A second set of crucial solo work from Bunny Wailer – material that comes from the time when Bob Marley was hitting huge global success on his own, then passed away too early, and left Bunny as one of the key forces to carry on the original ideas of the Wailers trio! And actually, by that time, Bunny had already gone much deeper – stepping out with material like this, from his own Solomonic Productions imprint, which was about as deeply indie as Bob Marley was commercial – keeping things really raw, spare, and laidback on the production tip – as Bunny continued to push a very righteous agenda with some wonderful tunes of his own! There's only a bit of a hint at some of the changes in larger reggae on these tracks – maybe some longer songs that showcase the move towards 12" singles and album tracks, which actually allows for more interesting production and dubbier moments amidst the roots reggae message of the cuts. Titles include "Anti Apartheid", "Solidarity", "Arab Oil Weapon", "Solomonic Dub", "Galang So", "Riding", "Trouble Is On The Road Ahead", "Cease Fire", "Rule Dancehall", and "Love Fire". LP, Vinyl record album

It's easy to wake up with grooves this great – a searing back of 70s Afro Rock gems that are also surprisingly funky, too! The tunes here do a wonderful job of mixing psych currents and headier rhythms – a great blend of the burning Afro Funk trends that were happening in Nigeria at the time, but with much richer, trippier work on the guitar and vocals – and some of the freaky, fuzzy basslines too! If some Afro Funk acts drew strong influence from the sharp soul of James Brown, these groups all seem to drink deep from the same musical well as Funkadelic at their freaked-out early best – which means that they've got no trouble throwing in a psych guitar riff alongside soulful vocals and funky rhythms – all with a sound that's completely sublime. As with the great first volume in this series, this edition comes with a special heavy book on the music – filled with detailed notes and lots of photos – alongside a great set of tracks that include "Wake Up You" by Waves, "Love" by Question Mark, "Baby Rock" by Jay U Experience, "Life In Cannan" by Ceejebs, "Who Made The World" by The Identicals, "Awa Lani Arawa" by Kukumbas, "Life Will Move" by The Believers, "The Feelings" by Tony Grey & The Black 7, "I Want A Break Thru" by The Hykkers, and "In The Jungle (voc)" by The Hygrades. LP, Vinyl record album

It's easy to wake up with grooves this great – a searing back of 70s Afro Rock gems that are also surprisingly funky, too! The tunes here do a wonderful job of mixing psych currents and headier rhythms – a great blend of the burning Afro Funk trends that were happening in Nigeria at the time, but with much richer, trippier work on the guitar and vocals – and some of the freaky, fuzzy basslines too! If some Afro Funk acts drew strong influence from the sharp soul of James Brown, these groups all seem to drink deep from the same musical well as Funkadelic at their freaked-out early best – which means that they've got no trouble throwing in a psych guitar riff alongside soulful vocals and funky rhythms – all with a sound that's completely sublime. Titles include "Wake Up You" by Waves, "Love" by Question Mark, "Baby Rock" by Jay U Experience, "Life In Cannan" by Ceejebs, "Who Made The World" by The Identicals, "Awa Lani Arawa" by Kukumbas, "Life Will Move" by The Believers, "The Feelings" by Tony Grey & The Black 7, "I Want A Break Thru" by The Hykkers, and "In The Jungle (voc)" by The Hygrades. LP, Vinyl record album

Glen Brown rhythms, King Tubby mixing, and a set of really wonderful dubs – all pulled from unreleased tapes from the vaults – and served up with a superb sound throughout! These aren't throwaway cuts – as the core elements are from the roots years of Brown's music – with instrumentation from Tommy McCook on tenor and flute, Vin Gordon on trombone, Ansell Collins and Earl Lindo on keyboards, Lloyd Willis and Jeffrey Chung on guitars, Aston Barrett and Robbie Shakespear on basses, and Glen Brown himself on melodica, percussion, guitar, and more keyboards! Tubby's touches are wonderful – really dubbing things out, yet keeping a soulful roots mode at the core – never insulting the righteous energy with too much trickery, but definitely amping things up a lot too. Titles include "The Collie Man", "Dub Happening", "Dubs Lives", "Prince On Dubs", "Hit Me Forward", "The Clean Dub", and "Trouble Not Dub". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible full length debut from vocalist Mario Biondi – a jazz singer we'd rank right up there with the legendary Mark Murphy – supported here with great backings from the High Five Quintet! The grooves here are in a soaring, tightly-stepping style – very much the best club jazz mode of the contemporary European scene – with all-acoustic instrumentation, and rhythms that move along at a really great dancefloor pace! Mario's vocals are really unique too – with a little rasp that catches slightly, and really brings a timeless quality to his voice – mixing personal feeling into the lively numbers on the album, with an unexpected depth that really makes the album stand out from similar sessions of this type! There's echoes of hip vocal jazz work from years past by artists like The Peddlers, Bobby Cole, or Mark Murphy – and titles include "A Child Runs Free", "No Mercy For Me", "This Is What You Are", "I Can't Keep From Cryin Sometimes", "Rio De Janeiro Blue", "Handful Of Soul", "On A Clear Day", "Never Die", "No Trouble On The Mountain", "Slow Hot Wind", and "Gig". LP, Vinyl record album

Wonderfully dark harmonies from The Mamas & The Papas – one of those amazing late 60s albums from the group that was pop on the outside, but something very else underneath – a wonderful blend of modes that was hardly duplicated this well again! There's a slightly spooky feel to some of the music – even their leadoff cover of "Dedicated To The One I Love", which has an eerie quality that's way different than any previous readings – possibly a hint of the trouble between the group members – although maybe that's reading too much into it! Whatever the case, though – there's a special magic here that goes way beyond any understanding of the group you may have from oldies radio, and the set features some great original compositions by the young John Phillips too. Titles include "Creeque Alley", "Boys & Girls Together", "Look Through My Window", "Sing For Your Supper", "Free Advice", "Did You Ever Want To Cry", and "String Man". LP, Vinyl record album

The start of a fantastic chapter for the legendary Arthur Brown – the first album issued with his Kingdom Come group, a combo who were even more insane than his Crazy World project of the late 60s! Brown is the quintessential front man here – singing in this really dynamic, dramatic way that's years ahead of its time – much more upfront than so many of the singers of the psych generation, and even the new hard rock vocalists too – at a level that makes music like this a great inspiration for so man styles to come! The instrumentation is as dynamic as the vocals, too – not prog jamming, but instead this really focused, fused blend of heavy drums, searing guitar, and organ – all sending things way way over the top. Titles include "Internal Messenger", "Night Of The Pigs", "Trouble", "Sunrise", "Brains", the "Galactic Zoo/Space Plucks" medley, "Creep", and "Creation". LP, Vinyl record album

A mindblowing collection of work from Marvin Gaye – tracks recorded in the space right after What's Going On – many of which were never issued at the time! All this incredible material from 1972 has been brought together to create a stunning double-length album – one that features a few tracks that only ever saw issue as 45s back in the day, others that only later turned up as bonus tracks on CDs or box sets, and still others that appear here for the first time ever – all to show the incredible talents that Marvin was working with during this incredibly fruitful time in his career! Much of the material has the same righteous, socially-conscious spirit as What's Going On – and, if anything, the whole set provides a much-needed missing link between that album and the more sensual territory of Let's Get It On. There's definitely some of the spirit of that later album in place here too, as well as the instrumental complexity that Gaye would display on his soundtrack for Trouble Man – and the set even features a few Christmas tunes too. Titles include two versions of "You're The Man" – a killer 45 cut that we've loved for years – plus "Piece Of Clay", "I'm Gonna Give You Respect", "Try It You'll Like It", "You Are That Special One", "We Can Make It Baby", "My Last Chance", "Symphony", "I'd Give My Life For You", "Woman Of The World", "The World Is Rated X", "Where Are We Going", "I Want To Come Home For Christmas", "I'm Going Home (Move)", and the killer "Checking Out (Double Clutch)" – one of the funkiest tunes that Marvin ever recorded! LP, Vinyl record album

Nobody handled a fuzz guitar better than Dennis Coffey back in the early 70s – and this album's one of his masterpieces of funky instrumental work for the Sussex label – cuts that show just how much command Coffey had of the electric strings after a number of years working in both the studios and the clubs of the Detroit scene! Coffey's work here is between the genres in a really great way – heavier than soul instrumental material of a few years before, tighter than electric guitar jazz funk of the time, and with some of the understanding of new phrasing that the psych years brought in – all served up perfectly on a set of wicked cuts co-arranged with longtime musical partner Mike Theodore. Titles include the classics "Ride Sally Ride" and "Taurus" – the latter of which was his similar sounding follow-up to "Scorpio" and other titles include "Can You Feel it", "Midnight Blue", "Toast & Jam", "Man & Boy", "It's Too Late" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". LP, Vinyl record album