Redd Kross is an American alternative rock/punk rock band from Hawthorne, California, who had their roots in 1978 in a punk rock band called the Tourists, which was started by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald while Steve was still in middle school…
In 1979, two school-kids all hopped-up on punk-rock started their own group in their hometown of Hawthorne, Los Angeles (birthplace of the Beach Boys) and soon found themselves opening shows for notorious scene pioneers Black Flag. Jeff McDonald was fifteen, his brother Steven McDonald only eleven. But that didn’t stop their group from becoming one of the most remarkable, enduring and unique outfits punk-rock ever belched up.
In 1979, two school-kids all hopped-up on punk-rock started their own group in their hometown of Hawthorne, Los Angeles (birthplace of the Beach Boys) and soon found themselves opening shows for notorious scene pioneers Black Flag. Jeff McDonald was fifteen, his brother Steven McDonald only eleven. But that didn’t stop their group from becoming one of the most remarkable, enduring and unique outfits punk-rock ever belched up.
It seems hard to imagine that a band inspired as much by breakfast cereal and Saturday morning cartoons as rock & roll could have created the album that spawned an entire movement – grunge. When Neurotica was released in 1987, it inspired hordes of punk/hardcore kids to put down the safety pins and pick up the guitar…
"Tristes Noticias del Imperio" is a good quality effort through and through, a production that has stood the test of time very well indeed. And while perhaps not exploring the most advanced fiels of the progressive rock universe it is an effort that merits a listen by those who have a general fondness for art rock, with followers of artists like Pink Floyd and King Crimson as a likely key audience.
Argentinian trio Redd was formed in 1977, and "Tristes Noticias del Imperio" was to be the first of two albums this band issued before disbanding. While they were a highly talented act, a disease affecting the hearing of drummer and keyboardist Escalante diagnosed a few weeks after the completion of this debut effort caused an abrupt stop to the further development of this band…
Johann Sebastian Bach and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin go back a long way together! This recording, made with the welcome participation of Isabelle Faust and Antoine Tamestit, follows the complete violin concertos (2019), which left a lasting impression. Returning regularly to the inexhaustible source of the Brandenburgs ever since a memorable first recording in the late 1990s, the Berlin musicians have achieved a sovereign mastery of what is not a single work, but six, which, under their fingers, are successive episodes of a piece of musical theatre in love with dance, transparent sound and freedom. An exhilarating experience!
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin returns to Pentatone together with soprano Christina Landshamer, presenting La Passione, a collection of dazzling concert arias on love, longing and loss by Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, paired with the latter’s “La Passione” Symphony. Ranging from pastoral simplicity to exuberant outrage, the programme offers some of the finest vocal writing around 1800, including some of Beethoven’s rare and little-known excursions to Italian bravura opera, as well as one of the most dramatic and expressive symphonies of the eighteenth-century.
This new album rounds off the complete recording of the symphonies of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach that the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin began over two decades ago. The final batch offers the quintessence of his art, revealing the full originality of Johann Sebastian’s inspired son, whose freedom and inventiveness paved the way for Haydn and Mozart.
In 1727, having just become a naturalised British subject, Handel was commissioned to write a set of anthems for the coronation of George II. Since he could hardly have expected ever to see a more majestic occasion, the composer took full advantage of it to put on a musical firework display of unprecedented splendour. The RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin give thrilling accounts of these flamboyant works – some of which are still used today at each new coronation!
New Musik's debut album, From A to B, is one of the best - and most influential - electronic LPs of the '80s. Its keyboards may sound dated, but there's a freshness to these charming, unpretentious songs that hasn't been spoiled by technological advances in computerized instrumentation. Many new wave revivalists have attempted to capture the nerdy vocals and quirky synthesized bleeps of From A to B and failed. This record is a product of its time, recorded when keyboards were viewed as eventually replacing guitar and bass as rock & roll tools. While many synth pop groups became mired in existential woe to show that they had emotions underneath the layers of Casio hiccups, New Musik is having a blast on From A to B. "With robot precision/We're gonna be doin' just fine," sings Tony Mansfield (guitars, keyboards, vocals) with geek sincerity on the exhilarating "Straight Lines"…