A funky treasure from the glory days of the De Wolfe sound library – and one of the rarer titles on the label too! LP, Vinyl record album

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With Fleetwood Mac, Small Faces, Nice, Humble Pie, Eric Clapton & Jimmy Page, & more. LP, Vinyl record album

A real cooker in the Atlantic Records' 60s series from Preservation Hall – a record that definitely keeps up the groove throughout! Side one features work by the combo of drummer Paul Barbarin – a lively player with a romping approach to rhythm – one that perfectly suits the trad sounds from Ernie Cagnolatti on trumpet, Waldren "Frog" Joseph on trombone, and Louis Cottrell on clarinet. Titles include "Too Late", "The Second Line", and "Give It Up". Side two features a great group led by legendary trumpeter Ernie "Punch" Miller – with sweet horn work from a lineup that includes Louis Nelson on trombone and George Lewis on clarinet – the latter of whom is in perfect late formation on his well-crafted solos. Titles include "Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning", "Preservation Blues", and "Hindustan". LP, Vinyl record album

A strange little record from the days when the music industry had so much money to throw around, they could make sessions like these! The record is sort of a space rock opera – featuring a huge cast of stars like Cooper, Moon, Hopkins, John Entwistle, Jim Dandy, Eddie Jobson, Elkie Brooks, Justin Hayward, Bill Bruford, and others. The overall feel of the work is a bit like the Rocky Horror Show – a high camp, heavy rock parody of a vintage artform (in this case, the radio space opera.) The musicianship is actually pretty darn strong, even if the overall concept is a bit silly. Tracks include "I'm Flash", "Country Cooking", "What's Happening", "Space Pirates", and "Blast Off". Also includes the great funky break track "Trapped" by Elkie Brooks, which we think was sampled by DJ Shadow! LP, Vinyl record album

Without a doubt, Alec R. Costandinos was one of the strangest disco arranger/producers of the 70s! He had a very baroque vision that took full advantage of the disco industry's heavy cash to turn out these mini disco symphonies filled with full orchestral strings, funky beats, and very high concepts – like the on this album, a suite of 5 long tracks devoted to the Romeo & Juliet legend. Alan Hawkshaw handled keyboards along with Alec, and there's a lot of heavy guitars sweeping in and out of the mix. Not totally soulful stuff, but a great one to chill to in the VIP room! LP, Vinyl record album

Saxophonist Shamek Farrah is best known for a pair of legendary 70s albums on the Strata East label – but he was still working strongly in the American jazz underground for years after that – as you'll hear on this brilliant batch of live recordings from the end of the 80s! The album was initially only issued as a cassette sold at gigs, and it shows Farrah sounding wonderful in the company of trumpeter Norman Person – blowing alto and bringing the fire he had on his 70s spiritual jazz recordings – as he and Person work in a few different groups, alongside some especially great piano work from either David Durrah or Sonelius Smith – both players with strong legacies of their own! Garry Hammon joins the pair on tenor on two tracks, Marvin Neal on trombone on one, and the final track is a trio number without Farrah, showing wonderful phrasing from Person next to Smith's piano. All titles are nice and long – and tunes include "Negative Forces", "Aisha", "Footprints", "Timeless Beginning", and "I Remember Clifford". LP, Vinyl record album

After hitting big success with Paul Simon's Graceland album in the mid 80s, Warners kind of had a little burst of renewed activity in recording the sorts of artists they paid attention to more in the glory days of the late 60s/early 70s record industry boom. Fortunately, Miriam Makeba benefitted from that surge of activity, and was able to cut this excellent album in a style that was far rootsier than any she'd used in years! The record has a pretty spare feel overall, and most tracks only feature vocals and percussion – with some occasional extra instrumentation, and production that's very much in the Ladysmith Black Mambazo mode from the time. titles include "Sabumoya", "Congo", "Icala", "Ihoyiya", and "Embahaceni". LP, Vinyl record album

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Who can ever figure this chick out? Mrs Miller was a strange denizen of the bottom level of the music industry food chain – and her stock-in-trade was performing 60s pop tunes with a shrill fuddy-duddy style that was instantly recognizable, and forever annoying! This record is less of a "best of" than just a collection of her versions of 60's pop stuff like "These Boots are Made for Walkin", "Chim Chim Cher-ee", and "Downtown" – all given the mad Miller Sound treatment, with a harsh edge, and a wacky off-kilter sound. Wild stuff, and very goofy! LP, Vinyl record album

Heavenly dreamy pop – and one of our favorite A&M albums by the legendary Chris Montez! Chris was unlike any other 60s singer we can think of – an artist who was at once pop, but also had a unique depth too – despite a lightly floating voice that was really unique! The great Nick DeCaro arranged and produced – giving the whole record a breezy, bouncy sparkle that's completely sublime – one of those rare totally-perfect meetings of talents in the music industry that would never have the artist sounding as great otherwise. Titles include "The Face I Love" (a great Marcos Valle song!), "Nothing To Hide", "Spooky", "Where Are You Now", "Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars", and "Look Of Love". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare bit of hardcore poetry by the Watts Prophets – the legendary LA group who were kind of a west coast answer to the Last Poets! The group have a sound that's as striking as the best early work by The Last Poets – a hard-hitting blend of poetry, rhythms, and righteous energy – all recorded in a style that's stripped down, proud, angry, and in stark contrast to the rest of the work coming out in the soul music industry at the time. The album's not only important as a precursor to the west coast hip hop style, but it's a heck of a powerful statement that's as chilling now as it was back in 1971! Titles include "Amerikkka", "Dem N****** Ain't Playing", "A Pimp", "Hello N******", and "The Prostitute". LP, Vinyl record album

Folk legend Woody Guthrie was no stranger to struggle – which is the subject highlighted in most of these tunes – pulled together in the shape of this album, which offered a great counterpoint to the Bicentennial madness in America when it was released in 1976! The titles of the songs give plenty of an idea of the nature of the music – with classic Guthrie recordings done for Folkways in the 40s, including "The Dying Miner", "Waiting At The Gate", "A Dollar Down & A Dollar A Week", "Lost John", "Union Burying Ground", and "Ludlow Massacre" – many of which echo the continuing struggle of the working man, even as America was shining forth as an industrial giant. The recordings mostly feature Woody on vocals and guitar, but there's also some guest contributions from Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry – both key contemporaries of Guthrie. LP, Vinyl record album

Number five, and the Steve Miller Band is still going strong – working here with some great help from Area Code 615, who bring a slightly rootsy vibe to the set! That core Miller brilliance is still very firmly in place – and Steve's got an even sharper ear for writing songs this time around – working in more influences than before, and really finding his voice – or more appropriately, that great way his vocals can be filtered in with the production. Other guests include Ben Sidran and Nicky Hopkins – helping to reinstate the keyboard sound in the group – and titles include "Steve Miller's Midnight Tango", "Industrial Military Complex Hex", "Never Kill Another Man", "Going To The Country", and "Hot Chili". LP, Vinyl record album

A very important crossover soul album – a huge hit for Otis Redding that was released after his tragic death in December 1967 – but it's also hard to say if it would have had the impact it did had Redding not passed while the LP was still in production. In a way, the record sort of set the stage for the mythologies of pop stars that would surround the tragedies in the coming years of the late 60s – with liner notes on the back by Jon Landau about the impact of Redding's work and passing on the rest of the music industry, which would be even more charged with meaning to folks buying the album at the time, who certainly knew that Redding had cut "Dock of the Bay" a few days before his death, and had missed its meteoric rise to #1 after his passing. And in fact, the album itself is more of a loose collection of tracks pulled from singles and other sources to cash in on Redding's passing – and includes odd numbers like "The Huckle Buck", which had previously appeared on a Stax promo album, or "Tramp", his famous funky duet with Carla Thomas. Other titles include "I'm Coming Home", "Ole Man Trouble", "Open The Door", and "Let Me Come On Home". LP, Vinyl record album

A mindblowing debut from Cybotron – one of the most unusual groups to ever hail from Detroit – and that's saying a hell of a lot, given the musical legacy of the city! Cybotron have a sound that's starkly electronic, and a huge influence on later electro, hip hop, techno, and house – served up here as a spare, fuzzy approach to funk – but with lots of the colder touches you'd find from post-punk imports at the time! The blend is quite unique, and even more unusual given the fact that the trio were working in virtual obscurity on the Detroit scene – as an early project from the legendary Juan Atkins, with guitarist Jon-5, and the mysterious electronician 3070! There's more funk here than most of the group's electro contemporaries – but the sound is still nicely cold in all the right parts too – and titles include the seminal "Clear", which was years ahead of its time – plus "Cosmic Cars", "Cosmic Raindance", "Industrial Lies", "The Line", and "Alleys Of Your Mind". LP, Vinyl record album

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One of the strangest records you'll ever buy! Even on our storied pages this one's a bit of anoddball to describe – kind of a sound play of words, songs, noises, and lots of odd effects – an effort of classic rock proportions, but the brainchild of Lol Creme and Kevin Godley after their departure from pop group 10CC. It's nearly impossible to believe how a record like this got made – especially in the year that punk was taking over the British record industry – but the fact that it became an instant cutout may say a lot about its ill-chosen release. Whatever that history, though, the album's a near-legendary one now – some where between Ivor Cutler-esque sound poetry and some of the weirder pop of British mid 70s groups. Peter Cook wrote and performed all the spoken bits on the record, and Sarah Vaughan even makes a guest appearance! LP, Vinyl record album

A rare UK sound library set, and a very dark one as well – served up with lots of electronics that were years ahead of their time, almost a preface to some of the industrial modes that would arise in the post punk years! LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic LP by Betty Carter – and one of the first she issued on her own Bet-Car label, which she formed after years of being screwed by the music industry! The groove is extremely soulful – and backing is by Norman Simmons on piano, Lisle Atkinson on bass, and Al Harewood on drums. Titles include Betty's own "Please Do Something", her great version of Randy Weston's "Ego", and her always-great rendition of "By The Bend In The River". LP, Vinyl record album