Pianist Matthew Shipp and double bassist William Parker are among the most vital musicians to have hit the scene in any genre in the last half century. It is easy to argue that, on their respective instruments, there is no one better. On November 6, two releases by this duo make the case for their exceptional qualities. One is Zo, an explosive set originally released in 1994 and reissued by ESP-Disk on vinyl for the first time, along with compact disc and digital. The other is the astoundingly communicative A Whole System Of, a brand-spanking-new encounter available through TAO Forms, also on LP, CD, and digital.

Over 30 years have passed since Matthew Shipp and William Parker first entered a studio to record Zo as a duo, and if so much of the world has changed during that period, and not for the better, with the arrival of A Whole System Of, there is at least the reliability of Shipp and Parker’s creative cyclone stirring things up with so much dexterity. That’s not to infer that the partnership is static. Recognizable, most certainly, but predictable, no.

Shipp and Parker had played together a fair amount prior to Zo. There is a pair of earlier Shipp LPs, Points (a quartet) and Circular Temple (a trio), both recorded in 1990 and released in ’92 by the Silkheart and Quinton labels respectively. They were also in the band of saxophonist David S. Ware for four discs on Silkheart and DIW issued between 1991 and ’93.

The association exploded after Zo, but there were only two more duo recordings in the stretch leading up to A Whole System Of. The first was DNA, released in 1999 by Thirsty Ear, and the third Re-Union, released by Rogueart in 2021. Those two other duo sessions were documented: DNA five years after Zo, and Re-Union five years before A Whole System Of, reducing much of the aura of special occasion that might surround the latest duo team-up and replacing it with the reality of perseverance and growth.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | UK synth-pop outfit Blancmange’s first three studio albums: Happy Families (1982), Mange Tout (1984) and Believe You Me (1985) are to be reissued by London Records on LP and CD, revisiting a landmark period in the history of British electronic pop. Each album features freshly restored artwork and will be available on vinyl (new 2026 vinyl cuts, faithfully following the original track listings), and on CD, each featuring bonus tracks including B-sides, extended versions and remixes.

Originally released within a remarkably prolific run of four years, the three first Blancmange albums capture Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe at their most inventive, combining infectious synth-pop melodies with restless experimentation, distinctive rhythms and influences that reached well beyond the conventions of mainstream pop, and would go on to inspire a slew of artists including the likes of Moby, John Grant, and Honey Dijon.

Blancmange signed with London Records in February 1982 and, with their first flush of early global success of “Living On The Ceiling,” embarked on one of the great Imperial Phases of synth-pop. Their singles were Radio One hits secretly nourished by the likes of Can and Captain Beefheart, buoyed by off-the-wall videos and wrapped up in surreal sleeve iconography.

Described by Classic Pop as “a fine record featuring razor-sharp production, whose impressiveness only improves with age,” 1982’sHappy Families is reissued on transparent orange vinyl. The CD version features studio B-sides, some BBC session tracks and contemporary remixes of “Living On The Ceiling” by Roman Flügel and Richard Norris, both available on CD for the first time.

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Celebrating Bobby Dall, born on this date in 1963. —Ed.

I finished this review only to discover–much to my chagrin-that I wrote one 3 years ago. Just more proof, as any was needed, that I have the memory of a house fly. In any event, this new review is 150 times better than the old one. Besides, all self-respecting music critics should return to this hair metal masterpiece every couple of years. It’s that great.

Judging by the Punky Meadows look-alike on the cover of their 1986 debut and the twin sister of Gene Simmons on their second, these Mechanicsburg chest waxers couldn’t decide whether they wanted to be Angel or Kiss, so they went ahead and bested both of ‘em. Glam metal idols in the days before Kurt Cobain placed former hairdresser Rikki Rockett’s skyscraper ‘do on the endangered species list, Poison packed enough hair to stuff a mattress into their metal and by so doing lubed the loins of a million girls itching to steal their makeup.

Had Poison been nothing more than a pretty pooch, they’d have gone the way of Cats in Boots, and poor C.C. DeVille would have had to scuttle back to Three Mile Island with his poison blue Flying V guitar beneath his legs. But Poison had the skills to pay their thousand-dollar spandex bills and come Open Up and Say… Ahh! only Guns ‘N’ Roses had more powder in their pistol.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | It can be said that Eva Cassidy could sing the phone book. Her song choices ranged from conventional pop to R&B to blues to country to the classic American songbook. The breadth of genres that populate the finite recordings she made during her short lifetime explain why she could never be categorized as any one thing, and perhaps to her detriment, marketed to a mass audience in a way that would truly define her.

Since her passing at 33, Cassidy has stood out not only for her ethereal voice but for her incredible ability to re-imagine a well-known song and make it her personal property. Now Blix Street Records, the label that has curated the small catalogue of material she left behind into more than a dozen posthumous Eva Cassidy compilations, zeroes in on her penchant and acumen for delivering stellar jazz vocal performances with a new collection called Jazzed.

Aided by 21st century technology that allows for Cassidy’s singular vocals to be backed by a combination of entirely new jazz band arrangements and re-mixed versions of her original band accompaniments, this new 10 song collection of familiar tunes is a bittersweet reminder of what might have been had Cassidy lived to fully explore her musical potential. Jazzed arrives in stores on November 13 and is now available for pre-order.

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It must have come as quite a shock. I’m talking about the moment fans of super-sensitive singer-songwriter and cult artist Tim Buckley—a folky introvert with jazz/avant garde leanings—rushed to the record store to buy 1972’s Greetings from L.A., only to discover that it wasn’t the next Starsailor. It was a full-blown funk and R&B SEX record, complete with whips and chains and some Buckley imposter (it had to be!) singing “Get on top of me woman!” and “Well like a bitch dog in heat we had those bed springs a squeakin’ all night long.”

Cue up gasps of shock from every sensitive soul in America! James Taylor and Carole King would never have gone the raunch route! THIS was obscenity, perversion, trash! What happened to the gentle and ethereal soul who gave us “Song to the Siren,” with its immortal line “I’m as troubled as the oyster”?

Well, it seems Buckley was tired of being Mr. Cosmic Ethereal. The Sexual Revolution was in, and fey and introspective bullshit like “Phantasmagoria in Two” was out. Fuck navel-gazing—Tim Buckley wanted to fuck!

Buckley’s shocking metamorphosis positively gobsmacked Chrissie Hynde (then freelancing for New Musical Express): “I trotted dutifully,” she wrote, “to some bowling alley dive to see him and felt my brains drip outta my ears when the virginal innocent of my dreams got on stage and started belting out “Get on top of me, darlin’ woo-man! Let me see what you learned!”

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We’ve sent the TVD team home early this week so they can visit their own local record stores. Who does this? We do.

While we’re away, why not fire up our Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores? Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up, and we’ll see you back here on Monday, 11/2.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Following today’s worldwide cinematic release of Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning, music fans around the world will now be able to celebrate the historic final performances from Ozzy Osbourne (solo) and with the original Black Sabbath lineup via the official soundtrack release available December 11, 2026 on a variety of formats including 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, CD, and vinyl, as well as digitally. Pre-order HERE.

Presented in Dolby Atmos, as well as Dolby 2.1 and 5.1, the full-length Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning concert film will be available in a range of physical formats, including a 2-disc Blu-ray and CD edition, 2LP vinyl and a 2-disc Blu-ray collection with exclusive limited-edition coloured vinyl variants (grey splatter vinyl available at Ozzy’s store, purple splatter vinyl available at the Black Sabbath store and metallic vinyl at specialty/indie shops), along with a digital album.

A Deluxe Box Set, featuring an expanded collection of music, memorabilia and collectables, will be available to pre-order from October 28 ahead of its release in April 2027. This will include a bonus HD Blu-ray featuring all 35 Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath songs and covers performed by special guests. The soundtrack is set for worldwide release via Mercury Studios.

The July 5, 2025 Back To The Beginning show at Birmingham’s Villa Park marked Ozzy Osbourne’s last performance and farewell to his fans (in his hometown just 17 days before his untimely death) reuniting with his Black Sabbath band mates: Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler ,and Bill Ward marking the iconic group’s first performance together in more than 20 years and their triumphant final show. The sold-out show commanded more than three million requests for the 44,000 available tickets with the event watched by a record-breaking global live audience.

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Remembering Denny Laine in advance of his birthdate tomorrow.
—Ed.

Though the music they produced was only fitfully successful, the Denny Laine-fronted incarnation of The Moody Blues deserves to be remembered for more than a momentary chart fling topped by a gem of a single. In ’65, they released an album at home and another in the US under distinct titles, both with a dozen tracks, and with a third of each LP unique. The better of the two, Go Now–The Moody Blues #1, was issued in the States by London Records.

Heavy on covers and by extension lacking in gestures toward originality, the ’64-’66-era Moody Blues are unlikely to be many people’s (I’ll stop short of saying anybody’s) most beloved component in the British Invasion. In fact, talk of the group today reliably focuses on the post-Denny Laine/Clint Warwick lineup, which saw new members John Lodge and Justin Hayward helping to transmogrify the Moodies into one of the leading, if artistically lesser, examples of Symphonic Rock. I won’t sully the Prog genre with an inapt association since there was hardly anything progressive about The Moody Blues Mk 2.

Instead, they exemplified the Middlebrow impulse, though that’s ultimately a separate discussion. This piece concerns a band that came together when the leader of Denny Laine and the Diplomats joined up with a bunch of nameless Birmingham hopefuls; their main desire was to hit it big or even just making a good living; they briefly played as the M & B 5, the initials an attempt at landing sponsorship from two local beer brewers (last names Mitchell and Butler). And, like many of their contemporaries, The Moody Blues’ method, at least initially, was the borrowing and alteration of Rhythm and Blues.

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When fans of British rock think of guitar heroes, the names Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and maybe even Peter Green often come to mind, and, even though he was American, Jimi Hendrix cut his teeth, made his name, and became the ultimate guitar hero in England. Another name that should be on the list is Alvin Lee.

Lee is best known for his band Ten Years After and their incendiary performance of “I’m Going Home” in the Woodstock film. While that commercial peak is iconic, the music Ten Years After made before and after is considerable. Though often pigeonholed as strictly a British blues rock band, the group went through many phases in a relatively short period.

Their self-titled debut album in 1967 was a psychedelic classic in that seminal year of the “Summer of Love.” The group’s 1968 Undead album was a live album recorded at the tiny, legendary London club Klook’s Kleek and reflects a wide variety of styles.

Stonedhenge, also in 1968, continued the psychedelic sound, with a grittier blues attack. Ssssh wasn’t necessarily the album that broke the group wide open, but it was already recorded and scheduled to come out after the group’s performance at Woodstock in late August of 1969.

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Harmonica man and hearty singer Walter Daniels has hit the studio with Jack Oblivian on more than one prior occasion, with the recorded evidence frequently giving Daniels’ bluesy heft an infusion of garage punk grit. There is some of that on their latest collab, the 4-song EP “Sailing the Concrete Seas,” but as the title illuminates, there are also two versions of vintage truck-driving songs that are downright swank as they hit the ear. This 7-inch vinyl platter is available now as a split release between Black & Wyatt Records of Memphis, TN, and the Ghost Highway label of Madrid, Spain.

This short player spins at 33 1/3 rpm, and in extending the teamwork of Daniels and Oblivian, it can’t help but bring to mind the stuff they kicked out with former Gibson Bros manic Monsieur Jeffrey Evans. This is because back in 1990 the Gibson Bros (at that point still a four-piece) released a collab Punk Rock Truck Drivin’ Song of a Gun with the Workdogs (that’d be Rob Kennedy and Scott Jarvis), the LP’s title a direct reference to country singer Dave Dudley’s 1965 album Truck Drivin’ Son-Of-A-Gun.

Half of the contents of “Sailing the Concrete Seas” are versions of songs from that Dudley record, “I Got Lost,” written by noted country singer-songwriter Tom T. Hall, and “Two Six Packs Away,” a song credited to rockabilly cat Ronnie Self. “I Got Lost” works up a big-guitar groove halfway between a Nashville honky-tonk and an all-night Bakersfield diner, and that’s just killer. There’s a touch of Daniel’s mouth harp in the mix, but the blowing is harder and longer in the midst and also in the waning moments of “Two Six Packs Away.”

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