Magic Boy presents Jimi Hendrix's legendary first show at the Berkeley Community Theater in May 1970. Fans first became aware of his Berkeley performance when two early posthumous releases featured a stunning Hear My Train A Comin' on 1971's Rainbow Bridge and his electrifying rendition of Johnny B. Goode on 1972's Hendrix: In The West. The shambolic 1971 film Jimi Plays Berkeley stoked the fires further with extracts of Purple Haze and Star Banner. Magic Boy includes those two classics and assembles the performance in its running order for the first time. It also offers Ezy Ryder and Freedom in development before completion in the studio by the guitarist, plus Message To Love and Machine Gun from his recent Band Of Gypsys album, alongside Fire and Voodoo Child (Slight Return), all newly remixed by Eddie Kramer from the original multi-track tapes.

While mostly accurate, dismissing Never Mind the Bollocks as merely a series of loud, ragged midtempo rockers with a harsh, grating vocalist and not much melody would be a terrible error. Already anthemic songs are rendered positively transcendent by Johnny Rotten's rabid, foaming delivery. His bitterly sarcastic attacks on pretentious affectation and the very foundations of British society were all carried out in the most confrontational, impolite manner possible. Most imitators of the Pistols' angry nihilism missed the point: underneath the shock tactics and theatrical negativity were social critiques carefully designed for maximum impact. Never Mind the Bollocks perfectly articulated the frustration, rage, and dissatisfaction of the British working class with the establishment, a spirit quick to translate itself to strictly rock & roll terms. the Pistols paved the way for countless other bands to make similarly rebellious statements, but arguably none were as daring or effective.

Swedish psychedelic rock turned cross-culture folk-rock and jamming band. They were formed in 1970 and took their name from one of Sweden's highest mountains. Some members previously played in the bands Baby Grandmothers and Mecki Mark Men. Key stylists in the band are: Kenny Håkansson (guitarist also known on a few Bo Hansson albums) and Mats Glenngård (violinist and second guitarist). By the end of the 70's, and after a slow disintegration of the band, they more or less successfully tried their hands at symphonic rock and then disappeared. After 31 years the leaders of Swedish Folk Prog returns and except for the more modern sound quality, they really haven't changed a bit in sound! The songs from this album wouldn't have been a bit out of place on their second or third album.

Michael d'Abo first rose to prominence in British rock through his assumption of a most unenviable task, succeeding Paul Jones as lead singer in Manfred Mann – the group's own record label, EMI, was so persuaded of the unlikelihood that anyone could replace him, that they dropped the band from the roster. He proved up to the challenge, however, and across the four decades since, has remained a busy and well-known musical figure, in rock and in music in general.

To call the multitalented Gatemouth Brown, a mainstay of the Texas music scene for over half a century, a bluesman would be inaccurate. Not completely wrong, for Brown's influence on Texas blues has been enormous, but certainly not the whole picture. On Blackjack, Brown (who sings and plays harmonica and a plethora of stringed instruments, from guitar to viola) goes from blues ("Chickenshift") to jazz ("Honey Boy," with a nice drum solo from David Peters) to country ("Dark End of the Hallway") and back again. Not every musician can handle this kind of variety, but Brown makes it work, whether it's the straight-ahead blues of "Here Am I" or "Street Corner" (which has a great harmonica intro), the Cajun-inflected "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again," or the jazz-blues feel of "Tippin' In." It's easy to see, or rather to hear, why Brown has been so influential: every track on Blackjack is performed with the deft assurance of a master.

Studio One Space-Age Dub Special draws on rare and classic dubs taken from the mighty vaults of Studio One Records.

The iconic progressive jazz-rock fusion band Brand X revisit their 1977 US tour amid the successful salvage of a heap of reel to reel tapes from Robin Lumley's attic after nearly 50 years.

This follow-up to their Greatest Hits contains "The Border," "Right Before Your Eyes," "Today's the Day," and "You Can Do Magic." The rest of the tracks are album sides or previously unreleased material.

The most beautiful film scores composed by Ennio Morricone and sung by the lady from Avignon! Recorded in Rome in 1974 at Ennio Morricone's studios with the maestro himself, this album, remastered this year for the occasion, includes the 10 tracks from the original album (unavailable on CD for many years) as well as 4 rare bonus tracks! In this magnificent album, rediscover one of the finest French voices performing the greatest themes from legendary films such as "Once Upon a Time in the West," "Sacco and Vanzetti," "The Burglars," "Once Upon a Time… the Revolution," and "At the Dawn of the Fifth Day." Also included are two tracks specially composed by Ennio Morricone for Mireille Mathieu!

Before there was Saturday Night Fever there was underground disco. DJs across America went out and found the music to play; dancers went out and found the clubs. At this point, in the early seventies, the disco was the venue and not a genre of music.

After 40 years, a number of ill-conceived posthumous albums, and countless bootlegs, one would almost have to be skeptical of a new album billed as "12 previously unreleased studio recordings - almost 60 minutes of unheard Jimi Hendrix!" The good news is that Valleys of Neptune largely delivers on that promise. Even hardcore collectors will likely be surprised at how much of this album they haven't heard. But much of this material has been available before in some form, official and otherwise. Although there were tons of posthumous overdubs, elements of these very versions of "Stone Free" and "Hear My Train Comin'" were used as building blocks for the versions on Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning, respectively. Additionally, this version of "Stone Free" was included on 2000's The Jimi Hendrix Experience box set, the only difference being that Noel Redding's bass and vocals were replaced with Billy Cox's bass from a slightly later studio session…

John Williams composed and conducted the musical score for the 1978 thriller film Jaws 2, expanding the iconic two-note shark motif with a richer, more adventurous orchestral arrangement.

Celebrate 50 years of Patti Smith’s debut studio album with the release of Horses (50th Anniversary). The 2-set features the iconic album remastered direct from the original master tapes and previously unreleased outtakes and rarities - including Patti Smith’s 1975 RCA audition tape.

Mind Games was meant to be a return to form for John Lennon, after an instantly dated protest album that felt didactic and cold. He seemed to be back on track with its opening Top 20 hit title song. But the rest of Mind Games could be a strangely ruminative and often mid-tempo, with a shaggy studio approach. Mind Games: The Ultimate Collection makes it clear who fans should blame: The producer. After three straight projects with co-producers Phil Spector and Yoko Ono, Lennon took over those duties. He clearly couldn't place enough distance between himself and the material to make the best choices for these songs. An outside voice might have encouraged him to continue work on some tracks, or to toss one or two aside.