Swaying Round

Good to hear that Nicky Hopkins ('44-'94) finally got his well-deserved memorial. Most famous for his work with the Stones (She's A Rainbow, Sympathy For The Devil, Exile On Main St), the session musician par excellence also helped out the Beatles, the Kinks, Jeff Beck, The Who, and the Jefferson Airplane (on stage at Woodstock no less). Even if you don't know his name, you'll have heard him playing keyboards on a couple of your favourite records. Tip: buy the man's '73 solo effort The Tin Man Was A Dreamer: a highly enjoyable record.

Nicky Hopkins - Speed On

Cry To Me

Here come those tears again... Presenting one more weepy six pack for your listening pleasure.  Watery artwork by the mighty Tinca. Hit the trail, my amigos da musica.

York Brothers - My Tears Will Never Make You Change
John Williams - Blues, Tears And Sorrow
Roger Morris - The Trail Of Tears

The Knitters - Cryin' But My Tears Are Far Away

Yo La Tengo - Tears Are In Your Eyes

Tuxedo Moon - No Tears

Cry Awhile

Presenting a six pack that'll make you weep. Sobbing artwork, as usual, by Tinca. Hankies at the ready... here we go.

Dexter Gordon - I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry

Art Pepper Quintet - Tears Inside

Walter & The Admerations - Life Of Tears

The Immortals - Hot Tears

The Tonettes - No Tears
Gregory Isaacs & Ranking Barnabas - Tumbling Tears

Walk On

A true raga from '66, even featuring authentic Indian tabla drums. Hypnotizing as hell.

Peter Walker - White Wind

Swaying Softly

A psychedelic mouthharp dirge that gets under your skin. As Endless Boogie singer and record collector Paul Major writes about this track in the liner notes to his often intriguing Feel The Music compilation, 'the blue lightning does strobe-like flashes and you feel even more alone..."

Joint Effort - Blue Lighting

Sawadee, Guys

The exotica factor can't be denied of course - how many bands from Thailand do you know? - but Khana Bierbood (or คณะเบียร์บูด, meaning Strange Brew) doesn't deserve to be dismissed as just another weird-ass gimmick from the Far East. Their garagy tunes are simply too infectuous for that. Short, surf, and fun, out now on the hip Guruguru Brain label.

Khana Bierbood - Plankton Bloom

Just Light Up

Crazy afro rhythms, bopping saxes, and way out wahwah guitars, coming to you from Milan, Italy. Stoner madness supreme. Belissima!

Al Doum & The Farids - Light Up

Devils & Ghosts

The blues according to Masaki Batoh. As the former Ghost mastermind titled it in English but sings it in Japanese one has to guess what he's on about exactly, but you'll catch his drift I guess. Intriguing stuff from Nowhere.

Masaki Batoh - Devil Got Me

Broken Glass

Sleazy lofi rock your guilty pleasure? Got the hots for that Trux meeting the Horse in Exile sound? In that case, let me introduce you to David Nance, a homie of Simon Joyner, who's got that lowdown dirty sound down pat.

David Nance Group - 110 Blues

Jah Pride

And yet more reggae sweetness, my brethren, as the Soul Jazz label just came up with the third volume of its excellent Black Man's Pride compilation series. Irie stuff from the Studio One vaults as usual, with the relative unknowns once again managing to steal the show from the big names, which is no mean feat considering that we're talking Freddie McGregor, the Gladiators, and the Wailing Souls amongst others here. Dig this hard hitting roots anthem by the aptly named Nightingales to see what I mean.

The Nightingales - Jehovah

Pressure Dub

Pressure Sounds, always on top. The long-lasting reggae reissue label upped the ante yet again by re-releasing two incredibily rare dub albums from '77 (Conflict Dub) and '82 (Dubbing In The Front Line) as one set. With the Aggrovators playing, Bunny Lee in the producers chair and Prince Jammy as engineer, what can possibly go wrong? You know what to do, my brethren.

The Aggrovators - Skilful Dub
The Aggrovators - Babylon Dub

True West

Hot on the heels of Steve Gunn, his pal William Tyler delivers the goods as well. The Nashville native recently upped and left for sunny California, and said move gave this Brad Cook-produced record its title of course. With his deceptively simple style of picking Tyler never ceases to amaze, and featured  track Rebecca even reminded me of brother Duane's Little Martha a bit. Yup, that lovely.

William Tyler - Rebecca