The Action are one of the great "lost" bands of mid-'60s England. Though they filled mod clubs with happy patrons and managed to score George Martin as a benefactor, they only released a handful of unsuccessful singles during their brief existence. Most of their music remained in the vaults for years, only to be discovered later and celebrated. After years of reissues that only told part of the band's story, Grapefruit's 2018 Shadows and Reflections: The Complete Recordings 1964-1968 collects everything: their five officially released singles, BBC sessions, their legendary demos from 1967, backing tracks, alternate takes, different mixes, and songs they recorded just before the band broke up in 1968. It's an impressive haul made even better by the excellent liner notes, session information, and crisp sound…
The Action are one of the great "lost" bands of mid-'60s England. Though they filled mod clubs with happy patrons and managed to score George Martin as a benefactor, they only released a handful of unsuccessful singles during their brief existence. Most of their music remained in the vaults for years, only to be discovered later and celebrated. After years of reissues that only told part of the band's story, Grapefruit's 2018 Shadows and Reflections: The Complete Recordings 1964-1968 collects everything: their five officially released singles, BBC sessions, their legendary demos from 1967, backing tracks, alternate takes, different mixes, and songs they recorded just before the band broke up in 1968. It's an impressive haul made even better by the excellent liner notes, session information, and crisp sound…
Legendary hard rockers Deep Purple have an enduring reputation as one of the most rounded bands currently playing. The 12 CD set Deep Purple Collectors Edition: The Bootleg Series 1984-2000 suffers from poor sound quality in places (in particular the first concert); however, it covers six concerts and two line-ups, mostly with reasonable quality and several from tours not otherwise documented (in particular the 1984 Mark II Reformed line-up), making it a must-have for truly dedicated fans of the reformed Purple. Taken from six different bootlegs, the album features virtually all the band's biggest hits numerous times.
Rhino's three-disc box set The Remains of Tom Lehrer presents 75 tracks from the satirist's four decade career. The first disc concentrates on Lehrer's studio output, including pieces from his 1953 debut Songs by Tom Lehrer and his 1959 album More of Tom Lehrer, as well as a 1996 version of "I Got It from Agnes" and "That's Mathematics," a previously unreleased track from 1993. Disc two gathers his '59 performances at MIT and Harvard, captured on the albums Tom Lehrer Revisited and An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer (which offered many of the same selections as their studio predecessors). The third disc is a mix of live and studio tracks, including the material from the album That Was the Year That Was, songs written for PBS's The Electric Company in 1971-72, orchestral versions of songs conducted by Richard Hayman in 1960, and four new songs, including "Selling Out" and "(I'm Spending Hanukkah) In Santa Monica." Song-by-song notes by Lehrer, rare photos, and an essay by Dr. Demento add an extra depth to The Remains of Tom Lehrer making it the ultimate collection of his irreverent social commentary.
There is some great ambient electronica on these 4 Discs. This collection was put out on the Jumpin' & Pumpin' label back in 1999. If you are a Jake Stephenson fan this is a very important collection, since it includes the whole of the Crystal Moon (Jake Stephenson and Matt Hillier) album 'Temple' which is otherwise a very expensive CD to pick up. All the tracks are here. There are also a number of other Jake Stephenson tracks, either under his own name (unusually), or under more of his pseudonyms (Alien Mutation, Curly Whirly Spirits). We also get some Matt Hillier tracks, and some rather good tunes by Dave Hendry (as O-Head, Hyperborea and Twilight Pilot).
At the very beginning, jazz was called "a combination of nervousness, lawlessness, primitive and wild animalism and debauchery." This definition was given by a more conservative generation who considered jazz a decadent phenomenon. However, despite such estimates, jazz came to its heyday in the 20s, and in the 30s and 40s determined not only the musical fashion, but also the lifestyle of that time in general. The 4CD compilation presented here is a great example of popular music from the 40s of the last century. The time when Glenn Miller and his orchestra, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and other orchestras shone on the stage.
Benny Goodman was the first celebrated bandleader of the Swing Era, dubbed "The King of Swing," his popular emergence marking the beginning of the era. He was an accomplished clarinetist whose distinctive playing gave an identity both to his big band and to the smaller units he led simultaneously. The most popular figure of the first few years of the Swing Era, he continued to perform until his death 50 years later.
Frank sinatra The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings (1995 US limited edition 20-CD set containing a total of 452 songs [over 24 hours sequenced in chronological order] recorded between 1960 & 1988, with 70 songs previously unavailable on CD & a further 18 previously unreleased titles, presented in embossed deluxe leather and brass bound 'trunk' carry case with individually numbered brass plaque, complete with 96-page hard back book with extensive liner notes and insightful essays by respected Sinatra scholars like Will Friedwald, interviews and photographs.)