Ardour Teebs

Ethos‘ 1976 prog album ‘Ardour‘ is an audacious, cosmic journey filled with layered synth-fronts, 12-string dreamscapes, and a solid Rickenbacker rhythm section that echoes Starcastle while evoking the finest of Genesis and Yes without being a direct imitation. Released in the twilight years of the prog era, it‘s an irresistibly charming record, blending razor-cut progressive artistry with naively fantastical concepts, a delight for any prog fan willing to dive into its cosmos of soundtrack-like melodies and whimsical lyrics.

Here is an excellent example of the US Progressive rock scene of the Seventies: having both technique and excellence, imagination & talent. They seemed to be influenced by a variety of styles. Their sound was a little folky at times, poppy at others, even a little jazzy at times, loosely in the shadow of Kansas, Yes, Genesis, early King Crimson and others, with lots of vocals everywhere.

Here is an excellent example of the US Progressive rock scene of the Seventies: having both technique and excellence, imagination & talent. They seemed to be influenced by a variety of styles. Their sound was a little folky at times, poppy at others, even a little jazzy at times, loosely in the shadow of Kansas, Yes, Genesis, early King Crimson and others, with lots of vocals everywhere.

This Album is The Best Ever American Propgressive Music, challenged only by its follow up album "Open Up" and sadly last offering from Wil Sharpe and Friends. ironically, This is filled with quite The English Inspiration side of Prog, formed by all of the usual suspects. But the main Sound here is King Crimsonesque, Some Camel, and a wacky Gentle Giant approach, especially with The Spirit Of Music and its quite funny sound scapes, courtesy of Mini Moog. The opening of this album has possibly the finest Mini Moog solo I've heard ever in my life. The use of both Pitch and Modulation is Superb. Even gives Jan Hammer a run for the money. L.Duncan Hammond was sorely missed on Open Up LP, But Michael Poncek did keep up the strength of the Keys on his own quite well.

Jaga Jazzist, the Norwegian multi-instrumental boundary-busters, may occupy a niche, but it feels like an enduringly spacious and fertile one, where sounds that recall everything from Weather Report to big-band jazz, krautrock, Radiohead or even the Pat Metheny Group intertwine. Last year’s 20th anniversary retrospective was fascinatingly diverse, but Starfire – conceived in composer Lars Horntveth’s new Los Angeles home, rather than in Oslo – is a more densely layered and studio-dominated deployment of this band’s awesome resources. The title track is classic Jazzist: a sound like the Shadows driven by a marching-band thump skids through power-chord guitar hooks and Zappaesque melodic zigzags; the atmospheric Big City Music is a masterly balance of quickfire rhythm-section ingenuity and the instrumental diversity of guitars, keys and brass. The tunes remain quirkily dramatic and the thematic scene-shifting spectacular, but a little thinning-out would have let Jaga Jazzist’s uniquely mercurial music breathe more.

Jaga Jazzist, the multi-genre, multi-instrumental Norwegian collective, celebrate their 20th anniversary with this limited-edition vinyl box set. The box includes 2001’s sparingly jazzy Livingroom Hush album, out-takes from it, and a collection of producers’ remixes from 2012’s Live With Britten Sinfonia.

Our second October release from Westminster Abbey tells the story of the religious and political turmoil that engulfed England in the sixteenth century, and from which composers of liturgical music could find no escape. They were forced to follow the changing edicts about permitted texts as the pendulum of power oscillated between traditional and reformed religion. Interestingly, this period saw the greatest flowering of church music in England’s history; some of the most magnificent works of the age are recorded here.