One of the most brilliant moments of genius from Paul McCartney & Wings – and a set that has Paul working with the group in perfect album formation – able to craft enough songs that became hit singles, yet also fit the whole thing together in a superb sonic reality that made the whole thing even more wonderful as a full length record! The shift of moods, tones, and sounds are as varied as the choice of celebrities appearing with the group on the cover – and the interplay between Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine has really hit its stride – on titles that include one of our all-time Wings favorites, "Nineteen Hundred Eighty Five" – plus "Band On The Run", "Bluebird", "Jet", "Mrs Vanderbilt", "Let Me Roll It", "Mamunia", "No Words", and "Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)". 2CD version features the original 10 track US version of the album on CD1 – then CD2 features unreleased rough mix versions of 9 tracks from the record! CD

One of the most brilliant moments of genius from Paul McCartney & Wings – and a set that has Paul working with the group in perfect album formation – able to craft enough songs that became hit singles, yet also fit the whole thing together in a superb sonic reality that made the whole thing even more wonderful as a full length record! The shift of moods, tones, and sounds are as varied as the choice of celebrities appearing with the group on the cover – and the interplay between Paul, Linda, and Denny Laine has really hit its stride – on titles that include one of our all-time Wings favorites, "Nineteen Hundred Eighty Five" – plus "Band On The Run", "Bluebird", "Jet", "Mrs Vanderbilt", "Let Me Roll It", "Mamunia", "No Words", and "Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)". CD

A massive 2 CD package – one that set a whole new standard for 70s live albums! The group's at their rocking best – a bit rawer here than in the studio – and the set includes some overlooked gems from albums, plus renditions of a few Beatles tunes too. CD

A massive 2 CD package – one that set a whole new standard for 70s live albums! The group's at their rocking best – a bit rawer here than in the studio – and the set includes some overlooked gems from albums, plus renditions of a few Beatles tunes too. CD

(Folk/Country, Rock) CD

A prog rock masterpiece from Ash Ra Temple – a set that still has the group in very pschedelic, jamming, and improvisational territory – as they serve up two album-length tracks that really soar to the skies on wings of sound! The group here still features lots of great keyboards and electronics from Klaus Schulze, but on side one most of the energy comes from the core interplay between the fantastic guitars of Manuel Gottsching, bass of Harmut Enke, and drums of Schulze – players who really take their combination of instruments in very different directions than UK trios of the time! Side two definitely has some spacier moments that let the keyboards dominate a bit more, alongside cool vocals from Rosi, used in very light ways – but there's plenty of jamming too – on titles that include "Freak N Roll" and "Jenseits". CD

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". CD

The first four albums from this crucial group – along with four more CDs of rare live material too! First up is the self-titled Cactus – the first album from this legendary group – an important American hard rock powerhouse, driven by the famous rhythm duo of Tim Bogert on bass and Carmine Appice on drums – both of whom roll out of the gate here with amazingly frenetic energy! They're maybe only topped by the guitar work of Jim McCarty, whose searing lines are clearly learned from blues inspirations, then turned up in both speed and power – to match the vocals and harmonica of Rusty Day! There's nothing going on here that sounds like blues rock at all – even though the set begins with a cover of "Parchman Farm" – next to other titles that include "My Lady From South Of Detroit", "No Need To Worry", "You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover", and "Let Me Swim". On One Way Or Another, Cactus are totally at the top of their game – and the guitar of Jim McCarthy really sets the record on fire, right from the very first note – at a level that should have made Jim one of the real guitar hero legends of his generation! Yet there's also power from the whole group going on too – tight rhythms from the team of Carmine Appice and Jim Bogert, the latter of whom starts to bring in his own vocals a fair bit more, offering backup to the raspy lead of Rusty Day. And while there's a few currents that show their older influence from blues, the sound here is massively hard rock all the way through – making the record a great illustration of the way that slavish blues rock gave birth to a fresh new jamming sound in a matter of just a few short years. Titles include "Rockout Whatever You Feel Like", "Song For Aries", "Feel So Bad", "Rock N Roll Children", and "Hometown Bust". Restrictions is next, and despite the title, there's no restrictions at all – as Cactus seem to be even more confident, more able to stretch their wings and fly than ever before – even adding in some extra piano and keyboards at points to the core guitar-heavy sound of the quartet! All the group's best elements are very firmly in place – searing guitar, righteously confident vocals, and a strutting sensibility that makes this early 70s album way ahead of the game in terms of territory that so many bigger groups would later copy for their own classic records. Titles include "Guiltless Glider", "Evil Alaska", "Sweet Sixteen", "Bag Drag", "Restrictions", and "Mean Night In Cleveland". Ot N Sweaty is a record that's got a bit of a shift in the classic Cactus lineup – as the group's still driven strongly by the work of Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass, but get guitar power from Werner Fritzschings, who's a pretty amazing player – next to some added keyboards from Duane Hitchings, and vocals from Peter French – a singer who's ballsy power might be even more in line with the group than their previous lead singer! The album's got an unusual approach in that side one was recorded live, side two in the studio – each with a nicely different flavor as a result – on titles that include "Swim", "Our Lil Rock N Roll Thing", "Bedroom Mazurka", "Telling You", "Bad Stuff", and "Bringing Me Down". 8CD set is overflowing with great material – bonus tracks added to three of the four albums in the collection, than a further 4CDs worth of live material – titled Fully Unleashed – The Live Gigs Vols 1 & 2. The live material is great – and really shows the tightness of the group at their best! CD

A slightly gentler album than the first Captain Beyond outing – but one that really has the group stretching out their wings wonderfully! The set's recorded both in Macon and Sausalito – and really has a vibe that indicates that mix – a core southern rock element, handled with the soulful undercurrents of early 70s Capricorn Records – but given some freer-thinking elements at times from the Bay Area scene! The drums power through nicely at some of the best points – but even the laidback tunes are pretty darn great – and we honestly never can understand why Captain Beyond weren't as big as some of their contemporaries from the southern scene. Titles include "Starglow Energy", "Evil Men", "Drifting In Space", "Bright Blue Tango", "Everything's A Circle", and "Voyages Of Past Travelers". CD

The raw, mesmerizing debut of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds! On From Her To Eternity, Cave stalks and staggers right along the line between the aggro caterwaul of The Birthday Party and the haunting moodiness of later records with the Bad Seeds – and it's as distinct and exciting as ever after all these years! The looseness of the Bad Seeds sound is big part of what makes it so amazing, with spare backdrops that always carry the promise of noisy menace to come, and it's all the more exciting with it does – and Cave's mournful, angry testifying is in near peak form here. Includes "Avalanche", "Cabin Fever!", "Well Of Misery", "From Here To Eternity", "Saint Huck", "Wings Off Flies" and "A Box For Black Paul". DVD features 5.1 DVD-audio surround mix and bonus videos! CD

Titles include "Icarus Borne On Wings Of Steel", "All The World", "Mysteries & Mayhem", and "The Pinnacle" – plus two bonus tracks CD

Groovy 60s pop from the sunny brother & sister duo of Nino Tempo & April Stevens – wonderful stuff that's crafted as sweetly as can be, encapsulating influences from a wide range of pop styles of the time – and it still sounds great! This anthology features a bunch of the their best duo numbers, as well as some earlier and later separate projects we'd never heard before. 24 tracks in all: "Deep Purple", "All Strung Out", "Sweet And Lovely", "Follow Me", "Hey Baby", "Out Of Nowhere", "Wings Of Love", "Lovin' Valentine" (April Stevens), "Sister James" (Nino Tempo & 5th Ave Sax), "Hey Baby", "Honeysuckle Rose", "Whispering", "Amazon River" and many more. CD

Frank Zappa's got some fantastic fusion touches on this sweet little set from the 70s – thanks to keyboards and a bit of vocals from George Duke, heavy drums from Chester Thompson, and even some brief help from Johnny Guitar Watson! The set's still got a very Zappa-esque feel, but it's clear he's also letting Duke stretch his wings a bit too as there's parts of the record that almost echo the style of some of George's more far-out recordings for MPS. The balance is great – and one that makes the album a lot more soulful at points than we're used to hearing from Zappa. Titles include "Florentine Pogen", "Can't Afford No Shoes", "Inca Roads", "Po-Jama People", "Evelyn A Modified Dog", and "San Ber'Dino". CD

Heavy kraut, indeed – as the set features a stunning array of hard rock acts from the German scene at the start of the 70s – very different music than some of the dreamier space rock or spare electronics you might also know from the time! These are all bands who really know how to turn things up to "11" – and come up with that rawness that was first unleased by UK power trios at the end of the 70s – groups who often found a surprisingly big audience in Germany, where bands quickly served up their own brand of post-psych freak and fuzz! You'll know a few of these groups from global fame back in the day, but many others are more obscure – and the 2CD set features tracks that include "If" by Frame, "Crazy Woman" by Night Sun, "Smile" by Message, "Fly Little Jeannie" by New Lords, "Stay" by Toad, "Der Hund Von Baskerville" by Cindy & Bert, "You've Got To Follow This Masquerade" by Hairy Chapter, "Spread Your Wings" by Black Mass, and "Pandemonium" by Birth Control. CD

A great tribute to the songwriting skills of Laura Nyro – presented here in a package that features key covers from some of Nyro's contemporaries, and which also includes a surprising amount of soul music too! Laura's one of those key 60s talents who started writing for others, then got the chance to spread her wings on her own – and while her own recordings have really continued to reach new audiences over the decades, it's great to have a package like this to remind us of Nyro's songwriting roots! The set's mostly heavy on material from the late 60s and early 70s – with a fair bit of female soul tunes in the mix – and it also includes a few more contemporary numbers that come as a nice surprise. Like others in Ace's "songwriter" series, the production and packaging is great – and titles include "Stoney End" by The Blossoms, "Time & Love" by The Supremes, "Wedding Bell Blues" by Bobby Gentry, "Captain St Lucifer" by Melba Moore, "Save The Country" by Thelma Houston, "Lazy Susan" by Liane Carroll, "He's A Runner" by Mama Cass, "Buy & Sell" by Nnena Freelon, "Lonely Women" by Linda Hoyle, "Eli's Coming" by Friends Of Distinction, and "Stoned Soul Picnic" by Staple Singers. CD

A prog rock masterpiece from Ash Ra Temple – a set that still has the group in very pschedelic, jamming, and improvisational territory – as they serve up two album-length tracks that really soar to the skies on wings of sound! The group here still features lots of great keyboards and electronics from Klaus Schulze, but on side one most of the energy comes from the core interplay between the fantastic guitars of Manuel Gottsching, bass of Harmut Enke, and drums of Schulze – players who really take their combination of instruments in very different directions than UK trios of the time! Side two definitely has some spacier moments that let the keyboards dominate a bit more, alongside cool vocals from Rosi, used in very light ways – but there's plenty of jamming too – on titles that include "Freak N Roll" and "Jenseits". CD

Paul McCartney has left Wings behind for this record – but in their place he's come up with a wonderful new approach – serving up all the instruments himself, as he did on the first album titled Paul McCartney – but also using more electronics than before, which makes for some wonderfully moody moments! The songwriting is great – every bit as strong as the 70s years, without some of Paul's later 80s fluff – and the change in instrumentation really makes for some beautifully haunting moments. The set includes "Waterfalls" – one of our favorite tracks ever by Paul – and other titles include the hit "Coming Up", the groovy "Temporary Secretary", and the tracks "Darkroom", "Summer Day's Song", "On The Way", "Nobody Knows", "Bogey Music", and "Frozen Jap". Deluxe edition includes two CDs of additional tracks and a DVD enclosed in a numbered hardbound book. CD

An early moment of genius from post-Beatles Paul McCartney – a solo set that's wonderfully diverse throughout – filled with the kinds of cool little twists and turns we loved in his late Beatles records, and in his 70s killers with Wings! There's a newly-emerging sweetness going on here – that great sound that started to emerge with the McCartney album – where Paul was a proud, put-together family guy – easily one of the most confident of his fab foursome, and able to bring an incredible amount of charm to just about any style he wanted to try! Some of the best cuts here are the mellower, more personal moments – still delivered with an amazing rock-solid sense of musicianship and production, too – and even the rockers, which might sound clunky in the hands of anyone else, manage to come off with a great deal of charm as well. Titles include the wonderfully playful "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" – plus "Too Many People", "Heart Of The Country", "Dear Boy", "Ram On", "The Back Seat Of My Car", and "Smile Away". Deluxe edition comes in a beautiful clothbound box and includes the original album in mono and stereo, the Thrillington instrumental album, bonus tracks, a DVD documentary, 112-page book, and lots of other goodies! CD

Long-overdue collection that brings together the classic Polydor recordings of the great Ellen McIlwaine! Ellen's style is a totally unique mixture of folk, funk, and jazzy singing – and although she's beyond comparison, we might put her in the same camp as Joyce, Linda Lewis, or Joni Mitchell. The tracks on the CD are a mix of styles – and although you may know groovers like "Jimmy Jean" or "Up From The Skies" – there's lots of other great stuff on here that shows the full range of Ellen's talent. Her guitar playing is excellent, and her voice has an amazing range that puts her up with some of the best singers of the 70's. This 21 track CD includes "Jimmy Jean", "Sliding", "Pinebo", "Wings Of A Dove", "All To You", "Toehold", "We The People", and the previously unreleased track "It's Growing". Nice notes, too! (Soul, Rock) CD

Music from Tweedy, Coldplay, The Hives, Cat Power, The Flaming Lips, Gnarls Barkley, Vampire Weekend, Wilco, Leighton Meester, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney & Wings, The Black Keys, and more. (Soundtracks, Rock) CD

Only the second album from Gypsy, but one that really has the group opening up their wings to soar – especially on the longer tunes that really feature some nicely freewheeling interplay between organ and guitar! Yet even on the shorter cuts, the sound between the two is great too – driven on by some rhythms that feature very tasty use of congas, in a way that might draw some slight comparison to Santana, although these guys maybe have some more mid-American elements in the mix too, almost a dash of light Allman Brothers at times! Whatever the comparisons, though, the whole thing is great – a really under-discovered gem that deserves to be in the bigger pantheon of the time – with cuts that include "Here In The Garden", "Blind Man", "Reach Out Your Hand", "Around You", and "As Far As You Can See". CD

An amazing set that documents the early years of the Zamrock scene – the funk and psych informed Afro Rock pioneered by vocalist and African guitar legend Rikki Ililonga and his group Musi-O-Tunya in Zambia from 1973 to 1976 – and compiled beautifully in this great set from Now Again/Stones Throw! It's incredible stuff that blends fuzzed out guitar psychedelia, raw rhythms and brass-heavy funky soul. Ililonga's legacy is represented strongly on the record made by the group he founded, Musi-O-Tunya – who work with electric guitar, bass, sax, western and African drums and percussion – as well as the Zambia album, credited to Rikki Illilonga, in which he sings and plays all instruments except trumpet. The set also includes his Sunshine Love album, in which he sings and plays all instruments except bass and drums – and a it's got a rawer, bluesier psych soul approach overall. The CD version compiles most tracks from those albums plus Musi-O-Tunya's Wings Of Africa LP and bonus tracks from 7-inches from the time. 31 tracks on 2 CDs and comes a great, book-bound package with extensive liner notes by Eothen Alapatt and an interview of Ililonga by Eothen. Disc one includes Musi-0-Tunya tracks "Tsegulani", "Mpondolo", "Walk And Fight", "The Sun", "Dark Sunrise", "The Wings Of Africa", "Jekete Yamankowa" (Parts 1 & 2), "Mpulula", "Smoke" and more. Disc 2 features tracks from the Rikki Ililonga cuts "Sansa Kuwa", "Sheebeen Queen", "Stop Dreaming Mr D", "The Nature Of Man", "The Queen Blues", "Working On The Wrong Thing", "Sunshine Love", "Angel Black" and more. (Global Grooves, Rock) CD

Titles include "Icarus Borne On Wings Of Steel", "All The World", "Mysteries & Mayhem", and "The Pinnacle". CD

Obscure tracks from Roy Orbison's early days at Monument – plus one unusual single from the 70s! Titles include "The Actress", "Wings Of Glory", "Belinda", "Today's Teardrops", "Paper Boy", "With The Bug", "Blues In Mind", "Only With You", and "Drifting Away". CD

A pair of Spooky Tooth classics – back to back in a single package! You Broke My Heart is an onslaught of fuzz from the reformed version of Spooky Tooth – a group that has Gary Wright very firmly back in the lead on vocals, and the new addition of Mick Jones on guitar – whose lead lines give the group a whole new sense of power! Wright and Jones worked together in Wonderwheel, and are a perfect pair here – with Mick's well-crafted lines underscoring Wright's vocals perfectly – all at a level that prefaces some of the bigger arena rock to come by a few years, but which also falls into none of its cliches at all! Wright's ear for a well-penned tune is still very firmly intact – and the rest of the group deliver some mighty heavy energy on the rhythms – on titles that include "Old As I Was Born", "Wild Fire", "Holy Water", "Times Have Changed", "Moriah", and "Cotton Growing Man". Witness is a further deepening of the Spooky Tooth sound – on an album that seems to have a headier approach to the lyrical themes, which is also echoed by the vocals of Gary Wright, and the energy of the rest of the group! These guys are still a blues-influenced rock group at the core – and are still hardly a progressive group at all – but they've also really opened up their palette on the tunes, and find ways of giving more than just the full-on fuzz of previous records, while still using that element to kick things in gear at all the right places! Titles the surprisingly funky "Ocean Of Power", plus "As Long As The World Keeps Turning", "Wings On My Heart", "Pyramids", "Dream Me A Mountain", and "Sunlight Of My Mind". CD

A really great take on the sort of territory that's usually covered in Cramps-related compilations like this – a set of tracks that still trawls through the weird and wooly world of the 7" single in the late 50s and early 60s, but one that does so here with a special ear towards British 45s from the time – stacked up with a whole host of cool, offbeat tracks we never would have heard otherwise! The set mixes instrumentals, rockers, vocal numbers, and other modes together – with a total of 28 weird tracks that really work wonders together – and make you feel like you've found some very old jukebox in the back room of some east end pub that has been standing in the same place for decades. Titles include "Cool Gool" by Sharkey Todd & The Monsters, "Demon Lover" by Lynn Cornell, "The Mole In The Hole" by The Southlanders, "My Baby's Crazy Bout Elvis" by Billy Boyle, "Diabolical Twist" by Max Bygraves, "Taboo" by Sounds Inc, "Death Valley" by Charles Blackwell, "Fried Onions" by Ted Taylor Four, "African Waltz" by Johnny Dankworth, "Payroll" by Reg Owen, "Juvenile Delinquent" by Suzy Cope, and "Just Couldn't Resist Her With Her Pocket Transistor" by Alma Cogan. CD

Robert Smith and the group are still going strong here – changing up some of the rhythms a bit for the 90s generation, but still holding on to all of their best charms – and really hitting that tuneful crossover mode that made them so huge the decade before! Tracks include "Trap", "Treasure", "Bare", "Jupiter Crash", "Mint Car", "Strange Attraction", "The 13th", "This Is A Lie", and "Club America". CD

A beautiful collection of modern mellow music – served up in a set that features very different territory than the usual sorts of compilations given to us by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs – not the older music that they put together so well, but work from an early 90s moment when the duo were a rising part of the British scene as Saint Etienne! Yet despite that connection, they nicely provide a generous overview of a slightly different vibe – mellow tracks that followed in the wake of the big Brit dance explosion of the late 80s – not entirely the downtempo modes that you might expect, at least in the way that "downtempo" has come to mean instrumental hip hop over the years – and instead, some nicely kicked back tracks from some of the more creative studio talents of the time! Titles include "Never Get Out The Boat (flying mix)" by The Aloof, "Spiritual High (moodfood megamix)" by Moodswings, "Floatation" by The Grid, "Afrika (love & laughter rmx)" by History, "Cascades (hypnotone mix)" by Sheer Taft, "It Could Not Happen (essential trance hall mix)" by Critical Rhythm, "Higher Than The Sun (higher than the Orb ext mix)" by Primal Scream, "Snappiness (7" edit)" by BBG, "I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You (Marshall Jefferson symphony mix)" by Soul Family Sensation, "Temple Head (Pacific mix airwaves)" by Transglobal Underground, and "Speedwell (radio edit)" by Saint Etienne. CD

The legendary 1970 recordings Alex Chilton made at Ardent Studios – recorded in a brief moment after the bust up of the Box Tops and before the debut of Big Star – and a truly powerful precursor to that most iconic of soulful Memphis rock acts! For the longest time, the 1970 sessions were something of a rock & roll holy grail – having been oft-discussed, if rarely heard, by Chilton and Big Star diehards. In the mid 90s, Ardent Records finally released the heart of this collection as 1970 – and here it's done up with even more love and respect by Omnivore, which over the course of just a handful of releases has become one of the very best deep digging reissuers of great, should-be classic soul & rock treasures. The vibe swings from stripped down, soulful rock that sometimes flirts with country rock – those songs featuring gruff, bluesy vocals from Chilton that belie his actual youth, just as greatly as his vox for The Box Tops – to gentler soul pop numbers that truly prefigure the Big Star sound to come. The collection features 20 tracks: all of the material from the long out of print 1970, plus other songs from the period, including demos (these are raw in the right kind of way, as finished as we'd ever want to hear them) and some original mono mixes. Great liner notes by Bob Mehr, a living encyclopedia of Memphis musical knowledge. Includes "Free Again (Original Mono Mix)", "Come On Honey", "Something Deep Inside", "I Can Dig It", "The EMI Song (Smile For Me)", "Every Day As We Grow Closer/Funky National", "I Wish I Could Meet Elvis", "All We Ever Got From Them Was Pain", "Sugar, Sugar/I Got That Feeling", "All I Really Want Is Money", "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and more. CD

A seminal set from Ned Doheny – a lasting bit of California cool from the 70s, and a record that's every bit as refreshing as its image on the cover! The sound is tight, but never too slick – well-crafted songwriting with equally well-crafted production and studio execution – but somehow in a space that's far from the charts, too – which makes the whole thing a really great discovery in music! Ned Doheny's got a way of hitting an AOR vibe, but holding onto more personal elements too – and the vocals glide along with the music with the same charming vibe we'd find in a vintage Chris Rainbow record. Titles include "Get It Up For Love", "Each Time You Pray", "When Love Hangs In The Balance", "A Love Of Your Own", "On The Swingshift", "Sing To Me", and "If You Should Fall". CD