Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)

Guitarist, composer and producer, Thomas Naïm began playing the guitar at the age of 12. Influenced first by Rock, he then became interested in many musical currents: Funk, Brazilian music, Reggae or electronic music and finally became passionate about Jazz.

Jeff Lynne revived Electric Light Orchestra in 2015 – due to legal reasons, they were now called Jeff Lynne's ELO – releasing a comeback album called Alone in the Universe and steadily mounting a return to the road. Several dates happened in 2016, but the tour reached its apex in June 2017, when the group played in front of 60,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium. Released five months after that June 24 gig, Wembley or Bust – which was accompanied by a concert film – features the entirety of the gig, and if it's not heard too closely, it could sometimes be mistaken for an ELO greatest-hits album.

The Quest is the twenty-second studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 1 October 2021 by InsideOut Music and Sony Music. It is their first studio album featuring Billy Sherwood since The Ladder (1999), having replaced founding bassist Chris Squire following his death in 2015, and their first without any original members. It was produced by guitarist Steve Howe. After completing touring commitments in July 2019, Yes began to collaborate on new material by exchanging ideas for songs online. The subsequent COVID-19 pandemic caused all touring to be cancelled in March 2020, which presented the opportunity for them to focus on the album during lockdown. When the songs had been arranged, the album was recorded in California and England and orchestral arrangements by Paul K. Joyce were performed by the FAMES Orchestra in North Macedonia.

Poles apart? Ignacy Jan Paderewski is a familiar name, but the same can hardly be said of Jerzy Gablenz. Jonathan Plowright makes the strongest case possible for Gablenz’s piano concerto: a substantial work rich in melodic invention and thunderous pianism.

Manna/Mirage is the ongoing project by former The Muffins mastermind Dave Newhouse. While he’s obviously working towards different ends and also with a variety of different people as he explores these different ends, it’s still very much coming from his pen, so fans of the band should also greatly enjoy this release.
The 4th Manna/Mirage album is now available as a limited edition CD in a Digipack format. It features many guest musicians from the RIO / Canterbury / Independent music community. Fred Frith (guitar) adds a new level to a comp entitled "Fred's Dream" (yes, it really did come from a dream I had about Fred!), and Guy Segers (bass) monsters through an 10 minute juggernaut of a comp called "4 Steps Back".

Given the disappointing sales of the previous two All-Starr Band live albums, Ringo's star wasn't bright enough to get this release out on a major label or even a conventional label. As a stopgap, it was available only in Blockbuster Music stores for a brief time – at the rock-bottom bargain price of 5.99 dollars – and further volumes were not forthcoming. A shame, actually, for this was the best of the three All-Starr albums up to that point, representing what was probably Ringo's finest all-around group of the 1990s.

If the warmly Romantic bloom on these concertos suggests the spirit of an earlier generation—both works date from the 1880s—the music of Stéphan Elmas retains its own distinctive voice, a voice heard to best advantage in Howard Shelley's persuasive accounts.