This must surely be the most lavish and welcome Procol compilation ever released: 57 tracks, all the A and B sides from 1967 to 2002, with lavish photographs and comprehensive liner notes. All collectors will prize this album, not least since it includes Adagio di Albinoni and the live Blue Danube that was its B side… items too precious to play from the rare vinyl versions.

John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Billie Holiday, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, Leadbelly and many others.

In 1956, trumpeter Art Farmer was teamed with tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley and pianist Horace Silver in one of the most vital and important modern jazz groups of the seminal hard bop era. But it was Farmer here who was emerging as a leader, with Mobley tagging along on this excellent date. Not to say that Mobley was a slouch, and indeed far from it as a peer of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Fact is, Mobley led the band with Farmer and Silver, but achieved his greatest acclaim alongside trumpeters Lee Morgan, and eventually Miles Davis. For Farmer, this recording was a coming out party, establishing him not only as a fine player, but a composer who lyricists were attracted to. "Farmer's Market" with its by now immortal swift hard bop melody and harmony courtesy of the Farmer/Mobley tandem, and the languid ballad "Reminiscing" with Mobley out but pianist Kenny Drew adding reinforcement a hundredfold…

Guru Guru played in the Wartburg, a Wiesbaden hall, on September 17th, 1973. It was one of the gigs recorded by Xhol (Caravan) acquaintance Muck Krieger. His recording equipment was then state-of-the-art: an Uher tape recorder CR 124 and two Revox microphones for the stereo sound, the equipment he had used the year before (CD 'Wiesbaden 1972'). The result has turned out satisfactory, although the occasional singing sounds slightly thready and reverberant. That is partly due, however, to the live sound reproduction during the gig. With its 37 minutes, 'Ooga booga' leaves a lot of space for free improvisation. 'Round dance' and 'Das Zwickmaschinchen' are from their fifth LP, 'Don't call us', which had just been recorded at that time. Thus, Muck Krieger's supply of Guru Guru materials has been exhausted.

Code Indigo is one of those hard to categorise electronic bands whose music and concept albums cross genres and has wide appeal. The music is original, with thematic compositions, an imaginative combination of synths, keyboards, guitar, samples and rhythms plus a good helping of experimental, ambient and down tempo chill out influences. The music compares to that of a ‘Blade Runner’ style soundtrack, with Pink Floyd and Art of Noise influences. The band was founded in 1994 by David Wright and Robert Fox with the original line-up completed by Nik Smith and Vaughn Evans.

Bloodstone's only full length album, "Valley Of The Machines", came out on the doomed Long Island Records in 1995. The mid-90s was the WORST time in hard rock history for a band like Bloodstone to release a historic treasure of 80s metal stylings. Deeply rooted in the traditional essence of groups like Dio and Sabbath, the band felt the need to sprinkle hard rock seasoning to the brew, mixing in elements of bigger arena acts such as White Lion, circa "Fight To Survive" and Ratt. The metal act was skipped over by fans however, who at the time were emptying out their wallets for garage grunge acts like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden instead. After releasing one album and an EP, "2,000 Down The Line", Bloodstone disappeared from the stages and the shelves.

The Italian/Irish duo ARPARLA uses music as a way to communicate and interact with others, using the soft and refined tones of the harp and the expressive colors of the violin. Their repertoire focuses on the Baroque period and the transition between Classicism and Romanticism (17th-19th centuries), in which their instruments are perfectly able to express the aesthetics of this era.

When Procol Harum's ninth studio album, Something Magic, was released in March 1977, it sold poorly and was largely dismissed, with the group breaking up at the end of the promotional tour for it. With this reissue more than 30 years later, annotator Roland Clare argues it is "in need of outright reappraisal." He doesn't actually make that case, but he does explain the circumstances that led to the debacle. After its previous album, Procol's Ninth, produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Procol Harum might have been expected to go back to a more conventional approach; instead, the group hired the hot studio of the day, Criteria in Miami, and its hot resident producers, Ron and Howie Albert.