Complete 1951-1952 Verve Studio Sessions - Charlie Ventura

Advantages: A great collection of live recordings
Disadvantages: All but the last 3 tracks have already been released on the Peel Sessions CD

...After a few years of no releases from Adam Ant, there seems to be something of a revival at the moment. With the Antbox boxed set released in december and now this excellANT CD. The Complete Radio 1 Sessions is exactly what it says on the cover. The tracks are taken from four recording sessions at Radio 1. Tracks 1-4 recorded for John Peel 23/1/78, tracks 5-8 recorded for John Peel 10/7/78, tracks 9-12 recorded for John Peel 26/3/79 and tracks 13-15 recorded for Simon Mayo 13/1/95 16 years later. The tracks on the CD are..... 1. Deutscher Girls 2. Puerto-Rican 3. It Doesn't Matter 4. LOU 5. You're So Physical 6. Cleopatra 7. Friends 8. Zerox 9. Tabletalk 10. Ligotage 11. Animals and Men 12. Never Trust a Man (with egg on his face) 13. Wonderful 14. Antmusic 15. Gotta Be A Sin The first recording session brings... Read review

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Advantages: Quite literally a must have
Disadvantages: Diddley Squat

...At last, the answer to the eternal question has arrived, “I’m thinking of buying an album by The Fall, what do you recommend?”. Since April 25 2005, the answer is “buy this!”. If this album rates less than full marks in any review then I’ll eat my right shoe. The Fall have been riding the crest of the (new) wave for almost 30 years now and with about 30 studio albums to their name and an almost never-ending stream of re-releases of old albums, outtakes, live albums and all sorts of other odds n sods then, after much work behind the scenes, the complete Fall Peel Sessions have finally arrived. This 6 CD box set covers the 24 sessions they recorded for the John Peel show between 1978 and 2004. This elation though is tinted with obvious sadness, as these are the ‘complete’ sessions due... Read review

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Advantages: Psychadelic space rock at its finest!
Disadvantages: Its a compilation, so lacks unity

...this is not always the case – Jason Donovan being a prime example here!) Verve really sound like they have been at the naughty pills and powders - but their music thrives on this, becomes ethereal and strange, and gains gravity because of it. Where as later recordings by Verve have a more standard verse/chorus/verse format, the early songs seem to follow their own course, having often evolved from protracted jam sessions. As such the flow of songs tends to be similar to natural processes. The rhythms, tempo changes and the way the songs build to a crescendo and then fall away again to almost nothing before ascending to a final climax are almost sexual, or at least that’s how the band said they saw them in an interview I happened to read. “Blue” is a tune from the bands debut album – but has been remixed slightly for the American audience. I think... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful