VA 80's Love (2014

Thanks to a roster including Cocteau Twins and Pixies, UK imprint 4AD has maintained its status as a force in independent music for more than 30 years. Author Martin Aston talks about his exhaustive new history of the label.

2014 two CD set curated by duo Blank & Jones. ZTT is the label from superstar producer Trevor Horn and was founded in 1983 together with Paul Morley and Jill Sinclair. The label's mix of perfect Pop music, new recording and sound technologies, great artwork and marketing gave artists like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Propaganda and the Art of Noise the perfect home to conquer the world. Hit records like "Relax", "Dr. Mabuse", "Two Tribes", "Moments in Love" or "The Power of Love" became best-selling records in the mid '80s and are, no doubt, considered as "classics" today. What's special about this new so8os project is that Trevor Horn has agreed to hand over the original multi-tracks and Blank & Jones have set about reconstructing new mixes with the self-imposed restriction of only using the original parts available from the original tapes…

Sony Music's Pure… Pop Anthems box set collects 68 contemporary radio hits over the span of four discs, with highlights arriving via '80s classics like "Africa" (Toto), "Down Under" (Men at Work), and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (Bonnie Tyler), and some 2000s chart toppers from the likes of Rita Ora ("Radioactive"), Pitbull ("Hotel Room Service"), and MGMT ("Kids").

Rock Werchter, one of the greatest festivals in the world. What once started as a little one day festival in 1975 in Werchter Belgium in a tent, has now become very big, and lasts four days; with multiple podia. This CD is a compilation of the countless groups that since 1975 have visited the festival, although some names are missing, despite the fact that they made the festival what it is today. To name but a few of the better known names : U 2, Metallica, maybe this has to do with royalties but also bands like Midnight Oil and the long forgotten The Alarm are missing.