It's been 11 years since we last heard from California's obscure band Draconis, who had a brief productive spurt in the late 90s that resulted in the debut album Overlords of the Greying Dawn and The Highest of All Dark Powers EP, but judging by the sounds coming out of the speakers here, this time has been put to excellent use. The Cult of the Dragon is an anomaly, a US black/death metal record that sets a pretty high bar for itself, infusing melodic death and thrash metal rhythms wherever applicable to create a mesmerizing vortex of hostility, produced with deep, rich guitar tones and dynamic poles that are constantly engaging the listener's interest.

The Complete Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong On Verve (3 CD) (1997)

This compact, stylishly packaged, three-disc box set delivers exactly what the title promises: every one of the 47 master tracks (including a few unreleased tracks) recorded by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong for Verve between August 1956 and October 1957. The jazz standards and pop songs on disc one and two are what gained the most attention at the time, and justifiably so - Fitzgerald and Armstrong are possibly the two greatest scat singers in jazz history, and under Norman Granz's magnificent tutelage, both perform at the best of their abilities.

‘Brilliant, invigorating, uplifting, King’s sacred music integrale shines like a beacon in a dark world that has largely lost the ability to engage with spiritual celebration. More prosaically, it now becomes the core reference archive for Vivaldi’s sacred music, a skilfully planned, superlatively engineered set of discs that will take an honoured place in recording history’ (Fanfare, USA)

Cochemea Gastelum, one of New York City's most in-demand saxophonists, has been a key player in the blossoming new soul and Afrobeat scenes that have leapt out of Brooklyn to take the world by storm in recent years. The versatile Brooklyn-based musician has performed and/or recorded with a diverse group of artists, including Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Archie Shepp, Paul Simon, Antibalas, Public Enemy, The Roots, The Budos Band, Robert Walter's 20th Congress and Amy Winehouse. With 'The Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow,' his debut release as a solo artist, Gastelum has carved out a whole new sound. An eclectic listener as well as player, Gastelum has drawn from a myriad of influences, including the effects-laden excursions of Eddie Harris' electric saxophone, the percussion-driven orchestrations of War and the winding horn dimensions of Mulatu Astatke.

The complete Schumann chamber music? On just seven discs? Is that really possible?

Wow, this is some disc! There are so few new major-label productions featuring today's "big" artists–and let's face it, so many of those turn out to be uninteresting–that it comes almost as a shock to note that there really can be a difference when everyone involved lives up to their reputations. Without a doubt, Esa-Pekka Salonen is a great conductor, particularly in contemporary music such as this. He recorded The Rite of Spring previously with the Philharmonia for Sony, and that was a very exciting performance, but this one has just that much more bite and savagery in the Sacrificial Dance, or at the conclusion of Part One. Indeed, the playing of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is pretty amazing throughout, with well-nigh unbelievable clarity in the polyrhythmic complexities of the Entry of the Sage, but also in the gentler washes of color that open Part Two.