Spiritual Torrents

Dave Stewart and The Spiritual Cowboys was an English band, formed in 1990 after frontman David A. Stewart's departure from Eurythmics. Chris Bostock from JoBoxers, Jonathan Perkins, Olle Romo and Nan Vernon were later joined by Martin Chambers from The Pretenders and John Turnbull from Ian Dury and The Blockheads. They made two albums: the self titled Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys and Honest. Their live stage act is characterized by spiritual icons and a unique double drum kit played by two drummers. This collection includes the following singles: "Jack Talking" (1990), "Love Shines" (1990), "Party Town" (1990), "Crown Of Madness" (1991), "On Fire" (1991) and " Out Of Reach "(1991).

Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra - When The World Was One (2014) {Gondwana Records GONDCD 010}
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© 2014 Gondwana Records | GONDCD 010
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Jazz / Spiritual Jazz / Trumpet

Change, or at least an evolution of the Halsall sound, is very much in the air on this wonderful new record. Credited to Halsall and the Gondwana Orchestra there is a feeling of expansion of the musical palette, further steps on a satisfying journey towards the destination identified on 2012's transitional Fletcher Moss Park. That earlier record showed the way that Halsall was looking to evolve and shift his musical path—it began with pieces recorded in 2010 around the time of the Gilles Peterson Worldwide award winning On the Go, took in a couple of piano and bass-less tracks from a more experimental July 2011 session and ended up with a couple of tracks recorded in April 2012 by something broadly resembling the line-up for When the World Was One.

Blending free jazz with South African protest music and rigorous academic study, the Cape Town drummer connects jazz tradition to contemporary oppression, and points a way forward for the music.

Albert Ayler - Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe (1969) {Impulse! 065 383-2 rel 2003}
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© 1969, 2003 Impulse! / Verve | 065 383-2
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

One of the last records made by avant sax legend Albert Ayler – a really mind-expanding album that's unlike anything else he ever did! By the time of the record, Ayler had made a full round trip between the New York and European jazz scenes – leaving important influences wherever he went, and trying desperately to pick up new ones the further he moved on. Here, he's working in a style that's a bit like that of Archie Shepp at the time – still steeped in free jazz and new thing ideals, but infused with a free-thinking approach to the music that allows for bold new styles and sounds.

The startling thing about My Goal's Beyond is that it points the way toward two directions McLaughlin would take in the future – exploring Indian music and the acoustic guitar – and this while he was in the thick of the burgeoning electronic jazz-rock movement. The first half is a John McLaughlin acoustic guitar tour de force, where he thwacks away with his energetic, single-minded intensity on three jazz standards and five originals (including one genuine self-penned classic, "Follow Your Heart") and adds a few percussion effects via overdubbing.

Algiers returns with Shook, their first new music since 2020’s There Is No Year. Shook features contributions from Rage Against The Machine’s Zack De La Rocha, Boy Harsher’s Jae Matthews, Big Rube, billy woods, Backxwash, and many more.

This music, the album EB=MC2 and Chapman and Banai’s concerts together before that can ultimately be traced back to two valleys. One near Hawnby, North Yorkshire, lush green and full of trees, the other, more austere, in northern Galilee. Michael Chapman, paying his way through Art College in the early ’60s worked as a woodsman on the North Yorkshire Mexborough estate in the summer breaks and found inspiration for classics like “In the Valley” and “Among the Trees,” leaning against the trees with his guitar. Slightly later, Ehud Banai spent an extended reflective period in the ’70s, alone near Rosh Pina in Galilee, with his guitar, a ghetto blaster and one cassette. On that inspirational cassette was Michel Chapman’s 1969 Fully Qualified Survivor album. Travel forward over 30 years to 2012, and Ehud, now a successful musician with a string of his own albums, is playing The 12 Bar Club on Denmark Street in London.

Extensive 5CD/book set exploring the evolution of the Goth movement, from the glacial postpunk of the late 1970s through positive punk and into the Batcave era, dark electronica and beyond.

This is the way a Joan Armatrading best-of collection should be assembled in the first place. The numerous single-disc compilations never came close to being representative of her achievement as a recording artist. Culling 43 tracks over eight years and 11 albums is even better in many ways than issuing an Armatrading box set. All of the expected material from the early years is included on disc one, such as "Cool Blue Stole My Heart," "Travel So Far," "Dry Land," "Down to Zero," "Love and Affection," "Help Yourself," "Woncha Come on Home," "Show Some Emotion," "Willow," "Barefoot and Pregnant," "Bottom to the Top," "You Rope You Tie Me," "Your Letter," and many more, including "The Flight of the Wild Geese" from the soundtrack to the film. It covers Armatrading's prolific period from 1975-1979, where a lot of old hippies, now upwardly mobile professionals seeking mellow escapes from their relentless and often ruthless pursuit of "the good life," got off the bus and remained stuck, listening only to her early records along with those of the Jacksons, Eagles, and James Taylor.