Not everyone digs the later Captain and crew, but the early 80s efforts have finally gotten their just props after all these years – and we'll we'll come right out and say that this second to last album before Don Van Vliet hung up the music for painting has always sounded great to us! The Magic Band is incredible as always – with Jeff Morris Tepper, Drumbo French and Eric Drew Feldman's antics under the Captain's idiosyncratic vocalese. With "Hot Head", "Ashtray Heart", "A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond", "Run Paint Run Run", "Sue Egypt", "Brickbats", "Dirty Blue Gene", "Best Batch Yet", "Telephone", "Flavor Bud Living", "Sherriff Of Hong Kong" and "Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee". LP, Vinyl record album

... Cassette

... CD

Michel Portal with the WDR Big Band. CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... Cassette

Eleven songs from Gary's Gang, Toney Lee, Arnie's Love, Status IV, Barbra Fowler, Fast Radio, Key-Matic, and Richie Scotti. CD

Not everyone digs the later Captain and crew, but the early 80s efforts have finally gotten their just props after all these years – and we'll we'll come right out and say that this second to last album before Don Van Vliet hung up the music for painting has always sounded great to us! The Magic Band is incredible as always – with Jeff Morris Tepper, Drumbo French and Eric Drew Feldman's antics under the Captain's idiosyncratic vocalese. With "Hot Head", "Ashtray Heart", "A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond", "Run Paint Run Run", "Sue Egypt", "Brickbats", "Dirty Blue Gene", "Best Batch Yet", "Telephone", "Flavor Bud Living", "Sherriff Of Hong Kong" and "Making Love To A Vampire With A Monkey On My Knee". CD

Prime Elvis Costello work from his early run with The Attractions – a set that's overflowing with tunes that are catchy yet biting, and which get superb production from Nick Lowe! Titles include "Oliver's Army", "Green Shirt", "Party Girl", "Good Squad", "Moods For Moderns", "Two Little Hitlers", "Accidents Will Happen", "Senior Service", and "What's So Funny Bout Peace Love & Understanding". LP, Vinyl record album

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

... 12-inch, Vinyl record

... LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet little Stereo Action set from Ray Martin, recorded with a very dynamic edge – hence the title! The feel here is a bit in the Esquivel mode – with orchestrations that swing all over the map, and use the stereo recording technology to their best advantage. And although Ray's perhaps a bit more sedate than Juan Garcia, lots of the tunes have some interesting instrumentation that keeps things interesting – sly little bits that sneak in under the radar, and crop up in the song to jazz things up a bit! Titles include "Mood Indigo", "Cry Me A River", "Bye Bye Blues", "Humoresque", "The Moon Was Yellow", and "Pagan Love Song". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best moments ever from the Sun City Girls – a set recorded after the group had soaked up a fair bit of global influences on a trip to India, which really shows in the range of styles and instrumentation used on the record! The core sound is still pretty noise-based – and still often with that tripped-out, sometimes nonsensical approach that made the group so unique – but there's also lots of global percussion elements at play, plus African oboe, lute, bamboo shakers, raita, and more – as well as "waters of space", "stolen casino velvet", "freshly cut foliage", and "Chino valley witchcraft" at play. The guitars still dominate – linking the record to earlier albums– and titles include "Radar 1941", "Papa Legba", "Space Prophet Dogon", "Blue Mamba", "Tarmac 23", and "Cafe Batik". CD

One of those records that kind of snuck under the radar at the time – but which has gone onto become a crucial part of soul music from the 90s, and a record that's one of the blueprints for the neo soul generation to come! Sweetback are a trio of musicians who provided important backing for Sade – the kind of warm, classic-styled soul grooves that made her a standout right from the start – and which also inspired a whole generation of musicians to leave behind some of the more electronic modes they were using in the 80s. The set really marks a shift back towards warmer, jazzier, more human sounds of soul music in the 90s – and in addition to great instrumentation by the core trio, the set also features some early vocals from Amel Larrieux, plus work from Maxwell too. Titles include "You Will Rise", "Au Naturel", "Walk Of Ju", "Softly Softly", and "Sensations". LP, Vinyl record album

Part of the series that helped turntablism really jump off. Loads of amazing trickery at the hands of some of the finest & freshest: Beyond There, Mr. Dibbs, Radar & Z Trip, Roc Raida, Kid Koala, and some skilled folks whose names are a little lesser known. CD

A great record – and on that hardly ever shows up on the radar screen of Gil's career! The session was recorded with a very hip group that includes Billy Harper on tenor and flute, Elvin Jones and Alphonze Mouzon on drums, Joe Beck on electric guitar, and Herb Bushler on Fender bass. The sound is a bit electric, but is touched with Evans' far-reaching arranging style, so that it lapses into none of the cliches you might expect. Harper is a treat, as always, and he offers up the original composition "Thoroughbred", one of the nicest on the record. "Blues In Orbit", "Variation On The Misery", "Proclamation", and "Spaced". LP, Vinyl record album

One of those records that kind of snuck under the radar at the time – but which has gone onto become a crucial part of soul music from the 90s, and a record that's one of the blueprints for the neo soul generation to come! Sweetback are a trio of musicians who provided important backing for Sade – the kind of warm, classic-styled soul grooves that made her a standout right from the start – and which also inspired a whole generation of musicians to leave behind some of the more electronic modes they were using in the 80s. The set really marks a shift back towards warmer, jazzier, more human sounds of soul music in the 90s – and in addition to great instrumentation by the core trio, the set also features some early vocals from Amel Larrieux, plus work from Maxwell too. Titles include "You Will Rise", "Au Naturel", "Walk Of Ju", "Softly Softly", and "Sensations". CD

Jamila Woods already blew us away with her debut – but this second set has the singer ready to take on the world with a huge step forward in her style! Jamila caught us almost by surprise when she first emerged – a Chicago soul singer who wasn't on our radar, and who already had this fully-formed, completely unique style – but here, she embraces legacies of past musical and cultural inspirations, folding them into a instrumental settings created almost completely on her own, and which are topped by these shape-shifting lyrics that really live up to their references. The album shows a powerful, personal, and completely self-contained approach to the music – something that many of Jamila's contemporaries can hardly match – and titles include "Miles", "Baldwin", "Basquiat", "Eartha", "Giovanni", "Zora", "Betty", "Frida", "Sun Ra", and "Octavia". CD

Soundtrack to the much-hyped full length animated feature film – based on the popular sci-fi magazine of the time! The music here has little to do with the story, but there are plenty of great late 70s major label rockers in the lineup – on a set of tracks that includes "I Must Be Dreamin" and "Reach Out" by Cheap Trick, "Heavy Metal" by Sammy Hagar, "Veteran Of The Psychic Wars" by Blue Oyster Cult, "Mob Rules" by Black Sabbath, "True Companion" by Donald Fagen, "Prefabricated" by Trust, "Blue Lamp" by Stevie Nicks, "Crazy" by Nazareth, "Open Arms" by Journey, "Queen Bee" by Grand Funk Railroad, "All Of You" and "Heavy Metal" by Don Felder, "Radar Rider" by Riggs, and "Working In The Coal Mine" by Devo. LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful title for a beautiful record – one that sums up the subtle sense of sadness that makes the work of Chris Connor so great! There's a sense of longing here that steps out from the very first tune – one that's beautifully moody, without being overindulgent or too emotive. Backings are from larger arrangements by Ray Ellis, but the record also has a light jazzy feel – intimate in approach, with a great sense of balance. Chris' voice is at once personal and removed – a razor's edge of emotion, repressing some impulses, and opening up surprisingly at other moments. Titles include "Mixed Emotions", "I Miss You So", "Go Way From My Window", "I Love You Yes I Do", "Trust In Me", "Past The Age Of Innocence", "Time Out For Tears", "My Heart Is So Full Of You", "My Ideal", "They All Laughed", "Speak Low", and "Radar Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

The second album from this legendary group – one of the few rock acts to record for the avant jazz powerhouse ESP Records – with titles that include "Soon The Moon", "Squeek", "Radar Eyes", "Travelin Salesman", and "Permanent Green Light". LP, Vinyl record album

Mazzy Star's second album and first for Capitol, one of those rare, wonderful moments in the early 90s when a band that had been bubbling just under the popular radar hooked up with a major label and managed to hit both a popular and creative peak! This one really hasn't aged a day since it came out. The songwriting pair of guitarist David Roback and Hope Sandoval – the former transcending pop psych influences as far back as the early 80s in The Rain Parade, the latter with one of the most hauntingly beautiful voices in rock at the time – put together their best, moodiest effort. Includes the breakout hit "Fade Into You", a cool cover of Arthur Lee & Love's then recent "Five String Serenade", "Blue Light", "She's My Baby", "Wasted", "Into Dust", "So Tonight That I Might See", "Mary Of Silence", "Unreflected" and "Bells Ring". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the comps that rode the mid 90s wave of turntablism, with a nice time table inside the gatefold sleeve. Not as much over the top trickery as you might hear on the Return of The DJ compilations on Bomb, but some essential moments, like Cut Chemist's "Lesson 6" and the X-Men's "A Turntable Experience". Radar's "Radar Frees Tibet" and Beyond There "On Wax" display some nice turntable moments, while a few of the other tracks don't really justify their place in the context of the comp, but are nice to have anyway – like Latyrx's "Say That". Also includes Prince Paul "DJ Prince Paul Vs The World", Ingrid De Lambre & Eddie Def "Poeisies, Scene 1 Le Blues", DJ Swingsett & DJ Wally "Centaurus Space Bass (Cloak & Destroy mix)", Peanut Butter Wolf & The Beat Junkies "They Don't Fall Down", Mumbles "At The Mountains Of Madness" and Q-Burn's Abstract Message "Book Of Changes". CD

The sound here is definitely timeless, thanks to some always-strong work on piano from Don Friedman – one of those players who first shone brightly in the early 60s, then dropped off the radar for many years – but has reemerged lately with a new level of brilliance in his work! Friedman's touch on the piano is confident and compelling – still prone to some of the nicely bright and round tones of earlier years, but also imbued with a stronger sense of presence that well suits the rhythm team of John Patitucci on bass and Omar Hakim on drums. Titles include "Star Eyes", "Alone Together", "Emily", "Turn Out The Stars", "What Is This Thing Called Love", and "Body & Soul". CD

A seminal punk-funk classic from the end of the 70s – one that's as brilliantly abrasive and brashly fresh today as it was when it was released! The group are working here in equal parts dub, funk, and lots of scratchy guitars and heady bass – with a style that would later be picked up more strongly by On-U in the 80s, but which is executed here with a much clearer vision that's free of any of the cliches that would later overcome the genre. Even the politics are surprisingly pointed – and Paul Stewart's vocalizations of most of the tunes is really dead on the money! Titles include "Thief Of Fire", "Snowgirl", "Blood Money", "We Are Time", "Don't Sell Your Dreams", "Words Disobey Me", and "Don't Call Me Pain". CD2 features lots of bonus tracks – some from an unreleased album – including "She Is Beyond Good & Evil", "Kiss The Book", "Thief Of Fire (bass addict)", "Words Disobey Me (Dennis the Menace mix)", "Don't Sell Your Dreams (a mix)", "3:38", "Boys From Brazil (ridge reels)", and "Blood Money (slow thief)". CD3 is Y Live – an unreleased live set with 9 more tracks! CD

A key record in the revival of Red Crayola – a set done at a time when Mayo Thompson had relocated to the UK scene, and having a surprisingly big influence there! The set features some guest help from members of Pere Ubu – and titles include "On The Brink", "Letter Bomb", "Discipline", "X", "Wonderland", and "An Opposition Spokesman". LP, Vinyl record album