After the album-tour-album cycle of Script for a Jester's Tear, Fugazi, and the subsequent Euro-only release of Real to Reel, Marillion retreated to Berlin's Hansa Ton Studios with Rolling Stones producer Chris Kimsey to work on their next opus. Armed with a handful of lyrics born out of a self-confessed acid trip, Fish came up with the elaborate concept for 1985's Misplaced Childhood. Touching upon his early childhood experiences and his inability to deal with a slew of bad breakups exacerbated by a never-ending series of rock star-type "indulgences," Misplaced Childhood would prove to be not only the band's most accomplished release to date, but also its most streamlined. Initial record company skepticism over the band's decision to forge ahead with a '70s-style prog rock opus split into two halves (sides one and two) quickly evaporated as Marillion delivered its two most commercial singles ever: "Kayleigh" and "Lavender"…

Chicago native John Henry Davis spent most of his later years recording in Europe, where he was much better known than he was in the U.S. This release, recorded in the mid-'80s, spotlights Davis solo at the piano (except for the final bonus track, which features a vocal by Jeanne-Marie Carroll), and his warm, unhurried playing and singing is as comfortable as an old easy chair. Although he helped format the Chicago blues sound through his work in the 1930s and 1940s with artists like Tampa Red, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Big Bill Broonzy, Davis seems most at home doing a kind of lounge blues, an approach that plays to his strengths. The opening track on this collection, "I Had a Dream," sets the pace here, and it is a likeable tune that contains the line "I dreamed I won the Brooklyn Bridge on my knees shooting dice" before turning into a song of amused resignation…

As modern big-band leaders go, Quincy Jones in the '60s would be first choice for many composers who wrote for a television series or the cinema. Though not the original themes, Jones was quite able to produce a full album featuring Henry Mancini's famous songs from movies and the small screen. This collection of the familiar and obscure Mancini done in 1964, preceded famed epic scores written by Jones from films The Pawnbroker and The Deadly Affair. It comprises several well-known hit tunes and a smattering of cuts not easily identifiable as the hummable and memorable Mancini classics. Taken from three separate sessions, the bands assembled by Jones are loaded, including Jerome Richardson, Billy Byers, Urbie Green, Clark Terry, Ernie Royal, Snooky Young, Mundell Lowe, Zoot Sims, Phil Woods, and Seldon Powell, Drummer Osie Johnson plays on all tracks, pianist Bobby Scott is a central figure…

Loose Ends is a posthumous compilation album by Jimi Hendrix, released in February 1974 in the UK. It was the fourth and last Hendrix studio album released posthumously by manager Michael Jeffery. The album features a collection of outtakes and jams, with the exception of "The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Dice" which is the sole authorized track by Hendrix, in a new stereo mix by Eddie Kramer.

The Ministry of Inside Things, includes Chuck van Zyl on synths and Art Cohen on guitar. Their music has been inspired by the Berlin-School of cosmic spacemusic and influenced by everything from sci-fi themes to nuclear fission to chillout room abstractions.
MoIT enjoys the live environment and uses it to further explore and invent their musical stylings. The ultimate goal is to create in the mind of the listener a sense of movement through space along the arc of a dynamic contour. Owing much to improvisation, each original performance traverses many sonic terrains.
Cohen and van Zyl have had the opportunity to play live at a variety of interesting venues over the past several years…

Two CDs. In the late Sixties, the major UK labels - keen to stay abreast of the times without quite understanding what was going on - signed a number of bands that combined the adventurism and surrealism of psychedelia with a concise, radio-friendly pop sensibility. One or two went on to fame and fortune, but the majority failed to find the hit single that would have given them the chance to build and sustain a career. Kent outfit Jason Crest are one of the most admired of those bands, issuing a handful of singles while also recording a batch of tracks - 'King Of The Castle', 'Charge Of The Light Brigade', 'My House Is Burning' and others - that were arguably even more commercial and accomplished but which, for some unfathomable reason, were rejected by the men in suits.

Brilliant late '50s material by the great hard bop pianist and equally gifted supporting players, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Clark was among the most inventive pianists of the period, a masterful ballad interpreter and dynamic uptempo soloist, while Chambers and Jones had few peers, either as accompanists or in the spotlight.

Today! is the second studio album, but third body of work recorded by folk/country blues musician Mississippi John Hurt. It was released in 1966 by Vanguard Records. This album contains some of the first commercial material recorded after his "rediscovery" in 1963, and is the first he recorded for Vanguard.

Electric Light Orchestra's 2012 concert album Live brings together tracks Jeff Lynne and his band recorded for a PBS special at CBS Television City in 2001. This is the ensemble that toured in support of ELO's 2001 studio album, Zoom, and appeared on VH1 Storytellers. Lynne has always been an avowed studio rat, more comfortable crafting his rock productions behind a soundboard than playing them in front of a live audience. This is partly the reason that the Lynne-helmed version of ELO stopped touring after 1981's Time. Subsequently, there haven't been very many proper ELO concert albums. Which is not to say that the band doesn't sound fantastic here, because it does. Lynne is a musical perfectionist who never fails to deliver on the grand, orchestral rock aesthetic he crafted on so many classic albums. All of which makes this 2001 collection a welcome addition to ELO's discography.

Baroque conductor Johannes Somary directs a distinguished cast led by John Aler, Julianne Baird, countertenor Drew Minter, D’Anna Fortunata, Jennifer Lane, Nathaniel Watson, Raymond Pellerin and the Armor Artis Orchestra. A tale of violent court intrigue civil strife, frustrated love, ambition and suicide.

The ‘History of the Joyous and Victorious Resurrection of Our Only Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ’, composed by Heinrich Schütz in 1623, is regarded as the first oratorio in the German language. When Schütz had taken up his functions at the Dresden court in 1617, it was the tradition to sing the Resurrection History of his predecessor Scandello at Easter. The new Kapellmeister gave several performances of this work before deciding to compose a new work on the same text.

This is a whole collections of 70's & early 80's disco songs. And for those of you who love disco back in the 70's or the early 80's, then your going to love this playlist.

All of the important interpretations by the “high priestess of Bach” - The basis of all piano music - Incl. “Well-Tempered Clavier”, “Goldberg Variations”, the Partitas, the Italian Concerto, the French Overture, the Capriccio in B flat major, and many more.

Stark Naked and Absolutely Live is the first official live album by Alphaville. While the Dreamscapes compilation featured a full CD of live material, its tracks were culled from many different concerts: The tracks on Stark Naked and Absolutely Live were recorded specifically for the purpose of creating the album. The final listed track, Apollo, is followed by a hidden track: an acoustic version of "Dance with Me".

20 tracks new to CD. First ever anthology of Sunshot Records. Includes numerous Jamaican chart hits. The growing international interest in Jamaican music as the 60s progressed emboldened increasing numbers of dynamic and ambitious music makers on the island to launch their own record labels. By the close of the decade, Kingston's recording industry was awash with such talent, with this new generation of enterprising record producers including such future luminaries as Lee Perry, Joe Gibbs, Bunny Lee, Harry Johnson, Lloyd Charmers and the man whose early productions provide the focus of this compilation: George Phillips AKA Phil Pratt. The singer-turned-producer whose initial recordings had been distributed by former Skatalites' road manager Ken Lack introduced his Sunshot Records label early in 1969, finding almost immediate success with major Jamaican hits by celebrated singer Ken Boothe. Encouraged by these early triumphs, Pratt swiftly expanded his artists roster to include other major stars on the burgeoning reggae scene, with the likes of John Holt, Dennis Alcapone, Pat Kelly and Horace Andy all scoring significant hits with the producer.