Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Sonatas with Varied Reprises (comp. 1758–9, publ. 1760) constituted a bold experiment. Spelling out every repeat, Bach applies to each the art of variation. Starting off as a service (“play this and you’ll sound as if you’re improvising”), the opus ends up a masterclass in variation. Tom Beghin, playing his own beloved clavichord, enacts the role of the keyboardist- composer who repeats himself, while never saying the same thing twice.

The third album from idiosyncratic U.K. band Sleep Token completes the trilogy that began with their 2016 debut full-length, Sundowning, and presents the cleanest articulation to date of their part-metal, part-R&B, all-chaotic sound. One of the most interesting challenges Sleep Token presents is figuring out exactly how to listen to them. Over the course of a single song like "The Summoning," the band quickly zips from doomy downtuned metal riffs to choruses with passionate falsetto R&B crooning, then straight to a technical breakdown somewhere between djent and prog metal. Attuning one's listening to these rapid changes between violently disparate styles can be one of the most enjoyable things about trying to keep up with Take Me Back to Eden. It's never a guarantee that sections of pummeling drums and guitars won't be followed seconds later by fantastical synths or thick, sleazy funk grooves - all within the same song…

This Warren Vache CD is a bit unusual, for it features the trumpeter, best known for his work in the mainstream and small-group swing field, playing quite a few selections that fall stylistically into bop and hard bop. Joined by tenor saxophonist Bill Easley, trombonist Joel Helleny, guitarist Howard Alden, pianist Richard Wyands, bassist Michael Moore and drummer Alvin Queen, Vache digs into such numbers as Horace Parlan's "The Arrival," "Strangers In Paradise," Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan" and Sam Jones' "Says You." Highlights include a jubilant "Pick Yourself Up" (which has one of Vache's two effective vocals) and a pair of tongue twisters: Bud Freeman's "The Eel's Nephew" and Flip Phillips' "The Claw." No matter how complex the piece, Vache (who contributed "On Y Va") plays throughout in prime form, showing that he could be one of the top latter-day beboppers if that were his main goal.

A game-changing symphonic Big Bang; a genre-fusing evolutionary leap forward where cerebral science fiction meets visceral rock 'n' roll; sonic cinema meets e-book pod-lit in cyberspace.
Sontaag is a cross-generic space rock grand opera: a transcontinental project fast-tracking contemporary music into a cinematic future by refusing to recognise boundaries geographic or stylistic.
Imagine stratosphere-scraping Pink Floyd dynamism powered beyond the boundaries and constraints of gravity by the propulsive sonic energy of a visionary Youth production job; a Star Wars saga psychedelicized by the vivid ambient shades of an Orb sound palette…

Most entries in the Back to Mine series allow the artists to investigate their wide but dabbling tastes in influences - a bit of dance, a bit of alternative, some roots in '60s pop or soul perhaps, and maybe a stray nugget from something obscure like Krautrock or dub or rockabilly. The other volumes usually come from true DJs or, rarely, those with something special to say. Regardless of whether you enjoy Röyksopp's vision of polished downbeat pop, the duo's interest in post-disco and Euro-dance pays major dividends here for those looking to hear something beyond the usual Klein + M.B.O. or Alexander Robotnick singles. The vast majority of the tracks hail from that magical time (1978-1984) when disco, new wave, and synth pop were colliding with fantastic results, especially considering the quality of these obscurities, from the cold Teutonic harmonies of Harry Thumann's "Sphinx"…

Eugene Ormandy & The Philadelphia Orchestra - The Columbia Stereo Collection 1964-1983 [94CDs Box Set] (2024)
EAC Rip | FLAC (*track+.cue) | Run Time: 03:14:07:35 | 26.08 Gb
Genre: Classical | Label: Sony Classical

This massive new reissue from Eugene Ormandy’s stereo discography collects all the Columbia Masterworks recordings he made in Philadelphia between the early 1960s and early 1980s. Sony Classical’s new 94-CD box set once again demonstrates what noted critic Jed Distler, reviewing the previous instalment of this ambitious project “The Columbia Stereo Collection 1958–1963” in Gramophone’s December 2023 issue, characterized as “the Philadelphia Orchestra’s brilliance and versatility as well as Ormandy’s unflappable consistency and habitually underestimated interpretative gifts”. Some of these performances – including the complete recording of Bach’s St. John Passion, Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis, Schubert’s Sixth Symphony and a disc of opera choruses with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as Ginastera’s Concerto for Strings and the ballet music from Massenet’s opera Le Cid – have never appeared before in the digital medium, and they shine a light into new corners of Ormandy’s astonishingly large repertoire.

Excellent album by the band from Mexico. "Back" is excellent psychedelic rock with pop and garage touches full of well played cool organ and a feeling of "Love & Freedom" all over it, although it has its dark moments too.

Brothers Lee and Sam King bring us this splendid flaming CD. Their blues will burn and rip deep inside you with a tremendous passion. This Texas blues is very much influenced by legendary Texan musicians who unfortunately have passed away like Freddy King and Albert King, but also they pay homage to Big Joe Turner or Shakey Jake Harris.

Issued in 2008, this three-disc box set, compiled by Rhino Records and available only at Barnes & Noble, presents the first solo albums released by Peter, Paul & Mary following the famous folk trio’s 1970 break-up. While Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers offered up PETER and MARY, respectively, Noel Paul Stookey cheekily entitled his record PAUL AND, also managing to score a significant hit with the elegant, nuptial-themed “Wedding Song (There Is Love).”

Tenor saxophonist Buck Hill spent most of his prime years working as a mailman in the Washington, D.C., area and occasionally playing jazz at night. He was already a veteran when he began recording in 1978 and, fortunately, his legacy has been well documented ever since. A thick-toned tenor, Hill has a style that is boppish and looks both toward swing and hard bop simultaneously. Joined by a fine, if obscure, Washington-based rhythm section, Hill performs five of his basic originals and four standards on this date, including "Blue Hill," a lyrical "But Beautiful," a cooking "I Want to Be Happy," and a melodic rendition of Duke Ellington's "Warm Valley." This CD is an excellent example of Hill's musical talents.