A pair of albums from this near-forgotten group – both originally issued by Elektra, and presented here with bonus tracks too! First up is the self-titled Crabby Appleton – a set that's got a surprising sort of late psych vibe at times – almost as if the group were hanging on to some of the modes that first got them started, while also stretching out with some of the new sophistication that the 70s had to offer! That psych touch is maybe no surprise, though, given that the group's singer Michael Fennelly was in The Millennium – and works here with some heavier rockers who were in Stonehenge – all in a surprising mix of modes that really keeps things interesting throughout! Titles include the big single "Go Back", plus "Peace By Peace", "To All My Friends", "Some Madness", "Hunger For Love", "Last Night In Your Sleep Fred", "Some Madness", and "The Other Side". Next is Rotten To The Core, the second and last album from Crabby Appleton, and a record that's got the group picking up some harder edges than before – shedding some of the lighter psych elements for harder modes on the downturning grooves, almost as if the group had some blues inspirations they didn't showcase the first time around! The shift is one that has us almost thinking that the group could have hit the heights of 70s AM rock, had they held the course – with lots of surprising nuggets throughout, in a set list that includes "Makes No Difference", "Lucy", "It's So Hard", "Tomorrow's A New Day", "You Make Me Hot", "Gonna Save You", and "Love Can Change Everything". 2CD set features bonus material – "Go Back (alt mono single)", "Try (alt mono single)", "My Little Lucy (alt mono single)", "Some Madness (mono single)", "Can't Live My Life (alt mono single)", "Grab On", "Tomorrow's A New Day (alt mono single)", and "It's So Hard (alt mono single)". CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

The second and last album from Crabby Appleton, and a record that's got the group picking up some harder edges than before – shedding some of the lighter psych elements for harder modes on the downturning grooves, almost as if the group had some blues inspirations they didn't showcase the first time around! The shift is one that has us almost thinking that the group could have hit the heights of 70s AM rock, had they held the course – with lots of surprising nuggets throughout, in a set list that includes "Makes No Difference", "Lucy", "It's So Hard", "Tomorrow's A New Day", "You Make Me Hot", "Gonna Save You", and "Love Can Change Everything". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

The second tripped-out set from Ars Nova – an under-remembered late 60s group who had a great talent for blending together a range of different styles! At some level, Ars Nova share qualities with some of the harder-jamming groups of their time – but they've also got a sound that expands to bring in folk, blues, jazz, and more baroque elements – played by the group with a lineup that includes some nice work on trumpet by Jimmy Owens, who at this point was a core member of the combo. Brooks Arthur handled the overall music direction, with a quality that recalls some of his work on Verve – and the album features the wonderful bossa-styled groover "Walk On The Sand", a romping soul jazz take on Jimmy Owens' "You Had Better Listen", and the cuts "Rubbish", "Please Don't Go Now", "Temporary Serenade", "She Promises Everything", and "Round Once Again". LP, Vinyl record album

The second tripped-out set from Ars Nova – an under-remembered late 60s group who had a great talent for blending together a range of different styles! At some level, Ars Nova share qualities with some of the harder-jamming groups of their time – but they've also got a sound that expands to bring in folk, blues, jazz, and more baroque elements – played by the group with a lineup that includes some nice work on trumpet by Jimmy Owens, who at this point was a core member of the combo. Brooks Arthur handled the overall music direction, with a quality that recalls some of his work on Verve – and the album features the wonderful bossa-styled groover "Walk On The Sand", a romping soul jazz take on Jimmy Owens' "You Had Better Listen", and the cuts "Rubbish", "Please Don't Go Now", "Temporary Serenade", "She Promises Everything", and "Round Once Again". LP, Vinyl record album

A prog rock masterpiece from Ash Ra Temple – a set that still has the group in very pschedelic, jamming, and improvisational territory – as they serve up two album-length tracks that really soar to the skies on wings of sound! The group here still features lots of great keyboards and electronics from Klaus Schulze, but on side one most of the energy comes from the core interplay between the fantastic guitars of Manuel Gottsching, bass of Harmut Enke, and drums of Schulze – players who really take their combination of instruments in very different directions than UK trios of the time! Side two definitely has some spacier moments that let the keyboards dominate a bit more, alongside cool vocals from Rosi, used in very light ways – but there's plenty of jamming too – on titles that include "Freak N Roll" and "Jenseits". CD

A groundbreaking step forward for one of the most legendary bands in the Kraut rock scene of the early 70s – a record that's still as heavy on instrumentation as their debut, but which also makes just the right use of vocals to really blow up the sound! The core of the group features all sorts of guitar, electronics, and organ from Manuel Gottsching, guitar and bass from Hartmut Enke, and drums and vibes from Wolfgang Muller – but it may well be the presence of singer John L that really opens the record up, as John uses his voice almost more like an instrument – and a moodily powerful one at that! The set's got three long tracks – "Flowers Must Die", "Look At Your Sun", and "Schwingungen". CD

A nice lean set from Barclay James Harvest – a record that gets more to the core of their sound after the larger arrangements of some of their albums for Harvest Records – in a way that also seems to bring out more of an edge in their songwriting, too! The shift is somewhat subtle, but effective – as the quartet manage to find ways to make simple guitar and keyboard lines come across with this flowing vibe that often makes the sum sound way more than its parts – especially when set to the inventive themes covered by some of the album's lyrical topics! The drums are great, too – seemingly stronger than before – and titles include "Negative Earth", "Paper Wings", "The Great 1974 Mining Disaster", "Mill Boys", "Poor Boy Blues", and "Child Of The Universe". LP, Vinyl record album

A strange mix of sound library electronics and much more experimental work from Philippe Besombes – a set that carries echoes of some of the best Italian soundtrack electronics of the 70s, but which also features much darker, more turgid moments as well! The album collects some of Besombes' performances for ballet and other settings – and stands as an even starker document of his talents than some of the other albums issued under his name in the 70s. The core album is expanded here with 5 more bonus tracks that are almost noisier than the first – tunes that really hit the far reaches of analogue electronics, especially the low range of their sound. Titles include "Pawa 1", "Geant", "Princess Lolita", "Seul", "Ceci Est Cela", "L'Or Des Fous 4", "PJF 159", and "Traversee". CD

The biggest sounding Blondie album by far – and a radical leap from New York new wave scene band to a wildly ambitious pop pastiche machine! The band always had a fearless way of filtering far-reaching pop sounds into their material, even when they were still on the CBGBs scene, and while their stylistic reach grew with each successive album, Autoamerican really takes it to extremes. It's somewhat notorious for favoring session players over the core band, but given how crazy the stylistic breadth is – no disrespect to that incredible core band – it's a creative win, as much BECAUSE they bit off more than they could chew production wise, as it is despite that. It's most famous (or infamous, depending on who's talking about it) for "Rapture", and other tracks include "Europa", "Live It Up", their classic, breezy cover of "The Tide Is High", "Here's Looking At You", "Faces", "Follow Me" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A prog classic from the Czech scene at the start of the 70s – music from a moment when things were really pushing the cultural barriers in the new freedoms of the time! Blue Effect blend core jamming with some larger arrangements that appear from time to time – all given a sense of power and majesty that really transcends the boundaries of language, soaring out with a vibe that's right up there with the best non-English work on the Euro scene at the time! The set was issued with translated lyrics in some territories, but this is the original album – with titles that include "Osamela Ulice", "Kamenne Blues", "Destivy Den", "Kde Je Ma Hvezda", "Fenix", and "Pamet Lasky". CD features 5 bonus tracks – including "Grave Of The Sun", "Life", and "Gray Hair". CD

A wild, far reaching psychedelic rock kaleidoscope from Arthur Brown and his Crazy World! The sounds range from wailing organs and heavy drum backed bigness, to more of a tightly grooving r&b garage influenced trip as the core backdrop – with vocals ranging from falsetto freakouts to rambling speak singing craziness and bursts of brass. Nothing's predictable from one passage to the next, but the group sets a heady groove before it all gets freaky, and they find it again before insanity sets in. Titles include "Prelude-Nightmare", "Fire", "Come & Buy", "Spontaneous Apple Creation", "Child Of My Kingdom", "I Put A Spell On You" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The first four albums from this crucial group – along with four more CDs of rare live material too! First up is the self-titled Cactus – the first album from this legendary group – an important American hard rock powerhouse, driven by the famous rhythm duo of Tim Bogert on bass and Carmine Appice on drums – both of whom roll out of the gate here with amazingly frenetic energy! They're maybe only topped by the guitar work of Jim McCarty, whose searing lines are clearly learned from blues inspirations, then turned up in both speed and power – to match the vocals and harmonica of Rusty Day! There's nothing going on here that sounds like blues rock at all – even though the set begins with a cover of "Parchman Farm" – next to other titles that include "My Lady From South Of Detroit", "No Need To Worry", "You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover", and "Let Me Swim". On One Way Or Another, Cactus are totally at the top of their game – and the guitar of Jim McCarthy really sets the record on fire, right from the very first note – at a level that should have made Jim one of the real guitar hero legends of his generation! Yet there's also power from the whole group going on too – tight rhythms from the team of Carmine Appice and Jim Bogert, the latter of whom starts to bring in his own vocals a fair bit more, offering backup to the raspy lead of Rusty Day. And while there's a few currents that show their older influence from blues, the sound here is massively hard rock all the way through – making the record a great illustration of the way that slavish blues rock gave birth to a fresh new jamming sound in a matter of just a few short years. Titles include "Rockout Whatever You Feel Like", "Song For Aries", "Feel So Bad", "Rock N Roll Children", and "Hometown Bust". Restrictions is next, and despite the title, there's no restrictions at all – as Cactus seem to be even more confident, more able to stretch their wings and fly than ever before – even adding in some extra piano and keyboards at points to the core guitar-heavy sound of the quartet! All the group's best elements are very firmly in place – searing guitar, righteously confident vocals, and a strutting sensibility that makes this early 70s album way ahead of the game in terms of territory that so many bigger groups would later copy for their own classic records. Titles include "Guiltless Glider", "Evil Alaska", "Sweet Sixteen", "Bag Drag", "Restrictions", and "Mean Night In Cleveland". Ot N Sweaty is a record that's got a bit of a shift in the classic Cactus lineup – as the group's still driven strongly by the work of Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass, but get guitar power from Werner Fritzschings, who's a pretty amazing player – next to some added keyboards from Duane Hitchings, and vocals from Peter French – a singer who's ballsy power might be even more in line with the group than their previous lead singer! The album's got an unusual approach in that side one was recorded live, side two in the studio – each with a nicely different flavor as a result – on titles that include "Swim", "Our Lil Rock N Roll Thing", "Bedroom Mazurka", "Telling You", "Bad Stuff", and "Bringing Me Down". 8CD set is overflowing with great material – bonus tracks added to three of the four albums in the collection, than a further 4CDs worth of live material – titled Fully Unleashed – The Live Gigs Vols 1 & 2. The live material is great – and really shows the tightness of the group at their best! CD

Smoking live work from Can – a set that's very different than their studio work of the time, and which maybe gives an idea of how they came up with all the fantastic sounds on their famous albums! The set's really just one long freewheeling performance – driven by stunning instrumentation from Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitar, and Jaki Liebezeit on his fantastic funky drums – all topped by lyrics from Damo Suzuki that really send the whole thing over the top – and maybe give structure to the jam at the core of the set. The double length package features five passages of music – all hard-driving genius! CD

A slightly gentler album than the first Captain Beyond outing – but one that really has the group stretching out their wings wonderfully! The set's recorded both in Macon and Sausalito – and really has a vibe that indicates that mix – a core southern rock element, handled with the soulful undercurrents of early 70s Capricorn Records – but given some freer-thinking elements at times from the Bay Area scene! The drums power through nicely at some of the best points – but even the laidback tunes are pretty darn great – and we honestly never can understand why Captain Beyond weren't as big as some of their contemporaries from the southern scene. Titles include "Starglow Energy", "Evil Men", "Drifting In Space", "Bright Blue Tango", "Everything's A Circle", and "Voyages Of Past Travelers". CD

New Skin for Leonard Cohen, who by 1974 was ready to start singing with a bit more flair, and do so over more textured arrangements – but still raw both emotionally and in the unglossy instrumentation! The core of the sound is still Cohen's voice, his words, and acoustic guitar – but this record brings in some ragged acoustic instrumentation and loose percussion, as well as some more layered strings, some winds, and backing vocals – Janis Ian among the vocalists. On later records, bigger productions would nearly choke the natural life out of Cohen's songs, but this is one of those totally great records where the change in sound would actually enhance the material in the studio – allowing for one of his best albums of the 70s. Titles include "Is This What You Wanted", "Chelsea Hotel #2", "Lover Lover Lover", "Field Commander Cohen", "Ther Is A War", "A Singer Must Die", "Leaving Greensleeves" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A pair of really unusual albums from Mike Cooper – presented here in a single package! The core set, Life & Death In Paradise, is one of the last in a run of classics that Cooper gave the world at the start of his career – and has really unusual collaborations with members of the London jazz scene – including bassist Harry Miller, saxophonist Mike Osborne, and drummer Louis Moholo! The jazz component of the record is small – this is definitely acoustic singer/songwriter material, not the work the musicians might have issued on the Ogun label – but the set does represent a really nice shift for Cooper, and a great setting for the kind of offbeat songs he does so well. Titles include "Critical Incidents", "OMM Coda", "Suicide De Luxe", "Black Night Crash", "Rocket Summer", and the long "Life & Death In Paradise" suite. The package also features material from many years later – a live acoustic set recorded in Milan in 2018, showing Cooper still as a hell of a talent, with an even more complex understanding of the acoustic guitar – matched by his own unique vocalizations on some of the best tracks. Titles include "Peach Trees", "In Moments Of Reverie", "Lord Franklin", "Sage & Thyme", and "Industrial Hazard". CD

Essential early material by Gal Costa! The record is her first after the immediate Tropicalia years, and it's a stunning blend of styles that seems to draw heavily from changes going on in the American rock scene at the time. The core of the music is still steeped in Brazilian elements – but there's a lot of influences coming into play on the album, like bluesy rock phrasing, showy nostalgia-heavy arrangements, psychedelic production elements, and some of the baroque orchestrations that would show up on Gal's later albums in the 70s. Includes a wonderful version of Caetano's "London London" and "Dixa Sangrar", the moody bossa "Falsa Baiana", Gilberto Gil's "Lingua Do P" and "Mini Misterio", and the tracks "The Archaic Lonely Star Blues", "Love, Try, & Die", and "Hotel Das Estrelas". Great cover, too! (Brazil, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A killer beat group set – with some nice psych touches, but still very raw at the core! LP, Vinyl record album

Really great work from Arnold Dreyblatt – a set that's almost a distillation of his excited strings material from many years back, taken into rock minimalism territory that almost seems to tie it to early projects from composer Glenn Branca too! The strings here are all electric – Arnold on excited strings bass, next to two live guitars, and one computer-controlled guitar – all moving in these modal rhythms that build nicely, with some slight phase shifts and inflections – but also enough punch at the core with some drums, so that the tunes almost seem to have more rock appeal than some of Dreyblatt's other material. Titles include the very long "Auditoria", plus the cuts "Shuffle Effect", "Container", and "Flight Path". (Out Sound, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

The overlooked legacy of John Fekner – a New York artist who works here in the world of hip hop and electro soul – on tunes that are sometimes infused with lyrics that refer to the art concepts that inspire his creations! The sound is spare – just drum machine beats, bits of keyboards, and some samples – and Fekner's vocals aren't trying to challenge the Furious Five, but definitely share that old school confidence for putting over a rhyme! The core of the set features the original 1984 album Idioblast, issued on the tiny Vinyl Gridlock label – and the set also features lots of bonus tracks, including some later material. Titles include "Halley's Comet", "Rapicasso", "Travelogue The 80s", "Wheels Over Indian Trails", and "The Sight Of The Child". Bonus cuts include "Concrete Concerto", "EZ Gee Jammin", "Another Four Years", "Rock Steady", and "Concrete People (dance mix)". CD

The overlooked legacy of John Fekner – a New York artist who works here in the world of hip hop and electro soul – on tunes that are sometimes infused with lyrics that refer to the art concepts that inspire his creations! The sound is spare – just drum machine beats, bits of keyboards, and some samples – and Fekner's vocals aren't trying to challenge the Furious Five, but definitely share that old school confidence for putting over a rhyme! The core of the set features the original 1984 album Idioblast, issued on the tiny Vinyl Gridlock label – and the set also features lots of bonus tracks, including some later material. Titles include "Halley's Comet", "Rapicasso", "Travelogue The 80s", "Wheels Over Indian Trails", and "The Sight Of The Child". Bonus cuts include "Concrete Concerto", "EZ Gee Jammin", "Another Four Years", "Rock Steady", and "Concrete People (dance mix)". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that has some blues influences at the core, but which also really moves past that energy right away – by folding in some of the hipper, headier styles that Frijid Pink had picked up while working on the Detroit scene at the end of the 70s! The vocals are raw in a great way, and the guitar work follows suit nicely – on titles that include "Sloony", "I'll Never Be Lonely", "Black Lace", "Sing A Song For Freedom", "I Haven't Got The Time", "Pain In My Heart", and "We're Gonna Be There". LP, Vinyl record album