Trilok Gurtu has recorded his share of instrumental jazz and worked with jazz heavyweights like Joe Zawinul and Pat Metheny, but you won't find any jazz whatsoever on The Beat of Love. Produced by West Africa native Wally Badarou, this album is meant to fuse modern Indian pop with the rhythms of black Africa (as opposed to Arabic North Africa). And the two prove to be quite compatible.

After years of postmodern pop posturing from dozens of would-be Portisheads and Bjorks, it's something more than a relief to see Ivy's third album, Long Distance, get a U.S. release.

This winsome, pleasant, accomplished, convivial pop LP attracted some fine word of mouth, after these New Yorkers-by-way-of-Connecticut with a Fountains of Wayne connection (guitarist Adam Schlesinger is in both bands) finished a solid tour, one where they outdrew U.K. headliners/alternative one-hit wonders Space Monkeys. And yet it's a wonder that Ivy isn't massive.

The Epiphany, the debut CD from the symphonic metal band is a celestial blend of enigmatic lyrical threads and layered neoclassical metal. While traces of Hendrix, Symphony X and J.S. Bach can be detected throughout the 10-track CD, X Opus has shaped a dense musical landscape pockmarked by major plateaus and minor gullies. The combination of doomy chord changes, bombastic compositional grandness, the flavor of Middle Eastern scales, and lyrical themes, based on the redemptive nature of faith, is enough to send chills up and down your spine.

Anthem is known as one of the innovators of Japanese Heavy Metal along with Loudness back in the 80's. Currently, Anthem's lineup consists of vocalist Eizo Sakamoto (EIZO Japan, formerly of Animetal and JAM Project), guitarist Akio Shimizu, bassist Naoto Shibata (of Konami's Naoto Shibata Project) and drummer Hirotsugu Homma (former drummer of Loudness).After almost 3 years since their 2008 album Black Empire and several DVD's, the band will bring us a new album. It will be titled Heraldic Device and will be out in Japan on July 6, 2011.

Emerging out of semi-nowhere – well, Northwich – the Charlatans UK were saddled with a name that lent itself to jibes about their quality, perceived bandwagon jumping and the burden of being a one-hit wonder with "The Only One I Know." Then Some Friendly, the group's debut, planted itself at the top of the UK charts; while the rest of the '90s were up-and-down for the band, this album set the band on its way.