A tripped-out set of acid folk guitar from Satwa – featuring Brazilian psychedelic folk genius Lula Cortes, in a feel that's very much like his own great work of the time! Satwa is one of the sweetest sets of psych folk jams we've heard in ages – with a mostly-instrumental, wholly mesmerizing sound spun by Lula on sitar and partner Lailson on 12 string guitar – a rich acoustic blend that's even deeper and more enigmatic than music of this type from the American scene! There's a bit of guest lead guitar on one track by Robertinho Do Recife – and titles include "Satwa", "Can I Be Satwa", "Alegro Piradissimo", "Lia A Rainha Da Noite", "Apacidonata", "Amigo", "Atom", "Blue Do Cachorro Muito Louco", "Valsa Dos Cogumelos", and "Alegria Do Povo". (Brazil, Rock) CD

Great work by one of the most compelling groups in the Kama Sutra bubble gum stable! Sopwith Camel always seemed a bit headier than their contemporaries – part Spanky & Our Gang type pop, part long-haired hipster rock – handled with some introspective touches that almost feel like Leonard Cohen at times. This early album's hard to describe, but it's a lost pop gem – and one of those west coast late 60s sides that make you realize that there was a heck of a lot of great music that got lost in the shuffle of the summer of love! Titles include "Walk In The Park", "Postcard From Jamaica", "Cellophane Woman", "Maybe In A Dream", "Saga Of The Low Down Let Down", "Hello Hello", and "Frantic Desolation". LP, Vinyl record album

The crowning achievement of Spirit – a wonderful blend of many musical strands at once – and a set so successful for the group, you probably could have found in any college dorm room in the early 70s! The record's really a cut above for their generation – an expansive effort that hangs together with a bit of a concept, and which interweaves strands of rock, folk, and a bit of jazz – yet also a record that has a lot more polish than other efforts of its type, and which trades a bit of psychedelic indulgence for a tighter focus that really lets the best tunes sparkle wonderfully! Production is great – clear, but trippy at the same time – and Randy California's guitar work has never sounded better. Titles include "Nature's Way", "Animal Zoo", "Love Has Found A Way", "Mr Skin", "Soldier", "Street Worm", and "Space Child". LP, Vinyl record album

The crowning achievement of Spirit – a wonderful blend of many musical strands at once – and a set so successful for the group, you probably could have found in any college dorm room in the early 70s! The record's really a cut above for their generation – an expansive effort that hangs together with a bit of a concept, and which interweaves strands of rock, folk, and a bit of jazz – yet also a record that has a lot more polish than other efforts of its type, and which trades a bit of psychedelic indulgence for a tighter focus that really lets the best tunes sparkle wonderfully! Production is great – clear, but trippy at the same time – and Randy California's guitar work has never sounded better. Titles include "Nature's Way", "Animal Zoo", "Love Has Found A Way", "Mr Skin", "Soldier", "Street Worm", and "Space Child". CD

A full-on jazz rock spectacular – done with a style that's a lot like some of the best British projects of this type from the time, but recorded in Las Vegas, with a lineup of American players that includes guitarist Dean Parks, trumpeter Bobby Shew, and tenorist Don Menza! The album's got a really rumbling bassy feel – kicking ass with a rock-based bottom, but coming across with a surprisingly jazzy sound overall! There's strong solos on nearly every track, and the album (unlike many of its contemporaries) doesn't feature any vocals at all – which means that you can keep in the groove without getting sidetracked by any weak singing! Titles include "Acid West", "Keep On Burnin", "Never In My Life", "Clown", "Sin's A Good Man's Brother", and "Rice Pudding". (Jazz, Rock) LP, Vinyl record album

A real turning point in the career of David Sylvian – and his first album to feature moody soundscape-type tracks! The double-length album has Sylvian really exploring sound and space in ways never imagined on his earlier work with Japan – stretching out from the album's first few vocal numbers, and eventually nodding into a realm of darkness that's completely sublime! The vocal tunes – like "River Man", "Gone To Earth", "Taking The Veil", and "Laughter And Forgetting" – are as captivating as any of the tracks on Brilliant Trees, but even better in that they're more laidback and personal. They're followed by beautiful instrumental tunes – "The Healing Place", "Answered Prayers", "The Wooden Cross", and "Where the Railroad Meets The Sea" – done in the same shamanistic/mystic mode of some of Sylvian's later more experimental work, but with more of a tuneful song-like structure. CD

A great little record – of the type you could hardly make this well today! The Tea Company are an obscure psychedelic act, clearly concerned with all things "tea" (wink wink!) – and working in a free and open style that's a bit trippier than that of the usual psyche-pop styled group. Songs are longish at times, and there's lots of really cool production touches that make the weird lyrics and fuzzy instrumentation sound even better! Titles include "Make Love Not War", "Flowers", "Love Could Make The World Go Round", "Come & Have Some Tea With Me", and a very strange take on "You Keep Me Hanging On". Also includes the song "Don't Make Waves", which is really just water (bong?) sounds – recorded with lots of strange effects! LP, Vinyl record album

Billed as "The Original Walker Brothers" on the cover, this one features tracks that Scott cut in the US with John Stewart, in the years before he moved to England and became super-huge stars. The tracks have less of that "wall of sound" style than their later work, and more of a rock n roll type groove. Titles include "Greens", "Diskoteque", "Without Your Love", "Wallflower", "Ham Hocks", "Chick's Choice", and "Swingin At The Batcave". LP, Vinyl record album

The complete Monument recordings of southern soul-tinged swamp rock trailblazer Tony Joe White – in a wonderful box set from the deep catalog explorers at Rhino Handmade! Swamp Rock contains everything from the Black & White, Continued and Tony Joe LPs – with dozens of previously unreleased work from the era. Unlike the most famous dude we can think of who wears the swamp rock genre tag, Tony Joe White really was reared in the swamp country of Louisiana – and genuineness shows on these fine recordings! His vocals here have a bit of that laconic storyteller vibe of a Bobby Bare type character – but the production and arrangements have a real feel for the Stax and Muscle Shoals sounds. It's a blend of styles that's quite unique – and well worth rediscovery! Includes all the tracks from Tony Joe's 3 LPs for Monument plus a swampful of great bonus numbers from those sessions and more – a whopping 81 tracks on four CDs! Disc one includes the Black & White LP and much more: "Willie And Laura Mae Jones", "Soul Francisco", "Whompt Out On You", "Wichita Lineman" and more. Disc 2 features the Continued LP and more: "Elements And Things", "Woodpecker", "Old Man Willis", "Woman With Soul" and much more. Disc 3 includes the Tony Joe LP tracks and more: "Stud-Spider", "Widow Wimberly", "Save Your Sugar For Me", "Hard To Handle" and more. Disc 4 includes a slew of previously unreleased material cut at Barclay Studios in Paris, plus live work from Tony Joe at the Isle Of Wight: titles include "Mississippi Delta", "Chain Of Blues", "Ballad Of Hollis Brown" and more from the Barclay sessions, plus "Boom Boom", "I Want You", "Groupy Girl" and more from Isle Of Wight. 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