This is a release where contemporary pop grooves predominate, while her 1993 release, Maracanã, was a very delicate and swinging Brazilian music album. Jobim tunes coexist with songs by Caetano Veloso, Jorge Benjor, and Gilberto Gil, with international hits by Bacharach and Stevie Wonder providing additional support. Echoes of contemporary street music such as hip-hop can be caught here and there over a pervasive fusion treatment immediately reminiscent of the '70s. Anna Caram is a good singer. She chose to interpret a dance repertoire interspersed with romantic bossas in a straightforward pop album with no instrumental solos.

Australian progressive fusion-jazz-symphonic rock from 1975, influenced by the Santana hall mark of using rock over a Latin beat. Their music was an unusual hydrid of rock, jazz, Latin American, West Indian and even occasional Zappa-like tracks. Sometimes it sounds like a blend of Osibisa and Tasavallan Presidenti. Cool and funky, but highly infectious.

The two works on this album were commissioned by conductor Paul Sacher in the 1930s for the orchestra he founded in 1926, the Basel Chamber Orchestra. This orchestra was famous for its adventurous programming, often combining baroque repertoire with contemporary works. Bartók’s Divertimento nods at the baroque concerto grosso in its use of individual groups of players, and the title ‘divertimento’ recalls Mozart’s many examples of this form.

After the success of his album Apollo, Banco returns with Ollopa, a remix album that turns its source on its head: not only have the name and original track order been reversed, but the artwork is inverted too, with the sun becoming the moon and other symbols flipped upside down. The collection starts with Tripswitch’s sublime remix of Acquiescence, which builds slowly from an ambient opening into a downtempo delight, setting the tone nicely for both Antipodean duo, Deep Fried Dub, who add a cheeky dancehall lick to Oreia, and the high priests of sacred bass, Desert Dwellers, whose jittery yet soothing remix of All Sleeping is like sonic incense for the mind and body.
The sinewy melodies of Hu! are strengthened and complimented by some tough, bass-driven beats on the Unusual Cosmic Process Remix, while Kaya Project’s worldly ears (and added vocals)…

As if cosmically enacted, Neko Case breaks to the surface once again with the new album Neon Grey Midnight Green and reminds listeners that she is one of our greatest living songwriters - perpetually becoming more fearless and adventurous.

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of The Eastbourne Performance, Duke Ellington's final official recording, captured live at Eastbourne's Congress Theatre. To honour this historic moment, bassist Arnie Somogyi and pianist Mark Edwards have created The Ellington Piano Project, releases on Rubicon Jazz. The album features fresh takes on Ellington classics and new compositions, with contributions from Dutch saxophonist Gideon Tazelaar, drummer Matthew Holmes, and guest vocalist Sara Oschlag.

By the mid-'70s, Arthur Brown had spent some six years operating so far below the radar that many people who remembered his "Fire" chart-topper could easily be excused for thinking he'd vanished altogether. Of course, aficionados knew he'd been busy elsewhere, scouring the progressive underground with Journey and Kingdom Come, and fans of those projects were nonplussed indeed when Brown suddenly reappeared in the mainstream, turning up on the Saturday morning British TV pop program Supersonic to plug his latest single. Resplendent in gold wellies, Brown drew the Animals' "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" to new heights of dementia - the single itself was ultimately a flop, but the performance was killer, and all ears were open for the album that followed, Dance…

At the time of the release of Think (About It) in 1972, Lyn Collins had been a member of James Brown's performing revue for about two years. Her full-throated voice had earned her the nickname "the Female Preacher" and a shot to record her own album. Of course, the Godfather was in the producer's chair, writing four of the nine tracks, directing the J.B.'s as they laid down their usual funky grooves, and liberally adding vocals throughout. The title track is the main point of interest here; from Collins' throat-ripping vocals to the track's nasty groove to Brown's background interjections, this is a killer. (Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock later sampled the track for their rap classic "It Takes Two"). The rest of the record is a little uneven: "Just Won't Do Right" is a good doo wop-ish ballad with some churchy organ and great vocals by Collins and Brown, "Wheels of Life" is a nice little groover that sounds like vintage Aretha Franklin, and "Women's Lib" is a very slow ballad that lets Collins show off her anguished yowl of a vocal to its fullest.