Classic Rock

As the Soft Machine's first bassist and original principal songwriter, Kevin Ayers was an overlooked force behind the group's groundbreaking recordings in 1967 and 1968. Joy Of A Toy is his debut solo album, its whimsical and unique vision is a clear indication of how Soft Machine might have progressed under Ayers' tenure. On the LP he is accompanied by his Soft Machine colleagues Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge and Hugh Hopper. After a Soft Machine tour of the USA with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ayers had decided to retire from the music business. Hendrix however, presented Ayers with an acoustic Gibson J-200 guitar on the promise that he continue his songwriting. Ayers repaired to a small London flat where he composed and arranged Joy Of A Toy features many of Ayers' most enduring songs from "The Lady Rachel" to "Girl on a Swing". It was on this album that Ayers developed his sonorous vocal delivery, an avant-garde song construction and an affection for bizarre instrumentation that would have a deep influence far into the 1970s and indeed the present day Record Label: Music On Vinyl Style: Rock

Spiralism are a band from Finland that plays a psychedelic form of post metal with elements of doom metal and this is a review of their 2014 album "Chakras" which will be released in December by Inverse Records. Psychedelic sound effects and powerful sounding bass guitars start off the album and after a couple of minutes post rock style guitars are added into the music along with a good mixture of both clean and heavy parts and the music starts to add more melody and metal influences after awhile along with a mixture of growls, screams and clean singing. Most of the tracks on the recording are very long and epic in length and also focuses more of a psychedelic sound that is heavily influenced by 70's rock but more up to date and at times the music also brings in a stoner rock vibe to some of the tracks and a few songs are instrumentals and a good portion of the music has an improv and experimental feeling at times. Spiralism plays a very heavy form of psychedelic rock that also brings in some of the heaviness of doom and post metal to create a sound of their own, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover Occult themes. Record Label: Inverse Style: Psychedelic Rock

Journeys story is one of massive success. This superb live broadcast recording, from Houston s The Summit during the Departure tour in 1980, catches the band amidst their most creative and successful period. Between 1978 and 1987 Journey had no less than seven consecutive multi-platinum albums. They have also had a staggering 18 Top 40 singles, six of which reached the Top 10. By the time of this concert, the band had already been through six different line-ups, although guitarist Neal Schon, keyboard player Gregg Rolie and bassist Ross Valory remained central to the group and had all been founder members. Journey had been formed in San Francisco seven years earlier, in 1973, by ex-members of Latin rock superstars Santana (Schon and Rolie) and cult West Coast psychedelic band Frumious Bandersnatch (Vallory and original rhythm guitarist George Tickner). In their first few years the band released three well-regarded, but not particularly successful albums, Journey (1975), Look Into The Future (1976) and Next (1977). But it wasn t until 1978 that the band really began to hit the big time, after the addition of vocalist Steve Perry, who introduced a much more Pop-oriented and commercial element to the band s previous Progressive Rock sound. Infinity (1978), the first album to feature Perry broke into the charts, it soon reached number 21 and eventually went platinum; the band also had hits with both singles Lights and Wheel in the Sky, featured here. Highly-regarded English producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had been responsible for overseeing Queen s majestic studio recordings, was in the chair for this album - and the result was quite clearly Journey s most commercially-appealing record thus far! The album is heavily featured in this concert recording: there are great versions too of Feeling That Way, Anytime, Winds Of March, Patiently and Opened the Door. By the time of the next album, Evolution , the following year, British drummer Aynsley Dunbar had been replaced by Steve Smith, who was previously with Ronnie Montrose s band. The album was another excellent Baker-produced platinum-seller and the single Lovin , Touchin , Squeezin went Top 20 - a fine live version is featured here, together with Just The Same Way, Lovin You Is Easy and Too Late. The same line-up held together for the next recording, the band s most successful album to date, Departure (1980) which also spawned the hit single Any Way You Want It. It is this line-up that is featured on this broadcast, playing superb versions of several cuts: Where Were You, People and Places, Walks like a Lady, Line of Fire and Precious Time. Unlike its predecessors, this album was largely recorded live-in-the-studio, which lent a great dynamic edge to the music. Whilst the set list here concentrates almost exclusively on Journey s three most successful alums to date, the band do delve back into the more distant past to spotlight a version of the instrumental Kohoutek from their eponymous debut album. Record Label: Left Field Media Style: Rock

Live FM radio broadcasts from Irving Plaza, New York, NY, USA, 18th August 1979 (Tracks 1-13) and The Keystone, Palo Alto, CA, USA, 1st February 1979 (Tracks 14-21). The bands potent fuzz-drenched and reverb-soaked sound was succinctly and accurately described as a stew of depraved influences - TV, 60s garage punk, comic books, jungle movies, deep-ghetto R&B and shock-value theatrics. Record Label: Sonic Boom Style: Garage Rock

Artist: Breakfast in Fur Label: Bar/None Records

Artist: Ian Paice's Sunflower Superjam Label: Earmusic

Artist: American Aquarium Label: Blue Rose Records (Edel)

Artist: Various Label: Zyx/World of (ZYX)

Artist: Elder Label: Stickman Records

Artist: Jeffrey Lee Pierce Label: Bang Records

AC/DC Label: Pride

Artist: White Lion Label: Cleopatra

Artist: Various Artists Label: Rubble

Artist: Prima Donna Label: Alive Records/Redeye

CD, Album, Reissue DVD, DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, Multichannel, NTSC, Album, Stereo, Quadraphonic All Media, Deluxe Edition, Limited Edition, Four-panel Digipak.

Artist: James & Ultrasounds Label: Madjack Records

Artist: Oliver Gottwald Label: Tapete (Indigo)