After almost a half-century, the multinational band of freaks known as Gong keeps making noise. I See You sounds more cohesive and listenable than it deserves to - especially considering that co-founder, vocalist and chief lyricist Daevid Allen turned 77 years old in January and wrote the album while battling cancer. Longtime fans will find plenty here to wrap their heads around, including “Syllabub,” the catchy, off-kilter nod to Frank Zappa; a spoken-word poem called “This Revolution,” which addresses political frustrations and name-drops Gil Scott-Heron; and the swaggering 10-minute epic “Thank You.” Gong’s Wikipedia page lists more than 30 different lineups and more than 45 band members, and Allen’s five current and capable psychedelic pranksters do not diminish the legacy.
The legendary Moody Blues present this special musical collection, their first live album without an orchestra, since their historic 1969 release The Moody Blues Live + 5. Recorded live at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 11 during their 2005 World tour, in which they played New Zealand for the first time and returned to Australia, this rare live recording is pure Moody Blues…
Laid Back is a Danish electronic music duo group from Copenhagen, formed in 1979. The duo consists of John Guldberg (vocals, guitar, bass) and Tim Stahl (vocals, keyboards, drums, bass). They are best known for the hits "Sunshine Reggae" and "White Horse" from 1983 and "Bakerman" from 1989.
Tift Merritt has become unexpectedly (and thankfully) prolific since she signed with Fantasy Records in 2008, after going four years without releasing a record. See You on the Moon is her third album in as many years, and from the first track, the gentle and soul-infused love song "Mixtape," she demonstrates that she can maintain solid quality control at this pace and does so with ease. See You on the Moon is a more spare and intimate-sounding set than 2008's Another Country, as if she learned a bit about the value of concision with her 2009 solo acoustic live set Buckingham Solo, but Merritt clearly works well with others (the backing musicians are uniformly great, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket contributes some solid harmonies on "Feel of the World"), and while the arrangements wisely avoid cluttering the clean landscapes of her melodies, producer and engineer Tucker Martine gives the recordings a full-bodied sound even when the performances are purposefully simple. As on Merritt's other albums, the real key to See You on the Moon lies in her songs and her voice, and both are in splendid form here.
We could have taken the easy way out. The original 1993 box set was out of stock. We could simply have printed more copies and filled orders. Of course, we didn’t. This is Bear Family Records and we don’t take shortcuts. We’ve invested more than 1000 hours in re-writing, recompiling and re-mastering this box. The brilliant engineering by Christian Zwarg will leave you shaking your head in admiration. You won’t quite recognize some of your favorite Fats Domino tracks because they’ve never sounded this good.