It’s back. The debut album that blew up the ’90s blues scene. The songs that announced the touchdown of a major new talent. In modern times, as an established solo star and former member of the globally acclaimed Royal Southern Brotherhood, Mike Zito’s reputation precedes him. But turn back the clocks. Rewind the film reels. Slip through the wormhole to 1998, when a 27-year-old punk kid took his first shot in the studio. “Blue Room,” he reflects, “is the beginning of me becoming an artist.” By 1998, Zito had been around the block. Raised at the sharp end in St. Louis, Missouri, he’d witnessed the lean years of the ’70s, as his father – a union employee at the local Anheuser-Busch brewery – grafted to support five kids in a cramped apartment.

Killer compilation of 14 cumbia tracks from 1963 to 1983 of South-American female singers.

With a history 50+ years in the making, Tower of Power has been a funk institution since 1968, knocking out hits like “What is Hip,” “So Very Hard to Go,” “This Time It’s Real” and “You’re Still a Young Man" while lending their soulful sound to collaborations with Santana, the Grateful Dead, Elton, Huey Lewis, Justin Timberlake and everyone in-between. "50 Years of Funk & Soul - Live at the Fox Theater" captures their storied career with no-holds-barred victory lap concerts in Oakland, CA, performing their full spectrum of life-affirming funk and soul hits to sold out audiences in 2018. Available as a 3-LP set, 2-CD/1-DVD package, standalone DVD and digital audio configuration, these historic performances include alumni special guests Chester Thompson, Lenny Pickett, Francis ‘Rocco’ Prestia, Bruce Conte and Ray Greene.

U.S. progressive rockers Spock's Beard released their 13th studio album, "Noise Floor". For this disc, Ted Leonard, Alan Morse, Dave Meros and Ryo Okumoto are joined in the studio once again by drummer and original member Nick D'Virgilio. Spock's Beard is a band that is in a continual state of evolution, as is always the case with genuinely creative musicians. And "Noise Floor" fits perfectly into this process. "We are always about evolution, not revolution. But what we have done this time is make the songs more melodic," believes vocalist/guitarist Ted Leonard. "We still love our crazy prog, but now appreciate how important it is to grab people's attention early on."
As with all Spock's Beard songs, most of the new album was written by the individual members, and then brought to the rest of the band as high-quality demos…

1995's 100% Fun is the third leg of Matthew Sweet's Holy Trinity of Power Pop! Produced by Brendan O'Brien, it's a densely-layered production full of grinding guitars, heavy bass lines and BIG drum sounds. Intervention's 19-track Expanded Edition SACD set is the defining presentation of this great album sonically and in all other respects!

Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar wrote three symphonies, of which the first was withdrawn from public performance and the third was left incomplete. As a result, the Symphony No. 2 in G minor (1911-1915) stands alone as a fully realized and representative example of Stenhammar's symphonic thinking, showing considerable formal innovation and a rugged personal style, though he seems to have derived much of his inspiration from the Symphony No. 2 in D major of Jean Sibelius. In this performance by Christian Lindberg and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the symphony receives a robust performance that doesn't downplay the Sibelius influence, but seems to revel in it, especially in the organic development of long-breathed themes and extended crescendos.

All CD's remastered by Erick Labson using 20-bit Super Mapping except ON THIS NIGHT remastered by Paul Elmore. (Erick Labson's name is spelled as "Eric Labson.")
ON THIS NIGHT uses the 1993 CD master but removes the bonus track "Malcolm, Malcom, Semper Malcolm" because the exact same recording is on FIRE MUSIC, which is also included in this set. This is noted on the CD sleeve except that it incorrectly states that the track is on MAMA TOO TIGHT.

As a title, Bilingual is a double-edged sword. Disregard its sexual connotations and concentrate on its musical implications - Bilingual is a rich, diverse album that delves deeply into Latin rhythms. It's not a crass, simplistic fusion, where the polyphonic rhythms are simply grafted over synthesizers and a disco pulse. Instead, Bilingual is an enormously subtle album, with shifting rhythms and graceful, understated melodies. The music isn't the only thing subtle about the album - Neil Tennant's voice and lyrics are nuanced, suggesting more than they actually say. Furthermore, Bilingual consists of the most optimistic, happy set of songs the Pet Shop Boys have ever recorded…

Because they work in a field that isn't usually taken seriously, the Pet Shop Boys are often ignored in the rock world. But make no mistake - they are one of the most talented pop outfits working today, witty and melodic with a fine sense of flair. Very is one of their very best records, expertly weaving between the tongue-in-cheek humor of "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing," the quietly shocking "Can You Forgive Her?," and the bizarrely moving cover of the Village People's "Go West." Alternately happy and melancholy, Very is the Pet Shop Boys at their finest.

Space Debris hail from the Odenwald region in Germany. The members' main concern is to play improvised music reminiscent to 70s krautrock and psychedelic bands.
Into the Sun: Live at Burg Herzberg Festival 2006 (2007). These guys wear their 70s influences on their shirtsleeves and for a full blown heavy jamming prog-psych-krautrock experience you can do no better than Space Debris. Like their previous albums the guys get a jam going and just take off, with most of the tracks being in the 14-18 minute range, giving them plenty of room to stretch out and explore. This is a world where the guitar and Hammond organ reigns supreme dueling and trading leads throughout…

This generous song recital of Debussy Mélodies features soprano Sophie Karthäuser and baritone Stéphane Degout, accompanied by pianists Eugene Asti and Alain Planès. Drawing on Symbolist and Impressionist poets, this program, including Trois Ballades de François Villon and Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire, showcases some of the composer's finest cycles. For Debussy, the artistic journey is first and foremost a matter of color.