Jujitsu Kaiser

After cockily shrugging off the difficult second album challenge with their hugely successful Yours Truly, Angry Mob, the Kaisers deliver yet another collection of blistering rock-pop in the shape of Off with Their Head. Producer Mark Ronson returns the band to the distilled pop potency of 2005's Employment as well as providing an all-star cast of guests: Lily Allen provides backing vocals on "Always Happens Like That", classical starlet David Arnold adds strings to "Like It Too Much" and UK grime aficionado Sway does a star turn on the unlikely yet winning "Half the Truth". Yet this is definitely the Kaiser's own show, as evinced on the wonderfully woozy "Tomato in the Rain," the catchy "Good Days, Bad Days", the feisty "You Want History" and the lovely–and somewhat surprising–finale "Remember You're a Girl". Musically, Off with Their Heads ain't rocket science, and the band's insights into contemporary urban life are superficial at best–but the Kaisers still manage to mostly hit the spot.

Ignaz Holzbauer was a member of the Mannheim school whose music has been likened to that of Mozart. CPO is delighted to add to the catalogue a disc of the Viennese composer’s concertos. The beautiful tone and virtuosic nature of Holzbauer’s flute concertos are interpreted here by Karl Kaiser and La Stagione Frankfurt.

Five Times Surprise brings together a volatile mix of longtime compatriots and newly forged relationships. The distinguished improvisers all boast exceptionally diverse resumes. More than finding common ground, they reveal a vast universe of possibilities fueled by creative conflagration and genre blurring. “We’re improvisers who can walk into a room and create something together,” says the project's original instigator Henry Kaiser, who then listed the salient qualities of his fellow players here: the ability to listen, kindness, generosity, and—rare in this electric realm—a sense of humor. All those factors were at work on this new recording.