Madfish announces a massive Al Stewart box set

If you think Cherry Red had been spoiling Al Stewart fans with their reissue campaign, think again. The UK label’s 3CD/DVD box sets of both ‘Year of The Cat’ and ‘Time Passages’ were very smart, and a massively expanded ’24 Carrots’ appeared to be fairly comprehensive, but they’ve got nothing on the planned box set that’s due for release in June 2022.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Taking Some Time On: Underground Sounds Of 1970

As a contrast to the ‘Progressive Pop Sounds’ sets from Cherry Red Records subsidiary label, Grapefruit, the ongoing ‘Underground Sounds’ series from Esoteric opts for something far more rock oriented.  Early collections covering 1968 and ’69 resulted in fine, but unadventurous sets of tunes, and as the series moves into the 70s, fans can expect a similarly accessible approach. Although the four disc delve into 1970 doesn’t necessary dig too deep for obscurities, it still plays very well as a compilation in its own right. In a little over four hours, it serves up nostalgia, unfamiliar curiosities and enough genuine classics to give a solid overview of the year’s prog-leaning and guitar heavy sounds.

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THE GREAT 70s PROJECT: 1970/71 Revisited

Between May and July 2017, Real Gone embarked on an ambitious audio project.   A huge library of streaming audio, ‘The Great 70s Project’ became one of the year’s most popular features.

The plan was to delve deep into the decade’s music, but dig much deeper than revisiting the hits.  We hoped that by presenting the hits alongside some fabulous album cuts and neglected b-sides, our look at the decade would create new favourites and also encourage listens to long neglected albums.

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