Having played with The Servants in the late 1980s, Luke Haines carved a unique niche for himself in the 1990s with witty lyrics, wry humour and some stellar tunes with The Auteurs and other acts (Black Box Recorder, Baader Meinhof). By 1999, feeling aghast at the state of the Brit Rock scene in the UK, Luke decided to "start a righteous solo trip", having been commissioned to write the soundtrack for the film Christie Malry's Own Double Entry (2001). Sticking with Virgin Records, Luke then unveiled his first solo album proper, The Oliver Twist Manifesto, before fronting a new-look Auteurs for Das Capital. In due course, Luke switched labels to indie Fantastic Plastic for Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop (2006), followed in 2009 by 21st Century Man. Since then, he's curated a string of imaginative, amusing and always worthwhile albums for Cherry Red Records. Alive And Well… is the first-ever anthology of Luke's solo work, cherry-picking musical highlights from each of his long players as well as a smattering of B-sides, radio sessions, rarities and - on Disc 4 - a raft of previously unissued material. Alive And Well… is a very personal statement spanning the last two decades of the musical life of Luke Haines.
Paul Bruce Dickinson is a British singer, airline pilot, radio show host, DJ, historian, television presenter, fencer, producer, novelist, and songwriter, best known as the lead singer in the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. According to Allmusic, Dickinson "was the most acclaimed and instantly recognizable vocalist to emerge from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement of the early '80s".
Änglagård’s sound is rich in mellotron, Hammond and piano, and a brooding wash of guitars and bass/bass pedal accented by Holmgren’s moody and precise flute. The band’s compositions are characterized by long, often instrumental tracks with significant tempo shifts and sometimes intense guitar flourishes. The Epilog album is instrumental in its entirety, and many of the tracks are distinguished by striking passages from Johnson’s grand piano. Early Porcupine Tree also comes to mind, particularly when listening to Epilog. Änglagård deserves a place in the Archives for their admirable effort in carrying the banner of large, expansive symphonic music well into the nineties, with a sound that both pays homage to the great progressive giants of the seventies, and advances that sound with virtuoso accompaniment and expansive, layered compositions.
The fifth album from shoegaze giants Slowdive contains the duality of a familiar internal language mixed with the exaltation of new beginnings. everything is alive is transportive, searching and aglow, the work of a classic band continuing to pitch its unmistakable voice to the future. Six years after the group’s monumental self-titled album, everything is alive finds Slowdive—vocalists and guitarists Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead, guitarist Christian Savill, bassist Nick Chaplin, and drummer Simon Scott—locating evermore contours of its immersive, elemental sound.
As they unwittingly proved with their overly ambitious concept album Future, the Seeds were at their best when they kept things simple and to the point, and in 1968, uncertain where to go next after Future tanked, the band decided it would be a good idea to document their energetic live show with a concert album. However, in order to best control the audio, they ended up cutting a live set in a studio rather than taping an actual concert, laying in the sounds of cheering fans after the fact. The results were released as Raw and Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box, even though it was recorded at Western Recorders studio in Hollywood rather than the folk-oriented coffee house namechecked in the title, and the incongruous-sounding cheers and applause, which rise and fall at unpredictable moments, give away the game that this is that curious artifact of the era, The Fake Live Album…
The superstar of classical, rock and pop music takes us on his personal journey through the film soundtrack of his life. We all enjoy recalling special moments and formative experiences: favourite songs from across many different genres, which immediately bring pictures and emotions to mind, put a smile on the face, bring comfort, and encourage us to give of our best. With Alive – My Soundtrack, star violinist David Garrett releases his latest crossover project - perhaps the most personal of his musical career to date, precisely because it features songs and pieces that have a very special meaning in Garrett's life. "My heart beats for all the songs on this album, because I have an intense connection with every single one of them. To put it simply, I carry a little piece of all of them in my heart."