Wednesday's Forthcoming Releases [Part I]

KATY PERRY ‘MTV: Unplugged’ [Release Date 16/11/2009]

CD/DVD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489586

Coming off her third No. 1 single, 'Waking Up in Vegas', multi-platinum Capitol singer-songwriter Katy Perry is set to put her unique signature on yet another defining signpost of global pop culture, releasing her upcoming appearance on 'MTV: Unplugged' in CD + DVD set in one package on November 16, 2009.

Recorded live in New York on July 22, 2009, Katy presents some of her most well-known songs in a whole new way, performing unplugged re-arrangements of her No. 1 hits 'I Kissed A Girl' and 'Waking Up In Vegas', along with the No. 1 video hit 'Thinking Of You,' and the popular tracks 'Ur So Gay' and 'Lost' from her debut album 'One Of The Boys', which has now sold five million worldwide.

The 'MTV: Unplugged' set list is rounded out with two brand-new tracks, a cover of the Fountains of Wayne song 'Hackensack', and the never before released original song 'Brick By Brick'. The DVD release also features exclusive interview footage.

In this appearance, Katy Perry joins a distinguished roster of MTV: Unplugged performers, memorably including Eric Clapton, whose 1992 program featured 'Tears in Heaven' and 'Layla' and won six Grammys, among them Album of the Year, Tony Bennett, who won Grammy's Album of the Year for his 1994 appearance, Nirvana and others.

Katy Perry is only the fourth artist in history to have 4 hit singles, 3 of which went to No. 1 from a debut album. Katy’s first two single releases, the seven-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 'I Kissed a Girl' and the No. 1 mainstream top 40 radio hit 'Hot N Cold', are RIAA-certified for triple-platinum sales. 'One Of The Boys' also includes the #1 VH-1 Countdown ballad hit 'Thinking of You'. Katy Perry is a Brit Award and MTV Europe Music Award winner, and is also a Grammy Award, MTV Video Music Award and Teen Choice Award nominee.

 

BOYZ II MEN ‘Motown Live: A Journey Through Hitsville USA’ [Release Date 16/11/2009]

DVD:    http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489576

Recorded during their 2008 World Tour at The House Of Blues, Atlantic City on July 17, 2008. Live show jam packed full of hits, featuring the Motown hits 'The Track Of My Tears', 'Just My Imagination (Running Away From Me)', 'Mercy Mercy Me', 'War', 'It's The Same Old Song' and more.... Plus! The classic Boyz II Men collection including 'I'll Make Love To You', 'Motownphilly', 'End Of The Road' (featuring a guest appearance from Brian McKnight).

JAMIE CULLUM ‘The Pursuit’ [Release Date 16/11/2009]

CD/DVD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489578

The UK's favourite jazz man and vocalist Jamie Cullum, returns with his third and best album to date, 'The Pursuit'.

The album is packed with catchy tracks spanning across the pop, hip hop and jazz genres. Including the lead single 'I'm All Over It', an outstanding take of Rihanna's 'Don't Stop The Music' and the spectacular ballad 'Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down' as well as many more. Jamie Cullum's 'The Pursuit' is by far the must-have album this winter.

A special CD/DVD deluxe edition of his new album released one week earlier. The DVD includes performances from Montreux Festival, Sonar Festival and the North Sea Festival as well as a behind the scenes section.

TAYLOR SWIFT ‘Fearless’ [Release Date 16/11/2009]

CD/DVD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489579

New Platinum Edition Version of her hit album  'Fearless', features 'You Belong With Me' and 'You're Not Sorry' as well as 'White Horse' and her debut UK single 'Love Story'. Now available as a CD/DVD set with 6 extra tracks and a DVD including 5 videos, behind the scenes and photo gallery.

JAMES BROWN ‘Live At The Garden’ [Release Date 16/11/2009]

2CD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489580

Smack in the middle of James Brown's extensive catalogue is a nearly forgotten release from May 1967: 'Live At The Garden'. That LP, once overshadowed by Brown's landmark album 'Live At The Apollo', is obscure no more: Hip-oSelect.com now tears the roof the sucker to reveal the original show – actually recorded at the famed Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ – on the 2-CD set 'Live At The Garden: Expanded Edition'. The collection's unreleased material, newly mixed from the original fourtrack master tapes, captures the raw excitement of the James Brown Experience circa January '67. The collection also includes a remastered version of the original mono album, with its fake applause and overdubbed arenaambience left intact; it is now on U.S. CD for the first time.

This Expanded Edition features two hours of straight-ahead JB, in a setting unique to his other live albums – a nightclub rather than a theatre or arena. Included is the opening instrumental set, with the boss leading his incredible band from behind the organ, including 10 minutes of 'Night Train', and, for the first time, the full Star Time portion of the show – highlighted by an unedited version of 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag', tracks left off the LP including 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World' and 'Come Rain Or Come Shine', and some alternate versions of what was included on the album.

Closing Disc Two is the full version of the hit single 'Let Yourself Go', plus a revealing instrumental warm-up, recorded in an empty Casino after one of the shows that weekend. (It had been included on the LP with more of the fake applause.)

Alan Leeds, a former Brown employee and Grammy® Award winner who's also the set's co-producer, lays out the whole story in a fascinating essay. The 24-page booklet also contains show memorabilia, rare photos, and a roster of the tour staff that winter. The Expanded Edition cover art is a slightly tweaked version of the original cover – a fitting souvenir of a great night from the never-ending James Brown Experience.

RYUICHI SAKAMOTO ‘Playing The Piano’ [Release Date 16/11/2009]

CD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489581

2CD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489582

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a giant of 20th Century music. A composer whose work has crossed nearly every genre conceivable, from film scores (most notably to 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence' and 'The Last Emperor') to the prototype Electronica of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, he is also a massively in-demand performer throughout the world.

'Playing The Piano' presents the best known of Sakamoto's compositions, performed by the composer on solo piano. Recorded in the immaculate setting of Sony's Tokyo recording studio, 'Playing The Piano' is an accessible and beautiful package which includes some of the best known music written over the last 30 years.

In addition to the CD edition of this album, a special limited edition 2CD set is also available, featuring the brand new record 'Out Of Noise'. 'Out Of Noise' presents a set of Sakamoto's current compositions, which range from pieces for solo piano to pieces that incorporate found sounds and electronic soundscapes (including in one instance, the sound of the melting Arctic ocean).

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB ‘Live’ [Release Date 23/11/2009]

1CD/2DVD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489583

The DVD features over two hours of live concert footage from three sold out shows in Berlin, Dublin and Glasgow. The footage documents the end of the band's 2007 tour in support of 'Baby 81'. Directed and edited by Tessa Angus with live audio mixed by BRMC's own Peter Hayes, the gritty cinematography keeps the band's music front and centre while viewers experience the show both from the stage and from the audience's perspective. 

Over ninety minutes of unadorned, intimate behind-the-scenes footage is captured on the second bonus DVD along with additional performance footage. Viewers accompany BRMC as they record songs from 'Howl', see the making of the 'Weapon of Choice' video, and witness inspired, impromptu off-stage performances.

The package is rounded out by a bonus audio CD featuring 14 songs from the concert film and a gorgeous 48-page booklet of previously unseen backstage and candid photos of the band.

The Los Angeles, CA-based group is currently at The Station House studio in Hollywood finishing work on their fifth studio album. Pre-production was completed in Philadelphia, PA at the same studio the where band recorded 'Howl'. This will be the band's first recording with drummer Leah Shapiro and is expected to have a March 2010 release. 

"We lived and breathed this record for six months throughout one of the coldest winters we'd ever known,” said BRMC’s Robert Levon Been. “Every track on there was practically frozen to our bones, and chipped off one sliver at a time. We recorded in the same house in Philadelphia that we began working 'Howl' in, but this time things were different. Having Leah behind the drums injected a lot of new fuel into the band. Right now I can't fully describe what the record sounds like to people because I'm still too inside of it. But we're really proud of this thing we've created, and someday I think it will speak for itself."

JAMIE T ‘The Man's Machine’ [Release Date 23/11/2009]

C5:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489584

12”:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489585

Following the release of his critically-acclaimed, number 2 debuting second album 'Kings And Queens', Jamie T is set to release the EP 'The Man's Machine' on November 23rd. Available on CD and 12" - the third cut to be taken from 'Kings And Queens' - 'The Man's Machine' EP will come backed with three new original tracks; 'Jenny Can't Rely On Me', 'Man Not A Monster' and 'Believing In Things That Can't Be Done'.

NORAH JONES ‘The Fall’ [Release Date 16/11/2009]

CD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489587

2CD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489589

LP:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489590

"Deliciously gothic blues" **** - Q

“Bolder, more individual...Norah is her own woman.” **** - Uncut

"Norah Jones has moved on. Her imagination's flying" **** - MOJO

Since coming on the scene in 2002, Jones has sold a collective 36 million albums worldwide. Her three studio albums, 2002's eight-time Grammy Award-winning 'Come Away With Me', 2004's 'Feels Like Home', and 2007's 'Not Too Late' have each topped the Billboard top 200 album charts in the U.S. and gone to No. 1 around the world. All three have been certified multi-platinum, while 'Come Away With Me' has been certified diamond.

On her new album, 'The Fall', Jones has teamed up with the producer behind the Kings of Leon albums, Jacquire King, and although it still remains unmistakably her sound, it moves slightly away from from the sultry jazz sounds and gives an added emphasis on rhythm, bringing her own guitar playing front and center in the sound.

BRYAN FERRY ‘The Best Of’ [Release Date 23/11/2009]

CD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489591

CD/DVD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489592

Virgin Records are proud to release The Best Of Bryan Ferry as a standard CD and a Special Edition CD/DVD on 23rd November.

The single CD release features 19 classic singles plus 2 brand new bonus tracks exclusive to this collection, an alternate piano version of 'A Fool For You' and a newly recorded cover of the Drifters / Dusty Springfield classic 'I Don't Want To Go On Without You'. The Special Edition 2 disc CD/DVD release presents all the stunning Bryan Ferry music videos from an incredible career alongside live television appearances and bonus footage. The Best of Bryan Ferry is a must-have release for both long-term and new fans, and a perfect music gift for Christmas.

UB40 ‘Best Of Labour Of Love’ [Release Date 23/11/2009]

CD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489593

CD/DVD:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489594

UB40, one of the most successful groups of all-time, release a compilation from their hugely popular and much-loved tributes to Reggae music, the Labour Of Love series.

Having sold in their millions, now, for the first time, the best of this classic series is available on one CD. All the songs on the album are testament to the band's love affair with Jamaican music, and as an additional treat, 'Best Of Labour Of Love' will include two bonus tracks taken from the fourth instalment, 'Labour Of Love IV', which will be released in the new year.  ‘Best Of Labour Of Love' will be available in two formats: a single CD version, and a CD/bonus DVD, which will include the original music videos from 'Labour Of Love I, II & III'.

 

Electro Pioneers, living legends and globally revered masters of electronic sound, Kraftwerk celebrate the 35th anniversary of their landmark 1974 hit 'Autobahn' by releasing digitally remastered versions of eight astounding albums on 5th October 2009.

In 2009 Kraftwerk have upgraded their Kling Klang masters with the latest studio technology and these eight magnificent recordings are re-released on heavyweight vinyl LP, as individual CDs and as a deluxe 8-CD Box Set which all feature newly restored and expanded artwork.

* Autobahn:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489595

With its iconic Emil Schult sleeve, Kraftwerk release their international breakthrough album. The symphonic title track, an epic ode to the joys of motorway travel, wraps a mesmerising motorik rhythm around a sampled collage of car horns, engine noise, whirring tyres and radio crackle. In edited form, it becomes a revolutionary hit single around the world.

Elsewhere, in wordless industrial folk music, the band reveal both their light and dark sides – ‘Mitternacht’ is all creeping midnight shadows, while ‘Morgenspaziergang’ is fresh with morning dew and birdsong. Two versions of ‘Kometenmelodie’, one a starkly gothic prowl, the other a sunny electro boogie, provide further instrumental sound paintings. Pure and strong and bold, Kraftwerk compose cinema for the ears. The pop world falls in love with them.

* Radio-Activity:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489596

Kraftwerk embrace the atomic age with mixed emotions. Surfing on sine waves, scanning the stratosphere for stray radio signals, they plug themselves into a buzzing grid of energy and communication. From the stately eco-angst anthem ‘Radioactivity’ to the synthetic Gregorian chants of ‘Radio Stars’ and the melancholy machine processional of ‘Ohm Sweet Ohm’, a sombre but engrossing monumentalism dominates.

With heavily processed vocals in both German and English, Kraftwerk go global with depth and majesty. If factories and power stations are the new cathedrals, they write liturgies for a new industrial epoch.

* Trans Europe Express:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489597

Kraftwerk celebrate Europe's romantic past and shimmering future with a glistening panorama of elegance and decadence, travel and technology. The infinite vistas of ‘Europe Endless’ and ‘Endless Endless’ bookend the album, which includes the unsettling Kafka-esque fable ‘The Hall Of Mirrors’ and the hilarious ‘Showroom Dummies’ - Kraftwerk's elegantly ironic reply to critiques of their deadpan manner.

But it is the streamlined rhythmic locomotive of ‘Trans Europe Express’ which dominates with its doppler-effect melodic swerves and hypnotic, pneumatic, piston-pumping rhythm. Along with its sister track, ‘Metal On Metal’ which New York DJ Afrika Bambaataa would re-construct five years later for his own seminal ‘Planet Rock’, this milestone in avant-pop modernism later becomes a crucial influence on the early pioneers of hip-hop & sampling, electro and industrial music. Poetry in motion.

* The Man Machine:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489598

A bold new look, sound and concept for Kraftwerk. Over supple processed rhythms which predate the rise of European techno and trance, they address automation and alienation, space travel and engineering, the seductive allure of urban landscapes and the vacant glamour of celebrity. Clipped and funky, ‘The Robots’ adds another dimension to Kraftwerk's ultra-dry sense of humour. Behind its intoxicating melodic pulse, ‘The Model’ is a highly prophetic satire on the beauty industry, so ahead of its time that it only becomes a UK chart-topper by accident three years later. And ‘Neon Lights’ is Kraftwerk's most achingly romantic song to date, a sci-fi lullaby for cities at twilight. Pure magic.

* Computer World:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489599

Kraftwerk beam themselves into the future by writing about home computers, online dating and globalised electronic surveillance years before these phenomena truly come into being. A journey into the bright hopes and dark fears of the booming microchip revolution, ‘Computer World’ is a serenely beautiful and almost seamless collage of sensual melodies and liquid beatscapes. Tracks like ‘Numbers’ and ‘Pocket Calculator’, with their weightless bleeps and elastic beats, predict the silky rhythms of Chicago house and inspire a generation of Detroit techno artists. Kraftwerk's fanfare for the silicon age still sounds ageless, timeless and throbbing with invention.

* Techno Pop:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489600

Kraftwerk return from five years of silence to reclaim their throne as leaders of a machine-pop revolution that they themselves began over a decade before. Their ‘Techno Pop’ album, first released under the name ‘Electric Café’ but now restored to its originally intended title, provides a 360-degree overview of a multi-lingual, multi-channel, musically diverse global village.

From the block-rocking beats of ‘Boing Boom Tschack’ to the electronic funk and computer animation of ‘Musique Non Stop’, Kraftwerk soar into the digital age. Their first excursion into digital recording finds both beauty and unease in a polyglot world of permanent media overload. Once again, Dusseldorf’s test pilots of the musical future effortlessly break new ground.

* The Mix:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489601

Kraftwerk's first fully digital album confirmed their clubland credentials and reworked 11 of their best-loved tunes for a new generation. Painstakingly reconstructed and sequenced in the band's Kling Klang studio, new versions of tracks like ‘The Robots’, ‘Trans Europe Express’ and ‘Home Computer’ now feature more funky rhythms and cleaned-up, liquid-crystal sounds. A stark warning about pollution at Sellafield is added to the glistening overhaul of ‘Radioactivity’, sparking a war of words with British Nuclear Fuels. But most of all, ‘The Mix’ is a career-spanning collection of legendary electro anthems and a classy acknowledgment of the two-way traffic between Kraftwerk and club culture.

* Tour De France:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=489602

The year 2003 marked the centenary of the Tour de France, the conceptual starting line for Kraftwerk's first album for over a decade. Although it features an immaculate new version of a 20-year-old former single, the exquisitely graceful ‘Tour de France’, pop nostalgia is not on the menu. From the chunky cyber-funk of ‘Vitamin’ to the restless metallic shimmers of ’Aéro Dynamik’, this is emphatically the sound of 21st century techno visionaries.

 

KRAFTWERK ‘The Catalogue’ [Release Date 16/11/2009]

BOX:   http://991.com/Buy/ProductInformation.aspx?StockNumber=482851

This Deluxe Box Set (in a 12" x 12" sized box) contains all eight albums on CD in exclusive "mini-vinyl" style card wallet packaging, plus large format versions of each album booklet (12 to 20 pages).