Ash Ra Tempel's second album featured the first of several personnel changes, Klaus Schulze having departed for other realms and replaced as a result by Wolfgang Muller. A few guest players surfaced here and there as well, with one John L. taking the lead vocals - another difference from the self-titled debut, which was entirely instrumental. The general principle of side-long efforts continued, though the first half was split into two related songs, "Light" and "Darkness." "Light" itself sounded halfway between the zoned-out exploration of "Traummaschine" and bluesy jamming, a weird if not totally discordant combination that still manages to sound more out there than most bands of the time. Gottsching's fried solo, in particular, is great, sending the rest of the song out to silence that leads into "Darkness"…

Contemporary jazz icons Bob James and Dave Koz mark a unique milestone with this aptly titled duo album Just Us, a piano and saxophone only collection of fresh originals and colorful re-imaginings of Great American Songbook standards. Its inspired format ventures spontaneously beyond the trademark sounds that fueled their superstardom and years of Billboard chart-topping successes into something entirely new, and fresh. A must listen for any fan of these artists.

SUPERB UK BROADCAST FROM THE TWO AGAINST NATURE TOUR. In 2000, Steely Dan released their first studio album in 20 years: Two Against Nature. It won four Grammy Awards: Best Engineered. Album , Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal (‘Cousin Dupree’), and Album of the Year (despitestrong competition in this category from Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP and Radiohead's Kid A). In the summer of 2000, they began an American tour, followed by an international tour later in the year. The tour featured guitarist Jon Herington, who would go on to play with the band over the next two decades. The group released the Plush TV Jazz-Rock Party DVD, documenting a live-in-the-studio concert performance of popular songs from throughout Steely Dan's career.

With our upcoming release, listeners can expect an exciting and unique musical experience that showcases a truly global collaboration. This album has been crafted by musicians from across the world, including Mike Stark in Sweden, Thilo Herrmann (ex-Running Wild, ex-Grave Digger) in Germany, Diana Boncheva in South Korea, EV Martel in Brazil, Gus Acosta and Emiliano Wachs in Argentina, along with contributions from many other talented artists in various countries. This worldwide effort brings a rich diversity of influences and styles to the project but always keeping our north into the Feanor sound we are known for.
The album artwork, created by Andreas Marshall - an artist renowned for his work with iconic bands like Running Wild and Blind Guardian - adds an impressive visual element to the project.

ARELY HEARD 1982 BROADCAST FROM AN EARLY US FURS SHOW Already a popular act in London and New York City when this remarkable show by The Psychedelic Furs was both performed, and indeed recorded for live transmission by the King Biscuit Flower Hour in late 1982, the gig came about a year after the band broke through in the US. With Richard and Tim Butler as the core members of the band, Richard's undeniable stage charisma is one factor in what made The Psychedelic Furs such a remarkable live band. The group was making its way into the American music mainstream with songs like "Love My Way," "Sister Europe," and "Into You Like a Train," all performed here with high impact, having formed in the UK in 1977 with Richard and his brother bassist. They soon added the rest of the band and started making a splash on the then thriving UK new wave/post punk club circuit.

Pointing out that Girl swam against the grubby grain is almost an act of cruelty. After all, these are the guys who whipped out the lipstick just as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene started to take off. In addition, writers who'd embraced the band's music-or-makeup foppery had now begun dismissing it. There's an unmistakable make-or-break aura that retreats from the glorious trash-brat territory so confidently exploited on Sheer Greed. The simpler view is that Girl's newfound tightness required a different sort of delivery – which is a grimier, grittier sound befitting the "back to basics" mood here. Like its predecessor, Wasted Youth boasts two drop-dead classics in "Overnight Angels" and "Old Dogs," which gives the Phil Collen-Gerry Laffy guitar team ample opportunity to shine. The romping title cut and "Ice in the Blood" are also worth further investigation, and remain firm fan favorites.

Girl exploded into the UK scene in the early ’80s, a scene that was almost exclusively primed for down and dirty hard rock, but these guys were a completely different beast.
Hard rock bands during the very early ’80s complied with a strict in-vogue youth uniform of denim, leather and greasy long hair. The NWOBHM, as it was labelled, may have been a force for good but it certainly wasn’t tolerant of aesthetic deviation… something that Girl found to be a major stumbling block.

Opening with Mike Hugg's title track, which builds on Mick Rogers' intense riffing and the killer vocals of Vicki Brown, Judith Powell, Liza Strike, and Ruby James, Messin' is pretty intense and involving from its very first bars. It's also damned topical and serious, for all of the free-wheeling rock & roll spirits and the progressive rock complexities that go into the playing. And the result is a spellbinding whole, featuring some astonishing keyboard flourishes by Manfred Mann himself (who ventures into Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson territory on "Buddah," even as the rest of the band seems to be emulating Deep Purple) and killer guitar from Mick Rogers, while Colin Pattenden and Chris Slade lay down the rhythm section like a pair of articulate pile-drivers.

Touted as a personally curated compilation by Paul McCartney, Pure McCartney is the first McCartney compilation since 2001's Wingspan: Hits and History. A full 15 years separated this and Wingspan, longer than the span between that double-disc set and 1987's All the Best, but the 2001 set also stopped cold in 1984, leaving over 30 years of solo McCartney recordings uncompiled on hits collections. In both its standard two-CD and deluxe four-disc incarnations, Pure McCartney attempts to rectify this, going so far as to include "Hope for the Future," his song for the 2014 video game Destiny. A fair chunk of the compilation rests upon songs heard on Wings Greatest, All the Best, and Wingspan – "Jet," "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," "Another Day," "Mull of Kintyre," "Let Em In," "Band on the Run," "No More Lonely Nights," "Live and Let Die," "Say Say Say," "Listen to What the Man Said," and "Silly Love Songs" are all de rigueur – so the interesting things lie in the margins, or in the music made since 1984.

2014 twelve CD set. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Simon & Garfunkel's first release on Columbia Records in 1964, THE COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION provides a fascinating career-spanning overview of the iconic folk-rock duo. Here for the first time in one package is Simon & Garfunkel's complete discography: their five studio albums for Columbia released between 1964 and 1970; the multiplatinum albums THE GRADUATE (the soundtrack to the 1967 film of the same name which first featured the duo's classic 'Mrs. Robinson') and Simon & Garfunkel's GREATEST HITS (the 1972 compilation that, with 14 million albums shipped, remains the duo's most popular); and four live albums recorded between 1967 and 2004, including 1982's THE CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK (the group's first activity since their dissolution in 1970), OLD FRIENDS: LIVE ON STAGE, a double-disc account of their acclaimed 2003-2004 reunion tour, and two archival live sets: LIVE FROM NEW YORK CITY, 1967 (recorded at Lincoln Center and featuring the duo performing an intimate acoustic set) and LIVE 1969 (featuring recordings from Simon & Garfunkel's final tour).

October 16th sees the release of an expanded version of Tom Petty’s seminal album Wildflowers. The 4 CD deluxe edition of Wildflowers contains 54 tracks, 8 unreleased songs, and 24 unreleased alternate versions. In addition to the 15 track original album (remastered), the deluxe edition contains the album All The Rest (10 songs from the original Wildflowers sessions), a full CD of 15 solo demos recorded by Petty at his home studio, and a disc of 14 live versions of Wildflowers songs recorded from 1995 – 2017.

In the ever-evolving landscape of progressive music, certain artists stand out for their rare ability to transcend genre boundaries while maintaining a distinctive sonic identity. Shmulikraut is one such artistic force, crafting music that seamlessly intertwines the Experimental strands of Avant-Garde Jazz and Progressive Rock influences into a cohesive and captivating narrative. “Guts Voyage” stands as a testament to their creative vision—a meticulously constructed journey through intricate musical territories that rewards both casual listeners and seasoned Progressive purists alike.

Gary Moore might just be the greatest guitar hero America's never heard of, probably because only his recent blues recordings have benefited from proper distribution stateside. In fact, Moore has worn so many hats during his near 30-year career that the words eclectic and unfocused immediately come to mind. Victims of the Future arrived in the middle of the most consistent phase of his career – that of a heavy metal guitar slinger. Between the epic cold war-inspired title track and the massive riffing of "Murder in the Skies" (written about the Korean airliner shot own by Russian fighter jets), Moore assaults the listener with more guitar notes than appear in most careers. These are great songs though, and his powerful vocals are also very effective, especially on the hit ballad "Empty Rooms." None of Moore's recordings are very easy to find in America, but make sure this is the first one you look for.

After having its share of R&B and funk triumphs in the 1980s, the SOS Band hit a creative low point with 1991's One of Many Nights. The departure of Mary Davis (whose robust lead vocals enriched "Take the Time (Do It Right)," "Just Be Good to Me" and other major hits) had been quite a loss, and while her successor, Chandra Currey, was far from a bad singer, she wasn't in a class with the great Davis. Nights does have a few strong points, including the silky "How Can We Ever Get Back Together," the driving "Get Hyped On This" and the melancholy "Broken Promises." But on the whole, the songs are mediocre, pedestrian and not very memorable. Only SOS' more devoted fans should obtain this CD; those who don't have any SOS albums in their collection would be better off starting out with a compilation of the Atlanta band's 1980s output with Davis.

On October 19, 1999, Nonesuch Records released The John Adams Earbox, a 10-CD box set retrospective, representing nearly all of John Adams’s recorded output for the label. The set includes all of the composer’s major works with which Adams has redefined contemporary classical music over the previous two decades. All recordings on The John Adams Earbox were supervised by the composer, and many were conducted or performed by Adams as well. All but four works on the Earbox were originally released on Nonesuch as first recordings. The John Adams Earbox includes examples from every phase of Adams’s career, from his earliest orchestral pieces such as Grand Pianola Music (1982), Harmonielehre (1985), and Harmonium (1980), to the widely hailed operas Nixon in China (1985-86) and The Death of Klinghoffer (1990-91), to works of this decade including Chamber Symphony (1992), Violin Concerto (1993), John’s Book of Alleged Dances (written for Kronos Quartet in 1994), Gnarly Buttons (1995) and the 1995 stagework I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky.