Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera weren't the biggest group on the British scene of the late 60s, but they were certainly one of the coolest – as you'll hear on this massive collection that brings together all their key work of the time! First up is the self-titled debut album – stunner of a set from a group who should have been huge – especially given the sharpness and wit of this debut album! Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera bring together all the best strands of up and coming Brit rock of the time – a bit of psych undercut with some bluesy elements, marked by a moddish smirk that really keeps the whole thing punched-up throughout – no overindulgence, no easy mark for a hit – just a very individual sensibility that few of the group's underground contemporaries could match! These guys come across with all the personality of The Who in Happy Jack/Magic Bus years – and have a similar use and distance of trippy elements of the time – almost tongue in cheek, but just because they find a way to shift between them and straighter rock so easily. Songs are all great, and really well-written – and apart from a version of Oscar Brown Jr's "I Was Cool", the set features original material that includes "Mother Writes", "Mary Jane", "Flames", "Lookin For A Happy Life", and "Walter Sly Meets Bill Bailey". Next is the group's second album Ride A Hustler's Dream – a set that maybe has the group bringing in more blues influences to the music at times, but mostly as a way to let both the guitar work and vocals get even fuller and strongly expressed – which means that when the psychedelic elements come into the mix, there's an even more powerful vibe than on their debut album too! Titles include "Black Jack Davy", "Ride A Hustler's Dream", "Honey By", "Anna Dance Square", "Depression", "Warm Day In July", and the very cool "Raga" – and a great remake of "Eleanor Rigby". 3CD set features the debut album in a rare promo-only mono mix, plus 34 bonus tracks that include "There's A Hole In My Pocket", "She Keeps Giving Me These Feelings", "The Painter", "And I Remember", "Talk Of The Devil", "Dreamy", "Volcano", "A Quick B", and lots more – including singles and BBC tracks too! CD

A great tribute to one of the most famous clubs on the UK scene of the mid 80s – a spot that was crucial to the shift from post-punk modes to new goth spirits – and which was a vital outlet for new strands of darker music that were stepping forth at the time! Later goth cliches might make you pause – but the sounds here are from a time when the music had a very special spot in the UK – kind of a sidestep from some of the more nihilistic modes of the punk generation, maybe finding a way to move forward while still foregrounding some of the darker moods that were undeniable at this spot in British history. Yet even without all that larger framing, the set list here is more than enough to tell the tale – as the set features work from Play Dead, Wasted Youth, Soft Cell, The Cult, Christian Death, Theater Of Hate, Specimen, The Birthday Party, Virgin Prunes, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Cure, The Cramps, Killing Joke, Alien Sex Fiend, Sexbeat, Sisters Of Mercy, Xmal Deutschland, and Gene Loves Jezebel. 5CD set is MASSIVE – served up in a 12" LP-sized box, with an 80 page hardcover book that features all sorts of writings on the club, and over 100 photos from back in the day – all in support of a 90 track set list that includes lots more work from The Runaways, Velvet Underground, Marc & The Mambas, Let's Wreck Mother, Human League, The Glove, Flowerpot Men, Japan, The The, New Order, March Violets, Malaria, Joy Division, The Associates, PiL, Throbbing Gristle, and dozens of others. CD

A great set that may well be Big Maybelle's best record ever – really rare work that's quite different than her famous work of the 50s! The set was recorded in the Criteria studios in Miami – and it's got a cool southern soul sound that's part Bobby Blue Bland bluesy soul, and part Muscle Shoals funk – fused together wonderfully by arranger Eric Knight – who really has a great ear for giving Maybelle a wicked new groove! Maybelle's vocals are a bit deeper than usual – much more soul than the blues of a decade before – and tracks include "This Bitter Earth", "How It Lies", "Old Love Never Dies", "My Mother's Eyes", and "Love Careless Love". CD

A mid-career gem from Tammy Wynette – and a set that's very different than some of the more biting material of her early days! Tammy here is singing of life's trials and challenges, from a perspective that was documented famously in her own semi-public life – and served up here with some delightfully easygoing production from Chips Moman, who also co-wrote some of the best songs on the record too. Despite her polished look on the cover, Wynette brings some very down to earth energy to the songs – a set list that includes "He's Rolling Over & Over", "Cowboy's Don't Shoot Straight", "Crying In The Rain", "Easy Street", "Goodnight Cowboy Goodnight", "You Brought Me Back", "I Don't Think I See Me In Your Eyes Anymore", and "The Best There Is". CD features five bonus tracks – including "There Goes That Old Steel Guitar", "The Wonders You Perform", "The Only Time I'm Really Me", "A Candle In The Wind", and "You Make Me Want To Be A Mother". CD

Beautiful Appalachian Americana from the late 20s & early 30s in a pretty broad pastiche of string band styles – from furiously sawed hillbilly numbers, to banjo & fiddle flavored vocal tunes, to popular tin pan alley songs of the time – the complete recordings of The Red Fox Chasers! The Chasers hailed from northwest North Carolina, and brought a more widely appealing style to the regional American music sounds of the period. It's pretty exciting and energetic stuff, exceptionally well packaged by Tompkins Square. 40 recordings on 2CDs: "Arkansas Traveler", "Honeysuckle Time", "Jim & Me", "Wreck On The Mountain Road", "Girl I Loved In Sunny Tennessee", "Mississippi Sawers", "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?", "Pretty Polly", "The Blind Man & His Child", "Virginia Bootleggers", "Turkey In The Straw", "Something Wrong With My Gal", "Two False Lovers", "Tell My Mother I'll Meet Her", "Devilish Mary", "Making Licker In North Carolina" (Pts 1, 2, 3 & 4) and more. CD

Three full albums from Johnny Mathis in one single set – the last of which was actually issued originally as a 2LP set! First up is Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head – great magic from Johnny Mathis at the start of the 70s – a set that has Johnny working through some groovier tunes from the second end of the 60s – all set to some mighty nice backings from Ernie Freeman! Ernie brings in a fair bit of strings, but also gives things that soulful punch at the bottom that you'll know from his 60s material – and the Mathis vocal maybe is a bit more crisp in the setting, although still with that wonderfully full range that always made the man so unique! Titles include great versions of "Watch What Happens", "Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head", "Midnight Cowboy", "Everybody's Talkin", "Jean", "Odds & Ends", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Close To You has Johnny Mathis kicking off with his take on the Burt Bacharach title hit, then moving through a number of other late 60s hits – some of which are perfect for the Mathis style, others of which make for a mighty nice stretch – and we mean that in the best way possible! There's some backing elements here that are groovier than usual for Johnny – pushing him in a nice way with modes that seem a bit borrowed from sunshine pop and soul – on titles that include "Come Saturday Morning", "Evil Ways", "Yellow Days", "The Long & Winding Road", "Wave", and "Pieces Of Dreams". In Person is double-length live set from Johnny Mathis – recorded live in person in Las Vegas – with titles that include a fair number of medley tracks that are a nice change from his studio records – the kind of material that really allows Johnny to show his talents as an entertainer in a live setting! There's also some non-medley tracks 6too – including "And Her Mother Came Too", "Maria", "If We Only Have Love", "I Got Love", "Day In Day Out", "Come Runnin", "In The Morning", and "Love Story". CD

The excellent solo debut from lumbering rock guitar virtuoso Joe Walsh – buzzing, melodic and extremely tuneful early 70s rock that's refreshingly free of the processed cheese that characterized much of his later material, both solo and as an Eagle – and possibly the best work he's ever done! Barnstorm has some of the whispery rural rock sounds, fat and nearly funk keyboard grooves, and crunching chords that make Joe (in)famous – but what really stretches this record out and pushes it to a lofty pillar are the post psychedelic touches. Bits of flute, echoey guitar and keys, and trippy lyricism elevate the tracks on the first half of the album into terrain we forgot Joe ever treaded. It really makes the heavier, funky rock & roll bits that much more rewarding. It's almost like a blue collar Astral Weeks in spots! Tracks include "Here We Go", "Midnight Mover", "One And One", "Giant Bohemoth", "Mother Says", "Home", "I'll Tell The World", "Turn To Stone" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

An insane classic from one of the wildest funk bands ever! According to reports, George Clinton and the band cut this set in a marathon 48-hour stretch in the studio – working like mad all night and day long, after dropping a motherlode of some mighty fine acid! We don't know if that story's entirely true, but the music on the album certainly backs it up – as it's some of the band's freest, most open-ended, most heavy-jamming work ever recorded! Guitars dominate over funky bass and drums – and the whole thing's an amazing blend of music, swirled together into a non-stop psychedelic party that includes P-Funk gems like "Funky Dollar Bill", "Free Your Mind", "Eulogy and Light", and "I Wanna Know If It's Good To You". LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic look at the righteous current of energy that swept through American music at the end of the 60s – that huge wave of knowledge and political inspiration that still stands as one of our favorite moments in jazz and soul! The Civil Rights generation had gotten some things accomplished, but not everything – and a new wave of action arose in various scenes of the underground – not just pushing the musical formats past anything that had happened before, but also doing so with a strong message of pride and empowerment! This collection surveys some of the best tracks of that moment – and also provides a great batch of historical notes to put the whole thing in context – done in collaboration with the book of the same name, but equally great as a soundtrack and document on its own. The package is overflowing with Dusty Groove classics – and titles include "Sweet Songs" by Sarah Webster Fabio, "Surtal Ihklas" by Doug Carn, "Vibes From The Tribe" by Phil Ranelin, "Desert Fairy Princess" by Horace Tapscott & The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, "Sounds From The Bush" by The Mandingo Griot Society with Don Cherry, "Is It Too Late" by Duke Edwards & The Young Ones, "Strong Men" by David McKnight, "Black Narcissus" by Joe Henderson, "Malcolm X" by Phil Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, "Mother Of The Future" by Carlos Garnett, "Red Black & Green" by Roy Ayers, "African Rhythms" by Oneness Of Juju, and "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron. CD

A deep look at the electronic music underground in the 60s, 70s, and 80s – not the academic theoreticians who were slaving away in university laboratories, but the more independent, freewheeling talents who were using the initial analogue moment to open up their own boundaries in time and space! The work ranges from unusual 60s instrumentals, through 70s hippie electronics, to some 80s recordings that might have been termed new age by the uninitiated – but which instead, all these years later, stand as some lost moments of cosmic expression! There's few folks we trust to lead us down a musical path as much as the guys at Soul Jazz – and this time, they've definitely taken us in the right direction – with cuts that include "Midnight" by Tim Blake, "Gang (For Rock Industry)" by JB Banfi, "To The Other Side Of The Sky" by Michael Garrison, "By Water" by Stratis, "Improvisation On A Concerto Generator" by Laurie Spiegel, "Starborn Suite (part 1)" by Steven Halpern, "Ceres Motion" by Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company, "As Above So Below" by Carl Matthews, "In The Beginning" by Michael Stearns, "Ever New" by Beverly Glenn-Copeland, "Variations VII Sur Le Theme Des Bene Gesserit" by Richard Pinhas, and "Ancient Stars" by Kevin Braheny. LP, Vinyl record album

A great set that may well be Big Maybelle's best record ever – really rare work that's quite different than her famous work of the 50s! The set was recorded in the Criteria studios in Miami – and it's got a cool southern soul sound that's part Bobby Blue Bland bluesy soul, and part Muscle Shoals funk – fused together wonderfully by arranger Eric Knight – who really has a great ear for giving Maybelle a wicked new groove! Maybelle's vocals are a bit deeper than usual – much more soul than the blues of a decade before – and tracks include "This Bitter Earth", "How It Lies", "Old Love Never Dies", "My Mother's Eyes", and "Love Careless Love". CD

Wonderful stuff! Ben Webster blows soulful late night ballads over strings – a perfect combination, and a wonderful idea that was first executed on two LPs in the 50s: Music For Loving and Music With Feeling, both of which are reissued here with some extra unreleased material! Backings are by Ralph Burns and Billy Strayhorn – both of whom can be trusted to keep things hip, using the strings to create mood, emotion, and tension, instead of a pillow to smother the sound of Webster's incredible tenor work. Added to those two albums and bonus cuts is the even rarer Harry Carney with Strings session, recorded in the same era, and a perfect addition to the package that makes for over 3 LPs worth of material on 2 CDs, all packaged with great notes and some very cool Verve artwork! Titles include "Chelsea Bridge", "Some Other Spring", "Blue Moon", "Early Autumn", "My Fantasy", "Love Is Here To Stay", "Under A Blanket Of Blue", "You're Mine You", "Love's Away", and "All Too Soon". CD

A deep look at the electronic music underground in the 60s, 70s, and 80s – not the academic theoreticians who were slaving away in university laboratories, but the more independent, freewheeling talents who were using the initial analogue moment to open up their own boundaries in time and space! The work ranges from unusual 60s instrumentals, through 70s hippie electronics, to some 80s recordings that might have been termed new age by the uninitiated – but which instead, all these years later, stand as some lost moments of cosmic expression! There's few folks we trust to lead us down a musical path as much as the guys at Soul Jazz – and this time, they've definitely taken us in the right direction – with cuts that include "Midnight" by Tim Blake, "Gang (For Rock Industry)" by JB Banfi, "To The Other Side Of The Sky" by Michael Garrison, "By Water" by Stratis, "Improvisation On A Concerto Generator" by Laurie Spiegel, "Starborn Suite (part 1)" by Steven Halpern, "Ceres Motion" by Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company, "As Above So Below" by Carl Matthews, "In The Beginning" by Michael Stearns, "Ever New" by Beverly Glenn-Copeland, "Variations VII Sur Le Theme Des Bene Gesserit" by Richard Pinhas, and "Ancient Stars" by Kevin Braheny. CD