The Hoochie Coochie Men was a renowned Australian blues group composed of former Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne bass player Bob Daisley, guitarist and singer Tim Gaze and drummer Rob Grosser. The recurring member of the band was former Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord who first performed with The Hoochie Coochie Men in February 2003 after an injury which prevented him from performing his usual concert setlist on piano. The band was also joined on stage by various harmonica players. The Hoochie Coochie Men's second studio album, Danger: White Men Dancing features guest performances from vocalists Ian Gillan, Jimmy Barnes and Jeff Duff.

One of the first acts signed to the fledgling Harvest label in 1969, Bakerloo were very much a product of their time, a hard-hitting progressive blues band whose predilections ranged from a straightforward assimilation of Willie Dixon to some positively dazzling flashes of instrumental prowess. Guitarist Dave Clempson's "Big Bear Folly," the opening cut on the band's first and only album, is a dazzling Ten Years After-style showcase, while a jazzy variation on a theme of Bach, the aptly titled "Driving Bachwards," proves that the band wasn't averse to messing with the classics, either.

There's a reason why many consider Iggy Pop the ‘Godfather of Punk’: every single punk band of the past and present has either knowingly or unknowingly borrowed a thing or two from Pop. With his outrageous and sometimes dangerous stage antics and the relentless rock & roll that accompanied them, Iggy Pop prefigured Seventies punk (and also Nineties grunge). Acting as an eternal misfit and a saboteur of all convention, Iggy has parlayed twisted social commentary, raw-power vocal style, and survival smarts into a long career characterized by some commercial success, sizable critical notice, and huge amounts of respect all over the pop landscape.

Few front men can claim to have had such a lengthy and far-reaching career as Graham Bonnet; first finding fame as part of The Marbles, enjoying a hit with the Bee Gees’ ‘Only One Woman’ in 1968; a solo career across the 70s; further success with the Bee Gees’, and the disco flavoured ‘Warm Ride’. But Graham found what was possibly his greatest success replacing Ronnie James Dio in Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow for 1979’s “Down To Earth”, and the worldwide hit singles ‘All Night Long’ and ‘Since You Been Gone’. Solo success beckoned with ‘Night Games’ and the “Line-Up” album in 1981, before briefly joining The Michael Schenker Group for 1982’s “Assault Attack”.

Those who are into irony have to appreciate the fact that Kim Wilde, England's top female pop-rocker of the 1980s, enjoyed her first major hit with the anthemic "Kids in America" – for someone who was born and raised in the U.K., she sang quite convincingly about American youth. But Wilde had a lot more than a taste for the ironic going for her in the early to mid-1980s; the singer was very much in her prime when the recordings on this CD came out in 1981 and 1982. At the time, Wilde's forte was synthesizer-minded new wave – an approach that serves her well on "Kids in America," "Water on Glass," "View from a Bridge" and other melodic yet exuberant hits found on Greatest Hits.

Whereas Prokofiev was captivated by Romeo and Juliet , Ravel had shut himself away a quarter of a century earlier in Levallois Perret to compose Gaspard de la nuit , inspired by Aloysius Bertrand's collection of poems subtitled Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot . In 1973, the Uzbek composer Dilorom Saidaminova paid tribute to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and composed The Walls of Ancient Bukhara , which offers a sonic view of the historic centre of the Central Asian city founded four or five centuries before the common era. Her compatriot Behzod Abduraimov was keen to pay tribute to this little-known composer and record her music, which, like the other two works on this album, is evocative and colourful.

Recorded between 2009 and 2021, this mammoth project has consistently drawn the highest critical acclaim: ‘A project that began in 2010 is completed; what a journey it has been. Bavouzet’s gifts of insightful exposition and revelation are matched by the wisdom of his curation… A triumph’ -The Sunday Times ‘A recording worth rushing to the shops for. Bavouzet plays these inventive masterpieces with real love’ -Classic FM

You'll recognise the wonderful Steamy Windows (covered by good friend Tina Turner with TJW backing her) but the awesome opening track Tunica Motel which tells of Tony Joe's return to his blues roots sets the stage for the whole album. Tunica Motel has it all - strong hooks and TJW's strong songwriting which starts as a song about getting away from it all, and becomes, gradually, a gut-spilling account. "I'm so tired of fighting with myself…" confesses TJW. Later, when he's contemplating his musical direction, he "sees the ghost of Robert Johnson" and for me the line brings an involunatary tingle down my spine every time I hear it, which is often. Tony Joe is Back! In this album he reintroduces us to his warm Stratocaster blues in gorgeous tracks: Ain't Going Down This Time and You're Gonna Look in Blues. In some ways these marked a new sound that he'd develop on subsequent albums - moving us closer to his use of Spanish guitar.

The two piano virtuosos Daniil Trifonov and Sergei Babayan celebrate Rachmaninoff's 150th birthday with a double album of his most beautiful compositions for two pianos, including the Suites Nos. 1 & 2, the Symphonic Dances and Trifonov's transcription of the Adagio from Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony.

Troubles, Troubles was originally recorded for Sonet, but is probably better known through its re-release as Lost in the Blues by Alligator. Lost in the Blues was justifiably criticized because of the decision to have Lucky Peterson overdub a bunch of keyboards in order to give it a more "contemporary" (read: more "Alligator") sound. This release is of the original album (with a couple bonus alternate takes) without all the overdubbing, and is a vast improvement over the Alligator version. But how does it stand as an Otis Rush album? It's a very good set – perhaps "comfortable" says it best – recorded with Rush's longstanding band of Bob Levis on rhythm guitar, Bob Stroger on bass, and Jesse Lewis Green on drums (despite what the package says).

A double album and worth every minute of it, America Eats Its Young makes for a freaky, funky, and aware good time. Compared to the endless slabs of double-album dreck that came out around the same time from all sources, here Funkadelic brought life, soul, and much more to the party. With George Clinton credited only for arranging and producing, here the mad cast he brought together went all out. Bernie Worrell in particular now had a new importance, credited as co-arranger with Clinton as well as handling string and horn charts on a number of songs. His surging, never-stop keyboards, meanwhile, took control from the start, with his magnificent lead break on the opening "You Hit the Nail on the Head" making for one of the best performances ever on Hammond organ…