Akiko Yano —
To Ki Me Ki ... CD Midi/We Want Sounds (UK), 1978. New Copy ...
$16.9919.99
An early album from Japanese genius Akiko Yano, and one that features some key contributions from American jazz and fusion players – in a lineup that brings some surprisingly funky touches to the record too! Akiko's vocals and unique song structures still have all the charms you'll know from ... (Japanese, Rock)read moreCD
Unreleased live material from this legendary Japanese artist from the 70s – working here with his Lamp Manufacturing Factory group, which also includes lead guitar from Takashi Asayama! The recording is nice and intimate – a laidback set that shows the way that Daisaku Yoshino could ... (Japanese, Rock)read moreCD
A set that's not entirely funky, but maybe not that far off either – as the whole thing features unreleased material that was recorded by Zappa in the studio after Hot Rats – including some nicely jamming cuts that really have the group letting loose in maybe a more spontaneous, organic ... read moreCD
The self-titled classic by a wonderfully spooky band – a group who work in the most sinister side of the hard rock mode at the start of the 70s, all with a very heady sound that have made them legends over the years – even though this debut never got much circulation at the time! In a ... read moreCD
A really great look at a key year in British punk – a time when the music really broke open, and artists from a wide range of scenes began to make music in a punk rock vein! The set has way more variety than you might expect – not just the big names and new acts that were helping ... read moreCD
A host of raw rockers that were originally served up as 7" singles – all blasting out together with a tremendous amount of power – as if you're enjoying a night with choice cuts all stacked up in the jukebox pictured on the cover! The set's way more than any sort of oldies ... read moreCD
A really cool collection, and one that's got a very special focus – an imaginary soundtrack for the record-breaking British summer of 1976 – a searingly hot time that really pushed the nation to the brink! Bob Stanley's given us some great collections on Ace Records before – ... (Funky Compilations, Rock)read moreCD
A really groundbreaking collection – one that looks at the surprising rise of interest in spiritual ideas during the late 60s years of hippy-heavy rock music – served up here in a host of cuts by artists we never thought we'd see together in such a collection! These aren't obscure ... read moreCD
A much-needed look at the production genius of Martin Rushent – a UK studio genius who started out in punk, then really helped the scene find new sounds and styles as the 80s moved in! Rushent is sometimes confused with the other great Martin of the period – producer Martin Hannett ... read moreCD
Various —
Bear Family Rocks ... CD Bear Family (Germany), Late 1950s/Early 1960s. New Copy ...
$15.9920.99
A hot host of killer rockabilly, R&B, and other smoking styles from the late 50s and early 60s – all pulled together in tribute to the long-running Rocks series from Bear Family records! The package has 30 tracks in all, the the blend of artists is really great, and shows just how much ... read moreCD
One of the most unique country collections we've ever heard – in part because the artists aren't from Nashville, nor Bakersfield, and instead hail from the British scene of the 60s! The tunes here are all country-styled numbers – and some are country music classics – but they get ... (Folk/Country, Rock)read moreCD
A very cool look at the UK Ember label – with a special focus on their contribution to female pop in the 60s! This package is a lot more focused than other Brit girl pop collections on the market, and has a slightly different vibe as well – given that each of the three singers included ... read moreCD
Very cool sounds from the 60s scene in Italy – music that's clearly inspired by the best British female pop of the period, and also a bit by Detroit soul – with maybe just a touch of French "yeh yeh" modes thrown in for good measure! Yet because the sounds come from a scene ... read moreCD
The start of rock and roll was a bit different in the UK than it was over here – still with the requisite inspiration from R&B and other American styles, but also inflected with some elements from the colonial scene, the world of music hall, jazz, and other instrumental styles – in ... read moreCD
A massive look at the huge legacy of North American punk in the late 70s – culled together from scenes in New York, Ohio, Boston, and LA – plus other surprising spots around the country – as artists were working separately, but together, to completely reinvent both the sound of ... read moreCD
An imagined soundtrack to a journey through London in the generation of Get Carter and Carnaby Street – and one that showcases not just the rich array of sounds and styles that were taking place in the city at the time, and in a way that highlights all sorts of different locations around town! ... read moreCD
Blue-tinged work for those days when your heart is breaking and your soul is aching – a really wonderful batch of tracks that are heavy on those late 60s/early 70s moments when male singers were starting to open up a bit and let their emotions show! The vibe here is very different than Bobby ... read moreCD
Numero Group does it again – and manages to pull together all the best bits from the crucially overlooked powerpop scene in the Land Of Lincoln – a wealth of wonderful groups from the 70s and 80s, all of whom recorded great indie sounds in Illinois! Sure, you've heard of Cheap Trick, ... read moreCD
A wonderful compilation of Lee Hazlewood songs performed by others in the 60s – magnificent pulp pop, girl groups, starlets, rockers and more covering prime era Lee tunes – songs about lovers, fools, rebels and heartbroken examples of all of the above! There's little we can add to the ... read moreCD
The "nuggets" in the title is very well placed here – as all the cuts here have every bit as much freak and fuzz as the American garage and pre-punk work chronicled famously on the lengendary Nuggets series! Yet these tracks are all even more obscure, and all come from African ... (Global Grooves, Rock)read moreCD
There's a 4AD-styled image on the cover – and the set looks at a moment in late 80s music when things were nicely swirling together – when production was getting a bit more layered and sophisticated from a few years before – yet not in a way that was overly polished or commercial! ... read moreCD
The end of the 80s saw a huge new shift in music on the UK scene – a moment when indie rock and club music collided – and guitar-based work was back on the dancefloors in a really big way! Part of the shift came from years of UK interest in house, electro, and other American styles ... read moreCD
Key club cuts from the second generation of the industrial scene – that 80s moment when the music moved from the noisy, experimental territory of the Throbbing Gristle underground to a more mainstream world where the previous sonic breakthroughs were mixed with beats and lyrics to create some ... read moreCD
A very cool little set – maybe not the deepest dive into the decade of the 70s, in that the package isn't full of unissued tracks or super-rare singles – but it does represent a great look at the decade that goes way past the hits, and much farther than the charts – including the ... read moreCD
Serving time has never been this groovy – thanks to a whole host of prison-themed tunes from the postwar years, presented here in a package that's especially strong on blues and R&B! Sure, most folks know "Folsom Prison Blues", but this package digs much deeper to come up with ... read moreCD
A really great take on the sort of territory that's usually covered in Cramps-related compilations like this – a set of tracks that still trawls through the weird and wooly world of the 7" single in the late 50s and early 60s, but one that does so here with a special ear towards British ... read moreCD
A hip little set that's as groovy as its cover – a whole batch of cat-themed tunes from the 50s and 60s, most of them in a hip jazzy sort of style! Things are never too kitty-creepy – as they are with that lady down the street who owns way too many cats – and instead, most of the ... (Funky Compilations, Rock)read moreCD
The southwest scene was a hotbed of great guitar groups in the first half of the 60s – and as the decade progressed, they just got better and better – even if they were the sorts of tiny, almost-forgotten acts that are presented here! The set features work originally recorded by the ... read moreCD
The deepest of the deep from the American scene at the start of the 70s – groups so hip they weren't quite soul, weren't quite rock – and instead kind of a funky hybrid of both! After opening our ears to countless underground sounds from around the globe, the Now Again label turn back ... (Funky Compilations, Rock)read moreCD
A huge dip into the world of all-girl bands from the 60s – not sweet-voiced, teeny-bopping pop acts – and instead a host of raw, garagey groups that come across with a heck of a lot of power! There's some folks out there who might tag a famous 70s group or two as the first female rock ... read moreCD
Dig French pop from the 60s? Here's a way to dig even deeper – as this great little collection is filled with rare gems that go past the classics in your collection by Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, and Jane Birkin! Most of the material here is work that we'd never have come across ... (French, Rock)read moreCD
The second set of rare international work from this great Groove Club series – rare material from Cambodia, and even more unusual and obscure than the French material we loved in volume one! The package here is equally strong – detailed notes on all the music, to really get at the ... (Global Grooves, Rock)read moreCD
Mad sounds from Cambodia – rock and roll at the core, but with a delivery that's unlike anything you'd hear in the Anglo world! There's plenty of Eastern elements going down in the music – not just the local lyrics, but other ways of putting together a rhythm, tuning a guitar, and ... (Global Grooves, Rock)read moreCD
A very cool package – one that's shaped like a 7" single, includes a big booklet of notes, and serves up 70 killer tracks from the 70s! The collection was put together in the UK, and has a nicely different take on the decade than American compilations – as it already does a good ... read moreCD
Heavy kraut, indeed – as the set features a stunning array of hard rock acts from the German scene at the start of the 70s – very different music than some of the dreamier space rock or spare electronics you might also know from the time! These are all bands who really know how to turn ... read moreCD
They liked things raw in Texas in the 60s – a place where garage bands often worked heavily in fuzz and freak, so much so that they often had a psychedelic current in their music! This set really lives up to that legacy, and also digs deeper than most to a source of tracks that's completely ... read moreCD
The Holiday Inn chain of motels was first launched in Memphis during the city's rockabilly years, and an early investor was Sam Phillips of Sun Records – so it's maybe no surprise that the company also hosted a small record label of its own – a short-lived imprint that's a treasure ... read moreCD
A really great package, and one that shows all the cool criss-crossings of styles that we happening up in the hills of LA at the end of the 60s! The artists here are all part of the famous Laurel Canyon scene – a place where late folk, new psych, country rock, and other modes criss-crossed ... read moreCD
Various —
In Fractured Silence ... CD United Dairies/Souffle Continu (France), 1984. New Copy ...
Just Sold Out!
A legendary bit of noise from the United Dairies label of Stephen Stapleton – a set that combines his own experimental sounds with some contributions from the avant French scene as well – all at a level that shows how that sometimes-overlooked 70s generation ended up having a bit impact ... read moreCD
Fuzzy guitars, analog electronics, moody production, and slightly sinister vocals – all elements you'll find in abundance here, in this well done look at UK work from a generation when the US scene was dipping into modes that were later dubbed "post-rock" – and helped to ... read moreCD
A set that really digs deep into the British scene of the early 70s – a package pitched around the idea of opening acts for supergroups at a rock festival, and one that serves up a whole host of groups who never fully got their due on our side of the Atlantic at the time! These aren't ... read moreCD
John Savage offers us a mighty nice look at the years of post-disco, and post-post-punk – served up here in a great mix of music from a time when soulful styles were mixing it up with returning rock on the dancefloor! The work here is from a time when the UK scene was having big global ... read moreCD
You might not know Les Cousins, but back in the city it was a very important club on the London scene – a crossroads of blues, folk, and other styles – with an influence that was every bit important in England as the Greenwich Village clubs were in the US! This massive 3CD set does a ... read moreCD
Rare rock from the Golden Triangle scene of Southeast TX in the late 60s and early 70s – a well-curated overview of the stylistically sprawling material being cut at Mickey Rouse's Lowland Recording Studio in Beaumont! Texas rock of the late 60s and early 70s justifiably brings to mind acts ... (Funky Compilations, Rock)read moreCD
That slightly creepy photo on the cover makes the kids look a bit more like cult members than the kind of sunny, happy flower children you might normally expect – and that's actually part of the quality of the package, too – as the set really gets at all the wonderful tensions taking ... read moreCD
A really ear-opening set – one that introduces us to a world we'd never have heard otherwise – filled with music that's maybe even groovier and more evocative than we could imagine! There's loads of very trippy styles going on here – almost as if the whole Mongolian scene had ... (Global Grooves, Rock)read moreCD
A very cool little set, and one that's a lot different than you might expect from the "new romantics" reference in the title! Sure, there's some cuts here that are from the moment when the British scene was cracking the charts with nice haircuts, catchy electro rhythms, and smart lyrics ... read moreCD
Mad sounds from the late 60s world of Japanese pop – a mindblowing, ear-opening batch of singles we never would have gotten our hands on otherwise! The music here feels like sounds coming out of some backroom jukebox in a Nikkatsu "new action" film – or maybe the kind of ... (Japanese, Rock)read moreCD
The fingersnap here is the key – as all the cuts here have a nicely romping kind of groove – a sweet sense of rhythm that's bound to get your toes tapping as much as your fingers are snapping – thanks to a nice sense of space between the notes! The music is from a variety of ... read moreCD
That sun-drenched image on the cover really gets at the spirit of the music on this excellent compilation – as most of the work has this slow-stepping, laidback sort of vibe – funky, but easygoing too – with the kind of cool, casual elements that maybe feel like the kind of music ... (Funky Compilations, Rock)read moreCD
Great work from a pivotal year in modern music – a time when some of the experiments of the early prog generation were working their way into shorter, catchier work – not entirely the kind of pop that American audiences were digging on the radio in 1974, but instead some forward-thinking ... read moreCD
An early 80s set from Cherry Red Records, and one that shows just how important the British label was to the world of post-punk music at the time – as you'll hear from an assortment of tracks that's more than enough to give labels like Factory or Rough Trade a run for their money! Cherry Red ... read moreCD
The 16th entry in the epic Psychedelic Underground series – one that moves well past the 60s to include prog and post punk era numbers that splintered off and reconstituted from particles launched in the psychedelic 60s! Includes tracks by Tetragon, Xhol, Guru Guru, Surgery, Embryo, Radio ... read moreCD
The rainy season's plenty pleasant with a collection like this – a batch of 30 rain-themed tunes from the worlds of soul, rock, country, and vocal music of the 50s and 60s – all served up with the top-shelf level of presentation we love from Bear Family! The cuts are great – a ... read moreCD
Prog rock was shifting a bit as 1974 came into view, but the leading lights of the scene were still going strong – sometimes with new modes and slight shifts in production techniques that showed that the music was evolving very strongly, and not just content to mire in the modes of an initial ... read moreCD
A great tribute to the songwriting skills of Laura Nyro – presented here in a package that features key covers from some of Nyro's contemporaries, and which also includes a surprising amount of soul music too! Laura's one of those key 60s talents who started writing for others, then got the ... read moreCD
Rare rockers, early soul, and cool classic country – all the sorts of cuts you'd expect to hear from the mighty Bear Family Records label – but brought together here with school and the classrooms as the theme! A few of the cuts are familiar, but most are nice and obscure – in ... read moreCD
A brilliant batch of electronic, cold wave, and post-punk tracks – all drawn from the farther reaches of the Swiss underground of the 80s – a scene that was far more secret than those in the UK, Germany, or other European hotbeds of electronic experimentation! We'd heard only a few of ... read moreCD
A really cool package that's way more than just the blues promised in the title – as the set brings together work from a variety of scenes and styles, all showing the many ways that American blues had such an impact on UK sounds from the mod generation onwards! There's definitely some tracks ... read moreCD
An excellent collection of rare female soul from the 60s – a set that not only features overlooked 45rpm singles from Warner Brothers at the time – but also some great gems from their famous Loma Records imprint too! If you think you know this territory, think again – as there's ... (Soul, Rock)read moreCD
One of the most comprehensive sets we've ever seen to look at the legacy of the legendary Lee Hazlewood – and one of the few to focus on the impact he's had on the 21st Century! Lee's songs have become the stuff of legend over the years – not just his own recordings, but classic tracks ... read moreCD
Few songwriters have had such a lasting impact on modern music as Leonard Cohen – an incredible songsmith when he first emerged in the late 60s, and one who continued to create songs at the top of his game for many years after! And although Cohen's own recordings are the stuff of legend ... read moreCD
The Kay Bank studios were located in the Twin Cities during the 60s – quite far from the oceans on both coasts, and even from the Great Lakes mentioned in the title – yet that didn't stop them from turning out a surprisingly great array of surf rock singles at the time! The music here ... read moreCD
A fantastic introduction to one of the most confusing British styles of the 70s – the huge pub rock moment that preceded punk, and which offered up a stripped-down approach to the music that helped set the scene for plenty of later changes to come! The name is a bit tricky to explain – ... read moreCD
Allstar Records was a great Texas indie back in the day – and although not as well-known as Sun or Starday, the company issued some killer singles in the late 50s! As you might guess from their location in Houston, Allstar often has a bit of country in the mix – and this collection is ... read moreCD
The mighty Imperial Records was home to a fair bit of pop, blues, and R&B in the postwar years – but the label also had a slightly secret history as a hotbed for raw rock and hard-edged singles during the same stretch of time! Imperial was an indie, and one that kept an ear to the ground ... read moreCD
The legendary Chess Records is best known as a home to important blues, soul, and gospel records from the postwar years – but back in the 50s, the label also did a pretty great job with the harder side of the rock and roll spectrum too! Maybe that's no surprise, given that the Chess Brothers ... read moreCD
Nothing weird here, just wonderful – a fantastic assortment of music from a time when the British scene was really changing things up – served up in a book-styled package with notes that are as dynamic as its music! The tracks here move way past the obvious – that's an image of ... read moreCD
Seminal sounds from the Kansas City scene of the late 70s – a wealth of power pop work from the tiny Titan label – all brought together in one of the most brilliant packages we've ever seen from the Numero Group! Like most Numero releases, there's a great story behind this set – ... read moreCD
Bring on the sun if it burns this strongly – as we're more than happy to get extra toasty in the light of such wonderful tracks as these! The set's a stunning look at the massive musical shift on the UK scene in the year of 1967 – a time when psych was certainly making its influence ... read moreCD
A great little package, and way more than just the familiar exotica moments on mainstream compilations – as your guides here are Lux Interior and Poison Ivy of The Cramps – two folks who know more than plenty about the music of the farther reaches of the postwar years! And although ... (Now Sound, Rock)read moreCD
A sprawling set of rare singles in a variety of genres – and a set that's maybe one of the most essential in the "state" series from the Be! Records label! Previous entries have included Michigan, Texas, and other states with a well-known recorded legacy – but this time ... read moreCD
A really tremendous batch of dark-themed tunes from the American underground of the 70s – a treasure trove of under-discovered acts who were all inspired by the deeper brooding of the Led Zep and Black Sabbath generation! Unlike later manifestations from the indie scene, the work here isn't ... read moreCD
A wonderful collection of obscure solo acoustic guitar tunes from the mid 60s up to the dawn of the 80s – beautiful work from a slew of players we've never heard of – but we'd put right up there with Fahey and Basho in the way they reach from the back porch to the cosmos with just their ... (Folk/Country, Rock)read moreCD
A really fantastic collection – one that seems to find a special place that's all its own – a bit folk funk, a bit jazzy soul, a bit something else that we can't define at all – all sewn together through a wonderfully well-chosen batch of cuts that we might never have heard ... (Funky Compilations, Rock)read moreCD
A nice little collection, and one that definitely fits the sunny Cali look on the cover – as the set mixes together vintage jazz and AOR from the 70s, but also includes some cuts from the present as well – all with a timeless vibe that almost creates a new sort of genre unto itself! ... (Funky Compilations, Rock)read moreCD
The Beatles weren't just the biggest recording act on the scene in the mid 60s, they were also probably the most influential from a songwriting perspective too – such that countless other groups, singers, and musicians picked up their songs and gave them a try, including some tracks that The ... read moreCD
Fantastic sounds for fans of funk and rock alike – music from the freaky, fuzzy 70s scene in Zambia – a place where styles effortlessly criss-crossed to really produce something new and unique! The work here is often heavy on fuzz guitars, but also has some wickedly soulful basslines ... (Global Grooves, Rock)read moreCD
Where the girls are is right here – served up in a beautiful blend of rare tracks from the mid 60s – almost all of them in a female group mode, at a time when that style was really hitting new heights in American popular music! The work here is a mixture of rock and soul, and almost ... (Soul, Rock)read moreCD
A killer look at one of our favorite scenes in the UK in the punk years and beyond – the city of Leeds, home to a surprising amount of really fantastic groups – some of whom were initially united in a scene-based style, many more who later exploded in a range of very groovy modes that ... read moreCD
A fantastic set of killer mid-to-late 60s garage rock from the Motor City – with tracks by somewhat better known Detroit rockers Unrelated Segments and Tidal Waves – plus just as riveting material from The Unknowns, The Boys, The District Dix, The Couriers and The Lykes Of Us. Raw and ... read moreCD
A stunning selection of tracks from a moment when things really got interesting on the UK scene – when the straighter guitar lines of early punk gave way to more unfamiliar instrumentation, unusual production, and offbeat rhythms – yet almost always with a really raw, stripped-down feel ... read moreCD
The groovier side of the mod scene in 60s London – music that's not just rock, but which mixes together jazzy instrumentals, soulful stompers, and other wild sounds – all created by British groups who were bursting with new ideas at the time! The music is as bursting with color as the ... read moreCD