Compiled by Kris Needs, former editor of U.K. magazine ZigZag, this two-CD roots-of-punk anthology places Sun Ra, the Last Poets, Silver Apples, and Can alongside usual suspects the Seeds, the Stooges, and New York Dolls. It also integrates more arty, progressive influences that undergirded 1976-77 punk — after all, Johnny Rotten cited krautrock and dub in late ’70s interviews and guest DJ sets. Annotated with a 76-page booklet, Dirty Water is as scholarly as it is entertaining.
