The early lost tenor Mario Lanza (38 yo) was immensely popular at the 50's and his voice was considered by many to rival that of Enrico Caruso. The CD was first released by RCA at 1995 and consists of two original Lanza's albums: the Neapolitan songs album Mario!, recorded in December 1958, and The Vagabond King operetta, recorded in July 1959. This BMG/SONY 2006 re-release is in the SACD format but the rip offered is from a conventional CD player. Enjoy a collector's item.

Isolationist, misanthropic, and cantankerous, punk survivors the Stranglers were never a band known for ostentatious displays of affection, at least not to music journalists. However, 1981's conceptual La Folie (roughly translated as "madness") has become known in band circles as the Stranglers "love" album. Typically, these were no ordinary chansons d'amour. Songs of faith, familial strife, devotion, and dependency--spanning religion, celebrity obsession, lust, death, and drugs--the nearest the album got to being superficially palatable was on the gorgeous, harpsichord-strewn "Golden Brown," ex-jail-bird Hugh Cornwell's paean to the seduction of heroin. And then there was the chilled-out title-track, six sultry minutes of J.J. Burnel reciting--entirely in French--the true story of a Paris-based student who murdered and ate his girlfriend.

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Another in the ongoing series of releases drawn from Frank Zappa's extensive archives of live recordings, Philly '76 contains a concert held at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on October 29, 1976. This period in Zappa's career is otherwise documented by the album Zoot Allures, which actually was released on that day, and by Zappa in New York, drawn from shows recorded two months later. But the lineup of Zappa's band is not exactly the same as that on either of those albums. The core unit is identical, with Ray White on rhythm guitar, former Roxy Music member Eddie Jobson on keyboards and violin, Patrick O'Hearn on bass, and Terry Bozzio on drums. But a key addition is Bianca Odin on vocals and keyboards.

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With Enforcer's debut 'Into the Night', these talented Swedes set our their NWOBHM and classic rock inspired stall, but now with their second album 'Diamonds they've hugely surpassed any previous potential they had shown and are now once again set to rage across Europe are with gigs a plenty over the coming months proving to everyone that true Heavy Metal is back and that Enforcer are spearheading that revival along with Earache contemporaries Cauldron and White Wizzard!

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This all-star band emerged from a discussion between Vernon Reid and Jack Bruce when Vernon was touring and recording with Jack around 2003. Vernon suggested using John Medeski on keyboards and Tony Williams acolyte Cindy Blackman on drums. This band premiered in December 2008 at the Blue Note in Tokyo. Their first album was released in the Spring of 2012. Recorded live on July, 7th 2012 at the Miles Davis Hall, Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland).

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A much more polished set than its predecessor, Midnight Son is a particularly effective effort with several numbers that remained in Son Seals on-stage repertoire for quite some time - "Telephone Angel," "On My Knees," the jumping "Four Full Seasons of Love." The addition of a brisk horn section enhanced his staccato guitar attack and uncompromising vocals, rendering this his best set to date. ~ Bill Dahl, Allmusic

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"No Man's Land" is a single by Billy Joel. It was the third single from his 1993 album River of Dreams. The song is about the growth of suburbia and its negative environmental and social aspects. It was the first song performed on Late Show with David Letterman in August 1993.

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Johnny Smith is an exquisite jazz guitarist known mostly to fellow musicians and serious jazz fans. This beautifully packaged and expertly annotated eight-CD limited-edition boxed set from Mosaic includes his complete small-group recordings for Roost, most of which have languished out of print for decades. Smith's unique voicings on his instrument set him apart from other players, yet he maintains a lush, crystal-clear tone no matter the tempo or setting.

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This album opens with jangly pop song ‘Don’t take the silence too hard’ and includes the operatic ‘Ave Lolita’. “Looking back through the years, it’s pretty obvious I have a fondness for overblown melodramatic music,” Colin said. In recent tours, the track has been reinterpreted acoustically. This album was the first to be released on Black’s own label, and was licensed to major labels for distribution.‘Are we having fun yet?’ was produced by Mike Hedges. Mike’s other production credits include work with The Associates, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, U2, Travis and Texas.

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The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 by Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire, on The Joshua Tree U2 aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures. The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and depicts the band's love–hate relationship with the United States, with socially and politically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 27 on their 2012 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", calling it "an album that turns spiritual quests and political struggles into uplifting stadium singalongs".

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It was the first studio album released in 1973 by veteran Catalan Grup Alba, a native of La Bisbal d'Empordà (Girona), one of the pioneers of the genre in 1967. Involved in this historical recording the voices of the 'cantaires', the guitar F. Orteu, bass of A. Moraleda and accordion Ll. Borrell. The album features a selection of 20 songs (in Catalan language), 17 of them 'habaneras', 2 mazurkas and one 'sardana'. For lovers of this musical style.

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Sodom's latest collection is a doozy, a box set clocking in at three full discs and 2 LPs, with all manner of omake-style extras like posters, stickers and such to sate the diehards with more than just a mere musical retrospective...

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On Gary Hoey's American Made, the guitarist's talent is once again confirmed as he tackles everything from blues to prog rock to metal. He has the most success when he lets his guitar do his talking for him, not because his voice is unpleasant; on the contrary, Hoey can master multiple styles vocally, but his guitar playing trumps his other talents (especially on "Gonzo Guru") and really deserves center stage...

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It has been five years since Concha Buika released Ultimo Trago, her tribute to ranchera legend Chavela Vargas in collaboration with Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés. She's also had her songs used in Pedro Almodovar's La Piel que Habito, authored two books, toured relentlessly, and relocated from Spain to Miami, Florida. On La Noche Mas Larga she has continued her musical evolution from her beginnings as a dynamic neuvo flamenco singer to a true stylist who weaves the roots, passion, and skill of that music into everything from Afro-Cuban styles, jazz, and even R&B. This is her masterpiece to date.

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Stefano Scodanibbio (1956-2012) was a musician active on many fronts. As an innovative virtuoso bassist and a pioneer of extended technique for his instrument he collaborated with composers including Luigi Nono, Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, Brian Ferneyhough and Terry Riley, inspiring each of them to new works. With Riley, with Markus Stockhausen and with others, he gave concerts of improvised music. He founded the Rassegna di Nuova Musica Festival in Macerata, his Italian hometown, and directed it for more than 30 years. He taught master classes from Darmstadt to Stanford. And as a composer his works for strings, for contrabass in particular were heard around the world: they were challenging pieces which – as Irvine Arditi wryly notes – avoided “traditional avant-garde trends”.

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