As they evolved in the 1980s, retrospective box sets tended to contain a full complement of an artist's essential recordings, plus enough rarities to suggest the artist's inspirations and ambitions. Not all box sets conformed to this outline, however. Barbra Streisand was unusual, in that she had a large base of devoted fans interested in the minutiae of her career, and in that her entire recorded catalog remained in print. She had also worked with the same record company for her entire career and maintained her status as a frontline artist …

"The Defenders of the Faith have returned. The sky boils and echoes with a relentless thunderstorm. Inside the temple, Slaughter Lord, Sacrilege, R.U. Dead?, Mefisto, Vulpecula, Nepenthe, and Dokken are being venerated with reverential care and respect. As the ceremony begins, a solitary soul climbs the ancient stone stairs and slowly opens the imposing oaken doors. As they creak on their old iron hinges, sweeping down from behind the altar, across the transept, nave and narthex comes the sweet sound of Armageddon… Veneration unites the music of seven bands through eight meticulously crafted covers, and like the voice of your favorite old patch vest, traces the historical continuity between multiple sub-genres of our common musical faith - from classic Heavy Metal up to the commanding heights of Thrash, and back down into the darkest depths of Death Metal. Come to the veneration and profess your faith."

Shades of Dawn (Vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass & drums) is a German Progressive rock band, from Düsseldorf. Its musicians develop some sophisticated music with elegant melodies, enlightened by muffled chords displayed by the two keyboards players. The precious vocals evoke those of Premiata Forneria Marconi, whereas the finesse of the arrangements, the airborne and Steve Hackett-like soarings on guitar, the refined lyricism of the songs, melodies often remind of post-Gabriel Genesis. The band also likes to emerge with complex instrumental passages, with a Camel-like subtlety…

Muse have stormed into the public eye in recent years with albums offering an onslaught of guitars, keys and drum riffs that hark back to the days of 1970s prog-rock. Hullaballo shows them at their best, within an energetic live performance of the kind that first drew them to the public and media's attention. Filmed towards the end of their intense 2001 tour at Le Zenith, Paris, this gig is full of high-powered chords and dramatic instrument torture as the lads pump through songs from their three albums including tracks from the B-side album Hullaballo, released to coincide with the DVD.

Vladimir Spivakov belonged to the same artistic tradition established by Leopold Auer, and even it might be said he was the true inheritor of the crown afetr Oistrakh and Kogan in which majestic tune, virile temperament and dazzling technique.

Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas For Two Guitars
Jan Sommer / Per Dybro
EAC+LOG+CUE | WV: 271 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Scandinavian Classics # 220572 | Country/Year: Europe 2003
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Guitar

…Well engineered, with production values that emphasize clarity and separation, this recording is highly recommended to all classical guitar students and fans, as well as anyone who appreciates baroque music in general and Scarlatti's music specifically.

This release may have something to do with the revival of the label after the death of its founder, for the recording, begun in 2000, was finally finished last year. We should be grateful for the persistence, since Crawford Young’s interest in the Ars Subtilior, Angelorum psalat tripudium , which opens the program, engaged Young so completely that he wrote an article about it in Ricercare recently. Young’s scholarly credentials may be judged by the fact that an important article by Yolanda Plumley in Early Music History No. 22 (2003) cites two of his earlier Arcana recordings. Plumley was writing about the patronage of French princes, and her article was a peek into her work on the commentary and facsimile of Codex Chantilly that appeared two years ago. The subtitle of the disc wraps up all of this as “the avant-garde of John Duke of Berry.”

Jane - Live At Home
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 396 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Brain # 833 612-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1992, 1976
Genre: Rock | Style: Progressive Rock, Krautrock

Jane were a German progressive rock outfit who recorded for the legendary Brain imprint in the early and mid-‘70s. While more feted label mates like Cluster and Neu! favored austere ambient experiments and driving minimalism, Jane delighted in ambitious displays of their instrumental virtuosity. LIVE AT HOME was recorded in 1976 and features darkly progressive psychedelia that blends doomy, Sabbath- derived riffs with Hawkind-like psychedelia and free form improvisational excursions.

Originally recorded in 1996 and long bootlegged before its official vinyl release in 2007 on Japan’s now-disappeared Leaf Hound Records, it’s not until some 15 years later that Church of Misery’s first album, Vol. 1, is seeing a legitimate CD release.

Tosca was revived to great acclaim at La Scala in this 2000 production, which built on Luca Ronconi's 1996 version with musical direction from principal conductor Riccardo Muti and Lorenza Cantini's nightmarishly distorted set. Puccini's most recorded opera is loved and derided in equal measure for its high-octane dramatics, rich arias and the fire-spitting exchanges of the eponymous heroine and her wily tormentor Scarpia. Under Muti, the music takes precedence over the self-conscious theatricality of the book. As a result, some high dramatic points–the stabbing, always tricky, and Tosca's suicide, equally dicey–are underplayed here…

La Fundicion is arranger and composer Javier Crespo (electric, acoustic and spanish guitars) and Patxi Pascual (saxes, flute and EWI).