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Nonsuch (album)
''Nonsuch'' (styled as ''NONSVCH.'') is the 12th studio album by the English band XTC, released 27 April 1992 on Virgin Records. The follow-up to '' Oranges & Lemons'' (1989), ''Nonsuch'' is a relatively less immediate and more restrained sounding album, carrying the band's psychedelic influences into new musical styles, and displaying a particular interest in orchestral arrangements. The LP received critical acclaim, charted at number 28 in the UK Albums Chart, and number 97 on the US ''Billboard 200'', as well as topping ''Rolling Stones College album chart. Produced by Gus Dudgeon, 13 of the album's 17 tracks were written by guitarist/leader Andy Partridge, with the rest by bassist Colin Moulding, while Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention was recruited on drums. Unlike previous XTC albums, Partridge composed many of his songs using a keyboard. Due to the album's lyric content, which covers topics ranging from love and humanity to the Gulf War and P. T. Barnum, ''Nonsuch'' h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chipping Norton Recording Studios
Chipping Norton Recording Studios was a residential recording studio in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, which operated from 1971 until October 1999. The studios were created by Mike and Richard Vernon as the in-house studio for Mike Vernon's record company Blue Horizon Records, and operated out of the former British Schools building at 26-30 New Street, a Grade II listed building. Further properties were added in adjacent buildings and the studio eventually provided 15 bedrooms with on-site catering for visiting musicians. The studios became a commercial enterprise, and songs recorded there included "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty, " In The Army Now" by Status Quo, "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo, "I Should Have Known Better" by Jim Diamond, " Promise Me" by Beverley Craven, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers, " Perfect" by Fairground Attraction, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" by Cutting Crew, " Eighteen With A Bullet" by Pete Wingfield, " Hocus Pocus" by Focus and " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started out heavily influenced by American folk rock, with a setlist dominated by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs and a sound that earned them the nickname "the British Jefferson Airplane". Vocalists Judy Dyble and Iain Matthews joined them before the recording of their self-titled debut in 1968; afterwards, Dyble was replaced by Sandy Denny, with Matthews later leaving during the recording of their third album. Denny began steering the group towards traditional British music for their next two albums, ''What We Did on Our Holidays'' and ''Unhalfbricking'' (both 1969); the latter featured fiddler Dave "Swarb" Swarbrick, most notably on the song "A Sailor's Life", which laid the groundwork for British folk rock by being the first time a trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lilac Time
The Lilac Time is a British alternative folk-rock band, originally formed in Herefordshire, England by Stephen Duffy, his brother Nick Duffy and their friend Michael Weston in 1986. The band's name was taken from a line in the Nick Drake song "River Man". The Lilac Time has gone through various line-up changes, with the Duffy brothers as mainstays. The band's activity has intertwined with Stephen Duffy's solo and songwriting career. History The Duffy brothers and Michael Weston recorded music that was first released on Swordfish Records in 1987 and later became the band's self-titled debut. Michael Giri and Fraser Kent joined when the band went on tour. The group signed to Fontana, which reissued the band's first album in remixed form in 1988. The group went on to release the albums '' Paradise Circus'' in 1989, and '' & Love for All'' in 1990, the latter produced by Andy Partridge and John Leckie. The Lilac Time was dropped by Fontana then briefly signed to Creation Reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surround Sound
Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to surround sound, theater sound systems commonly had three ''screen channels'' of sound that played from three loudspeakers (left, center, and right) located in front of the audience. Surround sound adds one or more channels from loudspeakers to the side or behind the listener that are able to create the sensation of sound coming from any horizontal direction (at ground level) around the listener. The technique enhances the perception of sound spatialization by exploiting sound localization: a listener's ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance. This is achieved by using multiple discrete audio channels routed to an array of loudspeakers. Surround sound typically has a listener location ( sweet sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stereo Mix
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration of two loudspeakers (or stereo headphones) in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing. Because the multi-dimensional perspective is the crucial aspect, the term ''stereophonic'' also applies to systems with more than two channels or speakers such as quadraphonic and surround sound. Binaural sound systems are also ''stereophonic''. Stereo sound has been in common use since the 1970s in entertainment media such as broadcast radio, recorded music, television, video cameras, cinema, computer audio, and internet. Etymology The word ''stereophonic'' derives from the Greek (''stereós'', "firm, solid") + (''phōnḗ'', "sound, tone, voice") and it was coined in 1927 by Western Ele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosion and No-Man. He is also a solo artist, having released 6 solo albums since his solo debut ''Insurgentes'' in 2008. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Wilson has made music prolifically and earned critical acclaim. His honours include six nominations for Grammy Awards: twice with Porcupine Tree, once with his collaborative band Storm Corrosion and three times as a solo artist. In 2017 ''The Daily Telegraph'' described him as "a resolutely independent artist" and "probably the most successful British artist you've never heard of". Wilson is a self-taught composer, producer, audio engineer, guitar and keyboard player, and plays other instruments as needed, including bass guitar, autoharp, hammered dulcimer and flute. His influences ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grammy Award For Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position". In 2023, it was joined by a companion category, Best Alternative Music Performance. Criteria While the definition of "alternative" has been debated, the award was first presented in 1991 to recognize non-mainstream rock albums "heavily played on college radio stations". After several updates of the category description, the Grammy organisation issued the following statement for the 2019 Grammy season: ''Alternative is defined as a genre of music th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wrapped In Grey
"Wrapped in Grey" is a song written by Andy Partridge of XTC, released on their 1992 album '' Nonsuch''. It was to be issued as the third single from the album, but its initial pressings were withdrawn by Virgin Records for an unknown reason. This was a stimulus for the band to go on "strike" against the label for a few years until their contracts were terminated. Lyrics and composition Partridge described the song as "ersatz Bacharach". Along with "Rook" (1992) and " Easter Theatre" (1999), he named "Wrapped in Grey" as one of the "perfect songs" of his career, feeling that he had "exorcised a lot of those kind of Lennon-and-McCartney, Bacharach-and-David, Brian Wilson type ghosts out of my system by doing all that." He remembered once hearing the song on the radio and feeling like "the boy from Penhill made good". Although he sings lead vocal, he played none of the instrumentation on the recording. Music journalist Pete Paphides highlighted the song's "transcendent Beach Boys-s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crash Test Dummies
Crash Test Dummies are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. The band is most identifiable through Brad Roberts (vocals, guitar) and his distinctive bass-baritone voice. The band members have fluctuated over the years, but its best known line-up consisted of Roberts, Ellen Reid (co-vocals, keyboards), Brad's brother Dan Roberts (bass guitar, backing vocals), Benjamin Darvill (harmonica, mandolin), and Mitch Dorge (drums, percussion). The band is best known internationally for their 1993 single "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" and best known in Canada for the 1991 single "Superman's Song". History Beginnings: 1988–1991 The origin of Crash Test Dummies is tied to the history of two Winnipeg nightspots, the Spectrum Cabaret and the Blue Note Cafe, owned by Curtis Riddell. In 1986, Riddell joined with Brad Roberts to form the decidedly less-than-serious bar band Bad Brad Roberts and the St. James Rhythm Pigs. Over time, the band evolved into Crash Test Dummies, a name suggested by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played songs on alternative and modern rock radio stations. Introduced as Modern Rock Tracks, the chart served as a companion to the Mainstream Rock chart (then called Album Rock Tracks), and its creation was prompted by the explosion of alternative music on American radio in the late 1980s. During the first several years of the chart, it regularly featured music that did not receive commercial radio airplay anywhere but on a few modern rock and college rock radio stations. This included many electronic and post-punk artists. Gradually, as alternative rock became more mainstream (spearheaded by the grunge explosion in the early 1990s), alternative and mainstream rock radio stations began playing many of the same songs. By the late 2000s, the genr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born into a musical family, and his first successes were as a songwriter. His first big hit was " Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1914), which was enormously popular during the First World War. His 1917 show, ''Theodore & Co'', was a wartime hit. After the war, Novello contributed numbers to several successful musical comedies and was eventually commissioned to write the scores of complete shows. He wrote his musicals in the style of operetta and often composed his music to the libretti of Christopher Hassall. In the 1920s he turned to acting, first in British films and then on stage, with considerable success in both. He starred in two silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, '' The Lodger'' and ''Downhill'' (both 1927). On stage, he played the title charact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Album
A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording is longer than the capacity of the medium. Recording artists often think of double albums as being a single piece artistically; however, there are exceptions such as John Lennon's ''Some Time in New York City'' (which consisted of one studio record and one live album packaged together) and OutKast's ''Speakerboxxx/The Love Below'' (effectively two solo albums, one by each member of the duo). Since the advent of the compact disc, albums are sometimes released with a bonus disc featuring additional material as a supplement to the main album, with live tracks, studio out-takes, cut songs, or older unreleased material. One innovation was the inclusion of a DVD of related material with a compact disc, such as video related to the album or DVD-A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
