This funky LP by blues guitarist Bo Diddley was released in 1974 on Chess Records, it was produced by Esmond Edwards, horn arrangements by Wade Marcus, personnel is Bo Diddley on vocals & guitar, John Tropea and Carl Lynch on guitar, Ernest Hayes on electric piano, Wilbur Bascomb Jr. on bass, Jimmy Johnson Jr. on drums and Montego Joe and Esmond Edwards on percussion, plus horns & background vocals.

Pink Floyd: Reach For A Peach (Rev. A) (2009)

DVD5 | 53mins | MPEG2 | NTSC | 720x480 | 4:3 | 29.97fps | LPCM 48kHz | 3.3GB

Language: English | Publisher: Harvested HRVDVD011

Very few Pink Floyd's shows have been recorded, especially dating from the 'golden age' of the Floyd (early 70's), when they invented a new style of rock.
Floyd performed at St Tropez in the summer 1970, and the French television recorded the show. It's an exceptional performance, due to the track list (all the major songs at this time) and the good quality of images. If the sound is only fair (mono, but remastering greatly improved it here), this was a great performance.

Recorded at the Paris Theatre London, March 11th, 1971

Ace of Base is a pop band from Gothenburg, Sweden, comprising Ulf Ekberg (Buddha) and siblings Jonas Berggren (Joker) and Jenny Berggren. They released their debut album in 1993 and went on to sell more than 30 million albums worldwide, topping the charts with hits such as "All That She Wants" and "The Sign". Following the formal departure of former member Malin "Linn" Berggren in 2007, the trio have recently been playing gigs in Europe and Asia, and plan to release their fifth studio album in 2009.

This LP by the Chuck Mangione Quartet was released in 1972 on Mercury Records, players are Chuck Mangione on flugelhorn, electric piano & cowbell, Gerry Niewood on flute, sax, tubo & guiro, Joel Di Bartolo on bass and Ron Davis on drums, congas & timbales.

On August 25, 1989, the five-piece Flipper's Guitar released their first album Three Cheers for Our Side on Polystar (named for an Orange Juice song). Ozawa - a student at top-ranking Tokyo University - wrote the band's English lyrics. The sound was straight-up Neo-Acoustic with nods to Anorak Pop and UK schoolboy culture. While the subject matter generally ranged from adolescent concerns like red shoes and cafe au lait, "The Chime Will Ring" was a grown-up realization that they were approaching the "end of youth." The lyrics to the similarly-themed "Goodbye, our Pastels Badges" contain a laundry-list of references to influential bands: the Boy Hairdressers, Aztec Camera, Haircut 100, the Monochrome Set, etc, etc.

It's been well over two years since the debut album from Colt, These Things Can't Hurt You Now So Throw Them In The Fire, emerged. That was a beautiful and twisted album, continuing on from the work they'd done so well as Living With Eating Disorders. It was never going to be a worldwide number one. The Tesco/WalMart buyers don't seem to have room in their shopping trolleys for sparse, bleak, gothic electronics. Not when there is a Mimi album on the shelves.
But for the rest of us, who've been following what passes for a career for Jared Hawkes and Andrea Kerr, it was a blisteringly emotional album that dragged you down and lifted you up, often within a single breath. And so, it was with more than a sigh of relief that news of a long overdue follow up EP was greeted with something approaching emotion 'round my way.
And to a large extent, it's more of the same. Which is a good thing as they've been honing their sound for a good few years now. Andrea once described her music as "getting so angry that you hold your breath and some of it is like feeling such despair that you give up. It's quiet and sad at times, and then it is seething and loud. Its like a child that is much, much too sensitive". And it is still all of these things, although as time has passed, the music has been drawing ever in on itself, until sometimes it feels as though you're being utterly crushed.
The four tracks on this EP - "DNA," "Snakes To Dust," "Black Rabbits," and "Static" are all close cousins of each other, as the otherwordly voice of Andrea swoops in and out of dark, dense, electronic relief. It's "Snakes To Dust" that is the Queen of Queens, as it insinuates itself slowly and seductively. Although there is nothing wrong with believing in fairytales, despite the implicit disapproval in the song. "DNA" runs it a close second, and is the single saddest song I've heard in years as Andrea sings of "I run blood over my arms, And rain soaks my back, So that my mind will now erase. All you were." Sometimes affecting, sometimes just downright scary, but always forcing, compelling you to listen. It's the kind of record that Portishead could only ever dream about making, holding more emotion in a single note than Beth Gibbons could summon up in a lifetime of recording.