A tremendous discovery in soul music – previously unreleased demos from the legendary Dan Penn – one of the key songwriters in the Fame Studios/Muscle Shoals scene of the 60s! Dan's tunes had an undeniable impact on southern soul for decades to come – yet Penn hardly issued any singles himself – just sang on these in-house recordings as a way of demonstrating the strength of his songs! Yet Penn's vocals are amazing – as raspy and soulful as any of the big names who recorded his work – and backed here by superb Fame support by the core combo of Spooner Oldham on piano and organ, Jimmy Johnson on guitar, and Roger Hawkins on drums. Oldham co-wrote most of the tunes with Penn, and really gives them a slow-burning, all-soul feel with his keyboard lines – and although demo recordings, the production here is every bit as great as commercially-released material from Fame – making the collection sparkle like the lost album (or albums!) that Dan Penn never had at the time. Titles include "Keep On Talking", "Feed The Flame", "Strangest Feeling", "I Do", "It Tears Me Up", "Uptight Good Woman", "Far From The Maddening Crowd", "The Puppet", "Long Ago", "Slippin Around With You", and "Do Something". (Soul, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the true giants from the Harvest Records prog years – a masterpiece of a trio album, and one that has even more power than most fuller groups of the time! The core lineup features John Gustafson on bass and vocals, Pete Robinson on keyboards, and Mick Underwood on drums – and the trio do a fantastic job of shifting modes from track to track, really keeping things interesting as the subject matter and song length shifts. There's also some nice use of additional strings – arranged by Robinson, handled by Paul Buckmaster – and titles include "Gemini", "Laughin Tackle", "Entropy", "Black Sheep Of The Family", "Good Lord Knows", and "Up On The Ground". LP, Vinyl record album

In case you think you stumbled upon the wrong record, these guys are the legendary Motorhead – and on this groundbreaking debut, they play straightforward rock and roll! This is pre-Ace Of Spades Motorhead – groundwork-paving, gnarly, primitive and incendiary Motorhead – too loud and fast for mainstream rockers, too menacing for fancy lads of all stripes – too gutteral and nasty even for most early metal fans – the world just didn't know what to make of Lemmy & Co – but they'd catch up, eventually! Titles include "Motorhead", "Vibrator", "Lost Johnny", "Iron Horse/Born To Lose", "White Line Fever", "Keepers On The Road", our second favorite version of "Train Kept A Rollin'" (sorry, Aerosmith), and "The Watcher". LP, Vinyl record album

Wicked early 80s punk from The Flesh Eaters – with some fun nods to trash culture and B-movies in the cover art, song titles and lyrical imagery – but it's also some of most slyly ambitious sounds from the west coast scene of the time! It's clear from the first track they're going for something more instrumentally adventurous than others at the time, with sax and off kilter hand percussion all over it – but Chris D's vision and caterwauling presence as front man keeps it nice and raucous. X's John Doe and DJ Bonebrake are both Flesh Eaters in this peak period, along with sax player Steve Berlin, later to join Los Lobos – and even roots rock hero Dave Alvin – that's a hell of a punk band, right?! Titles include "Digging My Grave", "Satan's Stomp", "So Long", "Cryan De Berger's Back", "Divine Horseman", "See You In The Boneyard" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

You might know Ace Records as home to a fair bit of jazz, funk, and soul reissues over the years – but right from the start, the label's also had a keen ear for rockabilly – and can boast a decades-long devotion to the music, with releases that have really blown us away! This set digs back over material that Ace has reissued in previous decades – cuts that are both rare original singles, or unissued tracks – from important labels like Starday, Chess, Goldband, and Meteor – all hand-picked by Keb Darge – another British force in turning us on to great music over the years! The vinyl-only collection is full of gems – and titles include "All Dressed Up" by Jimmy Johnson, "Let's Go Bopping Tonight" by Al Ferrier & His Bopping Billies, "Nuthin But A Nuthin" by Jimmy Stewart & His Nighthawks, "Blue Jeans & A Boy's Shirt" by Glen Glenn, "The Woman I Love" by Gene Terry & His Kook Kats, "Jello Sal" by Benny Ingram, "Lonesome Baby Blues" by David Ray, and "Do Me No Wrong" by Pat Cupp & The Flying Saucers. LP, Vinyl record album

The first-ever release of some incredible funky folk tunes from vocalist Susan Christie – originally recorded as demos in the years before her work at Columbia Records, and arguably even better than those classic singles! Backings here are by John Hill, who inflects Susan's folksy style with a heavier undercurrent – one that's subtly funky at the best moments, and which also pushes fuller strings and more baroque instrumentation into the mix – all in a way that almost sounds like David Axlerod might, had he started making folk records! Titles include the amazing 9 minute "Yesterday, Where's My Mind" – a funky mini-suite that's worth the price of the record alone – plus "Paint A Lady", "Rainy Day", "Ghost Riders In The Sky", "Echo In Your Mind", "When Love Comes", and "For The Love Of A Soldier". (Folk/Country, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderfully weird little record – one that brings together an assortment of rare tracks recorded by French underground hero Miquela – a female artist who was dedicated to only working in the Occitan variation of her language! The approach here is almost timeless – hardly the punk that you'd expect from the time, although Miquela clearly has some of the DIY energy of the period – and often more acoustic, in a mix of jazz and folk styles – almost as if you'd find if Saravah Records had recorded this material a few years before – with really dynamic vocal leads from Miquela, and backing from a shifting array of female singers who make up Lei Chapacans over the course of the tracks on the record. There's a breezy brilliance to the whole thing – an understated sophistication that's similar to some of our favorite French work of the 70s – on titles that include "Dizo Rural", "La Pub", "Airplane", "Leberon", "Me Demandes Pas", "Siau Pas Poeta", "Au Jardin", and the tune "Basta" – which is a wonderful reworking of the John Coltrane song "Naima". LP, Vinyl record album