Cookie Crew

The Z Records crew is off to the White Isle of Ibiza and they want us to dance along at home - hence this fittingly summery selection of celebratory disco and house gems. There are naturally plenty of recent label highlights (see the cuts from Crackazat and JKriv & Adeline) and a swathe of fine tracks and revisions from boss man Joey Negro. Amongst the many highlights you'll find the celebratory disco brilliance of Bob Sinclar, Dimitri From Paris and Byron Stingily's "Love Is The Answer", the boogie/house/soul fusion of Opolopo's colourful revision of "Searching" by Roberto De Carlo and Dyanna Fearon, the soulful house sweetness of Cookie's "Best Part of Me (Unreleased Original Mix)", and Faze Action's epic, solo-laden, jazz-funk style re-make of Raven Maize classic "Forever Together".

Songs from the Street, the boxed set that stretches back to "Sesame Street's" 1969 debut, is the kids' record of the year, if not the decade: Big Bird and the gang might've pulled it off themselves–for a crew of fix-it store workers, shopkeeps, and goofball monsters, the talent quotient's off the charts–but when you've got this many names to drop, they've got to land somewhere. What impresses most in three discs is the lack of a single thud. Cab Calloway, Pete Seeger, and James Taylor mosey in on disc one; Johnny Cash, BB King, and Tony Bennett take seats on the stoop for disc two; and the Dixie Chicks, Gloria Estefan, and R.E.M. raise the brownstone roof on disc three–and that's leaving out stars like Lena Horne, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and Trisha Yearwood. When it comes to inspiring preschoolers and their parents to sing the praises of rubber duckies, bein' green, and the people in their neighborhood; "The Street" gets busy. –Tammy La Gorce

One of the original members of Parliament, and an integral voice on Funkadelic's groundbreaking series of albums for Westbound, Fuzzy Haskins also made two solo sets for that label. They contain some of the finest P-Funk-related music and are a must for fans of the Parliafunkadelicment Thang. This compilation - compiled by P-Funk expert Marcel Visser - selects the best music from his two albums, 'A Whole Nother Thang' and 'Radio Active', as well as previously new-to-CD 12-inch versions of 'I Think I Got My Thang Together' and 'Not Yet', and a previously unreleased mix of 'Which Way Do I Disco'.