No Budget黄小桢

Low Budget doesn't have a narrative like Preservation or Soap Opera, but Ray Davies cleverly designed the album as a sly satire of the recession and oil crisis that gripped America in the late '70s – thereby satisfying his need to be a wry social commentator while giving American audiences a hook to identify with…

As the post-punk dust began to settle, a particular strand of artist began applying a knowingly distant, colder aesthetic to their work. While much of the scene began to be dominated by bigger budget, commercially minded former punk and new wave acts, a darker undercurrent did survive, often more interesting, more dangerous and sexier than anything that could be heard on Top Of The Pops at the time. The first generation of the darkwave movement consisted of bands that were equally influenced by the fractured drama of Depeche Mode, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure as they were by the art damaged experimentation of Cabaret Voltaire, Wire and Throbbing Gristle, always rich in Gothic spirt, societal displacement, urban isolation and sexual energy.

As the post-punk dust began to settle, a particular strand of artist began applying a knowingly distant, colder aesthetic to their work. While much of the scene began to be dominated by bigger budget, commercially minded former punk and new wave acts, a darker undercurrent did survive, often more interesting, more dangerous and sexier than anything that could be heard on Top Of The Pops at the time. The first generation of the darkwave movement consisted of bands that were equally influenced by the fractured drama of Depeche Mode, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure as they were by the art damaged experimentation of Cabaret Voltaire, Wire and Throbbing Gristle, always rich in Gothic spirt, societal displacement, urban isolation and sexual energy.

Looking back at '80s-era heavy metal, Germany's Accept are oft-times overlooked. This can be attributed to the fact that they didn't have a pretty-boy lead singer (in fact, Udo Dirkschneider was the virtual antipretty boy) and, despite a few flirtations, never truly crossed over to the MTV masses…

Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960) was a Greek conductor who came to America in the 1930s and made many recordings with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Like Wilhelm Furtwangler of Arturo Toscanini, Mitropoulos' height of popularity came just before the advent of modern sound technology, so that many of Mitropoulos' finest recordings are marred by distortion and background noises that may make those recordings practically un-listenable to some classical music enthusiasts (although the new Sony Mitropoulos set has advertised that most of those very rough recordings have been "remastered").

As the post-punk dust began to settle, a particular strand of artist began applying a knowingly distant, colder aesthetic to their work. While much of the scene began to be dominated by bigger budget, commercially minded former punk and new wave acts, a darker undercurrent did survive, often more interesting, more dangerous and sexier than anything that could be heard on Top Of The Pops at the time. The first generation of the darkwave movement consisted of bands that were equally influenced by the fractured drama of Depeche Mode, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure as they were by the art damaged experimentation of Cabaret Voltaire, Wire and Throbbing Gristle, always rich in Gothic spirt, societal displacement, urban isolation and sexual energy.

The pre-eminent Lisztian of our day returns to Brilliant Classics for a symphonic sequel of transcriptions. In 2018, Brilliant Classics issued Leslie Howard and Mattia Ometta playing the 12 symphonic poems of Liszt in the composer's own transcriptions for piano duo (95748). The set won glowing reviews: 'Not only do Leslie Howard and Mattia Ometto navigate Liszt's technical challenges with fluency and ease,' wrote Jed Distler for Classics Today, 'but they also treat the scores seriously… Howard's excellent annotations and Brilliant Classics' budget price further clinch my recommendation for collectors.' As before, Leslie Howard supplies his own, invaluable insights to accompany this trio of symphonies in Liszt's transcriptions for piano duo. As with the symphonic poems,

Even before Simon Rattle gave his debut concert as head of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he made headlines with another world-class orchestra: It was the cycle of nine Beethoven symphonies that he conducted with the Vienna Philharmonic in Tokyo, Berlin and - of course - Vienna. Back in May 2002, Rattle set standards with the most traditional orchestral repertoire of all. The live recording was released in March 2003. This cycle, which is now being re-released in the budget segment, is still regarded as the reference recording of the new millennium.