In The 3rd

The 1970s were not kind to the Kinks. While the band had already transitioned gracefully from their mod-ish British Invasion origins (and the heavy production thumb of Shel Talmy) into something more adventurous and artful with 1968's The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, that masterpiece's two iconic follow-ups (Arthur and Lola) found Ray Davies' weird twin penchants for acidic lyricism and music hall song structures becoming more and more dominant in the group's sound. By the time the 1971 soundtrack to Percy rolled around, U.S. audiences had all but forgotten about the band, who soon found themselves facing the same fate in their native England.

The new 3rd Force album 'Global Force' is the first release by the group in over 10 years. Formally signed to Higher Octave Records from 1994 through 2005 their previous 4 groundbreaking recordings-whose titles all incorporated the 'force' concept, a la 'Force of Nature', 'Vital Force', 'Gentle Force' and 'Driving Force' scored them numerous hit singles and strong sales. Multi-instrumentalists and sonic architects William Aura and Craig Dobbin are the foundation of the 3rd Force sound with special guests including Alain Eskinasi (keys, guitars, beats) Brian Hughes (electric guitar) Lawson Rollins (flamenco guitar) Derrick Edmonson (sax) Mitch Manker (trumpet) Brian Mann (accordion) Peter Sterling (harp) and popular Nepali supergroup Kutumba (various instruments).

Following the successful publication on Cappriccio of all Shostakovich’s symphonies on CD, Dmitrij Kitajenko once again collaborates with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln to perform the complete recording of all of Sergey Prokofiev’s seven symphonies. Together they embark on a very challenging project, both in terms of time and level of technical difficulty, a project that demanded huge efforts and potential from the orchestra conductor alike. Prokofiev’s symphonies could not be more varied. They were written at different times throughout the composer’s life and each one individually reflects the pressure of political dictatorship and forced submission to merciless censorship that was prevalent throughout the Soviet-era. On the other hand, the huge energy, the hopes and desires, emotional and social messages conveyed between the lines could not be vanquished even by dictators and censors. Dimitrji Kitajenko, the Lenningrad born conductor, was a child of the late Russian-socialist period so knows exactly how to decrypt the text and shows us how in every single phase of this new complete recording.

As good mods, the Jam always had a healthy respect for R&B and soul even the first album featured the revved-up Northern soul of "Non-Stop Dancing." With The Gift, however, Paul Weller seems to have become completely absorbed in it, and more specifically, in Stax-style soul with more than a hint of psychedelia à la "Psychedelic Shack." An uneven album marked by overindulgences like the instrumental "Circus" and unnecessarily long songs, The Gift still has no shortage of terrific songs, like the simply sublime "Ghost," "Town Called Malice" (the hit), and the funk workout of "Precious."

Explore the depths of The Police's magnum opus with this 6CD Box Set reissue of "Synchronicity." Disc 1 features the original album, remastered. Discs 2-6 offer an unprecedented 55 previously unreleased tracks, including alternate takes, demos, live recordings, and Sting's original song demos. With new liner notes and rare memorabilia. Hailed as "The Police's finest album" by Rolling Stone, this definitive reissue captures the essence of a timeless masterpiece.