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This collection celebrates the 10th anniversary of Rpm Records. Tracks can be traced back to 1960 and include styles ranging from psychedelia to R&B. Label samplers really have primary value to the label, rather than to consumers, serving as a promotional survey of sorts that might give interested parties an idea of the range of sounds issued by a company. It would be a strange person indeed that would make a compilation tape of the 25 tracks on this CD, which are unified primarily by their chronological era: every song save Polly Browne's 1978 disco tune "Angel" is from 1960-1970. It's odd to jump from an early-'60s P.J. Proby obscurity to an excerpt of John Kennedy's speech just prior to his assassination, then to fierce British R&B by the Syndicats, fey femme-sung mid-'60s Brit-pop, psychedelia by Tomorrow, soundtrack music from Les Reed, MOR pop from Paul Jones, folk-rock from Tim Rose, and so forth. Still, RPM is a good label for off-the-usual-track reissues of recordings from (usually) the 1960s, and there are a good number of good songs here for the curious, like the Syndicats' cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Howlin' for My Baby" (with a young Steve Howe); Tomorrow's radio version of "Revolution" (again with a pre-Yes Steve Howe); Rings & Things' swinging pop-psycher "Strange Things Are Happening"; the Untamed's mod-soul shake "Gimme Gimme Some Shade"; and Les Reed's soul-jazz-MOR soundtrack classic "Theme From Girl on a Motorcycle." Probably the best item here not to appear on many other comps is Frazer Hines' "Time Traveller," an odd psychedelic mix of early Donovan and Bo Diddley. ~ Richie Unterberger
