A box set or boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) packaged in a box, for sale as a single unit.

Types of box sets

Music box sets

Artists and bands with an extremely long and successful career often have anthology or "essential" collections of their boxes of music released as box sets. These often include rare and never-before-released tracks. Some box sets collect together previously released boxes of singles or albums by a music artist, and often collect the complete discography of an artist such as Pink Floyd's Oh, by the Way.

Other music box sets focus on a compilation of boxes of different artists from a particular genre such as Big Band jazz, 1960s rock and roll, or opera. They generally feature a large collection of various hits from some of the top artists of a particular genre. The scope of such box sets varies widely, with some genre-specific box sets (such as one featuring rock music) focusing on boxes of a specific style (for instance, guitar rock or "Summer of Love" music). Two of the best known companies for making box sets are Legacy Recordings and Rhino Records; both have won multiple Grammy Awards. Prior to Rhino and Legacy, companies such as Time-Life Records and Readers Digest also issued box sets.

In theatre, a box set is a set with a proscenium arch stage and three walls. The proscenium opening is the fourth wall. Box sets create the illusion of an interior room on the stage, and are contrasted with earlier forms of set in which sliding flats with gaps between them create an illusion of perspective.

Box sets were introduced to the English theatre by Elizabeth Vestris. They later became a feature of realist theatre, and an example of the "fourth wall removed" principle that characterized the work of noted realists such as Henrik Ibsen, Émile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, or Anton Chekhov.

In play style of Realism the Box Set of the stage was a room with either plain black back drop or three walls, the fourth wall was invisible, separating the characters from the audience, the ceiling was tilted down at the far end of the stage and up toward the audience. Doors slammed instead of swinging when being shut just like in a real world.

References

The Samhain Box Set was released in 2000, more than 13 years after Samhain effectively ceased recording and performing. The set's five CDs and one VHS tape compile nearly all of the band's original catalogue, newly remastered for the original mastertapes, and a wealth of previously unreleased material, the latter of which includes a live CD and a VHS video cassette of live footage.

Of Samhain's previous official releases, only the original mix of the Unholy Passion EP was not included in the Box Set; conjecture is that the original master tapes had been lost over the years, or were erased when Danzig re-recorded the guitar and some vocal tracks to those songs in June 1987.

Special packaging

The Box Set initially retailed at around $60.00 USD, and is now out of print. If pre-ordered online through distributor E-Magine Music's website, the first pressing of the Box Set was shipped two weeks prior to the street date, and was packaged with a bonus metal pin of the "scarecrow beast" character that appeared on Samhain T-shirts in the 1980s (similar to the one on the cover of the November-Coming-Fire album). In all pressings, each of the five CDs came in its own "mini-LP" sleeve within the box, but when they were re-released individually the following year, these sleeves were replaced with normal CD jewel-cases.

An ace is a playing card.

Ace, Aces, ACE or ACES may also refer to:

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The Aces, originally known as The Four Aces, were a Jamaican vocal group who are best known for their work with Desmond Dekker.

History

The initial line-up of The Aces consisted of Clive Campbell, Barry Howard, Carl Howard, and Patrick Howard. The group came to the attention of Dekker, who supported them when they auditioned for Leslie Kong at Beverley's studio in 1965. Kong employed the group as backing singers for Dekker and they can be heard on the song "Get Up Adinah" (credited as The Four Aces). They provided the backing vocals on Dekker's major hit "007 (Shanty Town)" as well as the track "Music Like Dirt (Intensified '68)" (the winning song of the 1968 Jamaica Independence Festival Song Contest). By 1967 the only remaining original members were Barry Howard and Winston Samuels and it is their backing vocals featured on "Israelites". Dekker's international success led to him touring overseas though The Aces did not accompany him due to Samuels refusal to fly (Samuels stating that "Rastas did not fly on iron birds") and Barry Howard's decision to emigrate to the United States. The Aces continued to record under their own name (without Dekker) and had a Jamaican hit in 1970 with "Mademoiselle Ninette". By 1971 the line-up had changed again, with Barry Howard now rejoined by Carl Hall. A string of hits followed with "Reggae Motion", "Take a Look", "Oh I Miss You", "Call Me Number One", "Be My Baby", and "Sad Sad Song". The song "Working on it Night and Day", though not a hit, did enter the pop charts in 1973. Little more was heard from the group until 1982 when they released "One Way Street".

The Aces was one of the earliest and most influential of the electric Chicago blues bands in the 1950s. Led by the guitarist brothers Louis and Dave Myers, natives of Byhalia, Mississippi, the brothers originally performed under the name The Little Boys; with the subsequent addition of harmonica player Junior Wells, they rechristened themselves the Three Deuces, followed by the Three Aces. The 1950 enlistment of drummer Fred Below prompted another name change, this time to the Four Aces; finally, to simplify matters once and for all, the group performed as just The Aces. Influenced in large part by jazz, they developed an urbane, sophisticated style well ahead of its time; in particular, Below's refined rhythms led to the rise of the blues shuffle beat, and helped launch the drums to a new prominence within the blues band hierarchy.

In 1952, Wells quit to join the Muddy Waters band, filling the vacancy created by the recent departure of Little Walter from Muddy's band; Walter himself quickly signed the remaining Aces as his new backing unit, renaming the trio The Jukes to capitalize on his current hit single, "Juke". A series of seminal recordings followed - "Mean Old World," "Sad Hours," "Off the Wall," and "Tell Me Mama" among them - before Louis' 1954 exit resulted in the Jukes' gradual dissolution as Little Walter's band, but freeing up the members to reform as a backing band for other Chicago blues musicians such as Otis Rush, Eddie Boyd, and others.