In 2016, with the blessing of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, Xiu Xiu released and toured the surprisingly successful album and concert, Plays the Music of Twin Peaks. Out of respect and deference to the beloved series, the band decided to put the concert to rest in 2018. After the recent and untimely passing of David Lynch, Xiu Xiu began to receive several high-profile requests to revive their interpretation of this iconic music. However, in wanting to always try to follow, honor, and continue to be inspired by the incredibly high bar of artistic challenge set by David Lynch, Xiu Xiu is instead going deeper.

Ever the iconoclast, if there is one thing that Brian Eno has done with any degree of consistency throughout his varied career, it is presenting his art in an array of perpetually "out of the box" forums. All that changed – in a manner of speaking – with the release of two companion multi-disc compilations. Eno Box I: Instrumentals (1994) condenses his wordless creations, while Eno Box II: Vocals (1993) does the same for the rest of his major works on a similarly sized volume. Interestingly – and in his typically contrary fashion – this initial installment was actually issued last. Each of Eno Box I: Instrumentals' three CDs respectively concentrates on a specific facet of the artist's copious back catalog.

Having played straightforward hard rock with Mr. Big since the tail end of the '80s, bass virtuoso Billy Sheehan formed Niacin as an outlet for his jazz fusion and prog rock inclinations during the mid-'90s. The trio also featured keyboardist John Novello and drummer Dennis Chambers, both musicians who had crossed frequently between the worlds of jazz and rock during their careers. With Niacin, Novello devoted himself especially to the Hammond B-3 organ, a longtime mainstay of both jazz and prog rock.

On this fiercely unconventional, dark, and thrillingly unpredictable 1995 release, Austrian avant-garde outfit Scrooge delivers a bracing masterclass in underground art rock. Released on the cult Vienna-based imprint Trost Records, Happy What Else is a fascinating, high-fidelity collision of jagged post-punk tension, minimalist chamber music, and theatrical, avant-rock experimentation. The quartet thrives on a brilliant sense of musical subversion, where Regina Ausserwöger's haunting, expressive vocals and scraping violin lines dance over Oliver Stotz's sharp, angular guitar riffs, piano bursts, and sudden accordion flourishes. Grounded by the fiercely tight, unpredictable rhythmic foundation of bassist Romeo Bissuti and drummer Günther Castanetti, the band moves effortlessly from the hyper-kinetic bursts of "Hit The Pig" to the melancholic, deconstructed beauty of "Milena Jesenska," culminating in fractured multi-part conceptual pieces. This rare, boundary-pushing session remains an essential, deeply atmospheric treasure for collectors of experimental and avant-garde rock architecture.

Bish Bosch is, according to Scott Walker, the final recording in the trilogy that began with 1995’s Tilt and continued in 2006’s The Drift. Its title combines urban slang for the word "bitch" and the last name of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. Like its predecessors, Bish Bosch is not an easy listen initially. It's utterly strange, yet alluring. Musically, Walker is as rangy and cagey as ever. His players have worked with him since Tilt; they know exactly what he wants and how to get it. A string orchestra arranged and conducted by keyboardist Mark Warman, and a full symphony on three cuts are also employed. The lyrics on Bish Bosch are full of obscure historical, philosophical, medical, geographical and cultural allusions. For instance, subatomic science, a dwarf jester in Attila the Hun’s court, St. Simeon, and an early 20th century fad all appear in "SDSS14+3B (Zircon, A Flagpole Sitter)." Elsewhere, Nicolai Ceausescu, Nikita Khrushchev, the Ku Klux Klan, and God himself show up. While Bish Bosch is another exercise in artful pretension, it is the most accessible entry in this trilogy and well worth the effort to get at it. Themes of decay are woven throughout these songs – of empire, of the body, of language and religion – yet they are often complemented and illustrated by wry, pun-like, and even scatological humor.

A group whose distinctly ethereal and gossamer sound virtually defined the enigmatic image of the record label 4AD, Cocteau Twins were founded in Grangemouth, Scotland, in 1979. Taking their name from an obscure song from fellow Scots Simple Minds, the Cocteaus were originally formed by guitarist Robin Guthrie and bassist Will Heggie and later rounded out by Guthrie's girlfriend Elizabeth Fraser, an utterly unique performer whose swooping, operatic vocals relied less on any recognizable language than on the subjective sounds and textures of verbalized emotions.

On Bass, the legendary Swedish bass virtuoso and low-end innovator Jonas Hellborg aligns under the studio spotlight with an absolute pantheon of rock, funk, and avant-garde icons to deliver a towering, historically volcanic, and masterfully panoramic rhythm document. Released in 1988 by his independent vanguard imprint Day Eight Music, this monumental milestone stands as an exceptionally fluid, high-octane monument where cutting-edge bass textures smash directly into heavy rock precision and deep P-Funk groove telemetry. Spanning over 44 minutes of immaculate high-fidelity spatial design, the 11-track landscape operates with an intense, beautifully syncopated, and masterfully balanced kinetic energy. Hellborg acts as a brilliant sonic visionary with his custom Wal electric basses, throwing down staggering slap patterns, complex chordal frameworks, and microtonal leads—firing off spectacular tracking landmarks like the driving, groove-heavy opener Song For You, a thunderous deconstruction of Led Zeppelin's Moby Dick, and the deeply touching, fretless tribute Jaco. Driven by Hellborg's pioneering bass architectures, Ginger Baker's historic, heavy-hitting drumming paths, Bernie Worrell's bubbling, cosmic synthesizer wizardry, and Bernard Fowler's soulful vocal flights, this independent archive remains an indispensable masterpiece for serious jazz-rock purists and avant-garde funk collectors worldwide.

Low is the eleventh studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 14 January 1977 through RCA Records. The first of three collaborations with the producer Tony Visconti and the musician Brian Eno that became known as the Berlin Trilogy, the project originated following Bowie's move to France in 1976 with his friend Iggy Pop to rid themselves of their drug addictions. There, Bowie produced and co-wrote Pop's debut solo studio album, The Idiot, featuring sounds the former would explore on his next record. After completing The Idiot, sessions for Low began at Hérouville's Château d'Hérouville in September 1976 and ended in October at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, where Bowie and Pop had relocated. An art rock record influenced by German bands such as Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Harmonia and Kraftwerk, Low features Bowie's first explorations in electronic and ambient styles.

On Yo Miles!, avant-garde guitar visionary Henry Kaiser and legendary trumpeter/conceptualist Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith lead an absolute electric mega-ensemble to deliver a staggering, historically volcanic, and masterfully panoramic double-disc studio document. Released in 1998 by Shanachie Records, this explosive project serves as a towering, deeply respectful yet radically uninhibited celebration of Miles Davis's monumental 1970s electric fusion era. Spanning over two and a half hours of immaculate high-fidelity spatial design across two conceptually distinct discs (Nök and Sankõre), the landscape operates with an intense, heavily syncopated, and beautifully volatile kinetic energy. The collective handles Miles's most dense, deep-grooving modal architectures with absolute improvisational velocity—firing off massive tracking highlights like the sprawling, bass-heavy mashup Big Fun / Hollywuud, a hypnotic, 21-minute exploration of Ife, and an epic, multi-tiered continuous journey through the Themes from Jack Johnson. Driven by Wadada's blistering, Milesian trumpet geometry, the multi-layered guitar firestorms of Kaiser and Nels Cline, Michael Manring's hyper-fluid electric bass lines, and a stellar rotating cast of special guests including John Medeski and Elliott Sharp, this pristine archive remains an indispensable masterpiece for serious jazz-rock purists and progressive fusion collectors worldwide.