Gong Expresso’s ‘Decadence’ is exactly the kind of album fans of the jazzier side of the Gong family must have been hoping for.

It’s a somewhat revamped Ronin, but Nik Bärtsch saw opportunity with those changes and exploited them. ‘Awase’ can move both your mind and your soul but the deceptively fresh approach it takes to get under the skin like that is the brilliance of Bärtsch and his Ronin quartet.

To Mike Zito, ‘First Class Life’ is taking joy in the place he finds himself in. For the rest of us, it’s just first class blues.

Michael Franks’ ‘The Music In My Head’ continues his forty-five year tradition of delivering comfort music with intellect, wit and grace.

GospelbeacH’s “Dreamin'” is Laurel Canyon all over again. And I love it.

Apart from his collaborator Arto Lindsay, Thiago Nassif’s ‘Três’ much unlike anything else you’re likely to hear from a very broadly defined pop realm that includes its rogue elements.

Walter Becker could knock out a catchy jingle like “Just One Season” with probably about as much effort as it takes most of us to write something clever on a greeting card.

It’s always a good indication that the music is working the way the artists intend for it to work when you struggle to pigeonhole it but can easily get a firm grasp of its emotional impact. Syrinx Effect ‘s ‘A Sky You Could Strike A Match On’ does just that.

The all-originals ‘Ours’ and all-covers ‘Theirs’ are both bulls eyes from Thumbscrew and a strong way to persuade the quality label Cuneiform to not give up the fight.

Thollem ducks into a studio and jams with a noted, up-and-coming fusion guitarist and the drummer from an established garage-punk band.