Sugnature Box

German dance-pop duo Modern Talking were formed in Berlin in early 1983 by Dieter Bohlen, then a composer and producer employed by the Intersong label. Teaming with vocalist Thomas Anders, they soon began work on their first single, 1984's "You're My Heart, You're My Soul." Modern Talking's debut LP, succinctly titled The 1st Album, followed a year later on the heels of their second single, "You Can Win If You Want." The duo's sophomore effort, Let's Talk About Love, appeared in late 1985, launching the smash "Cheri Cheri Lady." With 1986's Ready for Romance, Modern Talking scored their biggest hit yet with "Brother Louie." However, after 1986's In the Middle of Nowhere, tensions between Bohlen and Anders reached a boiling point, and following the release of their fifth LP, Romantic Warriors, Bohlen assembled a new project, Blue System…

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Creature Music has compiled this stunning box set comprising 21 CDs, a 36-page booklet of the band's history with extensive notes for each album, a 32-page book of Manfred's own memories and anecdotes and a poster of the current band. The catalogue CDs have been remastered and repackaged in LP-style sleeves. The albums have the original UK running order and refreshed sleeves. Live In Ersingen is a brand-new live recording from 22 July this year, featuring the band's latest vocalist, Robert Hart. Leftovers is a compilation of the hit singles and rare or previously unavailable recordings.

Django Reinhardt - Django In Rome 1949-1950 (2003) {4CD Box Set JSP Records JSP919}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 595 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 648 Mb
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© 1949-50, 2003 JSP Records | JSP919
Jazz / Swing / Guitar Jazz / Gypsy

The postwar recording sessions included in this budget-priced boxed set are the last ones Django Reinhardt made with violinist Stephane Grappelli. The remaining original members of his acclaimed Quintette du Hot Club de France had departed already, and on the first three of these four discs the guitarist and violinist are accompanied by a trio of Italian musicians: pianist Gianni Safred, bassist Carlo Pecori, and drummer Aurelio de Carolis. (The recordings on the fourth disc, which date from 1950, are credited to the Quintette du Hot Club de France, but by that point Grappelli had been replaced by alto saxophonist and clarinetist Andre Ekyan and the remaining three musicians comprised a standard piano trio – an instrumental configuration far removed from that of the original quintet.)

Miles Davis - The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions (1968-1969) {3CD Box Set Columbia C3K 65362 rel 2001}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.19 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 507 Mb
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© 1968-69, 2001 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | C3K 65362
Jazz / Fusion / Jazz Rock / Trumpet

Though BITCHES BREW has attained iconic status as one of the most important, progressive statements in post-bop jazz history, it's predecessor IN A SILENT WAY–though less widely acknowledged–was perhaps even more revolutionary for its dissolution of the songform-oriented cool jazz approach and introduction of electric instruments. This three-disc set, featuring all the material laid down in those vaunted 1969 sessions, is a revelatory sonic document that further illuminates the maverick genius of Miles Davis. In addition to the original SILENT WAY tracks as we know them, there are previously unheard compositions and alternate versions that shed new light on Miles's process.

A Certain Ratio - who celebrate their 40th anniversary this year - a lavish box set, ‘acr:box’, via Mute, with all material remastered by Martin Moscrop at Abbey Road studios and featuring over 20 unreleased tracks from the archive."Following on from 2018’s compilation, ‘acr:set’, the box showcases the diversity of the singles, B-sides and alternative versions of tracks that A Certain Ratio have released but without repeating tracks recently made available. ‘acr:box’ collates everything that fans had been missing from the recent reissue campaign and compliments that with a selection found after a deep delve into the archive to find all the hidden gems that had been talked about over the years but never heard - even a few releases the band had forgotten about.

Only John Mellencamp, whose career began with a series of wrong turns, raw determination, and the audaciousness to demand he be taken seriously could create a box set as strange, representative, and labyrinthine as On the Rural Route 7609. In the era of the “track,” Mellencamp has issued a massive, beautifully packaged, and exhaustively annotated four-disc career retrospective that doesn’t lean on his hits (many aren’t here), but rather on more obscure album cuts, outtakes, rarities (17 selections make their debuts here), and more recent material – numerous selections come from 2007’s Freedom’s Road and 2008’s Life Love Death and Freedom. In Anthony DeCurtis' excellent liner essay/interview, Mellencamp claims he isn’t “trying to prove anything. . . it was a way for them to discover songs of mine that perhaps were overlooked because of the songs that were so popular on the radio.” Given his choice of material, he may not feel that his career-long demand has been met yet.

This collection of Ellington's Thirties recordings is generous in that it offers 95 selections and meagre in that there is no discographical information at all (no recording dates, no personel, no matrix numbers). The liner notes give some information but leave one pining for more too. There the criticism ends. Audio restoration by Dutchman Harry Coster (who is attached to the Dutch Jazz Archive and has an outstanding reputation for painstaking restoration of old material) is beyond reproach and the recordings never sounded so good before. And of course there is the music itself, which is formidable, both in musical content and in execution by that peerless group of proud individuals that constituted the Duke Ellington orchestra…