It’s back. The debut album that blew up the ’90s blues scene. The songs that announced the touchdown of a major new talent. In modern times, as an established solo star and former member of the globally acclaimed Royal Southern Brotherhood, Mike Zito’s reputation precedes him. But turn back the clocks. Rewind the film reels. Slip through the wormhole to 1998, when a 27-year-old punk kid took his first shot in the studio. “Blue Room,” he reflects, “is the beginning of me becoming an artist.” By 1998, Zito had been around the block. Raised at the sharp end in St. Louis, Missouri, he’d witnessed the lean years of the ’70s, as his father – a union employee at the local Anheuser-Busch brewery – grafted to support five kids in a cramped apartment.

U.S. progressive rockers Spock's Beard released their 13th studio album, "Noise Floor". For this disc, Ted Leonard, Alan Morse, Dave Meros and Ryo Okumoto are joined in the studio once again by drummer and original member Nick D'Virgilio. Spock's Beard is a band that is in a continual state of evolution, as is always the case with genuinely creative musicians. And "Noise Floor" fits perfectly into this process. "We are always about evolution, not revolution. But what we have done this time is make the songs more melodic," believes vocalist/guitarist Ted Leonard. "We still love our crazy prog, but now appreciate how important it is to grab people's attention early on."
As with all Spock's Beard songs, most of the new album was written by the individual members, and then brought to the rest of the band as high-quality demos…

Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar wrote three symphonies, of which the first was withdrawn from public performance and the third was left incomplete. As a result, the Symphony No. 2 in G minor (1911-1915) stands alone as a fully realized and representative example of Stenhammar's symphonic thinking, showing considerable formal innovation and a rugged personal style, though he seems to have derived much of his inspiration from the Symphony No. 2 in D major of Jean Sibelius. In this performance by Christian Lindberg and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the symphony receives a robust performance that doesn't downplay the Sibelius influence, but seems to revel in it, especially in the organic development of long-breathed themes and extended crescendos.

As a title, Bilingual is a double-edged sword. Disregard its sexual connotations and concentrate on its musical implications - Bilingual is a rich, diverse album that delves deeply into Latin rhythms. It's not a crass, simplistic fusion, where the polyphonic rhythms are simply grafted over synthesizers and a disco pulse. Instead, Bilingual is an enormously subtle album, with shifting rhythms and graceful, understated melodies. The music isn't the only thing subtle about the album - Neil Tennant's voice and lyrics are nuanced, suggesting more than they actually say. Furthermore, Bilingual consists of the most optimistic, happy set of songs the Pet Shop Boys have ever recorded…

Because they work in a field that isn't usually taken seriously, the Pet Shop Boys are often ignored in the rock world. But make no mistake - they are one of the most talented pop outfits working today, witty and melodic with a fine sense of flair. Very is one of their very best records, expertly weaving between the tongue-in-cheek humor of "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing," the quietly shocking "Can You Forgive Her?," and the bizarrely moving cover of the Village People's "Go West." Alternately happy and melancholy, Very is the Pet Shop Boys at their finest.

Space Debris hail from the Odenwald region in Germany. The members' main concern is to play improvised music reminiscent to 70s krautrock and psychedelic bands.
Into the Sun: Live at Burg Herzberg Festival 2006 (2007). These guys wear their 70s influences on their shirtsleeves and for a full blown heavy jamming prog-psych-krautrock experience you can do no better than Space Debris. Like their previous albums the guys get a jam going and just take off, with most of the tracks being in the 14-18 minute range, giving them plenty of room to stretch out and explore. This is a world where the guitar and Hammond organ reigns supreme dueling and trading leads throughout…

This generous song recital of Debussy Mélodies features soprano Sophie Karthäuser and baritone Stéphane Degout, accompanied by pianists Eugene Asti and Alain Planès. Drawing on Symbolist and Impressionist poets, this program, including Trois Ballades de François Villon and Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire, showcases some of the composer's finest cycles. For Debussy, the artistic journey is first and foremost a matter of color.

"You don't like our music cuz it ain't up on the radio," Beak>'s Geoff Barrow sings on >>> with something approaching pride. This contrarian attitude defines the band's third album: Barrow and company could have easily made another album of sinister motorik-driven instrumentals like >>, but this time, they blow up their music. Since Beak> haven't released a full-length in six years and now include Moon Gangs' Will Young among their ranks, some evolution was inevitable. Even so, >>> reveals some drastic changes. The lock grooves that powered Beak>'s first two albums are almost entirely absent, freeing them to double down on their distinctively murky, eerie moods and express them in new ways.

The Windmill are a Norwegian progressive rock band formed in 2001 in the outskirts of Oslo. The music is symphonic neo prog influenced by several bands from the golden years of the seventies, such as Genesis, Pink Floyd, Camel and others. The debut album "To be Сontinued …" was released May 2010.
The album is filled with excellent compositions, built around melodic guitars, powerful organs, lovely vocal arrangements and some superb synthesizers. The album even contains a fantastic 21-min. epic, entitled ''A Day in a Hero's Life'', with strong Genesis, Yes and Camel inspirations, led by strong breaks, dramatic changes, instant melodies and a very rich and sensitive approach, incorporating influences also from Folk Music and Heavy Rock…

Behavior was a retreat from the deep dance textures of Introspective, as it picked up on the carefully constructed pop of Actually. In fact, Behavior functions as the Pet Shop Boys' bid for mainstream credibility, as much of the album relies more on popcraft than rhythmic variations. Although its a subtle maneuver, it would have been rather disastrous if the results weren't so captivating. Tennant takes this approach seriously, singing the lyrics instead of speaking them. That doesn't necessarily give the album added emotional baggage - all of the distance and detachment in the duo's music is not a hindrance, it's part of the concept - but it does result in an ambitious and breathtaking pop album, which manages to include everything from the spiteful "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" to the wistful "Being Boring."

"Introspective" has sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide to date and was the first to feature production by Trevor Horn, whose lavish orchestrations marked a new sonic direction for PSB. House Music legend, Frankie Knuckles created the mix of "I Want a Dog" while "Domino Dancing" was recorded in Miami with hit producer Lewis Martinée.
This "Catalogue" reissue features, along with the newly-remastered original album, bonus material such as demo versions of "Don Juan" and ‘Domino dancing’, seven-inch and disco mixes of ‘Losing My Mind" and "Left To My Own Devices".

Stick Men is a progressive rock band founded in 2007 by Pat Mastelotto, Tony Levin, and Michael Bernier. Since 2010, the lineup stabilized around Mastelotto, Levin, and Markus Reuter. The band was formed as a vehicle for progressive rock music performed almost exclusively with Chapman Sticks and drums. In April of 2015, Stick Men put on four historic concerts in Japan, with special guest, legendary King Crimson violinist David Cross, a project special arranged by Leonardo Pavkovic. The live recording of the 2 Tokyo shows, titled Midori, was released as a double CD in Japan only, and now is available as well via MoonJune in a limited edition of 2500 copies.