Country: US
Released: May 15, 2017
Style: Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock, Acid Rock
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Genre: Hard Rock / Metal
Year: 2023
Country:
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When Queen took a break for the first part of 1983, guitarist BRIAN MAY put his time to good use. Waking up one morning in Los Angeles, he decided to phone a few friends and invite them to collaborate on some tracks in California’s famous Record Plant studios. The resulting collaboration was a great success, and Brian would later mould the recordings into a unique mini-album, Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Project.
This third release in the “Brian May Gold Series” offers an extensively revisited and expanded box set edition of these now legendary sessions. ”Star Fleet Sessions [2-CD Deluxe Edition remixed / remastered]” is a complete document of the these Record Plant Studio sessions accompanied by top rock music luminaries Edward Van Halen (guitar), Alan Gratzer (drums), Phil Chen (bass) and Fred Mandel (keyboards).
This Deluxe Edition includes a bonus 23-track CD featuring all previously unreleased material: the complete sessions.
Brian May: “It’s all here. ALL of it. Every note we played on those two days is right here, on show for the first time. I will take you behind the scenes into that studio with us.”

That the Queen guitarist and avid astronomer Brian May looked to the stars for his first solo project was no surprise. That the resultant three-track mini-album was inspired by a Japanese kids’ sci-fi TV show starring Gerry Anderson-style puppets and featured fellow guitar hero Eddie Van Halen was more of a curve ball.

Released in 1983 and credited to ‘Brian May + Friends’, the original Star Fleet Project release is an overlooked curiosity in the extended Queen discography. The main song is a faithful, if elongated, eight-minute cover of the TV show’s closing theme, featuring vocals from May and some impressive guitar tag-teaming from the him and Van Halen.
The two other tracks head off in a completely different direction: Let Me Out is a slow-burning bluesy hard rock number that sails close to early Queen song See What A Fool I’ve Been, while Blues Breaker (Dedicated To E.C.) is an exhilarating 13-minute blues jam that sees these two world-famous musicians essentially prostrating themselves at the feet of Beano Album-era Eric Clapton, a mutual hero.

This lovingly curated deluxe reissue elevates Star Fleet Project from charming oddity into a fascinating snapshot of a specific moment in time.
It includes the original Star Fleet EP remixed / remastered 2023, and all sounds bigger. But May has gone to town on the extra material, digging out a full CD’s worth of out-takes from the original two-day sessions.
It’s the kind of candidness that Queen themselves would never sanction – it’s not only possible to hear these songs taking shape, mistakes and all, there’s also a tangible sense of the joy in the room that comes with two massively successful musicians stepping away from their high-pressure day jobs.
There’s a poignancy to it as well, given that both Eddie Van Halen and session bassist Phil Chen passed away in the past few years.

May himself would soon return to the bosom of Queen. Their records, and the solo albums he released after that band ended, would be much more high-profile than his kids’ TV show theme tune cover. But as far as passion projects go, they don’t get much more passionate than this.
Highly Recommended

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Country: US
Released: 1994
Style: Hard Rock
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As requested, here’s one of the rarest indie albums from the prolific late ’80s / early ’90s American hard rock scene. The band is LONELY HEART and the album titled ”Mirage”, not only hard to find when originally released in 1990 (the CD was printed in limited copies) but also this Retrospect Records remastered reissue from some years ago that seems impossible to track down now.
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Category: Hard Rock
Year: 1997
Label: Vision Carver Records
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Released:2000
Style:Alternative Rock, Glam, Power Pop, Hard Rock
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Country: US
Released: 1995
Style: Hard Rock
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Country: US
Released: 1993
Style: Hard Rock, Blues Rock
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Country: Japan
Released: 1992
Style: Hard Rock
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With KISS’ ongoing farewell tour gaining as much momentum as its travel itinerary continues to gain more and more dates to play, a new aspiring band are poised to take their place. More specifically, the members of both Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley’s own respected touring bands are vying for their own moment in the limelight as ROCK CITY MACHINE COMPANY.

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While ALL I KNOW are recording new music, MelodicRock Classics is reissuing their acclaimed and long out of print debut album ‘Vanity Kills’, now presented in a Deluxe Edition CD, limited to 1000 units worldwide.

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Genre: Hard Rock / Garage / Punk
Country of performer (group): Norway
Year of publication: 2007-2017
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