Rare sounds from the UK underground of the mid 80s – work from a post-post-punk period that's come to be known as the cold wave – when electronic musicians who weren't sucked into the pop mainstream went deeper down and created some really wonderful sounds on their own! Most of the tracks here were only ever issued on cassette – which makes them even more lost to the sands of time than vinyl from the period – and the music has a rich blend of different analogue electronic modes that takes us from the moodier sounds of early Sheffield and Manchester to some of the warmer work of the Rough Trade or Cherry Red scenes. A few cuts here are appearing for the first time ever – and titles include "Don't Surrender" by WeR7, "Age Of Lights (inst)" by Modern Art, "Pigst Cafe" by Mystery Plane, "Space Is The Bass" by The Lord, "Beyond Reason Beyond Time" by Disintegrators, "Lives Of Angels" by Lives Of Angel, and "Tease" by Berserk In A Hayfield. CD

A record of understated brilliance from the great Ahmad Jamal – recorded with his superb trio that featured Jamil Nasser on bass and Frank Gant on drums! The vibe here is great – very open and flowing – tracks shorter than his Impulse years, but already showing that amazing sense open creative energy. Titles include the unusual "The Fantastic Vehicle", a version of the Rollins tune "St Thomas", a slightly Latin take on "Misty", and the cuts "April In Paris", "Allison", "Maybe September", and "The Girl Next Door". LP, Vinyl record album

A masterpiece of new music for guitar from the legendary Glenn Branca – a set that both draws on all the minimal experiments on the New York scene of the 70s, and the big wave of underground music at the end of the decade! Branca effortlessly fuses the rock and compositional communities here – working with Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, and artist Ned Sublette – in a fierce set of tunes that blend four guitars, electric bass, and drums – all with an instrumental frenzy that matches some of the best early jams from Sonic Youth. Branca's approach is less freeform, but has very much the same intensity – and titles include "Lesson No 2", "Structure", "The Ascension", and "Spectacular Commodity". LP, Vinyl record album

Pre-Atlantic work from Ornette Coleman – one of his first recorded statements in jazz – and one of his boldest! At some level, the complete Coleman sound isn't entirely in place here – as there's a bit of a trace of hardbop in the mix – not entirely, but just a bit. But at another level, the record's still way darn bolder than just about anything coming out of LA at the time – proof that amidst all the cool jazz ruminations of the 50s, there was a second wave of modernism about to explode! The group here features Don Cherry on trumpet, Walter Norris on piano, Don Payne on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – and while the core harmelodic rhythmic approach isn't always in place, it's more than made up for by some surprisingly free energy. Titles include "Invisible", "The Blessing", "Alpha", and "The Sphinx". LP, Vinyl record album

Perhaps the most heavenly of all the Chi-Lites albums, with soaring harmonies leaping all over beautiful Chicago soul production, and loads of great heartbreaking stories unfolding as the whole thing spins away! A true masterpiece from the Chicago scene – and filled with loads of wonderful moments that almost seem to be the group's answer to some of the growing wave of harmony soul coming from the east coast at the time. Includes the excellent title track, plus "Just Two Teenage Kids", "Too Late To Turn Back Now", "Someone Else's Arms", "You Smiled The Same Old Way", "My Heart Just Keeps On Breakin'", and "Love Comes In All Sizes". Nice cover, too, with a skyline shot of Chicago around the same time that Bob Newhart was working there as a shrink! LP, Vinyl record album

Two rare Charlie Parker albums in a single set! First up is Bird On 52nd Street – one of the more obscure Charlie Parker sessions of the 40s – at least in the original release! The material was recorded in 1948, on a home tape recorder, but not issued until after his death – part of a huge wave of Charlie Parker material that hit the market at the end of the 50s and start of the 60s! The sound here is quite raw – made even more so by the recording quality – but it also offers up a good illustration of the sheer power of Bird back in the day, the kind of bold, bracing energy that made even more than the regular jazz world sit up and take notice. The group's a quintet – with Miles Davis on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano, Tommy Potter on bass, and Max Roach on drums – and there's been a few tape tricks in the mastering, in order to come up with a better version of some of the recordings. Tracks are short – in true bebop format – and titles include "Night In Tunisia", "Dizzy Atmosphere", "Out Of Nowhere", "My Old Flame", "How High The Moon", "This Time The Dream's On Me", "Hot House", and "Chasin The Bird". Next is Bird At St Nicks – a posthumous issue of an early 50s live set by Charlier Parker – one of the many that were rushed to the public in the years after his early death. The set, like many of the other live ones from the time, isn't recorded that well – but the music is still pretty wonderful. There's a real focus on Bird in the way the microphone was set up – so although you hear the rest of the band comping in the background, the album almost works like a session of solo sax work by Parker – as his alto is right out front in the mix, playing with a faltering style at times – but in a way that only seems to deepen our vision of his genius. Players include Red Rodney on trumpet and Al Haig on piano – and titles include "Ornithology", "Star Eyes", "Visa", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", and "Confirmation". LP, Vinyl record album

Some of the most compelling grooves the Talking Heads ever recorded – a set that sparkles with imaginative touches, and railroads forward on a wave of complicated rhythms! The sound is brilliant throughout – a genre-less approach that sheds the group's earlier art nerd aesthetic for one that's clearly influenced by late 70s funk and club – but takes that influence in a whole new direction! The whole thing's even fresher than some of the artier downtown moments that bubbled around at the time – as David Byrne and the group actually managed to cross over big with the record – hitting not only urban markets, but also getting some play from the classic rock crowd too. Brian Eno produced, and co-wrote the songs with the group – and some great Green World-esque electronics bubble through the mix, and hold the whole thing together beautifully. Titles include "Houses In Motion", "Once In A Lifetime", "The Great Curve", "Crosseyed & Painless", "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)", "Listening Wind", "Seen & Not Seen", and "The Overload". LP, Vinyl record album

Dabrye does his digital dub re-manipulation minimalization on a number of tracks by different artists. We could live without the Beans track "Nite Eats Day", but on most of the cuts his heart is in the right pocket. Check his job on Nomo's "Not Wisely/Too Well" & his live version of "Hyped Up Plus Tax". Other tracks include remixes of "Infinite Wavelength" by Trans Am, "Angel Beat" by Ill Sound, and "Monstertruckdriver" bby T Raumschmiere. CD

Erik Hall gave us an amazing reworking of a piece by Steve Reich on a previous record – and here, he does maybe an even more incredible job on the long "Canto Ostinato" composition by Simeon Ten Holt! The original work was originally penned for four pianos – in a 70s minimalist style that's similar to Reich – but Hall handles the whole thing solo, yet with overdubs – using grand piano, organ, and electric piano in these flowing waves of sound – beautifully shifting over time, and often flowering into new sonic dimensions as the instrumentation makes a gentle step at key moments! LP, Vinyl record album

Steve Reich at the earliest point in his career – a time when the budding minimalist was really starting to make some waves on the new music scene with his instrumental compositions, but also still working with a few tape experiments too! This live performance from 1970 shows both sides of Reich's genius – as it begins with an excellent take on his "Four Organs", a piece that still continues to amaze us for its rhythmic shifts all these many years later – then moves into a haunting tape piece titled "My Name Is", which is right up there with his other early tape compositions. That's followed by a beautifully lyrical take on "Piano Phase", and the set's completed by the percolating organ lines of "Phase Patterns". LP, Vinyl record album

A massive tribute to the music of Neu – set with three classic albums, and an exclusive double-length batch of mixes and covers too! First up is the self-titled Neu – maybe not the earliest record in the Krautrock generation, but a set that certainly set a new sort of standard after it was released! The group mix together slow-building rhythms and plenty of fuzz – all recorded by the great Conny Plank, who has a way of blending the songs and all their many elements – instrumentation put together by ex-Kraftwerk members Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother – who mostly use guitars, bass, and drums – but end up turning them into something completely different with the help of Plank! Some of the tracks are quite long, and really take a great path to find their way forward – very different than Can or Cluster, at least from an outside perspective – but equally classic. Titles include "Hallogallo", "Sonderangerbot", "Im Gluck", "Negativland", "Weissensee", and "Lieber Honig". Neu 2 follows, and continues their trademark pulsating rhythms and raw Teutonic energy – essential listening not only for its titanic importance to the minimalist rock to come – but for it's impeccable hard driving hypnotic genius that has yet to be topped by any of the followers. The album starts off with the longer piece "Fur Immer", while the rest of the album is made up of mostly shorter segments, including "Spitzenqualitat", "Super 16", "Cassetto" and "Hallo Excentrico!". Next is Neu 75 – the third album in a legendary run from Krautrock pioneers Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger – one that uses two different drummers next to the duo's fantastic spare blend of keyboards, guitar, and electronics! The sound is still nice and lean, and every bit as revolutionary as on their first two records – and the whole thing is a masterpiece in blending waves of sonic energy and pulsating rhythms! Titles include "Isi", "See Land", "Leb Wohl", "Hero", "E-Musik", and "After Eight". The set also features the two-part Tribute album – hardly the usual tribute project – as a number of tracks are remixes of the originals, blended with other very unusual takes and original material! Titles include "Im Gluck" (National rmx)", "Weissensee (Fink version)", "Negativland (Idles negative space rework)", "After Eight (They Hate Change cover)", "Lieber Honig (Yann Tiersen rmx)", "Super (Mogwai rmx)", and "Hallogallo (Stephen Morris & Gabe Gurnsey rmx)". CD

The continuing genius of this really wonderful series – just about the only way you'll get to hear this wealth of work from the UK electro scene of the early 80s – most of which was only released on cassette at the time! These tracks follow strongly on the electronic sounds of scenes like Sheffield or Manchester – work that's much more underground than material by groups like New Order or Cabaret Voltaire – with maybe more of the darkness of the latter in their earliest days, and a continuing legacy to the starker, minimal modes – even when the songs have a bit of vocals. Perhaps a strong comparison might be the turn that Section 25 too with their classic From The Hip album on Factory – and titles include "Danse Electrique" by Beatmixer, "Going Out" by Silicon Valley, "Start Of Something" by Berserk In A Hayfield, "World Perfect (edit)" by WeR7, "I'll Get You For This" by Mystery Plane, and "Train" by Echophase". CD

Maybe one of the greatest jazz albums of all time – a real breakthrough moment for the legendary John Coltrane, and the blueprint for generations of jazz records to come! Trane was already breaking down plenty of boundaries before Love Supreme – but he knocked it out of the park for the album – which is a full-length suite of spiritual expression, one that gives even greater focus and message to Coltrane's long-spiralling style of soloing on the tenor sax! The group here is the classic quartet – McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums – taking Trane up to the heavens on waves of modal energy, but also holding his spirit closer to the planet than on some of later, more outside performances. There's a slight bit of vocalization on the record – that chanted energy that imbues the set with so much love – and movements include "Acknowledgement", "Resolution", "Pursuance", and "Psalm". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing sounds from Nico – material recorded for the BBC during that wonderful early 70s stretch when she had firmly broken from the Velvet Underground, and was really making some mindbending music of her own! The vibe here is a lot like Desertshore – with very spare instrumentation made mostly from long lines on harmonium, providing very moody waves of sound next to the singer's incredible vocals – which have a more powerful, hypnotic quality in the setting than they ever did in a bigger group – a minimalist power that clearly owes a bit of a debt to Terry Riley and LaMonte Young, but which is definitely imbued with Nico's own strong spirit. The four tracks here are a crucial addition to her all-too-small catalog from the time – and titles include "No One Is There", "Frozen Warnings", "Janitor Of Lunacy", and "Secret Side". Only four tracks – but all of them are great! LP, Vinyl record album

Sublime late live work from Bill Evans – a well-recorded performance for French radio, and one that really stands out from some of the scratchier late 70s concerts on the market! Bill's working here with a sound as sensitive and picturesque as the cover image – never pushing things too hard, but letting each tune unfold organically in waves of sound few other players could conjure up! Trio musicians include Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums – and titles on this first volume include "Quiet Now", "My Romance", "Noelle's Theme", "I Loves You Porgy", and "Up With The Lark". LP, Vinyl record album

The amazing first album from Big Star – a set that came out of nowhere, made hardly a ripple on the charts, yet went onto crash in big waves of sound for generations to come! The style here is unlike thing else before – hardly what you'd expect from the group's Memphis roots or Alex Chilton's previous performances – yet the group's music has become a generation-defining sound in the way it blends southern inflections with harder rock influences, and a lean, gritty quality that's arguably in a late 70s space between punk and power pop. Every element is wonderful – guitars that are powerful, but never indulgent – vocals that are moving, but never overly emotive – and a balance between sensitive and searing moments that even The Replacements could never hope to match. A landmark all the way through – with tracks that include "Feel", "Ballad Of El Goodo", "In The Street", "The India Song", "When My Baby's Beside Me", "Give Me Another Chance", "Don't Lie To Me", "Thirteen", "Watch The Sunrise", and "Try Again". LP, Vinyl record album