The first album in many years from German jazz legends Embryo – and a set that hardly has them missing a beat at all from their famous work of the 70s! Part of the strength of the record might be its placement on Madlib's record label – but from the notes, it seems that all the credit is due to the group themselves – still doing a fantastic job of mixing together global elements and long-drawn jazz explorations – served up here on Fender Rhodes, vibes, guitar, saxes, flute, and plenty of percussion – sometimes with a bit of vocals, but usually in a way that's more chanted or instrument-like – which only seems to further the global explorations in the music! A stunning addition to their legendary catalog – with titles that include "Baran", "Januar", "Alphorn Prayer", "Besh", and "Yu Mala". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most jazz-based groups of the German prog scene of the early 70s – heard here on a rare outing that features Mal Waldron playing electric piano with the group! Despite Waldron's presence, though, the real keyboard star of the set is Jimi Jackson – who plays mellotron and organ on the record, and sounds especially wonderful on the side-long track "The Call" – a fantastic 17-minute track that arose out of collective improvisations by the group! Instrumentation on the whole set is great – and includes the keyboards, plus heavy bass, vibes, marimba, guitar, sax, and even a bit of electric violin! Titles include "Radio Marrakesch/Orient Express", "Dreaming Girls", and "The Call". CD

Mixed rock-jazz set, in a similar vein to the other stuff on Herbie Mann's Embryo label. Jerry Novac plays organ and piano, and sings a little bit, and he's backed by guitar and drums on most of the tracks. Cuts include "I Am A Classified Freed Speak", "Beyond The Look", and "Present 2nd Ave". Funky freaky hippy jazz. LP, Vinyl record album

A stunner of an album – light years ahead of Phil's earlier work in America – a bit funky at times, with some really open-ended modern sounds! The album features Phil with his incredible European Rhythm Machine – a group that includes Gordon Beck on electric piano, Henri Texier on bass, and Daniel Humair on drums – and the fat basslines of Texier are a wonderful match for the keyboards of Beck – both perfectly balancing things out on the groove! Tracks are long, and a mix of hard out soloing with some nice rhythmic grooving – almost in a modal fusion mode, but not quite – and titles include "Josua", "The Meeting", "Freedom Jazz Dance", and "Ode A Jean-Louis". LP, Vinyl record album

Super-righteous work from William S Fischer – the ultra-hip arranger who was one of the most important forces in the late 60s underground soul jazz scene! Fischer is best known for his work with Eugene McDaniels, Eddie Harris, and Les McCann – almost akin to the sorts of collaborative influence that David Axelrod had with Cannonball Adderley or Lou Rawls, but with a style that was decidedly darker, and trippier. This album's one of the few ever recorded under his own name – originally done for the tripped-out jazz imprint Embryo, and featuring a unique blend of moog, strings, funk, and soul! Billy Cobham plays drums and percussion on the set, Bill Robinson sings on a few numbers, and Walter Sear adds in some extra moog next to Fischer's own work – but the real brilliance comes from the overall concept – funky one minute, laidback and trippy the next, very much in the spirit of some of the righteous crossover funk, soul, and rock recordings coming from McDaniels and Axelrod at the time! Titles include "Patience Is Virtue", "Saigon", "Green Forever", "Chains", "Electrix", "Capsule", and "There's A Light That Shines". LP, Vinyl record album

Super-righteous work from William S Fischer – the ultra-hip arranger who was one of the most important forces in the late 60s underground soul jazz scene! Fischer is best known for his work with Eugene McDaniels, Eddie Harris, and Les McCann – almost akin to the sorts of collaborative influence that David Axelrod had with Cannonball Adderley or Lou Rawls, but with a style that was decidedly darker, and trippier. This album's one of the few ever recorded under his own name – originally done for the tripped-out jazz imprint Embryo, and featuring a unique blend of moog, strings, funk, and soul! Billy Cobham plays drums and percussion on the set, Bill Robinson sings on a few numbers, and Walter Sear adds in some extra moog next to Fischer's own work – but the real brilliance comes from the overall concept – funky one minute, laidback and trippy the next, very much in the spirit of some of the righteous crossover funk, soul, and rock recordings coming from McDaniels and Axelrod at the time! Titles include "Patience Is Virtue", "Saigon", "Green Forever", "Chains", "Electrix", "Capsule", and "There's A Light That Shines". CD

One of Herbie Mann's biggest albums – and one of his funkiest too! The cover's a bit of an off-putter – although it probably helped sell the record, back in the day – but the grooves are as rock-solid as anything that Herbie cut at the time – tight, focused, and a perfect showcase for his soulful work on flute! Tracks have a groove that's somewhat relaxed – almost a shift from the soul jazz vibe of Mann's earlier Atlantic work into some of the freer modes that were showing up in the CTI generation – and the players on the date include both Duane Allman and Cornell Dupree on guitars, Richard Tee on keyboards, Chuck Rainey on bass, Ralph MacDonald on percussion, and Bernard Purdie on drums – a player whose work here is definitely a key part of the sound! All tracks are long and slinky funky – and titles include "Push Push", "Spirit In The Dark", "What's Going On", "What'd I Say", and "Never Can Say Goodbye". LP, Vinyl record album

One of Herbie Mann's biggest albums – and one of his funkiest too! The cover's a bit of an off-putter – although it probably helped sell the record, back in the day – but the grooves are as rock-solid as anything that Herbie cut at the time – tight, focused, and a perfect showcase for his soulful work on flute! Tracks have a groove that's somewhat relaxed – almost a shift from the soul jazz vibe of Mann's earlier Atlantic work into some of the freer modes that were showing up in the CTI generation – and the players on the date include both Duane Allman and Cornell Dupree on guitars, Richard Tee on keyboards, Chuck Rainey on bass, Ralph MacDonald on percussion, and Bernard Purdie on drums – a player whose work here is definitely a key part of the sound! All tracks are long and slinky funky – and titles include "Push Push", "Spirit In The Dark", "What's Going On", "What'd I Say", and "Never Can Say Goodbye". Includes bonus track "Funky Nassau". CD

A tripped-out little rock opera from Lex De Azevedo – post-Hair in both approach and spirit, with a jaunty approach to songwriting that certainly owes a lot to the MacDermot tradition! Many of the tunes have the vocals done in a chorus mode – one that creates a soaring, almost righteous sound – but which is also a bit hokey at times too. Instrumentation is mostly just keyboards, drum, and bass – and all tracks are vocal. Titles include "Zero Population", "Daddy Noise", "Brace Me Up", "Didn't We Love Him", "Sailing On", "Voices", and "Circle Of Our Love". LP, Vinyl record album

A Japanese book about Krautrock, but one that's laid out like a discography – so that you can understand it even if you can't read the language! All the artist and album information is in English (or German) – and every entry has a vivid full color photo, so that you can hundreds and hundreds of records that have gone onto make up the Krautrock genre as it's evolved over the years – following the music through key years of the 70s, and its evolution on the German scene as the 80s moved on – with slight side-trips into post-punk and industrial too. Chapters focus on artists or scenes – including Can, Kraftwerk, Neu, Hamburg, Faust, Die Krupps, Munchen, Embryo, Der Plan, Pyrolator, and lots more – dozens of other chapters that really lay out a wonderfully vivid picture of the music. The book is over 300 pages, with images of hundreds of records throughout! Book

A very cool collection of early work on Harvest Records – a wonderful showcase of the way that branch of EMI Records was helping to create some crucial changes on the UK scene at the start of the 70s! The album's maybe most noteworthy for its inclusion of the rare Pink Floyd song "Embryo" – but the whole thing's great, and filled with hip gems that include "Octopus" and "Baby Lemonade" by Syd Barrett, "Rainmaker" and "Soulful Lady" by Michael Chapman, "Song From The Bottom Of The Well" and "Lady Rachel" by Kevin Ayers, "October 26" and "Grass" by The Pretty Things, "Druid One" by Third Ear Band, "Breathe" by Roger Waters, and "Careful With That Ax Eugene" by Pink Floyd. LP, Vinyl record album

Recorded live in London – titles include "Embryo", "Green Is The Colour", "Careful With That Axe Eugene", "If", "One Of These Days", and "Echoes". CD

The 16th entry in the epic Psychedelic Underground series – one that moves well past the 60s to include prog and post punk era numbers that splintered off and reconstituted from particles launched in the psychedelic 60s! Includes tracks by Tetragon, Xhol, Guru Guru, Surgery, Embryo, Radio Noisz Ensemble and more. Titles include "Snowstorm" by Tetragon, "Surrealistic Scenery" by Xhol, "Wellengamg" by Zoppo Trump", "Dance Of Some Broken Glasses" by Embryo, "Intro" by Surgery and more. CD

Mighty nice grooves from a series that might be better named as "Prog Rock Underground" – as most of the work here is from the 70s, and most from those great years of the German scene where it also seemed like there was plenty of jazz in the music as well! A few of these cuts are downright funk, and all are filled with great instrumentation – in an approach that's a nice change from some of the more familiar Brit prog modes of the same generation. Vocals are often an afterthought to the impeccable instrumentation – and titles include "My Dear Groovin" by Sunbirds, "Thoughts" by Exponent, "Space Guerilla" by Missus Beastly, "Kollektivtat" by Gila, "Kassiopeia" by Reaktor 4, "Tiflis" by Embryo, "Teppich" by Panko, and "Mankind Where Do You Go To" by Virus. CD

A great early album by this famous 70s bassist – originally issued as the album Infinite Search on Embryo, but expanded here with the additional track "Cerecka". One of the greatest moments ever from bassist Miroslav Vitous – a very cool album recorded for the trippy Vortex label! The lineup here has Miroslav working with key help from the American underground – piano from Herbie Hancock, tenor from Joe Henderson, and drums from Jack DeJohnette – plus added guitar from John McLaughlin, who seems to have the same spacey sensibilities as Vitous! Henderson really opens up too – in that fluid style of his post-Blue Note work on Milestone – and obviously Herbie's a great one for a set like this too – hitting some of the spiritual modes of his Warner work. Some tracks are nice and long – and titles include "Freedom Jazz Dance", "Infinite Search", "I Will Tell Him On You", "Mountain In the Cloudes", and "Epilogue". LP, Vinyl record album

The third album by Black Sabbath – the album that put the heavy in metal – one of the most influential rock albums of all time and a record that finds Sabbath at absolute peak perfection! This is the one that set the Sabbath style in stone, honing in the the heavy riffs, thundering drums and eerie mood perfectly. Includes the ultra classics "Sweet Leaf" and "Children Of The Grave", plus "After Forever", "Lord Of This World", "Solitude", "Into The Void" and the instrumentals "Embryo" and "Orchid". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the greatest moments ever from bassist Miroslav Vitous – a very cool album recorded for the trippy Vortex label! The lineup here has Miroslav working with key help from the American underground – piano from Herbie Hancock, tenor from Joe Henderson, and drums from Jack DeJohnette – plus added guitar from John McLaughlin, who seems to have the same spacey sensibilities as Vitous! Henderson really opens up too – in that fluid style of his post-Blue Note work on Milestone – and obviously Herbie's a great one for a set like this too – hitting some of the spiritual modes of his Warner work. Some tracks are nice and long – and titles include "Freedom Jazz Dance", "Infinite Search", "I Will Tell Him On You", "Mountain In the Cloudes", and "Epilogue". Originally issued as the album Infinite Search on Embryo, but expanded here with the additional track "Cerecka". CD

The third album by Black Sabbath – the album that put the heavy in metal – one of the most influential rock albums of all time and a record that finds Sabbath at absolute peak perfection! This is the one that set the Sabbath style in stone, honing in the the heavy riffs, thundering drums and eerie mood perfectly. Includes the ultra classics "Sweet Leaf" and "Children Of The Grave", plus "After Forever", "Lord Of This World", "Solitude", "Into The Void" and the instrumentals "Embryo" and "Orchid". CD

An incredibly tripped-out record – of the sort we're stunned was ever recorded for a major! The work's a side project of Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, done in collaboration with Ron Geesin for a film directed by Roy Battersby – and it's a shifting landscape of short experimental tracks, easily drifting back and forth between off-kilter instrumental numbers to sing-songy vocal ones that are far madder than Syd Barrett's work ever was. There's some nice folksy touches that sit by the tripped-out guitar work – and overall, the album's relatively introspective, especially for the setting, with less of the guitar-churning sound than you'd expect from Floyd at this point! Titles include "Body Transport", "Embryonic Womb Walk", "Give Birth To A Smile", "Chain Of Life", "Dance Of The Red Corpuscles", "Our Song", and "Bridge Passage For Three Plastic Teeth". LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet set from that surprisingly straight moment in the career of pianist Burton Greene – a time when he was working in more conventional jazz formations on some records, yet still keeping the edge that always set him apart from the rest! There's definitely tracks on here that swing – although maybe in a Monk/modern way – mixed with others that have a more elliptical rhythmic pattern, and feature all this cool interplay between Burton's piano and the reeds of Fred Leeflang – who blows flute, tenor, soprano, and alto on the record – in a group that also includes Mark Miller on bass and Max Bolleman on drums. Titles include "Na Calm", "Biedronka Tanz", "Embryonic Change", and "Renephanie". CD

Early genius from these Bay Area stalwarts – one of the greatest rock records of its time! Surrealistic Pillow is the second Jefferson Airplane album, but they took a number of huge creative leaps in the 8 months or so between their debut record and this one. This one is where they're joined by psych siren Grace Slick, but it's not just the line-up change that sets it apart. Surrealistic Pillow is a perfect title, as it's comforting and disorienting at the same time. It's also the magical confluence of wildly different spirits – with standout contributions by the entire band. Titles include the seminal "White Rabbit" – plus "Embryonic Journey", "3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds", "DCBA 25", "How Do You Feel", "Today", "She Has Funny Cars", and "Plastic Fantastic Lover". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredibly tripped-out record – of the sort we're stunned was ever recorded for a major! The work's a side project of Roger Waters from Pink Floyd, done in collaboration with Ron Geesin for a film directed by Roy Battersby – and it's a shifting landscape of short experimental tracks, easily drifting back and forth between off-kilter instrumental numbers to sing-songy vocal ones that are far madder than Syd Barrett's work ever was. There's some nice folksy touches that sit by the tripped-out guitar work – and overall, the album's relatively introspective, especially for the setting, with less of the guitar-churning sound than you'd expect from Floyd at this point! Titles include "Body Transport", "Embryonic Womb Walk", "Give Birth To A Smile", "Chain Of Life", "Dance Of The Red Corpuscles", "Our Song", and "Bridge Passage For Three Plastic Teeth". CD

Early genius from these Bay Area stalwarts – one of the greatest rock records of its time! Surrealistic Pillow is the second Jefferson Airplane album, but they took a number of huge creative leaps in the 8 months or so between their debut record and this one. This one is where they're joined by psych siren Grace Slick, but it's not just the line-up change that sets it apart. Surrealistic Pillow is a perfect title, as it's comforting and disorienting at the same time. It's also the magical confluence of wildly different spirits – with standout contributions by the entire band. Titles include the seminal "White Rabbit" – plus "Embryonic Journey", "3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds", "DCBA 25", "How Do You Feel", "Today", "She Has Funny Cars", and "Plastic Fantastic Lover". CD