Utopia RA

RA found Utopia moving away from the long, experimental instrumental jams that distinguished their first two albums, but what's surprising about it is how the group changed. Sure, the lineup was different but their approach changed on RA, as they moved away from prog rock and toward hard rock. In that regard, it makes sense that Rundgren's possessive has been stripped from Utopia's name, since the band no longer sounds like an indulgent spin-off of his own albums…

The collection features seven of the band's classic albums: 1974's Todd Rundgren's Utopia , 1975's Another Live , 1977's Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet , 1979's Adventures in Utopia , 1980's Deface the Music and 1982's Swing to the Right . It also includes 15 bonus tracks, plus new written commentary from Rundgren, Wilcox, Sultan and Powell.

Recorded live in 1980, this live set from Todd Rundgren and Utopia is largely culled from the albums "Adventures in Utopia," "Oops! Wrong Planet," "Hermit of Mink Hollow," "Back to the Bars," "Something/Anything," "A Wizard, A True Star," and "RA." In total 29 songs are featured, displaying the band's awesome power…

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the first ever official release of Todd Rundgren At The BBC.
This collection comprises three CDs featuring all of the surviving radio and television broadcasts in the BBC archive transmitted on radio and television in the UK between 1972 and 1982. The set features on CD Todd’s solo 1972 BBC Radio One “In Concert” performance, recorded soon after the release of his seminal album “Something Anything”, the classic 1975 performance by Todd Rundgren and Utopia at Hammersmith Odeon, London, (including a previously unreleased track ‘Something’s Coming’) - on the first ever UK concert tour of Todd Rundgren and Utopia, a 1977 performance at the Oxford Polytechnic by Todd Rundgren and Utopia (promoting the “Ra”) album…

Blurring the edges between philosophy and mysticism, modern art and radical political critique, the Afrofuturist impulse has been a cultural force since the mid-20th century. That’s when jazz visionary Sun Ra and his Arkestra first touched down on Planet Earth and told humanity that space (outer and inner) is indeed the place. It’s an impulse that in the new millennium has only grown more diverse thanks to a proliferating number of African-American musicians who use Afrofuturism as a platform to launch their own, unique visions. Among these explorers are cosmic jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, post-everything beat maker Flying Lotus, R&B cyborg Janelle Monáe and dystopian noise-rappers Death Grips.