Kurt Maloo (ex Double, Troppo, PingPong) surprises with a refreshingly straight new album. His voice obviously feels comfortable in the slender arrangements, that work perfectly and rely on just a few basic instruments like guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. Although Kurt’s guitar definitely plays the main role in this production. You will hear familiar sounds (Drama Queen, Come Over Here, What About) without having a deja-vu, as well as two rocking tracks (Tumbling Skies, Sometimes Easy), which you might have not expected on a Maloo album in the first place. „Never Give Up“ though, is one of two dance tracks, that’s being chased to the fade out by Kurt’s funky guitar. When it’s over way too soon you have no other choice than to put it on repeat.

They appeared out of nowhere, as if they were transported from a parallel universe wherein blue-eyed soul was seen as rock & roll's salvation in the late ‘80s. Like-minded groups like Johnny Hates Jazz, Waterfront, Living in a Box, and Curiosity Killed the Cat all debuted and disappeared at the same time. Of the four, Curiosity Killed the Cat leaned more toward the teen girl population that hung "Smash Hits" posters on their bedroom walls…

After the seven-year gap between 1990's Jordan: The Comeback and 1997's Andromeda Heights, many Prefab Sprout fans were surprised by the comparatively brief four years between that album and 2001's The Gunman and Other Stories. The album holds other surprises for the longtime Prefab Sprout fan; for one thing, backing vocalist Wendy Smith is absent, having left the group after the birth of her first child, and for another, it's a Western-themed concept album. Actually, though, this last shouldn't be too surprising, as singer/songwriter Paddy McAloon has had a thing for the American West as far back as the 1984 single "Don't Sing," and has always shown a love of traditional country music, as on Prefab Sprout's 1985 cover of Jim Reeves' "He'll Have to Go."

This album, originally released on Verve Forecast in 2009, is a collection of new songs related to summer and it's influence on Kurt Maloo's songwriting. A fresh combination of jazzy melodies and light grooves, that carry his distinctive, soothing voice. Kurt Maloo is a former painter who made his first musical appearances in the mid 70s with “Troppo”; a nine-piece experimental art-punk band, of which he was a founding member. After his first solo single “Giant Lady” and the innovative EP “Luna, Luna & The Notorious Maloo Home Works“ he joined forces with Felix Haug (later 50% of Double), and formed with the addition of a bass player a trio called “PingPong”. During the 1981-1982 period they played at several European festivals and released their sole album “From Exile.”

Ten Sharp is a Dutch band, sometimes labeled as a one-hit wonder group, because they are best known for their early 1990s hit song "You", a hit in some European countries in 1991 and in others (such as the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 10) in 1992. The two band members are Marcel Kapteijn (vocals) and Niels Hermes (keyboards). On May 13 of 2000, the band released a compilation album with 5 new songs. The singles Beautiful and Everything were released for this album. The hit single 'Beautiful' was number one on the Argentinean charts.

Protest Songs was recorded by Prefab Sprout in 1985 in the wake of the masterful Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good, but shelved in favor of the subsequent From Langley Park to Memphis; it finally surfaced to little fanfare in 1989, appearing almost as mysteriously as it was abandoned four years earlier. It's a wonderful record, but perhaps too close in sound and spirit to Steve McQueen for comfort – From Langley Park, for all its flaws, is a much more adventurous effort, and with the benefit of hindsight, it seems reasonable to assume that Paddy McAloon wished not to stick with the tried-and-true but instead attempt something new and different, successful or not.

Paddy McAloon had not yet found the key to the elegant compositions that made Prefab Sprout distinctive when it came time to record their debut, Swoon. He certainly tries hard to make his sophisticated contemporary pop sound distinctive, but the problem is that he does too many things at once – the lyrics are overstuffed, and the music has too many chord changes and weird juxtapositions, as he tries to put white-funk beats to carefully crafted melodies. A few moments work, such as "Couldn't Bear to Be Special," but Swoon is primarily of interest as a historical item, since it only suggests the promise the band later filled.

Here's Some That Got Away is the second compilation album by The Style Council, released in 1993. As the album cover states, the album contains rarities such as demos and B-sides, many of them previously unreleased. It follows 1992's Extras, featuring rarities by Paul Weller's previous band The Jam. The album is something of a sister album to The Singular Adventures of The Style Council, the band's 1989 singles compilation.

Hooking up with regular Madonna collaborator Patrick Leonard as the co-producer of this album proved to be just the trick for Ferry. Bete Noire sparkles as the highlight of Ferry's post-Roxy solo career, adding enough energy to make it more than Boys and Girls part two. Here, his trademark well-polished heartache strikes a fine balance between mysterious moodiness and dancefloor energy, and Leonard adds more than a few tricks that keep the pep up. Five out of the nine songs are Ferry/Leonard collaborations; all succeed, from "Limbo"'s opening punch and flow to the cinematic (and unsurprisingly French-tinged) feeling of the title track. The atmospheric, almost chilling "Zamba"'s minimal, buried drums, soft synths and doomy piano, make it the best of that bunch. Ferry's best moment here is all his own, though – the great single "Kiss and Tell," with a steady, bold bassline leading the way for his slightly dissolute portrayal of mating rituals and all they entail. Like Boys and Girls, the album's supporting cast mixes a lengthy list of session pros with a few guest stars.

At the beginning of their career, Level 42 was squarely a jazz-funk fusion band, contemporaries of fellow Brit funk groups like Atmosfear, Light of the World, Incognito, and Beggar & Co. By the end of the '80s, however, the band – whose music was instantly recognizable from Mark King's thumb-slap bass technique and associate member Wally Badarou's synthesizer flourishes – had crossed over to the point where they were often classified as sophisti-pop and dance-rock, equally likely to be placed in the context of Sade and the Style Council as was any group that made polished, upbeat, danceable pop/rock. The band's commercial peak came with 1985's World Machine, but they continued to record and tour sporadically throughout the '90s and 2000s.

Whose Side Are You On? was the first album by Matt Bianco. Released in 1984, the title has long been out of print in most territories. For this album, Matt Bianco was a trio of Basia Trzetrzelewska (vocals), Mark Reilly (vocals), and Danny White (keyboards). This album contains the band's first five chart UK hits, including "Get Out of Your Lazy Bed", "Sneaking Out the Back Door", "Matt's Mood", "Half a Minute" and "More Than I Can Bear". All are sung by Trzetrzelewska and Reilly, except "Matt's Mood" which is an instrumental.

Rebekka Bakken (born April 4, 1970) is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and music producer who is often associated with jazz, although she refuses to characterise herself as a jazz musician. Her voice reaches over three octaves.