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Maybe the most perfect summation of the sound of Dead Moon – no-nonsense gritty work that definitely lives up to the image on the cover – and the kind of set that made the trio every bit as powerful as work coming from the New York or LA scenes of the late 70s! The retro punk vibe is certainly intentional – as is the cover art – and the harder tracks are offset by a few more introspective numbers that really show the full range of the group's expression – a quality that almost recalls the blend you'd find on a Swell Maps album. Titles include "Love Comes Once", "Fire In The Western World", "Can't Do That", "Until It Rains", "Ill Of The Dead", "Play With Fire", and "Destination X".

Some of the rawest sounds coming out of the Portland scene of the early 90s – served up in a solid way that avoids most of the pitfalls of their contemporaries on the scene! Dead Moon have all the wild energy of other Northwest groups of the time, but hone things down to a core essence that's totally great – very punkish in presentation, yet also with lots of echoes of the earlier Northwest garage scene of the 60s – although kind of a very messed-up take on that sound as well! The album's primal sound holds up strongly throughout – and titles include "Get On Board", "Spectacle", "Jane", "Down The Road", "Pain For Pretty", and "Crazy To The Bone".

A Place To Bury Strangers covers Dead Moon!

The funkiest album ever recorded by Lyn Collins – one of the few sock-soul divas working with James Brown who got a chance to cut a full LP! The album's got Lyn shifting between heavy funk numbers and mellower soul cuts – really pushing things to the max with an incredibly deep take on a few older favorites, plus some killer new numbers – all produced to funky perfection by James Brown, with dead-on backing by the JBs! Includes her great version of "Think", a funky sample cut that never gets old – plus the cuts "Things Got To Get Better", "Women's Lib", and the funkiest version ever of "Fly Me To The Moon".

Mad funk from the great Galt MacDermot – a wonderful selection of obscure tunes from some of his best funky soundtracks! Galt's work on Hair has been sampled heavily by a variety of hip hop producers over the years – but even better is his work for less famous soundtracks, a good variety of which are sampled here in a wonderfully-done set that focuses on the truly funky tracks that Galt wrote for these films – and which gets past the sometimes-off tracks that can occasionally get in the way of his lesser soundtracks. The package is a total jam throughout – filled with tunes that have weird rhythms, moody keyboards, and the kind of offbeat approach to funk that's always made his work so great. There's only a few tracks from previously reissued soundtracks like Woman Is Sweeter and Cotton Comes To Harlem – plus lots lots more from weirder films that include American Express, Nucleus, Fortune & Men's Eyes, Moon Over The Alley, and Rhinoceros! In true Galt MacDermot funky fashion, there's lots of great drum work on the set from Bernard Purdie – and titles include "Golden Apples", "Coffin Ed", "Dead End", "Fragments II", "Tango", "Ed & Digger", "Duffer", "Bedroom", "Queenie's Theme", "Fortune & Men's Eyes", "Rhinoceros Theme", and "Never Die Desire Not".

Titles include "Cosmic Charlie", "China Cat Sunflower", "Doin That Rag", "Mountains Of The Moon", and "Dupree's Diamond Blues".

Gil Scott-Heron at his early best and most revolutionary – circa Small Talk At 125th And Lenox, Pieces Of Man and Free Will, plus a host of rare and unreleased material – the complete Flying Dutchman Masters in a masterfully compiled anthology! Rather than simply collecting the original Flying Dutchman albums into a box set, BGP does a terrific job here of organizing it by style. Disc One (Songs) focuses on the soul-based songcraft – while Disc Two (Poetry, Jazz & Blues) features the strident jazzy poetry that inspired most hip hop and spoken word to come. Disc Three features alternate takes and rarities – all of which have never been officially released before now! The set includes every recording that Gil made for Flying Dutchman that's known to exist – and if you're keeping tally, that's all of the tracks from the above-named classic albums – plus the great "Artificialness" from Pretty Purdie's Stand By Me record with Gil on vocals – and the surviving alternate takes. Even if you have all of the original albums, the set is worth picking up for the bonus material and the thick, nicely done booklet of notes and photo – which really adds some top notch historical perspective. 51 tracks on 3CDs: "Lady Day And John Coltrane", "Home Is Where The Hatred Is", "Whitey On The Moon", "Free Will", "Pieces Of Man", "Brother", "Ain't No New Thing", "The Needle's Eye", "The Get Out OF The Ghetto Blues", "Evolution (And Flashback)", "Billy Green Is Dead", "The Middle Of Your Day", "Save The Children", "Who'll Pay Reparations On My Soul?" and many more.

Rare Mississippi blues from Ranie Burnette – recorded in the early 80s, but with a timeless style that takes us right back to the delta! The approach here is similar to some of the best Georgia rural blues of the time – very spare and stripped-down, with mostly just guitar and vocals from Ranie, often with some folksy undercurrents – and some occasional harmonica on two tracks from Abe Keg Young. There's no attempt to modernize the music at all, and the quality of Ranie's gritty guitar comes through beautifully in the space of the recording – on titles that include "Lonesome Moon Blues", "Gone Dead On You", "One String Baby", "Yonder Goes My Baby", "Shake Em On Down", and "Dough Roller Blues".

Mad funk from the great Galt MacDermot – a wonderful selection of obscure tunes from some of his best funky soundtracks! Galt's work on Hair has been sampled heavily by a variety of hip hop producers over the years – but even better is his work for less famous soundtracks, a good variety of which are sampled here in a wonderfully-done set that focuses on the truly funky tracks that Galt wrote for these films – and which gets past the sometimes-off tracks that can occasionally get in the way of his lesser soundtracks. The package is a total jam throughout – filled with tunes that have weird rhythms, moody keyboards, and the kind of offbeat approach to funk that's always made his work so great. There's only a few tracks from previously reissued soundtracks like Woman Is Sweeter and Cotton Comes To Harlem – plus lots lots more from weirder films that include American Express, Nucleus, Fortune & Men's Eyes, Moon Over The Alley, and Rhinoceros! In true Galt MacDermot funky fashion, there's lots of great drum work on the set from Bernard Purdie – and titles include "Golden Apples", "Dead End", "Fragments II", "Tango", "Ed & Digger", "Duffer", "Bedroom", "Queenie's Theme", "Fortune & Men's Eyes" and "Rhinoceros Theme".

Two post-CTI gems from Deodato – back to back on a single CD! Whirlwinds is sweet keyboard soul from Deodato – a set that steps off nicely from the strengths of his big hits on CTI, hitting a similarly flowing groove that's really great! The instrumentation here is a bit more expanded than before, but never in a way that buries the keyboards – and Deodato's right out front on a range of electric keys that get some great support from John Tropea's finely-honed work on guitar! Titles include "Havana Strut", "Whirlwinds", "West 42nd Street", and a nice cover of Steely Dan's "Do It Again". And heck, even the album's version of Glen Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" manages to come off like a funk tune! Artistry is a live set from Deodato – but one that's very much in the mode of his best CTI studio sessions – with soaring, over the top keyboard work that's totally great – backed by some tightly compressed guitar, bass, and drums, with just enough funk in the mix to keep things interesting! As with other Deodato records from the time, there's a mix of moods here that comes together nicely – a range that goes past his easy hits, and shows Deodato to be one of the hippest, most soulful keyboard talents of his generation. Titles include a great version of "Super Strut" that grooves for over 8 minutes, and which has some firey guitar that really competes with Deodato's work on the keys – and other tracks include "Farewell To A Friend", "Pavane For A Dead Princess", "Rio Sangre", and "Jivin".

A wild collection of extraterrestrial country, pulp, pop, r&b and even some doo wop influenced tunes from the outerspace fringes of 60s & 70s Nashville & beyond – largely from the brain bananas of Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan! We knew that Jack & Misty recorded some fairly far out countryish gems as a duo – but this crazy set really opens our minds to how wild they were as writers, producers & arrangers! It truly rivals Joe Meek's productions when it comes to pulpy themes and unpredictable stylistic range – while carrying a weird, earthier rustic & rural groove. Jack & Misty sing and play often throughout, as themselves and under pseudonyms – and they recruited friends and peers as singers and players for the others. Far more than just an exercise in strangeness – the songs are good enough to stand out as more than novelties, and some of the most respected Nashville session players of the past half century can be found in the notes. You get electrified banjo, sax, and organ in the same wild tunes – any questions? The majority of songs were cut between the fertile period between 1965 and 1974 – with a few going back earlier & later – a whopping 30 tracks in all! "Strange New World" by Jacqueline Hyde & The Moonfolk, Time Machine" by Joel Mathis, "Skellykins" by Rusty Diamond, "I'm Hung Up On You" by Rusty Diamond, "Hit Me One More Time" by Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan, "Let's Have A Hayride" by Maryanne Mail, "New World" by The Jack Blanchard Group, "Monkey See, Monkey Do" by Brad Wolfe, "Dance Of The Living Dead Chickens" by Jack Blanchard and more!

A mighty impressive 3CD box set of previously unreleased Can – incredible stuff captured throughout their groundbreaking run from the late 60s to mid 70s – and culled from hours (and hours!) of tapes of the sessions that could have just as easily wound up on any of their classic records of the period! We figured that this would almost certainly be a solid companion piece to their initial run of classic albums – but the best thing about it is that it out stands up really well on its own. Can pretty famously let the tapes run while they worked things out and let the magic happen spontaneously, so it stands to reason that a lot of brilliant stuff was left on those tapes! We're surprised it took so long to pour through it and assemble some of the best of the "lost" material, but better late than never! Since it covers the full late 60s & early 70s periods, it's got bits with Mooney and Suzuki – and features hypnotic live takes, slow-building tense jams, moody lulls and violent bursts of sound – it's Can, alright! 30 tracks sequenced brilliantly over 3CDs. Titles include "Millionenspiel", "Waiting For The Street Car", "Evening All Day", "Deadly Doris", "Bubble Rap", "Your Friendly Neighborhood Whore", "Bilnd Mirror Sur", "Bubble Rap", "Godzilla Fragment", "Barnacles", "The Agreement", "The Loop", "A Swan Is Born" and more.