Silk 2011

This Sony UK entry in the Original Albums Classics series contains five Boz Scaggs recordings; one of which is a true classic, two more which should be, and two more middling albums. These are the remastered versions of these recordings. The inarguable standout in the pack is the legendary Silk Degrees album from 1976, which includes, as bonus cuts, three live versions of tunes on the album’s track list: “What Can I Say,” It’s Over,” and “Jump Street.” Two very important recordings in Scaggs’ catalog that are included here both preceded Silk Degrees: Moments, issued in 1971, reveals (whether he admits it or not) Van Morrison’s influence on the singer and songwriter…

This band were one of the major groups of the Italian prog rock scene in the seventies and one of the few Italian bands that were successful outside their own country.
"La Via Della Seta", which means the silk road, can be regarded as one long suite. All tracks are linked together and the music flows without any interruption making an imaginary journey along this road, where you encounter the ghosts of merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and cruel barbarians exploring mysterious cities and civilizations. The music that comes along with this concept recalls the best moments of Le Orme. There's even more room for the guitars and the interaction between the piano and the keyboards is excellent while the powerful, brilliant rhythm section adds so much more to the compositions…

This band were one of the major groups of the Italian prog rock scene in the seventies and one of the few Italian bands that were successful outside their own country.
"La Via Della Seta", which means the silk road, can be regarded as one long suite. All tracks are linked together and the music flows without any interruption making an imaginary journey along this road, where you encounter the ghosts of merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and cruel barbarians exploring mysterious cities and civilizations. The music that comes along with this concept recalls the best moments of Le Orme. There's even more room for the guitars and the interaction between the piano and the keyboards is excellent while the powerful, brilliant rhythm section adds so much more to the compositions…

This California-based guitarist was actually born in Germany. His inspiration and style are similar to that of another German immigrant, Deuter, who co-produced and performed on Govi's debut album Sky High. Like Deuter, Govi spent a number of years living and studying in India, where he added sitar to his vocabulary of acoustic and electric guitars, mandola, and cello.Govi's music gained in popularity in the 1990s, with the expansion of peoples awareness of world music and a renewed passion for flamenco, spawning new age hit albums like Andalusian Nights and Passion and Grace. His music is a gentle, melodious combination of influences from around the world.

In the early 70's, jazz pianist and composer Hiromasa 'Colgen' Suzuki and his self-titled trio (with Kunimitsu Inaba on bass and Hideo Sekine on drums) started working on a project of musicians which should have made a lengthy series of concept albums mixing jazz rock and world music called Rock Joint. Musicians that worked around this albums were more of jazz background and some of the musicians stayed in the line-up of both albums released as Rock Joint projects even though the style of music was slightly different; first 'Rock Joint Biwa' was centered around the japanese instrument biwa, giving a fresh feel to album's early jazz influenced psychedelic rock (conceptually inspired by mythology in the ancient book Furukotofumi), while the second one 'Rock Joint Cither' was oriented around sitar and Indian music (cither being a mistranslation of sitar)…

Silk Torpedo provides an interesting glance into the glam era. Beginning with "Dream" - a ghostly instrumental prelude that the group's friends in Led Zeppelin would later cop for "In the Evening" - this album launches into "Joey," a superb combination of piano boogie, crashing drums, and melodramatic choruses draped in Hammond organ. Phil May's vocals on this piece run somewhere between Ian Hunter and Steve Tyler, and are every bit as effective. "Maybe You Tried" is a glittering slice of glam rock, all pouting and hip-thrusting, with a simply killer guitar hook from Pete Tolson. From this strong start, though, the album falters into a torpid sort of introspection. Still, "Belfast Cowboys" deserves kudos for taking on the Irish question long before U2 was taking its first music lessons. The CD reissue adds live versions of "Singapore Silk Torpedo" and "Dream/Joey," both recorded in 1974.