Ratones Paranoicos Inyectado De Rocanrol Vivo (2006) Rock Argentino

Francisco Javier Vargas Pardo is a Spanish blues and rock guitarist, founder and leader of the Vargas Blues Band. Javier was born in Madrid shortly after his parents, immigrants in Argentina, returned from Buenos Aires. Nine years later, once again back in that country, they reside in the cities of Mendoza, San Luis, Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata. Passing through Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires, he meets Tanguito, composer of “La Balsa” and pioneer of National Rock. It is in Argentina where he awakens his passion for music and where Javier begins to play the guitar. There he experienced the National Rock movement that was conceived in Buenos Aires and spread thanks to magazines such as Pelo and Pin-up.

This collection puts some of the best Purcell on display–and it couldn't have a more musical or vocally accomplished advocate than Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin. Her voice is pretty for sure, but it also has richness and substance, not to mention a most endearing vibrato that adds an earnestness and enlivening tension to everything she sings.

Gossec made an important contribution to the development of French symphonic music and played a central role in Parisian musical life for almost three-quarters of a century. The opera 'Le Triomphe de la République' was composed in 1793 folowing the French Revolution and wonderfully demonstrates the musical movement that France experienced following the change in political climate. Music was recognized as a medium for the diffusion of new ideas and 'Le Triomphe de la République' was a case in point. It was written in the wake of popular enthusiasm at the news of the army's victory at the battle of Vlamy in 1792 against the anti-French troops led by the Duke of Brunswick. It features folk music and popular dances of the day reflecting a kind of life quite distinct from that of intellectual, aristocratic society.

This is an album of songs from Guernsey, an island off Cornwall but much closer to Normandy, and the music is as odd and captivating as the particular brand of French in which it is sung. The music, even to a not-particularly-sophisticated ear, seems a combination of Celtic twang and French charm, with unexpected springs of rhythm amidst melodies that are as graceful as swans.

The Montreal Chamber Players, all members of the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal who are also avid chamber-music players join Jennifer Swartz, principal harp with the OSM and a prolific soloist, for this recording of French works from the post-Romantic and Impressionistic periods. They play works written by Ravel in his youth, and by Debussy at the peak of his career. They also play masterpieces by three less known but equally indispensable composers: an ode to the sea beside which he grew up by Ropartz, strongly influenced by the Breton folk tradition; one of the very last works that Koechlin completed, amply demonstrating his unerring instinct as an orchestrator; and Roussel's Sérénade, a musical snapshot of Paris in the Roaring Twenties, full of vivid impressions and effervescent poetry.

The music of Louis Couperin has never had quite the celebrity of that of his uncle François or of the other famous French keyboard composers of the eighteenth century. The harpsichord works here date from around 1650. They were thus contemporary with reign Mazarin, the courtier and prime minister who really ruled France, at least until the rebellion known as the Fronde curbed the power of the court. The lush booklet does an excellent job of placing Couperin against his cultural background, and really the disc is worth purchasing for the lavish illustrations of the period French harpsichord used (the small picture of the Greek god Pan above the keyboard is reproduced at full size inside, and it's fabulous).

To celebrate two decades of creating ambient and downtempo electronica under the name Banco de Gaia, Toby Marks put together this enjoyable if slightly uneven two-disc set, a retrospective of sorts that takes a fresh look at his past rather than simply gathering and recapitulating it. On the first disc, he reinterprets both his own work (longtime fans will get a particular kick out of his Euro-trance reconstruction of "Soufie") and that of others - Hawkwind's "Spirit of the Age" is given a long, luxurious interpretation that incorporates elements of house, funk, and ska, while King Crimson's "Starless" gets an even longer - and frankly rather plodding - arrangement of its own. His most ambitious experiment on the first disc is a rendition of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" that lasts fully 22 minutes - an impressive feat, and one that does a fine job of blending Marks's own personal electronic vision seamlessly with Floyd's unique sound…