Stormbringer is the ninth studio album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in November 1974. On this album, the soul and funk elements that were only hinted at on Burn are much more prominent…

Simon Stokes the crazy hard psych rocker par excellence. Grandson of big band leader Harry D. Stokes, Simon Stokes was known as a loner, sleepwalker, and fan of the classic monster movies his grandfather loved. As a teenager, Stokes became obsessed with the blues and R&B via the legendary DJ Symphony Sid. Beginning in 1965, Stokes recorded a number of 45s in LA as the Flower Children and Heathen Angels. He then got a deal as a staff writer at Elektra the same day they signed his friends The MC5 and The Stooges! That’s not it for impressive connections. Simon Stokes made this album, beyond Captain Beefheart in the psychedelic blues stakes, in 1968, and became a cult figure with Biker groups everywhere…

Steely Dan's baby pictures? Sort of–these are studio demos Dan honchos Becker and Fagen made as struggling songwriters in the period before they actually conceptualized the band. Some of them–"Brooklyn," "Barrytown," "Parker's Band," "Charlie Freak," "Any World That I'm Welcome To" and "The Caves of Altamira"–later turned up on Steely Dan albums; here they're presented in bare-bones version (mostly just piano and vocals, with only adequate sound) that while interesting obviously don't have Steely Dan's trademark instrumental sheen. The unfamiliar tracks are uneven (a must to avoid: "The Mock Turtle's Song"), but even the least of them show that Becker and Fagen's writing style was fully formed even at this early stage.

Dudu Pukwana - In The Townships (1973) {Earthworks CDEWV 5 rel 1987}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 223 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 84 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 12 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1973, 1987 Earthworks / Virgin | CDEWV 5
Jazz / African Jazz / World Fusion / African Traditions / Southern African / Saxophone

This glorious, ferocious recording is one of the pinnacles of the music created by the South African expatriates who settled in England in the '60s and melded with the free jazz community therein. Leader and alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana and trumpeter Mongezi Feza were twin fountainheads of this movement and are in rare form here, both instrumentally and as composers. The pieces here are largely riff-based, but what incredibly infectious and funky riffs these are. South African music emphasized the importance of various thematic materials by how often it was repeated in a song, and these guys iterate the melodies with a vengeance.

Jerry Berkers was born in the Netherlands. He is best remembered for his work with Wallenstein ('Blitzkrieg' and 'Mother Universe') as well as his appearance on two of the Kosmische Kurrier LP's ('Lord Krishna Von Goloka' and 'Tarot'). Jerry Berkers was able to record a solo album in 1972 utilizing members from the various bands with whom he had played. Unterwegs contains eight tracks in total. The music is a cross between folk-flavored rock and singer-songwriter pop. The songs are presented in a tightly structured straightforward manner which is different from most of the bands with whom he played…

While such albums as 1980's Permanent Waves and 1981's Moving Pictures are usually considered Rush's masterpieces (and with good reason), 1978's Hemispheres is just as deserving. Maybe the fact that the album consists of only four compositions (half are lengthy pieces) was a bit too intimidating for some, but the near 20-minute-long "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres" is arguably the band's finest extended track…

The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast is a concept album and subsequent live rock opera appearing in 1974 and 1975 respectively, based on the children's book of the same title (The album cover design is from Alan Aldridge's design for the book).
It was originally conceived as a solo vehicle for Jon Lord and to be produced by Roger Glover who had recently left Deep Purple, but Lord proved too busy with Deep Purple and Glover took up the reins on his own. Using his connections, Glover recruited a large cast of noted rock musicians to perform on it, with a different vocalist for each track including David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes…

Having made his best album since 461 Ocean Boulevard with Slowhand, Eric Clapton followed with Backless, which took the same authoritative, no-nonsense approach. If it wasn't quite the masterpiece, or the sales monster, that Slowhand had been, this probably was because of that usual Clapton problem – material. Once again, he returned to those Oklahoma hills for another song from J.J. Cale, but "I'll Make Love to You Anytime" wasn't quite up to "Cocaine" or "After Midnight." Bob Dylan contributed two songs, but you could see why he hadn't saved them for his own album, and Clapton's own writing contributions were mediocre…

This is the album where Jeff Lynne finally found the sound he'd wanted since co-founding Electric Light Orchestra three years earlier. Up to this point, most of the group's music had been self-contained – Lynne, Richard Tandy, et al., providing whatever was needed, vocally or instrumentally, even if it meant overdubbing their work layer upon layer. Lynne saw the limitations of this process, however, and opted for the presence of an orchestra – it was only 30 pieces, but the result was a much richer musical palette than the group had ever had to work with, and their most ambitious and successful record up to that time. Indeed, Eldorado was strongly reminiscent in some ways of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Alive! was the album that catapulted Kiss from cult attraction to mega-superstars. It was their first Top Ten album, remaining on the charts for 110 weeks. Culled from shows in Detroit, New Jersey, Iowa, and Cleveland on the Dressed to Kill tour, the record features producer Eddie Kramer doing a masterful job of capturing the band's live performance on record…

Although it shook the band's fan base to its core, the acrimonious departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover served to rejuvenate Deep Purple in time for 1973's aptly named Burn album, which unquestionably showed huge improvement over their lackluster previous effort, Who Do We Think We Are. And in an interesting twist rarely attempted before or since, new recruits David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass and vocals, ex-Trapeze) traded lead singing duties on virtually every one of its songs – an enviable tag team, as both possessed exceptional pipes…

Elvin Bishop's Macon Takeover continued on his second Capricorn album, which had a slightly less country feel than Let It Flow but continued to be dominated by twin guitar playing (courtesy of Bishop and Johnny "V" Vernazza) and honky tonk piano playing (from Phil Aaberg)…

Originally released on the fabled Holyground label - and recorded in 1971 by students who later went on to work with Bill Nelson and other Holyground acts - only 99 copies of this album were made. Consequently this reissue will be much sought after by collectors. Mixing elements of folk and jazz into a progressive and sometime psychedelic stew, this is an interesting release that lives up to its reputation.