Morton Feldman’s The Viola in My Life (1970/71) is a work of great scope and detail. Each of its first three parts is scored for viola and a variety of chamber ensembles, while the last pairs viola with orchestra in what Feldman calls a “translation” of the first three. Unlike his earlier forays into indeterminacy, Viola is thoroughly composed. Its genius lies in Feldman’s ability to forge massive amounts of empty space into a layered resonance that is anything but “minimal.” The music slowly undulates in tune with the viola’s crests and fades, touched by patches of darkness like a figure slowly walking through lattice-obstructed sunlight.
Having documented the British psychedelic scene with anthologies devoted to the years 1967, 1968 and 1969, Grapefruit's ongoing series fearlessly confronts the dawn of the Seventies with a slight rebrand. New Moon's In The Sky: The British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1970 features (appropriately enough) seventy tracks from the first year of the new decade as the British pop scene adjusted to life without The Beatles. The 3-CD set concentrates on the more song-based recordings to emanate from British studios during 1970, whether from a pure-pop-for-then-people perspective or the more concise, melodic end of the burgeoning progressive rock spectrum.
Originally released in 1983, the debut album from Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, otherwise known as Tears For Fears, instantly blasted off one of the most stellar careers of the 1980s. Immaculately produced, stunningly sequenced and comprised of a sequence of timeless electronic pop classics, ‘The Hurting’ sympathetically explored themes of childhood angst, adolescent heartache and the struggles of the transition from boy to man. It also gave birth to four of the era’s essential singles – ‘Suffer The Children’, ‘Pale Shelter’, ‘Change’ and the landmark megahit ‘Mad World’. Compiled with the full involvement of Roland and Curt, ‘The Hurting – 30th Anniversary Edition’ brings together the original album remastered at Abbey Road studios, plus all of the relevant B-sides, edits and remixes from the period, many of them available for the first time.
This 36-song double-CD set covers most of the group's released songs from Decca, minus one song ("I Can't Make It") that they lost the rights to, and augmented with a handful of solo tracks by Steve Marriott and songs by Jimmy Winston's band…