Frank Vincent Zappa was an American musician, composer, activist and filmmaker. His work was characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity, and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist…

Even among Deadheads, there's always been a sense that Jerry Garcia's studio albums have been somewhat ignored. Part of this ties back to the often repeated urban legend that the Grateful Dead were never as good in the studio as they were live – an argument that has some truth but tends to downplay the merits of the studio albums, which had their own distinct attributes. This also applies to Garcia's studio records, but as a whole they're more problematic than the Dead's catalog…

Sakamoto's all-star blend of Western and Eastern music styles is a triumphant success for the composer, and a consistently good listen. On the title track he takes a traditional Japanese folk song and blends it into a funk groove provided by Bootsy Collins, Bill Laswell, and Sly Dunbar. Unlike Byrne and Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, this blend of cultures is coming from the opposing angle and stays truer to the source material. But that track is only one of Sakamoto's approaches, and on several other tracks he joins with Laswell to create a crisp, techno-cultural hybrid that sounds like nothing except like pure Sakamoto. On "Risky," a subdued Iggy Pop lends vocals and lyrics, and doesn't come across as an interloper. And on "Okinawa Song," Sakamoto seamlessly integrates the southern island culture into his grand scheme.

The Legendary Pink Dots exist in the fields of experimental and psychedelic music. The band is fronted by Edward Ka-Spel, who doubles as singer and chief lyric writer. Phil Knight (The Silverman), Erik Drost, and Raymond Steeg make up the current lineup of the band…

With its debut album, Relentless (Brooke Records, 2011) WorldService Project announced itself as a band to watch. Since that release, the five-piece—led by keyboardist and principal composer Dave Morecroft—has consolidated its reputation as a cooking live band, in particular in its Match & Fuse live collaborations with like-minded bands from across Europe. Now, its second album, Fire in a Pet Shop, is radically different to Relentless; different enough that fans of the earlier record may wish to sample the follow-up before embracing it. This time out, WorldService Project seems to have opted to play it for laughs, as is suggested by the quirky album title itself (a phrase used as a disparaging description of certain types of improvised music) and the track name "Change the F**king Record"—both of which the group must surely hope will not come back to haunt it. In addition, the album's cartoon cover and in-jokey musician credits like "Morecroft: clown," contribute to the impression that WSP may have been overdosing on old Frank Zappa records.

The members of Faust are the jokers in the Krautrock pack – jokers because they never formed with any serious intentions, and jokers, too, because whatever preconceptions you might have in approaching that most disreputable-sounding of sonic genres, Faust is guaranteed to explode them…

Brothers Ron and Russell Mael from Los Angeles, USA have been making diverse music since 1969 under various incarnations of Sparks. In 1979 they ditched the guitars and keyboards of glam geek rock and started working with Italian producer Giorgio Moroder, beginning a love affair with electronic music. Since then they have worked with a variety of people including Finitribe, Les Rita Mitsouko, Erasure and Faith No More.

La-La Land Records and Universal Pictures proudly present the fourteenth title within the acclaimed Universal Pictures Film Music Classics Collection - VIDEODROME: LIMITED EDITION, music by renowned composer Howard Shore (LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY, SE7EN, NAKED LUNCH). This limited edition CD release of Howard Shore's original motion picture score to 1983's big-screen, dramatic sci-fi thriller VIDEODROME, starring James Woods, Sonja Smits and Deborah Harry, and written and directed by David Cronenberg, features a remastered and restored presentation of the film's notable score. Another creative triumph in his long-running collaboration with writer/director David Cronenberg, composer Shore's riveting work for VIDEODROME is a thrilling and experimental blend of synth and strings that expertly explores and weaves the film's complex tapestry of psychological drama, eroticism, science fiction and politics together in haunting and seductive fashion. Produced by Howard Shore and Alan Frey and mastered by Simon Gibson at Abbey Road Studios, this limited CD release of 2000 units presents the restored film score and features exclusive, in-depth liner notes by writer Jeff Bond, (featuring comments from the composer), and art direction by Dan Goldwasser.

Gentle Giant was reduced to a quintet on In a Glass House with the departure of elder brother Phil Shulman, but its sound is unchanged, and the group may actually be tighter without the presence of his saxophones…

Take a collection of classics by musical behemoths The Beatles, Kate Bush, The Sex Pistols, The Righteous Brothers, Brotherhood Of Man and suchlike, and perform them in a style as diametrically opposite to the original as one can imagine… Therein lies the manifesto that brought the world the wonderfully twisted take on pop music that is “Hybrid Kids”.

Review for The Shining (Original Sound Track)
The soundtrack for Director Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, The Shining may be the horror genre's Holy Grail; a real collector's item. It's rare to find a legitimate copy of this film's music anywhere. The vinyl version of the soundtrack was withdrawn from the market due to licensing issues and it was never released on CD. Currently, the aforementioned record is being sold on Discogs and eBay for obscene amounts of money. It's not surprising given that the film has become so iconic. Kubrick had an uncanny knack of synchronizing just the right passages of music to coincide perfectly with the images on the screen. He relied more often than not on existing music rather than a traditional score with 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining being prime examples. I think it's safe to say that Kubrick may have even led the way in this regard for other filmmakers such as Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Marty Scorsese, and obviously Quentin Tarantino.

Once a symbol of the Vertigo label's adventurism, Jade Warrior's lack of sales led to their dismissal in 1972, which inevitably resulted in the band's disintegration. However, the Warrior's multi-instrumentalists, Jon Field and Tony Duhig, soldiered on at the urging of Steve Winwood, whose enthusiastic support of the diminished Warrior secured the duo a deal with his label, Island. Floating World was the new-look Jade's debut, a concept album themed around the Japanese philosophy of Ukiyo, with the songs revolving around two interrelated series of compositions…

Inspired by both Brazilian music and the boundless possibilities of the Internet, electronic composer Ryuichi Sakamoto wrote Smoochy, an endlessly intriguing exploration of what happens when the old world meets the future. Using his Brazilian Internet concept as a foundation, Sakamoto goes on to add a variety of other musics, including jazz and Latin pop, to the music, creating a dense and fascinating musical web of electronics and percussion. Occasionally, he gets too self-consciously arty for his own good, but most of the album finds Sakamoto at his best.

La STPO aka La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux (which stand for "The shy people's society at the birds parade"). This six piece (or more) French ensemble has been around since 1984, and operates in the area somewhere between Etron Fou axis and Neo-chamber styles, applying humor, avant-gardisms, ultra high energy theatrics, and a well rounded eclectism. They cover a pretty wide field of material within those realms, using guitars, bass, contrabass, drums, percussions, saxes, mallets and synths, plus a lot of unusual stuff like balafon and viola de gamba. Romanciel is the tenth album of the band. It contains 4 tracks, 2 of which are long. Romanciel is a collage of different "moments" of a book, as if you were flipping through it and opening it at random; each chapter has its own atmosphere. Even the cover page and the table of contents are evoked and translated sonically.

Emma Ruth Rundle’s second installment in her Electric Guitar series, EG2: Dowsing Voice, is like the soundtrack to a film that hasn’t been made. The mostly instrumental record follows her on a trip to the Welsh coast and down a magical well into the waters of nature, myth and the Old Golds - by way of her improvised music. The 40 plus minute album was sewn together from recordings channeled during her month-long solo journey in the early days of 2020 and completed before 2021’s critically lauded album Engine of Hell was even written.