by Fred Phillips When I reached into the envelope from B Side Music Group and felt something fuzzy, I wasn’t sure what, exactly, was going on. It soon became clear You May Also Like: Steven Tyler – We’re All Somebody From Somewhere (2016)
Stan Killian’s Unified is an attractive album right from the first listen. Actually, even before that first listen. Checking out the names of horn players playing alongside Killian listed on the back cover of the CD case, I saw there was already a recipe for success You May Also Like:Read More
André Vasconscellos is, like Leonardo E.M. Cioglia, a forward thinking acoustic bassist and composer from Brazil. 2 is, you guessed it, his second album, but the first one released in the U.S. Heading up a five or six piece band (depending on whether Torcuato Mariano’s guitar is included), Vasconscellos leadsRead More
Tommy Keene is still making what sounds like lost power pop gems from decades back, except they are brand new. You May Also Like: Tommy James and the Shondells – Cellophane Symphony (1969): Forgotten Series The Doughboys – ‘Running For Covers’ (2019) The Click Beetles – ‘Pop Fossil’ (2020)
Random Touch, perfectly named, is an accidental neo-prog music collective. Even better, they’ve issued a double album called Tributary, a 23-track, two-hour project, that — again, perfectly named — couldn’t be further from the mainstream. Comprised of found sounds and improvisational asides on whatever instrument is at hand, Random TouchRead More
The young man pictured on the CD cover looks barely out of his teens and in fact it’s the picture of a twenty-year-old Bryan Carter, and drummer and composer out of Chicago and a junior a Juilliard at the time of the album’s recording last December. But everything else aboutRead More
Rockpile (maybe the first neoclassicist rockers?) opened the door for every throwback moment of the coming decade — not to mention new wave. Yet this late 1970s-era rockabillying power-pop supergroup came and went so quickly, they rarely get their due. You May Also Like: For ELO’s Jeff Lynne, Meeting GeorgeRead More
Mike Zito’s new release Greyhound moves with impressive force between acoustic story songs, and these grinding, hellhound-chased blues-rock numbers. You May Also Like: Mike Zito – First Class Life (2018) Mike Zito – ‘Resurrection’ (2021) Mike Zito – ‘Blue Room’ (1998, 2018 reissue)
Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble’s follow-up to last year’s Celebrations CD is also its predecessor. Let me explain. Marlow’s first Heritage Ensemble record, Making The Music Our Own (2006) was Marlow’s first stab at making a record of modern, multicultural takes on old Hebraic (Jewish) music. Since that album was recorded,Read More
We’ve raved before about the thrilling pyrotechnic brilliance of Alex Machacek, one of the most exciting new voices in fusion guitar right now. You May Also Like: Nick Finzer, “Waking Up” from ‘Dreams, Visions, Illusions’ (2023): One Track Mind
