The Passions were a post-punk band formed by guitarist/vocalist Barbara Gogan, bassist Claire Bidwell, drummer Richard Williams, vocalist Mitch Barker, and guitarist Clive Temperley. Prior to forming in 1978, most of the members had spent time in other groups. Most notably, Temperley was an ex-101'er, and Williams was in Prag Vec precursors the Derelicts. The Passions debuted in March of 1979 with the Needles and Pins single on Soho, which helped them gain a contract with Fiction, home of the Cure.

Digitally remastered and expanded edition of the 1980 debut album by post-punk band The Passions including three bonus tracks. The Passions released their first single on Soho Records in 1979. Later, after being seen by a record company A&R guy during a residency at the Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, the band were signed to Fiction Records, for which they recorded a single and their first album before moving to Polydor Records. Michael & Miranda was released in 1980. This special edition includes the 12 original album cuts plus three related bonus tracks and appears on CD for the first time. The bonus tracks on this CD include the band's only Fiction single 'Hunted' and the band's first single 'Needles & Pills'/'Body & Soul'. The master tapes of this independent single are long since lost, so we have used a vinyl restoration specialist to provide these two tracks. The album was produced by label boss Chris Parry, whose credits include The Jam, The Cure and The Associates amongst others. All the tracks have been sourced from the original production master tapes except tracks 14 and 15, as stated above. The CD booklet features the original album flip-side front cover (white front or black front cover), lyrics, plus detailed diary entries-'The Passions' First Album - a diary by Clive Timperley' from the related period of 1979-1980. There is also a UK discography.

ATOMIC ROOSTER / MADE IN ENGLAND / NICE N GREASY + BONUS TRACKS Atomic Rooster's two albums for PYE's Dawn Records, dating from 1972 and 1973. These recordings feature legendary singer Chris Farlowe as lead vocalist, as well as ever-present organist Vincent Crane. At the beginning of 1975, Crane decided to disband the group, but there were sporadic reunions till his untimely death in 1989. Today, there is still a version of Atomic Rooster with vocalist Pete French and guitarist Steve Bolton, who were members back in 1971 and 1972.

A sonic snapshot of America’s steel capital, developed in the prosperous cavern between the departure of the Jackson 5 to Motown and the collapse of U.S. Steel, Skyway Soul is a love letter to Gary, Indiana. Featuring The New Day, El Anthony, Nate Evans, Sky’s The Limit, Wilton Crump, Lost Weekend, General Lee, Krash Band, Billy Foster & Audio, I.N.D., and Junei, this double album collects 21 lost songs from the southern-most tip of Lake Michigan. Housed in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket, with a 16-page booklet crammed with photos, ephemera, and an in-depth essay from Jake Austen, Skyway Soul connects the dots between The Spaniels, Michael Jackson, and Freddie Gibbs. Don’t forget to pay the toll.

Joe Bonamassa Releases Christmas Album, ‘Merry Christmas, Baby’.As the holiday season unfolds, the legendary blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa extends a special musical offering to his fans worldwide. His digital Christmas compilation album, Merry Christmas, Baby, is set to bring the festive spirit to homes, available for a limited time as a free download. This compilation is a unique blend of holiday classics reimagined through Bonamassa’s blues lens, along with original tracks that resonate with his signature style. The 2023 edition is particularly special, as it includes three new tracks, adding fresh vibrancy to this yuletide collection. Stream the entire album now.

NOW That's What I Call Music! 88 is the 88th installment of the NOW That's What I Call Music! series in the USA. It was released on October 27, 2023.

Performance Rockin' the Fillmore is the 1971 live double-LP/single-CD by English blues-rock group Humble Pie. It reached #21 on the Billboard 200, and hit the UK Top 40. The hour-long set contains one original song and several covers. "I Don't Need No Doctor" was the biggest hit from the album, having been issued as an edited single and reaching #73 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1971. Shortly before the album's release, guitarist Peter Frampton left due to growing friction between him and Marriott. The album's steady sales helped Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore to become the band's first gold record. Its popularity helped the band's previous album, Rock On, reach gold album status.

In the first three symphonies, Honegger's seriousness is communicated through rhythmically propelled melodies, biting dissonances, and vigorous counterpoint, and his block-like orchestration is calculated more for impact than for nuance. Honegger alternates between muscular developments and searching meditations, and the combative Symphony No. 1 and the uneasy Symphony No. 2 effectively play off these contrasts. A reverent tone dominates the Symphony No. 3, for orchestra, "Liturgique," but its religious feeling is born of doubt and conflict, as conveyed in the work's brutal episodes. This disc restores to the catalog the fine recordings made by Michel Plasson and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse from 1977 to 1979, digitally mastered in 1992.

The Notting Hillbillies was a country rock project formed by British singer-songwriter Mark Knopfler in May 1986. The group consisted of Knopfler (guitar and vocals), Steve Phillips (guitar and vocals), Brendan Croker (guitar and vocals), Guy Fletcher (keyboards and vocals), Paul Franklin (pedal steel), Marcus Cliffe (bass), and Ed Bicknell (drums). They gave their first performance at a small club in Leeds, and followed up with a tour. The Notting Hillbillies recorded just one album, Missing…Presumed Having a Good Time, eleased on 6 March 1990 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States, before returning to concentrate on their primary musical outlets. The Notting Hillbillies reunited several times for charity gigs. In May 1997 the Hillbillies went on an 11 show tour in the UK.

No musician has done more for this music than the Argentine director of Ensemble Elyma, Gabriel Garrido. Garrido has an impressive discography on the French label K617. K617 recordings can sometimes be frustrating because they rarely provide English translations to the obscure texts of much of this music. No matter, you can’t go wrong with any of the recordings Garrido has made with his excellent Ensemble Elyma.

Martin Klett together with the Armida Quartett perform late Romantic Piano Quintets by Cesar Franck and Frank Martin. "… We only have two hands, and our ten fingers are not capable of exploiting all the possibilities": that is how composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) once described the inadequacies of the keyboard. However, pianist Martin Klett and the members of the Armida Quartet view things somewhat differently. Similarly to the string quartet as a whole ensemble, the piano forms "a perfect unit in itself", Klett affirms.

With the band currently in the early stages of working on a new studio album for release in 2024, Ingenious Devices features new versions of a trilogy of revered Big Big Train epic tracks - 'East Coast Racer', 'Brooklands' and 'Voyager' - about how mankind has used it's ingenuity to extend it's reach by the development and deployment of technology. The new versions feature an elite 17 piece string section recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London. Apart from the late David Longdon's lead vocals, which have been compiled from the original album sessions, East Coast Racer is a completely new studio version recorded by the line-up of the band as it was in 2019. 'Brooklands' features newly recorded drums, bass and bass pedals, while 'Voyager' includes additional guitar and violin. All three songs have been re-mixed for this release. Ingenious Devices also includes a previously unreleased orchestral piece called The Book of Ingenious Devices, which links East Coast Racer and Brooklands.

Swedish trombonist Eje Thelin and French tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen were two of the top European jazz musicians for several decades before their deaths in the 1990s. They first joined forces briefly in Thelin's quartet in 1963. Based in bop and earlier forms of jazz, Thelin and Wilen were open to freer improvising and music from other countries. In 1966 they joined forces, and two sessions are included on the 1966 With Barney Wilen CD. The first one features a quintet with pianist Lars Sjösten, bassist Erik Lundborg, and drummer Rune Carlsson that is joined by eight brass, bass clarinet, and flute for four inventive Thelin originals. While those performances are excellent, it is the other five numbers (which include second versions of a pair of Thelin's tunes plus "It Could Happen to You" and "Dear Old Stockholm") that are of greatest interest.

Jazz legend and three time Grammy winner Ramsey Lewis returns with an exciting new piano only recording celebrating some of the greatest songs ever written by The Beatles. Recorded during his highly successful "Saturday Salon" pandemic live stream series these songs were carefully chosen from The Beatles catalogue for their instrumentation and arrangements. Here they are seamlessly intertwined with the extraordinary piano brilliance of NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis.

French saxophonist Laurent Bardainne summons the spirit of astral jazz on heavy-grooving album, Hymne au Soleil.