Days OF The Whale

Noah and the Whale became a leading light in the British folk scene with the release of 2008's Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, their popular debut that cracked the U.K. Top Ten and spawned the hit single "5 Years Time." Formed in the southern suburbs of London, the band also attracted attention by serving as a launching pad for Laura Marling, who left the lineup to 2008 to launch an award-winning solo career. Noah and the Whale forged ahead in her absence, releasing albums that moved away from the band's folky bedrock while still maintaining a good amount of chart success. A collection includes: 'Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down' (2008), 'The First Days Of Spring' (2009), 'Last Night On Earth' (2011), 'Heart of Nowhere' (2013).

Acting, Thinking, Feeling marks the first time that psychedelic jazz ensemble The Stark Reality's Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop album has been reissued in full (the 2003 Stones Throw Records anthology Now only contained half of the original album's music). The anthology also contains the band's out-of-print Roller Coaster Ride (first issued as 1969 on Now-Again in 2003), and a series of recently discovered, previously-unreleased tracks in a 3 CD "complete works" box set. Besides the missing Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop songs, the most exciting additions to the Stark Reality's oeuvre are the three songs recorded between the earliest incarnation of the band the big band that recorded "Theme To Say Brother" and "Acting, Thinking, Feeling" in 1968 - and the slimmed down combo that recorded the Roller Coaster Ride and The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop. These recordings display a band in flux, and color the development of Stark's genius. We hear the signature sound of his "plugged in" vibes for the first time; we hear an early stab at the psychedelic "Red Yellow Moonbeams" (and realize why the addition of John Abercrombie's fuzz guitar was crucial to his vision); we hear a subtle change towards a more funk and rock based sound.

There was way too much great early soul, R & B and blues being produced in New York City to squeeze onto one double CD, so here we are again with another selection of the best. Several artists on this new compilation are very well known: Ray Charles, Little Willie John and Ike & Tine Turner for example, but many others less so. It speaks volumes about the wealth of talent in the Big Apple around the turn of the 60s that gifted singers such as Ruby Roberson, Bobby Long and Betty O Brien never quite made the grade.