A sweet bit of keyboard funk – a record hidden under a title that references the ET movie, but which is very different than a soundtrack! The set's got all sorts of keyboard solos over the grooves – mostly clubby rhythms, but sometimes a bit more laidback – and there's more than a few moments that have a nice sort of 80s electro vibe! Titles include the originals "Nuclear Confusion", "Slingshot Spaceshot", "Iodawn", "Doctor Strangelovers", and "Solaris". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

An avant jazz supergroup – with Henry Kaiser on guitar, John French on vocals and drums, Bob Adams on guitar, Andy West on bass, and Michael Maksymenko on vocals and more drums. With great cover art by Matt Groening! LP, Vinyl record album

The second album in Sonic Youth's earlier run as one the most exciting bands in underground rock, and possibly the greatest album in their long career! It doesn't take a genius to ram a screwdriver into the neck of a guitar, but when they're at their best (as they are on EVOL, Sister, and Daydream Nation), Sonic Youth is dizzyingly great. Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo spin acres of white noise beauty on Sister, a melodic hurricane that really set the standard for the band's future work. It's way more than the lull, lilt, then ROAR style of indie rock that blanketed the late 80s/early 90s scene – the songs run deeper than that – with subtleties galore within all the clatter, making the frenzy around the corner that much more powerful. Essential! "Schizophrenia", "Catholic Block", "Beauty Lies In The Eye", "Stereo Sanctity", "Tuff Knarl", "White Cross", "Master Dik" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

An unmitigated blast of punk, worthy of setting the stage for the American hard core movement! While punk rock had been firmly established by the time this album came out, no one was prepared for the next level that Black Flag would take things to with this brutal, nihilistic, stripped down assault on the status quo! A classic that will stand up for ages, wit fist in the air anthems like "Rise Above", "Six Pack", "What I See", "TV Party", "Police Story", "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie", "Thirsty & Miserable", "Depression", "Padded Cell", "Damaged I", "Damaged II", "Life Of Pain", "Room 103" and "No More". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

The second album in Sonic Youth's earlier run as one the most exciting bands in underground rock, and possibly the greatest album in their long career! It doesn't take a genius to ram a screwdriver into the neck of a guitar, but when they're at their best (as they are on EVOL, Sister, and Daydream Nation), Sonic Youth is dizzyingly great. Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo spin acres of white noise beauty on Sister, a melodic hurricane that really set the standard for the band's future work. It's way more than the lull, lilt, then ROAR style of indie rock that blanketed the late 80s/early 90s scene – the songs run deeper than that – with subtleties galore within all the clatter, making the frenzy around the corner that much more powerful. Essential! "Schizophrenia", "Catholic Block", "Beauty Lies In The Eye", "Stereo Sanctity", "Tuff Knarl", "White Cross", "Master Dik" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic collection of work from the legendary Posh Boy label – a short-lived, but crucial imprint on the LA punk scene at the start of the 80s – and a company that was always a lot more hardcore than SST! Posh Boy really had a knack for capturing the short, sharp tunes that marked the LA scene at its best – work with blistering intensity, but also a slight dose of humor – maybe a bit of Ramones influence on the west, but always taken to more insane territory in the long run! Posh Boy gems are hard to come by, but this famous compilation offers up a nice full length document of label artists who didn't get much exposure past 45s – with tracks that include "I Have A Date", "Don't Bother Me", "California", and "Tiger Beat Twist" by The Simpletones; "I Got Power", "Atomic Lawn", "Meat House", and "Black & Red" by Rik L Rik; "Modern Machine", "Suzy Is A Surf Rocker", "Living In Madrid", and "Trix Are For Kids" by The Crowd. LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Tenorist James Brandon Lewis is easily one of the most important voices on his instrument in recent years – and also one of the most versatile too, as is shown in this project with the guitar-driven group The Messthetics! Two of the group's members hail from legendary punk band Fugazi, but clearly come across here with a different vibe overall – still using guitar, bass, and drums in ways that echo rock roots – but with a more rhythmic approach, and one that acts as a surprisingly strong setting for Lewis' solos! This isn't some cheap "punk jazz", but instead a wonderfully well-crafted hybrid of modes – one that really notches things up for both Lewis and the group. Titles include "Railroad Tracks Home", "The Time Is The Place", "That Thang", "Emergence", "L'Orso", and "Boatly". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

A true classic by Jimi with the original Experience lineup – the third of three straight up masterpiece LPs to come out in just over a year's time by the group! You could call the leftfield astral effects in the mix experimental if you had to – innovations in the studio with echo, that hallucinatory backwards sound effect and other stranger bits – but the passionate, naturally expressive playing and singing by Jimi makes it all fell just right, and the Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell still don't get enough credit for being at the heart of such greatness. A massive 2LP effort that includes "Voodoo Chile", "Crosstown Traffic", "Electric Ladyland", "Little Miss Strange", "Moon Turn The Tides", "Still Raining Still Dreaming" and "All Along The Watchtower". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderfully hard-to-categorize album from the start of the 80s – a Mexican record that mixes folkloric roots with electronic instrumentation – but all in a way that sounds much more ancient than you'd expect for the time! The fusion of modes here is wonderful – almost at a level that reminds us of some of the Graeme Revell experiments of the mid 80s, or some of the more organic electronics from Japan – as the whole thing feels a lot more acoustic than electric, with a wonderful blend of woody sounds, percussion, and other great elements. Titles include "In Altepetal Tonal", "I Pan In Xiktli Metztli", "Xochiyaoyoloh", and "Ketzalkoatl Yauh Miktlan". LP, Vinyl record album

Prince Jammy's Computerized Dub – a quintessential set of beeping, bouncing Casio driven jams from the originator of the Jamaican digital tone! Steely and Cleavie were still under Jammy's tutelage and they are part of the driving force behind these nice mid 80s rhythms. 10 tracks in all, including "Synchro Start", "Interface", "32 Bit Chip", "Auto Rhythm", "Peek & Poke", "Megabyte", "Wafer Scale Integration", "Crosstalk", "Modem" and "256K Ram". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible album from one of the greatest talents on the Chicago soul scene of the late 60s – guitarist Phil Upchurch, a player with an amazing sound! Phil could work in worlds that were equal parts soul and psychedelia – making his guitar a perfect accompaniment for the best Chicago soul of Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, Minnie Riperton, and other greats of the time. This album's easily one of Phil's best – a mindblowing set of arrangements put together by the groundbreaking producer Charles Stepney – bringing together bits of jazz, rock, soul, and funk – all providing the perfect genre-blending space for Upchurch to solo! Given that there's no singer on the set, Phil's work on guitar is a lot freer than you're used to hearing – in a really great way, one that puts him in a space somewhere between Shuggie Otis and Jimi Hendrix! Brilliant all the way through, with tracks that include "Adam & Charlene", "You Wouldn't You Couldn't Be True", "Crosstown Traffic", "More & More", "Black Gold", "America", and "As You Said". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best Stevie Wonder albums ever! Stevie's moving into god-like territory here – handling a multitude of styles, all well, and crafting some of the most sophisticated soul of his generation. The album's got the same jazzy references you'll find on the best work by Donny Hathaway – best heard on the sublime track "Golden Lady", which gets our clear vote for one of the best songs ever! Just about every track is great, though – and the album features the big hits "Living For The City", "All In Love Is Fair", "Higher Ground", and "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" – plus "He's Misstra Know It All", "Jesus Children Of America", and "Too High". LP, Vinyl record album

The early works of this legendary German post-punk quintet – an all-female group who started out in punk, but soon hit much more interesting territory – as you'll hear on these early singles recorded both for the Zick Zack and 4AD labels! Later Xmal work was maybe a bit more goth, but these tracks have a stark and experimental approach that's right up there with the best of the German new wave of the time – sounds that both echo some of the UK experiments in the post-punk years, and also refine some of the earlier excesses of Krautrock and take them to nicely focused territory. Titles include "Die Wolken", "Schwarze Welt", "Incubus Succubus", "Blut Is Liebe", "Zu Jung Zu Alt", "Kalbermarsch", and "Grosstandindianer". LP, Vinyl record album

One of those "greatest hits" of Greatest Hits collections – as Smash Hits has come to be regarded by many as a key entry in the cannon of classic rock – thanks to tremendous work from Jimi, bassist Noel Redding, and drummer Mitch Mitchell! Every track here is a gem – definitely the "smash" promised in the title, as the record's filled with Hendrix treasures that include "Purple Haze", "Fire", "The Wind Cries Mary", "Stone Free", "Crosstown Traffic", "All Along The Watchtower", "Red House", "Foxy Lady", and "Hey Joe". LP, Vinyl record album

A true classic by Jimi with the original Experience lineup – the third of three straight up masterpiece LPs to come out in just over a year's time by the group! You could call the leftfield astral effects in the mix experimental if you had to – innovations in the studio with echo, that hallucinatory backwards sound effect and other stranger bits – but the passionate, naturally expressive playing and singing by Jimi makes it all feel just right, and that Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell still don't get enough credit for being at the heart of such greatness. A massive 2LP effort that includes "Voodoo Chile", "Crosstown Traffic", "Electric Ladyland", "Little Miss Strange", "Moon Turn The Tides", "Still Raining Still Dreaming" and "All Along The Watchtower". LP, Vinyl record album

A true classic by Jimi with the original Experience lineup – the third of three straight up masterpiece LPs to come out in just over a year's time by the group! You could call the leftfield astral effects in the mix experimental if you had to – innovations in the studio with echo, that hallucinatory backwards sound effect and other stranger bits – but the passionate, naturally expressive playing and singing by Jimi makes it all fell just right, and the Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell still don't get enough credit for being at the heart of such greatness. A massive 2LP effort that includes "Voodoo Chile", "Crosstown Traffic", "Electric Ladyland", "Little Miss Strange", "Moon Turn The Tides", "Still Raining Still Dreaming" and "All Along The Watchtower". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderfully hard-to-categorize album from the start of the 80s – a Mexican record that mixes folkloric roots with electronic instrumentation – but all in a way that sounds much more ancient than you'd expect for the time! The fusion of modes here is wonderful – almost at a level that reminds us of some of the Graeme Revell experiments of the mid 80s, or some of the more organic electronics from Japan – as the whole thing feels a lot more acoustic than electric, with a wonderful blend of woody sounds, percussion, and other great elements. Titles include "In Altepetal Tonal", "I Pan In Xiktli Metztli", "Xochiyaoyoloh", and "Ketzalkoatl Yauh Miktlan". LP, Vinyl record album

Wanda Robinson was one of the first hip, black, female poets to set righteous words to funky music – and this album is one of her two classic sides for the Perception label from the early 70s. The format is spoken word over funky instrumentals – and backing is by Patrick Adams, James Moody, and others, mixing jazz, soul, and funk conceptions to fit the mood of each of Wanda's tracks on the set. The titles should give you a good flavor of the material – as the set includes "The First Time I Saw Loneliness", "The Great American Passtime", "Parting Is Such", "Tragedy No 456", "A Black Oriented Love Poem", "Instant Replay", "The Trouble With Dreams", and "Grooving". LP, Vinyl record album

Late 60s Bosstown psychedelia at its finest – and one of the coolest psych era nuggets on the MGM label! The '68 Ultimate Spinach LP has enough raw, hypnotic rock & roll in the mix to have made it a bonafide hit LP at the time, but there's all kinds of weirder, tripped out and kind of baroque touches that kind of make it one of the stranger LPs to walk on the edge of the mainstream – with oddball spoken word bits and more. Includes "Ego Trip", "Sacrifice Of The Moon (In Four Parts)", "Plastic Raincoats/Hung Up Minds", the 8 minute standout "(Ballad Of The) Hip Death Goddess" certainly one of the more influential jams on the record, plus "Your Head Is Reeling", "Dove In Hawk's Clothing", "Baroque #1", "Funny Freak Parade" and "Pamela". LP, Vinyl record album

The early works of this legendary German post-punk quintet – an all-female group who started out in punk, but soon hit much more interesting territory – as you'll hear on these early singles recorded both for the Zick Zack and 4AD labels! Later Xmal work was maybe a bit more goth, but these tracks have a stark and experimental approach that's right up there with the best of the German new wave of the time – sounds that both echo some of the UK experiments in the post-punk years, and also refine some of the earlier excesses of Krautrock and take them to nicely focused territory. Titles include "Die Wolken", "Schwarze Welt", "Incubus Succubus", "Blut Is Liebe", "Zu Jung Zu Alt", "Kalbermarsch", and "Grosstandindianer". LP, Vinyl record album

A really unique project from Philippe Samiguel – recorded in Bamako, where Samiguel has worked as a producer for many years – during which time he's pulled together ideas from all sorts of different projects, and forged them into a new groove of his own! Samiguel's worked most famously with Samba Toure – who's here on the record alongside other artists who include Hugo Race, Mariam Kone, Mamadou Sidibe, and others – working on music that has roots in Malian blues, Tuareg guitar, and other west African modes – but which has a quality that's also very much all its own. There's an experimental nature to the project that takes us back to some of the best global experiments from the early days of the Crammed label – and titles include "Are U Satisfied", "The First Tone", "Minamba", "Heaven Sands", "Mad Girl Lament", "Quicksand Blues", and "Golden Cage". LP, Vinyl record album