Cycle World From March 2014

"Bernard Haitink: The Symphony Edition" is one of two recent box sets from Decca, marking Haitink's eighty-fifth birthday in 2014. Together with Haitink: The Philips Years this set offers a broad, tantalizing overview of the great Dutch conductor's compelling artistry, and makes a near-perfect introduction to one of the truly magnificent recorded legacies of our time. Haitink will be 85 on 4 March 2014, and this set presents his six complete symphonic cycles by cornerstone classical composers: Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Schumann and Tchaikovsky.

The Gramophone-award winning partnership of Gerald Finley and Julius Drake turns to perhaps the most celebrated song-cycle of them all. Schubert’s Winterreise is a masterpiece of despair, astonishing in its bleakness and enthrallingly mesmerizing as the journey continues. Finley brings all his considerable dramatic powers to his performance—and all but submerges them under the ice.

The 5.6.7.8's - Original CD Collection (1986-2016)
EAC | FLAC+CUE+LOG or MP3 CBR 320 | Complete Scanwork | 1,75 GB or 687 MB

The 5.6.7.8's are an all-female Japanese garage rock trio, whose music is reminiscent of American surf music, rockabilly and garage rock. While their biggest international exposure was a cameo in the Tarantino flick Kill Bill, 5.6.7.8's are much more than one-hit wonders, bearing the proud distinction of being the prime and longest-enduring Japanese garage rock girl band. Featuring a revolving cast of musicians (only one of them ever being a boy) and possessing small but loyal fanbases in countries from China to the United States. The group have so named themselves because they play music reminiscent of 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s rock. Currently this CD Collection includes 9 CDs.

A luxurious and authoritative 64CD orchestral and concerto set, celebrating one of the world’s great orchestras and their 64-year relationship with Decca Classics.
Few labels can claim to be so associated with a city as inextricably as Decca is with Vienna. No history of classical recordings would be complete without a chapter documenting how both Decca and the WP worked to perfect the art of recording in the city’s great concert halls, most notably in the famous Sofiensaal.

A luxurious and authoritative 64CD orchestral and concerto set, celebrating one of the world’s great orchestras and their 64-year relationship with Decca Classics.
Few labels can claim to be so associated with a city as inextricably as Decca is with Vienna. No history of classical recordings would be complete without a chapter documenting how both Decca and the WP worked to perfect the art of recording in the city’s great concert halls, most notably in the famous Sofiensaal.

Gustavo Dudamel resumes his survey of the Mahler symphonies with this recording of the rare, mysterious 7th Symphony. The 7th is a “symphony of everything”, says Dudamel, “from chaos to glory, sarcasm to tenderness, from a funeral march to a seductive tango. It is a cosmic symphony of perfect construction and galactic emotional scope.”

The Wedding Present have been unanimously despised by the British music press following a brief honeymoon period in the mid-'80s. When they announced their desire to issue a single a month for a whole year, one particularly caustic Melody Maker journalist pointed out that she now had two low spots in her monthly cycle to endure. It must also be said that RCA were not too enamored of the projected release schedule when David Gedge first put his idea to them. For many, though – including discerning onlookers like long-standing friend and supporter John Peel – The Wedding Present's single-a-month blitz in 1992 was one of the highlights of that year. The band were at their peak: They'd just recorded their best record, Seamonsters, with Steve Albini, and they were beginning to stretch their sound beyond the coy romanticism of old. However, the real joy of the singles – good as they were – was Gedge's esoteric choices for B-sides, including the Go-Betweens' "Cattle and Cane," Altered Images' "Think That It Might" (Gedge was a huge fan of their overlooked Bite album), and the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday." Diverting, original, and great fun.