Incredible work from the amazing Dorothy Ashby – a brilliant set of funky and spiritual tunes, set to full backings from Chicago soul arranger Richard Evans! This album is easily one of Ashby's greatest, and it's dedicated to the writings of Omar Khayyam – one of the forces guiding Dorothy's more spiritual sound at the end of the 60s, clearly opened up in a way that's not unlike the direction of Alice Coltrane's work, but a lot more focused and a lot more funky! Ashby not only plays her usual jazz harp, but also koto as well, and even sings a bit too – and the larger group directed by Evans features work by Stu Katz on vibes and kalimba, Lenny Druss on flutes, and Cash McCall on guitar – all in a groove that's really a precursor to the Earth Wind & Fire generation of the Chicago scene! Titles include the amazing break "The Moving Finger" – worth the price of the album alone – plus "Dust", "Joyful Grass & Grape", "Heaven & Hell", "Wax & Wane", "Shadow Shapes", "For Some When Young", "Myself When Young", and "Drink". (Jazz, Soul) CD

A stunning batch of tracks from a very unusual LA group of the early 70s – a funk combo at the core, but one that was also equally comfortable with bits of psych and redneck rock as well! The music here was all recorded within a short span of years, and mostly issued on the small Alpha label as a handful of funky 45s – but the style is surprisingly spacious, and shows a strong sense of musicianship from the members of the group – so much so that they seem equally comfortable and right on top of their game, no matter what direction they choose to take! And don't think that this multi-style description means that these guys are too all over the map, because there's a really unified sense of soul that holds the whole thing together – so that when they get a bit rootsy, the result is country soul – or when they get a bit trippy, they hit some Funkadelic-styled sounds. The collection includes great notes on the setting that produced these tracks – penned by Egon, who put the set together with help from Malcolm Catto, DJ Shadow, and others. Titles include "Don't Let Him Take Away Your Mind", "Strange Things", "Heaven & Earth", "Take Time", "We Got Love", "Waterloo At Watergate", "Why Don't You Trust In Me", "Cruising Central Ave", "The Dead Don't Die Alive", and "You're My Precious Someone". CD

A stunning batch of tracks from a very unusual LA group of the early 70s – a funk combo at the core, but one that was also equally comfortable with bits of psych and redneck rock as well! The music here was all recorded within a short span of years, and mostly issued on the small Alpha label as a handful of funky 45s – but the style is surprisingly spacious, and shows a strong sense of musicianship from the members of the group – so much so that they seem equally comfortable and right on top of their game, no matter what direction they choose to take! And don't think that this multi-style description means that these guys are too all over the map, because there's a really unified sense of soul that holds the whole thing together – so that when they get a bit rootsy, the result is country soul – or when they get a bit trippy, they hit some Funkadelic-styled sounds. The collection includes great notes on the setting that produced these tracks – penned by Egon, who put the set together with help from Malcolm Catto, DJ Shadow, and others. Titles include "Don't Let Him Take Away Your Mind", "Strange Things", "Heaven & Earth", "Take Time", "We Got Love", "Waterloo At Watergate", "Why Don't You Trust In Me", "Cruising Central Ave", "The Dead Don't Die Alive", and "You're My Precious Someone". LP, Vinyl record album

We hardly need tell you about this one – especially since you've been ringing our phone off the hook for it since it was first announced! The set is a monster compilation of rare funky material, put together by the legendary Keb Darge, and the enigmatic Josh Davis (known to most of the world as DJ Shadow!) You'll be hard pressed to find most of this stuff elsewhere, as it's culled from the personal collections of these rare funk specialists – and the set is lovingly packaged with the same high level of care that you'd expect from BBE. Titles include "Butter That Popcorn" by The RDM Band, "Party Time" by The Masters, "Let's Do It Today" by The US, "Do It Again" by Deep Heat, "The World" by Sandi & Mateus, "Back Talk" by Second Amendment Band, "Can't Stop Now" by Mr. Magic, "Tell Me" by Ricky Calloway, and "Mr. Machine" by The Chefs. Very nice, very hard, very funky – you know the deal! (Funky Compilations, Soul) CD

The genius of Terry Callier – remixed! One of the greatest things to happen to Chicago soul legend Callier in recent years was his discovery by a host of cutting edge producers and DJs on the European scene – important talents who took his work to a whole new audience, by fusing Terry's original grooves with some more ambitious rhythmic progressions, keyboard lines, and other studio touches. And while you might fear that such knob-twiddling would muddy the waters and dampen Callier's spirit, such was not the case – as work in this vein only seemed to inspire Terry further, to stretch out his wings and reach new musical horizons. The tracks on this set offer a number of recent Callier recordings, remixed by the cream of the current UK and European scene – all as proof of how great this format is when applied to Callier's work. Titles include "Monuments Of Mars (Hopper mix)", "Running Around (Fug city mix)", "Love Theme From Spartacus (4 Hero No Skins mix)", "Sierra Leone (Block 16 mix)", "Darker Than A Shadow (Mitchell & Dewbury mix)", "Love Theme (Zero 7 rmx)", "Imagine A Nation (Funky Lowlives mix)", and "Just My Imagination (Tom Findlay & Keeling Lee mix)". CD

A soaring blend of rare club tracks from the glory days of the American disco underground – music that was cut in the deep shadows of the mainstream market at the time, and which has gone on to have a lot longer staying power too! The cuts here are all from very obscure releases on tiny labels around the country – most so small, the records were issued on 7" singles, not the usual 12" club DJ release – which has made them even more overlooked in the passing decades, given that so many collectors of this sort of music are digging for the larger format! Yet interest in rare club from the pre-house years has never been stronger – and a set like this is a great way to glimpse a scene that was out of reach even to most folks who were around at the time – a smoking set of 17 groovers that include "Can You Dig It" by Teakwood, "Bay Trippin" by Parnassus, "Come Along With Me & Party" by Monofide, "I Wanna Dance" by Compton Hodge, "Feel In" by The Unit III, "My Woman My Woman" by Joshua Jackson, "She's The One" by Nature, "Bronco Queen" by Van Buren, and "Sport City Rock" by Earl Turner. (Funky Compilations, Soul) CD