The consummate collection curated by Bruce Cockburn himself, presents 30 songs over a double album that defines the acclaimed singer-songwriters' 50 year career. These songs are both the ones that shot to the top of the charts when they were released, and also are the fan favourites most often requested at Bruce's concerts. With over 125 minutes of music, and notes on each song by the artist.

Going back and listening again to Tony Joe White's prodigious output from his early years, one is amazed at the depth of his talent as a guitarist, a singer and as a songwriter. After a series of albums that explored his love of deep Southern Blues, TJW took a warmer, more acoustic turn with Home Made Icecream. A lot of this is the back porch music he clearly loves - and here he is surrounded by fine session men who, if I recall from my old vinyl copy, include a drummer who wouldn't play until he'd read the lyrics…which as Tony Joe noted: "Is all right by me." The album flows beautifully, kicking off with a little rocker - Saturday Night in Oak Grove Louisiana (Tony Joe always had a thing about vehicles - little details like fender skirts - and here its the fibreglass mufflers on his pickup truck) and featuring among other things a gorgeous, lightly picked acoustic guitar and harp instrumental: the title track of the album. There's a ballad - Ol Mother Earth - but the standout is the last track which blows in like a cold breeze off a lake. "Did Somebody Make a Fool Out of You" is among his best ever examples of songwriting, singing and guitar playing.

Jagger doesn't show any signs of wear on his third – and by far best – solo album. If anything, his voice seems to have developed a deeper bottom end without sacrificing any of the highs. This is not always an advantage – the forced falsetto and rhythmic pulse of "Sweet Thing" causes a nightmarish flashback to the Stones' disco flirtations in the mid-'70s…

Hard Rain is a snapshot of Bob Dylan's fabled Rolling Thunder Revue, a traveling circus that was more notable for its excess and character than the music. Hard Rain bears this out, being neither as sacrilegious or as exciting as Blood on the Tracks, and never seeming necessary – after all, it arrives just two years after the last live album…

Since the Scorpions' career was at its peak, World Wide Live could not have been recorded at a better time. This 19-track album contains all of their early-'80s hits, and while they aren't as energetic on-stage as they are in the studio, the band still perform with a great amount of flamboyance…

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce a newly remastered edition of the classic self-titled debut album by the legendary Dutch Progressive Jazz Rock group Solution. Solution formed in Groningen, Holland in 1968. Featuring a line-up of Tom Barlage (saxophone/flute), Willem Ennes (keyboards), Peter Van De Sande (bass guitar, vocals) and Hans Waterman (drums), the band recorded their debut album for Dutch EMI label Catfish in May 1971. A fine work, Solution’s music was a Progressive Rock and Jazz fusion that took influences from contemporaries such as Soft Machine, but was uniquely their own. Tracks such as ‘Koan’, ‘Phases’ and ‘Trane Steps’ became classics of the genre and set Solution as one of the finest Dutch groups of their era. This Esoteric Recordings reissue has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes and includes a booklet that fully restores all original album artwork with a new essay.

Snafu was formed in 1973 by former Procol Harum and Freedom vocalist Bobby Harrison along with Mick Moody, formerly of Tramline, the Mike Cotton Sound and Juicy Lucy. With Colin Gibson from Ginger Baker's Air Force, Terry Popple from Mickey Jupp's Legend, and session musician Pete Solley, the band released two critically acclaimed albums for the WWA label, Snafu (1973) and Situation Normal (1974).
In 1975, Solley left the band to be replaced by another session musician, Brian Chatton, and Tim Hinkley was recruited to complete the lineup that would record the band's third album, All Funked Up. Shortly after the release of this album in 1976, Snafu broke up.

This is one of the most aggressively challenging and complex progessive albums Gentle Giant ever released, which of course means it is one of the most aggressively challenging and complex albums ever made…

We could call Lands End the first "aquatic progressive" band. The fact that they live on the shores of the Pacific Ocean seems like it has quite inspired these musicians and we find many allusions to the sea in their albums. Starting from rather simple neo Progressive rock, they built their own style made of energetic guitar assisted by keyboards, over which added vocals. Their music is very progressive, somewhere in the middle between Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes, and the musicians don't hesitate to adventure themselves into long instrumental jams.

Canterbury knights is a compilation album containing previously unreleased archive recordings by the band The Polite Force which was active on the Canterbury scene between 1976 and 1978. It was released by Voiceprint Records in 1997. Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 were recorded in 1976 in Joe Gubay’s house. Tracks 1, 6, 7, 10 and 11 were recorded in 1977 in Vince Clarke’s basement studio in Downs Road in Canterbury with one re-mix and overdub at John Murphy’s place in Herne Bay. The album contains very few overdubs and was recorded as “live performances” to a Teac 4-track recorder. Engineer and producer on all tracks was Jeremy Darby. Executive producer was Rob Ayling.

An international affair from the get-go, Honest Truth, boasting a British rhythm section and a Dutch guitarist, lit up German stages in the late '60s before calling it a day. Drummer Stuart Fordham and bassist Ray Brown promptly returned to their island home, but were coaxed back across the North Sea in 1971 by guitarist Rob Terstall and his new musical companion, German keyboardist Jeff Beer. Dubbing themselves Odin, the group's ferocious shows quickly caught the attention of the Vertigo label, which released the band's sole album, this 1972 self-titled set. From the opening track, the quartet's breathtaking musical skills are on display, with Terstall and the teenaged Beer trying to one-up each other's consummate solos.

Although countless Mud compilations have been released over the years, none of them managed to cover every phase of the group's career. This was remedied in 1997 with the release of The Singles '67-'78. This overwhelmingly generous collection spans two discs and includes the A- and B-sides of each single the group released. Of course, the most impressive tracks are the hits from the group's stint at RAK Records: the combination of pop hooks and guitar firepower utilized for stomping glam classics like "Tiger Feet" and "Dynamite" still sound fresh and exciting today. However, this set also unearths some surprisingly good tracks from the group's oft-overlooked periods at Private Stock and RCA Records: "L'L'Lucy" is a full-throttle rock tune built on a smile-inducing vocal stutter hook and the languid yet catchy "Slow Talking Boy" is unlike anything else in the Mud catalog.

“A cubicle for you, a cubicle for me….but not together…” The Year 2020 was not a year for a band to 'get things together in the country', or gather in a room to write songs. This statement certainly applied to the Legendary Pink Dots with two members in The Netherlands and one in the UK. The pandemic reared its ugly head as the Dots’ criss-crossed Europe on the second stage of their 40th Anniversary Tour. Just a few days before much of Italy locked down the band was in Milan. A few days later, the destination was Cologne where they opted for a hotel in the countryside… it turned out that the resting place was one village away from the most lethal outbreak of the virus in Germany. The tour eventually finished in a sold-out club with a worryingly low ceiling in London. There were hugs, a real feeling of togetherness with a truly lovely audience. Then the World stopped.