• Scream Loud! - The Fenton Records Story
  This 61-track triple LP/double CD is a fuzz/farfisa packed garage rock treat. Essential for fans of Pebbles/Back From the Grave!
  
• Dyke and the Blazers - We Got More Soul
  Funkmaster Alerster "Dyke" Christian and his Blazers shine bright on this BGP double CD anthology of their complete recordings.
  
• Bee Gees - Studio Albums 1967-1968
  The Bee Gees receive the lavish "Rhino Treatment".This 6 CD set includes mono and stereo mixes of their first 3 world- wide albums along with a corresponding rarities/outtakes disc for each - or just buy 'em separately. You'll be glad you did.
  
• Version Dread - various artists
  Heartbeat hits the mark with this 2 LP/ single CD set of rare studio one version/dub sides. The rhythms speak for themselves.
  

Honorable Mentions: Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble - Malcolm X Memorial, Idris Ackamoor - Music of Idris Ackamoor (and the Pyramids), Nick Rossi Set - On the Outset, Mirwood Records Soul Story Volume 2, Reg King - self-titled, Flamin' Groovies - At Full Speed:The Complete Sire Recordings,Willie Headen - Blame It On the Blues.

• Munehiro Narita - Ether:Solo Electric Guitar
  
  Supreme "lead" guitarist from sleeping legends of Japanese psych/noise trio High
  Rise shredding without remorse or a band  either. Yow!
  
• Carla Bozulich - Evangelista
  
  The Fibbers are no more, but with Silver Mt.Zion as her backing band,Carla's torch
  songs burn even brighter.
• Keiji Haino & KK Null - Mamono
  
  Not the dueling guitar meltdown I'd expect, but a more well-rounded effort with multiple instruments. Finally these two giants meet and manage to not spread too much carnage.
  
• Current 93/Om - Inerrant Rays & Infallible Sun
  
  Perhaps playing with Om has brought back some of Tibet's venom?  Spits like a wounded animal. 
  
• Pandora's Box - Criterion DVD
  
  Louise Brooks... ohmigod!  Sorry, but all potentials have a new yardstick to be measured against,and that's not easy.

Tip: Boris, again taking my paychecks away in multiple formats and live...grrrrrrrrrrrr.

• Poison Idea - Latest Will and Testament LP
  Fans of Feel the Darkness will love this new release from the kings of punk. Pig Champion R.I.P.
  
• Mastodon - Blood Mountain LP
  No major label can stop this band from shredding.
  
• Melvins- A Senile Animal CD
  Best record they've cut in a long time,with a great tour to support it.
• American Hardcore
  Original Motion Picture Soundtrack An awesome compilation of some of the most essential hardcore classics.
  
• Venom/High On Fire - Live @ the Fillmore West

• Soul Sides - Various Artists
  Foot tapper, hip shaker.
  
• Jamaica to Toronto - Various Artists
  Toronto? OK!
  
• Return to Cookie Mountain - TV on the Radio
  Reminds me of when I heard OK Computer for the first time.
  
• Best of A Tribe Called Quest - DJ Platurn & Wonway
  Remixalicous
  
• Inconvenient Truth - DVD
  Believe It!
  

• Human Eye -Dinosaur Bones 7"
  (Ypsilanti Records)
  A deranged booger-eater let loose on a trip through the back catalog of  Chrome's effects pedals. Songs that come dangerously close to annihilating all that is music history. Guitars solos that I thought only the Japanese could pull off. Punk is dead. This is Futurekill. On pretty bubblegum puke vinyl.
  
• Maypole - Real CD/LP
  (Anopheles Records)
  From the label that gave us Debris (Godhead...buy it!) is this weird-beard missing link between SF Sorrow and Captain Beyond. Great pop hooks slapped up against orchestration and boogie rock feedback jams.A good time for all you real music snobs out there.
  
• Junkpile Jimmy - Alberhill
  2xLP (Cartel Records)
  Just when I was ready to write off the One Man Band for good, along came this  backwoods trash-splatter.All over the map with its traditional blues stomps, angry punk tunes, stoner jams and Black Metal covers. Shotguns blasts as backbeats.  Chickens for lead vocals. Double bass'd sheet metal. Awesome. Limited to 250 copies... for now.
  
• The Brainiac - DVD (Casa Negro)
  The greatest piece of drive-in Mexi-trash ever made! Riding to earth on the back of a comet (!?!?),a deceased "Baron of Terror" returns to the land of the living to seek revenge upon those who sentenced him to death. Did I mention his pulsating paper mache head? The forked tongue brain-eating? Essential late night beer swilling fodder...
  
• Ganja & Hess DVD
  (All Day Entertainment.)
  A superb ‘70s art house film hiding under a voodoo/vampire theme that is way too  complicated to sum up in a couple of short sentences.What I can say is that it's full of  gorgeous imagery,the Cassavetes school of acting, and a haunting score that will leave  you chilled and teary-eyed by the end. Nothing really explained. Nothing needed to be.

• Humphreys & Keen - The Overflow
  Truly one of the great lost albums of 2006. The Overflow is a masterpiece of beautiful,  lyrical and invitingly eccentric orchestral pop from the former frontmen of New Zealand greats, the Able Tasmans. The lovingly crafted songs are full of imagination,and the horn/string/woodwind arrangements are stunning. Something about its lush, ambitious personality reminds me of John Cale's Paris 1919 or Procul Harum at their most stately and adventurous.
  
• Scritti Politti - White Bread,Black Beer
  This stripped down, almost demo-like, album draws on all of Green Gartside's various stylistic pursuits from the past, but the focus is squarely on Green's superb songwriting and gorgeous vocals. Even with all the touches of dancehall, glossy urban pop and even hip hop that color his work, he manages to sound like a modern day Brian Wilson producing wildly sophisticated, but nakedly accessible, little works of pop art in his home studio. He gets extra points, too, for putting together an extraordinary live band and actually touring (one of the best live shows of 2006, for sure).
  
• The Loud Family/Anton Barbeau - What If It Works?
  Sacramento cult hero Anton Barbeau helps drag Loud Family frontman Scott Miller out of retirement to produce a rewarding mix of covers and originals. It's all great power pop (of the brainy, slightly skewed variety), but one bona fide Scott Miller masterpiece, "Mavis of Maybelline Towers", makes it especially exciting.
  
• David Kilgour- The Far Now
  It's not too early to start your best of 2007 list,so write this one down.The Far Now is more of that rambling, strummy, melodic, psychedelic folk genius that Kilgour does better than almost anyone. Meandering instrumentals lead to dreamy, folk-pop songs and back again.It's transporting stuff - overflowing with imaginative melodic and textural ideas.While you're buying this one, pick up the two preceding solo albums, A Feather in The Engine (2001) and Frozen Orange (2004),to see what an amazing run of greatness he's on.
  
• Sodastream - Reservations
  Sodastream has been turning out little masterpieces of melancholy folk pop for years, and Reservations might be the best one yet. They're like Belle & Sebastian's moodier, quieter cousins (and there might be a little more venom lurking beneath the gentle surface).
• Field Music- Tones Of Town
  Like their first album, this one is loaded with herky-jerky baroque pop that sounds kind of like Spoon on a major Curt Boettcher kick.But this one is a little more organic sounding - more like a band, less like a studio project. There are acres of layers here - gorgeous melodies every-where, lots of great detail in the rhythms and production, but it's still immediate and inviting. I think these guys are going to be fun to follow for a long time.