Sim-E Auto smoked it up on the third volume of this great series, and he returns with even more force on this collection of well-chosen cuts! Production on most of side one is by Temper3000 – and tracks include "Mind Trixxx" and "After Midnight" – plus a guest appearance from Bogey on "Rokk Dis" and Ill Seed on "Men Or Mice". The flipside features a more varied mix of cuts and collaborations – with cuts that include "Un Game (rmx)" with Illanoyz, "Impervious" with Denmark Vessey, "Tyme" with Skyzoo, "Sultan Of Ishtar" with UG, and "3 Roundzzz" with Guilty Simpson and Sean Price. LP, Vinyl record album

Funky funky California – and a great set of rare grooves from the 70s! The folks at Luv N Haight records are up to their old tricks – digging through the crates for the kind of hard-to-find funky tracks that first gave birth to the fame of the Ubiquity label. The set traces a sound that barely shows up in the history books – the harder funky sound of California in the 70s, a scene that was mostly underground, and which stood in stark contrast to the smoother sounds coming out on major labels at the time. A few of the artists on the set might be familiar through other Luv N Haight reissues, and there's others here that we've never heard at all – grooving in hard and heavy styles that spread across the Sunshine State from East LA to Funky Frisco to Oaktown – a total of 14 tracks that include "Freaky To You" by Sweet Stuff, "Losing You" by Cordial, "Love & Affection" by Ike White, "Freedom Time" by Linda Tillery, "Patience" by Rokk, "Party Time" by Roy Porter, "Carnaval" by Oquesta Esencia, "Wobble Cha" by Cool Benny, "Feelin Alright" by West Coast Revival, "Where Do We Go From Here" by Cool Sounds, "Hang On In There" by Mike James Kirkland, "Daydreamer" by Adele Sebastian, and "A Real Thing" by Sons & Daughters Of Life. CD

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One of George Duke's best albums for the MPS label – and a set that has a sound that's a little bit more soul than before! The album uses a fair bit of vocals alongside Duke's funky keyboards – but in a way that's not nearly as smooth as some of his albums for Epic, and which still retains all the best spacey and cosmic bits of his roots! The record's got a strong west coast soul feel – with elements of some of the jazzy funk of the Fantasy Records/Bay Area scene, and elements of the electric funk that was starting to come out of LA at the time – and there's a huge host of guest stars on the record, including Johnny Guitar Watson (who sings on one track), Emil Richards (who plays marimba), and Flora Purim (who does her usual thing!) Titles include "Chariot", "Someday", "That's What She Said", "Sister Serene", "Prepare Yourself", "Rokkinrowl", and "Look Into Her Eyes". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible collection of funky breaks – and better than any other volume in this all-great series! This 5th take on the Right On sound goes way deep – deep enough to cross genres in search of a funky groove, hitting bases across a wide range of Warner/Atlantic jazz, funk, soul, and rock albums to come up with some killer cuts that are incredibly fresh! Most tracks are linked by a love of heavy drums and monster basslines – even though they come from a disparate selection of albums and singles – and the set does an especially nice job of bringing together tracks from records that only have one good track on them – thereby saving you the trouble of paying for the full LP! Wonderful throughout, with tracks that include "15 Degrees" by Sam Samudio, "Pick Up The Pieces" by Willis Jackson, "The Creeper" by Young Holt Unlimited, "Feelin Alright" by Wade Marcus, "Hi Jack" by Herbie Mann, "Spanish Moon" by Little Feat, "Freaks For The Festival" by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, "Space A La Mode" by Herb Geller, "Hang Loose" by Don Randi, "Mr Man" by Air, "It Ain't Easy" by Sweetwater, "Leroy The Magician" by Gary Burton, and "Jungle Eyes" by Gene Page. 2LP set features one non-CD cut – "Schirokko" by Passport! LP, Vinyl record album

Proof that jazz can work with the same sort of supergroup energy as classic rock – especially when the overall sound is as rock-heavy as this! The album presents live material recorded in celebration of Klaus Doldinger's 20 years in music – and although issued as part of his Passport run for Atlantic Records, the album's much more of an all-star jamming affair – with guest work from progressive jazz luminaries like Volker Kriegel, Alexis Korner, Pete York, and Brian Auger – plus American tenorist Johnny Griffin, almost an odd choice for this sort of a record, but a surprisingly good fit – and no doubt chosen because of his work with some of the players in the MPS scene of the time! Tracks are a bit more jazzy than some of the other Passport work – although still quite jamming, with a rock-propelled bottom – and titles include "Freedom Jazz Dance", "Handmade", "Lemuria's Dance", "Rockport", "Rock Me Baby", and "Schirokko". CD

The first album from Klaus Doldinger's legendary Passport – a jamming little group that was one of THE European fusion combos of the early 70s! The sound here is much more fierce and full on than Doldinger's straighter jazz recordings of the 60s – but it's also kind of a nice extension of that work too – one that takes the soul jazz influences of the earlier decade into a more rock-driven sound than many other groups were hitting at the time. In a way, the progression is similar to the move from beat group to progressive styles followed by a fair bit of UK jazzers – but Doldinger tops his style off here with some nice electricity on moog and keyboards! Other players include Jimmy Jackson on organ and Udo Lindenberg on some mighty heavy drums – and titles include "Madhouse Jam", "Continuation", "Lemuria's Dance", "Uranus", "Schirokko", "Nostalgia", and "Hexensabbat". CD

A collection of cuts that's way hipper than you might expect – partly the hard rock promised in the title, but also served up in all these really weird and wild ways that more than live up to the unusual spirit of the Finnish scene of the 70s! At the time, Finland was a surprising hotbed of creative recording activity – farther reaches in jazz, inside grooves in fusion, and a strong legacy of rock groups who were really picking up the fuzz and power that UK groups had unleashed at the end of the 60s! There's plenty here that would stand perfectly right next to the headiest guitar hero groups of that generation – but there's also differences at times, too – like a cool, compressed production style that often makes for some really great sonic play overall – and heavy drums that almost get into some funky passages at points. And of course, the lyrics are all in Finnish, which makes these tracks sound even cooler than they might in English – served up on a well-chosen set list that includes "Superkingi" by Jigsaw, "Palaa" by Yellow, "Rokkilauaja Vain" by Danny, "Uskontunnustus" by Woodoo, "Pikku Nainen" by Hard Rock Sallinen, "Plastic Maailma" by Paroni Paakkunaien, "Kivistdan" by Sulo's Rock Band, "Vieras Sateesta" by Apostolit, "American Look" by Haikara, and "Hideko Tojo" by Apollo. LP, Vinyl record album