It's like a dream come true – 13 previously unissued recordings by Roy Ayers, all from the height of his glory years on Polydor! Roy's work from this time is some of our favorite ever – a burning blend of jazz, soul, and funk – handled with impeccable charm, and a level of soul that few other artists of the time ever matched. Roy's genius was strongly documented at the time by a series of excellent Polydor albums – but there was also a heck of a lot of great material that never saw the light of day, and which is every bit as great as the classics that we've come to know and love over the years. Hearing this set is incredible – like upping our already-massive appreciation of Roy's talents, and like finding a lost corner of soul music history that nobody's ever heard before. The tunes are all amazing – a great blend of jazzy soul, mellow soul, and dancefloor groovers – and the package is only the tip of the iceberg, from what we've been told! The full album does a great job to not cross over too much with the 12" singles previously issued in this "Virgin" series – and titles include "What's The T", "I Really Love You", "Sugar", "Mystery Of Love", "Green & Gold", "Brand New Feeling", "I Did It In Seattle", "I Just Wanna Give It Up", "Together Forever", "Boogie Down", "I Am Your Mind", and a great alternate version of "Mystic Voyage"! LP, Vinyl record album

The genius of Roy Ayers knows no end – and as this set of unreleased work from the 70s proves, Roy was always working at top form back in the day – even above and beyond his classic albums from the time! The grooves here are tremendous – funky, soulful, jazzy, and every bit as wonderful as the work that Roy did for his classic albums on Polydor – and in a way, the whole set's even tighter and heavier than any of Roy's full LPs, because it's a distillation of his sound from the time, hand-picked from the vaults with an ear towards the kind of timeless grooves that have been a huge influence on many worlds of music for years! You've never heard any of these tunes before, but we can promise you'll love them every bit as much as Roy's tracks on albums like Coffy, Vibrations, Mystic Voyage, and other classics – and the quality of the set only further pushes our jaw-dropping respect for the man! Titles include "Holiday", "Kwajilori", "I Am Your Mind (part 2)", "Touch Of Class", "Third Time", "Come To Me", "Wide Open", "Funk In The Hole", "Liquid Love", "Tarzan", "Sunshine (demo)", and "I Like The Way You Do It To Me". LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary album from the Peruvian scene at the start of the 70s – a record from one of the key groups who were really helping deepen the sound of the music at the time, and take things far past some of the simpler Anglo-inspired music of the 60s! It's tempting to call these guys psychedelic, but they've also got so much more going on too – maybe a bit like some of the Argentine groups, in that they are allowing for regional instrumentation to play with electric elements – all while delivering tunes that have a surprisingly new level of thoughtfulness in the lyrics. The blend is a bit hard to describe, but it comes across instantly in the music – at a level that's made the set one of the true global rock classics of the decade! Titles include "Virgin", "Tell The World I'm Alive", "Yellow Sea Days", "Jews Caboose", "Simple" and "Meshkalina". LP, Vinyl record album

A set originally issued as a Record Store Day goodie back in 2021, and a record that provides the full Czarface experience by combining a very cool comic book with the tracks on the set! Inspectah Deck drops out here, as the set's really an instrumental set – and works almost like one of those cool 70s Power Records comic/record combos – although more as a soundtrack to use while you're reading the comic! And even if you don't have the book, the music's pretty great on its own – with titles that include "Winged Fingers", "Voyage Dans Le Temps", "Rise Of Czar Noir", "Avant Czar", and the cuts "Czarface Theme 3099" and "Czarbot Theme" – which feature vocals from Kendra Morris! LP, Vinyl record album

A set that really pushes the Czarface legacy further, and maybe even away from its origins in hip hop – as the LP/comic book package has mostly instrumental contributions from 7L, but structured together as a film score for the comic! There's some narration too, but really just in a way to link together the tracks – and the whole thing bursts out with the sort of vivid energy you'd guess from the Marvel-styled image on the front! Artwork is by Gilberto Aguirre Mata – and titles include "A Falling Czar", "Squared Portal", "Funky Premonition", "Something Once Human", "Death Of A Comrade", and "Czartusi". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that was an instant classic from the moment it was first released – and a set that's still pretty darn pleasing all these many years later! At a time when mainstream soul was often too smooth or too poppy, D'Angelo came along and not only found a way to return the music to the years of its power with singers like Al Green or Marvin Gaye – but also managed to bring in some of the best hip hop elements of his generation too, at a level that was far more successful than most other blends that had been tried before! Production is nice and lean, and super-crispy – at a level that so many folks are still copying all these years later – and the set's full of classics that include "Cruisin", "When We Get By", "Smooth", "Me & Those Dreamin Eyes Of Mine", "Brown Sugar", "Alright", and "Jonz In My Bonz". LP, Vinyl record album

Sweet and gritty soul from D'Angelo – who takes a huge step into deeper territory on Voodoo – and it's one of the most monumental records of its time! On one level, Voodoo works as a nicely stripped-down session with a very classic soul feel. Gone are the overzealous flourishes that sometimes overwhelmed his earlier songs, and in their place are some sweetly crafted vocal parts with a classic Marvin Gaye/Al Green feel. That warmth is probably what made Voodoo a massive popular success – but what makes it such a creative triumph are the darker undercurrents – which hint at a troubled soul struggling for spiritual truth. One of the rare cases in popular music when great art became music for the masses! Titles include "Left & Right (feat Method Man & Redman)", "The Line", "Spanish Joint", "Africa", "Feel Like Makin Love", "The Root", "Playa Playa", "Devil's Pie", and "Greatdayndamornin/Booty". LP, Vinyl record album

A key album in the legendary early years of Gong – that mythical moment when the group was almost more like a cult or a commune than just another rock band on the scene! The set has the group very firmly ensconced in their French country home, where the record was recorded – with a mindblowing lineup that includes the great Daevid Allen on vocals and guitar, Didier Malherbe on tenor and soprano sax, Gilli Smyth on second vocal, Steve Hillage on guitar, and Pierre Moerlen on drums and percussion – plus lots of other surprises along the way. Titles include "Selene", "Other Side Of The Sky", "Castle In The Clouds", "Oily Way", "Flute Salad", and "I Never Glid Before". LP, Vinyl record album

The debut album by a guitarist who might well go into the realm of the classics – as he plays here with a sense of care and balance of tone that's very much his own – handling a hollow-body electric with a sound that's simply stunning from the very first note! Hugo Lippi isn't one of those "too clean" guitarists from the vintage years – as he loves to get some richer sounds out of the guitar, while also never rasping the strings or pushing distortion at all either – always playing with a sense of clarity that's great, while also touching on the complexity of acoustic players with an effortless touch! Lippi handles his instrument with the skills of Baden Powell or Paco DeLucia – although he sounds nothing like either of them – while also using the electric side of the instrument to effortlessly create amazing colors throughout. Titles include "A Child Is Born", "Reflections In B", "Land Of Hope & Glory", "Girl", "La Ballade De Johnny Jane", "Be Yourself", "Choros No 1/Bossa Antigua", and a surprising medley of "Wuthering Heights/Babooshka". LP, Vinyl record album

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An incredible debut from Public Image Limited – one of the most striking records of its generation, and a huge surprise – given that the Sex Pistols had broken up just a few months before! The record is the key transition of Johnny Rotten into John Lydon – and the whole thing is light years ahead of the Pistols in terms of boundless creativity and originality – different from Lydon's own earlier revolutionary punk act and different from pretty much everything else on the late 70s landscape – even darker than punk, if you can imagine that! The dissonant, driving post punk guitars and sneering vocals are recognizable, sure – but the dubby textures and more angular touches are so far outside the box and so hugely influential that it's hard to fathom myriad underground rock acts existing without it. Of course, part of the credit also goes to the amazing band that John Lydon assembled to put the whole thing together – a quartet that includes incredible guitar from Keith Levene, and heady bass from Jah Wobble – both key parts of the sound. Titles include "Theme", "Religion", "Religion II", "Annalisa", "Public Image", "Low Life", "Attack" and "Fodderstompf". LP, Vinyl record album

An overlooked gem from the glory days of Virgin's Frontline series – a homegrown effort from UK singer Vivian Weathers – a really unique talent with a style that's very much his own! At some level, Vivian's got the warmth of the lover's rock generation, but mixes it with some of the deeper currents of contemporaries on the hipper side of the UK reggae spectrum – creating a record here that's stunningly soulful and deep, and very much at the highest level of British reggae for the period! This isn't crossover pop, but instead the kind of special, deeper current that only a rare few were crafting on the London scene – as you'll hear on cuts that include "Move Ghetto Children", "Hip Hug", "Gypsy Love", "Song Of Sufferation", "A Fool & His Baby", "The Way You Walk", and "Street Talk". Features a bonus track – "Hip Hug (12" mix)". LP, Vinyl record album

The album that started the whole Daft Punk legend back in the day! At this point, the duo are maybe wearing their classic funk influences a bit more strongly – with plenty of 80s basslines and keyboards next to some more conventional clubby elements – but handled with a lot more depth than if these guys were just putting together a track here and there – a quality that helps set a new standard for clubby crossover sounds! Titles include "Da Funk", "Revolution 909", "Around The World", "Rollin & Scratchin", "High Fidelity", "Teachers", "Burnin", "Alive", "Indo Silver Club", and "WDPK 83.7 FM". LP, Vinyl record album

The full length classic from the duo of Althea Forrest and Donna Reid – a pair who recorded the title hit as a bit of a lark, then found themselves quickly coming up with enough material to follow up with a full length album! Despite their almost accidental fame, the duo are pretty darn great – very much in the best roots mode of the mid 70s, with an easygoing vocal style that slides right into the well-crafted grooves of the set! Instrumentation is top-shelf throughout – key Kingston backing from Tommy McCook on tenor, Vin Gordon on trombone, Chinna Smith on guitar, and Sly and Robbie on rhythm – all giving the record a great midtempo groove that lets the vocals flow in a nicely seductive way throughout. Titles include "No More Fighting", "Jah Rasafari", "Make A Truce", "The West", "Jah Music", "Sorry", "They Wanna Just", "Uptown Top Ranking", and "If You Don't Love Jah". LP, Vinyl record album

Roxy Music's third album, and a record that really shows that the group have found a tremendous voice of their own – quite a thing to do, given the heady brew of records that were coming out in the year of 1973! There's a style here that's familiar enough to draw the listener in – maybe some echoes of territory you might hear in work from David Bowie, Lou Reed, John Cale, or the now-solo Brian Eno – but once inside, you find yourself in a completely different world – a mad blend of guitars and strings, saxophones and electronics, all used in these ways that are tuneful enough to be catchy, but also deeply unsettling too – as are the lead vocals of Bryan Ferry, who comes across like some older European singer who's been let out of the madhouse for the sessions. This isn't a singles-heavy record, but instead an album-length journey that never gets old, even as the years move on – and which is as powerful to new ears discovering the record for the first time as to longtime fans. Titles include "Street Life", "Just Like You", "Amazona", "Psalm", "Serenade", "A Song For Europe", "Mother Of Pearl", and "Sunset". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare early chapter in the long legacy of Human League and Heaven 17 – a group of musicians who'd partly go on to form the latter, recently departed from the former – yet still working strongly in the dark, electronic style of the earliest releases from the Sheffield scene! There's plenty of moody analogue sounds going on here – and as a cassette only release back in the day, the whole thing is a key slice of that cold wave underground of the early 80s, even though its members reached later fame – definitely working in territory that's more avant and electronic at times, but with more rhythmic instrumentals as well! Titles include "Music To Kill Your Parents By", "Decline Of The West", "Honeymoon In New York", "A Baby Called Billy", "Wipe The Board Clean", "Uptown Apocalypse", and "The Optimum Chant". LP, Vinyl record album

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Janet's massive follow up to Rhythm Nation 1814 and it's a triumph, too – delivering on all the strengths of other peak era efforts and slyly working in some stylistic detours along the way – asserting herself here as strongly as ever! Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis once again show why they're among the most heralded pop soul producers of the era, from beats driven dancefloor jams to sexy club soul to tender ballads, but make no mistakes, this is Janet's show – this one's official title is Janet, period after all – with badass spoken interludes, vocals that soar in range of styles and an all around assertive vibe that's strong to this day. Includes "That's The Way Love Goes", "You Want This", "If", "This Time", "Throb", "What'll I Do", "Funky Big Band", "Where Are You Now", "Any Time, Any Place", "Because Of Love", "Again" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The fourth album from Roxy Music – a brilliant statement of their early genius through and through! The album has the group moving strongly past the Eno years, into a tighter framework that still contains many of the darker themes of earlier records. Ferry's lead vocals are incredibly majestic – rising to heights to match the European greats of years past who were his inspiration – and the group's tight blend of reeds, guitar, and moody keyboards gives the whole album an off-kilter sense of instrumentation that really sets it apart from the pack. There's an artfulness here that's never overdone, and the whole thing comes together with a magic that's impossible to describe, but which is Roxy at their best. Titles include "Out Of The Blue", "The Thrill Of It All", "Three & Nine", "Triptych", "Casanova", and "Prairie Rose". LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary album from the great Gene Clark – a key part of that scattered legacy that really helped cement his individual genius after leaving The Byrds! Much of the record is a spare and intimate affair – with Gene's warm vocals accompanied by his own gently picked acoustic guitar, along with producer Jesse Ed Davis (who does a masterful job in the booth on this one) also on guitar. The tunes are also sweetened by waltzy basslines, and Byrds-y keyboard riffs by Ben Sidran, but Gene's wonderful vocals and his amazingly strong songwriting are obviously the biggest draws – not standard country or roots rock, and instead delivered with a sense of sophistication that's almost a genre unto itself. Titles include the amazing "For A Spanish Guitar" – plus "The Virgin", "With Tomorrow", "White Light", "Where My Love Lies Asleep", "1975", and a great reading of The Band & Bob Dylan's "Tears Of Rage". LP, Vinyl record album

A key lost chapter in the career of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme – material recorded for the Marmalade label in the years before they burst forth to greater fame in 10CC – all with a very different vibe than the sound of that later group! There's still plenty of the heavenly quality of Godley & Creme material going on here – but with a vibe that's maybe got some of the same post-folk elements as the coolest LA Sunshine pop – almost as if Godley were singing on a Millennium album, but with all the spaced-out, completely sublime approach that Creme would bring to the sessions. Titles include "Cowboys & Indians", "Take Me Back", "Today", "Hot Sun", "Virgin Soldiers", "To Fly Away", "Seeing Things Green", and "Animal Song". LP, Vinyl record album

Brilliant early sounds from Jimmy Jam – rare late 70s material that has a very different sound than his slicker 80s work with Terry Lewis! The style here is a wonderful blend of sweet soul and righteous jazzy funk – a lot warmer than Jimmy's later beat-heavy style – and served up with loads of sweet keyboards alongside the soaring harmony vocals! Jimmy himself plays Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and other keys – but what we really love about the record is the vocals – these harmonies that are as fragile as New Jersey soul from the early part of the decade, but often turned towards more complicated cuts that have lots of jazzy riffing in the rhythms! The work's never been issued before, and is one of the greatest discoveries we've heard so far from the Numero Group – that's really saying a lot, given all their other releases. The vibe is almost like the Moments or Whatnauts recording for Black Jazz records – and titles include "I Don't Know Why", "My Love Is Like A Fire", "The Wonder Of It All", "No One Else Can Do It To Me Baby", "Virgin Lady", and "When You're Touching Me". LP, Vinyl record album

Brilliant early sounds from Jimmy Jam – rare late 70s material that has a very different sound than his slicker 80s work with Terry Lewis! The style here is a wonderful blend of sweet soul and righteous jazzy funk – a lot warmer than Jimmy's later beat-heavy style – and served up with loads of sweet keyboards alongside the soaring harmony vocals! Jimmy himself plays Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and other keys – but what we really love about the record is the vocals – these harmonies that are as fragile as New Jersey soul from the early part of the decade, but often turned towards more complicated cuts that have lots of jazzy riffing in the rhythms! The work's never been issued before, and is one of the greatest discoveries we've heard so far from the Numero Group – that's really saying a lot, given all their other releases. The vibe is almost like the Moments or Whatnauts recording for Black Jazz records – and titles include "I Don't Know Why", "My Love Is Like A Fire", "The Wonder Of It All", "No One Else Can Do It To Me Baby", "Virgin Lady", and "When You're Touching Me". LP, Vinyl record album