The i 31 May 2016

The Associates - Sulk (1982) {2016 2CD Deluxe Edition}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 695 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 232 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1982, 2016 BMG | BMGCAT2CD53
New Wave / Post Punk / Alternative

BMG are to reissue Scottish post-punk band Associates’ first three albums as two-CD deluxe editions, along with a new double-disc anthology. Formed in Scotland in 1976 by Billy MacKenzie (vocals) and Alan Rankine (synths / guitars / programming), the pair settled on the name Associates in 1979 after a short period as The Ascorbic Ones and then for a while in 1979 with the moniker Mental Torture. Their debut album The Affectionate Punch was eventually released (on the Fiction label) in August 1980. The following year the band issued six singles (on another label, Situation Two) whose A and B-sides were gathered on the next long-player, compilation Fourth Drawer Down.

Resistor is the rock quartet of Steve Unruh, Fran Turner, Barry Farrands, and Rob Winslow. The band's sound is characterized by merging modern progressive and rock song structures with an organic classic rock sound. Their classic rock sound is probably due to their preferred recording technique of having everyone play the basic tracks in the same room at the same time, like bands did the "old days." This allows Resistor's recorded music to "breathe," as you can hear the band members adjust to each others' energy, tempo, and feel in real-time.
In 2008, Steve and Fran pooled their recording equipment and knowledge, and recorded the debut Resistor album in 2008. The album got rave reviews…

In the late 1950s and early 1960s R&B stood for ‘rhythm and blues’ - a term associated with some of the most joyous and vibrant popular music ever made. More diverse than the blues, R&B was basically the forerunner of Soul music, and the black equivalent of rock ‘n’ roll: instrumentally energetic, with superb vocals delivered by heartfelt voices that had (mostly) learned to sing in gospel choirs. This 40-track compilation is a combination of well-known hits and real obscurities, but it’s all solidly good stuff. All in all, you’ll certainly find more than enough in this compilation to set those good times rolling again.

PentaTone's live recording of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles is billed as the world premiere recording, though it was preceded by the 1991 video recording of the Metropolitan Opera's production, which was conducted by James Levine and starred Teresa Stratas. Even so, this 2016 audiophile presentation of the LA Opera production, conducted by James Conlon, is a major event for opera lovers, especially since the Met's recording is difficult to find and performances of The Ghosts of Versailles are rare.

Back in 1975, prog-rock virtuoso Rick Wakeman, at the time also an ‘on-off’ keyboardist with the group Yes, released the third of his solo albums. Like the previous two albums (The Six Wives of King Henry VIII (1973) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974)) it was not short of ambition, planning to tell, in musical form and mood, the story of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table…

The English cellist Steven Isserlis has been a leading light on the international musical scene for more than three decades. His complete recordings for RCA Victor including concertos and chamber works by Haydn, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Grieg, Saint-Saens, Anton Rubinstein, Faure, Richard Strauss, Janacek, Bloch, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and John Tavener will now be available in a 12-CD box.

The Golden Age of Music & Theatre: The times of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) offered much more than great theatre. Those were years when music flourished, a time of saucy street ballads, of melancholy lute-songs and madrigals. Great artists of the early music scene convey us into this seemingly distant world and bring it to life…