A brilliant record from future groove beacon Mr Chop! Now billed simply as Chop, having chopped off the honorific title, the man otherwise known as Coz Littler delivers his tightest and most compelling work to date! His past few releases recast classic synth funk, Krautrock and spacey soundtrack grooves and electronic experimentalist influences into fresh soundscapes that are distinctly his own – which was plenty exhilarating, but a lot to take in all at the same time. The biggest difference on Illuminate is that he's now got all so finely-honed. Thick waves of Moog, modular atmospherics, vocoder and otherwise effected vocals – perfectly paired with live bass, guitar and positively killer drums, courtesy of frequent collaborator Malcolm Catto and others. Cosmic funk rock of the finest caliber! Includes "Building Blocks", "Illuminate All Voltages", "Picture Box", "Airhead", "Re-Program The man/Illuminist Garden", "Sleeper", "Feedback", "Rendevous", "Bow Down To The Mutant", "Arcane Future", "You Want More Life", "The Electronic Brain" and more. CD

Kanye West's & Kid Cudi's joint debut as Kids See Ghosts! Each looks inward and tackles existential personal issues on the lyrical front, with kind of a spacey melancholy vibe to the production, and with cool synths and fuzz-steeped production with some really interesting samples in the mix – from Mr Chop to Kurt Cobain. Officially billed as an album, but with 7 tracks and a 23 minute length, it's straddling the line between EP and full length when it comes to running time – but that's not a knock as it's a tight, filler free effort. Includes "Feel The Love", "Fire", "4th Dimension", "Freeee (Ghost Town Pt 2)", "Reborn", "Kids See Ghosts" & "Cudi Montage". LP, Vinyl record album

A overlooked gem in Elvin Jones' Blue Note career – and an album that's virtually the blueprint for the Stone Alliance sound forged later in the decade by bassist Gene Perla and reedman Steve Grossman! Both players are working to full effect on this smoking little set – mixing some of the more spiritual modes of other group members with their own sharper-edged, funky-leaning styles – all held together perfectly by both Jones' tight work on drums, and his expansive musical vision! Other players are great too – and include Pepper Adams on baritone sax, David Liebman on flute and tenor, and Jan Hammer on acoustic piano – an instrument he handles with surprising subtlety and soul. Many cuts have a hard, choppy groove – and titles include a remake of "Gee Gee", plus "One's Native Place", "Mr Jones", and "What's Up – That's It". CD

A long-overdue package – one that finally brings together all the many strands of music from underground Cali rock legend Merrell Fankhauser! CD1 features some of Merrell's earliest music – a host of early singles by Merrell & The Exiles, some of which were issued on the Glenn and Golden Crown labels – mixed here with rare unissued titles too – for a whopping 19 tracks that offer up a rare look at Fankhauser's earliest years! CD2 features the classic Fapardokly record – a lost bit of legend from the west coast scene of the 60s – and a record that's maybe best-known as a showcase for the early genius of Merrell Fankhauser – who wrote most of the songs on the set, a good number of which were actually recorded for the record by his previous group, The Exiles! Yet despite that little bit of trivia, there's a great vibe going on here – a seminal shift in the Cali scene from garagey work to trippier modes – served up beautifully on titles that include "Glass Chandelier", "Suzie Cryin", "Tomorrow's Girl", "Lila", "Mr Clock", "No Retreat", "Gone To Pot", "When I Get Home", "Supermarket", and "The Music Scene". CD3 features the album Things, recorded by Merrell Fankhauser & HMS Bounty – a perfect blend of Fankhauser's earlier garage rock modes and latter trippier styles! The tunes are short and wonderfully tuneful – produced at Gold Star studios, with a simple, straightforward style that makes all the deftness of the songwriting come through even more – an approach that, although supposedly steeped in Pacific Ocean inspiration, almost feels more like that great moment when some UK groups of the mid 60s were tripping out, but not too much. Titles include "Lost In The City", "Your Painted Lives", "In A Minute Not Too Soon", "A Visit With Ashiya", "The Big Gray Sky", and "Rich Man's Fable". CD4 features MU – an incredible record, and one that really lives up to all its well-deserved legend over the years – one of those sets that's not just rare, but which has all the chops to really deliver the goods! A few short years before, Merrell Fankhauser was recording garage and psych on the LA scene – but here, he steps off the latter with a bit of post-60s hangover – working with a current of darkness that really changes things up, while still providing a great outlet for his legendary work on guitar – and his mindblowing sense of a lyric! Titles include "Ballad Of Brother Lew", "Eternal Thirst", "Too Naked For Demetrius", "Mumbella Baye Tu La", "The Clouds Went That Way", and "Nobody Wants To Shine". CD5 features MU's The Last Album – 20 more tracks recorded in 1974, but unissued for many years – and CD6 features the legendary Maui album from the enigmatic Merrell Fankhauser – a self-released set that drew inspiration from his time in Hawaii – even though the set was mostly recorded in LA and San Francisco! The tunes are beautiful – nicely evolved from Merrell's psych of earlier years, with a much more personal vibe – yet all without some of those west coast cliches that were creeping into more mainstream music of the period. You might get the vibe partly right if you could maybe imagine a more personal singer/songwriter take on the AOR vibe of the period – with leaner, better instrumentation and unslick production – but that's also only part of the picture too! Titles include "On Our Way To Hana", "Make A Joyful Noise", "Garden In The Rain", "Waterfall", "The Source", "Sail It Over The Ocean", and "We Were All Free". Box set features a very detailed book of notes – bonus tracks added to most of the albums, and a massive 95 tracks in all! CD

Think what you want about Jon Batiste on TV – the man's out to show you here that he's one hell of a pianist – and a jazz musician with a lot more depth than just his mainstream appearances! The set is mostly solo, and surprisingly beautiful – as Batiste is able to both serve up some New Orleans roots, and also hit some even more striking moments that have a much more modern appeal – this range of emotion we never would have expected, and which is mostly pretty surprising – apart from a few titles that Jon must have thrown in to keep some of the "visitors" on track. The solo piano numbers are fantastic – a real revelation – and titles include "Green Hill Zone", "Mr Buddy", "Kenner Boogie", "Chopinesque", "Nocturne No 1 In D Minor", "Is It Over", and "Don't Stop". CD

Alice Cooper at his most sinister – crossing over big, but still keeping plenty of the lean, mean edge from the early days! The package does more than enough to live up to the hype that was building around Cooper at the time – building hip up as much as a baby-chopping monster as much as a hard Detroit rocker – and the album's filled with well-focused tunes that definitely helped propel hard rock into the American mainstream! Titles include the classic "No More Mr Nice Guy" – plus "Elected", "I Love The Dead", "Hello Hooray", "Sick Things", and "Billion Dollar Babies". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare funk treat from tenor sax jazz legend Joe Houston – working in a far funkier mode than usual for the obscure Big Town label! The lineup and production is heavy with 50s LA R&B names in it – including Ted Butler, Bo Rhambo and Larry Johnson – and sure enough, there's genuine prime era rhythm & blues DNA in some of the material, to say nothing of the incredible chops of all involved – but the overall sound is very modern 70s jazz, with some really funky cuts, too! The highlight is the two-part title track, "Kicking Back", which is a top shelf jazz funk groover – but the whole record is solid, with "T-Bone Disco", "Hawaiian Disco", "Trippin' In", "Mr. Big H", and "Why Don't You Rock Me". CD

A pair of great records from the production hands of Prince Jammy – back to back on a single CD! First up is Bitter Sweet – one of those key records that helped Sugar Minott earn the sweet reputation that really echoed his name – as the set's got these easygoing grooves that are perfect for his warmly crackling vocals – richly expressive, but without every sounding overdone – all set up in these great instrumental elements produced and arranged by Prince Jammy! The groove is different than some of the sharper modes that were creeping in during the digital generation – very casual, with a quality that has the easygoing vocals from Minott stepping out nicely on cuts that include "I'm Not For Sale", "Give The People", "Never Too Young", "Be Careful", "Right Track", "Can't Get Over", "Save The Children", and "This World". Reggae On Broadway is a gem from Johnny Osbourne – hardly the kind of album with polish and glam that you'd expect from a Broadway title, and instead this mellow, laidback session that really showcases the genius of Prince Jammy in the studio! Given the date of the recording, things could be a lot more commercial, or a lot cleaner in a digital way – but Jammy keeps the proceedings casual and cool, which lets those magnificent vocals of Osbourne flow out in a really great way. Titles include "Let Me Your Chopper", "Live Right", "Folly Ranking", "Water Pumping", "Reggae On Broadway", "Mr Walker", "Sing Along", and "Can't Leave Jah". Great Doctor Bird package – excellent sound, and very detailed notes! CD

A great collection of rare and unreleased New Orleans funk – from the golden days of the genre – and with work by some of the best producers in the Crescent City! Very hard and heavy funk, with choppy riffs and hard drums – plus, there's even a few cuts with nice electronics. Legendary cuts by Eddie Bo, The Gaturs, Louisiana Homegrown, Chuck Cornish, Sonny James and more. Includes the tracks "Chiller" by Louisiana Homegrown, "Soul Power" by Walter Washington and the Soul Powers, "Ali, Funky Thing" by Chuck Cornish, "Lighten Up" by Sonny Jones, and "I'm Mr. Big Stuff" by Jimmy Hicks. Plus, the LP also features two different mixes of Eddie Bo classics "Hook & Sling" (a much longer version) and "If It's Good To Ya, It's Good For Ya" (done here in a 5 minute version.) LP, Vinyl record album

Hamilton Bohannon was completely unique in the world of soul and funk. He had a tight uptempo style that was sort of pre-disco and club oriented, yet which also had lots of choppy elements that made the groove a lot different than other artists of his time. Hard to pin down, but this selection of 14 tracks will give you more than enough of a good picture of his work – especially as it includes many rare gems, like "Foot Stompin Music", "South African Man", "Run It On Down Mr DJ", "Bohannon's Beat", and "You're The One". Also features his wonderful smooth steppin classic "Thoughts And Wishes", but we think the mix on here is different from the one on the original album. CD

Quite possibly the last really hard-hitting funk album from The Fatback Band – and although their first record on the Event label, a set that cooks every bit as hard as their first few for Perception! The style here is funky 45 soul at its best – lots of hard crackling drums, funky rumpling bass, and enough choppy guitar to level a whole forest in one swoop! Lyrics are part of most numbers, but they're often in the bad-rapping or call and response mode of the People Music album – except for a few sweeter numbers which also sound pretty nice too! "Keep On Stepping" is a great little funky number – as are "Wicky Wacky", "Mr. Bass Man", and "New York Style". We also love the sweet soul track "Love", which has some great vocals, a great hook, and which sounds like a tune from their Feel My Soul LP! Other tracks include "Can't Stop The Flame", "Feeling", and "Breaking Up With Someone You Love Is Hard To Do". CD

Quite possibly the last really hard-hitting funk album from The Fatback Band – and although their first record on the Event label, a set that cooks every bit as hard as their first few for Perception! The style here is funky 45 soul at its best – lots of hard crackling drums, funky rumpling bass, and enough choppy guitar to level a whole forest in one swoop! Lyrics are part of most numbers, but they're often in the bad-rapping or call and response mode of the People Music album – except for a few sweeter numbers which also sound pretty nice too! "Keep On Stepping" is a great little funky number – as are "Wicky Wacky", "Mr. Bass Man", and "New York Style". We also love the sweet soul track "Love", which has some great vocals, a great hook, and which sounds like a tune from their Feel My Soul LP! Other tracks include "Can't Stop The Flame", "Feeling", and "Breaking Up With Someone You Love Is Hard To Do". LP, Vinyl record album

Beautifully choppy jazz from Steve Grossman and his legendary 70s comrades Gene Perla and Don Alias – one of the heaviest hitting American combos of the time! The trio have a tight fusion sound that's as full-on as it is funky – and Grossman blows some amazing work on tenor and soprano sax that cut into the tunes with a really fierce bite – while Perla delivers these round, powerful basslines – and Don Alias alternates between free percussion and some driving funky drums! For this session, the group's joined by Jan Hammer on electric piano and moog, playing in a nicely restrained fashion that's not nearly as overblown as his later work, and which jams into the groove just perfectly – making for a sweet electric set that's a real standout of the 70s. The set includes the breakbeat track "Zulu Stomp", plus "Alodian Mode", "Haresah", and "Extemporaneous Combustion". LP, Vinyl record album

30 essential dubs, from the golden age of reggae. King Tubby works his echoplex magic on a set culled half from Niney the Observer productions, and half from Striker Lee. You could waste your time on the 4 or 5 dozen other collections out there that are just capitalizing on Tubby's name, or stick with the cream, like this one (or one of the other sets put together by Blood & Fire that we offer). This is the real isht, thunderclap reverb drops and fat, churning bass; includes "Casanova Dub", "Corn Man", "Mr. D Brown Skank", " Rema Dub", "King Tubby's Special", "Gorgon Speaks Version", "I Trim The Barber", "Straight To Babylon Boy's Head" & "Cool Down Version". LP, Vinyl record album

A huge collection of work from one of the most important voices to emerge in 90s soul music – the great Gerald Levert, a singer who set a whole new tone for style and class with music like this! Gerald's the son of Eddie Levert, of O'Jays fame – and he not only has all the chops of his pops, but also really shines in laidback mellow soul territory – maybe pushing forward the aesthetic of 70s cuts by The Isleys or Marvin Gaye, with a more contemporary sensual vibe that was perfect for the shifts in soul music as the 21st Century approached! This 3CD set features 45 tracks in all – including a few single mixes that appear here on CD for the first time ever – including duet cuts that include "Baby Hold On To Me" with Eddie Levert, "That's The Way I Feel About You" with Mary J Blige, and "Close To You" with Tamia – and other cuts that include "School Me", "Private Line", "Mr Too Damn Good", "Dream With No Love", "Spill A Little Love", "What Makes It Good To You", "One Million Times", "Click A Glass", "DJ Don't", "Can You Handle It (rmx edit)", "Fire & Desire", "I Wanna Be Bad (rmx edit)", "Let Me Know", "Made To Love Ya", "Crucify Me", "Nothin To Somethin", and "Love Strete". CD

A great collection of rare and unreleased New Orleans funk – from the golden days of the genre – and with work by some of the best producers in the Crescent City! Very hard and heavy funk, with choppy riffs and hard drums – plus, there's even a few cuts with nice electronics. Legendary cuts by Eddie Bo, The Gaturs, Louisiana Homegrown, Chuck Cornish, Sonny James and more. Includes the tracks "Chiller" by Louisian Homegrown, "Soul Power" by Walter Washington and the Soul Powers, "Ali, Funky Thing" by Chuck Cornish, "Lighten Up" by Sonny Jones, and "I'm Mr. Big Stuff" by Jimmy Hicks. Plus, the LP also features two different mixes of Eddie Bo classics "Hook & Sling" (a much longer version) and "If It's Good To Ya, It's Good For Ya" (done here in a 5 minute version.) 13 cuts on the CD. CD

Beautifully choppy jazz from Steve Grossman and his legendary 70s comrades Gene Perla and Don Alias – one of the heaviest hitting American combos of the time! The trio have a tight fusion sound that's as full-on as it is funky – and Grossman blows some amazing work on tenor and soprano sax that cut into the tunes with a really fierce bite – while Perla delivers these round, powerful basslines – and Don Alias alternates between free percussion and some driving funky drums! For this session, the group's joined by Jan Hammer on electric piano and moog, playing in a nicely restrained fashion that's not nearly as overblown as his later work, and which jams into the groove just perfectly – making for a sweet electric set that's a real standout of the 70s. The set includes the breakbeat track "Zulu Stomp", plus "Alodian Mode", "Haresah", and "Extemporaneous Combustion". CD