Dire Straits emerged during the post-punk era of the late '70s, and while their sound was minimalistic and stripped down, they owed little to punk. If anything, the band was a direct outgrowth of the roots revivalism of pub rock, but where pub rock celebrated good times, Dire Straits were melancholy. Led by guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler, the group built their sound upon the laid-back blues-rock of J.J. Cale, but they also had jazz and country inflections, occasionally dipping into the epic song structures of progressive rock. The band's music was offset by Knopfler's lyrics, which approximated the winding, stream-of-conscious narratives of Bob Dylan. As their career progressed, Dire Straits became more refined and their new maturity happened to coincide with the rise of MTV and the compact disc. These two musical revolutions from the mid-'80s helped make Dire Straits' sixth album, Brothers in Arms, an international blockbuster. The band – along with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and Steve Winwood – become one of the leaders of a group of self-consciously mature veteran rock & rollers in the late '80s that designed their music to appeal to aging baby boomers. Despite the band's international success, they couldn't sustain their stardom, waiting a full six years to deliver a follow-up to Brothers in Arms, by which time their audience had shrunk significantly.

The notes for this CD ask, "What issue is more topical than the Brazilian rain forest? So what reissue would be more topical than Walter Wanderley's Rain Forest?" Politically, this may be true, but musically, this collection is anything but topical. From the first tune - the monster hit "Summer Samba," the listener is catapulted straight back to the '60s when bossa nova was new in the U.S. and everyone wanted a piece of it. Organist Wanderley made a big splash with this CD, which went platinum in two years - and it does evoke strong water images, like "poolside" and "ice skating rink." The jazzmen are underutilized, since most of the tracks are less than three minutes long and leave little room to stretch out. One exception is the pretty Ferreira/Marconi ballad "Rain," the only track where Wanderley plays piano rather than organ and which features a fine solo by Urbie Green on trombone…

"From The Forgotten Rooms Of A Lonely House" is a limited edition album of only 400 copies, offered as a free gift to visitors of the concerts held on December 30, 2011 and January 8th, 2012. The first three tracks on this album are live-pieces by the quartet MorPheuSz (Eric, Frank, Harold and Ron).
Compared too the mellow "Garden Gomblins…" album, the band here plays more dynamic and melodic/progessive music, including glowing versions of "Another Timeroom" and "Da Capo".
The other four tracks are solo creations by Ron Boots created in his own studio, kicking off with the beautiful, slightly dark space music of "Lost Stars"…

The final CD begins with a run of fantastic Indie and Synth-Pop smashes including The Housemartins, The Smiths, New Order, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Dead Or Alive, and Falco’s ‘Vienna Calling’. Debut hits from Latin Quarter and Sly Fox follow, plus ‘Pull Up To The Bumper’ - a big hit on re-release for Grace Jones. Soul music legend James Brown scored a big hit with ‘Living In America’, and Jellybean, Cherrelle & Alexander O’Neal, and The S.O.S Band enjoyed three of the year’s biggest Dance tracks. The collection winds down with soulful ballads from Atlantic Starr, Billy Ocean and Freddie Jackson before signing off with one of the greatest tracks of all-time; ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ from Marvin Gaye – a smash hit again 18 years after it originally hit #1 after sound-tracking an ad campaign.

Bruce Springsteen once said he intended to make an album with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector where he sang like Roy Orbison, a nifty summary of many, but not all, of his artistic ambitions and a key to his appeal. Unlike any other singer/songwriters saddled with the appellation of "the new Dylan" in the early '70s, Springsteen never hid how he was raised on '60s AM radio.

Four CD set. Demon Music group in conjunction with the Hughes family are proud to present the first official compilation of music from the movies of legendary filmmaker John Hughes, covering the classic eighties period from 1983-1989. For anyone growing up in the 1980s, the films of John Hughes are some of the most iconic of the decade and have created a lasting cultural impact still felt and referenced across TV, film and music. As well as the characters and stories created in these iconic movies, what made John Hughes' movies different from the rest was the symbiotic relationship between scene and music. Whether Cameron Frye staring at the painting in Ferris Bueller's Day Off set to The Dream Academy's "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (Instrumental)", Duckie and Andie from Pretty In Pink at prom set to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark's "If You Leave", or even Neal and Del's classic "Those aren't pillows" scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles set to Emmylou Harris' "Back In Baby's Arms". The 4CD booklet includes memories from Matthew Broderick, James Hughes, Tarquin Gotch, Ron Payne, plus track-by-track sleeve notes.