

Cherry Red affiliate Superbird pairs Bar-Kays' first two albums for Mercury, the label to which the band defected after a long and productive run with Stax. Both recordings reached the Top Ten of Billboard's R&B albums chart. Too Hot to Stop, released in 1976, features the singles "Shake Your Rump to the Funk," "Too Hot to Stop," and "Spellbound," while Flying High on Your Love spawned "Let's Have Some Fun" and "Attitudes." Comparable to what their P-Funk brothers and sisters were releasing at the time, these are two of the band's most enjoyable albums, though they're not without a fair amount of filler. This is a straight-up two-for-one compilation with no bonus tracks.

Cherry Red's Robinsongs division combines a pair of late-'70s Mercury albums by the Bar-Kays: 1978's "Light of Life" and 1979's "Injoy". Given the band's extensive discography (including a Stax-released 1978 album with an incredible re-recording of "Holy Ghost"), these releases have fallen by the wayside, but both of them fared well. The former reached #15 on Billboard's album chart, while the latter missed the top spot by one position. There's a handful of notable singles and deep album cuts, including the charting A-sides "Shine" and "I'll Dance," as well as "Move Your Boogie Body" and the ballad "Running in and Out of My Life."

Giulia Semenzato, already renowned for her interpretations of the Baroque repertory and her Mozartian roles, presents here her first solo album. The programme, entitled Angelica diabolica, is devoted to the female protagonists of Ludovico Ariosto, author of the epic poem Orlando furioso, whose emblematic figure is Angelica, a revolutionary heroine, ready to resort to any trick in order to regain her freedom. After the Baroque Rome of Luigi Rossi and his opera Il palazzo incantato (1642), we turn to the galant style of Naples with Nicola Porpora’s serenata Angelica (1720), then to Milan in 1702 with the warlike heroine of Bernardo Sabadini’s opera Angelica nel Catai, before a more melancholy take on the character by Agostino Steffani (1691). These rare numbers rub shoulders with more familiar arias by George Frideric Handel, sung by the heroines of his operas Orlando, Ariodante, Amadigi di Gaula, not to mention the famous enchantress Alcina. Alongside the Kammerorchester Basel, Giulia Semenzato deploys all her virtuosity, vocal agility and feeling for words to slip into the shoes of these women, by turns angelic and diabolical.

Bard is the third studio album by the English progressive rock band, Big Big Train. It was released in 2002 by Treefrog Records. It is the only one of their early albums that the band decided not to re-release, and as such it is currently out-of-print. Big Big Train are an English progressive rock band formed in Bournemouth in 1990. The current line-up includes band founder Gregory Spawton (bass, guitars and keyboards), along with Nick D'Virgilio (drums, guitars and keyboards) and Rikard Sjöblom (guitars and keyboards). Until 2009, the band were active as a predominantly-studio project led by Spawton and co-founder Andy Poole (guitars, bass and keyboards), who departed the band in 2018, with changing line-ups and guest musicians. They have released twelve studio albums and three EPs.

Selim Palmgren studied with Busoni and developed a formidable technique, later becoming one of the leading Nordic composer-pianists of his generation. This fourth volume of Palmgren’s complete piano works reveals yet more remarkable contributions to 20th-century piano literature including one of his masterpieces, the Nocturne in Three Scenes, a compound of Impressionist and Romantic elements. His fruitful years in America are reflected by the jazz-influenced Three Fantasies and throughout one can hear examples of the beautiful folk-based music that is so much a feature of his compositions.

Edward Gregson is a composer of international standing whose music has been performed, broadcast, and commercially recorded worldwide. Gregson is renowned for his concertos and music for band, but his chamber music reveals a more enquiring voice. In recent years these works have been enriched with greater expressive and emotional depth, ranging here from youthful impressionism to the fearsome virtuosity of Triptych, a competition test piece. Gregson’s First String Quartet was acclaimed by one critic as ‘an extraordinary work, both gritty and serene’, while the evocative colours of the Second are framed by the gentle lilt of a Siciliana.

Often described as a quintessential band in late 60's - early 70's Italian rock scene, this band from Sanremo gave birth to important bands such as Celeste and Museo Rosenbach. This band had a three year career, first as a four piece, then with the fifth member Leonardo Lagorio joining them in 1971, during this time they could not release anything, but some good recordings were finally issued for the first time in 1991 on the double LP Il Viaggio Senza Andata.
They were led by the keyboards of Floriano Roggero and by the sax and flute of the future member of Celeste Leonardo Lagorio. Classical influences are clear, especially in their good rendition of Mussorgsky's Una Notte Sul Monte Calvo, they also show some similarities with Museo Rosenbach…

Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion, whose artistry blends “creative fearlessness with reverent precision” (BBC Music Magazine), offers an album of enterprising collaborations and world-premiere recordings of works written or arranged expressly for the Chicago-based percussion quartet, representing four different approaches to composing concert music.

From The River To The Sea is the first full-length demo album by the now famous Big Big Train! The roots of Big Big Train can be found in 1987, when guitarist Greg Spawton decided to move from Birmingham to Bournemouth, where he met bassist Andy Poole.Poole was a big fan of Prog music and a former roadie for The Lens and IQ.The duo decided to record some songs together, leading slowly to the formation of Big Big Train in 1990 with the addition of Ian Cooper on keys, an ex-bandmate of Poole in a band called Arcshine.They recruited Canadian singer Martin Read and 15-year old drummer Steve Hughes and recorded the demo cassette ''From the river to the sea'' on an 8-track recorder from April to June 91'.Following some good gigs, the album was reissued in CD the next year with two more tracks, recorded in early 92'.

A legendary act from Luxembourg, which played along the lines of Marillion, albeit with a more bombastic and symphonic sound. They were found in 1988 in Dudelange and moved throughout their career around original members Patrick Kiefer (vocals), Alex Rukavina (keyboards) and Chris Sonntag (drums). 1993 sees the debut of the band ''Zodiac'' and two years later the fantastic follow-up ''The Secret Garden'' is published. Shortly after they secured a contract with Musea's branch label Angular Records and they celebrated their 10th anniversary with a third release, ''The Other Side''. Entering the millenium the band was put on ice due to family commitments of the members, but in 2006 they returned with their fourth album ''4'', released under the support of Musea…

FURYU, the band, was initially formed by Zappoli MICHELE (bass) and Matteo MIGLIORI (guitar/vocals) in Bologna Italy in 2000 but it took almost a decade and several lineup changes for FURYU to become a proper band. After several musical styles shifts, the band finally hit it off in mid 2009 when the drummer Riccardo GRECHI and the sampler Damiano STORELLI came aboard and the members began writing, recording and producing their first full length album. The album "Ciò Che l'Anima Non Dice" was released in 2011 and features a concept that circles around moods, feelings and human emotions. The synthetic phrases that characterize each song title is intended to narrate the experiences of the protagonist in his own journey. The idea was to create an ambitious album that would be taken as an artistic statement that could have an international bearing to it.