SUDDEN HALT

Unfortunately, I've had to call a halt to Raider Of The Lost Racks for now.
My busy schedule is just not allowing enough time to get it done properly.
I do have a huge amount of material yet to be included, but it will all have to wait until sometime later.
As it is, Raider Of The Lost Racks is still a chunky database to dip into, so will continue to be a rather useful archive, most of which wasn't on the Internet previously.
Anyway, I hope to get back to it when time will allow.
Meanwhile, enjoy what's already up.

THE START OF ACID JAZZ - 1988

These 2 compilation albums above were the first products to use the term "Acid Jazz" on the cover - and both arrived in the record shelves around the same time in October 1988.
The 2 ads at the top for BGP & Urban Records, both appeared in an Autumn issue of Straight No Chaser magazine in 1988.
The review of the Urban compilation cropped up in Blues & Soul magazine in October 1988.
The 2 charts showing both releases were taken from Blues & Soul and Soul Underground magazines, again both published in October 1988.
Lastly, the albums themselves which are from my own racks at home...
the first being the vinyl version of "Acid Jazz Vol. 1", which was released on BGP - and under it, the cassette version of "Acid Jazz & Other Illicit Grooves" which came out on Urban Records, a tape I remember that got plenty of plays on my Walkman way back then!

SOLESIDES COLLECTIVE

The review at the top comes from a Straight No Chaser magazine dated winter 2000.
It's for a hip hop compilation album called "Solesides Greatest Bumps", featuring various acts connected to Solesides - such as Lyrics Born, DJ Shadow, Latryx, Blackalicious etc.
The double album consists mostly of exclusive material and was released by Ninja Tune/Quannum.
The sleeve above, taken from my own collection, is actually the outer cardboard box cover which is different to the main CD cover design inside. A 12 page booklet is also included.

BLUNT TRAX

The top item was published in DJ Mag in September 1992 and is a short run down of UK releases the journalist recommended that particular week.
From the same issue of DJ Mag is a playlist compiled by Phil Perry who was DJ at Full Circle near London, and one of the records that gets a mention in both items is Blunt Trax Vol 1.
This was a 12 inch that came out on the Tomato label and consisted of 2 tracks - "Head Space" & "Carried Away".
The vinyl on display above is out of my racks at home.
The flip side of it contains the exact same details on the label & cover as what's shown above, which is why I have only needed to take just one photo of it.

NUGROOVE GEAR

The top item is a brief overview of New York house label, NuGroove, which was published in dance music magazine, Mixmag, in 1995. It's just a compact bit of background info and includes a few of their classic tracks as a guide.
Under it is an insert from an album that contains a more substantial list of NuGroove releases, albeit only covering the releases up to 1991. It is also a good reminder of how prolific they were too!
The 2 albums taken from my own collection are both compilations of NuGroove tracks.
The green one is simply titled "A Compilation" and was released in 1991.
The wine one is titled "A Second Compilation" and was released in 1992.
Both LP's are double vinyl packs and came out on the Network label in UK.

AUDIO ACTIVE DEBUT ALBUM

The item at the top is an ad that appeared in Japanese magazine, Bar-F-Out, back in winter 1993.
It's for the debut album by Audio Active - the LP shown in the ad being the available in Japan only version.
The Soundclash DJ's at The Gallery in Leeds, however, managed to get hold of this version of the album in early '94 as it crops up in their playlist which was published in Straight No Chaser magazine in Spring 1994.
Later in 1994 the UK version also came out, and that's the one I got, and so have featured my vinyl copy to accompany the mag items.
It has a different cover and as well as a fuller title - "We Are Audio Active, Tokyo Space Cowboys".
The UK version has almost the same track listing as its Japanese counterpart, with only a couple of changes.
The Japanese release came out on Alfa/On-U Sound, the recording made in both Alfa Studios in Tokyo and On-U Sound in London.
As with all On-U Sound records, it was produced by Adrian Sherwood (apart from track 6) and featured some On-U's guests on backing, such as Bim Sherman, Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald etc, but in the main, Audio Active manage to stamp their own sound.

PENETRATE DEEPER

The top 2 items are from the same issue of Generator magazine as the previous post, and so when they were looking back over 1995's best albums in January 1996, the LP above was one of their compilations of the year.
The Generator ad on top reveals that the release was also Muzik magazine's 'compilation of the year'.
The short Generator review is from their albums of the year overview.
To accompany the magazine material I have plucked out the LP from my own collection at home - a double vinyl compilation called "Penetrate Deeper" which was released on Tribal/ddr.