The Invasionen Lite of Addie Larue

In the stillness of a midnight stable, a babe is born … In the stillness of an Oxford chapel on a winter’s afternoon, a girl’s voice sings. The newest star in Oxford’s – and Delphian’s – choral firmament, the girl choristers of Merton College have been singing services under the directorship of Benjamin Nicholas for less than five years: in their debut album recording, supported by the lower voices of the Chapel Choir, they tell once more in music from across the centuries the timeless Christmas story of light, hope and joy for a troubled world.

Sir Elton John, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, has been for a great part of the past five decades, one of the dominant forces in rock and pop music, especially during the 1970s, when he produced hits like "Your Song," "Rocket Man”, "Bennie and the Jets," and "Crocodile Rock." He has sold more than 250 million albums and over 100 million singles, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. He has also won five Grammy awards and one Academy Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him number 49 on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. John has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In The Many Faces of Elton John we will embark on a journey that will give us a profound insight into the career of one the pop music's most legendary superstars.

Joy Division is one of the definitive bands from the rock culture. With their dark poetic inception and a sound marked by a new way of thinking about how music should be created, the Manchester band served as a model for countless artists. Today, just as it marks 35 years of the death of Ian Curtis (the legendary singer and lyricist of the group) The Many Faces Of Joy Division shows the hidden world behind the group, their rare recordings, side projects, their influences and the Manchester scene where the band bloomed. With a wonderful cover art, remastered sound and extensive liner notes, The Many Faces of Joy Division is an album not only for fans but for anyone who wants to understand the influence (and enjoy the music) of a truly transcendent bad, which made beauty out of sadness.

Have you ever wondered what the definition of underground music is? Look no further. The PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE /PPU/ were exactly that. While the western "underground" bands of the 60s and 70s might have looked a bit freaky, or were simply stoned enough to slightly shock the establishment, the PPU were jailed by the Czechoslovak communist regime solely because they dared to play their music for a bunch of long-haired fans. Nothing more, nothing less, but indirectly causing an immense political effect for the years to come. Due to all the hurdles, the PPU remained in the underground until 1988. Our collection brings together their best tracks from nearly two decades, presented in genuine fidelity underground quality.

It's always great to encounter the recording that can "crack" a composer open, making his or her music accessible to a general listening public. And it's all the better when such a recording comes from beyond the usual quarters, as, for example, with this American recording of Renaissance polyphony. Nicolas Gombert was a Flemish Renaissance composer, a successor (and possibly a student) of Josquin who entered the service of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. His music, especially in his masses, tends to present itself as a dense, unbroken flow of polyphony. Gombert is one of the composers music history students tend to slog through in hopes of getting to the good stuff. One noted Renaissance scholar used to refer to him, Adrian Willaert, and Giaches de Wert as "the Ert brothers." All that could change with this disc of Gombert motets and chansons. These works are less dense than his masses, but not by much, and they are considerably less limpid than Josquin's pieces in the same genres. But here it is the performances that clarify them. The Massachusetts ensemble Capella Alamire (the name is a pun on an aspect of an old solmization system) under director Peter Urquhart, recording in a church in Portsmouth, NH, slows the motets down slightly and addresses them with a group of eight singers – the black belt of choral singing.

One of the first of the blissed-out rave acts to storm the charts, and also one of the longest lasting, the Future Sound of London deserved a good singles compilation, and fortunately they get one with the Virgin retrospective Teachings from the Electronic Brain. Their highest moments were virtually always their singles, and short-form tracks offer a much easier path to understanding the music of Brian Dougans and Garry Cobain than their occasionally bloated LPs. Teachings from the Electronic Brain neglects nothing of real value, beginning with their first chart hit ("Papua New Guinea") and grabbing the best tracks from their albums Accelerator ("Expander"), Lifeforms (the title track), the live-in-the-studio ISDN ("Far-Out Son of Lung and the Ramblings of a Madman," "Smokin' Japanese Babe"), and Dead Cities ("We Have Explosive"). Best of all, licensing requirements prevented the addition of material from 2002's half-baked The Isness.

The name 'Chandos anthems' is most frequently associated with Handel, but he was not the first, nor the last, composer in the extravagant household of James Brydges, the Duke of Chandos from 1719. Working concurrently with Handel at Cannons was the Berlin native, Johann Christoph Pepusch'snearly 20 years Handel's seniora who took over as Director of Music by early 1719 whereupon he adopted a distinctly Venetian approach to sacred music, in the manner of Lotti and Vivaldi.

Hailed as "gospel titans" by Rolling Stone, the Blind Boys of Alabama defied the considerable odds stacked against them in the segregated South, working their way up from singing for pocket change to performing for three different presidents over the course of an 80-year career that saw them break down racial barriers, soundtrack the Civil Rights movement, and help redefine modern gospel music forever.