The Musical Times Summer 2014

Feline is the seventh studio album by The Stranglers and was released in January 1983 (on the Epic record label in the United Kingdom). The first edition came with a free one-sided 7" single "Aural Sculpture Manifesto". Feline drew heavily on two of the dominant musical influences in Europe of the time, by using primarily acoustic guitars and electronic drums as well as Dave Greenfield's synthesizers…

Hans-Jürgen Fuchs, a multi-instrumentalist and producer from Stuttgart, Germany, has been involved in many different musical projects. In 2012 he recorded "Leaving Home", a concept album containing a lot of musical styles of the seventies (Peter Gabriel), the eighties (Simple Minds, U2, Martin Ansell) and the nineties (the late Kevin Gilbert). "The Unity Of Two", the 2014 album by Fuchs, is again a progressive rock concept album, this time telling the story of Aaron and Ray. Just like the book Narziss Und Goldmund, two characters from a book by the German author Herman Hesse, this story pulls at your heartstrings. It's dealing with friendship, devotion, the many layers of the human soul and different ways of life. In musical terms Fuchs has created his second album in a definitely more open and more varied style than on his debut album "Leaving Home"…

English-Irish teen-pop boy band formed during the British TV singing competition "The X Factor" in 2010. They finished third in the series and subsequently signed with Simon Cowell's label Syco Music. In November 2011 they released their debut album "Up All Night". The album went straight to number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, which made One Direction the first UK group in US chart history to debut at number one with their first album. Propelled to international success by social media, One Direction's four albums, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014) topped charts in most major markets, and generated hit singles including "What Makes You Beautiful", "Live While We're Young", "Story of My Life" and "Night Changes".

It couldn't be simpler: a boy, tired with his work, decided to quit everything and form a band. In most cases, the band and the hopes didn't last long. With Kongas, French disco producer Marc Cerrone's first band, this was more complicated. In the early '70s, the young man made his own revolution.

Each year, Martha Argerich and her friends gather for the summer festival in Lugano, Switzerland, to perform a variety of chamber and keyboard works that showcase musical talents across generations. Highlights of these performances have been released annually on box sets that are representative of these artists' brilliant virtuosity and fine musicianship. The set for 2013 includes performances of works by Beethoven, Respighi, Liszt, Shostakovich, Ravel, Debussy, Offenbach, and Saint-Saëns, presented with enthusiasm by Argerich and her friends Mischa Maisky, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Francesco Piemontesi, Alissa Margulis, Jura Margulis, Gabriela Montero, Cristina Marton, and many others, some of whom have become frequent guests at the festival.

Australian Crawl the band who from 1979-1986 perfectly married the sounds of the summer and good times into musical form, celebrate the 35th anniversary of their first single Beautiful People with a new careerspanning 'Greatest Hits' collection.

The Kinks were one of the most influential bands of the British Invasion. Early singles "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" were brutal, three-chord ravers that paved the way for punk and metal while inspiring peers like the Who. In the mid-'60s, frontman Ray Davies came into his own as a songwriter, developing a wry wit and an eye for social commentary that culminated in a pair of conceptual LPs, The Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), that proved enormously influential over the years.