Flags is a 1985 album by the duo Moraz and Bruford. Unlike their prior effort Music for Piano and Drums, which featured only an acoustic drum kit and grand piano, this recording expanded their musical palette by including a Kurzweil 250 synthesizer and electronic percussion…

Searing platter of krautrock with scorching doses of The Stooges & Judas Priest. Another ripper from this legendary Finnish horde! Circle are the very definition of genre-defying, a rare feat for any band, but effortlessly achieved by this prolific Finnish collective. Circle's latest album Terminal is pure hedonistic pleasure. Never content on staying the same, they have created an idiosyncratic cocktail of sonic fusions, conjuring an impulsive, dizzying energy that stirs a spirit of curiosity within the listener, and has the ability to possess all who encounter them. Whilst many would run out of creative steam (certainly after 30+ albums), Circle continue to boldly explore sonic soundscapes, venturing curiously into terrains of Stooges-esque swagger, trance-inducing kraut rock mantras, beautiful electronic ambience, psychedelic rock noodling, arena storming AOR weirdness, 70s prog rock extravagance, glam pop pomp, and of course their core sound, heavy metal, not to mention other peculiar and daring sounds that simply cannot be pigeon-holed.

Speechless, Bruce Cockburn's first foray into completely instrumental territory, is proof in the pudding that you can teach an old dog new tricks. There are 15 tracks here, the vast majority of which are redos of tracks from Cockburn's catalog. But given their treatment – many of them done as solo guitar pieces – the dearth of new material doesn't even matter. In fact, one could venture to say that these feel like altogether new pieces. Cockburn is a master guitarist; he often interweaves jazz, blues, country, and folk styles into his cross-genre songs. Here he shines, pure and simple. "Train in the Rain" (anyone notice how many of his songs are about trains and travel?) touches on Leo Kottke and Peter Lang; "Water into Wine" utilizes flamenco stylings while crossing into Gypsy jazz chords à la Charlie Byrd. A new work, "Elegy," kisses the modalities of "Greensleeves" while creating itself as a piece that evokes both absence and memory. "Rouler Sa Bosse" from Salt, Sun and Time juxtaposes Cockburn's six-string against Jack Zaza's clarinet, and becomes a straight-up gently swinging jazz tune.

If You Leave Me Now is a compilation album by the rock band Chicago. In an attempt to capitalize on the band's second #1 single ("Hard to Say I'm Sorry") as well as its Top 40 follow-up ("Love Me Tomorrow"), Columbia Records built a collection around the Grammy-winning single, which had previously been their only other chart-topper…

Weighing in at four discs and 63 songs, Group Portrait offers an excellent, comprehensive overview of Chicago's prime period. Be forewarned: this does not dip into the group's early-'80s hits or post-Peter Cetera recordings, choosing to end the story before their 1982 comeback…

Achingly gorgeous and hauntingly stark, Mark Hollis' self-titled debut picks up where he left off with Talk Talk's Laughing Stock seven years earlier, re-emerging at the nexus point where jazz, ambient, and folk music collide. It's quite possibly the most quiet and intimate record ever made, each song cut to the bone for maximum emotional impact and every note carrying enormous meaning. Hollis paints his music in fine, exquisite strokes, with an uncanny mastery of atmosphere that's frequently devastating. And if anything, his singularly resonant voice has grown even more plaintive with the passage of time, which – combined with the understated artistry and minimalist beauty of tracks like "The Colour of Spring" and "Watershed" – makes Mark Hollis a truly unique and indelible listening experience. His obvious understanding of the power of silence aside, one prays he doesn't again wait for the seven-year itch to strike before returning.

Though Les Rallizes Denudes, also known as Hadaka no Rallizes, were one of the earliest and most revolutionary Japanese psychedelic rock bands, and have existed off and on through four decades, they are also one of the most obscure, barely known even in their native country. This cult of noise terrorists shrouded themselves in mystery, seldom touring and releasing very few records, usually with no discernible label. Their sound presages the later psychedelic experimental noise of Fushitsusha, High Rise, and others in the current crop more than any other Japanese psychedelic group from the late '60s…

The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second largest annual jazz festival in the world after Canada's Montreal International Jazz Festival…

One of the interesting things about Chicago from 1969-1974 was that their albums always contained a combination of material that sounded great on AM radio alongside very long album rock tracks that didn't have a chance of getting anywhere near the pop charts…

Arcadea was born when drummer-vocalist Brann Dailor (Mastodon) teamed up with upside-down guitarist & keyboardist Core Atoms (Zruda) to create a synth-laden progressive, heavy psych band. Adding guitarist Raheem Amlani (Withered) on synth, the three recorded their visionary,10 song synth odyssey at Orange Peel Studios in Atlanta, GA. The self-titled debut record will see its release this June.

This is a good CD to introduce someone to Chicago or to let them know who it was who sang songs like "25 or 6 to 4" or "Saturday in the Park" (perhaps 2 of their most recognisable songs). This collection features exclusively the original (and the best) lineup of Peter Cetera…

Rockabye, Robin Holcomb's second album, uses more familiar song structures (i.e., verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge) than her debut, which bore little resemblance to any other musical genre. This time, Holcomb draws on just about every American genre invented before, say, 1974 – traditional folk music, country, classic rock, jazz, carnival music, Dixie brass, soul – but the album is unified by her distinctive, earthy vocals and her staccato piano playing (her keyboard and vocal style seem to be inseparable from her personality).

With a tremulous voice, poetic lyrics, and a fine band, Robin Holcomb put together an impressive debut album. A lot of credit for the distinctive sound of this record must be laid at the feet of organist (and Holcomb's husband) Wayne Horvitz and guitarist Bill Frisell, both alumni of John Zorn's Naked City. The playing of Horvitz and Frisell fits in beautifully with Holcomb's otherworldly voice, one that at times evokes Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins.

Although it may be difficult to believe now, in the late Sixties and early Seventies Chicago were something of a phenomenon. Their debut LP. b'Chicago Transit Authority', was certified platinum in the US, something no other CBS artist had ever achieved, even though the label boasted such names as Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel. Their second, simply titled 'Chicago', repeated the commercial success of their first, and singles from both sold strongly either side of the Atlantic…