I admit to having a strange ritual choosing my aural selections: frequently, I choose them visually. Confused? Don't be. I explain: for me, album artwork is almost as important as the musical contents. I cannot take them apart and I often times feel disappointed when a great album jacket doesn't correspond musically or vice-versa. This one here today is not the case, thankfully.

Headless Heroes is a project by a very eclectic New York combo headlined by singer Alela Diane who decided to assemble a collection of songs of famous contemporary songwriters and do some covers. The Silence of Love is the final result and it is beguiling. Since I'm not that familiar with the original versions, it was almost like hearing them for the first time ever, not even registering the fact that they are in fact cover versions.

I'm going to leave you with To You, my current favorite track of this, an album I'm sure I'll give a lot of spins to.

I'm crazy for a killer compilation. I make them myself to listen to while driving and always look for the rare and the interesting. And when compilations like these come your way, bringing together the cream of the crop of some of the most avant-garde musicians of France's 70's music scene, you know you cannot go wrong. And when you know that the guys behind such compilations are Dirty Sound Systems (of Dirty Edits Series fame), you know you're in for a win-win situation.

Dirty French Psychedelics is the name of today's compilation but they could've named it Escargots & Bistrots that it wouldn't change its massive appeal laying within. From the obscure to the less obscure (you won't find anything mainstream here, that's for sure), this amazing compilation takes you on an aural ride like very few I've listened to recently. Maybe it's my unabashed love for french retro kicking in, maybe it's the fact that I find the sound so recognizable in no small amount thanks to years and years of listening to bands like Air and singers like Gainsbourg, I don't know. What I do know is that this compilation is fast becoming a precious item in my aural library.

But let's hear some music. Here's Nino Ferrer's Looking For You. Which I am.

Another great compilation of french yé-yé songs, this time focusing on the years between 1968-71 and featuring both female and male singers. Pretty wild stuff in here! And great cover art, too designed by the french Andy Warhol, Guy Peellaert.

One other great thing about this compilation is that all of the tracks were on CD for the first time when this came out. Wonderful public service, don't you think? The music, unsurprisingly, retained the same charm and the same power to affect your senses and move your hips. Oh, and there's plenty of undiscovered gems to get you glued to your computer for hours on end just to know that little bit more about that particular track from that particular artist you just cannot get enough of.

One such example is this, La Drogue, by duo Messieurs Richard de Bordeaux & Daniel Beretta. Fantastic song it is, too. See you soon.

The world of french yé-yé music is seemingly an inexhaustible source of groovy beats, funky melodies and hip girls. This compilation you see on your left - Swinging Mademoiselles - is only one of many you can find out there and it's as good a starting point into that wonderful world of mini-skirts and bob haircuts as any on the market.

The singer I've decided to highlight today is Arlette Zola, a swiss born chanteuse that had a long string of hits and even tried her luck a couple of times on the Eurovision Song contest, always achieving high final chart positions, though never winning. I'm afraid I'm too young to remember seeing her on that ubiquitous TV show, so I guess I'll have to resource myself to some YouTube searching in order to see her perform live.

I leave you for now with one of her biggest hits, Je Suis Folle De Tant T'Aimer, a brisky but daring sounding little number. Enjoy it.

This post was inspired by my grandmother. She is, to my knowledge, the greatest Gigliola Cinquetti fan I know of. I knew I had to delve further into this. She remembers to this day the first time she saw her at the Eurovision song contest when she won first prize with her worldwide hit Non Ho L'Età (Too Young To Love was the english title). After hearing it on the player below, you too will remember it forever. It's a lovely tune. Simple, unaffected, sincere, a song for the ages. A timeless classic, no less. She was barely sixteen at the time, but she truly sounded mature enough to carry such an emotionally charged song. Everyone thought that too and that's why she won and went on to achieve hit after hit on an international career that spanned through decades.

If you buy any of her compilations, please be sure you are getting the original versions, as she re-recorded some of her hits later on and these do not sound the same as the originals. The one you see on the left is a Best Of LP that came out in Portugal in 1974. Being portuguese and born on that pivotal year, I found it to be perfectly appropriate for this particular post.

And here she is again, with her hit song: Gigliola Cinquetti! A round of applause!

I told you I was listening to all sorts of different music, didn't I? Well, here is another example of my recent Aural Adventures into the Sound Unknown!

Birds Do It - Music From German Sex Education Movies is the title of this great little compilation and I should think it is self-explanatory! No puns here, as you can see - or maybe one or two...! If you lived in Europe some 25 to 30 years ago and had the good fortune of owning a sattelite disk in your home (remember them?), maybe you too ventured into the wild and wonderful world of late-night TV watching, surfing those euro channels up and down in search of that elusive glimpse of a, how should I put it, model for your nude painting project... (wink, wink, nudge, nudge and all that) usually found in german TV stations.

If you are lucky enough to have those kind of memories, then this compilation is really a treat from bottom to end. If not, consider yourselves lucky too and start your education per se by clicking on the play button below! This track is called Sunny Honey and it's sung by one Uschi Moser. Enjoy it!

I told you I have been listening to many different kinds of music lately, didn't I? Well, consider today's offering a small taste of things to come and a harbinger of great stuff coming your way in the next few weeks.

This compilation I'm recommending to you today is the third volume put out by Marina Records label concentrating on 60's/70's funky pop from Germany. If you thought all they did best was house music and electronica kraut rock, think again. Here is proof that the pop scene was a big market over there back in the day and not only that, they managed to merge anglo-saxon popsmithery with their own german sensibilities. Does this make sense to you? I hope it does and I trust I turned you on to this. It's really fun, in a pre-Eurovision kind of way.

I leave you with one of its best tracks: The Beat Goes On by INGA. Oh, yeah.

Today, as I was rewatching for the umpteenth time the wonderful animated movie by Nina Paley, I knew I had to write something about one of its main characters - Annette Hanshaw.

Hanshaw was one of the most famous singers of the 1920's and 30's in America and practically idolized by all the flappers of the time. She had a distinctive voice register that managed to both convey sensual laziness and naughty demeanour. She made quite a name for her but is now largely forgotten. Special thanks then to Ms. Paley for using her lovely songs as a musical counterpart to the break-up story she tells in SITA SINGS THE BLUES, an animated movie written, produced, edited, animated and directed by Paley using only the Flash tool. A remarkable achievement from any which angle you see it. And that's how I came to know Annette's Hanshaw music.

I leave you then with Wouldn't You Like To Take a Walk. Enjoy and I see you soon.

This post is dedicated to one of our readers who called my attention to this very special lady's wonderful music.

I guess you can say that Judee Sill is the tragic american counterpart to Britain's Shelagh McDonald. Both released only two albums in their lifetime, both dabbled dangerously with drugs, both were extremely promising singer/songwriters in their own right, both ended their careers due to poor support from the part of their record companies who didn't believe enough in them and both are now revered, respected and reappraised and their music has suffered a long overdue reassessment that will never do them enough justice.

For me, what really stands apart Sill's music from McDonald's is that she was able to create a niche for her right from the start and the way she fuses folk with classic and rock is so effortless, it leaves you quite disarmed. On top of that, the deeply felt and often times spiritual/religious lyrics she infuses the songs with are the stuff only great dreamers are capable of. She really believed in salvation and redemption in the hollistic sense of those words and her music truly benefits from this aspect of her songwriting. For proof, I leave you with one of her most pure moments in song ever: The Kiss.

This small incursion that I'm making into some seriously vintage music would not be complete without a mention to perhaps the maddest, quirkiest, most whimsical british band of all time: the Bonzo Dog Dooh-Dah Band, a.k.a. the Bonzo Dog Band.

Led by eccentric extraordinaire Vivian Stanshall, a major force in the post-modern whimsical world (if such thing even exists), they are to the music world what the Monty Python are to the movie world. This obviously means that they possess that rare gift of making people laugh whilst creating great art at the same time. This compilation is essential to understanding and comprehending just what made them tick and exactly why they are revered in Britain as belonging to a sort of music nobility, such was their legacy.

Part of their charm are the reinventions they made around old vintage classics of the popular sort and how they somehow successfully achieved grand notoriety with such material in a time when everyone was looking into the future for inspiration. Perhaps anachronism was the key, after all. If you've never heard them before and are curious to know how they sounded like, here's your chance now. I leave you with one of their all time classics: Hunting Tigers Out In India. Toodle-oo.

If you lived in the 20's, this is the kind of music you'd be dancing: the Charleston. All flappers and It girls danced their little feet away to the infectious rhythm of these lively numbers. To be honest, they still possess a kind of timeless charm to them and that's one of the main reasons why I'm recommending this compilation.

As I said before, compilations are mostly hit and miss affairs and this one in particular is not the exception but when it hits the mark, it's a bull's eye. Besides, there's always one or two songs by an artist you've never heard of or paid any attention to that stands out from the rest like a sore thumb and makes you want to know more from those particular artists. And that's always a good thing in my book.

In this one, you get Fred Astaire, Josephine Baker, Sophie Tucker and Al Jolson, as well as some entirely lovable instrumentals courtesy of the more high-profile big bands of the time, so it's all good as you can see. And it also serves as a kind of testimony of the high-speed times they were living in, with new dance crazes and new stars popping up almost every week. It's no wonder this decade was named The Roaring Twenties! Take a listen to Al Jolson belting out Swanee.

Make way for the brightest star of them all, Mr. Noel Coward. I like to view him as a sort of Oscar Wilde of the music world, going about his way regardless of everyone and marking his passage with sometimes hilariously ingenious sayings, sometimes scathingly ironic words but always with a panaché that only the best english breed possess.

Mixing vaudeville with british whimsy at its best, his knack for a catchy melody is always on display on every song he composed. But songs were not the only thing he did. Add to his CV the jobs of playwright, director, actor and singer and you have before you a sort of Renaissance Man of sorts for the 20th Century. His influence is still far reaching and numerous compilations and tribute albums have been produced so this one I'm recommending is just one of many, so just take a pick.

I leave you with his most iconic song ever - Mad Dogs and Englishmen - an hilarious and extremely assertive song about what it means to be british among other things. Praise be due to the original master of the ironic song.

Of course, a crash course on american popular music from the 30's would not be complete without a mention to the girl that still steals all our hearts when she goes 'Boop-Boop-A-Doop'. I speak of the gal that inspired the most famous Fleischer creation of all time, Betty Boop: Miss Helen Kane.

Her quirky voice and child-like pitch are still able to hold us into a sort of trance, as if caught unaware by something otherworldly or at least, very far away from the sounds of everyday life. As I write this, I hear myself asking: "aren't you going a little too far?", but the answer in my heart and mind is a firm "no", because if you play the track below (her classic I Wanna Be Loved By You), you might find yourself slipping away to a faraway world of your own private imagination in a matter of seconds. And there aren't a lot of voices, let alone things, that can do that nowadays, are there?

Compilations like these are rare to find. The end results are so precious and eye-opening that they might even change your whole view of how music can and should be made. This one comes highly recommended and it's a treat from beginning to end. But first things first.

If Monty Python ever were a music group perhaps they'd be something like The Bonzo Dog Band, a sort of avant-garde musical combo that made quite the furore back in the late 60's and early 70's by presenting themselves as a merry bunch of retro hipsters with more than a little dose of british whimsy as their main ingredient but always in keeping with a highly sophisticated approach to their music. They borrowed a lot of influences, mainly from music from the first decades of the 20th century and they wore them proudly on their sleeves. This is why this compilation is called Songs The Bonzo Dog Band Taught Us, as it is primarily aimed to the Bonzo fans who'll treasure this album as mannah from heaven. The best thing about it is that everyone with a discerning taste in music will also find plenty to enjoy in it too.

So here they are, the original songs that would later be part of some of the Bonzo records and add to their particular mystique. Charming, enchanting and enduring, they still prove their worth notwithstanding their almost centenary status. I leave you with By A Waterfall, a song you can also find on the Lullaby of Broadway compilation I wrote in the below post, curiously enough. Enjoy.

My love for american music from the 1920's and 30's was further cultivated when I started to watch movie musicals from those particular eras. Specifically those by or with contribution from the master of the kaleidoscopic song and dance routine, Mr. Busby Berkeley, choreographer and filmmaker extraordinaire.

This compilation I'm heartily recommending in today's post was compiled from the amazing run of hits he managed to succeed when he entered Warner Bros. as a dance choreographer. The thing is, he not only choreographed the whole thing, he also directed the whole shebang, giving specific details to his cameramen to where the camera should be placed and how dancers should move, look and even smile. The results are astonishing to watch even to today's eyes. If you think you've seen everything, think again. Add to this a truly fantastic array of songs, further embelished by divine orchestrations and frequent heavenly choruses and you got in your hands some real pieces of gold. They don't make them like these anymore, that's for sure!

I leave you with Shadow Waltz, a wonderful number sung by the suave Dick Powell and the cute Ruby Keeler, at that time also known as Mrs. Al Jolson. It's one of those things I never get tired of listening to.

The great thing about having an open mind in what music is concerned is that you never know what's coming round the corner. My particular encounter with the voice and many talents of Josephine Baker happened many years ago in a shop when I decided it would be fun to get a CD of hers just to see how she sounded like (I already knew what she looked like!). As it happened, it was a real bargain (2CD compilation for just 2.50€!) and when I got home, I just couldn't believe my ears: how come music this fresh and melodic was being relegated to the bargain bin was anyone's guess but mine.

This fantastic discovery set me on quite a journey and today I consider myself an aficionado of everything 1920's and 30's Americana related. They were quite the busy times, with a lot of things going on at the same time: Economic Depression, great advances in filmmaking, industrial revolutions happening everywhere, cultural taboos and social mores being broken, you name it. Forget the 60's: these two decades were where it was at!

This particular CD (or any other Baker compilation, for that matter) is a great way of getting to know her music, as it features both her songs sung in french and in english (she was born american but made her name in France). The song you can listen to below is called De Temps En Temps and is a sweet little number, sung in her trademark mock-french accent. I dare you not to fall in love instantly with her.

It's funny how you sometimes find things. I truly believe in serendipity, of good things finding a way of finding you in those very particular moments in time when you are not searching for anything in particular. The voice and rare art of Danielle Licari was one of those rare moments.

You really feel truly blessed of getting in touch with such fine artists and I hope I don't sound too corny or presumptuous when I say that the finest of the arts gets you closer to the divine. Few things are able to do that, nowadays. Owner of a crystaline and highly trained voice, Licari uses it as the most exquisitely tuned instrument throughout the tracks of this, a compilation I found while browsing for her available work on CD. It's really a shame that more of her records are not available on CD as they seem to be highly sought after and treasured by her fans.

After scoring a massive hit with Concerto Pour Une Voix (15 million copies sold worldwide!), she went on to explore her voice in the most varied of avenues, even lending her vocal abilities to movie soundtracks and popular hits of the day. I'm going to leave you with a track that is dear to my heart for it belongs to one of my favorite movies ever: Jacques Demy's Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. In case you didn't know (and I certainly didn't!), she is the singer that dubs Catherine Deneuve's singing in that movie. It all makes perfect sense to me now.

I guess you can view this compilation by Numero Group label as a companion piece to another one I blogged about a few weeks back called Bearded Ladies. That one was about obscure british folk singers whilst this one is more of the same but with an american flavour to it.

It is not a coincidence that this compilation is called Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon. Both the first and the second parts of the title refer to two Joni Mitchell compositions, the big shadow behind all striving female folk singers in the 70s. Joni did mark her territory back then and there were very few artists that managed to share a spotlight with her. These days, the only contemporary female artist that Mitchell confesses to have been influenced by is Laura Nyro, another incredible performer and songwriter the likes of which we have seldom seen since her glory days. But back to the album.

It's most likely that you won't recognize any name on Ladies from the Canyon. But it's also most likely that you'll find yourself searching for more of them by the end of the album. In this sense, it's a complete success. And in my case, I think I definitely want to hear more of Collie Ryan. Like this track here: Starbright (Song of Silence).

A pleasant discovery I made while digging through the incredibly rich and varied world of late 60's to early 70's british folk music.

Heron were an all-male band that put out only two albums in their recording lifetime (again, the penchant I have for artists with small discographies is in full display here...) but be that as it may, those two records were sufficient to put them on the folk map and on the hearts of everyone who listened to them. Gentle melodies gently sung and played on strictly acoustic instruments are the main ingredients of their particular magic. One interesting note is that, apparently, those two albums were recorded in a field - I'm sure you'll agree with me if I say that you cannot get more pastoral than that!

The cover that you see above is for a compilation that was released in 2006 that collected their entire recordings onto a 2 CD album. Everything is there including an E.P. and some rare covers too. But for now, take a listen to Yellow Roses, the track that opens their debut album and gently fall in love with their sound.

The thing with Claudine Longet is that she made perfectly lovely albums in the 60's and 70's but none seem to be available for sale except some hard-to-find japanese copies that usually fetch high prices on ebay or through marketplace sellers. And that's a real shame because they all deserve to be available for public scrutiny and evaluation as they are some of the most precious things put to tape.

So, when Rev-Ola in England decided to release a compilation of her A&M recordings with her own collaboration, the results had to be stellar. Besides, the years spent with that label are her most fruitful. The final results are indeed very, very good and if you're looking for a Longet greatest hits, look no further. This is it. The girl with the breathy voice and the quirky english accent is here in all her glory. Her best songs and some welcome rarities form part of what will surely be one of your most played CDs ever. It's almost impossible not to fall under her charms. But she's also capable of delivering some pretty chilly numbers: just take a listen to her reinterpretation of Rosemary's Baby Theme: