Sonic Youth at their best – bringing the earlier, noisier impulses into an anthemic rock realm with incredible results! Daydream Nation's legancy looms as heavily over the indie rock to come in the next 20-or-so years as much as any other album album we can think of...hell, just the first 2 songs do that – and it doesn't let up 'til the end. Perfection! Includes "Teen Age Riot", "Silver Rocket", "The Sprawl", 'Cross The Breeze", "Eric's Trip", "Total Trash", "Hey Joni", "Providence", "Candle", "Rain King" and the closing "Kissability" suite. LP, Vinyl record album

Beautifully sweet and jazzy from the lovely Isabelle Antena – recording here under her own name, but still very much in the mode of the French trio from which she emerged! The record actually came about during the later years of Antena – at a time when the group was still recording sporadically, and still working very much in the spirit of the bossa and jazz styles of their debut. On this set, Isabelle steps forward a bit more as a lead singer, and the overall groove shows a bit more of a love of soul – blended together here with the jazz influences in a way that's very similar to the best side of Sade in her early years, but also handled here with a leaner, more personal indie style. There's a great 80s pop vibe running through the set – one that makes for some nicely catchy numbers, as well as a few dancefloor tracks. Titles include "Seaside Week Enhd", "Ten Minutes", "How Can They Tell", "Magic Words", "Sois Pop", "La Vie Est Trop Courte", and "Easy Street". Expanded package features rare b-sides, demos for Island Records, and more – titles that include "Blow The World Away", "Don't Think About It", "Mummy's Not A Home Tonight", "Behind The Door", "Time To Work", "Be Pop (12" mix)", "Life Is Too Short (new dance 12" mix)", and demos of "Be Pop", "Achilles", and "Mummy's Not At Home". LP, Vinyl record album

The amazing debut of Be Bop Deluxe – a record that's made up of all sorts of familiar parts, yet somehow really manages to set itself apart as a whole! The young Bill Nelson is at the top of his game here – a hell of a guitarist, which we sometimes forget in his later work – and a vocalist with a sinister edge that gives the record a sense of darkness that matches the compressed production and overall moody vibe – a child of the Bowie/Bolan generation, but one that's a real black sheep of the family too! The strength of the record is impossible to sum up in easy words – but it's there for the hearing, right from the very first note – on titles that include "Jet Silver & The Dolls Of Venus", "Axe Victim", "Love Is Swift Arrows", "No Trains To Heaven", "Jets At Dawn", "Rocket Cathedrals", and "Third Floor Heaven". LP, Vinyl record album

Pure brilliance from start to finish – especially the second side of the record, which has a continuous run of tunes that's very unique – and still completely sublime all these many years later! The album shows the fracturing ideas of the group, but crafted together with a unity you won't find on The White Album or Let It Be – still a way of making it all gel together beautifully, as the fab four stretch their wings to find new ways of being. Added instrumentation is used wonderfully – never overdone, but with orchestral passages that can really hammer home the best musical moments – and titles include "I Want You", "Because", "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Golden Slumbers", "The End", "Her Majesty", "Polythene Pam", and "Sun King". This very cool 2CD version features a new mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell – and a huge amount of bonus alternate tracks – including "Come Together (take 5)", "Something (studio demo)", "Oh Darling (take 4)", "Maxwell's Silver Hammer (take 12)", "Golden Slumbers/Carry The Weight (takes 1, 2, & 3)", "Sun King (take 20", "I Want You (Trident recording session & reduction mix)", "Octopus' Garden (take 9", "Because (take 1 inst)", and "Mean Mr Mustard (take 20)". CD

One of the greatest albums of material by William S Burroughs – and one of the few to really show his groundbreaking tape techniques! The album compiles a wealth of archival recordings – including obscure performances and experiments from the 60s, as well as Burroughs' own readings on his techniques and theories. The strongest value of the set is that it really gets past the "dottering old man rambling about the world" style of so many other Burroughs records – and gets at his truly revolutionary ideas about sound and language. An essential addition to any collection of sound art – with tracks that include "The Origin & Theory Of Tape Cut Ups", "Recalling All Active Agents", "Working With The Popular Forces", "Silver Smoke Of Dreams", "Junky Relations", "Interview With Mr Martin", "Joujouka", and "Sound Piece". (Spoken Word, Rock) CD

One of the greatest albums of material by William S Burroughs – and one of the few to really show his groundbreaking tape techniques! The album compiles a wealth of archival recordings – including obscure performances and experiments from the 60s, as well as Burroughs' own readings on his techniques and theories. The strongest value of the set is that it really gets past the "dottering old man rambling about the world" style of so many other Burroughs records – and gets at his truly revolutionary ideas about sound and language. An essential addition to any collection of sound art – with tracks that include "The Origin & Theory Of Tape Cut Ups", "Recalling All Active Agents", "Working With The Popular Forces", "Silver Smoke Of Dreams", "Junky Relations", "Interview With Mr Martin", "Joujouka", and "Sound Piece". (Spoken Word, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Sacrilicious psychobilly sleaze from The Cramps – tearing into the 80s with Songs The Lord Taught Us – one their best ever albums! The Cramps may have ticked off aging proto rock fans of the time with their ghoulish take on the style, along with their punk demeanor, but producer Alex Chilton sure did "get it", right? As if we didn't already adore that dude! CLASSIC! Titles include "TV Set", "Rock On The Moon", "Garbage Man", "I Was A Teenage Werewolf", "Mystery Plane", "I'm Cramped", "Tear It Up" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

An underground classic from Karen Dalton – a record that's almost out of time, given its early 70s release – as Karen sings with spare backings that are almost in a Folkway Records mode at points, but with all these headier currents that are also indicative of the Bay Area generation too! Dalton's voice is completely unique too – unlike anything you'll ever hear – phrasing that almost hearkens back both to vintage jazz and Appalachian folk, but a style that's more long hair – as are some of the backings too. The set was recorded upstate in Bearsville – and really has all the hallmarks of the freedoms of that scene at the time – summed up beautifully on material that includes "Something On Your Mind", "In A Station", "Take Me", "Same Old Man", Are You Leaving For The Country", "Katie Cruel", and "How Sweet It Is". Features a huge amount of bonus material – three alternate takes from the album sessions, and six more live tracks from 1971! LP, Vinyl record album

DMZ's badass self-titled set for Sire from '78 – buzzsaw guitars, driving rhythms, manic vocals and eerie organs – an incredible combination of 60s garage inspiration and ferocious punk-era urgency! DMZ migh have been weird fit at a Sire label that at the time was struggling to get The Ramones and Richard Hell into the mainstream – but boy, is it ever worthy stuff! Includes "Mighty Idy", "Bad Attitude", "Watch For Me Girl", "Cinderella", "Don't Jump Me Mother", "Destroyer", "Out Of Our Tree", "Border Line", "Do Not Enter" and "From Home". LP, Vinyl record album

The Electric Prunes get back to basics – as you might guess from the title here – shaking off some of the larger, more ambitious modes of their albums with David Axelrod, yet still retaining a nicely trippy sound overall! The lineup of the group has shifted a bit – hence their billing as "the new improved" Electric Prunes – but although things are stripped-down and simple, there's still some amazing music on the record – a blend of guitar, flute, organ, and vocals that flows along wonderfully with some unusual sounds that we wouldn't expect! And while there's certainly a bit of "good old rock and roll" going on here on a few more straightforward songs, it's not like the album's Let It Be or anything like that – because the group are really more just getting back to the garagey psych of their roots, but doing it a bit better than before! Titles include "Sell", "14 Year Old Funk", "Love Grows", "Giant Sunhorse", "Silver Passion Mine", "Sing To Me", "Tracks", and "Finders Keepers Losers Weepers". 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

A really beautiful set that was issued on a sub-label of UK folk powerhouse Transatlantic – yet a set that's nicely different than some of the better-known work from that label! Ian Hunt and John Thomas both play acoustic guitars, and add in a bit of bass and light percussion – in a stripped-down style that has all the elements of folk, but sounds nothing like it – as there's a much cooler post-60s vibe – not really singer/songwriter, but this sense of intimacy and adult approaches to the music that's very special – maybe a bit like the team of Lambert & Nuttycombe, yet very much in the group's own spirit. The duo really transform the material they touch – as evidenced on their great version of "Living Without You" – heard here next to titles that include "Hold Me Know", "Silver Lady", "We Say We're Happy", "Mr Bojangles", "Older Now & Younger Then", "Morning For Eve", and "Rockfield Rag". (Folk/Country, Rock) CD

Genius early work from Kris Kristofferson – four great albums in a single package, with SACD mastering too! First up is The Silver Tongued Devil & I – a masterful tribute to the genius of Kris Kristofferson, and a record that perfectly illustrates that unique place he held in music at the start of the 70s! The album's Kris' second, and has maybe a more unified vibe than his debut – filled with original material that has that open, honest quality that Kristofferson brought to country music – and which also had a surprisingly strong impact on mainstream rock and singer/songwriter material too! There's both a frankness of feeling and sharpness of wit that make the whole thing wonderful – and the album's overflowing with original gems that include "Jody & The Kid", "Billy Dee", "Loving Her Was Easier", "The Taker", "When I Loved Her", "The Pilgrim Chapter 33" and "Epitaph" – plus a great reading of the Bobby Bare/Billy Joe Shaver tune "Good Christian Soldier". Border Lord is a wonderful album, and one that's full of lesser-known gems from Kris Kristofferson – from a time when he'd started sharing his songs with other singers first, and started to hold back all the good stuff for himself! The album's got help from some country music studio greats, but it's clearly Kristofferson's show, right from the start – overflowing with tunes that get delivery from Kris that nobody else can match – with a special understanding of the choice of words, balance of wit, and depth of feeling that makes him so great on record. Titles include "Burden Of Freedom", "Border Lord", "When She's Wrong", "Kiss The World Goodbye", "Getting By High & Strange", "Somebody Nobody Knows", and "Josie". Jesus Was A Capricorn is one of those records in which Kris Kristofferson takes on the 70s, and comes up with a sound and style that's completely his own – even when working within the mainstream of the time! His label, Monument, could do plenty of hokey stuff – and even arranger Bill Justis wasn't always the hippest of cats – nor producer Fred Foster. Yet working here, they all rise to the occasion under the majesty of the man's music – a soaring batch of original tunes, of that special sort that Kris was always keeping to himself after his early years writing hits for others. Titles include "Why Me", "Give It Time To Be Tender", "It Sure Was Love", "Nobody Wins", "Enough For You", and the title cut "Jesus Was A Capricorn", owed to John Prine! Spooky Lady's Sideshow is a record that has Kris Kristofferson loosening up his mix of styles slightly, almost a nod back to his debut – but all in a way that only seems to bring an even greater range of feeling to his songwriting! Kristofferson maybe looks a bit more casual and laidback on the cover than some previous sets, but he's still got all the sharpness of delivery that makes him so great, and which really matches his magical words – on titles that include "Broken Freedom Song", "Star Spangled Bummer", "Smile At Me Again", "I May Smoke Too Much", "Stairway To The Bottom", and "Rescue Mission". (Folk/Country, Rock) CD

The first record by Lighthouse – a strange band that's always incredibly hard to peg, but who have a sound that we always end up liking a lot! The group mix together folk rock styles with a touch of soul and funk – going for some nice grooves that build up from lots of drum work and airy vocal production, touched here by lots of horns, in a style that's a bit like Blood Sweat & Tears, but a lot lot cooler! This first album is something of a landmark in the jazz/rock vein – and titles include "Never Say Goodbye", "Follow The Stars", "Mountain Man", "Whatever Forever", "Marsha Marsha", and a great cover of "Eight Miles High". 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

The first album from Shawn Phillips – featuring Phillips recording in London with members of Traffic backing him up – in a style that's a great extrapolation of folksy and bluesy roots with some of the hipper styles going down in England at the end of the 60s. Phillips does a great job of expanding his bag way past simple acoustic folk for the record – and manages to do so with a simple, personal quality that's quite different than most of his contemporaries – a sound that should have made him as big as labelmate Cat Stevens, but which has also held up a fair bit better over the years, thanks to Shawn's somewhat obscure status. Titles include "Not Quite Nonsense", "Screamer For Phlyses", "For JFK RFK & MLK", "Lovely Lady", "Withered Roses", "L Ballade", and "No Question". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible debut from Public Image Limited – one of the most striking records of its generation, and a huge surprise – given that the Sex Pistols had broken up just a few months before! The record is the key transition of Johnny Rotten into John Lydon – and the whole thing is light years ahead of the Pistols in terms of boundless creativity and originality – different from Lydon's own earlier revolutionary punk act and different from pretty much everything else on the late 70s landscape – even darker than punk, if you can imagine that! The dissonant, driving post punk guitars and sneering vocals are recognizable, sure – but the dubby textures and more angular touches are so far outside the box and so hugely influential that it's hard to fathom myriad underground rock acts existing without it. Of course, part of the credit also goes to the amazing band that John Lydon assembled to put the whole thing together – a quartet that includes incredible guitar from Keith Levene, and heady bass from Jah Wobble – both key parts of the sound. Titles include "Theme", "Religion", "Religion II", "Annalisa", "Public Image", "Low Life", "Attack" and "Fodderstompf". LP, Vinyl record album

A key album in the post-Hendrix tradition of funky black rock – and the only album ever recorded by Cleveland's Purple Image! The approach here follows nicely in the same territory worked by Funkadelic and Fugi in the early days – a heady, fuzzed-up blend of trippy guitars, heavy rhythms, and some nice sweeter soul touches – all in a mode that swings nicely between really messed-up tunes, and others with a lighter, more soul-based approach. Side two of the record is dominated by the great jamming track "Marching to a Different Drummer" – easily enough to rival anything on Funkadelic's Free Your Mind album – and other cuts include "Living In the Ghetto", "Why", "Lady", and "We Got To Pull Together". (Soul, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "Kill The King", "Man On The Silver Mountain", "Starstruck", "Catch The Rainbow", "Mistreated", and "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves". LP, Vinyl record album

Four albums that show the continuing evolution of Earl Scruggs in the 70s – with a sound that's very different than his earlier music, and maybe even sharper instrumentation overall! First up is I Saw The Light – a record made after the famous banjo pioneer split with Lester Flatt, and was very popular with a young rock crowd – as evidenced by help he gets here from Linda Ronstadt and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – not to mention Gary and Randy Scruggs, Vassar Clements, and Norman Blake! The mix of famous names and the growing Scruggs Review sound is great – and the record is an unlikely but important entry in the rise of country rock during the early 70s, with a very different quality than some of Earl's earlier work. We might well thank the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – as the vibe is similar at times to their shifting music of the period – mixed with some Mike Nesmith inspiration, as a few of his tunes are included. Titles include "Lonesome & A Long Way From Home", "Silver Wings", "Never Ending Song Of Love", "Rock Sant & Nails", "Some Of Shelly's Blues", "It's A Picture From Life's Other Side", and "Propinquity". Features bonus tracks "The Cure", "I Saw The Light", "Fireball Mail", and "Tramp On The Street". On Live From Austin City Limits, the great Earl Scruggs takes on the growing Austin scene – which turns out to be a perfect fit for his Revue's blend of new country modes and older styles of instrumentation! Earl leads off the set with stunning work on banjo – maybe even sharper than earlier years – and the group lead off with some Dylan material at the start, showcasing some of their rock leanings – but soon bringing on other songs of their own, and making for this beautiful mix of key instrumental moments and lyrical passages. Lead vocals are from Gary Scruggs, and Randy and Steve Scruggs are in the group too – on titles that include "Nashville Skyline Rag", "I Shall Be Released", "Tall Texas Woman", "I Just Can't Seem To Change", "Black Mountain Blues", "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven", and "The Swimming Song". Strike Anywhere is a mighty nice album from the great Earl Scruggs – recorded with his boys' Revue group, and a sound that really helps keep Earl's instrumentation fresh for the 70s! Years back, we never would have thought that mixing the legendary Scruggs banjo sound with keyboards would have worked – but the change here is a great one, as Earl makes the shift that a few of his traditional instrumental contemporaries were doing at the time – such as Vassar Clements or Bashful Brother Oswald – finding a new setting for the instruments that still shine out in the lead at all the best moments. Titles include a great remake of "Mandolin Wind" – plus "Muhammad Ali", "Bring It On Home To Me", "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "I Think Of You", and "Dreaming As One". On Bold & New, the great Chips Moman produced and recorded the record – a set that shows that move that Earl had made into country rock during the decade, delivered in the best possible hands! Vocals are from some of Earl's sons, and the man himself still gets gets in plenty of banjo solos too – as the group mix their own material with a few from Bobby Emmons, who plays organ, electric piano, and clavinet on the set. Titles include "The Cabin", "Our Love Is Home Grown", "That's Alright Mama", "Found Myself A New Love", "Games People Play", "Take The Time To Fall In Love", and "Louisiana Lady". (Folk/Country, Rock) CD

Great material from the second chapter of Del Shannon – a time when the previous pop legend opened up to trippier modes – which makes for a really great blend on this gem of an album from 1968! Even at his pop best, there was always a genuine strain of soul-searching sadness in his voice that underscored the material, going all the way back to "Runaway" and on some of the better, if lesser-remembered work after that immortal hit. He manages to carry that trait strongly into the psych era here, with a lot of lusher baroque pop elements, and some great instrumentation – all orchestrated by Don Peake. Includes "Thinking It Over", "Be My Friend", "Silver Birch", "Rover Cool", "Colour Flashing Hair", "Gemini", "Runnin' On Back", "Conquer", "Been So Long", "Magical Musical Box", and "New Orleans (Mardi Gras)". LP, Vinyl record album