The debut long-player from the eclectic Austin-based combo, Samsara delivers a rich and hip-shaking amalgam of pop, soul, R&B, funk, gospel, and psychedelic rock. An assured effort, especially for an inaugural release, the 13-track set bristles with intent, yet plays with its quarry like a bored house cat. "Monsters," which evokes the Heavy's "How You Like Me Now" by way of the Fixx's "One Thing Leads to Another," makes for a bold and brawny opener and segues nicely into the like-minded lead single "Testify." Both cuts make a strong case for Los Coast's reputation as a voltaic live band, and allow frontman Trey Pivott, who sounds like an amalgam of Cee Lo Green, Wilson Pickett, and Mystikal, to channel his Southern Baptist upbringing.

Omoiyari is Kishi Bashi's fourth album, following the acclaimed 151a (2012), Lighght (2014), and Sonderlust (2016). Channeling the hard-learned lessons of history, Omoiyari reflects the turbulent socio-political atmosphere of present day America. "I was shocked when I saw white supremacy really starting to show it's teeth again in America," Kishi Bashi says. "My parents are immigrants, they came to the United States from Japan post-World War II. As a minority I felt very insecure for the first time in my adult life in this country.

Influenced creatively by living in Lisbon, Portugal over the past several years, Madame X is a collection of 15 new songs that celebrate Madonna’s career-long affair with Latin music and culture as well as other global influences. Singing in Portuguese, Spanish and English, highlights on the album include “Medellín,” which was co-produced by Mirwais and captures the spirit of Maluma’s hometown, the anthemic song “I Rise,” the Jamaican dancehall vibes of “Future” featuring Quavo, and co-produced by Diplo, as well as the sonically innovative Mirwaisproduced “Dark Ballet.” Recorded over 18 months in Portugal, London, New York and Los Angeles, Madonna collaborated on Madame X with longtime producer Mirwais, as well as with producers Mike Dean and Diplo, among others.

This year Axel Rudi Pell celebrates his 30th anniversary as a solo artist and 30 years at Steamhammer/SPV! The new double live album, "XXX Anniversary Live", was recorded on his last years "Knights Call" Tour. In the past 30 years he sold over 1,500,000 albums, has over 45,000,000 streams‚ and played endless sold out live shows. German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell is one of heavy metal's masterminds, thanks to his spiraling playing techniques, which helped Pell remain a mainstay in the hard rock genre for decades. His first band, Steeler, kicked off a career in Europe during the early part of the '80s, issuing three albums (1984's Steeler, 1985's Rulin' the Earth, 1986's Strike Back) prior to 1987's Undercover Animal, which signaled the beginning of Pell's solo career.

Interviewed by Bryant Gumbel for NBC's the Today Show in 1982, Miles Davis wrily responded "I don't like that word jazz…I think social music…all the social melodies…out in [the] air…it's not jazz anymore…that's the social music I'm talking about. You take what you want out and leave what you don't like. You know, like food." Thus Davis coined the phrase "social music" which consequently inspired the title of Daniel Cano's album. Following the serpentine intro to the title track, bassist Dani Pozo briefly quotes from Miles Davis' In A Silent Way (Columbia, 1969), and Cano appropriately deploys wah-wah trumpet as a respectful nod to his hero.

"En clave de Serrat" is the latest project by the pianist, composer and pedagogue Luis González. The album includes ten compositions by the Poble Sec musician, who have accompanied the pianist and composer since his childhood. This suite of songs is the result of a tireless inner musical search of the Andalusian pianist residing in Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona) reinterpreting one of those universal authors who catches you and who do not go out of style. The songs of Joan Manuel will become a baroque escape, a bolero rhythm or pure avant-garde flamenco with an octet that combines the chamber music and the jazz. It is formed by a quartet of classical strings, sax, piano, double bass and drums. Between improvisation and classical writing, this project is one of those that bring together a diverse and heterogeneous audience. To the lovers of jazz, classical, the song and of course, Joan Manuel Serrat. With a Mediterranean air, original and own Luis González's latest project is recorded in Trafalgar Estudios (Cádiz). The musicians who accompany Luis González are: Pedro Cortejosa (sax), José López (double bass) and David León (drums).

Zaireeka is the 1997 album by Oklahoma alternative combo The Flaming Lips. Zaireeka is a 4CD set but only has eight songs as a whole. The original process of this was you would need four CD players to play each song as they were meant to be heard. Each CD features a portion of the song from the multi-track but each track sounds different from one another. By playing them at the same time, it creates a unique sonic adventure, perhaps in surround sound. You can play all four at once or in any sequence, in any and all positions/locations. This unique project was released on 28 October, 1997.

Love Is The Power is the 1998 CD by Rachel Nicolazzo, who is known under the name Rachel Z. Released on the GRP label, she would marry Omar Hakim and is now known as Rachel Z Hakim.

Whipped! is the 1992 album by California rockers Faster Pussycat. This was the band's third album, released by Elektra Records when grunge music was making its way across the world and the band lost any momentum they gained in the late 80's, despite this being a very fine recording. This would be the last album they released before splitting up later that year.

Since the project’s inception, The End Of The Ocean have been the subject of great expectations. Upon the release of their 2011 full-length debut, Pacific-Atlantic, the Columbus, Ohio band was immediately christened a torch-bearer in the second wave of American post-rock. They managed to live up to predecessors such as Explosions In The Sky, This Will Destroy You, Caspian and Red Sparrows with Pacific-Atlantic and their 2012 EP In Excelsis. The acclaim for those releases resulted in almost 20 million streams on Spotify and allowed the band to take their dynamic live performances on the road. It’s safe to say that all signs pointed towards a long and successful career for The End Of The Ocean.

Hot Wings is blah, blah, blah, awesome, blah, blah, pretty good for some girls, blah, blah, the boys are okay too. No, no, no, but seriously, Hot Wings are the brainchild of stellar guitarist Lizzie Sedman (The Charlies, Telltale) a guitar goddess that has been hot and wingy for years! With influences drawing far and wide from Les Paul, to Stevie Ray Vaughan, to The Break, to The Ventures, Liz has carefully handpicked a band to bring her new surfy, swingy, guitar boogie sounds to life.

Nomadic Horizon came together as a result of Eric and Tom’s desire to create some music inspired by their mutual love of classic progressive rock, along with other styles that exhibit texture, dynamics, free-form creativity, and originality. In their first year, they released a four song EP simply titled “4”. The EP release coincided with the band’s debut live show, and it was immediately apparent that they were able to engage an enthusiastic audience, even through some of the more intricate moments. The shows have only gotten stronger, with the band having shared the stage with many of their local contemporaries, and people are paying attention.

Though Bob Mintzer normally works in the big band tradition, the tenor saxophonist does the occasional small combo session as well. In the Moment is one of those rare sets, recorded in one December 2004 session with the rhythm section of pianist Phil Markowitz, bassist Jay Anderson and drummer John Riley. A completely straightforward mainstream jazz set in the post-bop tradition, In the Moment mostly consists of originals (the highlight of which is Markowitz's lovely ballad "Forgiveness"), with a respectful take on the ballad standard "Time After Time" and a playful, swinging version of Eddie Harris' soul-jazz hit "Listen Here" thrown in for variety.

A sorely overlooked (stunning) performance of these remarkable works by Werner Haas. What a beautiful performance! Werner Haas makes you feel that this is exactly the right tempo for the piece when in fact he is faster than most. It's just such exquisite phrasing and attention to tone.

Veteran U.K. thrashers XENTRIX have inked a deal with Listenable Records. The band's new album, "Bury The Pain", released in June 7th. The disc was produced by Andy Sneap and mastered by Russ Russell. The cover artwork for the album was created by Dan Goldsworthy.