‘Joanna Brouk’s most ambitious recording, Sounds of the Sea is a concept album full of mystery and eroticism. A conch shell bookends this journey into the deep, going down and down and down further, never reaching bottom. Drawing inspiration from various legends of mermaids and sailors, Brouk weaves circling flutes, vocals, drones and whale songs to describe a sense of unfathomable longing more clearly than words could ever express. Sounds of the Sea is a hypnotic and profound achievement by one of new age’s greatest composers.’

Unmissable Chicago soul.

Like Saturday night on a Sunday morning. Patsy on Jesus. Elvis-no-pelvis. With four celebrated Nashville sidemen fresh from June 1958 Presley sessions.

Guitarist Willie ‘Junei’ Lee spent the late-seventies touring with with Albert King, Curtis Mayfield, and The Emotions, before returning home to Gary, Indiana, to focus on his own sound. ‘The only artists I listened to was Hendrix and Santana,’ he recalls.
‘The emissions coming from his home studio were entirely different, however, as Let’s Ride channels the Euro sensibilities of Kraftwerk or Italo over virtuosic guitar. ‘I just didn’t want to sound like anyone else.’
‘Let’s Ride anticipated Chicago house by a few years. Pressed in minuscule numbers in 1987 on Pharaohs Records, the 45 never connected with the nearby scenes in Chicago and Detroit where it might have found purchase in fertile soils. Decades later, though, it found new life as the bed for Kaytranada’s Scared To Death.’

Soul-drenched, late-sixties gospel from Cleveland.

‘Rare groove Windy City disco at its finest.’

‘An overview of his earliest works, gathering selections from his 1978 debut Celestial Vibration and six additional studio sessions from the era. Full of discovery and wonderment, Glimpses of Infinity is a miraculous chronicle of new age’s most fabled artist.’

‘The definitive collection of Laraaji’s earliest works, Segue To Infinity compiles his 1978 debut Celestial Vibration and six additional side-long studio sessions from previously unknown acetates from the same period. A lengthy essay by Living Colour’s Vernon Reid chronicles the origins of Edward ‘Flash’ Gordon, illustrated with dozens of previously unpublished photographs that capture this beautiful and elusive young artist. Full of discovery and wonderment, Segue To Infinity is a miraculous chronicle of new age’s most fabled artist.’

Gospel, group soul, garage-punk, northern, jazz and funk, recorded by Felton Williams between 1967 and1981 in Ecorse, just downriver from Detroit. Amazingly the DVD contains 200 more recordings, and a film.

Consider it a Nicaraguan take on Herbie’s Mwandishi — this psychedelic swirl of Latin jazz and pan-American funk, marrying Lovo’s out guitarism with the fine percussion-work of Jose ‘Chepito’ Areas, from Santana.

Paradigmatic group-harmony soul from the Chocolate City.
Remastered from the original tapes for this fiftieth anniversary edition.