The Small Faces was the band that personified the Mod lifestyle during the sixties. The 86 tracks in this box set cover every Immediate recording by The Small Faces, that was released in the U.K., Germany and the U.S.A. Many tracks included here make their first appearance on CD.

Most opera lovers by now are familiar with Armida and her crew: Handel, Gluck, and any number of other composers were mad over the story of the enchantress and her attempts to lure the hero Rinaldo away from his crusading duties and into her enchanted isle. The form is essentially opera seria, but Haydn was too great a composer to be restricted by its rigidity and therefore gives us scenes in many forms: arioso leading into aria, accompanied recitative leading to big confrontational arias, and more. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, occasionally perversely controversial, here leads a white-hot show (it was taped live in concert and, I presume, doctored a bit in the studio), with the dry recitative nicely trimmed. Cecilia Bartoli, in the title role, has eschewed her whispering here. She can still sing softly but it's less affected and her portrayal is a pip: cajoling and loving one minute and truly pissed off and scary the next.

Artist: Kelly Rowland
Title: Here I Am (Deluxe Edition)
Date of Realise: 2011
Genre: R & B, Pop
Total Tracks: 14
Format: FLAC (*. flac)
Quality: lossless
Total Time: 00:54:45
Size: 391 MB

This is one of my many singles projects that I've compiled for my own amusement. While I don't think that strictly following the singles-only format gives all of their high points (they had a great many strong album tracks), their singles do give you an overview of what they were all about prior to "that movie". Why did I stop at 1974? Well, because that is where I get off the bus. The first single of 1975 was "Jive Talkin'", which ushered in a new era for these guys. It's not my aim to get into that.

Also included are the solo singles that the Gibb's released during the Bee Gees' 1970 hiatus. The only one not included is Barry's "One Bad Thing", although technically this one didn't get released to the general public. Atco pressed up a few copies in Canada, just prior to the group getting back together and pulling the plug on their solo projects. A couple copies or so wound up in collector's hands. Had I found a decent (lossless) source for the track, I might've included it. If you have it, do share it with us.

I used the individual album remasters as a source for all tracks from the first three albums. The original Polydor CDs were used for all the selections after those. I used all stereo versions simply because of continuity's sake and because some mono single mixes are not in digital form yet. So, even though this is a "singles" collection, I don't have single mixes/edits. The first 12 cuts (Festival singles) are mono, and they appear here as they are found on the 1998 Festival records compilation "Brilliant From Birth". Everything from there on out is stereo except "One Million Years" - that is the rechanneled (fake stereo) mix that has been used on the "Robin's Reign" German LP and subsequent CD reissue. Some songs were not initially mixed for stereo, and would not be until 1990's "Tales From The Brothers Gibb" box set. I used the stereo mixes found on that box for several of the songs.