Peter Banks is perhaps best-known for his work with the progressive rock band Yes. Those who only see that part of the picture, though, are missing out on quite a lot.

British blues-rockers Back Door Slam boast a tough, streetwise sound that recalls veteran U.K. blues players such as Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and John Mayall, though these young guitar slingers represent a new generation -- when bassist Adam Jones joined the group in 2006, guitarist and singer Davy Knowles and drummer Ross Doyle were all of 20 years old, while Jones himself was just 19.

Many call Yes' brand of progressive rock "symphonic rock." The term means that the group produces arrangements in the vein of a symphony using typical rock instrumentation. With Magnification, Yes has taken that a step further, adding a symphony orchestra.

Key elements of the group's mid- and late-'70s repertory, including an excellent performance of "The Gates of Delirium," along with "Parallels," "Don't Kill the Whale," "Ritual," and "Wonderous Stories," and their live reconsideration of "Time and a Word."

With the exception of Peter Banks and Trevor Horn, virtually all the major contributors to Yes in its various incarnations over the previous 23 years, including both of its drummers, threw their hands into the making of Union.

Carmina Burana is Karl Orff's Pyrric victory. Its tremendous success, particularly in the USA, has consigned his other work to obscurity. But Orff is much more than the composer of one great popular piece of music and children's music. Orff had an original operatic vision and a theatrical gift that is inexplicably forgotten today. This is hard to understand, given the two thoroughly enjoyable works on this CD. ~Christopher Forbes

Following its acclaimed reworking of Kraftwerk songs with an all-original collection of pieces let the quartet show off its deservedly acclaimed abilities to a new audience who might not have otherwise encountered the work of Michael Nyman's favorite interpreters.

The American ambient/neo-classical composer who has most closely allied himself with the increasingly sympathetic independent-rock underground -- through his collaborations with the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie -- Harold Budd is also one of the very few who can very rightly be called an ambient composer.