Aranysas From 2008 06

Café del Mar Aria is a CD compilation series that combines chill-out music with opera arias, thereby expanding the existing Café del Mar series. The Café del Mar concept originated from the "sunset bar" with the same name in Sant Antoni de Portmany on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. Café del Mar Aria is produced by Paul Schwartz.

Another Widespread Panic album, another attempt to transfer the band's live energy onto tape. Free Somehow isn't Widespread's best studio effort to date, nor does it pack the same punch as the band's ever-popular concerts, where extended solos and long-running jams are more likely to illicit dropping jaws than drowsy, nodding heads…

Combining nu-metal with serious pop polish and structure, Alien Ant Farm always felt like a band that lived in two worlds: not quite heavy enough to be metal, but a little too fast-paced for the pop set. And while Alien Ant Farm's genre might be unclear, their entry in the 20th Century Masters series gives fans a bird's-eye view of their career and another opportunity to try nailing down what these guys were up to. Given the musicianship on tracks like "Movies" and their cover of the Michael Jackson classic "Smooth Criminal," while it might be hard to describe, it sure did work.

Joe Louis Walker deserves all the respect he gets, and he gets a lot - as a singer, a producer, a guitarist in multiple styles, a songwriter, and a harmonica player. But that doesn't prevent his first album for the Stony Plain label from being something of a mixed bag. One of Walker's great strengths is the authority with which he can play several different varieties of blues: his version of "It's a Shame" is a supremely confident, horn-driven Chicago blues exercise, while "Midnight Train" evokes the subtler chug of a John Lee Hooker song. "Lover's Holiday" (a lovely duet with Shemekia Copeland) is New Orleans-style R&B, and "Hustlin'" features some very fine barrelhouse piano by Bruce Katz. And that's just the first four tracks, in order…

This album was recorded in the Kunstraum Syltquelle on the Northern German Island Sylt. It is the first part of a trilogy inspired by the many car travels that Spyra has to do when he drives to concert venues or sonic art exhibitions. Some compositions are slow, yet they have a certain rhythm. Others have quite fast rhythms, performed with powerful sequencers. The percussion also has an important role. The composer proves his great imagination by creating a warm electronic music. The use of synthesizers enhances the sensual atmospheres that appear in some of the compositions.

Released just after Jack Bruce's 65th birthday, the six-disc box set from Esoteric Recordings chronicles the astounding journey of this eclectic, gifted singer/bassist/songwriter, from 1962 to 2003. Covering pretty much every phase of his career, it includes his work with early British bluesmen like Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, and John Mayall; his psychedelic milestones with Cream; the art-rock-troubadour sounds of his early solo albums; and much more. Collaborating with everyone from P-Funk keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell to British blues-rocker Robin Trower and jazz drummer extraordinaire Tony Williams, Bruce effortlessly bounded back and forth from rock to blues to jazz and beyond, and "Can You Follow?" shows you just how these impressive feats were accomplished. The box set includes a 68 page book featuring Jack's recollections and many photographs.

Its impressive recording debut Four Odd is now followed by Mellow which features ten arrangements by Ivanusic on six of his originals, three standards and the Macedonian traditional piece “U Krusevo ogin gori”….

Byther Smith stands today as one of the most important links to the heady days of mid-50s Chicago blues. "Got No Place to Go" presents the man in concert with all his intensity and raw power learned from his years playing with greats such as Otis Rush, Junior Wells, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Lockwood and Big Mama Thornton. This Fedora recording finds him at the very peak of his powers: a fiery spark plug of a man, stepping to the microphone, and in a full, gospeldrenched voice, barking the lyrics to Otis Rush’s Keep On Lovin’ Me Baby like commands then stepping back and discharging a series of clear, surprisingly fat-toned notes from his Stratocaster, turning the dancers into watchers, and the watchers into people standing, whistling, and applauding.