Parlophone

30 years ago, Roxette released their fifth album "Crash! Boom! Bang!", including a stream of hit singles like "Sleeping In My Car", the title track, "Fireworks", "Run To You" and "Vulnerable".<br/> <br/>The album would sell more than five million copies and was followed by their second World Tour, which saw them perform for over a million people, including the second performance ever by an international act in China.<br/> <br/>We're celebrating this classic album's 30-year anniversary with a unique special edition: a double album in black and white vinyl with 18 tracks and an 8-page booklet.<br/> <br/>- Roxette were among the three most played artists on American radio during 1989, 1990 and 1991, and we were on top of the charts all over the world. So, it's no wonder we felt pretty confident when it was time to record the new album, Per Gessle says.<br/> <br/>- Having had that kind of success made us feel that we had a perfect opportunity to stretch out into new directions. To show slightly different sides of what Roxette could be. And I still think "Crash! Boom! Bang" is our best album.

On the exact day of its Golden Jubilee, YOUNG AMERICANS will be issued as a limited edition 50th anniversary picture disc LP with a poster pressed from the same master.<br/><br/>The album saw Bowie broaden his musical horizons once more, embracing what he called 'Plastic Soul' and would give Bowie his first number one single in the U.S., 'FAME', co-written with John Lennon and Bowie's then guitarist, Carlos Alomar.<br/> <br/>The album was partly influenced by the 'Philly Sound' and recorded in Philadelphia at Sigma Sound studios during a break in the DIAMOND DOGS tour with a band that featured amongst others Bowie stalwart Mike Garson on keys, along with the late Luther Vandross on vocals and David Sanborn on saxophone. <br/> <br/>During the Tony Visconti produced sessions at Sigma Sound, Bowie immersed himself in soul music and created a new persona called The Gouster, a slang term for a hip street character. An early version of the album using this title was issued on the boxset WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974-1976). <br/> <br/>When the tour recommenced, Bowie radically reworked the setlist to incorporate the new material and stripped the elaborate production of the tour back to reflect a radically new musical direction. At the end of the tour in December '74, sessions continued at The Record Plant and, while recording in New York, Bowie connected with John Lennon, where they recorded a cover of The Beatles 'ACROSS THE UNIVERSE' and a new collaborative composition, 'FAME' at Electric Lady Studios. The New York sessions were co-produced by David and Record Plant engineer Harry Maslin.<br/> <br/>Bowie opted not to tour following YOUNG AMERICANS' release, and within nine months, had moved on again, releasing his next album, STATION TO STATION, and reinventing himself once again in the persona of The Thin White Duke. <br/> <br/>This new pressing of YOUNG AMERICANS was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Record Plant master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer.

I boxen "Every Bit Of My Life 1967-2017" summeras ett halvt sekel Björn Skifs på skiva på 24 CD. Det är en mäktig musikalisk historieskrivning över en av Sveriges mest framgångsrika artistkarriärer någonsin. Här finns alla hans 16 soloalbum, skivorna med Björns 60-talsgrupp Slam Creepers', de två klassiska albumen med Björn Skifs och Blåblus (Blue Swede) och albumet med gruppen Zkiffz.<br/><br/>Men det slutar inte där. I boxen ingår även fyra fullmatade bonusskivor, "Singlar, duetter, outgivet och annat vol. 1-4". Där finns hits, obskyra B-sidor, höjdpunkter ur musikalsuccén "Spök!", samarbetet med låtskrivaren David Foster, och mycket mer. <br/>En stor del av materialet släpps på CD för första gången. <br/><br/>"Jag har själv aldrig ens kunnat föreställa mig att alla mina skivor skulle komma att samlas i en så här fin liten box. Men här är de - och lite till, säger en stolt Björn Skifs och fortsätter:<br/>"Det är både enastående och smått ofattbart. Något som också gör mig riktigt stolt, är att träffa folk som berättar att jag genom min musik har inspirerat dem att själva bli musiker eller sångare".<br/><br/>Boxen inkluderar en 104-sidig booklet, späckad med av unikt bildmaterial, formgiven av Pär Wickholm. I omfattande intervjuer, exklusivt gjorda för denna box, berättar Skifs och producenterna för musikjournalisten Anders Lundquist om samtliga albuminspelningar.<br/>Redaktören Lars Nylins förord placerar sångaren och uttolkaren Björn Skifs i ett större musikhistoriskt sammanhang.<br/><br/>Björn Skifs firade i våras sin 70-årsdag och kan se tillbaka på ett framgångsrikt år med succéartade arenakonserter tillsammans med Tommy Körberg, ett nytt samlingsalbum och fortsatta framgångar för showen "Lite nu och då" på Göta Lejon.<br/>Hur vill Björn själv att hans lyssnare ska känna när de fördjupar sig i boxen?<br/><br/>"Förhoppningsvis blir reaktionen något i stil med "oj, vad han har hunnit med - och en del var faktiskt inte så dumt!" Kanske blir de också lite överraskade över allt jag har gjort. För ingen kan i alla fall klaga på genrebredden", skrattar Björn. "Boxen rymmer kanske inte v-a-r-j-e bit av mitt musikaliska liv, som titeln antyder - men nästan!"<br/><br/>Med "Every Bit Of My Life" blir skivartisten Björn Skifs extremt mycket tydligare än den som alltför ofta bara sammanfattas med att "Hooked on A Feeling" blev Billboardetta i USA i april 1974.

On the exact day of its Golden Jubilee, YOUNG AMERICANS will be issued as a limited edition 50th anniversary half-speed mastered LP.<br/><br/>The album saw Bowie broaden his musical horizons once more, embracing what he called 'Plastic Soul' and would give Bowie his first number one single in the U.S., 'FAME', co-written with John Lennon and Bowie's then guitarist, Carlos Alomar.<br/> <br/>The album was partly influenced by the 'Philly Sound' and recorded in Philadelphia at Sigma Sound studios during a break in the DIAMOND DOGS tour with a band that featured amongst others Bowie stalwart Mike Garson on keys, along with the late Luther Vandross on vocals and David Sanborn on saxophone. <br/> <br/>During the Tony Visconti produced sessions at Sigma Sound, Bowie immersed himself in soul music and created a new persona called The Gouster, a slang term for a hip street character. An early version of the album using this title was issued on the boxset WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974-1976). <br/> <br/>When the tour recommenced, Bowie radically reworked the setlist to incorporate the new material and stripped the elaborate production of the tour back to reflect a radically new musical direction. At the end of the tour in December '74, sessions continued at The Record Plant and, while recording in New York, Bowie connected with John Lennon, where they recorded a cover of The Beatles 'ACROSS THE UNIVERSE' and a new collaborative composition, 'FAME' at Electric Lady Studios. The New York sessions were co-produced by David and Record Plant engineer Harry Maslin.<br/> <br/>Bowie opted not to tour following YOUNG AMERICANS' release, and within nine months, had moved on again, releasing his next album, STATION TO STATION, and reinventing himself once again in the persona of The Thin White Duke. <br/> <br/>This new pressing of YOUNG AMERICANS was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Record Plant master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.

REMASTERING THE BEATLES' ORIGINAL STUDIO ALBUMS FOR VINYL.<br/>180 gram. <br/><br/>There has always been demand for The Beatles' albums on vinyl. Indeed, 2011's best-selling vinyl LP in the United States was Abbey Road. Following the success of The Beatles' acclaimed, GRAMMY Award-winning 2009 CD remasters, it was decided that the sound experts at EMI's Abbey Road Studios should create new versions of The Beatles' vinyl LPs. The project demanded the same meticulous approach taken for the CD releases, and the brief was a simple one: cut the digital remasters to vinyl with an absolute minimum of compromise to the sound. However, the process involved to do that was far from simple.<br/><br/>The first stage in transferring the sound of a master recording to vinyl is the creation of a disc to be used during vinyl manufacture. There were two options to consider. A Direct Metal Master (DMM), developed in the late seventies, allows sound to be cut directly into a stainless steel disc coated with a hard copper alloy. The older, alternative method is to cut the sound into the soft lacquer coating on a nickel disc - the first of several steps leading to the production of a stamper to press the vinyl. <br/><br/>A 'blind' listening test was arranged to choose between a 'lacquer' or 'copper' cut. Using both methods, A Hard Day's Night was pressed with ten seconds of silence at the beginning and end of each side. This allowed not only the reproduction of the music to be assessed, but also the noise made by the vinyl itself. After much discussion, two factors swung the decision towards using the lacquer process. First, it was judged to create a warmer sound than a DMM. Secondly, there was a practical advantage of having 'blank' discs of a consistent quality when cutting lacquers. <br/><br/>The next step was to use the Neumann VMS80 cutting lathe at Abbey Road. Following thorough mechanical and electrical tests to ensure it was operating in peak condition, engineer Sean Magee cut the LPs in chronological release order. He used the original 24-bit remasters rather than the 16-bit versions that were required for CD production. It was also decided to use the remasters that had not undergone 'limiting' - a procedure to increase the sound level, which is deemed necessary for most current pop CDs. <br/><br/>Having made initial test cuts, Magee pinpointed any sound problems that can occur during playback of vinyl records. To rectify them, changes were made to the remasters with a Digital Audio Workstation. For example, each vinyl album was listened to for any 'sibilant episodes' - vocal distortion that can occur on consonant sounds such as S and T. These were corrected by reducing the level in the very small portion of sound causing the undesired effect. Similarly, any likelihood of 'inner-groove distortion' was addressed. As the stylus approaches the centre of the record, it is liable to track the groove less accurately. This can affect the high-middle frequencies, producing a 'mushy' sound particularly noticeable on vocals. Using what Magee has described as 'surgical EQ,' problem frequencies were identified and reduced in level to compensate for this.<br/><br/>The last phase of the vinyl mastering process began with the arrival of the first batches of test pressings made from master lacquers that had been sent to the two pressing plant factories. Stringent quality tests identified any noise or click appearing on more than one test pressing in the same place. If this happened, it was clear that the undesired sounds had been introduced either during the cutting or the pressing stage and so the test records were rejected. In the quest to achieve the highest quality possible, the Abbey Road team worked closely with the pressing factories and the manufacturers of the lacquer and cutting styli.<br/><br/>An additional and unusual challenge was to ensure the proper playback of the sounds embedded in the 'lock-groove' at the end of side two of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Requiring a combination of good timing and luck, it had always been a lengthy and costly process to make it work properly. In fact, it was so tricky, it had never been attempted for American pressings of the LP. Naturally, Sean Magee and the team perfected this and the garbled message is heard as originally intended on the remastered Sgt. Pepper LP. <br/><br/>Highly-skilled technicians have worked long and hard to make The Beatles on vinyl sound better than ever. All we need to do is listen to the results of their dedicated labour on the remastered LPs. Handle with care. But most of all, enjoy the music.

2011 Steven Wilson stereo remix.<br/>180 gram vinyl.

Ulf Lundells 15 utsålda konserter på Tyrol i Stockholm är en av de verkligt klassiska konserthändelserna i hans snart 50 åriga karriär. Albumet "Live på Tyrol" släpps nu som dubbelvinyl med utvalda låtar i limiterad upplaga.