BGP Vinyl & CDs

Review: Lonnie Liston Smith's third LP with the Cosmic Echoes, from 1974, was the second to mark his discovery of the success-driving formula that was spiritual jazz-funk. The record's impact has indeed resounded through the decades, like a chakra-prodding gong. Though for all its crystal-clear recording and effortless performances, Expansions is perhaps best known as a precursory informant on clubland, prophesying some of the most storied developments in electronic dance music and its uses of jazz. The phasy drums on 'Shadows', zilling fills of 'Voodoo Woman', and of course the banging suspensions of 'Expansions', have been sampled the world over by electronica musicians - a trend which begun not long after the record's release on Flying Dutchman.