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From Training Day.

They're not lying about the "impossibly rare" part of the title here -- because most of the work on this set is previously unreleased -- funky Bay Area gems recorded in the late 60s and early 70s, finally seeing the light of day on this collection! The music represents a much deeper current of soul than you might know from Sly & The Family Stone or some of the bigger bay area groups of the period -- a really righteous batch of tracks that freak out nicely with a heady, jamming groove -- one that's often heavy on the basslines and drums, but which also has a celebratory, party-hearty quality in the vocals and other instrumentation. A few artists here are familiar, but most are relatively obscure -- and the biggest portion of this music has languished for years in the vaults of the Golden State Recorders studios of producer Leo Kulka. CD features 20 tracks in all -- including "Super Chicken" by Ramona King, "Rock Steady" by Ruby Delicious, "Devil's Got Your Mind" by San Francisco TKOs, "Hearing Things" by Snooky & The Cosmic Flowers, "I've Gotta Groove" by Julio Zavalla, "Love Machine" by Alonzo Smith, "Poor Sad Child (parts 1 & 2)" by The Windjammers, "Are You Together For The New Day" by The Love Experience, "Can't Get Enough" by 87th Off Broadway, "House Party" by Wally Cox & The Natives, "I'm Glad I Got Over You" by Jeanette Jones, "Sweet Talk" by Marvin Holmes & The Uptights, and "Vida Blue (part 1)" by Jimmy Bee.

Van Dyke Parks' masterpiece -- and one of the hippest records to come out of LA in the 60s! The album's a strangely anachronistic one -- steeped in the kind of past-days scoring found on early records by Harpers Bizarre and Randy Newman (both of which Parks had a hand in!), wrapped around simply poetic songs about the scene and state of affairs in late 60s LA, all handled with a cinematic approach that's aging Hollywood at its best! Titles include Randy Newman's "Vine Street" -- plus "By The People", "Laurel Canyon Blvd", "Donovan's Colours", and "The All Golden".

A golden state's worth of funky soul from the 60s and 70s -- pulled together in a collection that's arguably even better than the first volume in the series! The tracks here are all incredibly solid -- tunes that aren't just great because they're rare, but because they perfectly illustrate the hard-hitting groove going on in the California underground -- the ability to keep cooking things up with a fierce and righteous sound in the shadow of the bigger labels operating out of the scene at the time. Bits of trippy jazz sit nicely next to straighter soul numbers -- and the collection beautifully intersperses completely obscure numbers with some of the few names who've risen to legend in recent years, due to the efforts of DJs and collectors. Titles include "Half Way Loving" by Buddy Conner, "Compared To What" by Gow Do Experience, "Supercool" by Pat Hunt, "Revolution Rap" by Joey Jefferson Band, "Fancy" by Spanky Wilson, "Beverly" by Mokie JJ & ROB, "Isn't It Lonely" by Carmelita, "I Know You're Leaving Me" by Sy Hightower, "Big Herm" by LAPD, "I'm Hungry" by Johnny Morisette, "I Have Changed" by HP Riot, "Space Nigga" by Rodney Trotter, "Psychedelic Sally" by Gow Do Experience, and "We Got To Get It Together" by David Glover.

An awe-inspiring mother lode of classic Guinean grooves from one of Africa's greatest bands! Senegal's Orchestra Baobab have become the media favorite of Africa's golden era, but it only takes one spin of this fabulous anthology to realize that Bembeya Jazz National were as good as any band the continent ever produced. As the title says, this material is culled from the recordings the band made for the great state-owned Syliphone label, and it reflects an era of dazzling creative potency -- sensual Afro-Cuban tropes are blended into a powerful mix of Mande melodies, sashaying grooves, and jaw-dropping solos. Most of this collection features lead vocals by the sweet and soulful Aboubacar Demba Camara, who died in a tragic car accident in 1973, while the prodigiously talented Sekou "Diamond Fingers" Diabate unspools one astonishing lead after another. A still-powerful version of the group reunited in 2001, but nothing can match these recordings. Truly essential stuff! Tracks include "Dembaty Galant", "Waraba", "Super Tentemba", "Fatoumata", and "Sina Mousso". Newly repackaged and with and extra track!!

A golden state's worth of funky soul from the 60s and 70s -- pulled together in a collection that's arguably even better than the first volume in the series! The tracks here are all incredibly solid -- tunes that aren't just great because they're rare, but because they perfectly illustrate the hard-hitting groove going on in the California underground -- the ability to keep cooking things up with a fierce and righteous sound in the shadow of the bigger labels operating out of the scene at the time. Bits of trippy jazz sit nicely next to straighter soul numbers -- and the collection beautifully intersperses completely obscure numbers with some of the few names who've risen to legend in recent years, due to the efforts of DJs and collectors. Titles include "Half Way Loving" by Buddy Conner, "Compared To What" by Gow Do Experience, "Supercool" by Pat Hunt, "Revolution Rap" by Joey Jefferson Band, "Fancy" by Spanky Wilson, "Beverly" by Mokie JJ & ROB, "Isn't It Lonely" by Carmelita, "I Know You're Leaving Me" by Sy Hightower, "Big Herm" by LAPD, "I'm Hungry" by Johnny Morisette, "I Have Changed" by HP Riot, "Space Nigga" by Rodney Trotter, "Psychedelic Sally" by Gow Do Experience, and "We Got To Get It Together" by David Glover.

Panoramic DJ funk and abstract beatcraft from the one-and-only DJ Spooky -- his first proper full length in about a decade! Spooky was hardly resting all those years, having spoken all over the world and kind of serving as a spokesperson for his craft -- but he returns here with a pretty diverse record with some surprising guests and far reaching sounds. He's working with artists from agitprop hip hop firebrands The Coup, turntablist genius Rob Swift, dissonant indie rock elder statesman Thurston Moore, and many more. Hard hitting boombap, soaring pastoral sound washes, and politically charged vocal samples mesh. Includes "5 Million Ways To Kill A CEO" feat The Coup, "Multiphonic" feat Rob Swift, "Where I'm At" feat Jungle Brothers, "Heliocentric" feat Golden Hornet Project, "Known Unknown" feat Thurston Moore & Mike Ladd, "Duality" and much more. Comes with a bonus DVD.

A trio of later LPs from the incalculably important topical folk stalwart and archivist Pete Seeger -- 1971's Rainbow Race, 68's Now and '69's Young Vs Old -- plus a holy grail of a bonus track -- bundled in this excellent 2CD set from Omni! Rainbow Race starts out disc 1, an album that's understated in production, but feels more modern than many of Seeger's albums, and it's both massive in mood and masterful in material. It's stocked largely with Seeger originals rather than the shared folk songbook he so often worked within -- with titles including "Last Train To Nuremburg", "Sailing Down This Golden River", "Old Devil Time", "Words Words Words" and more. It's followed by Now -- another great record with more banjo in the sound, and more diverse songs -- with modern folk scene standards, talking blues and public domain revisitations, strident and in a live setting, with "Adam The Inventor", "Talking Ben Tre", Blacklash Blues", "Cotton Needs Pickin So Bad", "The Cities Are Burning" and more. Young Vs Old follows a similar trail, with some bigger emotions as well as sparer numbers, with titles including "Who Knows", "Bring The Home", "Ballad Of The Fort Hood Three", "Be Kind To Your Parents", "Get Up And Go", "Mayrowana" and more. Last and certainly not least, the bonus track "I Feel Like I'm Fixin To Die Rag" -- a killer version of the defiant, Anti Vietnam War sing-along standard that was purportedly banned in 1970 and released officially for the first time ever on this CD!