Jim Thorpe – All American (1951) Michael Curtiz, Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran

"This is long overdue. I mean, looooooonnnnnng overdue. A solo album by Jim [White]. The trap kit – so straightforward, so mysterious. What's inside those things? Air and light – from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn's atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow.

“Jim’s big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), search you like you’re a song he wants to see if he can add to. The trap kit — so straightforward, so mysterious. Air and light, a vibration sent through prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn’s atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through…the first day of school….[All Hits: Memories] sets time free, [to] frolic, graze, and remember.” - Bill Callahan

A man who spent his formative years in prison for murder is released, and struggles to adjust to the outside world and escape his lurid past. He gets involved with a cheap dancehall girl, and when her protector is accidentally killed, they go on the lam together, getting jobs as farm labourers. But some fellow workers get wise to them.

The Definitive Groove Collection amounts, roughly, to a combination of two older Rhino compilations: 1994's Stellar Fungk: The Best of Slave and 2003's Party Lights: More of the Best. With a couple minor exceptions, it contains all of Slave's charting singles (such as "Slide," "Just a Touch of Love," and "Watching You") as well as several spectacular tracks that never hit the charts ("Party Lites," "Steal Your Heart," and "I'll Be Gone," just to name a handful). As with its predecessors, this two-disc set also contains some but not all of the notable material released by Steve Arrington and his Hall of Fame ("Feel So Real," "Dancin' in the Key of Life," "Way Out"). Covering all the bases with Slave and its various spinoffs (Steve Arrington's Hall of Fame, Aurra, Young & Company, Starleana) within two discs would be impossible, but this is the most comprehensive and helpfully annotated Slave anthology released to date.