Blu Spec CD

Lighthouse put out three excellent albums on RCA between 1969 and 1970. They were in the same vein of B.S.&T., Chicago, Ides of March, Chase, and Tower of Power. What set them apart was that they even contained a mini string section within the band. There were eleven musicians that could jam, play awesome ballads, and jazz it up when needed. They perfected some excellent pop tunes that were very radio friendly but their peak moment was their American breakthrough hit, "One Fine Morning",(Billboard #24). It was quite progressive for the fall of 1971, but it climbed the charts in the U.S. and finally gave them due justice and their highest charting hit! (They were already pretty successful in their native Canada) Ironically the song was released on the Evolution label which was extremely small. This album reached #80 on Billboard's album charts and ended up being their most successful album.

Pasquale Plays Duke, is the second of a three-part trilogy which follows the early 2021 digital release of Solo Ballads. For this particular album he introduces his working trio of bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla, and is joined by special guest vocalists Samara Joy and Sheila Jordan.

It is very common to see Yuki Nakajima's output classifed as electronic music and indeed - Nakajima is a keyboardist heavilly directed in this sense. The music however is symphonic - with additional musicians providing vocals and instumentation making this an electronic symphonic product.

In the Eighties NOVELA was a pivotal Japanese band that gradually turned from heavy progressive into hardrock. Their keyboardist TOSHIO EGAWA left NOVELA to start his own band with a bunch of musicians from which guitarist and singer YUKIHIRO FUJIMURA (ex-VIENNA) was the most known. The first two albums "Gerard" ('84) and "Empty Lie, Empty Dream" ('85) are classic Japanese Prog with Toshio Egawa (his mother was a piano teacher) as the Japanese answer to the great keyboard players from the UK: he has the androgyn looks from EDDIE JOBSON, the elegant virtuosity from RICK WAKEMAN and the bombastic approach from KEITH EMERSON.

Legendary guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen releases Blue Lightning on March 29, 2019 on Mascot Records To call Yngwie Malmsteen a 'maestro' or 'virtuoso' is to state the obvious. But such terms don't do sufficient justice to either his talent or impact. There are innumerable guitarists who have copied a small part of the vast musical spectrum that defines him, but nobody comes close to achieving what he has over a period of nearly four decades. Now, with 'Blue Lightning', the man highlights not only his enduring dexterity and diversity, but also pays homage to those from the blues world who have fuelled his artistic spirit for so long. Anyone who is expecting Malmsteen to copy exactly the way the original versions sound is in for a shock. Because that is not what he has done. He has masterfully transformed classics like Smoke On The Water, Purple Haze and While My Guitar Gently Weeps into his idiom, and wrote and recorded 4 new tracks for this album.

This band, led by guitarist Terutsugu Hirayama (who was originally with the band Novela) has an extremely powerful symphonic sound somewhat reminiscent of mid-period Renaissance, but more extreme in every way. Their sound is positively stunning. Yes, there are vocals all over their albums and I don't understand a word of them but I don't care. Vocalist Megumi Tokuhisa is a chameleon of sorts, within the same song she can switch from sounding like an innocent child to a very dynamic and powerful singer. Of the three albums, the first (Egg) is probably the easiest to sink your teeth into, but the third (Fable) may be the most musically sophisticated, moving away from the neo-prog sound and more into the area of bands like The Enid. Hirayama also has a solo disc Castle of Noi that is similar in style and pre-dates the other three (i think). Rumor has it that in concert they are every bit as powerful as one might be led to believe by their recorded output.

BLACK PAGE were formed in the mid 1980s as a Japanese rock quartet by Bunmei OGAWA (keyboards), Itsufumi OGAWA (guitars), Kozo SUGANUMA (drums), and Tsuneo KOMINE (bass) - already all of them had been musically professional. Regardless of their sense of humour cultivated in Osaka, they had played lots of gigs with their astonishing technique - featuring Itsufumi's complex guitar play much influenced by Alan Holdsworth, Bunmei's Emerson-ish thrilling keyboard explosion, aggressive drumming by Kozo called 'Tekazu-Oh' (in English, The King Of Full Speed … sorry no appropriate expression here), and Tsuneo's strictly precise bass-quake. In 1986 BLACK PAGE released their one and only album 'Open The Next Page', in that their terrific technical approaches could be remarkably approved by progressive freaks all around the world, but sad to say, they were disbanded soon after that.