Call this Peterson's 'back to my roots' blues album, but it finds him in more retro territory than his previous outings. There's a distinctive Albert King-Freddie King-Albert Collins almost-'70s feel to all the music here and the support of roots players like Johnny B. Gayden, Dennis Chambers and Butch Bonner makes this much more of a ensemble effort. Highlights include the storming "You're the One for Me," a great King-like solo on "Tin Pan Alley," an instrumental tribute to Albert Collins on "Pickin'" and oddball covers of the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing" and Prince's "Purple Rain." Peterson is stylistically all over the road on this disc but his versatility on both guitar and keyboards ultimately pays off in the end.

The name of the group might be immodest, but the combination of pianist Hank Jones, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Tony Williams lives up to its billing. Originally cut for the Japanese East Wind label and last available domestically as an Inner City LP, this swinging but unsurprising session features boppish interpretations of six jazz standards including "Love for Sale," "Secret Love," and "Autumn Leaves."

Mythos were fine purveyors of cosmic Krautrock, covering ground from space-tripping Pink Floyd via Ash Ra Tempel, onto Hawkwind and further by also blending in classical and ethnic themes.
Mythos emerged from the Berlin underground scene in 1969. Less known than others german bands and artists as Amon Düül, Klaus Schulze… they also signed their debut effort for the legendary ohr label. Their first two albums "Mythos" and "Dreamlab" represent Krautrock at its finest. The general mood of the band during that period was orientated to free space/psychedelic music with a lot of electric organs and keyboard parts. Their self title album includes acoustic and oriental elements as flute, sitar… which add a mystical flavor to the music.

This simple celebratory cantata made Stradella a well-known theatrical personality. As opposed to using traditional recitative, Stradella incorporates string interludes interrupting the characters, which allowed them to express emotions during facial expressions and movement, a novelty during the Baroque era. The Concerto Madrigalesco performs these works extraordinarily with historical performance practices.

New Order's first compilation album, Substance (1987), finally broke the group through to commercial success in the U.S. Its second one, The Best of New Order, isn't exactly Substance II. The previous set was a singles collection, and Best Of does pick up that story, including a series of songs - "True Faith" (in a new remix), "Touched by the Hand of God," "Blue Monday 88," "Fine Time," "Round & Round" (in a new remix), "Run," and "World in Motion" - that were bigger hits in the U.K. than in the U.S. (Also included is the group's biggest U.S. hit, "Regret" as well as its charting follow-up, "World [The Price of Love].") But in addition, the compilers have included one song each from the group's albums - "Dreams Never End" from Movement, "Age of Consent" from Power, Corruption & Lies, "Love Vigilantes" from Low-Life, "Vanishing Point" from Technique, and "Ruined in a Day" from Republic…

The Visitor is the third studio album by the British progressive band Arena, released in 1998. One of prog's great records of the 90's and beyond. With The Visitor Arena became a 'real' band, not just a Clive Nolan (Pendragon) project with ex original Marillion drummer Mick Pointer. Now with their best ever line up that included John Mitchel on guitar, John Jowitt (IQ, Jadis) on bass and vocalist Paul Wrightson they produced one of prog's masterpieces of all time. This concept album about a man facing a near death experience is really thrilling, both musically and lyrically.

While there has been an enormous number of Slade collections over the years, Shout Factory's 2004 release Get Yer Boots On: The Best of Slade is the first comprehensive U.S. compilation, containing both their '70s peak and their early-'80s comeback. If the track listing looks vaguely familiar to Slade-heads, that's because it does share numerous similarities to the 1994 British collection Wall of Hits, which also covered the band's entire career, extending it to their brief return to the U.K. charts in the early '90s.