MVD Audio has a bunch o’ cool-and-shiny silver discs hitting the streets in September, stylistically running the gamut from prog-rock to Krautrock to punk and industrial Goth. It’s quite an ambitious line-up, so to whet your appetite, here are the specifics.

The Fall / Live At The Knitting Factory
Recorded live in 2001 at The Knitting Factory in LA, these songs were previously only available on the Access All Areas DVD. Clocking in at an hour, the disc features 11 songs by one of the Fall’s more talented line-ups, including such fan faves as “Mr. Pharmacist” and “Bourgeois Town.” Of course, the Fall’s bossman Mark E. Smith has since changed musicians, so this disc will serve to provide a snapshot of just one of the band’s many musical faces.

Tangerine Dream / Paradiso
Representing the third part of Dante’s La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy), this performance was recorded over two nights in January 2006 with the Brandenburg Symphonic Orchestra at the Hans-Otto Theater in Potsdam. Of course, Tangerine Dream has long been a favored nation in the Krautrock, prog-rock and art-rock worlds and I suspect that it won’t take too much arm-twisting to convince fans of any of those genres from buying into the premise and magnificent performance documented by Paradiso.

Jon Anderson / Searching For The Songs
The golden voice of rock legends Yes has also built a significant solo career over the last three decades. Searching For The Songs is a collection of songs originally recorded in 1986, some of which were re-purposed for use by both Yes and the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album. The sound quality has been sonically improved for this reissue when compared to other earlier versions of the songs, making it a “must have” for Yes and Jon Anderson fans.

Attrition / Attrition Of Reason
Formed in the early-80s by the brilliant Martin Bowes, British industrial Goth band Attrition has been called “a Punk Floyd” and been compared to such dark-hued bands as Bauhaus and Black Tape For A Blue Girl. The reality is that Attrition’s unique blend of ambient Goth, industrial noise, prog-rock overtones and punkish intensity defies categorization. This MVD Audio reissue of the band’s 1984 debut Attrition Of Reason was remastered by Bowes and features expanded artwork and new photos. The CD also includes four songs from Attrition’s The Voice Of God EP. MVD will also be releasing Esoteria, a collection of Attrition’s best “ambient and classical works” chosen personally by Bowes. Featuring twelve cuts taken from better than a dozen of the band’s independently-released studio LPs over 25 years, Esoteria will serve as an excellent introduction to this entirely original and influential cult band.

Refugee / Live In Concert
One of the lesser-known but no less important lights of ‘70s-era progressive rock, Refugee was formed in 1973 by Swiss keyboard wizard Patrick Moraz along with Lee Jackson and Brian Davidson of art-rock ensemble the Nice. The band quickly built a solid reputation both in the U.K. and Europe before Moraz, hearing destiny calling, jumped ship to join Yes for the mega-successful Relayer album and tour. Recorded live in 1974 at the Newcastle City Hall, Refugee’s Live In Concert is one of the few documents that exists of this long-lost band, which released only a single album during its time. Remastered to improve sound quality and overseen by the band, the scarcity of the recording trumps the lack of sonic consideration (from a historical perspective, at least).

Gentle Giant / Santa Monica Freeway
One of the most criminally-overlooked of ‘70s-era prog-rock bands, Gentle Giant ensured its legacy with the release of almost a dozen albums during the decade, including such highly-respected progressive standards as the Free Hand and In A Glass House albums. Taken from a January 1975 concert in California, Santa Monica Freeway is the latest in a series of low-fi live recordings released by the Glass House label. In addition to the five live performances from Santa Monica, the disc is rounded out with two bonus tracks from a 1977 Dallas sound check. The album has been remastered and cleaned up for better sound, but it probably remains just a notch above bootleg quality, most likely making this CD one for hardcore fans only.

(Click on the CD cover to buy the title from Amazon.com)