It’s been nearly 50 years since Renaissance originally formed, combining the genres of classical, folk and jazz and melding them into the style of progressive rock that is Renaissance. From the Jane Relf-era, through the transitional line-up featuring Binky Cullom,…
View More Renaissance – A Song For All Seasons (Deluxe Edition)
You can skip this ad in 3,2,1, etc., but a worthy shout out must go to Esoteric Recordings and label manager Mark Powell for finding and presenting stuff that to many have been consigned to dusty lofts or car boot…
View More Greenslade – Time And Tide (Remastered & Expanded Edition)
During my time reviewing albums I have become very interested in the great music being produced by the Norwegian music scene, therefore when I saw this reissue album by the Seventies band Ruphus my curiosity was tested further. The fact…
View More Ruphus – New Born Day
Oh boy, I just did some band research to become a little more informed about this group before I put fingers to keyboard, but I seriously wish I hadn’t. It seems just about everything the musicians involved have done since…
View More Reale Accademia di Musica – Reale Accademia di Musica
1998. To me another period where the manufactured music seemed to take over the airwaves, so the arrival of Semisonic with Closing Time was a godsend; nothing to do with my alternative residence of the pub, but the quality of…
View More Semisonic – Feeling Strangely Fine
This release from Patrick Grant is a re-titled, remixed and expanded version of his 1997 album Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release. That album was mostly recorded at Philip Glass’ Looking Glass Studio, with Patrick adding extra piano and other instruments later.…
View More Patrick Grant – Fields Amaze and Other Strange Music
This 7-CD clamshell boxset consists of Stuart “Woolly” Wolstenholme’s career as a solo artist and with his band, Mæstoso. It contains five studio albums, one live album, and a bonus disc of unearthed material, outtakes, and demos. I remember the…
View More Woolly Wolstenholme (& Mæstoso) – Strange Worlds: A Collection 1980-2010
Esoteric Recordings are continuing their Curved Air reissues program, this time with the follow up to Air Conditioning, entitled Second Album. Originally released on the Warner Bros. label in the fall of 1971, the album reached number 11 in the…
View More Curved Air – Second Album (Remastered & Expanded Edition)
This 3CD set reissued by Esoteric Recordings consists of Procol Harum’s seventh studio album, Exotic Birds and Fruit. Originally released on the Chrysalis label in April, 1974, this was the band’s return as a five-piece and going back to their…
View More Procol Harum – Exotic Birds and Fruit (Expanded Edition)
“The perfect opportunity to finally get it right, as I heard it in my head”, is how IQ’s guitarist Mike Holmes describes the major motivation for IQ re-releasing their 1993 classic Ever in a special 25th Anniversary Remix edition. This…
View More IQ – Ever: 2018 Remix – 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition