Ola All Over The World

A collection of hits from various projects of the famous German producer Frank Farian, who were at different times in the Dutch TOP40, was released by the local branch of Sony Music Entertainment Netherlands B.V. The double album features artists such as Boney M., Gilla, Eruption, Milli Vanilli, La Bounce, No Mercy, Precious Wilson and Far Corporation.

Power pop has never sounded so powerful! When former Mandrake Paddlesteamer mainstays Brian Engel and Martin Briley convened as Liverpool Echo in 1973, the Beatles had been in the grave for just three years, and the world still desperately wanted them back - so desperately that, with a band name borrowed bodily from an old Merseybeat-era newspaper, what could any record company do, but lift a "Fabs"-headlined copy of the paper for an album cover? But "Beatles Come Home So Quietly" really wasn't the most appropriate banner for an LP jacket, all the more so since, once you hit the vinyl, the spirit of the "Moptops" hung so heavily over the music that it screamed out for attention. Of course, it was true that any early-'70s band that was capable of melding melody with studio-borne creativity would inevitably be tarred "the new Beatles" (as Badfinger and 10cc would readily testify)…

The chamber cantata flourished in Italy as a counterpart to public opera and oratorio, cultivated by aristocratic patrons for their personal enjoyment. Perhaps because of its essentially private origins, this pervasive Baroque form remains little known today. During his years in Italy (1706-1710), George Frideric Handel composed nearly 100 cantatas for a series of important patrons, but they have tended to be passed over in favor of his larger operas, oratorios, concertos and orchestral suites. The plan of La Risonanza to perform and record all of the cantatas with instrumental accompaniment (about one-third of the total) is therefore of signal importance for all music lovers, as it will bring this extraordinarily beautiful music once again to life (2006-2009).

A very cosmic/psychedelic album cover has seven black-and-white Tommy James heads coasting over what looks like an acid trip, rainbow behind him, colors dripping upwards. It's the opposite of the black-and-white psychedelic look of the Cellophane Symphony album and the first of James' three final albums for Roulette. If we are to take the discs as three chapters, this one is Tommy James and Bob King proving that Tommy James was the Shondells. "Ball and Chain" is poppy and intense, the Velvet Underground gone bubblegum. Clearly, drugs had some influence on Tommy James' work, and where his ex-bandmates took a stab at the third Velvet Underground album with their Hog Heaven track "Come Away," "Ball and Chain" from the first Tommy James solo album sounds like it is an outtake from the Velvet Underground's Loaded CD…

Rhiannon Giddens's latest album, there is no Other, recorded with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, is set for release on May 3, 2019, on Nonesuch Records. Produced by Joe Henry and tracked over an intensely productive five-day period in Dublin, Ireland, there is no Other is at once a condemnation of "othering" and a celebration of the spread of ideas, connectivity, and shared experience.

At 25 years old, Polly Gibbons is one of the most talked about young singer/songwriters in the UK – her nomination for a BBC Jazz Award is clear indication of her success, along with ongoing performances at some of the top UK venues and international festivals. Raised with 5 siblings on a musical Suffolk farm, people quickly became aware of her vocal talent. By the age of 5, Polly had already co-written her first song – a song which was selected from thousands to be recorded at Air Studios in London.