No matter how unfashionable a style of music gets, virtually anything can become hip again if given time or the right context. As if to prove this, British DJ Andy Votel has lovingly assembled and sequenced this oddball selection of post-Tropicalia Brazilian rock music from the early 70s.

It’s an entertaining if somewhat exhausting journey through the vaults of the Som Livre and RGE labels. The 12 rather arbitrarily delineated ‘tracks’ each include snippets of up to three pieces segued into one another, and punctuated with ‘vintage sound effects, cinematic Portuguese dialogue snippets and a few musical bonus balls’. The credits list twenty-six sources, but you’ll be hard pressed to tell where one ends and another begins; it’s a lot more fun just letting the whole psychedelic smorgasbord wash over you.

Perhaps the most interesting discovery for this listener was the rock/MPB group Novos Baianos, whose slightly unhinged-sounding male singer pops up in several very welcome places, most memorably on Baby Consuelo and Ferro na Boneca. Marcos Valle?s caveman freak funk Funga-Funga makes more sense when you learn that it comes from the ‘Brazilian answer to Sesame Street’ and the Os Mutantes’ Deixe Entrar Um Pouco d’Agua No Quintal sounds like a hilarious Brazilian parody of The Darkness - a very different beast from the earlier line-up featured on the Luaka Bop compilation Everything Is Possible. Indeed it is - even tropical prog rock can sound great.

‘Psych rockers’ Os Braz’(who were Gal Costa’s backing band) are another interesting oddity, with their pronunciation of the title Gotham City a particular treat. The better known jazz/funk/roots outfit Azymuth (not Azimuth, as the somewhat typo-ridden sleeve notes sometimes call them) contribute the wiggy funk of Perisc’. And there are several intriguing obscurities such as ‘the artist’s artist’ Sidney Miller, Tim Maia and Trio Soneca.

The only question is what to do while listening to such a stylistically peripatetic collection. It’s probably too distracting as background music for parties and far too restless for ‘chilling out’. You definitely have to, erm, be in the right mood.

Resource: BBC Music

”They meet, they fall in love, they split, she returns, she dies” – that’s Rolando Villazón’s ten-second plot summary of Puccini’s La Bohème. And the obvious draw of Deutsche Grammophon’s new recording of the work is its Mimi and Rodolfo, the aforementioned ‘they’. But any opera recording is about more than two singers, however talented Villazón and his Mimi Anna Netrebko may be. What elevates this one to great heights is not just the theatrical talents of opera’s current ‘golden couple’, but a fine overall ensemble performance supported by detailed and accomplished choral and orchestral performances which match the fizzing dramatic intensity of the doomed lovers.

Whether or not the ‘Netrebzon’ factor galvanised the rest of the company into a compelling performance, the two are undeniably inspiring. Both voices are dramatic, thick and colourful; Netrebko’s perhaps even a touch treacly against some lighter, more innocent Mimis. And for some further pedantry, she occasionally over-eggs her climaxes and appears top-heavy, to the detriment of the overall musical phrase. But her voice is quite an instrument, built for soaring atop luscious Puccinian orchestrations which it does here with ease, whilst retaining formidable dramatic focus. Villazòn is nigh-on impossible to fault. His sure-footed tenor has a wonderfully vulnerable edge. He clothes the most painful dramatic moments in tears, and the effect is heart-stopping; dripping in Puccinian melodrama and every-bit musical.

One of the best duets in Bohème arguably goes to Mimi and not Rodolfo but the painter Marcello – here sung touchingly by Boaz Daniel – as he counsels the distraught heroine at the start of Act II. There are impressive moments too from former Cardiff Singer of the World Nicole Cabell who conjures a cheeky, colourful Musetta. Conductor Bertrand de Billy paces things briskly, creating a sense of cold and desolation when needed, though trotting hurriedly through some of the more interesting orchestral and vocal moments. But the orchestral detail and sensitivity is there, and with a Mimi and Rodolfo like these, you can forgive the conductor for leaving the tear-jerking to them.

Resource: BBC Music

Joey Negro’s name is synonymous with the house scene of the nineties. As chameleonic as they come, the Isle of Wight born producer (real name Dave Lee) has trail-blazed his way through disco, acid and progressive house music for the past twenty years.

His new album sees Lee return to The Sunburst Band fold. As the beach-lounging sounds – reminiscent of 2004’s multi-layered and richly harmonised Until The End Of Time – play out, the more sceptical may view Moving… as a retreat to safe territory. Similarities aside, Lee’s third outing as Sunburst nevertheless demands attention.

Joining Lee, who is best known for his work as Jakatta, are some familiar names. Soul hero Leroy Burgess, Elektrons and Domu collaborator Pete Simpson and Diane Charlemagne all make an appearance, but most significant perhaps is Chaka Khan’s sister Taka Boom with whom Negro collaborated for the hit 2005 single, Make A Move On Me.

A 17-track album, 18 months in the offing, was clearly a painstaking affair to produce. With undertones of boogie, disco, funk and jazz, the album is wrapped up with a satisfying soulfulness – all close-knit chords and euphoric vocals.

Single, Rough Times, with its attitudey bass and uplifting riffs is a decisive opening while Journey To The Sun develops the Intro fragment into a propulsive yet summery future hit. Days Gone By has a more disco-edged Motown feel while the whimsical strings and other-worldy vocals of Shabadowah form the perfect introduction to David Bowie cover, Fashion. Retaining the distinctive Bowie swagger, the strength of the original’s riff alone carries the track forward.

One of the most instantly catchy songs is Sitting On Top Of The World a slightly erratic disco-charged song that sparkles and stutters its way along. But for unadulterated bass-line emancipation, Free Bass is unbeatable. Although comparably short at 2.41 minutes, it’s a moment of stripped back, hi-hat-driven funkiness.

Occasionally the dense harmonies and looped instrumentation become a little stale, but overall, Joey Negro and The Sunburst Band’s third offering is a varied, glowing bundle of fun.

Resource: BBC Music

From one angle Ride It – Jay Sean’s comeback single from last year – saw the Hounslow-born artist in exactly the same place as he was when he broke through in 2003 with Dance With You: Talking about cruising the clubs and making eyes at the ladies. Yet from others he couldn’t be more different, for where Dance With You bumped along on producer Rishi Rich’s Desi beats the only obvious Asian influences in Ride It are the Eastern-tinged strings in this smooth r ‘n’ b groove, whilst cocksure confidence in the lyrical chat-up lines has been replaced by words and delivery that seem more wavering and vulnerable. Indeed, on the evidence of new single Maybe and plenty of other tracks on his second album Jay hasn’t spent the four years since his debut Me Against Myself LP fighting off the hordes of females he’s charmed with his moves, but rather disconsolately checking his mobile and Facebook for messages from that ’special someone’ after she’s stood him up agai! n.

The truth is actually rather different of course, for Jay has been building up his fanbase in the UK and India, racking up platinum sales many times over. Not that this was enough for his former record label Relentless, who were apparently unhappy with his new album, My Own Way, now being released on Jay’s own label. For if Relentless thought they’d bagged themselves the first UK Asian rap and r ‘n’ b crossover star with his debut album, the follow-up suggests he’s actually transformed into the Asian Craig David instead.

Recorded in New York and London with producers J-Remy and Duro, My Own Way contains not a single nod towards hip-hop save for I Won’t Tell, and instead finds Jay singing in a voice so syrupy you could make a cake with it. Individually there’s nothing wrong with the songwriting of tracks like Stay, but when everything becomes stuck around the same midtempo bump ‘n’ grind rhythm whilst Jay warbles about his women woes you might begin to suspect that the reason some girls seem to keep leaving him is simply because he’s become a little bit dull.

Resource: BBC Music

This new collection of Iron Maiden tracks contains work from a period that was creatively their busiest and, arguably, most successful. It’s a mixed bag with some tracks certainly sounding their age (like The Trooper in particular). It’s straight-ahead, grab-some-furniture-and-shake-your-brain-for-three-and-a-half-minutes (stopping when you get a bit dizzy, or to have a swig of snakebite), rock.

This collection is a fascinating reflection of the extent to which Iron Maiden defined heavy metal’s enduring themes and styles: Alienation, allegory, fantasy, the occult, exploitation and abuse of power. They’re also pioneers in terms of understanding that this music is theatre: not just something to be played but really performed.

You also can’t discuss ‘Maiden without touching on Dickinson’s voice. The vocal equivalent of smoking, freshly smelted Sheffield steel, sweating, soaring, clad in leather and studs; it’s a combination of gifted genetics, operatic chutzpah and gallons of Newcastle Brown Ale.

One of the early highlights is 2 Minutes To Midnight. Its opening drum damage dives into a finger-itching bassline and infectious hi-hat, over the top of a brilliantly energetic riff that’s perfectly complemented by Dickinson’s galloping horse vocal delivery. It’s an example of hard rock perfection.

Can I Play With Madness and The Number Of The Beast are charging, grand, anthemic, operatic stadium fillers, built on a wall of drum and guitar hooks. Like all great rock, they thrive on increasing volume. They also illustrate Dickinson’s vocal dexterity and ability to lift songs that could sound ordinary if they weren’t delivered with such bravado and abandon.

Available to download from the Maiden website as a free-for-three-listens bargain - with this album it looks like metal’s old warhorses are intent that their mighty legacy will live on well into the next millenium.

Resource: BBC Music

A particularly evocative description exists of the 1941 premiere of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour le fin du temps. The performance took place far away from the comfortable happiness of a concert hall; a hut in Stalag VIII-A, the German Prisoner-of-war camp in which Messiaen was interned and where he had written the work. Yet despite, or perhaps because of the appalling situation, this was a special performance. The French-language camp newspaper later recounted that ”the last note was followed by a moment of silence which established the sovereign mastery of the music”. For the Hebrides Ensemble’s performance of this work to grip me in a similar spell through a CD player in a comfortable London flat, is testament to the breathtaking sensitivity and depth of their playing.

Aside from Quatuor pour le fin du temps, this disc also includes Theme et variations, Piece pour piano et quatuor a cordes, Le Merle noir, plus the premiere recording of the recently rediscovered Fantaisie for violin and piano, which Messiaen wrote to play in concert with his wife. The piece is typical Messiaen; bold octaves in the piano precede the violin’s entry in a descending motif which is reminiscent of the birdsong the composer loved so much to emulate. The Hebrides Ensemble’s performance here and across the disc is outstanding. Returning to the Quatuor pour le fin du temps, their sound evokes both the work’s wartime genesis and its religious intensity; the third movement for solo clarinet, Abime des oiseaux (The Abyss of the Birds) mixes the bleakness of Messiaen’s surroundings with apocalyptic vision, whilst the two Louanges for solo cello and solo violin carry an otherwordly sense of peace and eternity. You can’t help but imagine that first audience, imprisoned far from home, heads filled with the horrors of war, taking respite in the music. The interpretations of the other works on this CD are no less arresting.

Messiaen fans will want to buy this CD for the recording of Fantaisie alone. However, this disc is more than just a premiere recording. This is special playing from a special group of musicians.

Resource: BBC Music

Taking their name from the 1956 John Wayne western, this Liverpool beat group had their heyday between 1963 and 1966 with a string of hits – mostly covers – in the UK and US during the legendary ‘British invasion’. This is hardly the first compilation charting their golden years and is very similar to the Union Square Music compilation (2006) of the same name. The most comprehensive is the 2 CD 40th Anniversary Collection (2003), covering their entire career (which limps on to this day inna hit-free retro stylee) but this new set excludes the b-sides featured in its earlier namesake, and includes a few later recordings.

Any fan of 60s pop will have heard their first and biggest hit, Sweets For My Sweet, and may be surprised by how much else is familiar. The group seem to have been unable or unwilling to update their crisply optimistic, teen-beat folk pop sound after that initial run, and the 1979 single, Hearts In Her Eyes, (featured here) must have sounded very dated in the post-punk era. Their version of Twist & Shout adds little to the definitive version by The Beatles, whose influence is apparent in many places.

Buddy Holly would seem another strong inspiration on songs like Sugar And Spice and Don’t Throw Your Love Away. But if the chiming electric 12-string guitar of Someday We’re Gonna Love Again sounds suspiciously like The Byrds, its release date (1964) suggests The Searchers influenced them. Other celebrity fans include Bruce Springsteen, who made When You Walk In The Room part of his live set for years, and The Ramones, who reprised The Searchers’ classic Needles And Pins in a fabulously sneering 1978 take. Other notable tracks include Goodbye My Love, for its oddly wandering melody, and Four Strong Winds, which best showcases their rich vocal harmonies.

The lack of any really distinctive lead singer (a shifting line-up featured three during their peak years) isn’t illuminated by the limited sleeve notes, and the narrow lyrical focus on romance may grate for some, likewise their trademark ’squareness’. But The Searchers’ main appeal is their period charm, which is considerable.

Resource: BBC Music

Death Cab For Cutie’s endorsement from teen soap, The OC, was one of rock’s most unlikely couplings since the Flaming Lips appeared on Beverly Hills 90210. The result; a major label deal and a million selling album, Plans, has meant its follow up is one of this year’s most eagerly awaited records.

Narrow Stairs is a markedly different album to its predecessor. Ben Gibbard’s distinctive voice is still there, but musically it’s a dense, challenging affair with the layered guitars on Bixby Canyon Bridge and the discordant piano and bass of single I Will Possess Your Heart setting the tone for the whole album. Anyone expecting the lush warmth of Plans may be initially repelled.

On repeated listen however, Narrow Stairs slowly reveals its delights. The subtle organ underpinning Gibbard’s yearning vocal on Grapevine Fires gets better every time, and is credit to guitarist Chris Walla’s understated production, whilst Twin Sized Bed marries a smart lyric to a nagging melody. There may be no immediate pop gem like Transatlanticism’s Sound Of Setttling, but the Pet Sounds-style timpanis and bells of You Can Do Better Than Me shows Death Cab have a musical palette far wider than most of their peers.

Death Cab For Cutie may not rival Wilco in the challenging alt-rock stakes yet, but Narrow Stairs is an adventurous album from a band who could’ve easily made another record of alt-rock by numbers. Just don’t expect them to soundtrack any more sun kissed American teen dramas anytime soon.

Resource: BBC Music

Some artists, as they grow older, have a tendency to retreat into a safety zone that displays their skill but doesn’t really expand their repertoire or provide much impetus for keeping up (Keith Jarrett’s classic songbook interpretations spring to mind). Not so guitarist Bill Frisell. From his early days as Manfred Eicher’s pet six stringed sessioneer at ECM he’s been refining and expanding his palette consistently with every release. His move into the more traditional areas of Americana over the last few years has seen him cross genre boundaries and become the missing link between Norah Jones and John Zorn (and how many times have you heard that sentence?). History Mystery, following last year’s bluesy electronica of Floratone, does it again.

Some of history… was recorded with Floratone’s producer Lee Townsend in the same studio, but it’s mainly drawn from a series of live dates in Washington, Boston and Hanover with an octet that includes Kenny Wollesen on lithe drums and a whole heap of string action from Eyvind King, Jenny Scheinman and Hank Roberts. This format allows the mood to go all the way from Penguin Cafe-like quirkiness like Question #1 to the playful bop of Subconscious lee. The double CD comprises two suites of music composed for differing purposes. The first was a multimedia collaboration - Mysterio Sympatico - with sleeve artist and comic book illustrator, Jim Woodring (whose work has graced Frisell’s albums); the second, music composed to accompany the Stories From The Heart Of The Land National Public Radio series.

Like the man himself, this is polite and unassuming music in many ways. Frisell has the notable knack of always sounding like himself, a lot of which is down to his mastery of the electronics. Everything on offer here balances traditionalism with some remarkably subtle bleeps and loops. Bill’s tone is always clean and compressed though he does get a little heavy on tacks like Lazy Robinson, and he effortlessly moves from background to foreground, never grandstanding. While Frisell’s own material dominates - and the standard is amazing - there are some covers which also demonstrate why he’s such a great interpreter as well. Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come lazily drifting along on the horns of Greg Tardy and Ron Miles is wonderfully laid-back, but the highlight has to be his take on Boubcar Traore’s Baba Drame. This hypnotic weave through the Malian’s blues is spellbinding. And just so right…

The nature of these pieces’ genesis does mean that they fit more into the ’soundtrack’ end of his canon. Yet the whole album stands as yet another testament to the man’s place at the very epicentre of modern American music. Yes, he’s done it again…

Resource: BBC Music