Duncan Mackay is a British composer, singer, arranger, and keyboard player who has recorded three solo albums. On this, his second solo album, has moved slightly away from the Keith Emerson imitations that permeated his first album. Slightly, because the Emerson sound still appears. On the first track, Witches, a somewhat Spanish sounding symphonic proc piece, Mackay plays Emerson-like riffs on a honky-tonk tack piano, similar in sound to keith's in Benny The Bouncer. Acousic piano appears throughout the album, with Mackay providing obvious Emerson-influenced sounds.
Most obvious are Spaghetti Smooch, which sounds very much like a reworking of the main sections of Tarkus, played in 7 instead of 10, and Time Is No Healer, which owes a lot to Take A Pebble…

Chicago Ain't Nothin' But A Blues Band (Delmark) was originally released on vinyl in 1972, and collected recordings made by Rev. H. H. Harrington for his Atomic-H label. In addition to recording gospel groups, the good Reverend also brought his share of blues ensembles into his West Side Chicago studio, and that's what is found here. 14 of the 23 cuts on the CD were not released on the original album, so it's hard to call this one a re-issue. And there's some great, raw urban blues to be found here. One of the stars in the Atomic-H stable was Rev. Harrington's nephew, Eddy Clearwater, who is still touring and recording. He contributes six of the disc's songs, most notably the Chuck Berry-ish "Hillbilly Blues" and an uptempo novelty tune "Neckbones Everyday"…

In the only one of Johann Schein's religious works to be reissued as long as twenty-two years after his death, Fontana D'Israel (Fountain of Israel) is still regarded as his most exceptional artistic achievement. This Israelsbrünnlein contains twenty-six vocal compositions, which, as Schein writes, "can be comfortably played on their own with lively voice and instruments, and also on the organ/harpsichord" and to which he had added a figured bass, admittedly dispensable in most cases.

Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and bass soloist Alexey Tikhomirov in this poignant performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13, Op. 113 (Babi Yar), recorded live in September 2018.

Weinberg always acknowledged Shostakovich as his source of inspiration. The three movements of his Violin Sonata No. 1 cover the path from C minor to C major, a popular route in Soviet academic tradition and one also taken by Shostakovich with a colossal effect in his Symphony No. 8 during the course of the same year. Weinberg’s Violin Sonatas 2 and 3 continue to reveal his creative ambitions.

Panta Rhei played in Hungary, from 1974 to 1982, in various styles, from jazz to progressive rock. They also designed and built their own synthesizers. Later they continued recording as P.R.Computer. Panta Rhei were well known in Hungary for their classical adaptations (in particular from Bela Bartok and Edvard Grieg) and their instrumental compositions. Their music was heavily influenced by ELP, Nice, King Crimson, etc.
The CD of Panta Rhei: Echoes Of The Past is a special piece of music, as the recordings were started in the late 90s by the original members of the band, Csaba Béke, Kálmán Matolcsy and the Szalay brothers. Matolcsy’s death in 2004 caused them to stop work, but a few years ago they decided to finish the album. The young musicians who joined the band in 2017 also played a part in making it happen. What fans will get is an unadulterated Panta Rhei album that spans the ages.

Radio Fore is a psychoacoustic journey into a deep swirling pool of 40Hz tones and binaural beats. The two extended length atmospheric soundscapes explore the mysterious sonic phenomenon that has been documented at hundreds of UFO sightings. Track one takes you for an overnight stay in North, North-West Puerto Rico, at the Arecibo Observatory, track two takes you to the sandy shores of Gulf-Breeze, Florida in the middle of the night. Two places of highly active UFO activity.

Manfred Mann's 1980 album is a strange mix of topical songwriting, progressive rock, and power pop – from its opening seconds, the Earth Band is pressing serious messages and social commentary on their listenership amid swirling prog rock keyboards and catchy guitar hooks and choruses. The whole package is challenging in ways that should have put them on the cutting edge of rock music at the outset of that decade, but one suspects that Mann and company were too musically adept and sophisticated for their own good – a little dumbing down and maybe a little less musicianship on display would have made them more accessible to the coming MTV generation.

Rory Gallagher sounds inspired throughout JInx, gamely leading new drummer Brendan O'Neill and keyboardist Bob Andrews through the blues-rock paces, even though the guitarist's personal fortunes were on a downslide from which they would never recover. "Big Guns" and "Bourbon," the album's opening selections find Rory in full fiery form, tossing out muscular guitar lines and fiery solos with descriptive lyrics catering to his infatuation with American gangsters. The album also features two of his best, and least known, songs in the spooky, paranoid title track, complete with simmering sax section, boiling tom-tom drums as well as his own stealthy harmonica, and "Easy Come Easy Go," a beautiful, bluesy ballad where Rory double tracks his acoustic and electric guitars.