Classic Rock 97 Items

While their first two releases (Prequel and Space Mirror) saw these veterans of post-punk, new psychedelic noise, and 1990s garage rock expertly navigate the murky waters of Covid isolation with yoga-worthy ambient excursions, on their third record the quartet slides into fifth gear and terraplanes toward a fresh take on instrumental prog-rock. It’s not entirely unexpected, but there’s rapid accelerated growth at play on Tabula Rasa.

Infinite River is composed of Gretchen Gonzales (Universal Indians, Slumber Party, Terror at the Opera), Warren Defever (His Name is Alive, ESP Beetles, Ethan Daniel Davidson), Joey Mazzola (Detroit Cobras, Sponge, Sugarcoats), and special guest drummer Steve Nistor (Sparks, Ural Thomas, Seedsmen to the World). These instrumental recordings were tracked between the end of 2022 and the start of 2023 in Warren Defever’s new loft studio space in glorious Hamtramck, MI, where the sessions were supervised by Defever’s cat, Brother James. “My apartment is a big, echoey room; previously we were close together in a tight space,” Defever explains. “The other studio is cozy; this is an art gallery. So it’s a really different vibe.”

Tabula Rasa is closer to what the band is like live now. It highlights the point at which new age type music can become biker rock—which at times approximates Hawkwind or much German music from 1976, while rarely sounding like anything but itself. Tracks like “Around the Sun” and

“Sky Diamonds” definitely have evolved out of the group playing new age type music together. But here, the melodies are more pronounced; the chords and harmonies are more like pop music. Drone-based elements remain, but the pieces are shorter and far more propulsive.

Gonzales shows off her noise-guitar pedigree with both subtlety and aggression. Defever has largely ditched his tanpura for a bass synthesizer. It’s a joy to hear Nistor, who’s been a member of Sparks for close to two decades, open up, and just go gonzo on his kit. Mazzola’s songwriting has followed suit; these are great (and often lovely) compositions here. And his practice in playing with the band, especially Nistor, allows Mazzola to open up new possibilities for downright prog than he’s ever shown before.

A highlight has to be their crunchy and multi-part take on “Favorite Things,” which truly shows off Infinite Rivers’ diverse backgrounds. Defever relates that “Gretchen only knew the song from Coltrane’s take, while Joey only knew it from Sound of Music.” If that’s not worlds colliding, what is?

- Mike McGonigal

This is a beloved broadcast of Bruce Springsteen; a rehearsal show for his 1992 - 1993 world tour for the albums Lucky Town and Human Touch. Backed by his impressive band, Bruce belts out earlier hits of his career like ‘Born in the Usa’ and ‘Glory Days’. His then new wife Patti Scialfa takes center stage and joins her husband on ‘Human Touch’. The smash hit of this Springsteen era, ‘Hungry Heart’, gets the unplugged treatment during this performance, with Bruce playing the acoustic guitar and harmonica.

Intergalactic Lovers' sophomore album finally available again on vinyl.

Including the hits 'Northern Rd' and 'Islands'.

Limited repress on 2LP with special etched D side.

Ggb-033lp

The cabalistic duo Ak’chamel strikes again with a second record called A Mournful Kingdom of Sand. Following the publicly and critically acclaimed The Totemist (aku1023) released in 2020, this album sucks the listener into another esoteric journey which - according to the band - is a perfect soundtrack for the desertification of our world.

Ak’chamel, The Giver of Illness is an enigmatic duo from a border state. Fourth World Post-Colonial Cultural Cannibalists Circumcising The Foreskin of Enlightenment. Performing in homemade costumes and masks, they have played festivals in various cities around the U.S gaining international attention from Vice, The Wire, Tiny Mix Tapes, Consequence of Sound, and many more. They have amassed over 10 cassette albums and 1 VHS full length film.

Three sides lp ! By 1970, they had released a self-titled debut and one of the greatest sophomore records of all time with Paranoid, and their legacy was cemented within a year of emerging from the factories of Birmingham. This powerful show - taken from L'Olympia, Paris on the 20 of December - highlights the rock power-house that was Black Sabbath.

Record Store Day 2021 Release. Limitation: 500 copies.

This release comes on 180g.

Limited 2011 Record Store Day release!

The Police reunion world tour ... an entire live show on triple heavyweight vinyl ... incl. a download card for the entire album

Eliminator is the eighth studio album by ZZ Top. It was released on March 23, 1983. Recorded in Tennessee during 1982, the album was produced by the band's manager Bill Ham and peaked at the top of the charts in many countries. "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Got Me Under Pressure", "Sharp Dressed Man", "TV Dinners" and "Legs" were released as singles. A Diamond certified album, Eliminator is ZZ Top's most successful release with sales of over 10 million copies in the United States. The band wanted to expand on the synthesizer sound of their 1981 record El Loco. Influenced by new wave, Eliminator′s tracks were recorded with a combination of the synthesizer, drum machine and sequencer. Often considered ZZ Top's most popular release, the record was ranked at #398 in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was listed at #39 in The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s.

Continuing our reissue programme of Motorhead’s Chiswick albums on vinyl, September sees the release of “What’s Words Worth?” on lobster red vinyl.

A live album, it was recorded on 18th February 1978 at a benefit organised by Wilko Johnson to raise money to preserve some William Wordsworth manuscripts. The Rolling Stones mobile had been hired to record Chiswick labe-lmates the Count Bishops, but they also recorded Motorhead’s set. For contractual reasons they were billed as Iron Fist & the Hordes From Hell.

Includes an illustrated inner sleeve with a full note by Chiswick boss Ted Carroll.

Universal Music will mark the 40th anniversary of Queen‘s 1977 album “News Of The World” with a five-disc super deluxe edition.
The new package includes the original album on CD (the Bob Ludwig 2011 remaster) and two further CDs of recently unearthed outtakes and rarities including ‘Raw Sessions’ an alternative version of the whole album which brings to light never-before-heard alternative versions of each of the album’s 11 tracks. The record label promises that “every lead vocal is different” on “Raw Sessions” and as are most of the lead guitar parts and many other instrumental details. “We Are The Champions” is the full-length version of the song and not the edited 1977 album cut and “All Dead”, “All Dead” features Freddie Mercury on vocals, rather than Brian May. “Fight From The Inside”, is Roger Taylor’s demo vocal version (worked on in his home studio in preparation for the next sessions).
The fourth optical disc is a DVD which features a brand new one-hour documentary “Queen: The American Dream” created from backstage material filmed during Queen’s 1977 USA “News of the World” tour.
The 40th anniversary of “News Of The World” also includes a vinyl version of the album – a “pure analogue” re-cut of the original “direct from the unmastered analogue master mix tapes”.
Finally, this set comes with a 60-page book of images and a selection of NOTW related memorabilia (including three posters).

First Official LP Reissue Ever!

**Sourced from the original master tapes and housed in a deluxe gatefold cover. Edition of 500 copies**

The Milan based imprint, Dialogo, returns with the first ever vinyl reissue of Spirale’s lone 1974 self-titled LP. Resting at a fascinating juncture between progressive and free jazz, it was years ahead of its time when it first appeared, rendering it to the shadows for decades, before its ultimate ascent to becoming one of the great holy grails of Italian Jazz prog.

This is a release known mostly by Italian progressive rock lovers, since its sound can be easily associated to the jazz-rock delivered by the way more popular Napoli Centrale and Perigeo - but also to the ‘fundamentals’ Dedalus, Arti & Mestieri, Uno, if not Maad, Nadma or Aktuala, or even the lesser known Bauhaus for instance. But playing this kind of music and trying to release an album in the first half of the ’70s in Italy was also incredibly hard and courageous: Spirale, in fact, was one of the many bands that lived a very short life, before splitting up and disappear forever.

Spirale were an Italian quintet from Rome, consisting of Gaetano Delfini (wind instruments, vocals, percussion), Giancarlo Maurino (saxophone, flute, percussion), Corrado Nofri (piano, marimba, mbira, siren, Jew’s harp), Giuseppe Caporello (contrabass, guitar, percussion) and Giampaolo Ascolese (drums) who released a single eponymous album in 1974.

Spirale was originally released on the International King record label, thanks to Mario Schiano, a free-jazz saxophonist who discovered the band, and producer Toni Cosenza, who included the album in the ‘King Jazz-Line’ series. Consisting of just four tracks, most of which taken by the 13-minute long “Cabral, Anno 1” and the marvellous 17-minute “Peperoncino (Cose vecchie, cose nuove)”, Spirale is an incredibly balanced and flowing record that sounds still fresh and inspired even today, and it’s a shame that it has remained hidden and overlooked for such a long time. Moreover, it is characterized by that undescribable and particular Mediterranean flavour that only Italian musicians were able to obtain. This beautiful album is of course immensely rare in its original edition, and is now finally reissued on Dialogo record label in a faithful restored version that will satisfy any collectors who have waited for years for this beauty to see the light again!

First Base is an album by British rock music group Babe Ruth. It was released in September 1972 and went gold in Canada, and sold very well in the US. It was their biggest success, both in terms of popular and critical acclaim. This LP defined an interesting junction between hard rock and progressive rock.

180g vinyl.

Folk singer-turned-rock singer Carmen Maki collaborated with Blues Creation on this album ('71).

Immediately after the release of her masterpiece 'The Devil and the Eleven Children', Carmen Maki's youthful voice, which was influenced by Janis Joplin, fused with a sturdy sound reminiscent of Bruce Creation's LED Zeppelin, and it was a miracle of the early days of Japanese rock music.

Later on, Kazuo Takeda's Blues Creation was active as Creation, and Carmen Maki formed OZ. This is a monumental album that can be said to be a milestone for both artists to dominate the Japanese rock scene.

Plastic Ono Band was the debut solo album by John Lennon. Released on December 11th 1970, John and Yoko had started writing and demoing at Abbey Road (emi Studios) in the summer, with recording sessions during September/October

After the break-up of The Beatles that year, John and Yoko embarked on a period of self-reflection and experimentation, with the results that the songs and sessions for Plastic Ono Band were heavily influenced by his immersion in Arthur Janov’s primal therapy. John was able to find emotional depth and honesty within himself that few artists had ever done before, with John saying to Rolling Stone “now I write all about me and that’s why I like it. It’s me.” . The result is perhaps the most honest and emotionally raw album that anyone has ever released, let alone someone who was one of the four most famous musicians on the planet. With a small core band comprised of just Ringo Starr on drums and old friend Klaus Voorman on bass, co-produced by Phil Spector, the album peaked at 8 in the UK charts and 6 in the USA. It has come to be regarded by many as John’s finest solo work and has continued to grow in stature and reverence and has often featured in various Best Of lists through the years since. Not only does this album feature some of John’s best-loved and most impactful songs – Mother, Working Class Hero, Isolation, God – but this new set also includes the singles Give Peace A Chance, Cold Turkey and the classic Instant Karma! (We All Shine On).

Released on the same day was Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band album, the couple regarding the release as a pair of albums rather than two entirely separate projects, albeit of course it not achieving the same sort of coverage or chart success as John’s.

Coming as this does hot on the heels of last year’s much loved and well-reviewed “Gimme Some Truth” set and “Imagine” before that, the audio has been completely remixed from the original studio tapes as part of the ongoing John Lennon Ultimate Mix series. The aim for this mix process is to achieve three things: to remain faithful and respectful to the original recordings; to ensure that the sound is sonically clearer overall and to increase the clarity of John’s vocals. As Yoko says, “it’s about John” and this new mix shows that it is his voice that brings the biggest emotional impact of the album.

This multi-format release included a Cd/bd Super Deluxe Box with 130 page book featuring many exclusive and new photos, track-by-track notes in the words of John and Yoko, lots of tape boxes and full breakdown and descriptions of the audio content. As well as the new Ultimate Mix, we have 5 further CD discs, each focusing on different and new aspects ,including: original outtakes, demos, Elements Mixes (focusing on individual aspects of the songs to reveal unheard elements), Evolution Mixes (the story of each song from demo to complete recording), Raw Mixes (unadorned studio takes that place you inside the room almost sitting alongside the band) and a further disc of studio Jams. There are two Blu-ray Audio discs that feature hi-res stereo (192/24) versions of all the above as well as surround mixes in 5.1 and Dolby Atmos. Further material only available on BD includes the Yoko Ono Band/Plastic Ono Band Live Sessions from the original recording sessions and featuring Ringo Starr and Klaus Voorman.

Remastered from the original tapes, 180g vinyl!

Vinyl LP repressing of this 1969 album. WILLY & THE POOR BOYS, the fourth album by one of the world's all-time greatest rock bands, Creedence Clearwater Revival, remains a top-selling album in the CCR catalog with over 2 million copies sold to date. Reaching the top 50 in six countries upon it's release, the album stands as a landmark international success and one that cemented the band's legacy as a vanguard of American rock 'n' roll. Contains the ubiquitous chart-topping hit, 'Down On The Corner,' which rocketed into the top 10 in the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and continues to be a mainstay on classic rock radio today. Additionally, the visceral 'Fortunate Son' is included here - an incendiary protest song that became inextricably linked to the Vietnam war, resulting in it's addition to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2014 for being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.

„Hot Rats“, originally released 1969, is Zappa’s second album. It‘s considered to be one of the first Jazzrock albums ever and mostly contains instrumental compositions except from one track.