Amends The Fall of Every Season

The required calling card of any pianist-composer in the 1820s and '30s was a virtuosic piano piece accompanied by an orchestra. When the 21-year-old Chopin arrived in Paris in the fall of 1831, he had several such compositions under his arm, including the Concerto in E Minor (which, although the first of his two concertos to be published, was composed after the Concerto in F Minor) and the already heralded Variations (which had inspired Robert Schumann to remark, "Hats off, gentlemen–a genius.").

Neurosis have toned their bruising metal image down to more of an enjoyable, atmospheric musical journey. Although still containing punishing riffs on occasion, the group is intent on creating slow and melodic pieces of work, especially on the lengthy and melancholic title track. Clocking in at close to 12 minutes, the song opens with a methodical guitar and drum beat before its tempo ebbs and flows in a vein of possible progressive rock-meets-heavy metal à la Anathema. It's sonically scene-setting as lead singer Steve VonTill gives hushed vocals in the middle portion before letting loose near its coda. Another benefit is the throng of tension from start to finish. "Burn" veers from this format as VonTill tends to wail in a nu metal format. "Shelter" contains more a folkish, prog-driven Pink Floyd hue with mixed results…

This re-issue of the 2007 album Reformation Post TLC comes with two bonus discs of demos, early rough mixes and alternate versions, as well as a fourth disc; the Live at Hammersmith Palais album – as with the other Fall reissues these have notes by Fall guru Daryl Easlea and have been mastered by long time engineer Andy Pearce.

If there’s one thing both an elf and a dwarf could agree on, it’s that a little aesthetic brilliance goes a long way. This is why we’re so thrilled to share that Mondo, in partnership with Amazon Studios and Sparks and Shadows, is releasing a gorgeous limited-edition version of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘s season one soundtrack. This 10 CD set is an expansion of Mondo’s previous two CD-version of the soundtrack. While the original soundtrack is also gorgeous, this new collector’s edition takes the epic sounds of The Rings of Power to a whole new level./quote]

Steve Tibbetts is a difficult artist to categorize. While the German-based ECM was (at one time) the home of jazz guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner, Tibbetts' music seems more a product of Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa than Jim Hall or Wes Montgomery. Throw into the mix the wordless vocals on some tracks and the use of tabla and synthesizer, and Tibbetts and the other musicians on this CD produce some powerful music–not to mention amazing guitar pyrotechnics from Tibbetts himself.

Hammill began work on The Fall of the House of Usher back in the early '70s, yet it didn't see the light of day until the early '90s as a hard-to-find European import. He didn't feel it was completely finished until 1991; hence its elongated delay. This rock opera is comprised of six acts, and is based on an Edgar Allan Poe tale with small changes to the story here and there…