Jackpot Vinyl & CDs

Review: The Martin Denny reissue series continues at pace with one of his most sought-after albums. Exotic Moog was initially released in 1969 and pretty much does what it says on the tin - takes the iconic Moog synth and conjures up all manner of exotic and spaced-out sounds that leave you laying back and gazing on in awe. There's a retro-future feel to them which makes them all the more likable, and though some are beatless pieces of suspensory scene-setting, there are some breezy grooves like 'I Talk To The Trees' and sentimental space waltzes like 'The Enchanted Sea'. A characterful world of cinematic sounds for sure.

Review: Jackpot's revisit to The Meters' early days continues with this limited blue vinyl pressing of their third album, Struttin'. Not even waiting a year after their second album Look A Py Py, the New Orleans funk pioneers knew they were onto a good thing and hopped straight back to the studio to lay down another 12 loose and limber joints which helped shape out the sound of the Bayou. The likes of 'Chicken Strut' and 'Hand Clapping Song' make a strong case for the shape of music that was yet to come, soon to be remoulded in a tidal wave of hip-hop sampling, but still so def in its original, raw and rolling form.

Review: Given 'Africa' has been the soundtrack to university athletics union night's out for the last 40 years or so it's safe to say Toto are a band that really deserve more in-depth attention. As this mind-blowing soundtrack to the cult science fiction film Dune goes to show, there's a lot more to the outfit than the chart-friendly glam-riffdom of their most famous single.



Brian Eno's name gives a sign of how arty things get, but in truth he's only responsible for a fraction of this adventurous listen, which is packed with movie soundbites to set the scene among fantastical landscapes, rather than realism. From classical overtures ('Leto's Theme', 'Trip To Arrakis'), through tense incidentals ('The Box') and crystalline synthdom ('Prophecy Theme'), it's only really on the credit-worthy 80s pop balladry of 'Take My Hand' that we get the stadium payoff Toto fans are used to, completing an epic journey.