After the highly decorated ‘17 From Morden’ album Top Sounds pay a second visit to R.G Jones’ studio with ‘From Morden To Wimbledon’, a compilation which collects 15 tracks transferred from OAK label acetates. Two of Friday’s Chyld’s excellent and recently unearthed pre-Fire recordings make their debut on vinyl, and Torquay’s Phaze offer weighty psych pop with two numbers from their acetate only EP. Pre-single versions of the legendary Keith Dangerfield Plexium label 45 surface together for the first time, and superb progressive rock is on the menu with two numbers by Nemesis. Row Boat invigorate with ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’ and one of the ultimate OAK double siders has been uncovered by the Tinsel Arcade, which couples heavy freakbeat with top drawer psychedelia. There’s spooky psych with ‘Science Fiction’ plus meaty goodies from the Rustic Souls and Scott and Weller.

A collection of previously unreleased OAK label acetates all recorded at R.G Jones of Morden during the mid 60s, featuring British beat, rhythm and blues, mod flavoured rock and blue eyed soul.

Venice was one of the most fertile centres of Italian Baroque music. The serenity of its inhabitants and their immoderate taste for celebration, carnivals, entertainment and pleasure were the envy of the whole of Europe, as were the beauty of the city and its fine situation, its prestige and its magnificence. In the City of the Doges music was a necessity. ‘There are concerts somewhere almost every evening,’ wrote the French scholar and politician Charles de Brosses in 1740.

In the year 1688, when the 52-year-old Georg Daniel Speer, son of a reputed peltmonger family of Breslau, had his 'Musicalisch-Türckischer Eulen-Spiegel' published in Ulm, he was an organist and assistant teacher in South Germany and already had an eventful life behind him. At the age of 18, he had set off through the Carpathian Mountains to Spisz (located in the north-east of present-day Slovakia). Throughout the following years, he worked as a mercenary for various armies, once as an army drummer, then as a bugler in the war of Hungary against the Turks. Finally, he reached Constantinople in the company of a 'high-born lord'.

Klaus Thunemann has been the world's premiere solo bassoonist for the past three decades. His technical mastery of the instrument–he has the facilty of a violinist–is impressive in and of itself, but he brings so much more to these hard-to-find recordings of Vivaldi's elegant concerti.

Westbound's remarkable catalog reissue campaign continues apace with yet another long-lost gem from the label's forgotten corners. Album was the sole full-length release by Detroit quintet Assemblage, and although the 1971 set kicks off with a cover of the Stones' "Satisfaction"—a seemingly obligatory move for bands during this time—this record is nonetheless full of surprises. While '70s Detroit was legendary for an incredibly fertile scene that blurred the lines between soul, funk, rock, and proto-punk and was home to a disproportionate number of iconic musicians, Assemblage were among quite a few acts and players that completely slipped under the radar. Featuring just one "notable" member in the form of future Bob Seger keyboardist Robyn Robins, the other four musicians hit their career peaks with Assemblage, which, considering that Album has been out of print and not reissued since its original release, indicates exactly how high that peak was.

After releasing the much-delayed The Apprentice, Martyn was once again on a roll, and, while not quite as strong as The Apprentice, Cooltide was a solid outing. His jazziest release yet, it's marred slightly by a gravelly hoarseness in his voice, which makes him sound like he's just recovered from laryngitis. "Jack the Lad" was the single released, and, along with "Annie Says" and the aching "Call Me," they show him entering the 1990s in fine form. The title song had a long gestation, originally recorded for 1979's Grace and Danger under the title "Running up the Harbour." While a bit long, it's a great hypnotic, groove-oriented track that's smooth and cool, with Martyn venturing a little further afield than he had in quite a while.

Sun Records Originals: 52 Rare Roots of Rock & Roll" is a new album released by Sun Records in 2024. This compilation features a collection of 52 tracks that highlight the foundational sounds of rock & roll, showcasing a variety of rare and influential songs from the early days of the genre. The album includes contributions from several pioneering artists who helped shape rock & roll's early sound.

The Very Best of Bachman–Turner Overdrive is a 2001 compilation album by Bachman–Turner Overdrive. It was released in Europe by Falcon Neue Medien. Bachman–Turner Overdrive, often abbreviated as BTO, is a Canadian rock group from Winnipeg, Manitoba, that had a series of hit albums and singles in the 1970s, selling over 7 million albums in that decade alone. Their 1970s catalogue included five Top 40 albums and six US Top 40 singles (eleven in Canada). The band has sold nearly 30 million albums worldwide, and has fans affectionately known as "gearheads" (derived from the band's gear-shaped logo). Many of their songs, including "Let It Ride", "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet", "Takin' Care of Business", "Hey You" and "Roll on Down the Highway", still receive play on classic-rock stations.

Family is an English rock band, active from late 1966 to October 1973, and again since 2013 for a series of live shows. Their style has been characterised as progressive rock, as their sound often explored other genres, incorporating elements of styles such as folk, psychedelia, acid rock, jazz fusion, and rock and roll. The band achieved recognition in the United Kingdom through their albums, club and concert tours, and appearances at festivals. The band's rotating membership throughout its relatively short existence led to a diversity in sound throughout their different albums. Family are also often seen as an unjustly forgotten act, when compared with other bands from the same period and have been described as an "odd band loved by a small but rabid group of fans". Although most of their recordings were issued in the US, the band never achieved any appreciable success there.

Vulture Culture is the eighth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1985 via the Arista label. Vulture Culture's theme is another in which the fallacy of humankind is front and center. This time Parsons' message concerns the fact that everyone lives in a parasitic society, where it's every man for himself. Those who can't fend for themselves simply won't survive in a world where the kindness of the human spirit is rapidly deteriorating. On this album, though, the songs are weaker and are less effective in bringing out the album's complex idea. As it does have its moments, Vulture Culture lacks in cohesiveness and strength both lyrically and, to a lesser extent, musically. "Let's Talk About Me" addresses the theme in its words, but the choppy rhythm takes away the attractiveness that could have been. The instrumental "Hawkeye" adds life and contrast to the album at just the right time. The most appealing song, "Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)" with vocalist Chris Rainbow at the helm, combines simplicity with a timeless chorus making for a truly beautiful ballad. Even though Parsons' theme is revealed, it's done so with less clarity and doesn't quite hit home. Without the usual balance of absorbing lyrics and well-maintained music, Vulture Culture remains one of this band's less prolific albums.

Hearing guitarist Sean Shibe’s Bach recital, recorded in Delphian’s fifteenth-century Scottish venue, Baroque violinist Bojan Čičić was inspired during the first lockdown to begin recording Bach’s iconic Partitas and Sonatas. Amid the gloom of the pandemic and restrictions on performances, Čičić travelled north – when allowed – to explore the intense rigours of Bach’s fugues and shining virtuosity of the Partitas’ fast movements.

At this point in his career, Ian Gillan really has nothing to prove to anyone in the rock world. He's created one of the most successful bands in the history of rock & roll, and has aged with a grace and class few of his contemporaries can rival. So it makes sense that Gillan's Inn is a relaxed affair and offers up a simple set of rock & roll without pretense or a bloated concept. Taking a cue from Santana's latest releases, a nonstop onslaught of guest appearances fills the rooms of Gillan's Inn, including Def Leppard's Joe Elliott, Joe Satriani, Roger Glover, Steve Morse, Jeff Healey, Uli John Roth, Ronnie James Dio, and Goo Goo Dolls pinup boy Johnny Rzeznik. The result is a 14-song session that's as much inoffensive fun as it is straight-ahead blues-tinged rock & roll.

Her story is one of the most legendary of all twentieth century musicians' stories, and also, one of the most tragic. Cellist Jacqueline Du Pré, born on January 26, 1945, in Oxford, England, to Derek and Iris Du Pré. (Despite the family name, Derek Du Pré was not French, but rather of British Channel Island ancestry; he could trace his lineage back to the Norman Conquest). She blossomed young and achieved international fame in a few short years during the mid-1960s, during which same time she joined Daniel Barenboim in one of history's most celebrated musical marriages. But her career was shattered in the early 1970s – not even a decade into its maturity – by multiple sclerosis.

First Circle is a Grammy Award winning album by Pat Metheny Group released in 1984. On the album Pat Metheny is joined by Lyle Mays on piano and keyboards, Steve Rodby on bass, drummer Paul Wertico and vocalist and percussionist Pedro Aznar. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance in 1985. Pat Metheny has remarked that this is an important album in the Group's history for a number of reasons, among them being that the Group's core lineup on the album remained unchanged for over 15 years and it was the final Group album released on the ECM record label.