The Shades

Manifold Records presents Fifty Shades of Lounge Vol. 2: 50 Smooth & Sexy Chill Tunes 4 Erotic Moments. 50 excellent Chillout tracks from DJ Maretimo, Jazzy James Jr., Cafe Americaine, Noise Boyz, Orange Music, Kid Coconutz, Cinematic and others.

The group's follow-up to their comeback album is a major step forward, with more mature songs, more improvisation than the group had featured in their work since the early '70s, and more confidence than they'd shown since Brothers and Sisters. It's all here, from acoustic bottleneck playing ("Come on in My Kitchen") to jazz improvisation ("Kind of Bird"), with the most reflective songwriting ("Nobody Knows") in their history.

Manifold Records present Fifty Shades of Lounge: 50 Smooth & Sexy Chill Tunes 4 Erotic Moments. 50 excellent Chillout tracks from Cafe Americaine, Chillwalker, Vladi Strecker, DJ Maretimo, Noise Boyz and others.

According to Christopher Hogwood, in his marvelous biography of Handel, "In the winter of that year [1750], Handel received what was for him an unusual commission. Although closely associated with the London theatre, he wrote very little incidental music for plays. A request from John Rich to provide airs and dances for Smollett's 'Alceste' was undertaken, according to Hawkins, in repayment of a debt to Rich."

Among all his remarkable and varied compositional talents, Purcell was the supreme craftsman when it came to setting his native language to music. Addison wrote of Purcell’s ‘Tunes so wonderfully adapted to his Words’ and Playford, in his introduction to the first volume of Orpheus Britannicus (1706) commented that ‘The Author’s extraordinary Tallent in all sorts of music, is sufficiently known; but he was particularly admir’d for his Vocal, having a peculiar Genius to express the Energy of English Words, whereby he mov’d the Passions as well as caused Admiration in all his Auditors’. Purcell combined an innate sense of the natural rhythms of speech and a wonderful melodic flair with a richness of harmonic language that few composers have ever matched.