Chef Raekwon cooks up one of finest hip hop albums in history – a standout moment in the Wu Tang canon and the 90s in general! Given Ghostface's presence throughout, the prime RZA production and other top shelf guests, you could almost call this one a Wu Tang Clan album, if not for Raekwon's incredible leadership behind the mic. Guests include Nas, Method Man, Inspektah Deck and more from the Wu Tang family. An absolute standard-bearer! Titles include "Spot Rusherz", "Can It Be All So Simple", "Knuckleheadz", "Criminology", "Ice Water", "Wisdom Body", and "Wu-Gambinos". This beautiful Get On Down 2LP pressing includes the bonus track "North Star (Jewels)". LP, Vinyl record album

Wu Tang pulls together for the long-awaited A Better Tomorrow! Wu Tang is such a large, star-filled ensemble, and they form a unified front so rarely after 20+ years in the game, it's always gonna make waves when they release a proper Wu Tang Clan album. The stakes are high enough here that they made sure to get a Warner deal to put it out, and bring Rick Rubin to co-produce the lead single with RZA – and if it's surely not going the find it's way in the all time classic hip hop pantheon with the early Wu Tang and the best solo record (how could it?), it's great to hear all these legendary voices trade verses after all these years. Includes "Ruckus In B Minor", "Felt", "Hold The Heater", "Preacher's Daughter", "A Better Tomorrow", "Never Let Go", "Wu-Tang Reunion", "Miracle", "Keep Watch" and more. CD

One of the instant classic Wu Tang solo projects – Ghostface Killah's essential, early peak Ironman – and a a record that stands strongly among the best hip hop albums of the its era! Produced by The RZA at a point in which it seemed there was little he could do wrong. An absolute high water mark for Ghostface and the entire Wu Tang empire. Titles include "Winter Warz", "Daytona 500", "Motherless Child", "Soul Controller", "Wildflower", "Poisonous Darts", "Fish", "Camay", "Black Jesus", "The Faster Blade", "260", "Assassination Day", "Box In Hand", "After The Smoke Is Clear" and "All That I Got Is You". LP, Vinyl record album

Masta Killa's solo debut – keeping the Wu Tang flag flying with pride in the early 00s with all the cinematic soul resonance and maybe a just little bit more of a gritty underground edge! It includes appearances by nearly the whole clique, including Ghostface, Raekwon, RZA, Meth, Deck, U-God and GZA is certainly one of the finer post-millennium Wu Tang solo efforts. production by Mathematics, True Master and Dave West. 16 tracks in all including "Born Chamber", "Last Drink", "Grab The Mic", "Queen", "Secret Rivals", "Digi Warfare", "Silverbacks" & more. LP, Vinyl record album

A well done survey of the career of Thievery Corporation to date – selected by Rob Garza and Eric Hilton – wonderful stuff from the reigning kings of downtempo jazzy grooves! It's made up of the duo's best known tracks as well as their own personal favorites. You couldn't really ask for a better or more careful curated set! Includes "Amerimacka", "Lebanese Blonde", "Facing East", "Holographic Universe", "Until The Morning", "All That We Perceive", "The Richest Man In Babylon", "The Passing Stars", "Satyam Shivam Sundaram", "Vampires", "Warning Shots", "Shadows Of Ourselves" and more. CD

The deepest of the deep from the American scene at the start of the 70s – groups so hip they weren't quite soul, weren't quite rock – and instead kind of a funky hybrid of both! After opening our ears to countless underground sounds from around the globe, the Now Again label turn back to some of the territory of its roots – the hinterland of groups who labored mostly in obscurity, but left behind a few funky 45s that have become the stuff of legend – and which show us that there was a much bigger psychedelic funk underground out there besides groups like Funkadelic or the early Ohio Players! As always with the label, the history is really given its due, thanks to very detailed notes – alongside titles that include "Down By The River" by Purple Snow, "There's A Wrinkle In Our Time" by 1984, "Function Underground" by We The People, "Corruption Is The Thng" by Creations Unlimited, "Jimi's Guitar Raps With The Bass" by Jimi Macon, "I'm A Man" by Cisneros & Garza Group, "Just Got To Be Free" by Black Conspirators, "BL Movement" by Blaclites, and "The Siesta Is Over" by The Revolution. LP, Vinyl record album

Johnny Guitar Watson at the top of his game – working here in a sublime mix of funk, blues, and soul – all crafted into a groove that was uniquely Watson's own! Johnny may have started the 70s in relative obscurity – down from some hit work in the 50s and 60s – but by the time of this set, he was back on top, and working in a confident groove that few others from his older era could ever hope to achieve! There's a youthful sense of sex and soul that run through the entire set – an effortlessly slinky groove that never goes too over the top in the funk department, and which makes just the right use of electric instrumentation and tripped-out production, but never gets too wrapped up in either – and often comes off with some great jazzy touches as well. Titles include the anthemic "Real Mother For Ya", plus "Your Love Is My Love", "The Real Deal", "Tarzan", "I Wanna Thank You", and "Lover Jones". LP, Vinyl record album

The title here might not roll off the tongue, but the set's full of fantastic funky sounds that will have you fast forgetting you can barely speak the name of the record! Henryk Debich is one of the true European sound library greats of the 70s – but unlike his better-known contemporaries in London, Paris, and Rome, he did most of his work behind the Iron Curtain, for an assortment of radio and TV productions that were never shown on Western screens! Yet with work like this, Debich proves that he's got all the chops of soundtrack and film score greats like Lalo Schifrin or Quincy Jones – as the music is full of great funky rhythms at the core, plenty of riffing guitar and keyboard solos, and even a few more sensitive jazz-based moments too. The set's one of the first to expose the music of Henryk to a larger audience, and as such features notes in English and Polish – alongside cuts that include "Puma", "Wampiry", "Sjesta", "Zblizenie", "Marzanna", "Ostinato Riff", "Blyski I Ciene", and "Wewnatrz I Na Zewnatrz". LP, Vinyl record album

The latest salvo from Krush, and he keeps getting more and more out, but that's always been the best thing about his approach – the way he can take abstract sounds, and snap them into a dope beat. We thought from the first half of this disc that he's been listening to a lot of the noisier new breed of underground hip hop, like the Def Jux camp, and you can tell by who he's selected to collaborate with this go 'round that he's feeling the leftfield approach: Anticon, the Opus and Anti Pop Consortium, but he pulls in Sly & Robbie, vocalists Angelina Esparza and Abijah too, for the jazzier half of the disc. Eleven tracks in all, including "Trihedron", "Sanity Requiem", "The Blackhole", "D'You Hear That", "The Lost Voices" and "What About Tomorrow". CD

Quite possibly our favorite installment so far in the Madlib Medicine Show series – as the set's a treasure trove of rare work from the many-faceted Yesterday's New Quintet combo – that genius funky jazz ensemble headed by Madlib! According to the notes, some of these cuts are from rare small-batch releases (although we're not even sure those exist) – and others are previously unreleased numbers that are finally seeing the light of day – all together a brilliant illustration of the sorts of sounds that Madlib's pulled up from the American underground of the 60s and 70s – weird space jazz, offbeat funk, modal moments, and more – played with completely amazing rhythms, and production that really lives up to the spirit of the inspirations! There's plenty of great keyboards, and all tracks are instrumentals – with titles that include "High Jazz" by The Kenny Cook Octet, "Pretty Eyes" by Jahari Massamba Unit, "Electronic Dimensions" by Generation Match, "Funky Butt (part 1)" by Poyser Riggins & Jackson, "Space & Time" by RMC, "Conquistador" by Yesterday's New Quintet, "Tarzan's Theme" by Big Black Foot Band, and "Kimo" by Joe McDuphrey Experience. LP, Vinyl record album

Johnny Guitar Watson at the top of his game – working here in a sublime mix of funk, blues, and soul – all crafted into a groove that was uniquely Watson's own! Johnny may have started the 70s in relative obscurity – down from some hit work in the 50s and 60s – but by the time of this set, he was back on top, and working in a confident groove that few others from his older era could ever hope to achieve! There's a youthful sense of sex and soul that run through the entire set – an effortlessly slinky groove that never goes too over the top in the funk department, and which makes just the right use of electric instrumentation and tripped-out production, but never gets too wrapped up in either – and often comes off with some great jazzy touches as well. Titles include the anthemic "Real Mother For Ya", plus "Your Love Is My Love", "The Real Deal", "Tarzan", "I Wanna Thank You", and "Lover Jones". CD

A massive batch of mixes from dancefloor maestro John Luongo – a set that's heavy on cuts from the 80s in many styles, and which has some other surprises in the mix as well! Luongo was one of those talents who did a great job of bringing underground dancefloor modes to a more mainstream audience – and he finds grooves in cuts that might not normally have gotten such strong club treatment on their own, or in the hands of another remix talent! This 2LP set features some of the best work that Luongo did back in the day – titles that include "The Best (ext mighty mix)" by Tina Turner, "Suspicious Minds (suspicious mix)" by Fine Young Cannibals, "The Chinese Way (New York rmx)" by Level 42, "Out In The Night (12" version)" by Serge Ponsar, "Give It Up (12" version)" by KC & The Sunshine Band, "Missing You (ext version)" by John Waite, "Eyes Without A Face (full length version)" by Billy Idol, "Look Of Love (part 3 – dance version)" by ABC, "Fade To Grey (US 12" version)" by Visage, "Blind Vision (ext version)" by Blancmange, "Shy Boy (US ext version)" by Bananarama, "Tarzan Boy (ext dance version)" by Baltimora, "Relight My Fire (historical 1979 rmx)" by Dan Hartman with Loleatta Holloway, "You Stepped Into My Life (John Luongo rmx)" by Melba Moore, and "Music Is My Way Of Life (John Luongo rmx)" by Patti Labelle – plus more from Soft Cell, Bill Nelson, Sharon Ridley, Fantasy, Material, Cabaret Voltaire, Cher, ZZ Top, Gonzalez, Marlena Shaw, Jackie Moore, and others. 4CD set features 43 tracks in all – and includes a 32 page booklet, with rare photos, track annotations, and an essay on Luongo's music! CD

A sweet set of 70s spiritual jazz from Argentine tenor player Chivo Borraro – one of his best albums of the time, and a really wonderful session with lots of nice touches! The record features Borraro playing keyboard effects, in addition to his usual tenor – and it also features some additional keyboards by Fernando Gelbard, who plays both Fender Rhodes and ring modulator on the album, working things wonderfully as he did on his own albums of the time. This wealth of keyboards gives the album a spacious feel – keys soaring out into space, creating platforms for solo work on sax, and a space to showcase the talents of Stenio Mendes, who plays the 12-stringed craviola on the album. There's lots of post-Coltrane exploration to the record – and titles include "Mi Amgio Tarzan", "Cancion De Cuna Para Un Bebe Del Ano 2000", "Lineas Torcidas", and "La Invasion De Los Monjes". CD also features two bonus tracks – "Intro/Mi Amigo Tarzan" and "Mi Amigo Tarzan (alt take)". LP, Vinyl record album

Groovy Nelson Riddle Now Sound stuff, and very different than his 50's Capitol recordings. Features some cool themes like "The Smothers Brothers Theme" and "Tarzan", plus "Hey, Girl", "Cortege", "Chestnut Trees", and "Sunshine Superman". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderful world of weird and wild tracks from the 45rpm underground – exactly the kind of unusual records that first got Lux and Ivy inspired when they were first forming The Cramps! The mix of artists here is great – there's a bit of soul, a bit of rock, a touch of exotica, and plenty other unusual styles too – and cuts are marked both with unusual instrumentation and production techniques, and just an all-out effort to have as much fun as possible in the recording studio! Titles include "Leather Jacket Cowboy" by Pepper Pots, "You Tarzan Me Jane" by Glen Willings, "Mr Cool" by The Leeds, "Sugar Diabetes" by Eddie Banks, "Voo Doo Drums" by Aki Aleong, "Lose My Mind" by Herbert Henson, "Sound Off" by Titus Turner, "Pulp Wood Charley" by Wee Willie, "Pug Nose & Pony Tail" by Wally Hughes, "Atlantis" by The Blue Bells, "Shawnee" by The Premiers, "Cave Man" by The Vibrations, "The Inebriated Surfer" by Tornadoes, and "Black Lace" by April Stevens. CD