Mike Wexler Sun Wheel CD
Yek Koo A Plea For a Night Desert Blue Moon Storm CDR
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba Segu Blue CD
Kurtis Blow Presents The History Of Rap Vol. 1 CD
Baby Huey The Baby Huey Story - The Living Legend CD
Luscious Jackson In Search of Manny CD
Cheveu DOG + Extra Tracks CDR
Stevie Wonder Fulfillingness's First Finale CS

I've never heard of this guy Mike Wexler on Amish Records, but on first impression he is a unique singer/songwriter that stands apart from the Dan Fogelbergian herd of psych-folk poster boys. He sounds like he has a little more teeth, singing in an odd voice a little bit like Simon Finn, and he writes songs with spacious movements through different parts and developments, not just a waltz through verses and choruses because that's what you're supposed to do - more prog-folk than psych-folk. Good start, but still not sure how the finish is... more listens needed. Yek Koo is the solo guise of Helga Fassonaki from the Metal Rouge duo. Her solo disc here doesn't exactly work as a through-listen, its kinda long and sketchbooky for that, but any one or two tracks on here are fine examples of how her skeletal stasis-drones are the engine that powers the Metal Rouge Winter Calling disc, where guitarist/etc. Andrew Scott provides and color and shape. The Kurtis Blow compilation is one of the finest co-worker spins in recent memory... my first time hearing the complete original version of "Apache" by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band and holy shit, the drum break on this thing is beautiful, and it's so long the DJ probably coulda gotten by with only one copy of the record... another big highlight is the zoned-out 8-minute Booker T. & the MG's jam "Melting Pot," and "Hum Along And Dance" by the Jackson 5ive, from their 1973 album Get It Together, has gotta be one of the finest examples of 'shit let's just use up the rest of this tape and/or studio time' ever waxed (although the sweet jams were by session musicians, because Motown didn't let the Jackson instrumentalists actually play on records). Baby Huey "Listen To Me" was on the Blow comp so we followed up with his full-length... co-worker proclaimed "A Change Is Gonna Come" to possibly be the greatest recorded song in world history and I would not be surprised if it actually was. The Luscious Jackson still sounds fantastic (what can I say). The Cheveu stuff sounds even better. I'm telling you, one of the "extra tracks," this 10-minute dubbed-out slow-burn live thing "Unemployment Blues," is one of my favorite tracks of the decade... did this thing end up on their new full-length?