This 22-track compilation makes for a commendable jaunt through some of the Climax Blues Band's best material. It may not be the most comprehensive set available, but it does manage to excerpt songs from some of the group's better albums. Led by the Number Nine hit "Couldn't Get It Right" (Number Ten in the U.K.), this compilation package takes the essential cuts from their most significant releases, including their self-titled debut album from 1968, when they were known as the Climax Chicago Blues Band, as well as 1971's Tightly Knit; 1972's Rich Man; and 1976's Gold Plated, which heralded both "Berlin Blues" and "Everyday."

The title of Mompou's masterpiece Música callada comes from the Cántico Espiritual of the Spanish mystic, St John of the Cross, where the expression música callada (music without sound) is complemented by soledad sonora (solitude that clamours). The poet explains 'that music is without sound as far as natural senses and capacities are concerned' but 'solitude sounds out loud through spiritual capacities'. In spite of the apparent clarity of the metaphor, its sense for Mompou was 'difficult enough to explain in a language different from Spanish'. Beyond general understanding of these words, they seem to have a personal significance for the composer, only accessible through his music.

As both musician and composer the violin was central to Sibelius’s career, and his output for the instrument spans much of his long life. Acclaimed violinist Fenella Humphreys and celebrated pianist Joseph Tong explore a tantalizing program of Sibelius’s music, from the youthful Andante cantabile in G major composed in 1887, through Opp. 78 and 81, written in the midst of the First World War, to his last works for the instrument – Four Pieces, Op. 115 and Three Pieces, Op. 116 both penned in 1929. Completing the program are the five Danses champêtres, Op. 106 from 1924–5.

UK metal titans 5th studio album, VENOM, will street on 8/14th via RCA Records. Produced by Carl Bown and Colin Richardson (Slipknot, Machine Head, Trivium) at Metropolis Studio in London, VENOM is an unrelenting, fierce step forward for Bullet For My Valentine. Their heaviest record to date sinks its teeth into listeners with a powerful delivery by vocalist/guitarist Matt Tuck, ferocious riffs by guitarist Michael "Padge" Paget and rapid-fire rhythm courtesy of drummer Michael "Moose" Thomas. On VENOM the trio maintains their signature balance of heavy, coupled with surging melody, and pushes themselves to the next level.

Aerosmith prove that a band can be inspired by the blues and play the blues without ever feeling like a blues band. Then again, the nature of the blues is that every musician who plays it stamps his or her own identity on a set of familiar chord changes and songs. While it might not feel like the blues, Aerosmith do indeed stamp their identity on each track on their long-promised blues album, the atrociously named Honkin' on Bobo. Other rockers who have cut full-length blues albums have always played the music with a kind of scholarly reverence, taking care to pay tribute to their influences. Not Aerosmith.

Nothing if not prolific (this is Popa Chubby's sixth set of original material in six years), the New York City-based guitarist nonetheless scores with fresh, often inspired material on this outing, Stealing the Devil's Guitar. He has already shown he can push past the rather strict boundaries of blues-rock by gradually infusing hip-hop, Latin, Southern swamp, and even reggae influences, and continues to do so throughout 12 new songs, along with a cover of Jessie Mae Hemphill's "In This World." Chubby loves to ride a chunky riff and he serves up a tasty selection of them here. The instrumental "Kinda Dicey" is a perfect example; it's a tough, sticky, funky groove, ideal for Chubby's licks. Same with the strutting "Smuggler's Blues," a story of the titular character who is both desperate and determined, with a smoking guitar solo that mirrors its narrator's intensity to get his job done.

Here is a natural and effective coupling of spiritual-minimalist pieces from the Baltic and the Balkans; and how good it is to see this music at last on a major label with a top-flight international orchestra.
The benefits are clear in Kancheli’s Third Symphony, with its extreme contrasts of solo vocal keening and tutti Stravinskian outbursts. Here the spaciousness of EMI’s recording, made in Watford Town Hall, and the refinement of the LPO’s playing are clear gains over the rival Georgian performance (which comes with the added drawback of having been transferred a whole tone too high by the original Melodiya team). The mesmeric folk-derived lament which punctuates the structure was sung on the earlier recording by Rustavi choir-member Gamlet Gonashvili, for whose unearthly tenor Kancheli conceived it.

Michael Tschudin led the Boston-based band Listening, but it is the contributions by former Velvet Underground bassist Walter Powers and guitarist Peter Malick which make this album historic. Powers performed over the years with keyboardist Willie Alexander as members of Capitol Recording Artist the Lost, the aforementioned Velvets, and on Autre Chose, a live album from Alexander released on New Rose in Paris. Peter Malick is best known for being Otis Spann's guitarist and a member of the James Montgomery Band on Capricorn. Their legendary status in Boston rock & roll history brings positive notoriety to the fine music on this Vanguard release. "So Happy" is the poppiest tune, a cross between the Monkees and the Mojo Men, which is quite misleading…

This compilation taken from two seminal albums in the history of Eastern European jazz - particularly in what used to be Yugoslavia - is a welcome find in the bins of the United States and England. Saxophonist Tone Jansa is a giant of a man, and a saxophonist who has much in common with both Pharaoh Sanders and the giant who influenced him, John Coltrane. This quartet made a total of five records, and one in quintet and sextet settings. But the two that are referred to here should be reissued in their entirety. Oh well, what can ya do? The first two tracks of this outrageously beautiful, spiritually motivated open modal jazz is from the Tone Jansa Jazz Kvartet disc on RTB in 1976, and the last four are from the Tone Jansa Kvartet disc on the same label from 1978…

For Example is an another band from the SWF-broadcast vaults, with their recording they did in 1973. The band, founded in the late sixties, consisted of students of various study fields. In the beginning they played under the name 'Frida III' cover versions of sixties hits, but after they had been taken on for 2 productions by the State Theatre Tübingen, they changed their music style, added three wind players with jazz experience and formed 'For Example'. At first they played pieces of their favourite bands 'Chicago' and Blood, Sweat and Tears', but their repertoire also comprised soul numbers with horn sections. Step by step they added self composed titles and found their own music style, still influenced by their favourites…

Facil is a collaboration merging the talents of Dietrich Schoenemann of Prototype 909 and Tension Record's Abe Duque. Abe Duque is a name well known to the underground as the producer behind Techno powerhouse label Tension Records and the Ambient-oriented Rancho Relaxo Records. Abe Duque is also known throughout Europe for his live performances during his annual residence there, several months a year. Drawn together by the relaxed rhythms and Ambient vibes at The Limelight's Rancho Relaxo, these two electronic maestros fell into collaboration and found that the creative tension between their styles was giving birth to a brand-new vibe: an easy, free-flowing, electronic communication of organic beats, liquid soundscapes, and free floating tonalities. Facil is motion-oriented: delivering Dietrich and Abe's own distinctive style of sparkling, clear Ambient beauty.