Norwegian jazz rock trio featuring Emil Storlkeen Ase on guitar, Jenny Froysa on baritone sax, and August Glannestrand on drums. LP, Vinyl record album

Some of the earliest work you'll ever hear from the young Jim Osterberg – material that features the famous Stooges frontman playing drums, and doing a slight bit of singing! The group sound a fair bit like you might expect from the cover – a tight, sharp, local combo who do a great job both with their own material, and some of the well-chosen covers they recorded – the kind of stomping garagey material that would have been a hit in the small Michigan clubs at the time! Most vocals are by guitarists Nick Kolokithas and Jim McLaughlin, the latter of whom formed the group with Iggy – and Osterberg does sing lead on a pretty great version of "California Sun", and also contributed the original composition "Again & Again" – a tune that definitely points the way towards The Stooges, and is one of the creepiest things on here. Other titles include "Mona", "I Don't Know Why", "Slow Down", "Walk Don't Run", "Out Of Limits", "Surfin Bird", "Things We Said Today", and "Wild Weekend". Collection features a great range of material – even some early 1963 demos, when the group with just a trio! LP, Vinyl record album

The wonderful first solo album from Nils Lofgren – done with this lean, tight sound that's nicely different than his previous work with Grin – and which really lets Nils show off all the best sides of his vocals and guitar! The group is just a core trio with Wornell Jones on bass (later of solo funk fame) and the great Aynsley Dunbar on drums – a player whose compact energy really brings a nice kick to the tunes, without ever overdoing things at all! Nils himself is stunningly charming on vocals – and also handles guitar, piano, and organ – as well as backup vocals, through the magic of overdub. In an era of rock overindulgence, the intimacy of the record is a really welcome change – although Lofrgren manages to come across with a real fullness too – almost like Todd Rundgren's self-created projects. Titles include "Keith Don't Go", "Back It Up", "One More Saturday Night", "Be Good Tonight", "Can't Buy A Break", "Duty", and "The Sun Hasn't Set On This Boy Yet". LP, Vinyl record album

Leslie West is a mountain of a man – and although his greatest fame may have been in the group Mountain, this initial solo set has all the power of that famous group – and maybe a leaner, meaner sound overall! West is clearly working in the power trio style that was emerging from the British rock scene of the time – using his raw vocals and heavy guitar next to the drums of ND Smart, and the bass and keyboards of the great Felix Pappalardi – who produced and put the whole thing together in the studio! Titles include the funky rock classic "Long Red", which has great organ and drums – plus "Southbound Train", "Blood Of The Sun", "Blind Man", "Baby I'm Down", "This Whee's On Fire", "Storyteller Man", and "Because You Are My Friend". LP, Vinyl record album

The first album from Nils Lofgren and his mighty early trio Grin – and a record that really shows all sorts of great criss-crossing styles of the time! There's some gentler echoes of late folk in the mix, put right up alongside fuller, harder rock impulses – but also given this sweeter Cali spin that reflects the album's recording at Wally Heider studios – all with a very down to earth vibe that preserves some of the Chicago innocence of Nils's roots. Titles include "Like Rain", "18 Faced Lover", "Outlaw", "Direction", "Open Wide", "I Had Too Much", "Sing For Happiness", and "Everybody's Missin The Sun". LP, Vinyl record album

A double-length collection of work from the first chapter of Grand Funk Railroad – that moment when the group was just a power trio, and really helping to move their early blues inspirations into some fierce hard rock territory! The title's a reference to the lineup – Mark Farner on guitar and vocals, Don Brewer on drums and vocals, and Mel Schacher on bass – all working together in a mode that's really transformative over the short space of the material included in the set! At some level, GFR are almost an American equivalent of Free from the UK – a group who clearly have all the chops of the blues heroes they admire, but who are willing to let their hair down and hit more of a rock and roll starpower mode – unafraid to get a bit soulful on the vocals, and really letting their electric strings sing at an equally strong level. Titles include "Into The Sun", "Heartbreaker", "Time Machine", "Loneliness", "Are You Ready", "TNUC", "Inside Looking Out", "Closer To Home/I'm Your Captain", and "Paranoid". LP, Vinyl record album

A great one by The Walker Brothers – recorded late in their career, when Scott Walker was really beginning to show signs of his later solo work, and starting to pen a few tunes of his own! The sound here is much deeper than the simple pop of the trio's earliest singles – and thanks to a number of original Scott Walker compositions, there's a range of themes here that's quite sophisticated, and an overall sound that's darker than standard 60s pop. Walker originals include "Genevieve" and "Orpheus" – which dovetail nicely into the style of Scott 1 or Scott 2. Other tracks include great covers of "Once Upon A Summertime", "I Will Wait For You", and "Just Say Goodbye" – plus "Everything Under The Sun", "It Makes No Difference Now", and "I Wanna Know". LP, Vinyl record album

There's nothing folk about the Folklords – and the group are overall maybe more in the best mode of the Sunshine Pop generation, as you'd guess from their dreamy image on the cover! The group features a trio of singers – two guys, one gal – trading leads and harmonies, and coming off with these really easygoing, sparkling sort of glow – supported with a bit of work on guitar, bass, drums, and autoharp – the last of which adds a cool an unique vibe to the record! Titles include "Jennifer Lee", "Don't Hide Your Love From Me", "Child", "Windows", "Pardon Me Judas", "Thank You For Your Kindness", "We'll Love Like Before", "Suzanne Marie", "Don't Look Back", and "The Slave" – plus bonus tracks "Unspoken Love" and "Forty Second River". LP, Vinyl record album

A heady set from mid 70s South Korea – the debut album from a mighty edgey little trio! The album's not nearly as psych as some of the other Korean efforts from the period – as the group's got a tight groove on most numbers, with a definite funk influence on the drums and bass – mixed nicely with heavy use of fuzz guitar, and Shin's weirdly soulful vocals! The set's not really a funk album, but it's not really funky rock either – kind of a unique hybrid, and a very original little set – especially when you throw the oddness of the Korean vocals into the mix. Titles include "Lady", "I Do Not Know", "Rising Sun", "I Love You", "Long Long Night", and "I Think There Was Someone Else". (Global Grooves, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the hippest groups of the 60s to blend Eastern influences and Western rock music – a nicely lean trio that comes across with results that are even cooler than some of their contemporaries! Part of the record's strength is its leanness – as other instrumentation might have gotten in the way a bit more, and larger arrangements might have made the whole thing sound a bit fake. Yet instead, there's a raw quality to the record that recalls similar east/west experiments on Vanguard Records at the time – served up by a group that features Guy Duris on electric oud and electric sitar, Bruno Giet on electric minitar, and Farshid Golesorkhi on electric melodica and dumbek! Vocals are by all three, but there's a very strong focus on the instrumentation too – on titles that include "Fruit Of The Desert", "Layla", "Birds Of India", "Train To Bombay", "Caravan Of Silk", "Azaar", "Cobra Fever", "A Little Star", and "Cobra Fever". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite 60s surf soundtracks ever – an amazing blend of Stu Phillips orchestrations with some key vocal moments from the trio of Dino Desi & Billy! The album's got a wonderful theme – "Thru Spray Colored Glasses" – sung initially by the trio, then served up by Stu in a number of variations that change with the different exotic locales of the film – India, Hong Kong, Hawaii, and Morocco – all referenced slightly in the instrumentation, but in ways that always retain Phillips' grooviest inspirations! Strings blend with bits of harpsichord, vibes, voices, Spanish guitar, and these "watery" woodwinds that almost remind us of Australian jazz in the same period – and titles include "Thru Spray Colored Glasses", "Big Wave Bay", "Incinerator", "Ranee Express", "Nazare", and "Cascis". (Soundtracks, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

One of those records that was a classic from the moment it was first released – the legendary second effort from the trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash – with added bonus of Neil Young in the mix, which gives the whole thing a current of darkness that's completely mindblowing – especially in comparison to the harmonies of the quartet! These aren't the vocal patterns of the Sunshine Pop generation of a few years before – and CSNY find a way to capture all the darkness of the fading light of the 60s, while finding a special space for more thoughtful, sensitive sounds that never would have gotten a chance a few years before. Every track's a classic – and titles include "Carry On", "Our House", "Almost Cut My Hair", "Deja Vu", "Country Girl", "Everybody I Love You", "Woodstock", and "Teach Your Children". LP, Vinyl record album

Some of the most tuneful work we've ever heard from The Fugs – tracks that almost border on pop-psyche at times, but still get nicely tripped out at other moments! Side one has the trio almost touching territory of other Reprise rock from the times – slightly psyche, slightly country, slightly Sunshine at points – and side two is a bit more of a hippy dippy freakout, with a huge number of shorter tunes that flow sweetly into one another! Some of these actually have a great sound art sort of feel, and a fw even get slightly funky too – all with a new sense of tightness that arguably gives the group a lot more power than before! Titles include "Johnny Pissoff Meets The Red Angel", "Burial Waltz", "Crystal Liaison", "Wide Wide River", "Marijuana", "We're Both Dead Now, Alice", "Life Is Strange", "The National Haiku Contest", "The Divine Toe", "Leprechaun", and "Grope Need (Part I)". LP, Vinyl record album

The middle child in the mighty Seoul combo San Ul Lim's trio of successive garage/psych masterpieces of the late 70s – and San Ul Lim 2 might be the best and most adventurous of the lot – full of spacey sounds and more experimental passages! If San Ul Lim 1 was the most sunshine rock oriented set, and San Ul Lim 3 flirted with hard rock, album 2 splits the difference with a little bit of groovy prog elements and lots of spacey organ! The tunes have some more languorous, moody bits that are rich with atmosphere and some really sweet work on bass, fuzzy guitars and the swirling organ – but the group's excellent ear for melody and a catchy groove are still very much intact! LP, Vinyl record album

A trilogy of albums from this unique group – presented here with all their original artwork, and a bit bonus booklet of notes and images too! First up is Love & Poetry – the killer debut of this heady power trio from the British Isles – one who've got some of the same harder rock leanings as some of the other lean groups of their time, but who also seem to manage to hang onto some psychedelic fuzziness too – a fantastic approach that's always made Andwella such a unique group! The bass is nicely brooding, drums are plenty hard, and the great UK reedman Bob Downes adds a bit of sax and flute to the record. There's a wonderfully unique vibe throughout – and titles include "Clockwork Man", "Man Without A Name", "Sunday", "Andwella", "High On A Mountain", "Shades Of Gray", and "Take My Road". World's End is a set that begins with one of the greatest funky rock tracks ever – then leaps into the fray with a whole host of wonderful tunes! That track is the mighty "Hold On To Your Mind" – well worth the price of the album alone, and a tune that takes all the funky energy of the freakbeat scene, and moves it into more sophisticated rock territory! The rest of the record continues the shift to sophistication that makes this second album from Andwella so great – really well-penned songs that manage to do a lot with a little, use familiar instrumentation in unusual ways, and there's some nice use of flute, piano, and organ along the way – deepening their sound in all the best ways. Titles include "Hold On To Your Mind", "Just How Long", "Michael Fitzhenry", "Lady Love", "I'm Just Happy To See You Get Her", and "World's End (parts 1 & 2)". On the cover of People's People, Andwella are looking a bit shaggier and more mature, and they're sounding that way too – really pushing their vocals with more soulful qualities than before, which are a perfect fit for the searching qualities of the music! There's almost a US roots current to the record at times – the sort of vibe that should have made an already-great band even better – and which really takes Andwella on a surprisingly long musical journey in just a very short span! Titles include "She Taught Me To Love", "World Of Angelique", "Saint Bartholomew", "Are You Ready", "Lazy Days", "Behind The Painted Screen", and "Four Days In September". LP, Vinyl record album

A pivotal album for Bob Dylan – a record that continues the Nashville experiment of Blonde On Blonde, but which compresses it a bit more – almost like he's re-folding the electric energy back into the darkness of the spare sound of Times They Are A-Changin! Bob plays guitar, harmonica, and piano – in a core trio that just features Charlie McCoy on bass and Kenny Buttrey on drums – plus a bit of added steel guitar from Pete Drake. The album's filled with complicated dark little numbers like "All Along The Watchtower", "The Ballad Of Frankie Lee & Judas Priest", "I Am A Lonesome Hobo", "I Pity The Poor Immigrant", "The Wicked Messenger", "As I Went Out One Morning", and "Down Along The Cove". LP, Vinyl record album

Khruangbin are well on their way to becoming superstars with this set – a package that revisits scraps of songs they'd never been able to work just right in the past, and has a way of making them all shine freshly in a very different light! Sure, the funk trio at the core are still in place – but the music has this more expansive quality, and almost a sunny vibe that fits the image of the window on the cover – as things are warmed up with a bit of smoothness that really complements their groove – almost a nod to mellower soul at times, which will really surprise listeners of some of their other work. Yet at the same time, Khruangbin never stop reworking themselves – either through collaborations with others, or fresh projects like this – with tracks that include "May Ninth", "Three From Two", "Juegos Y Nubes", "Todavia Viva", "Pon Pon", "Farolim De Felgueiras", and "Les Petits Gris". (Deep Funk, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Khruangbin are well on their way to becoming superstars with this set – a package that revisits scraps of songs they'd never been able to work just right in the past, and has a way of making them all shine freshly in a very different light! Sure, the funk trio at the core are still in place – but the music has this more expansive quality, and almost a sunny vibe that fits the image of the window on the cover – as things are warmed up with a bit of smoothness that really complements their groove – almost a nod to mellower soul at times, which will really surprise listeners of some of their other work. Yet at the same time, Khruangbin never stop reworking themselves – either through collaborations with others, or fresh projects like this – with tracks that include "May Ninth", "Three From Two", "Juegos Y Nubes", "Todavia Viva", "Pon Pon", "Farolim De Felgueiras", and "Les Petits Gris". (Deep Funk, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the grooviest girl groups of the 60s – a fab trio who hailed from Brooklyn, and who worked in the best sweet styles of both soul and rock groups of the time! Reparata & The Delrons have a sound that's a real cut above the usual – a way of handling a tune that's free of some of the cliches of other groups from the period, but which also does a good job of bringing out their best elements too. It's hard to sum up just why the group's so great – but it's possibly because they were working at the end of the girl group era, and have a bit more of a depth to their work – a style that's also influenced a bit by harmony folk and Sunshine Pop, but which is stil unabashedly focused on shorter tunes with groovy hooks. LP, Vinyl record album

A trilogy of albums from this unique group – presented here with all their original artwork, and a bit bonus booklet of notes and images too! First up is Love & Poetry – the killer debut of this heady power trio from the British Isles – one who've got some of the same harder rock leanings as some of the other lean groups of their time, but who also seem to manage to hang onto some psychedelic fuzziness too – a fantastic approach that's always made Andwella such a unique group! The bass is nicely brooding, drums are plenty hard, and the great UK reedman Bob Downes adds a bit of sax and flute to the record. There's a wonderfully unique vibe throughout – and titles include "Clockwork Man", "Man Without A Name", "Sunday", "Andwella", "High On A Mountain", "Shades Of Gray", and "Take My Road". World's End is a set that begins with one of the greatest funky rock tracks ever – then leaps into the fray with a whole host of wonderful tunes! That track is the mighty "Hold On To Your Mind" – well worth the price of the album alone, and a tune that takes all the funky energy of the freakbeat scene, and moves it into more sophisticated rock territory! The rest of the record continues the shift to sophistication that makes this second album from Andwella so great – really well-penned songs that manage to do a lot with a little, use familiar instrumentation in unusual ways, and there's some nice use of flute, piano, and organ along the way – deepening their sound in all the best ways. Titles include "Hold On To Your Mind", "Just How Long", "Michael Fitzhenry", "Lady Love", "I'm Just Happy To See You Get Her", and "World's End (parts 1 & 2)". On the cover of People's People, Andwella are looking a bit shaggier and more mature, and they're sounding that way too – really pushing their vocals with more soulful qualities than before, which are a perfect fit for the searching qualities of the music! There's almost a US roots current to the record at times – the sort of vibe that should have made an already-great band even better – and which really takes Andwella on a surprisingly long musical journey in just a very short span! Titles include "She Taught Me To Love", "World Of Angelique", "Saint Bartholomew", "Are You Ready", "Lazy Days", "Behind The Painted Screen", and "Four Days In September". LP, Vinyl record album

An overlooked gem from Genesis – a record that maybe forms a perfect bridge between their early concept years and the tighter mode that drove them into the 80s – and a set that really has the trio version of the group finding their way forward! There's some of the catchiness of Abacab to come, but there's also more of a sense of scope – that long form instrumental exploration that Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks continued from the early years – honed into more focus, and driven by the increasingly strong drum talents of Phil Collins! Phil's a few years away from being an MTV figure here – and is instead more of a proud progger, finding a way to bring things into tighter energy – and really balance the whole thing beautifully. Titles include the hits "Turn It On Again" and "Misunderstanding" – balanced with "Duke's Travels", "Dutchess", "Behind The Lines", "Heathaze", and "Cul De Sac". LP, Vinyl record album

The amazing second album from this ultra-cool group – a set that's even weirder and wilder than their debut! The trio are maybe one of the few who really live up to the farthest expectations of the psych generation – as they're really open to let their minds fly in their choice of lyrics, instrumentation, and overall presentation of the record – which hardly seems the sort to yield any sort of singles at all, even though a few of the tunes are downright catchy! Instead, the whole thing's put forth as a dark statement on late 60s society – with a sound that's as heavy as the subject matter, and not afraid to really pus all the freak and fuzz as far as it can go! Quite surprising, even for the Reprise label – and tracks include "Queen Nymphet", "Tracy Had a Hard Day Sunday", "In the Arena", "Smell of Incense", "Suppose They Gave A War & No One Comes", "Overture Wcpaeb (part 2)", and "Carte Blanche" – which supposedly they were given in recording the album! LP, Vinyl record album

The mighty debut of Grand Funk Railroad – a set that has them bursting out of the box as one of the hardest-hitting power trios on the American scene! Like contemporaries ZZ Top or James Gang, these guys have clearly been influenced by the best electric blues of the previous decade or two – but are already turning that inspiration into some harder rocking modes – really prefacing all the guitar hero groups to come along in the next few years! Mark Farner's work on the guitar is fantastic, and he also adds in a bit of harmonica too – but the whole thing is definitely a group effort – thanks to heavy bass from Mel Schacher and pounding drums from Don Brewer! Titles include "Anybody's Answer", "Time Machine", "Into The Sun", "Heartbreaker", "Call Yourself A Man", "Ups & Downs", "TNUC", and "High On A Horse". LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet set from those great psych years on MGM – a trio that features Tony Romeo on arrangements and songwriting, trading vocals with Frank Romeo and Cassandra Morgan – on titles that include "The End", "Sunrise Highway", "Yeah Yeah Yeah", "You Can't Hang On", "Worse Day I've Been To", "Carnival Girl", "Arizona Two Thoughts", "Hushabye Wee Bobby", and "Crazy Billy". LP, Vinyl record album