Death Is a Woman (1966)

One of Jamaica's most consistent vocal groups, and unfortunately one of the most unsung, the Ethiopians were led by the distinctive tenor and fine songwriting skills of Leonard Dillon. Originally a trio (with Stephen Taylor and Aston Morris), most of their hits were done with Dillon and Taylor as a duo, and their close two-part harmony is a trademark of the group. Following Taylor's death in 1975, Dillon carried on the name, double-tracking and using other singers in the studio to reproduce the trademark Ethiopians sound. This two-disc set is currently the best introduction to the Ethiopians on the market, and includes all of the group's major sides plus other rarities and oddities. Dillon is an excellent songwriter, with a compelling moral center and a knack for simple yet endlessly memorable melodies, and his songs, usually written from the ghetto sufferer's perspective, are exceedingly sly and wise.

R&B singer Lorraine Ellison had exactly three entries in the R&B charts, but she was far more prolific than that would indicate. In addition to two 1965 Mercury singles, she recorded 48 sides and three albums for Warner Bros. Records between 1966 and 1973. With an incredible vocal power, range, and intensity that was perhaps too heavy for the record-buying masses, Ellison never made it big, except of course in the hearts of committed soul fans-and the occasional rock and pop buyer.

This set includes everything from Sedaka's first ultra-rare Melba session to the end of his RCA contract in 1966. Also features many unissued recordings, as well as a number of recordings previously only available in electronic stereo, but now remixed by Bill Inglot into true stereo for the first time. In addition, it contains all his German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew recordings, including previously unissued German, Spanish, and Japanese recordings.

Sex entwined with death and politics finds an even more ardent interpretation in this film, which begins with the martial-sexual posturing of a group of men and one woman, presumably before they commit collective suicide. Presumably, for snatches of images of novelist/actor/ultra-nationalist Mishima Yukio and his ritual suicide are interspersed with the sequence as a kind of parallel commentary on it.