Brilliant work from Nirvana – a duo who bring together so many wonderful elements of late 60s Brit pop – from weird trippy touches to tuneful melodies to superb full arrangements – handled here by giants Mike Vickers, Johnny Scott, and Tony Visconti! There's a bounce and a push to all the cuts here – tunes that might be self-indulgent or too weird in other hands, but which bristle with catchy, creative energy throughout – of the sort that should have made these guys huge at the time – and which certainly should have earned them a bigger place on our side of the Atlantic! We love this stuff in the way we like Donovan with Mickie Most, or maybe late 60s Hollies – but Nirvana is weirder than both – as you'll hear on tracks that include "Illinois", "The World Is Cold Without You", "Christopher Lucifer", "Aline Cherie", "Tres Tres Bien", "It Happened To Sundays Ago", "Love Suite", and "Black Flower". LP, Vinyl record album

A very weird and wonderful step forward for the British group Nirvana – a set that marks their move to the Vertigo label with some very open-ended, freewheeling songs that were mostly the brainchild of group member Patrick Campbell-Lyons! Each tune takes up a full side of the record – and has the group exploring more progressive territory, but still with all the strong sense of tunefulness of the past! There's more core rock instrumentation, and less of the larger arrangements from their Island Records years – but that also seems to give the songs a primal power that the group never had before! Side one features the moody "Modus Operandi", and side two features the nicely driving "Home" suite – a very dynamic tune. LP, Vinyl record album

A great return to tuneful, soulful territory for the British group Nirvana – who really hit some of the modes here that made their first few records so great! There's a special blend going on here – one that's neither pop, nor progressive – but which represents that key slice of the UK scene that was very confidently doing their own thing the right way – sophisticated, but never too heady – and with an organic appeal that should have made these guys huge. Jazzy phrasing hides at the core of the instrumentation, but in a way that really just unlocks some beautiful tones and colors next to the vocals – understated sophistication at its best. Titles include "Nova Sketch", "Please Believe Me", "Rainbow Chaser", "Will There Be Me", and "Stadium". LP, Vinyl record album

The rare Nirvana 6 track EP released in Australia and Japan during the band's 1992 tour. Includes 4 covers: Devo's "Turnaround", "Molly's Lips" and "Son Of A Gun" originally by The Vaselines and "D-7" originally by The Wipers. Also includes "Aneurysm" and "Even In His Youth", originally b-sides for the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" single. CD

Nirvana's final album – one that's as poetic as it is heavy, and as beautiful as it is brutal! In Utero's legacy gets greater and greater over the years, not only because its mastermind extinguished himself not too long after it's release, but more than that, it's simply one of the greatest rock albums of its time. Angry, fed up, yet oddly righteous in its angst, in a way that makes it easy to get into despite all the raw nerve anguish. Includes "Serve The Servents", "Scentless Apprentice", "Heart-Shaped Box", "Rape Me", "Dumb", "Very Ape", "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter", "All Apologies" and the rest. LP, Vinyl record album

Nirvana's final album – one that's as poetic as it is heavy, and as beautiful as it is brutal! In Utero's legacy gets greater and greater over the years, not only because its mastermind extinguished himself not too long after it's release, but more than that, it's simply one of the greatest rock albums of its time. Angry, fed up, yet oddly righteous in its angst, in a way that makes it easy to get into despite all the raw nerve anguish. Includes "Serve The Servents", "Scentless Apprentice", "Heart-Shaped Box", "Rape Me", "Dumb", "Very Ape", "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter", "All Apologies" and the rest. CD

Titles include "Sliver", "Stain", "Been A Son", "Son Of A Gun", "Molly's Lips", "Beeswax", "Downer", "Aero Zepppelin", and "Big Long Now". CD

Nirvana's classic session for MTV's Unplugged – slowing down the tempo and stripping away the feedback and squalling electric guitars of their early 90s classics – as well as showing Kurt Cobain's command of cover tunes! This is a set that blew expectations right out of the water. It shows the essence of the great Cobain songwriting, as well has his gift for interpreting others – drawing parallels from Bowie, The Meat Puppets to traditional folk and blues. Amazing! Includes "About A Girl", "The Man Who Sold The World", "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", "Lake Of Fire", "All Apologies", "Dumb", "Polly" and more. CD

A record that forever changed the face of mainstream music in the 90s – a set that showed that a group could come from the underground indie scene and manage to take over the rest of the world with a record that went on to become an instant classic for a generation! Think what you want about the overwrought legacy of Kurt Cobain's place in pop stardom, the record itself still bristles over with power and energy that get way past all the cliches that you'll find on posters and t-shirts – one of the few cases in history where stepping to a major label allowed a group like this to really hit their heights. Titles include "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Drain You", "On A Plain", "Lithium", "Polly", "In Bloom", "Come As You Are", and "Lounge Act". CD

A record that forever changed the face of mainstream music in the 90s – a set that showed that a group could come from the underground indie scene and manage to take over the rest of the world with a record that went on to become an instant classic for a generation! Think what you want about the overwrought legacy of Kurt Cobain's place in pop stardom, the record itself still bristles over with power and energy that get way past all the cliches that you'll find on posters and t-shirts – one of the few cases in history where stepping to a major label allowed a group like this to really hit their heights. Titles include "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Drain You", "On A Plain", "Lithium", "Polly", "In Bloom", "Come As You Are", and "Lounge Act". LP, Vinyl record album

Peter Ivers's entire output for Warner Brothers in the mid 70s – including the original LPs Terminal Love & Peter Ivers, plus the Nirvana Peter compilation, which didn't appear until the mid 80s and STILL sounded ahead of its time – in a complete 2CD set! Peter has a distinctive voice and offbeat lyrical sensibility that feels a lot more akin to the arty fringe of the major labels in the early 80s than it does to 1974 or 1976, he's really a pioneer. It's no surprise at all that he'd end up being the host of LA television's legendary music program New Wave Theatre in the early 80s, but it's surprising he doesn't get more credit these days for influencing the kind thing that'd come to be called "new wave" years after his contributing work! Disc 1 includes the Terminal Love and Peter Ivers LPs, with "Alpha Centauri", "OO Girl", "Modern Times", "Holding The Cobra", "Even Stephen Foster", 'Audience Of One", "I'm Sorry Alice", "Eighteen And Dreaming", "Peter", "Rock And Roll Embarrassment", "Child In A Chair" and more. Disc 2 (the Nirvana Peter comp) features a few tracks from his 2 proper LPs and rarities. The 2CDs have 33 tracks in all. CD

A really beautiful later album from Zoot Sims – one that might easily be overlooked, given its understated appearance on a sometimes-cheap label – but a record that really helps Zoot find whole new magic for the 70s! The date's nice and laidback – with great guitar from Bucky Pizzarelli, who himself is really a cut above here – a master of chromes, balancing out the sharply raspy tone that makes Sims' tenor so fantastic – with subtle but strong accompaniment on bass by Milt Hilton, and nicely restrained work by Buddy Rich on drums! The feel is maybe like some of Zoot's work on Pablo, but hipper too – and titles include "Memories Of You", "Summerset", "A Summer Thing", "Somebody Loves Me", and "Nirvana". LP, Vinyl record album

A sublime album by one of our favorite talents in 60s jazz – pianist Jack Wilson, making his second Blue Note appearance here amidst a group of other more likely label players that include Lee Morgan on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto, and Billy Higgins on drums! Despite the presence of those superstars, though, the album's still very much Wilson's own – featuring 4 tracks penned and played in his modally soulful vision, plus a great version of one tune by Frank Strozier – a player we'd find to be a very good companion to Wilson's style! The group's also noteworthy in that it features some excellent work from trombonist Garnett Brown – a player with a deeply soulful approach that adds in new dimensions to the tunes, and offsets the lightly lyrical touch of Wilson on the keys. The whole set's great – and titles include "Do It", "On Children", "Easterly Winds", "Nirvana", and "Frank's Tune". CD

A great album recorded in 1963 for Atlantic – one of our favorite ever! Jack Wilson's one of our favorite piano players, and we rave about him all the time on these pages – and one of the reasons why we love him so much is that he was often accompanied by Roy Ayers, who started out his career playing vibes in his group! The pair together are a dream, and this album is arguably their best effort – filled with moody modal cuts, and lots of lyrical interplay that hits these beautiful high points, then dives into pits of darkness. Titles include "Harbor Freeway", "De Critifeux", "Corcovado", "Jackleg", and "Nirvana & Dana". LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic work from one of our favorite jazz duos of all time – pianist Jack Wilson and the young vibes genius Roy Ayers – working here back before his soul/funk fame of the 70s, in a completely different style! Ayers and Wilson only made a handful of records together back in the day – including important dates for Atlantic and Blue Note – and this set of unreleased live material from 1966 provides a much-needed addition to their short catalog of sides together – sublime modal jazz that we'd put right up there with anything else they ever did! Wilson is already a hell of a pianist on his own – one of the unsung greats of his generation, with a fantastic sense of flow and this mixture of lyricism and soulfulness that leads to all these very vivid moments and tonal explosions. Add Ayers to the mix, and you've really got something special – a vibes/piano pairing that sounds like nobody else – and which shows that even back before he worked with Herbie Mann, Roy was a tremendously unique player, destined for greatness. The group has a rock-solid rhythm duo – Buddy Woodson on bass and Von Barlow on drums – and titles include "Serenata", "Harbor Freeway 5pm", "Here's That Rainy Day", "CFD", "Pensativa", "Stolen Moments", "Nirvana", and "Call Me". LP, Vinyl record album

A glorious assortment of Brit rock gems from 1972 – music that really shows the increasing sophistication of the scene at the time – and a strong move away from the sorts of pop tracks that previously dominated the charts! A few years before, much of this music would have been relegated to the underground cognoscenti – but the tunes here represent a great outpouring of new appreciation for the growth in sounds and styles that had taken place from the late 60s onward – a mode that's only partly prog, as the "progressive" in the title here is taken to be a kind of freer-thinking, more mature approach that really comes through in the well-chosen blend of cuts on the set. There's a whopping 65 tracks in the package – supported by very detailed notes that provide a track-by-track journey in music – really enhancing our enjoyment of cuts by Roy Wood, Free, Clown, Family, Tuesday, Roxy Music, Yes, Medicine Head, Thin Lizzy, Status Quo, Hello, Caravan, Nirvana, The Move, Byzantium, Strawbs, Argent, Bonzo Dog Band, Bombadil, Hobbit, Mike Hugg, Pluto, Jake, Patto, Nimbo, Bond & Brown, and many others. CD

Short songs, but exploding with a huge range of new musical ideas – not the side-long jams of the progressive rock generation, but instead some singles and album tracks that manage to pack all of the best elements into some mighty catchy tunes! These tracks all benefit from a huge explosion of ideas in songwriting, arranging, and production – the sorts that are famously served up on prog albums of the time, but which are maybe even more impressive when turned to tracks that are more condensed and surprisingly catchy – which is what we can say about all the many musical gems in this set! As with other of the "year" series from Grapefruit, the music here is a fantastic blend of artists you might know and others you'll discover here for the first time – all supported by a very detailed set of notes, and a track list of 71 killer tracks by artists who include Cressida, The Move, Stray, Stackridge, Dana Gillespie, Sakkarin, Curved Air, Status Quo, Atomic Rooster, Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs, Phase 3, Dear Mr Time, Edwards Hand, Lifblud, Don Crown & His Busking Buddies, Edgar Broughton Band, Fickle Pickle, Unicorn, Factory, Shape Of The Rain, Ray Fenwick, Pluto, Fusion Farm, Zior, Nimbo, Second Hand, Colin Blunstone, Rockin Horse, Nirvana, Bill Nelson, Curtiss Maldoon, Blonde On Blonde, and many more. CD

A great document of a really cool moment in British pop – a time when the music eschwed guitars in favor of strings and larger arrangements – not in the sweet style that American singers were using at the start of the 60s, but a much darker mode that paved the way for even more complex music to come in the 70s! The arrangements here are complex, yet still very tuneful and groovy – and maybe some of the best easy comparisons might be the music of the Left Banke here in the US, or the way that strings were used to great effect in the music of Nick Drake. As always with Ace Records, the presentation is wonderful, with plenty of notes and a superb set list of 22 tracks that include "Please Believe Me" by Nirvana, "Say You Don't Mind" by Colin Blunstone, "Pictures" by Ray Brooks, "Off To Find A New Land" by Lea Nixon, "Alice" by Jon Plum, "When The City Sleeps" by Bombadil, "Mary Jane" by Erasmus Chorum, "Shapes & Shadows" by Tandem, "Forever Autumn" by Virgrass & Osborne, "The Sevent Hour" by Gordon Waller, "Very Well" by Les Payne, "You're Lovely" by Sunchariot, "Coathanger" by Clifford T Ward, and "Lifetime" by The Bliss. CD

The debut album by Weezer! The now-dubbed Blue Album was released at the height of the post-Nirvana rock era, with whom the much more enthusiastic Weezer even shared label – and that very enthusiasm made them heroes to some and pariahs to others at the time. Now, of course, it's a classic – a prime example of nerdy guys with electric guitars living the dream. Produced by elder nerd turned rock god Ric Ocasek of The Cars. Includes "My Name Is Jonas", "No One Else", "Buddy Holly", "Undone - The Sweater Song", "Surf Wax America", "Say It Ain't So", "Holiday", "In The Garage" and "Only In Dreams". CD

Fantastic work from one of our favorite jazz duos of all time – pianist Jack Wilson and the young vibes genius Roy Ayers – working here back before his soul/funk fame of the 70s, in a completely different style! Ayers and Wilson only made a handful of records together back in the day – including important dates for Atlantic and Blue Note – and this set of unreleased live material from 1966 provides a much-needed addition to their short catalog of sides together – sublime modal jazz that we'd put right up there with anything else they ever did! Wilson is already a hell of a pianist on his own – one of the unsung greats of his generation, with a fantastic sense of flow and this mixture of lyricism and soulfulness that leads to all these very vivid moments and tonal explosions. Add Ayers to the mix, and you've really got something special – a vibes/piano pairing that sounds like nobody else – and which shows that even back before he worked with Herbie Mann, Roy was a tremendously unique player, destined for greatness. The group has a rock-solid rhythm duo – Buddy Woodson on bass and Von Barlow on drums – and titles include "Serenata", "Harbor Freeway 5pm", "Here's That Rainy Day", "CFD", "Pensativa", "Stolen Moments", "Nirvana", and "Call Me". CD

A fantastic package of work from British singer/producer/arranger Mike Hurst – a huge talent who's not that well known on our shores, but who had a hand in a huge amount of classic recordings in the 60s and 70s! This set is a huge introduction to Mike's many talents – and although we know one or two of his full albums, and see his name on many famous records, it's clear that we only were seeing the tip of the iceberg compared to the material on this set! CD1 brings together early singles that Hurst recorded under his own name, at a time when he was a catchy singer trying to break into the world of British pop. CD2 features two rare albums issued by Capitol at the start of the 70s – Home and In My Time, both of which show this really strong development of Mike as a singer/songwriter, with his own production strengths helping things out even more! CD3 and CD4 really open things up – as they bring together a huge amount of classic Mike Hurst work behind the scenes – working as producer and songwriter with a host of legendary talents and ultra-hip British acts – artists who include PP Arnold, Barry St John, Warm Sounds, Murray Head, Chris Farlowe, Alan Bown, Spencer Davis Group, Marsha Hunt, Bobby Lee, Nirvana, Colin Blunstone, Hardin York, The Move, Fingertips, Fumble, Fancy, Nolan Sisters, and many others – some of whom are represented here by songs that appear here for the first time. 92 tracks in all – with very detailed notes! CD

Cosmic hip hop, moody keyboard funk, tripped out bits of strings, brass, rubbery bass grooves and gritty beats from Sa-Ra's uber creative partner Shafiq – and a record that rivals the best work of Sa-Ra proper! We long suspected that En'A Freek Ka would be a gem, and it does not dissappoint – going much deeper than we thought! The synth funk, cosmic keys, and splintering beats are here, but there's lots of fleshed out instrumentation in the mix that kicks it all a step deeper – lots of keys, soul jazz horns, and more, overall an a little grittier than the usual Sa-Ra vibe. Shafiq's voice floats in and out in kind of a cosmic narrator mode, and guests include Bilal, Jimetta Rose, Count Bass D, Om'Mas Keith & Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner and others. Titles include "Nirvana", The UN Plan", "Cheeba" feat Bilal, "Lil Girl", "Lost & Found" feat Jimetta Rose & Bilal", "No Moor", "All Dead", "Major Heavy" feat Sonny Coates & Count Bass D, "Evil Man", "Changes" feat Om'Mas Keith Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner, ":ove Still Hurts", "Egypt", "Rebel Soldier" and more. CD

The stunning second album from Procol Harum – a record that takes everything that's wonderful about their debut, and pushes it even farther – to a very unique space that's completely the group's own! The songcraft here is magical – with great work from the team of vocalist Gary Brooker and Keith Reid – and the production continues the group's unusual blend of bluesy elements with these dramatic, ambitious arrangements – never pop orchestrations, but just these ways of putting together a tune that make familiar fuzz guitar, piano, and organ explode in really new sort of ways. The whole thing's wonderful – hardly any hits, but all wonderful songs throughout – and titles include "Quite Rightly So", "Shine On Brightly", "Skip Softly", "Magdalene", "Glimpses Of Nirvana", "Grand Finale", and "In The Autumn Of My Madness". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the coolest albums ever cut by guitarist Gabor Szabo – a set that also has him playing sitar as well! The album's got a sound that's as groovy as you'd expect from the title – a mix of Gabor's usual jazz modes, which are already pretty darn great, and some of the Indian music sounds that were bubbling under in the 60s – a wicked little blend that makes for an album we've treasured for years! Rhythms often hit that breezy Spellbinder mode of Gabor's Impulse years, but the addition of sitar and tablas makes for a great change too – one of the best chapters in Szabo's legendary 60s years. Bernard Pretty Purdie plays drums on all cuts, and titles include "Raga Doll", "Search for Nirvana", "Ravi", "Krishna", "Sophisticated Wheels", "Comin Back", "Summertime", "Mizrab", and "Walking On Nails". LP, Vinyl record album

A great album recorded in 1963 for Atlantic – one of our favorite ever! Jack Wilson's one of our favorite piano players, and we rave about him all the time on these pages – and one of the reasons why we love him so much is that he was often accompanied by Roy Ayers, who started out his career playing vibes in his group! The pair together are a dream, and this album is arguably their best effort – filled with moody modal cuts, and lots of lyrical interplay that hits these beautiful high points, then dives into pits of darkness. Titles include "Harbor Freeway", "De Critifeux", "Corcovado", "Jackleg", and "Nirvana & Dana". LP, Vinyl record album

Includes tracks by John Martyn, Jethro Tull, Sandy Denny, Incredible String Band, Nirvana, Fairport Convention, Claire Hamill, Fotheringay, and Richard and Linda Thompson. CD

A really cool little set – one that's every bit as evocative as you might expect from the cover and the title, but which also has a lot more going on too! It's really hard to put our finger on what makes this music so great – there's definitely some acoustic elements in the music, and things are definitely trippy at times – but that's also just the tip of the iceberg, as so many of these tracks are really beyond simple categorization or familiar labels – and instead represent this really cool blending of different elements and genres that were taking place during a really mind-expanding moment of music – the sort that always seemed to have a lot more freedom on the British scene than we had here in the US! And although most of this work is British, it's also not familiar acid folk material from the time – as the scope of sounds is much wider, and given plenty of illumination in the detailed notes that come within – all in support of 54 unusual tracks from artists who include Mellow Candle, Chris Harwood, Sunforest, Wizz Jones, Jade Warrior, Bridget St John, Ray Fenwick, Hardin & York, Fat Mattress, Dando Shaft, Linda Hoyle, Nirvana, Writing On The Wall, Open Road, Paul Brett, Miller Anderson, Keith Christmas, Heron, Global Village Trucking Company, Zior, Linda Lewis, Jade, and many others! CD

An overdue look at the great range of sounds that came from Inner City Records at the end of the 70s – a hip American indie with a strong specialty in soulful fusion, hip vocalists, and a range of other great styles too – all brought together here by London DJ Kev Beadle! Inner City's often a bit overlooked – as the label flourished most strongly in the years after some of the better-known soulful imprints of the 70s – and the label always had a great ear for new sounds, fresh ideas, and the kind of compelling global elements that often led them to license key tracks from overseas, and bring them to the US market. This collection's heavy on singers – the kind of cool, underground jazz vocalists that Inner City captured so well – and it's also got a nice mix of funky fusion, modal numbers, and spiritual currents – on titles that include "The Other World" by Judy Roberts, "Hunt Up Wind" by Hiroshi Fukumura, "Vera Cruz" by Helen Merrill, "Lucky Southern" by Tom Lellis, "Quickie Nirvana" by Kellis Ethridge, "Samba De La Cruz" by Terumasa Hino, "So High" by Janet Lawson, "The Samba" by Jeff Lorber, "Return Of The Prodigal Son" by Joe Lee Wilson, "Shenkansen" by Urszula Dudziak, "To An Elfin Princess" by Charlie Mariano, "Pandora" by Carlos Franzetti, and "Jennine" by Eddie Jefferson. CD