... CD

... CD

All nine CCR Fantasy albums in newly remastered form and an entire CD of pre-CCR recordingsby Tommy Fogerty & The Blue Velvets, followed by 21 Golliwogs tracks, nine unreleased. Classic albums included are Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bayou Country, Willy and The Poor Boys, Cosmo's Factory, Pendulum, Mardi Gras, The Concert and Live In Europe. CD

The complete Woodstock performance by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969 – brought together here as an official album for the first time ever! CCR were a very important part of that legendary rock festival, but didn't get placement on the original record in a way that lived up to their presence at the concert – a fact that's nicely corrected here, with a double-length album that brings together every song they played that night in 1969! The set features a very long jamming take on "Suzie Q" – plus "Green River", "Born On The Bayou", "Proud Mary", "Bad Moon Rising", "I Put A Spell On You", "Night Time Is The Right Time", "Keep On Chooglin", "Commotion", and "Bootleg". CD

It's hard to get any more classic than this for Creedence Clearwater Revival – as this legendary late 60s album is definitely the place where it all comes together! The pairing of John Fogerty's lead guitar and the scratching rhythm guitar of brother Tom really sounds wonderful here – driven on by tight bass and drums, but always with this rootsy edge that stretches from the Bay Area scene way down to the bayou! Titles include the classic "Down On The Corner" and a great version of "The Midnight Special" – plus "It Came Out Of The Sky", "Side Of The Road", "Effigy", "Don't Look Now", and "Fortunate Son". CD

Titles include "Blasphemous Rumours", "Master & Servant", "Shake The Disease", "Fly On The Windscreen", "See You", "Just Can't Get Enough", and "New Life". CD

An overlooked early 80s gem from Thomas Dolby – a beautifully mellow album that comes across with less of the quirky pop touches of his earlier work! The Dolby heard here is almost in an Eno/Green World mode – mixing electronics with evocative lyrics – at a level that's a few notches up from soundscape mode, but which is also as concerned with the overall colors and shapes of the music as it is with the lyrics. But the lyrics themselves are the biggest surprise – often quite personal and intimate, with a Prefab Sprout-esque pop quality from time to time, but stronger soul qualities overall. And to our groove-tuned ears, Dolby's electronics here are really a cut above – echoing with some electro styles, but also in a more sophisticated mode that transforms Kraftwerk into more effective pop. Titles include "Dissidents", "The Flat Earth", "Screen Kiss", "White City", "Mulu The Rain Forest", "I Scare Myself", and "Hyperactive". CD

An incredible record – with a great performance, and the ultra-creepy long version of "Celebration Of The Lizard"! 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

... CD

Includes their classic "We're An American Band" – plus "Walk Like A Man", "Ain't Got Nobody", "Creepin", "Stop Lookin Back", and "Black Licorice". CD

Some of the most hard-hitting work ever recorded by Humble Pie – and that's saying a lot, given the power of the group on other albums! The performance is very unbridled – really open-ended, at a level that showcases not just the mindbending early guitar talents of Peter Frampton (something you'd never guess if you only knew his hits), but also the raw power that Steve Marriott could unleash in the group – quite a change from his work with the Small Faces. The tunes include a number of non-Humble Pie tracks, given a raw bluesy workout on extended versions – and titles include "Four Day Creep", "Stone Cold Fever", "I'm Ready", "Rollin Stone", and "I Walk On Gilded Splinters". CD

Titles include "Daniel", "Blues For My Baby & Me", "Midnight Creeper", "Elderberry Wine", "Have Mercy On The Criminal", "Crocodile Rock", and "High Flying Bird". CD

The colors are rich, but gentle too – like a palette of pastels, all sung by the lovely Claudine Longet! The album's got a slightly more mature feel than some of Longet's first for A&M – great Nick DeCaro arrangements that show some of the deeper elements creeping into pop at the end of the 60s – including some surprising use of acoustic guitar, which really helps transform the sound, and brings out an earthy, natural quality that makes Claudine sound sexier than ever! The sessions feature work by Randy Newman, Lyle Ritz, and Ron Elliott – and titles include "Pussywillows Cattails", "Catch The Wind", "Colours", "Bobbie (For Baby)", and "Hurry On Down". (Vocalists, Rock) CD

One of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time – a pioneering blast of mid 80s thrash from Metallica at an early peak! Say what you will about Metallica's later career triumphs and failures, there's no overstating how huge their impact was on metal and hard rock early on, and their best few records are incredible to this day. This may well be they're very best album – the culmination of a couple years of slow-building word-of-mouth reputation-building for genre work that can't be praised highly enough. One metal classic after another: "Fight Fire With Fire", "Ride The Lightning", "For Whom The Bell Tolls", "Fade To Black", "Trapped Under Ice", "Escape", "Creeping Death" and "The Call Of Ktulu". CD

A rare British set, originally issued only on cassette – which means that most copies of the album were lost to the hinterland of oxide decay! The set's got a sound that's way more immortal than its original format deserved – very much in the best mode of early Factory Records – spare, stark, and moody sounds from sometime-Coil and Current 93 collaborator Gary Ramon! The tunes are surprisingly catchy, even when dark – and the music is a masterpiece of understatement – those great sounds before the industrial underground of the 80s got a bit too full of itself. Titles include "TV Screen", "Hello/Goodbye", "46 Botanical Species", "Protect & Serve", and "Tropic Of Cancer". CD

Nirvana's lean, economical predecessor to Nevermind – an album that's plenty earthshaking in its own right – the mean, metallic Bleach LP! If you weren't around and listening to underground rock in 1989, it's tough to impart how unique Nirvana was at the time – there weren't a lot of rock bands playing this kind of ferocious, pummeling music that married metal's volume and intensity with college rock's artfulness. Good stuff, this. Titles include "Blew", "Floyd The Barber", "About A Girl", "Negative Creep", "Mr Moustache", "Big Cheese", "Downer", "Scoft", "Love Buzz" and more. CD

A really great collection of work from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – a set that's a collection of mostly older tracks, but which also includes a dozen unissued numbers – all put together with that special flair that always made the group's mid-70s records so different than work of their contemporaries! In other words, this is hardly a lean "greatest hits" collection – and instead, the 3LP collection has bits from the first decade of the group's career coming together in all sorts of different ways – almost with the longform exploratory sense of Will The Circle Be Unbroken, and the playful interplay of their Stars & Stripes set – both expanded packages like this. There's many gems here in an array of styles – and titles include "Bayou Jubilee/Sally Was A Goodun", "Some Of Shelly's Blues", "Ripplin Waters", "You Are My Flower", "Creepin Round Your Back Door", "Sixteen Tracks", "Honky Tonkin", "Soldier's Joy", "Buy For Me The Rain", "Melissa", "Woody Woodpecker", "Cosmic Cowboy (part 1)", "Mother Earth Provides For Me", "Jamaica Lady", "Gavotte No 2", "All I Have To Do Is Dream", "Visiting An Old Friend", and "Win Or Lose". CD

A lovely little record, and one that's got a vibe that's very different than you might guess from the creepy image on the cover! Pidgeon are a post-folk group who mix the wonderful vocals of Cheri Gage with some nicely dreamy, sometimes psychedelic arrangements – all of which give the whole thing a wonderfully swirling, soaring sort of vibe! In addition to Gage, who also plays autoharp, the set features early work from Jobraith – who'd later go on to fame in a very different mode, but who harmonizes wonderfully here next to Cheri on many numbers. Titles include "Of The Time When I Was Young", "Springtime Girl", "The Dancer", "House On A Hill Among Trees", "The Wind Blows Cold", and "Dark Bird". CD

Material from one of the first-ever films to feature Elvis on screen! CD

Maybe our favorite album from Procol Harum – a set that adds in some wonderful use of strings to the group's unique style – almost moving forward on the promise of the earlier single "Whiter Shade Of Pale", moving into much deeper territory overall! There's something about Procol Harum on their early album's that's really indescribable – certainly an influence from blues and roots, but this really striking step forward with their song ideas and overall construction – not into jamming or progressive modes, like some of their contemporaries – although they're certainly never afraid to rock – but almost this balance between personal poetry and brashness, with kind of a slightly creepy current at times – as illustrated beautifully by the image on the cover. Titles include the completely wonderful "A Salty Dog", p0lus "Wreck Of The Hesperus", "Boredom", "The Devil Came To Kansas", "Too Much Between Us", "All This & More", and "The Milk Of Human Kindness". CD

Always-enigmatic sounds from The Residents – a bit more fully-formed than some of their earliest recordings, but still sprawled out nicely over the space of the full album! There's almost an Eraserhead feel to the music at times – dreamy, yet creepy – and other moments bring in some avant jazz tones, yet played without any jazz chops at all – more as sonic textures that nestle down nicely in the mix of noise and surprising melodic moments. Titles include "Edweena", "The Making Of A Soul", and "Ship's A Going Down". Includes 6 bonus tracks. CD

Anonymous experimentalists The Residents cover, satirize and stage an arty assault on the classic rock and pop regime! The group dispenses with all subtlety here, mocking the heck out of a couple decades worth of American pop culture soundtrack fodder. Anything that could be construed as "the sound of an era" gets skewered mercilessly – drag strip rockers become car crashes, pop songs are recast as creepy noise and other clearly satirical waves rush in throughout the 2 long pieces, but other movements are less obviously sarcastic, and even more innovative. It'd be smug if it wasn't so damn good! CD

... CD

A pivotal album in the career of Ryuichi Sakamoto – a set that got wide global circulation right at a time when he was a rising star on the screen as much as a surprising international music star as well – of the sort who became a key global representative for all the changes that had been taking place in Japanese music at the start of the 80s! Sakamoto's got an elegant look on the cover, and the music shares that approach too – jazzier than before, but still with that key knowledge of electronic elements that Ryuichi had in YMO – almost a blend of late 70s Japanese fusion with keyboards, samples, and other technology that Sakamoto helped bring into the mainstream at the time – but also with a quality that points the way to soundtrack shifts in the Ghibli generation! This package presents the original Japanese album – not the Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia set that was circulated globally – with tracks that include "May In The Backyard", "Paradise Lost", "Self Portrait", "Etude", "Tibetan Dance", "Tribute To NJP", and other titles in Japanese. Also includes bonus material from the 12" EP – "Replica", "Tibetan Dance (version)", and "Ma Mere L'Oye". (Japanese, Rock) CD

A landmark album from Skip Spence – the onetime lead singer of Moby Grape, cast out of the group on his own by the time of this debut solo album – a record that's as powerful as it is fragile, and which has been the one lasting musical legacy of the man himself! The record almost sunk without a trace at the time, but has gone onto become the stuff of legend over the decade – supported by fellow singers, songwriters, and even a fair bit of the music press – who all shine key light on the record's unique, ahead of its time quality! Spence recorded the set for the same Columbia Records that was willing to take a chance on the early Leonard Cohen records – and there's a similarly singular vibe to Skip's approach – one that puts the whole thing at the level of "missed the first time around – but never again!" albums by later-decade legends like Big Star, Nick Drake, and maybe even Cohen. The style is hard to describe – similar reworking of roots-though-psych as Moby Grape, but a lot more intimate too – with so many lost dark corners, the set will be rewarding your ears for years to come! Titles include his original "Cripple Creek", plus "Diana", "Margaret Tiger Rug", "Weighted Down", "Little Hands", "Books Of Moses", "All Come To Meet Her", "Broken Heart", and "War In Peace" – plus 10 bonus tracks!! CD

A wonderfully expanded version of this early live set from The Talking Heads – a collection of recordings from the late 70s and early 80s, culled together in a format that almost makes the whole thing come across like a discreet live album! The versions of tunes here are changed up nicely from their studio counterparts – often coming across with some more acoustic touches, or a bit more intimacy on the best numbers – and sharing a spontaneity that we might not have expected from the group, had we only heard them in the studio. Titles on the original release include "New Felling", "A Clean Break", "Don't Worry About The Government", "Pulled Up", "Psycho Killer", "Artists Only", "Air", "Stay Hungry", "Building On Fire", "Memories (Can't Wait)", "Zimbra", "Houses In Motion", "Life During Wartime", "The Great Curve", and "Crosseyed And Painless". This expanded 2CD versions has a many bonus tracks, too – 33 tracks in all! CD

A really cool, moody soundtrack from Tangerine Dream – one that's got some of the best atmospherics of their 70s work, compressed into shorter tunes for the movie! The film features these creepy bald aliens, and the music really seems to evoke their presence – this kind of clean, lean, keyboard laden style that's very heavy on electronics – often at a slow, spare pace that recalls some of Brian Eno's best experiments too! Overall, the music is maybe better than usual for TD at this time –with an ethereal quality that's different than some of the clunkier changes they were going through. Titles include "Airshaft", "Sunset Drive", "Church Theme", "Desert Drive", "Alien Voices", "Alley Walk", and "Cyro Lab". CD

The Hawkwind sax man himself, at the head of a live band featuring Helios Creed, Del Dettmar, Genesis P. Orridge, Alan Powell and members of Pressurehed – blasting through 21 classic Hawkwind songs! CD

Includes the songs "No Depression", "Screen Door", "Graveyard Shift", "Whiskey Bottle", "Outdone (1989 Demo)", "I Got Drunk", "I Wanna Be Your Dog", "Gun", "Still Be Around", "Looking For A Way Out (Acoustic Version)", "Watch Me Fall", "Sauget Wind", "Black Eye", "Moonshiner", "Fatal Wound", "Grindstone", "Effigy", "The Long Cut", "Chickamauga", "New Madrid", and "We've Been Had (Live)". CD

One of the most far-out, freaked-out albums ever from the Velvet Underground – easily the most experimental set the group ever recorded! The album's awash in really unusual sounds and styles – from the sonic blast of the title cut "White Light/White Heat", to the 17 minute garage/psych jam of "Sister Ray" to the very odd "The Gift" – which is a creepy story about cuckolding, told with voice and instrumentation split over different stereo channels! Other tunes offset the darkness with an eerie touch of sweet – and include "Here She Comes Now", "Lady Godiva's Operation", and "I Heard Her Call My Name". Arguably one of the Velvets' most influential moments – even if it's also one of their least commercially successful! This great 3CD package features loads of sweet extra bits – including a 7 track Live At The Gymnasium performance from 1967, with versions of "Run Run Run", "Booker T", "I'm Not A Young Man Anymore", "I'm Waiting For The Man", "Sister Ray", and "Guess I'm Falling In Love" – plus "I Heard Her Call My Name (alternate)", "Hey Mr Rain (version one)", "Temptation Inside Your Heart (original mix)", "Stephanie Says (orig mix)", "Beginning To See The Light (early version)", "Hey Mr Rain (version two)", and "Guess I'm Falling In Love (instrumental)". Also features a full mono version of the album, plus "White Light White Heat (mono single)", "Here She Comes Now (mono single)", and previously-unseparated vocal and instrumental versions of "The Gift". Comes in a really great 10" square, hardbound book – with 60 pages of full color notes, photos, and images of cool artifacts too! CD

A stone classic – with "Southern Man", "Crippled Creek Ferry", "I Believe In You", "After The Goldrush", and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart". CD

... CD

One of Frank Zappa's biggest-selling albums of the early 70s and it's also one of his best ever! Over-Nite Sensation finds Zappa's leftfield weirdness and sly social satire at play within adventurous, but accessible arrangements. It's got some early fusiony bits paired with heavy drums and muscular rock riffs – and it's a hell of a great sound! The songs themselves are sharp, too. If forced to make a list of favorite Zappa songs, it'd certainly include "Camarillo Brillo", which kicks this record off – and other titles include "I'm The Slime", "Montana", "Dinah-Moe Humm", "Zomby Woof", and "Dirty Love". Features keyboards from George Duke and violin from Jean Luc Ponty – plus horns by Ian Underwood, Sal Marquez, Tom Fowler and Bruce Fowler – plus percussion by Ruth Underwood and amazing drums by Ralph Humphrey. CD

Frank Zappa's got some fantastic fusion touches on this sweet little set from the 70s – thanks to keyboards and a bit of vocals from George Duke, heavy drums from Chester Thompson, and even some brief help from Johnny Guitar Watson! The set's still got a very Zappa-esque feel, but it's clear he's also letting Duke stretch his wings a bit too as there's parts of the record that almost echo the style of some of George's more far-out recordings for MPS. The balance is great – and one that makes the album a lot more soulful at points than we're used to hearing from Zappa. Titles include "Florentine Pogen", "Can't Afford No Shoes", "Inca Roads", "Po-Jama People", "Evelyn A Modified Dog", and "San Ber'Dino". CD

The lovely and late Edie Sedgwick is the cover draw on the record and movie – but the music within is maybe an even more interesting blend of sounds, and very different than what you might expect to come from the famous star of Andy Warhol's Factory scene! Some of the music here is by Gino Piserchio – and is spare, electronic material – of the creepy style that you'd hear in underground films of the time, but sometimes almost given a Brian Eno sort of tunefulness too. Other tracks are vocal numbers, and have a rootsy rock vibe that seems much more west coast than New York – which makes a nice contrast. There's even a few spoken passages that feature Edie's voice from the film – which balances things out in a great way. Titles include "Angel Shock", "Driving Verdeccio", "Revolution Of Youth", and "Night Riders" by Gino Piserchio – plus "I Can't Make It Anymore" by Richie Havens, "Citizen Kane" by Skip Battin & Kim Fowley, "To Give All Your Love Away" by Richie Havens, "Malibu People" by John Phillips, "Justice" by Kim Milford, and "Shouldn't All The World Be Dancing" by Richie Havens. (Soundtracks, Rock) CD

A massive tribute to this groundbreaking, genre-busting label – a short-lived imprint on Island Records that was put together by Brian Eno in the mid 70s – all to showcase some of the best new experiments in avant classical and minimalist music! There's a special sort of quality to these records – work that maybe has a bit more "heart" than some of the colder, more academic work of the period – even in comparison to some of the other records issued by some of these artists – warmer and more personal than the productions of Cramps or CRI, for example – and always seeming to have that special sort of sonic brilliance that Eno brought to his own music of the time! The label only issued ten full records, but that makes for a very unified vibe for the entire catalog – which is collected here with a huge booklet of notes inside the box set. Albums include The Sinking Of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars, Voices & Instrumentals by Jan Steele & John Cage, Irma by Tom Phillips, Pavilion Of Dreams by Harold Budd, Decay Music by Michael Nyman, Discreet Music by Brian Eno, New & Rediscovered Musical Instruments by Max Eastley & David Toop, Music From The Penguin Cafe by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Machine Music by John White & Gavin Bryars, and Ensemble Pieces by Christopher Hobbs, John Adams, & Gavin Bryars. (Out Sound, Rock) CD

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 numbers here have a clean, lean sort of sound that's more in the mode of a 50s jazz "cat" than that of the four-legged, furry type. About half the numbers here are instrumentals with a really mod feel, and the rest are vocal numbers, of a variety of different genres – all put together in a way that's surprisingly fresh, and plenty darn groovy throughout. Titles include "The Cat" by Eddie & Ernie, "Three Cool Cats" by The Coasters, "Cleo" by Rene Hall, "Kitty Kat" by Paul Ott, "El Pussy Cat" by Mongo Santamaria, "Sneakin Up On You" by Peggy Lee, "Cat Nip" by Dave Baby Cortez, "Cat Hop" by The Dodgers, "Walkin My Cat Named Dog" by Norma Tanega, "The Cat" by Jimmy Smith, "The Cat Came Back" by Sonny James, "That Darned Cat" by Buddy Greco, "The Kitty Kat Song" by Lee Dorsey, "If You Play With Cats" by Charles Brown, "Tom Cat" by The Rooftop Singers, and "Top Cat Theme Song" by Top Cat Orchestra. (Funky Compilations, Rock) CD

A mighty nice collision of sounds – and one that really gets at the special spirit of music on the left side of the scene at the start of the 80s! Sure, punk broke things open in the late 70s – but a few years later, that initial shock gave way to a much more fluid, experimental sort of scene – one in which different sounds and styles could resonate with each other in a really great way – some barriers between rock and soul forever taken down, and the door from the artier side of the spectrum open to bring some fresh ideas into the mainstream! Writer Jon Savage was a very important part of the scene at the time – and here, he recalls the musical moment not just with a great array of tracks that leap between genres, but also with well-penned notes that get at the thought behind the tunes included on the 35 track set. Titles include "Hydraulic Pump (part 2)" by P Funk All Stars, "We're So Cool" by Au Pairs, "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force, "Don't Make Me Wait" by NYC Peech Boys, "Poor Old Soul (part 2)" by Orange Juice, "Sound Of The Crowd" by Human League, "Underground" by The Bizarros, "Twist & Crawl" by The Beat, "These Days" by Joy Division, "The Apartment" by Giorgio Moroder, "She's Lost Control" by Grace Jones, "More Bounce To The Ounce" by Zapp, "Flight" by A Certain Ratio, "Euthenics" by Modern Eon, "Too Many Creeps" by Bush Tetras, "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise" by Brother D with Collective Effort, "Mack The Knife" by Psychedelic Furs, "Pictures" by Josef K, "Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, "Art On 45" by Royal Family & The Poor, and "Our Love" by Donna Summer. CD

A mighty nice collision of sounds – and one that really gets at the special spirit of music on the left side of the scene at the start of the 80s! Sure, punk broke things open in the late 70s – but a few years later, that initial shock gave way to a much more fluid, experimental sort of scene – one in which different sounds and styles could resonate with each other in a really great way – some barriers between rock and soul forever taken down, and the door from the artier side of the spectrum open to bring some fresh ideas into the mainstream! Writer Jon Savage was a very important part of the scene at the time – and here, he recalls the musical moment not just with a great array of tracks that leap between genres, but also with well-penned notes that get at the thought behind the tunes included on the 35 track set. Titles include "Hydraulic Pump (part 2)" by P Funk All Stars, "We're So Cool" by Au Pairs, "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force, "Don't Make Me Wait" by NYC Peech Boys, "Poor Old Soul (part 2)" by Orange Juice, "Sound Of The Crowd" by Human League, "Underground" by The Bizarros, "Twist & Crawl" by The Beat, "These Days" by Joy Division, "The Apartment" by Giorgio Moroder, "She's Lost Control" by Grace Jones, "More Bounce To The Ounce" by Zapp, "Flight" by A Certain Ratio, "Euthenics" by Modern Eon, "Too Many Creeps" by Bush Tetras, "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise" by Brother D with Collective Effort, "Mack The Knife" by Psychedelic Furs, "Pictures" by Josef K, "Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, "Art On 45" by Royal Family & The Poor, and "Our Love" by Donna Summer. CD

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 place in American music in 1967 – a time of great freedom and optimism, but one with an undercurrent of darkness as well! The set really dives deeply into the crucial year of 1967, and goes way past the oldies and radio hits that most people associate with the musical moment – to bring together all sorts of cool cuts that often were only trading hands with the deeper chapters of the underground, mixed with a few other tracks from artists who got more play at the time, but were also changing the system from within! As with other Grapefruit collections, the notes and presentation are as great as the song choices – and the set features 85 titles in all, with work from The Balloon Farm, Gates Of Eden, Zodiac, Vanilla Fudge, Red Crayola, Lemon Drops, Cyrkle, Peppermint Trolley Company, Tim Rose, Spike Drivers, Blues Magoos, Sound Barrier, Grateful Dead, Thursdays Children, The ID, Zakary Thaks, Velvet Underground, Clear Light, Critters, Sagittarius, Jim & Jean, Sonny, Blue Things, Morning Dew, and many others! CD