The Compaq Big Band's 14-song CD Bandwidth marks the first commercial release in the 30-year-old jazz ensemble's history. Since its inception in 1975 as an informal employee club by a group of musically inclined workers at the world's second largest computer company, Digital Equipment Corporation, the band has slowly evolved from corporate "house band" into regional institution. A testament to this is the fact that the group (originally called the DECbigband) has played on steadily through a merger, a takeover, and periods of severe employee attrition brought on by tech-sector downsizing. Since the mid-1980s, in addition to company functions, the non-profit, all-volunteer band has been gigging at benefit concerts and community events throughout northern New England. On this sound tribute to its 30 years in service of swing, the CBB, directed by Al Saloky, interprets requisite standards by Ellington, Gershwin and Porter, more recent classics by Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton and Doc Severinson, and tops them off with a smooth, snazzy number by contemporary composer Tom Kubis.

After an early demo and a follow-up EP, Bear is the first official full-length release from The Sanguine, a Boston-area band with ties to the Seacoast. The group was formed in the winter of 2003 by guitarist/singer Shane O'Connor and drummer Andrew Maher. On their new album, bassist Kevin Ennis rounds out the band. Taking cues from guitar-based experimental rock bands like Karate and Fugazi, the Sanguine stitch predominantly soft, careful melodies across quietly-recorded drums. O'Connor delivers his impressionistic lyrics with a vaguely operatic, vaguely gothic, and vaguely British style. Unlike many other bands that play this type of music, The Sanguine don't seem to have an interest in epic drama (almost all of Bear's 11 songs are over in less than three minutes), favoring instead brief, poem-like compositions that quickly bud, blossom and fade.