The Laconic

Walter Hill's stripped down neo-noir features a protagonist who makes the laconic boxer of the director's similar Hard Times (1974) seem logorrheic by comparison. The film's tone is set in the opening scene as the Driver (Ryan O'Neal) gloms a V-8 sedan and proceeds to whip through claustrophobic parking garages, narrow alleyways, and sundry other high-risk macadam, as he demonstrates why he's known as the best getaway driver in the business to some potential clients, before giving his vehicle a proper burial. Such plot as there is in this highly abstract film concerns the Driver's cat and mouse game with the Detective (Bruce Dern), an employee of the constabulary of an unnamed city, intent on his arrest. A mysterious and beautiful woman, the Player (Isabelle Adjani), soon appears on the Driver's radar, a perfect match for his taciturnity.

In 2016, Cherry Red’s psychedelic imprint Grapefruit Records released the 3CD set ‘Let’s Go Down And Blow Our Minds’, a hugely successful, widely-acclaimed anthology of lysergically- inclined music made in Britain during the epochal year of 1967. In response to the many requests we’ve received, here’s the long-awaited second volume, housed like its predecessor in a clamshell box with a lavishly annotated and illustrated 48- page booklet. Featuring 79 mind-melting tracks from British psychedelia’s key year, ‘Too Much Sun Will Burn’ covers all bases, incorporating the era’s big hitters (The Move, The Who, Small Faces, ISB, Pretty Things, The Zombies), huge singles (Traffic, Procol Harum, The Hollies, Eric Burdon & The Animals, The Troggs), cult 45s (Paper Blitz Tissue, Made In Sheffield, Caleb and many others) and such future legends as Bowie, Genesis, Alex Harvey and Elton John, with a track from his legendary aborted debut LP ‘Regimental Sgt. Zippo’.

The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale is a collaborative studio album featuring Eric Clapton and a host of other musicians. It consists of covers of songs by J. J. Cale, who had died in 2013. It was named after Cale's 1972 single "Call Me the Breeze". It was produced by Clapton and Simon Climie. Amongst the guests invited on this album, we find Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, Willie Nelson, Albert Lee, etc.

The two composers featured on this album worked in Russia during a period when it had become part of international musical culture, with many European musicians choosing to make a living there. Famous Czech cellist, Vladislav Aloiz, whose cosmopolitan Piano Trio in F major is an inspirational mix of beauty, passionate virtuosity and wit, moved to St Petersburg where he was awarded a professorship at the Conservatoire. Born in Kharkiv to an Austrian family, Alexander Winkler also found himself at the centre of Russian music at the turn of the century. The laconic themes of his masterfully written Piano Trio in F sharp minor are reminiscent of late Brahms.

The two composers featured on this album worked in Russia during a period when it had become part of international musical culture, with many European musicians choosing to make a living there.

Eric Clapton has often stated that JJ Cale is one of the single most important figures in rock history, a sentiment echoed by many of his fellow musicians. Cale's influence on Clapton and many of today's artists cannot be understated. To honor JJ's legacy, a year after his passing, Clapton gathered a group of like-minded friends and musicians for "Eric Clapton & Friends - The Breeze (An Appreciation of JJ Cale)". With performances by Clapton, Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Derek Trucks and Don White, the album features 16 beloved JJ Cale songs and is named for the 1972 single "Call Me The Breeze".