Ananda Shankar

★★★★

Ananda Shankar And His Music

MR BONGO. CD/DL/LP

Rare second album by the Indian rocker unearthed.

Shankar’s eponymous 1970 debut was a cult hit, its swinging covers of Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Light My Fire resonating from California to Australia via Europe and Asia; six years later, psychedelic sitar was passé and his follow-up – arguably a stronger record – was only released in India. Its rediscovery in the 1990s similarly came down chiefly to two bangers, Streets Of Calcutta (Sandy Nelson-like drums, groovy keyboards, surf vibes) and Dancing Drums (imagine the Joe 90 theme with added sitar and flute). Now that Shankar, who died in 1999, no longer has to contend with being what’s in vogue, his fusions of Indian tradition and rock make more sense. The other seven tracks have the feel of the epic soundtrack for a gloriously sunny slice of nouvelle vague cinema, with the second side’s 11-minute Dawn showing off his cosmic vision of the future.

David Hutcheon

Richard Swift

★★★★

4 Hits & A Miss

SECRETLY CANADIAN. DL/LP

Career-spanning compilation of the great polymath who died in 2018.

His friend and collaborator Kevin Morby reckons that the man born Ricardo Ochoa, a man of many trades, could build a great studio and a great record from a $10 Radio Shack microphone the way that a boy scout, armed with the right Swiss army knife, could build a chapel in a forest. Producing the likes of The Shins, Foxygen, Nathaniel Rateliff and Fleet Foxes at his Oregon studio National Freedom indicates the sound of Swift’s own music, perfected over six albums of ornate, DIY pocket symphonies. He was the altpop Nilsson – vocally, the comparison stands too, especially on Dirty Jim and The Novelist – often laced with self-lacerating commentary, but Lady Luck shows Swift also enjoyed tapping the white soul motherlode, falsetto included. Despite this compilation’s title, Swift never had any hits himself, but no matter. Should this collection find new ears, there is so much more to discover.

Martin Aston

Ray And His Court

★★★★

Ray And His Court

MR BONGO. CD/LP

Salsa and Latin funk from the King of Miami’s Cuban scene.

The Miami-based vocalist, flautist and composer Ray Fernandez formed the family band Ray And His Court in the early 1970s with wife Yrelis and sons Jesus and Miky, the unit equally proficient in myriad Latin forms, as well as funk and reggae. This self-titled debut album, cut for Sound Triangle in 1973 with Kamasi Washington’s father Rick on saxophone, is very much an album of two halves. On side one, La Señorita Lola is a blend of salsa and merengue, Lo Sabia has cumbia leanings and El Alacran is a suave guaguancó. Side two flips the script: Cookie Crumbs is a funk monster with playful English dialogue, and Soul Freedom a moody sax instrumental that edges towards Afrobeat; Yrelis takes the lead on a unique take of Bobby Hebb’s oft-versioned Sunny, another outstanding moment on an unusually varied release.

David Katz

Various

★★★★

A Good Thing Goin’! Girl Group Sounds USA 1962-1967

ACE. LP

Emotions run high throughout this treasure trove of ’60s female pop, R&B and soul.

Ace’s latest instalment in their vinyl series of ’60s US girl groups is a particularly strong one, with a 17-year-old Brenda Holloway conveying sophistication and poise beyond her years on pre-Motown ballad Constant Love, and Darlene Love channelling the declamatory sass of her recordings with The Crystals on Let Him Walk Away, her great solo number written by Jackie DeShannon and Jack Nitzsche. Love also steers The Blossoms on the previously unissued, swooning title track. Nitzsche, meanwhile, produces The Satisfactions’ Baby I’m So Glad It’s Raining, a chamber pop piece with stately harpsichord featuring Mrs Gracia Nitzsche on lead vocal. Then there’s The Pets, AKA The Parlettes, the sister group to George Clinton’s The Parliaments, members of which, including Clinton, penned their ebullient West Side Party.