The Liverbirds were not unique, but they were certainly unusual. The male groups of the Merseybeat era were ten a penny. Of the 400 Liverpool combos listed by Spencer Leigh in his book Let’s Go Down The Cavern, less than a handful are female. The fact that the Liverbirds played their own instruments made them doubly rare, even more so on a national and international level. Although they were from Liverpool, as photographs suggest (at a quick glance they could almost be mistaken for the Pretty Things or the Stones) musically the Liverbirds had more in common with the R&B-influenced bands of the South East than your typical Merseybeat group.

With their 1978 eponymous debut, Van Halen simultaneously rewrote the rules of rock guitar and hard rock in general. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen redefined what the electric guitar could do, developing a blindingly fast technique with a variety of self-taught two-handed tapping, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and effects that mimicked the sounds of machines and animals. It was wildly inventive and over the top, equaled only by vocalist David Lee Roth, who brought the role of a metal singer to near-performance art standards. Roth wasn't blessed with great technique, unlike Eddie, but he had a flair for showmanship derived as much from lounge performers as Robert Plant. Together, they made Van Halen into the most popular American rock & roll band of the late '70s and early '80s, and in the process set the template for hard rock and heavy metal for the '80s. Throughout the '80s, it was impossible not to hear Van Halen's instrumental technique on records that ranged from the heaviest metal to soft pop.

The four-piece band exude all the chintzy glamour of a hyper-stylised ’70s B-movie: its members hail from across the globe (Uruguay, Australia, Sweden, London), style themselves like mid-century French chanteuses and are mainly here to vibe-out, man. But their debut album is seriously captivating: a breezy, all-instrumental tour through retro global psychedelia, from cumbia to Turkish psych to scuzzy surf-rock, furnished by vintage synths and produced by Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos. These are adventurous, evocative jams, calling to mind spaghetti western standoffs and oversized margaritas; there’s also an homage to Lindsay Lohan’s VIP beach resort, naturally (“Lindsay Goes to Mykonos”).

This edition contains not only the original album, but a new 5.1 mix by Steven Wilson which was done in conjunction with Roland Orzabal, as well as all the relevant B-Sides, alternate mixes and around 60 minutes of previously unheard demos and live rehearsals. The set is housed in a shoe box style box (similar to the other 2 releases) with an extensive booklet, with new interviews by Super Deluxe editor Paul Sinclair with the band and other players on the album. Also contains the tour program.

On this release, King comes close to equaling his past triumphs on small independent labels in the '50s and '60s. He's ditched the psuedo-hip production fodder and cut a 12-song set matching him with blues peers. His duets with Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, and Albert Collins are especially worthy, while the songs with Koko Taylor, Ruth Brown, and Irma Thomas have some good-natured banter and exchanges, as well as tasty vocals. The master gives willing pupils Joe Louis Walker and Robert Cray valuable lessons on their collaborations. There's also a medley in which King invokes the spirit of his chitlin circuit days, taking the vocal spotlight while his Orchestra roars along underneath.

UK five CD boxset featuring all of Sailor's albums recorded for Epic Records between 1974-78. The band's self-titled debut is on Disc One and includes the 'Traffic Jam' and 'Sailor' singles which hit #'ss 4 and 2 respectively in Holland. Disc Two is the Trouble album which hit #45 in the UK National Charts and includes the mega selling hits 'A Glass Of Champagne' (UK #2, Germany #3, Holland #5) and 'Girls Girls Girls' (UK #7, Germany #2, Holland #2). The third disc features 1976's The Third Step album with the 'Stiletto Heels' (Germany #12) and 'One Drink Too Many' (UK. #35, Germany #2) singles. Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys produced Disc Four's Checkpoint album which includes the German #24 single 'Down By The Docks'. The fifth and final disc is 1978's Hideaway album which includes the German Top 40 hit 'Give Me Shakespeare'. The detailed booklet includes sleeve notes by the official Sailor website alongside pictures of the relevant singles. Mastered from the original Epic Records tapes by Alan Wilson.

A trailblazing new compilation CD of rare, previously unreleased and live material recorded between 1969-73 by a number of obscure and unknown UK bands alongside some AA nuggets from our Prog-Rock catalogue. This collection spotlights ultra-rare material by Heavy Prog-Rock Blues outfits White Rabbit, Sweaty Betty and Spread Eagle with powerful additional material by Underground bands Khayyam, Cathedral and St James Infirmary. Other forgotten acts included are head-splitting Midlands rockers Stallion plus the Uriah Heep-esque Hot Air who few people know but will not forget when they hear this! A rare Necromandus demo is also included together with other blitzkrieg renditions by the likes of Argus and Chapel Farm plus a potent Slowbone studio recording of very high quality featuring some blistering guitar and exploding Hammond organ. A special live bonus track has been added showcasing legendary prog-rockers Fusion Orchestra weighing in at eight minutes. This contribution from the bands own archives is the only live and previously unreleased recording of this truly great band to be officially released and thus we are delighted to be able to round this CD off with their thunderbolt Winter Nights.

The cantatas BWV 217-222 are all now regarded as either being of dubious provenance or, in some cases, are definitely identified as being by composers other than J.S. Bach. However, it's worth considering them here because it is still possible that one or two of them may actually be genuine and since there is also a good quality recording available of this set (conducted by Wolfgang Helbich on CPO 999 139-2), so that listeners can come to their own conclusions!

Jethro Tull and Comus had a baby, and they named it Gravy Train. That's not strictly accurate, of course, but as the band's eponymous debut opens with the fluid changes of "The New One," it's not too far of a reach, either. Richly harmonic, daringly jam-laden, and peppered with guitar roars that simply defy comparison, Gravy Train is the sound of the British underground at its most joyously liberated peak – a time when a bunch of apparent freaks could simply go into a major recording studio and let rip. Except Gravy Train's concept of "letting rip" has more in common with a symphony orchestra than the Edgar Broughton Band. Without, of course, the orchestra.

This disc was an instant classic from the time it was issued in 1988, the Purcell Quartet's C.P.E. Bach: La Folia and other works. The disc features four chamber pieces and one harpsichord solo that, taken together, span all but the first and last decades of his output and contains some of the most pioneering and experimental-sounding music Bach created. The Trio Sonata in C minor "Sanguineus and Melancholicus" (1749) pits the Greek notions of the sanguine and melancholy against one another in a twisted musical dialogue, foreshadowing psychological form, a development that didn't take hold until the advent of Beethoven. Bach's late 12 Variations on La Folia (1776) are blustery and brilliant and played with a sense of urgency by the Purcell Quartet's leader, harpsichordist Robert Woolley.

The so-called Canadian metal queen makes a left turn on this self-titled release, a reinvention to show off her vocal talents without the normal hard rock thudding. And it's refreshing, showcasing the best songwriting and strongest music of her career. Despite the shock value to her fans, she succeeds in this softer, commercial vein with mature subject matter. Lee Aaron is an award-winning singer, musician, and songwriter who has reinvented herself many times over during her long career. She started performing in her teens in the '70s. She has performed in bands and solo and recorded albums from pop to heavy rock to jazz.

Schumann's contributions to the literature of the piano etude, a genre just beginning to blossom in the middle nineteenth century at the hands of Chopin and Liszt, came in three isolated, extremely productive bursts, after which he abandoned the genre forever. (It is perhaps no coincidence that Schumann was also forced to abandon hopes for a performing career after permanently crippling the fourth finger of his right hand during the early 1830s.) Schumann's earliest such effort, the Studies on Caprices of Paganini Op. 3 (1832), is at best little more than a preliminary essay toward the later, altogether more successful Concert Etudes on Caprices of Paganini, Op. 10 (1833).

1981's The Elder was such a bomb worldwide that Kiss' record company outside the U.S., Casablanca/Phonogram, demanded that the band immediately assemble another greatest-hits package to prove to their befuddled fans that they were still a heavy metal group, not experimental prog rockers…

In a Silent Way is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released July 30, 1969 on Columbia Records. Produced by Teo Macero, the album was recorded in one session date on February 18, 1969 at CBS 30th Street Studio B in New York City. Incorporating elements of classical sonata form, Macero edited and arranged Davis's recordings from the session to produce the album. Marking the beginning of his "electric" period, In a Silent Way has been regarded by music writers as Davis's first fusion recording, following a stylistic shift toward the genre in his previous records and live performances.

"Delicado" (1953) presents love songs from South America, "Amour, Amor, Amore" (1955) presents love songs from the Continent, and together they prove that Percy Faith's music is romantic in any language!
Percy Faith was one of the most popular easy listening recording artists of the 1950s and '60s. Not only did he have a number of hit albums and singles under his own name, but Faith was responsible for arranging hits by Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, and Burl Ives, among others, as the musical director for Columbia Records in the '50s.