Like most active music fans, Keith Holzman...

Like most active music fans, Keith Holzman hates the way radio segregates pop styles: oldies rock on one station, alternative rock on another; dance music here, “black music” there.

So Holzman, who owns L.A.-based ROM Records, has designed a series of CD (and cassette) albums that cuts across the artificial boundaries.

Musicians featured on the first two volumes in ROM’s “All Ears Review” collection ranged from South Africa’s BoyoyoBoys and Zydeco’s Rockin’ Dopsie to the “European tribal” sound of West Berlin’s Dissidenten.

The volumes (which run 50 minutes or more each and generally sell for between $12-$14) also spotlight several worthy rock bands, including England’s Mekons, New York’s Silos and California’s Balancing Act, Blood on the Saddle, Downy Mildew and Game Theory.

While the contrast of styles may make CDs seem a disjointed musical experience, the tracks flow together remarkably well. It’s like listening to a good radio station. Maybe it’s no coincidence: Assisting Holzman on Volume 1 was KCRW-FM music director Tom Schnabel, while KCRW programmer Mara Zhelutka was consultant on the second.

The third “All Ears Review” volume is a retreat from the maverick nature of the first two because it has a theme: folk-flavored singer-songwriters, ranging from former Venice street musician Ted Hawkins to “Prairie Home Companion” regular Greg Brown.

In Volume 4, due Oct. 1, ROM returns to the more enticing eclecticism of the earlier packages. The lineup ranges from reggae favorite Joe Higgs and R & B-rock pioneer Big Jay McNeely to rock bands from Louisiana (Song Dogs), New Jersey (the Cucumbers) and Los Angeles (Top Jimmy and the Bonedaddys).

BONUS TRACK I: Leonard Cohen and Laura Nyro are two of the most acclaimed songwriters of the modern pop era, but their works have been slow to surface in CD because they were never mega-sellers.

The wait, however, is over. Columbia has released three Cohen albums and three Nyro albums as part of its budget Collector’s Choice series (under $10 each).

You’ll find the best-known Cohen songs (including “Bird on a Wire” and “Suzanne”) in “Best of,” but the controversial, Phil Spector-produced “Death of a Ladies’ Man” (1977) is also recommended. It is one of the most fascinating looks at romantic combat ever recorded.

The Nyro packages are “Eli and the Thirteenth Confession” (1968), “Gonna Take a Miracle” (1971) and the essential “First Songs” (1967). The latter includes “Wedding Bell Blues” and “And When I Die.”

BONUS TRACK II: Qwest Records’ CD version of Joy Division’s “Substance/1977-1980”--a retrospective of the massively influential British band--contains seven songs not on the vinyl or cassette packages. . . . “Just Say Yo”--the second volume in Sire Records’ CD sampler series, offers a lively cross section of the label’s diverse attractions, from Morrissey (“Will Never Marry”) and K.D. Lang (“Black Coffee”) to Depeche Mode (“Behind the Wheel/Route 66”). List price: $7.98. . . . Sierra Records’ “Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels--Live 1973” contains a closing medley not found on the original vinyl album. The songs: Larry Williams’ “Bony Moronie” and Chuck Berry’s “40 Days” and “Almost Grown.”