Rafiq Bhatia has already proven his fondness for experimentation as a member of synth-rock trio Son Lux. But on his third solo album, Breaking English, Bhatia pushes himself even further, crafting nine instrumentals that pull from a grab bag of influences and emotions. It’s a challenging listen. “Olduvai I – Minarets” evokes the grim doom of an early Dracula film, and the icy string interlude “Olduvai II – We Are Humans, With Blood In Our Veins,” sounds like Bernard Herrmann run amok. Both songs are dense soundscapes that only make sense when considered as two halves of a whole.

On “Nordub”, Grammy-winning Reggae legends Sly & Robbie team up with Norwegian Jazz innovator Nils Petter Molvaer to create a unique sound panorama, spanning the colorful atmospheres of Norwegian Jazz and the energetic grooves of Jamaica. Together with Eivind Aarset on guitars and Vladislav Delay on electronics, this is a band of musical soulmates, beyond all boundaries of genre. During a first tour in 2016 they received worldwide attention for their new project.

On his latest offering The Underdog, Watson is back with more of the same kind of psychedelic electronic grooves that call to mind the latest Tame Impala record Currents from a few years back. Title track “The Underdog” sounds like it could have fit perfectly in the film Vanilla Sky when (SPOILER ALERT) Tom Cruise freaks out and suffocates Penelope Cruz to death. It’s a downtempo jam with a funky bass line. It’s amazing how track to track, Watson jumps from one genre to another. If you can’t find one song on this record you like, you just don’t like music.

Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu makes his ECM debut with a striking album of his own rigorous-yet-lyrical music, sensitively played by a trio formed especially for this recording, with US guitarist Ben Monder and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari.

The Eels's 12th studio album was performed by E (Mark Oliver Everett) and longtime collaborators Koool G Murder and P-Boo alongside The Deconstruction Orchestra & Choir. It was produced by E, with some songs produced by Mickey Petralia for the first time since 1998's Electro-Shock Blues. Eels mastermind E says of the new album, ''Here are 15 new EELS tracks that may or may not inspire, rock or not rock you. The world is going nuts. But if you look for it, there is still great beauty to be found. Sometimes you don't even have to look for it. Other times you have to try to make it yourself. And then there are times you have to tear something apart to find something beautiful inside.''

Chicago has been a concert force for more than 50 years, thrilling its legion of fans with performances that never disappoint. This spring, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers will celebrate their live legacy with a collection of previously unreleased concert recordings, which includes several deep cuts that have never appeared on any of the band’s live albums.

Restoration highlights countries biggest stars with thoughtful interpretations by Dierks Bentley, Rosanne Cash and Emmylou Harris, Miley Cyrus, Vince Gill and Don Henley, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, Willie Nelson, Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton, Rhonda Vincent and Dolly Parton and Lee Ann Womack. 'It's always a huge compliment when an artist loves your song enough to take the time and effort to rework it,” adds Elton John. “As songwriters, Bernie and myself are thrilled when singers we admire and respect as much as those on Revamp & Restoration choose to add their own unique twist in the process. It means that our music is still relevant and ultimately that our songs continue to reach new audiences. We're humbled and thank them all for their generosity.

Johnny Cash: Forever Words is a collaborative album consisting of 16 songs created from Johnny Cash's unknown poetry, lyrics, and letters set to music by an astounding array of contemporary artists including Chris Cornell, Ruston Kelly & Kacey Musgraves, Rosanne Cash, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Brad Paisley, Kris Kristofferson & Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Elvis Costello, and more.

''Sex & Food' is a delightfully shapeshifting album that filters real-deal serious themes through a vibrant sonic lens that spans battered drum machine funk, doomy and thrashing rock and pinkhued psychedelic disco. Ever since they burst on the scene with blog-favourite ‘Ffunny FFriends’, Unknown Mortal Orchestra have wilfully proved themselves ready to wrong-foot all of us at each turn. Led by New Zealand’s Ruban Nielson, they followed up on that buzzy single with a fully-formed, self-titled debut in 2011 that proved the hype was well placed. Next, ‘II‘, saw them dabble with a mainstream sound while keeping their sound firmly rooted in their scuzzy origins, and 2015’s ‘Multi-Love’ was a glorious psychedelic romp through Prince-tinged pop. It seemed only natural for them to continue boogie-ing towards the dancefloor and build on ‘Multi-Love”s dancier elements.

Cosmo Sheldrake, the prodigiously talented and profoundly unique 27-year-old singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist from London, presents his debut album The Much Much How How and I, released on Transgressive Records. The Much Much How How and I was written under the influence of a diverse group of musicians - ranging from The Beatles and The Kinks to Moondog and Stravinsky - and shaped by Sheldrake's study of anthropology at the University of Sussex, his longstanding interest in ethnomusicology and a trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Produced by Cosmo Sheldrake and Matthew Herbert (Bjork, Mica Levi, London Sinfonietta) and recorded at Soup Studios and Cosmo's basement, the album will be available on limited edition vinyl, CD and download.

Thirty Seconds to Mars' maximalist rock has always been a vehicle for big ideas: Jared Leto and crew explore themes of war and peace, sexuality, freedom, and faith through concept albums and glossy videos.

Baxter Dury will be releasing his new album 'It's a Pleasure' through [PIAS] Le Label. The album was produced by Baxter, Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand, Tame Impala & Bat For Lashes) and mixed by Craig Silver (Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire & The Horrors).
 The fourth album from Baxter, his first for [PIAS] Le Label, features Babyshambles' Drew McConnell on bass and Patrick Walden on guitar.
 This album was hard work to make but now I like it lots. Male inadequacy is a hard subject to repackage in the form of skeletal Berliner music but here I've proved that's possible. Making this album I worked in New York, Brussels, Paris but you can't hear a trace of any of them, only the faint cries of Chiswick. It could be the soundtrack to a film about a doomed submarine.

'The man who is restoring the trumpet's prestige' is how Télérama described Romain Leleu, both a worthy representative of the purest tradition of the French trumpet school and a musician-adventurer, always ready to explore new universes.

Neil Young made a point of listing the recording dates of the songs on American Stars 'n Bars; the dates even appeared on the LP labels. They revealed that the songs had been cut at four different sessions dating back to 1974. But even without such documentation, it would have been easy to tell that the album was a stylistic hodgepodge, its first side consisting of country-tinged material featuring steel guitar and fiddle, plus backup vocals from Linda Ronstadt and the then-unknown Nicolette Larson, while the four songs on the second side varied from acoustic solo numbers like "Will to Love" to raging rockers such as "Like a Hurricane."

The ten Sonatas for piano and violin constitute a monument of chamber music. The first nine, written over a short period, between 1798 and 1803 (the tenth would come later, in 1812), clearly illustrate the composer's journey towards artistic maturity, from the influence of Mozart and Haydn in the first three sonatas towards a more complex, very modern language of which the 'Kreutzer' Sonata is a perfect example.