The South Korean ensemble juggles with different stylistic components of traditional Asian music, jazz, blues and rock elements as well as electronics. A powerful mixture, in which improvisation and traditional forms merge. The sound of unfamiliar instruments fascinates. Traditional flutes, percussion and string instruments draw intense soundscapes. Again and again, an electric guitarist breaks through the archaic, epic pieces with a sound reminiscent of Terje Rypdal and Jeff Beck. "Karma" - this is modern global music without borders, but with strong roots: an exciting audio trip!

As suggested by the title, From Langley Park to Memphis is Prefab Sprout's spiritual journey into the heart of American culture; obsessed with rock 'n' roll ("The King of Rock 'n' Roll") and Bruce Springsteen ("Cars and Girls"), fascinated with gospel music ("Venus of the Soup Kitchen") and locked in a love/hate relationship with New York City ("Hey! Manhattan"), Paddy McAloon turns an iconoclastic eye to the other side of the Atlantic in order to make some sense of it all. An airy, lounge-pop feel permeates the record, which also sports cameos from the likes of Stevie Wonder and Pete Townshend. Still, while ambitious in both concept and execution, From Langley Park to Memphis pales in comparison to its masterful predecessor Two Wheels Good a shortcoming acknowledged by Prefab Sprout themselves with the title of their next album, Jordan: The Comeback.

Released in 1980 while Yellow Magic Orchestra was enjoying its first wave of mega-success, B-2 Unit was Ryuichi Sakmoto’s second full length solo effort. Contrasting with the pop-oriented works Sakamoto was doing with YMO at the time, B-2 Unit was produced with a focus on sounds and tones rather than traditional song strucutres. B-2 Unit has proven to be very much ahead of its time and extremely influential in the development of electronic music. ""Riot In Lagos,"" in particular, is often cited as the blueprint for electro/techno sounds that would rise to prominence in the ensuing decade. Recorded in London and Tokyo with dub master Dennis Bovell, Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s Steve Nye, XTC’s Andy Partridge, guitarist Kenji Omura.

As Lord wrote in the liner notes, on this classical-rock fusion album, recorded in Deep Purple's dying days, "The theme behind the music on this album is that of a baroque dance suite; a form of music which was brought to its highest level by Bach. The title of each track is the name of a dance used in one of these dance suites, and I have tried to use the same tempo and feel as an original Sarabande, Gigue etc."

Man, we're rolling out a lot of complete-album sets this week, aren’t we? This one might be the smallest of the bunch, but it’s easily as impressive – and contains material that’s at least as influential – as the other two sets we’ve spoken of. For all the flack that Rod Stewart’s gotten over the years, there are at least four reasons to cut him some slack, and these are them: First Step (1970), Long Player (1971), A Nod Is as Good as a Wink…to a Blind Horse (1971), and Ooh La La (1973). The camaraderie between Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones is about as good as early ‘70s rock got, and if you haven’t had the opportunity to experience it in all its glory, then we envy you the opportunity to pick up this set and bask in it for the first time.

I used this album to introduce myself to Kansas many moons ago, and I'm very glad that I did. At 48 minutes, this album gives you the most popular Kansas tracks and only a miniscule amount of fluff..

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.
Am I even hearing the same album as everyone else on here? I don't see why so many people think this is a bad album. Actually; it's quite good. Very good, actually, and I may even go so far as to say that it's a better album then MONOLITH in some ways.

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.
This album is I think underrated. It's obvious here that Kansas took different approach in their composition after their last studio album "Point Of Know Return" so some people who got used to their early work like "Leftoverture" or "Song For America" were disappointed with this change.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.
While on the British continent ELP, GENESIS and YES became extravagant millionairs, on the other side of the Atlantic 'six hillbillies' with their band KANSAS turned out to be the best and one of the most popular USA progrock band ever.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.
I don't believe there ever was an album which deserved its title more than this one. "Point of know return" shows the heyday of Kansas.

Norway's avantgarde Black Metal pioneers and innovators BORKNAGAR arise at their most spirited and resplendend on their 11th studio album, "True North". Succeeding 2016's acclaimed "Winter Thrice" release and 25 years into the band's existence, BORKNAGAR's characteristically varied fusion of musical styles and inimitable layered vocal arrangements elevates the hour-long array of these 9 new tracks to a sonic spectacle of epic proportions and undisputable grandeur. "True North" was once again mixed by Jens Bogren / Fascination Street Studios (Opeth, Amon Amarth, Kreator) and is made available as limited first-pressing Digipak CD with 2 bonustracks and as Gatefold 2-LP on 180gr.

Jordan: The Comeback is Prefab Sprout's largely successful attempt to embrace the breadth of popular music; wisely reuniting with producer Thomas Dolby, Paddy McAloon freely indulges his myriad ambitions and obsessions to weave a dense, finely textured tapestry closer in spirit and construction to a lavish Broadway musical than to the conventional rock concept LP. Over the course of no less than 19 tracks, McAloon chases his twin preoccupations of religion and celebrity, creating a loose thematic canvas perfect for his expanding musical palette; quickly dispensing with common pop idioms, the album moves from tracks like the samba-styled "Carnival 2000" to the self-explanatory "Jesse James Symphony" and its companion piece "Jesse James Bolero" with remarkable dexterity.

Paddy McAloon had not yet found the key to the elegant compositions that made Prefab Sprout distinctive when it came time to record their debut, Swoon. He certainly tries hard to make his sophisticated contemporary pop sound distinctive, but the problem is that he does too many things at once the lyrics are overstuffed, and the music has too many chord changes and weird juxtapositions, as he tries to put white-funk beats to carefully crafted melodies. A few moments work, such as "Couldn't Bear to Be Special," but Swoon is primarily of interest as a historical item, since it only suggests the promise the band later filled.

GRAMMY Award-winning keyboardist/composer/producer Jeff Lorber recalls seeing guitarist Mike Stern during his much-ballyhooed tenure with Miles Davis in the early ‘80s. “I’ve been a fan of his for a long time,” said the keyboardist, who was touring hard in support of his hit records Wizard Island and It’s a Fact in those analog days. “Jeff Lorber Fusion and Miles Davis were playing some of the same festivals back then, so I got to hear him play.” For his part, Stern offered, “To be honest, I was aware of him, and had heard a bunch of good things, but I had never really checked him out. We were just in different orbits, me and Jeff.”

For his first CD with La Dolce Volta, Michel Dalberto invites us on a breathtaking journey into Beethoven’s ever-changing universe. He has chosen five sonatas from different periods. They reveal, in the pianist’s own words, the “gigantic scope of the composer’s imagination.”