Audiophile Digital

Little Feat
The Last Record Album
Rhino/Warner R2 727662 (four discs)

Debates will forever rage as to which of Little Feat’s albums was the best – some of us feel all were masterpieces – but their fifth studio title, from 1975, featured ‘All That You Dream’ and ‘Long Distance Love’, enough to ensure its role as a contender. Representing the best of Americana, with a swampy feel and a funk factor matched by few others, Little Feat remain loved by those with supreme taste – despite the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame failing to induct them. This stunning expansion gives you the album remastered and recut from the original tapes, plus previously unreleased studio outtakes, demos and rarities, and an unreleased live show from the tour to support the album, at the Boston Orpheum Theatre. KK

Sound Quality: 90%

George Martin
The Velvet Revolution
Él Records ACME3CD382 (three discs)

This is not the first collection to remind us that George Martin worked with artists other than The Beatles, the subtitle ‘Sound Productions And Impressionist Influences’ explaining it is something of a departure if you think solely of his rock and pop output. Its 56 tracks illustrate, too, how Martin was a surprise choice for nurturing the Fab Four: there’s a CD of material he produced for novelty jazz band The Temperance Seven, another of Beyond The Fringe sketches with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller (and a track from the Dudley Moore Trio), and a third of his ‘classical influences’, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel – probably his real love. KK

Sound Quality: 85%

Atomic Rooster
Circle The Sun
Esoteric Antenna EANTCD1115

Not sure if 40 years between releases is some kind of a record, but this is Atomic Rooster’s first since 1983’s Headline News. It also begs a question as to how one feels about bands performing without any founding members, although to be fair, guitarist Steve Bolton has been a mainstay since 1971 and the use of the name is sanctioned. Circle The Sun is a time warp experience in that, with eyes closed, you could imagine yourself back in the tail end of the 1960s, its hard rock ethos tempering the prog-rock tag that’s most associated with the band. This is a punchy, powerful album that will sate tastes from Rush fans to, well, early Atomic Rooster boosters. KK

Sound Quality: 90%

Neil Young
Oceanside Countryside
Reprise Records 093624833109

For those of you trying to collect all of the works Young has freed from his archives, this honey of an unreleased album from 1977 fits in between that year’s American Stars ’N Bars and 1978’s Comes A Time. It’s actually a perfect adjunct to the latter, a country/folk effort rather than one of his grating experiments, the two overlapping on only three tracks: ‘Human Highway’, ‘Goin’ Back’ and ‘Field Of Opportunity’. Part of his ‘Analog Original Series’ (AOS), it was recorded on tape and as a result sounds warm, natural and free of studio tweaking. Young fans sticking to his cataloguing system should file this in the ‘Special Release Series’ as SRS Disc 07. KK

Sound Quality: 85%