Mondo Secter

First performed at the Brussels court during Lent 1706, this second oratorio by Pietro Torri is the oldest to have been given in the capital of the former Spanish Netherlands, and for which a score survives. Sung by the leading artists of the time – the very same who went on to participate in the first performances of the early Handel operas – it played a decisive role in the dissemination of Roman oratorio in northern Europe. Torri, who had a lifelong attachment to the court of the Electors of Bavaria, left behind the most substantial corpus of oratorios – both in French and in Italian – before Handel, whom La Vanità del mondo anticipates by the beauty of its arias and its dramatic power.

Born in Lisbon of Italian parentage, Pedro António Avondano was employed at the court of Joseph I, becoming Portugal’s leading composer of instrumental music and dances for the royal ballet. Il mondo della luna (‘The World on the Moon’) was a hugely successful libretto by Carlo Goldoni and was set by the likes of Haydn—its comic tale seeing the social climber and strict moralist Buona Fede duped into thinking that he is on the moon. This narrative of illusion in collision with love, jealousy and power struggles is set with sublime lyrical and dramatic transparency by Avondano in this, his only opera.

It's perhaps easy to forget just how big Mondo Rock were in Australia. Fact: They had more hit singles in the '80s than Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl and Men At Work. The Complete Anthology is the definitive Mondo Rock story, containing all the hits, plus some classic album tracks and rarities, featuring choice cuts from six studio albums and one EP. 30 songs, all digitally remastered with never-before-seen photos and a 10,000-word overview of the band's remarkable career.

Through the lens, often deforming of the camera, 'Mondo Di Notte' presents for the first time a company's image dominated from eros and shot with a sometimes gruesome violence. Products in the late '50s and early '60s, 'Mondo Di Notte ', 'Mondo Di Notte 2 ' and 'Mondo Di Notte 3 ', in a crescendo of impressive actors and events, were among the earliest film than in the sixties and eighties it was presented as one of the most distinctive and innovative film genres, the "movie world", indeed.

Artist, producer, writer, arranger, musician, and all-around first-class baloney-thrower Kim Fowley was the man on the scene in Hollywood, CA, during the mid- to late '60s. This collection compiles 20 tracks from Fowley's solo recordings, circa 1966-1969. The collection kicks off with the garage punker "Underground Lady" from 1966, which, Fowley is happy to point out, was released before the Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction" and the Music Machine's "Talk Talk." "The Trip" is a fascinating bit of drug-laced ephemera ("Summer's here kiddies/It's time to take a trip," Fowley leers in the intro) and one of the CD's highlights. "Fluffy Turkeys" was the A-side of one of Fowley's singles for the Original Sound label and surely must have creeped out label honcho Art Laboe, who bailed on releasing a planned full-length album after hearing this slice of madness…