John Lee Hooker built a long, rich career out of writing the same song over and over again for close to 50 years. That's not to say Hooker wasn't a great songwriter, as he most certainly was, but for him the most important thing wasn't the melody or the lyrics, but the boogie, the ceaseless forward rhythm that drove his music with an unholy force and was the foundation of nearly all his great songs. Seasick Steve is no John Lee Hooker, but he does share Hooker's true devotion to the deep and sinewy groove, an element that's run strong through Steve's music since he belatedly launched his recording career in 2006, and his albums have been cut from similar musical cloth, with the Seasick One wailing hard on a buzzy slide guitar while his rhythm section stomps behind him like the beat owes them money. 2015's Sonic Soul Surfer doesn't break a lot of new ground for Seasick Steve (the artist formerly known as Steve Wold)…

Drummer Elvin Jones' first full-length album as a leader is different than one would expect when it is taken into consideration that he was a member of the fiery John Coltrane Quartet at the time. This sextet session, which also includes his brothers Thad and Hank on cornet and piano in addition to flutist Frank Wess, Frank Foster on tenor, and bassist Art Davis, is straight-ahead with a strong Count Basie feel. Jones is still recognizable on the fairly obscure material (only "You Are Too Beautiful" qualifies as a standard) and shows that he can cook in the fairly conventional setting. All of the musicians are in fine form, and two selections feature the rhythm section as a trio.

French pseudo-beatnik Dashiell Hedayat persuaded the psychedelic, prog-rocking Gong to back him up on Obsolete, his second (and final) album project. This is the Continental Circus-era Gong, and the song structures here resemble that album's stripped-down sound. Propelled by Allen's spacy guitar and Malherbe's spicy sax, the tunes on Obsolete, though at times experimental, aren't as involving or full-blown as those on Gong's Camembert Electrique, recorded on the heels of Hedayat's album. Hedayat sings, or rather talks, in French on each piece. He wrote/composed all the "songs" in the autumn of 1969; the compositions were then recorded in May 1971. One of the most interesting and fleshed-out cuts is "Long Song for Zelda." Introductory acoustic guitar (courtesy of Tritsch) leads to actual singing from Hedayat before he breaks into his standard monologue…

On this pioneering album the full resources of a Symphony Orchestra are emulated with the uniquely powerful GDS and Synergy Digital Synthesizers. Predating samplers, and in many ways still superior to that now omnipresent technology, these instruments combined additive and complex FM/PM modulation, with great flexibility. Carlos developed a surprisingly realistic library of most existing acoustic instruments plus many novel hybrids and extrapolated timbres that also sound "real." The two orchestral suites on this album comprise the debut performance and introduction of the aptly named LSI Philharmonic.

Modern rock powerhouse Pop Evil’s eighth full-length album, What Remains, is the culmination and story of this bands journey, laid bare like never before. Continuing in the recent vein of 2023’s acclaimed Skeletons album, What Remains is both sonically and thematically Pop Evil’s heaviest ever offering; a thundering collection of arena-ready modern rock and metal hits in which Leigh Kakaty opens heart, mind and soul - pulling no punches and taking no prisoners in doing so. “There are a lot of issues and things that I’ve dealt with in this journey of Pop Evil that I’ve buried for a long time,” the frontman explains of this document of resilience, perseverance and accountability. Sonically the album is a riotous explosion of life-afrming noise; a vortex of scything riffs and gut-punch drum beats that regularly give way to Pop Evil’s hallmark anthemic choruses…

This Deluxe Edition of Pipes of Peace is made up of the original album plus a 9-track bonus disc with such exclusive gems as a 2015 remix of ‘Say Say Say’ by Spike Stent, unearthed demos of three album tracks and outtakes ‘It’s Not On‘ and ‘Simple As That,’ the previously unreleased ‘Christian Bop‘ and more.
Styled as a conspicuous companion piece to Tug of War, Pipes of Peace mirrors its 1982 cousin in many ways: its title track holds up a mirror to its forefather - and, if that weren't enough, Paul McCartney serves up the knowing "Tug of Peace," an almost-electro collage that twists the songs into McCartney II territory - it serves up two showcases for duets with a former Motown star along with a cameo from fusion superstar Stanley Clarke and, most importantly, it is also produced by former Fab Four ringleader George Martin…