If you were donning your baggies and wallet chains to rock out with Papa Roach in 2000 you probably didn’t think you’d still be doing so 22 years later. Certainly not with bigger names like Slipknot and Linkin Park coming to prominence at the same time. Well, how wrong can you be? For Papa Roach are not only still with us, but they’re an infinitely more challenging, diverse and simply better band than the one that recorded breakthrough album Infest. New offering Ego Trip rips up any semblance of a rule book, rapping it up and rocking it out with the fervour of any of music’s bright young things.
Swerve pairs frontman Jacoby Shaddix with Fever 333’s Jason Aalon Butler in a state-of-the-nation rock meets hip-hop grind that even includes blasts of sax…

This research was completed while I was an entity on earth, while vying to be not on earth. It was supported by the main Sustainer and in part by the benevolence of my earthly companions and other earth entities that share their life giving forces freely. The collection of material was generously facilitated by the Sustainer of all that is. Much of this material was presented in a series of reflections at the University of Life 1920 - 1995. I am grateful to all the participants for granting the use of many things.

This live performance at the Bottom Line, New York City, was recorded by Harry Jacobson on November 12, 1977.

It has been a long time since improvised music distanced itself from the adolescent posture of its first revolutionary years which, under the pretext of breaking with the prerequisite and transcendence of a text to be “interpreted” in the instant of a performance that is by nature always second and deferred, allowed it to claim, in the instantaneity in which it was based, a direct relationship to the creative impulse, freed in some way from any reference to the past, which is necessarily alienating. Without renouncing the authentically subversive dimension of a gesture that is both political and poetic, radically deconstructing dominant cultural forms and norms, what all great improvisers have, on the contrary, constantly experimented with and highlighted in their practice is the extent to which their gestures, however spontaneous in their expression, were haunted, nourished, and populated by a multitude of stories and memories, pertaining as much to the intimate as to the collective unconscious, which were not to be denied or repressed as so many vestiges of an "old order" to be erased, but rather to be welcomed, recognized, even liberated—bringing (re)emerged in the flow of discourse all this intertwining of affects and artifacts that ground us, only to set them in motion again within the field and perspective of a revisited relationship with oneself and with the other.

The Polydor Years is an eight-disc box set that gathers up all of the classic rock legends' output for the label that was released between 1986 and 1992. Included are the studio albums The Other Side of Life, Sur La Mer, and Keys to the Kingdom (all of which have been remastered and stocked with bonus material), as well as a previously unissued live show from 1986, 1993's Night at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony parts one and two, and a pair of DVDs that chronicle the aforementioned Red Rocks show.

Born in Odessa in 1908, David Oistrakh became one of the greatest violin legends of the 20th century. In 1946 Prague was among the first destinations of his post-war foreign tours. From that time on he would repeatedly return to the city as a violinist and conductor. Owing to his technical mastery and exquisitely warm tone, Oistrakh became an insuperable interpreter of grand Romantic concerti. Serving as a case in point is Brahms’s Concerto in D major, a work of extreme technical difficulty, recorded in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Antonio Pedrotti.

Hard bopper Carmell Jones is in fine form on this 1965 outing, Jay Hawk Talk. Together with tenor Jimmy Heath, pianist Barry Harris, bassist George Tucker, and drummer Roger Humphries, Jones confidently tackles a half-dozen tunes. From the piano/bass riff at the beginning of "Jay Hawk Talk" to the Parker-esque kickoff of "Beepdurple," the band holds a steady, driving groove. Both of those instrumentals, plus "Dance of the Night Child," were written by Jones and stand comfortably beside the other selections on this album. Tucker kicks off a particularly affecting version of "Willow Weep for Me," with a simple descending bass run. Jones enters with a full and rich tone for a beautiful, extended solo, and is followed by Harris, who emphasizes the bluesy, late-night feel of the piece…

In 1950 Prague was the destination of the first-ever foreign trip of the then 35-year-old Russian genius pianist Sviatoslav Richter. He would subsequently visit the city on several more occasions. The recordings on this CD were made at the Rudolfinum within two weeks at the end of May and the beginning of June 1954. Richter is accompanied by the two finest Czech orchestras, conducted by two true legends – Václav Talich (nearing the end of his career) and Karel Ancerl (at the beginning of his tenure in the post of principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra).

Abandoning the lovely soundscapes of Snow Goose, Camel delved into layered guitar and synthesizers similar to those of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here on the impressive Moonmadness. Part of the reason behind the shift in musical direction was the label's insistence that Camel venture into more commercial territory after the experimental Snow Goose, and it is true that the music on Moonmadness is more akin to traditional English progressive rock, even though it does occasionally dip into jazz-fusion territory with syncopated rhythms and shimmering keyboards. Furthermore, the songs are a little more concise and accessible than those of its predecessor. That doesn't mean Camel has abandoned art. Moonmadness is indeed a concept album, based loosely on the personalities of each member - "Chord Change" is Peter Bardens, "Air Born" is Andy Latimer, "Lunar Sea" is Andy Ward and "Another Night" is Doug Ferguson…