Music Library Compilations: Rs

Repo Man Soundtrack (1984). If not my introduction to LA hardcore, then this album was very close to it.



Return Of The Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons (1999). I love Gram Parsons a lot. This is ok, I guess, but no substitute for the original.



Riverside Original Jazz Classics Sampler (1957-63). Out of all of the Original Jazz Classics Samplers, this one is the best, mainly because the label was a going concern for such a short time that it captured a lot of hard bop and then went out of business.



Rock The Bells: Six Years Of Live Hip-Hop (rel. 2009). This is a free sampler with some top-notch artists on it, including the RZA, Cage, Dead Prez, Aesop Rock, and Del The Funky Homosapien. What's not to like?



Rockabilly Psychosis And The Garage Disease (rel. 1984). Like a precursor to the Lux & Ivy's Favorites collections, this fantastic compilation puts together tracks from all kinds of Cramps-friendly acts, including a blistering collaboration between the Cramps themselves and Jim Dickinson, producer and wild man extraordinaire. Also included are Tav Falco, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Hasil Adkins, a bunch of punk-rockabilly-garage tracks, and a bunch of psycho garage bands from the 60s. Good stuff is what I'm saying.



Roots N' Blues: The Retrospective (1925-1950). Yet another mystery comp that I picked up somewhere down the line. This one has a bunch of early blues tracks with some hillbilly/old-time music thrown in.



The Rubble series (rec. all over the late 60s, rel. between the mid 80s and early 00s). This is one of the mini-Nuggets series with some crossover with the Nuggets II box. Lots of interesting psych here, albeit with more duds than the more carefully curated Nuggets boxes. Website can be found here.

• Rubble 1: The Psychedelic Snarl
• Rubble 2: Pop Sike, Pipe Dreams
• Rubble 3: Nightmares In Wonderland
• Rubble 4: The 49 Minute Technicolour Dream
• Rubble 5: The Electric Crayon Set
• Rubble 6: The Clouds Have Groovy Faces
• Rubble 7: Pictures In The Sky
• Rubble 8: All The Colours Of Darkness
• Rubble 9: Plastic Wilderness
• Rubble 10: Professor Jordan's Magic Sound Show
• Rubble 11: Adventures In The Mist
• Rubble 12: Staircase To Nowhere
• Rubble 13: Freakbeat Fantoms
• Rubble 14: The Magic Rocking Horse
• Rubble 15: 5,000 Seconds Over Toyland
• Rubble 16: Glass Orchid Aftermath
• Rubble 17: A Trip In A Painted World
• Rubble 18: Rainbow Thyme Wynders
• Rubble 19: Eiderdown Mindfog
• Rubble 20: Thrice Upon A Time (Nothing Is Real)

Rudy Van Gelder Remasters Sampler, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (both released 2006). These were a couple of free samplers of the Blue Note and Prestige remasters by Rudy Van Gelder, the engineer who recorded a ton of hard bop back in the day. Unfortunately, eMusic released these free samplers with low-to-middling nitrates (128-170 kbps) and I don't hear too much of the sonic clarity that they were supposed to offer, let alone any serious difference between the original mix of, say, "Oleo" from Bag's Groove (attributed to Miles Davis, but featuring Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke) and the one offered here. Maybe they sound much better when using quality equipment or a higher nitrate. In the youtube videos following, the RVG remaster has a lot more space and warmth.