2003 reissue with 4 bonus tracks.
The posthumously released, two-disc Live at Wembley '86 proves once and for all that Queen was a superior live band, and like the Beatles, the Stones, etc., had far too many hits to fit into a two-hour show. Recorded in their native England at the gigantic Wembley Stadium on their A Kind of Magic tour, the group was at their peak of popularity back home. This would, unfortunately, turn out to be the band's last tour, and it showed the group including old rock & roll covers, classics, then-current songs, improv, and overlooked album tracks. Queen opens up the show with the near-heavy-metal roar of "One Vision," and adds lively renditions of the well-known "Tie Your Mother Down," the David Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure," and their very first hit, "Seven Seas of Rhye"…

Chaos A.D. was the record where everything came together for Sepultura, when they graduated from being an excellent, if derivative, band into one of metal's most unique voices. Their strident political dissidence is more focused than ever, referring explicitly to injustices in their native Brazil. The band's thick, chunky guitars, busy percussion, and hoarsely shouted vocals may be rooted in death metal, but it was often hard to call Sepultura a true death metal band, even if they flirted heavily with the style by way of Slayer; Chaos A.D. is rooted just as much in hardcore punk in its lean, stripped-down assault, featuring a cover of New Model Army's "The Hunt" and a collaboration with Jello Biafra on "Biotech Is Godzilla"…

One of his best LPs from a very creative and innovative period, In Stockholm is wonderful almost in spite of itself. Getz recorded this date for Norman Granz in December of 1955, after returning from a several-months-long period of recuperation in North Africa due to a crippling illness - the combination of pleurisy and pneumonia. Getz is in the company of three Swedish jazzmen: pianist Bengt Hallberg, bassist Gunnar Johnson, and drummer Anders Burman. The program is made up of standards and a mix of ballads and faster bop-flavored tunes. The bluesy "Indiana" kicks the date off with a brief solo tenor intro. Getz's trademark tone is warm, rich, and full. His real foil on the track is Johnson, whose bop playing is on the money. Hallberg is knottier and very formal, and Burman is merely keeping time, but it hardly matters since it's a blues…

2013 mix from the original multi-track tapes by Robert Fripp, Tony Arnold and David Singleton at the Courthouse, Cranborne, Dorset.
As Robert Fripp had done with King Crimson's first live LP, Earthbound (1972), USA is a single-disc concert package documenting the quartet during its 1974 swing through North America. As with its predecessor, USA was also issued as a sonic cenotaph of the concurrently defunct Krim. So insistent that the band would not be resurrected, Fripp concluded the LP's liner notes at the time with another three-letter epitaph: "R.I.P." The 1973/1974 King Crimson included the collective efforts of Fripp (guitar/Mellotron), David Cross (violin), John Wetton (bass/vocals), and Bill Bruford (drums/percussion)…

This CD was nominated for a Grammy award in 2007 for Best Contemporary World Music Album.
Canadian Celtic/new age/worldbeat architect Loreena McKennitt may be an odd choice for the legendary jazz label that released benchmark albums from Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, but Verve may have been moved by the undeniably talented harpist/composer/vocalist's large collection of globe-spanning gold, platinum, and multi-platinum sales awards. McKennitt's records (this is her first set of new material since 1997's Book of Secrets) tend to play like independent soundtracks to National Geographic documentaries - kind of like a more ornate, expensive version of Dead Can Dance. An Ancient Muse may break little new ground for McKennitt, but it won't disappoint longtime fans. Her fascination with Celtic, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern instrumentation (hurdy-gurdy, nyckelharpa, kanoun, uilleann pipes…

George Harrison's (The Beatles) albums for Dark Horse drifted out of print in the late '90s as his contract with Warner Brothers expired. Over the half-decade, they fetched high prices on the collector's market, as any relatively rare Beatles-related item does, and the demand for these records - along with the Traveling Wilburys albums, which were part of Harrison's Dark Horse/Warner contract - never diminished. At the time of his death in November 2001, the albums were being prepared for reissue, but his passing delayed them for a few more years, and it wasn't until February 2004 that the albums - Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), George Harrison (1979), Somewhere In England (1981), Gone Troppo (1982), Cloud Nine (1987), and Live in Japan (1992) - were reissued, both individually and as part of the lavish box set Dark Horse Years 1976-1992. All five of the studio albums have been remastered and are graced with a bonus track or two.

BB King in London - not playing live, but working in the studio with a host of British musicians he'd inspired over the years! The lineup varies from track to track, giving a nice sort of variety to the album - and the overall feel is a bit like some of the Chess London sessions of the time - but maybe more blues overall! Features work by Peter Green on guitar, Steve Marriott on harmonica, Alexis Korner on acoustic guitar, Gary Wright on electric piano and Hammond, Ringo Starr on drums, and The Mystery Shadow on Hammond.

Recorded at a video taping in the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles as part of the Jazzvisions series, this was Jobim's live act shortly after he resumed touring in the mid-'80s. At the time, Jobim struck an avuncular, almost casually anti-show-business presence seated before a grand piano, presiding over a large ensemble composed of friends and family, singing in his endearingly rough, now-threadbare voice. Some of the performances here are little more than pro-forma run-throughs of standard Jobim oldies but things perk up when Jobim digs into some lesser-known compositions like his "Song of the Jet" and son Paulo's catchy "Samba do Soho." In any case, the material is always superb and the cool-voiced, always in-pitch Brazilian singer Gal Costa turns up on a few numbers.

Los Canarios created an outstanding 73 minute work based on Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Obviously, the music is very Baroque in nature because of the original but Los Canarios's version is much heavier because of the electric instrumentation of a rock band. You may instantly think of ELP's take on Pictures at an Exhibition but Los Canarios take a more refined approach relative to ELP's bombastic and sometimes erratic interpretation. But don't be fooled: Ciclos is a heavy and dynamic work in its own right with plenty of synth and organ work as well as guitar. Ciclos is a classic of the Spanish progressive scene. If you like heavy prog dominated by synth and guitar, check this out.

2012 four CD anthology, a complete collection of this important and influential artist's solo recordings for Virgin Records. Comprising of five complete albums, plus a number of bonus tracks available on CD for the first time. The highly prolific Tangerine Dream, led by Edgar Froese for over 40 years, signed to Virgin Records in 1974, with Froese developing a concurrent solo career. Debut solo album Aqua (1974) recorded in Berlin appears here augmented with the alternative version of 'NGC 891' from his 1981 compilation album Solo 1974-1979. Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (1975) also includes the alternative version of the title track. Ages (1978) recorded in Autumn 1977 at Amber Studios in Berlin. The album is complemented with two bonus tracks including the remix versions of 'Pizarro And Atahuallpa' and 'Tropic of Capricorn'. Stuntman, Froese's fifth studio album, was issued in 1979. This four disc release is completed with "Pinnacles" opus, recorded in 1983.

One Way… Or Another (1971) was the second studio outing to feature the incipient incarnation of supergroup Cactus, comprised of Vanilla Fudge rhythm section Carmine Appice (drums) and Tim Bogert (bass), as well as former Amboy Dukes lead vocalist Rusty Day (vocals/mouth harp), and Jim McCarty (guitar) from Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels and the Buddy Miles Express. Even as their debut was ostensibly rawer, they retained the same amp'ed-up electric blues reminiscent of early Grand Funk Railroad and Foghat. The more polished outcome heard on their sophomore effort is undoubtedly the direct result of assistance from recording engineer extraordinaire Eddie Kramer and their upgraded digs at the recently completed Electric Lady Studios, which they inhabited shortly after the passing of the facilities' owner, Jimi Hendrix…

Three years after their smash hit album Congregation of Annihilation, metal veterans Metal Church present their follow-up album, Dead to Rights, which picks up right where Congregation of Annihilation left off in terms of quality and catchiness.
All songs on “Dead To Rights” were written by Kurdt Vanderhoof, continuing his role as the creative backbone of Metal Church. The album was mixed and mastered by Zeuss at the legendary Planet-Z Studios, ensuring a massive, modern, and crushing sound. Sonically, “Dead To Rights” showcases Metal Church at their most intense: sharper riffs, relentless grooves, and an uncompromising heaviness that reflects both the band’s classic roots and their modern power. The first single, “F.A.F.O.”, already sets the tone with its raw aggression and unstoppable drive…

In the bebop revolution of the 1940’s, as Charlie Parker was the leading voice of the alto saxophone, so was Bud Powell the leading voice of the piano. Recorded in 1956 (before his Paris sojourn), the long-unavailable Blues in the Closet features Powell’s lightning-fast runs and nimble keyboard navigations on a set of originals and well-chosen standards. He is accompanied by Osie Johnson, a solid mainstream drummer, and the dean of jazz bassists, Ray Brown. A must for Powell fans and bop devotees.

Although it features the beautiful recorder of Leslie Penny and the Chieftains' Paddy Maloney playing the uilean pipe, Ommadawn didn't gain Mike Oldfield the success he was looking for. The album was released in the same year as the David Bedford-arranged Orchestral Tubular Bells and nine months after Oldfield picked up a Grammy award for the original Tubular Bells album. The most pleasing attribute of Ommadawn is its incorporation of both African and Irish music in its symphonic rock & roll mainframe. Boosted by a hearty amount of different horns, piano, cello, trumpet, and synthesizer, the album has its moments of rising action, but the whole of Ommadawn fails to keep its lovely segments around long enough, and there are some rather lengthy instances that include bland runs of unvaried music…

First recognized as the dance duo behind the club hits "Stakker" (as Humanoid) and "Papua New Guinea," Future Sound of London later became one of the most acclaimed and respected international experimental ambient groups, incorporating elements of techno, classical, jazz, hip-hop, electro, industrial, and dub into expansive, sample-heavy tracks, often exquisitely produced and usually without easy precursor. Notoriously enigmatic and often disdainful of the press, the group's Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans worked their future-is-now aesthetic into a variety of different fields, including film and video, 2- and 3-D computer graphics and animation, the Internet, radio broadcast, and, of course, recorded music…