Focus 2009 7

Best-known for his 1970 hit "Spirit in the Sky," singer/songwriter Norman Greenbaum was born November 20, 1942, in Malden, MA. He began his musical career while a student at Boston University, playing area coffeehouses before relocating to the West Coast during the mid-'60s and forming a kind of psychedelic jug band dubbed Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band…

In the 1970s, Tom Waits combined a lyrical focus on desperate, low-life characters with a persona that seemed to embody the same lifestyle, which he sang about in a raspy, gravelly voice. From the '80s on, his work became increasingly theatrical as he moved into acting and composing…

With this recording, Contrasto Armonico continues its recording project of Handel’s Italian vocal works. The first release in the series, of the serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, was enthusiastically welcomed. ‘Everything is shaped intelligently and tellingly’, wrote the American Record Guide; Fonoforum called it a ‘lustvoll’ recording and noted the ‘very elegant, fluid and resonant style’ of Contrasto Armonico’s playing.

This CD from 2009 offers 75 minutes of intellectually stimulating electronic music. The focus of these compositions is CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) and their work with particle accelerators. Using crystalline electronics in conjunction with snappy e-perc, Seifert has done a superb job capturing the soul of these scientific apparatus. The tunes (each one dealing with different machines) evoke sophisticated equipment in tandem with mankind's thirst for quantum knowledge. The electronics are smooth and slick. Dreamy texturals establish lush backdrops that serve as platforms for electronics that glisten with chromium luster. Clever mechanical traces exist as auxiliary expressions amid an undulating bevy of very accessible melodies…

Double disc reissue collection of their three demo releases and their lone full length release "From Within" (1994). All 26 tracks have been remastered for this collection. This compilation features all new artwork, extensive liner notes, full lyrics, and enhanced live concert footage.

For part of Air's Pocket Symphony tour, Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin played shows with only drummer Joey Waronker as support, forcing the band to strip its songs down to their essences. They stick with that lineup on Love 2, which delivers some of the most Air-like music to the band's name, and with good reason: this is the first time Dunckel and Godin have produced their own album. The duo tends to follow its more ambitious work with more accessible material and Love 2 is no exception, replacing Pocket Symphony's exotic, experimental bent with a renewed emphasis on the pair's quintessential sound. Godin and Dunckel dig deep into their arsenal of vintage electronic gear, topping those burbles, buzzes, and whooshes with some strings here and a few fuzzed-out guitars and basslines there…

Black Sabbath's debut album is the birth of heavy metal as we now know it. Compatriots like Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple were already setting new standards for volume and heaviness in the realms of psychedelia, blues-rock, and prog rock. Yet of these metal pioneers, Sabbath are the only one whose sound today remains instantly recognizable as heavy metal, even after decades of evolution in the genre…

For part of Air's Pocket Symphony tour, Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin played shows with only drummer Joey Waronker as support, forcing the band to strip its songs down to their essences. They stick with that lineup on Love 2, which delivers some of the most Air-like music to the band's name, and with good reason: this is the first time Dunckel and Godin have produced their own album. The duo tends to follow its more ambitious work with more accessible material and Love 2 is no exception, replacing Pocket Symphony's exotic, experimental bent with a renewed emphasis on the pair's quintessential sound. Godin and Dunckel dig deep into their arsenal of vintage electronic gear, topping those burbles, buzzes, and whooshes with some strings here and a few fuzzed-out guitars and basslines there…

The Jethro Tull Christmas Album is the 21st studio album released by Jethro Tull, on September 30, 2003. In 2009, the live album Christmas at St Bride's 2008 was included with the original album on CD.
For a band that remained relatively consistent (with a few minor exceptions) in their approach to rock & roll since 1968, Jethro Tull also possessed a sound that was uniquely '70s-oriented during their most successful period between 1971-1978. Avid fans have been yearning for the group's return to the style which made them one of the most successful of the guitar-based, mainstream prog outfits - albums like Broadsword and the Beast and J-Tull.Com touched on their former glory, but they didn't fully satisfy. Christmas Album could be the recording that those fans have been waiting for…