Welcome to Esoteric Recordings, the home of good music. Established in 2007 and label managed by Mark Powell, Esoteric Recordings is the home of good music, with all releases finely packaged and remastered from the best possible sources to ensure the highest possible audio quality. Our releases cover both catalogue reissues and inspiring new works from artists with a fine history and heritage. Esoteric Recordings is an imprint of the Cherry Red Records group.

News
The August edition of Record Collector has praise for our recent Bob Downes reissues. Downes, the reviewer observes that Bob “worked upon Electric City and Open Music more or less simultaneously; both emerged in 1970, and both present contrasting aspects of the man’s questing stock-in-trade.” Of Electric City Record Collector notes “From soup to nuts, this is a busting, appropriately urban blare, reminiscent of Colosseum in its sustained brutality and in the Roland Kirk-derived twin sax skronk of Piccadilly Circles.” The bulk of Bob’s other album, Open City, was composed for a ballet piece. “Open Music is more of an ask overall, with its impressionistic free-form instrumental. The avian flute solo Birth Of A Forest is, however, rather lovely”

The same magazine also covers the 1969 Deram debut of The Alan Bown! “as a clutch of songs these are stylistically all over the map. The underplayed jazz/soul crossover of Strange Little Friend works well, as do the claves, conga and acoustic guitars of All I Can Do, while Children of the Night deserves to be a Northern Soul staple if it isn’t already. The Prisoner however, is a what-the-fuck 10-minute high drama set piece which reels from proto-Iron Maiden bellowing to Bee Gees-style nanny goat balladry. Schizodelic...”

Classic Rock Presents Prog highlights several Esoteric releases in its July edition. Writing about Home’s third and final release, The Alchemist, the magazine notes “If you’ve never heard this album before, you must rectify this oversight immediately. Musically, Home are reminiscent of a less wispy Caravan, the spiky guitar playing of a pre-Wishbone Ash Laurie Wisefield adding an agreeable edge to proceedings. The Alchemist is an imaginative and deeply involving album; our only criticism would be its somewhat basic production. Imagine what it would’ve been sounded like with Trevor Horn or Bob Ezrin at the helm. Well, we can dream...”

Brainticket’s Pyschonaut is warmly received at Head Full Of Snow. “The standout, however, has to be the progressive sixties throwback ‘Like a Place in the Sun’, the chorus of which evokes the spirit of Grace Slick heralding in a new dawn from a makeshift stage somewhere in Golden Gate Park. Contrast this with the spoken word verses, which languish on a far darker level – somewhere between the acid trip turning bad and the heroin flooding the veins of the once beautiful flower children of Haight-Ashbury – and you have the uneasy alliance of light and shade that ‘Like a Place in the Sun’ represents.”

Finally this week, don’t forget Esoteric’s essential guide to the broad spectrum of the progressive era, Feed Your Head. This two-disc download-only sampler is available via iTunes or Amazon.