Focus On Nature is the new studio album from celebrated post-psyche singer songwriter Nick Saloman and his band The Bevis Frond. Seventy-five minutes of glorious melodies that span 60s psych, English folk, Seattle art-punks The Wipers, the buzzsaw pop of Dinosaur Jr and Hendrix-esque explorations. There’s always an element of playful Englishness to their music.

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee were the ultimate blues duo; McGhee's stylized singing and light, flickering guitar was wonderfully contrasted by Terry's sweeping, whirling harmonica solos and intense, country-tinged singing. They were in great form during the ten tunes featured on this live date. Sometimes, as on "Custard Pie" or "Barking Bull Dog," they're funny; at other times, they were prophetic, chilling, or moving. This is Piedmont blues at its best, and this disc's tremendous remastering provides a strong sonic framework.

Over the course of the last two decades, of Montreal’s creative force, Kevin Barnes, has been wowing fans with their vast catalog of endlessly fascinating pop and mesmerizing live shows. On of Montreal’s latest album, Lady on the Cusp, Barnes shapeshifts between genres with each song. On tracks like “Rude Girl on Rotation,” Barnes revisits sounds of late 60’s guitar pop and psychedelia reminiscent of 2013’s Lousy With Sylvianbriar, while “Young Hearts Bleed Free” and “Music Hurts The Head” showcase Barnes’ love of experimental funk pop that has been present throughout much of the band’s discography. Lady on the Cusp is another exciting listen from one of the most prolific and influential artists making music today.

Recorded in the fall of 2023 at the band’s studio The Barn, Evolve (the 16th studio album by Phish) was produced by Vance Powell and Bryce Goggin with the 12 songs emerging from the band’s dynamic live performances. Some, like fan favorite “A Wave Of Hope,” have become springboards for Phish's most soaring improvisation. The songcraft and production are confident and taut, with Phish’s distinct musical language on vivid display; still pushing boundaries, still very much continuing to evolve.

King Crimson evolves, changes, morphs as relentlessly as the Soundscapes which open each concert. Since the 2016 tour of Europe, the band has become a double quartet line-up with Bill Rieflin’s return from sabbatical as keyboard player & Jeremy Stacey’s confirmation as a permanent member/third drummer. This allows for the inclusion of an ever more complex & compelling array of material, far more than can be contained in a single concert. With options for up to three keyboard players in the current line-up – Fripp & Stacey both have setups alongside their respective guitar/drum rigs - the majority of Lizard is performed live for the first time ever, likewise Fallen Angel from Red is making its first ever concert appearance/live recording, Cirkus envelops the listener in sound, the beautiful title track from Islands closes the first set, while staples from the 1980s line-up Indiscipline and Neurotica appear in very different arrangements.

Shostakovich was genuinely trying to break new ground but had been sharply brought into line (viz. the edict issued against his opera "Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk"). His 5th Symphony seems to cast doubt on the Marxist purity of the Party in power. He conveys his rage in unexpectedly neo-Mahlerian style, but concludes with politically correct optimism. A quarter of a century later he produced "The Year 1917", a skilfully produced commission which sounds like a film score. Even today Mravinsky is still the most effective interpreter of this contradictory diptych, capable of rendering both its intrinsic power and resounding ambiguities.

Shostakovich was genuinely trying to break new ground but had been sharply brought into line (viz. the edict issued against his opera "Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk"). His 5th Symphony seems to cast doubt on the Marxist purity of the Party in power. He conveys his rage in unexpectedly neo-Mahlerian style, but concludes with politically correct optimism. A quarter of a century later he produced "The Year 1917", a skilfully produced commission which sounds like a film score. Even today Mravinsky is still the most effective interpreter of this contradictory diptych, capable of rendering both its intrinsic power and resounding ambiguities.

Born in 1968, Arve Henriksen studied at the Trondheim Conservatory from 1987-1991, and has worked as a freelance musician since 1989.

With combined U.K. album sales of nearly three million copies, Georgian-born Katie Melua has quietly become one of the biggest-selling female artists of the decade. Without the media profile of Britney Spears, the powerhouse vocals of Anastacia, or the critical acclaim of Dido, her success has been based purely on old-fashioned songs that have managed to have appeal beyond the usual folk-pop market. Indeed, just like her biggest influence, Eva Cassidy, who appears here on a posthumous cover of "What a Wonderful World," Melua's soothing and jazz-tinged tones found an audience through repeated plays on Terry Wogan's BBC Radio 2 show.

Damon. This is the artistic name of David Del Conte, a genius American gypsy musician who is responsible of probably the rarest and most sought-after psychedelic music album of all time. We're talking about his debut album, "Song of a Gypsy", which was originally released in 1968. This album has a totally unique sound, with the "crooner-like" voice of Damon, the omnipresent melodic fuzz guitar of Charlie Carey and truly atmospheric melodies. It's ordinary psychedelic rock music, not quite as strange or exotic as some word-of-mouth would imply. There's plenty of searing fuzz guitar, soul-searching and -probing lyrics with a mystical gauze, and, frankly, minimal melodic variety throughout the ten tracks, which have a slight Eastern flavor. It's not a mainstream record by any means, but it's not stunningly weird or innovative either.