After 14 years of silence, alt-metal supergroup A Perfect Circle returned with Eat the Elephant. Previously active on 2004's antiwar eMOTIVe – when the U.S. was embroiled in a different state of social upheaval – they re-emerged in 2018 at another pivotal time with just as much to say. While much transpired in their absence, A Perfect Circle evolved, addressing government shifts, technological advances, and social deterioration in a manner befitting of frontman Maynard James Keenan, who delivers some of the most wickedly barbed lyrics of his career. Here, Keenan and co-founder Billy Howerdel are joined by a revamped lineup that includes James Iha, Matt McJunkins, and Jeff Friedl, as well as producer Dave Sardy (Oasis, LCD Soundsystem).

Lively, ambitious, almost entirely successful debut album, made up of keyboard-dominated instrumentals ("The Barbarian," "Three Fates") and romantic ballads ("Lucky Man") showcasing all three members' very daunting talents. This album, which reached the Top 20 in America and got to number four in England, showcased the group at its least pretentious and most musicianly – with the exception of a few moments on "Three Fates" and perhaps "Take a Pebble," there isn't much excess, and there is a lot of impressive musicianship here. "Take a Pebble" might have passed for a Moody Blues track of the era but for the fact that none of the Moody Blues' keyboard men could solo like Keith Emerson.

Double album reissue from Welsh new wave band with 23 tracks includes acoustic & alternate versions. The release contains the band's first 4 singles and B-sides plus tracks from their North American debut EP originally released in 1983. Remastered from the original master tapes under the supervision of singer Mike Peters with extensive sleeve notes featuring contributions from original band members. Package includes original art inside along with unseen photographs.

In 1981 the Climax Blues Band was located in Los Angeles, recording yet another album to meet the heavy demand for their musical aspirations. Lucky For Some featured, once again, the tightly knit line up of Peter Haycock on guitar and vocals, Colin Cooper on vocals and saxophone, Derek Holt on vocals, bass guitar and keyboards and John Cuffley on drums. By now, the band had been on the road for a decade or more and played with a telepathic sense of communication on these nine superb original LP tracks, including four Haycock originals. But the guys were also helped out in the studio by some distinguished guests, notably the late session keyboard player Nicky Hopkins and vocalist Glenn Hughes. Complete with a saucy album cover design, Lucky For Some has some hot performances like Peter's Shake It Lucy and Derek Holt's Breakdown , plus a bonus track Darlin (single version).

Columbia's two-disc Greatest Hits compilation provides longtime Toto fans with a whole lot to love (except anything from the brilliant Dune soundtrack). For the average pop fan, a smaller, single-disc collection like 2003's Essential Toto will provide them with all of the "Africa," "Roseanna," and "Hold the Line" they could ever want.

The titles of the musical movements of “Actus tragicus” are taken from various passages of the Bible, as well as texts by Martin Luther, used in the cantata of the same name by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 106, also known as “Actus tragicus”). This is one of his earliest cantatas, written when Bach was only 22 years old. The bright, almost joyful nature of the music delights me, as well as the attitude to death it expresses, hence I decided to write my “own” Actus tragicus.

If Wishbone Ash can be considered a group who dabbled in the main strains of early-'70s British rock without ever settling on one (were they a prog rock outfit like Yes, a space rock unit like Pink Floyd, a heavy metal ensemble like Led Zeppelin, or just a boogie band like Ten Years After?), the confusion compounded by their relative facelessness and the generic nature of their compositions, Argus, their third album, was the one on which they looked like they finally were going to forge their own unique amalgamation of all those styles into a sound of their own. The album boasted extended compositions, some of them ("Time Was," "Sometime World") actually medleys of different tunes, played with assurance and developing into imaginative explorations of new musical territory and group interaction.

A most solid release by a player of distinct gift and musicality… his performances are entertaining and colorful. All in all, this is tasteful, skilled piano playing at a very high level, and I was pleased to make Frith's artistic acquaintance. Good sound.

…There are some thrilling moments in a well-paced interpretation, it’s Colin Davis who takes top honours with a brilliant account of Harold in Italy, probably Berlioz at his most eccentric in those sudden outbursts - something he started back in 1830 with the Symphonie fantastique, and there are many points in the first movement when one could seamlessly pass into that work. The fine violist Nobuko Imai is a wistful Harold.

In the liner notes to these carefully packaged reissues, all four of the Incredible String Band principals– co-founder Clive Palmer, core duo Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and Elektra records executive Joe Boyd– offer their insights in separate essays. Three of them mention the smell of patchouli. Such were the times, certainly, but the ISB are loved equally by avant-garde musicians, psychedelia enthusiasts, and those slightly dweeby young gentlemen who hang around music shops on college campuses. The reissue of their first four albums probably put to rest any notion that the ISB were a properly great band, releasing just one true classic, but they were rarely anything less than brave, inspired, and profoundly weird.

This rich set of music by J.S. Bach (or connected to him by attribution or publication) and transcribed for the guitar provides a stunning example of the versatility of the composer’s music, the unquestionable genius of which renders it universally successful on any instrument with polyphonic capabilities (solo string instruments included).

Research, experimentation, discovery and rediscovery of new forms and ways of expression are the basis of a musician’s work and, in the realisation of this project, they represent the cornerstones of an artistic partnership intended to give value to an important part of the saxophone repertoire, namely that related to transcriptions with piano accompaniment. Though the saxophone is a relatively recent instrument, it became a leading protagonist on the musical scene of the 20th century.