Back catalogue: Funk

Review: The landmark first album by Dom Salvador released in 1969. Exemplary of Salvador's characteristic blend of Brazilian rhythms and American jazz influences, the album flaunts a mix of samba, bossa nova and hard bop, highlighting Salvador's innovative approach and technical prowess. A bright and redolent sound wafts from the likes of 'Cantinflas' and 'O Rio', which build and burgeon as danceable motifs that would work equally as well for montage or opening sequences in film. Elsewhere, the more freeform rhapsodies like 'Pais Tropical' hear Salvador's piano in full sway.

Review: Sly & The Family Stone's Anthology is about as good as it gets for fans of funk and soul. It is a catchy compilation with infectious hooks as well as plenty of potent and powerful messages and it spans the entirety of thereat bands careers from their earliest mentions to their last great hits of the time. It was first released in 1981 and features such US Billboard chart-topping tunes such as 'Family Affair', 'Everyday People' and 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)'. The limited edition record comes on limited edition and numbered gatefold 180 gram audiophile pink vinyl.

Review: One of two jazz greats going by the name Lonnie Smith, this jovial 1967 jazz-funk opus is most firmly and assiduously credited to the former of the two to claim the name. The renowned organist - whose organ of choice, aside from the heart, was the Hammond B3 - rose to fame as the in-house pipe maestro for George Benson and his quartet during the early 1960s, after which he struck out on his own accord(ion). Aside from its covert KFC brand ambassadorship, Finger Lickin' Good also happens to be a wicked whirl of a jazz record. Smith's plucky organ is as salient as a blue myna flocking among starlings; 'Minor Chant' works as the introductory example of this. The right hand of the Hammond is distinctly clucky and low-midded in the mix, whilst the comparatively drawn-out left hand is centralised and sustained. Eleven prodigious tracks ensue, with the sardonically intoned jive 'Keep Talkin'' standing out among them, its titular chatterbox seemingly mimicked in jest by Smith's mimetic playing.

Review: American rap outfit Sugarhill Gang changed music history with their fresh hip-hop sounds and never more so than on their self-titled album. It is often said to be the first rap full length and it came in 1980, a full four-plus decades ago now so gets a special, if possibly slighty late, 40th-anniversary reissue on limited edition and numbered heavyweight vinyl. It, of course, includes the band's most seminal tune, 'Rapper's Delight', in two different versions, as well as equally timeless joints like 'Rapper's Reprise (Jam-Jam)' and the much loved 'Sugar Hill Groove'. A bona fide classic, this one.