The funky, post-punky, always danceable !!! show no signs of slowing down on their sixth album, As If. Their last record, Thr!!!er, lived up to its title and this record is all-thriller, no-filler too, jammed with songs that almost dare the listener not to dance. Recorded and produced by the band with help from James Ford, Jim Eno, Ewan Pearson, Chris Coady, and Chris Woodhouse, and culled from an intense session of songwriting done by driving force Nic Offer and bassist Rafael Cohen, the album was recorded in studios around America. Despite the various locales and collaborators involved, the album is focused and tight as it deals out pounding grooves and thundering basslines. Add in wire-tight guitar, wobbling old synths, and Offer's unhinged vocals and it's vintage !!! with a little extra energy added…

Munich’s new Ballo in maschera has received much critical acclaim: ‘This production shows what a utopia opera can be’ (Abendzeitung). Ten years after stepping down as music director of the Bavarian State Opera, Zubin Mehta returned to Munich in March 2016 to celebrate his 80th birthday conducting Verdi’s masterpiece for the first time in a staged production. His cast features some of today’s finest Verdi singers: soprano Anja Harteros, singing Amelia for the first time and ‘filling every note with Verdian intensity’, tenor Piotr Beczala as a ‘visually and vocally dashing Riccardo’ and George Petean as an ‘exemplary’ Renato (Neue Musikzeitung).

This 1979 recording is probably Afro-experimentalist Vasconcelos' finest. It presents his various facets – berimbao playing, intricate overlain vocals, fine percussion, even gorgeous guitar – simply and almost overwhelmingly. This is one of those performances that remind one to never let natural dogmatism get too out of hand.

This two-album set features British cello concertos from Raphael Wallfisch’s best late-1980s recordings. He has always worked closely with leading British composers of our time and is now regarded as the finest performer of their works for cello. As International Record Review asserted, ‘no British cellist has done more to advocate British composers than Raphael Wallfisch… [His] playing evinces that attention to detail, tonal finesse and understated conviction which has long made him an exponent of new and unfamiliar music.’ Those works are probably among the finest of the twentieth-century British repertoire. The original recordings won enthusiastic reviews, helped by such champions of British composers as Vernon Handley, Norman Del Mar, and Bryden Thomson, here conducting top British orchestras such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and London Philharmonic.

Critically acclaimed as one of the best records ever, 1974 Robert Wyatt’s masterpiece has been re-arranged by Craig Fortnam for his amazing North Sea Radio Orchestra. Featuring long time Wyatt’s collaborator and Henry Cow founder John Greaves on bass guitar and vocals and the amazing vocalist Annie Barbazza as lead singer: this is a hearfelt, fantastic tribute to Robert Wyatt’s music.

Alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett is the star attraction, although this is nominally drummer Mike Clark's album. Clark does have a strong, extensive solo on the title track and plays with purpose and direction throughout, but it's Garrett who emerges as the date's finest player.

This CD is more jazz-oriented than most of Bob James' recordings and even takes chances in a few spots. The tunes, mostly by James, contain several strong melodies, including a tribute piece for Sarah Vaughan; among the sidemen are guitarist Lee Ritenour, Kirk Whalum on tenor and soprano, and (in a guest spot) tenor great Michael Brecker. The results overall are still poppish in places, but the diverse instrumentation, which changes from song to song, and the wide range of moods covered make this release of great interest.

Love Me or Leave Me was one of Doris Day's greatest, and least likely, successes. Coming out of a string of light movie musicals, she turned in a dramatic performance in this film biography of singer Ruth Etting. She looked nothing like Etting and made no attempt to sound like her, either. But since Etting's recordings of the 1920s and '30s were long out of print and she made only a few films, that was less of a problem than it would have been for a performer whose voice and appearance were better preserved and available. The film was a popular and critical success, but the soundtrack, consisting entirely of Day's renditions of Etting signature songs like the title tune and "Ten Cents Dance," plus a couple of newly written songs, was a blockbuster, spending months at the top of the charts and becoming far and away the best selling of the relatively new 12" LPs of 1955…

Released in a cardboard sleeve with German magazine "Eclipsed" no. 200 May 2018. Arena, Opeth, Izz, Mogwai and others.