Leslie August

Just like Diamond Head, Flotsam and Jetsam is a top notch band destined to forever play second fiddle to the media behemoths, Metallica. Diamond Head is sadly remembered as the band that Metallica covered, and Flotsam and Jetsam will forever be known as the band that Jason Newsted played in before joining Metallica after the death of previous bassist Cliff Burton…

Though this album may disappoint those hoping for a hard rocking Savoy Brown kind of time, "Nowhere road" still wins you over on Youlden's unique but likable vocals and charming musical roads that are taken here…

With this Deluxe Edition, Oldfield includes versions of Ommadawn previously lost, carefully selected bonus tracks, and DVD material to accompany specific tracks. Sharing the format of its two predecessors - Tubular Bells and Hergest Ridge, Oldfield stays loyal to his conceptual roots in Ommadawn, but incorporates musical styles from a far greater range of influences including folk, Celtic, and middle eastern sounds. As a result, Oldfield channels greater scope for musical development, defining Ommadawn as a creative peak in Oldfield's wide-ranging career.

With their recording contract with CBS now over, Titanic moved to the rather smaller Barclay records for the release of their fifth studio album in 1977. Once again, the line up was to alter significantly, with John Williamson and Andrew Poulton both departing. Back came John Lorck on drums, to be joined by the wonderfully named bassist Saintclair Brunet. More significantly though, the line up once again boasted a keyboard player in Claude Chamboissier. While the album displays some of the pop rock traits which hampered the disappointing "Ballad of a rock 'n' roll loser", it does at least see the band attempting to turn the clock back towards their fine early albums. The opening "Blue train" is a pleasant but largely prosaic piece of guitar rock…

Although it features the beautiful recorder of Leslie Penny and the Chieftains' Paddy Maloney playing the uilean pipe, Ommadawn didn't gain Mike Oldfield the success he was looking for. The album was released in the same year as the David Bedford-arranged Orchestral Tubular Bells and nine months after Oldfield picked up a Grammy award for the original Tubular Bells album. The most pleasing attribute of Ommadawn is its incorporation of both African and Irish music in its symphonic rock & roll mainframe. Boosted by a hearty amount of different horns, piano, cello, trumpet, and synthesizer, the album has its moments of rising action, but the whole of Ommadawn fails to keep its lovely segments around long enough, and there are some rather lengthy instances that include bland runs of unvaried music…

From the notes: "The tapes from which these CD's are taken were discovered in Russia by a dedicated group of Richter enthusiasts. They bring us by far the most extensive sampling of Richter's live performances from the 1950's. And they do this in recorded sound that, while not the ultimate in fidelity, is superior to what we might have expected from early Russian tapes." Notes by Leslie Gerber [also the Producer]

As in his set of Bach's unaccompanied violin music, Arthur Grumiaux plays this music with effortless mastery and a fine sense of Baroque style. You can count on this great musician to avoid letting any mannerisms or inappropriate romanticism intrude on the music, leaving you with pure Bach played with great refinement. The programming here is comprehensive, including alternate movements and a questionable work or two. Christiane Jaccottet makes her presence felt as an equal , and the recording still sounds excellent. It's hard to find better performances at any price, so as a "twofer" this is a great bargain.