... LP, Vinyl record album

A harder-rocking sound from this second incarnation of Amon Duul – with titles that include "Pig Man", "Apocalyptic Bore", "Dr", "Ladies Mimikry", "Mozambique", "Fly United", and "A Morning Excuse". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

A weird and wonderful little record – one that combines noisy industrial moments with acoustic folksy elements – all in a way that's not unlike the direction Current 93 would take later on in the 80s! Regrelh somehow manage to evoke both a primitive pagan past and an eerie apocalyptic future – working in some of the same genre-crossing styles as the hipper side of their French scene a few years before – but with a vibe that's completely their own, and completely stunning throughout! The vocals at times are almost medieval, yet the record also uses guitar and electronics too – which makes for a stunning blend of modes that's unlike anything else recorded at the time. As with most French underground work of the time, the record's very much in its own space apart from trends in the UK or US – as you'll hear on titles that include "Esmai", "Del Sieu Tort Farai Esmenda", "Pois Tals Saber Mi Sortz E'M Creis", and "Elogi De La Guerra". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic album of jazzy tunes from the British pop scene of the early 80s – and the kind of work that really helped set the stage for the later Acid Jazz movement in London – but which is equally enjoyable as one of the loveliest moments in the post-punk generation! Weekend's a combo that features players from Young Marble Giants, Working Week, and other Brit groups of the period who were strongly committed to the warmer sounds of music in a world that was often a bit colder and more post-punk – and they work here in styles that borrow heavily from bossa and certainly have a bit of jazz – all gentle pop of a style shared by contemporaries Antena, Everything But The Girl, and Kalima. Titles include "Sleepy Theory", "End Of The Affair", "Life In the Day Of", "Drum Beat For Baby", and "Summerdays". (Rock, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A really great record from French rocker Johnny Hallyday – a great artist who's really letting his style open up here – recording in London, and using some modes that are a bit funky at times, and also touched with some elements that were coming out of the LA scene at the start of the 70s too! Arrangements are mostly by Mickey Jones and Tommy Brown, who'd done some excellent work with Hallyday on earlier records – and the music is kind of a post-Muscle Shoals/Memphis sound, with lots of soulful piano, bubbling organ riffs, riffing guitar, and backings that are generally more in the soul/rock camp than in Hallyday's earlier pop rock style – all of which seems to really bring out some great qualities in Johnny's vocals too! Titles include "La Joi", "L'Autre Motif", "Flagrant Delit", "Fils De Personne", and "Fille De La Nuit". 2LP set features a full bonus record of unissued material from the original sessions – lots of alternate takes, and the unissued tunes "Waterloo" and "Reste". (French, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A really great record from French rocker Johnny Hallyday – a great artist who's really letting his style open up here – recording in London, and using some modes that are a bit funky at times, and also touched with some elements that were coming out of the LA scene at the start of the 70s too! Arrangements are mostly by Mickey Jones and Tommy Brown, who'd done some excellent work with Hallyday on earlier records – and the music is kind of a post-Muscle Shoals/Memphis sound, with lots of soulful piano, bubbling organ riffs, riffing guitar, and backings that are generally more in the soul/rock camp than in Hallyday's earlier pop rock style – all of which seems to really bring out some great qualities in Johnny's vocals too! Titles include "La Joi", "L'Autre Motif", "Flagrant Delit", "Fils De Personne", and "Fille De La Nuit". This totally cool package is filled with great material – a CD and LP version of the original album, then a bonus CD and LP that features a full bonus record of unissued material from the original sessions – lots of alternate takes, and the unissued tunes "Waterloo" and "Reste". Also features a 3rd CD, with a full Paris live show from September of 1971 – and a 4th CD that features another French live show from August of 1971. Also includes a DVD with an interview with Philippe Labro too. Plus, the whole thing comes in a heavy book-style package with a huge 48 page booklet of images and notes! (French, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal bit of Japanese rock from the early 70s – performed by a group that included Haruomi Hosono, and who has a style that borrows from the best of the LA scene of the late 60s! The tunes are extremely catchy – done in a folksy style that has compressed guitars and spacious production that evoke bits of The Byrds, Graham Parsons, Beau Brummels, late Association, and some of our other favorite work from those magical years. Lyrics are all in Japanese, but sung in a simple and compelling style that somehow makes you forget that fact! LP, Vinyl record album

A goofy title track, and a groovy little album from Jan & Dean – a set that has them settling nicely into their role as one of the most playful pairs in west coast pop – with a heck of a lot more staying power than some of their more surf-washed contemporaries! The album's got a number of tracks that follow in the similar LA-environs mode as the title track – but instead of being gimmicky, they almost come across with this whimsical sort of charm – like they're Jan & Dean's version of British tunes from The Kinks – a wonderfully playful picture postcard version of California, with more wit than you might expect! Titles include "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena", "The Anaheim Azusa & Cuckamonga Sewing Circle", "Summer Means Fun", "Old Ladies Seldom Power Shift", "Sidewalk Surfin", "One Piece Topless Bathing Suit", and "Horace The Swinging School Bus Driver". LP, Vinyl record album

Very experimental work from this loose Canadian collective of the late 60s – but a set that's filled with some surprisingly cool touches too! The album's almost more of a "happening" in the studio at times – with free-flowing energy between jazz musicians, rockers, poets, electronocists, and more experimentally sonic scientists – shifting styles quickly from track to track, but occasionally hitting some straighter, funkier moments that are totally great – almost a more tripped-out version of some of the French electronique work we love so much from the 60s – and a record that's mindblowingly beautiful in its sense of freedom and creativity. The whole thing's a sonic trip through incredibly fresh territory – never too overindulgent, and beautifully balanced both in sound and execution. Titles include "Ode A L'Affaire", "J'Ai Perdue 15 Cents Dans Le Nez Froid", "Finale", "Viens Danser Le OK La", "Agnus Dei", "Desafinado", "She's Leaving Home", and "Intermezzo". LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic fuzz from a French Canadian combo of the 60s – one of the coolest garage bands we've ever heard from up north at the time, romping here with a style that's equal parts Sunset Strip and some of the hipper Parisian groups of the time! Lyrics are all in French, and the production has this nice sense of darkness that makes echo out of the organ lines, jangly guitar, and nice touches of fuzz – all flowing together with a style that sounds plenty magic all the way through, even if you can't always understand the lyrics. Some of the guys in the group were still teens at the time of recording, which you can hear in the youthful energy of the songs – and titles include "Je T'Aime", "Abandonne", "La Solitude", "Seul Sur Terre", "Je Ne Veux Plus", "Aimes Proudemment", and "Soyons Differents". LP, Vinyl record album

Mother Lode has a somewhat more fuller sound overall – one that's got bits of the western touches you might expect from the prospecting reference in the title – tunes that almost have a Deadwood way of echoing the past, but which come across with a much more 70s LA vibe overall. The setting's a good one to help Kenny Loggins avoid the pitfalls of cliche – and tracks include "Growin", "Be Free", "Changes", "Fever Dream", "Move On", and "Get A Hold". LP, Vinyl record album

What can we say? This is one of the greatest albums of all time! The record's got a sound that's completely unique – as crack LA garage punk rock meets Hollywood baroque production, and the result is an amazing bit of loud guitar noise backed by strings and horns, all graced by the godlike vocals of the great Arthur Lee. Forever Changes is a milestone in rock – an incredibly bleak document about insanity, escape, and the coming revolution that never happened. Think of all the best moments of Wild In The Streets, Zabriske Point, and Invocation of My Demon Brother rolled into one – and you'll only have a tiny slice of the picture! A record that will haunt us until the day we die – filled with incredible songs like "Alone Again Or", "Old Man", "Daily Planet", "Red Telephone", and "Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark & Hilldale". LP, Vinyl record album

Great work from Maneige – a French Canadian group who work in an instrumental mode that's partly jazz, and partly prog – but very much their own sort of vibe! The group had already cut some other excellent records before this one, and they're razor-sharp throughout – tight, but never in any sort of smooth fusion way – in part because the music has a great sense of humanity, which comes especially from the flute and alto work of Alain Bergeron, whose solos really hang in the special space that the group created. There's both a drummer and percussionist on the set – next to piano, guitars, and bass – and those added elements really help give the music an organic quality, and offset the electric instrumentation. Titles include "Bagdad", "Celebration", "La Noce", "Miro Vibro", "Troizix", and "L'Envol Des Singes Latins". LP, Vinyl record album

The mindblowing full length debut of Joni Mitchell – and a record that instantly set a whole new tone for singer/songwriter material in the late 60s! Joni had years of folk experience before this set, but the record is something else entirely – dark at times, deeply personal, and inflected with an understanding of jazz phrasing that haunts some of the guitar work, and maybe a bit of the vocals – yet all in a way that's very different than much of Mitchell's later work too. The record is definitely one of those landmarks in this moment of an artist who emerges fully formed, with a sound that's all their own – resonating with a strength that's as powerful now as it was way back then! Titles include "I Had A King", "Sistowbell Lane", "The Dawntreader", "Cactus Tree", "Song To A Seagull", "The Pirate Of Penance", "Nathan La Franeer", and "Night In The City". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the coolest records in the 60s surf/hotrod/motorcycle years of instrumental sets – an album that's partly sound effects from races, and partly instrumental music! There's no credits as to the players, but we're guessing it's the cream of the crop of LA studio musicians, of the sort who usually worked for Liberty! (Sound Library, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Drums galore from the great Sandy Nelson – an artist who was one of the most hard-burning talents on the kit, back in the day – with a propulsive quality that makes a record like this take off right from the very first note! As with so many of Sandy's instrumental classics from back in the day, there's no record of the players on the date – but they've got to be some of LA's top-level studio talents, as there's some excellent saxophone solos on the set – and some especially great guitar! At a time when guitar-heavy instrumental rock albums were king, Sandy managed to bring the drums center stage – while still also holding onto the kinds of sounds you'd love from those groups too – all arranged by Rene Hall with a mighty sharp groove. Titles include "Drums A Go Go", "Whittier Blvd", "Do The Boomerang", "Soul Drums", "The Clapping Song", "Boot Leg", and "Casbah". LP, Vinyl record album

The jury is sometimes out on the Mick Jagger on-screen performance in the Nicolas Roeg film Performance – but the soundtrack is something pretty separate entirely, and really says a lot more about the spirit of late 60s Warner Brothers Records in LA than it does the arthouse cinema scene in England! The great Jack Nitzsche composed a number of instrumental tracks for the score – maybe his first time in this mode, and prefacing some later 70s successes to come – with titles that include "Rolls Royce & Acid", "Harry Flowers", and "Natural Magic". Other Warner talents get a hand in the music too – as Randy Newman conducted all of Nitzsche's charts, and also sings "Gone Dead Train" – while Ry Cooder delivers bottleneck solos on "Get Away" and "Powis Square". There's also some nice soul-based moments – the cut "Wake Up N*ggers" by The Last Poets, and "Poor White Hound Dog" and "Performance" by Merry Clayton. And yes, Mick does get to sing on one tune – the album's "Memo From Turner" – and the set is completed by Buffy St Marie work on "The Hashishin" and "Dead Dead Red". (Soundtracks, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

An overlooked 60s pop gem from Kenny O'Dell – a great mix of twangy vocals and Sunshine Pop production – all served up with a really unique sort of sparkle! In another world, Kenny might have been a country singer – but here, he's working with some cool Cali backings that push O'Dell far from his Bakersfield roots – into the sound of sunny late 60s LA, with some great guitar, organ, and vibes in the backings. Titles include "Beautiful People", "Kentucky Woman", "Sunshine Dreamin", "Massachusetts", "You'll Break Me Yet", and "Next Plane To London". LP, Vinyl record album

A strange spacey soundtrack from mid 80s Spain – one composed for a daytime TV show, but with a weird electronic vibe that must have shocked the kids who were watching at the time! The music has some echoes of the cooler side of the German new wave – not the darkness of the cold wave side, but maybe the mix of playfulness and experimentation you'd hear from Pyrolator or Der Plan – both of whom would be a good comparison the spirit of the songs on this set! Most tunes are instrumental, but still pretty darn catchy – and when there's vocals, they're usually processed in the best 80s electro way. Titles include "Una Dia Especial", "Tema De Kiu", "El Mon De Kiu", "Un Dia Boig", "Beat De Beth", "Ball De Beth", "Quan Jo Sigui Una Estrella", and "Tema De La Lluno". (Soundtracks, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A German group, but one who've got a sweet, sunny sound that would have been right at home in the Cali scene of the 70s! The harmonies on the record alone are great – right up there with America or CSN – and the instrumentation has slight jazzy currents, with a blend of acoustic guitar, flute, percussion, and other electric instrumentation – delivered in a style that's tight, but never commercial or overproduced – which is really the charm of the album! If these guys were working in LA, no doubt a bigger label would have mucked things up with too much polish for the charts – but instead, the record has this down to earth quality that makes the tightness seem even more appealing. Tracks include "Natures Melody", "Tears Take It Away", "Expression Of Feeling", "Upside Down", "Like A Ship On The Water", and "Out On the Road". LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal album from the American underground of the late 70s – the debut of Pere Ubu, bursting forth from the Cleveland scene with a sound to challenge the greatness of anything coming from New York or LA at the time! The album's not exactly punk, not exactly art rock, but has strong elements of both – all wrapped around the unique conception of singer Dave Thomas, whose vocals are some of the oddest ever recorded! The tunes here are a lot more straightforward and upfront than some of Pere Ubu's later work – in a way that definitely makes the album their biggest favorite with new generations of indie rockers. But there's also still a fair number of more experimental touches too – odd sonic tricks and almost-abstract moments that were quite revolutionary for the time – especially from Cleveland! Titles include "Non Alignment Pact", "The Modern Dance", "Chinese Radiation", "Real World", "Life Stinks", "Over My Head", and "Humor Me". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that's every bit as groovy as its cover – the rare self-titled set from Venezuelan 60s combo The Pets – a group who serve up lots of cool cuts with a swinging 60s vibe! Lyrics are in Spanish, but the instrumentation echoes plenty of Anglo styles – especially 60s work from the Sunset Strip scene, mixed up with organ lines, jangly guitars, and production styles that really give the whole thing a nice balance between moody moments and more upbeat grooves! The group turn in a great and very unusual version of "Hello I Love You", serve up their own gem "El Entierro De Un Hombre Rico", and do a great job on other tunes that include "La Pobreza", "En El Verano", "No Lo Hagas Tan Dificil", "Este Es El Fin", and "Revolucion". LP, Vinyl record album

The completely smoking second album from this legendary Nicaraguan group of the 70s – an album that's even more fully-formed and Latin-styled than their first – served up with long tracks delivered in a stunning blend of percussion, jazzy instrumentation, and just the right touch of rock influences on guitar and keyboards! Where the group's debut maybe echoed the San Francisco style of mixing rock and Latin, this one shows more of the LA funky version of the music – as the group seem to have doubled their chops on their instruments since the previous record – and hardly even need vocals to provide any of the context for the music. Titles include "Chicharron", "Fruta Podrida", "Bacanal 76", "Amanecer Entre Las Hojas", and "Mimo". (Latin, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A Japanese-only collection of work by one of our favorite French singers! Titles include "Computer's Dream", "Ca N'Arrive Qu'Aux Autres", "Tout Tout Pour Ma Cherie", "Ame Caline", "La Pupee Qui Fait Non", "L'Amour Avec Toi", "Love Me Please Love Me", and "Tous Les Bateaux Tous Les Oiseux". (French, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A stone smoker from Rare Earth – recorded a a time when they were able to easily handle a groove made up of equal parts funk, rock, and soul! The vibe here is almost like War at times – not for the LA touches in the mix, but for the heady and heavy way these guys roll forward – pulling together all the best elements of the underground at the time, and bringing them into their own smoky groove. Instrumentation is wonderful – and some of the cuts have a really great jamming sort of feel – especially the 11 minute reading of "(I Know) I'm Losing You" – originally done by the Temptations, and produced by Norman Whitfield for the album! Other titles include "Long Time Leavin", "Satisfaction Guaranteed", "Nice Place To Visit", "No 1 Man", and a sweet version of "Eleanor Rigby". LP, Vinyl record album