Orgy Band

Hailing from Tashkent Uzbekistan, Fromuz (From.uz) is a 5 piece primarily instrumental band that creates a high-energy blend of complex Progressive Rock, Jazz Fusion, and Improvisation, along with healthy doses of Classical and European influences. Fromuz was officially introduced to the world through the compositions that they debuted in April 2005 at the Youth Theater of Uzbekistan, in Tashkent.
The band’s first full length CD, “Overlook” was released in 2008 to rave reviews, landing on many critics’ top 10 Lists for the year, including some where the band was lauded as releasing the best progressive rock CD of 2008…

Ghanian composer, singer, guitarist, arranger, producer, and bandleader Ebo Taylor came to the attention of DJs in the U.K. and throughout Europe in the early part of the 21st century. His legend spread among hip-hop and dance music producers in the United States as well, resulting in a sample from his slamming track "Heaven" in Usher's hit "She Don’t Know." The seminal Strut imprint issued Taylor's first transglobal offering, Love & Death in 2010: it was a smash in club circles internationally. Strut has gone one better with Life Stories: Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1973-1980, compiling two discs of Taylor's solo work and that of bands he's led, taken part in, or produced. The music here leans most heavily on Taylor's solo albums. It kicks off, of course, with the infectious, groove-laden "Heaven," but this isn't the high point…

During the final years of the 20th century, then Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy founded an instrumental prog rock supergroup with guitarist/bandmate John Petrucci, keyboardist Jordan Rudess (then of Dixie Dregs), and King Crimson bassist/Chapman Stick master Tony Levin. They issued two highly acclaimed studio outings and toured through 2008. Apparently, the mandatory downtime imposed by the global COVID-19 pandemic provided the individuals with the necessary scheduling space to write and record together for the first time in 22 years. Socially distanced in a New York studio, the band composed and recorded LTE3 in July 2020…

Here it is, the unholy quartet back in all its glorious ugliness with the name it should have had all along. Heaven & Hell are comprised of guitarist Tony Iommi, fuzz and buzz bassist Geezer Butler, drummer Vinny Appice, and vocalist Ronnie James Dio. The former pair were founding members of doom metal lords Black Sabbath, of course. Dio is best known as the lead singer of Elf, and then Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and Vinny Appice was Rick Derringer's drummer before joining these three lads in a new version of Sabbath after Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward left. This quartet issued a total of three recordings together, Heaven & Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981), and Dehumanizer (1992).

After a very symphonic sophomore album, this Japanese band was leaning much more on the neo side of prog with this "Irony And Fate"…

For the second time in two years, Chick Corea has assembled a band to give aural illustration to the fantasy writings of L. Ron Hubbard. For those who have trouble with Hubbard and his teachings, this may be a red flag to avoid the record altogether. The Ultimate Adventure is a tale that draws on characters from the Arabian Nights - there is an ad for the book in the back of the CD booklet. With that out of the way, one has to deal with the music entirely on its own terms. Corea has spent decades playing both electric and acoustic jazz. This is the first time since 1976's My Spanish Heart that he has woven his love of both so completely into a single album. There are more than a few echoes here that call upon the ghosts of the earliest Return to Forever band - primarily in the gorgeous flute playing of Hubert Laws and Jorge Pardo, in the saxophone artistry of Tim Garland, the drumming of Steve Gadd…