Bill Billchick

Outer Dark displays Bill Laswell's penchant for working out compositional ideas at great length, breaking the 20-minute barrier on both of the album's instrumental pieces. Entirely a studio creation, the music is the result of Laswell's (sounds) collaboration with Robert Musso (engineering, treatments) at Brooklyn, NY's Greenpoint Studios. The duo attempts to shape a composition out of the dark ether on the opening "Chakra." It begins with a buzzing sitar drone (providing the Eastern flavor common in Laswell's music) and strummed guitar emerging from the murk. Disappearing and returning throughout, the elements take on a sort of dizzying paranoia at song's end through their repetition. As for the ether itself, the musical backdrop is a drift of throbbing, amorphous ambience comprised of mildly chilling keyboard washes and tube-like breezes…

As an aside to the musical works realised by Church of the Cosmic Skull, the works to be sent forth from this new platform will be myriad and multiform, varied in genre but of high standard and rich with heart.

Original 1950s Decca recordings by the Father of Bluegrass (including eight of his most famous songs), plus a 1984 duet with Ricky Skaggs.

When Bill Evans agreed to do a two piano date with Bob Brookmeyer, eyebrows surely must have raised. Pairing a rising superstar of modern jazz with a gentleman known for playing valve trombone and arranging charts might have been deemed by some as a daunting task. Fortunately for the keyboardists, this was a good idea and a marvelous concept, where the two could use the concept of counterpoint and improvisation to an enjoyable means, much like a great chess match. For the listener, you are easily able to hear the difference between ostensible leader Evans in the right channel of the stereo separation, and the accompanist Brookmeyer in the left.

When it comes to good time R&B played by top class musicians, you can’t beat the sound of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. After Bill quit the Rolling Stones in 1993, the bass player set about forming his own all-star band. As well as touring the world, the Rhythm Kings released a succession of fine albums, beginning with ‘Struttin’ Our Stuff’ in 1998. We have selected the hottest tracks from this debut album, as well as songs from subsequent albums ‘Anyway The Wind Blows’, ‘Double Bill’, ‘Groovin’ and ‘Just For A Thrill’.