Finest October 2019

The hugely well-respected and historically important Kinks seventh studio album Arthur Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire was released on 10th October 1969, and celebrates its 50th anniversary on 2019. 'Rock musical' in style and one of the most effective concept albums in rock history, the album was constructed by Kinks' frontman Ray Davies as the soundtrack to a subsequently cancelled Granada Television play. The album receiving almost unanimous acclaim upon its release. Rolling Stone 1969 - "Arthur is a masterpiece on every level, Ray Davies' finest hour. The Kinks' supreme achievement and the best British album of 1969".

Limited 12 CD + NTSC/Region 0 DVD box. Curated by Steve Hillage and released with the full involvement of original members, legendary psychedelic surrealists Gong are the subject of a box set with the release of Love From Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973-75. Released to coincide with Gong's 50th Anniversary, the set covers the band's classic years in a stunning package that includes: their seminal first four Virgin studio albums plus bonus tracks; previously unreleased, multi-tracked full gigs, the complete John Peel Sessions from 1973 and 1974; previously unreleased quad Pye and Westlake mixes of You re-formatted to 5.1 surround-sound, and artwork including rare and previously unseen work by the late Daevid Allen…

2019 two CD set, the twelth volume in the So80s series. The finest collection of original classic 12" club & extended mixes.
"Celebrate the '80s in style" was the premise Blank & Jones started the So8os (So eighties) Project under circa ten years ago. Since then, the two '80s born artists have been digging through countless archives of old master tapes of legendary '80s maxi versions of famous songs for this series - building up an impressive fanbase while releasing 11 entries so far under the moniker So8os. Thanks to the massive renaissance of this colourful decade and the success of series such as Stranger Things also open to a broader and younger audience these days. Volume 12 includes tracks by Wham, Sheena Easton, Sade, Visage, New Order, Billy Joel, Saga and many others.

Following the sell-out success of our landmark compilation, J Jazz: deep modern jazz from Japan 1969-1984, BBE Records is thrilled to present another exploration into the very finest Japanese modern jazz.

On this new Alba album the young and talented Janne Oksanen takes over the entire piano output of Toivo Kuula. To this day Toivo Kuula (1883-1918) stands as one of the most significant Finnish composers. His music is poetic, epic and deep and it showcases a very sophisticated musical taste and tonal language. In his lifetime he was hailed as Finland’s finest composer after Sibelius, who was his mentor and friend. As a whole these 20 pieces portray a versatile palette of different stages of Kuula the composer, from teenage sketches (Air varié) to impressionistic frames from Paris (Satukuva no 2).