A great second album by the legendary Ronnie McNeir – one of the 70s' most overlooked soul talents! Like his other albums, this one's got Ronnie in a sweet mellow vibe – with some great songwriting and wicked keyboard work that shows that Ronnie was in total control of the overall sound of his music. The tracks are fragile and personal – but never too indulgent, just sung in an honest soulful voice that's almost without comparison during Ronnie's generation. Includes the singles "Wendy Is Gone" and "Saggitarian Affair", plus "Spirit Of Love", "Now She's Gone", "Baby Come Back Home", and "Give Me A Sign". Also features a number of tracks in which Ronnie plays all the instruments! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the true innovators of Jamaican DeeJaying, Big Youth not only turned the genre on it's head by bringing conscious roots style lyrics to the forefront, but also took control of the producer duties on many of his own sessions, and was no slouch at it either. This 2CD set is a nice collection of some his best tracks, with rhythms cut by many of the greatest in reggae. Total of 41 tracks, including "Cool Breeze", "Foreman vs. Frazier", "Chucky No Lucky", "Screaming Target", "Concrete Jungle", "Reggae Phenomenon", "Natty Cultural Dread", "Dread High Ranking", "Wolf In Sheep's Clothing" & "Every N*gger Is A Star". CD

A set that comes out a decade after the first album by footwork maestro RP Boo, but one that features tracks recorded in the first ten years of the 21st Century – music from a time when footwork was really exploding on the Chicago scene as a wonderful blend of house music influences and some of the grittier elements of hip hop! But as you'll hear on the record, the style here is tied to neither at all – as it offers up a blisteringly rhythm progression of sounds – as urban as some of the Afro-Futurist work from Detroit, but even more stark and spare as well. Titles include "Pop Machine", "Azzoutof Control", "Porno", "Off Da Hook", "Say Grace", "Total Darkness", "Heavy Heat", "Eraser", and "BOTO". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing later work from Booker Ervin – far more modern and far-reaching than you'd guess from the "Texas" title in the set! Although Ervin first came onto the scene as a strong-voiced tenorist from a Texas tradition, through the course of the 60s he'd really expanded his musical vision – working with Charles Mingus, Jaki Byard, and others to push his already-soulful sound into a freer-thinking mode that was one of the most compelling approaches to tenor at the time. And while this change had been documented on some key sides for Prestige and World Pacific at the time, this rare 1968 session for Blue Note is perhaps one of the best of the bunch – but oddly was somehow never issued at the time, and only made a brief appearance in 1976, as part of a 2LP set. Ervin's working here with a totally hip group – one that has Woody Shaw in the frontline on trumpet, and a rhythm team of Kenny Barron on piano, Jan Arnet on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – all grooving with Ervin in styles that recall the modal vamping and soaring energy that Shaw would later bring to his own solo work in the 70s. Tracks are all longish, and filled with a sense of life and exploration that shows that Ervin was growing tremendously in this last stretch of his all-too-short life – never too free, always in control, yet roaming the skies in search of new notes and sounds! Titles include "Gichi", "Den Tex", "Lynn's Tune", "204", and an early version of Shaw's "In A Capricornian Way". CD

Amazing later work from Booker Ervin – far more modern and far-reaching than you'd guess from the "Texas" title in the set! Although Ervin first came onto the scene as a strong-voiced tenorist from a Texas tradition, through the course of the 60s he'd really expanded his musical vision – working with Charles Mingus, Jaki Byard, and others to push his already-soulful sound into a freer-thinking mode that was one of the most compelling approaches to tenor at the time. And while this change had been documented on some key sides for Prestige and World Pacific at the time, this rare 1968 session for Blue Note is perhaps one of the best of the bunch – but oddly was somehow never issued at the time, and only made a brief appearance in 1976, as part of a 2LP set. Ervin's working here with a totally hip group – one that has Woody Shaw in the frontline on trumpet, and a rhythm team of Kenny Barron on piano, Jan Arnet on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums – all grooving with Ervin in styles that recall the modal vamping and soaring energy that Shaw would later bring to his own solo work in the 70s. Tracks are all longish, and filled with a sense of life and exploration that shows that Ervin was growing tremendously in this last stretch of his all-too-short life – never too free, always in control, yet roaming the skies in search of new notes and sounds! Titles include "Gichi", "Den Tex", "Lynn's Tune", "204", and an early version of Shaw's "In A Capricornian Way". LP, Vinyl record album

Peter Gabriel at the top of his solo game – tight, focused, and coming across with a nice sort of edge – one that really sits nicely in the same late 70s generation that includes Bowie in Berlin, early Talking Heads, and some of the darker-minded work on the left side of the mainstream at the time! The guitars have a nice edge, but never dominate – and Gabriel's vocals are totally great – soaring with majesty, but never overblown, and deeply personal in all the right spots – but without any fake soul modes. Instrumentation is right on the money – processed nicely, but never overproduced – and hell, players on the album even include Brit jazz legend Dick Morrisey on a handful of tracks! Titles include "No Self Control", "I Don't Remember", "Biko", "Intruder", "And Through The Wire", and "Games Without Frontiers". LP, Vinyl record album

Totally excellent – and probably the best of the Planet Of The Apes soundtracks! The record features lots of snippets of dialogue from the film – including Cornelius telling the creed of the fate of man, General Ursus addressing Ape City, and the chilling Mass Of The Holy Bomb. The main score has some great work by Leonard Roseman, in kind of an off-kilter style with lots of atonal string passages – but it also features a few tasty funky cuts. The best of these is the "March Of The Apes", a great little funky 70s soundtrack number, and there's also a weird funky passage at the end of the "mass", with voices chanting in a hippy dippy kind of way! Plus, this expanded CD package features a lot more music than the original LP – a 19 track suite of instrumental orchestral titles by Rosenmann, plus 2 bonus tracks "Mind Control SFX" and "Nova Dies", plus the LP program of tracks, which includes the original dialogue bits! 32 tracks in all, very nicely done, and limited to 3000 copies! CD

Way more than just the usual punk collection you might expect – not just LA hardcore or New York downtown, and instead a really wide range of work from the American underground of the 70s – including some really key tracks by artists who were working in a punkish mode a few years before the style ever had a name! Soul Jazz have really done an excellent job with this set – scanning a wealth of rare indie singles to come up with a set of tracks that virtually writes the history of the emergence of punk rock on the American shores – work that owes very little to the UK wave, and which instead really reflects the unique hybrid of styles that infected US material from the start. There's loads of cuts on here that we'd totally forgotten about – all brought together with the usual great Soul Jazz sense of history, reflected in the notes – and titles include "Let's Get Rid Of New York" by The Randoms, "I'm A Bug" by The Urinals, "Cakes In The Home" by Crash Course In Science, "Not Now No Way" by The Pagans, "Flash Of The Moment" by Pastiche, "Neutron Bomb" by The Controllers, "Action" by The Knots, "Dog Meat" by Flamin Groovies, "Kill The Hippies" by The Deadbeats, "US Millie" by Theoretical Girls, "Wild Weekend" by The Zeros, "Ice Age" by The Bizarros, and "Hillside Strangler" by Hollywood Squares. CD

An all-German version of Peter Gabriel's third album! Peter Gabriel at the top of his solo game – tight, focused, and coming across with a nice sort of edge – one that really sits nicely in the same late 70s generation that includes Bowie in Berlin, early Talking Heads, and some of the darker-minded work on the left side of the mainstream at the time! The guitars have a nice edge, but never dominate – and Gabriel's vocals are totally great – soaring with majesty, but never overblown, and deeply personal in all the right spots – but without any fake soul modes. Instrumentation is right on the money – processed nicely, but never overproduced – and hell, players on the album even include Brit jazz legend Dick Morrisey on a handful of tracks! Titles include German versions of "No Self Control", "I Don't Remember", "Biko", "Intruder", "And Through The Wire", and "Games Without Frontiers". LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool collection of tracks, pulled from the glory days of the jingle-oriented television ad – a time when artists like Ginny Redington would pen short little songs that were every bit as catchy as songs on the charts – to sell everything from hamburgers to soft drinks, bank services, and weight control! The tunes here are all from the vaults of Redington – and feature cool little tunes written for Coca Cola, Sprite, Canada Dry, Gino's, Minute Maid, and a number of other big brands in the 70s – some spare with just Ginny on vocals and a bit of keyboards, some with a fuller, richer style that uses more instrumentation and additional singers! The package is totally cool – and titles include "Coke Ads Life", "Open Wide America", "Plop Plop Fast Food", "Now We're Talkin Beer", "Oh Canada", "Women In Business", "The World's Best Fit", and "The Clean In Your Mouth". LP, Vinyl record album