Cyrus Chestnut offers his listeners joy, inspiration, and a different approach to some classic material on You Are My Sunshine. This recording differs from Soul Food, his 2001 chart-topper, in that he digs deeper into the blues, gospel, and jazz traditions. Chestnut also uses his influences in a collective arrangement rather than using each influence separately. For example, on "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," Chestnut alters this gospel piece to form a New Orleans sound. Instead of the meditative tempo the song is known for, he adds a Stevie Wonder harmonic influence on the interlude after the bass and piano to take the predictability out of the song. On "Errolling," he pays homage to the great pianist Erroll Garner. "Flipper" is a melody that offers fun and simplicity. Cyrus Chestnut is an excellent improviser, composer, arranger and pianist.

lack Laden Crown is the eleventh studio album, and the tenth of all-new original material, by American heavy metal band Danzig, scheduled for release on May 26, 2017. Black Laden Crown will be the band's first album of original material since Deth Red Sabaoth (2010), marking the longest gap between two studio albums in their career, as well as their first release with drummer Joey Castillo since I Luciferi (2002). The album took three years to complete, with the recording sessions beginning in February 2014. Black Laden Crown was recorded with four different drummers (Castillo, Johnny Kelly, Karl Rockfist and Dirk Verbeuren) while the bass parts were handled by Tommy Victor.

This is folk/country/roots veteran Steve Forbert's 13th studio release and it sounds minimally different than most of the previous ones since his 1978 debut. The singer/songwriter's boyish looks and sensitive, scratchy voice are eternally youthful and his tunes retain the same mix of dry humor, storytelling honesty, and inviting pop melodies. This time he's backed by his road band, yet, while the musicians are talented, they never shift out of cruise control.

Norwegian Horror Thrashers Critical Solution are back with a new album: “Barbara the Witch” will be released on April 28th, 2017, via Crime Records! The band's third full-length is a concept album based on a true story from their hometown Helleland which took place in the 1600s. Recorded at Sonic Train Studios with producer Andy La Rocque at the helm, this is the most horror filled album they have ever made, garnished with an amazing cover artwork by Mario Lopez. The story lines are narrated by “The God of Hellfire” Arthur Brown, and the album will be released as a digipack including a bonus disc entitled “Covers From Hell”.

Europe-only release to coincide with Steve Forbert's autumn tour; Flying At Night is a collaboration with longtime friend and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Crawford. Steve Forbert travelled to New York City from Mississippi in 1976 and played guitar for spare change in Grand Central Station. He vaulted to international prominence with the folk-pop hit, "Romeo's Tune", during a time when the singer-songwriter era had all but ended and Talking Heads, Blondie, and other New Wave and punk acts were moving into the public consciousness.

Born in 2007, Cold Insight is the solo project of Sébastien Pierre (Enshine, Fractal Gates). Combining post-rock, trance, melodic doom and AOR elements, Further Nowhere is the debut full-length album following the self-released promo album from 2013. Featuring Jari Lindholm (Enshine, Seas of Years, Exgenesis) guitar solos, mixing, mastering and Christian Netzell (Volturyon, Exgenesis, Vholdghast, Spasmodic) on drums, the album unveils a cosmic journey through ethereal worlds.

Soprano Sandrine Piau writes in the program notes that there is no narrative or theme unifying the songs on this album, only the quality they share of being evocative of something beyond themselves. The late Romantic songs are indeed understated and suggestive rather than emphatic, many written in elegiac moods of hushed happiness or subdued yearning. The centerpiece is Richard Strauss' four song cycle, Madchenblumen, written when the composer was 26, which provided Piau with the initial inspiration for this collection. It's immensely appealing, and its generous lyricism makes it a work that deserves to be widely sung and known.

This collection features works by various luminaries in the international avant-garde performing works by or in memoriam of the iconoclastic composer John Cage. Performances range from David Tudor's electronic explorations to Patrick Moraz's performance of Cage's "Dances for Prepared Piano." The irony will not be lost on fans of Cage's work that a recorded tribute album for a composer who disliked the recorded medium is at best a strange tribute.

It's hard to pick a favorite Curtis Mayfield album, and my judgment is surely clouded by the fact that this album was under-celebrated at the time and still often overlooked. But as speaking objectively as I can, this is surely Mayfield at the top of his game. And possibly my favorite album. Clive Anderson's liner notes on this Charly reissue may be a bit pretentious, opening up with a citation from Wordsworth, but they do pretty much nail the album and do it justice. The album is like an extended meditation on the American underclass, and particularly the despair in the Black communities in the mid-70s.

Four Ears are Bym Stempka and Curt Nolte, both children of Berlins underground-scene. If you add up the number of ears they posess between the two of them, you will suddenly understand the name of the project.
Bym Stempka has had great influence on German music-history. He was the founder of Flucht Nach Vorn (well known New Wave Underground outfit from the early eighties). Since 1980 he has been dj-ing in Berlin's famous clubs like ChaCha, Metropol, Glückstein, Tresor, Globus, WMF and many others. Bym is one of Germanys most respected underground hiphop, drum & bass DJs…