Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The range of lounge music encompasses beautiful music–influenced instrumentals, modern electronica (with chillout, and downtempo influences), while remaining thematically focused on its retro-space-age cultural elements…

Its smirky title notwithstanding, The Worst of Jefferson Airplane provides a fine recap of the band's first six albums. Released in 1970 shortly before Marty Balin's initial departure from the band, the album marked not only the end of the decade but, unwittingly, the end of the group's most stable phase in terms of membership. The track selections are evenly divided among the first-generation albums; only the live Bless Its Pointed Little Head is represented by a single entry…

Echoes in the Night was the album for all those fans who had been waiting eight years for a Procol Harum reunion. In addition to Gary Brooker's singing and keyboard work, it featured Procol organist Matthew Fisher, lyricist Keith Reid, and drummer B.J. Wilson…

The Slow Readers Club are one of those bands whose records make you wish you were at a gig. Their music is tailor made for the live arena – soaring synths, effects-laden guitars, driven bass and impassioned vocals, perfect for being mirrored back by thousands of fans…

The Man-Machine is closer to the sound and style that would define early new wave electro-pop – less minimalistic in its arrangements and more complex and danceable in its underlying rhythms…

A gossamer collection of tranquillised and dissociated material from the perennially underrated and consistently excellent Natalie Beridze, curling her distinctive vocals like incense smoke around faded pads and processed field recordings >> highly recommended if yr into Cucina Povera, Nozomu Matsumoto, Ernest Hood, Hiroshi Yoshimura, 'Tragedy'-era Julia Holter…

The most immediately noticeable aspect of …And Justice for All isn't Metallica's still-growing compositional sophistication or the apocalyptic lyrical portrait of a society in decay. It's the weird, bone-dry production. The guitars buzz thinly, the drums click more than pound, and Jason Newsted's bass is nearly inaudible. It's a shame that the cold, flat sound obscures some of the sonic details, because …And Justice for All is Metallica's most complex, ambitious work; every song is an expanded suite, with only two of the nine tracks clocking in at under six minutes…

Norwegian guitarist Thomas Dahl's primary project is the Skydive Trio with bassist Mats Eilertsen and drummer Olavi Louhivuouri. The trio is an off-shoot of a quintet of the same name that includes tenor saxophonist Tore Brunborg and pianist Alexi Tuomarila. Sun Sparkle is the second release from the smaller group whose sound, like the album title, reflects ideas from both familiar and eclectic musical worlds…

The German prog metallers of Vanden Plas already have two live albums in their portfolio and now a new record is added with ‘Live & Immortal’. This album was recorded on December 30, 2016 at Kammgarn in Kaiserslautern. So it was a home game for the band and a good opportunity to record a live record in front of an enthusiastic audience…

Thousand Foot Krutch has always been one of those bands that displays copious amounts of potential to fans, then seems to let them down in the next breath. They were never the most innovative band in the scene, but when their third and highly underrated effort The Art Of Breaking hit the shelves in 2005, there was a flash of potential for more…

Bad record deals have plagued Motorhead's career, resulting in countless low-quality live recordings and pointless re-packagings, but 1994's Live at Brixton is one of the rare exceptions…

ROD STEWART Some Guys Have All The Luck (2008 UK 'Deluxe Edition' 3-disc [2CD/1DVD] set - This assembled collection presents stellar tracks spanning 1971 - 1998 including a Faces favourite ['Stay With Me'], decades of solo hits, unplugged gems, soundtrack selections and more…