Genius work from Les Baxter – two of his best albums for Capitol, back to back on one CD! Ritual Of The Savage is one of those must-have albums from the 50s – a super-huge record upon its initial release, and an album that pushed the genre of exotica far further than most others at the time! Before this record, most attempts at exotica were simple instrumental pop, colored with slight worldly instrumentation – or too-dreamy recordings, putting over a sleepy version of life on the islands. Enter Les Baxter, who had an amazing ear for sounds, rhythms, and arrangements – one that was the first to record this sort of music in a way that was sonically evocative, and could stand on its own without other referents. Instrumentation is often conventional, but used oddly here – and Baxter's original compositions are all pretty darn great – playful without being goofy, and nicely mixing Latin and Pacific rhythms at the bottom. Titles include "Busy Port", "The Ritual", "Coronation", "Jungle Jalopy", and Les' original version of "Quiet Village". Heck, even the cover is gorgeous – with a brilliant blue illustration of some guy putting the moves on a woman amidst spooky tribal relics! The Passions is a really obscure box set recording – done as Les Baxter's classic exploitation of "a woman's passions", using vocalist Bas Sheva in the role of the tormented female! Shiva's got a bold, evocative style that's not unlike Yma Sumac – and she sings here wordlessly, as an added instrument on top of Baxter's orchestrations – playing the role of the inner psyche of woman, on titles that include "Lust", "Terror", "Joy", "Hate", "Ecstasy", and "Despair"! The whole thing's a mini docu-drama in sound – beautifully recorded in a flurry of red, blue, and other chromatic hues – not as exotic as Baxter's other work from the 50s, but equally great as a modern sonic psychoanalytic text! CD

Classic madness from William Shatner – a whole set of tunes performed in his famous role as Captain Kirk! The album's got a creepy sort of darkness that's hard to deny – especially as Shatner speaks, more than sings, most of the tunes on the set – giving them a very dramatic sort of reading, which is further underscored by his recitations of bits of Shakespeare too! Don Ralke did the arrangements, which move between serious and groovy – and titles include "How Insensitive", "Mr Tambourine Man", "The Transformed Man", "It Was A Very Good Year", "Elegy For The Brave", and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". (Vocalists, Now Sound) CD

The genius of Nicola Conte gets the remix treatment – in this wonderful new album that steps off heavily from his massive Jet Sounds set of a few years ago! If you know Nicola, he's the wunderkind behind the Schema label – and, probably more than anyone in the world right now, one of the few producer/musicians who can really handle a retro-sounding groove. Conte's steeped in classic jazz, soundtracks, and bossa nova – all of which come into play in his music – and this set has him working with a host of able talents who help to take his unique creative vision even farther than before! US version features a slightly different track list than the European one – with titles that include "Arabesque (vocal version)" done by Micatone, "Forma 2000" reformed by Les Gammas, "Tema In Hi Fi" by Nicola Conte & Gianluca Petrella, "Jet Sounds" by Nuspirit Helsinki, "Bossa Per Due" by Thievery Corporation, "Fuoco Fatuo" by Koop, "New Standards" by Nicola Conte & Gianluca Petrella, "Love Me Till Sunday" by Nicola Conte, "Dossier Omega" redone by Espen Horne, "The In Samba" done by Kyoto Jazz Massive, "Missione A Bombay" by Eddy & Dus, and "Mambo De Los Dandies" by Gerardo Frisina. (New Grooves, Now Sound) CD

One of the greatest soundtracks we've ever heard from Piero Umiliani – an incredibly groovy record from the very first note! The score's got a fantastic mix of groovy scoring, jazzy bits, and cool little vocals – spare organ lines that set the tune on most numbers, stepping basslines to set the rhythms, and scatting lyrics from I Cantori Moderni – a group who make the act of counting to 5 sound incredibly cool! The feel is quite similar to Umiliani's sublime Sweden Heaven & Hell soundtrack (and at one point, you even can hear the guy with the funny voice from "Mah Na Mah Na") – and the music is exactly the kind of wonderful stuff that first got us digging Italian film scores so many years ago. This great reissue adds a bunch of previously unreleased tracks to the original – a whopping 34 tracks in all – 14 from the original album, plus 3 stereo bonus cuts, and another 17 mono tunes. Titles include a few versions of the main theme, plus "Titoli Coda", "Luna Di Piero Agosto", "Bambola Omicida", "Interludio Azzurro", "Cinque Bambole", and "Danza Jazz Moon". (Soundtracks, Now Sound) CD

Two funky space albums – back to back on a single CD! An Astromusical Odyssey is a fantastic album of spacey funky tracks! The great John Keating put this whole thing together in the years before he cut his more famous space soul albums for EMI – and the record's a wonderful mix of spacey orchestrations, spare electronics, and haunting voices – a wicked journey to the stars with a hip Brit Easy feel! There's a lot more funk here than you'd expect from other Phase 4 albums of this generation – and plenty of the cuts have weird instrumental bits that are just waiting for sampling. The whole thing's wonderful, and titles include "Round Trip Mars", "Aquarius", "Nocturne", "Across The Universe", "Up, Up, & Away", and "Spinning Wheel". Nova Sounds Of The Stars is a second slice of Sounds Galactic work from the Phase 4 catalog – this time headed by Roland Shaw, but in the same moogy modes used by John Keating on the previous album! There's possibly even more cool electronics here than before – lots of cool analogue bits that bubble and squeak nicely – amidst more familiar instrumental modes from the Phase 4 universe, including some nice jazzy touches, bits of strings, and other styles – all blended nicely with plenty of odd production and sound effects! Titles include a great cover of "Pillow Talk", a version of "Live & Let Die", and the Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More" – plus the great "Mon Etoile (My Star)", "Summer", "Get Down", and "Love Is All". CD

A second slice of Sounds Galactic work from the Phase 4 catalog – this time headed by Roland Shaw, but in the same moogy modes used by John Keating on the previous album! There's possibly even more cool electronics here than before – lots of cool analogue bits that bubble and squeak nicely – amidst more familiar instrumental modes from the Phase 4 universe, including some nice jazzy touches, bits of strings, and other styles – all blended nicely with plenty of odd production and sound effects! Titles include a great cover of "Pillow Talk", a version of "Live & Let Die", and the Carpenters' "Yesterday Once More" – plus the great "Mon Etoile (My Star)", "Summer", "Get Down", and "Love Is All". LP, Vinyl record album

One of THE electronic records of the 60s – an album so important, the Silver Apples took their name from the title – and a whole other generation of artists took strong inspiration from the electronic creations of Morton Subotnick! Before the set, much electronic music of this nature was a bit more academic, and often slightly cold – but Subotnick was able to bring things into a more organic, maybe more freewheeling style – using all sorts of cool analogue elements in ways that would run through Perry & Kingsley, Beaver & Krause, and even Stereolab! The work is billed as the "first original full-scale composition created expressly for the record medium" – a great testament to Subotnick's intentions for his creation, and a desire to get it more widely circulated than previous electronic recordings. (Out Sound, Now Sound) LP, Vinyl record album