For several years, the existence of "lost" material by Syd Barrett had been speculated about by the singer's vociferous cult, fueled by numerous patchy bootlegs of intriguing outtakes. The release of Opel lived up to, and perhaps exceeded, fans' expectations. With 14 tracks spanning 1968 to 1970, including six alternate takes and eight songs that had never been officially released in any form, it is equally as essential as his two 1970 LPs. The tone is very much in keeping with his pair of solo albums; ragged, predominantly acoustic, melodic, and teetering on the edge of dementia. At the same time, it's charming and lyrically pungent, with Barrett's inimitable sense of childlike whimsy. The production is generally more minimal than on his other albums, even bare-bones at times, but if anything, this adds to the music's stark power…

Few electric bluesman have been more versatile than Johnny Heartsman, and that versatility is impossible miss on The Touch. Recorded when Heartsman was 54, this unpredictable CD finds the singer incorporating soul and funk as well as rock and jazz and playing guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, and flute. Heartsman (who shouldn't be confused with the late jazz singer Johnny Hartman) gets into a soul-minded groove on "Got to Find My Baby" and "You're so Fine," while "Attitude," "Walkin' Blues," and "Paint My Mailbox Blue" favor a hard-swinging blues/jazz approach à la Jimmy Witherspoon. Those jazz-influenced selections make it sound like Heartsman is backed by a soul-jazz organ combo, but in fact, there is no organist on this CD-rather, Heartsman uses his keyboards to emulate a Jimmy Smith/Jack McDuff type of Hammond B-3 sound…

Tenor Stan Getz and valve-trombonist Bob Brookmeyer made a mutually beneficial team. Although they had not played together all that much in 1954 (Brookmeyer had left Getz's band earlier in the year to join the Gerry Mulligan Quartet), the strong musical communication between the two horns during this set is obvious. Eight of the ten selections are from a live concert (with pianist John Williams, bassist Bill Anthony, and drummer Art Mardigan) while the final two numbers (on what was originally a pair of LPs) were cut in the studio the following day with the same personnel except that Frank Isola was on drums. Highlights of this cool-toned bop music (which, in addition to the solos, has many exciting ensembles) include "Lover Man," "Pernod," "Tasty Pudding," and "It Don't Mean a Thing."

After a two-year pause following the release of Boxed, Mike Oldfield returned with a new epic project, this one spread over four vinyl sides and devoted to Native American themes rather than hewing once more toward the Celtic end of the spectrum. Included was Oldfield's musical adaptation of "The Song of Hiawatha," grandiose but empty; there was a nice sense of the dramatic when it came to dynamic range, but no sense of time – the piece ran far too long as Oldfield searched for enough musical ideas to prop the whole thing up. After this, Oldfield avoided album-length concepts for quite some time.

This debut CD from Joerg Strawe reflects many styles of electronic music. Melodic, symphonic, spacy and Berlin School sequences. After the release, Joerg Strawe was voted to be the 2nd best newcomer in the famous Radio WDR1 Airplay Schwingungen back in 1990. Nice tunes and still uptodate. A good way to get into the synthesizerworld of Joerg Strawe.

The Deep Purple Manchester, England, July 1970 album corresponds to a performance at Granada Studios on July 14, 1970. This show was part of their "In Rock" era and was captured for a TV broadcast titled "Doing Their Thing."

Johnny Cash performed in Bremen, Germany, on September 21, 1972, at the Stadthalle.

The Billy Joel - Philadelphia '72 album, released under the Artyfact label, captures a live performance recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia in 1972. This recording, originally broadcast on WMMR radio, played a crucial role in launching Billy Joel's career. Notably, the live performance featured "Captain Jack," a song that gained immense popularity on the station and helped establish Joel’s early fan base.

Accidental Records is re-issuing Matthew Herbert’s The Horse album (originally published last year via Modern Recordings /BMG) as a Special Edition with unreleased remixes and versions. The album in its original version has been awarded Best Large Ensemble Composition at The Ivors Classical Awards this November 12th. Based around a full-size horse skeleton and working alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra and an expansive cast of special collaborators, Herbert is here in full flight, restlessly curious and culminating in starkly original, ritualistic music loaded with intent.

In that enticing, enthralling school of 1960s “girls with guitars”, Goldie & the Gingerbreads are top of the class. Self-contained and accomplished as instrumentalists, with an eminently soulful vocal prowess, the Gingerbreads remain true pioneers of women in rock’n’roll, and with a fascinating history to boot. Born in the discotheques of Gotham, Goldie & the Gingerbreads were a popular club act with a handful of recordings under their belt when an admiring Animals caught them on a NYC visit in late 1964. “Imported” into the UK, the group scored a hit with ‘Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat’ and went on to tour with the Rolling Stones, Kinks and others, as well as maintaining a high visibility in the UK on their own. They made several more worthy if unsuccessful discs with producer Shel Talmy before splitting in 1967.

It's a tragedy of pop culture in the new millennium that starlets don't rush willy-nilly into the recording studio anywhere near as much as they used to. Goldie Hawn's sole foray into pop music – originally released in 1972 on Warner Bros. after Laugh-In but before Steven Spielberg's Sugarland Express revealed her dramatic range as an actress – isn't Golden Throats-level bad, surely to the disappointment of hipsters everywhere. Although Hawn's helium-pitched voice is a trifle thin and limited, the selection of material wisely plays to her strengths, with Dolly Parton's "My Blue Tears" and – believe it or not – Joni Mitchell's "Carey" both well-suited to her soprano vocals. In fact, the only really egregious errors aren't really her fault: the Frenchified "Butterfly," with its absurdly cheesy choral backing, wouldn't have sounded good sung by anybody, and the countrified take on Van Morrison's "I Wanna Roo You" has a botched arrangement that slaps on a vaguely oompah-style waltz-time arrangement that suits neither singer nor song. Other than that, though, Goldie is a sweetly endearing country-tinged middle of the road pop record of a style that just isn't being made anymore.

The occasionally Japanese Singles Collection releases, which have included Wham!, a-ha, Paul Young and others, continues next month with a focus on Janet Jackson. These sets combine a ‘greatest hits’ on CD and a DVD of videos on the second disc. The CDs are pressed on the Japanese SHM-CD format (compatible with all CD players) and these often boast unique masterings and sometimes offer some rarities, for example, the debut of a seven-inch edit on CD.

The Original Album Series box set is a reissue of albums by French DJ and producer David Pierre Guetta. The edition includes 5 original albums: "Just A Little More Love" (2002), "Guetta Blaster" (2004), "Pop Life" (2007), "One Love" (2009) and "One More Love" (2010) …

Telemann published his Sonates sans Basse à deux Flutes traverses, ou à deux Violons, ou à deux Flutes à bec (Sonatas without Bass for Two Transverse Flutes, or Two Violins, or Two Recorders) in Hamburg in 1727 and they were published again in Amsterdam around the year l730 by Le Cène, in Paris in 1736-37 by Le Clerc and in London in 1746 as opera seconda by Walsh. Telemann, in his own autobiographical notice published by Handel's Hamburg rival Mattheson in 1740 in his Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte, writes of his ability to play the keyboard, violin, recorder, oboe, flute, chalumeau and viola da gamba, as well as the double bass and trombone, skills that at that time were not unique to him.

Handel's Utrecht Te Deum HWV 278 was already enthusiastically received at its first performance in 1713 in St. Paul's in London. To celebrate peace after twelve years of Spanish War of Succession, Handel composed a captivating Te Deum and Jubilate. A British national composer was born!