Hardcore Kicks

Everything Is Recorded is a collaborative project spearheaded by Richard Russell, an influential British producer who runs the highly successful independent label XL Recordings. The collective's recordings are born from recording sessions taking place at Russell's London recording studios, featuring a wide range of R&B, hip-hop, indie, and jazz musicians, including XL regulars like Sampha and Giggs as well as more surprising guests such as Dirty Three violinist Warren Ellis and American saxophone virtuoso Kamasi Washington. While anything is possible within these sessions, the results often encompass dark trip-hop, vulnerable soul, and brooding rap.

This compilation features some of the best solo material from the Parliament/Funkadelic crew during the late '70s and '80s under the direction of George Clinton. Ever the entrepreneur, Clinton had farmed his aggregate of loose booties to no less than five respective (major) labels. While technically Parliament was recording for Casablanca and Funkadelic was signed to Warner Bros., Clinton's short-lived Uncle Jam imprint was issued and distributed by Columbia/Epic. It is here that listeners find the 15 tracks – nine of which are making their debut in the digital domain – that comprise Six Degrees of P-Funk: The Best of George Clinton & His Funky Family (2003).

Italy's female rocker par excellence, Gianna Nannini seems only to get better with age. Giannadream: Solo i Sogni Sono Veri is her 16th studio album, and it continues her winning collaboration with producer/arranger Wil Malone and songwriter Pacifico (who co-wrote five songs and sings on the last track), one that started in 2006 with the extremely successful Grazie. Nannini possesses an incredibly gripping voice, capable of sounding simultaneously tender and coarse…

People, Hell and Angels is a collection of quality studio tracks recorded (mostly) in 1968-1969 as the Experience was coming to an end and Jimi was renewing his friendships with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles, who appear here as sidemen on most of these tracks. The surprising thing about this set is not the sound quality (which is exceptional) or that these all sound like finished tracks, but the fact that even avid Hendrix bootleg collectors are unlikely to have heard most of this material.
A great version of "Earth Blues" kicks things off with just Jimi, Billy, and Buddy (whose drums were replaced by Mitch Mitchell on the Rainbow Bridge/First Rays version). It's a more forceful take than the other version and also has some different lyrics…

In 2000, Fantasy finally treated the Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog with the respect it deserved, remastering the entire catalog and issuing them in lavish editions with rich liner notes and slipcases. So, when they decided to release a "complete recorded works" box set a year later, the results weren't quite as revelatory as they may have been, since even if this was remastered again, it's hard for most listeners to notice the difference between this and the previous material, and all the liner notes – from such luminaries as Dave Marsh, Ben Fong-Torres, Ed Ward, Stanley Booth, and Robert Christgau – are printed as the liners here, meaning that for the hardcore who bought the whole catalog a year before, this is almost anti-climatic…