Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys is a compilation album of sea shanties performed by artists representing a variety of genres, ranging from pop musicians like Sting and Bryan Ferry, to folk musicians, including Richard Thompson and Martin Carthy.

Any time the likes of Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola and Jean-Luc Ponty are assembled, there is a good chance the results are going to be impressive. Clarke and DiMeola had played together in the legendary Return to Forever, producing some of the most intense playing in all of fusion; Jean-Luc Ponty had also made several excellent, very diverse recordings. The chops of these three musicians are pretty much unsurpassed in the industry, which in itself makes Rite of Strings worthy of a listen. The real treat, however, is in the song selections. Three of DiMeola's more recent compositions are here, including the uplifting "Chilean Pipe Song." On this song, Clarke and Ponty's dual-bow sound provides a nice backdrop to DiMeola's introduction before DiMeola and Ponty state the melody together. Ponty has always been one of the more interesting violinists, mostly because he experiments with the instrument's tonal possibilities.

Eggs Over Easy, the American band that invented pub rock, influenced the careers of Nick Lowe, Huey Lewis, Loudon Wainwright III and Elvis Costello, and laid the groundwork for a grass roots movement that would spawn UK punk, is finally getting its due with a deluxe 3xLP/2xCD set.

WRWTFWW Records is immensely happy to announce the reissue of impossible-to-find cult album Lady Maid by Japanese outfit Normal Brain, available on vinyl, digipack CD, cassette, and digital, with liner notes by acclaimed sound artist and mastermind behind the project, Yukio Fujimoto. Originally released in 1981 as a limited vinyl pressing of 300 copies on Agi Yuzuru’s fabled experimental label Vanity Records (R.N.A. Organism, Dada, Sympathy Nervous, Tolerance…), Lady Maid is a testament to the creativity of the early 80s’ Japanese electronic and experimental scene, encapsulating a prolific era when audio gear became affordable for musicians to explore sounds in the comfort of their home, free from studio time pressure and major label rules.

Mortally wounded by the censors, Verdi's 1850 opera disappeared for more than a century. This Met staging is impressively sung, especially by Domingo in the title role. (BBC Music Magazine)
…the production… was mounted specifically for Domingo who enjoyed in it one of the most impressive triumphs of his career, happily preserved now in sight as well as sound. (Gramophone)

A Super-Ambient Journey Deep Into Your Soul… Dancing between different musical styles such as traditional, arabesque, jazz and classical, the musicians emerge with a sound that is the sum of their experiences.