Ana y Jaime

title:: Es Largo el Camino
label:: El Disco Es Cultura

Ana Y Jaime were a Colombian brother/sister duo who recorded in the late 60s.

They are best known for recording a Spanish language version of Terry Jack's hit Seasons in the Sun and Francis Lai's Love Story, but those songs are not included here. Es Largo El Camino, instead is a cd compilation on the El Disco Es Cultura label that collects together some obscure sides recorded in the late 60s that have a tense folk rock vibe with Spanish language duet style for the vocals.

Bango

title:: Bango
label:: Shadoks

The few things I had heard regarding the Brazilian band Bangos 1970 s/t album went something like this “killer fuzz, swirling organs, heavy-psych, blah, blah.”

What I find amazing about Bango is their ability to interpret a really eclectic range of American and British influences in English and Portuguese lyrics resulting in an album that while only twenty-nine minutes long, displays a diversity of styles.

Funkadelic

title:: Funkadelic
label:: Westbound / Ace

Funkadelic rose from the ashes of George Clinton's soul group The Parliaments (who later recorded as Parliament) and released 7 albums and a slew of singles on the Detroit label Westbound.

The UK label Ace has joined forces with Westbound in a splendid reissue campaign, reissuing the Funkadelic albums with their respective single sides as bonus tracks, in a series of cd reissues which outshine any Funkadelic reissues that came before.

Japan

title:: Tin Drum + The Art of Parties EP
label:: Virgin

Released in 1981, Tin Drum was Japan's final album before they broke up in 1982. It was and is a fantastic album. This package places a remastered copy of Tin Drum in a box with The Art of Parties EP and a booklet of photos of the band, modeled after the insert of the original LP.

Japan brought together many sounds and influences. On earlier records they were a musically sophisticated band that looked a bit like Hanoi Rocks. Tin Drum changed that, making them more like prog-punk.

La Peste

title:: v.2.0
label:: Smash Easy

In1979, Boston punk power trio La peste disbanded. No big messy break up. No fighting.

La peste v.2.0 is music cobbled from the remaining parts of the break-up. After Peter Dayton left guitarist Ian Kalinosky was added to the band's line up. Once thought to have been lost, the tapes that comprise this release of demo recordings are from 1980. They capture the live, raw presence of the post-Dayton reconstruction.