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Featuring Kool & The Gang.

A lively little groover from the Sugarhill Gang – one based around the excellent "Daisy Lady" sample from 7th Wonder! The track makes great use of the original's brassy horns – inflecting a bright, almost Latiny finish on the tune – all to set the stage for some great rhymes from the crew!

"Step Off" may not have been as big of a hit as other work from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – but the cut's a great one nonetheless, with a darkly dipping "For The Love Of Money" bassline that's totally great! The O'Jays must have winced when Furious Five ripped off the tune – but the groove's so great, you can easily forgive them! (Oddly, for some reason, on this single Sylvia decided not to give Flash the top billing.)

What can you say about this one? One of the classics, and still great to hear.

A Sugar Hill party in one sweet little package – 2CDs worth of music that features some of the biggest hits from the Grandmaster Flash generation, plus a few surprising bits from later years too! The package features a whopping 23 tracks in all – one disc that mostly hovers around the early Sugar Hill years, and another that takes off a bit in different directions. Cuts include "Freedom", "New York New York", "Scorpio", "The Message", "It's Nasty", and "Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five; "Internationally Known", "We Don't Work For Free", and "Beat Street" by Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five; "Showdown" by Furious Five Meets Sugarhill Gang, "Flash To The Beat" by Grandmaster Flash, "Message II" by Melle Mel & Duke Bootee, "White Lines" by Grandmaster & Melle Mel, "World War III" by Melle Mel, "Step Off" by The Furious Five, "Sign Of The Times" and "Vice" by Grandmaster Flash.

The original message rhyme, or at least the biggest one of its day, a track that would spawn a lot of imitiations, including more than a handful of followups from the Furious 5 and Melle Mel.

Tape that linoleum to the sidewalk and start poppin' your shoulders – "Break Dance" is one of those tunes that never fails to groove! The cut's a monstrous bit of street soul from the old school – served up with lots of great turntable work, monster Bongo Band beats, and even a few electro touches too!

With "Monster Jam" by Spoonie G & Sequence, "Freedom" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "That's the Joint" by Funky 4 + One, "Birthday Party" by Grandmaster Flash, "8th Wonder" by Sugarhill Gang, and the amazing "Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel". This is the original version, with the picture sleeve cover.

Sweet LP of the Furious Five backed by the classic Doug Wimbish, Keith Leblanc and Skip McDonald band that you know so well from other Sugar Hill recordings from the period. Includes the timeless "The Message", as well as "Scorpio", "It's Nasty", "She's Fresh", "Dreamin", "You Are" and "It's A Shame".

First ever full length collaboration between Kasey Chambers and husband Shane Nicholson – who deliver timeless, Americana-indebted songcraft for the Sugar Hill label. 14 tracks in all.

"We Got The Funk" is a tune that definitely earns its title – a classic bit of boogie – and one of the few really standout non-hip hop tracks from Sugar Hill back in the day! The tune's a killer all the way through – almost a hip hop groove at times, save for the vocals in the lead – and it's backed here by "Tell Me What You See", another great groover!

A beautiful set of indie soul jazz from the turn of the 80s – recorded in a laidback and soulful style that's right up there with some of our favorite small label sets from the 70s. Lamont is on keyboards, working here with a strong group that includes Charles McPherson on alto, Nathan East on bass, and Hollis Gentry on soprano and tenor sax. The interplay between the saxes is one of the best elements of the record – as both players are working here in a modally-influenced post-Coltrane mode – never too stretched out, but exploratory within the straighter rhythms of the tunes. Titles include "Sugar Hill Melody", "Mount Morris Park", "Meadmore", "Sydenham Square", and "Slugs In The Far East".

Heavy Prince influenced 80s grove tracks issued on the Sugar Hill subsidiary Sweet Mountain, with a very rock feel over electronic percussion and synth grooves.

One of the biggest major label hip hop albums of the early 80s – and easily one of the best ever full length sets from Kurtis Blow! There's a straightforward simplicity here that's totally great – a slight elevation of the Sugar Hill groove towards a more mainstream audience – but one that never loses the basic back/forth party rhythms of the old school scene. Kurtis' rhymes aren't going to set the world on fire, but they're also a fair bit more thoughtful at times than some of his contemporaries – and tracks include the classic "The Breaks", plus "Rappin Blow (Part 2)", "Hard Times", "Throughout Your Years", "Takin Care Of Business", and "Way Out West".

The south rises again – in this excellent annual issue of Oxford American dedicated to music from below the Mason-Dixon line! This year, the publication's got a special focus on Louisiana – a great mix of soul, jazz, blues, and roots – served up in an issue that's heavy on Crescent City commentary – with articles on Shotgun Joe, Professor Longhair, and Amede Ardoinand – plus musings on the music of New Orleans by Stanley Crouch, a look at a NO strip club, and a long piece on "The Anxiety Of Authenticity". There's loads more little features too – on Louisiana music old and new – and as the biggest bonus, the issue comes with a 21 track CD – featuring cuts that include "Sugar Bee" by Cleveland Crochet & Hill Billy Ramblers, "Two Wings" by Rev Utah Smith, "Real Live Living Hurtin Man" by Johnny Adams, "Reconsider Me" by Margaret Lewis, "Shirley" by John Fred & The Playboys, "The Eyes Of Love" by Margie Singleton, "Parlez Nous A Boire" by Chris Stafford, "Monkey In A Sack" by Lil Buck & The Top Cats, "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere" by Robert Pete Williams, "The Patriotic Flag Waver" by Dr John, "Shine" by Kid Ory, "Bon Ton Roula" by Clarence Garlow, "Look What You're Doin To Me" by Professor Longhair, and "Old Man's Darling" by Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Cha.

Great mid 80s set from the legendary Sugar Minott, Studio One mainstay Willie Williams and others – recordings split between Bullwackies in The Bronx and Music Mountain in Stony Hill, Kingston – featuring 8 riffs on King Tubby's "Tempo" rhythm! Dubwise and digital aware material that stands the test of time! Includes "Devil Is At Large" by Sugar Minott, "Don't Worry Yourself" by Chris Wayne, "Solid Rock I Stand" by Willie Williams, "Free South Africa" by Ras Menelik Dacosta, "Tribute To Prince Knight by Jerry Johnson, and a trio of "Tempos" by Black Roots Players.

Their second (or third?) single that has the tight old school back-and-forth MC'ing style (we think is still dope) than the social commentary stuff, like "The Message", that they did for Sugarhill. The music is uncredited, but sounds similar to Sugarhill's Doug Wimbush, Keith LeBlanc rhythm section.

Bedrock beatcraft and DJ mix mastery from Steve Stein – including the hugely important Double Dee & Steinski mixes of the early 80s – paired up with solid later work for this excellent 2CD compilation! The Double Dee & Steinski stuff really couldn't be more important to the turntablist scene of the mid 80s, and its influence stretches up to and beyond the mash up DJs of the 00s. Monumental DJ funk and deftly blended samples. Astounding! Disc 1 is the retrospective material – featuring benchmark Double Dee & Steinski mixes: "The Payoff Mix", "Lesson 2 (James Brown Mix)", "Lesson 3 (History Of Hip Hop)", "Jazz" and "Voice Mail (Sugarhill Mix)" – plus the Steinski tracks "The Motorcade Sped On", "I'm Wild About That Thing", "Ain't No Thing", "Number Three On Flight Eleven" and more. Disc 2 is Nothing To Fear – A Rough Mix By Steinski – done for Solid Steel Productions and BBC London – 28 continuous cuts including "Swingset (10 beautiful girls mix)", "The Id (small world mix)", "By All Means Necessary (Malcolm & Bobby mix)", "I Like It Like That (Scratch It One Time mix)" "Country Grammar (hydro mix)", "Funk Construction (Prodigal Son mix)" and lots more. It's all in the title – it's a rougher set with the scratch & cut effects, bit not as dance club bubbly as other Steinski work.

Wonderful! This is a lost bit of New Jersey funk on the Turbo label, featuring a group that includes Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald before they became part of the Sugarhill house band, and then part of the On-U Sound collective. The album's a great mix of warmly soulful instrumental grooving – with some tracks that have a tight uptempo feel, and others that are slower and harder, but equally jazzy. The whole thing's the kind of funky record that you'd love to find while digging through the crates – and it's had long life over the past few decades, thanks to the rich variety of tunes on the set. Includes the classic cut "Funkanova", an uptempo jazzy intrumental that continued to be a club favorite throughout the house years – plus loads of other good cuts, too, like "WBS Theme" and a version of "Always There".

A well-done collection of grooves from the legendary CTI Records – home to some of the most important jazz funk of the 70s! The set does a good job of getting past the familiar hits from the label, and moves into territory that showed the complexity of the grooves being laid down – a depth that's sometimes overlooked, given the success of CTI. The nicely-priced set features 10 tracks in all – including "Hard To Face The Music" by Idris Muhammad, "September 13" by Deodato, "Canned Funk" by Joe Farrell, "Rock Steady" by Johnny Hammond, "I'm Not So Sure" by Milt Jackson, "Hurtin House" by Esther Phillips, "Sugar Free" by Hank Crawford, "Shoogie Wanna Boogie" by Dave Matthews, "I Remember Wes" by George Benson, and "Storm" by Stanley Turrentine.

A cool compilation – and one that's much hipper than you'd guess from the Ibiza sticker on the cover! Instead of the usual sunny Spanish grooves, this one's filled with deeply spiritual tracks and hipper sounds from the left side of the club underground – some of our favorite artists from both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific, sifted out nicely by Daniel Pencoba with a really sensitive approach overall! The sound's laidback, but never in a chillout way – and titles include "Dawn" by Build An Ark, "Brown Sugar" by Dal Green, "Home" by Bing Ji Ling, "Once You're Near Me" by Kutiman, "Love Is To Blame" by Yukihiro Fukutomi with Isabelle Antena & Ernesto, "I'll Be Your Wings (M&D rmx)" by Invisible Session, "Reversed (Circle Research rmx demo)" by Elizabeth Shepherd, "Neil Diamond" by Bucky Johnson, "Life Angles" by Yesterdays New Quintet, and "Oasis" by Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.

The third volume in Expansion's excellent series of fantastic soul from Philly – one soaringly melodic, soulful masterpiece after another – the best set yet! Expansion hasn't rushed these Spirit Of Philadelphia compilations onto the market – number 3 comes nearly decade sense we were knocked out by the first. We don't know if this time taking approach is what makes them so good or not, all we know is that it's totally great! Includes numbers by Tapestry, Ecstasy, Passion & Pain, Ghetto Children, Debbie Taylor, Major Harris, Sister Sledge, Brown Sugar and more – going way past the obvious hits! 17 tracks in all: "It's Not The World That's Messed Up" by Tapestry, "New To You" by Sharon Paige, "I Wouldn't Give You Up" by Ecstasy, Passion & Pain, "When You Look At Me" by Barbara Mason, "I Just Gotta Find Someone To Love" by Ghetto Children, "I Have Learned To Do Without You" by Debbie Taylor, "Help Me Find A Way (To Say I Love You)" by Little Anthony & The Imperials, "This Is What You Mean To Me" by Major Harris and more.

Interesting album. Although most Nonesuch Explorer sessions were ethnographic ones, recorded in the field by the label's engineers – this one's a studio session, recorded in New York by a group that's reputedly from Ghana, but which seems to be kind of a "fake" one from our perspective. Why? Well, because Charles Earland's playing tenor, for one – and although his native Philly was kind of far away from New York, we never heard it referred to as "Ghana"! Other players here are US-based jazz ones, too – like drummers Sonny Morgan and Robert Crowder, vibist Garvine Masseaux, and bassist George Brooks. The set's still got a strong High Life sound to it – but it also has jazz flourishes, too, in the way that was used some of the Art Blakey Afro-Drum experiments from the same time. Titles include "Ebony", "Bus Conductor", "Saturday Night", and "Sugar Soup".

A stunner of an album – and one that definitely draws plenty power from the double drummers in the lead! The set's way different than most of Elvin Jones' other work of the time – and is even more hard-hitting than some of the Philly Joe Jones sessions too – and, unusual for Atlantic Records at the time, the tracks are all quite long – with a very open, freewheeling sound! There's some great horn players who really help shape the sound of the tunes – Hank Mobley on tenor, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, and Curtis Fuller on trombone – and the piano of Wynton Kelly and bass of Paul Chambers ensure that the music is right in the groove. The set features three long tracks – "Brown Sugar", "Le Roi", and "Beau-ty".

Nice roller boogie on an indie Chicago label, with production that's very much like something yo might here on Sugarhill records or maybe one of Peter Brown's labels from the same period.

Massive funk from CTI – some of the label's grooviest, jazziest, most soulful gems from the 70s – all hand-picked by the folks at Wax Poetics Japan! There's some familiar tracks here, and some lesser-known nuggets too – and the set is one of the grooviest CTI collections we've ever heard – filled with just the right sort of sounds to show the label's genius in its best light – including some tracks from related imprints Kudu and Salvation, too! Don't let the "dance" in the title put you off – because this isn't dance music, just tight funky jazz of the best 70s variety – as you'll hear on cuts that include "Baretta's Theme" by Ron Carter, "Macumba" by Lalo Schifrin, "Stanley's Tune" by Airto, "Star Borne" by Johnny Hammond, "Nights In White Satin" by Deodato, "Hard To Face The Music" by Idris Muhammad, "Corazon" by Hank Crawford, "You Keep Me Hanging On" by David Matthews, "Boy I Really Tied One On" by Esther Phillips, and "Sugar Free" by Hank Crawford.