All Categories — LPs  

Solid team-up/all star effort produced in full by the mighty Alchemist – with a core lineup of Tristate, Planet Asia & Killer Ben – and guest appearances by Prodigy, Evidence, Chace Infinite, Phil Da Agony and others. Includes "DRDC Theme", "Fish Meat" feat Prodigy, "360 Waves", "Yasir Arafat", "Goon Call" feat Imam Thug, "Shooters", "Luxury Whip", "Funyons", "Bigger U Are The Harder You Fall" feat Big Twinz & Alchemist, "Spiral Event" feat Evidence and more.

The first new solo effort from Wu Tang gamer Masta Killa in a few years – and a timeless bit of raw, soul sample-based hip hop from one the more underappreciated Wu MCs! It's thankfully light on guest rappers – save for an appearance by Kurpupt and a vault verse from ODB, Masta Killa is the only voice. Production by Mathrmatics, 9th Wonder, Koolade, Inspectah Deck and others. Includes "Soul & Substance", "R U Listening", "Things Just Ain't The Same", "What U See", "Divine Glory", "All Natural", "Wise Words", "Dirty Soul", "Cali Sun" with Kurupt and more.

Maybe the greatest album we've ever heard from trumpeter Till Bronner – a beautiful tribute to the 70s sound of Freddie Hubbard – recorded with instrumentation that's heavy on Fender Rhodes, and these soaring solos that are simply the greatest we've ever heard Bronner play! There's a perfection to the record that may well even go past Freddie's classics for CTI – a sense of solid, soulful sounds throughout – with not a moment of filler, and a great mix of originals from Bronner that really capture the Hubbard vibe – mixed with a few others that further the essence. The whole thing's wonderful – a killer contemporary set, but with a richly vintage feel too – no vocals, no remixes, or any of the other things that you might find on other Bronner albums. Titles include "Will Of Nature", "FFH", "Return To The Fold", "Gibraltar", "Once Upon A Summertime", "Condor", "Pegasus", "Red Street", "Wacky Wes", and "The Gate".

A fantastic lost psych album – with a moody spacey sound augmented by lots of organ, harpsichord, and electric piano! The best cuts are short and echoey – with kind of a trippy pop feel that sounds like post-Brit invasion lyricism, mixed with LA stoner freedom, and a good dash of Love-esque soul. Titles include Tim Hardin's great "You Upset the Grace of Living", "Hang Onto A Dream", and "Never Too Far" – plus a very cool version of "Nature Boy", and the tracks "Tiffany Rings", "I Watch The Moon", and "Me About You".

The sound of Zambia, circa 1975 – a heady brew of psychedelic styles and deeper African roots – served up in the unique blend of modes that would come to be known as Zamrock! The album's got a dark feel right from the start – one of those records where it feels like something's a bit off, psychically – but in a great way that really keeps things compelling throughout – and which makes the music way more interesting than some of the other 70s African hybrids that were aiming for a much more mainstream market. Instead, the sounds of Rikki Ililonga and group are very much their own thing – sticking to territory that's very sharp and bracing – as you'll hear on cuts that include "The Hole", "Shebeen Queen", "Zambia", "Hot Fingers", "The Nature Of Man", and "Sansa Kuwa".

Amazing work from Sun Ra – record that really features a great range of sounds and styles, and a heck of a lot of soul as well! Ra plays some especially nice rocksichord on the set – that freaky, fuzzy keyboard that comes off sounding like a guitar, even though it's played with keys – and there's some spiritual undercurrents to the set that are different than some of Ra's other albums with the instrument – some deeply feeling rhythms and soulful, spiritual expressions that really belie the Space Is The Place generation in which the album was cut. A few recitations imbue the record with a bold sense of poetry, which seems to be carried through strongly in the instrumentation too – especially on John Gilmore's tenor lines, which almost have a Shepp-like quality at points. Other players include Marshal Allen and Danny Davis on alto, Ahk Tal Ebah on trumpet, Clifford Jarvis on drums, and Sly on electric guitar – and titles include "Song No 1", "There Is Change In The Air", "Antique Blacks", "Would I For All That Were", "Ridiculous I & The Cosmos Me", and "This Song Is Dedicated To Nature's God".

Soul Jazz takes an open-eyed and open-minded look at swampy, funky, freewheeling southern rock – southern-by-nature or southern-by-inspiration grooves from the end of the 60s and well into the 70s! What we love most about the set, besides that it features one great song after another, is the Soul Jazz perspective. They don't simply put together Delta Swamp Rock from a purist's standpoint regionally, or as a sound – it's loosely-defined, which you could complain about if you want, but we love all of this stuff so it works for us! There's early phase southern rock, blue-eyed soul, soulful country and homey, swaggering pop. Volume 1 of the vinyl has 13 tracks on 2LPs: "The Seasons" by Lynryd Skynryd, "Smokies" by Barefoot Jerry", "Papa, Won't You Let Me Go To Town With You" by Bobbie Gentrie, "Stone Fox Chase" by Area Code 615, "Be What You Want To" by Link Wray", "I'll Be Long Gone" by Boz Scaggs, "God Rest His Soul" by Duane And Gregg Allman and more.

Late 70s recordings from rural Florida – but a wealth of music that feels like it could come from decades before – all packaged with a 24 page insert booklet that rivals – if not betters some of our favorite records on Folkways and other major players in the field recordings genre! The volume's a wonderful illustration of the continued local nature of American music – sounds that are deeply rooted to a time and place, and only brought to our ears by the hard work of ethnographers willing to spend time in the field with recording technology. Usually, such sounds can be presented in oblique packages, or circulated amongst collectors almost by accident – but a set like this really gives the music a new sort of focus – by offering up not only two LPs' worth of beautiful recordings, but also adding in a huge book's worth of notes on the artists, their local scenes, and the music within. The 2LP package has 26 tracks on 2LPs – with material by Johnny Brown, Richard Williams, Ella Mae Wilson, Willie Gillard, Emmett Murray, Moses Williams, and others.

Pretty amazing music from Morocco – sounds that are definitely as raw as promised in the title, but which also go way past what you might expect as music from 45s! First off, the tunes are much longer than usual for a 7" single – as most numbers are well over 5 minutes in length, and build beautifully through elliptical rhythms that fold back upon themselves and create these really compelling grooves – often with the same sort of hypnotic feel that you'd get from more traditional Moroccan modes. Also, the work is much earthier than you'd expect from 45s recorded in the 60s – almost ethnographic in nature, as percussion, regional instrumentation, and voices are presented without any sense of studio work at all. Dust To Digital really step into a whole new world with this one – working with Moroccan collector David Murray, who also provides a lot of notes and images. Titles include "Ha Howa Ha Howa" by Benasser Oukhoya & Cheikha Hadda Ouakki, "Makh Makh" by Jimimi Lekbir & Fatma Anounya, "Kassidat El Hakka" by Abellah El Magana, "Zine Mlih" by Mohamed Bergam, and "Sidi M'Bark" by Cheikh Mohamed Riffi.

A real mind-trip – and an incredible document of the times – not just ideas floating around in the late 60s, but also new ways of making records too! The album is loosely based around ideas and writings from The Medium Is The Massage – McLuhan's important 1967 book, co-written with Quentin Fiore – and represented here as a wild sound collage that blends together music, sounds, media snippets, and readings by McLuhan, Fiore, and a host of other voices! The album's actually much more of a "happening" than a spoken word album – a real studio party that's cut up and messed up by all the added effects, sounds, and music – genius that comes from Jerome Agel, who put the whole project together – and delivered it to the loving hands of John Simon, who produced some other wonderful records of this nature for late 60s Columbia. A real delight throughout – and the kind of an album we wish people still kept making! Great reissue package – in a gatefold LP-styled sleeve, with additional artwork, rare photos, full notes on the sessions, and more!

Crazy stuff – one of the wilder albums from Sun Ra, and a record that has him playing on "two moog synthesizers" – which both sound as if they're going at the same time! The rest of the group is quite small – with only John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, and Danny Davis – so Ra really center stage on the keys, and spends most of the record making some really weird and wonderful sounds on the moog. Tracks include "Intergalactic II", "To Nature's God", and "The Code Of Interdependence".

Way more than psychedelia, way more than electronica, and something completely different entirely – a really unique album from the legendary Igor Wakhevitch, and a mighty dark one at that! The album veers way off into the dark space beyond Aphrodite's Child, and explores a netherworld that's very sinister in nature – through the use of psychedelic instrumentation mixed with spare orchestrations, all processed with some great electric touches, and turned into a kind of soundtrack for a journey to Hades! The album drips with evil – far more so than other later efforts of this type – and although it was released in relative obscurity in the early 70s, it really outdoes the sounds of so many others from generations to come.

Really dark sounds from the enigmatic Igor Wakhevitch – even darker than his previous albums, and that's saying a lot, given the nature of those sets! This one was done in collaboration with American dancer Carolyn Carlson – but given the moody, offbeat quality of the sounds on the disc, we're damned if we can figure out how anyone could physically interact with the music! Some passages are very abstract and electronic – while others seem to use atonal acoustic instruments, but with a vibe that's still quite electric – and even the few female vocal passages come across with a sharp, striking quality – a bit like Cathy Berberian with Berio. Titles include "Eve Speaks", "Henry The Fool Of The Doll", "Ritual Of The Master Of The Doll", "Arrival Of The Magic Doll", and "Twilight & Call Of The Ascending Spirit".

A split set of electronic genius – with a side apiece from two different European pioneers! Side one features sublime sounds from BBC electronician Daphne Oram – definitely the patterns hinted at in the title, with lots of short tracks that echoe some of the cool effects that Daphne was adding to broadcast work! Titles include "Melodic Group Shapes", "Rhythmic Variations", "Ascending & Descending Sequences Of Varying Nature", and "Three Single Sounds Taken In Canon". Side two features sublime work from Tom Dissevelt – best known for some spare spacey sounds on recordings for Philips, but heard here in some surprisingly melodic moments – although still pretty darn spacey too! Titles include "Syncopation", "Vibration", "Whirling", and "Drifting".

A set that's gotta be one of the most righteous school band records ever – way more than just a bunch of students doing big band numbers, and instead a killer batch of spiritual jazz numbers, directed by the legendary Alvin Batiste! The record's one of a rare few 70s sets of this nature – one that shows a group of younger musicians really reaching out for bold new sounds – every bit as complex and soulful as work on labels like Strata East or Black Jazz, with a firey power that signals a new generation of the jazz underground! And while Batiste is at the head of the group, there's plenty of other great younger players too – including Henry Butler on piano, Henry Scott on flute, Kirk Ford on tenor, Reginald Houston on baritone, Raymond Deggs on trumpet, Julius Farmer on bass, and Herman Jackson on drums! Side one features burning ensemble numbers that include "Music Came", "Tunjii", "Straight Life", and "North American Idiosyncrasy" – and side two features early material by the Henry Butler Trio, on titles that include "So What", "In My Solitude", and "Milestones".

One of the hippest, deepest collections of European jazz we've ever heard – a really wonderful set that opens up a whole new side of the French scene of the 60s, 70s, and 80s – filled with music that we've never heard before! Unlike other sets of this nature, which focus on American players overseas – this one is filled with homegrown talent, often working in styles that echo the spiritual and modal sounds of the US underground of the post-Coltrane years – very rich in feeling and righteous in message – freely expressive, but never going too far out to lose their groove! We know some artists here, but not from these recordings – and others are pulled from the kind of totally obscure French albums you'd only find after years of digging around in Paris flea markets. Titles include "Colchiques" by Eddy Louiss, "Doorstep" by Octet De Dreux, "Notes So High" by Stella Levitt, "Ricardo" by Michel Roques, "La Musique D'Orphee" by Chene Noir, "Le Musichien" by Francois Tusques, "Creole Girl" by Noah Howard, "Israel Suite" by Rupture, and "Lido" by Les Prospections.