Raffrty City

The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish pop/rock band of the '70s with a strong following among teenage girls. The origins of the group go back to the formation of the duo the Longmuir Brothers in the late '60s, consisting of drummer Derek Longmuir (b. March 19, 1952, Edinburgh, Scotland) and his bass-playing brother Alan (b. June 20, 1953, Edinburgh; d. July 2, 2018, Larbert, Scotland).

Bay City Rollers were a pop phenomenon in the mid-'70s, taking their money-in-the-bank mix of good looks, pop hooks, and just a dash of rock & roll danger from their native Scotland to the rest of Great Britain and then North America. The Rollers' biggest hits ("Bye, Bye, Baby," "Give a Little Love," "Saturday Night") were pure bubblegum in the tradition of the Partridge Family and Ohio Express…

Sergey Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, also known as the Vespers, is among his most admired works, and it was one of the composer's own favorites, along with The Bells. This 2015 Chandos release by Charles Bruffy and the combined voices of the Phoenix Chorale and the Kansas City Chorale presents the music in the super audio format, so the richness of the divisi choral parts and the depth of the basso profundo come across fully in the multichannel reproduction. Bruffy is the musical director of both groups, so his special rapport with them creates an even ensemble blend that balances the largely homophonic textures, and brings a consistency of approach to the three styles of chant Rachmaninov imitated, Kievan, Greek, and Znamenny. The beauty of the a cappella voices and the surprisingly lush harmonies make this setting immediately appealing and ultimately moving, and listeners who enjoy sacred choral music for inspiration or meditation will find the All-Night Vigil's smooth flow and expressive warmth well-suited to those purposes.

When Light In The Attic released Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976-1986 in 2019, it was the first collection of its kind to be released outside Japan. It proved to be just what music fans had been waiting for—a compilation of sought-after tracks that had been nearly impossible to obtain unless you were well-connected with dealers and collectors, or traveled regularly to the countless record stores in Japan. Pacific Breeze included Minako Yoshida, Taeko Ohnuki, Hiroshi Sato and Haruomi Hosono among other key players of ‘70s-’80s Japanese City Pop, the nebulous genre that encompassed an “amalgam of AOR, R&B, jazz fusion, funk, boogie and disco, all a touch dizzy with tropical euphoria,” as we described it the first time around.

One of the leading sopranos of her generation, Ekaterina Siurina enjoys an international career that takes her to the top opera houses in Europe and America. She made her professional debut as Gilda in Rigoletto, singing opposite the world-renowned baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Commenting on her recent performance as Violetta in La bohème, Parterre Box called her singing “deeply touching, with arching beams of tone.”

Not a bad compilation - 13 songs cut by Bull City Red over a four-year stretch, which include gospel-tinged songs as well as country blues in the Blind Boy Fuller mode. The sound is reasonably good throughout, given the rarity of some of the records, and the analog-to-digital transfer fairly clean given the age of the source material - Red's guitar comes through in startling clarity, and surface noise is generally held in check, or at least to manageable levels. Among the highlights here is Red's version of "I Saw the Light," and which, in another form, entered the repertory of Hank Williams, among others…

Unreal City was founded in 2008 by pianist/keyboardist Emanuele Tarasconi and guitarist Francesca Zanetta. Consequently to the release of the first self titled EP in 2012, the band began an insense live activity in Northern Italy music venues, thus drawing attention from both critics and music industry operators. In January 2013 the band signed with AMS Records and joined Hilary Studios in Genoa to start the recording sessions for “La Crudeltà Di Aprile”, Unreal City debut album, that was released on 24th April 2013 amd immediately followed by the airing of a videoclip for “Dove La Luce E’ Più Intensa”, single extracted from the album.

Midnite City return with the release of their highly anticipated fourth album "In At The Deep End". Since Midnite City hit the scene with a vengeance in 2017, they've done everything they can to be crowned the true kings of Hair Metal. The band has released three critically acclaimed albums, with their sophomore album "There Goes The Neighbourhood" being voted No. 5 on Classic Rock Magazine's Best Album of the Year and voted one of the best albums in Burrn magazine's 35-year history in Japan. Mixed by Grammy-winning producer Chris Laney (Europe, Crash Diet, Crazy Lixx), the band delivers their strongest album to date and ticks every criterion when it comes to Hair Metal in the style of the late 80s. From party rock anthems to melodic rock monsters to heartfelt power ballads, everything is represented here in abundance. Headlining tours through the UK and high-profile festivals in Europe have brought them a steadily growing fan base.