Paul Smoker on trumpet, Ellery Eskelin on tenor saxophone, Drew Gress on bass, and Phil Haynes on drums. CD

The first-ever full length collection of work by Calvin Arnold – a killer 60s soul singer and guitarist, and one who cut some classic funky 45s back in the day, but never got a chance to record an album! All the material here came out on the Venture label – a small label, but one that got great circulation at the time – which helped Calvin's strong style get into more record collections than you might expect! Arnold's a great singer, with a raw southern style – and the use of guitar here really underscores all the best elements in his voice, as does the lean backings, which often have nice drums! The style here kind of takes off where Otis Redding's "Hard To Handle" began – strong praise in our book – and titles include "Snatchin Back", "Funky Way", "Scoobie Doo", "Mini Skirt, "Fool Me Baby", "Lovely Way To Go", "Just A Matter Of Time", "Messin With The Old Folks Home", "Your Love Is Too Much", and "You Got To Live For Yourself". CD

The first-ever full length collection of work by Calvin Arnold – a killer 60s soul singer and guitarist, and one who cut some classic funky 45s back in the day, but never got a chance to record an album! All the material here came out on the Venture label – a small label, but one that got great circulation at the time – which helped Calvin's strong style get into more record collections than you might expect! Arnold's a great singer, with a raw southern style – and the use of guitar here really underscores all the best elements in his voice, as does the lean backings, which often have nice drums! The style here kind of takes off where Otis Redding's "Hard To Handle" began – strong praise in our book – and titles include "Snatchin Back", "Funky Way", "Scoobie Doo", "Mini Skirt, "Fool Me Baby", "Lovely Way To Go", "Just A Matter Of Time", "Messin With The Old Folks Home", "Your Love Is Too Much", and "You Got To Live For Yourself". LP, Vinyl record album

The first-ever full length collection of work by Calvin Arnold – a killer 60s soul singer and guitarist, and one who cut some classic funky 45s back in the day, but never got a chance to record an album! All the material here came out on the Venture label – a small label, but one that got great circulation at the time – which helped Calvin's strong style get into more record collections than you might expect! Arnold's a great singer, with a raw southern style – and the use of guitar here really underscores all the best elements in his voice, as does the lean backings, which often have nice drums! The style here kind of takes off where Otis Redding's "Hard To Handle" began – strong praise in our book – and titles include "Snatchin Back", "Funky Way", "Scoobie Doo", "Mini Skirt, "Fool Me Baby", "Lovely Way To Go", "Just A Matter Of Time", "Messin With The Old Folks Home", "Your Love Is Too Much", and "You Got To Live For Yourself". CD

West coast harmony soul genius – a full early album of work by The Ballads – a sweet soul group who really live up to their name! The tracks here are all mellow soul with a near-perfect quality – vocals that step and slide together in a gentle, heartfelt sort of way – never too slick, and always with a heartbreaking sound that rivals some of the better-known east coast examples of the genre. Production is by Willie Hutch, Leon Ware, and Clarence Paul – and the album's a super-rare effort from the mostly-singles Venture label – with tracks that include "Good Bless Our Love", "You're The One", "I Love You Yeah", "The Gift Of Love", "Weakspot", "Hey Diddle Diddle", and "Goodnight My Love". CD also features 9 more bonus tracks – including "Right Track (parts 1 & 2)", "I Can't See Your Love", "Do It Now", "I Love You Yeah", and "I Hope I Never Fall In Love". LP, Vinyl record album

A gem of a record from the Cali scene of the late 60s – even though it was recorded in LA by a band from Canada! 49th Parallel are one of the great lost groups from the time – a combo who've got a sound that's very fresh, very much their own, yet who also resonate with all the best elements of the period – as they weave their own unique blend of psych and sunshine pop styles through the music! There's occasional horns on the record at times, but never in a jazz rock way – just a touch of brass to give things a bit more punch, used lightly and rightly, and in a very groovy way. Sometimes the guitars get a bit freaky and fuzzy, but never in any style that's overblown to threaten the sweetness of the vocals – and titles include "Now That I'm A Man", "Get Away", "Eye To Eye", "Missouri", "Lazerander Flitchy", "Twilight Woman", "Close The Barn Door", and "The People". LP, Vinyl record album

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A weird late 60s set from this California group – one that's got a rocking small combo feel at parts, but a partly rural sound too! The vibe's almost like some of the party groups that played the southern circuit in the 60s, but a bit more west coast too – never really psyche or fuzz, but certainly heading that way. Instrumentation includes guitar, organ, bass, and drums – and titles include "Fresh As A Daisy", "Hollywood Honeys", "Tryin To Fly My Kite", "I'm Moving On", "I'm Proud To Be", and "Get On Board The Train". LP, Vinyl record album

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A gem of a record from the Cali scene of the late 60s – even though it was recorded in LA by a band from Canada! 49th Parallel are one of the great lost groups from the time – a combo who've got a sound that's very fresh, very much their own, yet who also resonate with all the best elements of the period – as they weave their own unique blend of psych and sunshine pop styles through the music! There's occasional horns on the record at times, but never in a jazz rock way – just a touch of brass to give things a bit more punch, used lightly and rightly, and in a very groovy way. Sometimes the guitars get a bit freaky and fuzzy, but never in any style that's overblown to threaten the sweetness of the vocals – and titles include "Now That I'm A Man", "Get Away", "Eye To Eye", "Missouri", "Lazerander Flitchy", "Twilight Woman", "Close The Barn Door", and "The People". CD features lots more bonus tracks – the titles "All Your Love", "Laborer", "You Do Things", "She Says", "Citizen Freak", "I Need You", "Goodtime Baby", and "Up To No Good" – plus some single mixes too! CD

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A cooker of a record from Lester Bowie – one that takes the earlier sound of the Brass Fantasy ensemble, and focuses it into a mode that shows his growing love of soul and funk! The set was issued on the the short-lived Venture imprint of Virgin – a surprisingly strong outlook for creative projects like this – and the vibe's quite different than the Brass Fantasy records cut for ECM – with almost a bit more soul at the bottom, and a compact sort of energy that really sends the ideas home. Players include Bowie, Stanton Davis, Malachi Thompson, and Sasul Siddik on trumpets – plus Steve Turre and Frank Lacy on trombones, Vincent Chancey on French horn, Bob Stewart on tuba, and Phil Wilson on drums. Titles include a surprisingly great remake of "Thriller" – plus "Vibe Waltz", "I Am With You", "Duke's Fantasy", "Personality", and "Twilight Dreams". CD

One of our favorite Ulmer records, probably because there's a nice groove running underneath most of the numbers, in a sort of post-Prime Time 80s out-funk sort of way. It never drops into a flat out back beat, but there's always some sense of time, while Ulmer's guitar and Charles Burnham's violin venture to and fro. The group is just a trio, and there's not too much of Blood's vocalizing going on on the eight pieces, which include "Little Red House", "Are you Glad To Be In America", "Election" and "Odyssey". LP, Vinyl record album

Raw 60s rockers galore – a set of tracks that are so hard, so heavy, they almost seem to prefigure the sound, style, and attitude of punk rock – even though most of the songs were recorded a decade before! The mighty Keb Darge has given us excellent collections of rare funk and rockabilly over the years – and here, he dips into the large catalog of Ace Records – and, in the best Ace tradition, brings together hard-to-find vintage singles, and some never-issued cuts that appear here on vinyl for the first time ever! Titles include "No Silver Bird" by The Hooterville Trolley, "They Can't Hurt Me" by The Lyrics, "I" by The Knight Riders, "Too Late To Kiss You Now" by The Chords, "She's Gone" by The Tormenters, "Grey Zone" by The Fog, "Who Knows" by The Nightcrawlers, "Good & Bad" by Venture 5, "Come See Me" by Sandy Edmonds, and "Hang It Out To Dry" by Bud & Kathy. LP, Vinyl record album

We love this record! Although Gato Barbieri has put out a few snoozers in his career, this amazing first chapter of his Latin venture for Impulse is an incredible record throughout – one of the greatest Impulse sessions of the 70s! Gato returns to his native Argentina for the session – and works with a collective of musicians in Buenos Aires to create a sound that's a startling blend of Latin rhythms and post-Coltrane freeness. Barbieri's tone is amazing, and has a rich Pharoah Sanders-ish spirituality to it – soaring out over acoustic percussion and Latin rhythms with an earthy, organic sound that's completely wonderful! Titles include "Encuentros", "India", "Nunca Mas", and the fantastic "To Be Continued". LP, Vinyl record album

A real stroke of genius from pianist Andrew Hill – and a surprising one too! After an initial legacy of groundbreaking experimental sides for Blue Note, Hill returns to his "grass roots" on this excellent session of straight ahead, fairly funky, soul jazz piano tunes! In the notes, Hill claims a desire to get back to the people – and in a really unusual turn, he shakes off his previous modernist trappings and goes for territory that's much more in the mode of Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, or Hank Mobley on Blue Note! Yet despite this turn, and amidst some more conventional arrangements, Andrew's work on piano is still quite dark and moody – filled with beautiful clashing lines and haunting off-beat changes that open up the session way more than you'd expect! Booker Ervin joins in on tenor – on what would become one of his last recordings – and the rest of the group includes Lee Morgan, Ron Carter, and Freddie Waits – all plenty darn hip players who really get the unusual balance of soul jazz and modernism that Hill's going for here! Tracks include "Mira", "Bayou Red", "Venture Inward", "Grass Roots", and "Soul Special". Plus, this CD also features 5 tracks from a previously unissued session that has Woody Shaw as the leader, with Hill on piano and Frank Mitchell on tenor. Idris Muhammad's the drummer on that one – and funky as you'd expect – and tracks include "MC", "Venture Inward (first version)", "Bayou Red (first version)", and "Love Nocturne". CD

The first of Branford Marsalis' two LPs to venture into the "acid jazz" or "hip hop crossover" genre, however you choose to look at it. Fortunately, he gets a helping hand from Premier on a number of cuts. Includes "Breakfast At Denny's", "Some Cow Fonque", "Some Sh*t At 78 BPM (The Scratch Opera)", "Hotter Than Hot" and "The Black Widow Blues". CD

A beautiful live counterpart to Jimmy Giuffre's crucial Verve recordings Fusion and Thesis – performed here with a similar trio that includes Paul Bley on piano and Steve Swallow on bass – really expanding upon ideas of jazz expression that Giuffre first put forth in his late 50s trio! Although piano has been reintroduced to the trio via Bley, its use is almost completely freed from rhythm – so that the keyboard notes float equally in space with Giuffre's leanly creative lines on clarinet and Swallow's spacious use of bass. There's a fragile beauty here that's simply breathtaking – and although relatively free, the work has a sense of cohesion and unified spirit that's really wonderful. 8 tracks recorded live in Stuttgart, including "Whirrr", "Emphasis", "Sonic", "Venture", "Jesus Maria", "Stretching Out", "Carla" and "Cry, Want". CD

Maybe one of the greatest things that George Harrison did after the breakup of The Beatles – not his first solo album, but yet his first non-experimental venture – and a triple-length set that's filled with magic throughout! This isn't one of those "shoulda been a single record" sets – as Harrison has this amazing ability to craft new tunes with new styles in a way that really sets the record apart from his later work with The Beatles – maybe a summation of all those wonderful little moments that George was starting to add to their records, but fully blossomed here into a field's worth of fantastic musical flowers. Titles include "My Sweet Lord", "Wah Wah", "I'd Have You Anytime", "What Is Life", "Run Of The Mill", "Isn't It A Pity", "Plus Me In", "Thanks For The Pepperoni", "Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp", "Beware Of Darkness", "Out Of The Blue", and "Hear Me Lord". CD

Maybe one of the greatest things that George Harrison did after the breakup of The Beatles – not his first solo album, but yet his first non-experimental venture – and a triple-length set that's filled with magic throughout! This isn't one of those "shoulda been a single record" sets – as Harrison has this amazing ability to craft new tunes with new styles in a way that really sets the record apart from his later work with The Beatles – maybe a summation of all those wonderful little moments that George was starting to add to their records, but fully blossomed here into a field's worth of fantastic musical flowers. Titles include "My Sweet Lord", "Wah Wah", "I'd Have You Anytime", "What Is Life", "Run Of The Mill", "Isn't It A Pity", "Plus Me In", "Thanks For The Pepperoni", "Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp", "Beware Of Darkness", "Out Of The Blue", and "Hear Me Lord". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite Ulmer records, probably because there's a nice groove running underneath most of the numbers, in a sort of post-Prime Time 80s out-funk sort of way. It never drops into a flat out back beat, but there's always some sense of time, while Ulmer's guitar and Charles Burnham's violin venture to and fro. The group is just a trio, and there's not too much of Blood's vocalizing going on on the eight pieces, which include "Little Red House", "Are you Glad To Be In America", "Election" and "Odyssey". CD

We love this record! Although Gato Barbieri has put out a few snoozers in his career, this amazing first chapter of his Latin venture for Impulse is an incredible record throughout – one of the greatest Impulse sessions of the 70s! Gato returns to his native Argentina for the session – and works with a collective of musicians in Buenos Aires to create a sound that's a startling blend of Latin rhythms and post-Coltrane freeness. Barbieri's tone is amazing, and has a rich Pharoah Sanders-ish spirituality to it – soaring out over acoustic percussion and Latin rhythms with an earthy, organic sound that's completely wonderful! Titles include "Encuentros", "India", "Nunca Mas", and the fantastic "To Be Continued". CD

Maybe one of the greatest things that George Harrison did after the breakup of The Beatles – not his first solo album, but yet his first non-experimental venture – and a triple-length set that's filled with magic throughout! This isn't one of those "shoulda been a single record" sets – as Harrison has this amazing ability to craft new tunes with new styles in a way that really sets the record apart from his later work with The Beatles – maybe a summation of all those wonderful little moments that George was starting to add to their records, but fully blossomed here into a field's worth of fantastic musical flowers. Titles include "My Sweet Lord", "Wah Wah", "I'd Have You Anytime", "What Is Life", "Run Of The Mill", "Isn't It A Pity", "Plus Me In", "Thanks For The Pepperoni", "Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp", "Beware Of Darkness", "Out Of The Blue", and "Hear Me Lord". CD

Sublime guitar magic from The Ventures – the kind of record that showed why few other instrumental combos could match their action in the 60s! The set has a simple but bold sound that's really wonderful – sounds mostly from tightly strummed electric guitars and a bit of kicking drums – often applied to familiar tunes that are made over nicely through the group's trademark approach. Studio tricks further highlight the action, and the album also includes a few original instrumentals that almost come off sounding like the best in the bunch! Titles include "Ad-Venture", "Monday Monday", "Sloop John B", "Ginza Lights", "Green Grass", "Eight Miles High", "Go", and "Escape". LP, Vinyl record album

The Ventures were one of the great, mostly instrumental rock combos that paved the way for the surf rock trend to follow – so when it was time to craft an actual surf rock LP, you should well know that they were gonna make a great one! In many cases, groups with the chops of The Ventures would sound overly-mannered when cutting a surf record, but not The Ventures! They play with the energy and youthful abandon necessary to set the tone. Speaking of tone, the overall sound is as fantastic as usual here. Killer! Includes "Pipeline", "Diamonds", "Windy And Warm", "Ten Over", "Changing Tides", "Barefoot Venture", "Cruncher", "The Lonely Sea" and more. 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

Four classic albums from Dynasty – served up here with bonus material too! First up is Your Piece Of The Rock – a set that has Dynasty working with snapping grooves with a nice sort of electro undercurrent –- all the handiwork of Leon Sylvers, who also plays bass and drums on the record – and really helps Dynasty find their groove! The tracks here are all quite long, and offer up plenty of space for the players to jam nicely – a group that includes Fred Jackson on saxophone, Gene Dozier on keyboards, and Oscar Brashear on trumpet. Dynasty are pretty good too – a bit more than just a club trio filling in vocals from time to time – and titles include "Satisfied", "Your Piece Of The Rock", "I Don't Want To Be A Freak", "When You Feel Like Giving Love", and "It's Still A Thrill". Next is Adventures In Music – almost a fusion of older sweet group soul with some of the more bottom-driven modes forged by the Solar label! The keyboards are upfront, the basslines strong, and the group is completely tight on the money – at a level that made them one of the strongest 80s proponents of the Solar Records groove. The title cut here is our favorite – a sweet stepper that bursts out with this blast of sound that's totally great – completely captivating, and filled with cascading sounds that really grab us. Other tracks include "Ice Breaker", "Something To Remember", "Day & Night", "Do Me Right", and "I've Just Begun To Love You". Next is Second Adventure – the kind of set that shows why the group went on to become one of the strongest things going in the second chapter of the Solar Records soul empire from LA! The album begins with a rock-solid punch, then continues strongly throughout – basslines, guitar riffs, and funky drums all right on the money – used in a way that's somehow fresher than most of the larger funk groups of the time – and with a nice balance between mellower moments that still seem to have a gentle kind of groove. The energy is wonderful throughout – and titles include "Give It Up For Love", "Love In The Fast Lane", "Revenge", "Here I Am", "A Man In Love", and "You're My Angel". Last up is Right Back At Cha – a set that's super tight and right on the money – that wonderfully catchy approach to 80s R&B that was the hallmark of Dynasty at their height! The tunes are a hook-heavy blend of funk and upbeat modes – all brightly glowing with that style that made Solar Records one of the leading lights of the Cali soul scene in the decade – and which gets some extra special treatment here from one of their most consistent groups! Titles include "That's The Way I Feel About You", "Check It Out, "The Only One", "Questions", "Straight Out", and "Does That Ring A Bell". 3CD set also features 9 bonus tracks – all 7" single mixes of hits from the albums! CD

A classic from the Studio 2 years at EMI – a set that has some nicely dramatic moments from the great Ron Goodwin! LP, Vinyl record album

Peter Guralnick has written some mighty big, career-defining books on key figures in music – but from the start, we've always loved his shorter pieces the best – the kind of work we first fell in love with in books like Sweet Soul Music and Lost Highway! And if you dig his shorter pieces, there's plenty of those here – really wonderful essays on artists in a variety of genres – penned by one of the few figures who can balance an understanding of their music with a mixture of historical detail and unabashed fandom! Guralnick's writing has gotten better and better over the years – and it's great to have it focused back on his roots – in chapters that focus on artists who include Solomon Burke, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, Howlin Wolf, Tammy Wynette, and even the great country trucker Dick Curless! Hardcover book is 554 pages, with black and white illustrations throughout. Book

A really fantastic record, and one that's very different than you might expect from a record with "improvised" in the title! There's certainly improvisation on the record, but in a standard jazz way – the set's not free jazz, but a wonderful batch of modern jazz ideas, with a crackle that reminds us of the hippest UK sets of the mid 60s, some of the groundbreaking Chicago work of the late 50s, and maybe even the way that Charles Mingus could allow free play within a group that was also moving forward strongly together! The lineup features Knimes on drums, Jose Cervera on alto and flute, Yiannis Marinos on trombone, and Ignacio Santoro on bass – a piano-less quartet that does a fantastic job with the leader's original compositions. Titles include "A Journey Through Sound & Colors", "DC", "Clean", "The Haunt", "Be A Vampire", and "Waltz For Gloria". LP, Vinyl record album

Gerd Zacher performs the solo organ pieces, "Volumina" and "Etude No.1(Harmonies)". The "Aventures" pieces are works for 3 vocalists and instrumentalists performed by Ensemble Intercontemporain, directed by Pierre Boulez. The final piece, "Mystreries Of The Macabre", is a piano-trumpet composition performed by Hakan Hardenberger and Roland Pontinen. CD

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Never-issued work from one of our favorite Polish jazz musicians of the 60s – vibist Jerzy Milian, an artist whose modern sounds were almost as much an important part of the scene as the piano of Krzystof Komeda! Here, Milian works in two different small groups – one a quartet with the great Wojciech Karolak on piano, the other a trio, but with occasional contributions from Jan Ptaszy Wroblewski on tenor – both groups here in unreleased material that was originally recorded for radio. Some of the tracks are nice and long, and throughout, Milian's got that sharply chromatic approach that makes his work on vibes so wonderful – a bold, rich attack that's got a great sense of resonance. Titles include "Mr Croque", "Ballad For Ghent", "Iskry", "Szkice Nsa Trio", "Sympatie I Antypatie", and "Cztery Kapelusze". CD

There's a vampire with a flute on the cover – and that image alone is more than enough to make us drop the needle on this rare Japanese gem from the 70s! And fortunately, the sound of the music is equally cool – funky fusion with some nicely spacey currents – almost a Mizell Brothers vibe at points, in the way elements can swirl around in the mix, and attain this wonderfully full power without ever sounding too commercial at all! There's definitely some of that flute on the record, but the keyboards are maybe even cooler – as is all the electric instrumentation, which comes together in a sublime way! Titles include "Gokumontou", "Kamen Butokai", "Yasuhakamura", "Kindaichi Kosuke No Theme", "Mitsukubitou", and "Meirosou No Sangeki". LP, Vinyl record album

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If you've ever doubted that Vincent Price was a creepy guy, you've gotta hear this album! The double-length set is a mad exploration into the world of the supernatural – and is done with a vibe that's even creepier than some of Price's famous appearances in horror films – with lots of weird electronics from Douglas Leedy, whose effects are almost worth the price of admission alone! Price recites material penned by Terry D'Oberoff – in a dark, spooky tone, set in a really echoey space – which really makes us believe that he knows all about the topics he talks about – material that includes "Witch Tortures", "How To Communicate With The Spirits", "The Magic Bloodstone", "Instruments Of Magic", "Witch Burning", and "How To Make A Pact With The Devil". LP, Vinyl record album

If you've ever doubted that Vincent Price was a creepy guy, you've gotta hear this album! The double-length set is a mad exploration into the world of the supernatural – and is done with a vibe that's even creepier than some of Price's famous appearances in horror films – with lots of weird electronics from Douglas Leedy, whose effects are almost worth the price of admission alone! Price recites material penned by Terry D'Oberoff – in a dark, spooky tone, set in a really echoey space – which really makes us believe that he knows all about the topics he talks about – material that includes "Witch Tortures", "How To Communicate With The Spirits", "The Magic Bloodstone", "Instruments Of Magic", "Witch Burning", and "How To Make A Pact With The Devil". LP, Vinyl record album

If you've ever doubted that Vincent Price was a creepy guy, you've gotta hear this album! The double-length set is a mad exploration into the world of the supernatural – and is done with a vibe that's even creepier than some of Price's famous appearances in horror films – with lots of weird electronics from Douglas Leedy, whose effects are almost worth the price of admission alone! Price recites material penned by Terry D'Oberoff – in a dark, spooky tone, set in a really echoey space – which really makes us believe that he knows all about the topics he talks about – material that includes "Witch Tortures", "How To Communicate With The Spirits", "The Magic Bloodstone", "Instruments Of Magic", "Witch Burning", and "How To Make A Pact With The Devil". LP, Vinyl record album

Lord Quas returns for another batch of booming, mad-blunted hip hop – an even more sprawling, surreal ride than the Unseen LP! Quasimoto was and still is Madlib's outlet for his most cartoonishly blunted, eccentric tendencies – and he really lets 'em fly on this set! The Unseen LP had more strains of the smoky jazz vibe of 'Lib's more mature productions – buried underneath the wacky funk and Quas/'Lib's instantly identifiable, hilarious mouthbreather rhymes. This one keeps it surreal throughout – sort of a cross between Madvillain, Prince Paul and a Max Fleischer cartoon – with Melvin Van Peebles dropping in here and there! Tracks include "Bullysh*t", "Greenery", "Crime", "Hydrant Game", "Don't Blank", "Bus Ride", "Bartender Say", "The Exclusive" feat MED, "Closer" feat Madvillain, "Strange Piano", "Life Is. . .", "Tomorrow Never Knows" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe our favorite-ever album from Minnie Riperton during the 70s – a sweet, smooth jazzy gem that really makes some of the best use of her vocals! There's a sophistication here that's a great 70s counterpart to Minnie's earlier work with Charles Stepney – served up here in a very different style, but one that really sets Riperton apart from any of her contemporaries – in a unique blend of soul, jazz, and much deeper spirits – all handled with the sense of pride and style you'd expect from Minnie's image on the cover! All tracks were co-written by Riperton and Richard Rudolph – and a few get some great help from Leon Ware too. Titles include the massive track "Baby, This Love I Have" – a slow funk number that's be sampled many times over the years – plus the spacey tunes "Minnie's Lament", "Inside My Love", and "Alone In Brewster Bay", remade from Minnie's first LP – and the titles "Simple Things", "Feeling That Your Feeling's Right", and "Don't Let Anyone Bring You Down". CD

A fantastic bit of boogie – a contemporary set, but one that it feels like it was lifted from the best of the early 80s underground – from the post-disco, funky club rhythms – right through to the soulful vocals and warm keyboards in the mix! The tunes have a sound that's sophisticated, but very organic too – that best sort of funky flow that you'll remember from the moment when the bigger discos were closing their doors, and club music went back underground and got stripped down to its finest elements! Rob Hardt provides the great keyboards on the record – and vocals are by a variety of singers – including Seest, Flemming Fanoe, Kiki Kyte, Folami, Kenny Thomas, and Sulene Fleming – on titles that include "Keep The Faith", "Busy Dreamin", "Never Gonna Let You Go", "Lift Your Head Up", "Private Eye", "Soho House", and "Something's Got Me Walking On Air". The tunes are positive and upbeat as their titles might imply – and the record's a great one if you go for an Incognito-styled groove! LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic overview of the key postwar years of experimental music – a set that not only features some important electronic experiments, but also a wealth of unusual tonal, timing, and instrumental combinations! The box brings together key recordings from these years – some by the composers themselves – and the 3CD set features "Cinq Etudes De Bruits (Five Studies Of Noise)" by Pierre Schaeffer, "Diamorphoses" and "Concret PH" by Iannis Xenakis, "Studie No 17" and "Gesang Der Jungling" by Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Orient Occident" by Iannis Xenakis, "Cartridge Music" and "Aria With Fontana Mix" by John Cage, "Etude Concrete 2 No 5" and "Zeitmasse" by Stockhausen, "Poelem Electronique" by Edgard Varese, "Voile D'Orphee" by Pierre Henry, "Artikulation" by Gyorgy Ligeti, and "Le Marteux Sans Maitre" by Pierre Boulez. CD

A fantastic overview of the key postwar years of experimental music – a set that not only features some important electronic experiments, but also a wealth of unusual tonal, timing, and instrumental combinations! The box brings together key recordings from these years – some by the composers themselves – and the 3CD set features "Cinq Etudes De Bruits (Five Studies Of Noise)" by Pierre Schaeffer, "Diamorphoses" and "Concret PH" by Iannis Xenakis, "Studie No 17" and "Gesang Der Jungling" by Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Orient Occident" by Iannis Xenakis, "Cartridge Music" and "Aria With Fontana Mix" by John Cage, "Etude Concrete 2 No 5" and "Zeitmasse" by Stockhausen, "Poelem Electronique" by Edgard Varese, "Voile D'Orphee" by Pierre Henry, "Artikulation" by Gyorgy Ligeti, and "Le Marteux Sans Maitre" by Pierre Boulez. CD