The latest instalment of Grapefruit’s popular year-by-year overview of the British rock/pop scenes of the 70s. Featuring big hits, intriguing misses and key album tracks from 1974 as well as a clutch of alternative versions and unissued-at-the-time gems. Although 1974 was dominated by the country’s crippling economic woes, the British rock and pop scene continued to flourish. The more creative element of the glam rock spectrum inspired a host of new bands, with Cockney Rebel, Be-Bop Deluxe and Sparks coming through to establish themselves alongside genre heavyweights Roxy Music, T. Rex and Slade. London’s pub rock circuit saw stalwarts Brinsley Schwarz joined by early Ian Dury outfit Kilburn & The High Roads, Ace (who scored a hit single with the timeless ‘How Long’) and Dr. Feelgood, whose aggressive attitude and slashing, guitar-based brand of tough R&B influenced a whole new generation of musicians.

In the post post-punk aftermath, as electronic rhythms and synthesisers began to dominate the landscape, and with industrial godheads Throbbing Gristle now no more, artists across the UK, Europe and the US began to fuse minimal, emerging proto-house music, dark and Gothic tinged aesthetics and the noise and brutality of industrial music to create a hybrid which proved simultaneously cold, alienated and accessible. Taking it's lead from the dark shadows of cold war politics, governmental control, medical gore and a brutalist futuristic vision, this industrial mutation slid comfortably onto dancefloors catering for those for whom Thatcherism, Reaganomics and Eastern Bloc ideologies provided no hope, producing the most unlikely of clubbing scenes.

Battles' John Stanier, Ian Williams, and Dave Konopka always sound psyched to play together, but never more so than on their first entirely instrumental album, La Di Da Di. While vocals – first provided by Tyondai Braxton on their early work and by a host of collaborators on 2011's Gloss Drop – might have seemed necessary to humanize their experimentation, they're not missed on the band's third full-length. If anything, removing them gives the trio's ideas to generate sparks the way they did on Mirrored (particularly on "Tricentennial," which recalls the mischievous alien anthems of their debut) while keeping Gloss Drop's immediacy. Battles' mix of muscular drums and riffs and heady melodies and electronics has never sounded so liberated, whether on "The Yabba," a thrilling seven-minute excursion that sounds more like seven one-minute songs strung together, or on the relatively serene "Luu Le," which uses the same amount of time to close the album with a sun-dappled suite. Here and throughout La Di Da Di, the band sounds mercurial but not chaotic, with an interplay that ebbs and flows like creativity itself.

Now, for the first time ever, “Exposure”, the debut album from Expose, has been digitally remastered and expanded. Originally released in 1987, “Exposure” (US #16) reached gold sales status in the US, re-introduced dance music to US radio stations after nearly a decade, and was responsible for crossing over the Freestyle sound to a broader audience. A total of seven singles were lifted from the album including the blockbuster hits ‘Point Of No Return’ (US #5, 1987), ‘Come Go With Me’ (US #5, 1987), ‘Let Me Be The One’ (US # 7, 1987), and the chart-topping smash ‘Seasons Change’ (US #1, 1987).Expose were the first female group to have four Top 10 singles from a debut album hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This 2 CD deluxe edition features 29 tracks including the original 10-song album alongside 19 bonus tracks, 8 of which appear on CD for the first time.

During the 1960 Chopin Competition, Belgian pianist Michel Block, managed to win the hearts of the audience. Although he didn't win the competition, Rubinstein awarded him a special prize to reward him as a show of appreciation from him and the audience. Block would tour with the greatest figures and recorded successful albums, at some stage departing from his solo career to teach only to make an eventual return to the stage.

The 1950s were fun, the 1960s were wild, and the 1970s were decadent. But the 1980s? The ’80s were big: Big hair; big shoulder pads; big, booming music; and big changes. MTV, compact discs, and digital sampling were brand new, and FM radio blasted the hits of the day to nerds, preppies, and punks alike.

Acid Test and Pink Tank are ecstatic to bring to you the new LP from Arcane Allies – Sunra Oscillations. Based in Germany, their mindset is reflected in their name – Arcane Allies - a mysterious secret to those in the psych hive mind. Arcane Allies are the sound of hypnotic synths and rhythmic propulsion - ethereal infused danceable ecstasy beats that tap into the molecule flow of your body.

Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield were the first songwriters to sign with Al Nevins and Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music. ‘Stupid Cupid’, their initial song for the company, was recorded by Connie Francis. It shot up the charts in 1958 and before long Aldon was the most successful music publisher in the USA, with scores of international hits in their catalogue and a stable of writers that included Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and many of the other top exponents of the day. In 2005, Ken Emerson published his book Always Magic In The Air, in which he chronicled the lives and careers of seven eminent New York-based songwriting duos of the Brill Building era. Here at Ace Records, we launched our songwriter series the previous year with a collection of tracks penned by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the book’s main characters. Since then, the series has expanded to include, amongst many others, six of the writing teams featured by Emerson. With this latest edition, which spotlights the songs of Sedaka and Greenfield, the soundtrack of his book becomes complete.

The one-hit wonder behind the disco novelty smash "Kung Fu Fighting," Carl Douglas was also the first Jamaican-born artist to score a number one single in the United States. Douglas was raised in both California and Jamaica, and eventually moved to England to study sound engineering. In 1964, he formed a group called the Big Stampede, which released a couple of U.K. singles; two years later, he formed the Explosions while living in Spain. Upon returning to England, Douglas teamed up with a band called Gonzales, which quickly led to his becoming a session vocalist for Pye Records. In 1972, Douglas worked with Indian-born producer Biddu on the soundtrack to the Richard Roundtree film Embassy; so, two years later, when Biddu was searching for a vocalist to record the Larry Weiss composition "I Want to Give You My Everything," he contacted Douglas. Needing a quick B-side, Biddu set a melody to some lyrics Douglas had written about the kung fu craze sweeping pop culture courtesy of Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon and David Carradine's TV series Kung Fu.

Four CD set. Demon presents the first official compilation from Tim Burgess celebrating Tim's Listening Party. "I'd done Charlatans listening parties and some solo album listening parties, and as the Twitter followers grew, I'd repeat it and do it again and again. It was maybe about a week before being told that we were going to go into a lockdown before we actually did something. I saw all the TV stuff, all the kind of crazy things that were happening and thought if there's going to be a lockdown, there's going to be something that I can do." As well Tim's Twitter Listening Party, Tim's Listening Party is also a six-part radio and podcast series airing on Sunday nights on Absolute Radio. Available as a 62 track 4CD Deluxe Gatefold set, this brings together 62 highlights from the 1,278 Listening Parties that took place. The parties themselves were an eclectic mix of genres and eras, and the compilation reflects that with Suede, New Order, The Chemical Brothers, Sparks, The Breeders, The Lovely Eggs, John Grant, Joan As Police Woman and The Charlatans. Within the top 100 listening parties, artists reflected on the compilation include Iron Maiden, Liam Gallagher, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, The Libertines, MGMT, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Specials and Belle & Sebastian. The booklet also includes an interview conducted by Danielle Perry with Tim Burgess, detailing the cultural importance of the Listening Party during lockdown.

The scoring of Haydn’s Concertinos for keyboard and an accompaniment of two violins and a cello makes these early works available for performance either as chamber music in a domestic environment or with a string orchestra in the concert hall. They were written either shortly before or during Haydn’s first years in the service of the Esterházy family at Eisenstadt, and make relatively modest technical demands on the soloist, who retains prominence throughout. They are played here on a 19th century fortepiano, accompanied by three string players.

For her new double-album Sol Gabetta teams up with excellent French pianist Betrand Chamayou, with whom she plays sold out concerts in major concert halls. The album features Mendelssohn's complete works for cello and piano and new, short pieces written by famous contemporary composers Wolfgang Rihm, Heinz Holliger, Francisco Coll and Jörg Widman specifically for this album, all of which were inspired by Mendelssohn’s beautiful "Lied ohne Worte, Op. 109." The album was recorded at the famous new Philharmonie de Paris.

For this excellent date, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim performs eight of his compositions with a particularly strong group of players: trombonist Robin Eubanks, John Stubblefield on tenor and flute, Horace Alexander Young switching between soprano, alto and piccolo, Howard Johnson on tuba, baritone and trumpet, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Brian Abrahams. But more important than the individual players are the colorful ensembles and the frequently memorable compositions. Highlights include "African River," "Sweet Samba," "Duke 88" and a beautiful version of "The Wedding".

The CD, unreleased as always, is dedicated to a romantic masterpiece, the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2 in B minor by Antonín Dvořák, played by the Italian virtuoso Miriam Prandi with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the orders of Michele Spotti. The CD is completed by a rarely heard work, the overture Le Roi d'Ys by Édouard Lalo. Unparalleled live recording of the concert in Katowice, December 8, 2023.

“This album will be part of the everlasting impact the Tribe collective had on our culture, on our hope and possibilities.” Herb Boyd. Strut and Art Yard present the first compilation bringing together the modern era recordings of Tribe, Detroit’s acclaimed independent jazz collective.