EUROPE Almost Unplugged [released 5th October 2009]
CD+DVD: In January 2008 the Swedish rock legends Europe performed a semi-unplugged concert for the first time in their career. The location for this event was Stockholm's famous "Nalen" club. Based on the success of the show the band now decided to release a DVD/CD Europe "Almost Unplugged". During their career the band has sold in excess of 8 Million albums and usually performs in arenas. However at "Nalen" Europe fans experienced an intimate show with never heard before semi-acoustic versions of songs from the band's successful history, spanning more than two decades.
BLANK & JONES / MARK REEDER ReOrdered [released 5th October 2009]
CD: That's the name of one of 2009's most interesting and unique records. On the face of it, it may seem like just another collaboration album. A bunch of songs remixed to squeeze every last drop of sale's potential out of something which has been on the market for months. But that's not the case here. It's not a covers album, it's not a remix album. So what is it? Well, we'll come to that in a moment. First, consider the calibre of the artists involved with this record. No, not the guest vocalists - although the presence of The Cure's Robert Smith, New Order's Bernard Sumner and Anne Clark to name but a handful should already excite enough interest. Blank & Jones has been a well-known blip on the German electronic music radar for more than a decade now. The Cologne-based artists are made up of Piet Blank and Jaspa Jones - both DJs and musicians - with, in the studio, the production plus of Andy Kaufhold, who have a healthy swag of eight LPs and more than 25 singles under their belts since they rode into the national consciousness on the wave of trance back in 1995. Mark Reeder. Described in a recent Smirnoff Wall of Sound documentary as the "Godfather of the Berlin club scene", has turned his hand to pretty much every music industry job going. From humble beginnings working in Manchester's Virgin Records he was there at the very beginning of what became known as the "Madchester" movement and his association with Tony Wilson led to him being Factory Records' "Man in Germany" after his move to Berlin in 1978. Amid extensive touring and remix and production duties, Mark even found time to discover and build up superstar DJ Paul van Dyk for international superstardom and he's remixed Anne Clark, Pet Shop Boys and Die Toten Hosen (among others) along the way. And so the story shifts to re-ordered. So what exactly is it? Mark has taken all the previously released "songs" - ie. vocal tracks - from Blank & Jones' previous output and transformed them into something befitting a musician who cut his musical teeth in the 1980s . Working together with his long-time studio engineer and collaborator Micha Adam, formerly of the techno project House of Usher, they'e come up with an LP worthy of being the debut release on a new label; so80s, a sub-label of Blank & Jones' regular imprint Soundcolours. The record is down-tempo, introverted, one might even say dark. It's not a happy album and not geared for the dancefloor; but it's nevertheless an engaging place to be, highly atmospheric and the re-interprations so well done that each cut sounds completely different from the original. It's a measured, creeping album; its smoky fingers drifting into your mind, carressing your ear drums and making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. A magical record in fact. Mark's arranging and production credentials were never in any doubt; his major achievement here lies in the fact that he has created a solid, credible concept record which, to be blunt, has been patched together from a random selection of someone else's tracks. And it works. One artist provided the foundation, another built on this with talented hands; the results are evidence of what can occur when two highly talented artists go head to head.
NAZARETH Nazareth / Exercises [released 5th October 2009]
CD: Nazareth's first two albums released together for the first time * Beautifully remastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio for the finest sound quality * Packaged in a stylish and sturdy wallet-style digipack 16-page booklet, extensive notes by journalist and author Joel McIver (using brand new interviews with founding members Dan McCafferty and Pete Agnew), photos and memorabilia In 1970, the members of Nazareth - Dan McCafferty, Pete Agnew, Manny Charlton and Darrell Sweet - were persuaded to quit their day jobs in Scotland and move to London. As bassist Agnew recalls: "We thought 'Well, let's give it a year and see how it goes. It might be quite exciting.'" Within three years, they had become one of the foremost rock bands in the UK on the back of the album Razamanaz but prior to this breakthrough, they had produced two very different long LPs, their eponymous 1971 debut and Exercises released the following year. Salvo is delighted to present both albums, newly remastered, on one disc for the first time.
NAZARETH Razamanaz [released 5th October 2009]
CD: Nazareth's classic breakthrough album - a major international hit - bolstered by six bonus cuts * Features the Top Ten UK hit singles Broken Down Angel and Bad Bad Boy * Beautifully remastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio for the finest sound quality * Packaged in a stylish and sturdy wallet-style digipack * 16-page booklet, extensive notes by journalist and author Joel McIver (using new interviews with founding members Dan McCafferty and Pete Agnew), rare photos and memorabilia It's more than three and a half decades since the release of the album regarded by many Nazareth fans as their finest hour. Not only was Broken Down Angel a hit along with the second 45, Bad Bad Boy, the album itself peaked at No. 11 in the UK album charts and refused to budge, with fans flocking to the subsequent live shows. The band themselves had invested a lot of faith in the LP. As Agnew now recalls, "When we put Razamanaz out, we thought 'This is going to be a hit. If it's not, then I don't know what people expect' - but of course it was an instant hit, and it got great reviews. It had two great big singles and that was really the beginning for us: it got the ball rolling."
W.A.S.P Babylon [released 5th October 2009]
CD I PICTURE DISC: W.A.S.P. the multi-platinum US rockers return with their strongest CD to date "Babylon"!! Themed around the biblical visions of "The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse", Blackie Lawless and his crew have created a metal masterpiece that will make fans both old and new craving for more!!
BLAZE BAYLEY The Night That Will Not Die [released 12th October 2009]
2-CD: Blaze Bayley ranks as one of the finest vocalists and frontmen ever to emerge from the European metal scene. With a career spanning WOLFSBANE, IRON MAIDEN and his own band BLAZE", he has sold millions of records worldwide and compiled a formidable body of work that includes three studio albums, a live album, live DVD, and extensive touring over the years that has consolidated his status as one of the top metal acts in the world. The Night That Will Not Die is a double live album that was recorded at Z7 in December 2008. The show was part of 'The Tour That Will Not Die' that ultimately visited Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, France, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Russia and the United Kingdom.
THE WHO Anyway Anyhow Anywhere [out NOW]
DVD+BOOK: • The DVD draws on rare footage of The Who in performance and interviews from around the world given on television, radio and in the press by those who really matter
• The band themselves. Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwhistle produce the most frank and candid inside appraisal of the music of The Who exploring why the music worked and why it didn’t.
• Bonus Feature: Image Gallery
• Subtitles in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Sweden
• The 72-page colour illustrated book features a comprehensive review of the relationship between the band and its critics.
This is the true story of The Who in the words of those who best knew the truth: the band themselves. There is no harsher critic of a band’s output
than the artists themselves, and the members of The Who have always been forthright in their criticism of their own work which has spanned the
decades since the sixties and helped them sell over 100 million records and make them one of the most influential bands in rock history.
ROBERT FRIPP & JEFFREY FAYMAN A Temple In The Clouds [out NOW]
CD: Recorded live from a past life, A Temple In The Clouds evokes a voyage on an ancient mariner vessel bound for what might be the Earth's End. Strange mists rise as we slowly drift upon sparkling seas where sacred primordial ritual meets modern amplified sound. Awash in the hypnotic looping structures of Robert Fripp's guitar soundscapes, Jeffrey Fayman adds an opulent cinematic brilliance to the proceedings, creating an intense and dramatic vision of a future rich in the heritage of Fripp's past. Recorded live from a past life. Nine years in the making, A Temple In The Clouds is a unique collaboration between one of rock's most important and influential guitarists and a contemporary cinematic composer. Fripp's contribution of two hours worth of treated guitar work (his trademark "Frippertronics") formed the basis for Fayman's layering of interwoven electronic soundscapes. Focusing on the subtleties and slight shifts in overtones and harmonics, Fayman and Fripp have created a dynamic musical kaleidoscope, ever changing and intrinsically radiant in each sonic fractal.
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