Jive Time Records

Based in Detroit, the Politicians' members were the equivalent to Motown's Funk Brothers, but for the Hot Wax and Invictus labels. Though the Politicians recorded only one album, 1972's The Politicians Featuring McKinley Jackson, it contained enough heat for three. Led by trombonist/composer/producer/arranger Jackson, the group created a treasure trove of brash and soulful funk here. On the evidence of The Politicians..., Jackson deserves to be much better known and this record is DJ gold. Read critic Buckley Mayfield's review of it on our blog. Link in comments.

Led by prolific German drummer/library-music composer Klaus Weiss, Niagara were a showcase for his and fellow drummer/percussionist mates to go beat crazy in the studio. On their 1970 debut LP, Niagara erected two sidelong jams that undulate and mutate with spontaneous-seeming invention, but knowing Weiss, they were likely precisely composed.

This record may change haters’ bias against drum solos, as there are many phenomenal ones transpiring throughout Niagara‘s 40 minutes. Critic Buckley Mayfield reviews this little-known monster LP on our blog. Link in comments. [Note: Because FB likely would censor the Niagara cover's naked breast, I've posted a panel from inside the gatefold sleeve.]

Although Sonny Bono wrote many hits with Cher in the '60s, he was generally not taken very seriously by true heads. His '70s TV variety show with Ms. Sarkisian, in which Bono was often the butt of jokes, nudged him further into buffoonish territory. But Sonny was a solid tunesmith, and his lone solo LP, 1967's Inner Views, sounds like his bid to be a genuine Artiste™—or was it just another psychsploitation cash-in... albeit one that didn't sell well? Whatever the case, Inner Views is an interesting curio/period piece. Read critic Buckley Mayfield's review of it on our blog. Link in comments.

A white Englishwoman with phenomenal pipes singing and writing songs while backed by early-’70s Funkadelic? And we get *two* excellent Rolling Stones covers, to boot? Jeez, Ruth Copeland’s 1971 sophomore LP I Am What I Am should be WAY better known than it is. Writing two songs for Parliament's debut Osmium led to Copeland getting signed to Detroit's Invictus label, who tried to make Ruth the Caucasian Diana Ross. Alas, the foolish public weren't buying it. Still, I Am What I Am—which Copeland also produced—is a cult classic, a real IYKYK funk/soul gem. Read critic Buckley Mayfield's review of it on our blog. Link in comments.

Harumi Ando is part of that rarefied club of one-and-done artists: musicians who released one great LP and then peaced out for various reasons. What makes Harumi’s case even more interesting is that he seems to have vanished from everyone’s radar in the decades following the release of his 1968 self-titled debut album.

Mystery pervades Harumi and his psych-pop oddity. How did an unproven Japanese solo musician hook up with accomplished—and uncredited—New York players in a studio helmed by Tom Wilson, producer of classics by the Velvet Underground and others? Why did Verve allow him to cut a double LP whose second disc consists of sidelong excursions with zero commercial potential? Could the reason really be down to Verve’s execs being high on hallucinogens and the notion that “this is what the kids want”?

On our blog, critic Buckley Mayfield dives deep into this enigmatic record. Link in comments.

Marvin Gaye’s only film score is one of the zeniths of the short-lived blaxploitation genre. Beyond that major feat, Trouble Man (1972) stands as one of Gaye’s greatest albums, as well as the first one he totally wrote and produced. The odd thing about Trouble Man is that Gaye—one of soul music’s most emotive and powerful vocalists—seldom sings on it. No, Marvin was more interested in playing the Moog synthesizer that fellow Motown superstar Stevie Wonder had recently gifted him. The result is a stunning anomaly in Gaye’s phenomenal catalog. Read critic Buckley Mayfield's review of his favorite Marvin Gaye LP on our blog. Link in comments.

Before they became a well-oiled hit machine and the punch line to millions of unfunny discophobic jokes, KC & The Sunshine Band were a tight little funk group of distinction. Then their second album yielded TWO chart-topping singles and they became superstars riding the burgeoning disco phenomenon. But a strange thing happened: Their third LP came out the same year as their breakthrough record, but under The Sunshine Band moniker, and it consisted of funky-as-hell instrumentals. What was up with that? Critic Buckley Mayfield explains in a review of 1975's aptly titled The Sound Of Sunshine on our blog. Link in comments.

Ambient 3: Day Of Radiance came into being in 1980 after a fortuitous meeting in NYC's Washington Square Park between Brian Eno and a busking zither player named Laraaji. Eno's acumen and production skills facilitated one of the most peace-inducing recordings of New Age-scented ambient music to which the world has ever had its chakras aligned. Critic Buckley Mayfield stepped down off his cloud of bliss to review Laraaji's breakthrough LP on our blog. Link in comments.

The final King Crimson album before they took an extended hiatus and transformed into a different beast altogether in 1981, Red (1974) is the British prog-rock pioneers’ heaviest LP and is considered by many smart people to be their peak. The paradox of the phenomenal Red is, Fripp thought that King Crimson was an obsolete dinosaur. And yet, KC created a masterpiece that’s influenced a raft of rock groups in the ensuing decades. Critic Buckley Mayfield raves about Red till he's blue in the face on our blog. Link in comments.

Herbie Hancock's 1973 LP Sextant arrived smack dab in the middle of the legendary keyboardist/composer's exceptionally fertile fusion era. Containing only 3 tracks that average 13 minutes a piece, Sextant found Hancock and his band of explorers taking jazz to extremes seldom traversed outside of Sun Ra’s omniverse. Critic Buckley Mayfield picks his jaw up off the floor to present his thoughts about Hancock's most outré album in a review on our blog. Link in comments.

After a couple of promising EPs for Sub Pop, Seattle trio Truly jumped to a major label for their excellent 1995 debut LP, Fast Stories… From Kid Coma, just as grunge was fading from public consciousness and its potency was being watered down by non-Pacific Northwest epigones. For this classic psych-grunge album alone, though, guitarist/vocalist Robert Roth, ex-Soundgarden bassist Hiro Yamamoto, and former Screaming Trees drummer Mark Pickerel deserved much more acclaim and fortune. On our blog, critic Buckley Mayfield laments Truly's relative obscurity while raving about Fast Stories' greatness. Link in comments.