A record that has The Animals at the crossroads – working without the piano and organ of Alan Price, but with an even more rising sense of power from Eric Burdon – who's really coming into his own as a singer, and turning out to be a surprisingly great songwriter too! The group still bring in tunes that are from some of their blues and R&B inspirations – but Burdon's phrasing is very personal, and really transforms the material and makes it work wonderfully with the original tunes – on titles that include "Cheating", "She'll Return It", "See See Rider", "Inside Looking Out", "Gin House Blues", "What Am I Living For", "I Put A Spell On You", "Don't Bring Me Down", and "One Monkey Won't Stop The Show". LP, Vinyl record album

Not a live recording from the mighty Animals, but a set that was issued during a year when the group were taking the American stages by storm – put together from extra material that was only issued on their UK debut album, plus UK Animal Tracks material, and a few singles too! The set's hardly a hodge podge, though – as it was a crucial second full length for the US, and a collection of cuts that really cemented the group's reputation at the time – thanks to the strength of cuts that include "Mess Around", "I Believe To My Soul", "Ain't Got You", "Dimples", "She Said Yeah", "I'm Crying", "Boom Boom", "How You've Changed", and "Let The Good Times Roll". LP, Vinyl record album

Rootsy noise sweetened by raggedly alluring melodicism from Califone – still one of the most vital and idiosyncratic groups of their time! We can no long heap the experimentalist tag on Califone – if we ever really could. They've got quite a sonic blueprint laid down after 8 or so albums, but they do continue to surprise us. Roots And Crowns is a strange and compelling blend of crackling, somehow rural sounds & percussion, strummed and sometimes chugging guitars, pastoral found-sound atmosphere and singing that's no more or less part of the ether than any other element. A timeless piece of work! Tracks include "Pink & Sour", "Spider's House" (which references Brian Wilson at his furthest out stage), "The Eye You Lost In The Crusades" (which references Nick Drake a bit in the guitar), "A Chinese Actor", "Our Kitten Sees Ghosts", "The Orchids", "Black Metal Valentine", "Rose Petal Ear", "3legged Animals", "If You Would" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible batch of prime garage rock era nuggets from the Peruvian scene – fuzzy gems by the Saicos! The Saicos bring a sense of menace to these tunes – with a guitar tone touched with an eerie vibe, and lead vocals that are really piercing and gravelly in that instills this primordial edge that needs to be heard to be believed – but that balance it off with some moddish, British invasion grooves, too. The overall sound manages to blend both the heavy menace of cult acts like the Monks and the Seeds with the tunefulness of the Animals – and clear precursor the garage punk for decades to come! Titles include "Come On (Ven Aqui)", "Ana", "Demolicion", "Lonely Star (Estrella Solitaria)", "Cememterio", "Te Amo", "Fugitivo De Alcatraz", "Salvaje", "El Entierro De Los Gatos", "Besando A Otra" and "Intensamente". Comes with a great booklet, too! LP, Vinyl record album

A great set of tracks by the Kinks – originally written as the soundtrack for a film that barely saw the light of day – yet presented here as a classic late 60s album that's up there with the other gems from the same period as Arthur and Village Green! A few tunes are instrumental – as you might expect from a soundtrack, and the songs hold together well with similar themes – and those cuts are mixed with some wonderful vocal numbers that have Ray Davies working at the top of his game – that picture postcard way of putting over a scene or a story – served up in titles that include the excellent "God's Children", an instrumental version of "Lola", and the cuts "Animals In The Zoo", "Whip Lady", "Dreams", "Helga", and "Willesden Green". LP, Vinyl record album

A bass-heavy sound library set from the wonderful French composer Sauveur Mallia – a set that's really different than some of the thinner, more keyboard-heavy work of the period – although there's plenty of keyboards in the mix too! Some tracks definitely have that coming cosmic style that made the French space disco scene of the time so great – but those elements are also nicely complicated by Mallia's approach, not just when the bass gets funky, but also when it gets all low and moody too! The whole thing's totally great – a real standout from the legendary Tele Music label – with titles that include "Bass For Love", "Cosmic News", "Meteor One", "Star Odyssey", "OVNI Telex", "All The Bass", "Space Alert", and "Animals Bass". (Sound Library, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album