Best-known these days among the beats ‘n’ breaks community, producer-keyboardist-composer-arranger David Axelrod also had impeccable jazz connections back in the day, most notably with Lou Rawls and Cannonball Adderley (who strangely, given Ax’s credentials in the field, produces this album).

While Heavy Axe’s covers of contemporary pop hits ‘You’re So Vain’ and ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing’ are entertaining, they’re hardly essential; what makes this album perhaps the most fully-realised Axelrod project of the 1970s are his original compositions (‘It Ain’t For You’ and the closing ‘Everything Counts’ especially), exemplars of the epic, choppy electro-orchestral jazz he helped pioneer; and the presence of Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson and George Duke. The former contributes his trademark stinging lines, while the latter is simply on fire – there’s some of his best-ever playing here, full of funk and feeling. Add in superb sound and facsimile packaging, and you have one of the very best jazz-rock albums of the period. A must-buy for fans of the genre.