Legendary German hard rockers Bonfire strikes back with the brand new album "Higher Ground".
Bonfire are one of the most seminal German hard rock bands of the past fifty years. Originally founded as Cacumen in 1972 by guitarist Hans Ziller in Ingolstadt, Germany, the group initially played local venues, steadily building a fan base before releasing their first album under the name Cacumen.
The band’s trademarks continue to be and always have been deeply melodic hard rock songs, driven by captivating guitar
parts, grooving rhythms and haunting vocal melodies. To this day, band founder/guitarist Hans Ziller and his exceptional group regularly awe their fans with new releases and impressive shows.
"Higher Ground" is a new life chapter for Bonfire and the very first release under the wings of Frontiers Records.

2007 reunion album from the legendary Scottish Prog Rock band. Beggars Opera released a spate of classic albums in the early 1970's. After fading from the 'live' gigging scene, founder member Ricky Gardner began to suffer from illness which also prevented any further recording. However, in 2007 the guitarist and his wife keyboard player and vocalist Virginia Scott released Close to My Heart, an album that had taken them 10 years to compose and record. Together with drummer Tom Gardiner, they devised this 12 track set of performances that heralded a Beggars Opera comeback. Most of the pieces are tightly constructed in length and don't roam into 'Prog' instrumental excess. The vocals are prominent, while an intriguing atmosphere is provided by tough guitar riffs and meandering Mellotron themes. The effect has been compared to a blend of Pink Floyd with Hawkwind symphonic space age moods.

The most varied and accomplished of any synth pop debut, Yello's first album presents a few irresistible pop songs (the hit "Bostich," plus "Bimbo" and "Eternal Legs"), Boris Blank's synthesizer interpretations of several different forms of music ("Downtown Samba," "Bananas to the Beat," "Rock Stop," "Coast to Polka"), and even a three-song suite of atmospheric industrial music that functions as a miniature invisible soundtrack. The dark lyrical concerns and futurist electronics immediately lifted Yello above the rut of Kraftwerk imitators.

Credited to Merrell & the Exiles, this is a selection of rarities and unreleased material by Merrell Wayne Fankhauser's mid-'60s band, essentially the one that cut the great rare psych-folk-rock album that was credited to Fapardokly. It's pretty much a collection of outtakes with a few rare non-LP singles thrown in, and as such doesn't measure up to the best of Fankhauser's '60s material. Often derivative of the British Invasion, folk-rock, and early '60s teen pop, it's not bad, just not terribly memorable. The fake British Invasion of cuts like "Send Me Your Love" rank as the highlights. It also has his late-'60s non-LP single cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'," although for some reason it's missing one of his mid-'60s non-LP 45s, "Can't We Get Along"/"That's All I Want From You" - it was reissued on a rarities tape that Merrell himself released, if you can find it…

Shemekia Copeland continues to prove herself as one of the strongest young talents in the blues on this disc. While the material itself isn't as strong as that on her stellar first album, she still invests her all in tunes like the blasting "Not Tonight" and the romantic "Love Scene."

One of Les McCann's greatest albums, Much Les encapsulates much of what McCann did best in his early years, while adding a few novel embellishments - like a string section and Latin percussionists - that enhance his core sound. The results are winning, likable, and consistently engaging, making for an underrated classic. McCann is joined on every cut by his trio of the time, bassist Leroy Vinnegar (who contributes "Doin' That Thing") and drummer Donald Dean, who offers solid, laid-back support. However, it's actually the string section that provides the dominant flavor of McCann's accompaniment; of the six tracks, they appear on all three slow songs, plus - in an offbeat touch - the laid-back soul-jazz of "Doin' That Thing," giving it an almost movie soundtrack feel…

This material is the English version of East’s first album, Játékok which was released in 1981. East is one of the most beloved prog acts from Hungary (if not the most). While the rest of the world was into New Wave, Marillion carried the prog torch for Great Britain and points west. Guitarist János Varga, keyboardist Géza Pálvölgyi, singer Miklós Zareczky, bassist Péter Móczán and percussionist István Király decided to pick up the prog banner for Eastern Europe. In 1981, they released their debut album "Játékok." The English translation is games. Oddly, they did release an English version, but it was titled "Blue Paradise." It was a well-received debut, and is still highly regarded.

When The Omega Syndicate burst onto the scene in 2004 with their exhilarating debut “Analogue Waves” they quickly made quite an impression and many friends into the bargain. In a UK scene often accused of being lacklustre and amateurish, The Omega Syndicate have flown in the face of any such criticism with their exciting and dynamic fresh sounding take on the traditional Berlin School sound. Although they are creating long tracks with synths, sequencers and Mellotrons, what they produce is wholly original and while it can be said firmly and squarely to be “Berlin School”, it doesn’t always sound like a clone of Schulze or Tangerine Dream.

The Great Old Ones stand as harbingers of cosmic nightmares and arcane melodies. Forged in the ancient mists of Bordeaux, France, their evocative soundscapes transcend mere music, invoking the eldritch horrors of H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos. Prepare to embark on an odyssey of the soul with their latest offering, Kadath. In this seven-track masterpiece, the band delves into Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," guiding listeners through the doomed dreams of Randolph Carter and his quest for the elusive, magnificent city denied to him by malevolent gods. Traversing the perilous Dreamlands, Carter's journey is one of both awe and dread, his path marked by phantasmal realms and crawling chaos…

A newly remastered clamshell box set featuring the later reunion albums by Stackridge. Features The Albums 'Something For The Weekend', 'A Victory For Common Sense' & 'The Final Bow, Bristol 2015'. Illustrated Booklet With Essay.
Formed in Bristol in 1969, Stackridge were one of the most unique British bands of the era. Possessing a gift for melody, musicianship and a fine sense of humour, their concerts were legendary. The band appeared at the very first Glastonbury festival and soon after signed to MCA Records. A succession of wonderful albums in the 1970s earned the band a loyal following but following line-up changes and the release of the album 'Mr. Mick' they disbanded…

This choice chapter in the Memphis Slim story delivers an exciting taste of what a modern electric blues band sounded like in live performance during the early '70s. This reissue includes a bonus track featuring Hammond B-3 organist Deacon Jones and formidable electric guitar wizard Freddie King. The year 1973 was particularly exciting as blues, soul, funk, and rock & roll began to blend in ways that had only been hinted at during the 1960s. This cultural explosion was inevitable as music festivals were expanded to include a wide range of styles and genres. The 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, for example, featured One String Sam, Victoria Spivey, Roosevelt Sykes, John Lee Hooker, and Ray Charles on the same weekend as Yusef Lateef, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, and the Sun Ra Arkestra…

This collaboration with Yello mastermind Boris Blank displays the dark timbred voice of Malia in a set of pop titles created by the glitzy synths and sultry dancable rhythms of Blank, who uses the singer's voice like a solo instrument in the very front of a mix made by his tasteful synthetic soundscapes.
Convergence is one of the most sensual and elegant album we have heard in a long time. Its almost timeless aesthetics avoid clichés mostly associated with electronic soul music and seamlessly bring together two artists with a unique approach to their work - but most important of all: it’s got soul and sensuality, both in a very elegant and airy way but still has enough artistic weight to carry the promise of becoming a long term companion.

This little known US quartet released one album in 1975 and then faded into obscurity. Zazu seemed inclined to divide their time between lengthy prog workouts and shorter AOR numbers, both styles paying off tremendously. Fans of manic keyboard solos will be delighted with some of the more furious excursions on the longer heavier tracks, and despite the dearth of information about Zazu, the talent was there for greater things.

Principal Edwards Magic Theatre is one of those hard-to-classify bands that made the late '60s a musical adventure playground for listeners. What was more, the live music scene and airwaves were broad-minded enough to give bands who dared to be different the chance of exposure. They enjoyed the attention of the late John Peel who broadcast them on his BBC shows and made them the first band to be signed to his Dandelion record label. The Devon Tapes was recorded in the summer of 1974 under the shorter name Principal Edwards. This is the first time these recordings have been made available to the public.

Joe Pass became famous with his unaccompanied guitar showcase on Virtuoso, the beginning of a very notable series. However, this 1983 double LP actually preceded the first Virtuoso by a month and differed in that Pass exclusively chose to play acoustic guitar, rather than electric. The relatively little-known set finds the guitarist sounding very much like a self-sufficient orchestra, and although his tone is necessarily softer on acoustic than electric, he swings hard on the uptempo pieces. Among the many highlights are "Indian Summer," "My Shining Hour," "I'll Remember April," and "Limehouse Blues."