New Arrivals

Benny Sings has a scruffy sort of look on the cover here – but his music is wonderfully smooth and soulful – every bit the sound that we've loved on all of his previous records, and which makes Benny maybe one of the under-discovered talents of the global scene of the past decade or so! ... CD (Neo Soul CD)

A great collection of tracks from three important early albums from Robbie Basho – all issued on Takoma Records, under the guidance of John Fahey – an early champion of Basho, who was an artist who was every bit a revolutionary acoustic player as his mentor! Basho a guitarist who's ... CD (Folk/Country CD)

Here's a record that may well push Valerie June over the top – a mature, fully-formed set that's filled with anthemic tunes that point the way to a whole new generation in soul! The album bills individual songs as filling certain needs – prescriptions, if you will – like ... CD (Neo Soul CD)

A nice little set from Bombino – recorded in Amsterdam, but heavy on the kind of fuzzy, freaky guitar work that have made the Tuareg group such an international hit in recent years! These guys wail mightily throughout – mixing pulsing rhythms with nicely freaky guitar lines – ... CD (Global Grooves CD)

A fantastic second set from keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones – a musician we first came to love in the UK-based Ezra Collective, and one who's now effortlessly bridging a space between jazz and soul! The record's got a vibe that's as cosmic as its cover – but one that comes not just through ... LP, Vinyl record album (Jazz LP)

Early work Zimbabwe legends Hallelujah Chicken Run Band – a group that was an early showcase for the vocal talents of the equally legendary Thomas Mapfumo! The set's not just a Mapfumo showcase, though – as the sound here resonates strongly from the whole group – nice harmonies ... CD (Global Grooves CD)

A wonderful pairing, and one that's really helped Raheem DeVaughn find a great new place in his music – a space that's still got all the sensual soul of previous records, but which has him collaborating with The Colleagues to give it a lot more focus and direction! There's a classic vibe ... CD (Neo Soul CD)

One of the greatest Sun Ra records from the early 80s – and a set that's every bit as striking as its sinister title! The album was recorded in 1982 – in marathon New York sessions that yielded more than one album's worth of material – but of all of them, this is probably the ... CD (Jazz CD)

Sun Ra left the planet a few decades ago, but his Arkestra has been going strong – really carrying the torch that the great one kept burning – and stepping out here in their first studio album in 20 years! The record is really something special – that core Sun Ra spirit, but ... CD (Jazz CD)

A really great idea for a record – and one that echoes the same "E & F" mode that Makaya McCraven brought to his previous album! The approach here is as unique as the drummer himself – in that McCraven went back to the sessions for the core album, and pulled out material ... LP, Vinyl record album (Jazz LP)

The "Asylum" here isn't a reference to Asylum Records – that powerhouse of singer/songwriter material – but a fictional allusion to the mental institution in which this music was supposedly created – yet another slice of the mysterious puzzle of Marvin Pontiac, the alter ... LP, Vinyl record album (Rock LP)

A surprisingly strong record from an equally surprising duo – both artists who had given the world some real moments of genius in the 70s, then maybe lost their way a bit in the following decade – only to strip things back to a basic appeal here! For Eno, the record is a real return to ... LP, Vinyl record album (Rock LP)

A rock solid effort from one of the finer producers on Stones Throw at this stage in the label's esteemed history! If you expect 1988 to be throwback effort by the number title, think again, but he's not as predictable as that anyway. He sets an impeccable and unpredictable mood that stays rooted ... LP, Vinyl record album (Hip Hop LP)

A mindblowing treat for anyone even remotely interested in the music of Frank Zappa – as this box set brings together 70 unreleased tracks by a group that was one of Zappa's coolest ever – the 1970 version of the Mothers, with George Duke on a variety of cool keyboards, Ian Underwood on ... CD (Rock CD)

A never-issued album from the guitar genius Robbie Basho – material recorded at the same Vanguard Records sessions that produced his monumental albums Voice Of The Eagle and Zarthus, and every bit as great as the work that appeared on those records – and as the tracks on Basho's Takoma ... LP, Vinyl record album (Folk/Country LP)

A killer compilation of cuts by The Pleasure Seekers – the criminally overlooked teen garage rock girl group with roots in the feral mid 60s Detroit scene! The band's relative obscurity is all the more surprising, given that it's the first band featuring glam rock trailblazer Suzi Quatro ... CD (Rock CD)

A mindblowing little set – and a massive overview of soul music in Spain during the late 60s and early 70s, filled with incredible tunes we've never heard before, all supported by great notes in both English and Spanish! The Spanish soul groove is a bit rougher than that of the US – ... CD (Funky Compilations CD)

A British singer with a wonderfully fluid feel – a voice that slides right into a tune, wraps around the keyboards and other instrumentation, and picks up this special sort of glow along the way! The album's very heavy on Fender Rhodes, which are almost a second sort of voice on the record ... CD (Neo Soul CD)

Beautiful solo sounds from Angel Bat Dawid – a Chicago clarinetist who works here with the same inventive spirit as the other contemporary artists on the International Anthem label! By that, we mean that although Angel's music starts in jazz, it quickly becomes something else – as she ... CD (Jazz CD)

The final album issued by Impulse Records in their short-lived, ill-fated partnership with Sun Ra – and maybe the most far-reaching of the bunch! The album features three long tracks – all of them relatively open and unbridled – put together with less of a song structure than ... CD (Jazz CD)