Kumo no Hitomi Eyes of The Spider (1998)

Punk's rise in Britain seemed to be leading to the demise of Barclay James Harvest, the fate awaiting so many of the island's veteran rock bands. Although 1976's Octoberon had finally pushed the band into the U.K. Top 20, it was all downhill from there, as the group's follow-ups in 1977 and 1978 landed ever lower in the listings, something that Barclay James Harvest's shift to a brighter, more American sound did nothing to prevent…

The Atomic Fireballs were formed in Detroit in 1996 by John Bunkley and James Bostek. The two of them met when Bostek's wife was working with Bunkley and introduced them. Although the group plays their own brand of high-energy swing music, they list their influences to be as far ranging as Louis Jordan and Black Flag. The lineup of the group is Bostek on trumpet, Bunkley on vocals, Tony Buccilli playing trombone, Duke Kingins on guitar, Shawn Scaggs on double bass, Eric Schabo wailing tenor sax, and Randy Sly on piano. Their first album was the self-released Birth of the Swerve (1998). The album was good enough to garner the interest of major labels. That meant that the follow-up, 1999's Torch This Place, was not an independent release but rather on Atlantic.

On Instrument of the Devil, gifted young violinist Rachel Barton Pine displays her technical prowess and the instrument's emotional range in an unusual, virtuosic program that, in her words, offers listeners something other than "the usual potpourri of encores."

After a two-decade long hiatus, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters returned to action in 1998 with their funk groove pretty much intact, allowing for some technological and stylistic updating. The core of the band - the too-long-neglected Bennie Maupin (saxes, bass clarinet), Paul Jackson (bass), Bill Summers (percussion), and the group's second drummer Mike Clark - still has the complex funk telepathic interplay down pat, though occasionally the rhythms are simplified for contemporary audiences. Hancock himself only appears on four tracks, where he tries to comp and stomp out on latter-day digital instruments (alas, he doesn't quite generate the same super funky feeling that he once could on analog clavinets, Fender Rhodes pianos, and ARP synths)…

Continuing its acclaimed series of 20th-century music performed by I Fiamminghi, Telarc presents a stunning recording of two mystical pieces by John Tavener, the composer of the poignant recessional music for the funeral of Princess Diana.

The Farm were never one of the great Madchester bands, writing only one truly memorable single ("All Together Now") and turning out a bunch of pleasant, nondescript baggy. The Best of the Farm collects all of the singles and highlights from the group's three albums. There aren't any hidden treasures here, but anyone nostalgic for the pleasures of loping beats, baggy clothes, neo-psychedelia and buckets of Ecstasy should be pleased with this collection.

The musician Andreas Zink received some help by Brainwork and Projekt Gamma, to release his first CD. So this might be the reason, why the melodic tunes sound like thoose two groups. Finest equippment is used to develop thees catchy tracks.

Alan Simon is a French folk-rock musician and composer, best known for his rock operas performed with noted rock musicians guesting. Simon is associated with Breton Celticism, and his most ambitious works are typically on themes linked to Celtic myth and history. Simon achieved fame with his rock opera Excalibur, La Légende des Celtes (Excalibur, The Legend of the Celts) (Sony) in 1999, of which he was both songwriter and producer. The first part of an intended trilogy, Excalibur blended musical styles and was performed by Roger Hodgson (ex-Supertramp), Fairport Convention, Dan Ar Braz, Tri Yann, Angelo Branduardi, Didier Lockwood and Gabriel Yacoub. Within weeks, the album went top 10 and gold in France. Five concert performances took place between October 1999 and June 2000, including one at Paris-Bercy.