Due to it's album title, REO Speedwagon's 1976 release, REO, is often mistaken as being the band's debut album–but it was their sixth overall (1971's REO SPEEDWAGON was their inaugural release). The album marked the return of original singer Kevin Cronin, who would eventually help the band scale the top of the charts in just a few short years. But on REO, the newly reinstated vocalist had just begun to help the hard rockin' band hone their craft. "Keep Pushin'" would soon become a perennial concert standard, while other highlights include the hard-edged "Lightning" and "Our Time is Gonna Come."

Kites is more layered and complex than Waves, the duo's previous outing. The album reportedly took nine months to record, a long time by mid-1970s standards. The first half is dominated by Jon Field compositions, which are meant to convey the sounds of a kite drifting through skies that range from sunny and calm to stormy and dangerous. Dense and dramatic, numbers such as "Songs of the Forest" and "Wind Song" spotlight unconventional percussive combinations, ethereal wordless choir voices, and Field's gentle flute playing. Tony Duhig dominates the second half of Kites with a group of songs interpreting Teh Ch'eng, the Boat Monk, a traditional Zen story. This is a rare example of intense ambient sound, best realized in "Quietly by the River Bank," which begins with an ominous tone and explodes with the fury of a samurai warrior…

A good mix of down-and-dirty blues, 1976's Long Misty Days also features Robin Trower's ethereal ballads. Its 1977 follow-up In City Dreams – also included on this two-fer – is slightly funkier than the previous albums, but still highlighted by a delicate ballad, "Bluebird" and the majestic title track.

Roger Glover, Ronnie James Dio, Jon Lord, David Coverdale, Tony Ashton, Glenn Hughes, Ray Fenwick, Eddie Hardin, John Lawton, and many many more… Deep Purple have always been known for their contributions to the hard rock genre. Despite this heavy reputation, the individual members have all worked outside the rock field from time to time on solo material or sessions, exploring different and often seemingly unlikely musical avenues. This two-disc set brings two such projects together for the first time. Butterfly Ball, masterminded by Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover shortly after he had left the band, forms the first half of the set and features appearances from many well known rock musicians. Glover also turns up on The Wizard's Convention, which forms the rest of this package. Eddie Hardin brought Glover together with the then current Deep Purple members Jon Lord, Glenn Hughes, David Coverdale and numerous other guests. Side by side this material forms a fascinating side line to the Deep Purple story.

Really beautiful later work from the great Mary Lou Williams - and one of the key records that shows just how much she'd evolved as a player since the early days! Part of the strength of the record is the rhythm work from Buster Williams on bass and Mickey Roker on drums - slightly more contemporary players who open up with a sense of warmth that Williams can't help but address - still work on the keyboard of the piano that's very much her own, and touched with the modern elements of her early days - but wonderfully sensitive in all the right ways, a richness that's perfect for the spiritual jazz generation of the 70s.

Secret Oyster became somewhat of a super group when members of Burnin Red Ivanhoe, Coronarias Dans and Hurdy Gurdy formed this unit. All four original albums have received a thorough and outstanding remastering with added bonus tracks on the great label Laser's Edge. Secret Oyster got back together (Bohling, Vogel and Knudsen plus a new bassist and drummer) during the re-issues of their albums, touring the states and Denmark.

A classic of the German space genre. Their current music is a combination of Progressive Rock and New Instrumental Music, with touches of Jazz and passages dedicated to an experimentation near to Ambient. Their originality was due to the blend electronic and repetitive musics with a lot of ethnic elements from North Africa, India, etc. Very much like your early Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru type bands except with a cultural influence. Several Agitation Free albums were released after the group's breakup, including 1976's "Last", 1995's "Fragments" and the following years' "At The Cliffs of The River Rhine" (1998), "The Other Sides Of Agitation Free" (1999)… Their aptly titled "Last" is considered by many to be one of the best live space albums ever. Lots of acid-drenched guitar and electronics to really carry you "out there".

Inspired by the artwork of Roger Dean and the writings of Ver Stanley Alder, Jon Anderson developed an entire story around the idea of an interstellar exodus from Sunhillow, writing this album around the narrative (named for the spaceship's architect, Olias). The idea may seem overly ambitious, but Anderson fills the record with enough magical moments to delight fans of Yes' mystic side. The music is written and performed almost entirely by Anderson, who dubs vocals, plays guitar and harp, and adds percussion and the occasional synthesizer to flesh out his ideas so that at no point does the music lose its spellbinding effect for lack of sonic detail. Olias of Sunhillow is faithful to the spirit of Yes, though decidedly more airy than that band's visceral style - its closest comparison would be Fragile's "We Have Heaven" or Going for the One's "Wonderous Stories"…

The German psych/prog label called Garden of Delights made a campaign to reissue a bunch of lost krautrock classics, Arktis is at the top of these 70s obscurities. Formed in 1973, the band released their first album the same year. This self title album revisits a conventional heavy rock style mixed with freak out improvisations largely made of fuzzy guitars. The second album from 1975 comprised mainly improvisations without firm aims or limitations in structure. This difference is already indicated by the album’s title "Arktis tapes". Although in perfect condition after 19 years, the master tapes were additionally remastered. The third album, "On the rocks", is totally different again: by now "klausless", that is without Mr Blachut and Mr Göllner, but featuring an organ instead, they have become more straight-forward and slamming and are less playful than before…

The style of this little-known Swedish quartet from the mid-70's is hard to describe as it escapes most comparisons; the closest would be Finnforest, and perhaps Danish fusion band Secret Oyster. This is fusion at its best: energetic instrumental jazz-rock featuring dual guitars, electric piano/Hammond organ, bass and drums, and stunning musicianship all around. After the release of their second album in 1976, the band, alas, split up.
Although the tracks on their first album are rather short, each one is chock full of ideas and beautiful catchy melodies based on tight, 70ish-like jazzy grooves, all charmingly and distinctively Swedish. Their second album, "Vera O'Flera", which features a guest musician on sax, is in the same vein but much more fusion oriented.

This album marked a continued maturing of both PFM's style and their presence in the Anglophone market. It benefits from Premoli's high-speed Hammond organ and synth runs on such all-out prog assaults as the conclusion of "From Under," as well as Mussida's gentle acoustic guitar lines on slower numbers like "Harlequin." The reissue of Chocolate Kings contains a bonus disc with several songs from previous releases, next to the material of Chocolate Kings. The recordings from a gig at the University of Nothingham, May 1st 1976 contains live versions of Four Holes In The Ground, Mr. Nine Till Five and Alta Loma Five’Till Nine/William Tell Overture.

Out of the mysterious mind of Andrea Centazzo came Elektriktus. Originally released on the PDU label in 1976, the LP Electronic Mind Waves offers a collection of eight synth-fueled songs that sound very close to what kraut/cosmische heads were doing at the time, think of Conrad Schnitzler, Deuter or Cosmic Jokers, and also other European experimentalists like Richard Pinhas' Heldon, Spacecraft, Didier Bocquet, Seesselberg, F.G. Experimental Laboratory, Roberto Cacciapaglia or Hydrus. Along with Cacciapaglia and Hydrus, Elektriktus shows the most adventurous experimental sounds under a kraut/cosmische music influence to ever come out of Italy…

White Light was a progressive/psychedelic rock group originally from New Orleans, then later from Austin, Texas, USA, where the group once recorded with Sonobeat Records (Mariani, Wildfire). White Light was comprised of Mike Hobren on guitars and vocals, Rob Haeuser on bass and synthesizers, and Rusty Haeuser on percussion and flute. On White Light's self-titled album, fans of Progressive Rock will be treated to a real romp of experimental music that utilizes a host of instrumentation and special effects. The group's music is powerfully expressed on the track Pacemaker. Mike Hobren employed a diverse range of styles and techniques on the guitar, including the use of a cello bow on the introduction to the track Stargazer. Rob Haeuser's bass grounded the music perfectly, and his synthesizer work was, at times, haunting. Rusty Haeuser provided well-rounded percussion to inject a powerful rhythm line into the music…