Finders Keepers presents the first ever collection of musical works of Bruno Spoerri, the mythical character who worked with members of legendary Krautrockers Can, composed music for engineering companies and made motivational music for industrial sites and factories utilising concrete techniques, primitive sampling techniques and contemporary experimental psych-rock and funk musicians.
Bruno also composed embryonic pre-Nintendo sprite-themes for the Germanic equivalents of It’s A Knock Out and various Takeshi’s Castle style fantasy sporting events - as well as educational robot sex films and art school cinematic anomalies…

Over the years, the legendary Helloween from Hamburg have forged a distinctive path and earned their place as early pioneers of melodic power and speed metal. The band left a lasting impression with the groundbreaking albums Keeper of the Seven Keys Parts I and II and today boasts a genre-defining discography that includes 16 studio albums, four live albums, three EPs and 30 singles. With over 10 million records sold and stage appearances with giants such as Iron Maiden, Scorpions and Ozzy Osbourne, Helloween's influence is undeniable and their lasting legacy assured. To celebrate 40 years of this remarkable journey, the band have released a new compilation called March of Time, spanning their entire back catalogue. This collection of 42 hand-picked tracks showcases the band's decades of work. This comprehensive release sheds lasting light on the career of these influential godfathers of the genre.

Eddie Higgins started his professional career in Chicago, Illinois, while studying at the Northwestern University School of Music. An elegant and sophisticated pianist, his encyclopedic harmonic approach and wide range of his repertory made him one of the most distinctive jazz pianists to come out of Chicago, gaining the respect of local and visiting musicians for his notable mastery of the instrument. Higgins also had the unusual ability to sound equally persuasive in a broad span of music, whether he was playing traditional swing, exciting bebop or reflexive ballads, providing the tone and stylistic flavor of each styles, as both a soloist and as accompanist.

The Grobschnitt debut from 1972 are a milestone in modern music history. This double CD collects what the band recorded before the debut was released. These early authentical recordings leave in many ways a livelier and fresher impression compared to the perfectly polished studio versions of the LP from Metronome. They show "the" Kapelle Elias Grobschnitt precisely in the fashion as they were to be experienced in those days.

Founded in the southern German city of Bietigheim-Bissingen by Heiko Maile, Oliver Kreyssig and Marcus Meyn in the year 1984, the band Camouflage scored an unexpected international hit with their debut album ‘Voices & Images’ in 1988. Their sophomore album ‘Methods Of Silence’, released just a year later, was an even bigger success. Songs like ‘The Great Commandment’ and ‘Love Is A Shield’, went on to become perennial classics of the synth pop genre. For the production of their third album ‘Meanwhile’ Heiko Maile and Marcus Meyn (Oliver Kreyssig has left the band by then) were striking a new path. They recorded the songs with a band lineup with real drums, bass, guitar and keyboards. To mark the 30th anniversary of the album, the band opened up the archives to assemble a special bonus edition including a wealth of rare and unreleased recordings, limited to 500 triple LP sets and 1,500 double CDs.

This 50th Anniversary edition trumps them all by offering three LPs, three 7" singles, and five CDs, all offering a different avenue for exploration of the Village Green. The first two discs look very similar to the 2004 triple-CD set, containing new remasters of the stereo and mono versions of the album, along with their accompanying non-LP tracks, singles, and B-sides, plus songs from the sessions that later appeared on The Great Lost Kinks Album. The third disc concentrates on the Village Green sessions, featuring a ton of alternate mixes, studio chatter, and backing tracks, including the much-bootlegged "Mick Avory's Underpants." The fourth disc features Village Green at the BBC, including interviews and live sessions performed between 1968 and 1969; among the highlights here are "Where Did My Spring Go?" and "When I Turn Off the Living Room Light," which wound up on The Great Lost Kinks Album…

Lurrie’s 1995 Delmark release Mercurial Son was one of the most talked about and widely acclaimed CDs of the year. 700 Blues showcases new facets of Lurrie’s talent, including his skills at smooth-swinging T-Bone-esque guitar.
Lurrie Bell was born on December 13, 1958, in Chicago. His famous father, harpist Carey Bell, had him working out on guitar as a wee lad. By 1977, he was recording with his dad and playing behind a variety of established stars, tabbed by many observers at the time as a sure star on the rise. But personal problems took their toll on his great potential; Bell's recorded output and live performances were inconsistent in the '80s and early '90s. Among the highlights of Bell's discography are three tracks in tandem with harpist Billy Branch under the Sons of Blues banner…

Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis first worked together at The Allen Room at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center for two nights in 2007, and while at first it would seem to be an odd pairing, it really isn’t: Nelson's singing and guitar playing have always fallen well to the jazz side of country all along anyway, and he’s hardly been a garden variety hat act during his long career, while Marsalis has long worked to reintroduce jazz as a viable popular form in American music. It’s about synthesis, really, and so it makes perfect sense for Nelson and Marsalis to turn to the music of Ray Charles, one of the greatest assimilators of American pop music - all forms of it, from gospel to blues, country, jazz, and R&B-for their encore shows at the heralded jazz house - this time for two sold-out nights at Rose Theater in February 2009 with special guest Norah Jones…

One of the best rock combos to grace the Harvest label in the early 70s - a German trio who've got plenty of proggish inflections, and who really serve up some great keyboards and guitar over heavy drums! There's a bit of vocals on the set, natch, but the best tunes feature lots of jamming on a variety of keyboards that include moog, Hammond, and electric piano - spun out in a really pulsating set of rhythms.

It's fair to say that the Orb never would have reached the British pop Top 40 without the influence and promotion of John Peel, who sponsored three sessions between 1989 and 1995. (There have also been two additional dates for other presenters.) Peel, a veteran of the late-'60s British music scene, appreciated the Orb's blend of futurism and folky traditionalism, seeing them not just as dance saviors but another dot in the line that connected pixilated popsters like T. Rex and the Incredible String Band (both of which Peel had been closely associated with). The Orb's first session was recorded in 1989, well before they had released an album, and it boosted the popularity of both the group and the ambient house phenomenon immeasurably. Although Peel's attention helped, a lot of excitement surrounded the music itself, a gorgeous tableau of music laced with samples taken from Dr. Alex Paterson's immense kit bag of records…

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release the classic album by Birmingham outfit The Dog That Bit People. Issued by Parlophone in 1971, it was the only album by the group that had evolved from the ashes of legendary band Locomotive by Bass player Mick Hincks and drummer Bob Lamb. Joined by keyboard player Keith Millar and guitarist John Caswell, the group recorded this album in 1970. This Esoteric Recordings reissue has been remastered from the original master tapes and includes the rare B-side of the band s only single as a bonus track.

The platinum-selling active rock group's tenth full-length effort, Bright as Blasphemy, sees Chevelle deliver a pithy nine-song set that pairs the band's signature blend of punchy, melodic hard rock and gritty metal with lyrics rooted in the existential angst of the digital age. Featuring the potent singles "Rabbit Hole (Cowards, Pt. 1)" and "Jim Jones (Cowards, Pt. 2)," the dark, self-produced effort marks a new chapter for the group following their departure from Epic Records and a move to Alchemy Recordings.

When Joe Pass recorded and released this first of his Virtuoso series of albums, he was 44 years old, and ready to reclaim his crown as king of jazz guitar after years of heroin abuse. As a solo artist playing only acoustic guitar in an amplified fusion era, the odds were stacked against him, but Pass boldly issued this, his most creative and improvisation-based work, to mass critical acclaim and widespread general public sales. The genius of Pass was that he was easily able to retain melodic lines of these standards while adding stretched-out, extrapolated thoughts on the top and bottom of the melodies. On every track, with each passing phrase, modified and extended line or poetic thought, Pass proves his unique style is better than all the rest…

September grew out of the short-lived super-group project Jugoslovenska Pop Selekcija in September 1975, whose members included Tihomir Pop Asanovic-organ, Janez Boncina-vocals, guitar, Braco Doblekar-percussion, congas and Ratko Divjak- drums. Charley Novak on bass and formally educated musician Pero Ugrin on electric violin and trumpet joined soon for the recording of the first album, ironically titled "Zadnja avantura" (Eng. "The Last Adventure"). The album was recorded in February 1976 in Ljubljana and released shortly afterwards but passed largely unnoticed. This is in fact a pure gem of Yugoslavian jazz fusion that lacked popularity simply because there was no single hit song on it that would draw attention of the wider public. That said, this album is probably the first complete fusion release in ex- Yugoslavia that did not rely on the blues/R'n'B fundament, going instead further into free jazz exploration in a vein of Mahavishnu Orchestra or Return To Forever…

Sony Music's aptly named Synth Pop box rounds up 53 slabs of new wave, new romantic, post-punk, and AOR pop goodness from the 1980s.
Synth Pop reads like a who’s who of the late 70s and early 80s, featuring 53 of the most recognisable and iconic songs of the era. The collection kicks off with Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics and picks up the pace pretty fast. You know you’re on to a winning collection when Don’t You Want Me by The Human League, Cars by Gary Numan and Tainted Love by Soft Cell are sequenced one after the other. There are so many highlights over the 53 tracks that it’s really hard to single out specific songs for mention. The late Donna Summer’s I Feel Love continues to be one of the greatest synth pop songs ever recorded whilst the irresistible Gold by Spandau Ballet continues to be both a karaoke and dancefloor favourite all these years on…