So you think you know Arjen Lucassen, huh? Towering Dutch prog rock polymath? The man behind the super successful prog rock conceptualists Ayreon? Not to mention his prog metal offshoots Star One and Guilt Machine? Enormous overarching concept albums about space and time, packed to the hilt with special guests that read like a who’s who of modern day progressive rock? Records that take as long to conceive as they do to record? That Arjen Lucassen? Well, think again…
"Golden Age Of Music", the latest album to feature Lucassen’s not inconsiderable talents, may also feature stellar musicianship and killer tunes, but there is no storyline that takes place far into the future in the far flung depths of space. Nor do the album’s 11 tracks come courtesy of an unending list of guest artists…

Thirteen songs (plus bonus track for Japan) produced by Phil Ramone and Jean-Jacques Goldman. This album feature a duet with James Taylor ('Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight') & has been one of the best selling French albums worldwide.

"Nexus" is Argent's most progressive album. The pop indulgences of "Hold your head up" and "God gave rock and roll to you" are largely gone, to be replaced by much more structured and serious compositions. From the synthesiser driven three part instrumental opener "The coming of Kohoutek" through the dramatic "Music from the spheres" to the slightly more traditional Argent on side 2 of the LP, there's a coherence throughout. Almost inevitably, the album was not as successful as "In deep" or indeed "All together now". There were no obvious singles, the band relying on the fan base they had acquired through their previous singles, to stay with them. It appears the lack of success for the album was a factor in Russ Ballard's subsequent departure, which in turn led to Argent (the band) rapidly becoming a spent force. "Nexus" however gave a wonderful illustration of how things could have been.

Pianist and singer Patricia Barber's second album (and major-label debut) is a consistently interesting, but not always completely rewarding, array of original instrumentals, vocal standards, and surprise cover versions. The arrangement of "Summertime" that opens the program is eerie almost to the point of creepiness, and all the more effective for it: after a long instrumental prelude, Barber sings the lyrics over the most minimal bass-and-piano unison pedal point, her voice goosed with reverb and wailing softly like a ghost. "Subway Station #5," the original composition that follows, is nervous, jumpy, barely tonal, and moves niftily from a contrapuntal and polyrhythmic introduction into a straight swing section…

Eddy Clearwater has had a tough time shaking his "Chuck Berry imitator" label, and he includes Berry-tinged numbers at the halfway point and end of this nice, if thoroughly derivative, urban blues set recorded in 1989 for Black and Blue with the familiar country boogie shuffle and tinkling licks. Clearwater could not do a set without the signature "Lay My Guitar Down," and this rendition is surging and enjoyable although inferior to the definitive one. Otherwise, it is a pile-driving and urgently performed date; Clearwater and Will Crosby swap slashing lines, crackling phrases, and answering fills. Clearwater's session contains several robust, entertaining passages, even if there is absolutely nothing you have not heard before.

Symphonia is a live album of the music project Schiller, created by the German electronic musician Christopher von Deylen. The album was released on October 17, 2014. The album is a live recording of the "Schiller meets Classic" open air concert with the Berlin Symphonic Pop Orchestra at the Classic Open Air 2014 event on the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. The orchestra consisted of 60 musicians. On this album Schiller has collaborated with the singers Midge Ure, Jaël Malli, Eva Mali and Der Graf from Unheilig. The album reached in its first week number 4 of the German albums chart.

The Sundowners' sole album suffers from the problems afflicting many similarly obscure late-'60s pop/rock LPs on major labels. One, the group can't really decide what they want to be, which though leading to some admirable versatility, also ensures a sort of anonymity. Two, there aren't any really good songs, though one or two come close. It might be backhanded praise, but as those sort of records go, this is considerably above the average; the production's very good and full, the singing and harmonies are decent and committed, and the Sundowners play pretty well. Still, they almost sound like different groups from track to track, or at the very least like they're not quite sure whether to be all-out commercial, or try and slip some hipness in on the side. There are some engaging near-Association-strength vocal harmonies and bouncy melodies that put them close to the sunshine pop camp at times…

Kollektiv had connections with the much better known Kraftwerk, and its self-titled album sounds a bit like early Kraftwerk, back in that group's jazzier days before it invented techno-pop. Kollektiv's album fuses free-form jazz and rock in typical underground Krautrock fashion, with long, loose improvisations and plenty of solos on guitar, flute, and sax. The music is entirely instrumental except for some weird spoken word on the shortest track, "Forsterlied." "Rambo Zambo" begins the album with some heavily processed flute soloing before jumping into high-energy avant funk with more flute. "Baldrian" is slightly more tame, but on the three-part "Gageg," which dominates side two, Kollektiv turns the energy up even more. Like "Rambo Zambo," this one begins slowly before building into another intense avant jazz-funk workout with the tight rhythm section, and in the last section, "Pressluft," some blistering electric guitar riffing.

The sheer tenacity - albeit undeniably fitting - of this double-disc set has made Black Moses (1971) one of Isaac Hayes' most revered and best-known works. The multi-instrumental singer/songwriter and producer had been a central figure in the Memphis soul music revolution of the mid-'60s. Along with Booker T. & the MG's, Hayes wrote and performed on more Stax sides than any other single artist. By the time of this release - his fifth overall, and first two-record set - Hayes had firmly established himself as a progressive soul artist. His stretched-out and well-developed R&B jams, as well as his husky-voiced sexy spoken "raps," became key components in his signature sound. Black Moses not only incorporates those leitmotifs, but also reaffirms Hayes abilities as an unmistakably original arranger…

Lots of guests on this one, with Earl "Chinna" Smith and Radcliffe "Doggie" Bryan on guitars, Ansel Collins on keyboards, Jimmy Cliff on congas, and others.
One of the most well-known Japanese jazz musicians of his generation, Sadao Watanabe is an adept, bop-influenced saxophonist with a deep love of Brazilian bossa nova. He initially gained global fame in the 1960s with Bossa Nova Concert and Sadao Meets Brazilian Friends, showcasing his warm tone and lyrical, swinging sound. His subsequent recordings, highlighted by 1974's Round Trip, 1984's Rendezvous, and 1999's Remembrance, found him traversing such varied styles as funk, fusion, and crossover pop. Since the 2000s, Watanabe has focused largely on acoustic post-bop, Brazilian traditions, and straight-ahead jazz, as on the 2017 orchestral concert album Encore!

The legendary musical project Era come back with album "The 7th Sword". Through this opus of original compositions, its creator Eric Levi proves once again that he is free from all musical dictates and still creates surprise. His music carries the listener into another dimension, with an imaginary language and a timeless sound that has already fascinated more than 10 million people around the world. This 7th album also features a new remix of the famous song "Ameno" to mark its 20th anniversary.

This is the 3rd album of french doom/death metal band Inborn Suffering. Inborn Suffering first formed in Paris back in 2002 and over the course of the following eight years they established themselves as masters of doom, spinning tragic tales across foundations of colossal riffs and ethereal melody. They performed alongside fellow overlords of the doom/death underground like Swallow The Sun, Saturnus and Mourning Beloveth and produced two critically acclaimed albums - Wordless Hope and Regression To Nothingness - before stepping away from the scene in 2012. It would be eleven years before Inborn Suffering began to stir again, but when the flame of creativity was alight once more, the new music began to flow…

Here is one of the most underrated French albums, but also one of the most sought after, finally reissued by Musea. Visitors was actually a one-shot band gathered around producer Jean-Pierre Massiera, and including about twenty musicians. Besides the rhythm section, the stress was here put on the keyboards (Hammond organ & Mini-Moog) and on choirs that remind of Vanilla Fudge. The band performs a sophisticated music based on numerous breaks and refined developments. Let's also mention beautiful parts by Didier Lockwood's violin, who was here playing for the first time on an album. The music goes from a Yes kind of Progressive rock to elaborated Seventies British bands (Cressida, Gracious!) and to the beginnings of jazz-rock.

Arhoolie's Texas Sharecropper & Songster is a recording made in 1960, during the blues revival. Prior to the blues revival, Mance Lipscomb was an unknown, and his discovery was one of the positive byproducts of the revival. He was a great country-blues man, and this is perhaps his greatest effort, capturing him running through a number of traditional songs. Most of the songs are augmented by his jackknife slide guitar, and all feature his raw, haunted vocals, which make these classic songs sound timeless.

This late 1969-70 British group (recording at Abbey Road for EMI's progressive Harvest label) manages to sound authentically American on this collection of 1920's & 1930's blues, folk & jug band songs (though an actual jug is played on only a few tunes). They are traditional tunes. When this album failed commercially, two members exited, and the reconstituted group shortened their name to "Panama Limited", started making limited use of electric instruments and started writing original songs influenced by Captain Beefheart.