Skin

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to release a two CD anthology by legendary Ladbroke Grove underground act Skin Alley. Formed in 1969, Skin Alley were part of the infamous CLearwater stable that included fellow acts such as Hawkwind, High TIde and Trees. Skin alley’s infectious fusion of jazz and rock was suited to the time and the band became a regular attraction on the underground festival and concert circuit. Signing to CBS records in the autumn of 1969, the band recorded their debut album with producer Dick Taylor (former guitarist with the Pretty Things).
A wonderful set of music & songs, the album was shelved in favour of a new set of recordings that was released as the album to Pagham & Beyond…

When progressive rock enthusiasts hear Bill Bruford's name, they immediately think of his work with Yes and King Crimson. But it's important to remember that Bruford is also a talented jazz instrumentalist, and the veteran drummer has demonstrated that he is comfortable appearing in a variety of jazz settings. On Skin and Wire: Piano Circus featuring Bill Bruford Play the Music of Colin Riley, Bruford's group Piano Circus offers a cerebral, abstract mixture of post-bop and avant-garde jazz. This 2009 release isn't radically avant-garde; Skin and Wire isn't the type of scorching, atonal free jazz that goes out of its way to be as abrasive as possible…

It's hard to say that Buddy Guy's career was revived by his appearance in the Rolling Stones' Shine a Light, but his mesmerizing duet on Muddy Waters' "Champagne and Reefer" in that Martin Scorsese concert film was a bracing, welcome reminder of just how good Guy is, especially for listeners who may have let their attention wander in the years since Damn Right, I've Got the Blues. What made Guy so riveting was his coiled aggression: in stark contrast to the deferential Jack White, he came to cut the Stones down and he did so mercilessly, which made it the musical highlight of a show with plenty of great moments. That wildness has kept Buddy Guy unpredictable well into his senior citizenship, and it surfaces on Skin Deep, only perhaps not quite as often as it should…

If there’s one thing you learn from listening to a lot of prog/rock/fusion music, it’s that lightning-fast guitar players are a dime a dozen. Listeners are generally impressed the first couple of times they hear a nimble fingered axeman set their fretboard on fire, but after you realize that there’s a ton of similar guitarists out there cutting CDs you begin to get a bit jaded. This causes the listener to begin looking for traits other than speed to set guitar players apart. The reason I’m bring this up is because when I first fired up Jeff Kollman’s latest CD Shedding Skin I thought to myself “Great, another amphetamine-fingered guitarist with an entire hour to kill noodling pointlessly with his instrument.” However, after listening to the first few tracks I realized that Jeff Kollman is a shredder with “the difference” – that difference being that he can actually write a catchy tune and gets enough variance in his guitar sound to keep things interesting through most of Shedding Skin.

"Skin Tight" is the fifth studio album by the Ohio Players and the first released through the Mercury label. "Skin Tight" signified a turning point in the group's career towards a more jazzy and polished funk sound. The album began the Players' dominant platinum selling period, and would bring them a much bigger audience. In fact, this release would outsell all of their previous LPs combined. The band produced and recorded the album in Chicago, with Barry Mraz as recording engineer. The final mix was mastered by Lee Hulko.

Dudley Taft returns with the blistering Skin and Bones. Somewhere along the musical spectrum resting firmly between the Texas Blues of ZZ Top and the Southern Rock of Lynyrd Skynyrd you will find the musical stylings of Dudley Taft. The guitar slinger is back with another batch of tunes that will rattle your teeth and shake your bones. Built around classic blues riffs, driving rock guitars and a hint of metal Dudley Taft continues to blend the past and present to create one hell of a bad ass sound. The latest record from Taft and company – Skin and Bones – may be his most complete. As listeners weave their way through the profusion of musical layers Taft has packed into the album their auditory senses will be assaulted from every angle.

This latest LP of Angel City/Angels is their best stuff in a career of 25 years of devastating riffs of basic and unmissable rock. It was not easy to manage, but they've reached perfection and this is simply the best album of rock of all time! Impossible to miss "Northern highway", "Invisible man", "Wasteland", "What the Hell" (probably their best song ever) and "Call that living"…

Part of Avril Lavigne's appeal – a large part of it, actually – is that she's a brat, acting younger than her 17 years on her 2002 debut, Let Go, and never seeming like she much cared about the past (she notoriously mispronounced David Bowie's name when reading Grammy nominations), or anything for that matter. She lived for the moment, she partied with sk8er bois, she didn't want anything complicated, and she sang in a flat, plain voice that illustrated her age as much as her silly, shallow lyrics…