Sensitive scoring by Philippe Sarde – one of his soundtracks for director Bernard Tavernier, for a film based on the Jim Thompson novel Pop 1280! One track features a vocal by Stephane Audran – another by the lovely Isabelle Huppert! LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

A crossover classic from Level 42 – a set that catapulted the soulful British group into international stardom! The tunes are catchy, filled with electro bits, and produced with some great bubbling touches from Wally Badarou – whose hand in the studio really keeps things from ever getting too cheesy, despite the commercial fame of the set. There's a balance here that's hard to describe, but it's one that's allowed the record to hold up well over the years – almost waiting to be rediscovered by a younger generation who'd appreciate whole other aspects in the music. Titles include "World Machine", "Physical Presence", "It's Not The Same For Us", "Lying Still", "Coup D'Etat", "Dream Crazy", and "Good Man In A Storm". LP, Vinyl record album

The resurgence of one of the most groundbreaking periods in recent groove history – the almost-forgotten post-punk years in England, a time of incredible musical convergence! In the heady days of the early 80s – a time when much music was being lost under a gloss of big hair, tinny keyboards, and wispy vocals – a small underground of British musicians were bringing together bits of funk, punk, disco, reggae, and 70s electronica – crafting dark and funky little tunes the likes of which we've barely heard since! A number of these groups went onto do much larger (and weaker) recordings – but this package brilliantly documents the edgy brilliance at the beginning of the post punk years: a nihilistic horizon on the other end of punk – no longer angry, caustic, and shouting, on one hand with the wind knocked out of its apparent sails, on the other, slowly fomenting in secret places, coming up with music far more powerful than punk ever was. And for some strange reason, much of it was pretty darn funky – thanks to a heavy use of simple electric bass, scattershot (sometimes primitive) drum parts, and nice electronic touches, almost in an inverse to American electro. The music more than speaks for itself – and the set's as classic a batch of tunes from the time as we'd ever heard. Titles include "Shack Up" and "Knife Slits Water" by A Certain Ratio, "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm" by The Slits, "20 Jazz Funk Greats" by Throbbing Gristle, "Vegas El Bandito" and "Coup" by 23 Skidoo, "She Is Beyond Good & Evil" by The Pop Group, "Being Boiled" by The Human League, "To Hell With Poverty" by Gang Of Four, and "24 Track Loop" by This Heat. LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Terrible! But pretty darn wonderful, too – at least if you dig The Odd Couple! Considering their roots in Broadway, Randall and Klugman should be pretty decent singers – but instead, they decide to camp it up for this one, as they spend a lot of time arguing about and during sweet old-fashioned tunes like "The Inch Worm", "Johnny One Note", "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", and "Together Wherever We Go" – plus a very groovy version of "You're So Vain". The record also features the extended "Odd Couple Opera", the track "Friendship', and "Applause, Applause". Arrangements by Brit Roland Shaw – probably because nobody in America would touch the record, and an Englishman like Shaw hadn't heard of the show yet! In a great gatefold cover, too. LP, Vinyl record album

A rare gem produced by the Cali pop genius team of Terry Melcher and Bruce Johnston – with some of the surf rock elements you'd know from Johnston's work in the Beach Boys! "Titles include "Three Window Coupe", "Bonneville Bonnie", "Beach Girl", "Surf City", "Wah-Wahini", "Red Hot Roadseter, "Summer USA", "One Piece Topless Bathing Suit" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Another dose of ridiculous bluesy heaviness from Blue Cheer, without as much bluster as their first couple of albums, but the same bloated appeal. 10 numbers in all, including "Fool", "You're Gonna Need Someone", 'Hello LA, Bye Bye Birmingham", "Saturday Freedom", "Ain't That The Way Love's Supposed To Be", "Rock & Roll Queens", "Better When We Try", "Natural Man", "Lovin' You's Easy" and "The Same Old Story". LP, Vinyl record album

A nice album compiling of some of the less-collected work by Clifford Brown – 1953 recordings done in Europe for the Metronome and Vogue labels, recorded with a great larger group. Sides feature Brown working with Quincy Jones, Gigi Gryce, Anthony Ortega, Juimmy Cleveland, and others alongside Parisian and European players that include Henri Renaud and Pierre Michelot. The set features 9 tracks in all – with a couple of multiple takes, and titles include "Brownskins", "Keeping Up With Jonesy", "Bum's Rush", "Chez Moi", "All Weird" and "No Start No End". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest jazz-meets-classical albums from pianist Eugen Cicero – thanks to a good amount of Rokoko in the grooves! The more flowery, flourishing style of the Rokoko era proves to be a perfect foil for Cicero's incredible approach to the keys – one that lets him bring even more complicated touches to the piano, while still working with tightly jazzy rhythms from the team of Peter Witte on bass and Charlie Antolini on drums! Witte and Antolini are great throughout – keeping things tight and focused, and making the record way more than a virtuostic exploration of classical themes. As much a jazz record as the best Swingle Singers sides from the 60s – with titles that include a great original called "Bach's Softly Sunrise", plus Bach's "Solfeggio C Moll", Couperin's "L'Adoslecente", and Scarlatti's "Sonate C-Dur". LP, Vinyl record album

A nice pairing of a couple of trad greats on the trumpet, with both Buck Clayton and Ruby Braff sharing the front line, alongside Buddy Tate and Benny Morton in a sweet little octet. The session's produced with the high level of quality you'd expect from this brief series of Vanguard trad albums – with four numbers in all, including "I Can't Get Started", "Love Is Just Around The Corner", "Just A Groove", and "Kandee". LP, Vinyl record album

Leonard Cohen's first live album, featuring material captured in London, Brussels, Paris and Berlin in 1972, plus a couple of recordings from 1970 – including Cohen's legendary appearance at Isle Of Wight! Live Songs never really got its due respect in its day, but it's pretty much an essential document of Cohen's transition from poet turned recording artist into a poet turned guitar wielding troubadour – and excellent stuff even without the slow building cultural relevance. Essential Cohen! Titles include "Passing Thru", "Bird On The Wire", "Nancy", "Improvisation", "Story Of Isaac", "Please Don't Pass Me By", "Tonight Will Be Fine", "Queen Victoria" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A great little record – and a prime example of the strong Jewish/Latin crossover that was going on in the late 50s and early 60s. The record features the kind of crack cha cha sound that was bringing couples into the Palladium from Long Island, but it's also touched with occasional yiddish bits, like snaking clarinet or choppy percussion. Far from being goofy, these elements actually add a rich shade of emotion to the work, and the result is an extremely complicated Latin session that sparkles with excitement. Titles include "Merengue Mania", "Serching", "Mambo A Bisel", "Sher Cha Cha", "Dates & Figs", and "Sirocco". LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful live representation of the energy of the Bitches Brew years – one that has Miles Davis and the group really letting loose with free-flowing, modally-inspired lines – cooking up an incredible blend of acoustic and electric sounds at once! There's a bit of funk here, but not much – and although guitar is sometimes used strongly, it's often not as noisy as in later live sides. Instead, the whole group gels together beautifully – an unlikely assortment of players that includes Gary Bartz and Steve Grossman on reeds, John McLaughlin on guitar, Herbie Hancock on keyboards, Hermeto Pascoal on percussion, Dave Holland on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums – all given new focus, direction, and inspiration by Miles! Titles include "What I Say", "Sivad", "Selim", "Funky Tonk", and a great medley of "Gemini/Double Image". LP, Vinyl record album

A second set of psychedelic folk grooves from Fat Mattress – featuring bassist Noel Redding, back working again with drummer Pete Kircher, a bandmate from The Lonely Ones before Noel went on the to massive popularity with the Jimi Hendrix Experience! Fat Mattress II has a couple of fuzzier jams, but for the most part sticks with the more breezy folk psyche sound of the debut. Really fine stuff, worth checking out! Titles include "The Storm", "Anyway You Want", "Leafy Lunes", "Naturally", "Roamin", "Happy My Love", "Childhood Dream", "She", "Highway", "At The Ball" and "People". LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful duo soul from the all-time great Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway – released right around the time of Donny's tragic passing! The set was co-produced by Eric Mercury and Flack – and it has a lot of great vocals from Roberta, with as masterfully paired with Donny as always – plus guest vocal appearances by Luther Vandross, Gwen Guthrie, and Eleanore Mills, and even Mercury, who sings a bit on one track! Titles include couple of nice Stevie Wonder tunes – "You Are My Heaven" and "Don't Make Me Wait Too Long" – plus "Stay With Me", "God Don't Like Ugly", "Only Heaven Can Wait", and "Disguises". LP, Vinyl record album

A true classic by Jimi with the original Experience lineup – the third of three straight up masterpiece LPs to come out in just over a year's time by the group! You could call the leftfield astral effects in the mix experimental if you had to – innovations in the studio with echo, that hallucinatory backwards sound effect and other stranger bits – but the passionate, naturally expressive playing and singing by Jimi makes it all fell just right, and the Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell still don't get enough credit for being at the heart of such greatness. A massive 2LP effort that includes "Voodoo Chile", "Crosstown Traffic", "Electric Ladyland", "Little Miss Strange", "Moon Turn The Tides", "Still Raining Still Dreaming" and "All Along The Watchtower". LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent late 50s work by Milt Jackson for Atlantic! Bags & Flutes is very much in the style of Milt's classic Savoy sides from the preceding couple of years – mixing together his jazzy vibes with light lilting solos on flute, either by Bobby Jaspar or Frank Wess, Milt's old compatriot from the Savoy sessions. Piano is by Tommy Flanagan or Hank Jones, and Kenny Burrell plays guitar on the whole album. Tracks include "Ghana", "Connie's Blues", "Sandy", "I'm Afraid The Masquerade Is Over" and "Bag's New Groove". LP, Vinyl record album

"This here is the victory lap," raps Hov midway through The Black Album, probably the most consistent front-to-back listen of all his albums. One of the nicest things about the Black Album is the brevity – with a very manageable 14 tracks, no guest rhymers, and a consistent overall sound and mood thanks in part to strong production by Kanye West, 9th Wonder, Neptunes, Timbaland, Eminem, Rick Rubin and DJ Quik. It's a wildly disparate cast behind the boards, but this thing flows incredibly well thanks to Jay-Z's predetermined mission to make a great album, not just a hot record. We may still have to lean towards Blueprint as his late masterpiece, but this is way up there. "December 4th", "What More Can I Say?", "Encore", "Change Clothes", "Dirt Off Your Shoulder", "Threat", "Moment Of Clarity", "99 Problems", "Justify My Thug", "Lucifer", "Allure", "My First Song", and a couple of brief interludes. LP, Vinyl record album

The most understated album by the Lovin Spoonful – and possibly their best work ever! It's really a showcase for leader/chief songwriter John Sebastian and proto-country rock guitarist Zal Yanovsky. "Summer In The City" is the one that buttered the group's bread for the next couple of decades – but that's the lone concession to jangly-ass 60s rock (but oh, what a sweet concession it is) on a record much more indicative of what was going on in the pop world after Dylan brought the ghosts of the South out into it. Great, great stuff, including "Lovin You", "Bes' Friends", "Henry Thomas", "You & Me & Rain On The Roof", and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A short detour in the 60s career of Chet Baker – one that we sure like a heck of a lot! This side is one of a couple that were recorded as an answer to the big success of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass – with Chet's trumpet was backed by jaunty, brassy arrangements penned by Jack Nitzsche, and George Tipton. And while it might be easy to dismiss the tunes as copycat sound-a-likes, they're really not – as Nitszche brings in a much fuller groove to most of the numbers than Herb Alpert ever did – more of a sunny LA pop feel that has the whole group really gliding along on bold waves of sound all topped off by Baker's horn – sounding stronger and more confident here than on many of his other recordings of the 60s! Some numbers have a Latin undercurrent while others lean towards mainstream pop – a style that's bolder than A&M's approach to Tijuana – and one that explodes with some youthful LA energies! 12 tracks in all, including "Happiness Is", "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", "The Phoenix Love Theme (Senza Fine)", "On The Street Where You Live", 'Armen's Theme", "You Baby" and "It's Too Late". LP, Vinyl record album