Magnum Opus Magnum Opus

For any art rock band, the fourth album means it's time for a self-styled masterpiece – if you need proof, look at Selling England by the Pound or Fragile. So, with Kansas, the most determinedly arty of all American art rock bands, they composed and recorded Leftoverture, an impenetrable conundrum of significance that's capped off by nothing less than a five-part suite, appropriately titled "Magnum Opus," and featuring such promising movement titles as "Father Padilla Meets the Perfect Gnat" and "Release the Beavers."…

John Lee and Gerry Brown's Blue Note debut pairs the duo with producer Skip Drinkwater, who strips their fusion approach to its bare essentials to create a moody, deeply funky sound that smolders with intensity. Bolstered by session aces spanning from Motown studio great Wah Wah Watson to Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine, Mango Sunrise burns as slow and steady as a stick of dynamite – while Drinkwater's production is undeniably slick, it also eliminates the superfluous sounds and technical wankery that undermine so much of Lee and Brown's subsequent output.

By the late '70s, Kansas had not only established themselves as one of America's most adventurous progressive rock bands; they even had a number of Top 20 hits to their credit. And as they finally paused for a breath after a string of five increasingly successful studio albums, it made perfect sense to fill the gap with a live album. Originally released as a double-vinyl set, Two for the Show is a sprawling, mind-boggling affair that juggles such overblown epics as "Journey from Mariabronn" and the self-explanatory "Magnum Opus" with mandatory hit singles "Carry on Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind."…

Magellan is a group named for the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. With a name like that, one expects their albums to take you on a journey, and this one does not disappoint. The group is composed of Trent Gardner, Wayne Gardner, and Joe Franco. Together with some notable guests, they have produced a CD that both captures elements of classic progressive rock and carves out its own niche in the musical landscape. The disc contains only three songs, one of them the album opener, a 35-minute opus (divided into 13 CD tracks) entitled "The Great Goodnight." The album deals with the personal loss of the Gardner brothers, that of their brother, Jack Elroy, in the Vietnam war. The piece is an appropriately emotional one that covers a lot of musical ground. Indeed, the composition pulls you in and gets you so wrapped up that it really does not seem like 35 minutes have passed…

For a library user these multi-album sets are very handy! This contains the first five albums of the American Symphonic / Hard Prog legend Kansas, covering their best era. As usual, the original vinyl covers are duplicated as they are, which causes some uncomfort if one wishes to read the texts…

The eventual schism that resulted in the formation of Luca Turilli's Rhapsody and the termination of his former solo projects and association with his mainstay brand Rhapsody Of Fire could be seen as inevitable, insofar that with the conclusion of the second stream of episodes of the original Emerald Sword saga that some changing of the guard was in the works, especially considering the monumental feat of putting out 14 albums in less than 20 years…

The members of Kansas still aren't finished commemorating the 40th anniversary of their landmark Leftoverture LP, but they've already lined up a new live album to celebrate the milestone with fans.

4AD are thrilled to announce the reissue of Gene Clark's 1974 masterpiece No Other - one of the American singer-songwriter and Byrds founding member’s finest works - coming out on November 8th 2019.