Balancing breeziness with complexity, this ambitious Oakland, California-based avant-prog band led by Bill Wolter released its debut full-length, Rainbro, on AltrOck in 2012. Guitarist, composer, and Mills College music composition graduate Bill Wolter plays with various Bay Area bands, and formed this adventurous avant-prog outfit in Oakland, California around 2005. With a quartet lineup of guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums, Inner Ear Brigade self-released the four-song Belly Brain EP in the summer of 2005, citing such influences as Magma, Sun Ra, and Frank Zappa. With a change in bass players and the addition of a saxophonist, the band expanded to a quintet, remaining a five-piece until late in the decade, when Inner Ear Brigade grew even larger with vocalist Melody Ferris, saxophonist Ivor Holloway, and vibraphonist Ryder Shelly joining the band.

Anthrax is an American heavy metal band from New York City, formed in 1981 by rhythm guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Dan Lilker. The group was considered one of the leaders of the thrash metal scene during the 1980s and is one of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands with Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer; Anthrax is the only one of the four from the East Coast. As of April 2017, the band has released 11 studio albums, several other albums, and 26 singles, including collaborating on a single with American hip hop group Public Enemy. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Anthrax sold 2.5 million records in the United States from 1991 to 2004, with worldwide sales of 10 million…

Pure… Alternative collects 68 original hits featuring Adam & The Ants, The Stranglers, Prefab Sprout, Cyndi Lauper, Alison Moyet, and Lou Reed. Tracks by The Icicle Works, Cyndi Lauper, John Cooper Clarke, and Altered Images are also included on this four-disc compilation.

Vanguard may have spelled his name wrong (he prefers Charlie or Charles), but the word was out as soon as this solo debut was released: here was a harpist every bit as authentic, as emotional, and in some ways as adventuresome, as Paul Butterfield. Similarly leading a Chicago band with a veteran black rhythm section (Fred Below on drums, Bob Anderson on bass) and rock-influenced soloists (keyboardist Barry Goldberg, guitarist Harvey Mandel), Musselwhite played with a depth that belied his age - only 22 when this was cut! His gruff vocals were considerably more affected than they would become later (clearer, more relaxed), but his renditions of "Help Me," "Early in the Morning," and his own "Strange Land" stand the test of time…

Renascence is an appropriate title for this 1975 performance because in the mid-'70s, Art Pepper experienced a creative rebirth. Thanks to his self-destructive lifestyle, the alto saxophonist had wasted a lot of time; anyone who has read his disturbing autobiography, Straight Life, can tell you that Pepper, like Charlie Parker and Chet Baker, was his own worst enemy. But in 1975, he was getting his act together. The saxophone, not drugs, was his top priority, and in August 1975, he made his long overdue return to the studio with Living Legend, his first studio recording as a leader since 1960. Many of those who bought Living Legend and caught Pepper live in 1975 agreed that he was playing the hell out of his horn, although some listeners preferred the softer, cool-toned Pepper of the 1950s over the tougher, more aggressive, John Coltrane-influenced Pepper of Living Legend…

This recording is, quite frankly, a marvel. In the opening bars of the Kyrie, where tradition dictates a powerful, agonized cry for mercy, Philippe Herreweghe offers a gentle, awestruck plea that took this listener's breath away. Extroverted movements like the Gloria, Et resurrexit, and Sanctus lack nothing in excitement; Qui tollis and Dona nobis pacem feel like fervent prayers. Herreweghe's luminous Collegium Vocale and skillful, sensitive instrumentalists make every gesture, large and small, seem exactly right. The soloists have attractive voices that blend with the period instruments and each other; while each is exquisite, tenor Christoph Prégardien and alto Andreas Scholl are magnificent.

Even when the Symphony No. 1 debuted in 1831, it was considered old fashioned. Although it was well received, audiences that same year were also exposed to Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Old fashioned or not, Onslow’s first symphony was performed throughout Europe to generally high acclaim. There were some dissenters who felt Onslow’s themes would have been better served in chamber works using fewer musicians (Symphony No. 3 actually began as a string quintet), but other people felt Onslow moved the symphony in a new direction and his works should not be compared to the symphonies of other composers. Onslow’s symphonies are classical in structure: four movements, not straying too far from the Classical notions of harmony; however they embrace the burgeoning Romanticism of the time.

The symphonies of Georges Onslow (1784-1853), rather than following the path blazed by countryman Hector Berlioz, instead adopt the German romantic style epitomized by Schumann and Mendelssohn. For example, the high-spirited Symphony No. 2, a smart and finely crafted work continuously self-propelled by busy string writing, presents a very Schumannesque profile (explicitly so in the scherzo), while the orchestration, with its bucolic woodwind writing, owes much to Mendelssohn. Symphony No. 4 immediately announces its weightier countenance with a powerfully portentous introduction reminiscent of Schubert. Onslow enlivens both the first movement and finale with skillful pacing and an unerring sense of dramatic timing, but it's the spiritually elevated adagio–the emotional center of the work–that remains most in the memory.

Haken have proven over three previous albums and two EPs that musically, they can do pretty much anything they set their minds to. That said, the question was one of where to go after 2014's compelling and adventurous release, The Mountain. With new bassist Conner Green replacing Thomas MacLean, the band rethought its approach to songwriting. Previously, they'd composed around themes and ideas by keyboardist/guitarist Richard Henshall, but these nine cuts were written by all six members.
Affinity contains a themed schematic that deliberately falls short of a full concept: the ubiquitous presence of computers and their evolving relationship with human life…