Common Belong

Quicksand are one of those bands about which little seems to be known; while the band members' names are easily found, what they played is another matter, although it seems they had a fairly standard guitar/bass/keys/drums lineup. The rear sleeve of their sole album, "Home Is Where I Belong", actually has a band bio, along with a bucolic view of a classic Welsh valley, complete with a sheep, although it obviously neglects to give any useful instrumental information. Hailing from South Wales, the cover pic makes them look like a rare form of hippy miner, which vaguely describes the music herein. OK, it doesn't; they basically bordered prog without really immersing themselves wholeheartedly in the style, having much in common with other proto-prog outfits such as Cressida or Spring.

GREATEST EVER! is Union Square Music’s select, best-selling label, utilising the very best repertoire from key major labels, Greatest Ever’s 3CD box sets are some of the strongest multi-artist compilations on the market, with the greatest ever songs.

The first disc, aptly subtitled The Very Best of Glenn Frey, is chock-full of major chart hits, including the Beverly Hills Copsmash "The Heat Is On," the gritty, slide-guitar-driven gutbucket groove of "Smuggler's Blues," the epic Miami Viceballad "You Belong to the City," the inward-looking poignancy of "Soul Searchin'," and much more…

After the 2008 commercial disaster that was Carly Simon's This Kind of Love, issued on the now-defunct Starbucks' Hear Music imprint, this collection of rearranged and re-recorded versions of her hits seems like a logical step backward in order to move forwards. Released on the Iris imprint and produced by "Paphiopedillium" (a group effort comprised of Simon, her son Benjamin Taylor, Larry Ciancia, Peter Cato, and David Saw, the band of players on this set), Simon's on acoustic guitar with her voice right up front.

After World War II had come to an end, Vieru first studied at the Bucharest School of Music. He first drew attention in the West in 1962 by winning the Prix International Reine Marie-José in Geneva with his First Cello Concerto. In 1973 he witnessed the birth of his Simfonia II, whose the opening movement, 'Tachycardie' (heart palpitations), finds acrid rhythms colliding with luminous sheets of sound '… it belongs, it doesn't belong …'The constructive principle behind Vieru’s music, according to Thomas Beimel, is based on tiny modes with which he allegorically depicts the social processes of inclusion and exclusion along the lines of set theory: it belongs, it doesn't belong, it has features in common. This allegory reflects Vieru's own threatened existence – his 'Jewish identity', of course, but also his later identity as a Rumanian artist subject to the strict surveillance and control of the régime.

Universal Music will issue Above The Clouds: The Collection, a new four-disc deluxe box set that focuses on the solo career of Glenn Frey.