Brand new (first edition) compilation in Mississippi’s insanely popular and highly collectable series of American Primitive compilations. This one has a sanctified theme and features great-sounding cuts from Bukka White, Kid Prince Moore, Bessie Johnson, Blind Joe Taggart, Blind Mamie Forehand, Willie Williams, Bo Weavil Jackson, Mother McCollum, Edward Clayborn, McIntorsh and Edwards, Alfred G. Karnes and Louise and Joseph. In classic Stoughton hard card sleeves. Highly recommended.

Classy reissue from Mississippi of this legendary street-punk/American Primitive side from George Coleman aka Bongo Joe, a busking musician from Texas who played the streets in the late 60s using nothing but a modified oil drum and a microphone. These recordings come from San Antonio in 1968 and document seven tracks of Joe’s wildest stylings, with beautiful melodies beat out on tin and improvised whistling solos combining with Joe’s loose narrative vocal style and hip feel for time to birth a classic of folk-spirit/real people passion that ranks alongside Abner Jay, Arthur Doyle and Hasil Adkins as well as one-off punk legends like The Novas’ “The Crusher” while still connecting to the whole post-Ayler stream of liberated African-American freedom moves. A great side, essentially a straight reissue of the original Arhoolie album, highly recommended.

Totally cool single release from Mississippi that bundles real people/folk spirit legend Abner Jay’s classic “I’m So Depressed” in an alternate solo version along with a stunning full-band house-rocking take entitled “Depression” on the flip. Totally fantastic – has to be heard to be believed. Highly recommended.

Exact repro reissue of the second album from The Rats, Fred Cole’s classy punk/trash trio. Unlike the first album, this one sees Rod Rat vacate the drumstool in favour of Sam Henry of The Wipers. Henry has a more ‘lubricated’ style than Rod but Rod was one of the most primitive drum visionaries ever to wrassle the skins so that ain’t saying much. The addition of Henry gives em a little more propulsion and it sounds fucking great . No one so explicitly and so intuitively joined the dots between original garage punk aesthetics and the new punk rock scene quite so quickly and so stupely as Fred Cole and this album is a monument to his vision, combining classic 60s song-writing with ultra-stripped down guitars-as-guitars rock/roll action and DIY snot. Rod does actually appear on the album’s final track, the amazing “Animal” which features a cool freak out section at the end complete with Funhouse-style saxophone blurt. So, yeah, another fantastic installment in one of the greatest non-corporate rock sagas of the under-the-counter culture. Highly recommended.

Cool reissue of a bunch of key sessions from ‘Mississippi’ Fred McDowell, who was discovered in 1959 by Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins. This album was originally issued under the name Fred McDowell – Volume 2 on Arhoolie and features material drawn from four sessions across 1964-65. Track listing is choice, with “I Ain’t Gonna Be Bad No More”, “Where Were You”, “I Looked At The Sun”, “Do My Baby Ever Think Of Me”, “Brooks Run Into The Ocean”, “Bull Dog Blues”, “I Walked All The Way From East St. Louis”, “Red Cross Store Blues”, “Gravel Road Blues”, “Frisco Lines”, “You Got To Move”, “I Wish I Was In Heaven Sittin’ Down”.  

Reissue of this killer side that pairs Ethiopiques saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria with Dutch anarcho/avant rock ensemble The Ex. Still one of their greatest moments, the addition of a full brass section combined with the groups’ higher mind feel for the organic evolution of motorik rhythms is supremely persuasive. Comes with a large full colour booklet documenting Mekuria’s history. Recommended.

Great reissue of a major obscurity in the back catalogue of Fred and Toody Cole aka Dead Moon/The Rats et al. Range Rats were a post-punk country and western group that used a Roland drum machine, confusing timelines and genres so completely that it couldn’t really be anyone else. Fred Cole is one of the great rock vocalists and it’s a stone pleasure to hear that voice wrap ping itself around some downer country and outlaw balladry, all played with the primitive elan and feel for non-flashy rock/roll aesthetics of Dead Moon et al. From 1985. Recommended.

Compilation of the best of the privately pressed triple LP that Charlie Brooks put together in 1999 that featured his field recordings gathered on trips to Madagasikara in the late 1990s. The three LPs were originally themed around Vocal, Valiha Marovany and Miscellaneous Instruments but this LP compiles highlights from all three, taking in traditional and modern instruments including the jejy voatavo, jejy lava, accordion, sodinas, harmonica, the kabosy and the guitar. Comes with a twelve page booklet of photography and notes.

Excellent and much-needed round-up of a bunch of 45s originally issued w/cool sleeves by Fat Possum that featured tracks from the George Mitchell collection. Mitchell wandered the South throughout the 60s and 70s capturing blues recordings from across the States and the cream of them are rounded up here. There’s some fantastic, raggedy-assed blues, not least from the bandstand rocking Jessie Mae Hemphill who comes over like a sassy trailer-park Abner Jay. Plus meaty sides from Fred McDowell, John Lee Ziegler, Rosa Lee Hill, Jimmy Lee Williams, James Davis, Houston Stackhouse, James Shorter, Precious Bryant, Joe Callicott, Lonzie Thomas, Green Paschal, Furry Lewis and Robert Johnson. This is some wild house-rocking shit. Highly recommended. 

Beautifully presented 10” set that collects legendary outsider artist/folk spirit Abner Jay’s last recordings. This is a very powerful performance from Jay, singing in an even more lonesome and forlorn style than on his earlier recordings, and with a feel of pathos and heartbreak that would outdo any soul singer. His harmonica playing is also inspired and the songs stagger along with alla the dark pneumatic appeal of VU-plays-Diddley. Hard to think of anyone else outside of Arthur Doyle with such a mainline to the real people source of American blues and free music. Track listing is choice, featuring “I Cried”, “Sitting On Top Of The World”, “My Middle Name Is The Blues”, “Love Wheel”, “Cocaine Blues” and “Too Poor To Live, Too Poor To Die”. The cover photo features a great snap of Jay drinking from the Swanee River that was used as an alternate sleeve on some of his earlier LPs but the real gravy is the chunky booklet inside with some fantastic colour snaps and a long memorial essay by Jack Teague, a late companion of Jay’s and the person who recorded this final session live in Jay’s trailer. It’s a fantastic read, with particularly well-observed insights into Jay as a person and how he lived his life, and it puts the seal on one of the most remarkable off-the-radar careers in American music. Highly recommended.