Mostly hypnotic electronic motifs & rhythms combined to Pinhas’ Robert Fripp guitar imitation. This is not a classic but an important contribution in French electronic rock explorations. Consequently this is in the direct line of “Electronic Guerilla” but much more achieved with a few original attempts. “Allez Teia” is certainly the most recommended effort for those who enjoy Richard Pinhas’ guitar style. Most of compositions feature nice extended, repetitive & moving musical pictures. Not so far from Eno/Fripp collaboration but more aggressive with a great intensity and a rather “stoned” atmosphere.

This album is the French quintessential in spacey-droning electronic universe. The concept of “perspective” (song titles) linked to “the elasticity of humanity” and the “chaosmos” always refers to Gilles Deleuze and a part of the contemporary French philosophical tradition. “Agneta Nilsson” is far better than everything else written by Heldon. Richard Pinhas’ little sloppy imitation of Robert Fripp’s guitar style has gone to let the place to hyper-visceral and hypnotic floating electronic textures. No electronic rhythms just an amazing electronic storm, with haunting, eerie, surreal sounds.

Do you like mellow music? Do you love Mellotron sound? OK, this cd is for you. An instrumental album where beloved Mellotron is the absolute star, with nice guitars and percussion. This is a ridiculous album and just plain revolting! Why did we have to wait so damn long for a mellotron orgy? Retro-this and retro-that but let it be known that this storied contraption that made many a musician green with envy at getting their fingers on one, red-faced with anger when the damn Mark IVs would go haywire (which was often) and outright ashen when everything would go right (which also was often). But by God, when it decided to evoke majesty, splendor and emotion, it was a mind blowing experience that left one breathless and trembling with glee.

Odin, like NEKTAR was a British band residing in Germany. While NEKTAR received some success (especially the United States when Passport Records showed an interest in their music), ODIN simply released one album, disappeared, and has pretty much been ignored. The album was released on the swirl Vertigo label, and due to its obscurity, one of the more desired titles on the label. While NEKTAR sometimes flirted with Krautrock styles (often so far as being called Krautrock, even if they weren't German), ODIN mainly stuck to a heavy guitar/organ-dominated prog style that was typical of the British scene of the early '70s. If you love the sound of the Hammond organ, this album is a total must, often Jeff Beer played his organ with fuzz tone, not unlike DEEP PURPLE's Jon Lord, or Peter Robinson's work with QUATERMASS. Truly an amazing and forgotten gem of British prog.

This is really a fabulous document. What I do not understand though is why it took more than thirty years to release the live performance of the Tull at the Isle of Wight. A mystery. How happy would have been the million of fans to get this in those ancient days. At the time, the Tull was already well established. "Stand Up" has been number 1 in the UK so the Tull will be at the high in the hierarchy of bands to play there.

With this album, Genesis pulled in the reins and reverted in part to the style their traditional fan base expected. There are certainly a number of lighter tracks with leanings towards singles, but all in all, one of the better post Gabriel and Hackett era Genesis albums.

In 1972, there were only a few albums that stood out among the steady stream of (prog) releases. Yes released Close To The Edge, Jethro Tull Thick As A Brick and Genesis Foxtrot. Some may say that Genesis made more significant albums than Foxtrot, like Selling England By The Pound or The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, but Foxtrot was basically the reason why Peter Gabriel started dressing up in strange masks and costumes, something which earned the band just that little bit of extra attention they needed to be noticed by a larger audience. Since that extra attention was however largely focused on Gabriel, giving him a rock star status that he did not desire, it also caused him to leave Genesis a few years later. Still, Foxtrot is the album that contains one of the songs that people still talk about with a certain reverence and which inspired many other bands to write long (read: 15-minute-plus) songs; Supper's Ready.

Musically, this is indeed a widescreen snapshot of Genesis at their apex and magnitude. Look no further than the iconic beginning, with Tony Banks' piano lines scampering up and down the keyboard to the boom of the opening power chord and Gabriel's commanding pronouncement, as if from some chariot above: "And the lamb lies down on broadway..." At their heart, this was a band that could rock, and in addition to the fine title track, songs like "In the Cage," "Lilywhite Lilith" and "it" show the power of this band as a rock entity.

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Brien Comerford, Amazon.com wrote: Dante's Paradiso is a complete gem put together by the multitalented and musically eclectic Edgar Froese. He has always been the mastermind and musical wizard behind Tangerine Dream. Paradiso resonates with operatic vocals and poignant music. It is just as good as Tangerine Dream's dynamic Inferno CD. Edgar Froese has composed experimental, techno, new age, ambient, rock, classical and musical soundtracks of the utmost quality. He plays myriad keyboard instruments and stellar guitar. Froese is a mysical and spiritual composer. He is also a pacifist vegetarian who writes and composes music about universal peace in a very profound way. Paradiso will mesmerize you and musically fortify you. A very creative undertaking.

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How was Genesis able to fill huge arenas and concert halls across the world in the 70s without the benefit of a hit single? It's because they were awesome in person and this collection is proof positive. They weren't content to just attempt to reproduce their album cuts, they wanted to improve them and let them grow on their own volition. The fact that most of the songs featured two of the best rock drummers in the world (Phil with Bill or Chester) made them instantly different from the recorded versions. I still consider Seconds Out a fine live record but this one is just as good, if not more dynamic with the remastering job.

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This live album was recorded pretty soon after the departure of Peter Gabriel,. Phil Collins therefore takes on the lead vocals on many tracks previously fronted by Gabriel, post Gabriel Genesis material being in relatively short supply . It should be borne in mind that although “A trick of the tail” had given a firm indication that there was life after Peter, fans attending live gigs were still apprehensive, seeking the reassurance that the old favourites would not simply be ditched. “Seconds out” is a good mixture of old and (at the time) new, with only the newly released “A trick of the tail” representing the post Gabriel era. As Peter Gabriel said at the time on his “Solsbury hill” single, “Today I don’t need a replacement”. “Seconds out” went a long way to showing that to be the case. Bob McBeath

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The music on QE2 is exactly what you’d expect from the best Oldfield albums: incredibly proficient and tasty electric guitar leads, top notch percussions of many styles, great synth flavors, and occasional use of good vocals. The songs are very uplifting, full of spirit and pizzazz, and really without a dull moment to be found. Good melody is everywhere and of the catchy variety that will stick with you. Oldfield is a master of never losing melody even though his playing and arrangement are often of decent complexity.

Although this album dates from 1991, it is one of Tull's most recent albums. By this time, their days of being a folk progressive rock band were behind them, their albums consisting of short tracks with much simpler structures. Indeed, it seems unlikely that they will ever make another "Thick as a brick" or indeed "A passion play", and we must assume their days as a prog band are behind them forever. What we have here then is an album which often sounds similar to DIRE STRAITS.

The band La Düsseldorf (from, as you might have guessed, the city of Düsseldorf) stands in relation to its parent group NEU! like a sleek, newer model of a vintage roadster, fresh off the assembly lines in 1976. This was the sophomore effort for Klaus Dinger and company, not as strong as their self-titled debut but still another minor gem from the less traveled corners of late ‘70s Krautrock. Fans of NEU! will immediately recognize the automotive 4/4 beat, the ringing guitars and gentle washes of keyboard, and of course the home-made cut-and-past cover art, a Dinger specialty years before it became a New Wave cliché. But it’s a more haphazard collection of songs this time around, sounding in places not unlike outtakes from the earlier album, patched quickly together but presented with confidence and more than a little post-punk gusto.

Black Box Recovered is a compilation of material from various sources, mostly from the early 1980s, half of which is previously unreleased. Tracks 1 - 6 are songs recorded for 'Black Box', an aborted follow-up to Woolly's debut album Mæstoso, described as "almost finished masters"; tracks 7 - 10 represent work-in-progress, songs being recorded which were never completed, the most obvious omission being any percussion; tracks 11 - 14 are Woolly's original demos of four songs for the Mæstoso album; tracks 15 - 17 are from a bootleg recording of the band live in Vienna 1981; finally, track 18 is a new composition recorded by Woolly alone in 2003.