Werben From Verkaufen From 11 Januar 2016

With "Nemesis - The Best Of & Reworked", Blutengel are not only releasing their first official Greatest-Hits-Album, but also a rather special kind of history lesson, presenting classic songs, hits and favorites from the past in the sound of today…

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of C86, we’re now proud to announce a sequel, in the shape of C87! Imagine if the NME had reconvened a year on from their original compilation? Well, that’s the inspiration for another 70+ tracks, ranging from well-known Indie names to obscurities making their debut on CD.

Originally formed in Yorkshire, England, in 1966, Smokie hit the British pop charts several times during the late '70s with updated psychedelic pop, influenced by the band's stay on Mickie Most's Rak Records as well as the writers of most of the band's hit material, Rak's Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Vocalist Chris Norman, bassist Terry Utley, guitarist Alan Silson, and drummer Ron Kelly had played in the Elizabethans, but formed the band Kindness in 1970. The quartet recorded many singles during the late '60s and early '70s, but failed to show any chart activity. By 1973, Kelly had left the band and was replaced by Pete Spencer.

Atomic Rooster experienced several lineup changes during their initial tenure in the early '70s, with Nice 'n' Greasy being the band's last before disbanding. By this time the band's musical direction had shifted from hard rock and progressive rock to a style more closely resembling blues/funk…

Tom Petty reunited his original Gainesville band Mudcrutch for a lark in 2008. Their eponymous album and short accompanying tour didn't carry the feeling of unfinished business so much as a good-natured ramble through the past. Some old originals were excavated, new songs written, and old favorites covered, all wrapped up in a charmingly ragged little record that gave Petty a bit of a creative jolt. Afterward, he led the Heartbreakers through excursions in blues and garage rock, but that relaxed country-rock vibe proved irresistible, so he reconvened Mudcrutch for a second record in 2016. Titled 2, this second Mudcrutch LP isn't quite a straight sequel. Any of the loose ends left hanging from 2008 have been tied: 2 is streamlined and tight, the cover songs excised in favor of brand-new compositions from every member of Mudcrutch…

Best known for his Magnetic North Orchestra, pianist and composer Jon Balke has a background that is rich with global influences and diverse musical stylings. Trained as a classical pianist in his youth, Balke was playing with Masqualero on Bande à Part (ECM, 1985) by the time he was eighteen. That recording, in the company of Arild Andersen, Nils Petter Molvaer, Tore Brunborg and Jon Christensen, set some enduring musical relationships in motion, with all but Andersen going on to play in Balke's Oslo 13 debut, Nonsentration (ECM, 1992).

The French Baroque air has not been much recorded, even in comparison with the earlier strophic air de cour. But the veteran ensemble Les Arts Florissants, under American-French director William Christie, having brought exposure to a good deal of previously unknown French music, is not slowing down in this regard, and this delightful collection of "serious and drinking airs" might well stimulate other performers to explore the repertory.

The complete harpsichord works by Clerambault and Marchand on one CD! LouisNicholas Clerambault and Louis Marchand are typical representatives of the French harpsichord style, flourishing in the first half of the 18th century. Their Suites (multi movement sequels of dance forms) are grand, stately, rhythmically free and featuring lavish embellishments, all in perfect accordance with the courtly life at Versailles, the palace of Sun King Louis the XIV.