1243. Eccentric Soul : Mighty Mike Lenaburg

Lenaburg, a young producer in Phoenix believed in soul music so much that at 16 he started producing young acts he discovered. This great comp from Numero Group too, showcases many of these acts in a non stop funkified party. Not as superb as others in the series, but still great.

7.3 out of 10

1242. Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label

Now this is hot buttered soul, from the cover of 'Fever' to 'If you feel it' this disc is HOT! Great stuff Numero UNO Group!

8.4 out of 10

1241. Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label

Not surprisingly another solid comp from the Numero Group showcasing the Deep City Label. Though the artists tend to skew a bit more towards R&B than soul it is still a great collection of tracks.

7.4 out of 10

1240. Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label

Not as solid as the Capsoul comp, but equally as rewarding, the Bandit Label feels as innocent and honest as can be. A treasure like "If I Had A Little Love [Rehearsal]" is worth stealing.

8 out of 10

1239. Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label

Wow the Numero Group start their Eccentric Soul series with a bang. Uncovering the Cap Soul label must have been like finding sunken treasure - the funk and soul is so fresh it's crazy that this much music could have laid to rest without ever being played for anyone else again.

8.8 out of 10

1238. Yellow Pills: Prefill

Cool collection of bright happy pop tracks filled with light hooks and sunny melodies. Apparently this back in 1990 loved this style music so much that he created a fanzine called 'Yellow Pills' and consequently would receive a ton of 7 inches from bands. On this two disc set the winners were weeded out for you.

7.3 out of 10

1237. PCD Cult Cargo : Belize City Boil-Up

Cool comp from the experts over at the Numero Group. Funk masters and Soul pros in Belize make the high ticket price on this worth it.

7.7 out of 10

1236. World Psychedelic Classics 3 - Love's A Real Thing

Awesome compilation on Byrne's Luaka Bop label - great, great stuff by some funky, soulful africans. A must for anybody who is into funk at all.

8.8 out of 10

1235. Back to Mine - Everything but the Girl

I really like EBTG mainly because they cill out enough without being cheesy and they're perfectly suited for a comp like this. Smooth beats with personality thumping its way through every track.

7.7 out of 10

1234. Back To Mine - Orbital

Sadly this back to mine is too all over the place (or not all the place enough), shy of the pj harvey track, there isn't much that is great or revelatory...

4 out of 10

1233. Back To Mine - New Order

Wow, this is almost flawless, with the exception of one track. I loved New Order before, and now I adore them - great taste guys!

8.4 out of 10

1232. Another Late Night - Zero 7

I slammed Zero 7 here for their lack of creativity, but I must admit - they did a stand up job here on this mix, pretty perfect from beginning to end, seamlessly merging new chill out grooves with soul classics.

8.2 out of 10

1231. Another Late Night - Fila Brazilia

Fila Brazilia made one of the best remixes ever for Radiohead. So when I saw this 'mix tape' by them I had to pick it up. This was a great little series by dj's and this mix is pretty decent, starting off with John Barry's 'The Persuaders Theme'.

7.3 out of 10

1230. Live at KEXP Volume 2

Now this KEXP similar sample rocks - great stuff by MIA, death cab, sleater kinney, gang of four and more.

7.8 out of 10

1229. Sounds Eclectic 3

Much better installment, featuring Radiohead, the flaming lips, My morning jacket, iron and wine and interpol.

6.5 out of 10

1228. KCRW: Sounds Eclectic Too

Why did I buy this? Sad.

3.4 out of 10

1227. Sounds Eclectic

The weakest in series. After MBE was reduced to just Sounds Eclectic, their entry into the series is dull and flat. Highligths are limited to Beck, Stars, Travis and Badly Drawn Boy.

5 out of 10

1226. KCRW: Morning Becomes Eclectic 1998-99

I will direct you here to my original Amazon 1999 review here.

7.1 out of 10

1225. KCRW Rare On Air, Vol. 4

I remember lusting over KCRW's Rare on Air, and not being able to hear it, then the internet came and the show switched to 'MBE' and now you can stream (and record) almost all of their past performances. JOY. But before all this, all you could do was buy these cds when they came out. Good stuff here by Ani, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley and Soul Coughing.

6.4 out of 10

1224. Too Pure - The Peel Sessions

I got this used in Seattle for the four PJ Harvey tracks, which are of course excellent. What's also really good are the Stereolab and Th' Faith Healers tracks.

7.6 out of 10

1223. For The Masses: A Tribute To Depeche Mode

This should be great because you are working from amazing source material. But this tribute gets progressively worse from begging to end - Smashing Pumpkins to Rammstein.

6.4 out of 10

1222. Where Is My Mind? A Tribute To The Pixies

I miss tribute cds. Now they're all digital and it feels like you can almost just pick and choose what you want to hear. This Pixies disc features some of my favourite bands and not surprisingly they deliver - but even the bands I am not crazy about deliver too, like Reel Big Fish and bands I never heard of like Weston do a great job too.

8 out of 10

1221. This Is Fort Apache

What's Fort Apache? A studio I think that maybe needed some money to stay open - honestly I am still not sure. All I did know was that it had some great indie bands of the time on it, so I had to pick it up. The disc really captures the indie, or 'alternative', in the mid 90s.

7 out of 10

1220. Sweet Relief - A Benefit For Victoria Williams

I was a big pearl jam fan back in the day. I got this for the Crazy Mary track, and I must admit despite being anti-folk, and not knowing who Lucinda Williams is, this is a pleasant little disc.

6.9 out of 10

1219. The Langley Schools Music Project - Innocence and Despair

Ellen got this for me on my 30th or 31st - can't remember, back when we were amigos. I used to love music class in school for obvious reasons. These kids do a fine job of covering some classics - definitely filled with innocence - not sure where the despair comes from.

7.2 out of 10

Check out these guys from Brooklyn:

1218. Tibetan Freedom Concert

BBoys really did mean 'fight for your right to party' - the more mature, but still fun, BBoys organized this event to drive awareness to the Tibetan cause. The three disks have amazing moments (sonic youth and pavement) and boring ass moments (pearl jam - anybody else hate 'yellow bedletter'?). Nonetheless it's a good live document to have.

7 out of 10

1217. The Bridge School Concerts Vol. One

Live concert benefit for Neil's son's school. Every year a handful of great artists turn out to perform and the first year was not an exception. Highlights are from Neil himself, Beck and David Bowie.

6.7 out of 10

1216. Red hot + rio

Back to back AIDS comps. That's probably my mom in a bikini. It was interesting (and at other times horrifying) to hear old faves being done in english or sung in portuguese by an english speaking person. Overall the comp works, mixing the old with the new in just the right doses.

6.9 out of 10

1215. No Alternative

Early 90s I was primarily a grunge guy. I got this for the Nirvana hidden track, and the Pumpkins, Bob Mould and Breeders. But the single best track that I listened to over and over again was Pavement's "Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence". Brilliant!

7.2 out of 10

1214. Tommy Boy Greatest Beats The First 15 Years 1981-96 Vol 2

I love old school hip hop. The rhymes were simple, carefree, and the rhythms were normally lifted from an already amazing song. What's not to like?

7.6 out of 10

1213. Don't Be Scared: Fearless Records

Another case of all bands sounding the same, with the exception of ATDI, which I am a massive fan, and the only reason why I am keeping this, for one track.

3 out of 10

1212. Punk Rock Is Your Friend

If this were on low enough every band would sound the same. I blame Green Day.

1.5 out 10

1211. Mute: Tonal Evidence

I picked this up because it was dirt cheap and because I wanted the 'Renegade Soundwave' track, a staple of my late teens in Brasil. Sadly it was a crappy remix version of it, but the rest of the comp is pretty great. A lot makes me feel like I am at RSC on a friday.

7.4 out of 10

1210. What's up Matador

Remember when labels would charge you to hear a sampling of their artists. Now a days it's all free. This disc was purchased because of the bonus disc which featured unreleased tracks, which not surprisingly have been release in plenty of other places ever since.

7 out of 10

1209. MTV: 120 Minutes Live

Wow this is a blast from the past - almost like a mini 'state of alternative music circa 1995 or so'. These tracks range from pretty great, to just boring, but they serve as a neat document of the show. It's a shame that there's no where to go anymore for videos and live performances, shy of just online somewhere.

7.4 out of 10

1208. Saturday Night Live - vol.2

I was one of those kids that would record all of my favourite video clips off of MTV, etc. As I got older that morphed into live band performances. When I hear that this was coming out (and later the dvds) I was pretty excited. Sadly these guys merged the performances chronologically I suppose instead of by genre which is just silly - who wants to hear Nirvana's 'Rape Me' followed by Alanis Morisette's 'Hand in my pocket'?

6 out of 10

1207. School House Rock! Rocks

Not having grown up here I was deprived of this show, but I picked it up anyway because of the indie powerhouse bands that were involved. All the tracks are great and that speaks volumes to how well crafted the originals were.

7.7 out of 10

1206. Disco Nights, Vol. 4

I want to meet the designer behind this cover. Who doesn't love disco. All the hits are on this so I can't imagine what's on volumes 1, 2 and 3. Perfect for when you need to get your grand mom to dance.

6.6 out of 10

1205. Pottery Barn - Martini Lounge

Swiped this off of one of my dad's exes, she was a boozer. There's everything on here from Peggy Lee to Morphine. Funny how mp3s killed the bullshit store compilation cd market.

6.7 out of 10

1204. Ultra-Lounge, Vol. 3: Space Capades

I have no idea why I bought this, but it was put to very good use one night doing a performance piece with Chad and Jason King. The music on here is crazy.

6.5 out of 10

1203. Mozart - The Essential Mozart

There must be a million cds called 'The Essential Mozart', this review is for version number 12. I guess I never realized how proper, or conservative Mozart is compared to Beethoven. There, that's it.

7 out of 10

1202. Immortal Beloved - soundtrack

I'm a big Gary Oldman fan - the man is brilliant. When this film came out I didn't think twice about seeing despite the romantic/period piece of it. It's worth it for Gary's performance alone. The soundtrack doesn't reveal anything new about Beethoven, except for highlighting once again how brilliant he was.

8.5 out of 10