The Simsons

It’s been almost a decade since Casey Crescenzo brought The Dear Hunter - both the band and the character of the same name - to life with his 2006 debut full-length, Act I: The Lake South, The River North. This record revealed Crescenzo’s incredibly inventive and ambitious musical flair, something which has been evolving ever since. The two albums which followed - 2007’s Act II: The Meaning Of, And All Things Regarding Ms. Leading and 2009’s Act III: Life And Death - cemented the artist as a maverick, idiosyncratic talent whose music, while fitting a modern aesthetic, was also from a bygone era. Act I/Act II: This is the story of a boy, from his creation to his untimely end; from the beautifully rapturous to the truly tragic. The Dear Hunter sings of something to which we can all relate: lust, deceit, greed, and hunting…

Recorded across two shows with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in October 2018.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are one of the earliest, most commercially successful, and enduring synth pop groups. Inspired most by the advancements of Kraftwerk and striving at one point "to be ABBA and Stockhausen," they've continually drawn from early electronic music as they've alternately disregarded, mutated, or embraced the conventions of the three-minute pop song. Outside their native England, OMD are known primarily for "Maid of Orleans" and the Pretty in Pink soundtrack smash "If You Leave," yet they scored 18 additional charting U.K. singles in the '80s alone. These hits supported inventive albums such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1980), Architecture & Morality (1981), and commercial suicide-turned-cult classic Dazzle Ships (1983)…

Doug Sahm once sang, "You just can't live in Texas if you don't have a lot of soul," and, as a proud son of the Lone Star state, he seemed bent on proving that every time he stepped in front of a microphone. Whether he was playing roots rock, garage punk, blues, country, norteño, or (as was often the case) something that mixed up several of the above-mentioned ingredients, Doug Sahm always sounded like Doug Sahm – a little wild, a little loose, but always good company, and a guy with a whole lot of soul who knew a lot of musicians upon whom the same praise could be bestowed. Pulling together a single disc compilation that would make sense of the length and breadth of the artist's recording career (which spanned five decades) would be just about impossible (the licensing hassles involved with the many labels involved would probably scotch such a project anyway), but this disc, which boasts 22 songs recorded over the course of eight years, is a pretty good starter for anyone wanting to get to know Sahm's music.

The Trip were but one of many Italian bands combining rock, classical, jazz, pop and folk to produce what is now known as the Italian rock renaissance. They are another three man classical rock band in the realm of the Nice and Le Orme. All four of their albums are completely different and bear the stamp of another international group or movement. "Caronte" was considered their best album by psych collectors. On their third, "Atlantide", The Trip looks squarely at Emerson, Lake & Palmer for inspiration. The both are recommended to ELP or Le Orme fans.