Baka Beyond 2007 Baka Live

During the last quarter of the 20th century, and thanks largely to Eric Clapton's remarkable devotion to his memory, Robert Leroy Johnson posthumously became the most celebrated Delta blues musician of the pre-WWII era. Among numerous editions of his complete works and various anthologies that combine his recordings with those of his contemporaries and followers, J.S.P.'s The Road to Robert Johnson and Beyond combines many of his essential performances with those by dozens of other blues artists from Blind Lemon Jefferson and Henry Thomas to Muddy Waters and Elmore James. 105 tracks fill four CDs with several decades' worth of strongly steeped blues that trace the African American migration from the deep south on up into Chicago. This is a fine way to savor the recorded evidence, as primary examples from Blind Blake, Charley Patton, Son House, Charlie McCoy, Walter Vincson, Skip James, Ma Rainey, Tampa Red, Kokomo Arnold, Scrapper Blackwell, Leroy Carr, Lonnie Johnson, and Peetie Wheatstraw lead directly to early modern masters like Big Joe Williams, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Bill Broonzy, Johnny Temple, Leroy Foster, Johnny Shines, Homesick James Williamson, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Snooky Pryor, Little Walter, and David Honeyboy Edwards, among many others.

Featuring Herb Robertson on trumpets, mutes & compositions, Frank Gratkowski on alto sax & clarinets, Julien Petit on tenor & bari saxes, Marcin Oles on double bass and Bartlomiej Brat Oles on drums. It is always great to hear the ever-inspired Oles brothers playing with the cream of improvisers like David Murray, Ken Vandermark, Chris Speed and Erik Friedlander…

Progressive metal titans Dream Theater perform their distinctive rendition of ‘Made in Japan’, the quintessential live record from British heavy metal icons, Deep Purple. Recorded live in 2006 at NHK Hall in Osaka, Japan, the 7-track recording memorializes this one-of-a-kind performance from the New York quintet, honoring the original and historic 1972 classic. Re-mastered and re-released for the first time on vinyl, ‘Made in Japan’ marks the next can’t-miss release in Dream Theater’s growing Lost Not Forgotten Archives collection.

Musically, this band is tough to describe. They are closest to stoner rock, but their instrumental nature and tendency to experiment place them a bit beyond the standards of that genre. With their uncompromising instrumental sound that echoes such desert rock bands as Kyuss and The Obsessed, they were not an easy band to fully understand, but surely an intriguing one. They unofficially disbanded in mid-2002. This special 3CD digipack anthology is limited to a numerated 1500 copies…

With more than three decades of Viking-centric melodic metal under its belt, the Norse legends (from upstate New York) Manowar have lost none of their live ferocity….

It even looks like something classic, beyond its time or place of origin even as it was a clear product of both – one of Peter Saville's earliest and best designs, a transcription of a signal showing a star going nova, on a black embossed sleeve. If that were all Unknown Pleasures was, it wouldn't be discussed so much, but the ten songs inside, quite simply, are stone-cold landmarks, the whole album a monument to passion, energy, and cathartic despair. The quantum leap from the earliest thrashy singles to Unknown Pleasures can be heard through every note, with Martin Hannett's deservedly famous production – emphasizing space in the most revelatory way since the dawn of dub – as much a hallmark as the music itself.