Probably the best Polish progressive symphonic group. It was founded in 1976. From the beginning, the musicians had concrete, defined musical interests. Their intention was to play rock music strongly influenced by classical music. Some people call them "Polish Yes" because of the symphonic sound and high, delicate vocal of Pawel Birula. They used to play mainly at the Warsaw student club Riviera-Remont where they had a lot of young fans. In the first half of 80-ies Exodus had a tournee in the USSR and West Germany. They recorded a few TV programs, did many radio recordings and released a few singles that were received very well. But singles don't adequately render the specific character of their music. They had the tendency for creating bigger forms of music and wanted their concerts to become para-theatrical shows…

The North London group Komputer began its career in the late '90s as an electro-pop act modeled largely after Kraftwerk but changed its style considerably in subsequent years, moving toward a more original sound. Comprised of Simon Leonard and David Baker, Komputer actually began as a trio, also featuring Jane Brereton, and debuted on Mute Records in 1996 with a self-titled, four-song EP led by "Valentina Tereshkova," a future single for the group. A year later, in October 1997, Mute released The World of Tomorrow, Komputer's first full-length album. Seemingly a literal homage to Kraftwerk, characterized largely by analog synths and vocoderized singing, the album spawned three singles - "Looking Down on London," "Valentina," and "Terminus" - that Mute released individually with accompanying remixes over the course of 1997 and 1998…

Classic Michael Jackson is a compilation album by American singer Michael Jackson. It was released as part of the The Universal Masters Collection's series. It features Jackson's early solo recordings from 1971 until 1975, including the hit records "Got to Be There", "Ben", and "Rockin' Robin".

Toni Braxton went through a lot in the years separating her star-making Toni Braxton and her 2000 comeback The Heat. Yes, she became a star, but she also went through a painful bankruptcy that delayed her sequel for years. Fortunately, you wouldn't be able to tell that there was so much behind-the-scenes drama from The Heat – it's a confident, assured, sexy effort that reaffirms Braxton's status as one of the finest contemporary mainstream soul singers. She may not be as street-smart as Mary J. Blige, nor does she push the boundaries of the genre the way TLC does, but she has a full, rich voice that instantly lends her songs a sense of maturity and sensuality, especially since she never, ever oversings or misjudges her material.

Caro Emerald is a Dutch jazz singer who emerged in 2009 with the smash hit single "Back It Up" and made her chart-topping album debut in 2010 with Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor. Born Caroline van der Leeuw on April 26, 1981 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, she studied music at the conservatory, specializing in jazz and subsequently working as a vocal coach. Her breakthrough success came in 2009 with the single "Back It Up," written and produced by David Schreurs and Jan van Wieringen of Grandmono Records, along with songwriter Vincent de Giorgio. "Back It Up" began as a summertime hit but ended up spending 21 weeks on the Dutch charts, from July to December. Its popularity was enhanced by a couple different remixes, one by Kraak & Smaak and another featuring Madcon.

In 1997, Joe Lynn Turner released Under Cover, a collection of his favorite hard-rock classics. It was such a success that he followed it two years later with the appropriately-titled Under Cover 2. Turner has surrounded himself with first-rate musicians – Vernon Reid, Al Pitrelli, Jeff Golub, Greg Smith – and has expanded his musical outreach, taking on such numbers as "Wishing Well" and "The Race is On," along with such album-rock favorites as "Helter Skelter," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," "The Boys Are Back in Town," "Born to Be Wild," "Fool for Your Lovin" and "Mississippi Queen."

With no musical background and without ever having performed in public, Zelmani rose to the top of the charts with her debut album. In spite of being known as very shy, she soon reached an audience all over Europe and Asia with her tender singer/songwriter country. Zelmani got her first guitar at the age of 14 and was taught some chords by her father. She learned to write songs, and almost ten years later, sent a few tapes to various record companies. Sony replied first and brought her together with producer and guitarist Lars Halapi, known for having worked with Ulf Lundell and Bo Kaspers Orkester.

Devin Townsend, possibly more widely known as the frontman for the extreme metal act Strapping Young Lad, began creating solo albums in 1997. Sometimes referred to as the 'Mad Scientist of Metal', Townsend produces a wide variety of music. This ranges from soft ambience designed, as he has stated, to put the listener to sleep, to high levels of thrash and extreme metal reminiscent of SYL. His works often feature a 'wall of sound', built by adding many layers of guitars and keyboards that are playing in unison or harmony. The end result is a number of carefully produced and mixed albums that favor high-end sound systems. Devin Townsend Project is another venture of Devin Townsend, considered separate from the material released as Devin Townsend. The project was originally conceived to comprise four albums of differing musical styles, each with a different set of guest/session musicians backing Townsend, but ended up continuing beyond that.

This is an essential package! Whoever put this together obviously knew what they were doing, and all is placed in chronological order. Discs 1-3 are a terrific compilation of material from the MGM years, consisting of commercial recordings of soundtrack materal. If no recording was commercially released, the original soundtrack is used-great for such numbers as "Hoe Down" with Mickey Rooney! But the last disc makes this package essential-here is a pristine soundboard recording of Judy's final performance at the Palace Theater, MYC-2/24/52! She was concluding a 19-week engagement, and the atmosphere is electric. Fantastic stuff!

French pianist Monique Haas recorded the piano works of Debussy and Ravel twice, once in the late '50s and early '60s for Deutsche Grammophon and again in the late '60s and early '70s for Erato. The later recordings are released here in this six disc set from Warner Classics. As on the earlier set, Haas' performances are elegantly stylish, technically impeccable, consummately musical, and quintessentially French. Pick any piece by either composer at random, and you'll see. Try her bright but sensual Suite Bergamasque with its ravishing Clair de lune or her brilliant and visionary Études with their astounding concluding Pour les accords. Or try her recklessly virtuosic Gaspard de la nuit with its frightening Scarbo or her sweetly swaying Valses nobles et sentimentales with its heartrending Épilogue. There are only two meaningful differences between Haas' recordings: in the earlier performance, she is more passionate and impetuous while in the later performances she is more measured and thoughtful.

The Chess Box does not contain all the great music Muddy Waters made. His talent and legacy are too large to be captured in a mere three discs, even one that spans from 1947 to 1972. This means, of course, that his legendary plantation recordings with Alan Lomax are not here, nor is his dynamic late-'70s comeback, Hard Again. But, truth be told, it doesn't feel like they're missing, since Waters' legend was built on the music that he made for Chess, and much of the greatest of that is here. Few box sets have chronicled an artist's best work as effectively as this; even the handful of rare, previously unreleased recordings sit perfectly next to the essential singles (this is particularly true of alternate takes of Fathers and Sons material). Sure, there are great Chess sides that aren't here, but those are great sides that the serious listener and aficionado need to seek out. For everybody else, this is a monumental chronicle of Waters at his best, illustrating his influence while providing rich, endlessly fascinating music.

Following his recorded debut as a leader for States Records, Junior Wells signed with Mel London, producing a number of sides for the producer's Chief and Profile imprints. Perhaps best-known for his spectacular harmonica playing, this period, documented on Calling All Blues, saw Wells emerging as an outstanding vocalist as well. A consummate performer with a firm grasp of the range of emotions the music can produce, Wells wrings every drop of feeling out of the lyrics. The singer growls, shouts, howls, moans across these 24 tracks including two versions of his great "I Could Cry" and other classics like "Little By Little," "Cha-Cha-Cha in Blue," and "Lovey Dovey Lovey One." While it has a great deal of overlap with the collections from Paula Records, Calling All Blues remains a fine introduction with no glaring omissions…

Having traveled the dusty road previously with alt rock singer Mark Lanegan, U.K. production duo Soulsavers turn to the equally tortured soul Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode) on The Light the Dead See, but this European union still opens their album with a mournful harmonica. Of course, Soulsavers have long been the production duo who prefers the sounds of spaghetti westerns to synthesizers, while making their guests sound as grand and grave as Leonard Cohen lost in the high lonesome, so this Depeche in exile is a perfect fit. Brooding across canyons here, Gahan is somewhere between James Dean and a preacher in this atmosphere, and even if his talk of darkness, the Devil, saviors, and the price you pay has all been covered with the Mode, he still sounds renewed, making sliding the downward spiral sound as intoxicating as ever, even when he explains what waits for those who hit the bottom…