For part of Air's Pocket Symphony tour, Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin played shows with only drummer Joey Waronker as support, forcing the band to strip its songs down to their essences. They stick with that lineup on Love 2, which delivers some of the most Air-like music to the band's name, and with good reason: this is the first time Dunckel and Godin have produced their own album. The duo tends to follow its more ambitious work with more accessible material and Love 2 is no exception, replacing Pocket Symphony's exotic, experimental bent with a renewed emphasis on the pair's quintessential sound. Godin and Dunckel dig deep into their arsenal of vintage electronic gear, topping those burbles, buzzes, and whooshes with some strings here and a few fuzzed-out guitars and basslines there…

This double CD contains the earliest known recordings of the UK's Paul Kossoff (Free), whose tragic death at 25 in 1976 robbed the rock world of one of its finest-ever blues guitarists. Taped at rehearsals with Black Cat Bones in London in 1967, the raw, lo-fi tracks find the teenaged Kossoff already a master of his instrument. Accompanied by musicians including Derek and Stuart Brookes (later to form the legendary Leaf Hound), and featuring a guest appearance from Paul Rodgers (later to form Free with Kossoff), the recordings are of considerable historical importance. They are released here for the very first time, along with a booklet featuring rare photographs, full liner notes and an introduction from the band's drummer, Frank Perry, making the album an essential purchase for all serious rock fans.

Rock and metal flagship Avantasia return with thrilling 10th studio album, 'Here Be Dragons'!
Featuring absolute Avantasia essentials such as spellbinding choirs and theatrical symphonic metal elements, multitalented mastermind and frontman Tobias Sammet also surprises fans old and new with plenty of intriguing fresh soundscapes. Here Be Dragons gives the celebrated Avantasia sound that has been carefully crafted over a quarter of a century an exciting and powerful spin. The new album is the most consistent and concise piece of art that the band has ever crafted.
In typical Avantasia manner, the new full-length is rich in vivid storytelling and cinematic atmospheres, not to mention the highest level of musicianship…

This is the fourth in a series of five CD reissues from guitar legend Joe Diorio's classic Spitball Records recordings from the 1970's. Originally released in 1974 on Spitball Records, "Rapport" was recorded on April 29, 1973 at The First Unitarian Church in Miami, Florida and features Joe Diorio on guitar and Wally Cirillo on piano. Now available for the first time on CD including the original album cover artwork and liner notes from the original LP release. The album contains three original compositions by Joe Diorio and Wally Cirillo, "Talla Sunshine and Naima Rainbow: Dance for Their Father", "Emiereicity" and "Lovely Afternoon", in addition to the song "Sonnymoon for Two / Four Score" by Sonny Rollins and Wally Cirillo. 24-bit digital remastering by Paul G. Kohler at Art of Life Studios in Charleston, South Carolina in January 2019. Art of Life Records is pleased to make this long out-of-print recording available to the world once again.

Ray Manzarek was an American musician, singer, producer, film director, and author. He was best known as a member of the Doors from 1965 to 1973, which he co-founded with singer and lyricist Jim Morrison.
This is a staggeringly different piece of music for those who only know the Ray Manzarek of "Light My Fire" or "L.A. Woman" fame. The 1983 collaboration with Philip Glass and Kurt Munkacsi holds many revelations. As the post-Morrison Doors splintered off into various side projects, Manzarek's notable The Golden Scarab and The Whole Thing Started With Rock & Roll Now It's Out of Control to the Krieger/Densmore schizophrenic unit known as the Butts Band, as well as guitarist Krieger's jazz-flavored solo discs, the journeymen musicians opened windows beyond the music of the Doors. Carmina Burana's power emerges from the fusion of musical forms, heralded by Manzarek's sincere approach to the project…

While Tangerine Dream amassed its vast catalog throughout the '70s and '80s, chief Dreamer Edgar Froese was quietly releasing influential records of his own. This handy, two-disc set is a fine collection of some of the better moments from Froese's numerous solo outings, including 15 new tracks recorded specifically for this set, and the rest are extensively reworked with "new timbres." Consequently "Beyond The Storm" comes off less as a compilation than as a whole studio album based upon old themes. If you're a fan of Froese or TD this is a nice slice of that pie.

The Morgan Studios session team's sophomore album is a classic example of (very) early-'70s British pop, an exquisitely performed, flawlessly arranged collection of lightly rocking originals that are not quite soft enough to be as cloying as similar efforts by contemporaries Harmony Grass and the Brotherhood of Man, but only occasionally memorable enough to actually stick in the mind. The title track, Blue Mink's third U.K. hit, was the original album's main selling point – subsequently, of course, the group's prototype rendition of "Gasoline Alley Bred" attracted the most attention, courtesy of the Hollies' hit version, and it must be said that there is little to choose between either version. Impressive, too, is "You Walked Away," a Madeline Bell showcase that layers her vocals over sultry percussion and percolating guitar, while the closing "Jubilation" is a "Get Back"-style rocker that illustrates just what a powerful bunch of musicians Blue Mink was…

Elmore James Jr., son of the great Elmore James, is an accomplished and masterful Chicago blues singer, slide guitarist, and former rock & roll drummer. Second CD for Wolf Records, titled Old School Lover, is one of the best traditional Chicago blues albums of 2012. Includes six new songs and six traditional tunes in the Chicago blues style. Features Eddie Taylor Jr., Ed Williams, and Illinois Slim.

Quincy Jones had jazz fans wondering when he released his killer Gula Matari album in 1970. That set, with gorgeous reading of Paul Simon's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with a lead vocal by none other than Valerie Simpson, pointed quite solidly into the direction Jones was traveling: unabashedly toward pop, but with his own trademark taste, and sophistication at the forefront of his journey. Its follow-up, Smackwater Jack, marked Jones, along with Phil Ramone and Ray Brown in the producer's chair, and knocked purist jazz fans on their heads with its killer meld of pop tunes, television and film themes, pop vocals, and big-band charts. The personnel list is a who's- who of jazzers including Monty Alexander, Jim Hall, Pete Christlieb, Joe Beck, Bobby Scott, Ernie Royal, Freddie Hubbard, Jerome Richardson, Ray Brown, Jaki Byard, Toots Thielemans, and many others…

These guys are an Irish band from the late 70's. The vocals remind of Rory Gallagher and the songs have a Thin Lizzy-ish quality with some nice dual harmony guitars. Songwriting is in the same mold as Lizzy as well as is the pace of the album. Nice guitars on this one supplied by Jim Armstrong who was in Them and also Truth (the Chicago-based one).
Anyone who remembers Them (with Van Morrison) between 1967 and 1968, and (without Van Morrison) between 1969 and 1971, or a Chicago-based band called Tuth, cannot fail to recall the playing of one of the world's great rock guitarists Jim Armstrong.
Following the demise of Truth in 1971, Armstrong retreated from the international scene to gig at a more relaxed pace in his native Belfast…

As the legend of Delerium lives on in Conjure One, the masterpiece of the main creative outlet of producer Rhys Fulber finally emerges as one of the world's best kept secrets. The former member of industrial flag bearers Front Line Assembly and crossover act Delerium is one of the most diverse producers of his time and brings you the multifarious creations of his 'Holoscenic' album.
Ranging from the astounding 'Kill The Fear' feat. Hannah Ray and the entrancing 'Miscreant', to the powerful 2013 singles 'Under The Gun' feat. Leigh Nash and 'Still Holding On' feat. Aruna, the album is fresh, intriguing, and absolutely striking. Home to some the most beautiful vocal performances and incredible atmospheres, 'Holoscenic' offers a lot more than any singular genre could offer…

You Can't Kill Me is the title of an early Gong song from the album Camembert Electrique (1971) where Daevid Allen sang that you can kill the body but not the spirit. In a sense it is also the essence of this new album, to have his spirit live on in the music.
Back in October 2012 when Gong played at the Boerderij in Zoetermeer Allen introduced his band as the new generation of Gong. And shortly before he passed away in March 2015 in a statement published on his website he specifically encouraged the band to continue without him. He always wanted the band to be a collective, not depending on one or more individuals including himself. He had left the band before, in 1975, and after his departure Gong carried on for a few years led by Steve Hillage, Didier Malherbe and Pierre Moerlen…

On their 14th studio opus, Cradle Of Filth blend their iconic macabre sound with dark new delights!
Grammy Award-nominated Cradle Of Filth reign supreme as one of the most revered, formative and notorious names in music - from the depths of the extreme metal underground to the peaks of mainstream pop culture itself, and are responsible for breaking ground for many of today’s top metal artists with their trademark mixture of blackened heaviness, macabre theatricality and scintillating gothic style.
Now, following the release of 2021’s Existence Is Futile - which debuted at #20 on the Billboard 200 with Hard Rock Genre (beyond many other chart debuts) - the international institution returns with their arrestingly catchy 14th studio album, The Screaming of the Valkyries…

By 1980, when Broadway was recorded, organist Richard "Groove" Holmes had already splashed onto the scene as an expansive adherent of Jimmy Smith's soul-jazz gospel, been a player in the music's modern boogaloo-acid jazz phase of the late '60s, and survived disco by dropping synthesizers into the mix. Finally arriving at the Muse label by the late '70s, Holmes settled into a loose amalgam of past proclivities, never forsaking his high musical standards and groove aesthetic. For this, his third Muse release, Holmes enlists fellow organ combo veteran Houston Person to produce and ostensibly co-lead on tenor saxophone; for his part, Holmes sublimely comps behind the soloists, electrifying the session with his fluidly nasty runs and sanctified musings on the B3…

Isle of Wight is a posthumous live album by Jimi Hendrix, released in November 1971. It documents Hendrix's performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival on 31 August 1970, his last performance in England before his death less than three weeks later on September 18, 1970.