I never imagined this would come true: A CD with a good selection of Ray Conniff's unique singles. I had all these tunes in vynil, most of them in hissy mono. Now, Collectables gives us this present, a wonderful newly remastered Stereo CD.
Rewired is a fine record, a mix of pop/rock synth-orchestrated balladry that favorably recalls both the mid-'70s work of Genesis and the more pop-focused work of Phil Collins - Paul Carrack's singing is excellent, and Mike Rutherford and Robbie McIntosh's playing (and Rutherford's programming) are seamless and always interesting; only when Rupert Cobb takes over the programming, on "Perfect Child," does the music veer a little too far out of rock and into the pop category, but the interlude is forgivable and the song is pretty enough to carry off the switch in mood.
Roaring out of the gates is the 15th full-length album by no wave/punk jazz/brutal prog iconoclasts The Flying Luttenbachers, led by founding member and main composer Weasel Walter. There's a few special twists this time, friends. The last two albums, "Shattered Dimension" and "Imminent Death", both epic double-length affairs released in 2019, focused on open ended, improvisational approaches more so than heavily structured ones. "Negative Infinity" is a sort of return-to-form in a regard, featuring 6 tightly scripted doses of what they call "Brutal Prog" - the tag Weasel coined in the early 2000s to describe an elite breed of intense, complex bands who emphasised harshness and intensity over the typical prog-rock flutes and fairies positivity. This is prog for THE APOCALYPSE, not your uncle.
The Hollies: 20 Golden Greats is a compilation album by The Hollies, CDP 7 46238 2, produced in 1978 by EMI by Ron Richards. The album cover's subtitle is "20 great sounds that grew out of the North."…