Sacd Unhalfbricking

Unhalfbricking was, if only in retrospect, a transitional album for the young Fairport Convention, in which the group shed its closest ties to its American folk-rock influences and started to edge toward a more traditional British folk-slanted sound. That shift wouldn't be definitive until their next album, Liege & Lief. But the strongest link to the American folk-rock harmony approach left with the departure of Ian Matthews, who left shortly after the sessions for Unhalfbricking began.

The best British folk-rock band of the late '60s, Fairport Convention did more than any other act to develop a truly British variation on the folk-rock prototype by drawing upon traditional material and styles indigenous to the British Isles. While the revved-up renditions of traditional British folk tunes drew the most critical attention, the group members were also (at least at the outset) talented songwriters as well as interpreters. They were comfortable with conventional harmony-based folk-rock as well as tunes that drew upon more explicitly traditional sources, and boasted some of the best singers and instrumentalists of the day. A revolving door of personnel changes, however, saw the exit of their most distinguished talents, and basically changed the band into a living museum piece after the early '70s, albeit an enjoyable one with integrity.

Lovebox is the fourth studio album by English electronica duo Groove Armada, released by Jive Electro. This album finally stretches the duo's eclectic tastes beyond any semblance of continuity or restraint, finishing the job started on previous album, Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub). Named after Groove Armada's bimonthly London club night, the duo's fourth album captures the excitement and diversity of pace you would expect from a masterful DJ set. While the opening track, "Purple Haze", doesn't have a sniff of Hendrix's majestic histrionics, it is certainly Groove Armada's most Rock & Roll moment to date… Tom Findlay and Andy Cato have steadily been dismantling their chill-out crown ever since the single "At the River" floated them into coffee-table ubiquity.