Representing every Chess artist recording at Muscle Shoals, 1967-69. The likes of Etta James, Irma Thomas, Laura Lee, Bobby Moore and Mitty Collier, in the era of the studio’s second great rhythm section, the Swampers. Plenty of unfamiliar glories, and throwing in three instrumentals by Charles Chalmers and crew.

Three albums recorded on his brother’s farm in Accokeek, Maryland, in the early 70s. Quite different to his previous releases, the music remains raw and basic, but with vocals and acoustic guitars, mandolins, dobros and piano. ‘An organic blend of downhome music… imbued with a primitive spirituality. There is an unpolished, spontaneous feel to the music which sparks it greedily into life, and the Accokeek earth seems to be ground deep into every groove. You can even hear the frogs croaking outside the shack.’

Ruff, rugged, hypnotic, spiritual roots from this startlingly Swiss studio and label, with Half Moon, early Pablo, and stark Upsetter amongst its ancestors.

‘SK Kakraba is a master of the gyil xylophone — fourteen wooden slats strung across calabash resonators. The silk walls of spiders’ egg sacs — ‘paapieye’ in the Lobi language — are stretched across holes in the gourds, giving each note a buzzy rattle. SK learned as a child from elders in his Lobi community in the far northwest reaches of Ghana.’
Beautiful, spare, mesmeric recordings — song cycles, dirges, improvisations based on traditional songs, original compositions — newly made.

The lyra viol in heart-tugging, rug-cutting songs from the eastern Mediterranean, brilliantly performed by Stelios Petrakis.

‘New, cool, melodic, funky pop from Japan. Six irresistible new songs from veteran members of 90s Tokyo underground pop bands like Love Tambourines, Arch and Bridge, with roots in 80s dance music, the funkier elements of post-punk and the Factory Records roster, and groups like Young Marble Giants and Weekend.’

Perhaps the great pianist’s best record — duets with the Arts Ensemble bassist Malachi Favors, in 1975.

Mostly from two cassettes, Douce Torture and Aut Aut, each limited to twenty-five copies, originally self-released in the early 2000s by Vincent E.F. from Turin. ‘A mixture of hardware electronics, guitar and musique concrete-style sampling techniques, recorded on everything from minidisc to VHS tape. With its roots in vintage dub, Krautrock and Italo-Industrial artists like Maurizio Bianchi and Mauthausen Orchestra… and yet strikingly original.’

‘America’s greatest singer’; ‘the greatest gospel singer of her generation’; ‘the greatest singer ever’ (Pulse, Time, Rolling Stone). Check the title track for her influence on Little Richard, The Isley Brothers, James Brown and co. Stuffed with gems.

‘Music, its forms and rituals, has the power to bring us close to distant civilizations. Armenia offers a special case: a sacred culture that was preserved and presented at its fullest flowering through the work of one man, the scholar-monk Soghomon Soghomonian, known under his religious name as Komitas.’
Duduk, blul, santur, tar, saz, dap, kamancha, kanon, oud…

Underground soul and funk from early-seventies LA — Henry Porter, Jechonias Williams and co, with one foot inside the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band — lovingly unearthed by Now Again.

‘Lo-fi, primitive orchestral pieces for a Swedish TV-documentary series that in the end never was finished. Someone said, If the Penguin Café Orchestra would’ve used old rhythm-boxes and recorded rough demos influenced by Moondog, then this would’ve been it. That’s not true, but it’s still a hell of an album. Unique and warm. And in totally gorgeous sleeves… Old album covers have been remade and glued and etched on with the old artworks shining through here and there.’

Thrilling, angular hard bop, impatiently itching itself open to the new thing.
Dolphy plays b-flat clarinet and alto; Ron Carter plays cello. Booker Ervin is rawly eloquent as per. The seven compositions are all by Waldron, who centres proceedings with inimitable brilliance.
Feelingly recorded by Van Gelder in the summer of 1961, in the same few weeks as Ron Carter’s Where.
In this iteration — all-analogue remastering from the master-tapes, tip-on sleeve, first-class pressing — it’s a must.

A danceable version of her co-composition with Arthur Russell, In The Light Of The Miracle — retaining trombonist Peter Zummo, and adding a mix by Gifted & Blessed. White vinyl; limited.