Pop & Rock News

BYG album, facsimile-edition. Newly mastered to vinyl from original BYG tapes. Lacquers cut by Alchemy Mastering at AIR STUDIOS. Exclusive liner notes by author, journalist and BYG-authority Kevin Le Gendre. Cd: expanded cd edition in deluxe gatefold sleeve & printed inner wallet Original 1973 BYG album. Expanded with 2 original single-version tracks. Digitally mastered from original BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. 16-pages booklet with exclusive liner notes by author, journalist and BYG-authority Kevin Le Gendre. *** Vocalist-multi-instrumentalist Areski and singer Brigitte Fontaine are a legendary French musical couple that rose to prominence in the ‘60s, making a series of albums that showcased a boldly unorthodox approach to the art of song. While their defiantly esoteric style, which could veer from North African folk to Brazilian samba to subversive takes on French chanson, was striking their lyrics were no less provocative, broaching anything from mental health to social injustice. “This re-mastered version of a timeless work is a must-hear for open minds and open ears ...” Kevin Le Gendre, 2022

In a career spanning more than three decades, composer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen has established himself worldwide as a driving force in progressive rock. The multi-talented Dutchman is best known for his rock opera project Ayreon, but also regularly devotes himself to musical side projects that explore all different aspects of his musical personality

Lucassen is committed to maintaining a consistent vocalist lineup on Star One. For "Victims of the Modern Age," he reunited the high-powered cast of lead singers from the first album, "Space Metal" (2002): Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swanö (Nightingale, Second Sky, ex-Edge Of Sanity). The different vocal styles of these great vocalists, ranging from soaring power vocals to haunting melodic passages to brutal growls, give each song a stunning variety of vocal textures

As for the instruments, the Dutchman recorded the rhythm guitars, Hammond organ, Mellotron, Solina strings and analog synthesizers himself and invited drummer Ed Warby (Ayreon, Hail of Bullets, Gorefest) and bassist Peter Vink to provide the powerful rhythm tracks. He also enlisted the intimidating solo skills of former After Forever keyboardist Joost van den Broek and guitarist Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery), both of whom contributed characteristically blistering solos. In addition to this formidable lineup, Lucassen recruited three other vocalists - Mike Andersson (Cloudscape, Full Force, Silent Memorial), Rodney Blaze and former Black Sabbath frontman Tony Martin - for several bonus tracks on the album

For the first time, "Victims of the Modern Age" is available on vinyl as a gatefold 2LP+2CD & LP booklet, as well as a Ltd. 2CD digipack.

A studio album recorded by Gilberto with arrangements by for Verve in 1967, Astrud Eumir Deodato and Don Sebesky, Beach
Samba successfully showcases the singer’s soft, soothing, playful, ethereal voice. The program consists of laid-back beach bossa nova tunes. The opening track, “Stay”, is a true highlight, while
“Beach Samba” is a wordless delight and “Canoeiro” rolls the Portuguese lyrics into a snaking rhythm. A real standout is “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” a duet with her then-six-yearold son. Gilberto’s vocals are backed by a sumptuous Brazil pop-cum-U.S.
orchestration feel (Ron Carter and Toots Thielemans are among the sidemen, as well as Brazilian stars Marcos Valle and Claudio Slon). Some of the more pop choices are also remarkable, particularly
Tim Hardin’s gorgeous “Misty Roses.” Beach Samba was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw’s album Orange, for which Attacca Quartet earned a Grammy Award, is available on vinyl for the first time. The two-LP set is pressed on double 180-gram orange vinyl and includes a printed excerpt from the score. ‘Completely gorgeous in so many ways,’ exclaims BBC Radio 3. ‘It hits you everywhere, all at once.’ ‘A love letter to the string quartet,’ says NPR. ‘When you hear all the imaginative sounds on Orange, you know you're listening to the voice of a strong composer.’ The album is also nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award. New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records first released Orange in April 2019. It features six of Shaw’s pieces for string quartet and is the first full-length album to exclusively feature works by Shaw. It was also the first release in a new partnership between the two record labels, established with the goal of enabling contemporary American composers to realize creative ambitions that might not otherwise be achievable.

Shaw is also a singer in the Grammy Award–winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, for which she wrote the piece that won the Pulitzer Prize: Partita. She has also played violin since the age of two and been drawn to the string quartet for most of her life. She says, “It has existed for hundreds of years, but there’s something kind of, for me, beautiful and ritualistic about coming back to that form. It’s something familiar, and yet you can keep on opening these doors and diving down these little rabbit holes. Just the simple changes of harmony and the shape of the bass line, and how that can create a whole world”. Shaw describes the world she built for Orange as a garden that she and Attacca Quartet are tending. She used the group’s centuries-old combination of two violins (Amy Schroeder and Keiko Tokunaga), viola (Nathan Schram), and cello (Andrew Yee) to create a rich environment where traces of what has grown there before – left by Haydn, Mozart, Ravel, Bartok, Bach, Monteverdi, and Josquin – provide nourishment for new life. “Hints of past years’ growth remain in the soil, and so the new growth has been partially shaped by the old”, explains Shaw. “The colors are vivid and familiar, and the shapes of the leaves follow a pattern that you seem to know until you don’t”. She continues, “This album is a celebration of the simple, immediate, unadorned beauty of a natural, everyday, familiar thing”. Hailed for ‘astonishing both the pop and classical music worlds’ (Guardian), Shaw’s list of collaborators is vast and varied, including Kanye West, Nas, The National, Sara Bareilles, Ben Folds, Renée Fleming, Inon Barnatan, Dawn Upshaw, Sō Percussion, Gil Kalish, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with John Lithgow, the Dover Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, and more; she has also appeared on Mozart in the Jungle.

Praised by the Strad as ‘stunning’ and for possessing ‘a musical maturity far beyond its members’ years’, the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet is currently celebrating its seventeenth season as one of America’s premier young performing ensembles. It has served as the Quartet in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and received numerous awards, including first prize at the seventh Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, top prize and Listeners’ Choice award at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and Grand Prize at the sixtieth annual Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition. Recent highlights include performing at the New York Philharmonic Nightcap Series curated by John Adams and Nadia Sirota, New York’s Lincoln Center White Lights Festival, Carnegie Hall, Gothenburg Konserthuset, Sociedad Filarmonica de Bilbao, Auditorio Nacional de Música, and Palau de la Musica. When describing the power of performing the works on Orange, Attacca Quartet explains that “playing and listening to Caroline Shaw’s music can turn a concert hall into your own peaceful living room. Between rehearsals and performances, we found ourselves marveling in the unassuming honesty of every passage and the profound effect it has on ourselves and our audiences”.

• Widely and rightly regarded as one of the best ever soul and funk bands, the now legendary Average White Band tore-up the rule book
and conquered the US, UK & International charts with a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980.
• Although probably best known for their global hit, the US #1 signature single ‘Pick Up The Pieces’, this superb 2LP collection features 20
classic recordings from their prolific recorded music output from ‘Show Your Hand’/’Put It Where You Want It’ (1973) to ‘Shine’ (1980).
• This ‘Gold’ 180g Heavyweight Gold Colour Vinyl 2LP set, features the band’s international hits, including collaborations with Ben E. King
and album favourites, alongside a number of tracks heavily sampled by many leading Hip-Hop Artists in this 20-track set.
• AWB’s repertoire has been a source of inspiration and influence for many R&B acts and they are one of the most sampled bands in
history, remaining relevant today, continuing to reach new generations of younger audiences.
• Snoop Dogg, Fatboy Slim, Ice Cube, Puff Daddy, TLC, Rick Ross, will.i.am and Mark Ronson amongst countless others, have all borrowed
sections of their grooves.
• ‘Gold’ also includes other UK and US Billboard hits, ‘Cut The Cake’, ‘Queen of My Soul’, ‘Walk On By’, the much sampled ‘School Boy
Crush’, ‘When Will You Be Mine’, ‘If I Ever Lose This Heaven’ and the floorfiller ‘Let’s Go Round Again’.

Fontanelle is the second studio album by American punk rock band Babes in Toyland, which was originally released in 1992.

After extensive touring throughout 1991, the band entered the studio to record their major label follow-up to their debut album Spanking Machine. The album was co-produced by Kat Bjelland with Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) heading production and was mixed by Dave Ogilvie.

Fontanelle is Babes in Toyland's most critically and commercially successful album. The album's success also prompted them to tour more and were eventually offered a place on the Lollapalooza tour in 1993, playing alongside such acts as Tool, Primus, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr. and Rage Against the Machine.

The Backstreet Boys with a deluxe version of their first ever holiday album “A Very Backstreet Christmas”! It features 15 tracks including classics like “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, “Last Christmas”, “Silent Night” and new future holiday mainstays like “Christmas In New York,” “Together,” and “Happy Days.”

This deluxe special edition is pressed on emerald green vinyl and includes two bonus tracks: “Feliz Navidad” and “Christmas Time Again”.

Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series)
Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records!
Bad Company's eponymous 1974 debut featuring "Ready for Love"
180-gram 45 RPM double LP
Mastered directly from the original master tape by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound
Pressed at Quality Record Pressings and RTI
Tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing

From the wreckage of Free came Bad Company, the English hard rock supergroup fronted by singer Paul Rodgers and featuring his drummer bandmate Simon Kirke, Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, and King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, also managed Bad Company until 1982.

The group's eponymous 1974 album debut decidedly proves the band is proudly not progressive — the details make a difference, as do the pastoral acoustics of the closing "Seagull" — reducing their rock 'n' roll to a strong, heavy crunch; compare "Ready for Love," a tune Ralphs brought over from Mott the Hoople, to the original to see how these quartet members keep their heads down as they do their business. Appropriately enough given their name, there's a sense of slow, churning menace to Bad Company, writes AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine.

Their first three albums, Bad Company (1974), Straight Shooter (1975), and Run with the Pack (1976), reached the Top Five in the album charts in both the U.K. and the U.S.. Many of their singles and songs, such as "Bad Company," "Can't Get Enough," "Good Lovin' Gone Bad," "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Ready for Love," "Shooting Star," and "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy," remain staples of classic rock radio. They have sold 20 million RIAA-certified albums in the U.S. and 40 millon worldwide.

The self-titled debut album was recorded at Headley Grange, Hampshire, in Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S, and No. 3 on the U.K. Albums Chart, spending 25 weeks on the U.K. charts. The album has been certified five times platinum in the U.S., and became the 46th-best-selling album of the 1970s. The singles "Can't Get Enough" and "Movin' On" reached No. 5 and No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 10.

All the hallmarks of a top-notch Analogue Productions reissue are here for your pleasure: Mastered directly from the original master tape by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and cut at 45 RPM. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings and RTI, and housed in tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.

Texan rhythm and blues icon Barbara Lynn made an incredible impact in 1962 with the chart-topping debut single, ‘You’ll Lose A Good Thing,’ which has since been covered by Aretha Franklin, Freddy Fender, and countless others. A southpaw guitarist who wrote her own material, debut LP You’ll Lose A Good Thing captured our heroine at her best, the soulful smoky voice a striking contrast to the blues base of her backing musicians (including Dr John on keyboards). Containing the follow-up hits ‘Second Fiddle Girl’ and ‘Letter To Mommy And Daddy’ as well as the cherished title track, it’s a winner from start to finish.

This album is interpreted by Benyamin Nuss - who performs on the Distant Worlds and Kingdom Hearts world-tour concerts – and arranged by major names of the music industry such as Shiro Hamaguchi (known for working closely with Nobuo Uematsu), Alexander Rosenblatt (Well-known Russian composer), or Jonne Valtonen (Arranger for Symphonic Fantasies, Symphonic Odysseys and Final Symphony official concerts).

Benyamin Nuss Plays Uematsu is a sophisticated album of virtuoso piano perfomance on unforgettable music from Final Fantasy, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. It also includes two original tracks, the first one, composed by Nobuo Uematsu for Benyamin Nuss, and the other one, a tribute by Benyamin Nuss to the composer.

Legendary arrangements carefuly remastered for the vinyl format!

Originally released through Peacock Records in 1958 after her stint with Lionel Hampton’s band, Out There is a snapshot and early gem in Betty Carter’s broad career. Supported by a quality cast including Benny Golson (tenor saxophone), Wynton Kelly (piano) and Kenny Dorham (trumpet) among others, Carter glides through standards such as “Something Wonderful” as well as her first-penned track “I Can’t Help It” which would go on to become a performance staple. This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.

Out of print since 2015, this special EP now returns on 12″ vinyl!

Originally recorded for Big Star’s iconic Third, “Jesus Christ” has become a holiday staple. What better way to celebrate this time of year than to experience this classic track on vinyl—along with the gift of rare material!

This collectible 12″ EP features the Three Wise Men artwork from a 1973 Big Star promo poster. In addition to the original album version of its namesake, the audio program features a demo of “Jesus Christ” which first appeared on the Grammy® winning box set, Keep An Eye On The Sky, as well as 5 rare tracks.

Fans have been clamoring for an official release of “Another Time Another Place & You” for decades, and it made its first-ever appearance on this EP when Omnivore first issued it as a limited 2015 Black Friday/Record Store Day 10″ EP, long with a TV Mix of Third’s “Thank You Friends.” Two more unissued instrumentals joined them. All four of these tracks were mixed in 2012 for use in the acclaimed documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me. A demo version of “Big Black Car” (the studio version also appears on Third) completes the playlist.

The legacy of Big Star continues to shine, and the Jesus Christ EP will not only make a glowing addition to any fan’s collection, but will provide them with not only what they’ve been searching for, but make them rejoice in what they’ve found.

Whenever Bill Evans sat down at the Piano to play, the world sat up, listened and
was carried away by the thoughtful and melodic sounds he achieved at the Keyboard,
with a style that was seductive and instantly recognisable. In 1955 he began playing
gigs at the Village Vanguard Jazz Club in New York where he met Thelonious Monk
and Miles Davis. Davis was among the first to appreciate the special qualities of the
young Pianist when the Trumpeter recruited him to play on Kind Of Blue, the 1959
album hailed as a milestone in Jazz history. This aptly named 'Platinum' collection
showcases the best of his recordings from the late 1950s and early 1960s; Autumn
Leaves, Blue In Green and Someday My Prince Will Come. Bill's unique combination
of Classical and Jazz influences is displayed on such songs as Waltz For Debby and
the sublime Peace Piece.

As former member of the Miles Davis sextet Bill Evans made a strong impression with his first trio, which included the innovative bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. Their 1961 live ‘Sunday At The Village Vanguard’ set the standard for interactive trio work and is still regarded as a jazz classic. Tragically, LaFaro was killed in a car accident 10 days after that historic session. There followed a succession of rhythm tandems until Evans found another inspired pairing in 1968 with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell who remained together for seven years. Limited edition on blue transparent vinyl. "Autumn Leaves - In Concert" includes the following tracks: "Quiet Now", "Very Early", "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?", "Some Other Time" and more.

The complete iconic Bill Evans LP Sunday at the Village Vanguard, featuring Scott LaFaro on bass, and Paul Motian on drums. LaFaro would die in a car accident shortly after this LP was recorded. Contains perennial versions of "Solar," "Gloria's Step," and "Alice in Wonderland." This edition also offers an exclusive collector's item consisting of a replica of the very rare Japanese 7" disc Riverside single SR-3033, containing Evans' readings of "My Foolish Heart" and "Polka Dots and Moonbeams."

THE COMPLETE LP + 1 BONUS TRACK - PLUS 7" BONUS SINGLE ON COLORED VINYL INCLUDED INSIDE - 180-GRAM VIRGIN VINYL - LIMITED EDITION