‘The twentieth volume of our flagship series has all the boxes checked: gun-toting record producers, child stars, rip-offs, ‘The World’s Greatest Bail Bondsman’, soaring falsettos, and a dwindling rust-belt cityscape offering mere glimpses of hope before the record industry escaped for the coasts. Helmed by the O’Jays Bobby Massey, Saru was a creative vortex pulling into Cleveland the best talent in Cuyahoga County — the Out of Sights, the Elements, Pandella Kelly, David Peoples, Sir Stanley, the Ponderosa Twins + 1, Ba-Roz, Bobby Dukes and — of course — The O’Jays.’

‘From a humble storefront studio located in a shoeshine parlor on Norfolk, Virginia’s Church Street, Noah Biggs built a world. Hustler by day, gambler by night, the always-in-a-suit Biggs took a gaggle of off-brand singers and combined his connections and charisma to forge timeless soul music during a period of deep upheaval. Compiled here are 25 of Shiptown’s most compelling sides recorded between 1965-1977, spread across 2 LPs, from the likes of Ida Sands, The Soul Duo, The Anglos, Dream Team, The Grooms, Positive Sounds, Barbara Stant, Wilson Williams, Art Ensley, and yes, Flip Flop Stevens.’

Drawing on Dick Smart’s group of soul labels run out of Wichita, Kansas, from 1963-75 — like Solo, Kanwic, Vantage and Lee-Mac.

Thirty-four sides originally released by Jesse Jones’ twin labels out of Atlanta, between 1968-1977. Southern to Northern, classic R&B to modern soul, dancers to romancers.

Primitive choirs, spacious breaks, congas, old-boy rappers impersonating the devil, cast-recordings, thumping bass, and JB copyists — all with a heavy slathering of gospel gravy.

The first proper compilation of her singular, unguarded, teenage dream pop, from eighties upstate New York. A kind of correspondent of Kate Bush in both composition and performance, on synthesizer and acoustic guitar, and in her otherworldly singing over four octaves, about dreamers, outsiders and lovers.

Vintage funk and sweet soul by children, drawn from obscure 45s — fresh and irresistible, praps our favrit Numero so far.

Out originally in 1970 on the Reflection label, the debut of Catherine Howe (from Halifax) — ‘a pastoral blend of English countryside folk and London orchestral pop, not unlike Nick Drake… or Bridget St. John.’

1970s bottlings of the ‘crystal giggling energy’ of muse Vista, through a pioneering mix of one-stop synths, tape reversal, feedback and so on. Supposedly the kind of thing you hear during a near-death experience.

‘This thirteen-track compilation exhumes forgotten brilliance from the Afroamerican underground of the 1970s. Awash in fuzzed-out guitars, wah-wah pedals, lysergic-soaked grooves, and enough inflation depression to fill the tank of a shag wagon, If There’s Hell Below imagines a world where Hendrix lived on and Funkadelic never crawled out of the garage.’
Transparent red vinyl.