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Out of New York rock and roll ideas, Debbie Harry decides to pilfer the subcultures to make her sound a bit more interesting! Fortunately for us, she got some help from guitar maestro Chris Stein on the track "Rapture" – and Stein's real interest in the music gave it a stone old school groove that's held up pretty well over the years! More famously, Harry went for a bit of reggae on the track "The Tide Is High" – taking Duke Reid's original, and turning it into a global hit!

Titles include "Hanging On The Telephone", "One Way Or Another", "Will Anything Happen", "Heart Of Glass", and "11:59".

It's 1981 and everyone from Queen to Blondie is taking a turn at coming up with a disco hit, and actually doing a pretty decent job of it, too! While we wince every time Debbie Harry decides to take her turn "rapping" on this early 80s crossover hit, you've got to give it up to her for trying, and besides, the hip community embraced her well enough to at least make a character in Wild Style look like her, and you can't argue with the track's infectious groove – plus this special disco mix version has an extended break section in the middle!

Rock 'n' soul from South Africa's The Flames – their '67 set Burning Soul and '68's Soultime – on a single CD! Burning Soul wasn't the group's first album, but it's the first featuring vocalist Blondie Chapman, who helped steer the group's more rocking roots to a sound more indebted to classic Motown and Atlantic soul! They do keep a nice undercurrent of rock & roll, though,and this is a nice little set with some really groovy covers. Titles include "You Got It Made", "Stop, Look And Listen", "Knock On Wood", "Hold On I'm Coming", "Purple Haze" and more. Soultime has a pretty cool mix of straighter late 60s style soul-rock with a bit of trippy psyche influences in the mix. At this point, the group reminds us a little bit of Soul Survivors and some of the acts on Dunwich – and the bass-heavy groove of the tracks is really wonderful. Titles include "Lost", "If You Think You're Groovy", "I Was Made To Love Her", "Useless Illusions", "Restless", "Wishes", and "Solitude".

Cool quirky post-punk work from The Waitresses – a group who maybe were never as big as Blondie or Romeo Void, but shared a very similar space at the time! This album's best known for the classic "I Know What Boys Want" – a naughty little number that got plenty of dancefloor and radio play back in the day – but the whole album's an equally enjoyable romp, with lots of jagged guitars, sharp-edged rhythms, and cool snot-nosed vocals from Patty Donahue! Mars Williams blows some mighty reeds in the group – and titles include "I Know What Boys Want", "Wise Up", "It's My Car", "No Guilt", "Heat Night", and "Go On".

A late 70s set from tenor maestro George Coleman – who was never recorded often enough! The set has a really timeless quality, quite uncommon for pieces recorded at the tailend of the fusion mad late 70s, and at the cusp of the ultra polished 80s sound. The support players couldn't be tighter – with Billy Higgins on drums, Sam Jones on bass and Hilton Ruiz on piano. The tunes are firmly led by Coleman – who rolls out those great loping lines, that circular sound we wouldn't trade for an other tenor the of period! Includes the title track, "New Arrival", "Lo-Joe", "Autumn In New York", "Apache Dance" and "Blondie's Waltz".

A nice change in sound for Debbie Harry – thanks to Chic production from Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards – who really help the solo singer find a groove that's quite different than her work in Blondie! The style's a mixture of the funky club that Chic did so well, with elements that lean a bit more towards an early 80s rockish dancefloor – almost with a vibe that echoes some of the UK imports trickling over to these shores at the time, but with a definite New York vibe underneath! The setting gives Harry's vocals a great way to hit a more playful nature – that sound that was creeping in a bit in Blondie, but which some folks thought was wrong for the group – and Chris Stein is still on hand to bring in some street-sensitive riffing guitar. Titles include "Backfired", "Military Rap", "Oasis", "Surrender", "Chrome", "Jump Jump", and "The Jam Was Moving". CD features 3 bonus tracks – "Backfired (special long version)", "The Jam Was Moving (extended)", and "Inner City Spillover (extended)".

Hard grooving psychedelia and other wise astral rock from the South African underground scene – and a variety of sounds – some from the Hendrix school of hard bluesy psyche sounds, others airier and more based on soaring vocals and trippy songcraft, and still others with surprising bits of soul! This second volume in the Astral Daze series stands up proudly with the first, with a few recognizable names for deep rock nugget diggers, Blondie Chapman for one, here with his group The Flames, and lots of others that are totally fresh to our ears! 18 tracks in all: "The Kid He Came From Aazareth" by Freedoms Children, "Spider Spider" by Tidal Wave, "Solitude" by The Flames, "I Wish I Was A Purple Door" by Falling Mirror, 'Woman Yeah" by The Gonks, "She's A Mermaid" by Band Of Gypsies and much more.