This is a beautiful selection of arias from Handel’s oratorios composed in the latish 1740s. Each one is a gem and David Daniels again proves himself the leading “operatic” countertenor of our day. He possesses one of the few countertenor voices that might be called “sensual”, not to mention one of the few with any respectable volume. He even puts pressure on it occasionally–as opposed, say, to Drew Minter or Alfred Deller, who aim (aimed) for a diaphonous sound.

–Robert Levine

Conjuratio, Mirare's collection of music by German composer Matthias Weckmann, brings to light a body of work that deserves far greater attention than it has received to date. Weckmann was a student of Heinrich Schutz and rose through the ranks to become one of the leading musicians of Hamburg. He was the organist at two major churches and founded the city's Collegium Musicum. Much of the music heard here, admirably performed by the Ricercar Consort led by Philippe Pierlot, was inspired by Weckmann's experiences associated with a terrible epidemic of plague that decimated Hamburg in 1663. Among its victims were his wife and many friends and colleagues. These tragic events inspired him to write inspired works that evoke images of desolation and destruction, but also struggle and hope.

In the Original Masters box dedicated to him, DG brought together Rare Recordings from the period 1963 to 1974 that restore to the catalogue many works and offer some for the first time on CD. Among the first releases on CD are two piano concertos (nos. 2 and 5) by Alexander Tcherepnin, with the composer as soloist; and the Second Violin Concerto by Jean Martinon, with Henryk Szeryng. Also Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Eighth Symphony and short works by Stravinsky and Weber.

In large part a reworking of Jerry Goldsmith's rejected score for the sci-fi thriller Alien Nation, The Russia House proves a far more potent effort than its mongrel pedigree may suggest. Despite the film's Soviet Union setting, Goldsmith largely eschews Russian musical conventions in favor of a taut, suspenseful approach utterly American in its orientation. Combining sleek electronics with a jazz trio led by saxophonist Branford Marsalis, the composer creates a series of mysterious, archly sophisticated themes simmering with tension. In short, with The Russia House Goldsmith effectively updates the classic espionage formula for the digital era, composing a score as vital and innovative as any in his long and distinguished career. It's an unexpected and under-recognized masterpiece.

Billy Bragg - Live At The Union Chapel London (2014) {CD+DVD9 NTSC Cooking Vinyl COOKCD601}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 408 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 161 Mb
DVD9 -> 7.14 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 16:9 | Dolby AC3, 6 ch / LPCM, 2 ch | ~ 151 min | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 175 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Billy Bragg / Cooking Vinyl | COOKCD601
Alternative Folk / Folk / Folk Rock / Singer/Songwriter / Urban Folk / Anti-Folk

If you weren’t fortunate enough to make it to this concert - or even if you were - this has to be one of Billy’s best gigs and one of the best documented. None of that holding your mobile over your head and annoying everyone else behind you, then missing it all and having a wobbly, screechy video that no one wants to see again. This is a multi-camera epic recorded in stunning 5.1 surround sound make you feel like you were sat in seat 3B and that if you shout ‘Play A New England’ loud enough, Billy might hear you - he’d still ignore you but it’s the thought that counts.

On their second album, Uriah Heep jettisons the experiments that weighed down Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble and works toward perfecting their blend of heavy metal power and prog rock complexity. Salisbury tips the band's style in the prog direction, containing one side of songs and one side dominated by a lengthy and ornate epic-length composition…

R.L. Boyce’s Hill Country Blues is effortlessly transcendent and mesmerizing. Capturing the juke-joint, moonshine fuelled, picnic party life of Como, Mississippi, Boyce takes the listener through Saturday night and over that fine line that separates it from Sunday morning. This is god-fearing music on Mississippi terms.

In an odd twist on the way these things usually work, this U.K. release is a CD reissue of the Bachelors' first American album, Presenting: The Bachelors, with the addition of seven tracks that appeared on non-LP singles in 1963 and 1964 in Britain. The format might be something of an excuse to round up and repackage the Bachelors' earliest recordings, but if that's what you want, this reissue does a good job of it. The Presenting: The Bachelors LP itself only differed a little from their first U.K. album, the big difference – and one that helped the quality of the record – being the addition of "Diane," a U.K. chart-topper that was by far their biggest hit in the U.S. (where it reached the Top Ten), and its follow-up single "I Believe."