The second album from The Clash – ferocious, melodic and masterful bits of barbed greatness from the group – the greatest flaw of which is that it's not the first album. They're still completely great, playing in peak form even with the less shambling, slightly more polished production of Sandy Pearlman. This one stands out beautifully to us nowadays, since most of the songs aren't as overplayed as the more zeitgeiest-y earlier ones or the Mtv hits that came later on. Essential!! Titles include "Julie's In The Drug Squad", "All The Young Punks", "Last Gang In Town", "Guns On The Roof", "Cheap-Skate", "Drug-Stabbing Time", and "Safe European Home". LP, Vinyl record album

The second album from The Clash – ferocious, melodic and masterful bits of barbed greatness from the group – the greatest flaw of which is that it's not the first album. They're still completely great, playing in peak form even with the less shambling, slightly more polished production of Sandy Pearlman. This one stands out beautifully to us nowadays, since most of the songs aren't as overplayed as the more zeitgeiest-y earlier ones or the Mtv hits that came later on. Essential!! Titles include "Julie's In The Drug Squad", "All The Young Punks", "Last Gang In Town", "Guns On The Roof", "Cheap-Skate", "Drug-Stabbing Time", and "Safe European Home". CD

8 Bold Souls have been one of the most consistent (and compelling!) jazz units working in Chicago over the past 20 years – and thanks to the notable leadership of reed player Ed Wilkerson, the group has continued to grow and flourish, bridging a gap between an older AACM south side tradition, and the younger underground players on the north side. No surprise, then, that this album came out on the indie/post-rock stronghold Thrill Jockey – but don't let that put you off if you're a real jazz fan, because Wilkerson's vision is clearer and purer than ever, and the set bristles with excitement through a batch of sparkling original compositions written in a vaguely Mingus-y style. Titles include "Pachinko", "Gang Of Four", "Brown Town", and "Odyssey". CD

Fantastic stuff – incredibly hard and incredibly funky, and a masterpiece all the way through! Long before there was any talk of gangster rap, Jalal of the Last Poets recorded this album of gamblin', pimpin', and hard double dealin'. It's a fantastic album-long ride through the dark side of the black underworld, and is the aural equivalent of a blacksploitation flick. Kool & The Gang provided the music – and Jalal tells the whole story throughout, in the same hard rappin' style he used with the Last Poets! The record's an undisputed classic, and includes the sample classic "Sport", plus loads of other righteous funky cuts like "Spoon", "Grit's Den", and "Sentenced To The Chair"! LP, Vinyl record album

A really unusual live set from the great Art Blakey – his only album for the United Artists label, but one that continues the tradition of the expanded group style he was starting to use at Blue Note! The lineup here is a sextet, one that's got even more power than the Jazz Messengers as a quintet – a group that bridges generations with older Messengers Wayne Shorter on tenor and Jymie Merritt on bass – alongside rising talents Curtis Fuller on trombone, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, and Cedar Walton on piano – the last of whom leaves a key mark on the group's sound, through his mix of soulful groove and lyrical inflections! There's maybe even more searing energy here than on the previous live Blue Note albums from Blake. This first volume includes the version of "Three Blind Mice" that was sampled years ago by Gang Starr, plus the cuts "Plexis", "Children Of The Night", "Up Jumped Spring", and "Blue Moon". CD

Four albums from this wonderful group – all brought together in a single set! First up is the self-titled Spanky & Our Gang – the first, and perhaps the most conventional album by the group, but still pretty darn insane! Spanky & Our Gang are a strange mix of 60s styles – with bits of We Five, bits of Harpers Bizarre, bits of The Association – but a totally strange and totally fun approach to pop that's very much their own. Cuts on the album are a mix of originals and covers – and highlights include the incredible "5 Definitions Of Love" by Bob Dorough, "Distance" by Joe Renzetti, "Commercial" by the band, and the track "It Ain't Necessarily Bird Avenue". Great groovy stuff – and with arrangements by Renzetti, Dorough, and Stuart Scharf. Like To Get To Know You is a tiny little pop masterpiece was produced and arranged by Stuart Scharf and the great Bob Dorough, and is filled with one of the grooviest approaches to pop we've heard in ages. The album includes the sublime hit "Like To Get To Know You", set in a very different LP setting – plus great versions of "Suzanne" and "Everybody's Talkin", and the cuts "Stardust", "The Swingin Gate", and "My Bill". Anything You Choose is the third movement in the fantastic pop symphony that is Spanky & Our Gang! The record's perhaps their oddest to date – and mixes groovy vocal stylings with some fairly advanced production approaches that work perfectly with the incredible songs written by Stuart Scharf and Bob Dorough. The voices swirl about in a mad rush – interweaving lines of melody and poetry, punctuated by strange sounds, spacey airy instrumentation, and wonderful little rhythms. Titles include "Anything You Choose", "1-3-5-8", "Without Rhyme Or Reason", "Give A Damn", and "Nowhere To Go". Live is an unusual album from this groovy group – especially given that most of their famous work was in the studio – and done with really inventive arrangements and production! Yet those qualities still come through here, even in a live setting – as the record's got this stripped-down approach that shows just how much of the group's own inventive vocal interplay and harmonies were part of their fantastically groovy style! Titles include "Wasn't It You", "Dirty Old Man", "The Klan", "Nagasaki", "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight", and "That's What You Get For Lovin Me". CD

A massive package of work from the mighty Kool & The Gang – 6 full albums from the 80s, served up here in a 3CD set! First up is Ladies Night – a shameless dancefloor cash-in move – but a record that's still pretty darn great as well! You all know the big title cut "Ladies Night", so we won't bother to describe it – but we can say that the group wisely hooked up with Deodato, who produced, mixed, and even played keyboards on the album. Deodato keeps a nice jazzy punch in the tracks, while still moving towards the slickly produced funk sound that was the group's main approach at the time of the record. JT Taylor's on vocals, and the album's even got a few mellow cuts – like the crossover easy number "Too Hot" – amidst the midtempo 80s grooves that really step out and make the whole thing move. Other tracks include "Ladies Night", "Hangin Out", "Tonight's The Night", "If You Feel Like Dancin", and "Got You Into My Life". The next album is Something Special indeed – as the album was one of the biggest hits for Kool & The Gang, and showed that the group still had plenty of energy left to groove into the 80s! The record features production work by Brazilian music maestro Eumir Deodato – who by this point had become a sweet and smooth talent with a real flair for putting over a modern soul groove! Deodato's approach is really great – smooth, yet soulful, without any tricks or gimmicks – and a real appreciation for lead vocals and a catchy little hook! The album features the group's party classic "Get Down On It", plus "Steppin Out", "No Show", "Pass It On", "Be My Lady", "Take My Heart", and "Good Time Tonight". As One is solid 80s grooving from Kool & The Gang – a group who inspired so many others in the early 80s soul generation, but who could still do it better than most of the rest! The style here is tight and smooth, but never too slick – and Deodato's giving the group some really great production for the album – helping them to focus their energy and soar soulfully, but without resorting to any stiff gimmicks or cliches! There's a great groove running through most of the numbers here – a confident quality that's never too commercial, and which bubbles along nicely throughout. Titles include "Street Kids", "Big Fun", "As One", "Hi De Hi Hi De Ho", "Let's Go Dancin", and "Pretty Baby". In The Heart is a sweet set that's part of a big early 80s run from Kool & The Gang – a time that saw the funk legends really hitting the mainstream, and winning over a huge new audience in the process! Given that the Gang virtually invented ensemble funk at the start of the 70s, they're perfectly poised here to move into modes that so many of their younger competition were trying – but never did so well – that blend of 80s elements and more sharply-fused funk instrumentation, all honed down into a tightly snapping groove. The real surprise, though, is the group's growing ability for ballads – which put records like this into hands of folks who never would have dug their funk a few years before. And while we might have had a few problems with that shift at the time, the passage of years has got the whole thing sounding pretty darn great to our ears – especially in comparison to so much weaker work from the time. Titles include "In The Heart", "Joanna", "Tonight", "Straight Ahead", "September Love", "You Can Do It", and "Home Is Where The Heart Is". Last up is Emergency – one of the key classics from the second chapter of the group – when their lineup and sound were a lot leaner than before, and they managed to cross over big to a much wider audience than before! The upbeat cuts show that the group were still kings of the funky dancefloor – and the mellower ones are equally great too – showing a rising ballad style that proved to be the group's big crossover card at the time – a way of putting over a laidback track, but with plenty of soul. This approach is heard to great effect on the album's great single "Cherish" – and other tracks include "Bad Woman", "Surrender", "Emergency", "Misled", "Fresh", and "You Are The One". CD

A brilliant bit of work from the UK scene of the early 80s – a group formed out of the ashes of The Prefects, and driven strongly by the uniquely bristling energy of frontman Robert Lloyd! The record's got lots of fantastically jagged moments – punk into post-punk, but without the freer frenzy of The Fall – maybe more the well-rooted basslines of Gang Of Four, although the style of The Nightingales is very different! Lloyd's vocals and presence are wonderful – and the songs are laced together with all these fast, jagged guitar lines that are fantastic – a bit like those from the Ron Johnson label scene to come. Tracks include "Blood For Dirt", "Start From Scratch", "One Mistake", "It Lives Again", "Joking Apart", "Yeah, It's OK", "Under The Lash", "Blisters", "Don't Blink", "Elvis The Last Ten Days", and "Make Good". CD

Cube's anger goes full throttle on his second post NWA full-length. He takes every aspect of his social commentator standpoints to another level from his solo debut – the roles of the angry and educated leader, and the finger-pointing blamer each get their say here, and so do those furiously funky Lench Mob beats. One of the last great gangsta era records to be so propulsive and exciting – Dre's Chronic was waiting just around the corner to haze this sound out of the picture for good. Quite tough to find on wax in it's original pressing – includes "Givin Up The Nappy Dug Out", "The Funeral", "Wrong Ni**a To –- Wit", "My Summer Vacation", "No Vaseline" and "Steady Mobbin". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare solo set from John Ussery – who'd previously worked with Eric Burdon, John Lee Hooker, and Delaney Bramlett – the last of whom also appears on the record! Titles include "Low Rider", "Smile", "Through The Fire", "Must Have Been The Season", and "Gangster". LP, Vinyl record album

Probably the most hyped hip hop album by rock critics of the last decade – but don't hold that against Stankonia, because these ghetto grooves from planet P-Funk were exactly what world needed in 2000! The millenium blowout party jam feel throughout is surely a nice change of pace from all the doom and gloom out there, but they still manage to spit out enough reality to keep things feeling true – particularly in the playful battle of the sexes showdowns. Dre, Big Boi and Organized Noize continue to innovate, even if they are at the top of the charts – and we can't wait to see where they take it all next! Tracks include "Gasoline Dreams", "So Fresh, So Clean", "Ms. Jackson", "Spaghetti Junction", "I'll Call Before I Come" featuring Gangsta Boo & Eco, "B.O.B.", "Xplosion" featuring B-Real, "We Luv Deez Hoez", "Humble Mumble" featuring Erykah Badu, "Red Velvet", "Gangsta Sh*t", "Toilet Tisha" "Slum Beautiful", and "Stankonia (Stanklove)". CD

Just-Ice wasn't actually part of the old school – although to some, the 1986 release might seem pretty darn close – but he definitely does a good job here of keeping things nice and clean on his classic debut! Production is from Mantronik, but there's also a harder edge than most of his other work in the studio – maybe thanks in part to edits by the great Chep Nunez, who was responsible for doing some great work on the Ultimate Breaks & Beats series! The sound blasts out of the deck with a very booming 80s sound – and the set also features some human beatboxing from DMX, who often explodes with the quality of a drum machine. Titles include "Back To The Old School", "Gangster of Hip Hop", "Latoya", "Cold Gettin Dumb", "Little Bad Johnny", and "Put That Record Back On." The picture cover is a dope notebook-style graffiti drawing of Just-Ice, DMX, Latoya, and Mantronik – that last of whom is carrying a Roland 909! CD

Cube's last truly great full length, from 1992, when he was leaving the gangsta stuff behind and had grown into an incredibly sharp social commentator and ghetto portrait painter. The rhymes, and even the liner note acknowledgements ("Ice Cube wishes to acknowledge white America's continued commitment to the silence and oppression of black men. . .") are wickedly incisive to this day. This could be his finest hour. Includes the singles "It Was A Good Day", "Check Yo Self" and "Wicked", "Gangsta's Fairytale 2", "Dirty Mack" and "Now I Gotta Wet'cha". Production by DJ Pooh, Muggs, Sir Jinx, and others. CD

Just-Ice wasn't actually part of the old school – although to some, the 1986 release might seem pretty darn close – but he definitely does a good job here of keeping things nice and clean on his classic debut! Production is from Mantronik, but there's also a harder edge than most of his other work in the studio – maybe thanks in part to edits by the great Chep Nunez, who was responsible for doing some great work on the Ultimate Breaks & Beats series! The sound blasts out of the deck with a very booming 80s sound – and the set also features some human beatboxing from DMX, who often explodes with the quality of a drum machine. Titles include "Back To The Old School", "Gangster of Hip Hop", "Latoya", "Cold Gettin Dumb", "Little Bad Johnny", and "Put That Record Back On." The picture cover is a dope notebook-style graffiti drawing of Just-Ice, DMX, Latoya, and Mantronik – that last of whom is carrying a Roland 909! LP, Vinyl record album

Blue Note boy genius Jason Moran rolls forward with another fine set for the label – leading a quartet session with a keen ear for 40s deep south jazz with groundwork in the blues – without sacrificing the freedom and fervor of bop or more contemporary sounds! Moran's been moving very well for a few years in the comfort of his great trio, featuring Tarus Mateen on bass and Nasheet Waits on the kit – this time adding a stellar guitar in Marvin Sewell. It's only appropriate that the measured piano firebrand would jump back a couple generations after lending his attention to hip hop and electro on the last studio album – and he does so with the same geniune passion, and perhaps even more appealing results! Tracks include "Gangsterism On The Rise", "Jump Up", "Aubade", "G Suit Saltation", "I'll Play The Blues For You", Mal Waldron's hot "Fire Waltz", "Field Of The Dead", "Restin'", "Gangsterism On The Set" and more. CD

Probably the most hyped hip hop album by rock critics of the last decade – but don't hold that against Stankonia, because these ghetto grooves from planet P-Funk were exactly what world needed in 2000! The millenium blowout party jam feel throughout is surely a nice change of pace from all the doom and gloom out there, but they still manage to spit out enough reality to keep things feeling true – particularly in the playful battle of the sexes showdowns. Dre, Big Boi and Organized Noize continue to innovate, even if they are at the top of the charts – and we can't wait to see where they take it all next! Tracks include "Gasoline Dreams", "So Fresh, So Clean", "Ms. Jackson", "Spaghetti Junction", "I'll Call Before I Come" featuring Gangsta Boo & Eco, "B.O.B.", "Xplosion" featuring B-Real, "We Luv Deez Hoez", "Humble Mumble" featuring Erykah Badu, "Red Velvet", "Gangsta Sh*t", "Toilet Tisha" "Slum Beautiful", and "Stankonia (Stanklove)". CD

Fantastic early work from The Fall – some key singles issued by the Rough Trade label as 45s during the first few years of the group – already a great showcase for the mad wit of Mark E Smith! While we love the albums from this time, these singles are maybe the songs we go back to again and again – as they sometimes have surprisingly catchy hooks, even while maintaining an edge – and often resonate with that Smith sense of humor that sometimes takes a few listens to pick up on! Tracks include "Totally Wired", "Putta Block", "How I Wrote Elastic Man", "City Hobgoblins", "The Man Whose Head Expanded", "Ludd Gang", "Kicker Conspiracy", "Wings", "Container Drivers", and "New Puritan". LP, Vinyl record album

The Kay-Gees' funkiest record ever – a set that's harder and sharper than anything else they'd ever record in years to come! Grabbing this one up is like finding a lost Kool & The Gang album from the early years – which is no surprise, since Ronald Bell of the group produced, and wrote a lot of the songs with the group – maybe acting as their mentor, and definitely giving the young group a great showcase for their boundless energy, and tight skills in the groove department! The band are incredibly tight – with lots of hard drums, choppy guitar, and the rolling party feel that made Kool & The Gang so great during their best years – captured here with a similarly raw production style. There's some great horns that blast in and out, sounding very off-beat at the best moments – like the classic "Who's the Man With the Master Plan", sampled by YZ many years ago – or other funky cuts like "Ain't No Time", "Get Down", and "You've Got to Keep on Bumpin". CD features bonus tracks – the unreleased instrumental "Let's Boogie", the unreleased disco version of "My Favorite Song", and the tracks "You've Got To Keep On Bumpin (parts 1 & 2)", "Hustle Wit Every Muscle (orig single)", and "Hustle Wit Every Muscle (disco version – original single)". CD

A fantastic lost legacy in European free improvisation – the complete works of a group who were first known as Modern Jazz Quintet Karlsruhe, then later as Fourmenonly – presented here in a beautiful 3CD set! First up is the album Trees – issued on a small label in 1968, but a set that matches the groundbreaking energy of the early work on FMP – played by a group that features Helmuth Zimmer on piano, Wilfreid Eichorn on tenor and soprano sax, Claus Buhler on bass, Rudi Thielmann on drums, and Herbert Joos on flugelhorn, Mellophon, piston, and percussion! The group have a melodic vibe at the core – often feeling out the initial space as a unit, then exploding with sound and color – and really making especially great work of the talents of Joos and Eichorn – players who work together with great power, driven on by the others. Titles include "Lonely Time", "Trees", "Schnee Verbrennt", "Change Of Beauty", and "The Devil Is Green Blue Yellow". CD also features a bonus unreleased improvisation too! Next is Position 2000 – a record of even longer improvisations, and one that shows the quintet really developing their sound – strongly aware of the farther reaches, but always beginning in some more colorful passages that almost have a melody, before exploding out with very vibrant energy! The lineup is the same as on the debut – with Herbert Joos on flugelhorn, mellophone, Indian flute, and percussion – and Wilfried Eichorn on tenor, soprano sax, bass clarinet, flute, and percussion – alongside Helmuth Zimmer on piano, Klaus Buhler on bass, and Rudi Thielmann on drums. Titles include "The Sun Is Coming Over", "Position 2000", and "Where Love Forever Shines". CD also features an unreleased improvisation. For the next album, bassist Buhler has departed the group – who are renamed Fourmenonly! Their first record is a brilliant set of free jazz from the German scene of the 70s – very different than other work of the time, in that there's maybe more of a future-thinking balance between sounds and silence, frenzy and fragility – all served up by a quartet that features Herbert Joos on trumpet and flugelhorn, Wilfried Eichhorn on tenor and soprano sax, Helmuth Zimmer on piano and percussion, and Rudi Theilmann on drums and percussion. Titles include "Viridiana/Ich Und Meine Bruder/Compulsion" and "Count Down/Excess". On the album Eight Science Fiction Stories, the Fourmenonly lineup is expanded by trombonist Wolfgang Czelusta – and perform some fantastic work billed as "science fiction stories", all composed by Herbert Joos. The sound is as revolutionary as on the group's earliest material, but also maybe more compact as well – nicely focused, with especially strong emphasis on the interplay between Czelusta on trombone, Wilifried Eichorn on bass clarinet, flute, and oboe, and Herbert Joos on flugelhorn, trumpet, and mellophone. The piano of Helmuth Zimmer is amazing – almost Cecil Taylor-like in intensity at times – and drummer Rudi Theilmann does a great job of moving from passages of full-on power to more spacious percussion. Titles include "Lucifer Is Marching On", "Dead Season", "The Beauty Without A Face", "Departure", "Plastic Happiness", and "Space Wall". CD

Funky soul from one of the less-discovered scenes in the south – the hotbed of small labels that were making some mighty great grooves in Atlanta during the 70s! The Peachtree city isn't nearly as well-cited as a soul music source in comparison to places like Memphis, Muscle Shoals, and even Miami – but back in the mid 70s, there was something really special going on – and for a strong moment, a few different labels really gave the city some great music! Much of the work here represents the changing character of Atlanta itself – deep soul vocals that were forged in a longer southern tradition, mixed with well-crafted grooves that show all the modern elements coming into play as the city grew and matured. Most of this work has a pre-disco vibe – with rhythms that are similar to the early work of Fatback or Kool & The Gang – with the difference that the singers in the lead are all pretty darn great on their own. BGP did an excellent job of choosing the tracks for the set, and the notes, as always, are great – and the package features 22 titles that include "Let's Dance" by Family Plann, "Seeds Of Life" by East LA Car Pool, "Down At The Disco" by Maggabrain, "Ain't It Funky" by Johnny Jacobs, "The Bump" by Floyd Smith, "Help Me (parts 1 & 2)" by Archie Russell, "I Don't Know What It Is But It Sure Is Funky" by Ripple, "Funk Pump" by The Counts, "Claim Jumpin" by Bill Brandon, "Checkmate" by The Ebony Godfather, "Shouldn't I Be Given The Right To Be Wrong" by Joe Hinton, "Husband In Law" by CL Blast, "Only A Fool" by Loleatta Holloway, "When I Build My World" by Jimmy Lewis, and "Complain To The Clouds" by Deep Velvet. CD

The Kay-Gees' funkiest record ever – a set that's harder and sharper than anything else they'd ever record in years to come! Grabbing this one up is like finding a lost Kool & The Gang album from the early years – which is no surprise, since Ronald Bell of the group produced, and wrote a lot of the songs with the group – maybe acting as their mentor, and definitely giving the young group a great showcase for their boundless energy, and tight skills in the groove department! The band are incredibly tight – with lots of hard drums, choppy guitar, and the rolling party feel that made Kool & The Gang so great during their best years – captured here with a similarly raw production style. There's some great horns that blast in and out, sounding very off-beat at the best moments – like the classic "Who's the Man With the Master Plan", sampled by YZ many years ago – or other funky cuts like "Ain't No Time", "Get Down", and "You've Got to Keep on Bumpin". LP, Vinyl record album

The Kay-Gees' funkiest record ever – a set that's harder and sharper than anything else they'd ever record in years to come! Grabbing this one up is like finding a lost Kool & The Gang album from the early years – which is no surprise, since Ronald Bell of the group produced, and wrote a lot of the songs with the group – maybe acting as their mentor, and definitely giving the young group a great showcase for their boundless energy, and tight skills in the groove department! The band are incredibly tight – with lots of hard drums, choppy guitar, and the rolling party feel that made Kool & The Gang so great during their best years – captured here with a similarly raw production style. There's some great horns that blast in and out, sounding very off-beat at the best moments – like the classic "Who's the Man With the Master Plan", sampled by YZ many years ago – or other funky cuts like "Ain't No Time", "Get Down", and "You've Got to Keep on Bumpin". CD featuers bonus tracks – the unreleased instrumental "Let's Boogie", the unreleased disco version of "My Favorite Song", and the tracks "You've Got To Keep On Bumpin (parts 1 & 2)", "Hustle Wit Every Muscle (orig single)", and "Hustle Wit Every Muscle (disco version – original single)". CD

The Kay-Gees' funkiest record ever – a set that's harder and sharper than anything else they'd ever record in years to come! Grabbing this one up is like finding a lost Kool & The Gang album from the early years – which is no surprise, since Ronald Bell of the group produced, and wrote a lot of the songs with the group – maybe acting as their mentor, and definitely giving the young group a great showcase for their boundless energy, and tight skills in the groove department! The band are incredibly tight – with lots of hard drums, choppy guitar, and the rolling party feel that made Kool & The Gang so great during their best years – captured here with a similarly raw production style. There's some great horns that blast in and out, sounding very off-beat at the best moments – like the classic "Who's the Man With the Master Plan", sampled by YZ many years ago – or other funky cuts like "Ain't No Time", "Get Down", and "You've Got to Keep on Bumpin". LP, Vinyl record album

A selection of tunes from the film Pete Kelly's Blues – a 20s tale of jazz and gangsters that starred and was directed by Jack "Dragnet" Webb! Given the setting of the film, the tunes often have a more traditional jazz bent to them – with backing from the orchestra of Harold Mooney that features a fair bit of Kansas City-styled jazz. Peggy and Ella's vocals are pure 50s Decca, though – and if anything, the album's a great chance to hear them singing in a slightly different setting, but with all the strength of their best work of the time. Peggy sings on about 2/3 of the album – on tracks that include "Sugar", "I Never Knew", "Somebody Loves Me", and "I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now". Ella sings on the last third – on tracks that include "Ella Hums The Blues", "Pete Kelly's Blues", and "Hard Hearted Hannah". LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic work from Syn – a British group who are maybe best-remembered for giving the world future prog giants Chris Squire and Peter Banks – but who are already pretty darn great even without that later legacy of sound! The vibe here is a bit like Tomorrow – the early home of Steve Howe – in that the songs are mostly short, focused, and tuneful, but have all sorts of wonderfully new ideas and trippy touches around the edges – deeper than pop psych material coming out of the US at the time, but equally catchy in its own sort of way! Titles include "Created By Clive", "Flowerman", "14 Hour Technicolour Dream", "Merry Go Round", "The Gangster Opera", "Cadillac Dreams", "The Last Performance of The Royal Regimental Very Victorious and Valiant Band", "Mister White's White Flying Machine", "Love You", and "Sunset Boulevard Lament". LP, Vinyl record album

A slice of soul you might never expect – early work from the De-Lite label, a company better-known for their famous club hits of the late 70s – but starting out here with an amazing array of deep soul 45s! The music is a wonderful contrast to the disco and club of the label's fame – and showcases an immediate commitment to singers who could really knock it out of the park – with vocals that rival the sounds coming from southern labels like Stax, or some of the more famous productions on Atlantic – which is a huge surprise if you only know the De-Lite recordings by Kool & The Gang or The Kay-Gees! 25 tracks in all – all super-rare – and titles include "Keep Away" by The Appointments, "Look What You Done For Me" by Contributors Of Soul, "Oh Girl" by Johnny Washington, "Need You Girl" by Fred Cole, "I Wish It Would Rain" by Beverly Hammonds, "Say So" by La Jay Alexander, "Everlasting Love" by Johnny Washington, "I Saw You There" by The Appointments, "I Smell Trouble" by Johnny De'Vigne, "I'll Always Love You" by Felton Burks, "Send Her Back" by Sammy Taylor, "When A Woman Loves A Man" by Jean Battle, "Tender Loving Care" by Joe Kennedy, and "I Got To Get Close To You" by Yvonne Daniels. CD