After an exhaustive five-year litigation battle between the band and their label management, Tool offer up the latest chapter in their musical self-discovery in Lateralus. Make no mistake, this is a prog rock record, reminiscent of King Crimson and Meddle-era Pink Floyd, with a hint of Rush mutated with Tool's signature sonic assault on the ears. Lateralus demands close listening from the first piece onward, as it becomes quickly apparent that this is not going to be an album one can listen to and accept at face value. Complex rhythm changes, haunting vocals, and an onslaught of changes in dynamics make this an album other so-called metal groups could learn from. While some compositions seem out of place, others fit together seamlessly, such as the 23-minute song cycle serving as the climax and resolution of the album…

The Many Faces Of Pink Floyd is a wonderful, truly stunning album… a 3CD labour of love, the likes of which are rarely seen on the market.
CD 1 contains Dark Side Of The Moon (in full) as interpreted by luminaries of the world rock scene (members of King Crimson, Yes, The Doors, Toto and Asia, among others).
CD 2 features ten key tracks of The Wall, two from Wish You Were Here and two psychedelic era classic quartets by musicians such as Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Ian Anderson and British Psychic TV freaks, among many others.
CD 3 meanwhile, is even more spectacular, as it presents material from all the great musicians who participated in the group's record: saxophonist Dick Parry (Money, Us And Them…

This nearly forgotten Brazilian trombonist - a protégé of Airto Moreira and Flora Purim who made a moderate impact in the U.S. in the '70s only to mysteriously give it up and return to Brazil and subsequent obscurity - resurfaces on a CD reissue of a star-studded session from 1974. Producer Airto, who appears frequently on percussion (never mind the camouflaged percussion credits "Kenneth Nash and others; " one shake and you know it's Airto), succeeded in enlisting J.J. Johnson to make the horn arrangements and getting the polyrhythmic drums of Jack DeJohnette to drive the session. Cannonball Adderley makes one of his last appearances on record (he died nine months later), his alto sax burning in an otherwise cluttered stab at Baden Powell's "Canto de Ossanha," and venturing on the outside on "Chants to Burn." The most noteworthy track is Joe Zawinul's "Dr. Honoris Causa," which gets a fascinating Brazilian/jazz/rock arrangement straight out of the mid-'70s…

The third album from the essential Krautrock power trio Guru Guru's early forays is as essential to the avant-rock collector as Faust's Faust Tapes, Can's Tago Mago, and the early experiments of Kraftwerk and Neu! Dating from 1972, it's an unprecedented display of drone-rock on the heavier, psychedelic side of the '70s German underground. Guru Guru's lineup changed periodically, and throughout the '70s, the project took contributions from Conny Plank and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, among others, and were tightly connected with the Kraftwerk off-shoot Harmonium. This album is undoubtedly one of their greater works, alongside UFO and Hinten recorded by the essential trio of Ax Genrich on guitar, Uli Trepte on bass, and leader Mani Neumeier on drums and keyboards.

Simply entitled "Datacide II", is Atom Heart and Tetsu Inoue's second collaboration work. Very different from their first Datacide recording, which mainly contained "acid" oriented, rhythmical tracks, "Datacide II" explores what finally became "Datacide's" main trademark: psychedelic ambient textures. Only remotely the "acid" background can still be heard, mainly in the track "Head Dance". "Datacide II" contains a series of trippy, relaxing, sometimes abstract ambient compositions which are tied together by the already mentioned centerpiece "Head Dance" and which may evoke the feeling of one traveling through a chain of audio images.

Wisely, the Cure decided to start fresh upon signing with their new label in 2004 by cleaning house, remastering the old albums, and bringing their fans Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities, 1978-2001. Not only is it the ultimate companion to the official releases, but it is, in a way, the new-super-deluxe-updated version of that cassette release of Staring at the Sea. Every B-side is included, in order, with cleaned-up sound, liner notes, and explanations by the man who made it all happen. All tracks, from "10.15 Saturday Night" (the B-side to the debut single "Killing an Arab") to covers of "Hello, I Love You," "Purple Haze," and "World in My Eyes," to entries from the Bloodflowers singles, are an indication that while the Cure made both strong albums and singles, they were not afraid to experiment along the way, and more importantly, they didn't let pride keep them from not making them available to those who were willing to look for them…

Two Great Guitars (1964). Two Great Guitars is a studio album by Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, released in August 1964. It was the first studio album issued by Berry after his release from prison. The two men were friends, and both recorded for Chess. The album consists of two lengthy spontaneous instrumental jams plus a couple of recently recorded instrumentals by the two guitarists. The album cover shows a Gibson ES-350T owned by Berry and a guitar created by Diddley.
The Super Super Blues Band (1968). This is easily a "super super blues bust." Power trios, of course, were hip in the late '60s - even at down-home Chess Studios, where ad hoc "supergroups" were assembled for 1967's Super Blues and its sequel, Super Super Blues Band. (No one ever accused Chess Records of being subtle.)…

This three-album retrospective of bassist Eberhard Weber’s group, Colours, recorded between 1975 and 1980, is striking musically, historically, culturally, and creatively. As American and British jazz musicians were employing electric instruments to create edgier, funkier, and more stridently knotty music, many Northern Europeans were exploring an entirely different sonic universe: creating another pathway in jazz. Weber's work would help to define the ECM imprint's sound. Weber founded Colours in 1974 with saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Mariano, keyboardist Rainer Bruninghaus, and drummer Jon Christensen - to be replaced in by John Marshall in 1977. Its 1975 debut, Yellow Fields, put painterly touches into a sonic kaleidescope that explored tonal and harmonic realms with acute compositional and improvisational attention to the space that surrounded jazz…

Official reissue of this underground cult classic of early 70's British Progressive Rock.
Tone-setting opener "Blood Runs Deep" alternates between the bludgeoning Neanderthal riffing of Black Sabbath and the horn- and keyboard-sparked refinements of a Genesis or Atomic Rooster; "Mijo and the Laying of the Witch" moves from portentous King Crimson horn lines to a North African Bedouin camp luau before settling into an insistent heavy trudge marked by histrionic vocals à la Sir Lord Baltimore; the title track prefaces its own proto-metallic freakout with a pagan toast featuring wooden blocks and woodland flutes sounding like Jethro Tull at their most eerie, and these qualities are also shared with the pernicious bolero "Black Jewel of the Forest"…

Ian Boddy's first collaborative release with fellow UK synth musician Andy Pickford. A real powerhouse of an album it was premiered by the duo at the third EMMA festival, Sheffield in 1995. The typicall melodies of both musicians together with an atmosphere like Mealstrom and interesting sequences and rhythms of both artists!