Mountain Best of

Georges Brassens was a French singer-songwriter and poet. He wrote and sang, with his guitar, more than a hundred of his poems, as well as texts from many others such as Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, or Louis Aragon. In 1967, he received the Grand Prix de Poésie of the Académie française. Between 1952 and 1976, he recorded fourteen albums that include several popular French songs such as Les copains d'abord, Chanson pour l'Auvergnat, La mauvaise réputation, and Mourir pour des idées. Most of his texts are black humour-tinged and often anarchist-minded.

Say the name Dandy Livingstone to most American reggae fans and they'll draw a blank, but in the U.K. he remains a revered figure, and one of the most influential. Born in Jamaica, but relocating to the U.K. in the late '50s at age 15, Livingstone cut his first single in 1963 while still at college, and over the next decade defined the U.K.'s reggae sound both as a singer and producer. On some levels he was Britain's answer to Prince Buster; both were fine singers and an even more gifted producers with their own distinctive sounds. While Buster famously melded the military tattoos that entranced him as a child to the music he loved, Livingstone blended the myriad styles of music he adored – Jamaican, American, and British – then decanted them over the grooves.

Although they only attained the huge success of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys for a short time in the mid-'60s, time has judged the Byrds to be nearly as influential as those groups in the long run. They were not solely responsible for devising folk-rock, but they were certainly more responsible than any other single act (Dylan included) for melding the innovations and energy of the British Invasion with the best lyrical and musical elements of contemporary folk music. The jangling, 12-string guitar sound of leader Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker was permanently absorbed into the vocabulary of rock. They also played a vital role in pioneering psychedelic rock and country-rock, the unifying element being their angelic harmonies and restless eclecticism…

4 Cd Quality 80-track anthology of the great vocal group's singles incl Just For A Thrill, My Prayer, That's When Your Heartaches Begin, Stranger In Paradise and more.

Similar to Deep Beats' electro collection, the Prelude volume in the Absolutely series covers the disco and proto-house label with tracks by Jocelyn Brown, Sharon Redd, "D" Train, France Joli and Musique, among others. The contributors aren't quite as essential as the remixers, however; no less a collection of production all-stars than Shep Pettibone, Francois Kervorkian, Larry Levan and Tony Humphries contribute extended remixes, all of them contemporary with the original Prelude release. The result is a compilation which charts the changeover from '70s disco to '80s house.