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An incredible album of electronic music – and one that definitely lives up to its title, as every selection is played live – quite a unique thing as the set was recorded at a time when programming was really beginning to take hold! In a way, Jeff Carney is evoking that first great moment when more expensive electronics were able to get in the hands of more homegrown musicians – using technology that was previously the stuff of academic labs, but in ways that were much more down to earth! You can definitely feel that vibe here – as Carney works magic at a level that has us imagining him just sitting alone in the echoey space of recording – revelling in each new fingertouch on the keyboards – as he spins out the long tracks "Questions Unanswered", "Arp 2600 Improvisations", and "Pensive Mood". LP, Vinyl record album

Neon smiles, and plenty of sublime sounds from Bliss Band – a real under-discovered group from the AOR scene of the late 70s – and one who should have been huge! These guys have it all – a great way with a hook, a tight way of crafting a tune, and this special sort of sound that stands apart from the chart hits of the period – yet somehow manages to have all the right elements firmly intact. It's 1979, and these guys aren't new wave or disco – and instead have this commitment to the kind of sharp songwriting and lyrical delivery that the best acts were using five years before and turning into superstars – maybe a moment that Paul Bliss and his group arrived to late to enjoy, although you'd never guess it from the quality of their work on this record! One to file proudly next to your Ned Doheny albums – with titles that include "Stagefright", "Hollywood", "Someone Else's Eyes", "Chicago", "We Never Had It So Good", and "If It Takes Until Forever". CD

One of the few straight rock records ever issued on the mostly-folk Monitor Records label – a great 60s outing from Freeborne, a group with a sound that's as tripped-out as you might expect from the cover! Instrumentation is heavy on organ and guitars, both acoustic and electric, but there's also some cool percussion too – and interesting use of recorders, in a way that comes across with an ocarina-like charm! Vocals are somewhat soft, but have a dark undercurrent – and there's a really great folk-into-psyche sort of feel to the whole thing. Titles include "Images", "Land Of Diana", "But I Must Return To Frenzy", "Inside People", "Yellow Sky", "Peak Impressions & Thoughts", and "Visions Of My Own". CD

A baroque instrumental masterpiece from Jean Claude Vannier – Serge Gainsbourg's right hand man at the start of the 70s, and a key figure in the legendary Histoire De Melody Nelson album! The feel here is very much along the lines of work that Serge was doing at the time – larger orchestrations mixed with smaller instrumentation – in a level that's often funky, always baroque, and very much in the best Sexopolis styles of the French pop scene of the time! There's a marked similarity here to some of the work of Michel Colombier – but unlike Colombier, and Gainsbourg, there's no vocals at all on these tracks – and the main genius is carried by Vannier's incredibly arranged strings, rolling rhythms, fuzzy guitars, and dark little soundtrack-styled groove! Some tracks are wonderfully funky, others are moody and tripped-out – and the whole thing's a masterpiece that we'd file right up there with our favorite French work of the time! Titles include "L'Enfanta La Mouche Et Les Allumettes", "Danse Des Mouches Noires Gardes Du Roi", "Mort Du Roi Des Mouches", "Le Papier Tue-Enfant", "Les Garde Volent Au Secours Du Roi", and "Petite Agonie De L'Enfant Assassin". (French, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Nick Waterhouse keeps winning us over again and again with his music – which seems to get better and better with each new release! This album might be Nick's most compelling so far – a nicely gritty set that almost takes us back to that hip London stretch in the 60s, when British singers were effortlessly blending together American styles from soul, jazz, and blues – into a hip-stepping mode that was completely outta sight! Not that Nick's a retro artist trying for an old-styled sound – just that he's one of the few in decades who can get such a clear, focused groove out of all the right elements – and all without making it sound forced at all. A record you can easily file next to classics by Bobby Scott, George Fame, and Zoot Money – with titles that include "Stanyan Street", "The Old Place", "Katchi", "Tracy", "LA Turnaround", "It's Time", and "I Had Some Money". (Deep Funk, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

16 tracks that supposedly define what the hipsters have been listening to in NYC for the past 40 years. Titles include "What If?" by Bongwater, "Slum Goddess" by The Fugs, "Dreams" by Suicide, "Cavern" by Liquid Liquid, "Run Run Run" by The Velvet Underground, "Don't Let Me Stop You" by Glen Branca, "In The Temple Of Hadjarim" by John Zorn, "File Under Futurism" by DJ Spooky, "Prefeelings" by Arto Lindsay, "Venus De Milo" by Television, and "Bob The Bob" by The Lounge Lizards. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

Includes the Billboard top 20 hit, "I Wanna Be A Cowboy". LP, Vinyl record album

A mix of live tracks by Brand-X and side projects from various groups members. (Jazz, Rock) CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Live material from Bob Dylan – mostly solo with just acoustic guitar and harmonica! Titles include "Mixed Up Confusion", "Long Song", "Ride Willie Ride", "Can't Go Home This Way/100 Miles", "Turn To The Rain & The Wind", "Long John Gone", and "I'll Keep It With Mine" LP, Vinyl record album

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Features Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, Boy George, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Bonnie Tyler, Bananarama, Gary Moore, Mark Knopfler, and many others. 12-inch, Vinyl record

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful live work from Soft Machine – the sort of concert setting that makes a record like this such a key addition to their studio classics from the time! The quartet are equal parts jazz and rock, as on their seminal numbered albums of the early 70s – with some mighty heavy work on drums from John Marshall, next to heady bass from Roy Babbington, Fender Rhodes and organ from Mike Ratledge, and soprano, baritone, oboe, and more electric piano from Karl Jenkins! Tracks are long, and sometimes hard-hamming, other times nicely spacious until the musicians get their hooks in – and as with live work from the group, even familiar titles are nicely transformed in the setting of the concert. Titles include "Hazard Profile", "Gesolreut Jam", "JSM", "Lefty", "EPV", "Down The Road", "Ealing Comedy", "The Soft Weed Factor", and "Stanley Stamps Gibbon Album". CD

Indie rock elders Sonic Youth's first high profile album on an indie label in about 20 years – the group's first for Matador, and a skillful mix of insistent, exciting melodic precision, barbed lyricism, random bursts of noise, and enough layered hypnotic guitar errata that you'll hear something new each time you come back to it! Through the years they continued to be pretty exciting, and for the most part managed to avoid repeating themselves, while still working in something of a comfort zone – once throwing a screwdriver in the old noise rock guitar neck with the addition of Jim O'Rourke to the group, and with O'Rourke's departure, former Pavement player Mark Ibold on bass. Kim Gordon is now freed up to be play guitar, making for a triple threat along with Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo – and it's a riveting sound. They don't reinvent the wheel on The Eternal – but they steer into adventurous waters – and as long as they're making records this good we're hoping they live up to title! Includes "Sacred Trickster", "Anti-Orgasm", "Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso)", "Antenna", "What We Know", "Calming The Snake", "Poison Arrow", "Malibu Gas Station", "Thunderclap For Bobby Pyn", "No Way", "Walkin Blue", "Massage The History". CD

... CD

... CD

... LP, Vinyl record album