Features work by Lonnie Johnson, Carl Kress, John Cali, Tony Guttouso, Eddie Lang, and Dick McDonough! LP, Vinyl record album

With selections by Robert Anderson, Delois Barrett Campbell, Irma Gwynn, Gladys Beamon Gregory, and Lucy Smith. LP, Vinyl record album

The era that catapulted cult heroes Devo into pop culture history – with bubblier synths, catchier hooks, and crazier multimedia shenanigans than ever before from these pioneers of the video era – and time capsule pop angle aside, it's still one of the best and most innovate albums of its time! It's pretty hard to imagine the early 80s without Devo, but the group and this record is just as amazing decades later, since there was never anyone else like them! Includes "Girl U Want", "It's Not Right", "Whip It", "Freedom Of Coice", "Cold War", "Don't You Know", "Gates Of Steel" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The fiery greatness of Stiff Little Fingers at their early best! The classic album wasn't released until '79, but it and the band itself should be acknowledged in the top tier of punk pioneers like Sex Pistols and The Clash, and coming from Belfast, SLF's political perspective at the time was just as vital. The shrapnel spray anger of Jake Burns is at it's most incendiary here, as are the album's perfect mix of full on rageful, yet tuneful punk blasts, and cheeky nods to the proto punk and raw early rock. Perfection! Titles include "Suspect Device", "State Of Emergency", "Here We Are Nowhere", "White Noise", "Breakout", "Closed Groove", "Johnny Was", "Law And Order" and "Alternative Ulster". LP, Vinyl record album

Reggae takes on Beatles tunes – both from the early and later years of the Fab Four – served up with vocals from a variety of different singers! There's a soulful vibe to the record right from the start – and the rhythms move between roots and lovers rock-styled pacing – but definitely change up nicely to fit the needs of the singers, which is a nod to the production and arranging styles of Clive Hunt, who put the whole thing together! Titles include "Taxman" by Nai-Jay, "Here Comes The Sun" by Barry Biggs, "Norwegian Wood" by Little Roy, "Revolution" by Yaniss Odua, "Michell" by Pierpoljak, "Help" by Gentleman, "You Won't See Me" by The Pioneers, and "With A Little Help From My Friends" by Tarrus Riley. LP, Vinyl record album

The Soul Jazz Dynamite series goes 100% dancehall – with this massive collection of rare cuts and classic material from the past 25 years – plus some new numbers! You know that you can depend on the reverent Soul Jazz compilers to deliver a better overview than any other label, and Dancehall Style covers the breadth wonderfully! It features the dub dancehall style of King Tubby and other pioneers such as Michigan And Smiley, Dillinger and Early B, and modern variations of later practitioners such as dub steppers Digital Mystikz, electro dancehall groovers such as Ladybug, and much more. A killer set from Soul Jazz! Volume 2 includes 11 tracks: "Assault Rifle" by Fat Eyes, "Governor General" by Pompidou, "Weed And Grabba" by King Baucho & Beenie Man, "Fade Out" by King Tubby, "Jah Lick We" by Michigan & Smiley, "Police And Bad Boy" by Wayne Wonder, "Billie Jean" by Shinehead, "Give It To Me" by Cecille and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A killer collection of early work from producer Joe Gibbs – the kind of all-burning material that made Joe such a fresh new voice on the rocksteady scene in Kingston, and a studio whiz who helped set the tone for countless others to come! There's a quality to this work that's wonderful – groups that are tight, but never uptight – and singers that are very much part of the groove, almost urged on by the instrumentation by the well-chosen studio players that Gibbs chose for these early gems on his Amalgamated record label. Titles include "Long Shot" by The Pioneers, "I'm Moving On" by Keith Blake, "Miss Tourist" by Errol Dunkley, "Hold Them" by Roy Shirley, "Train To Soulville" by Cool Sticky, "Push It In" by The Versatiles, and "Come Brothers" by Hugh Malcolm. LP, Vinyl record album

With selections by Osborne Brothers, Merle Travis, Bluegrass Cardinals, Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass, Buddy Spicher, Josh Graves, Jim & Jesse & The Virginia Boys, Mac Wiseman, Grandpa Jones, Johnny Gimble & The Texas Swing Pioneers, and others. LP, Vinyl record album

Vintage work from some steel guitar pioneers – including Lemuel Turner, Jimmy Tarlton, Jenks Carman, Jimmie Davis, Roy Acuff, and Cliff Carlisle! LP, Vinyl record album

The Trojan Records label was a pivotal force in taking reggae to a larger audience at the end of the 60s – pushing a huge amount of Jamaican artists into the global scene, and forever helping the sound of music in the process! Trojan was especially heavy in the years of ska and rocksteady, and this package is filled with some of the key cuts the label helped put on the map – tracks that are classic numbers from the early reggae years, and which had a hell of a lot of power both in Jamaica, and overseas in the UK! 2LP set features 28 tracks in all – and titles include "007" by Desmond Dekker & The Aces, "Double Barrel" by Dave & Ansel Collins, "Everything I Own" by Ken Boothe, "Uptown Top Ranking" by Althea & Donna, "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker & The Aces, "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" by The Pioneers, "54 46 Was My Number" by the Maytals, "Monkey Spanner" by Dave & Ansel Collins, "OK Fred" by Errol Dunkley, "Girlie Girlie" by Sophia George, "Money In My Pocket" by Dennis Brown, "Black Pearl" by Horace Faith, "You Can Get It If You Really Want" by Desmond Dekker, and "To Be Young Gifted & Black" by Bob & Marcia. LP, Vinyl record album

The live anthology of punk pioneers The Slits – featuring raucous London recordings from as early as '77 up to their last gig in Paris, 1981! The recording and performance quality from track-to-track may not be representative of the group at it's best. What the set does do, inarguably, is provide a solid snapshot of the Slits' growth over the years from sneering punkers to far more stylistically ambitious dark dub & funk influenced originals. Includes "Vindictive", "A Boring Life", "Slime", "Love & Romance", "Shoplifting", "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", "Typical Girls", "Fade Away" and "In The Beginning". LP, Vinyl record album

A great little album from Masta Ace – part of his early-millennium comeback moment! Ace caught us off guard with his damn strong Disposable Arts LP – which immediately went on our short list of all time best hip hop comeback LPs, along with Slick Rick's Art Of Storytelling – and he mines some of the same lyrical territory on this album – with some straight up, no BS storytelling in which he contemplates his status as one of hip hop's true pioneers, a near legend in his own medium who nevertheless has to deal with day jobs and bills! There's also some more common street hop stuff, but Ace that pretty deftly – on titles that include "Big City", "Good Ol' Love", "Da Grind", "Beautiful", "Soda & Soap", "The Ways", "Wutuwankno", "Oh My God", and "Revelations". LP, Vinyl record album

The complete Etiquette catalog of the garage rock pioneers The Sonics – with the Here Are The Sonics and Boom LPs, plus a third LP of rarities! Here Are..is the debut of the mighty, maniacal Sonics – one of the most raucous rock & roll albums ever! Here they unleashed a fury on r&b and older rock & roll cover tunes – plus incendiary originals such as "The Witch", "Psycho" and "Strychnine" – in a way that was in a lot of ways unprecedented, and became hugely influential. How much roaring rock do you need? You need this much!!! Other tracks include "Do You Love Me", "Roll Over Beethoven", "Boss Hoss", "Money", "Walking The Dog", Nighttime Is The Right Time", "Good Golly Miss Molly" and more. Boom also finds 'em blasting at their best – a mostly-noisy, guitar-driven, garage-drenched sound that also sometimes slides into surprisingly more soulful territory too! The group are way more than just another gritty garage combo – and have a rough-edged sense of excitement that easily matches some of the best early work of bigger UK groups of the 60s – especially given The Sonics' clear love for American R&B and soul. Titles include "Cinderella", "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark", "Let The Good Times Roll", "He's Waitin", "Louie Louie", "Jenny Jenny", "Don't You Just Know It", and "Shot Down". Also includes Volume 3 – a 10 track LP of alternate versions, non-album singles and live tracks – plus 36 page booklet and a poster! LP, Vinyl record album

A 70s classic from bassist Henri Texier – a musician who's been a key part of the French jazz scene for decades, and already had a very unusual approach in his early years! Texier is fantastic here on acoustic bass – but he's also already opening up in so many other ways too – sometimes vocalizing wordlessly alongside his instrument, sometimes going electric, and always avoiding the temptation to get too moody that he'd forget to swing – which sometimes happened with other 70s bass pioneers. A number of cuts even have a cool global jazz component – but not in a hokey way at all – as Texier mixes oud alongside the bass, and also uses a bit of flute, cello, and percussion. Titles include "Homme Rouge", "Quand Tout S'Arrete", "Les Korrigans", "Amir", and "Le Sage Le Singe Et Les Petits Enfants". LP, Vinyl record album

Includes selections by Lorne Greene, Sons Of The Pioneers, Dottie West, Hank Snow, Roy Rogers, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Willie Nelson, Nashville String Band, and others. LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary bit of noise from the United Dairies label of Stephen Stapleton – a set that combines his own experimental sounds with some contributions from the avant French scene as well – all at a level that shows how that sometimes-overlooked 70s generation ended up having a bit impact on 80s pioneers like Stapleton! Much of the music here is without easy description – not the rawer industrial of some of Stapleton's Nurse With Wound projects, or free jazz, or analog electronics – but a hybrid of so many earlier experiments served up in very personal representations of musical frontiers! The set features four long tracks – "Anatomy Of Aphrodite" by Sema, "Frissons Dans La Cochlee" by Helene Sage, "Tunnel Sous La Manche/Under The Channel" by Un Drame Musical Instante, and "The Strange Play Of The Mouth" by Nurse With Wound. LP, Vinyl record album

Possibly the best ever from LA punk pioneers The Flesh Eaters – who were a vital piece of the nascent days of SoCal punk for around a half decade by this point in the early 80s, but were arguably just now hitting their strongest creative stride! They're a bit akin to X in the way they show some love for their primal rock & roll forbears, loose and caustic as their tributes may be, and without compromising their edge. They also have some longer songs, a sax player, and other interesting facets that stand aside of punk orthodoxy. Brilliant stuff! Includes "My Life To Live", "A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die", "Secret Life", "The Wedding Dice", "Hand Of Glory", "Drag My Name In The Mud", "Tightrope On Fire" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

One of the legendary Perry & Kingsley moog records, with all of their early experiments with the instrument, and all of the weird tape cut-ups and production effects, over some versions of cool sixties pop stuff, and a host of original tracks. Titles include "Pioneers Of The Stars", "Fallout", "One Note Samba", "Umbrellas of Cherbourg", "The Savers", and "Toy Balloons". Also with a nice version of "Mas Que Nada"! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the legendary Perry & Kingsley moog records, with all of their early experiments with the instrument, and all of the weird tape cut-ups and production effects, over some versions of cool sixties pop stuff, and a host of original tracks. Titles include "Pioneers Of The Stars", "Fallout", "One Note Samba", "Umbrellas of Cherbourg", "The Savers", and "Toy Balloons". Also with a nice version of "Mas Que Nada"! LP, Vinyl record album

A 70s classic from bassist Henri Texier – a musician who's been a key part of the French jazz scene for decades, and already had a very unusual approach in his early years! Texier is fantastic here on acoustic bass – but he's also already opening up in so many other ways too – sometimes vocalizing wordlessly alongside his instrument, sometimes going electric, and always avoiding the temptation to get too moody that he'd forget to swing – which sometimes happened with other 70s bass pioneers. A number of cuts even have a cool global jazz component – but not in a hokey way at all – as Texier mixes oud alongside the bass, and also uses a bit of flute, cello, and percussion. Titles include "Homme Rouge", "Quand Tout S'Arrete", "Les Korrigans", "Amir", and "Le Sage Le Singe Et Les Petits Enfants". LP, Vinyl record album

There's few folks who can make a harp sound as cool as Brandee Younger – one of the few people to take the instrument and really bring it into the hippest sides of jazz and soul – and showing that in the right hands, the harp can be this majestic instrument with a very soulful vibe! We'd put Younger on a very short list of true inspirations on the instrument – one that would include Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane – yet her music here is very different than those earlier pioneers, as she weaves the harp with great vocal contributions and warmer jazz instrumentation – all at a level that maybe even tops the wonderful sounds on her previous record! Guests here include 9th Wonder, MeShell N'Degeocello, Pete Rock, and Mumu Fresh – on titles that include "Come Live With Me", Dust", "Running Game", "Moving Target", "If It's Magic", Livin & Lovin In My Own Way", "You're A Girl For One Man Only", and a great remake of "Windmills Of Your Mind". LP, Vinyl record album