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Thundering funk from the early 70s Detroit scene – and the complete work of The Propositions, a group who only ever managed to issue a few singles at the time! Due to a typo on the label of one single, the Propositions were also sometimes known as the Prepositions – but whatever the name, the band is pretty darn funky – as you'll hear in this excellent little set. Years back, the folks at Luv N Haight collected together the group's rare singles to make something of a full LP – but now, years later, they've gone back in the vaults and have come up with a huge amount of unreleased work to add to the mix – making for an overstuffed, double-length set that's filled to the rafters with great tunes. Most tracks are in a stone funky 45 mode – but they also groove out a bit longer than the usual single, and give the band plenty of room to roll around some great basslines and horn bits, which are in turn supported by some really wicked work on guitar, organ, and keyboards! Most tunes are instrumentals, and titles include "Funky Disposition", "Live Funk Session", "Do Whatever Turns You On (parts 1 & 2)", "Groovin For The Groove", "Something Different (long edit)", "Sweet Lucy", "Vamping", "Africana", "Free & Easy", "Bad Seed", "You've Been Chose", and "Kool Twist (live garage session 2)". 2CD package is filled with gems – a total of 20 tracks in all! CD

There's nothing disposable about this classic album – as the set is one of the greatest comebacks in hip hop, and the start of a fantastic second run for Masta Ace! It's almost as if the MC has a whole new sense of mature majesty – one that really comes through on the classic "Acknowledge", and which holds strong in the company of guests who include Jane Doe, King T, Apocalypse, Strick, Jean Grae, Greg Nice, Rah Digga, and others whose presence only serves to remind us who the leader is! Ace delivers some amazing self-reflection on "Dear Diary" – rhyming about the ups and downs of his career in hip hop with brutal honesty – and other cuts include "Too Long", "Don't Understand", "Hold U", "Enuff" "Last Rights", "Block Episode", "Unfriendly Game", "I Like Dat", "PTA", "No Regrets", and "Something's Wrong". LP, Vinyl record album

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Sweetly soaring disco from the legendary Celi Bee – easily one of our favorite disco divas of the late 70s! This album's got a slightly lighter feel than some of Celi's other work – a bit less drama at times, but still plenty of full-on clubby rhythms – thanks to arrangements from Hector Garrido, and some relatively full orchestrations overall. There's a definite New York groove to most of the numbers, but also a bit of a Miami vibe too – and titles include "Together", "Macho", "Hold Your Horses Babe", "Comin Up Strong", "Disposable Love", and "Lost In Love". CD features the bonus tracks "Macho (7 inch mix)" and "Hold Your Horses (UK 12" mix)". CD

A record that marks a very different chapter in the career of Bill Nelson than his initial rise to fame at the head of Be Bop Deluxe – a set that offers up a leaner take on the 70s styles of Nelson's music, and a sound that's decidedly aimed much more at the new wave generation! Bill was always a bit ahead of the pack in terms of production and instrumentation – and he definitely puts that work to use here, by retuning an earlier aesthetic in ways that are definitely at the forefront of UK electronic pop! Vocals are often processed, keyboards and guitars intertwine nicely, and titles include "Don't Touch Me I'm Electric", "Stop Go Stop", "Furniture Music", "Revolt Into Style", "The Atom Age", and "A Better Home In The Phantom Zone". 2CD version features the remastered album, a new stereo mix, and bonus tracks that include "Acquitted By Mirrors" and "Wonder Toys That Last Forever", in both mixes – plus "My Light", a previously unreleased track from the sessions – and Red Noise session tracks "Ideal Homes", "Instantly Yours", and "Disposable". CD

Not a live album – as you might think from the title – but a tight batch of tunes that shows the full funk and soul talents of the legendary Esther Phillips! The album's got a nicely dark undercurrent at times – a sound that's not as smooth as some of Esther's other Kudu albums from the 70s, with bits of R&B bubbling underneath the more contemporary arrangements. Backings are penned by Pee Wee Ellis and Gary King – and players include Bob James and Richard Tee on keyboards, Hubert Laws on flute, and Bernard Purdie and Steve Gadd on drums – the latter of whom provides a sublime beat on the album's standout funky number "Disposable Society" – one of those great little groovers that never did anything for Esther at the time of its release, but which has really gotten rediscovered in recent years! Other tracks include "Doing Our Thing", "Living Alone", "Can't Trust Your Neighbor With Your Baby", and "I Feel The Same". LP, Vinyl record album

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One of the biggest albums of Muddy Waters' career – a key crossover effort that has Waters as the "father" working with "sons" Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield! The style here is still quite rootsy overall – and the double-length session features one album recorded in the studio, and a second done live at the Super Cosmic Joy-Scout Jamboree – key evidence of the growing hippie audience for blues like this! The core group features Waters on vocals with Otis Spann on piano, Mike Bloomfield on guitar, Paul Butterfield on harmonica, Donald Duck Dunn on bass, and Sam Lay on drums – and guest players include Phil Upchurch on bass and Buddy Miles on drums – each on one number. Titles include "All Aboard", "Mean Disposition", "Forty Days & Forty Nights", "Sugar Sweet", "Twenty Four Hours", "I'm Ready", "Walkin Thru The Park", "Got My Mojo Working (parts 1 & 2)", "The Same Thing", "Baby Please Don't Go", and "Honey Bee". CD

One of the biggest albums of Muddy Waters' career – a key crossover effort that has Waters as the "father" working with "sons" Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield! The style here is still quite rootsy overall – and the double-length session features one album recorded in the studio, and a second done live at the Super Cosmic Joy-Scout Jamboree – key evidence of the growing hippie audience for blues like this! The core group features Waters on vocals with Otis Spann on piano, Mike Bloomfield on guitar, Paul Butterfield on harmonica, Donald Duck Dunn on bass, and Sam Lay on drums – and guest players include Phil Upchurch on bass and Buddy Miles on drums – each on one number. Titles include "All Aboard", "Mean Disposition", "Forty Days & Forty Nights", "Sugar Sweet", "Twenty Four Hours", "I'm Ready", "Walkin Thru The Park", "Got My Mojo Working (parts 1 & 2)", "The Same Thing", "Baby Please Don't Go", and "Honey Bee". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the biggest albums of Muddy Waters' career – a key crossover effort that has Waters as the "father" working with "sons" Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield! The style here is still quite rootsy overall – and the double-length session features one album recorded in the studio, and a second done live at the Super Cosmic Joy-Scout Jamboree – key evidence of the growing hippie audience for blues like this! The core group features Waters on vocals with Otis Spann on piano, Mike Bloomfield on guitar, Paul Butterfield on harmonica, Donald Duck Dunn on bass, and Sam Lay on drums – and guest players include Phil Upchurch on bass and Buddy Miles on drums – each on one number. Titles include "All Aboard", "Mean Disposition", "Forty Days & Forty Nights", "Sugar Sweet", "Twenty Four Hours", "I'm Ready", "Walkin Thru The Park", "Got My Mojo Working (parts 1 & 2)", "The Same Thing", "Baby Please Don't Go", and "Honey Bee". CD reissue includes 4 previously unreleased studio tracks – "Country Boy", "I Love The Life I Live", "Oh Yeah", "I Feel So Good" – plus 6 additional live tracks! CD

Denis Wise plays all instruments on this record – everything but the kitchen sink! Oh wait – the liner notes actually indicate that he does play a kitchen sink – and a garbage disposal too – but in ways that are completely changed, as he mixes them with sounds from a variety of guitars, keyboards, percussion, and various electronic instruments – all in this wild style that's surprisingly earthy and organic! At some level, the music is more a garage version of electro-acoustic modes from the academy – but at another, it's pure unbridled creation, with a sense of sonic joy that really comes through on the best numbers. Some songs are slightly tuneful, and there's maybe a bit of offbeat abstracted vocals here and there – on tunes that include "Balfazzar", "Light As Air", "Valhalla", "Machine Time Ship", "Love In Foam & Surf", "Andro", "Celes", and "Hedonic Rapture". LP, Vinyl record album

The Numero Group takes a great step backwards – returning to the capital city of Ohio, Columbus – to mine the same soul and funk treasure trove of their Capsoul collection! The music here comes from the same scene – and often from Capsoul or related labels – and the set offers up a stunning array of rare gems, many of which were never even pressed on record – all showing Columbus to be one of the funkiest, grooviest cities in the US during the early 70s! Lots of the work here has that same heavy groove that we love from the Capsoul collection – and since that initial Numero foray into the compilation business, the label has only become more skilled at unearthing and presenting great sounds like this. The package features notes on both the music and the project of researching it – plus a long appendix on the local labels featured, along with photos and label scans too! Titles include "Woe Is Me" by Kool Blues, "I Need Your Love" by Chandlers, "Funky Disposition" by Dean Francis & Soul Rockers, "Lose The One You Love" by Soul Partners, "Look In The Mirror" by Vondors, "Hysteria" by Four Mints, "This Is The Way That I Am" by La Fez, "When He's Gone" by Associated Press, "Excuse Me Miss" by Jupiter's Release, and "I've Been Trying" by Love Maximum. CD

Jazzy electronica – with a true jazz edge, not that fake "jazz" reference that you so often find producers making to sound hip, but never actually coming up with in their own music! Flanger features Atom Heart (aka Senor Coconut) on Fender Rhodes, vibes, guitars, and more – working here with Burnt Friedman on drums and percussion, plus some occasional upright bass and bass samples. The set's a great takeoff point from the pair's singles of a few years back – with a groove that's both spare and complicated, mixing some of the best elements of 70s spacey jazz with the rhythms of the post drum and bass generation. Titles include "Nightbeat 2", "Stepping Out Of My Dream", "Bosco's Disposable Driver", "Midnight Sound", "So What", and "Angel Of Love". CD

Not a live album – as you might think from the title – but a tight batch of tunes that shows the full funk and soul talents of the legendary Esther Phillips! The album's got a nicely dark undercurrent at times – a sound that's not as smooth as some of Esther's other Kudu albums from the 70s, with bits of R&B bubbling underneath the more contemporary arrangements. Backings are penned by Pee Wee Ellis and Gary King – and players include Bob James and Richard Tee on keyboards, Hubert Laws on flute, and Bernard Purdie and Steve Gadd on drums – the latter of whom provides a sublime beat on the album's standout funky number "Disposable Society" – one of those great little groovers that never did anything for Esther at the time of its release, but which has really gotten rediscovered in recent years! Other tracks include "Doing Our Thing", "Living Alone", "Can't Trust Your Neighbor With Your Baby", and "I Feel The Same". CD

That Damon Albarn's a busy guy! When he's not busy being a rock star or mock rock star, he's off on holiday in some exotic locale – but making another record at the same time, like this one, recorded in Mali. We have to admit, though we were predisposed towards the bare field recordings – featuring Malians singing and playing guitar and kora – which sound great, the more produced numbers are suprisingly wonderful too, and though the CD's all over the map, it still plays like a beautiful journey from start to finish. As you may already know, music from Mali steers it's own course, quite different from most of the other Afrobeat and funky African grooves you'll find elsewhere on our page, with a light springy quality and unhurried openness. 16 tracks in all, including "Le relax", "Makelekele", "Tennessee Hotel", "Kela Village" and "Sunset Coming On". CD

An unimpeachable metal masterpiece! Master Of Puppets is one of the rare cases when the critical and popular consensuses match right up and are both right on the money – there's just no arguing against this being considered one of the greatest, most influential, and surprisingly timeless metal albums of all time – and it built that reputation organically, fan by fan, without radio or music videos to hype it. All the more impressive for the few disarmingly quiet moments and borderline pretty instrumental passages before the heaviness comes walloping back in, this one is for the ages. All classic songs on this one: "Battery", "Master Of Puppets", "The Thing That Should Not Be", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", "Disposable Heroes", "Leper Messiah", "Orion" and "Damage, Inc.". CD

A great mix of 70s action and exotica from Riz Ortolani – a set that mixes funky touches in with tribal elements, and comes across with a very groovy sound overall! The record's definitely one of the coolest that Ortolani ever recorded, and he's clearly having fun with the mid 70s elements at his disposal – including wah wah guitar, sweet keyboards, and a tight rhythm section who are more than able to follow the maestro on all his many twists and turns on the tunes! A few of the more upbeat numbers almost have a tribal club sort of vibe – and titles include "The World Is Mine", "Festival Dance Of The Llama Sacrifice", "Making Out", "Eden Disturbed", and "Dance Of The Virgins". CD

Hard-swinging jazz featuring drummer Specs Powell – and a tight batch of Basie-esque players, grooving along on a number of short lively tracks that are almost in the Count Basie style of the Roulette years! The lineup features alto and baritone sax from Sahib Shihab, tenor and clarinet from Aaron Sachss, alto and flute from George Dorsey, trumpet from Ray Copeland and Leon Merian, and trombones from Jimmy Dahl and Jimmy Cleveland – and piano is handled by Hank Jones and Nat Pierce, the latter of whom really knows how to make a group like this swing nicely! The set includes some very fresh originals by Pierce – including "Spyder Blues", "Rat Race", "Movin In", "Suspicion", and "Dispossessed" – plus versions of "You Don't Know What Love Is", "He's My Guy", and "I'll Remember April". LP, Vinyl record album

Rare and unissued work from Muddy Waters – mostly from his first decade at Chess Records – a time when both Waters and the label were helping reinvent the sound of blues in the postwar years! Muddy's already-released material is already so strong, it's hard to imagine the need for a set like this – but the package is way more than just unused oddities, or cleanup from the Chess vaults – and instead features a stunning batch of work that would be more than enough of a legacy for any other bluesman on his own! The settings vary throughout – and accompanying players include Sunnyland Slim or Otis Spann on piano, Tampa Red or Jimmy Rodgers on guitar, Junior Wells or Little Walter on harmonica, and Willie Dixon on bass. Titles include "Born Lover", "let Me Hang Around", "Smokestack Lightnin", "Last Time I Fool Around With You", "Mean Disposition", "Little Anna Mae", and "Where's My Woman Been". LP, Vinyl record album