There’s nothing better than the moment it’s socially acceptable to play Christmas songs! They brighten up your day and make everyone feel all warm and fuzzy inside (either with genuine Christmas spirit or with simmering rage in a futile internal rebellion against the festive period). Here in the office, we had a great time picking out these Xmas hits, and it made us feel really festive.

A career-spanning, 2CD & limited-edition quadruple vinyl octagonal set including new and rare mixes, compiled by Dr. Alex Paterson 'Orboretum: The Orb Collection' goes way back, but also focusses on recent highlights from albums such as 'Abolition Of The Royal Familia' (2020) and 'Prism' (2023) - which were cited by the media as some of their greatest work - up there with the bonafide gold of yesteryear. The limited edition 4lp set is uniquely packaged in a beautiful octagon-shaped set, which folds out into a huge flower. Each disc will be pressed on a different colour, green, lilac, orange and blue, with sleeve notes by Kris Needs. Each side of vinyl is grouped by Alex to represent the 4 seasons, hence its botanical title. The comp's "roots and more recent shoots" traverses their work for Universal across discs A and B, whilst discs C and D explore their music for indie labels Cooking Vinyl, Kompakt, Malicious Damage, and Liquid Sound Design. In addition, 'Orboretum' will also be available on a 6 panel 2CD with 24 page booklet. "I don't want The Orb to end up milking it like Roxy Music, who were always cranking out another best-of, although we did release the 'History Of The Future' best-of in 2013, and its part 2 in 2015 to be fair. We have such a gigantic catalogue though, that sometimes even I need a reminder of what I've done, especially these days. This is a sort of director's cut, reframing our output, making new neuro pathways, and new juxtapositions. Some of these tracks are 30 years apart, but there are clear through lines, a continuum." Alex Paterson

LINKIN PARK is back, seven years after the death of frontman Chester Bennington, with a new singer and a new album, and a tour to boot. On Thursday, September 5, the band announced the addition of vocalist Emily Armstrong (Dead Sara) and drummer Colin Brittain (6 Flip, Illenium, One OK Rock), who join the existing lineup of Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Phoenix, and Joe Hahn.

A new recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's critically acclaimed Starlight Express with the cast of the new London production, currently playing at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre. Andrew Lloyd Webber said: "Starlight Express' return to London has been an absolute joy for me. I knew immediately that we needed a cast album to capture this brilliant show. I am particularly pleased that 'Hydrogen' is one of our first singles - this a totally new track, written for this production as we reimagined the story of Starlight Express for the zeitgeist of 2024."

25 Jahre "Masters Of Chant"! Limited 2CD Digipak Edition. Seit 25 Jahren begeistern GREGORIAN weltweit Millionen von Menschen mit ihrer Fähigkeit, nahtlos von klassischen Chorälen zu Pop- und Rock-Songs zu wechseln. Mit ihren choreografierten Shows haben sie zudem neue Maßstäbe gesetzt. Die Idee zu GREGORIAN entstand, als der Hamburger Hit-Produzent Frank Peterson (Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, José Carreras, Justin Timberlake, Backstreet Boys u.v.m.) im Jahr 1989 das königliche Kloster von San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Spanien besuchte. Dort fand er die Inspiration, altertümliche gregorianische Musik mit modernen Songs zu mischen – ein einzigartiges Soundexperiment. Peterson setzte die Idee erstmals mit Michael Cretu und dem weltweiten Sound-Phänomen „Enigma“ um. Das erste Album „MCMXC a.D.“ erschien 1990 und wurde schon nach kurzer Zeit ein weltweiter Erfolg.

Gratitude is the fifteenth studio album by American singer Mary J. Blige. It is expected to be released on November 15, 2024, through 300 Entertainment and her Mary Jane Productions imprint.

Among the various recordings of H.v. Karajan of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Mozart's Requiem (no less than 4 for each of them), the 1958 and 1961 recordings stand out among critics as perhaps his most important interpretations of this repertoire. The Missa, never released by EMI, was made available by Testament more than 20 years ago. It has not been available on the market for some time. It is actually one of the most extraordinary interpretations of Beethoven's religious masterpiece, also due to the extraordinary sound quality achieved by the Columbia technicians of the time. Mozart's Requiem was Karajan's first recording of this work. Even this production, which has always been available in the DG catalogue, is currently very difficult to find.

The Guess Who's most successful LP, reaching number nine in America (and charting for more than a year), has held up well and was as close to a defining album-length statement as the original group ever made. It's easy to forget that until "American Woman," the Guess Who's hits had been confined to softer, ballad-style numbers — that song (which originated as a spontaneous on-stage jam) highlighted by Randy Bachman's highly articulated fuzz-tone guitar, a relentless beat, and Burton Cummings moving into Robert Plant territory on the lead vocal, transformed their image.

Sodom Considered one of German thrash metal's "Big Four" along with Kreator, Tankard, and Destruction, Sodom is one of the genre's longest running and most influential bands. Emerging in the early 1980s, the group took cues from Mercyful Fate, Accept, and Venom, among others, and from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, to create a tougher, leaner form of metal. Landmark albums like Persecution Mania (1988) and Agent Orange (1989) followed, with later offerings such as Tapping the Vein (1992), Sodom (2006), Epitome of Torture (2013), and Genesis XIX (2020) introducing elements of death, crossover, and groove metal into the mix. Despite enduring multiple personnel changes, the band has remained continuously active, with bassist/vocalist Tom Angelripper serving as the only constant member.

Alexandre Desplat's sophisticated orchestral film scores are informed by influences spanning Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Georges Delerue, Bernard Herrmann, and António Carlos Jobim, as well as jazz and world music.

Following the success of his recording of J S Bach's Goldberg Variations on Odradek, Vincent van Amsterdam returns with music by Bach's contemporaries, Francois Couperin and Domenico Scarlatti, and by one of his most famous sons, C P E Bach.

Dune: Prophecy is an upcoming American science fiction television series developed by Diane Ademu-John and Alison Schapker for HBO. Set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, the series focuses on the origins of the Bene Gesserit, a powerful social, religious, and political force whose members possess superhuman powers and abilities by undergoing years of intense physical and mental conditioning. Dune: Prophecy is positioned as a prequel series to the 2021 Denis Villeneuve film Dune, which adapts the first half the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert, and takes place some 10,000 years before the events of the film.

Pollini's traversal of Chopin's 19 Nocturnes (he leaves out the pair of posthumous ones) is one of his finest recordings in years. His long-lined yet detailed performances are comparable to the very different ones that have long stood at the pinnacle of recorded sets. Not as serene as Artur Rubinstein's, not as philosophical as Claudio Arrau's, nor as warm as Ivan Moravec's, Pollini's interpretations have their own allure. One is the way he shapes the melodies with a natural flow enhanced by his tonal beauty, less lean and streamlined than his usual way with Romantic music.

A trawl through the wonderful career of the hugely underrated Harry Nilsson takes a chronological look at his back catalogue. Pretty much every classic you would ever need is here - Everybody's Talkin', Me and My Arrow, Without Her, Without You, One… the list goes on. Naturally there is a concentration on Harry's most successful work Nilsson Schmilsson with all but one track of the entire album included. There are some delightful hidden classics too with hard to find tracks included, but perhaps too little concentration on his later career. Nevertheless, this is a superb retrospective.

“Cerchi” è il settimo album di Erica Mou, cantante, autrice, scrittrice. Undici brani in cui il primo e l’ultimo si tendono le mani a descrivere un cerchio; nel mezzo la vita che scorre fra cambi di prospettive geografiche e di vita, perdite incolmabili e rinascite con nuove certezze, futuro e memoria trattenuta come un infinito respiro. Registrato live durante una residenza artistica al Teatro Petrella di Longiano, preservando l’artigianalità e la spontaneità del processo creativo.