The second album by Rupert Hine's fake group Thinkman, Life Is a Full Time Occupation expanded the theme of media manipulation that was its main objective, but only halfheartedly. The topic was wearing thin. "Watchman, Walkman, Thinkman," "Willpower," and "Voices in Local Time" do complement well the material found on The Formula (and to a certain extent they could be leftovers). This verse from "Voices in Local Time" sums up the message Hine was trying to get through: "Don't trust in the slogan/Don't fall for the line/They'll be eating your mind." The other songs mostly fall in the category of mid-'80s dance-pop tunes: simple, light, somehow uninvolved. Hine is a careful producer and a good songwriter, so even when he aims low he hits the target…

This CD features a logical combination: singer Diane Schuur with the Count Basie big band. In what would be longtime rhythm guitarist Freddie Green's final performance, Schuur and the Basie ghost band (under the direction of Frank Foster) perform material that includes her standards (such as "Deedles' Blues" and "Climbing Higher Mountains"), Dave Brubeck's "Travlin' Blues" and the Joe Williams-associated "Everyday I Have The Blues." Unfortunately, the Basie band is mostly used in accompaniment without any significant solos, but Schuur sounds quite comfortable in this format and her voice is in prime form.

Vibraphonist Cal Tjader took a brief vacation from playing Afro-Cuban jazz to record this fine straight-ahead bop set. The 1956 LP matches Tjader with the underrated but always swinging pianist Gerald Wiggins, bassist Eugene Wright (shortly before he joined the Dave Brubeck Quartet), and drummer Bill Douglass. They perform four basic originals (two apiece by Wiggins and Wright) and five standards, including a swinging "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Our Love Is Here to Stay." On this date, more than almost any other one, Tjader displays his debt to Milt Jackson's style.

All the blues singers on this CD were recorded in Chicago, although whether that qualifies their music as “Chicago blues” is another matter: Alfred Fields made but a single session, Tony Hollins recorded both pre- and postwar, with a very different sound each time, and Johnny Shines’ consistent brilliance, which eventually led to an extensive discography aimed at white fans, had little impact on his own people, mainly because the companies he recorded for didn’t know how to market him.

The autumnal sound of Britain at the turn of the 70s, looking out through wet window panes to a new decade with a mixture of melancholy and optimism for what might come next. With the Beatles gone and the pound sinking, a new and distinctive sound emerges, led by flutes and mellotrons. Available in 18-track CD and 19-track double LP formats.

Three years on from their Hidden Stories album, Belgian trip-hop legends Hooverphonic return with new studio album, Fake is the New Dope, released through Sony Music Belgium. The twelve track set contains previously released tracks including Don’t Think, Por Favor and Then I Found You, as well as a number that have not been heard until release day.

Guitarist Robin Trower's watershed sophomore solo disc remains his most stunning, representative, and consistent collection of tunes. Mixing obvious Hendrix influences with blues and psychedelia, then adding the immensely soulful vocals of James Dewar, Trower pushed the often limited boundaries of the power trio concept into refreshing new waters. The concept gels best in the first track, "Day of the Eagle," where the opening riff rockingly morphs into the dreamy washes of gooey guitar chords that characterize the album's distinctive title track that follows.
At his best, Trower's gauzy sheets of oozing, wistful sound and subtle use of wah-wah combine with Dewar's whisky-soaked soul-drenched vocals to take a song like the wistful ballad "In This Place" into orbit…

Jazz and film noir are perfect bedfellows, as evidenced by the soundtrack of Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (Lift to the Scaffold). This dark and seductive tale is wonderfully accentuated by the late-'50s cool or bop music of Miles Davis, played with French jazzmen - bassist Pierre Michelot, pianist René Urtreger, and tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen - and American expatriate drummer Kenny Clarke. These complete recordings, including multiple alternate takes, evoke the sensual nature of a mysterious chanteuse and the contrasting scurrying rat race lifestyle of the times, when the popularity of the automobile, cigarettes, and the late-night bar scene were central figures. Davis had seen a screening of the movie prior to his making of this music, and knew exactly how to portray the smoky hazed or frantic scenes though sonic imagery, dictated by the trumpeter mainly in D-minor and C-seventh chords…

Stunning second album from this experimental German group. Within the space of 9 tracks they manage to sound like Led Zeppelin (check out opening number "Hobo!"), Uriah Heep, Genesis and Soft Machine in an excellent mixture of hard rock and surreal progressive music.