Ace レコード& CD

Review: .Following the success of his Sunday Morning, Coming Down compilation, Ace Records has asked Bobby Gillespie to put together a follow-up. This time round, the Primal Scream frontman has decided to showcase tracks he turns to "for solace, comfort and empathy" during the Scottish band's various tours. Offering a mix of country, blues, Americana, psychedelia and soul, the selected songs - including inspired efforts by Willie Nelson, Lee Hazelwood, Al Green, the Chi-Lites, Ry Cooder and Kate & Anna McGringle (whose 'Heart Like a Wheel' is a genuinely tender and heart-aching affair) - more than deliver on the album's conceptual premise, offering equal amounts of emotion and entertainment.

Review: It's hard to comprehend how significant it was when John Lee Hooker first recorded 'Boogie Chillen' in Detroit way, way back in 1948. Once the track was licensed to Modern Records, it went on to sell close to a million copies in the space of a year, at a time when recorded music was still finding its feet, and from that moment on Hooker's legendary status was confirmed until his death in 2001. Now Ace are commemorating 75 years since that landmark song was recorded, capturing two different takes of a track recorded by one man singing his honest truth and creating seismic shifts in popular culture, before such a thing even existed.

Review: Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne fame are the diggers behind this new rock assemblage which pays tribute to mid-afternoon set times at lesser-known festivals from years gone (well, the 70s) such as Deeply Vale, Bickershaw, Krumlin, Weeley, and Plumpton. They were just as important to those who attended as the more celebrated likes of Glasto' and this collection shows the sounds were just as good, too. The sounds - from big names liek Deep Purple, Hawkwind and Alan Parker & Alan Hawkshaw to lesser known acts like Jonesy, will appeal to hippies and bikers alike with big riffs, funky drumming and some psyched-out sounds.

Review: Fantastic Voyage: New Sounds For The European Cannon 1977-1981 is one of the most grandiose titles for a record we have come across in a while, but we like it. Fortunately for those involved, the music on this new gatefold heavyweight double album stands up to scrutiny for lovers of sounds that collide electronic, post-rock and experimental with synth, new wave and even a touch of new age ambient. The track list is a big one with tried and tested names like Patrick Cowley, Cabaret Voltaire, the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, Peter Gabriel and more all featuring. It makes for quite the trip and a fine reminder of the magical newness of electronic music back then.