"Casamance au Clair de Lune is the most "roots"-oriented album issued by the Senegalese band Touré Kunda, and one of their very best. Dispensing with the occasionally kitschy pop and funk arrangements that diluted many of their prior and subsequent efforts, they succeeded in fashioning a recording brimming with the life of West Africa while still sounding unmistakably modern. There are several percussion interludes (such as "Manoir") that one wishes could go on forever, so infectious are the rhythms and...

“Beat and early psych from one of the finest bands to come out of Ottawa, Canada in the 1960’s. Their lush, four-part harmonies and powerful instrumental prowess made them great live performers. "Ottawa was a hotbed of talent during the mid 1960's. Next to the Staccatos (later the Five Man Electrical Band) and the Esquires, the Townsmen were one of the biggest acts in that region. Between late 1965 and 1968 - the Townsmen had some of the most memorable songs to come out of the Ottawa music scene during...

Slide guitarist Dave Tronzo is one of the unheralded greats. Reeves Gabrels played in Tin Machine and is also a fine player. They appear here with bass and drums and this is a excellent, off kilter sometimes rock and sometimes not rock album...

“The Troyes exploded onto the music scene with 'Rainbow Chaser' a regional smash hit that climbed to number 3 on the top 40 in September of 1966. Sensing a new phenomenon, famed bandleader Ray Anthony (who already had smash hits with 'Dragnet' and 'Peter Gunn') signed the group to his new rock label Space Records. His faith in the band was so big that nearly two albums worth of material were recorded at United Sound (Detroit) in 1966 and 1967. Unfortunately, only two singles were issued and the rest of...

"Excellent, jumpin’ late 50s r’n’b from his pre-Tina days."

“Izear Luster ""Ike"" Turner Jr. (died 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his then-wife Tina Turner as the leader of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
A native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Turner began playing piano and guitar as a child and then formed the Kings of Rhythm..

Stanley Turrentine-tenor sax
Horace Parlan-piano
George Tucker-bass
Al Harewood-drums

“A whole batch of reviews ranging from enthusiastic to ecstatic, and I agree with virtually every word of them. Turrentine was an absolute master of his horn, with a blues feeling inherent, and absolutely natural, in everything he played. A most beautiful ballad player and a man capable of playing at length without ever flagging or becoming boring, he had a rich, full tone and a natural swing. In..

"A stellar recording and achievement."-Andy Summers

"Have You Ever Been...? explores and celebrates the legacy of guitar rock icon Jimi Hendrix in grand TIQ style. At the peak of his creative powers in the late 1960s, Jimi Hendrix redefined the potential of not only the guitar but the entire genre of rock. Armed with an unprecedented combination of technical skills and compositional insight, he drew a blueprint that continues to challenge guitarists in particular and musicians of all stripes...

Wonderful, wonderful cover illustration by Kim Deitch!

“Sympathy for the Beast, the new album by Twink and the Technicolour Dream, is based on the wonderfully imaginative poetical works of Aleister Crowley, whose natural and intrinsic musical quality Twink and the Technicolour Dream have tried to intensify with their psychedelic musical drive, using sections of the original poems as lyrics for their songs or narrations for their musical backgrounds.
Jon Povey has given a significant...

Dutch band who mix folk/progressive/psychedelic with spacerock touches for a sort of a cross between Mellow Candle & moments of Gong/Daevid Allen. Only downside is that during the rock parts they use a drum machine. Still, for all the acoustic parts & beyond (& there's much more of that than the rock parts), this is pretty much spot-on. This could even be at home on the Kranky label.

"Belgium-based composer Christina Vantzou’s fourth full-length for Kranky ventures further into the uniquely elusive and evocative mode of ambient classical minimalism which has become her signature: a fragile synthesis of contemplative drift, heady silences, and muted dissonance. In regards to the new album she speaks of focusing particular attention on the effects of the recordings on the body, and of “directing sound perception into an inner space.”
No. 4 took shape across roughly two years...

“The Abatwa ("Pygmy") are one of Africa's most endangered peoples. This album is a stunning, spirited document of their deep and varied musical culture, it collects rough-hewn, tribal sonics from the Rwandan borderlands. One-string violins/ 11-string harps/ haunted solo & duo singing/ battery operated loop machines. The textures are strange and abstract but at the same time intimate and joyful.
A featured instrument is the 11-string Icyembe, one that has a resemblance not unlike a surfboard and when..

This is a fabulous compilation of swing jazz and big and small band blues & boogie, from 1936-1945, presented to highlight how this music blended with other American music and influenced and partially led to rock 'n' roll.
If you dig this sort of thing, this is nearly 80' of historic and fabulous sounds!

"Nearly 80 minutes of vintage music recorded between 1935 and 1945 and featuring some of the great names of jazz, blues and boogie woogie. The quality of the sound is generally good, given...

Previously unreleased R&B from Muddy Waters (1958) Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee (1958), Louis Jordan (1962) and more recorded live at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England.

"This second volume of rare and previously unissued live...

“This volume feautures rare recordings by groups from 1966-67. The Shandells Inc. release is noteworthy for its classic Electric Prunes sound while the Shadows and Rocks are moody garage kings. The Feathers sound like a teenage version of the Beau Brummels and Byrds. Finally, the Lewallen Brothers and the Marsades of Tucson, AZ are represented with unreleased songs that range from mod garage rock to the outright bizarre (‘I’m Normal’).
Out of print CD with small drill hole.”

“As the world spins out of control and our esteemed global leaders seem bent on building walls and knocking down bridges, we are on our own. So, before the tanks roll in and Armageddon tweets, here's your chance to hear something that is beyond their understanding... and not quite so destructive.
Episode 20 is an international war of words and power chords with hooks and swipes from South America, Asia, Europe and beyond. Oh, and a couple of Brits who may be European... or not... Hang on, hold tight..

“Welcome all to the penultimate episode of the intrepid yet foolhardy series that is or was Cornflake Zoo (or was it?). A ‘yellow brick road’ to a world of glorious bygone pop from the European continent that shall sit in thy inner sanctum for all time.
Dustin E and the dusty collecting tribe present a feast of delightful discovery and redemption to nurture the senses in troubled times. Take solace and isolate with the evaporated milk of human kindness, a teabag and some good ol’ noise...

“Opening up a new chapter in the enpsychlopedia, Particles presents a colorful variety of obscured pop nuggets recorded in the aftermath of the British psychedelic period. The psychedelic effects have gone and the lightshows have blown, but their lingering presence in the aftermath of the hallucinogenic haze is, though perhaps less defined, strangely evident. The end of the explosive decade that brought us the Fab Four and gave us the pop star was proving to be a turning point in both musical and...

“Some copies of the long out-of-print volume four have turned up, and here they are, available exclusively from us! Typical colorful and stunning packaging, with the usual host of Electric Sitar wonders from the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s with Mecky Mark Men, Ugly Ducklings, Wizz Jones, New Tweedy Brothers, COB, Popera Cosmic and more!”
Track list:
1. Meckmark Men - "Free" (4:10)
2. Stunts's Blue Leg Expedition - "Caves of Her Mind" (3:02)
3. Ugly Ducklings - "I Know What to Say" (2:31)

“Folklore is a glorious insight into an invaluable part of the British 1960s underground. This set collects rare British folk music from the 1960s and early 1970s for a feast of earthly delights. Professionally remastered original sound recordings.
Includes 16-page full-color booklet with comprehensive background liners and rare archival color photos. Includes tracks by Wooden Horse, Marian Henderson, The Sun Also Rises, Dave Robin, Gothic Horizon, Gaberlunzie, Billy Nicholls, Dave Morgan, Skid Row...

"Not another all-star rehash of Jaco's fretless pyrotechnics, Gospel for J.F.P. instead targets the writing talents of the late, great genius of electric bass. It's easy to forget how good of a songwriter Jaco Pastorious was, as this saavy record reminds us via interpretations of some of his better and less known pieces. Its wide-screen approach is clear in the opener, 'Three Views of a Secret' - a delightful meeting between gypsy guitarist Bireli Lagrene, fusioneer Hiram Bullock and Uruguyan vocal...

“The first volume in Glitterbeat's Hidden Musics, a series of unmediated field recordings of lesser-known global music traditions. War Is a Wound, Peace Is a Scar is a haunting audio document recorded in the summer of 2014 by Grammy-award winning producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Malawi Mouse Boys, the Good Ones).
The sepia-tinged songs are sung and played live and direct by elderly Vietnamese musicians using half-forgotten traditional instruments. These musicians all have deep, personal connections...

"The best known girl group in Texas during the late 60s was The Heart Beats of Lubbock. They made it to Hollywood for a Battle of the Bands contest on the Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay hosted TV show, Happening '68. The Heart Beats shut down all the other male groups and won the Battle of the Bands on nationwide TV. Considering that no one in the band was older than 17, this was quite an accomplishment.
All seven recordings by The Heart Beats are included on this album, along with other great female...

The soundtrack to one of the greatest jazz feature films ever made. Filmed over the four days of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. This CD reissue features 16 inspired and very musically diverse performances, especially for a ‘jazz festival’ programmed in 1958, which makes it all the more of a wonderful time capsule 60 years later! And Anita! And her hat!

1. Train and the River - The Jimmy Giuffre Trio
2. Blue Monk - Thelonious Monk
3. Loose Walk - Sonny Stitt
4. Sweet Georgia Brown...

“Mixed Up Minds investigates the overlooked underbelly of British rock and pop from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Part Eleven of the intrepid series captures a further glimpse of the verbal rumblings from British suburbia with twenty melodic musings from a variety of unsung wonders whose place in the British pop phenomena is now safely secure. Featuring: Peter E Bennet, Robert Holman, Twice As Nice, Macon Jug, Titanic, Black Jacks, Peter E Bennet & The Cooperation Choir, Rastafari, Shillingford Mill...

"Mixed Up Minds Part Fourteen offers another tantalizing dose of forgotten dreams from the suburban drifts of Britain. In the aftermath of psychedelia, and in a less flamboyant 1970s, fading stars continued to shine as brightly, but to much less acclaim. Amidst the glam rock and progressive bourgeoisie, pop songs knew their place, but for every T-Rex, 10cc, Bowie, and Queen, there was other more unlucky and less commercial artists that sat in the underbelly of pomp and hysteria. Part Fourteen collects...