Seminal sounds from Be Bop Deluxe – a massive package that features all five of their albums for Harvest in the mid 70s – plus loads of bonus tracks too! The Be Bop Deluxe sound is a bit hard to peg, especially over the evolution enclosed here – but they've definitely got a cool compressed approach to music that's a bit like ELO – or at least like some of the best Brit work of the period that was using that studio style of mixing the vocals and guitars all up in the same sonic space, then fusing the whole thing to a tight level of production, yet all without ever sounding too slick at all. Be Bop Deluxe never had many hits on this side of the Atlantic – which may well be a testament to the inventiveness going on here – especially as things stretch out towards the end of the group, and seem to echo the imminent solo career of Bill Nelson. 5CD set features the full albums Axe Victim, Futurama, Sunburst Finish, Modern Music, and Drastic Plastic – plus loads more bonus tracks, singles, and demos – a massive 82 tracks in all! CD

The man with one of the most godlike voices in rock is back in action – heard here in a recent recording, one of the few post-70s sides that really does him justice! Colin's breathiness is a bit faded, but cast in professional arrangements that still have enough space to let him dominate the material – and the set's also got an interesting choice of songs that shows that Colin's not content to just rehash his older hits, as he did on a few other recent projects. Titles include "Levi Stubbs' Tears", "Tearing The Good Things Down", "The Radio Was Playing Johnny Come Lately", "What Is Love", "Oxygen", "If I Said", and "Breakaway". CD

A classic set from British singer/songwriter Michael Chapman – his last recorded for the Harvest Records label, but done in a way that has the sort of rootsy undercurrents you'd be more likely to find in work from the US! Chapman plays both acoustic and electric guitar, often blended together in ways that echo his folk roots, but push things into a headier space overall – especially when some of the larger arrangements come into the mix – used sparingly, but in ways that show the deeper currents of the lyrics. Paul Buckmaster handled these orchestrations, with just the right touch – and titles include "Polar Bear Fandango", "Indian Queens", "Wrecked Again", "Time Enough To Spare", "Night Drive", and "Mozart Lives Upstairs". CD

Four classic albums from Jackie DeShannon – all in a single set! First up is Me About You – sophisticated Jackie at her best – working with great arrangements from Jack Nitzsche and Nick DeCaro – both cats from the California scene we can really trust for "cut-above" pop work like this – music that goes way past the simple sounds of DeShannon's start – into cool adult territory that really makes the album great. Jackie's vocals are surprisingly soulful in the setting – even more so than before – and the tunes include lots of gems, including versions of Van Dyke Parks' "High Coin", John Sebastian's "Didn't Want To Have To Do It", and Tim Hardin's "Baby Close Its Eyes". Also includes "I Keep Wanting You", "Me About You", and "Nicole". Next is Laurel Canyon – heady work from Jackie DeShannon's later years in 60s pop – an album with themes and styles that go way beyond her earlier recordings – as you might guess from the hip Laurel Canyon reference in the title! Jackie's working here in a mode that's much more strongly in a singer-songwriter style than before – with arrangements and backings that are a lot more organic, and less pop-tuned than ever – almost in a Laura Nyro approach on some numbers. As usual, a good portion of the tracks were written by Jackie herself – including "Holly Would", "Come & Stay With Me", "LA", "Too Close", and "Laurel Canyon" – and the album also features a few well chosen tracks by other writers too, like "Bitter Honey" by Paul Williams & Roger Nichols, "I Got My Reason" by Barry White, and "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" by Smokey Robinson. Put A Little Love In Your Heart is quite possibly the last great hit from singer Jackie DeShannon – an album built around the righteous spirit of the title track – filled with really wonderful original tunes penned by Jackie and soul singer Jimmy Holiday! The album may well be the best to explore the space between pop and soul that often characterized Jackie's work – and the overall sound is somewhat similar to some of Dusty Springfield's best pop/soul work from the same stretch. 10 of the album's 12 tracks are originals by Holiday and DeShannon – all set to soaring orchestrations by James Langeford, which often have a pronounced influence from the sound of Atlantic Records in the late 60s! Titles include "Put A Little Love In Your Heart", "You Are The Real Thing", "River Of Love", "Movin", "You Can Come To Me", "You Have A Way With Me", and "I Let Go Completely". To Be Free is an interesting little record – with kind of a crossover California soul feel overall – recorded with Rene Hall arrangements that echo a few rootsy modes at times, mixed in with fuller orchestrations that step a bit back towards Jackie's earlier years on Imperial – a surprisingly nice blend, with a fresh sound for the 70s. The album features a number of great tracks co-written with Jimmy Holiday – a fellow Imperial talent – and titles include "Mediterranean Sky", "Sooner Or Later", "What Was Your Day Like", "Livin On The Easy Side", "Brighton Hill", and "When Morning Comes Again". CD

A funky combo, but one with a real difference – as they seem to find whole new corners of the globe in which to work their magic – almost an imagined space of cultural criss-crossing, all set to some mighty funky bass and drums! The core element here is the guitar – which echoes exotic modes that seem to move from Mexican folk, to contemporary Tuareg sounds, and even a bit of southwest guitar instrumental echo – but all in ways that are very fresh and different, and which also sound quite unusual compared to the usual use of guitar in a funky combo! There's a bit of vocals on the album, but really the guitar is the main "voice" – and one that speaks volumes – on titles that include "Lady & Man", "Como Te Quiero", "Shades Of Man", "Maria Tambien", "Como Me Quieres", "A Hymn", and "Rules". (Deep Funk, Rock) CD

A funky combo, but one with a real difference – as they seem to find whole new corners of the globe in which to work their magic – almost an imagined space of cultural criss-crossing, all set to some mighty funky bass and drums! The core element here is the guitar – which echoes exotic modes that seem to move from Mexican folk, to contemporary Tuareg sounds, and even a bit of southwest guitar instrumental echo – but all in ways that are very fresh and different, and which also sound quite unusual compared to the usual use of guitar in a funky combo! There's a bit of vocals on the album, but really the guitar is the main "voice" – and one that speaks volumes – on titles that include "Lady & Man", "Como Te Quiero", "Shades Of Man", "Maria Tambien", "Como Me Quieres", "A Hymn", and "Rules". (Deep Funk, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A masterpiece from Spacemen 3 – maybe one of the greatest psychedelic albums of all time – and one that we'd rank right up there with giants from the late 60s, and all those lesser-known acts that always seem to get rediscovered over the years! There's a definite 80s quality to the production, but there's also a timeless approach here that really sets the trio apart from so many of their contemporaries who'd reach for fuzz and echo, yet end up sounding completely dated just a few years later. Everything seems set to "rumble" – the Vox Starstreamer, the Fender Jaguar, the Telecaster, Rickenbacker, and other vintage instruments that made this drum-less record so wonderful right at the core – and although the vocals are part of the package too, it's really the guitars that do all the singing here. Titles include "Come Down Softly To My Soul", "How Does It Feel", "Let Me Down Gently", "Lord Can You Hear Me", "Suicide", "Honey", and "I Believe It". LP, Vinyl record album

Smoking instrumentals from the California scene of the early 60s – tracks that nicely bridge the space between surf guitar, R&B, and exotica – served up with plenty of sax, organ, and searing guitar! Most of the work here came from the studios of tiny Downey Records – done in a rough-edged, garagey style that's simple, but extremely effective – and a really nice contrast to mainstream California instrumentals of the time. The groups vary throughout, but most of the tunes are linked with a shared production technique that uses heavy echo, straightforward performance, and the occasional spare added element to spice up the music – a really great sound that has plenty of dark edges! Titles include "Migrane" and "Eight Ball" by The Hustlers, "Blockade" and "Here Comes The Bug" by The Rumblers, "Intoxica" and "Comanche" by The Revels, "Space Battle" by Stories In Sound, "Water Wheel" by Chuck Higgins, "Here Comes The Sun" by The Rumblers, "Rosemary's Baby" by Ed Burkey, "Ghost Of Mary Meade (part 2)" by Little Caesar & The Ark Angels, A Week From Tuesday" by The Pastel Six, and "Theme Of Etiquette" by The Hindus. CD

A cool Cali band from the 60s – one who share some instrumental modes with the surf guitar greats of the time, but who also have a special vibe that's very much their own! Bailey's Nervous Kats have a laidback vibe that's maybe not what you'd expect from their name – and that allows for more space for the group to bring in new tones and flavors – almost exotica elements served up in the mix, but with more small combo rock instrumentation! The production is mighty nice too – all sorts of echoey twists and turns that really keep things interesting – and titles include "Simba", "Pandora", "Chong", "First Love", "Five Fingers Of Scotch", "Devil's Run", and "Traveling Sam". LP, Vinyl record album

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

A record that's virtually impossible to describe in words – partly because it's got a trans-historical, trans-spatial sort of vibe – effortlessly filtering together the best roots of older French pop music, and combining them with a range of underground pop elements that reach out to the farther reaches of the globe! Jean Emmanuel Deluxe sings lead – often with a raspy style that's partly sung, partly spoken – but never in a Serge Gainsbourg mode. Instead, he gets lots of spacey support on keyboards, echoey drums, and other instrumentation that feels like reworked 60s modes – ala Stereolab, High Llamas, or Pearlfishers. Yet the record is nothing like any of those references at all – even though Sean O'Hagan provides some guest work – as does Bertrand Burgalat, Misawa Masanori, and drummer Werner "Zappi" Diermaier of Faust. Titles include "Lushy Life", "The Girl Who Was Talking In Reverse", "Claire", "La Gourveneur De California", "Hollywood Parties", and "Comme Une Video Star". LP, Vinyl record album

A key later album from Dion – and a set that shows a newly maturing style in his music! The album was something of a follow-up to Dion's huge single "Abraham Martin & John" – the bittersweet track that was a surprise late 60s hit for the singer – and which allowed him to explore much more introspective space on this album. The style is extremely folksy throughout – with a lot of acoustic guitar next to Dion's vocals, which are themselves often recorded with a slightly echoey, almost watery quality. There's definitely echoes here of Tim Buckley and Tim Hardin, but the record's got its own soul as well – thanks to a newly fragile quality in Dion's voice. Titles include "Abraham Martin & John", "Sisters Of Mercy", "Both Sides Now", "Sun Fun Song", "He Looks A Lot Like Me", "The Dolphins", and "You Better Watch Yourself". CD featuers the bonus track "Daddy Rollin". CD

A late masterpiece from the Flaming Lips – one of their most unique and uncompromising records since they became leftfield hitmakers – and a record that works best as a whole! Embryonic is a grower, and the first record since The Soft Bulletin which, to our ears anyway, doesn't seem to have any illusions of a crossover ready single in the lineup. It's really a space rock record with fuzzy guitars and echoing noisiness, and a confident step out of "Do You Realize?" style speaks-to-everyone art pop, and into more of a dissonant, messy sound. It's a real thrill for us to see a longtime favorite not only get over into the mainstream consciousness and stay there for years, but to continue to challenge and innovate while they're hanging out there. Titles include "Convinced Of The Hex", "The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine", "Evil", "Aquarius Sabotage", "See The Leaves", "Your Bats", "Powerless", "Scorpio Sword", "Watching The Planets" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A classic record by this important Japanese band, and one that was actually made in Canada, despite the title – at a time when the group were visiting, and managed to create this wonderful record with a very relaxed, organic vibe! Vocals are in English, and lead singer Joe Yamanaka has a style that's unlike anyone else we can think of – not afraid to really run up with expressive passages when needed, but also sometimes nestled right down next to the fuzzy guitar and heady bass – which occasionally have echoes of some of the new hard rock modes of the UK, but with more of a sense of space between the notes, which Joe is more than happy to fill in a really great way! Guitarist Hideki Ishima also plays a bit of sitar – and titles include "Spasms", "Heaven & Hell", "That's All", "Hiroshima", "Aw Give Me Air", "Kamikaze", and "Unaware". (Japanese, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A classic record by this important Japanese band, and one that was actually made in Canada, despite the title – at a time when the group were visiting, and managed to create this wonderful record with a very relaxed, organic vibe! Vocals are in English, and lead singer Joe Yamanaka has a style that's unlike anyone else we can think of – not afraid to really run up with expressive passages when needed, but also sometimes nestled right down next to the fuzzy guitar and heady bass – which occasionally have echoes of some of the new hard rock modes of the UK, but with more of a sense of space between the notes, which Joe is more than happy to fill in a really great way! Guitarist Hideki Ishima also plays a bit of sitar – and titles include "Spasms", "Heaven & Hell", "That's All", "Hiroshima", "Aw Give Me Air", "Kamikaze", and "Unaware". (Japanese, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic lost psych album – with a moody spacey sound augmented by lots of organ, harpsichord, and electric piano! The best cuts are short and echoey – with kind of a trippy pop feel that sounds like post-Brit invasion lyricism, mixed with LA stoner freedom, and a good dash of Love-esque soul. Titles include Tim Hardin's great "You Upset the Grace of Living", "Hang Onto A Dream", and "Never Too Far" – plus a very cool version of "Nature Boy", and the tracks "Tiffany Rings", "I Watch The Moon", and "Me About You". LP, Vinyl record album

A pretty great 70s set from the Italian scene – one that features contributions from avant composer Franco Battiato, but at a level that's very different than his own albums of the time! The songs are tuneful, and have lead vocals that are often compressed, with a bit of echo around the edges – which nudges them nicely down into the mix around the keyboards, for a cool spacey vibe that's almost like some of the more unusual Brazilian MPB of the time – catchy but offbeat at the same time! Titles include "Campane A Rotterdam", "A San Francisco", "La Mia Citta", "Piogia", "Biscotti E The", "Giorno D'Estate", and "Frontiere". LP, Vinyl record album

Freaked out, slow burning, LSD inspired freeform psychedelia from the early 70s – credited to Czech-born guru Sergius Golowin and the Cosmic Jokers! Conceptually, Lord Krishna Von Goloka concerns itself with the spiritual machinations of the universe and all kinds of mystical mumbo jumbo of which we can't claim to speak for the merits, mostly due to a language barrier, but the leisurely cosmic soundspaces speak to us well enough! Acoustic guitars, spacey keys, organ and echoey sounds bring a lighter feel to much of it, as opposed to the heavier proggy touches of contemporary efforts of the time. 3 long pieces, the uber epic length "Der Reigen" and "Di Hock-Zeit" which each run near 20 minutes, and the shorter middle part "Die Weibe Alm". CD

A story of "spaceship earth" – created and performed by electronics genius Bruce Haack, ostensibly for children, but a really tripped-out set! The album's got a stark, spare feel – one that uses Haack's echoey voice alongside homemade electronics and rhythms – all in a style that's vaguely educational, but which also has a madly frenetic electric feel. The topics here are a bit deeper, and somehow darker than some of Haack's other albums – and the whole thing's a beautifully spacey set that we'd rank as one of Haack's best! Titles include "Army Ants In Your Pants", "Mallangong", "The Universal Unicycle Show", "Metric Conversion", "American Eagle", and "Catfish". (Now Sound, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A stone classic from the legendary Hawkwind – a set that's steeped in all their best space rock modes of the 70s – yet which also has a wonderfully sharp sort of focus too! Keyboards, guitars, and drums soar to the skies right from the start – prefacing an intensity that so many others would later cop from the group, but never get this right – quite possibly because the simple 70s production really helps bring all the best elements right down on the money! In ways, the set almost echoes earlier psych performance and production – yet there's also a cleaner, clearer vibe going on – one that magically steps around the overindulgence of prog and the thinness of some of the later psych of the next decade. Titles include "The Demented Man", "Magnu", "Standing At The Edge", "Warriors", "Kings Of Speed", and "The Wizard Blew His Horn". CD

A stone classic from the legendary Hawkwind – a set that's steeped in all their best space rock modes of the 70s – yet which also has a wonderfully sharp sort of focus too! Keyboards, guitars, and drums soar to the skies right from the start – prefacing an intensity that so many others would later cop from the group, but never get this right – quite possibly because the simple 70s production really helps bring all the best elements right down on the money! In ways, the set almost echoes earlier psych performance and production – yet there's also a cleaner, clearer vibe going on – one that magically steps around the overindulgence of prog and the thinness of some of the later psych of the next decade. Titles include "The Demented Man", "Magnu", "Standing At The Edge", "Warriors", "Kings Of Speed", and "The Wizard Blew His Horn". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic mix of heady sounds and heavy funk from The Heliocentrics – and a record that continues the vibe of their previous set – in which the team of Malcolm Catto and Jake Ferguson were joined by the lovely vocals of Barbora Patkova! Patkova's presence is just what the group needs to really ground their sound – a female singer up front, but one who's as equally comfortable with distortion, fuzz, and echoey spaces as the two instrumentalists – a trio who continue that unique tradition of psychedelic funk that we first loved in Catto's early work on Mo Wax! Titles include "99% Revolution", "Hanging By A Thread", "Nonsense (part 1)", "Light In The Dark", "People Wake Up", "Burning Wooden Ship", and "Elephant Walk". (Deep Funk, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A groundbreaking record from Kraftwerk – a set that unified the 70s worlds of analogue electronics and prog rock – yet somehow managed to set the scene for a whole new sound to come! The album's a treasure all the way through – slow-building, and with beautiful bubbling moments that have these surprisingly simple hooks – heard to best effect in the album's classic title cut "Autobahn" – but echoed nicely through the album's other longer tracks too – "Kometenmelodie 1 &2", "Mitternacht", and "Morgenspaziergang". LP, Vinyl record album

Need to blow your mind? This is definitely the record to do it – one of the weirdest instrumental albums we've heard from the 60s – and a very messed-up batch of psychedelic tracks that use strange echoey techniques to create a fake "electronic" sound! Most of the cuts have heavy guitars in the lead, produced in a way that really distorts them, and which moves them through an echo chamber to create lots of feedback and lots of strange vibrations. Other tracks seem to use more electronics – although it might be conventional instrumentation, made weird via studio trickery – all with some very spacey sound. The drums are heavy enough, but the main groove is the guitar sound – and it's pretty darn wild! Titles include "Asbury Tripper", "Lunar Sea", "Prism On Prism", "Shadows Of Vibrate", "Mindblower", and "Zenquake". LP, Vinyl record album

Not Kurt Cobain's Nirvana, but a totally great effort from the late 60s Brit group of the same name – true pop psych geniuses, and able to work here with a sound that's nice and trippy, but never self-indulgent! These guys manage to get nice and spacey with some of the arrangements and production, yet still deliver one hell of a tune – really catchy tracks that make each new number on the album a 60s pop delight, but work that also has the richer depth of some of the more heady material of the time! The balance here is wonderful – at a level that few other groups might match – with echoes of some of our favorite other late 60s moments – like the Left Banke, or Chad & Jeremy's Cabbages & Kings, with great use of strings – but still very much Nirvana's own sound too. Titles include "Rainbow Chaser", "Tiny Goddess", "You Can Try It", "St John's Wood Affair", "Everybody Loves The Clown", "The Touchables", and "Trapeze". CD features bonus tracks "Oh What A Performance", "Flashbulb", "Darling Darlene", and "C Side Of Ocho Rios". CD

A strange spacey soundtrack from mid 80s Spain – one composed for a daytime TV show, but with a weird electronic vibe that must have shocked the kids who were watching at the time! The music has some echoes of the cooler side of the German new wave – not the darkness of the cold wave side, but maybe the mix of playfulness and experimentation you'd hear from Pyrolator or Der Plan – both of whom would be a good comparison the spirit of the songs on this set! Most tunes are instrumental, but still pretty darn catchy – and when there's vocals, they're usually processed in the best 80s electro way. Titles include "Una Dia Especial", "Tema De Kiu", "El Mon De Kiu", "Un Dia Boig", "Beat De Beth", "Ball De Beth", "Quan Jo Sigui Una Estrella", and "Tema De La Lluno". (Soundtracks, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

Venezuela had some pretty amazing sounds going on in the early 80s, and this album from electronic musician Angel Rada is definitely a great example of the diversity of the scene! Rada works in a style that echoes some of the hippest European experiments of the late 70s – particularly some of the best of the German artists on Sky Records – but his overall approach is looser, and more distinctive – almost as if he's using his electronics to plumb space in an experimental way – music that might be the perfect soundtrack for some sort of spacecraft approaching and exploring an unknown planet! Titles include "Basheeba", "Video Game", "Panico A Las 5am", "Upadesa", "Carrillon", and "Asesinato Musical". LP, Vinyl record album

The brilliant solo debut of Martin Rev – a set that feels like it's peeled away all his best contributions from the first Suicide album, then found a way to serve them up with a slightly different vibe that really sets the album apart! There's lots of analog fuzz and echo – that same spacey style that made Suicide so great – but the keyboards dominate even more than before, as only one tune features vocals – which lets Rev do all these really cool things with the electronics – continuing his way of taking earlier prog, avant, and Krautrock experiments and fusing them into a leaner, meaner style for the punk generation! The album's got a very seminal sound – a key text in the cold wave generation – and titles include "Jomo", "Mari", "Baby O Baby", "Nineteen 86", and "Asia". CD