Classic fifty - Pretty nifty

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FOLK, especially English folk, doesn't get a fair outing.
Bands like Shooglenifty, alongside peers including Seth Lakeman, Lau, Jim Moray, Patrick Wolf - all of these oft-ignored folksters deserve plaudits beyond plaudits.
Folk fusion band Shooglenifty are an instrumental act playing traditional reels and whirls and suchlike, but they add to this on Venus In Tweeds a dance element, making a sort of post trad folk.
It may not be traditional folk, but the Scottish band are what folk music is all about - it's accessible, upbeat, entertaining and you can work up a sweat to it.

Classic forty nine - Dreadbanging

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WHAT do you get if you mix dub reggae and heavy metal?

Dreadbangers?

No, the offspring of that unholy union is Dub Trio's third album, Another Sound Is Dying.

The album, which is instrumental apart from the standout No Flag featuring Mike Patton of Faith No More on vocal duties, fuses heavy metal riffs fuller than Rik Waller leaving an all you can eat buffet with ponderous Mogwai style space rock and skanking Lee "Scratch" Perry dub sections.

On paper this should be a shambles, but on record it actually works.

The movements from one section to another never seem to jar, and there is a unlikely unity that carries through the whole LP.

Classic forty eight - Burnin' desire

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I CANNOT be the only person that as the Summer sun begins to shine in earnest dusts off their reggae LPs.
In fact, with the sun scorching me every time I step outside at the moment and my musical habits matching with a sun-kissed vibe, I feel obliged to drop a Bob Marley album into the Classic Collection.
It was a toss up between the contrasting feelings of my two favourites Kaya and Burnin' - with the belly-fire of the latter winning through.
The 1973 album is a confrontational, politically-charged "Summer of discontent" album, that as well as being packed with talent such as Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, the album is packed with instantly recognisable tracks like Get Up, Stand Up, I Shot The Sheriff and Burnin' And Lootin' - perfect if you're looking to lively up yourself this Summer.

Classic forty seven - Pause for One Hot Minute

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LIKE previous Classic Collection contribution Bad by Michael Jackson, The Red Hot Chili Peppers' One Hot Minute is a great album overlooked because of the company it keeps.
Sandwiched between Blood Sugar Sex Magick and Californication, the LP, the group's only outing without John Frusciante as guitarist is better than just being an enigmatic sidenote on their illustrious back catalogue.
As well as the distinctive heavy metal leanings of former Janes Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro - best exemplified on One Big Mob - there's plenty more of note.
It's an album containing some of Flea's most furious basslines like Coffee Shop, moments of emotion like Kurt Cobain tribute Tearjerker and comedy as in Pea, raw funk like the awesome Falling Into Grace and Walkabout, and big hits like Aeroplane.
So spare a few seconds for One Hot Minute - I guarantee it's spicier than you may remember.

Classic forty six - Baby love

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NEW York band Made Out Of Babies' The Ruiner is a sledgehammer of an album.
Led by the distinctive primal vocals of Julie Christmas, who can shout, scream and even sing like a female Daryl Palumbo, the music here is unquestionably a brutal assault on the listener.
However each churning hardcore track here carries enough melody to make it stick.
An intense experience, 2008's The Ruiner has all the makings of a cult classic.

Classic forty five - USA! USA!

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LET’S not beat around the bush, Presidents Of The United States Of America, on their eponymous debut, showed that when it came to rocking out, their peers had nix on them.
The trio hoover up the competition on Presidents Of The United States Of America with a sound lincoln punky rock with a wry sense of comedy - there can’t be many bands that compose lyrics like “I can’t get your body out of my mind” but are actually polking fun at a dead animal’s rotting corpse.
I grant you, it’s a corny approach, but it works - and chart-conquering hits like Peaches and Lump testify to the band’s mass appeal.
Quite simply, you can’t afford not to have this in your collection.
● You can listen to tracks from the Sound Advice Classic Collection on this Spotify playlist.

Classic forty four - American Head Charge your account

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A SLEW of recent Download announcements has gotten me in the mood for moshing recently, and with decent metal albums few and far between in 2010, I've dug out a beauty for a Classic Collection airing - American Head Charge's 2001 introduction The War Of Art.
Brutally sadistic in subject matter, singer Martin Cock verges on parody covering subjects such as murder and rape.
Luckily Cock has the talent to back this up, growling, whispering, roaring, shouting and occasionally singing peerlessly.
This intensity is matched by the guitarwork of Chad Hanks, who met Cock in a rehab centre, which is as equally raw and aggressive as it is technically brilliant, disregarding the usual frameworks of time signiatures and song structures throughout - lead single Just So You Know switches from seven beats in a bar to eight beats in a bar mid-chorus, losing no momentum.
An onslaught of an album in every sense, when the group sang they were Pushing The Envelope here, it was more like they were bludgeoning the envelope to death.

Classic forty three - Shadow leaves the rest in the dark

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ENDTRODUCING... set the standard back in 1996, and finally, six near-silent years later, The Private Press saw DJ Shadow return to prove it was no one off.
Casting a huge shadow over his peers, The Private Press - possibly my favourite Classic Collection addition so far - is impeccably put together from start to finish, showcasing why Josh Davis is a god amongst producers.
Here he cuts and pastes with the best of the turntablists, with breaks and smile-raising samples laid on in equal measures on tracks like Mashin' On The Motorway and Right Thing.
But what sets Shadow apart are the mini masterpieces, the tracks like Fixed Income, Giving Up The Ghost or You Can't Go Home Again, which pile on his trademark cavernous orchestral feel.
It's these moments which sends shivers up and down the spine, and make The Private Press a true classic.

Classic forty two - Tuesday wonderful

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ESBJORN Svensson - if that name doesn't ring a bell, then I'm telling you today is the day to listen to Tuesday Wonderland.
Because Svensson, the Swedish pianist who led Esbjorn Svensson Trio, should rightfully be up there with the likes of Hendrix, Buckley, Lennon et al.
In June last year, Svensson died in a scuba diving accident, shortly after completing uneasy listening album Leucocyte - a work also likely to go down as a cult classic.
But before branching out in challenging new directions, his 2006 album Tuesday Wonderland - the one before Leucocyte - drew a line underneath everything the group were about up until that point.
Melodic, meandering and masterful, the trio work subtle elements of rock and electronica into the mix to create one of the most accessible and enjoyable jazz albums of all time.

Classic forty one - Very good

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VERY Fast, Very Dangerous is very Reuben.

It's very rock, it's very metal, and it's very good.
It's very much the sound of a band at the height of their powers - just listen to tracks like Kick In The Mouth and Every Time A Teenager Listens To Drum And Bass A Rockstar Dies - although that's now a thing of the past as far as Reuben are concerned.
It's also very underrated, and therefore very deserving of a place in the Classic Collection.
I very much recommend that you go and buy a copy, very soon.

Classics Spotified

AS YOU may have noticed, I compile a Classic Collection on this site, to promote overlooked or underrated albums.
So for your listening pleasure, here is a Spotify playlist of some of the best tracks from some of the Classic Collection albums.
Enjoy.

Classic forty - Nine Inch Nailed it

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BOUYED by the success of Nine Inch Nails' previous album The Downward Spiral and bankrolled by the musical steamroller Marilyn Manson, The Fragile is testament to giving an act the chance to grow.
Always a one man act, Trent Reznor crafted a two-part masterpiece that showcases an accomplished artist at the very peak of his powers.
From sheer aural assaults like We're In This Together to delicate masterpieces like The Day The Whole World Went Away, Reznor had five years to make this epic, and you can see not a minute of it was wasted - you can tell every note in every song has been scrutinised.
The resulting album, The Fragile, easily stands up as one of the strongest albums of all time.

Classic thirty nine - Second Toughest In Infants classy

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DESPITE Underworld releasing an all-conquering hit single, Born Slippy, around the same time as this release, there's nothing faddy or throwaway about Second Toughest In The Infants.
No, as I'm sure more than a handful of people who bought this album on a whim found out, Underworld make grown-up music for people who take their dance seriously.
In fact Born Slippy didn't even make the track listing - none hit wonders anyone?
Eight minute opuses are the order of the day, with deep, intense, rolling basslines, skittering breakbeat beats and delicate electronic flecks - not least on the awesome Pearl's Girl.
So if you've yet to be educated, make Second Toughest In The Infants your number one priority.

Classic thirty eight - Haunted ressurrection

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SWEDISH band The Haunted managed to spirit up something special with their 2000 release The Haunted Made Me Do It.
Brutal metal is the order of the day, and yet, the album is still eminently listenable.
Nothing here is OTT - slimline riffing, vocals that are just the far side of unintelligible, and guitar solos that rarely stretch beyond 30 seconds.
The result is an album which neither offends the purists or alienates the casual metal fan.
So I'm making you do it - pick up a copy of The Haunted Made Me Do It now.

Classic thirty seven - Still Bill is still killer

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Q) HOW do you make a duck into a soul singer?

A) Put it in the oven until it's Bill Withers!

Too often is this joke greeted with the retort: "Eh? Who? I don't get it."

It's time for the Withers revival, people, so let me recommend Still Bill as the place for novices to start.

The word still in the title of the legend's 1972 studio outing is incredibly apt.

For throughout Bill is still, serene, almost effortless, as he lays down an array of nearly always funky, at times touching, and always brilliant soul classics.

Tearjerkers like Lean On Me sit side by side with unstoppable grooves like Who Is He (And What Is He To You) and Use Me, and not a note is wasted over the 10 tracks.

Not having this in your collection is just quackers.

Classic thirty six - Everyone needs Time Out

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TAKE Five, easily the most recognisable track on The Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1959 jazz album Time Out, was the first ever million-selling jazz single.

You've heard it, even if you didn't know it at the time.

Yet the group achieved this unprecedented commercial success while pushing the boundaries of the genre, with the album typified by the use of unusual time signatures.

In fact the seminal cool jazz album was intended merely as an experiment, and was derided by critics on its release.

But this fluid approach to the beat does not stop the album from swinging - actually Time Out is exactly that, sheer get-away-from-it-all in LP form.

Because despite the sophisticated nature of the music, there's nothing here that in any way detracts from listening to Time Out being an absolute timeless pleasure.

Classic thirty five - Princely Fresh

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SLY And The Family Stone's 1973 masterpiece's title Fresh remains as apt as ever.
Because despite more than 35 years passing since the funk LP's release, the album still is.
When you think of funk, you think of irrepressible grooves like Funkadelic's One Nation Under A Groove, Parliament's Up For The Down Stroke, Sly And The Family Stone's Dance To The Music, and just about anything by James Brown.
But Fresh takes that base and builds on it.
From opener In Time with its brooding basslines, to all-time classic tracks like If You Want Me To Stay and Skin I'm In, the funk here grows from a groove, and lives and breathes fusing with elements of soul and jazz.
Put simply, if you want an album that stands the test of time, you want to get Fresh.

Classic thirty four - 's good

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GREAT googly moogly!
The prolific Frank Zappa's back catalogue can seem a little daunting to the uninitiated - after all, there's at least 60 studio albums to work through.
But if you'd like a place to start, then Apostrophe, his most commercially successful venture, is the best place to start, full stop.
It has all the hallmarks of classic Zappa - not least some of highest standards of funky classic rock set to tape, played by virtuosos including Cream bassist Jack Bruce.
And on the first half of the album - side A in old money - Zappa's renowned creative comic nonsense is showcased in an absurd yet brilliant 'concept album' narrative spanning six tracks.
So I urge you, pick up Apostrophe and do the funky Alfonso - you won't regret it.

Classic thirty three - Replenish revisited

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THERE can be few debut albums as perfect a mission statement as Reef's Replenish.

Arguably unbeaten by the South Western rockers throughout the rest of their career, their 1995 album is a brilliant collection of bluesy rock showcasing both guitarist Kenwyn House's oh-so-cool riffing and Gary Stringer's distinctive vocal approach.

Recorded in a simple, stripped-down way, what really stands the test of time here is the album's honesty - what you hear is band really in their groove, whether pedal to floor on tracks like Feed Me or on sultry numbers like Repulsive.

Setting the template which led to the group's later commercial successes, if you haven't yet had the pleasure of Replenish, place your hands on a copy and let it fill your speakers as soon as possible.

Sunhouse brightened up my day

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AFTER more than a year of blogging on about albums I think everyone should listen to and thinking up thirty-plus additions of my own, tonight I've had a taste of my own Classic Collection medicine.
Because I put out a plea for recommendations on the Isaac Ashe's Sound Advice Facebook site, and I wasn't disappointed.
Now I'd never heard of it before, but I was urged to listen to Sunhouse's sole album, Crazy On The Weekend.
"You'll love it!" I was assured.
And I did.
An acoustic album designed for the morning after the night before, the Nottingham band brought to my mind Mancunian indie rockers Doves and Elbow.
In fact, it's mad that the 1998 album Crazy On The Weekend proved to be the group's only effort.