Parlophone

Celebrating 30 years of Marillion's Afraid of Sunlight, their eighth studio album. Since it's initial release in 1995, the album has become one of the band's most critically acclaimed albums and was included in Q Magazine's 'Recordings of the Year' in 1995 and ranked at #90 on Prog Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Prog Albums of All Time. 2LP picture disc.

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.

Pet Shop Boys: Discography [2 Vinyl LP]

On the exact day of its Golden Jubilee, STATION TO STATION will be issued as a limited edition 50th anniversary half-speed mastered picture disc LP with a reproduction of a poster used to advertise the album 50 years ago.<br/><br/>The album saw Bowie relocate to Cherokee Studio in Los Angeles and incorporate elements of his 'Plastic Soul' period, coupled with much more experimental elements, which would become more prevalent over his next couple of albums. The first single from the album GOLDEN YEARS, released in November 1975, would give Bowie a top ten single on both sides of the Atlantic. The second single, TVC 15, would, a decade later, be heard and seen by almost 2 billion people when Bowie chose it to open his set at Live Aid.<br/><br/>The sound of STATION TO STATION was partly influenced by Bowie's burgeoning interest in the electronic music and driving rhythms of bands coming out of Germany, such as NEU! and Kraftwerk, most notably on the ten-minute title track, while still embracing dancefloor-friendly grooves in songs such as STAY and GOLDEN YEARS.<br/><br/>Harry Maslin, who had worked with Bowie on some of the tracks on his previous album, YOUNG AMERICANS, was chosen as Bowie's co-producer. They entered the studio in September 1975 with a tight stripped-down band featuring Carlos Alomar & Earl Slick on guitars, George Murray on bass, Dennis Davis on drums, David's Childhood friend Geoffe MacCormack (under the nom de plume Warren Peace) on backing vocals and on loan from Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, Roy Bittan on piano and organ. Maslin has since said that the vocals on the standout track WILD IS THE WIND and GOLDEN YEARS were both Bowie's first takes.<br/><br/>Ten days after the album's release, David started the ISOLAR TOUR, which visited over 65 dates in 11 countries and is cited as being hugely influential for its use of banks of fluorescent white light set against black backdrops. At the end of the tour, Bowie started work on Iggy Pop's debut solo album, The Idiot, when the pair and producer Tony Visconti moved to Berlin to mix the record. David settled there, ready to begin his next groundbreaking musical adventure.<br/><br/>This new pressing of STATION TO STATION 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.

2LP feature the new remastered album along with the unrelease 1979 concert from Troon.