a Youth in Babylon

Israel in Babylon is a pasticcio compiled by Edward Toms in 1764, with pre-existing instrumental works by Handel transformed into arias. The performance is fantastic, with thrilling choral work from the Kantorei Saarlouis, expert solo singing Julia Gooding, Jonathan Peter Kenney and Joseph Cornwell, and spirited playing from the Ensemble UnaVolta under Joachim Fontaine.

This whopping 30-CD box set gathers together the best of Trojan's three-disc box set series. Included are the Ska, DJ, Dub, Instrumentals, Jamaican Superstars, Lovers, Producer Series, Rocksteady, Roots, and Tribute to Bob Marley volumes, each of which can be found under Trojan Box Set for their individual reviews. What's lacking here is a booklet with additional notes and information; the bulk seems to demand some extra coverage and care, yet all that's here are the original notes of each volume – only as much text as can fit on the back of the CD sleeves. From a music standpoint, however, this box is excellent; a truly diverse and comprehensive collection. Of the 500 songs, less than ten reappear on another volume, so you get a more-than-satisfying amount of music spanning the history of the Trojan label.

The ten symphonies of Louis Spohr span a period of forty-six years which saw music move from the Classical dominance of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven to the Romantic era of Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner. Spohr himself was an important link in this development, through his exploitation of chromatic harmony, his formal experiments and his four programmatic symphonies. When Spohr composed his first symphony in 1811, Beethoven still had to write his seventh, eighth and ninth, but by the time of Spohr’s final one in 1857 the entire symphonic output of Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann had come and gone, and all three of these composers were dead.
Keith Warsop

The Ruts - The Crack
FLAC | Artwork | 24Bit: 900 MB | 16Bit: 281 MB | RS + HF
Cat#: Virgin 200 988-270 | Country/Year: Germany 1979 | Genre: Punk

The Crack is The Ruts first album, released in 1979 and containing the UK hit singles: "Babylon's Burning" (No. 7 in the UK chart in June 1979) and "Something That I Said" (No. 29 in September 1979) The white-reggae-ish "Jah War" which was written in the aftermath of the Southall unrest and the over-use of force by the Metropolitan Police Service's Special Patrol Group in 1979 was also released as a single but didn't make the UK chart.

Queensrÿche started as The Mob in 1981, by guitarist Michael Wilton, drummer Scott Rockenfield, guitarist Chris DeGarmo and bassist Eddie Jackson. Without a singer, they recruited Geoff Tate to sing for them at a local rock festival. At the time, Tate was in another band called Babylon. After Babylon broke up, Tate performed a few shows with The Mob, but left the group. In 1981, The Mob put together sufficient funds to record a demo tape. Once again they asked Tate, who was in another band Myth, to do the vocals and they recorded four songs “Queen of the Reich”, “Nightrider”, “Blinded”, and “The Lady Wore Black”…