Popol Vuh's 1991 release comes as a positive celebration of world music, guided by the sure hand of Florian Fricke. Among those recruited for the journey is Renate Knaup-Aschauer, who provides celebratory vocals for music that shifts, sometimes giddily, from Africa to Ireland to South America. Never static, never uninteresting, For You and Me provides a strong statement for diversity within the Popol Vuh catalog.

Weld, Neil Young's two-hour-plus double-CD chronicle of his 1991 Ragged Glory/Smell the Horse Tour with Crazy Horse, was received with only mild enthusiasm from Young's fans and rock critics, perhaps because it seemed redundant. Such warhorses as "Like a Hurricane" and "Cortez the Killer" were making their fourth appearances on a Young album, and the five songs from the Ragged Glory album were basically unchanged from their studio versions. Containing only 16 tracks, the album's songs averaged over seven and a half minutes in length, and that length was given over to extended guitar improvisations, which often were filled with feedback and distortion.

The third incarnation of English prog rockers, Atomic Rooster make their debut on Made in England (1972). The group began as a trio featuring former Crazy World of Arthur Brown member Vincent Crane (organ), Nick Graham (bass), and Carl Palmer (drums). After a few significant shuffles within the lineup, only Crane continued with the name, recruiting Colosseum co-founder and Mick Jagger protégé Chris Farlowe (vocals), and Ric Parnell (percussion) and Steve Bolton (guitars) as the next generation. They have an edgy and somewhat brooding sound, recalling early Mott the Hoople discs such as the highly underrated Mad Shadows (1970).

Two albums in one pack: Real to Reel is Marillion's first live album, recorded at the Spectrum, Montreal, Canada, and De Montfort Hall, Leicester, England. In addition to two songs each from the first two albums, Script for a Jester's Tear (1983) and Fugazi, the original standard (vinyl) version contained two tracks not previously available on any albums, the a-side of the band's 1982 debut single "Market Square Heroes", and "Cinderella Search", the b-side of "Assassing" (1984). The track "Emerald Lies" (from Fugazi) was originally a bonus track on the CD and cassette versions. The album, from which no singles were released, reached #8 on the UK album charts and stayed on the charts for 22 weeks.

Posthumously released first in 1983, 'Experimente' offers up what I'm sure many of us hope to be the final leftovers from the groups famous 1968 jam session. In total, there are 24 tracks simply titled 'Special Track Experience'. Surprisingly, the material comprising 'Experimente' features slightly less percussion and is more coherent and interesting than any of the material on 'Disaster' or 'Collapsing'. Each of the 'Special Track Experience' tracks appears to be trimmed from a longer body of music, a trick that BASF should have considered before their release of the aptly titled 'Disaster'.

The album features all of their singles, their favourite songs and one new song - "Break the Line". (The digipak version contains the second disc consisting of remixes and B-sides). It was the last album released by the band before they took a one-year hiatus in 2005, however it later became an indefinite hiatus due to lead singer Sandra Nasic starting her solo career and the remaining three formed IO.

The Lost Broadcasts are a series of DVDs featuring performances that have rarely been seen since the original transmission on German television, in some cases more than forty years ago. Some of the artists featured within the series are legendary and these “Lost” performances will be a fine addition to any music fans collection. John Mayall is a British blues legend who is universally known as “The Godfather of British Blues”.

If ever there were a manifesto for 1970s rock, one that prefigured both the decadence of the decade's burgeoning heavy metal and prog rock excesses and the rage of punk rock, "This Ain't the Summer of Love," the opening track from Agents of Fortune, Blue Öyster Cult's fourth album, was it. The irony was that while the cut itself came down firmly on the hard rock side of the fence, most of the rest of the album didn't. Agents of Fortune was co-produced by longtime Cult record boss Sandy Pearlman, Murray Krugman, and newcomer David Lucas, and in addition, the band's lyric writing was being done internally with help from poet-cum-rocker Patti Smith (who also sings on "The Revenge of Vera Gemini").

We all know how busy Robert Berry (Hush, GTR, 3, solo, Ambrosia, producer), Gary Pihl (Sammy Hagar, Boston), David Lauser (Sammy Hagar) and Alan Fitzgerald (Montrose, Gamma, Night Ranger) are, so it doesn’t come as a real surprise that we had to wait nine years for a follow-up to the wonderful “Missing Piece” album.
The songwriting for this third album already started in 2000, but things were put on ice when the guys didn’t succeed in writing songs that were good enough. Things gained momentum again some three years ago, when Gary Pihl and Robert Berry started to exchange ideas for new songs by means of MP-3 files that they sent to each other through e-mail. What came out of these writing sessions sounded a lot fresher than the material that was written immediately after the release of “Missing Piece” and so the light turned to green for the writing and recording of a third Alliance album.

After slowly but surely building a fanbase around the world with albums like Razamanaz and Loud 'N' Proud, Nazareth finally hit the big time in 1975 with Hair of the Dog. The title track sets the mood for this stark album of hard rock with its combination of relentless guitar riffs, a throbbing, cowbell-driven beat, and an angry vocal from Dan McCafferty that denounces a "heart-breaker, soul-shaker." The end result is a memorably ferocious rocker that has become a staple of hard rock radio stations.

As the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) had done a year earlier, Super Session (1968) initially ushered in several new phases in rock & roll's concurrent transformation. In the space of mere months, the soundscape of rock shifted radically from two- and three-minute danceable pop songs to comparatively longer works with more attention to technical and musical subtleties. Enter the unlikely all-star triumvirate of Al Kooper (piano/organ/ondioline/vocals/guitars), Mike Bloomfield (guitar), and Stephen Stills (guitar) -- all of whom were concurrently "on hiatus" from their most recent engagements.

The Grateful Dead's last lineup returned intact for In the Dark, an album that ironically thrust the band back into the spotlight on the strength of the band's lone Top 40 single, "Touch of Grey." Fans had long mused that the Dead's studio albums lacked the easygoing energy and natural flow of their live performances, and In the Dark does come close to capturing that lightning in a bottle. Jerry Garcia, who apparently had to relearn the guitar after a near-fatal illness, approaches his instrument recharged, while his voice (a beneficiary of the extended hiatus?) shows some of its original smoothness. Of his four songwriting collaborations with long-standing lyricist Robert Hunter, "Touch of Grey" is far and away the best.

This five-disc set collects all of the post-Michael Schenker albums that the British hard rock outfit released for the Chrysalis label in the 1980s, including No Place to Run (1980), The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent (1981), Mechanix (1982), Making Contact (1983), and Misdemeanor (1986). Like its 1973-1979 sibling, each disc on The Chrysalis Years (1980-1986) is stocked with live recordings, rare tracks, alternate takes, single edits, and extensive liner notes, making it a must-have for longtime fans.

1985's Love displayed a marked improvement over the Cult's early material, and though it remains underappreciated in America (worldwide it was a smash), this exceptional record has actually aged better than the band's more notorious (and equally important) releases: Electric and Sonic Temple. Equal parts psychedelic hard rock and new wave goth, the songs on Love emanate a bright guitar sheen, tight arrangements, crisp drumming, and a command performance from vocalist Ian Astbury, who as usual says a lot more with less than most singers. Overall, the album benefits from a wonderful sense of space, thanks in large part to guitarist Billy Duffy (who is much more subdued here than on future releases), whose restraint is especially notable on "Revolution" and the remarkably uncluttered title track.

Born out of the Delta blues sound, Jefferson Airplane spin-off Hot Tuna has been bringing music fans the blues for over 30 years. Join Hot Tuna in its final electric performance from the legendary Fillmore with this exciting release from Ryko Distribution. Presented in standard 1.33:1 full-screen and featuring an English Dolby Digital Stereo soundtrack, experience the sounds of electric Hot Tuna one last time with tunes such as "Candyman," "Wavy Gravy Blues," and "My AK47."