Funky Donkey is brawling, invigorating, all-in, full-throttle fire music by the Human Arts Ensemble, recorded live in the Berea Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, in 1973, with Lester Bowie and co giving it some hoof. Charles Bobo Shaw’s composition Una New York is more spaced-out, limber, melodious, and funky. Guitarist Marvin Horne plays a blinder.
A key Black Arts Group recording.

‘Recorded at home in 2012, early acoustic guitar improv performances from the Bhutanese expat, who’d come to Asheville, NC to study in 2000 and discovered worlds of anarcho-punk and avant garde such as he’d only dreamed. Having made recordings of his newly-located improvisational conception, he intuited a desire to go deeper in his explorations of the recorded sound of the guitar, melding and colliding traditional music with his feeling for the range of textures within.’

The duo of Bill Orcutt — on four-string guitar — and drummer Tim Koffley.
‘Taking leads from James Blood Ulmer and Fred Frith’s Massacre, here is the link between the contemporaneous Thunders-esque punk of Orcutt’s Trash Monkeys and the mayhem of Harry Pussy…
‘Consider the closer Wattstock, where Koffley forms the bedrock for an extended Orcutt hotbox of instantly-composed harmolodics. And also God Are You There, It’s Me, Watt, where we can hear the spontaneous vocal bursts (the only vocals on the album) that would re-emerge on Orcutt’s early solo records…
‘An early, major piece of the unfolding and complex puzzle of Orcutt’s music. A foundation.’

Dub counterpart to the Experience LP, with assistance from Prince Jammy.

‘Verve By Request.’

‘The star of the show is Noah’s mesmerising hand drumming, especially on the headspinning Microdosing’ (The Guardian).
‘Easily AHC’s most accessible, vivid approximation yet of Brian Eno’s fabled ‘vision of a psychedelic Africa’’ (Mojo).
‘A ceaselessly unpredictable and eclectic record that manages to sound as traditional as it does experimental’ (Uncut).

Generally considered his best studio album.
‘His solo on West Coast Blues is very nearly incredible’ (The Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD).
A quartet session from 1960, featuring wonderful accompaniment by Tommy Flanagan.

‘Classic Vinyl Series.’