Great grooves from Brother Reistance – tracks that are aimed at the dancefloor, but which also have a strong social message too! "Tonite Is De Night" is a cool call to action, set to a rhythm with tight tropical touches – and "Crucial Decision" is presented here in the 1992 version, with skittish rhythms topped with a nice steel drum keyboard part! "Rapso Space Dub" is unreleased, and a nicely spooky sort of groove – and "Nation Time" is a great late take on the tropical disco mode! 12-inch, Vinyl record

Like many other 70s reissues in the Prestige/Milestone/fantasy family, this set compiles 2 early albums by Mose. Unlike a lot of his later material, this set's mostly instrumental, though he does get in some vocals on about a third of the tracks. The album features some great work by Allison's trio of the time – Addison Farmer on bass and Ronnie Free or Nick Stabulas on drums – simple piano-driven groovers, performed with a slight gutbuckety approach, and lots of sweet down home soul. 20 tracks in all, including "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "How Long Has This Been Going On", "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand", "Stroll", "I Hadn't Anyone Till You", "Seventh Son", "If You Live", "Mule", "If I Didn't Care", "Moon & Cypress", and "Creek Bank". CD

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Creedence Clearwater Revival may not have actually been born on the bayou – they were long-timers in the San Francisco scene of the 60s – but they do a hell of a job of reinventing swamp rock on this second stunning album! The quartet are a masterpiece of spare, unbridled power – the tremendous guitar and vocals of John Fogerty, strong rhythm guitar support of brother Tom, driving drums of Doug Clifford, and rolling bass of Stu Cook – all forged into a sound that's maybe more perfectly a summation of the blend of blues, funk, rock, and soul than some of the groups of the south were turning out at the time. Tracks include the huge hits "Born On The Bayou" and "Proud Mary" – sitting nicely alongside even more compelling numbers like "Bootleg", "Graveyard Train", "Penthouse Pauper", and "Keep On Chooglin". LP, Vinyl record album

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It's hard to get any more classic than this for Creedence Clearwater Revival – as this legendary late 60s album is definitely the place where it all comes together! The pairing of John Fogerty's lead guitar and the scratching rhythm guitar of brother Tom really sounds wonderful here – driven on by tight bass and drums, but always with this rootsy edge that stretches from the Bay Area scene way down to the bayou! Titles include the classic "Down On The Corner" and a great version of "The Midnight Special" – plus "It Came Out Of The Sky", "Side Of The Road", "Effigy", "Don't Look Now", and "Fortunate Son". LP, Vinyl record album

Three full albums from Australian singer Creepy John Thomas – all of them pretty darn great! The set begins with a record issued under the name of Rust – a set recorded in Germany, by Australian singer John Thomas – all quickly put together in the studio, but with results that are surprisingly great! The group have a psychedelic look on the cover, but are more old school rockers with some late 60s twists – some Beatles-esque arrangements on a few tracks, freakier vocals on a few others, and this stunning ability to move between styles while still making the record feel very unified overall. The whole thing's wonderful – filled with catchy tunes and madder moments – titles that include "Delusion", "Come With Me", "Find A Hideaway", "The Endless Struggle", "Please Return", and "Should I". Next is the self-titled Creepy John Thomas album – a stunning set from Aussie singer John Thomas – billed here as Creepy John Thomas, a name that was supposed to invoke older blues roots while also pitching the whole thing to the weirder, wilder, wiggier generation at the end of the 60s! In truth, there's very little blues rock here at the forefront – maybe in part because the album's an early production effort by Conny Plank – who does a great job bringing out all these odd sounds from familiar elements – so that the fuzzy guitar and heavy bass can get weird and moody at times, even when the song structure might be relatively tight. The driving force, though, is Creepy John – the kind of singer who should have been part of some supergroup at the start of the 70s – but who's maybe even better as one of rock's great under-discovered lesser-rans. Titles include "Sun & Woman", "Bring Back The Love", "Ride A Rainbow", "You've Got To Hide", "Gut Runs Great Stone", "Do I Figure In Your Life", "Moon & Eyes Song", and "Trippin Like A Dog & Rockin Like A Bitch". Last up is Brother Bat Bone – a real gem from the overlooked Creepy John Thomas – a record that evokes familiar blues rock styles, but with a much trippier sound overall – as you might guess from the image on the cover! Creepy John plays acoustic and electric guitar – with qualities that are even stronger than his previous records, and which lead to the longs being longer, with some surprisingly great solo parts – which are then topped by those raw, nasty vocals that always made Thomas such a budding talent at the time! There's a complexity here that's really surprisingly – the guitar work alone is wonderful, and all the rest is really just icing on the cake – on titles that include "This Is My Body", "Standin In The Sunshine", "100lb Noomy", "What's The Matter With The Mill", and "Down In The Bottom". CD

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A modern minimalist watershed – and maybe one of the first indications that Brian Eno was moving onto higher ideas in his music! The album's an important release on the Obscure series from Island Records – a special imprint that was curated by Eno, as a way of giving showcase to new ideas in British music that were neither free jazz, punk, prog, or any of the styles that were getting more play on the bigger labels! Instead, Eno and Obscure was to the British avant composition world what Lovely or CRI were to the US – although maybe had the bigger role of some of the Columbia Records releases by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. The album features the beautiful title piece – "Discreet Music", a long work that relies on a simple system of delay and recall, with slight variations occurring over the space of time, due to slight occasional interference from the composer. Side two features "Three Variations On The Cannon In D Major By Johann Pachelbel" – a great reworking of the baroque music classic – which works along similar lines, taking this very familiar classical theme, and breaking it down into simple components, which are then interwoven and played in repetition, creating a strange little bit of romantic minimalism. That second piece is performed by the Cockpit Ensemble, conducted by Gavin Bryars – who also got some great early releases on the Obscure label too! CD

Pretty great later work from Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks – not the immediately-retro style of their earlier albums, but instead this wonderful blend of so many different jazz and acoustic elements – set forward with a style that's wonderfully groovy overall! There's a hip, scatting vibe to the music that almost puts Hicks in the same 70s territory as Ben Sidran – although maybe a few notches earlier in terms of his inspirations – yet coming across with a breezy warmth that's really beautiful, almost like the shift that Maria Muldaur had made from her trad styles of the 60s to the groove of "Midnight At The Oasis". Fender Rhodes warms the record up at all the right moments – and titles include "Boogaloo Jones", "Cruzin", "Garden In The Rain", "Dizzy Dogs", "Vinnie's Lookin Good", "Lovers For Life", and "Collared Blues". Great CD issue features the full material originally recorded for release as a soundtrack – the tracks on the album, plus 9 more unreleased bonus tracks – including "Gone With The Wind", "Hummin To Myself", "Lulu's Back In Town", "You Belong To Me", and "Walkin My Baby Back Home". CD

New mixes of two classic club tracks from DC LaRue – but mostly done in ways that completely change up the groove! "Face Of Love" is handled in versions by Johnny Juice, DJ Spinna, and Mell Starr – and Mell and Spinna keep the more classic vibe, but work out some very different elements – while Johnny Juice makes the whole thing almost feel like a hip house number! The approach is a bit similar on the flip – as the Juice mix of "Indiscreet" has a fair bit of hip hop elements – while Spinna chooses to focus on the massive bassline of the cut, and Mell makes the whole thing feel like a party! 12-inch, Vinyl record

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Very cool work from Creed Taylor – material cut when he was still a bandleader, and hadn't yet evolved into the role of super-producer! The session's a long way from the CTI sound of the 70s – and instead has Creed playing some very spooky stuff – compositions by Kenyon Hopkins that have a horror sort of theme – dark little tunes that would be a perfect soundtrack for a haunted house! The core instrumentation is jazz-based, but augmented with some great other touches as well – and there's two female voices that scream, groan, and make other odd noises on the record from time to time. Titles include "The Long Walk", "Jungle Fever", "Heartbeat", "Haunted House", "In Bedlam", "Time Runs Out", and "The Secret". LP, Vinyl record album