First-ever legitimate anthology of British toytown pop, a much-loved sub-genre among. Four-hour compilation with 87 tracks including hits, misses, rarities and previously unreleased. Issued at the start of 1967, Beatles’ single ‘Penny Lane’ coupled a widescreen production (bolstered by a phalanx of session musicians on brass and woodwind) with a mildly hallucinogenic lyric populated by mundane characters going about their unremarkable suburban lives.
It proved to be an enormously influential record. For the next year or two, British pop was awash with records that married quasi-classical arrangements with newly-minted fairy tales and character vignettes based around the grey everyday lives of ordinary small-town folk.

Avec 'FVTVRVM' [non-latinistes, lire Futurum], les Naive New Beaters signent un album surprenant d'émotion et de profondeur. Attendu depuis le 'Fun Hours' de 2019, ce 5ème opus du trio né il y a 15 ans s'apparente à une vaste fresque tout aussi dansante que sentimentale, sorte de péplum rétro-moderne ancré dans son époque et lorgnant vers le futur. Formidables conteurs et irrépressibles amuseurs, les NNB déroulent tout au long de l'album une histoire qui se joue sur de multiples tableaux. Confidents et intimistes lorsqu'ils évoquent la peur de s'ouvrir vraiment dans "Love Scared", ils se muent en lanceurs d'alerte face au défi écologique dans le très dance années 80 Such a Waste, puis deviennent gourous d'un futur qu'ils veulent croire meilleur dans "Best Is Yet To Come" ou encore humoristes maniant le double sens avec délice dans "My Precious Jewel". Passant d'un style à l'autre, d'un monde à l'autre, 'FVTVRVM' est un ovni rétro-futuriste aussi étonnant que séduisant et entraînant, gorgé d'hymnes tubesques aux refrains imparables, preuve que le groupe n'a pas fini de faire chavirer les fans de bandes originales.

From jumping on a “Trampoline” to ‘Spinning Out,’ SHAED keeps moving with latest album. First SHAED jumped off a “Trampoline,” then they hopped off the High Dive. Now, the trio keeps moving with their sophomore full-length album, Spinning Out. Speaking with ABC Audio, frontwoman Chelsea Lee shares that the title of SHAED’s latest record “implies maybe a couple things.” “We’re spinning out, out of control, in kind of facing all these obstacles and it’s affecting us mentally, honestly,” Lee says. “But I think it can also be a positive,” she continues. “I think that we can spin forward.”

Having successfully brought to digital light the original mono single masters of Jan & Dean and Gary Lewis & the Playboys, we felt it was time to tackle the complete singles of another great 60s single band, Jay & the Americans! And when we say tackle, we mean we really put our shoulders into this one this set comes in at three CDs and 66 tracks strong! That s the A and B-side of every single in their original mono single mixes, virtually none of which have appeared on CD, all remastered from the original single master tapes that have laid dormant for decades, plus two promo-only tracks. Once again, Ed Osborne produced and annotated the set, and got quotes from Americans Sandy Deanne (Yaguda), Marty Sanders and Kenny Vance (Rosenberg). Single sleeves and photos round out the booklet. Includes the Phil Spector production Things Are Changing , which was written by Spector and Brian Wilson! Don't miss this magically momentous Collectors Choice Music exclusive!

The Past & Present label presents a new kind of psych-rock compilation: Mindrocker. With the vast amount of '60s garage and psych compilations that have appeared from around the world in the last few years, it's easy to understand why so many fans of the genre have felt overwhelmed by the deluge. There are, however, a select group of compilations that are widely regarded as genuine must-haves for collectors of '60s singles. Alongside Nuggets, Rubbles, Pebbles, Endless Journey, Chocolate Soup For Diabetics and the Perfumed Garden, Mindrocker stands out as a treasure trove of '60s U.S. psych and garage music. Widely applauded for its high sound quality and detailed liner notes, courtesy of Hans-Herman Pohle, Mindrocker is widely-regarded as the launching-point of many a U.S. psych collection as well as an affordable way to locate rare singles by bands which went on to record classic albums for major record companies.

Rising from the ashes of the legendary British post-punk unit Joy Division, New Order triumphed over tragedy to emerge as one of the most acclaimed bands of the 1980s; embracing the electronic textures and disco rhythms of the underground club culture many years in advance of its contemporaries, the group's pioneering fusion of new wave aesthetics and dance music successfully bridged the gap between the two worlds, creating a distinctively thoughtful and oblique brand of synth pop appealing equally to the mind, body, and soul.

A curious happenstance in 1966 triggered the partnership between MPS head Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer and George Duke. Brunner-Schwer was in San Francisco to record the Art van Damme Quintet. After finishing the recording session one evening, he and his team strolled over to a club called the Jazz Workshop. Les McCann was supposed to be playing, but this particular day was his day off. Instead, a 20 year old pianist, still involved in his studies, was performing with his quartet. The music’s freshness so enthralled the German that he set up a recording session on the spot. This encounter between George Duke and Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in sunny California was both accidental and noteworthy. It turned out to be the jazzy prologue to future events: five years later the American began his fusion-infused sessions for the man from Germany’s Black Forest. These sessions are the theme of this box set with its seven LPs. Some 40 through 45 years after their initial releases, these albums still count as a fascinating and essential part of George Duke’s life’s-work and canon of the genre.

After spending a few years in limbo after scoring her first R&B hits "Dance With Me, Henry" and "Good Rocking Daddy," Etta James returned to the spotlight in 1961 with her first Chess release, At Last. James made both the R&B and pop charts with the album's title cut, "All I Could Do Was Cry," and "Trust in Me." What makes At Last a great album is not only the solid hits it contains, but also the strong variety of material throughout. James expertly handles jazz standards like "Stormy Weather" and "A Sunday Kind of Love," as well as Willie Dixon's blues classic "I Just Want to Make Love to You." James demonstrates her keen facility on the title track in particular, as she easily moves from powerful blues shouting to more subtle, airy phrasing; her Ruth Brown-inspired, bad-girl growl only adds to the intensity. James would go on to even greater success with later hits like "Tell Mama," but on At Last one hears the singer at her peak in a swinging and varied program of blues, R&B, and jazz standards.

To open this oddball supergroup's debut, Paul Simonon hints at "Guns of Brixton," and when Tony Allen's flex rhythms come in, there's a shadow of Fela Kuti, too. Then Damon Albarn's slow grit of a voice enters–framed by Simon Tong's flecked guitar. And collectively, The Good, the Bad, & the Queen is quickly sui generis, adamantly different than anything you think you've heard. A band with this much power has at least two options: to cut loose raucously or to mute their overt power for a more covert, dub-inflected atmospheric potency. Smartly, Albarn and his crew opt for the half-light of elastic bass lines, the clouds between the parentheses of drums–the covert. It's not until "Kingdom of Doom," the erstwhile 'single' of the album, that motion expands beyond the languorous. And even then, Tony Allen largely sits out. You get the full flush of Simonon and Allen on "Three Changes" shuffling time even while holding the tempo to a dubbish gait. It's not Blur, the Clash, Fela, the Verve, or Gorillaz. It's more than just names on albums.

Reach the Beach is a significant step forward from the Fixx's debut album, Shuttered Room, simply because the band can now craft immediately accessible, incessantly catchy pop/rock melodies. "One Thing Leads to Another" has a big, ringing guitar hook hammered home by the dance beat, while "Saved by Zero" and "The Sign of Fire" are cool, robotic slices of synth pop. Although the rest of the album isn't quite as catchy as those three hits, Reach the Beach remains a pleasant collection of immaculately produced and stylishly danceable new wave.

This explosive performance from the Ritz, NYC on 3rd January 1982 boasts a solid mix of her overlooked 1980 solo debut (Joan Jett aka Bad Reputation) and her debut as Joan Jett and The Blackhearts. Boosted by an incendiary take on Bowie's punk anthem Rebel Rebel and the Sex Pistols-penned Black Leather (originally recorded by The Runaways for their final album), Joan Jett and The Blackhearts live in NYC is a mesmerising document of American punk rock and a testimony to the enduring power and appeal of rock 'n' roll in the hands of runaway rocker; Joan Jett.

It hasn't been hard to notice that Reba McEntire's usually reliable stream of number one hits has slowed lately. But So Good Together re-examines McEntire's artistry and puts fans back in touch with the Reba we know and love. No one sings emotion better than McEntire, and the relaxed warmth of her voice produces one of the finest vocal performances she's bestowed on listeners since before Starting Over. So Good Together's first release, the introspective "What Do You Say," has been making its way up the charts in glowing Reba style.

This is an outstanding recital of Bach chamber-music playing in which four concertos (Stradivaria could have fitted in one more, in truth) bask in their own colours with a rare combination of infectious energy, quicksilver alertness among a single-string ensemble and not a hint of the affectedness which has blighted so many performances of these works in recent years. …nothing can detract from the thoughtfulness, personality and fun which radiate from this wonderful recital.

From the mid-seventeenth century to the first two decades of the eighteenth century, Rome experienced one of the most brilliant musical periods in its history. In this recording, the Ensemble Jacques Moderne works composed for a Vespers service, one of the principal moments of the Liturgy of the Hours, which consisted of a sequence of psalms and antiphons concluding with a Magnificat.

It was around 1825 that Louise Bertin, pupil of Reicha and friend of Berlioz, tackled the subject of Faust with all the energy and confidence of a young woman of twenty. She entirely exceeded the public's expectations and won over the critics with her daring. Colourful orchestration, charming cantabiles, vigorous choruses - everything seemed to promise the work would enter the repertory. But the closure of the Theatre-Italien after just three performances in 1831 decided otherwise, and the score languished in the vaults of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France for 190 years.