Shade Allora Ciao

Procol Harum's debut album is amazingly engaging, considering that it was rushed out to capitalize on the hit title track. The material was all already written (before the hit, in fact), but the group recorded the LP in just two days, simply to get a long-player out, and came up with one of the more pleasingly straightforward releases in their history…

Realizing that their last albums weren't even close to being in league with their output from the '70s, Kiss made a conscious effort to get back on track with 1989's Hot in the Shade…

While nothing is predictable or certain about improvisation, when the piano magician Carolyn Hume meets the vocal wonder Katja Cruz there is one thing we can be sure about. They will create a haunting, hypnotising, mesmerising atmosphere full of suspense and ghostly images that will linger in your memory forever. This is both the magic and mystery of making music. Carolyn Hume's previous four Leo-albums with the drummer Paul May created a user friendly variant of free jazz that was both tuneful and fashionable. Similarly, these ten, mostly improvised solo piano pieces prove impeccably ambient and easy on the ear, even when the notes are discordant,they make very attractive patterns as they fall.

On their second album, Third World was still in the roots-reggae camp, but they had already laid claim to a singular sound: dreamy, free-flowing, and full of sweetly soulful vocals. The harmonic shadings on the opening cut, "Jah Glory," border on jazz, while the cover of Bunny Wailer's rocksteady nugget "Dreamland" is as ethereal as its title. Lyrically, they shift from the feel-good vibe of "Feel a Little Better" to the title track's social statement without breaking a sweat.

A Whiter Shade of Pale is the 2001 collection of Procol Harem's best-known songs. Not to be confused with their 1972 album of the same name, the album features 15 tracks that show one of the first bands to move in the direction of progressive rock…

PH's debut album was supposedly rather hastily cut, but you would never know it by listening (mono recording notwithstanding); aside from the Title track (which wasn't even actually on the original Deram label PH debut LP), there are moments on this album that hold up so well today that they really make you wonder why this group never achieved the kind of stature their talent obviously merited…

Procol Harum is the eponymous debut studio album by English rock band Procol Harum. It was released in September 1967 by record label Regal Zonophone following their breakthrough and immensely popular single "A Whiter Shade of Pale". The track doesn't appear on the original album but was included in the US issue of the album…