…Over the course of those decades, Ace Records has established a number of long-running series including their Songwriters and Producers lines. A recent release in the Songwriters series celebrates two of the all-time greats in both categories: Philadelphia’s Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Love Train: The Gamble and Huff Songbook brings together 24 songs from the Philadelphia International Records duo who also formed two thirds of Mighty Three Publishing along with the late Thom Bell. Though some of PIR’s brightest lights are represented here (The O’Jays, Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes, Lou Rawls), the collection draws heavily on the songs written by G&H that left Philly to resonate in Detroit, Memphis, London, Jamaica, and beyond.
Tag Archive: Various Artists
H.R. Giger (1940-2014) was a surrealist artist known most for his design of the xenomorph from the Alien films and a number of album covers and related artwork for Magma, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Celtic Frost, and the Dead Kennedys. A Giger insert in the latter’s Frankenchrist album was the subject of a criminal lawsuit, where members of the Kennedys and several other parties were alleged to have contributed to “distribution of harmful matter to minors” due to the sexual nature of the artwork. The trial ended in acquittal, with the judge recognizing that the piece had at least some artistic merit. This publicity probably led to more people (including teenagers) becoming aware of Giger’s psychosexual works.
But Giger is mostly known for his disturbing…
France’s near-revolution of May ’68 kicked the country’s small but vibrant counter-culture into overdrive and birthed a local underground music scene. The bands it spawned made music with far less rock purity than groups from the UK and US – their influences foregrounded improvisation, disjunction and genre-blending: Soft Machine, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, free jazz and radical politics. The introduction of the synthesiser in the early 1970s added fuel to the fire.
This six-track compilation inaugurates a series to accompany Ian Thompson’s Synths, Sax & Situationists – the first English-language book to investigate this extraordinary and still largely unknown movement. It focuses on the second wave of bands that emerged in 1972/3, when…
In 1971 several dozen African American soul, jazz, and gospel artists embarked on a journey that would change the lives of everyone involved. They traveled from New York City to Ghana, West Africa to take part in a 13-hour concert entitled Soul to Soul. The concert was a celebration of 14 years of Ghana’s independence from British rule. For most of these artists it was their first trip to Africa. For the African American musicians, this was a journey about personal roots, the ancestral homeland, history, discovery, loss, pain and joy.
Directed by Academy AwardⓇ winner Denis Sanders and produced by Tom Mosk & Richard Bock, the concert film/documentary had a limited theatrical run in 1971. It now returns restored with the original edit reconstructing each scene…
Lee “Scratch” Perry Presents Black Man’s Time: The Jamaican Upsetters Singles 1972 Chapter 1 captures a transformative moment in the career of Lee “Scratch” Perry, a year when his productions begin to fully reflect both his radical studio experimentation and his increasingly outspoken personal vision. Released as part of Doctor Bird’s chronological exploration of Perry’s Jamaican output, this collection shines a focused light on 1972 – a year that quietly reshapes the future of reggae and lays crucial groundwork for what soon becomes known as dub.
By this stage in the early 1970s, Perry is no longer just producing songs; he is reconstructing them. His approach to rhythm grows more skeletal and hypnotic, basslines push further to the front…
New 2026 Edition of 600% Dynamite, part of Soul Jazz Records classic compilation series of Jamaican music, featuring killer reggae in all styles – ska, soul, rocksteady, dancehall, funk and dub. Originally released in 2003 this album has been out of print for nearly 20 years making it one of the most-collectible of Soul Jazz Records’ Dynamite! Series.
Newly remastered and relicensed for 2026, the album is packed with dancefloor classics and non-stop reggae anthems such as Tenor Saw’s ‘Golden Hen’, Johnny Osbourne’s ‘Buddy Bye’, Dennis Brown’s ‘Wolf & Shepard’ and Sister Nancy’s ’Transport Connection’ alongside hard-to-find cuts by Tall T and the Touchers, The Interns, Tetrack and others, making the album a superlative…
Continuing Pet Shop Boys’ infrequent series of remix collections, Disco 5 mainly focuses on the duo’s own remixes and productions for other artists, like Disco 4 did, rather than outside remixes of their own material, like the first three volumes. Of course, when the pair remix or produce a song for another artist, they pretty much turn it into a Pet Shop Boys song, and considering that the majority of Disco 5 consists of material created during the 2020s, it’s close to being a PSB album that happens to have a lot of guest vocalists on it. Two of the set’s highlights are minor rarities that hadn’t appeared on a PSB collection until now. The duo produced several selections on the soundtrack to the 1993 film The Crying Game, including Boy George’s hit title track, but…
Mojo Presents The Best of 2025 offers a carefully curated snapshot of a year that feels both restless and creatively rich. Compiled by the editors of MOJO, the CD brings together a diverse selection of tracks that reflect the magazine’s long-standing taste for depth, craft, and personality over hype.
Rather than chasing chart trends, the compilation highlights artists who shape the musical conversation in quieter but more lasting ways.
The tracklist moves fluidly between established names and emerging voices, blending indie, rock, folk, soul, and alternative textures into a cohesive listening experience. It plays less like a random playlist and more like a guided tour through the year’s most compelling sounds.
In an age dominated by algorithms…
Compiling music from throughout continental Europe during the height of psychedelia and progressive rock, So High I’ve Been: A European Rock Anthology 1967-1973 touches on several different styles and movements, from Dutch Nederbeat to Krautrock. This ranges from more blues-based rock & roll and beat music to groups exploring the outer limits, either through cosmic jamming or more ambitious and conceptual means, like French Zeuhl legends Magma, who sing in a self-invented language. Selections by a few groups like the Rattles and Necronomicon are occupied with occult themes, but the music is closer to the dark side of prog, and not heavy enough to be deemed metal. Other material runs the gamut from druggy freak-outs to more…
Not to be confused with Stranger Things: The WSQK Collection — a fun, in-world treat from the same season — this official soundtrack for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things includes much of the same that fans have come to expect: beloved classics and forgotten throwbacks that tie neatly into the plot of the show. While there’s no big “Running Up That Hill” moment here, the mixtape feel of the track selections makes it a decent compilation. One can imagine — if one is old enough — sitting in front of a boombox with the pause and record buttons compressed, waiting for just the right moment to bridge an early Michael Jackson gem with a Tiffany smash hit. Meanwhile, ABBA, Bowie, and Iron Maiden weave seamlessly with Pixies, Butthole Surfers,…
Released by Houndstooth (the in-house record label of London nightclub Fabric) in partnership with Mastery-a London sound studio best known for putting on installations and live shows with a host of performers-Quantum Sound is billed as a record “for listening with eyes closed.” You can listen to each of the comp’s 12 tracks in its entirety or, for maximum transcendence, an hour-long continuous mix crafted by composer and club supremo Hannah Holland, who also contributes two excellent productions of her own. The vinyl even comes with an eye mask if you buy it from Fabric’s website.
The air of peace and tranquility permeating this music is to be expected. But it comes from several unlikely sources, author and TV personality…
Backtracking a bit from previously issued volumes of the series, Musik Music Musique 1979: The Roots of Synth Pop functions as a sort of prequel, mapping out the blueprint of the new wave revolution of the ’80s, from synth-heavy post-punk and art rock to some of synth pop’s earliest chart-toppers. It’s not as if electronic instruments weren’t prominent in popular music before 1979, but synthesizers were clearly well on their way to being a defining characteristic of the musical landscape. The set starts with the Buggles’ “Technopop,” proposing a name for the music of the future — Kraftwerk would later give a song a similar title on 1986’s Electric Café, which originally had the working title Techno Pop as well, and decades later, a reissue retroactively bore…
…JUNGLIST! Old Skool Ragga, D&B, Jungle leans to Soul Jazz’s deep reggae-dub-dancehall roots with a treasurable haul of ’93-’95 joints covering the rapid evolution from hardcore to jungle and the seeds of D&B to come. It spotlights a countrywide phenomena never to be repeated at such scale, pulling up artists who would become household names for a brief window of time.
It’s super strong on the old skool heroes, namely M-Beat’s strongback steppers ’Surrender’ and ‘Rumble’, the sizzling dark/light rushes of Krome & Time’s Ruffneck Scouts’, and Bizzy B with the baddest cuts of Amen breakage in a ‘Big Things’ that now trades from upwards of £250, 2nd hand, and his cantankerous ‘Dub Select’, plus the needlepoint step sequencing of…
This year’s “in” black music style is the slow, sweet groove of soul harmony ballads. Interest has grown over the last decade and now the rarer of these records regularly reach four figure prices. This interest in Soul Harmony has led to Ace forming its own singles label of that name for the purpose of issuing tracks on vinyl for DJs and collectors of this genre.
Though not that expensive, several tracks on here command hefty prices due to demand. The Question Marks on Money, the Puffs on Dore, John Wesley and the 4 Tees’ Melic offering will make a hole in most pockets. We aren’t picking the songs on price though, rather on musical excellence. Hence the recordings by the Mad Lads, Moments, Diplomats and Lee Williams…
Stafell Sbâr Sain (Sain’s Spare Room) is a vibrant showcase of Welsh folk at its most diverse and inventive. Released on limited-run vinyl by Sain, Wales’ oldest independent label, this compilation brings together 12 tracks that weave a strong traditional thread while embracing bold contemporary sounds.
Long-established names like Bob Delyn, Lleuwen Steffan and Gwilym Bowen Rhys share space with fresh voices such as Irfan Rais, a Singaporean who learned Welsh during his studies, a testament to the genre’s growing global reach. The album balances reworkings of classics, like Georgia Ruth’s delicate take on ‘Blodau’r Flwyddyn’, with striking originals such as Lleuwen’s ‘Haleliwia Newydd’. Folk royalty is represented by newcomers…
…”Microwave,” the 1989 track from Japanese singer Kyoko Koizumi, opens with a plasticky creak and a kitchen timer ring. Adding in crunchy guitar samples, a thudding drum machine and a house-inspired keyboard solo, the chart-topping vocalist embraced the playful spirit that defined Japan’s experimental ’80s genre, known as techno kayō, or techno pop. Positioned on the B-side of the new vinyl-only compilation, Techno Kayō Vol. 1: Japanese Techno Pop 1981-1989, “Microwave” proves that this sometimes-underestimated genre still has the power to surprise.
Lovingly compiled by Toshihito “Dubby” Maeyama (owner of Onda records) and Antal Heitlager (co-founder of Amsterdam’s renowned Rush Hour label), Vol. 1 sets out to establish…
CBGB’s was the center of the N.Y.C. punk explosion, as well as a welcoming place to play for all the artists and bands who followed in the wake. CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986 is a four-disc set that seeks to paint a picture of the original scene as it burst out into the open as well as detailing the various sounds and movements, like no wave and hardcore, that were born in the ensuing years. All the groups one would hope for are here, represented by slightly deeper cuts — Talking Heads’ sprightly live version of “A Clean Break” for one — along with a ton of lesser-known bands and a healthy dose of super-obscure ones. It’s the kind of collection where even someone with a healthy knowledge of the scene will be constantly surprised. One surprise element…
A journey through the musical life of Gary Young, the subject of the SXSW-winning documentary Louder Than You Think and the wild polymath best known as the original drummer for indie royalty Pavement: from early hardcore punk and post-punk recordings to the merry chaos of Hospital, whose ‘Plant Man’ ended up being an improbable MTV favorite.
Original music created by Noah Georgeson and Edward W. Dahl is presented alongside ultra-rare Pavement live tracks and something quite special: a Gary Young-penned oddity that Gary’s old friend Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg turned into a suitably trippy musical track (spiced with some Stephen Malkmus feedback yowls), recorded for the movie shortly before Gary’s passing in August 2023.
The press release for Pop Ambient 2026, the 26th installment of Kompakt Records’ influential ambient compilations, paraphrases Heraclitus, comparing ambient music to a river: “everything flows, nothing remains.” It’s an apt summation of what makes the Pop Ambient series such a compelling listen, even if it is mostly quiet, unobtrusive and unassuming.
Pop Ambient 2026 leans ever-so-slightly towards the “different” end of the ambient continuum, although you’d have to really lean in to notice. On its surface, Pop Ambient 2026 radiates the same pastoral, vaguely melancholic mood that has made the series such a mainstay for the past quarter-century, but there’s something more, a sense of the human wandering through the garden of machines. Take Segensklang’s “Schauer…
House, techno, and garage were respectively invented in Chicago, Detroit, and New York, but the U.K. embraced them and took underground club sounds into the pop charts during the 1980s and ’90s. Burn It Up: The Rise of British Dance Music 1986-1991 explores some of the many developments that took place during the era, from the U.K.’s first attempts at acid house to early rave anthems. Like other Cherry Red anthologies, this one casts a wide net and tries to tell a comprehensive history of its subject, making room for established classics as well as rarities, curiosities, and inclusions that might be kind of a stretch, but hear them out anyway.
The collection starts with Coldcut’s “Beats + Pieces (Mo Bass Remix),” representing…