A trio of key albums from the Pink Fairies – served up with lots of bonus tracks too! First up is Never Never Land – the fantastic debut of the Pink Fairies – easily one of the shaggiest, headiest bands on the UK scene at the start of the 70s – and a group who rose from the ashes of the equally important Deviants! The record's an unusual mishmash of modes – a set that confidently swaggers between psych, hard rock, and maybe even a bit of proto-punk – very confident in its approach, and coolly compressed in the production, but never in the slick style that would dominate British rock more strongly in the mid 70s. The Fairies aren't afraid to let their freak flag fly, but they're also clearly moving past hippiedom too – on titles that include "War Girl", "Do It", "Say You Love Me", "Tack One Side Two", "Thor", "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout", and "The Dream Is Just Beginning". What A Bunch Of Sweeties is filled with freaky fuzz from the Pink Fairies – a seminal UK group who were maybe trapped in a space between late psych and early glam – and somehow equally important to both! There's lots going on in the set – modes that are as offbeat as styles put forth by The Fugs in the late 60s, but a lot sharper overall from a musical perspective – especially in the way the group uses great guitar work and a few catchy numbers to sew the whole thing together – on titles that include "Portobello Shuffle", "Marilyn", "Pigs Of Uranus", "Walk Don't Run", "X-Ray", "I Went Up I Went Down", and "I Saw Her Standing There". Kings Of Oblivion is maybe the most fully-formed album from the legendary Pink Fairies – and a set that's got some really searing guitar from Larry Wallis – a melodic genius whose sound really holds things together, and gives the group a stronger focus than ever before! The guitar lines seem to bring out and amplify all the ideas the group were going for before – and maybe give the group a sense of darkness that they never fully reached – not hard rock cliche, but this tightness that's also completely individual – maybe like early Thin Lizzy at their best, yet in a completely different way. Titles include "I Wish I Was A Girl", "City Kids", "When's The Fun Begin", "Chromium Plating", "Street Urchin", and "Chamber Maid". Bonus tracks include "Going Down", "Walk Don't Run (first version)", "War Girl (alt mix)", "The Snake", "Do It (single mix)", "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout (alt mix)", "Well Well Well (alt mix)", "City Kids (alt)", and "Hold On (single)". CD

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Polygram's totally cool 2 CD anthology of some of Roy's best work for the label, featuring tracks that run from the early 70's through the early 80's, with such stellar cuts as "We Live In Brooklyn Baby", "Coffy is The Color", "Pretty Brown Skin", "Africa, Center Of The World", "Freaky Deaky", "2000 Black", "Vibrations", "Searching", "Gotta Find A Lover", "You Send Me", and lots lots more! 31 cuts in all, with a nice set of notes, and discographical information. CD

Dave Grusin made a few sleepy albums in his day, but this isn't one of them – and instead, it's a sweet funky fusion outing that really sums up some of the best Dave Grusin modes of the 70s! This excellent LP from 1977 really captures the best of the Grusin soundtrack style – heard in the 70s on shows like Barretta, or in films like Three Days of the Condor – mellow fusion with a tightly arranged style – lots of nicely isolated instrumentation, and the kind of spare and spacey grooves that you'd expect from a hip CTI session! Musicians include Grover Washington on saxes, Dave Valentin on flute, Ron Carter on bass, and Steve Gadd himself – plus Grusin on a lot of sweet keyboards – and titles include great cut "Modaji", plus "Heart Is A Lonely Hunter", "Catavento", and "Montage". LP, Vinyl record album

Great later work by Isaac Hayes – working here in a post-Stax, post-ABC mode that has him forging a smooth soul sound that's really great! The Polydor years saw Ike extending the baroque style that he started on earlier work – taking it into a modern soul vein with strings, keyboards, and smooth production that had a lot of Philly soul touches. This 12 track set features some of Ike's best from the years – including winners like "Moonlight Lovin/Menage A Trois", "Out Of The Ghetto", "Lifetime Thing", "It's Heaven To Me", "Zeke The Freak", "Wherever You Are", "You Can't Hold Your Woman", "A Few More Kisses To Go", and "What Does It Take". CD

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A 70s classic from Atlanta Rhythm Section – a group with roots in southern rock, but one who also really picked up a great sort of AOR-styled sound, too – one that's often got this record showing up in as many soul collections as rock! The groove is often nice and laidback – these guys have chops, but don't need to hit you over the head with them – and the lead vocals of singer Ronnie Hammond are produced with this cool, compressed sound that has him filtering in especially well next to the keyboards on the record. This approach is heard to great effect on the group's classic "Imaginary Lover" – and on other cuts that include "Large Time", "I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight", "Normal Love", "The Great Escape", and "Evileen". CD

Two fantastic cuts from one of the greatest Roy Ayers albums ever! "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" is an incredible blend of righteous soul, funk, and jazz – a slow-moving, head-nodding tune that's gone on to have an equally long life as a huge sample and song influence in hip hop! "Lonely Cowboy" is a lesser-remembered tune, but one that's got a great little groove – like finding a lost track on the flipside of a 45! 7-inch, Vinyl record

A great little album by Roy Ayers – one that features none of his hits, which means lots of fresh material – and which has great examples of both sides of Roy's talents at the time! The dancefloor side of Roy kicks in with "Love Will Bring Us Back Together", an extremely catchy groover that's very much in the mode of "Running Away", with plenty of choppy funky riffs, and a good soul base at the core. Even better, though, is the mellow spacey side of Roy – which shows up wonderfully in the cuts "Is It Too Late To Try" and "If You Love Me" – two overlooked gems that float along in a perfect blend of jazz and modern soul, with great breathy vocals and vibes, very much in the spirit of stuff on the You Send Me album. Other cuts include "I Wanna Feel It", "Leo", "Take Me Out To The Ball Game", and "Simple & Sweet" – all nice too! LP, Vinyl record album

Seminal early funk work from Roy Ayers! The record catches him at that perfect point when he was turning from a straight jazz player into a sinister force in 70s funk – and the group on the session includes super-hip soul jazz giants like Charles Tolliver, Sonny Fortune, and Harry Whitaker, running through short hip soul tracks that were very different than the style of music they were laying out on albums of their own. Roy's on organ, piano, vibes, and vocals – and he also handles the arrangements, with extra help on strings by William S Fischer, whose usual dark touches come across very well here. The album features some great soul covers – like "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Day Dreaming" – plus the original tracks "Cocoa Butter", "Rhythms of Your Mind", and "Red Black & Green". LP, Vinyl record album

Four of the best tracks from one of the greatest Roy Ayers albums of all time – and one of the rarest! The record is right in the same vein as Roy's groundbreaking He's Coming LP – a righteous mix of soul jazz, subtle funk, and some of the cosmic wisdom that Roy was spreading among the jazz funk underground – all wrapped up beautifully, but never in a way that's like commercial soul of the time. There's a few instrumental tracks on the album, plus some vocal ones that show that off-beat male/female style that Roy would use more famously in later tracks like "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" or his work with Ramp. Players include Harry Whitaker on electric piano, Edwin Birdsong on organ, Alphonse Mouzon on drums, Jumma Santos on congas – and titles include a version of Nat Adderley's "Hummin", done as "Hummin In The Sun", and very much in the Ramp vein. Other titles include "I Can't Help Myself", "Love", and "The Fuzz" – all great too! 7-inch, Vinyl record

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Yes, it was a mega-hit – and yes, it was one of those records that everyone who lived through the 70s seemed to own at one time – but after all these decades, you can't deny the power of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack – especially for the way that it mixed club soul classics with new original material! Obviously, the Bee Gees cover placement make them big stars of the record – but the set's also got some great early disco gems – like "Open Sesame" by Kool & The Gang, "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps, "KJEE" by MFSB, "Calypso Breakdown" by Ralph MacDonald, "Fifth Of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy, "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Elliman, "Boogie Shoes" by KC & The Sunshine Band, and "More Than A Woman" by Tavares. The Bee Gees reinvent themselves from the early days – and sing "Stayin Alive", "How Deep Is Your Love", "More Than A Woman", "Jive Talkin", "You Should Be Dancin", and "Night Fever" – and the set also features a few instrumentals by David Shire – "Manhattan Skyline", "Night On Disco Mountain" and "Salsation". CD

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One of the few albums ever cut as a leader by pianist Ronnell Bright – a player best known for his accompaniment behind famous vocalists, like Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson – but who's also a jell of a jazz musician when he gets to shine on his own! This rare date was cut in Paris – at a time when Bright was visiting the city with Vaughan – and it's a stripped-down trio date with a nicely relaxed feel – one that has Bright really opening up on the keys, in ways you don't always hear on his material with singers. Other players in the trio include Richard Davis on bass and Art Morgan on drums – and titles include "Johnnie Pate's Blues", "Sail Em", "Doxology", "Chasing Sarah", and "R&R Groove". CD

An enduring classic from James Brown – quite possibly the strongest of his late 70s albums, and a record that nicely balances the harder funk of the early part of the decade with a more sophisticated style that almost gets slightly jazzy at times! The vocals are planted strongly at the top of most tunes – really calling out the shots and directing the rhythms – even though they seem tight enough to keep snapping along on their own – and also noteworthy are some of the mellower numbers on the set, which are almost more compelling than some of the groovers! Titles include "Bodyheat", "What The World Needs Now", "Don't Tell It", "Kiss In 77", "Woman", "Wake Up And Give", and "I'm Satisfied". CD

An enduring classic from James Brown – quite possibly the strongest of his late 70s albums, and a record that nicely balances the harder funk of the early part of the decade with a more sophisticated style that almost gets slightly jazzy at times! The vocals are planted strongly at the top of most tunes – really calling out the shots and directing the rhythms – even though they seem tight enough to keep snapping along on their own – and also noteworthy are some of the mellower numbers on the set, which are almost more compelling than some of the groovers! Titles include "Bodyheat", "What The World Needs Now", "Don't Tell It", "Kiss In 77", "Woman", "Wake Up And Give", and "I'm Satisfied". LP, Vinyl record album

James Brown screams at the beginning of the record – "I'm Back! I'm Back!" – which is his proclamation that he was ready to take on a whole new generation of funk music – grooving with a new sound that was guaranteed to hit as big as it did in earlier years! The approach is a bit more uptempo than previous albums, but still never at all in a disco/club mode – and James really does strike a strong new chord with the groove here – stretching things out and cooking things up nicely. Rhythms are still quite sharp, although possibly not as dynamic as before – and titles include the great title medley of "Get Up Offa That Thing/Release The Pressure", plus "This Feeling", "Home Again", "I Refuse To Lose", and "Can't Take It With You". CD

A killer double-length album from James Brown – a smoking set that stands strongly right next to similar packages like Get On The Good Foot and Payback! The album's a bit different than the latter, in that the tracks are mostly shorter, and there's some mellower cuts too – but they also work together like some sort of cool stack of funky 45s, which then ends in the massive track that ends the record – a killer 13 minute take on "Papa Don't Take No Mess", every bit as anything from the JBs own albums. And Fred Wesley and the rest of the group are backing up James – on other titles that include "My Thang", "Coldblooded", "I can't Stand It 76", "Please Please Please", "Sayin & Doin It", "Don't Tell A Lie About Me", "Sometime", "Hell", and "A Man Has To Go Back To The Crossroads". CD

One of the greatest albums ever from James Brown – even if it wasn't issued during his classic run of funk records in the early 70s! Yet the material here is all from that time – recorded by Polydor when James and the JBs were completely kicking ass in the studio – turning out these monstrous longform funk jams that often gave up too much material to fit on all of his albums – which makes this package an overdue dip into the vaults to rescue some of those treasures! The package first saw the light of day in 1988 – at a time when the genius of James was being rediscovered by younger hip hoppers and DJs – and the set is a love letter to all that James had to offer that scene – with gems that include the lost soul classic "She's The One", a duet with Bobby Byrd called "Since You Been Gone", a live version of "There It Is", an untitled instrumental and another instrumental one called "Funk Bomb" – plus a huge long 9 minute version of the great "People Get Up & Drive Your Funky Soul" from Slaughter's Big Ripoff, and the cuts "Say It Loud & Live", and "Baby Here I Come". CD