nu King

No less than 144 lesser known tracks from throughout the 1980s. OK, there are a few big hits on here such as Spandau Ballet's True, Ultravox's Vienna, Blondie's Atomic, Duran Duran's Girls On Film to name a few, but my love of this mega 80s multi CD box set are all the tunes that you won't find on every other 80s compilation album around.

From Japan, an already consecrated prog state of art, comes - close in modern, alternative and resonating times - the band NAIKAKU (full name is Naikaku-No-Wa, with the meaning of Internal Nuclear Tide). At first Satoshi Kobayashi (bass) and Kazumi Suzuki (flute) formed the band, in mid-1998, and initiated their music, but eventually the lineup grew towards an eclectic sextet, drummer Norimitsu Endo, guitarist and trumpeter Mitsuo Muraoka, flutist Naoko Higashi and guitarist Kei Fushimi joining…

Christian Ludwig Boxberg (1670-1729) belongs to the 'lost' generation of composers between Schütz and Bach. For decades, the revival of baroque music has concentrated on these two poles of German Baroque music to such an extent that everything between them can appear imperfect by comparison. Boxberg's 'Sardanapalus', however, is by no means imperfect. On the contrary, we experience here a remarkable synthesis of the various European national styles. Alongside German influences, those of both French and Italian opera are unmistakeable. The very witty libretto was written by Boxberg himself, and retells Diodorus's history of the profligate Assyrian King Sardanapalus who, far from being interested in ruling the land, liked to put on makeup, parade about in women's clothing and give in to acts of salaciousness with both women and men.

Drums of Death is a collaboration between the relentlessly experimental hip-hop of DJ Spooky and drummer Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Fantômas fame. Is this another experiment in metal/hip-hop fusion? Yes, and no. And as such, it works better than most.