Denys Baptiste : tenor sax
Andrew McCormack : piano
Gary Crosby : bass
Rod Youngs : drums

“Although he never really went away, Denys Baptiste is back again with his first album since Let Freedom Ring released seven years ago. Less ambitious than his suite that combined gospel, blues, contemporary jazz and Afro-Caribbean music with poetry excerpts, here Baptiste concentrates on refining his approach to the quartet through a series of compositions that tackle identity through...

Syd Barrett was the leader, guitarist and songwriter for Pink Floyd during their early psychedelic peak in 1967, penning a bunch of brilliant pieces (and playing amazingly great too). He left the band in mid 1968, a casualty of business pressure and drugs. This was his second and final solo album, which came out in 1970. It is less 'out' than The Madcap Laughs and sounds less fried to me. I don't know if that's good or bad. Includes 7 bonus tracks and rare photos, with the package designed by the great...

Syd Barrett was the leader, guitarist and songwriter for Pink Floyd during their early psychedelic peak in 1967, penning a bunch of brilliant pieces (and playing amazingly great too). He left the band in mid 1968, a casualty of business pressure and drugs. This is his first solo album, which came out in January 1970. It's a haunting listen; even without reaching for hype, it is simultaneously compelling while being the sound of someone loosing their mind. Backing on 2 tracks by the 1969 edition of Soft...

“All 19 titles on this album were made in 1938, the year Count Basie and his band finally established themselves in New York. Beginning as a small band in Kansas City the Basie outfit was enlarged to fulfil a booking at Chicago's grand terrace then tried its luck in New York. Months of scuffling were suddenly ended when Basie 'cut' drummer Chick Webb's band at the Savoy. This is the band which achieved that success thanks to soloists such as Buck Clayton, Herschel Evans and Lester Young, but most of all...

Brian Conniffe : electronics, production, mix
Gary Morrison : electronics
Simon Morris : text and voice, samples
Damien Donovan : modular synthesizer

“Two track album from Ireland's Brian Conniffe, previously known for his work with Nurse With Wound. The lengthy pieces feature the late Simon Morris (Ceramic Hobs) providing spoken word he wrote exclusively for it.
This album was recorded from 2007 to 2009, and consists of two expansive pieces, which - as the title suggests - are

“No single band has made as much of an impact on the world as The Beatles did in 1963. The release of their debut single, Love Me Do, lit the touchpaper, and the album that followed, Please Please Me, went off like a powder keg in the public consciousness. Public demand for these four lads from Liverpool was so great that not even the speedy arrival of a second album, With The Beatles, released a mere eight months later, could keep up.
As Early Broadcasts 1963 shows, the group booked television...

Classic loud and heavy album by Jeff Beck (one of Jeff's heaviest) with the rhythm section of Vanilla Fudge.

This is the album where Jeff recast himself as a jazz/rock player and did so very, very convincingly. It was a huge hit at the time.
George Martin produced and added strings very well and the whole thing works wonderfully well still!

“Blow by Blow typifies Jeff Beck's wonderfully unpredictable career. Released in 1975, Beck's fifth effort as a leader and first instrumental album was a marked departure from its more rock-based predecessors. Only composer/keyboardist Max Middleton returned...

"There and Back, Jeff Beck's first new studio album in four years, found him moving from old keyboard partner Jan Hammer (three tracks) to new one Tony Hymas (five), which turned out to be the difference between competition and support. Hence, the...

The 2nd of the three 'fusion' albums released by Beck in the mid 70s, while in thrall to the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which was a surprising but very satisfying path for a 'rock' guitarist to go down. And he did it with class and style. A classic!

"Released in 1976, Jeff Beck's Wired contains some of the best jazz-rock fusion of the period. Wired is generally more muscular, albeit less-unique than its predecessor, Blow by Blow. Joining keyboardist Max Middleton, drummer Richard Bailey, and producer..

This is a solo synthesizer/keyboard release; the closest to space music as Bedford ever got!

"David Bedford was originally commissioned to write Great Equatorial as part of the celebrations surrounding the renovation of the room containing the Great Equatorial Telescope at Greenwich Observatory, in London. Just ten minutes in length, his initial vision was subsequently expanded into six movements totaling a little over one hour, a vast and sweeping suite that defies ready categorization. The...

"A darkly shimmering rock ’n’ roll record of bruising timelessness." – THE VILLAGE VOICE

“With the recently released “Songs From the Land of Nod” garnering enthusiastic reviews across the board, BEECHWOOD delivers the follow up, ”Inside The Flesh Hotel”. From two-minute pop perfection, to the sound of drug-induced nightmare psychoses, the trio’s music hits you where it hurts. Gordon Lawrence (guitar/vox), Isa Tineo (drums/vox) and Sid Simons (bass/vox) are drawing their rock n’roll line in the...

“Trash Glamour was recorded with a single microphone in my parents’ basement when we were 17 and 18 years old. At the time we were obsessed with two albums in particular, Raw Power and Exile on Main St. That, to our teenage minds, was rock & roll. And so, we turned the basement into our version of Nellcôte. We surrounded ourselves with friends, girls, drugs, alcohol and the ideas flowed. I hardly ever remember leaving the basement, though I assume we must have eaten and slept at some point that summer...

“Although they began and continued to work as a duo, John Spiers (melodeon) and Jon Boden (fiddle and vocals) had a vision of a larger sound for their music. In 2004, they put together Bellowhead (the name derived from their album Bellow) to play the Oxford Folk Festival. The 11-piece group was an immediate success, its mix of strings and brass virtually unprecedented in traditional English folk music. They took the band into the studio that autumn to record a five-track teaser, E.P.onymous, which proved...

“Super rare psychedelic folk lp from 1969, which with Shide & Acorn and Parameter is one of only three genuine Psychedelic Folk lps privately issued in England in that authentic era. Only 70 copies were made by Hollick and Taylors custom pressing plant.
Very little was known about this lp and until this edition and it had been thought of as a solo folk lp; very very WRONG. It’s a band, and completely in the hallucinogenic and magical english Incredible String Band and Donovan style, with mystical....

“One of the greatest American film directors of all time taking on one of the greatest American musicals of all time seems like a sure-fire recipe for success - and so naturally, anticipation is high for Steven Spielberg's upcoming remake of 'West Side Story'. The release has been given added poignancy by the death of legendary musical theatre pioneer Stephen Sondheim - who wrote the lyrics for West Side Story. The album features music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, with vocals...

It's really great to see this French electronic/rock classic reissued, especially as the vinyl pressing was quite poor. This double album is a collaboration between these two electronic musicians working with a huge array of keyboards and the latest technology. It includes a large number of guest musicans (who are not credited in the booklet, unfortunately) and the electronics and rock band instruments combined lead to certain comparisons with Heldon, although the actual music is quite different than...

"Six years in the making, this is the sixth CD released by ReR from the visual/sonic art group Biota. Unique in their history and method, Biota painstakingly construct complex, organic structures that mix extensive studio processing and musique concréte techniques, with a highly eclectic orchestra of acoustic and electronic resources - from kit drums, through mediaeval winds, strings and barrel organs, to early experimental electronic instruments. Their works are always performance driven and interleaved...

"I...was stunned by his Hendrix meets late era Coltrane approach." – Guitar Moderne

"Despite the boilingly hot drive...influenced by Cream, Lifetime, the Jimi Hendrix Experience (and perhaps more notionally the Pete Cosey/Reggie Lucas version of the Miles Davis group), there's a lyrical side to the guitarist’s playing as well...Excellent." – Point Of Departure

"...out jazz with lots of sass and vigor...recalls the thornier side of the ECM Records catalog, especially...

“The fabulous second album by one of the leading bands of the new garage scene. Wallows in the same glorious mud of reverb and gothic tales, includes quicktime video!! Atlanta's Black Lips! play basic garage-rock with considerable abandon, sacrificing elements like technical expertise or playing in tune without the least trepidation. An' it sounds great! G-rock is a sound foundation anyway usually built outta catchy chord progressions, propulsive beats and is repetitious enough to mesmerize but brief...

Art Blakey – drums
Hank Mobley - tenor sax
Lee Morgan – trumpet
Bobby Timmons – piano
Jymie Merritt - bass

“This early incarnation of Art Blakey's seminal post-bop band is bristling with energy and ideas. There are barnstorming solos from 'middleweight tenor champ' Hank Mobley and the most exciting trumpeter of his generation, Lee Morgan. The nascent soul-jazz stylings of pianist Bobby Timmons can be heard on his classic composition Moanin' and Blakey's power and finesse drive t

"This is the second release (editor's note: no, it isn't, it's their sixth release; it's their second on ReR after three on Cuneiform and a first that was self-released) after a long wait, from this unique ensemble. Equally at home with the discipline of composition and the tightrope of improvisation Blast have evolved a fluid, pointillistic, unfathomable but transparent musical language that seamlessly integrates - over very short durations - highly complex writing and very free ranging improvisation...

Paul Bley - piano
Mark Levinson - bass
Barry Altschul - drums

Superb quality radio broadcast of this great trio at a peak. Much better sound than their contemporaneous studio album, Closer!

"Paul Bley Trio, live at the International Jazz Festival, Lugano, Switzerland August 31st, 1966. The young Paul Bley earned his spurs playing with legends including Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Jimmy Giuffre, Ornette Coleman, and Bill Evans. As the 1960s progressed, he increasingly.

Annette Peacock - electric bass, synthesizer, electric piano
Paul Bley - electric piano, synthesizer
Han Bennink - percussion

"Recorded Live March 26th, 1971 at Club B14 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Improvisie is a part of the 1971 trilogy of Paul Bley and Annette Peacock's combined experimental recorded work.
Improvisie is taken from a compelling period for three iconic figures of the free jazz movement, and their pioneering use of the first-ever Moog synthesizers...

A very good relic of a half century ago, finding Steve Winwood in wonderful voice and everyone else in very good to great form. If you want to appreciate this album even more - and also appreciate why it only lasted 6 months - be sure to watch the Ginger Baker documentary "Beware Of Mister Baker"!

"Blind Faith's first and last album, nearly 50 years old and counting, remains one of the jewels of the Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, and Ginger Baker catalogs, despite the crash-and-burn history of the...