music

Gold (Side A/B) and Black/Red (Side C/D), coloured vinyl. Fabulous Deluxe Edition, released after only over a year since their debut album was released.

Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin’ Else, one of the few albums featuring Davis as a sideman, is a monument to that type of discourse. Like Davis’ Kind of Blue, recorded with Adderley the following year,

This is some serious top shelf material out of Baltimore and a certified masterclass in sweet symphonic soul. Optimistics was originally released in 1970 on Turbo and those original copies are ridiculously rare and, of course, the prices are equally ridiculous. It’s bursting with goodness and, like the best of its genre, it radiates a heart-breaking ambience that cuts right to the core. The whole LP is a winning blend of slow, spine-tingling ballads and joyously upbeat tracks. It’s a case of A+ vocals, melodies and harmonies over beautiful playing and arrangements. It deserves to be canonical.

- photograph of the actual used record in the store - Share My World is the third studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter Mary J. Blige, released by MCA Records on Earth Day, April 22, 1997. The album became Blige’s first to open at number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart. Guest appearances are made by hip hop and R&B stars such as Lil' Kim, Nas, The LOX, George Benson, Roy Ayers and R. Kelly, the album was released to generally positive reviews from most music critics, and earned Blige numerous accolades and nominations, including a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Album in 1998.

After almost twenty 45s under various pseudonyms, their thrilling and hugely successful debut album with London based singer Gizelle Smith and a tour with concerts throughout Europe, Germany’s most prolific deep funk formation is ready to step further into the spotlight on their second longplayer. The aptly titled THE FUTURE IS HERE sees the group explore new territories with features by hiphop legends Afrika Bambaataa and Charlie Funk, fresh French singer Caroline Lacaze and German rare groove queen Su Kramer, while manifesting their unique raw funk sound and refining their unmistakable instrumental style that has long gained international reputation. Features old-style heavy cardboard sleeve, free of barcodes and weblinks and includes a coupon for free full quality AIFF download of the entire album.

Previously unreleased soul and funk from legendary Atlanta guitarist/singer/songwriter Richard Marks, the companion piece to Now-Again Records' Never Satisfied anthology. These songs, found on reels that Marks kept in his home, color Marks’ stylistic development – from his earliest work for the legendary Tuska label in the late ‘60s, through his more mature releases on smaller regional labels into the late ‘70s.

What else could brighten the day of a San Quentin inmate more than a visit of living legend B.B. King? Recorded in the same correctional facility that spawned Johnny Cash's Live At San Quentin, B.B. King's recording oozes the same kind of energy that put Cash's album in the books. But with a twist: as he makes the audience applaud for the guards, this seems kind of strange on first sight. But B.B. King is no Johnny Cash: the audience knows that they are in jail for a reason, and the blues master isn't unnecessarily sympathetic of their deeds. Which is what B.B. King's brand of blues is all about: being true to yourself no matter what, and having fun while at it. Now let the good times roll!

My Music is a stellar spiritual soul / jazz-funk gem, recorded by keyboardist-singer Samuel Jonathan Johnson in 1978. The epitome of a cult classic, it didn't do much upon its release but steadily found an audience over the decades that followed. It eventually worked its way into the culture, and latterly the wantlists, of wave after wave of soul aficionados. An intoxicating blend of mellow moments and more groove-heavy tracks it features spacey keys whilst its lush production gives it a luxurious, enveloping warmth.