One of the most iconic and influential albums of all time, "The Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023. 2023 live archive release.

This excellent recording is largely considered to be Le Orme's magnum opus. The trio, comprised of Aldo Tagliapietra (vocals, bass, guitar), Toni Pagliuca (organ/Mellotron, piano), and Michi Dei Rossi (drums), produced some of the best Italian progressive rock ever recorded. Influenced by Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis, the band forged their own unique blend of sophisticated symphonic prog rock. Tagliapietra's vocals give the music an ethereal quality, and he actually sounds quite a bit like Sting (or the other way around). Their high level of musicianship is evident on "Sospesi Nell 'Incredibile," but the focus is more on mood, song structure, and texture. The original recording contains Italian lyrics, while Van Der Graaf Generator vocalist Peter Hammill penned English lyrics for a subsequent release. Stick with the Italian version for the full effect of this prog rock classic.

Celebrating the Kinks 60th anniversary and compiled by The Kinks, this is a new, high-profile, worldwide release combining the Pye and RCA catalogues. It is the first new Kinks ‘best of’ for many years, especially so on vinyl.‘The Journey’ is a collection of tracks chosen by The Kinks’ Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Mick Avory that reflect the trials and tribulations of their journey through life together as a band since 1963. Contains: Hits, key album tracks, singles, band favorites and B-sides. All recordings remastered from original master sources. Features 8 Top 20 Hits (of which 5 were top 3) including: Waterloo Sunset, You Really Got Me, Celluloid Heroes, Supersonic Rocket Ship, Dead End Street, Death Of A Clown, All Day And All Of The Night. Tracks are taken from all the classic original Kinks albums, including: Kinda Kinks, Face To Face, Something Else and the recently remastered 50th anniversary editions of Village Green Preservation Society, Lola, Muswell Hillbillies and Everybody's In Show-Biz.

One of the most iconic and influential albums of all time, "The Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023. 2023 live archive release.

The Dark Side of the Moon was a benchmark record. It turned the musical world on its ear with a hitherto unheard combination of sounds, and changed things considerably for Pink Floyd. For this project, the band resurrected older and unfinished numbers, some of which came from the multitude of soundtracks the bandmembers had previously worked on. The film Zabriskie Point, a study of American materialism from a foreigner's perspective, provided "Us and Them" (originally titled "The Violence Sequence"). Waters rewrote "Breathe" after its appearance on his and avant-garde composer Ron Geesin's score for The Body, a surreal medical documentary. Floyd and their longtime engineer, Alan Parsons, used a multitude of sound effects, from stereophonically projected footsteps and planes flying overhead ("On the Run") to a roomful of ringing clocks ("Time"). Further adding to the record's mystique, barely audible spoken passages were sprinkled throughout; a result of hours of interviews of random Abbey Road occupants about their views on insanity, violence, and death. Floyd must have struck a nerve: The Dark Side of the Moon remained on Billboard's albums chart for an astounding 14 years. It made Pink Floyd a household name, elevating them to the level of the Rolling Stones and the Who in the rock pantheon.

Walk on Water Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Walk on Water finds the classic mid-'70s UFO lineup – featuring Michael Schenker – reuniting for another go-round. Much has changed in rock & roll since Schenker last played in UFO, but in UFO's world, things remain the same. The group continues to pound out heavy rockers without changing its formula much at all. To the disinterested observer or critic, this means Walk on Water is boring, but UFO diehards may be pleasantly surprised by the record, since it finds the band playing with energy and conviction, even if the music is predictable.

One of the most popular instrumental songs ever, 'Green Onions' started out as a band jam at a demo recording session for rock'n'roll singer Billy Lee Riley with the famed Stax Records house band. Stax label head Jim Stewart liked what he heard and recorded what would become the basis for the band's debut album. The audio has been completely remastered and the packaging features all new liner notes penned by American author David Ritz, who interviewed two of the founding members: Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper for this edition.

Raw Power is the third studio album by American rock band the Stooges (credited as Iggy and the Stooges), released on February 7, 1973 by Columbia Records. The album departed from the "groove-ridden, feel-based songs" of the band's first two records in favor of a more anthemic hard rock approach inspired by new guitarist James Williamson, who co-wrote the album's eight songs with singer Iggy Pop. Though not initially commercially successful, Raw Power gained a cult following in the years following its release and, like its predecessors The Stooges (1969) and Fun House (1970), is considered a forerunner of punk rock. The Guardian wrote that "it has since been acknowledged as one of the most influential records in rock history". The raw guitar sound of Williamson deeply influenced acts of different music genres such as the Sex Pistols, Johnny Marr of the Smiths and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.

'Break Every Rule' was Tina's follow-up album to the hugely successful comeback album 'Private Dancer' (1984). The first single 'Typical Male' was a big chart success. 'Back Where You Started' earned Tina another Grammy for best rock vocal performance, female in 1987. The album included several star-studded guest performances and songwriting from David Bowie, Mark Knopfler, Bryan Adams, Phil Collins, Steve Winwood and many more. It also saw the return of Terry Britten and Graham Lyle's songwriting partnership, penning the first five tracks of the album. The expanded 2CD edition contains the contents of the first 2CDs from the 3CD/2DVD deluxe edition. The first CD features the original album fully remastered for the first time, with the second CD containing a collection of B-sides, remixes and live performances.

On its original release in 1972, Cat Stevens' fourth LP on Island/A&M, 'Catch Bull At Four', spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, making it his biggest album of all time. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Island Records / UMe reissues a newly remastered version of 'Catch Bull At Four'.

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Sir Georg Solti’s death (5 September), Decca Classics is proud to release a new high-definition transfer of the original master tapes of his most celebrated recording: the first stereo studio production of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle, twice voted “The greatest recording of all time”. Recorded in Vienna between 1958 and 1965, and masterminded by Decca’s pioneering producer John Culshaw, this recording has always been regarded as the perfect marriage of art and technology and boasted a cast including Birgit Nilsson, Hans Hotter and Kirsten Flagstad. These new transfers of the 38 original stereo master tapes have been made at 24 bit/192kHz resolution, allowing greater detail and dynamic range than ever before.

No recording artist has more impeccable street credentials than Joe Bataan, the originator of the New York Latin soul style that paralleled Latin boogaloo and anticipated disco. His musical experience began with street corner doo wop in the 1950s, and came to include one of the first rap records to hit the charts, 1979's "Rap-O, Clap-O." In between these milestones, he recorded classic albums like Saint Latin's Day Massacre, a perennial favorite in the salsa market, Salsoul, which gave the record label its name and helped spark the national explosion of urban dance music, and Afrofilipino, which included one of the very earliest New York disco hits, an instrumental version of Gil Scott-Heron's "The Bottle."

Instant Funk Review by Andrew Hamilton
Instant Funk, the nine-piece funk unit discovered by Bunny Sigler, created a stir in 1979 when Salsoul released the single "I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)." Swirling, screaming horns announce the chorus; hand claps, tambourines and a maniacal rhythm guitar battle the heavy bottom; and a woman delivers erotic lines for added impact. Salsoul followed the number 20 pop and number one R&B (for three weeks) hit with "Crying," a race horse whose relentless beat only subsides near the fade; Carmichael's vocal is passionate, almost deranged. "Never Let Me Go Away," a rare Instant Funk ballad, was so overblown the melody got buried. Spooky voices and haunted-house sounds wallpaper "Dark Vader"'s comic-book lyrics and funky hooks. Rolling horns pump "I'll Be Doggone" (not the Marvin Gaye hit), a cooker that rolls for seven minutes. Four of the eight tracks are killers; a pretty good average for a disco/funk group.

King of Hearts is a posthumous album of Roy Orbison songs put together from master sessions and demos by Jeff Lynne for Virgin Records, and Orbison's 23rd album overall. According to the authorized Roy Orbison biography the collection was originally released in October 1992 on CD, music cassette, and LP.

Recorded live at The Paris Cinema & The Other, London, England. 1967-1971. This is a seriously fascinating series that is being done by a guy called Hummus905. He has taken mono (and sometimes stereo) recordings, and separated them into individual stems representing the different instruments. Then he remixes and and remasters the stems into a new stereo version. The results are not at all like those "simulated stereo" mixes you've heard in the past.