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One of the darkest albums of the Krautrock scene in the 70s – an album that was actually recorded in a WWII-era bunker – where the duo were free to open up their instruments, jam for a very long time, and play with the sorts of effects and techniques you might know from bigger groups of the period! Yet there's a brooding quality here that's different than Can, Faust, or other groups – maybe because German Oak were a duo without a very clear path forward, and also because recording an album in an underground concrete bunker was bound to produced some weird vibes on the session! One of the group members recalls in the notes that in the space, he couldn't help thinking of the trauma of WWII – and you can definitely hear that in the music, and see it in the look of the package – which carries tunes that include "Screaming Skeletons", "Missile Song", "Belle's Song", and "Nothing". This fantastic package offers up some great notes from the group – in both German and English – and also adds in rare material too – the tracks "Bear Song", "Happy Stripes On Cats", "Ghost Guitar", "Belle's Song (extended)", "Python Vs Tiger", "Giant Rock Boulder Golem", "Missle Song (extended)", "Harpy & Peregrine", and "Bear Song (alt version)". CD

A huge look at the final years of the legendary bluegrass team of Don Reno & Red Smiley – and the almost-lost recordings of the following work that Don Reno recorded with guitarist Bill Harrell! By the time of these tracks, Reno's fame had risen strongly as a genius on the banjo – the set seems to have even more instrumentals than before, recorded in that "close to the roots" vibe that always made the King Records material of the 60s such a nice contrast to some of the more commercial work that was coming to dominate the market. There's also some nice surprises, too – like a full Christmas album, and also a tribute to labelmate Cowboy Copas – plus lots more of the fantastic harmony tunes that first put the duo on the map. As with the other titles in this series, the presentation is excellent – very detailed notes with lots of history and session information – in strong support of a whopping 95 tracks that include "Chinese Breakdown", "Christmas Doll", "I Don't Blame You", "There Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me", "Tragic Romance", "Too Many Tear Drops", "Sundown & Sorrow", "Down Yonder", "Big Train", "Oak Grove Church", "If I Never Wake Again", and "Twelve String Time". CD

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Tower Of Power are back in Oakland, after recording their previous album down south – cooking up plenty of East Bay grease with their horn-heavy groove at the height of its power! These guys were always a cut above any other band who tried for this territory – and this early version of the ensemble still features tremendous keyboard work from the mighty Chester Thompson on organ and Fender Rhodes – plus later soul legend Lenny Williams on lead vocals. The rest of the group are all in great young form too – Emilio Castillo, Steve Kupka, Greg Adams, Lenny Pickett, and the rest – and titles include "Oakland Stroke", "I Got The Chop", "Time Will Tell", "Squib Cakes", and "Man From the Past". CD

A way way deeper set than the first volume of Bay Area Funk – and a collection that shows that things got pretty heavy on the San Francisco and Oakland scenes of the 70s! A good number of the tracks here are instrumental, and show some wonderful interplay between the trippier sides of funky jazz and the harder sides of soul going on in the Bay Area back in the day – killer music from the fringes that often got lost in the shuffle of all the better-known music coming out on the bigger labels! The work here is all from very tiny labels – expertly selected and all officially cleared by the Luv N Haight team with keen respect for the artists involved – and in a way, the package has set a new high standard for the label! A tremendous discovery, and filled with tracks we'd never heard before – titles that include "Stop Look Listen" by Primevil, "Poor Sad Child (part 1)" by The Windjammers, "Born To Live With Heartache" by Mary Love, "Move In The Room" by Dawn & Sunset, "Ebony" by Project Soul, "Acid Lady" by San Francisco TKOs, "Hip Breakin" by Little Denise Stevenson, "Devil's On The Run" by Uptights Band, "Brute Strength" by Mile Selesia, and "Lenient With My Love" by The Relatives. CD

A way way deeper set than the first volume of Bay Area Funk – and a collection that shows that things got pretty heavy on the San Francisco and Oakland scenes of the 70s! A good number of the tracks here are instrumental, and show some wonderful interplay between the trippier sides of funky jazz and the harder sides of soul going on in the Bay Area back in the day – killer music from the fringes that often got lost in the shuffle of all the better-known music coming out on the bigger labels! The work here is all from very tiny labels – expertly selected and all officially cleared by the Luv N Haight team with keen respect for the artists involved – and in a way, the package has set a new high standard for the label! A tremendous discovery, and filled with tracks we'd never heard before – titles that include "Stop Look Listen" by Primevil, "Poor Sad Child (part 1)" by The Windjammers, "Born To Live With Heartache" by Mary Love, "Move In The Room" by Dawn & Sunset, "Ebony" by Project Soul, "Acid Lady" by San Francisco TKOs, "Hip Breakin" by Little Denise Stevenson, "Devil's On The Run" by Uptights Band, "Brute Strength" by Mile Selesia, and "Lenient With My Love" by The Relatives. CD

A fantastic little surf soundtrack record – and one that's very different than both the guitar instrumental and jazz-based albums that showed up earlier in the genre! This one is much more like some of the Australian rock scores that started to show up at the end of the 60s – very trippy, and with a weird mix of psych styles, and some really surprising rootsy touches too – so that you'll get fuzzy guitar one minute, and North Cali acoustic sounds the next – all jumping around in this really great way! Production and the whole project is by Daryl Dragon – of later fame – and here, he's a madman in the studio – using cool effects to create some really great moments on some of the tunes. Dragon also handles some of the music, too, amidst a wide variety of other artists and singers – listed here in groups that include The Bozone, Dan Peyton, Al Oakie & Friends, Richard Henn & Co, The Dragons, BFI, and Helpers. Very hip – like the best Aussie surf rock sounds at the end of the 60s! CD

Heavenly soul from the start of the 80s – a sweet little indie set that's done as a tribute to Minnie Riperton and Kenneth Armstrong! The overall format doesn't have that much to do with Minnie, but the record's still pretty darn great – and the style is a mix of modern, mellow, and boogie – all served up with a real sense of earnestness that matches the cover of the album, and which makes the record stand strongly next to some of the bigger releases of the time. A number of tracks feature vocals by the lovely Pamela Morrison, and the group hails from the Oakland scene of the time – working here under the direction of Barbara J Trotter, who also wrote a good number of the titles on the set too. Titles include the dancefloor jammer "Sho Nuf Funky Beat", plus "We're Together Again", "I See Heaven", "Satisfaction To The Bone Nitty Gritty Naked Bone", "I'm A Lady", "Rapping With My Subconscious Mind", and "We're Together Again". CD

A great little record – not so much for Kelly's keyboards, but for some killer sax work by Pharoah Sanders, who's the "friend" listed in the title! A few cuts are going for a smoother funky sound, but the record has a great version of "Got To Have Freedom" that's done at a different pace than the one on Pharoah's Journey To The One album – loping and modal, warm and soulful, and very spiritual. Other tunes are pretty nice too – and titles include "Newborn", "Rainbow Song", and "Pippin". Plus, the CD features 2 bonus cuts – recorded by Kelly and tenorist Robert Stewart – "Song For The Street People" and "West Oakland Strut" – plus 3 more that are just solo piano tracks by Kelly! CD

A beautiful tribute to the greatness of Leon Thomas – put together by one of the few cats who could get it right! Given that Babatunde Lea's other music already takes us back to the days when Thomas sang with Pharoah Sanders – his leadership on a date like this is a natural – as Lea has a way of hitting just the right sort of righteous vibe to open things up for Leon's message of peace, love, and spiritual fulfillment! The great Dwight Trible handles vocals on the date – a singer you probably already love for his work with Build An Ark – and other players include Ernie Watts on tenor sax, Patrice Rushen on piano, and Gary Brown on bass. The performance is a live one – recorded at Yoshi's in Oakland – and the double-length set features a heck of a lot of music, plus some video content on the second disc! Titles include "Prince Of Peace", "Reaching Up", "Umbo Weti", "Colors", "Sun Song", "African Fantasy", "Song For My Father", "African Tapestry", "Creator Has A Master Plan", "Boom Boom", and "Cousin Mary". CD

An incredible album – and a landmark session that showed that the bossa nova was still alive and well in the 1970s! The album pairs the breathy jazz vocals of Elis Regina with the booze-soaked warmth of Antonio Carlos Jobim – in a set of spare arrangements that feature a lot of touches from Cesar Carmargo Mariano, whose work on Elis Regina's 70s sessions is still the stuff of legend! Elis' vocals dominate, but when Tom comes in, the result is even more spectacular – especially given the generally light instrumentation used on most tracks – which means that the vocals carry the bulk of the sound on the set! Includes the pair's sublime duet on "Aguas de Marco", plus the tracks "Fotografia", "Brigas, Nunca Mais", "Retrato Em Branco E Preto", "Chovendo No Roseira", "Modinha", and "Triste". CD

A pair of early gems from Tammy Wynette – back to back on a single CD! On Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad, Tammy does her fragile, sadness soaked magic on many tunes that had already done the rounds with Ray Price, Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens and others – and makes them all her own – thanks to her immortal vocal talent and perfectly sympathetic production by Billy Sherill. Sherill would never do better then he did for Tammy Wynette – and his production here makes the album a classic – on titles that include "Apartment #9", "Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)", "Don't Touch Me", "There Goes My Everything", "Send Me No Roses", "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad", "I'm Not Mine To Give", "I Wound Easy (But I Heal Fast)", and "Almost Persuaded". Take Me To Your World/I Won't Wanna Play House is an album that's named after the two Billy Sherrill singles that came before – but one that's also filled with other great material from the young Tammy Wynette in her prime! Tammy's got this style here that's partly in the older tearstained mode of earlier country singers, but she also rises up with a bit more pride as well – set up by Sherrill's production in a mode that's as nicely understated as it is emotionally powerful. In addition to "Take Me To The World" and "I Don't Wanna Play House", other tunes include "The Phone Call", "It's My Way", "Fuzzy Wuzzy Ego", "Good", "Ode To Billie Jo", "Or Is It Love", "Broadminded", and "Jackson Ain't A Very Big Town". CD

An absolute funky monster! This set lays out an incredible batch of funk era singles from the vaults of Galaxy Records – and it shakes and burns all the way through, with lost funk bombs Bobby Rush, Rodger Collins, Bill Coday, Bobby Eaton, the Debonairs and others! It's comprised of mostly obscure 45s representing the stone funkiest records ever released by the Oakland-based Galaxy label – which was at this point sort of serving as the farm club for big brother label Fantasy Records. This one's essential, kids – just as worthy of your funk-loving dollar as the legendary rare funk compilations on Jazzman, Soul Fire or Stones Throw! 22 tracks in all: "Foxy Girls In Oakland", "Get Your Lie Straight", "Chicken Heads" by Bobby Rush, "Bring It On Up" by Loleatta Holloway, "I Love Her Too" by Lenny Williams, "People Say" by JJ Malone, "Try The Life" by Everyday People, "Man Power" (previously unreleased) by Ben & Larry, "My Money Is Funny" by the Right Kind, "The Iron Horse" by Merl Saunders & Heavy Turbulence, "I Get What I Want" by the Sequins and lots more! CD

Fiery little surf and drag rockers from the vaults of California's Downey Records – rumbling, pulpy tunes from The Rumblers, The Ramblers, The Blazers, The Hustlers, The Chevells, The Revells and others! Clean lead and mean rhythm guitars, fuzzy bass lines, snapping drums and bleary sax – we can thank the unsuspecting instrument makers and Fender and Gretsch for the most of the tools, but the sinister sounds are pure sun soaked, primal adolescent urges – and we love 'em! Blazing stuff from the prime years of instrumental surf rock! Titles include"Surf Rat" and "Oblique" by The Rumblers, "Kopout" and "Wailin' Out" by The Hustlers, "One Armed Bandit" by The Nevegans, "Riptide" by The Chevells, "Cecelia Ann" by The Surf Tones and more. 26 tracks in all. CD

A great later album by Jobim – one that has him working with "the new band", which includes younger talents like Danilo Caymmi on flute and vocals, Sebastiao Neto on bass, Jacques Morelen baum on cello, and Paulo Jobim on guitar and vocals. Jobim's voice is wonderfully aged and booze-soaked – a perfect vehicle for the darkly jazzy approach of the material. Arrangements are somewhat lighter than his late 70s work, which is a good thing – as it lifts the spirits of the tracks strongly, creating the perfect mix of joy and sadness that characterized his best bossa work. Tracks include "Chansong", "Brasil Nativo", "Bebel", "Gabriela", and the goofy "Samba do Soho". "Chansong" includes the somewhat stupid line "You look so sexy with my pince-nez, let's hijack this concord to the bahamas!" – but the overall quality of the material is quite high. CD

Killer work from Tower Of Power – captured live in the studio, and with a frenetic funky groove that's even tighter than some of their studio material from the time! At their core, these guys were always first and foremost a live, lively ensemble with a razor-sharp approach to funk – one that comes through beautifully here in the album's heavy drums, searing horn parts, and sharp mix of guitar and keyboard lines – equally great on the instrumental cuts and the vocal ones! The previously-unissued performance was very well-recorded in 1974 – done for WLIR radio in New York, and finally great to have out after all these years. Titles include live versions of "Oakland Stroke", "Soul Vaccination", "Clean Slate", "You're Still A Young Man", "Just When We Start Makin It", "Down To The Nightclub", "What Is Hip", "Time Will Tell", and "Squib Cakes". CD

A beautiful tribute to the too-short career of Swedish trumpeter Anders Garstedt – a musician who never achieved the global fame he deserved, but who really left his mark upon a recent generation of Scandinavian musicians! This set is served up by some of that generation – a lineup that includes Fredrik Ljungkvist on tenor and soprano sax, Joakim Milder on tenor, Mathias Landaes on piano, Filip Auguston on bass, and Fredrik Rundqvist on drums – all performing original compositions by Anders that shimmer with beauty and imagination! The intertwining of horns is especially nice, especially in the slower progression of moments – and there's a strength to Garstedt's writing that makes us hope there's more gems like these in his songbook. Titles include "Ades Gased", "Gone For Good", "C", "#27 1/2", "Waltz #2", and "F Minor". CD

A trio of legendary albums by Lee Perry – Super Ape, Return Of The Super Ape, and Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Cornbread – back-to-back-to-back in a great 2CD package complete with a handful of bonus tracks! Super Ape is the King Kong of dub albums – classic Lee Perry and an essential dub album, rendering Scratch's dense, multi-layered Black Ark rhythms in all their raw glory – with toasts and vocal snippets darting in and out of the dubs courtesy Prince Jazzbo, the Heptones, Dillinger and Scratch himself. Tracks include "Zion's Blood", "Croaking Lizard", "Dread Lion", "Patience", "Dub Along", "Black Vest", "Underground Root", "Curly Dub" "Three In One" and "Super Ape". Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Cornbread is Scratch's funky reggae party, put together at the Black Ark, with Boris Gardner, Mickey Boo, Sly Dunbar & Winston Wright. A nice batch of skanking Jamaica funk, with the requisite Black Ark smoke blowing throughout. Includes a bunch of classic Perry-isms, like "Yu Squeeze My Panhandle", "Roast Fish & Cornbread", "Soul Fire" & "Free Up The Weed". Return Of The Super Ape is mostly instrumental, but not quite dub, though some cuts do have Perry's vocals on top. Slow rolling and a bit murky, this set bears no relation to the Super Ape set, other than the freaky cover, but is still infused with Perry's unique vision. Includes the title track, "Bird In Hand", "Psyche & Trim", "Huzza A Haha" and "High Rankin Sammy". Includes 7 bonus tracks! CD

Three great albums from Incognito – served up at a mighty nice price, and with bonus tracks too! Who Needs Love is a gem from over a decade ago – and Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick pulled out all the stops on this set – working with a range of vocalists that includes Joy Rose, Kelli Sae, Tony Momrelle, Joy Malcolm, and Brazilian soul legend Ed Motta! The range of voices on the set really gives it a lot of depth – moving past the easy jazz funk moments of earlier sets, and going for an all-solid, all-soulful approach that really blows our mind! Great stuff all the way through – maybe their best album in years – and a record you'll be playing into the next decade. Titles include "Morning Sun", "Who Needs Love", "Stone Cold Heart", "Where Love Shines", "Blue", "Fly", "If You Want My Love", and "Cada Dia". On Adventures In Black Sunshine, the groove is sweetly soulful, with a jazzy undercurrent that hearkens back to the best west coast soul of the 70s – and Bluey's got the group honed to perfection, playing with a razor-sharp edge that keeps the tunes as funky as they are soulful! Vocals are by Maysa and Tony Momrelle – and tracks include "Don't Turn My Love Away", "This Thing Called Love", "The Principles Of Love", "Everything Your Heart Desires", "Close My Eyes", "25th Chapter", and "Mr Jones". Eleven is a record that's a great testament to Incognito's richly-collaborative spirit – a quality that makes plenty of room here for lead vocals by Maysa Leak, Imaani, and Carleen Anderson – and which benefits strongly from some great keyboard lines by Ski Oakenfull. But as usual, mainman Bluey is the one to thank for the record – because his sense of groove, and love of classic 70s-influenced soul comes through very strongly on all tracks – hitting an on-the-money sound that makes the group, and this latest album, stand head to head with some of the best soul acts of classic years. Another winner from Incognito – not a bit of fluff at all – and a sublime batch of tracks that includes "Jacaranda", "Show Me Love", "We Got Music", "Let The Mystery Be", "Will I Ever Learn", "I'll Get By", "As Long As It's You", and "When Tomorrow Brings You Down". Bonus tracks include the previously-unreleased "To Prove My Love" and "Feel The Real" – plus "Zaius (Ski Oakenfull mix)". CD