浮世击 Yellow

Taking the over-the-top attitude of stadium techno acts like Scooter, mixing it with the profanity-laced party style of Dada Life, then filtering it all through the cutting-edge dance styles of trap and neo-electro, Amsterdam trio Yellow Claw don't consider themselves a band or project but a "partyconcept."

Never realised the breadth of the "Pop-Sike" genre until I heard Fading Yellow, a really fine compilation that hangs together beautifully as an album. That most of the tracks are obscure isn't surprising: everything is a little odd, a little ramshackle, with a strong melancholic undertow and not a little creepiness. Of course, this music is also specific to a particular time in Western pop music history so there's a strong nostalgic element, but the knowledge this music could never be exactly replicated is what also makes it so fascinating. Recommended, in a warm and loving 60s way.

It was designed to be a blockbuster and it was. Prior to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John had hits – his second album, Elton John, went Top Ten in the U.S. and U.K., and he had smash singles in "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel" – but this 1973 album was a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John's spangled personality…

The most famous Chinese concertos: the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto was written in 1958 by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang while they were students at the Shanghai Conservatory and was first performed in May the following year, the Yellow River Piano Concerto, was based on the famous Yellow River Cantata by Xin Singhai, a work dating from the period of the Sino-Japanese War.

It was designed to be a blockbuster and it was. Prior to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John had hits – his second album, Elton John, went Top 10 in the U.S. and U.K., and he had smash singles in "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel" – but this 1973 album was a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John's spangled personality…

The Yellow Balloon was Don Grady's (Robbie on TV's My Three Sons) rock & roll group, but even more important, the brainchild of California producer Gary Zekley. Not unlike a Gary Usher, Zekley could grab a bunch of musicians and - filling in the needed holes with his own talent - produce sessions that rivaled Phil Spector or Brian Wilson for big sound and teen spirit. Grady had already been recording for the same label with his own group, the Windupwatch Band, when Zekley started climbing the charts with "Yellow Balloon," creating a need for a new group to go with the hit. Grady became the drummer and other members were recruited from various bands around the country, but in the studio, it was still Zekley's show all the way. This 20-track compilation brings together the 11 tracks from the Yellow Balloon's 1967 album, along with the Don Grady with the Windupwatch Band singles…