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An overlooked later gem from Parliament – a set that's very tight and funky, and which really picks up the groove first laid down on "Flashlight"! There's a tightly snapping approach here that rivals the best late 70s work by Funkadelic – the later P-Funk mode that's even more focused on rhythms than before, and which gets away from the sloppy stuff to really hit home with the groove! Tunes are steeped in horny horns, wah wah guitar, and lots of electric keyboards – and titles include "The Big Bang Theory", which is virtually a blueprint for the LA G-funk sound of the 80s – plus the tracks "The Freeze", "May We Bang You?", "Party People", and "(GloryHallaStoopid) Pin The Tail On The Funky". CD

An overlooked later gem from Parliament – a set that's very tight and funky, and which really picks up the groove first laid down on "Flashlight"! There's a tightly snapping approach here that rivals the best late 70s work by Funkadelic – the later P-Funk mode that's even more focused on rhythms than before, and which gets away from the sloppy stuff to really hit home with the groove! Tunes are steeped in horny horns, wah wah guitar, and lots of electric keyboards – and titles include "The Big Bang Theory", which is virtually a blueprint for the LA G-funk sound of the 80s – plus the tracks "The Freeze", "May We Bang You?", "Party People", and "(GloryHallaStoopid) Pin The Tail On The Funky". LP, Vinyl record album

Iggy's third album for Arista – one of his more straight-forward sets of rockers, for the most part – but Iggy being Iggy, it's still pretty edgy stuff for a rock album on major label in the early 80s! Includes "Pleasure", "Rock And Roll Party", the wacko "Eggs On A Plate", "Sincerity", "Houston is Hot Tonight", "Bang Bang", and surprisingly subdued cover of "Sea Of Love", "Happy Man", "Pumpin' For Jill" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

A stylistic triumph for southern hip hop soul hero Sleepy Brown – a late 90s throwback to smoky, sultry late 70s funk & soul in style and approach, but with the bright and thumping sound of the finest, most soul-steeped Organized Noize/dirty south hip hop of the time, a la peers and frequent collaborators lik Outkast & Goodie Mob. Sleepy's Theme sounds especially good in hindsight, as it was really ahead of it's time circa 1998 in the way blends classic funky soul influences with a contemporary vibe, prefiguring what would be a huge hitmaking formula for Cee-Lo and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below-era Outkast come the early 00s! Includes "Can't Let Go", "Court Room", "Choked Out Saturday Night", "Still Smokin'", "Simply Beautiful", "Fallin' In Love Again", "Curse On You", "Black Cherry", "Grind On", "The Ride (Private Party)", "Conversation", "Menage A Trois" and more. CD

A solid and decades spanning double dose set of classic and less canonized gems from African sax legend Manu Dibango – 2CDs with material recorded from the mid 70s to early 00s! It's got blueprint level 70s Afro Soul, timeless African boogie, sultry, kinda jazzy groovers with Afro percussive elements, European dancefloor influenced numbers and more – well chosen to highlight his stylistic sprawl over the years! 30 tracks on 2CDs: "Bessoka (Version Courte)", "Lagos Go Slow", "A La Claire Fontaine", "Waka Juju", "The Panther", "Soul Makossa (Manu Version)", "Ambiance Tropika", "Aloko Party", "Reggae Makossa" "Negropolitaines", "Gombo Sauce", "Mboa", "Tek Time" and many more. CD

A funky gem from reedman Manu Dibango – a set recorded hot on the heels of his huge Soul Makossa hit, and done with a similar blend of African roots and 70s funk! The main focus here is on the instrumentation – not just Manu's saxophone lines, but also some great keyboards too – and some especially nice guitar that both riffs along with the rhythms, then takes off on solo moments that often have some cool processing that makes the sound nice and flangey! The production is a bit tighter than before, but that only seems to sharpen up all the elements even more – making for a massive groove that rolls all the way through cuts that include "Big Blow", "Baobab Sun 7", "Afrovision", "Aloko Party", and "Dakar Streets". LP, Vinyl record album

This is the third full length from the group that brings you politically scathing, party bangin, conscious hip hop for your urban revolution fun time. There's a lot of live instrumentation funky sloppiness for your neck and body to get loose to. The Coup also pull off the feat of managing to rhyme charged and intelligently about a very dark reality, while simultaneously still keeping your body bouncin constantly. Tracks include the smart "5 Million Ways To Kill A C.E.O.", "Ghetto Manifesto", "Get Up" featuring Dead Prez, "Lazy Muthaf*cka", "Ride The Fence", "Everythang", "Wear Clean Draws", "Pork And Beef", "Thought About It 2", "Tight", "Nowalaters", and "Heven Tonite". CD

Music from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party, Baaba Maal, Shankar & The Epidemics, Kudsi Erguner, Hossam Ramzy, Banga (Tanta-Suaag), Unknown Ethiopian Musicians, Tabrizi Mahmoud Zadeh, Unknown Moroccan Musicians, Abdul Aziz El-Sayed, Fatala, Nass El Ghiwane, Les Musiciens Du Nil, and Antranik Askarian & Khatchadour Khatchaturian, CD