A two-CD survey of Winter's recordings for Columbia between 1969 and 1979, the era of his greatest commercial success. This collects many of his most popular tracks, though it doesn't do much to argue a case for artistic diversity. Includes two otherwise unavailable songs: an alternate take of "30 Days," and a previously unreleased 1973 cover of Robert Johnson's "Come on in My Kitchen."

When Opeth released Heritage in 2011 - the wonderfully indulgent, somewhat unfocused exercise in prog rock aesthetics - some longstanding fans were offended because the band had abandoned death metal. Truthfully, they had been exploring prog in fits and starts since 2005's Ghost Reveries. Pale Communion completes the transition, proving that Heritage was not only a next step, but a new beginning altogether. Vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt has obviously been listening to loads of prog in the interim - ELP's debut, Deep Purple's In Rock, early King Crimson and Eloy, National Health, U.K., Bill Bruford's early solo work, Pär Lindh, and even jazz fusion. Produced by the singer and mixed by Steven Wilson, Pale Communion states its ambitions outright. Opener "Eternal Rains Will Come" explodes with knotty, labyrinthine organ (from new keyboardist Joakim Svalberg) and Martin Axenrot's skittering, propulsive drums…

One of most unusual Russian musicians, Arkady plays French horn, flugelhorn, alpenhorn and many more unusual wind instruments. A native of Moscow, at the age of six Arkady Shilkloper began playing brass instruments and studied flugelhorn at the Moscow Military Music Academy until 1974. From 1978 to 1985 he was a member of the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre and the "Bolshoi Brass Quintet". With this world-famous ensemble and as a member of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985 to 1989 he undertook numerous worldwide concert tours. Alongside with that he started playing traditional jazz with double-bass player Mikhail Karetnikov and avant-garde jazz in saxophonist Sergei Letov's band Three O (1985-1990). Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union Shilkloper has worked independently both as a solo performer and, since 1991, with Alperin and Starostin in the Moscow Art Trio and in other formations…

When it comes to quality live material, there's never been a better time to be a King Crimson fan than the 2010s. In addition to the exhaustive 40th anniversary boxes, there have been multiple releases from the 2014-2015 seven-piece band culminating with Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind, a set that features every song performed on the tour in excellent audio and video quality.
The vast majority of the set was recorded in Japan, with other shows filling in on the songs that weren't performed there. Every show was recorded in high-quality audio and video with a multi-camera shoot, so there's no difference in quality. While the band doesn't improvise as extensively as they have in the past, a comparison of the solos shows that they aren't phoning in their performances, either…

With his 9th studio album, Moonlight Love Affair, Austria's Parov Stelar returns to his exploration of the love affair between electronic dance music and organic elements. Moonlight Love Affair is meant to represent a relationship in which there are no boundaries. Longtime fans will find familiarity in tracks like "Candy Girl" or "Dirty Mariposa" with their retro-chic aesthetics, while vocalist Mani Hoffman (of Supermen Lovers fame) ignites "Better Believe" and "Black Bird." "Toxic Lover" revels in the use of a sample from the now-ubiquitous Shangri-Las' song "Remember (Walking in the Sand)." As with his last musical efforts, the artwork is done by Parov Stelar himself, this time with a captivating piece entitled "I Can See Music, I Can Hear Art." Moonlight Love Affair shows all facets of the artist: raw and unvarnished, thereby vulnerable, powerful and beautiful.

Bob Dylan and the Band both needed the celebrated reunion tour of 1974, since Dylan's fortunes had been floundering since Self Portrait and the Band stumbled with 1971's Cahoots. The tour, with its attendant publicity, definitely returned both artists to center stage, and it definitely succeeded, breaking box office records and earning great reviews. Before the Flood, a double-album souvenir of the tour, suggests that these were generally dynamic shows, but not because they were reveling in the past, but because Dylan was fighting the nostalgia of his audience - nostalgia, it must be noted, that was promoted as the very reason behind these shows. Yet that's what gives this music such kick - Dylan reworks, rearranges, reinterprets these songs in ways that are still disarming, years after its initial release…

James is called a young man on this CD, but he'd already played with Muddy Waters for a time. Recorded in 1967, it showcases his vocals and harp well. The recording, done at Montreal's Penelope Cafe, is a pretty accurate depiction of James Cotton's raw power and force. The sound quality is OK for the time and really captures the feel of a live performance. Cotton has long been one of the greatest of the Chicago blues harp stylists, and his energy, enthusiasm and sincere love for the blues jumps right out at you from start to finish. The idea of a blues musician doing a recording in a static and heavily controlled atmosphere like a studio seems odd; amplified electric Chicago blues really should be both played AND heard in a loud, raucous, dark, smoky bar-type environment. You can smell the smoke and feel the beer being spilled on you while listening to this CD.

As Il Sospiro shows, Rabih Abou-Khalil's music is unique, in that it spans East and West - or rather the Middle-East and Europe - in a way other composers have attempted, but with much greater success. Raised in the cosmopolitan climate of pre-civil war Lebanon, and privileged to learn the oud there, he was forced to migrate to Munich where he studied classical flute. His rediscovery of oriental music from a European vantage point has both freshness and also the familiarity of long acquaintance. His best disc to date has been Yara, a film soundtrack for which he teamed his oud with a violin and cello plus the Middle Eastern frame drum, to create a haunting sequence of visually evocative pieces. With Il Sospiro he makes his first solo foray as an unaccompanied oud player, and the result is even more bewitching…

When the guys of Nuova Era debuted with 'L'Ultimo Viaggio', they were seeing themselves as mere heirs of a glorious prog time passed: what they couldn't foresee by then was that they were actually pioneering an era of, as some label it, prog revival in Europe. Since this is the starting point, Nuova Era has not managed yet to achieve its own voice, that is, they are still very dependant on the peculiar sounds that their old predecessors created. Nuova Era articulates a prog with a hard rock leaning, infused with a melodic sensibility (like Alphataurus, Biglietto per l'Inferno, and to a lesser degree, Museo Rosenbach) and a sombre romanticism (Apoteosi, E. A. Poe). Their repertoire comprises plenty of excellent musical ideas, such as catchy melodies, well crafted textures on keyboards (the main factor), a tight confident rhythm section, interesting guitar and synth solos…

Live Miles consists of two parts, which were both recorded live. "Livemiles I" was recorded during the American tour of 1986, while "Livemiles II" was captured at a concert to commemorate the 750th anniversary of Berlin. As usual with TD, the audience had no clue of what they were going to experience while attending one of those concerts. During that era it was rather common for TD to improvise much of the music on the spot. So when you listen to a live record of TD you mostly hear new music that isn't available as a studio version. The extended pieces displayed on Live Miles cover many musical moods and textures throughout the playing time of almost half an hour: from slow and haunting, through up-tempo and uplifting; from driving and percussive, to grand and majestic. It's all present on both tracks!

This new release is an excellent representation of the elements that make up the German power metal scene. With Powerful riffs, mind-blowing soloing, heavy double bass, and strong singing, Sculforge creates an album which reaches standards often overlooked in the Power Metal genre.
Branching off from the traditional themes of the genre is always a nice respite. We were overwhelmed at one time or another by the dungeons and dragons legacy of the genre. It was pretty much everywhere and it felt claustrophobic to say the least. Most of the bands revolved around those themes for anything remotely close of Power Metal so bands like Sculforge talking about Science Fiction and distancing themselves from the themes of yore is always a great thing for longstanding fans like me…

Bassist Ben Williams' 2011 solo debut, State of Art, is a thoughtful contemporary and post-bop-leaning album that finds the winner of the 2009 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition delving into several original tunes and successful pop covers. Williams is an adroit improviser with a fluid, muscular approach to the upright - as well as the electric - bass, and he showcases all of his skills here along with his ear for unexpected covers and lively originals. Tracks like the roiling, Latin-infused number "November," featuring guitarist Matthew Stevens, and the high-energy, frenetic "Mr. Dynamite" are ear-popping straight-ahead jazz moments, while the hip-hop jazz cut "The Lee Morgan Story," featuring MC/vocalist John Robinson, brings to mind such '90s innovators as Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest…

Hendrix in the West is a collection of extremely good live Hendrix performances between 1968-1970. Three different concerts are sampled on this release, one of the few official live Hendrix releases following his death. Standouts include "Red House" and "Voodoo Chile" from the San Diego Sports Arena, a great rendition of "Blue Suede Shoes" from the Berkeley Community Center, and the brief but entertaining coupling of "God Save the Queen" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" from the Isle of Wight. Noel Redding appears on bass on the three songs taken from the San Diego show and Billy Cox appears on bass for the rest of the tracks.

Original soundtrack to Luc Besson's 1991 documentary with music from frequent collaborator Eric Serra (Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element).
Eric Serra is an award-winning French film music composer best known for his work with director Luc Besson on international blockbusters such as The Fifth Element (1997). Born on September 9, 1959, in Saint-Mandé, Île-de-France, he began his musical career during the mid- to late '70s as a guitarist and bassist in collaboration with a range of French pop/rock acts. During the early '80s he was the bassist of French singer/songwriter Jacques Higelin, one of the country's biggest pop/rock stars of the era. Around this same time, he began collaborating with film director Luc Besson, starting with the score of the short film L'Avant Dernier (1981)…

King Crimson performed Heroes at the Admiralspalast in Berlin as a celebration, a remembrancing and an homage. The concert was thirty-nine years and one month after the original sessions at the Hansa Tonstudio overlooking the Berlin Wall. This is released in the Fortieth Anniversary year.
The title track sees Robert Fripp reprise the unforgettable guitar role he created for the original David Bowie studio recording in the same city in 1977, particularly poignant in the year of Bowie's death.
Also featured on the EP are a ten minutes recording of Easy Money (Paris), a song that varies in length and solos from night to night and is always a fan favourite, an edited version (featuring the “song section”) of Crim Classic Starless often a set closer, always a stand-out moment and a recording of the three drummers’ showpiece The Hell Hounds of Krim…