A mad batch of funky grooves, with a world's worth of influences in the mix – elements of African, Indian, and other styles – all wrapped around some mighty funky instrumentation at the core! One track has a bit of sitar, another some Ethio organ, one more some Nigerian rhythms – and the album progresses with a lean vibe that makes each of these cultural references nicely unified next to the sharp funky instrumentation at the core! Without the global elements, the set would already be a great funk record – but with them alongside, it really soars to the skies – on titles that include "Mehal Safari", "Flugzeug String Machine", "Tilahun", "The Chase", "Stranger To Myself", and "Seven Wisdoms Of Plutonia". CD

A great 2CD set that captures the genius of Fred Anderson during his prime years as a spokesperson for Chicago's AACM! Anderson's style has changed quite a bit since these rare recordings – making them important for understanding his progression as a musician, not to mention essential if you're a fan of his work, or the spiritual strands of the AACM during the 70s. The group on both records features Anderson on tenor, Billy Brimfield on trumpet, Steven Palmore on bass, and Hamid Drake on drums and tablas. The first disc features the Dark Day album, issued briefly by Message records in Europe in 1979, and the second disc features a previously unissued live set, recorded in Verona in 1979, featuring material that complements the Dark Day set very nicely! Titles include "Saxoon", "Dark Day", "Three On Two", "The Prayer", and "The Bull". CD

A strong debut effort from one of the finer British roots acts – the mighty Aswad, a group who were big on the UK shores, but never got the same sort of international circulation as their peers Steel Pulse! Like many UK groups of the time, Aswad are nicely self-contained, different than the producer-driven aesthetic of Jamaican music – playing and writing their own material, and really coming across with a unified vibe as a result! Vocals and instrumentation are excellent throughout – and titles include "Can't Stand The Pressure", "Ethiopian Rhapsody", "I A Rebel Soul", "Natural Progression", "Red Up" "Ire Woman", and "Back To Africa". Features two bonus tracks – "Three Babylon", and "Three Babylon (dub mix)". LP, Vinyl record album

Although composed by 70s sex-soundtrack genius Pierre Bachelet, this one's mostly a batch of jaunty, jagged little themes, a bit like Nino Rota's work for Fellini, with lots of similar touches. There's one striking number, though – "Ivory Coast Drums" – which has a weird back/forth rhythm approach, a bit of echo on the drums, and a melodic progression that makes the track a nice dark little number. Bachelet sings vocals on the French version of the "Black & White" theme – and other tracks include "The Letter", "The Battle", "Crossing The Rhine", "Fresnoy's Theme", and "La Chanson Des Souliers". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderfully raw keyboard trio session from the Norwegian scene of the early 70s – served up by a group led by Christian Reim, who you may know from more modern jazz-styled material, but who's in a killer funky group here! Reim plays Fender Rhodes and organ next to the guitar of Rickard Rolf – a player who's got plenty of rock chops, and really knows how to bring out a bolder solo next to the grooves of Reim and drummer Tom Karlsen – as they step out on long tracks that also have a similar soulful vibe to some of the Webster Lewis famous recordings at Club 7! Titles include long takes on "Them Changes", "Anything", "Bloodthirst", "Dance Of The Maya", and "Sometime Ago". LP, Vinyl record album

A really heady record from British drummer Brian Bennett – an artist known for both jazz and funky sound library work – here stretching out in a mode that really fits the image on the cover! The tunes are longer than some of Bennett's earlier sound library material – almost a mix of progressive energy with jazzier funk – a lot cooler than the disco reference in the title might imply! The set's got tremendous keyboards from Francis Monkman – who handles all the spacier elements, while the drums of Bennett works the rhythms with bass from Alan Jones – on long tracks with plenty of complexity, but also plenty of groove! Titles include "Voyage", "Solstice", "Chain Reaction", "Pendulum Force", "Air Quake", and "Ocean Glide". LP, Vinyl record album

A great package – one that features some wildly experimental work from French electronics whiz Philippe Besombes! First up is the album Libra – tripped out electronics meet progressive rock jamming – all in a weird and wonderful film score from the early 70s! The record's one of the best by French experimentalist Philippe Besombes from the time – and it's got a style that sort of starts in the territory of Francois De Roubaix similar electronic work for film – but gets a lot darker and noisier right away! There's a textural depth here that's really great – almost a pre-industrial music exploration of sounds – but the work's also not that over-indulgent, either – and Besombes always has a great way of getting back to a tune, especially on the shorter tracks. Titles include "La Plage", "Rugby", "Ceremonie", "Hache 06", "La Ville", "Les Cosmonautes", "Tis A Song", "Boogimmick", and "PJF 261". Next is the record Esombeso – also release as Ceci Est Cela – a strange mix of sound library electronics and much more experimental work from Philippe Besombes – a set that carries echoes of some of the best Italian soundtrack electronics of the 70s, but which also features much darker, more turgid moments as well! The album collects some of Besombes' performances for ballet and other settings – and stands as an even starker document of his talents than some of the other albums issued under his name in the 70s. Titles include "Pawa"," Geant", "Seul", and "Ceci Est Cela". Next are two more albums done under the name Hydravion – both of which show Besombes turning his electronics into tighter, more song-based territory – although not without some noise from time to time – shorter tracks that sometimes get a bit tuneful, but which are still light years from mainstream music of the period. CD set also features bonus tracks for the first two albums – 8 more numbers that include "L'Or Des Fous", "Traversee", "Trio", "Piano Prepare", "Orgue Hache", and "Chocolate Cream". CD

Think the Germans had the market cornered on dark-edged electronics in the 70s? Guess again, because this mid 70s gem from Frenchman Philippe Besombes easily rivals the most progressive work of the Kraut scene of the time! The album's a collaboration with Jean-Louis Rizet – and features both artists duetting on a variety of analogue electronics – sometimes in a melodic way, but often in more experimental modes that are quite textural at times – and which stand as a key link between initial German electronics in the 70s, and some of the murkier British uses of the instrument a few years later. Titles include "Synthi Soit-Il", "Haute Pression", "Evelyse", "Armature Double", "Lundi Matin", and "Montelimar". CD

One of the darkest records we've ever heard from the Far Out label – a set that reminds us of some of the best Brazilian new wave that was showing up on compilations a few years back! Guitars are in the lead on most numbers – sometimes played with energy that's punkish, at other times psycheish – and the rhythms are quite powerful too – often a bit more complicated than standard Brazilian post-punk work, but equally driving. There's a bit of electronics in the mix at times – used sparely, again with sort of an early 80s vibe amidst the guitars – and the vocals are in Portuguese, with a pretty progressive sound. Titles include "Funeral", "LKJ", "Jazzhole", "Diretriz", "Tarde Demais", "Exprimental (Catnip)", and "Vamanda". CD

A trio of spacey classics from Tim Blake – all brought together in a single set! First up Crystal Machine – fantastic sounds from Tim Blake, an artist who previously worked with Gong, and sometimes worked with Hawkwind – but who really came into his own on this legendary album of electronics! Tim works here on a self-constructed "crystal machine" – a bank of electronics that was often played in performance to front some trippy film installations (as shown on the cover) – which perfectly suited the stretched-out spacey style of his music! The vibe is maybe a bit like early Tangerine Dream, but with some of the warmer modes of the French electronic scene of the time – and titles include "Midnight", "Last Ride Of The Boogie Child", "Synthese Intemporel", and "Crystal Presence". On the cover of Blake's New Jerusalem, Tim looks like he's sitting at the helm of a spaceship on the cover – and in a way, that's what his music was at the time – a way of taking off to the skies on waves of electronics, in the kinds of sounds that Blake first created in his Crystal Machine project, but which have an even sharper focus here! The album's got more vocals than Tim's previous effort, and in a way that's what really sets it apart from the rest – as Blake's got this warmly positive approach that would be at home in progressive folk, but which here comes across with a very unique style – given the mostly electronic setting of the album! All the banks of knobs, slides, and keys pictured on the cover are used to strongly skillful effect – on titles that include "Generator", "Passage Sur La Cite", "New Jerusalem", "Song For A New Age", and "Lighthouse". Magick is a really great later set from electronic genius Tim Blake – an album recorded 15 years after his early classics, and done in his windmill home in France – but all played live, in a way that makes the electronics and keyboards here maybe more amazing! Blake has certainly picked up some of the elements from the 80s generation who were influenced by his earlier work – but also keeps the more open sense of song structure from his classics at points – with a sound that still knows when to revel in the best analog moments, next to the digital ones. Titles include "Tonight", "Strange Secret Of Ohm Gliding", "A Dream", "More Magick", and "Waiting For Nati". Also features the bonus b-side "The Woodland Voice". CD

The second comeback effort from Booker T Jones for Anti-! All around, it's a more sharply-honed and classics-steeped set than its solid, but more southern rock-inflected predecessor – one the finds the Stax organ titan backed by co-producers ?uestlove & Rob Schnapf, Dennis Coffey and others on the sessions, and allstar guest vocals on a few numbers! It's really well done and a worthy effort from a true giant! The heart of the album is the loosely grooving organ soul instrumentals – with a quite a bottom end wallop, thanks to ?uesto, and the incomparable Booker T in great form – but the handful of guest vocalists include Sharon Jones, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Lou Reed, Matt Berninger and Booker T himself. Titles include "Walking Papers", "Crazy", "Progress", "Down In Memphis" with Booker T on vocals, "Representing Memphis" with Sharon Jones & Matt Berninger, "The Bronx" with Lou Reed (weird, but it kinda works!), "The Vamp", "Harlem House" and "Rent Party". CD

A sublime second chapter of work from Booker T & The MGs – pulled from a time when Stax Records was stepping out of the influence of Atlantic, and really opening the door to a wide variety of new soul sounds! That approach is definitely in place here – as the tracks really evolve past the early hits of the group – with more unusual rhythmic patterns, laid down by the great Al Jackson on drums and Donald Duck Dunn on bass – while Steve Cropper provides all the riffing genius on his guitar, and Booker T pushes things over the top with completely sublime work on organ! All players are really changing up their groove, especially as the singles here progress from the 60s into the 70s – and the package features a-sides and b-sides, and even a few post-Booker T cuts by the MGs. Titles include "Kinda Easy Like", "Melting Pot", "Sunday Sermon", "Something", "Fuquawi", "Sugarcane", "Blackside", "Neckbone", "Soul Clap 69", "Slum Baby", "Meditation", "Johnny I Love You", "Time Is Tight", "Jamaica This Morning", "Over Easy", "Heads Or Tails", "Mrs Robinson", and "Soul Limbo. LP, Vinyl record album

Great work from this cool Dutch group – a quratet with lots of piano and organ from bassist Robert Verwey, lead guitar and "mouthorgan" from Ron Meyjes, percussion from Frans Smit, and vocals and flute from Michel Van Dijk! The set's after Jan Akkerman left the group, but they still have a pretty striking progressive sound. LP, Vinyl record album

A rare television soundtrack from Italian jazzman Sandro Brugnolini – easily some of his most hard-hitting work, and a mighty cool record to boot! Brugnolini mixes small combo jazz and some darker orchestrations in a shifting palette of sounds from track to track – which means that some numbers are hard groovers, others have this brooding quality, and still others have this incredible tinkling piano that seems to float in the air – maybe the most gentle passages of the record, but also some of the most eerie too – especially in the way that Sandro mixes darkness and light with effortless ease! Most numbers are short, and work together beautifully – a very vivid record, even away from the images on the screen. Titles include "Aggressione", "Tallonato", "La Notte Muore", "Colluttazione", "Quasi Un Sogno", "Incidente Provocato", and "Tempus Fugit". CD

Uri Caine on piano, Joyce Hammann on violin, Chris Speed on clarinet, Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Nguyen Le on electric guitar, Dj Olive on turntables, Drew Gress on double bass, and Jim Black on drums. CD

Uri Caine on piano, Drew Gress on bass, and Ben Perowsky on drums. CD

The genius of Terry Callier – remixed! One of the greatest things to happen to Chicago soul legend Callier in recent years was his discovery by a host of cutting edge producers and DJs on the European scene – important talents who took his work to a whole new audience, by fusing Terry's original grooves with some more ambitious rhythmic progressions, keyboard lines, and other studio touches. And while you might fear that such knob-twiddling would muddy the waters and dampen Callier's spirit, such was not the case – as work in this vein only seemed to inspire Terry further, to stretch out his wings and reach new musical horizons. The tracks on this set offer a number of recent Callier recordings, remixed by the cream of the current UK and European scene – all as proof of how great this format is when applied to Callier's work. Titles include "Monuments Of Mars (Hopper mix)", "Running Around (Fug city mix)", "Love Theme From Spartacus (4 Hero No Skins mix)", "Sierra Leone (Block 16 mix)", "Darker Than A Shadow (Mitchell & Dewbury mix)", "Love Theme (Zero 7 rmx)", "Imagine A Nation (Funky Lowlives mix)", and "Just My Imagination (Tom Findlay & Keeling Lee mix)". CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

The Black Jazz recordings of Doug Carn are always a revelation – some of the most powerful, progressive work on the American underground of the early 70s – music that got Carn into way more record collections than you might expect! The sound here is a perfect summation of Doug's early genius – his own work on organ and keyboards, never overdone and mixed perfectly with a righteous array of acoustic sounds from Rene McLean on alto and tenor and Olu Dara on trumpet – both players who soar to the skies on waves of energy begun by Carn! Wife Jean Carn sings on a number of tracks – with this heavenly style that's mighty righteous – every bit as soulful as her later work at Philly International, but in a very different way. The set includes Doug's great reading of "Naima" – plus other wonderful cuts that include "Power & Glory", "Feel Free", "Jihad", "Fatherhood", and "God is One". CD

A really fantastic album from trumpeter Ian Carr and his legendary Nucleus group – a combo who are really right on the money here, finding their own sort of space at a level that's very different than some of the other rock/jazz projects on the UK scene at the time! There's often a lot more space between the notes going on here than on more jamming, more progressive records – a laidback groove that's wonderfully soulful, and which ties this Nucleus set a bit more strongly to American jazz funk that was rising up at the time – or maybe like some of the better Euro work by groups like Cortex or Placebo! Ian Carr leads the group on trumpet, Dave MacRae plays a lot of great keyboards, and Brian Smith blows strong solos on tenor, soprano, and flute – on titles that include "Southern Roots & Celebration", "Capricorn", "Images", "Caliban", "Roots", and "Whapatiti". LP, Vinyl record album