"This Is It: The Best of Melba Moore" is an excellent overview of Moore's peak years, containing all of the hits she had in the '80s on EMI America and Capitol Records. Over the course of 18 tracks, all of her Top Ten R&B hits from the decade - "Love's Comin' at Ya," "Livin' for Your Love," "Love the One I'm With (A Lot of Love)," "A Little Bit More," "Falling," "It's Been So Long" - are featured, along with some good minor hits and album tracks. Some casual fans might find 18 tracks a bit much, but there's no question that this is the definitive summation of Moore's hitmaking years.

This new version by the greatly-gifted young Hungarian pianist Zoltan Kocsis, again vindicates the contention that The Art of Fugue makes its best effect as a keyboard work, even if on a modern piano. For Kocsis Bach's intellectual and technical demands seem to pose no problems: his exposition of the polyphonic conversation, whether, two, three or four participants are involved, is always admirably lucid and enables each voice to have its say. This is no doubt helped by the rather dry quality of the Hungaroton/ Philips recording on LP (the CD is appreciably fuller and brighter), and by Kocsis's very discreet use of the sustaining pedal.

After only two full length releases and two EP's, Magenta recorded their first live concert DVD. The DVD features a full concert performance, filmed and recorded in a small venue with high quality audio and visuals. Suitably entitled The Gathering, the set list featured on this DVD gathers together the very best tracks from these early releases…

Secret Messages is the tenth studio album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in 1983 through Jet Records. It was the last ELO album with bass guitarist Kelly Groucutt, conductor Louis Clark, and real stringed instruments, and the last ELO album to be released on Jet Records. It was also the final ELO studio album to become a worldwide top 40 hit upon release.

While the City Sleeps… is the 1986 studio album of George Benson on Warner Bros.. It features musicians like Paulinho da Costa, Preston Glass, Paul Jackson, Jr., Marcus Miller and Narada Michael Walden (as drummer and producer), alongside young talents of the time like Kenny G, Randy Jackson and Kashif. It's part of the "series" of 1980s pop albums Benson recorded. Though it doesn't have any instrumental tracks, Benson's guitar playing is somewhat in the headlight in songs like "Love Is Here Tonight", "Teaser" and "Too Many Times". Beside being the most successful single, "Kisses in the Moonlight" is still frequently played by Benson at live performances.

Alia Mvsica - Bestario de Cristo (Animal symbolism in religious music of 13th-century Spain)
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 300 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi Iberico # HMI 987033 | Country/Year: Spain 2003
Genre: Classical | Style: Medieval, Sacred

…So for most of us, just listening to the lively, polished performances by male and female singers, accompanied by various period instruments will be enjoyment enough–but for the more curious, the extensive and very well written liner notes offer a fine introduction to the deeper meaning of the texts and provide important context for each song. Four instrumental selections round out this flawlessly recorded program, enhanced by the ambience of the Spanish monastery venue.

Charles Ives - Complete Music For String Quartet
Leipziger Streichquartett / Steffen Schleiermacher / Yeon-Hee Kwak / Ingo Goritzki
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 291 MB | Full Artwork: 122 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 307 1143-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2002
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century

Charles Edward Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though his music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, he came to be regarded as an "American original". Ives combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music, and was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century…