The Seekers – Roving With The Seekers

Just when you think you’ve been through an archive with a fine-tooth comb and there’s nothing left that hasn’t seen the light of day, there’s always the attic – the long-forgotten tapes and acetates owned by the creators, and their most ardent collectors – especially when we’re talking about a legendary musical act such as The Seekers, the iconic Australian harmony group who have been together on and off for almost 60 years.

Recorded across two shows with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in October 2018.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are one of the earliest, most commercially successful, and enduring synth pop groups. Inspired most by the advancements of Kraftwerk and striving at one point "to be ABBA and Stockhausen," they've continually drawn from early electronic music as they've alternately disregarded, mutated, or embraced the conventions of the three-minute pop song. Outside their native England, OMD are known primarily for "Maid of Orleans" and the Pretty in Pink soundtrack smash "If You Leave," yet they scored 18 additional charting U.K. singles in the '80s alone. These hits supported inventive albums such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1980), Architecture & Morality (1981), and commercial suicide-turned-cult classic Dazzle Ships (1983)…

Chart-topping band The 1975 play songs from their second studio album – I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It – with the full BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. This release comes for the first time on CD and adds a version of “Chocolate” originally included on their 2013 Music For Cars EP.

It was much to soul singer Spanky Wilson's surprise – she didn't realize she had had such an impact – when British multi-instrumentalist/producer Will Holland contacted her in her Los Angeles home in 2004, professing his love of her music and wondering if she'd collaborate with him. Still, she agreed to go the studio, and together they did two songs, "Don't Joke with a Hungry Man" and "When You're Through," for Holland's solo project, Quantic, on the album Mishaps Happening. That collaboration worked out so well that they decided to make an entire record together, this time with Holland's full band, the Quantic Soul Orchestra. Wilson's lovely voice is the centerpiece of I'm Thankful, and it does show a bit of its age, but only in the best of ways, deepening it and giving it an added measure of credibility and authenticity while still preserving its expressiveness and strength.

With the Wild Crowd! Live in Athens, GA is the first official live album by American new wave band The B-52s. On February 18, 2011 the band joyfully celebrated its 34th anniversary with a triumphant return to their hometown of Athens, GA. Wig-wearing, boa-draped, glitter-covered fans came from near and far to celebrate this historic event, which saw the band deliver a sizzling 90 minute set that turned Athens’ Classic Center into a cosmic dancehall. The concert was released on a CD, DVD and Blu-ray entitled The B-52s With The Wild Crowd! Live in Athens, GA. In a review of the CD, Chuck Howard from Scripps Howard News Service proclaimed, “How The B-52′s have maintained their endearing vitality after all these years is a wonder, yet fans who hear “With the Wild Crowd!” will doubtless wish immortality on this uplifting band.”

As part of their 40th anniversary, the Modern Jazz Quartet welcomed ten guest artists to their Celebration CD: Bobby McFerrin (brilliant on "Billie's Bounce"), Take 6, Phil Woods, Wynton Marsalis (who gets to show off his technique on "Cherokee"), Illinois Jacquet, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Branford Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Freddie Hubbard and Nino Tempo. As usual, vibraphonist Milt Jackson and pianist John Lewis also have plenty of solo space, and bassist Percy Heath is perfect in support.

A fun disc and nearly – but not quite – a terrific one. The Philharmonics are an instrumental ensemble (not the African American vocal quintet of the 1950s and ’60s) – a string quintet with clarinet and piano. Four members are from the Vienna Philharmonic, one from the Berlin Philharmonic…