The Omen (1976) [collector's Edition] [re Up]

The group's first album with Michael McDonald marked a shift to a more mellow and self-consciously soulful sound for the Doobies, not all that different from what happened to Steely Dan - whence McDonald (and Jeff Baxter) had come - between, say, Can't Buy a Thrill and Pretzel Logic. They showed an ability to expand on the lyricism of Patrick Simmons and Baxter's writing on "Wheels of Fortune," while the title track introduced McDonald's white funk sound cold to their output, successfully. Simmons' "8th Avenue Shuffle" vaguely recalled "Black Water," only with an urban theme and a more self-consciously soul sound (with extraordinarily beautiful choruses and a thick, rippling guitar break). "Rio" and "It Keeps You Runnin'" both manage to sound like Steely Dan tracks - and that's a compliment - while Tiran Porter's hauntingly beautiful "For Someone Special" was a pure soul classic right in the midst of all of these higher-energy pieces…

The set of 10 classic re-recordings of Rodgers hit classics from his repertoire with Free and Bad Company as well as solo tributes to Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix. The miracle is that these renditions are just as powerful as the originals, due in part to the stellar lineup of accompanying players: Jason Bonham on drums, Pino Palladino on bass and guitarists Reeves Gabrels, Jeff Beck, Andy Summers, Neal Schon, Adrian Vandenberg, Ian Hatton and Rodgers himself. Rodgers vocal ability just gets better as he ages and he proves just how good he is on this disc.

The Poodles are back with "Devil in the Details", their sixth studio album and follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Tour de Force". The evolution of the band's sound is evident as a result of their continued collaboration with produced Mats Valentin. This is rock n' roll straight up, no chaser! In many ways this represents the second coming of The Poodles and you are cordially invited to experience the epic-ness and majesty of "Devil in the Details". The debut album, “Metal Will Stand Tall”, was released in 2006 and the single “Night of Passion” went platinum. “Streets of Fire” from the album “Sweet Trade”, became the bands biggest selling single to date, achieving double platinum status…

Langsyne from Barmen played some sophisticated English-language psych-folk with a large variety of partly exotic instruments like the psaltery, koto, glockenspiel, banjo, flute, slide guitar, or the Jew's harp. Their only LP was released in 1976, as an edition of only 200 copies, and is today sold at a price of about € 1000 to € 2000 in mint condition. It is thus probably the most expensive Krautrock LP except the first edition of "Monster movie" by Can. It contains only self-written tracks. Especially remarkable is that the musical interaction of the three musicians is of somnabulistic perfection. There have been several new editions of "Langsyne", both as LP and as CD, some of them with a bonus track. The Garden of Delights CD has been drawn from the master tapes and contains fifteen bonus tracks, each of them of a perfect sound quality.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the long overdue release of the re-mastered edition of the classic 1976 album 'Softs' by the celebrated Jazz and Rock group Soft Machine. The album was the band s second for EMI s Harvest label and featured a line-up of Mike Ratledge (keyboards), Karl Jenkins (Oboe, Piano, Soprano Sax), John Marshall (Drums), Roy Babbington (Bass) and new member John Etheridge (Guitar), along with Saxophonist Alan Wakeman. An accessible collection featuring John Etheridge s considerable guitar playing talents and would also be the final album to feature founder member Mike Ratledge. Unavailable on CD for nearly 15 years, this reissue has been re-mastered from the original tapes and fully restores the original artwork.