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The second album by this excellent psych rock outfit from the late 60s – a group that featured a young David Lindley on lead guitar and "country vocals", plus instrumentation that includes additional guitar, bass, percussion, harmonica, saw, and oud! The whole thing's a bit in the Country Joe mode, but with less of a silly edge – and titles include "Chocolate Whale", "Ballad Of Tommy Udo", "New Blue Ooze", and "Soft & Easy". Also features the jazzy break track "Bernice"! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest records ever by this hip jazz ensemble – and one of their most unique! The record has the band grooving hard through two incredible suites of Latin music – Gary McFarland's "Latin Kaleidoscope" and Francy Boland's "Cuban Fever" – each of which takes up a side of the record, both driving the band to new solo heights with a very hip edge! Players include the usual cream of the crop of European jazz residents – like Sahib Shihab, Dusko Goykovich, Jimmy Deuchar, Phil Woods, Tony Coe, and Benny Bailey – and the tracks include "Uno Graso De Areia", "A Rosa Negra", "Olhos Negros", "Cara Bruja", and "Fiebre Cuban". Wonderful all the way through – and always a treasure! One of the shining jewels in the crown of MPS – and a Gilles P classic all the way through! CD

A sweet little double-length set from British jazz rock genius Neil Ardley – one that has him working off the vibe explored on the Greek Variations album, but hitting a sound that's a fair bit funkier overall! As with other efforts, Ardley draws here on some really top-shelf talents for his ideas – soloists who include Ian Carr on trumpet, Ken Shaw on guitar, and Tony Coe, Barbara Thompson, and Brian Smith on saxes! The tracks are all quite longish, and unfold in a really organic way – building over an immediate rhythm at some points, or letting the soloists set the main vibe at others. There's nothing overly-obtuse about the record at all, and Ardley never lets anyone dominate too much – making the album a strong group effort with a really unified vision – but one with plenty of space for the feeling of the individual players. Titles include "Rainbow One", "Rainbow Two", "Rainbow Three", and so on. LP, Vinyl record album

Modern tunes – but with a very classic groovy feel! Of all the Italian efforts to take an older lounge sound and update it for the modern dancefloor, the work of Nicola Conte and the Schema label has been some of the best. This 13 track set offers proof of Conte's genius – and offers up some sparkling groovers all graced with the careful selection you've come to expect from Conte's Fez Studio. Titles include "Meeting With His Majesty" by Theivery Corp, "The Hip Sheik" by The Karminsky Experience, "Funky Bikini" by Ursula 1000, "Arabesque" by Nicola Conte, "Girl On A Mission" by Les Hommes, "Whenever" by Les Gammas, "We Don't Need No Smurfs Here" by Cosmo Vitelli, and "Hi Fi Trumpet" by Stereo Action Unlimited. Very nice – especially if you've enjoyed other Schema modern releases, like Break N Bossa or the Soulstance album! CD

A really beautiful collection of work from Ennio Morricone – one of the greatest soundtrack composers of all time, especially during the period covered in this set! The songs here are from a time when the maestro was effortlessly combining jazz, mod rhythms, rock instrumentation, and other stranger elements – all with a flawless sense of presentation and production that could make even familiar sounds come across in really different ways! The package definitely focuses on the groove promised in the title – but if you know Morricone at all, you'll know that that doesn't mean familiar funk, and instead hits some really mindblowing territory beyond description. Includes work from the films Com Impari Ad Amare Le Donna, Ruba Al Prossimo Tuo, Il Diavolo Nel Cervello, Spasmo, Ad Ogni Costo, Maddaelna, La Dona Invisible, Le Foto Proibite, and other Morricone classics! LP, Vinyl record album

A very groovy soundtrack from the great Stanley Myers! The setting of the film is mod London – and Stan's come up with some very cool tunes that mix together 60s easy, trippy instrumentation, and a bit of that go-go groove. Instrumentation includes a bit of sitar and tabla – mixed with electric guitar, organ, electric harpsichord, a bit of vocals, and orchestral flourishes – changing mood from track to track, but always staying on the straight and groovy! Titles include "Barney", "Angel's Theme", "Shazam", "Kinky Dolly", "Kings Full", and "A Present for Daddy". LP, Vinyl record album

Sharply sinister work from Siouxsie Sioux and The Banshees – nicely hanging on the cusp of the punk edges of their earlier work, but also unfurling lots of the darkness to come! These guys do a heck of a lot with just a little space – that same economy of motion that's always made early Cure material so much better than all their overbloated copycats from later years. Titles include the classics "Christine" and "Happy House" – plus "Skin", "Tenant", "Trophy", "Hybrid", "Clockface", "Lunar Camel", "Desert Kisses", and "Red Face". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant example of why Eddie Bert was one of the hippest trombonists of the 50s – a player who could bridge the worlds of Stan Kenton and Charles Mingus, and always come up with a sound that was one of the freshest on his instrument! The bulk of the CD features small combo work Bert recorded for the Discovery label in 1953 and 1954 – quintet sessions done with Duke Jordan on piano and Clyde Lombardi on bass, plus other players that include Sal Salvador on guitar, Vinnie Dean on alto sax, and Joe Morello on drums. Bert's sound throughout is fluid, lean, and modern – gliding with light colors one moment, a crisp modern edge the next, and a bit of boppish inflection at others – always opening up new areas of expression for the sometimes-staid trombone, and working here at a level that matches 50s invention of better-known players on the instrument. 4 additional tracks on the CD are from a previously unissued 1959 recording with Dean on alto, Lombardi on bass, Sal Mosca on piano, and Ed Shaughnessy on drums – plus a really unique 17 minute live recording of the title track by a quartet with Bert, Jordan, Lombardi, and Osie Johnson on drums. Bert's playing on this extended track alone is worth the price of admission – but the CD features a total of 73 minutes of music in all, on 17 tracks that include "Ripples", "Conversation Piece", "Interwoven", "Little Train", "Kaleidoscope", "Around Town", "Melting Pot", "He Ain't Got Rhythm", and "Blues At Sunrise". CD

Lalo Schifrin conducts the Sydney Symphony Orchestra – with Christian McBride on bass, James Morrison on trumpet, and Gordon Rytmeister on drums. CD

David Grisman and Todd Phillips on mandolin, Tony Rice on guitar, Darol Anger on violin and mandolin, and Bill Amatneek on bass. CD

Some of the greatest recordings ever made by Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys – tracks that many folks feel even beat his commercial material of the 40s! CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

The first we're hearing from Steven Bamidele, but we're guessing it won't be the last – as this debut has a wonderfully well-crafted vibe from the start, which comes from both Steven's great ear for production, and his snakily sensual vocals! There's a laidback quality to his singing that's offset by a nice crackle in the rhythms – never too fast or in any sort of clubby territory, but with lots of midtempo breaks that are augmented by warmly jazzy work on keyboards, tenor, and piano! The approach is great – intimate and personal, but with a cosmic sensibility as well – on titles that include "Pathways", "Head Down", "Kaleidoscope", "Misunderstood", "Sitting In The Dark", and "Dark Sense Of Humor". LP, Vinyl record album

A wild, far reaching psychedelic rock kaleidoscope from Arthur Brown and his Crazy World! The sounds range from wailing organs and heavy drum backed bigness, to more of a tightly grooving r&b garage influenced trip as the core backdrop – with vocals ranging from falsetto freakouts to rambling speak singing craziness and bursts of brass. Nothing's predictable from one passage to the next, but the group sets a heady groove before it all gets freaky, and they find it again before insanity sets in. Titles include "Prelude-Nightmare", "Fire", "Come & Buy", "Spontaneous Apple Creation", "Child Of My Kingdom", "I Put A Spell On You" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A landmark in modern jazz – from the stark stares of the band on the cover, to the starkly haunting music in the grooves! The record makes a bold statement right from the outset – and more than lives up to its promise in the sound within – an amazing approach to modern jazz that's still quite powerful, even all these many years later! The group features Ornette Coleman on alto, Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums – moving at a fast, highly rhythmic pace that still leaves us breathless – filled with angles, but wrapped up in soul. The group make severe statements about the future of modern music in tracks like "Humpty Dumpty", "Beauty Is a Rare Thing", and "Kaleidoscope" – bouncing the efforts of the whole group off the beat, in a way that's both challenging and groove-heavy at the same time, a key summation of the genius of Ornette's early vision! LP, Vinyl record album

Boldly visionary work from bassist Hideto Kanai – a session of unusual numbers that often have a deeply poetic feel! Kanai's bass is clearly at the helm of the record – stepping out sparely at the start of some numbers – then punctuating the proceedings with a strong voice that urges on some of the more sensitive players. Instrumentation varies from track to track – but includes alto sax, trumpet, xylophone, guitar, flute, and baritone sax – all offered up without any piano, which creates even more of a sense of space for solo expression. Titles include "Kaleidoscope", "Meditation", "A", and "April Song For Kanai". CD

A wonderful record – one that takes off from the spare sound of earlier albums by guitarist Fabiano Do Nascimento, and adds in some smaller group instrumentation that really sends things over the top! Fabiano's still got all the amazing touches on his instrument – played at a level that's in a legacy of Brazilian acoustic right up there with Baden Powell or Luiz Bonfa – mixed this time around with a shifting palette of instrumentation that includes percussion, flutes, violin, cello, and tenor – all elements used in ways that are still spare, yet shade the music in wonderfully! While we've loved Fabiano's airy explorations in the past, we love him even more here – as the album's as full of color and scope as you'd guess from the image on the cover, or its evocative reference to Rio Bonito – on titles that include "Strings For My Guitar", "Coletivo Universal", "Kaleidoscope", "Retratos", "Theme In C", and "Emotivo". CD

A record that was initially thought by some as a cheap cash-in on the Sgt Peppers concept – but an album that, to us, really helped set The Rolling Stones free to express themselves in so many new and amazing ways! There's definitely a bit of the hippie vibe to the set at times – such as sitar that might have been unimaginable on a Stones track a few years before – but there's also an explosively creative approach to the album's arrangements and production, creating a kaleidoscope of sounds that only further seems to illuminate the Jagger and Richards genius! Titles include the classic "She's A Rainbow" – plus "Citadel", "2000 Man", "On With The Show", "Sing All This Together", "In Another Land", "The Lantern", and "Gomper". LP, Vinyl record album

A haunting set of solo tracks by cellist Abdul Wadud – an important, and oft-overlooked, figure in the 70s loft jazz scene! Wadud plays cello throughout, but in a style that's extremely inventive – and much more in the vein of bass improvisation by players in a tradition that includes Malachi Favors and Barre Phillips, with a bit of a nod to the violin work of Leroy Jenkins – really using the instrument in all these sorts of amazing ways, and totally breaking the role of the cello from that in more compositional music – and firmly establishing it as a tremendous instrument for improvising in jazz! The interplay between the high and low regions of the instrument is especially nice – with a tonal majesty that's breathtaking – and there's also this rhythmic quality to many numbers that's very different than more way-out bass improvisations. The whole thing's fantastic – deeply spiritual throughout – and titles include "In A Breeze", "Happiness", "Oasis", and "Kaleidoscope". LP, Vinyl record album

A heavy duty set of rare rock and funk tracks from around the globe – very much the sort of work we've grown to love through the many years of reissues from the Now Again label – the reissue-based arm of the legendary Stones Throw imprint! Now Again has turned us on to more bands than we can count – and they expand that tradition by adding in some obscure groups here with other well-chosen material – including some of the African funk and psych they've really helped introduce to the world in the 21st Century! Titles include "The Out Station" by Image, "Down By The Ocean" by Heaven, "Know Yourself" by Ed Whiting & Joe Lano, "I Am Selfish" by Eye Q, "I Know" by Groep 1850, "Digging" by Trevor McNamara, "December Sequel" by Pat's People, "Let Me Try" by Kaleidoscope, and "Io Prego E Preghero" by Christophe. LP, Vinyl record album

A wild, far reaching psychedelic rock kaleidoscope from Arthur Brown and his Crazy World! The sounds range from wailing organs and heavy drum backed bigness, to more of a tightly grooving r&b garage influenced trip as the core backdrop – with vocals ranging from falsetto freakouts to rambling speak singing craziness and bursts of brass. Nothing's predictable from one passage to the next, but the group sets a heady groove before it all gets freaky, and they find it again before insanity sets in. Titles include "Prelude-Nightmare", "Fire", "Come & Buy", "Spontaneous Apple Creation", "Child Of My Kingdom", "I Put A Spell On You" and more. CD

A record that was initially thought by some as a cheap cash-in on the Sgt Peppers concept – but an album that, to us, really helped set The Rolling Stones free to express themselves in so many new and amazing ways! There's definitely a bit of the hippie vibe to the set at times – such as sitar that might have been unimaginable on a Stones track a few years before – but there's also an explosively creative approach to the album's arrangements and production, creating a kaleidoscope of sounds that only further seems to illuminate the Jagger and Richards genius! Titles include the classic "She's A Rainbow" – plus "Citadel", "2000 Man", "On With The Show", "Sing All This Together", "In Another Land", "The Lantern", and "Gomper". CD

Brilliant funky instrumentals from the UK Cavendish Sound Library – a company who could sometimes recorded more staid music, although that certainly wasn't the case with the gems on this collection! The music is by a handful of British studio talents of the time – most of whom come from the jazz scene in earlier years – and provide a great update of their earlier talents with some very sweet electric touches! Many of these tunes have some really great keyboards – Fender Rhodes or even moogier elements – and many also have wicked basslines next to the funky drums, which really make things kick throughout. These tunes are vastly undiscovered – at least in comparison to better-known sound library funk from companies like KPM or DeWolfe – but we'd put these grooves right up there with the best of that bunch too. Titles include"Milky Way" and "Star Voyage" by John Scott, "Two Bars" and "The Scape Goat" by Pete Moore, "The Big Score" by John Cacavas, "One Way Trip" by Sam Fonteyn, "Smile Of A Stranger" by Dominic Sands, "Riff Raff" by Geoff Bastow, "Come Cuban" by Edward White, "Kaleidoscope" by Tony Kinsey, "Funk" and "Rock" by Chris Barron, "Equation" and "Mad Mendoza" by Trevor Duncan, "Leagueliner" by Ray Davies, "Diraffe" by Bob Adams, and "Self Deception" by Tany Turens – and lots of titles by Dennis Farnon that include "Night Shade", "The Rally", "Southbound", "Snowmobile", "Night Driver", "The Trackers", "Lady Killers", "Soul Type Blues", "Shanghai Caper", "Cocoanut Cocktail", "Bass Bits", "Chameleon", "Crazy Legs", "Blues For Boo", "Baltic Caper", "Test Drive", and "Nuremberg Ring". CD

Mr Bongo reminds us once again why they've been one of our favorite labels of the past few decades – delivering a masterful collection of rare funky dancefloor grooves around the globe for their Record Club Volume 3! True to form, it's vintage rare funk, bossa, Afro Soul and underground dancefloor rooted with a hearty focus on Brazil, including tracks by JB De Carvalho, Trio Ternura, Impacto 5 and others – and spans the globe further for tracks by legendary composer Galt MacDermot, Ghana's Gyedu Blay Ambolley, the Luther Davis Group and more. Includes "Fui A Umbanda" by JB De Carvalho, "A Gira" by Trio Ternura, "Coisa Sentimental" by Tobias, "Don't Stop" (unreleased long version) by Spaceark, "Let Me Try" by Kaleidoscope, "Peacock" by Splash, "You Can Be A Star" by Luther Davis Group, "Highlife" by Gyedu Blay Ambolley, "Ze Do Trem", "by Cesar Roldao Viera, "Dance Of Maria" by Elias Rahbani, "Coffee Cold" by Galt MacDermot and more. 20 tracks in all. LP, Vinyl record album

A killer album – one of Duke Ellington's best from the later years! The record features excellent writing from Duke – in a Latin mode, obviously, but touched with these incredible orchestrations that bring all sorts of weird twists and turns to the grooves, yet still manage to keep everything swinging nicely! The result is a rare album of brilliance – one that's vaguely similar to the Clarke Boland Big Band's Latin Kaleidoscope album, but with a genius that's all it's own. The album's got all the modernist touches of late Duke – but man, it also swings like a mofo, and with a really groovy sound – and the great Paul Gonsalves brings some wonderful solo work to the entire session. Titles include "Oclupaca", "Chico Cuadradino", "Eque", "The Sleeping Lady & The Giant Who Watches Over Her", and "Brasiliance". CD

A killer album – one of Duke Ellington's best from the later years! The record features excellent writing from Duke – in a Latin mode, obviously, but touched with these incredible orchestrations that bring all sorts of weird twists and turns to the grooves, yet still manage to keep everything swinging nicely! The result is a rare album of brilliance – one that's vaguely similar to the Clarke Boland Big Band's Latin Kaleidoscope album, but with a genius that's all it's own. The album's got all the modernist touches of late Duke – but man, it also swings like a mofo, and with a really groovy sound – and the great Paul Gonsalves brings some wonderful solo work to the entire session. Titles include "Oclupaca", "Chico Cuadradino", "Eque", "The Sleeping Lady & The Giant Who Watches Over Her", and "Brasiliance". LP, Vinyl record album

A pair of albums from Rain Parade – back to back on a single set! First up is Emergency Rail Power Trip – an undisputed treasure from the early 80s west coast scene – a trippy little record that was one of the shining jewels in the new psych underground – quite a shift from the LA hardcore sound of a few years before! Yet unlike some of their contemporaries, Rain Parade were hardly copping any sort of easy retro modes – as their approach here is leaner, maybe a bit colder, and almost influenced by post-punk styles in the same way that some of the better UK bands were at the time – almost as if there was a synchronous explosion of fuzzy energy between the group and the Creation Records generation to come. The whole thing holds up wonderfully over the years – maybe even more so, given the passage of time, and the legions of other groups who never made the music this well. Titles include "Talking In My Sleep", "I Look Around", "This Can't Be Today", "Look At Merri", "Saturday's Asylum", and "Kaleidoscope". Explosions In The Glass Palace is fuzzy magic from The Rain Parade – an EP, but one that's every bit as important to their catalog as their full length debut! In fact, the record might be an even purer distillation of their sound – recorded by a four member lineup, with a nice focus on the more subtle elements of their songwriting skills, and sometimes augmented by just a bit of light strings, in a really nice way. Titles include "Broken Horse", "Prisoners", "You Are My Friend", "Blue", and "No Easy Way Down". CD

A record that was initially thought by some as a cheap cash-in on the Sgt Peppers concept – but an album that, to us, really helped set The Rolling Stones free to express themselves in so many new and amazing ways! There's definitely a bit of the hippie vibe to the set at times – such as sitar that might have been unimaginable on a Stones track a few years before – but there's also an explosively creative approach to the album's arrangements and production, creating a kaleidoscope of sounds that only further seems to illuminate the Jagger and Richards genius! Titles include the classic "She's A Rainbow" – plus "Citadel", "2000 Man", "On With The Show", "Sing All This Together", "In Another Land", "The Lantern", and "Gomper". CD

Writer Jon Savage has given us some great dips into key years of the 60s – thanks to a wonderful series on Ace Records, which offered up a special mix of styles on every disc – but this time around, he focuses on a few years at the start of the 70s – and serves up an all-rock collection with a really heavy sound! Savage is never one to point out the ordinary – and the set does a really great job of exposing all these special shifts in the music at the time – sounds that never would have emerged just a few years before, and which have gone from having more open ties to their influences, to special territory that really shows both UK and American scenes making some great inventions of their own. As before, the notes are superb – and titles include "Broad Daylight" by Free, "Peace Loving Man" by Blossom Toes, "The War Machine" by Leviathan, "Magic Potion" by The Open Mind, "Rock & Roll Queen" by Mott The Hoople, "Devil Came From Kansas" by Procol Harum, "King Kong" by The Kinks, "Bad Night At The Whiskey" by The Byrds, "Comin Home" by Delaney & Bonnie, "Flying" by Faces, "Funk #48" by James Gang, "1969" by The Stooges, "Lie To Me" by Kaleidoscope, "Walk On Gilded Splinters" by Marsha Hunt, "Plynth" by Jeff Beck Group, "American Ruse" by MC5, "Sweet Jane" by Velvet Underground, "Rock & Roll" by Detroit, "Travelin In The Dark" by Mountain, "Yesterday's Numbers" by Flamin Groovies, and "Natural Magic" by Jack Nitzsche. CD

A wonderful record – one that takes off from the spare sound of earlier albums by guitarist Fabiano Do Nascimento, and adds in some smaller group instrumentation that really sends things over the top! Fabiano's still got all the amazing touches on his instrument – played at a level that's in a legacy of Brazilian acoustic right up there with Baden Powell or Luiz Bonfa – mixed this time around with a shifting palette of instrumentation that includes percussion, flutes, violin, cello, and tenor – all elements used in ways that are still spare, yet shade the music in wonderfully! While we've loved Fabiano's airy explorations in the past, we love him even more here – as the album's as full of color and scope as you'd guess from the image on the cover, or its evocative reference to Rio Bonito – on titles that include "Strings For My Guitar", "Coletivo Universal", "Kaleidoscope", "Retratos", "Theme In C", and "Emotivo". LP, Vinyl record album