On Andy Summers and Robert Fripp's second album, Bewitched, the duo offered a new batch of their instrumental songs, which turned out to be much more rock-oriented than their texturized 1982 debut, I Advance Masked. The album was originally going to be a more musically varied affair - at the time, Summers talked about recording calypso and Tex-Mex/Ry Cooder-like tunes with Fripp, but they never saw the light of day. Like its predecessor, it contains plenty of great guitar work, with songwriting being stressed over instrumental virtuosity. For example, Summers and Fripp know how to subtly insert challenging sections into their songs (such as the 7/4 time signature in "Maquillage"), without making them seem like an obvious attempt to impress fellow musicians…

Saucy blues-rockers Juicy Lucy formed in 1969 from the ashes of cult favorite garage band the Misunderstood, reuniting vocalist Ray Owen, steel guitarist Glenn "Ross" Campbell, and keyboardist Chris Mercer, with the additions of guitarist Neil Hubbard, bassist Keith Ellis, and drummer Pete Dobson. The group immediately notched a U.K. Top 20 hit with their reading of the Bo Diddley perennial "Who Do You Love," with their self-titled debut LP falling just shy of the Top 40. Ex-Zoot Money singer Paul Williams, guitarist Mick Moody, and drummer Rod Coombes replaced Owen (who exited for a solo career), Hubbard, and Dobson for 1970's Lie Back and Enjoy It, with bassist Jim Leverton assuming Ellis' duties for the follow-up, 1971's Get a Whiff a This.

Originally released 1969 on MPS Records Germany - which became world famous for Dave Pike´s Noisy Silence Gentle Noise released in the same era. This is a true jewel for all progressive music enthusiasts.Ahead of its time the album is an eclectic mixture of beat, psychedelia and little hints of jazz rock. The album is compared with the similarly styled debut of Burnin' Red Ivanhoe. 14 Minutes title song 'Maxwells Street' sounds like a continuation of the Rolling Stones' 'Their Satanic Majesty's Requests'. Lars Bisgaard and Bent Hesselmann later played with Rainbow Band. Comes with bonus tracks, digitally remastered from the original tapes and with informative booklet.

This debut Genesis album, which has appeared under license to various labels in addition to Decca and London in different configurations, is largely of historical interest. The group was still in its formative stages, the members barely past their 18th birthdays and still working out what they wanted to sound like. Mostly they sound like the Bee Gees trying to be the Moody Blues (picture something similar to the sound of the former group's Odessa album). "The Silent Sun" and "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet" are pleasant enough, but scarcely indicate the true potential of the group or its members. A pleasant enough piece of pop-psychedelia/art rock, but not a critically important release, except to the truly dedicated.

Although Tomcats Screaming Outside is technically his debut album, Roland Orzabal has been a solo artist in all but name for the best part of a decade. The dominant half of Tears for Fears, Orzabal turned the 1980s pop duo into a one-man band after the departure of Curt Smith in the early 1990s, releasing two albums, Elemental and Raoul and the Kings of Spain. Although "Ticket to the World," "Bullet for Brains," and "For the Love of Cain"–big chorus, guitar-led pop/rock anthems–could happily fit into either of his post-Curt Smith albums, Tomcats is very much a return to the experimental ways of Tears for Fears' heyday. The dark production and menacing rhythm tracks of "Under Either" and "Hypnoculture," the ambient sway of "Day by Day," the grunge-esque "Dandelion," and the drum & bass of "Kill Love" and "Hey Andy" are all coupled with contagious melodies and Orzabal's twisted vocals, leaving little doubt that the imagination that separated his former band from their peers and made their songs so enduring is still incredibly fertile. Solo album or not, Tomcats Screaming Outside is the best Tears for Fears album in a decade.

The Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Alf Emil Eik recorded and released this album on the Harvest-label in 1979. Eik produced the album himself and played all the instruments, including bass, drums, guitar, bells, moog, Mellotron and string-synths. Musically this is symphonic progressive rock with a jazzy edge. The songs vary from lush, beautiful and Mellotron-drenched tracks like "Crying" (great use and combination of the string and choir-sounds of the Mellotron) and "Heart" to energetic, jazzy instrumental journeys like "Joy" and "The Present Age". "Breath of Eternity" is also quite jazzy, but in a much more laid-back style and creates some pleasant and dreamy atmospheres. "To You" and "Care" are nice vocal-tracks with obvious Yes-influences in the arrangements, and there are also some nice interludes like "Morning Glory" and the majestic "March of Earth" here.

In the early 1970s Barclay James Harvest pioneered the fusion of rock and classical music, touring with their own symphony orchestra. On the 23rd September 2023, a stunning and unique concert took place which saw the first performance by any incarnation of Barclay James Harvest with a symphony orchestra to take place in UK since 1973. Joining JLBJH for this memorable concert was The Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Benjamin Ellin.

Retaining the buoyant musical feel of Paul Simon, but employing a more produced sound, There Goes Rhymin' Simon found Paul Simon writing and performing with assurance and venturing into soulful and R&B-oriented music. Simon returned to the kind of vocal pyrotechnics heard on the Simon & Garfunkel records by using gospel singers. On "Love Me Like a Rock" and "Tenderness" (which sounded as though it could have been written to Art Garfunkel), the Dixie Hummingbirds sang prominent backup vocals, and on "Take Me to the Mardi Gras," Reverend Claude Jeter contributed a falsetto part that Garfunkel could have handled, though not as warmly…