Rhythm From July 2016

In the late 1950s and early 1960s R&B stood for ‘rhythm and blues’ - a term associated with some of the most joyous and vibrant popular music ever made. More diverse than the blues, R&B was basically the forerunner of Soul music, and the black equivalent of rock ‘n’ roll: instrumentally energetic, with superb vocals delivered by heartfelt voices that had (mostly) learned to sing in gospel choirs. This 40-track compilation is a combination of well-known hits and real obscurities, but it’s all solidly good stuff. All in all, you’ll certainly find more than enough in this compilation to set those good times rolling again.

Jack Dupon is a progressive rock band consisting of two guitars, drums, bass, percussion and singing. The music is almost impossible to describe, but Jack Dupon performs a delirious music, full of humour and rhythm, dynamic, giving free way to the imagination. Jack Dupon is primarily a live band communicating a lot through music, but also by their personal universe which really comes through at performances. This adds a higher human dimension, which is mostly felt by the public. An opportunity then appears: let experimental music emerge from the shadows, in order to discover a new landscape remaining accessible to everyone. And this perhaps corresponds to an expectation, even a desire to offer an alternative to formatted music…

On his ambitious sophomore set, London native Michael Kiwanuka expands outward from the warm retro-soul of 2012 debut, Home Again. With its trio of producers and transatlantic recording locales, Love & Hate arrives with the weight of high expectations. Announcing his intentions from the start, Kiwanuka challenges listeners with "Cold Little Heart," an exquisitely arranged, ten-minute opus of lush strings and elegant backing vocals whose first line doesn't arrive until the halfway point. It's a Homeric bit of heartbroken prog-soul that shows off its creator's lead guitar chops as much as his rich, sandy voice. Co-produced by Danger Mouse and Inflo, it also introduces the heavy tonal palette that runs through the remainder of the album's ten tracks, even those produced by Kiwanuka's longtime collaborator, Paul Butler.

Killer 12th disc by this excellent, long-standing, blues-based, heavy guitar rock riff:machine featuring 11 tracks of awesome, powerful, hard-hitting, retro-fied, dual guitar fueled riffage + mojo that kicks ass @ the hard rock excellence boogie train. Make no mistake, Blindside Blues Band have landed and are here to rock your bad-ass blues away. Crank up the volume and get ready to blast off into outer space with B.B.B. on the "Journey To The Stars" disc. Blindside Blues Band is fronted by the legendary Mike Onesko on guitar & vocals. The man is a true riff:master who is on a Mission to Keep the Rock Alive. Onesko's classic riffage speaks volumes with endless amounts of 70s-inspired hard rock truth.

Sometimes, a greatest-hits set is timed perfectly to gather together a group's most successful and familiar performances just at the point when that group has passed the point of their maximum exposure to the public, but before the public memory has had a chance to fade. That was the case when Columbia Records assembled this compilation for release in early 1972. At that point, Blood, Sweat & Tears had released four albums and scored six Top 40 hits, each of which is heard here. But lead singer David Clayton-Thomas had just quit the group, so that the unit that recorded songs like "You've Made Me So Very Happy" was not working together anymore. And even when Clayton-Thomas returned, the band would continue to decline commercially. As such, BS&T's Greatest Hits captures the band's peak in 11 selections–seven singles chart entries, plus two album tracks from the celebrated debut album when Al Kooper helmed the group, and two more from the Grammy-winning multi-platinum second album.

July 1978: The Complete Recordings is a live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. Packaged as a box set, and produced as a limited edition of 15,000 copies, it contains five complete concerts on twelve CDs. It was released on May 13, 2016.

The fourth of Motorpsycho’s expanded archival sets revisits 1997’s Angels and Daemons at Play – a chronological and developmental follow-on from the earlier Blissard set…