A really unusual document of the legendary scene around CBGB's on the lower east side – one that gets at the great range of music that passed through the doors of the clubs, in addition to some of the better known punk acts who helped form its legend! The music here runs the gamut from seminal new wave to bar rock – and the choice of cuts is interesting, most likely culled together from acts who didn't have any sort of record label contract at the time. Titles include "Head Over Heels", "Slash" and "All For The Love Of Rock And Roll" by the Tuff Darts; "Operetico", "AVM" and "Poe" by the Shirts; "Cadillac Moon", "Change It Comes" and "Let Me Dream If I Want To" by Mink Deville; "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" and "I'm Really Not this Way" by Manster, "We Deliver" by the Miamis, "I Need A Million" and "It Feels Alright Tonight" by the Laughing Dogs, "Romance" by Sun, and "Everybody's Depraved" by Stuart's Hammer. LP, Vinyl record album

A contemporary collection, but one that really hearkens back to the brown-eyed soul of the Texas scene in the late 60s and early 70s – a moment when local groups were picking up on some of the vibes of East LA – reveling in the rich history of Texas soul and blues, but mixing it with funkier currents as well! After the recent interest in Sunny & The Sunliners, there has been a great wave of contemporary acts echoing the Texas sound of years back – and here, producer Adrian Quesada serves up core instrumentation that's a great blend of mellow-yet-funky soul – while different vocalists come in to the mix and really send things over the top! The set features contributions from a nice variety of artists – and titles include "Ain't No Big Thing" with Johnny Hernandez, "I've Got Soul" with David Marez, "Just Me & You" with Amalia Mondragon, "Boogaloo En Monterey" with Ruben Ramos, "One Woman Man" with David Hidalgo, "Love Reverberation" with Johnny Benavidez, "Funky Chick" with Brownout and Tomar Williams, and "Look At My Soul" with Black Pumas and Kam Franklin. LP, Vinyl record album

The title here is very apt – as there's a reaching sort of vibe to the whole record – uplifting tunes from the farther reaches of the Numero catalog, all brought together in a way that really makes things soar! Genres shift nicely, and maybe the lack of description or cover notes is a good way of just making you trust the label and dive right in – something we've been doing for many years now! Tracks include "The Kiss" by Alex Johnson, "To Live In The Sea" by Masumi Hara, "Touch" by Calvin Keys, "Rain" by Bob Siebert, "Enchanted Pool Suite (prelude & part 1)" by Lenny White, "The Kiss" by Alex Johnson, "Thou Art With Me" by LaRhonda LeGette, "Past Life Regression" by ART Wilson, "Modulation Del Sol" by Ascending Wave, and "Gold Dust Twins" by Reach. LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent compilation of Disco Not Disco style new wave tracks, on the awesome Ze imprint, with a great meeting of downtown new wave and disco sensibilities. 6 tracks in all: material "Busting Out", Was (Not Was) "Wheel Me Out", Christina "Drive My Car", Gichy Dan "Cowboys & Gangsters", Don Armando's 2nd Ave Rumba Band "Deputy Of Love" and Coati Mundi "Que Pasa/Me No Pop I". LP, Vinyl record album

A brilliant batch of electronic, cold wave, and post-punk tracks – all drawn from the farther reaches of the Swiss underground of the 80s – a scene that was far more secret than those in the UK, Germany, or other European hotbeds of electronic experimentation! We'd heard only a few of these groups before – and back in the day, we were constantly searching for Euro electronic and new wave records – and the work that Strut have done to put the whole thing together is wonderful, as these rare gems are also illuminated with detailed notes that really shine a light on the darker corners of this sonic scene. Titles include "Anfang" by Mittageisen, "Le Jour L'Ennui" by Aboriginal Voices, "Boat Song" by Lilliput, "Asho II" by Bells Of Kyoto, "Labyrinth" by Jurg Nutz, "Basic Ground Without Voice" by Konx, "Soyledir" by Cafe Turk, "Nightmare" by Unknownmix, "Arbeiter" by Schamanen Circel, and "Glettscher" by El Deux. LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastically funky tunes from Italy! This set's one of the funkiest batches of sound library tunes we've heard in ages – pulled together by producer Aldo Sinesio, who recorded the material back in the 70s for his obscure Fly Records label. Sinesio's got a great ear for the funky bassline – and these tracks are rippingly great instrumentals with a heavy groove on nearly every cut. Keyboards are the main solo instrument – as Hammond and piano wail away on the melody, while bass and drums roll away underneath, punching out a very funky sound! Titles include "Ramsey", "Wave", "Halloo", "Lapedusa", "Crossway", "La Gang", "Week End", "Senza Propsettive", and "Trice". LP, Vinyl record album

A surprising side of the legendary Stax Records – especially if you only know the Memphis powerhouse as an outlet for funk and soul! There was always a bit of crossover between country and soul – even in the early days, a label like King Records could easily handle both – or a company like Atlantic could find a way to make its soul singers handle country tunes with ease. Yet the approach here is pure country – tracks recorded during the final few years of Stax – at a time when the company was both growing strongly, thanks to the fame of Isaac Hayes and others – and also trying out new ideas to round out the strength of their operation. Given their proximity to Nashville, and the fact that Memphis studios like Sun or Ardent had handled country-styled sounds – the move seemed to be a good one, and definitely comes across here in the quality of the tracks! The music has a nice left-of-Nashville vibe – almost like some of the growing wave from Austin soon to come, but also a bit like the cooler indie 45 country market of the 70s – which is finally getting its due these days. Either way, the sounds here are way past the hits, and way past the more standard modes of the time – and show that Stax Records could bring as much of a magic touch to country as they could to other sounds they recorded. Titles include "Hippie From The Hills" by Roland Eaton, "The River's Too Wide" by Karen Casey, "That Glass" by Eddie Bond, "Sweet Country Music" by Becki Bluefield, "My Girl" by Danny Bryan, "Satisfied Woman" by Paige O'Brian, "All The Love You'll Ever Need" by Cliff Cochran, "A Mom & A Dad For Christmas" by Lee Denson, and "Truck Driver's Heaven" by Roger Hallmark. LP, Vinyl record album

Rare work from one of the most obscure sides of the Studio One catalog – dub recordings that were issued in small press runs, usually with handmade covers, and which barely saw circulation outside of Jamaica at all! This is Studio one at its most experimental – following the new wave of creative activity on the Kingston scene in the 70s, and letting the Dub Specialist access older tracks from the Studio One catalog, break them down, and build up these spare dub tracks that really live up to the "space age" promise of the title! The whole thing is almost more of a Dub Specialist album overall, save for the fact that the core of the tracks is from material by a host of other artists – on titles that include "Tricky", "Disco Dub", "Still Water Version", "Marcus Dub", "Accra", "A Lie Gal A Tell", "Pick Up", "Red Neck", "Wailing Sounds", "Barb Wire Version", and "Juk's Inc". LP, Vinyl record album

The Kay Bank studios were located in the Twin Cities during the 60s – quite far from the oceans on both coasts, and even from the Great Lakes mentioned in the title – yet that didn't stop them from turning out a surprisingly great array of surf rock singles at the time! The music here resonates strongly with both the warmer surf instrumentals down in Cali, and some of the guitar instrumentals from the Pacific Northwest – recorded with just the right amount of echo to bring out the best in the driving guitar lines and bass – and often urged on strongly by some mighty nice drums! As you can guess, the tracks within are plenty rare – and although a few were issued as small indie label singles, most of the material here never came out at the time – served up in a set of tracks that includes "Disintegration" by The Readymen, "Caliente" by The Marauders, "Heaven's Devil" by The Boss Tweeds, "Girl Don't Tell Me" by The Satisfactions, "Za Boo" by The Valients, "Bird Gasp 65" by The Trashmen, "Little Queenie (inst)" by The Furys, "Surf Beat" by The Chancellors, and "80 Foot Wave" by The Vaqueros. LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful collection of work from one of the greatest soul labels ever – a tiny Alabama imprint that helped bring the Muscle Shoals sound to the masses – thanks to the work of producer Rick Hall, and his crack band of session players! The music here set a whole new standard for soul in the south – and really helped bridge older 50s modes and the new wave of more expressive, more sophisticated singers – served up here in a special vinyl-only package that mixes big Fame classics with some real gems that never got their due back in the day – and even come cuts that appear here on vinyl for the first time ever! Titles include "She Ain't Gonna Do Right" by Clarence Carter, "Fortune Teller" by The Del-Rays, "That Kind Of Lovin" by Otis Clay, "Back In Your Arms" by George Jackson, "Feed The Flame" by Billy Young, "Almost Persuaded" by June Conquest, "A Piece of My Heart" by Art Freeman, "I Worship The Ground You Walk On" by Jimmy Hughes, "Blind Can't See" by Richard Earl & The Corvettes, "Come On Home" by Hrman Moore, "I'm Gonna Forget About You" by Arthur Conley, "Long Ago" by Ben & Spence, "Take Me Just As I Am" by Dan Penn, and "Don't Make Me Hate Loving You" by Jeanie Greene. LP, Vinyl record album

Funky nuggets galore – and a fair bit of righteous numbers too – all brought together in celebration of one of the hippest record labels of the early 70s! Flying Dutchman was around for just a bit over five years – yet during that time, the label recorded all sorts of really wonderful music – a mixture of jazz, soul, funk, and other styles that really helped push the envelope at the time – as it took the torch from older labels like Impulse or Prestige, and really continued a big wave of new sounds and groovily experimental music! You'll no doubt recognize some of the cuts here – but the collection does a great job of digging deeper past the Flying Dutchman hits – bringing together some real surprises that showcase the way that the company was trying so many cool things at once, and creating music that's still the stuff of legends many years later. Titles include "Head Start" by Bob Thiele Emergency, "Peaceful Man" by Esther Marrow, "Mama Soul" by Harold Alexander, "Soulful Strut" by Steve Allen, "Heavy Soul Slinger" by Pretty Purdie, "Echoes" by Leon Thomas, "See Saw Affair" by Cesar, "Expansions" by Lonnie Liston Smith, "Bolivia" by Gato Barbieri, "125th Street & 7th Ave" by Oliver Nelson, "Whitey On The Moon" by Gil Scott-Heron, "Echoes" by Leon Thomas, and "Lament For John Coltrane (take 1)" by Bob Thiele. LP, Vinyl record album

A really unique selection of Japanese reggae tracks from back in the day – and work that's very different than sounds from both the underground scene in Kingston, and the big wave of reggae hits on the major labels! The pace of many of these cuts has them moving in almost a lovers rock sort of mode – easygoing, warm, and with lots of soulful touches – often served up with instrumentation that echoes some of the city pop generation as well, although maybe a bit more down to earth, given the genre! You might almost think of these tunes as city pop reggae variants – mostly with female singers in the lead – and titles include "Hittin Me Where It Hurts" by Marlene, "Johannesburg" by Junko Yagami, "Coffee Break" by Miharu Koshi, "Tsukikage No Nagisa" by Miki Hirayama, "Music" by Chu Kosaka, "Lazy Love" by Izumi Kobayashi, and "Tenkini Naare" by Lily. LP, Vinyl record album