Robinson, Kim Stanley (2020), The Ministry For The Future, London: Orbit

Artist, producer, writer, arranger, musician, and all-around first-class baloney-thrower Kim Fowley was the man on the scene in Hollywood, CA, during the mid- to late '60s. This collection compiles 20 tracks from Fowley's solo recordings, circa 1966-1969. The collection kicks off with the garage punker "Underground Lady" from 1966, which, Fowley is happy to point out, was released before the Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction" and the Music Machine's "Talk Talk." "The Trip" is a fascinating bit of drug-laced ephemera ("Summer's here kiddies/It's time to take a trip," Fowley leers in the intro) and one of the CD's highlights. "Fluffy Turkeys" was the A-side of one of Fowley's singles for the Original Sound label and surely must have creeped out label honcho Art Laboe, who bailed on releasing a planned full-length album after hearing this slice of madness…

Cherry is one of those early CTI albums that offers the listener the best of both the past and the future of jazz music in the early 1970s. Stanley Turrentine's husky tenor is a perfect match for Milt Jackson's soulful vibes, and when Bob James' masterful work on the Fender Rhodes is thrown into the mix we get a heady blend of soul-jazz, hard bop and the burgeoning funk-jazz sound all wrapped into one cohesive and very enjoyable record…