(Cassettes, Rock) Cassette

(Cassettes, Rock) Cassette

A record that's maybe as famous for its cover art, done by comic legend Neal Adams, as it is for the music of The Groundhogs – who are really moving away here from the more blues-based work of their roots! The great Tony McPhee is on vocals and guitar, and also uses mellotron and harmonium in some really wonderful ways – and the sound here really has the group soaring with the sort of super-powered energy you might guess from the cover – a case of a British group tipping over nicely past their original inspirations, and finding a way to make hard rock magic that's very much all their own! Titles include "Wages Of Peace", "Music Is The Food Of Thought", "Bog Roll Blues", "The Grey Maze", "Earth Is Not Room Enough", and "Body In Mind". CD

A rare acid folk-styled gem from the Bay Area scene at the end of the 60s – served up by Rusty Evans from the famous Freak Scene group, stepping out here in a completely different style overall! The music is mostly acoustic, at a level that has the raspy lead vocals coming across with a nice current of darkness – really moody singing to fit the equally moody themes – almost darker than Tim Hardin at the time, as if Marcus were coming down from a bad trip with all these realizations about the world! There's a bit of electric guitar snaking through the record too – and overall the more gentle instrumentation really emphasizes the haunting power of the music. Titles include "Royal Maze", "The Coming", "Grains Of Sand", "Time Of Our Time", "We'll All Go Together", and "Color Song". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that's maybe as famous for its cover art, done by comic legend Neal Adams, as it is for the music of The Groundhogs – who are really moving away here from the more blues-based work of their roots! The great Tony McPhee is on vocals and guitar, and also uses mellotron and harmonium in some really wonderful ways – and the sound here really has the group soaring with the sort of super-powered energy you might guess from the cover – a case of a British group tipping over nicely past their original inspirations, and finding a way to make hard rock magic that's very much all their own! Titles include "Wages Of Peace", "Music Is The Food Of Thought", "Bog Roll Blues", "The Grey Maze", "Earth Is Not Room Enough", and "Body In Mind". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best jazz rock combos to grace the Harvest label in the early 70s – a German trio who've got plenty of proggish inflections, and who really serve up some great keyboards and guitar over heavy drums! There's a bit of vocals on the set, natch, but the best tunes feature lots of jamming on a variety of keyboards that include moog, Hammond, and electric piano – spun out in a really pulsating set of rhythms. Rock break fans should find plenty of interesting bits on the set – and titles include "Last Dance", "Maze", "Lucky Girl", "Roundabout", "Million Dollars", "Triangle", "School Days", and "Flashback". LP, Vinyl record album

Michael Chapman's incredible first album for Harvest – one of the best British folk rock albums of the era! At this point, Chapman was working with unique mix of acoustic folk genius and electric experimentation – and this record features some of best songs in his canon. Guests include bassist Danny Thompson of Pentangle, plus Rick Kemp, Barry Morgan and Clem Clempson. Includes "It Didn't Work", "Rainmaker", "You Say", "No One Left To Care", "Small Stones", "No Song To Sing", "One Time Thing", "Sunday Morning", "Goodbye To Monday Night", "Not So Much A Garden-More Like A Maze" and more. This CD version on Light In The Attic has 6 bonus tracks: mono versions of "Anniversary", "Among The Trees", "Sleepy", "Mozart Lives Upstairs" and "Bert Jansch Meets Frankenstein", plus "On My Way Again". CD

Genius work from the legendary Bill Fay – one of those 70s artists who never got their due back in the day, but who have gone on to become a crucial piece of the musical puzzle as the years move on! Fay recorded two incredible records for Decca – treasures as rare as the early Nick Drake albums – and like Drake, Bill was years ahead of his time, although in very different ways – an incredible songsmith, with qualities that maybe come through best of all in the material within! The tracks are all from Fay's personal archives – recorded in the early 70s in a stripped-down mode, but as fully formed songs – brought to the light of day by David Tibet, and presented here in a way that finally give these lost years their full exposure. Titles on this first volume include "Plan D", "Inside The Keeper's Pantry", "Arnold Is A Simple Man", "Time Of The Last Persecution", "Backwoods Maze", "The Sun Is Bored", "Release Is In The Eye", "Tell It Like It Is", and "Pictures Of Adolf Again". CD

A rare acid folk-styled gem from the Bay Area scene at the end of the 60s – served up by Rusty Evans from the famous Freak Scene group, stepping out here in a completely different style overall! The music is mostly acoustic, at a level that has the raspy lead vocals coming across with a nice current of darkness – really moody singing to fit the equally moody themes – almost darker than Tim Hardin at the time, as if Marcus were coming down from a bad trip with all these realizations about the world! There's a bit of electric guitar snaking through the record too – and overall the more gentle instrumentation really emphasizes the haunting power of the music. Titles include "Royal Maze", "The Coming", "Grains Of Sand", "Time Of Our Time", "We'll All Go Together", and "Color Song". 2CD set features a huge amount of bonus material – 5 acoustic demos, 5 more alternate takes with a band – and then 22 more alternates on a bonus CD! CD

Genius work from the legendary Bill Fay – one of those 70s artists who never got their due back in the day, but who have gone on to become a crucial piece of the musical puzzle as the years move on! Fay recorded two incredible records for Decca – treasures as rare as the early Nick Drake albums – and like Drake, Bill was years ahead of his time, although in very different ways – an incredible songsmith, with qualities that maybe come through best of all in the material within! The tracks are all from Fay's personal archives – recorded in the early 70s in a stripped-down mode, but as fully formed songs – brought to the light of day by David Tibet, and presented here in a way that finally give these lost years their full exposure. Titles on this first volume include "Plan D", "Inside The Keeper's Pantry", "Arnold Is A Simple Man", "Time Of The Last Persecution", "Backwoods Maze", "The Sun Is Bored", "Release Is In The Eye", "Tell It Like It Is", and "Pictures Of Adolf Again". LP, Vinyl record album

David Bowie at his most sinister for the 70s – a landmark set that combines the harder rocking sound of the Ziggy Stardust years with the more sophisticated theatrics of Aladdin Sane – in a style that features some of the darkest, most political work of Bowie's career! There's a depth to the record that goes way beyond the silly, sensational cover image – and there's also a sonic complexity that's wonderful too – a songs slide into each other with a deftness that never fails to amaze us! The album grew out of a failed project based around George Orwell's famous book 1984 – but the rights to that story were denied by the family – so Bowie went in his own directly, and honestly came up with work that was far better than if he'd done any sort of slavish reading of the novel (Rick Wakeman famously failed in that territory – and the Eurhythmics fared just slightly better.) The whole thing's great, and titles include "Diamond Dogs", "1984", "Sweet Thing", "Candidate", "Rebel Rebel", and "Big Brother". LP, Vinyl record album

David Bowie at his most sinister for the 70s – a landmark set that combines the harder rocking sound of the Ziggy Stardust years with the more sophisticated theatrics of Aladdin Sane – in a style that features some of the darkest, most political work of Bowie's career! There's a depth to the record that goes way beyond the silly, sensational cover image – and there's also a sonic complexity that's wonderful too – a songs slide into each other with a deftness that never fails to amaze us! The album grew out of a failed project based around George Orwell's famous book 1984 – but the rights to that story were denied by the family – so Bowie went in his own directly, and honestly came up with work that was far better than if he'd done any sort of slavish reading of the novel (Rick Wakeman famously failed in that territory – and the Eurhythmics fared just slightly better.) The whole thing's great, and titles include "Diamond Dogs", "1984", "Sweet Thing", "Candidate", "Rebel Rebel", and "Big Brother". LP, Vinyl record album

Where the girls are is right here – served up in a beautiful blend of rare tracks from the mid 60s – almost all of them in a female group mode, at a time when that style was really hitting new heights in American popular music! The work here is a mixture of rock and soul, and almost all of it features female harmonies set to sublime pop production – modes that range from west coast dreamy to Brill Building groovy – all laid out in an extended track list that also includes a few never-issued tracks as well! This series has been running for quite some time, but it's always a great one – and we're amazed at how the folks at Ace keep turning up nuggets we never would have heard otherwise – all presented with wonderful sound, and full notes to support the whole collection – a lot more than you can say for dodgier sets on the market. Titles include "Billy Sunshine" by Evie Sands, "With A Kiss" by The Bluezettes, "Don't Forget" by The Murmaids, "That's The Way It Is" by The Sweet Three, "Moon Walking" by The Blossoms, "More Than A Friend" by The Wooden Nickels, "On A Rainy Night" by The Flowers, "What Did You Do Last Night" by The Drake Sisters, "I Can Tell I'm Losing Your Love" by Lena Calhoun & The Emotions, "You Better Stop It" by The Lovelites, "Ballyhoo" by Ramona King, "Bad Boy" by Christine Cooper, and "Baby I Miss You" by The Popsicles. (Soul, Rock) CD

The Faces gave us a handful of fantastic records during the early 70s – but alongside those studio sets, their antics as a live group were even more stunning – as you'll hear on some of this material recorded for the BBC at the time! The tunes aren't as totally freewheeling and over the top as their work on stage, but are still pretty great – and show that rawness at the core that has continued to give the group power that's lived on for many years, even past the more mainstream career of Rod Stewart too! Stewart is incredible here on vocals – and the rest of the group are impeccable instrumentally – and this set adds in more material than previous BBC vinyl releases – to present all the work the group recorded for the network during their time together. Titles include "Country Comfort", "Had Me A Real Good Time", "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Miss Judy's Farm", "Stay With Me", "Love In Vain", "Wicked Messenger", "Oh Lord I'm Borrowed Off", and "Around The Plynth/Gasoline Alley". LP, Vinyl record album

The second long player by The Faces – and one of their best! The group hits a real peak on Long Player, balancing real emotional grit with their unrivaled rock swagger – and they're just flat out fierce on the best songs here! On one hand, there grooving along so loosely that it feels like it could fall apart at any moment, but the the intensity of the rhythms and the force of Rod's vocals keep it all together. Exhilarating stuff! Includes "Bad N' Ruin", "Tell Everyone", "Sweet Lady Mary", one of the best-ever covers of "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Had A Real Good Time", "On The Beach", a rollicking version of Big Bill Broonzy's "I Feel So Good" and more. CD

The second long player by The Faces – and one of their best! The group hits a real peak on Long Player, balancing real emotional grit with their unrivaled rock swagger – and they're just flat out fierce on the best songs here! On one hand, there grooving along so loosely that it feels like it could fall apart at any moment, but the the intensity of the rhythms and the force of Rod's vocals keep it all together. Exhilarating stuff! Includes "Bad N' Ruin", "Tell Everyone", "Sweet Lady Mary", one of the best-ever covers of "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Had A Real Good Time", "On The Beach", a rollicking version of Big Bill Broonzy's "I Feel So Good" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The depths of the early 80s underground never fail to amaze us – because while the late 70s punk rock years are constantly being reissued and compiled, the electronic scene of just of a few years later is still so largely undiscovered! Part of the situation is that much of the work came out as cheap 45s, or cassette-only releases – which didn't lend themselves to the same level of collecting – and other groups who started dark hit the bigtime and went onto great fame – like Human League or Cabaret Voltaire – but for every one of those, there were a hundred left behind in the shifting sands of time – only to be discovered by the tireless efforts of the current generation! Titles include "Universe" by The Lord, "X Cell" by Silicon Valley, "Oscillations" by The Disintegrators, "Red Suit" by Lives Of Angels, "Destination" by Echophase, and "Club Paris" by Berserk In A Hayfield. CD

David Bowie at his most sinister for the 70s – a landmark set that combines the harder rocking sound of the Ziggy Stardust years with the more sophisticated theatrics of Aladdin Sane – in a style that features some of the darkest, most political work of Bowie's career! There's a depth to the record that goes way beyond the silly, sensational cover image – and there's also a sonic complexity that's wonderful too – a songs slide into each other with a deftness that never fails to amaze us! The album grew out of a failed project based around George Orwell's famous book 1984 – but the rights to that story were denied by the family – so Bowie went in his own directly, and honestly came up with work that was far better than if he'd done any sort of slavish reading of the novel (Rick Wakeman famously failed in that territory – and the Eurhythmics fared just slightly better.) The whole thing's great, and titles include "Diamond Dogs", "1984", "Sweet Thing", "Candidate", "Rebel Rebel", and "Big Brother". CD includes 2 bonus tracks – "Dodo" and a demo version of "Candidate". CD

The incredible solo debut of Paul McCartney – and a record that already leaps ahead from The Beatles in so many amazing ways! There's an up-close, intimate vibe to some of these songs that's really amazing – a sense of happiness that Paul never seemed to have in the Beatles' later years – mixed with some other witty twists and turns that expose a side of his songwriting that would only blossom even more in years to come! McCartney handles all instruments and vocals – but Linda also joins in on harmonies – and it's that sense of harmony between the two of them that really guides the record's spirit. Titles include "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Man We Was Lonely", "The Lovely Linda", "Momma Miss America", "Every Night", "Valentines Day", "Hot As Sun/Glasses", "Junk", and "Singalong Junk". LP, Vinyl record album

The stunning first full length album from The Pixies – produced with a completely sublime touch by the great Steve Albini! There's a brilliance here that's kept this record playing strongly for decades (maybe too strongly, if you ask the roommates of some folks out there) – and although the sound here has spawned countless imitations, it's never as great as here in the hands of the originators! Titles include "Bone Machine", "Break My Body", "I'm Amazed", "Vamos", "Cactus", "Where Is My Mind", "Gigantic", "Something Against You", and "Broken Face". CD

If you only know Meatloaf from his late 70s work with Jim Steinman, prepare to be amazed – as this early album for Motown's Rare Earth label is a completely different set altogether – filled with soulful elements that take the man's mighty voice in directions we never would have guessed! The set's a collaboration with female singer Shaun Murphey, aka Stoney – another talent from the Detroit scene, and working with Meatloaf in that effortless blend of soul, rock, and some funky psychedelic touches that some of their best Motor City contemporaries were doing at the time – but maybe even better! The record's got a tremendous sound, even without Meatloaf's later fame – and was put together with some great arrangements from David Van DePitte and Tom Baird – on titles that include "Jessica White", "Lady Be Mine", "Jimmy Bell", "Sunshine", "Game Of Love", "Kiss Me Again", It Takes All Kinds Of People", and "She Waits By The Window". LP, Vinyl record album