Kotebel's self-released debut, Structures, contained promises – but the production (synthesizer only with programmed tracks) held the music back. This second offering, released by the giant prog rock label Musea, is much more satisfying. Although still very much keyboard oriented, Mysticae Visiones is better programmed (the drums have considerably improved) and features other instrumentalists. The presence of guitarist César Garcia and flutist Omar Acosta provides a lush '70s progressive rock atmosphere not unlike Maneige circa Ni Vent Ni Nouvelle or the instrumental albums of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. Cellist Francisco Ochando and singer Carolina Prieto add more occasional touches. The music of Carlos Plaza (the man behind the moniker Kotebel) remains romantic, symphonic, highly melodious.

This obscure but timeless gem from 1984 sounds as if it were recorded yesterday. The hard bop originals (several of which should be revived), high musicianship, and consistently rewarding solos make this a milestone in the careers of Tom Garvin, Bob Sheppard, Bob Ojeda, John Patitucci and Mike Stephans.

“Just A Glimpse” consists of a band of young voices from the German jazz scene who play compositions by Philipp Wisser. The quintet is based on both a rough, lighthearted and melancholy streak. The built-in opposites ensure good stories and a dynamic that makes it possible to revive many exciting moments for the listener.

Ha!-Ha!-Ha! is a bruising album, a tsunami of a set that epitomized the fire and fury of its age. Icy to its core, producer Steve Lillywhite brilliantly captured both the band's urgency and the brittleness of their sound. Like the implosion of gases that ignited the Big Bang, Ha!-Ha!-Ha! hangs in the millisecond before the ensuing explosion, trembling with ferocious tension and fierce anticipation of the coming storm…

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's (1643-1704) deeply soulful vocal works are among the most immediately appealing pieces of the middle Baroque. He had a gift for grateful, lyrical vocal writing that's expressively expansive and avoids the patterned clichés that sometimes hobble music of that era. This collection features a variety of works, including songs, a cantata, and a short opera-like scene in the form of a motet, Epithalium Carpenterij, that's quite unlike anything else in the musical repertoire. It's a wickedly funny tombeau, or musical memorial tribute, which Charpentier writes in his own honor.

The eight years since Meat Loaf's last studio album didn't include any editions of his Bat Out of Hell series, but with a live album and a VH1 Storytellers appearance that relied heavily on Bat material, it sure seemed like it. Maybe that's why Couldn't Have Said It Better feels like the more sure and energetic post-Bat albums (Dead Ringer and Welcome to the Neighborhood) with the singer still sounding ecstatic from hitting a home run. Performance wise, Meat Loaf is in fine form, rocking it out bar-band style and able to deliver the grandiose tongue-in-cheek lyrics with just enough smirk. The material gets divided into two "chapters.

Bassist T.M. Stevens leads guests like Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple), Corey Glover and Will Calhoun (ex-Living Colour), Richie Kotzen (ex-Poison), Al Pitrelli and Vinnie Moore through renditions of Deep Purple favorites including "Stormbringer," "Black Night," "Burn," "Smoke on the Water" and a reggae version of "Child in Time."

Arriving hot on the heels of 2010’s highly conceptual Hang Cool Teddy Bear, Hell in a Handbasket feels like an intimate affair but that assessment is relative. Coming from any other artist, Hell in a Handbasket would sound overblown but for Meat Loaf, it’s relatively reflective, containing thunder in its production but lacking melodrama in its composition. Despite the strategic deployment of “hell” in its title, this album has nothing to do with the three previous Bat Out of Hell albums, including 2006’s Jim Steinman-less The Monster Is Loose, but it has Meat Loaf's signature everything-plus-two-kitchen-sinks approach, sometimes stretching past the point of parody as when he brings in his fellow Celebrity Apprentice contestants John Rich, Lil Jon, and Mark McGrath in for the nonsensical cluster-duet “Stand in the Storm.”

The fourth in the Switched On series that compiles non-album tracks and sought after deep cuts by the groop. Following on from the first volume released in 1992, 1995's Refried Ectoplasm, and 1998's Aluminum Tunes, the long-awaited fourth installment spans 1999 - 2008 in the Stereolab story and collates 3 LPs worth of material, all remastered from the original tapes and overseen by the band. It features all the tracks from out-of-print and sought after mini-album The First Of The Microbe Hunters, one-off and impossible to find tour 7"s, compilation tracks, art installation work and a couple of unreleased outtakes from the Mars Audiac Quintet and Dots and Loops recording sessions.

Once upon a time, on January 11th 2019 (pre-plague), a rag-tag group of Scottish musical ne’er-do-wells flew to a fancy-ass studio in Sweden on an impossible mission to record, in two whole days, an album of the only eleven songs they could actually play. Were it not for a series of mishaps, bad calls, vodka, general tomfoolery (those f****** gloves!) and one near-death experience, they might just about have managed it too.

Steppin' Out is the second studio album released by soprano saxophonist George Howard. It was first released as an LP record in 1984 by Palo Alto Records and reached as high as #9 on the Billboard magazine Top Jazz Albums list for that year. This CD from 1984 has lively and complex sax sounds. When Howard rejoined GRP Records in 1990, they acquired the rights to previous albums by him and released this album on compact disc in 1992.

Wisely going only by her first name, Polish-by-way-of-England pop singer Basia Trzetrzelewska ("pronounced Basha Tshetshelevska"), joined by her musical partner Danny White, steps out of the band Matt Bianco to launch her solo career with Time and Tide. She and White create a series of keyboard-based dance-pop arrangements to support her smooth alto…