Tim Blake played synths with Gong, Hawkwind, Steve Hillage, and other similar projects before going solo as a synthesizer performer and recorder. This was Blake's first studio release versus his recordings of live gigs. He really polishes things up a great deal, adding guitars and singing in the style of Gong's Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage's solo offerings. Blake's vocals would never be his strong point. His blessing to the ears was and always will be his ethereal and spacy synthesizer expertise. As Gong and Steve Hillage all preached the New Age and tuning into earth vibes and aligning one's soul with Earth energies to bring in a world of light and love – so Blake also crooned.

Mungo Jerry is one of rock's great one-hit successes. Outside of England, they're known for exactly one song, but that song, "In the Summertime," is a seasonal anthem known by listeners who weren't even born when it was released. Mungo Jerry was a solid blues outfit as well and knew how to get the most out of their jug band sound, which has helped them survive for three decades.

Whomp That Sucker is the tenth album by the American rock band Sparks, released in 1981. Sparks had recorded No. 1 In Heaven and Terminal Jive with Giorgio Moroder. Both had been relatively successful, but the brothers had found the electronic equipment they had adopted for their new sound too cumbersome to tour with. Whomp That Sucker was recorded without Giorgio Moroder at Musicland Studios, Munich in association with Giorgio Moroder Enterprises. The next four albums were recorded as part of the same partnership. The album marked Sparks return proper to a rock sound after their previous two disco efforts. To complement the Mael Brothers the backing band Bates Motel was hired. The band consisted of guitarist Bob Haag, bassist Leslie Bohem, and drummer David Kendrick. Together this line-up would record the next four Sparks albums.

With combined U.K. album sales of nearly three million copies, Georgian-born Katie Melua has quietly become one of the biggest-selling female artists of the decade. Without the media profile of Britney Spears, the powerhouse vocals of Anastacia, or the critical acclaim of Dido, her success has been based purely on old-fashioned songs that have managed to have appeal beyond the usual folk-pop market. Indeed, just like her biggest influence, Eva Cassidy, who appears here on a posthumous cover of "What a Wonderful World," Melua's soothing and jazz-tinged tones found an audience through repeated plays on Terry Wogan's BBC Radio 2 show. So the fact that the majority of The Katie Melua Collection never really moves past first gear shouldn't come as any surprise.

Harnoncourt is a strongly individualist conductor, and his individualism is much more strongly pronounced in the 1986 B minor Mass than in the 1968 version. That's why quite a few reviewers prefer the earlier version - finding the later one mannered, even eccentric. I understand their views, though I don't share them.

And how! Austin tackles standards such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me," and succeeds brilliantly. Her version of Comden, Green, and Bernstein's "I Can Cook, Too" is enough by itself to make this a pick.

This disc takes us to the tenor songs sung by Martyn Hill in his best darkly-inflected voice. These include just over half an hour of Kipling songs with an accent adopted reasonably convincingly.

José Marin was one of the most prolific composers of tonos humanos (profane songs in Romance languages) of the Spanish Baroque period. His works were disseminated all over the world and one of his complete manuscripts is called the Fitzwilliam Manuscript and is in Cambridge. The songs were traditionally accompanied by harp or guitar.

Japan only release edition! Best selection album of Sarah Brightman. 18 tracks, releasing in SHM-CD format. Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, musician, songwriter, and dancer. Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made her West End musical theatre debut in Cats and met composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, whom she later married. She went on to star in several West End and Broadway musicals, including The Phantom of the Opera, where she originated the role of Christine Daaé.

On the surface, the music of Love/Hate's debut may seem no different than most any late-'80s L.A. pop-metal, but the band's performance exudes a fury and belligerence that posers such as Poison or Warrant could never even grasp; actually, they would turn on their heels and run away screaming from it. The band literally "plays on 11," from the very first crunching power chord of the title track to the last cymbal crash of the frenzied "Hell Ca., Pop. 4." In between, they alternate the sheer power of "Rock Queen," "One More Round," and "Straightjacket" with the haunting yet beautiful melodies of "Mary Jane" and "She's an Angel."

The big task for Alice in Chains on their 2009 comeback Black Gives Way to Blue was to prove they could carry on battered and bruised, missing Layne Staley but still in touch with their core. They had to demonstrate the band had a reason to exist, and Black Gives Way to Blue achieved this goal, paving the way for another record just like it. Enter The Devil Put the Dinosaurs Here, a record that is pretty close to identical to Black Gives Way to Blue in its sound, attack, and feel. Where it differs is in the latter, as the overall album feels lighter and, at times, the individual songs do, too. "Scalpel" flirts with the acoustic bones of Jar of Flies and also has perhaps the richest melody here, working as a song, not a grind…

Winter's debut album for Columbia was also arguably his bluesiest and best. Straight out of Texas with a hot trio, Winter made blues-rock music for the angels, tearing up a cheap Fender guitar with total abandon on tracks like "I'm Yours and I'm Hers," "Leland Mississippi Blues," and perhaps the slow blues moment to die for on this set, B.B. King's "Be Careful with a Fool." Winter's playing and vocals have yet to become mannered or clichéd on this session, and if you've ever wondered what the fuss is all about, here's the best place to check out his true legacy.

During the mid-'80s, Nik Kershaw managed to score a handful of pop hits and, in doing so, establish himself as a profitable commercial songwriter. Kershaw began his musical career by learning to play guitar when he was a teenager. In 1974, he joined his first band, Half Pint Hogg, which played nothing but Deep Purple covers. However, his musical ideas were not limited to heavy metal; after he left school, he joined a jazz-funk band called Fusion. Fusion released one album, 'Til I Hear From You, in the late '70s. Once the group broke up, Kershaw signed to MCA Records with the help of Nine Below Zero's manager, Micky Modern. Kershaw released his first solo single, "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," in 1983; it peaked at number 47 on the U.K. charts. His next single, "Wouldn't It Be Good," hit number five in the U.K. and charted at number 46 in the U.S. Its success led to stardom in Britain for Kershaw; "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was re-released in summer of 1984 and charted at number two, leading to a series of hit singles. Collection includes: Human Racing (1984); The Riddle (1984); 15 Minutes (1999); You've Got To Laugh (2006).

Esiste una testimonianza di J.J Quantz che parla dell’abilità di Conti come esecutore riferendosi ad un episodio accaduto a Praga nel 1723, quando l’orchestra di corte di Vienna eseguì l’opera Costanza e Fortezza di J.J. Fux con l’aggiunta di un gruppo di musicisti di Dresda, fra i quali lo stesso Quantz e Silvius Leopold Weiss, altro grande virtuoso di liuto e tiorba. A quest’ultimo fu assegnata una parte di ripieno, mentre il ruolo di solista fu affidato a Conti.

Nach langer Forschungsarbeit begibt sich Philippe Grisvard zusammen mit Lucile Richardot in die Welt der Kantaten von Alessandro Scarlatti. Dieses Genre war für den aus Sizilien stammenden neapolitanischen Komponisten ein kreatives und experimentelles Betätigungsfeld, das es ihm auf ideale Weise ermöglichte, seine höchst ausgefeilte und ungestüme Kunst nach Herzenslust zu entfalten. Die bis heute kaum bekannten Werke präsentieren die beiden Künstler in diesem virtuosen Programm in der aparten Besetzung für Mezzosopran und Cembalo hier zum ersten Mal.