Released ahead of 1995's The Gold Experience, the first album credited to Prince's infamously unpronounceable symbol, The VERSACE Experience (PRELUDE 2 GOLD) was a gift to attendees of the designer's collection at Fashion Week in Paris. Produced at the time as only a very limited edition promotional cassette, it featured remixed versions of future favorites ""Pussy Control,"" ""Gold"" and ""Eye Hate U"" as well as rare and commercially unreleased selections by The New Power Generation and Prince's jazz-fusion project Madhouse. The rare promotional cassette went on to be incredibly sought after, with one copy setting a record as the highest priced cassette ever sold, fetching over $4,000.

Emancipation was as expansive an album as anything Prince had ever release. A triple album constituting exactly three hours of music, Emancipation found Prince celebrating the release of music solely on his terms. ""This is my most important record,"" he proclaimed upon its release. ""I'm free, and my music is free."" Much like Paisley Park, the recording complex in which Prince created Emancipation, the album represents the incredible variety of his influences and moods. Romance and family are key themes (""Somebody's Somebody,"" ""The Holy River,"" ""The Love We Make""), reflecting his recent marriage to back-up dancer and muse Mayte Garcia that year. Elsewhere, Prince reflects on technology (""My Computer"") and sex (""In This Bed <0> Scream""), and offers new, upbeat grooves (""Face Down,"" ""Jam Of The Year"") as well as four unique covers (Bonnie Raitt's ""I Can't Make You Love Me,"" the Philly soul classics ""Betcha By Golly Wow"" and ""La, La, La Means I Love U,"" Joan Osborne's then-recent rock hit ""One Of Us"").

Released in July 1996, Chaos and Disorder came with a rare disclaimed penned by Prince (then known as the unpronounceable love symbol): Originally intended 4 private use only, this compilation serves as the last original material recorded by [The Artist] 4 Warner Bros. Records. Princes contentious relationship with the label was at its lowest point, and this recorda taut 39 minutes of dexterous guitar and simple but addictive pop melodieswas a crucial final link in the chains that kept him from releasing the music the way he wanted. Any internal turmoil was not represented in tracks like Dinner With Delores (a minor U.K. hit) and the rollicking title track, a staple of his live shows. Someone told me that Van Halen did their first record in a week, Prince told the Los Angeles Times of the albums quick creation. Thats what we were going forspontaneity, seeing how fast and hard we could thrash it out.

Attempting to designate a musical category for Geraint Watkins is not without its challenges, but the perspicacious Nick Lowe once observed that he could be filed as "the missing link between Paulo Conte and Howlin' Wolf."

For so many years, a keystone of the bands of Nick Lowe, Van Morrison, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, Dave Edmunds and countless more, Geraint Watkins is also a revered creator of his own sublime music, much of which has already been perfectly captured in a handful of solo albums.

For Rush Of Blood, Watkins found a new and unlikely collaborator in Simon Ratcliffe of The Basement Jaxx to push his boundaries even further.  This unique aggregation-aided by some master musicians-has produced what will surely come to be regarded as his finest solo project yet.

The concept of STARSET is a multimedia experience with a cinematic rock band at the center. The narrative, branding and music driving the new campaign is fully integrated and is set in a near future and centered around showcasing the positive and negative effects of technology on society - futuristic on one side, post-apocalyptic on the other. Think Tron meets Mad Max. They’re harnessing the power of their rabid core fan base and influencer supporters to hack traditional forms of music promotion and do something truly innovative, as appealing for the Comicon crowd wanting to deep dive into the story as casual listeners.

Post Malone stirs a mix of genres into his own sonic sound that’s both intoxicating and invigorating. His RIAA 3x Platinum certified debut album, Stoney, led the genre-bending Dallas, TX artist to his first Top 10 Billboard 200 and first #1 R&B/Hip-Hop Album while being the “#1 Debut Hip-Hop Artist of 2016”. 2019 has been packed with one milestone and achievement after another for Post Malone including “Congratulations” being certified Diamond by the RIAA.

The Highwomen are a cleverly named new supergroup comprising country and roots rock stars Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Maren Morris, and Natalie Hemby. After a few months of teasers and a soft debut at April’s Loretta Lynn tribute, they’re making their official introduction to the world.

The group has announced its self-titled debut album, out in September and produced by Dave Cobb, the Nashville mainstay who always seems to be behind the boards for these types of projects. (He’s also produced recent albums by Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Lori McKenna, Ashley Monroe… you get the idea.) The album features 12 songs written by various combinations of the core members plus some notable collaborators like Isbell, McKenna, Miranda Lambert, and Ray LaMontagne. It features guest appearances from Isbell, Cobb, Sheryl Crow, Yola, the Hanseroth twins, Chris Powell, and Peter Levin.

2019 release. Guaxe is a musical duo that was formed spontaneously after the encounter of two Brazilian psych rockers Dino Almeida (Boogarins) and Pedro Bonifrate (Supercordas). Both members have guested on each others' recordings and had shared the stage at a few festivals together before Supercordas' dissolution in 2016. Over recent years, Dino has paid Bonifrate and his family many short visits to his home in Paraty in coastal Brazil. During these getaways, the Guaxe album was written and recorded - with 4-track machines, computers, cranky gear, 10-string guitars, children playing, and a rainforest full of lizards all around the house.

 
Also check out Dino Almeida's other band Boogarins who are currently on tour following the release of their recent album Sombrou Dúvida which is available now on CD & LP

Amadjar means ‘the unknown visitor’ in the language of Tamashek, the one who seeks hospitality and who’s condemned to an inner exile, within a territory or within himself. The story of Amadjar, the ninth Tinariwen album, begins at the end of 2018, at the Taragalte Festival of nomadic cultures in the Moroccan Sahara. After a concert and a sandstorm, Tinariwen hit the road and head for Mauritania, via southern Morocco, Western Sahara and the Atlantic coast. The destination is important but no more so than the journey itself. Tinariwen are joined by their French production team, who arrive in old camper van that’s been converted into a makeshift studio. The journey to Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, takes a dozen days or so. Every evening, the caravan stops to set up camp and the members of Tinariwen get to work under the stars – to prepare for the recording, talking things through, letting their guitar motifs, thoughts and long buried songs come. Then, during a final camp in the desert around Nouakchott that lasts about fifteen days, to an audience of scorpions, the band record their songs under large tent. In a few takes, without headphones or effects. The Mauritanian griotte Noura Mint Seymali and her guitarist husband, Jeiche Ould Chigaly, come to throw their musical tradition on the embers lit by Tinariwen – the curling vocals of Noura Mint Seymali on the song ‘Amalouna’ will become a highlight. This nomadic album, recorded in a natural setting, is as close as you can get to Tinariwen. And also, therefore, to the idea that things can evolve: bassist Eyadou plays a lot of acoustic guitar; percussionist Said tries his hand at new instruments; Abdallah exhumes songs that he’s never played on stage with Tinariwen. And that violin that appears on several songs and reminds you of the traditional imzad ; It’s actually played by Warren Ellis. The violinist in Nick Cave’s band is one of several western guests on the album. We also hear the mandolin and charango of Micah Nelson (son of the country music giant Willie Nelson, and Neil Young’s guitarist), and the guitars of Stephen O’Malley (Sunn O)))), Cass McCombs and Rodolphe Burger. The album is mixed by Joshua Vance Smith.

Melanie Martinez’s sophomore album, K-12, is another ambitious triumph for the artist. As with her debut album Cry Baby, K-12's music is a vibrant and singular melting pot of low-key hip-hop, soulful pop and indie-leaning electro. K-12's universe is an expansion of the one introduced in Cry Baby. Using lyrics rich with metaphor, songs address the struggle to find a place to belong —including within friendships, the physical world and romantically — even when fitting into society feels like an uphill battle.

Originally released by A&M Records, Louder Than Love is Soundgarden's 2nd full-length studio album and major label debut that was recorded with producer Terry Date at Seattle's London Bridge Studios. It's now newly remastered by Bob Ludwig from original analog tapes and being reissued on 180-gram vinyl with a digital download card for 320kbps MP4 AAC audio. In 2001, Q magazine named the album one of the '50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.'

i,i is Bon Iver's most expansive, joyful and generous album to date. If 'For Emma, Forever Ago was the crisp, heart-strung isolation of a northern Winter; Bon Iver the rise and whirr of burgeoning Spring; and '22, A Million', a blistering, crazy energy Summer record, i,i completes the cycle: a fall record; Autumn-colored, ruminative, steeped. The autumn of Bon Iver is a celebration of self acceptance and gratitude, bolstered by community and delivering the bounty of an infinite American music. The sales and accolades are well-known multiple Gold albums, multiple Grammys, chart-topping collaborations and festival headlines. But even more significantly, with each release Bon Iver quietly shifts the state of modern music. From the boundaries of folk, to the rules of autotune, to production work for others, Bon Iver s fingerprint finds its way across the mainstream every time. Vernon has always been a master collaborator, and on i,i that desire becomes maximal, with guests ranging from Moses Sumney and Bruce Hornsby to Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Here, the music and band, and themes, and creative space are bigger than ever.