Tom Waits' fifth album for Asylum foreshadowed changes that would alter his career over the next six years. It signals a musical restlessness that fueled his next two records (Blue Valentine and Heartattack and Vine), and resulted in his writing a film score and leaving the label for Island, where he was given greater artistic control. He leans less on comic relief here and more on fully formed story songs. The album contains more ballads than most of his records do, but they were the most effective vehicles for the kind of storytelling he was trying to get to. The song "Perfect Strangers" inspired director Francis Ford Coppola to shape the characters for his film One from the Heart (he also convinced Waits to score it, leading to Waits' iconic collaboration with Crystal Gayle)…

Over fifteen years ago the DJ duo from Cologne (Blank & Jones) decided to strike quieter, more relaxed tones. From the passion for Ambient, Chill Out, Downbeat, Lounge Music, Beach House, Bar Grooves and Co. was created the idea of ​​Milchbar Seaside Season - a summer soundtrack for the cult Norderneyer Location milk bar. On the first compilation followed in recent years regularly further new Chillout compilation.

Some refer to The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon as the greatest album of all time! The story behind this LP, according to legend, is that when Hello Hello from Sopwith Camel's debut lp was used for a TV commercial, the band became inspired to make a new record. They supposedly went to Hawaii, enjoyed the herbal splendors the island is known for, then returned to California to record The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon. The record does indeed sound like a band drifting through clouds, as the cover illustration suggests. The lead track, Fazon became a minor FM radio hit, (when FM radio was still underground). It sounds like Traffic's Low Spark meets Steely Dan's Dr. Woo meets Flying off of the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour…

With the help of frequent collaborators (and ambient pioneers) Steve Roach and Robert Rich, as well as percussionist/programmer Djen Ajakan Shean, Vidna Obmana piles layers upon layers of diverse sonic textures to create a seamless, flowing record perfectly suited for meditation or simple relaxation. By incorporating various ethnic instruments (including flutes, didgeridoo, and percussion) with abstract synth textures, natural ambient sounds and effects-layered vocals and chanting, Obmama creates mesmerizing, otherworldly soundscapes unlike anything you've heard before. A nice chill-out disc after a night of overstimulation, The Spiritual Bonding is a soothing, natural remedy for 21st century digital burnout.

Darwin! will remain Banco del Mutuo Soccorso's masterpiece. This album, the band's second, is the proud equal of Premiata Forneria Marconi's Per Un Amico and Le Orme's Felona e Sorona in the Italian progressive rock hall of fame. In Darwin!, every promise made by Banco's eponymous debut was realized. Vittorio Nocenzi's writing has flourished into complex songs blending Italian songwriting, bel canto, and progressive rock. The arrival of guitarist Rodolfo Maltese crystallized the band's luxurious sound, all topped by Francesco Di Giacomo's operatic vocals. The majestic "L'Evoluzione" opens the album, providing some of the best moments ever recorded by this band (along with "Canto Nomade per un Prigioniero Politico"). "La Conquista Della Posizione Eretta" ("The Conquest of the Wrong Position") reproduces the same pattern as "Metamorphosi" from the first album…

CD only subsidiary of Seelie Court , limited 300 copies editions in card Gatefold sleeves, all issued with co operation of the bands/artists, under contract.
Post Arcadium psychedelic folk masterpiece, lost since 1969, just one original acetate LP exists, valued at £7000+, the LP has an intense pagan mood and deals with themes of alienation, notably in Outsider, it sounds very similar to Comus with flutes, violins but replaces the insanity of Comus with dark folked out melancholia. Short at 22 mins. With songwriting and lead vocal by Miguel Sergides who crafted the psych LP masterpiece by Arcadium. Accomplished and meticulous prog folk genius.

The fourth release in Tom Waits' series of skid row travelogues, Small Change proves to be the archetypal album of his '70s work. A jazz trio comprising tenor sax player Lew Tabackin, bassist Jim Hughart, and drummer Shelly Manne, plus an occasional string section, back Waits and his piano on songs steeped in whiskey and atmosphere in which he alternately sings in his broken-beaned drunk's voice (now deeper and overtly influenced by Louis Armstrong) and recites jazzy poetry. It's as if Waits were determined to combine the Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson characters from Casablanca with a dash of On the Road's Dean Moriarty to illuminate a dark world of bars and all-night diners. Of course, he'd been in that world before, but in songs like "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart," Waits gives it its clearest expression…

For the Good Times brings together two early 1970s albums from alto/tenor Rusty Bryant: 1973's For the Good Times and 1974's Until It's Time for You to Go. Both albums find Bryant combining pop and soul-jazz with the aid of electric pianos and funky guitars. Things get started with tepid versions of the title track and Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song," both veering dangerously close to Muzak territory. The pieces are salvaged, however, by Joe Beck and Hugh McCracken's guitar work and Hank Jones' steady hand at the keyboards. Bryant turns in his best solo on a groovy version of "Theme From Deep Throat" that's propelled forward by bassist Tony Levin and drummer Steve Gadd. Musically, things pick up a bit on the last six tracks…

Narrated by Robert Powell this work was released by Virgin Records in 1975. Great album sleeve with a noteworthy credit being Mike Oldfield assisting on guitars. The album itself comprises of two parts, Rime Of The Ancient Mariner 1 & 2. Oldfield's association with David Bedford went back to The Kevin Ayers and the Whole World band. While Oldfield was flexing his creative muscle and getting frustrated within the confines of that band he confided more and more with David Bedford and struck up a strong rapport with the keyboard player that lasted long after 1975.

Recorded in 1976 and released the next year, Body Love, Vol. 2 was intended as a soundtrack for a pornographic film. Nothing wrong with this in and of itself, but it is hard to imagine that Schulze's trance-inducing electronic improvisations would be considered an appropriate soundtrack for sex. "Nowhere - Now Here" has a basic beat and spacy synths, but after 18 minutes, when the harpsichord solo starts, the simple prog rock absurdity of it shows that Schulze isn't taking his assignment too seriously. The dubbed-out introduction to "Stardancer II" shows a different side of Schulze's muse, but as it gets interesting, the regular synths start up and things return to normal. "Moogetique" is an atmospheric closer, 12 minutes of slowly undulating synths and ambient echoes…

Despite the possible euphemisms of the title, 2006's Chicago XXX is not the band's raciest album since Hot Streets, nor is it their installment in the extreme-action spy series kicked off by Vin Diesel - instead, it's the veteran group's first proper studio album since 1995's flop Night and Day: Big Band, and considering that was a detour into retro-swing, XXX is their first mainstream pop album since 1991's Twenty 1, which is a 15-year gap between pop records. That's an awfully long wait - in the meantime, the band has been putting out live albums, Christmas records and hit comps, bringing the total up to 30 LPs - but apart from the diluted trip-hop beat from "Feel (Hot Single Mix)" that kicks off the album, you'd never know that XXX was made and recorded in 21st century…

Within the first 30 seconds of "Spiritual Eternal," the opening track on Alice Coltrane's final studio album, Eternity, the listener encounters the complete palette of Alice Coltrane's musical thought. As her Wurlitzer organ careens through a series of arpeggiated modal drones, they appear seemingly rootless, hanging out in the cosmic eternal. They remain there only briefly before an orchestra chimes in behind her in a straight blues waltz that places her wondrously jagged soloing within the context of a universal musical everything as she moves through jazz, Indian music, blues, 12-tone music, and the R&B stridency of Ray Charles. This is the historical and spiritual context Alice Coltrane made her own, the ability to open up her own sonic vocabulary and seamlessly create an ensemble context for to deliver an unpredictable expression of her vision of harmonic convergence…

In many Yes fans' eyes, the group will never issue a live album better than their 1973 classic, Yessongs. But the group has issued quite a few subsequent live sets, and as evidenced by 2007's Live at Montreux 2003, Yes remain one of prog rock's top live bands. Live at Montreux features arguably their definitive lineup (Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, and Alan White) and a few newer tracks are included, but Yes are no fools - they know that longtime fans expect to hear the classics. Nearly all of Yes' classics from the early '70s are here in solid/spirited renditions, including "Long Distance Runaround," "I've Seen All Good People," and "Roundabout." And it's always a gas to hear such album cuts/fan favorites as "Siberian Khatru," "Heart of the Sunrise," "And You and I," and "South Side of the Sky," while even "Don't Kill the Whale" gets a rare airing…

Over fifteen years ago the DJ duo from Cologne (Blank & Jones) decided to strike quieter, more relaxed tones. From the passion for Ambient, Chill Out, Downbeat, Lounge Music, Beach House, Bar Grooves and Co. was created the idea of ​​Milchbar Seaside Season - a summer soundtrack for the cult Norderneyer Location milk bar. On the first compilation followed in recent years regularly further new Chillout compilation.

When Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo' released TajMo in 2017 and toured the world, they fully intended it to be a one-off. Even as they resumed solo careers, neither could forget the merits of that partnership; they wondered if there was still magic between them in the studio. Room on the Porch answers in the affirmative. For the sake of creative possibility, they decided to write and record the material together in a studio. Over two weeks, Mahal, Mo', and their chosen collaborators worked in a Nashville studio and emerged with Room on the Porch, a solid set of seven originals and three covers co-produced by the pair. It's an intimate, warm, informal album full of laid-back good vibes and great songs.
The title-track opener, co-written with vocalist Ruby Amanfu, is a good-time acoustic rag blues buoyed by B-3, upright bass, fiddle, and resonator guitars in a welcome to a new guest and friend…