“Peter Gabriel's first foray into soundtracks was for Alan Parker's contemplative film Birdy and is a successful companion piece, providing a backdrop that is moody and evocative.
Nearly half of the album's dozen tracks incorporate threads from material found on Gabriel's 1982 Security set, including "Close Up," which makes use of keyboard passages from "Family Snapshot," and "The Heat," which is a reworking of "The Rhythm of the Heat" and builds to a frenzied percussive crescendo.
Material...

“Great compilation of BBC sessions with good quality, happy to find this.”-DG Truby

“For a period in the mid-1960s, The Animals were untouchable. While they may have shared some of the same US influences as their British Invasion contemporaries, the Eric Burdon-led group set themselves apart almost from day one, thanks to their organ-heavy rework of the blues standard The House of the Rising Sun.
Hitting No.1 in both the US and the UK in 1964, The Animals' breakthrough single ushered in an...

“Over two years in the making, the brand-new studio album from The Residents featuring the story of Maggot and Mark - two young heavy metal fans - and the mysterious Doctor Anastasia Dark, a disgraced visionary who offers those who need it THE GIFT.
Veering from blissed out electronica to thrash metal as only The Residents can, and produced with the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music alongside several familiar guests and collaborators, 'Doctor Dark' is the latest masterpiece of storytelling from...

Tom Abbs: bass, cello, tuba, compositions
Brian Settles: tenor and soprano sax, flute
Jean Cook: violin
Chad Taylor: drums

“Rarely does a recording's clarity of purpose come through in one listening, but bassist Tom Abbs and Frequency Response's Lost + Found fits the bill. The significance of this record originates in the brevity of each of bassist Abbs' eighteen pieces—lasting, on average, only slightly over three minutes, with the longest being six and the shortest about two....

I saw this band in the fall of 2006 and they were quite impressive. It was very complex music performed with an agressive edge; they only had about 28' of material down that they were able to perform, but I marked them in my book as a band to watch and I was definitely right!

"Normal Love is a beautiful mess—I’m sure we can all attest to that.
But seriously, Normal Love, the band, is a five-piece ensemble from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that straddles the seemingly distant divide between...

“A brazen conflation of free jazz, electronica, and Afro-Cuban rhythm. Those who think jamming begins and ends with Phish are urged to track this down immediately.”-CMJ New Music Journal

“An extraordinary density and exchange between blowers (sax, trumpet etc...) and Murray's percussion and drums; really beautiful music... it's so rare right now!!!”-Alain Delrieu

“The Philadelphia-based Sonic Liberation Front have been combining lyrical free jazz blowing, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and the...

Bill Lowe: bass trombone, tuba
Taylor Ho Bynum: cornet, flugelhorn
Joe Morris: acoustic bass
Kwaku Kwakye Obeng: drums, percussion

"This recording is the product of long-running musical relationships between unique musical personalities. Joe Morris is a prolific presence on the avant jazz scene, and is here paired with Ghanaian master drummer Kwaku Kwakye Obeng. Obeng has been playing with Bill Lowe, the senior member of The Othertet, since the 1980s. Taylor Ho Bynum, the fourth member...

Harrison Bankhead: bass
Ed Wilkerson: tenor sax, alto clarinet, clarinet, didgeridoo
Mars William: alto, tenor, soprano and sopranino sax, clarinet, autoharp, wooden flute
James Sanders: violin
Avreeayl Ra: drums, percussion, wooden flute
Ernie Adams: percussion

“You've no doubt heard Harrison Bankhead as a sideman with Fred Anderson, Roscoe Mitchell etc. Harrison steps out and drops a blast of melody and rhythm with a sextet of excellent local Chicago sidemen.” ...

“Bruford was able to snag two young English jazz prodigies from the band "Loose Tubes", Iain Ballamy (saxophones), and Django Bates (keyboards and 'peck horn') to be his partners, along with Mick Hutton (bass). Ballamy and Bates, who were known for their offbeat and humorous sensibilities, co-wrote much of the music with Bruford. Bruford was just out of a stint in King Crimson, and he brings electronic drums, heavy industrial beats, and a plethora of world music flavors to "Earthworks". This is music too...

"Soil Festivities is one of Vangelis' most captivating albums, and requires - demands your full attention.This amazing work tells a poignant story, and must be taken as a whole experience. Unfairly maligned by fans of his more accessible work, this is top-tier Vangelis. What a beautiful journey."-rym

Scott Clark - drums
Christopher Dammann - bass
James Davis - trumpet
Jon Irabagon - alto saxophone
Mabel Kwan - piano
Edward Wilkerson, Jr. - tenor saxophone, Eb alto clarinet

“This complex compound of singular (musical) personalities did not emerge quickly. Dammann first assembled the group as a quintet in January 2023 working with Irabagon for the first time at Davis’ recommendation. After adding Wilkerson as a guest at a show that summer, Dammann spent a year...

“With rpm, Touch wanted to join some of the dots of Philip Jeck's life and involve many other collaborators, early and more recent. Fennesz was a friend and kindred spirit on the same label. Claire M Singer formed a new chemistry and partnership and although their plans must now take a different form, Mary found some sketches Philip had laid out using Claire's organ recordings, for further development. Faith Coloccia and Philip had already released "Stardust" on Touch in 2021. Their live performance...

“Formed 29 years ago (1996) by Nate Young, Wolf Eyes is currently a duo generally characterized as "noise," though they have called themselves "psycho jazz" (among other things). Extremely prolific, they have literally hundreds of releases and are a towering presence in underground music.
Saxophonist Anthony Braxton was an early member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and has won a MacArthur and been named an NEA Jazz Master, though his work is hardly confined to...

Nik Bärtsch: piano, keyboard
Sha: bass clarinet, alto saxophone
Jeremias Keller: bass
Kaspar Rast: drums

It’s always a GREAT pleasure to hear new work from Ronin! This is their first to feature new bassist Jeremias. Hugely recommended.

“SPIN is the 9th release of the working band RONIN since it's foundation in 2001. Since the last release AWASE (ECM 2018) the band has developed the repertoire continuously further. SPIN shows the phase in which the band is now: looking..

Supersister were one of Holland's top progressive bands from 1970-75. They were obviously heavily influenced by Soft Machine & also the Mothers Of Invention. They featured electric piano/fuzz organ, flute, bass, drum & vocals.
By the time of this, their final studio album, they tried something quite different. Recorded in England at The Manor, on this album they replaced the flute player with the great reed player Charlie Mariano, who is featured here on saxes, flute, bass clarinet and nathasuaram...

Supersister were one of Holland's top progressive bands from 1970-75. They were obviously heavily influenced by Soft Machine & also the Mothers Of Invention but they gave those admitted influences their own spin and came up with something quite wonderful and special, I think. They featured electric piano/fuzz organ, flute, bass, drum & vocals. This was their second album from 1971 and follows in a similar style and sound to Present From Nancy. Highly recommended!

Recorded August 15, 1969, Studio Saravah, Paris, part of the famed BYG Actuel series, this is the first album under the leadership of Jimmy and this is the first time ever on CD!

Jimmy Lyons - alto saxophone
Lester Bowie – trumpet
Alan Silva – bass
Andrew Cyrille - drums

“The music of Jimmy Lyons as a leader is of main interest here, but this particularly fine late-'60s session has other valuable lessons to offer about the nature of jazz improvising. The impact of both a...

Whoarfrost: blazing new punk-jazz trails on their self-titled Engine Studios CD. It's like Coptic Light (the band) gone Dischord.”-Time Out New York

“In a year where the supply of noise rock seems rather scarce, it's only necessary for a band like Whoarfrost to make their appearance and fill that void.”-Olive Music

“Controlled chaos. Those are the two words I use to describe Baltimore, MD's Whoarfrost. Free form noisy guitar freakouts amidst spirited chaotic jazz passages make way for a...

Many Arms was an early band of our friend, guitarist Nick Millevoi, who leads Desertion Trio.
Also featured was bassist Johnny DeBlase (also of Desertion Trio and Zevious) and drummer Ricardo Lagomasino.
This was their second of five; their third and fourth are on Tzadik.
I had seen these guys a couple of times and have always enjoyed them. They play a wild, powerful form of power-trio out-rock. These guys are jazz-trained, but rock-ready. If your taste runs towards tight and a bit brutal.

Greg Campbell - drums, percussion, french horn, cheap electronics, Tibetan horn
Tom Baker - fretless guitar, effects
Michael Monhart - tenor saxophone, percussion, Tibetan horn

“Imaginary Perspective begins with the 8-minute "Autumn Sonar", which offers an abstract wallpaper of tribal and metallic beats and jazzy brass wails. The just as abstract 9-minute "Radio Ice Waves" adds droney organ wheezes and even the suspicion of a rhythm groove in the second-half. "Muffle And Hum" loses the...

“Featuring drummer extraordinaire Keith Carlock (Steely Dan, Toto, John Legend, Sting) and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Holm-Lupo (White Willow, The Opium Cartel, Donner) as well as up-and-coming guitarist Stian Larsen and keyboardists Brynjar Dambo (White Willow) and Bill Bressler, Solstein is a project that melds the groovier side of fusion with elements of prog and funk.
The project was born after Holm-Lupo and Carlock collaborated with legendary guitarist Georg Wadenius on a track for Holm-Lupo’s..

Despite no longer being with Inside Out, this is the final release of a trilogy that started with their two Inside Out releases.

“Storie Invisibli is the new album of the Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. There are 12 invisible stories that the counter tells us in this album. They are 12 small individual stories, which tell real characters and, in most cases, are linked to daily facts, at the work of people, whether they are peasant or bourgeois. These invisible stories are, ultimately, everyone's story...

“Featuring drummer extraordinaire Keith Carlock (Steely Dan, Toto, John Legend, Sting) and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Holm-Lupo (White Willow, The Opium Cartel, Donner) as well as up-and-coming guitarist Stian Larsen and keyboardists Brynjar Dambo (White Willow) and Bill Bressler, Solstein is a project that melds the groovier side of fusion with elements of prog and funk.
The project was born after Holm-Lupo and Carlock collaborated with legendary guitarist Georg Wadenius on a track for Holm-Lupo’s..

“A collection of 14 improvisations from multi-instrumentalists Sarah Belle Reid (trumpet, electronics) and Vinny Golia (woodwinds), inspired by the fascinating quirks & cries of imaginary birds.
It’s a rare occurrence to hear the grumbling cry of the Autumn Bog Fowl, or witness the chaotic flight pattern of the Red Crested Floobog—they are elusive creatures, indeed. Fanciful plumage, mysterious diets, colorful horns...these birds seem almost too incredible to be real…
Inspired by these wondrous..

“A Tuareg singer/songwriter and guitarist who is known for his innovative and intense playing style. Raised in a small, deeply religious village in central Niger where secular music was frowned upon, Moctar built a crude homemade guitar and secretly began teaching himself how to play. By the time he acquired a real guitar, he learned quickly and began writing songs that blended Saharan Tuareg guitar music with his own unusual innovations and poetic lyrics.
Tears for Injustice is a new recording of...