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LP, Vinyl record album

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CD

The soundtrack to Kiss Of The Damned – kind of a modern take on the style of sultry European vampire films of the 70s – nicely done by composer Steven Hufsteter and featuring some cool stand-alone songs, too! If you dig seedy 70s cinema and soundtracks as much as we do, you'll recognize from the cover art that the film is an homage to the style of filmmakers Jess Franco, Jean Rollin others – which has gotten some love in recent years, especially for the evocative soundtracks. The film is directed by Xan Cassavetes (daughter of film maverick John Cassavetes) and composer Hufsteter does a terrific job here putting a modern spin on the sexy sounds of 70s – some that would sound right at home on a vintage soundtrack resurrected by Finders Keepers, but others are more clearly contemporary. Also includes cool period songs AND contemporary tunes by the legendary Brigitte Fontaine, Jane Weaver, Acanthus and more! Includes "KOTD Love Theme", "Vapeur", "Bath Of Tears", "Threshold", "Backstage Jazz", "Adieu Vampiers" and more by composer Steven Hufsteter, "Parade Of Blood Red Sorrows" by Jane Weaver, "Le Ciel Est Doux" by Brigitte Fontaine, "Sleeping Beauty (Angiosse Temporelle)" by Acanthus, ""Hexen Leben Langer" by Der Fluch and more. LP, Vinyl record album

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CD

CD

CD

An even hipper album than the first Rongetz Foundation outing – which we totally loved – thanks to work from classic musicians who include Gary Bartz on alto, Steve Turre on trombone, and Monnette Sudler on guitar! The music is a great blend of bass-heavy rhythms (acoustic bass, that is), jazzy flourishes, and these excellent vocals from Lilli Cooper – an artist we don't know at all, but who brings a real underground soul vibe to the whole thing – with an old school approach that really lives up to the instrumentation! The album already won us over by including one of our favorite Charles Earland tunes ever – the sublime "Murilley", a lost gem from his late 70s years, given a great vocal reading for the set – and other titles are all original, and include "Cab Samba", "Kiss Kiss Double Jab", "Marshmallow Throne", "Such A Morning Person", and "Sonia Poem", which features a recitation from Sonia Sanchez. CD

An even hipper album than the first Rongetz Foundation outing – which we totally loved – thanks to work from classic musicians who include Gary Bartz on alto, Steve Turre on trombone, and Monnette Sudler on guitar! The music is a great blend of bass-heavy rhythms (acoustic bass, that is), jazzy flourishes, and these excellent vocals from Lilli Cooper – an artist we don't know at all, but who brings a real underground soul vibe to the whole thing – with an old school approach that really lives up to the instrumentation! The album already won us over by including one of our favorite Charles Earland tunes ever – the sublime "Murilley", a lost gem from his late 70s years, given a great vocal reading for the set – and other titles are all original, and include "Cab Samba", "Kiss Kiss Double Jab", "Marshmallow Throne", "Such A Morning Person", and "Sonia Poem", which features a recitation from Sonia Sanchez. LP, Vinyl record album

LP, Vinyl record album

12-inch, Vinyl record

LP, Vinyl record album

Some of the moodiest music that Nikki Sudden recorded in the 80s – and that's saying a lot, given his other albums! The record's a duet with Roland S Howard – of Birthday Party and Lydia Lunch collaborative fame – and Howard has Nikki really moving into noisier territory – both with the guitar parts used on the tunes, and in the overall presentation of the lyrics and ideas of the tunes! There's no other band on the set, which gives the music a looser, less-structured feel than some of Sudden's other records – really letting the vocal and instrumental concepts ruminate in a space that's all their own – with completely sublime results. Titles include "Feather Beds", "A Quick Thing", "Crossroads", "Don't Explain", "Better Blood", and "Rebel Grave". LP, Vinyl record album

Bass-heavy 80s funk from the days when Roger Troutman was practically running the soul department at Warner Brothers! Sugarfoot plays guitar and sings on the set – working with an all star group of Zapp-related players, and grooving in a very Zapp-styled sound. Roger produced, Larry's all over the set, and Sugarfoot himself adds in some nice hipper touches – an excellent variation on an already-great formula that was dominating the sound of funk at the time! Titles include "I'm Your Sugar", "Girl I Need You", "I Choose You", "I Will Be Your Star", and "Call Me". LP, Vinyl record album

LP, Vinyl record album

CD

LP, Vinyl record album

7-inch, Vinyl record

CD

Great stuff from Eryka Badu – sweet, mellow, soulful, and with a very righteous vibe! The record's got some impeccable production – and the best cuts have a stripped-down groove that mixes keyboards and vocals in a way that's similar to recent work by D'Angelo and Jill Scott. Eryka's all her own woman, though – and she keeps things very real with her own unique vocal style and phrasing on the lyrics. Loads of great tracks – and titles include "Kiss Me On My Neck", "Didn't Cha Know", "My Life", "AD 2000", "Bag Lady", "In Love With You", and "Booty". CD

The Reprise Records run of Captain Beefheart – presented here in a special package that also features a full album of never-issued rare material as well! Beefheart at Reprise was a real high point – as the Captain was still full of all the primal, gritty elements of the previous years – but also refining the sound of the Magic Band as well – to a point where the increased musicianship only got more complex, yet helped focus the energy of the songs as well! The whole thing's worth it alone for the mindblowing combination of roots and modern on the guitar work – and the progression over three albums is one of the most striking you'll see at the time for any artist, in any style. The package features the full three albums Lick My Decals Off Baby, The Spotlight Kid, and Clear Spot – and the bonus Outtakes CD features titles that include "Little Scratch", "Kiss Where I Kain't", "The Witch Doctor Life (inst take)", "Harry Irene", "Alice In Blunderland (alt)", "Two Rips In A Haystack/Kiss Me My Love", "Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man (early mix)", "Dirty Blue Gene (alt 1)", "Pompadour Swamp/Suction Prints", and "I Can't Do This Unless I Can Do This/Seam Crooked Sam". CD

The Reprise Records run of Captain Beefheart – presented here in a special package that also features a full album of never-issued rare material as well! Beefheart at Reprise was a real high point – as the Captain was still full of all the primal, gritty elements of the previous years – but also refining the sound of the Magic Band as well – to a point where the increased musicianship only got more complex, yet helped focus the energy of the songs as well! The whole thing's worth it alone for the mindblowing combination of roots and modern on the guitar work – and the progression over three albums is one of the most striking you'll see at the time for any artist, in any style. The package features the full three albums Lick My Decals Off Baby, The Spotlight Kid, and Clear Spot – and the bonus Outtakes CD features titles that include "Little Scratch", "Kiss Where I Kain't", "The Witch Doctor Life (inst take)", "Harry Irene", "Alice In Blunderland (alt)", "Two Rips In A Haystack/Kiss Me My Love", "Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man (early mix)", "Dirty Blue Gene (alt 1)", "Pompadour Swamp/Suction Prints", and "I Can't Do This Unless I Can Do This/Seam Crooked Sam". LP, Vinyl record album

A disco double-header! First up is Love Shook – classic disco from Pattie Brooks, and a soaring 70s set that's right up there with the best Casablanca Records grooves of the time! The rhythms here are upbeat and lively – strings mixed in with quick-stepping rhythms, all set to the vocals of Pattie, which have just the right sort of flow to take off nicely in the setting! Titles include "Love Shook", "Let's Make Love To The Music", "Girl Don't Make Me Wait", and a totally cool "Pop Collage Medley", which features bits of "Popcorn" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye". Next is Our Ms Brooks – a record that has Pattie reunited with the Soul Galore production team – working with backdrops that are full, but never too overblown – right in that perfect Casablanca mode! Titles include "Heartbreak In Disguise", "After Dark", "This Is The House Where Love Died", and "The Back-up Singer". CD

A disco double-header! First up is Love Shook – classic disco from Pattie Brooks, and a soaring 70s set that's right up there with the best Casablanca Records grooves of the time! The rhythms here are upbeat and lively – strings mixed in with quick-stepping rhythms, all set to the vocals of Pattie, which have just the right sort of flow to take off nicely in the setting! Titles include "Love Shook", "Let's Make Love To The Music", "Girl Don't Make Me Wait", and a totally cool "Pop Collage Medley", which features bits of "Popcorn" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye". Next is Our Ms Brooks – a record that has Pattie reunited with the Soul Galore production team – working with backdrops that are full, but never too overblown – right in that perfect Casablanca mode! Titles include "Heartbreak In Disguise", "After Dark", "This Is The House Where Love Died", and "The Back-up Singer". CD

A beautiful collection of vintage rock photographs, with a heavy focus on the 60s and 70s – wrapped up in a really lovely volume that also includes essays by Greil Marcus and a few photographers – in support of these gorgeous shots of artists who range from David Bowie to Johnny Cash, to The Supremes, Beastie Boys, Chet Baker, James Brown, Deborah Harry, B-52s, Iggy Pop, Kiss, Labelle, Lou Reed, and dozens and dozens of others! There's no overarching theory to the book, just a focus on really well-done, really striking photographs from a number of different photographers – over 100 images in all, wrapped up in a great oversized book with heavy paper that offers great reproductions of the color and black and white images. Book

Legendary work from the great Ernie K Doe – one of the hippest cats on the 60s soul scene in New Orleans – thanks to some razor sharp production and arrangements from Allen Toussaint! Some of these tracks were huge crossover hits, but others are more obscure – and together, they really helped forge that classic Crescent City sound that went onto influence so many others – a loping groove at the bottom, an easygoing melody on the top, and lots of room for a personality-filled singer like Ernie to really do his thing! Titles include the massively funky "Here Come The Girls", plus "You Got To Love Me", "T'Ain't It The Truth", "A Certain Girl", "Te Ta Te Ta Ta", "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye", "Talkin Bout This Woman", "A Long Way Back Home", "Whoever Is Thrilling You", "Fly Away With Me", "Mother In Law", "A Place Where We Can Be Free", "Hotcha Mama", and "She Gave It All To Me". CD

A really great album by Billy Eckstine – much more swinging and upbeat than some of his other 50s sessions, and with a strongly pronounced jazz flair overall! The album's supposedly recorded live in Vegas in the wee hours of the morning, and features Billy blowing a bit of trumpet as well as singing – all set to some nicely thumping orchestrations by Bobby Tucker, who really knows how to hit the right groove for this sort of a set. Titles include "Lady Luck", "Have A Song On Me", "Deed I Do", "Without A Song", "Moonlight In Vermont", and "Lush Life". CD features a huge amount of previously unissued bonus tracks – titles that include "Prelude To A Kiss", "Fools Rush In", "I Apologize", "Little Mama", "Prisoner Of Love", "Alright Okay You Win", and "In The Still Of The Night". CD

The Concord label gave guitarist Herb Ellis some of his greatest moments of the 70s – like this early cooker with guitarist Joe Pass – recorded live at the Concord Jazz Festival that gave the label its name! The 1973 performance has both players really opening up – never overwhelming each other, but driving with energy right from the start, then spacing out their own territory strongly on the solos. Backing is from bassist Ray Brown and drummer Jake Hanna – but the record leaves lots of room for guitar throughout – with tones and moments from both players that are a real surprise. Titles include "Seven Come Eleven", "Prelude To A Kiss", "Perdido", "Easy Living", and "Concord Blues". CD

Stunning funk from the great Dizzy Gillespie – light years away from his early bop recordings! The album's a slammin batch of 70s instrumentals – Dizzy's trumpet firmly in the lead over electric backings that have more than a bit of funk in them. The bass is the main driving factor of the tunes – played either by Phil Upchurch or Chuck Rainey – and the tracks bounce along with a fierce and righteous groove that also includes hard riffing on guitar and some sweet piano lines. Players include Mike Longo, James Moody, and Bernard Purdie – and tracks include "N'Bani", "Matrix", "Soul Kiss", "Ding A Ling", and "Alligator". Great stuff, and a crucial album in Dizzy's lost career! Damn funky, too. LP, Vinyl record album

The title's an apt one – as the record features one side of Duke Ellington compositions, and one side of Charlie Parker tunes – all played by bop legend Al Haig in an intimate solo setting! The obscure date is one of Haig's most personal sessions ever – a record that has even more sensitivity than some of his earlier classics, and which shows a surprisingly deep side of his talents in these later years. There's a subtle sort of charm that marks the Japanese origins of the set – and titles include "Yardbird Suite", "Lover Man", "I Remember You", "Sophisticated Lady", and "Prelude To A Kiss". CD

An amazing little record – not only a fab 60s soundtrack, but a rare non-Blue Note 60s album by Herbie Hancock! The set was recorded for the film Blow Up – an incredibly dark thriller by Michaelangelo Antonioni, set in swinging London of the 60s, which provided a very groovy backdrop for Herbie's score! The tunes get plenty groovy on this set – dancing out with a combination of fast rhythms, nice piano and organ, and some of the jazzy flourishes you'd expect from a Quincy Jones soundtrack of similar vintage. The Yardbirds also make an appearance on the cut "Stroll On" – which features in one of the best scenes in the film – and other Herbie Hancock tracks include "The Thief", "Verushka", "The Naked Camera", "Bring Down The Birds", "The Kiss", and "The Bed". LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing little record – not only a fab 60s soundtrack, but a rare non-Blue Note 60s album by Herbie Hancock! The set was recorded for the film Blow Up – an incredibly dark thriller by Michaelangelo Antonioni, set in swinging London of the 60s, which provided a very groovy backdrop for Herbie's score! The tunes get plenty groovy on this set – dancing out with a combination of fast rhythms, nice piano and organ, and some of the jazzy flourishes you'd expect from a Quincy Jones soundtrack of similar vintage. The Yardbirds also make an appearance on the cut "Stroll On" – which features in one of the best scenes in the film – and other Herbie Hancock tracks include "The Thief", "Verushka", "The Naked Camera", "Bring Down The Birds", "The Kiss", and "The Bed". LP, Vinyl record album

Patrick Hernandez looks a bit silly on the cover here – almost like some 70s reject for the role of Doctor Who – but the album's got a tight disco groove that's right in keeping with his other work from the time, and with the French club scene from which he sprang! Some of the best moments here mix a Giorgio Moroder-like keyboard style with some driving Munich Machine grooves – but warm things up in the way that made Paris disco a bit different from other 70s sounds on the European scene – maybe a bit more emphasis on the hooks, or on playful melodic elements in the music. Titles include "Born To Be Alive", "Disco Queen", "I Give You Rendezvous", "Show Me The Way You Kiss", and "It Comes So Easy". CD features bonus tracks – "Too Many People", "Back In Time", "Born To Be Alive (single)", and "Born To Be Alive (12" disco mix)". CD

Swing session with small group backing by Billy Strayhorn, Jimmy Woode, Sonny Greer, and Clark Terry – and which features Johnny's warm tones soloing nicely on comfortable standards. All of side one is a "ballad medley", with a very Creamy sound, and titles that include "But Not For Me", "Prelude To A Kiss", "Whispering", and "Tenderly". The flipside's got a bit more kick, and titles that include "Honey Bunny", "Passion", and "No Use Kicking". LP, Vinyl record album

An Isley Jasper Isley 3-fer – the '84, '85 & '87's Broadway's Closer To Sunset Boulevard, Caravan Of Love and Different Drummer – in a single set! Broadway was the first breakaway effort from the trio of Ernie Isley, Chris Jasper, and Marvin Isley – a set that's got an even leaner groove than some of the Isley Brothers material from years before! The group really hit their stride right away – stepping out in a sweet array of funky rhythms that have some definite 80s touches on the beats, yet which still share all the best Isleys elements overall! Guitar parts are especially sharp – that carved in soul sound that showed up in most Isleys projects from the early 70s onwards – and the vocals have a great sense of warmth and soul, especially on the mellower tunes in the set, which turn down some of the more hook-heavy rhythms heard on other tracks. Titles include "Serve You Right", "Sex Drive", "Love Is Gonna Last Forever", "Kiss & Tell", "I Can't Get Over Losin You", "Look The Other Way", "Break This Chain", and "Broadway's Closer Than Sunset Blvd". Ernie and Marvin Isley team up with Chris Jasper and for Caravan, and more fully reinventing their for the 80s! The record features the wonderful "Caravan Of Love", a soulful spiritual tune that's kind of to 80s soul what The Impressions "People Get Ready" was to 60s soul! Different Drummer was the last album by this configuration of the group, taking on different modes, with some soul gems in the mix. Titles include "Dancing Around The World", "High Heel Syndrome", "Liberation" and more. Includes "Different Drummer", "Do It Right", "Blue Rose", "8th Wonder Of The World" and more. CD

A bit of a disco effort from Millie, given the time, but also a record that still has plenty of nice soul touches – thanks to Brad Shapiro, Millie's longtime partner at the production helm! The album features a great 2 parter with a nice monologue, entitled "What Went Wrong Last Night (parts 1 & 2)", plus the strangely-titled "Never Change Lovers In The Middle Of The Night" – as well as the tracks "A Moment's Pleasure", "Kiss You All Over", "We Got To Hit It Off", and "Once You've Had It". LP, Vinyl record album

Great work from one of the grooviest pianists of the 60s – a player who could always keep things lively and swinging, even in a small combo session! The album's one of Pete Jolly's gems for the Ava label – a follow-up to his semi-hit Little Bird, and like that one, a record done with some slight additional help from Howard Roberts on a few tracks. But this time around, Roberts' work is only on a few of the titles – leaving Pete's core trio to take over most of the grooves themselves, building strongly from warmly rolling rhythms by Chuck Berghofer on bass and Larry Bunker on drums, topped by Jolly's surprisingly soulful lines on piano – all in a blend that reminds us of the great balance between lyricism and groove we always find in the best work of Vince Guaraldi. Titles include "Sweet September", "Can't We Be Friends", "Any Number Can Win", "Soft Winds", "Oleo", "Yours Is My Heart Alone", "I'm Beginning To See The Light", and "Kiss Me Baby". CD

Great work from one of the grooviest pianists of the 60s – a player who could always keep things lively and swinging, even in a small combo session! The album's one of Pete Jolly's gems for the Ava label – a follow-up to his semi-hit Little Bird, and like that one, a record done with some slight additional help from Howard Roberts on a few tracks. But this time around, Roberts' work is only on a few of the titles – leaving Pete's core trio to take over most of the grooves themselves, building strongly from warmly rolling rhythms by Chuck Berghofer on bass and Larry Bunker on drums, topped by Jolly's surprisingly soulful lines on piano – all in a blend that reminds us of the great balance between lyricism and groove we always find in the best work of Vince Guaraldi. Titles include "Sweet September", "Can't We Be Friends", "Any Number Can Win", "Soft Winds", "Oleo", "Yours Is My Heart Alone", "I'm Beginning To See The Light", and "Kiss Me Baby". LP, Vinyl record album

A standout classic from Fern Kinney – and a set that not only marked a big moment of evolution for southern soul, but also for the Mississippi scene as well! The set was recorded at the Malaco studios in Jackson, but has a vibe that's much closer to some of the TK Records material from Miami – that maturation of southern soul during the disco era – as warmer, more modern touches came into play with rootsier styles of vocals! Mike Lewis handled the string arrangements – giving the record the same disco vibe as some of his other work of the time, including Anita Ward's big debut – and Fern's vocals have this higher range than usual for a southern singer – almost more innately tuned towards clubby rhythms. Titles include a big hit remake of King Floyd's "Groove Me" – really marking the change from the original version – plus "Baby Let Me Kiss You", "Pillow Talk", "Sun Moon Rain", "Angel On The Ground", and "Under Fire". LP, Vinyl record album