A record that still has Colin Blunstone sounding surprisingly strong a few albums into his solo career – maybe a bit mellower, and with a bit less edge than at the start – but still very able to find the best way to put his amazing vocals to work! The backings are smooth, but not too AOR – just this kind of laidback, lightly tippling style that mostly has Blunstone moving at midtempo modes that let the lyrics resonate strongly in the spaciousness of his voice. Light strings are used at times, which is always a nice touch with Colin's voice – and many of the tracks on the album are originals by Blunstone – including "I'll Never Forget You", "Who's That Knocking", "Lovelight", "Ain't It Funny", "Photograph", "Touch & Go", and "You Are The Way For Me". LP, Vinyl record album

The legendary debut of The Allman Brothers – and a set that maybe set the tone for countless southern rock albums to emerge in the following decade! Yet even at the start, the Allmans are still set apart from the rest – a fiercely jamming band who created the structure for most of the tunes by working together with an almost jazz-like inspiration – blending the guitars of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts with organ and vocals from Gregg Allman, driven by the massive bass of Berry Oakley, and held strong through the percussion efforts of Jai Johanny Johanson and Butch Trucks. Titles include the classic "Whipping Post", plus "Dreams", "Every Hungry Woman", "Don't Want You No More", "Black Hearted Woman", "Trouble No More", and "It's Not My Cross To Bear". LP, Vinyl record album

The second album by Argent – Rod Argent's project immediately after the breakup of the Zombies! There's plenty of Zombie-like ideas here – particularly those floating around the Odyssey and Oracle album, but they're also done without the dreamy pop style of Colin Blunstone's vocals, which makes for a much harder sound overall. Added into that the guitar of Russ Ballard, which really kicks into the tunes nicely, and you've got some great rock and roll work – written with a pop sensibility, but played with a razor-sharp edge that's pretty hard hitting. Titles include "Lothlorien", "Rejoice", "Pleasure", "Sweet Mary", "Where Are We Going Wrong", "Rejoice", "Cast Your Spell Uranus", and "Celebration". LP, Vinyl record album

A landmark set from the German prog scene – the first amazing utterance of Ash Ra Tempel, and a standard-setting album that few others could ever hope to match! The sound here builds beautifully – coming out of abstract, noisy territory, then finding shape as the record goes on – a perfect blend between the instruments and new studio modes that really help the textures and tones come to the forefront! The group features Klaus Schulze on drums and electronics, Manuel Gotsching on guitar, and Hartmut Enke on bass – and Conny Plank worked the knobs, to help the whole thing come together like magic! Each song takes up a side of the record – and titles include "Amboss" and "Traummaschine". LP, Vinyl record album

The first Babes In Toyland LP – maybe a little noisier and stranger than their major label efforts, which is a heck of a statement given how gnarly and awesome the later Fontanelle record turned out! Babes never really got the props they deserve for helping pave the way for noise rock to pummel it's way to the mainstream in the early 90s – especially for women in the scene – and Spanking Machine is the most underappreciated album in an underappreciated run all together. Includes "Swamp Pu**y", "He's My Thing", "Vomit Heart", "Dogg" "Pain In My Heart", "Lashes", "You're Right" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Chuck Berry is definitely on top with this classic Chess Records set – an album that shows that Berry always had a lot more to offer than some of his oldies rocker contemporaries! Sure, there's a few hits here, but the overall quality of the music is more in the mode of Chess blues of the time – lots of raw backings that are as heavy on piano lines and romping rhythms as they are Chuck's own searing lead guitar – a sound that definitely sets the tone for generations to come, and which is always heard best here in its early hoke-free setting. The whole album's wonderful, and even familiar hits sound newly brilliant in this context – a smoking lineup that includes "Jo Jo Gunne", "Around & Around", "Hey Pedro", "Anthony Boy", "Sweet Little Rock & Roller", "Almost Grown", "Roll Over Beethoven", and "Maybellene". (Soul, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

The third solo album by Colin Blunstone – the magic-voiced singer who was lead vocalist of the Zombies, and went on to cut some god-like solo work in the early 70s! This album's a bit less sublime than Colin's first two – with tracks that veer a bit more towards the soft rock sound of the 70s, with some compressed AOR touches in place of the floating instrumentation of earlier albums – but it still sounds mighty nice to our ears, as Colin's voice is always a treat, and the record has a irrepressible charm in its optimistic presentation of some of the material. Essentially, if you dig Colin lots, you'll still want this one – as it's got more than a few nice moments – and is more of an evolution of his solo work than a divergence from it. Titles include "Setting Yourself Up", "Brother Lover", "Shadow Of A Doubt", "It's Magical", "You Who Are Lonely", "Beginning", and "Keep The Curtains Closed Today". LP, Vinyl record album

It's been quite a few years since Bombino's previous record – and in that time, it almost feels as if he's locked himself up somewhere and learned how to be even more amazing on guitar! His sense of sound, tone, and timing is incredible – and the record's one of those Tuareg sets that can easily stand next to Anglo greats from the years of psych and hard rock – but with that special sub-Saharan quality that also makes a player like Bombino so unique – as he spins out long lines of freedom and fuzz over plenty of driving rhythms! Titles include "Darfuq", "Alwane", "Tazidert", "Aitma", Si Chilan", "Mes Amis", "Ayes Sachen", and "Nik Sant Awanha". (Global Grooves, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

It's been quite a few years since Bombino's previous record – and in that time, it almost feels as if he's locked himself up somewhere and learned how to be even more amazing on guitar! His sense of sound, tone, and timing is incredible – and the record's one of those Tuareg sets that can easily stand next to Anglo greats from the years of psych and hard rock – but with that special sub-Saharan quality that also makes a player like Bombino so unique – as he spins out long lines of freedom and fuzz over plenty of driving rhythms! Titles include "Darfuq", "Alwane", "Tazidert", "Aitma", Si Chilan", "Mes Amis", "Ayes Sachen", and "Nik Sant Awanha". (Global Grooves, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal collection of work from Buffalo Springfield – a group with a short-lived existence on the LA scene, but an impact that shaped the sound of mainstream rock for many years to come! That effect is no surprise – given that the lineup features a young Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay – moving from folk influences into trippier, headier territory – and paving the way for both classic and country rock to come! Here at the start, things are nice and lean – well-penned tunes that pack a heck of a lot into a very short space – given key production help from Jack Nitzsche, Brian Stone, Jim Messina, and even Neil Young himself. Titles include "For What It's Worth", "Mr Soul", "Broken Arrow", "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Win", "Expecting To Fly", "Go & Say Goodbye", "On The Way Home", "Sit Down I Think I Love You", and "Kind Woman". LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool Canadian group from the 60s – an all-native lineup of members from the Tsimshian Nation – but working here in a raw garagey style that's totally great! The drums are lean and powerful, guitar follows suit, and vocals often have a surprisingly charming quality – tuneful, and harmonized with a nice sort of sweetness at times. The group famously recorded on Wisconsin's powerhouse Cuca label, home to some great raw singles back in the day – and this set brings together their rare 45 for that label, plus rare demos and unissued material – in their first-ever full length set, with titles that include "Don't Let It Bother You", "Do Lord", "I Won't Be Around", "The Sun Is Shining", "Ebony Eyes", "You Don't Need Me Anymore", "Don't You Leave Me Behind", "I Shouldn't Have Did What I Done", and "I Need Your Lovin". LP, Vinyl record album

The heavy groove of Deep Purple continues – in a style that's a bit more song-focused and guitar-led than the group's debut – but still pretty darn great nonetheless! Some of the rumbling bass of before has been toned down a bit, but that leaves plenty of space for more jamming guitar work from Ritchie Blackmore – as well as more soaring Hammond lines, and vocals that almost hint at soulful influences from time to time. The record's got a slightly heartfelt quality that's almost a surprise – and titles include covers of "Kentucky Woman", "We Can Work It Out", and "River Deep Mountain High" – plus the originals "Wring That Neck", "Listen Learn Read On", and "The Shield". LP, Vinyl record album

The birth of a legend, and easily one of the heaviest records to hit the mainstream in the late 60s! The album's got a sinister quality that you can hear on the first few notes – a low-end, rumbling approach that brings in a lot more fuzzy bass than other groups of the time had ever thought to use – all topped with some of the most wickedly edgey guitar put on record to date, and undercut by drums that are almost verging on funk at times! Basslines set the tone for most of the tunes in the set – creating a bottom-heavy groove that would be copped many times in years to come, but which still sounds tremendously fresh here in the original. Titles include "Mandrake Root", "I'm So Glad", "One More Rainy Day", "Help", "Love Help Me", "And The Address", and "Hey Joe". LP, Vinyl record album

Bob Dylan's fourth record, and close runner up to Freewheelin' as the masterpiece of this early stage of his career. While the overly arch Times They Are A Changin' pretty much stood as the cornerstone of classifiable folk rock at the time, Another Side is just that. Dense, elliptical, and downright surreal at times, with some of the protesty stuff that made the media so happy & hungry, but much more layered and poetic. Another side is also much more reverent of and indebted to the Harry Smith field recordings that Bob studied so hard, the stuff that finally caught on with the general public in the early 90s. Titles include "Spanish Harlem Incident", "It Ain't Me Babe", "Ballad In Plain D", "Black Crow Blues", "I Don't Believe You", "Motorpsycho Nitemare", "To Ramona", "Chimes Of Freedom", "My Back Pages", and "I Shall Be Free No 10". LP, Vinyl record album

All the hits! Includes "Mr Blue Sky", "Telephone Line", "Turn To Stone", "Evil Woman", "Strange Magic", and more! LP, Vinyl record album

The American debut of The English Beat – aka the UK group The Beat, who'd been making some big waves with import 45s on the 2Tone label, the burst forth on our US market with a slight shift in name, due to another group hogging their original moniker on our side of the Atlantic! That bit of backstory hardly need matter, though – as the group wear their English loud and proud here, setting off a huge ska revival as they blend Jamaican roots with London attitude in the post-punk years – stacking up a set of classics that continue to groove many turntables all these many years later. Titles include "Mirror In The Bathroom", "Hands Off She's Mine", "Twist & Crawl", "Big Shot", "Best Friend", and "Jackpot". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible album from guitarist Fred Frith – his solo debut, and a record that really set the tone for so many other musicians for years to come! Frith wasn't the first person to improvise on the guitar – but he might have been the first to use an electric in ways that tied together new ideas in jazz, prog, and other experimental musics – all at a level that made his playing a hero to many different scenes at once, and really helped open ears to all the different changes that were taking places in the 70s! The whole thing is a monstrous musical message from the pre-punk years – one that has really strong resonance all these many years later – thanks to titles that include "Hollow Music", "No Birds", "Out Of Their Heads", "Glass c/w Steel", "Hello Music", and "Not Forgotton". This great "Fifty" version features a full bonus album of new recordings in the spirit of the original – titles that include "Quicksilver", "Phalaropes", "Jack's Neap Tide", "Move Indigo", "To Do", and "The Map Of Dreams". LP, Vinyl record album

Rod Argent's project immediately after the breakup of the Zombies! There's plenty of Zombie-like ideas here – particularly those floating around the Odyssey and Oracle album, but they're also done without the dreamy pop style of Colin Blunstone's vocals, which makes for a much harder sound overall. Added into that the guitar of Russ Ballard, which really kicks into the tunes nicely, and you've got some great rock and roll work – written with a pop sensibility, but played with a razor-sharp edge that's pretty hard hitting. Titles include "Like Honey", "Liar", "Schoolgirl", "Bring You Joy", "Stepping Stone", and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A long-overdue full length album from Ace Of Cups – a really unusual female group from the Bay Area scene of the late 60s – but one who never hit the heights of their bigger San Francisco contemporaries! The girls have this really great look on the back – kind of flower power, but with a bit more charm – a quality that comes through in the music, with is often more garagey than trippy – but which also has a way of putting forth female vocals and honest ideas that might not flourish this strongly for similar groups until the post-punk years. That approach makes the whole thing a truly timeless collection of tracks – of the sort that maybe resonate more strongly today than they did back in the 60s. Titles include "Music", "Glue", "Taste Of One", "Stones", "Pretty Boy", "Waller Street Blues", "Simplicity", and a great version of "Afro Blue". LP, Vinyl record album

A pivotal moment for Bob Dylan – and maybe one of THE albums of the 60s! The newly-electrified Dylan really takes off here – putting more punch and bit into his already-strong lyrical approach – and twisting things in amazing ways that still leave us breathless all these many years later! And sure, the album gave Bob a few hits – which are nestled in here next to headier tunes that work together perfectly. Titles include "Like A Rolling Stone", "Ballad Of A Thin Man", "It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry", "From A Buick 6", "Desolation Row", "Highway 61 Revisited", and "Queen Jane Approximately". LP, Vinyl record album