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2 rare slices of exotica by Les Baxter – back to back on one CD! The first half of the set features material from the album Ports Of Pleasure – a dreamy exploration of south sea ideals that's got a more lightly drifting quality than some of Baxter's more percussive exotica albums, and... read more

One of the rarest Les Baxter albums – and one of the best! The theme is undersea exotic – and Les uses a swirling mix of strings, piano, organ, flute, and electronics to create a haunting sound that makes you feel like you've discovered some hidden grotto under the sea, filled with... read more

One of the rarest albums by Les Baxter – and one of the best! The record features an excellent batch of "space exotica" tracks, set amidst some very lively arrangements, all packaged in one of the greatest album covers of the 50s! Les' writing and leading are as excellent as... read more

Some of the earliest work of Jacques Brel – and some of the best as well! The collection is a massive overview of Brel's first recordings in the mid 50s – all original compositions that marked not only a new generation for songwriting in France, but a revision of the role of the male... read more

An assortment of early 50s recordings by The Chordettes – easily one of the most heavenly groups ever to record in pop music! The quartet first had their roots in barbershop harmony, but soon stepped into much more sophisticated territory with these recordings for Cadence Records –... read more

An amazing rare chapter of the late 60s Tropicalia saga – from the genius composer responsible for some of the most pivotal arrangements of the era! Rogerio Duprat's talent grew as a cellist with some of the most respected symphony orchestras of Brazil before he went into soundtrack work... read more

A smooth batch of early work from Brazilian jazz and vocal mainstay Dick Farney – a collection of his wonderful vocal tunes and more jazz based work from the mid 40s through the mid 50s – collected from ultra rare releases of the time! The first half of the CD concentrates on his... read more

Late 50s material by the incomparable Serge Gainsbourg – studio and live recordings from 1958 and 1959 – plus tunes from singer Juliette Greco's EP of Gainsbourg songs from the same period – really wonderful stuff all the way! A number of the tunes feature wonderful arrangements... read more

A very unusual album from Russ Garcia – one recorded with a vocal choir singing (mostly) wordlessly on the tunes! The style isn't scatting so much as it is a precursor to modes that would be used more heavily on later soundtracks – an approach that's jazz-based, and often colored with... read more

Pure bossa magic – and a wonderful illustration of why the early music of Joao Gilberto was so tremendous! (Actually, all of his music is tremendous, but that seems to be especially the case here!) The tracks are all fantastic – breezy, breathy, and almost effortlessly sung throughout... read more

A beautiful collection of work from the legendary Joao Gilberto – some of the most important bossa nova recordings ever, plus a fair bit of rarities as well! The first CD in the set features three full early albums from Gilberto – Chega De Saudade, O Amor O Sorriso E A Flor, and Joao... read more

One of Joao Gilberto's first-ever albums – filled with incredibly beautiful bossa material that captures the vocals and guitar of Gilberto at their fragile early best – backed by sublime arrangements from Antonio Carlos Jobim and Walter Wanderley! The setting is perfect, and the sound... read more

A wonderful album of Joao Gilberto's early bossa tracks from Brazil – loaded up here with various numbers from other great Brazilian stars! The original one of the first few that he ever recorded, and it's a masterpiece of understatement, recorded with arrangements by a young Antonio Carlos... read more

A jazz soundtrack double-header – one that features both the small combo and larger band version of the soundtrack to The Sweet Smell Of Success! The first half of the CD features the Chico Hamilton Quintet's album of music – a wonderful bit of cinematic jazz from the 50s. The combo... read more

Two early gems from this fab French singer! First up is the self-titled Francoise Hardy album from 1962 – a seminal debut from the young Hardy, and a record that set the tone for a whole generation of French music to come! The album's a remarkable achievement – especially considering... read more

The first-ever album from the legendary Hi-Lo's – a landmark indie debut that went onto transform the sound of vocal harmony in the 20th century! The record's got a subtle brilliance that's hard to catch at first – a way of putting together the tunes that's often only slightly... read more

Back to back jazz soundtracks – the cream of the crop of the early 60s! First up is The Hustler – a killer jazz score from Kenyon Hopkins – a composer we can almost always trust to turn around a killer jass score! The work is mostly in a jazz ensemble mode – and moves... read more

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Komeda soundtrack work from the early 60s – his legendary score for Roman Polanski's Knife In Water – plus a bit of his work from the earlier Innocent Sorcerers and other jazzy material from the period! Knife In The Water Is a wonderful score that echoes with the modern tones and... read more

A rare treasure from Yusef Lateef – one of his hardest to find albums, recorded right around the same time as his magical work for Savoy! The record has Lateef playing in his local Detroit area – working with Terry Pollard on piano, William Austin on bass, and Frank Gant on a host of... read more

One of the loveliest of all the bossa singers is caught here in some superb arrangements by Oscar Castro-Neves, Maestro Gaya, and Dori Caymmi! This loaded compilation of material features the entirety of Nara Leao's classic self-titled Phillips album from 1967 and the album Vento De Maio –... read more

String-heavy early genius from a young Michel Legrand – tracks from some of his best travelogue albums for Columbia from the 50s! The first half of the set is Legrand's original I Love Paris album – a sparkling postwar musical fantasy of Paris, made up of a host of famous themes from... read more

A really cool record from the late 60s Spanish rock scene – done with a pop-ready simplicity, but accented with some gritty, garage psych touches too! Contrabando features a newer line-up of the group, after Juan Pardo and Antonio "Junior" Morales left the group to for Juan Y... read more

The first-ever album from Henry Mancini – and a wonderfully spooky set! The style here is quite different than most of Hank's better-known film work and instrumental hits – as the record is very moody and laidback – cut with a slow-moving, dreamy sort of darkness that's really... read more

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Our favorite side of the genius of Ennio Morricone – and a really wonderful collection that completely illustrates why we love Morricone so much! In the mainstream world, Morricone's best known for his famous scores for spaghetti westerns and horror films – both of which have a... read more

One of the coolest collections of work by Ennio Morricone we've ever seen – a whopping 25 tracks pulled from some of his lesser-known soundtracks, all awash in inventive arrangements, odd instrumentation, and super-trippy production touches! The overall vibe here is slow, mellow, and... read more

Think that Ennio Morricone only made music for soundtracks? Guess again – because this groovy little set features a whole host of tracks that the maestro recorded with singers in the early 60s – great postwar pop numbers that already show his creative touch on the charts! Most of the... read more

Beat jazz galore – a wonderful CD that features two of the best late 50s efforts in the genre! The first half of the set features work from poet Kenneth Patchen – very well set up with small combo backings from The Chamber Jazz Sextet – a combo that includes piano, bass, and... read more

Dreamy genius from Piero Piccioni – one of our favorite Italian composers ever! This set does for Piccioni what the Mondo Morricone sets did for Ennio – in that it pulls together an assortment of his best tracks from late 60s and early 70s soundtracks – with a focus on the... read more

One of the greatest collections of work we've ever seen from Quarteto Em Cy – a CD that features their entire Som Definitivo album from 1964, plus 18 more bonus tracks pulled from two other albums! Som Definitivo is an incredible album – one in which the Brazilian female harmony... read more

2 amazing albums from Elis Regina – back to back on a single CD! First up is Elis Como Et Porque – one of our favorite albums ever from the incredible Elis Regina – a record that really has her hitting new levels in her style – moving past simple bossa into a realm of music... read more

Easy instrumentals and jazzy genius from the early 70s Brit scene – groovy, moddish jazz takes on pop and soundtrack hits of the time from the Harry Roche Constellation – with a vibe that betters the grooviest of sound library discoveries! There's a loungey charm to many of the tunes,... read more

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This guy's neither the Sabu who played congas on Blue Note, nor the long-haired hard rocker from later years – but Selar Shaik Sabu, an early Indian film star heard here on a dramatic recording from the 40s! The core part of the CD features a young Sabu reading selections from Rudyard... read more

Not the whole life of Ravi Shankar in music – and instead, a really cool concentration of work from one of his greatest periods ever – that magical late 50s/early 60s moment when he was completely transforming the sound of Indian music, and beginning to have an influence on the wider... read more

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Pioneering efforts in experimental music from Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez – provacative, influential 50s material from these towering figures compiled for this CD from El Records. Stockhausen's "Etude Concrete" and Nr 5 Zietmasse (Time-Measures) For Five Woodwinds kick... read more

An amazing collection of experimental sounds from the European scene of the postwar years – key electronic and musique concrete recordings from some of the most important composers of the 20th Century! The package is a great introduction to this important stretch in music – and... read more

Nearly 3 albums' worth of music from the legendary Tamba Trio – one of the grooviest groups in the 60s bossa years in Brazil! The trio are quite unique – in that they not only play upbeat bossa rhythms, but also harmonize along with their grooves – in a soaringly sublime quality... read more

A beautiful little overview of the work that Cal Tjader recorded for the Skye Records label at the end of the 60s – some of his grooviest work ever, and all done with a unique blend of styles that Cal barely ever captured again! The rhythms are often inspired by bossa nova, but usually end... read more

A really amazing little soundtrack – darkly subtle, and better almost than the Derek Jarman film for which it was penned! Simon Fischer Turner's been many things over the years – a boy pop idol in 70s England, the King Of Luxembourg in the 80s El Records roster – but he's never... read more

Swinging British pop tracks by two of England's loveliest ladies of the 60s – neither of which is well known as a singer, but both of whom sound pretty darn groovy here! The first 4 tracks on the CD are from a 1966 EP by Twiggy – recorded early in her fame as a model, and with some... read more

A stunner of dramatic orchestrations from the earlyish part of the past millenium – bookended by a couple of the most mindblowingly influential pieces from the great Edgard Varese in the late 20s & early 30s – plus exceptional orchestrations by Carlos Chavez, Silvestre Revueltas,... read more

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A compilation of late 50s recordings by bossa great Walter Wanderley – the years before his massive success of the 60s – with breezy Brazilian rhythms and sweet-as-can-be jazzy organ groovers! All of the material was recorded in 1958 and 1959, and there's a range of compositions –... read more

Wonderful work from Dinah Washington – most of it cut in New York and Chicago in the early-to-mid 50s – peak stuff that splits a fairly even difference between her rollicking rhythm & blues mode and her jazzier vocal mode! The first half features the sassier r&b while the... read more

One of the weirdest, wildest moog albums you'll ever hear – an amazing collaboration between moogy maestro Mort Garson and "word man" Jacques Wilson! The album's an electronic fairy tale for the late 60s scene – a pretty scary little set at the heart, given all the analogue... read more

The rare soundtrack for the second movie starring a very young Brigitte Bardot – with moods that range from whimsical movie symphony to sultry, percussion heavy exoticism! The 1952 vehicle for Bardot pegged her to portray the alluring daughter of a light house keeper, and it's pretty sweet... read more

A mix of singles, album tracks, and unreleased stuff from Mike Alway's El Records.... read more

A totally groovy batch of mid-to-late 60s London rock– wonderful work by Small Faces, Chris Farlowe, Billyy Nicholls, Australian Playboys, Amen Corner and more – plus loads of period interviews and soundbites from hipsters, movers and shakers of the era! The whole thing has the feel of... read more

Music from June Christy, Andre Previn, Johnny Green, Victor Young & others.... read more

Music from Joao Gilberto, Luiz Bonfa, Baden Powell & others.... read more

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Tracks by King Of Luxembourg, Loveletter, Would Be Goods, Bad Dream Fancy Dress & others.... read more