A fantastic follow up to Alice Russell's first Munka Moon set – and a collection of some of her greatest musical contributions over the past few years – a range of singles, remixes, and special projects that are all touched beautifully by her super-soulful vocals! Although only still an up-and-comer, Alice has a voice that's easily becoming one of the most recognized in 21st Century Soul – with a sound that's ageless at one level, almost back to Atlantic soul of the 60s – but also well suited to the needs of her collaborators on some of the more contemporary-sounding projects! CD features 13 tracks in all – many from hard to find import releases – and titles include "Don't You Worry", "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know (one take version)", "I'm Just Here (Wyndam Earl rmx)", "To Know This (live)", "Hurry On Now (Boub rmx)", "Seven Nation Army (with Nostalgia 77)", "A Fly In The Hand (DJ Vadim rmx)", "Do It (with Unforscene)", "Mirro Mirror On The Wolf (Bonobo mix)", and "Mean To Me (acoustic)". CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

Man, these guys just keep on cooking and cooking and cooking – at a level that's easily made them one of the best contemporary funk combos going – and which makes this album a delight all the way through! There's a lean, mean, nitty gritty groove going on here – one that comes from tight drums and bass at the bottom, topped with lots of guitar, Hammond, trumpet, and tenor sax – put together with a sound that's spare and simple, with all the best elements of classic funk filtering firmly through the mix. This time around, the group get some guest appearances on vocals from Alice Russell, Ohmega Watts, Tyra Hammond, Fallon Williams, and Kylie Auldist – but they also groove instrumentally on about half the album as well – showing the strength of their skills on either side of the soul spectrum. Titles include "The Bamboos Theme", "Bring It Home", "The Witch", "Get In The Scene", "Happy", "Rockin It", "Pussy Footin", "My Baby's Cheating", "Head In The Clouds", "Tongan Steel", "Rockin It", and "Rawville". CD

Being married has never sounded so groovy – thanks to a great score by Johnny Williams! This obscure 1967 film was directed by Gene Kelly, and starred Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, Wally Cox, Joey Bishop, and Jack Benny – a cast that alone will give you a feel for the style of this 60s sex comedy! Williams' score is stuffed with groovy numbers that have a great kitschy 60s sort of feel – slinky sexy strings, romping mod rhythms, and lots of great instrumental flourishes with a jazzy sort of style! The original soundtrack's been greatly expanded here – with a total of 31 cuts, pressed up in a great package with notes on the music, images from the film, and limited to 3000 copies! Titles include "The Bust Up Scene", "Backyard Barbecue", "Smelly Concoction", "The Party", "Trial Run", "Divorcee", and "Second Thoughts". CD

A great combination of two groovy Eastern-styled albums from the 60s! First up is Oud Artistry – groovy Eastern sounds from John Berberian – a musician we know from more rockish projects, but who steps out here on a relatively traditional set of tunes! As you'd guess from the title, Berberian's instrument is the oud – that weird stringed instrument we probably know best from Ahmed Abdul-Malik's jazz experiments of the early 60s, used here by John in styles that are much more in keeping with its Middle Eastern roots. The rhythms draw from Turkish, Armenian, and Arabic inspiration – and other instruments on the record include finger cymbals, clarinet, bongos, guitar, and assorted percussion. Most number features vocals sung in a haunting sort of tone – and tunes include "Rast Taksim", "Yarus", "Sevasda", "Savgulum", "Sevan 5/4", and "Azziza". Next is Expressions East – rhythmic early 60s global grooves from John Berberian – a master of the oud with a great group of players on these oft intense takes traditional Turkish, Armenian and Arabic songs! The melodies and rhythms are pretty impressive – the percussion is particularly heavy and groovy! The oud is out front and supported by lots of clarinet and bongo, hand percussion, guitar, bass and some vocals, too! There's a passion here that easily trumps any initial thoughts that this would be a dry reading of middle-eastern folk material – it's appealing in many of the ways that Salah Ragab's Egyptian jazz material is, without the cosmic funkiness. Players include Souren Baronian on clarinet and bongos, Jack Chalikian on canun, John Valentine on guitar and dudoog, among others. Tracks include "Siseler", "Laz", "Basha Bella", "Whyek", "Taksim", and "Nubar Nubar". LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic work from Diego Rivera – a real rising star on the tenor, and a player who seems to really be able to pack a lot into a very small space! The tunes here are never super-long, but they're overflowing with meaning and color – not just from Rivera's well-crafted solos, but also the trumpet work of Alex Sipiagin and piano of Art Hirihara – both musicians who really do a lot with their space on the record too! The rest of the combo features Boris Kozlov on bass and Rudy Royston – and all members of the group work together as if they've been thinking the same thoughts for weeks before going into the studio – effortlessly making magic on Rivera's original tunes that include "Battle Fatigue", "Braceru", "Cancion De Cuna", "Most From The Least", "Mestizo", "Rasquache", and "La Raza Cosmica". CD

Improvised duets, but at a level that's a real surprise – often not what you might expect, given the instrumentation used by the duo! Isach Skeidsvoll plays piano, and Lauritz Heitmann handles saxes – but the musicians really work apart from any easy thoughts you might have about how such instruments might come together in a series of free improvisations – shifting the way things combine over some very long tracks in the set, and maybe throwing a real wrench into the proceedings when Skeidsvoll moves over to a bit of melodica at one point too! The record's overflowing with the sort of surprises that can make improvised music so great – and titles include "Chanting Moon Dancing Sun", "From The Wasteland I Ascend", "Skeidsvoll Brothers Out In The Fog", and "My Withering Soul". CD

We love the work of Torbjorn Zetterberg as a bassist – but here, he shows us a completely different side of his talents, as he works on a whole host of unlikely instruments, some of them electric – to craft an album that's unlike anything else he's ever given us before! And yet, the results are as wonderful as everything we've ever loved from the musician – as Zetterburg mostly works solo, but uses a bit of overdub too – layering guitar, piano, keyboards, electronics, and his more familiar bass – plus a host of other instruments too – alongside occasional contributions from Konrad Agnas on drums, Anna Hogberg on alto, and Greta Thunberg on voice. Many tracks have a spacious electric vibe that's almost in the Sky Records mode – while others move into song structures we never would have expected from Zetterberg – including one especially beautiful track that has him singing with acoustic guitar. Titles include "Opinions (parts 1 & 2)", "Upaya", "Sketch Of The Path", "Random Thoughts", and "Determination & Nothing Happened". LP, Vinyl record album

Nice collection of material composed or re-arranged by George Russell, using his unique modal concept. At the time of these sessions, Russell was one of the most forward thinking modernists, applying his modal theory to both his own work, and using it to expand the vocabulary of soloists over standards, breathing fresh new air into tried and true pieces. This two-fer pulls pieces from 4 sides he cut for Riverside, and features a nice cast of young modernists, including Pete LaRoca, Don Ellis 7 Eric Dolphy. 13 tracks in all, including "Stratusphunk", "Ezz-thetic", "Stratus Seekers" and modal versions of "Nardis", "Round Midnight" and "Au Privave". LP, Vinyl record album

A late, great record by Stonewall Jackson – 1970's too little remembered Lonesome In Me, a record that finds the early 60s hitmaking country legend selling less records with new label Columbia, which is a shame, because he's arguably as great as ever! Some of the best tracks work a mode that wouldn't be out of place on some of Merle Haggard's work for Capitol around the same time. Straight up strong, no frills country music from one of the greats. Includes "Ship In The Bottle", "Morals Of A Man", "Better Days For Mama", "Thoughts Of A Lonely Man", "The Harm You've Done" and more. This excellent 2011 CD version from Omni is packed with great, also overlooked LP and 45 tracks cut for Columbia in the early 70s. 17 extra tracks are added to the original album (!!!!) including "Somebody's Always Leaving", "Nashville", "Waterloo", "Big Busy World", "I'm Not Strong Enough", "True Love Is The Thing" "The House Of Bottles And Cans", "Torn From The Pages Of Life". CD

A great later sleeper from Brian Auger – a record that's much deeper and more soulful than some of his earlier work – and done in a soaring style that's really great! Alex Lighterwood sings as much as Auger plays the keys here, but that's ok with us – because he fuses his voice very nicely with organ, electric piano, and moog – creating a spacily soulful quality that's produced with a nice flanged-out style! Some tracks are funky, others are more laidback – and the set's a great illustration of how far Auger had come in just a few years. Titles include the spacey "Thoughts From Afar", the fast-jamming "The Big Yin", a Latin-tinged instrumental "Something Out Of Nothing", plus "Future Pilot" and "Brain Damage". LP, Vinyl record album

Very spare sounds from Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, but still very sharp-edged too – and in a way, a mix of deeper thoughts and spontaneous energy that reminds us a lot of some of the more "out there" moments of the Art Ensemble back in the 70s! Roscoe's reeds have those complex qualities that we've heard in recent compositional work – but the overall approach is a bit looser, too – and clearly dictated by the range of percussion added by drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Trumpeter Hugh Ragin blows a fair bit on the record too – adding in sounds that shift from textural to musical – and overall, it may well be his tracks that we like the best. Titles include "The Horn", "Bells In The Air", "Out There", "A Cactus & A Rose", "Meadows", "A Game Of Catch", "Waves", and "Windows With A View". CD

A crazy collection of singles from the pre-hippie years of the beatnik – that cool cat who loved jazz, read poetry, and dug the scene with plenty of attitude! That attitude is the main focus of most of the cuts here – obscure tracks from the late 50s and early 60s that poke fun at the heady thoughts and easy intellectualism of the beat scene – presented in a range of different styles that really run the gamut – from jazz, to rock, to many other genres in between – including a fair bit of offbeat spoken word and instrumental records too! The vibe here follows nicely in the other Lux & Ivy collections on the Righteous label – full of weird and wild records we never would have discovered otherwise – with cuts that include "Dog" by Bob Dorough, "Laffin Beatnik" by Johnny Beeman, "Reaching Into In" by Ken Nordine, "No Pictures Please" by Rod McKuen, "Manhattan Fable" by Babs Gonzales, "Pimples & Braces" by Spike Jones & The City Slickers, "Teenage Beatnik" by Louis Nye, "A Beatnik Story" by The Expressos, "Meet The Bongo Man" by Johnny O, and "William Butler Yeats On The Third Avenue El" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. CD