Their previous album having scarcely made a ripple and, now, hitless for two years, the Bee Gees went for a new sound in the hands of producer Arif Mardin. The result was Mr. Natural, the sultriest and most soulful record they had ever delivered up to that time. Shedding their pop sensibilities here and singing in a freer, more soulful idiom (with a strong Philadelphia soul influence) on songs such as "Throw a Penny," and with a funky beat backing them up on a lot of this record, the group is scarcely recognizable in relation to their previous work. Mr. Natural was the liveliest, most invigorating body of music to come from the group since their debut, but it also had moments of extraordinary sensuality, most notably "Charade" and "Had a Lot of Love Last Night."

MC5 were nearing the end of their long and bumpy trail when they cut High Time in 1971, and it was widely ignored upon initial release. While it lacks the flame-thrower energy and "off the man!" politics of Kick Out the Jams or the frantic pace and "AM Radio of the People" sound of Back in the USA, High Time sounds like MC5's relative equivalent to the Velvet Underground's Loaded, their last and most accessible album, but still highly idiosyncratic and full of well-written, solidly played tunes. Fred Smith's "Sister Anne" and "Skunk (Sonically Speaking)" bookend the album with a pair of smart, solidly performed hard rockers (bolstered by fine horn charts), and Wayne Kramer's "Poison" ranks with the best songs he brought to the band (he later revived it for his solo album The Hard Stuff)…

Satchmo Serenades was originally comprised of sessions recorded between 1949 and 1951. It's a pleasant collection of ballads and midtempo romantic tunes, highlighted by the instrumental sections where Armstrong glides with the lush arrangements. When Satchmo serenades, his voice is a little too rough and sly to be truly seductive, but it's nevertheless charming, and while this album is hardly a significant work in his catalog, it's still enjoyable for the Armstrong fan looking for mid-period ballads.

11CD Hawkwind box set This Is Your Captain Speaking… Your Captain is Dead celebrating the "space rock" band's United Artists era from 1970-1974.
The following albums are included: Hawkwind, In Search of Space, Greasy Truckers' Party (2CD) Doremi Fasol Latido, The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London (2CD), Hall of the Mountain Grill, The 1999 Party (2CD) and this set also comes with a bonus disc collecting rare single mixes called Of Time and Stars - The Singles.
The studio albums are new remasters and everything is presented in card sleeves within a clamshell box.

Live Erleben is the first live album from German electronical musician, composer and producer Christopher von Deylen under his Schiller alias. As with Sehnsucht Live, the performances on Live Erleben often add a little dramatic flair to their studio-album counterparts, thought the mood remains relaxing. The highlights here tend to feature vocal collaborations, as heard on “Delicately Yours” and “Distance” (both with Kim Sanders), “The Smile” (with Sarah Brightman), and “I’ve Seen It All” (with Maya Saban), and plenty of in-rhythm handclaps from the audience. The album achieved gold status in Germany in 2016.

This edition contains Joe Pass’ earliest live recordings in their entireties. Taped at the Encore Theatre in Los Angeles, the guitarist is showcased in a quartet format playing a set of standards, including wonderful renditions of Clifford Brown’s “Joy Spring” and Charlie Parker’s “Relaxin’ at Camarillo”. Three rarely heard studio tunes from the same period featuring a similar formation have been added here as a bonus.

Guitarist Jukka Hauru's 2nd and last album appeared on Love Records in 1975. After this album Hauru concentrated on the more politically inclined group Punainen Lanka and eventually abandoned playing music by the end of the 70s. Episode is not as schizophrenic as Hauru’ s debut album Information (Finnlevy, 1972). One major difference in the instrumentation compared to Information is that Juhani Poutanen doesn’t play the violin. Instead, the synthesizer has a big role in the overall instrumentation which was very common on Finnish rock albums in the mid 70s. Esa Kotilainen had recently acquired a synthesizer and the word spread around quickly of this new instrument. In the mid 70s he played synthesizer on many recordings including Wigwam’s Nuclear Nightclub (1975). Therefore it is no surprise that he played it on Episode as well. It’s worth mentioning as well that Pekka Pohjola plays the bass on the first two tracks.

Jukka Hauru is hardly a household name, but in Finland he's a noted producer and journalist, and in the 1970s he released two albums featuring his wild guitar excursions. It's a basic psychedelic jazz avantgarde power-trio outing, featuring Jukka's ace six-string blasts, but is also joined by sax and violin, giving it a broader, more expansive sound. There is also a sense of humor prevalent on the album, as if Hauru didn't take himself so seriously - read titles like "Jam Session The Finnish Yes Federation's Skinheaded Board" and "Waltz for the Straight Relatives" (a piece heavily reminiscent of Flying Teapot-period Gong). But Information is not all about trio jams, although there are plenty here.

"Golden Best" is a compilation album by Japanese guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka, specifically focusing on his work with EMI Records, and released in 2004.

To the Rising Moon is Stephan Micus’ 26th solo album for ECM. It features instruments from Colombia, India, Xinjiang (China), Bavaria, Cambodia, Egypt and Borneo, but taking centre stage is the Colombian tiple, slightly smaller than an acoustic guitar. The sunny plucked sound of the tiples alternates with darker bowed strings which bring a more meditative mood. It’s only in the final track, "To the Rising Moon", that the two worlds of the plucked tiples and bowed strings finally come together. It’s like a hymn to something that is eternally up there in the night sky, something consistent while there is so much turbulence in the world below. Once again, Stephan Micus takes us on a unique musical journey to places unknown that couldn’t have been created or played by anyone else.

Sun Ra’s Nuits de la Fondation Maeght recordings are legendary within his extensive canon. Across two nights in August 1970, these were the first concerts Ra and the Arkestra had performed outside North America and formed part of a stellar festival line-up alongside Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela.