Some of the fullest, freakiest sounds we've ever heard from Karl Hector & The Malcouns – and a set that almost has the contemporary combo resonating with some of the older psych and fuzz that often gets reissued on the Now Again label! JJ Whitefield – of Whitefield Brothers/Poets Of Rhythm fame – is at the helm of the group, and also handles the production – and the whole thing is a deep shift from the sharper, funkier style of his early material – as this record's really awash in fuzz and long, languorous space – drawing elements from older funk, jazz, and global elements, and pushing them all through a mighty cool psych-styled filter. Marja Burchard sings some cool wordless vocals on the record, but most of the focus here is instrumental – with great organ, vibes, moog, and plenty of fuzzy guitar. Titles include "Crawling Through Your Mind", "Hymnins (extended)", "Inhale/Exhale", "Mother Seletta", "Dekagon", and "Asteroid". LP, Vinyl record album

The long-awaited third volume Original Raw Soul – a set that pulls together rare funky soul singles by the revolving roster of players led by the Whitefield Brothers – singles that ultimately became just as rare as the obscure funk 45s that inspired them! Nowadays, The Whitefield Brothers, their Poets Of Rhythm and associated acts can be credited for spurring the funk & raw soul revival of the 00s onward. At the time, some of the singles would appear and be hyped as reissues of regional rarities from back in the day – and they're so damn authentic, it was pretty easy to believe! Straight up raw funk instros, some jazzier gems with flute and female vox, organ-drenched jams and more credited to New Process, Poets Of Rhythm, Karl Hector & The Malcouns, Bajka, Whitefield Brothers, Polyversal Souls and more! Includes "Bus People Theme" and "Freedom" by New Process, "Summer Days (Instrumental)" and "Flight To St Vincent" by Poets Of Rhythm, ""Will Power" and "Money For Born, Money For Die" by Transgressors (both previously unreleased), "A Vision" and "The Only Religion That I Believe" by Bajka, "$600 Song" by Mercy Sluts, "Muswell Hill Run" by Polyversal Souls, "The Bastard" by Whitefield Brothers and more. CD

The first-ever CD issue of a range of material from this ultra-hip group – all tracks that originally appeared on vinyl-only releases, now making their CD debut in an overstuffed collection that features 24 tracks in all! The vibe here is great – that Karl Hector & The Malcouns mix of deep funk instrumentation and various global elements – almost an imagined version of 70s sounds from Africa and the Mid East, but served up with the sensibilities of a deep funk combo – which is what they are, given that the group is just the Whitefield Brothers and Poets Of Rhythm, working here under another one of their many names! Yet the instrumentation is quite different than those other acts, too – much more rootsy and filled with a lot of organic percussion and other global elements – as you'll hear on titles that include "Shangold", "Leealah", "Roads Of Otumpa", "Tamanrasset", "JB Rip", "Irtijal", "The Cave", "Orange", "Transition X", "Medium Rare (part 1)", "Beyond Squares", and "Coomassi". CD

JJ Whitefield's had a hand in countless funky records over the past 20+ years – a huge range of work that includes projects from Poets Of Rhythm, Karl Hector, The Whitefield Brothers – and here, he's equally funky stepping out on his own! The set's not a strict solo set – although JJ plays guitars, keyboards, flute, bass, percussion, and lots of other instrumentation – including electric sitar! Yet there's also other members throughout the proceedings too players who bring in Fender Rhodes, flute, shamisen, and plenty of funky additional drums – while still keeping things nice and lean, with an even more stripped-down approach to funk than any of JJ's other projects! Titles include "Mukogawa", "No Mo Woa", "Bin Dippers", "Raised With Fire", "Flute Punch", "Hyperion", "Dawn Of Delphi", and "Comin At Ya". LP, Vinyl record album

A damn funky little album – and one of the best Stones Throw albums of the past 20 years! Connie Price & The Keystones are a modern group – but one who's steeped in all the older messed-up funky styles of their Stones Throw labelmates – even some of the offbeat psych and rock that the label has reissued from around the globe! There's a wonderfully tripped-out sound to their work – taking the core instrumentation of funky drums, choppy guitars, smoking keyboards, and soulful sax – and pushing it out with a Stark Reality-ish vibe that really makes the group stand out from the rest of the deep funk underground! The album's a brilliant debut that we'll be digging for years – and it also feature appearances by Malcolm Catto, and members of Funk Inc, Poets Of Rhythm, and The LA Carnival! Titles include "Sticks & Stones", "Sucker Punch", "The Buzzard", "Double Dutch", "Wild Flowers", "Tall Dry Grass", "Fuzz & Them", and "The Shadows Of Leaves". Expanded version features 9 more bonus tracks – including "Raga Doll", "Afro Som", "Hurricane Malcolm", "Hello I'm Inside Out", "Sticks Dub", and "Attack Of The Killer Penguins". LP, Vinyl record album

JJ Whitefield has given us plenty of funky records over the years – most in vintage styles, including work as Poets Of Rhythm and Karl Hector & The Malcouns! This time around, there's a sound library approach, but with the slight Ethio vibe you'd guess from the title on one side – then an Italian cinematic inspiration on the other! The Ethiopian-flavored tunes are maybe more laidback, and have some elements that resonate with the 70s golden age, but with a lean funk sound and a bit sharper production – as befits the sound library approach. The flipside echoes lots of great Italian crime/cop modes from the 70s – but again, with a slightly leaner style that really lets the best funky elements come through strongly! Titles include "Hulet", "Sost", "Arat", "Sebat", "Sidist", "Asir", "Orecchiete", "Parmagiano", "Strozzapreti", and "Buttoni". LP, Vinyl record album

12 tracks in all: Quannum MCs & Jurassic 5 "Concentration", Latyrx "Storm Warning" and "Lookin' Over A City" with El-P, Divine Styler & DJ Shadow "Divine Intervention", Maroons "Golden Rule", Quannum MCs & Souls Of Mischief "The Extravaganza", Lyrics Born "Hott People", Blackalicious "One Of A Kind" and "Jada's Revenge", Joyo Velarde "People Like Me", Lyrics Born & the Poets Of Rhythm "I Changed My Mind", and Quannum MCs "Bombonyall". LP, Vinyl record album

A damn funky little album – and one of the best new records on Stones Throw in years! Connie Price & The Keystones are a modern group – but one who's steeped in all the older messed-up funky styles of their Stones Throw labelmates. There's a wonderfully tripped-out sound to their work – taking the core instrumentation of funky drums, choppy guitars, smoking keyboards, and soulful sax – and pushing it out with a Stark Reality-ish vibe that really makes the group stand out from the rest of the deep funk underground! The album's a brilliant debut that we'll be digging for years – and it also feature appearances by Malcolm Catto, and members of Funk Inc, Poets Of Rhythm, and The LA Carnival! Titles include "Sticks & Stones", "Sucker Punch", "The Buzzard", "Double Dutch", "Wild Flowers", "Tall Dry Grass", "Fuzz & Them", and "The Shadows Of Leaves". CD

Whomp! These guys bring it all down on the beat – hitting harder than Cassius Clay at the Rome Olympics in '60, packing bass, guitar, drums & percussion into one funky punch – pounding out a hard heavy groove all the way through their entire debut LP! Of course, these guys have the talent to do it right – sporting a connection to the fellow early oughties funk standard bearers Poets Of Rhythm that you can certainly hear in some of the album's more stoned-out grooves – and like that hip combo, the Whitefield Brothers maintain a strong mix of classic funky modes, with just the right touches of professional trippiness to push the whole thing over the top. An instant classic from El Michels, Bosco Mann, Neal Sugarman, Jay Whitefield and others who fly the flag for classic style underground funk – with tracks that include "Rampage", "Prowlin", "In The Raw", "Sol Walk", "Eji", "Thunderbird", "Weiya", and "Yakuba". LP, Vinyl record album

Ten tracks from Silent Poets, Electric Soul, Lisa Shaw, Benny Blanko, Black Science Orchestra, Tony Free, DJ Spinna, Guiro Rhythm, Porn Theatre Ushers, and Pablo. CD

A rare bit of hardcore poetry by the Watts Prophets – the legendary LA group who were kind of a west coast answer to the Last Poets! The group have a sound that's as striking as the best early work by The Last Poets – a hard-hitting blend of poetry, rhythms, and righteous energy – all recorded in a style that's stripped down, proud, angry, and in stark contrast to the rest of the work coming out in the soul music industry at the time. The album's not only important as a precursor to the west coast hip hop style, but it's a heck of a powerful statement that's as chilling now as it was back in 1971! Titles include "Amerikkka", "Dem N****** Ain't Playing", "A Pimp", "Hello N******", and "The Prostitute". LP, Vinyl record album

A chilling statement from the west coast scene of the 70s – the first album from The Watts Prophets, the ultra-powerful group who emerged from the LA turmoil of the 60s. Like the Last Poets, the group blends together righteous spoken word passages and some spare rhythms and a touch of jazz – all stepping forth in the kind of message-driven recording that was too powerful for radio at the time, but which had an undeniable influence as it circulated amongst underground circles. The whole thing's summed up perfectly by the cover, which shows a fist held high in rebellion over the flag on the front, and an open hand freeing a black dove on the inside! Titles include "I'll Stop Calling You N*ggers", "Kill", "Black Pussy", and "The Meek Ain't Gonna". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare bit of hardcore poetry by the Watts Prophets – the legendary LA group who were kind of a west coast answer to the Last Poets! The group have a sound that's as striking as the best early work by The Last Poets – a hard-hitting blend of poetry, rhythms, and righteous energy – all recorded in a style that's stripped down, proud, angry, and in stark contrast to the rest of the work coming out in the soul music industry at the time. Their work was not only some of the most radical and striking of the early 70s, but it's also gone onto become a key blueprint for hip hop of later years – especially the rough-edged style of the west coast that began to emerge at the end of the 80s. CD brings together all the tracks from the group's 2 albums – a total of 41 short tunes that pack the punch of a hand grenade! Titles include "Pain", "A Pimp", "Take It", "Amerikkka", "The Prostitute", "F*cked", "Black In A White World", "Funny How Things Can Change", "Pimping Leaning & Feaning", "Keep You Doing Things", "The Meek Ain't Gonna", "Saint America", "They Shot Him", and "Response To A Bourgeois Nigger". CD

Bring on the sun if it burns this strongly – as we're more than happy to get extra toasty in the light of such wonderful tracks as these! The set's a stunning look at the massive musical shift on the UK scene in the year of 1967 – a time when psych was certainly making its influence felt, but groups were also opening up in all these other sorts of ways too – really getting past the jaunty rhythms and catchy lyrics of a few years before – and instead somehow managing to make all these amazing things happen in just the space of a short 7" single! Some of the artists here are artists who were making more mainstream music a few years earlier, others are new acts that would soon become superstars, and a few more are genius groups who burst out strongly, then disappeared from view – all brought together in a great 3CD package, with 79 tracks in all, and very detailed notes. Artists include The Herd, Idle Race, Dave Davies, John Williams, Svensk, Universals, Australian Playboys, Tony Rivers, Great Uncle Fred, Artwoods, 23rd Turnoff, Vocal Point, Zombies, Nirvana UK, Lisa & Francesca, The Mirage, Virgin Sleep, Accent, Our Plastic Dream, David Bowie, Living Daylights, John's Children, Episode Six, Orange Bicycle, The Poets, Genesis, Crocheted Doughnut Ring, Piccadilly Line, Scott Henderson, Made In Sheffield, Caleb, and many others! CD

A really unique chapter in the career of Ornette Coleman – an album that he produced by himself in 1962, away from any other label – as an effort to showcase the newly freer sounds of his music! The recording's the first in a really groundbreaking stretch for the 60s – and it was fortunately finally issued by ESP Records a few years after the recording – providing a nice link between Coleman's earlier experiments and the sound of the younger generation usually showcased by the label. The group's a trio, with a sound that's quite different than the more rhythmic modes of Coleman on Atlantic Records – a freer, less structured lineup that features percussion from Charles Moffett and bass from David Izenzon. One track also adds in a string quartet – making the record one of Coleman's first experiments with this format – and titles include a 23 minute recording of "The Ark", plus "Doughnut", "Sadness", and "Dedication To Poets and Writers". CD

Intimate piano work from Geri Allen – a set of solo performances, inspired by the music of Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, and Herbie Hancock! There's definitely strong traces of Tyner and Hancock – given Allen's usually soulful undercurrent – but there's also a heavy dose of Taylor, too, as Geri really uses the freer space of the recording to stretch out in some pretty unbridled ways – really surprising us with her inventiveness, and still usually holding onto a rhythmic pulse somewhere deep in the mix. Titles include "Red Velvet In Winter", "Dancing Mystic Poets At Midnight", "Your Pure Self", "Flying Toward The Sound", and "Faith Carriers Of Life". CD