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If you had to imagine what Captain Ganja & The Space Control might sound like, you'd probably get it right from the very first try – especially if you were looking at the cover of the album at the time! The set's a very spacey take on dub modes of the 70s – often augmented by lots of weird electronics, and even given a very trippy production approach throughout – so that even some more familiar instruments echo out in space, and seem to transform themselves while they decay! The approach might sound a bit like the On-U Sound style of the time, but it's actually even more way-out and freewheeling – and titles include "Escape & Return", "Rocket Repairs", "Alien Circus", "The Creepy Crawl", "The Breathtaking Blast", and "Planet Play/Laser Games". CD

Nathan Breedlove on trumpet, Phil Sparks on bass, and Brian Kirk on drums. CD

A slightly gentler album than the first Captain Beyond outing – but one that really has the group stretching out their wings wonderfully! The set's recorded both in Macon and Sausalito – and really has a vibe that indicates that mix – a core southern rock element, handled with the soulful undercurrents of early 70s Capricorn Records – but given some freer-thinking elements at times from the Bay Area scene! The drums power through nicely at some of the best points – but even the laidback tunes are pretty darn great – and we honestly never can understand why Captain Beyond weren't as big as some of their contemporaries from the southern scene. Titles include "Starglow Energy", "Evil Men", "Drifting In Space", "Bright Blue Tango", "Everything's A Circle", and "Voyages Of Past Travelers". LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary funk set from late 70s Chicago – served up by our own Captain Sky, aka Daryl Cameron – an imposing figure who often worked in the same space-themed territory as the P-Funk empire in the mid 70s! The difference here, though, is that Cameron wrote, produced, and put the whole thing together himself – with help from a few friends in the studio – making the album a great homegrown attempt to rival the strength of the bigger funk ensembles of the period – something The Captain and crew do pretty darn well throughout! There's lots of heavy bass on the set – a strong precursor of modes to come – mixed with riffing guitar, sweet keyboards, and plenty of tight rhythms – on cuts that include the famous sample cut "Super Sporm" – a killer extended track with a great conga break, and a tight old school sample sound – plus "Now That I Have You", "Saturday Night Move-Ease", "Wonder Worm" and "Can't Stop Now". LP, Vinyl record album

A slightly gentler album than the first Captain Beyond outing – but one that really has the group stretching out their wings wonderfully! The set's recorded both in Macon and Sausalito – and really has a vibe that indicates that mix – a core southern rock element, handled with the soulful undercurrents of early 70s Capricorn Records – but given some freer-thinking elements at times from the Bay Area scene! The drums power through nicely at some of the best points – but even the laidback tunes are pretty darn great – and we honestly never can understand why Captain Beyond weren't as big as some of their contemporaries from the southern scene. Titles include "Starglow Energy", "Evil Men", "Drifting In Space", "Bright Blue Tango", "Everything's A Circle", and "Voyages Of Past Travelers". CD

Titles include "Little Wing", "Lost In Space", "Hawks & Doves", "Union Man", "Stayin Power", and "Captain Kennedy". LP, Vinyl record album

The Mr Bongo Record Club seems to get more and more diverse with each new release – which is maybe no surprise, given the ever-expanding universe of music we've come to expect from the label! This volume mixes all the classic rare global cuts you might expect, but adds in a few contemporary tracks that resonate wonderfully with the others – new creations that crackle with the same sort of energy as the vintage ones – reminding us that Bongo's also always got its ear open for new music too! Titles include "Spring Has Sprung" by Soyuz with Asha Puthli and Sven Wunder, "Bless My Soul" by Truth & Devotion, "O Espaco" by Os Panteras, "Eloia" by Dudu Moraes, "Hangin Out In Space (dub)" by Tony Wilson, "Come Inside" by Shades Of Love", "Africa" by Willy Chirino, "Everybody Push & Pull" by Judson Moore, "Noite De Temporal" by Conjunto De Percussao Dora Pinto, "Captain's Sword" by Roman Andren, "In Between The Sheets" by JC Lodge, and "Lovely Day (Studio Rio version)" by Bill Withers & Studio Rio. CD

The Mr Bongo Record Club seems to get more and more diverse with each new release – which is maybe no surprise, given the ever-expanding universe of music we've come to expect from the label! This volume mixes all the classic rare global cuts you might expect, but adds in a few contemporary tracks that resonate wonderfully with the others – new creations that crackle with the same sort of energy as the vintage ones – reminding us that Bongo's also always got its ear open for new music too! Titles include "Spring Has Sprung" by Soyuz with Asha Puthli and Sven Wunder, "Bless My Soul" by Truth & Devotion, "O Espaco" by Os Panteras, "Eloia" by Dudu Moraes, "Hangin Out In Space (dub)" by Tony Wilson, "Come Inside" by Shades Of Love", "Africa" by Willy Chirino, "Everybody Push & Pull" by Judson Moore, "Noite De Temporal" by Conjunto De Percussao Dora Pinto, "Captain's Sword" by Roman Andren, "In Between The Sheets" by JC Lodge, and "Lovely Day (Studio Rio version)" by Bill Withers & Studio Rio. LP, Vinyl record album

Features Chick Corea on keyboards, Stanley Clarke on bass, and Lenny White on drums – on titles that include "Space Circus", "After The Cosmic Rain", "Captain Senor Mouse", "Theme To The Mothership" and "The Game Maker". LP, Vinyl record album

A Stereolab album that's very near and dear to our hearts – given the strong Chicago connection, thanks to production help from both John McEntire and Jim O'Rourke – two amazing musicians on their own, who each bring a special flavor to the album! The music is a wonderful blend of the farther sonic reaches of the group and some of the more tuneful qualities of their earlier years – balanced out in a really wonderful way. The set starts with the vibe-heavy "Black Ants In Sound-Dust", and gets groovier from there with the danceable, hypnotic beats of "Space Moth", and some very catchy horns in "Captain Easychord" – a nice continuation of the longer, more open-ended work on Cobra & Phases record, but with the much more insistently catchy grooves of their earlier material. Other tracks include "Baby Lulu", "Suggestion Diabolique", "Les Bons Bons Des Raisons", and "Double Rocker". CD

Titles include "5D", "Eight Miles High", "Hey Joe", "Mr Spaceman", "Captain Soul", and "John Riley". LP, Vinyl record album

Titles include "5D", "Eight Miles High", "Hey Joe", "Mr Spaceman", "Captain Soul", and "John Riley". Bonus tracks include "Why", "I Know My Rider", "Psychodrama City", "Eight Miles High", "John Riley". CD

The seminal second album from Slint, and the group's swan song too – yet a record that would go on to have a huge impact for years to come, virtually setting the tone for many other 90s projects from a variety of other scenes! The Louisville quartet really knock it out of the park here – refining their instrumentation, and honing things to a level that really makes great use of some of the longer spaces on the album to serve up instrumental complexity with a level that almost seems effortless – on titles that include "Don Aman", "Washer", "Good Morning Captain", "Breadcrumb Trail", "Nosferatu Man", and "For Dinner". LP, Vinyl record album

Five full albums from keyboardist Dave Grusin – packaged together in a single set, with tiny LP-styled covers for each CD! First up is one of our favorites – the album One Of A Kind, which is 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". Mountain Dance has a similar vibe, too – nice and lean – and one of Dave's funkier albums of the time – with cuts that include "Captain Caribe", "Rondo", "City Lights", "Rag Bag", and "Mountain Dance". Out Of The Shadows has a nice sort of vibe – not the too-smooth later sound of the GRP label, and instead this nice balance of electric keyboards and acoustic piano – delivered with help from key contemporaries who include Lee Ritenour on guitar and Steve Gadd on drums! Production is nicely understated – and titles include the mellow stepper "Serengeti Walk", plus "Last Train To Paradiso", "She Could Be Mine", "Crystal Morning", "Hokkaido", and "Sweetwater Nights". Night Lines is a record that has Dave Grusin elevating a bit more into the jazz/soul mainstream – as the set has the keyboardist working with a few more crossover modes than before, but all in a way that seems to demonstrate his many years in various kinds of music! The album was a key entry in the new sound of fusion during the mid 80s – maybe a bit sharper than later smooth jazz, but with efforts from some leading lights of that generation to come – including David Sanborn and Marcus Miller. Phoebe Snow sings a bit on the record – which might provide her with one of her more exciting settings in years – and titles include "Power Wave", "Thankful N Thoughtful", "Night Lines", "Tick Tock", "Bossa Baroque", and "Secret Place". Cinemagic is a famous pairing of the keyboards of Dave Grusin with the orchestrations of the London Symphony Orchestra – served up at a level that made the record a giant hit for so many folks who wouldn't have touched a Dave Grusin record a decade before! The tunes are a bit different than usual – all film tunes, as you might expect, delivered in a way that's not afraid to lean on all the sentimental currents of the tunes – which come from films that include Tootsie, Heaven Can Wait, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Three Days Of The Condor, and The Goonies. Titles include "Condor", "An Actor's Life", "It Might Be You", "Heaven Can Wait", "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter", and "Goodbye For Cathy". CD

An overlooked gem from Blue Note – a special live performance that brings together some of the label's funkiest and most soulful artists of the 70s! The set's somewhat unusual for Blue Note at the time – especially given the label's increasingly studio-driven approach to jazz, with projects by the Mizell Brothers and others – yet given that bent, the whole thing's a great illustration of the vibrancy of all these artists always from the studio – playing live and extremely funky! As the title implies, the set was recorded live at the Roxy in LA – with players who include Donald Byrd, Ronnie Laws, Gene Harris, Bobby Hutcherson, and Alphonse Mouzon – all coming together in warm unity to show that the spacious sounds of Blue Note could also be crafted in a live setting, and not just under closely-watched studio help arrangers and producers. Carmen McRae sings on a number of tracks, and the album overall does a good job of presenting the material in concert-like setting – and some of the longer tracks feature some mighty nice jamming solos. Titles include "New York City", "Without A Reason", and "Just Like The Sun" by Alphonse Mouzon; "Them There Eyes", "Music" and "Paint Your Pretty Picture" by Carmen McRae; "Always There", "Captain Midnight", and "Night Breeze" by Ronnie Laws; "Blue Note 76" by Blue Note All-Stars; and "Places & Spaces" and "Dominoes" by Donald Byrd – both oddly recorded at Central Park! LP, Vinyl record album