4 Albums: Number 2

 

The 2nd of the 4 albums I listened to last night was by Oval, it’s called ’94 Diskont’. I am convinced I first heard Oval on a compilation of Electronic music I had several years ago but I can’t find the damn thing now to confirm that, anyway, this is Oval’s fourth album which was originally released back in 1995 but which I bought just a couple of months ago in a rather nice, ever so slightly spattered orange vinyl. Here it is on the deck:

The colour imperfections don’t really show up in the picture but there are specks of grey and white in there, which is something that I understand happens a lot with black vinyl but doesn’t show up because the black dominates everything. If it is not delibarate then it is due to some different colour vinyl from an earlier press still hanging around in the machine. I learned this from a vinyl podcast called ‘The Vinyl Guide’, which currently has around 40 episodes all running at about an hour or so long and presented by Nate, who is an enthusiastic and engaging presence. I highly recommend a listen, it’s very professionally produced and has an interesting and diverse range of guests and subjects. you can find it at http://www.thevinylguide.com/

Back to Oval, they do weird things to create music, such as deconstructing music and digital audio by using knives, paint, and tape to damage the surfaces of compact discs, and then stitch the sound back together in loops of melody, which is punctuated by the disc’s physical skips, due to the damage inflicted.

The opening track of ’94 Diskont’ (Do While) is 24 minutes and 4 seconds long, and nothing much happens, it is a loop, however, there is constant change with momentary slowing
down, or warping of the sound and minor variations which, once you get into the track, almost trick you into thinking there is much more happening than there really is, or perhaps there really is a lot more going on than I am conscious of because I am happily lost in it. Judge for yourself, here is the whole opening track:

It’s repetitiveness really does have a calming effect, especially if you have a predisposition for repetition and are able to allow your mind to just drift. The swooping melody counterpointed by clicks and pops works extraordinary well in a multilayered way where the track can be just something to relax to but also bears concentrated listening for the tiny imperfections that are deliberately and perfectly placed.

The album is a double, both coloured in this release, which I’ve just looked up and it would appear that it was for Record Store Day 2013, which means it had spent 3 years sitting in the record shop before I picked it up. All records will find the right home eventually.

Vinyl, LP, Album, Orange Marbled
Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM, Orange Marbled

The track listing is as follows:

A1	Do While	24:04
A2	Do While ⌘X	4:50
B1	Store Check	3:58
B2	Line Extension	3:02
B3	Cross Selling	6:06
B4	Commerce Server	4:56
B5	Shop In Store	4:00
C1	Do While: Scanner Remix – Scanner	6:53
C2	Do While: Jim O`Rourke Remix – Jim O’Rourke	5:36
D1	Do While: Mouse On Mars Remix – Mouse On Mars	8:55
D2	Do While: Christian Vogel Remix – Christian Vogel	6:27

When released, this music was looking far into the future and it has taken the music world quite a while to catch up, but many of the works being released now owe a debt to Oval who, 21 years ago, created a template for others to both follow and build upon.

I read one online comment that described the album as “Like being delicately cocooned in fine silk by mechanical spiders.” I think that’s a fair summation.

 

4 Albums: Number 1

Today I played a triumvirate of records (Except that means three, I don’t know what the equivalent word for four is, hang on, let’s check the internet…………it’s Quadrumvirate, there, I learned something new) and the next four posts here will be about them. Here comes the first record of the four that I played.

This week I received my second album from ‘That Special Record’. (Here is the first one I received just in case you wanted to have look). This month I received a copy of ‘6’ by ‘FP-Oner’ who, I am reliably informed is a chap called Fred Peterkin from the US who is a New York Producer/DJ (Aliases include: Black Jazz Consortium, The Incredible Adventures Of Captain P, Anomaly, Fred P Reshape, FP197 & FP – ONER). I am also informed that the genre is Deep House. Now I really can’t tell my deep house from my shallow bungalow but I do know what I like, and I like this.

Wiki has this to say about what Deep House actually is: Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Deep house tracks generally have a tempo of between 120 and 125 beats per minute. This style of house music can often have an acoustic feeling.

Now I do appreciate that the above may lead to further searches for what the House is and what differentiates it from Chicago House and then that will lead to somewhere else, so let’s not do that. Let’s just look at the album that arrived as part of my subscription:

Artist: FP-Oner
Title: 6
Label: Mule Musiq
Format: 180g 2 LP black vinyl
Track List:
1. Awakening Co-creator
2. Kundalini Rising
3. Decalcified
4. New Life Form
5. Learning Process
6. Adjusted Perception
7. Gather Strength
8. Alternate Reality
9. Reap Love

10. Things To Come
11. Vision In Osaka

I do like Ambient, instrumentals and soundtracks and, to my ears, this album falls comfortably somewhere withing these categories but is much more upbeat than many currently in my collection, which makes it a welcome addition. In everything I’ve read this album is categorised as dance music, and I can see it working brilliantly in a club, but I’m not in a club, i’m in my dining room in a comfy chair, and yet it still works in this environment.

The official blurb has this to say: “6 represents the number of man and his or her limitations, weakness and imperfections. This body of work examines and looks towards one awakening; adapting to a new way of being, creating an alternative and reaping a higher state of mind and being, enhanced by love and serenity, satisfaction and joy.”

Having investigated this album would appear to be the second part of a trilogy, that began with ‘5’ and will presumably end with ‘7’. I’m tempted to get them both, going back to get ‘5’ and waiting for the release of ‘7’.

If you would care to see and hear a clip of the album playing on my turntable you can do so by following this link to the Instagram video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BHKvmEEhidg/

The first album I received from That Special Record I as lukewarm about, but this one really is much more to my liking and I can see it getting repeated spins on the turntable. I would recommend pressing play on that video above and having a listen to the track there.

The packaging by TSR was again excellent and the record arrived in perfect condition and the little postcard is always a nice touch as is the plastic cover. I’m very much looking forward to what will arrive in July and am tempted, but can’t afford, to update my subscription to include a 12″ single.

Ennio Morricone at Blenheim Palce

Tonight i get to see a living legend perform in the grounds of Blenheim Palace. It’s going to rain. It’s worth it though. Morricone is now 87 years old and had to cancel some concerts earlier this year due to a back problem, but the signs for tonight are good.

Just in case you are not aware of who he is, he is a composer, this is one of his, you may well know it:

Or perhaps this one will ring a bell:

Here is a quick factual table for you: Morricone has been involved with at least 19 different movies grossing over US$20 million at the box office

Year	Title	Director	Gross (US$)
1965	For a Few Dollars More	Sergio Leone	21,780,305
1966	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	Sergio Leone	25,100,000
1977	Exorcist II: The Heretic	John Boorman	30,749,142
1978	La Cage aux Folles	Édouard Molinaro	25,000,000
1982	The Thing	John Carpenter	25,000,000
1984	Once Upon a Time in America	Sergio Leone	30,555,873
1986	The Mission	Roland Joffé	37,134,545
1987	The Untouchables	Brian De Palma	106,240,936
1988	Frantic	Roman Polanski	26,000,000
1989	Cinema Paradiso	Giuseppe Tornatore	20,000,000
1990	Hamlet	Franco Zeffirelli	20,710,451
1991	Bugsy	Barry Levinson	49,114,016
1993	In the Line of Fire	Wolfgang Petersen	176,997,168
1994	Wolf	Mike Nichols	131,002,597
1994	Disclosure	Barry Levinson	214,015,089
1998	Bulworth	Warren Beatty	29,202,884
2000	Mission to Mars	Brian De Palma	110,983,407
2013	The Best Offer	Giuseppe Tornatore	20,489,700
2015	The Hateful Eight	Quentin Tarantino	155,717,122

As long as it isn’t a torrential downpour it should be fine tonight. This is what the setting will pretty much look like:

 

and here is a 2002 concert in full.

LEAMINGTON RECORD FAIR 18/06/2016 – PART 2

I did a nice little video of my walking into the town hall, up the stairs and into the main hall, except it appears that after 3 seconds of filming I accidentally switched the recording off. I wasn’t about to go outside and do that again so I filmed a lap of the hall instead, and here it is:

Now on to other things I picked up. My music tastes are quite eclectic so there’s always a lot that I’m on the look out for and I was quite surprised to find ‘Slime and Reason’ by Roots Manuva.

In my excitement at finding it, it’s not rare but I’d never seen it used before, I missed that the cover was a bit knackered at the back. No matter though, the vinyl plays fine and it wasn’t expensive, more importantly, it’s a great album.

I picked up a couple of Bob Dylan albums that I didn’t have on vinyl, these two:

The vinyl needs a clean but I think they will be ok. They are both re-pressings, nothing original or rare, but I’m not bothered about that really.

Next was Squeeze from 1978, just because it was there really and because I have a vague idea about getting more XTC and more Squeeze albums. I only really know ‘Take me I’m yours’ from this but I did have a listen to the whole album and it’s pretty good overall.

Back in the early eighties my very bestest friend in the whole wide world (he insists I call him that even though he’s really more of an acquaintance) Dave had his older brothers ( Pete) albums that we sometimes used to listen to, which is why I bought an album by ‘Greenslade’.

I don’t remember much about them, I was more interested in ‘Gentle Giant’ but I thought they were worth a go. The album is ‘Spyglass Guest’ from 1974, it very much sits in the Prog Rock camp and on first listen I felt it started a little cheesy but it soon picked up and was much more interesting. I need to give it a few more listens to be honest.

I sold my copy of ‘Floodland’ by The Sisters of Mercy years ago and was pleased to be able to get a replacement copy for £3.75. I also had a load of 12″ singles that I sold off, but I can’t see myself replacing them any time soon.

Finally, the last thing I bought I just spotted from afar and made a bee line for it. I’ve been listening to the Mood Mosaic albums for years but have never bought one on vinyl and there was the first one at the front of a clear plastic crate. I bought it. Of course. This does not bode well as there are 14 of them and I know I’m going to now want the rest. They are a 14 album series of lounge music, TV Themes, bits from films and other bits and pieces. It’s a bit like a mix tape that somebody with a huge record collection made for you, here’s the tracklist of Volume 1:

01 BOB CREWE – Pygar’s Persecution/The Black Queen’s Beads
02 KLAUS DOLDINGER – Sitar Beat
03 SERGE GAINSBOURG – En Melody
04 MICHEL LEGRAND – Marins, Amis, Amant Ou Maris
05 NELSON RIDDLE – Lamento
06 GARY McFARLAND – Love For Sale
07 GABOR SZABO – Sophisticated Wheels
08 PHIL MOORE III – Batucada
09 LUIS ENRIQUEZ – Mas Que Nada
10 GEORGE GARVARENZ* – Hascisch Party
11 SHOCKING BLUE – Ackta Raga
12 CLAUDE DENJEAN – Kiss This
13 GEORGE SHEARING – Aquarius

Here’s an example of the sort of thing that’s on this first album, and it’s brilliant:

Well this should have ended here, but there may be a part 3 as I went to the record shop afterwards, my bad.

 

Leamington Record Fair 18/06/2016 – Part 1

Today was Leamington Record fair, which was quite busy as soon as it opened, probably because the Peace Festival was on just a short walk away. There were several new vendors, which is good, and I picked up a few bits and pieces from them. I spent relatively little but came away with rather a lot of records.

The first stall by the entrance door had a £1 crate and I did rather well out of that I think, at £1 each I got the following:

My brother had this and I heard it a lot but I don’t think I ever had my own copy. It has a couple of gold stars stamped on the front so it may be a promo copy, I’ve no idea, I bought it for the songs not for any value it may or may not have. This copy is in nice vinyl condition but the cover is a bit tatty to be honest.

A1	The Steppes
A2	Time To Get Out
A3	Slogans
A4	Leaving
A5	Two Vamps As Guests
B1	Jacuzzi
B2	Hammer In The Sand
B3	The Toast
B4	The Show
B5	Sentimental Institution

 

Next up for a the princely sum of £1 was Live Stiffs. I remember this when it came out but never had a copy. It was basically a load of acts from the Stiff record label live. I don’t think this is the original release as it’s not on Stiff records but it doesn’t matter, to pick up these performances for so little money is good enough:

Live LP taken from the “Stiffs Live Stiffs” Tour, recorded on the Rak Mobile at The University of East Anglia, Norwich, Leicester University and The Lyceum, London

Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis are backed by a core group of tour musicians, including some members of The Attractions and The Blockheads. For example, Ian Dury plays drums for Wreckless Eric

On the last track, Ian Dury & The Blockheads are joined on stage by various other tour musicians. Track is credited to “All”.

A1	–Nick Lowe’s Last Chicken In The Shop	I Knew The Bride
A2	–Nick Lowe’s Last Chicken In The Shop	Let’s Eat
A3	–Wreckless Eric & The New Rockets	Semaphore Signals
A4	–Wreckless Eric & The New Rockets	Reconnez Cherie
A5	–Larry Wallis’ Psychedelic Rowdies	Police Car
B1	–Elvis Costello & The Attractions	I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself
B2	–Elvis Costello & The Attractions	Miracle Man
B3	–Ian Dury & The Blockheads*	Wake Up And Make Love With Me
B4	–Ian Dury & The Blockheads*	Billericay Dickie
B5	–All	Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘N’ Roll & Chaos

I bought 3 12″ singles the first two were £1 the last one was £2:

I don’t care what anybody thinks, this is, in my opinion, one of the best pop singles ever released, I genuinely mean that.

A1	Groove Is In The Heart (Meeting Of The Minds Mix) Featuring – Bootsy*, Q-Tip	5:10
A2	Groove Is In The Heart (Peanut Butter Mix)	3:29
B1	What Is Love? (Holographic Goatee Mix)	4:10
B2	What Is Love? (Rainbow Beard Mix)	4:02

Anybody who may have read this blog for a while (there aren’t many of you!) will know that I love Grace Jones so when I saw something I’d never heard of which was really a bit odd and super cheap I really had no choice but to buy it. I have a really vague memory of something around this but it’s really hazy and I certainly never connected a vinyl release with it but the Sci-Fi channel had a ‘fright Night’ and Grace Jones was involved somehow. What I found was a 6 track 12″ releases by the Sci-Fi Channel with different versions of the track on it.

1	Love Bites (7″ Fright Night Mix)	3:40
2	Love Bites (12 Dark Night Mix)	7:35
3	Love Bites (12″ Fright Night Mix)	8:21
4	Love Bites (12″ Deep Into The Night Mix)	6:40
5	Love Bites (7″ Fright Night Instrumental)	3:52
6	Love Bites (7″ Deep Into The Night Mix)	3:45

There’s an official video of it but embedding is disabled so there’s the one above. I added it to my collection on Discogs and it appears to be valued at £25, which is nice for me, though I have no intention of selling it.

The £2 12″ was another Grace Jones, I have the tracks already, but I loved the cover.

The back cover is great as well. I’ll have to take a picture of it and post it at some point.

Also for £1 I picked up a Westworld album from 1987:

A1	Where The Action Is
A2	Sonic Boom Boy
A3	Rockulator
A4	Psychotech
A5	Silver Mac
A6	Fly Westworld
B1	Ba-Na-Na-Bam-Boo
B2	Mix Me Up
B3	Injection 1-2-3
B4	Cheap ‘N’ Nasty
B5	Joy Rider
B6	Painkiller

I’m not sure why but I always liked them, and it is a fabulous cover. I always thought they were going to be bigger than they turned out to be and the fact that they named themselves after the film, which is one of my favourites, went some way to my rooting for them. Here is possibly their only real hit:

I then saw an album that I have seen being shown on lots of Youtube videos, Ricochet by Tangerine Dream. I heard them years ago, the father of the drummer of a band I was in had loads of them and there was one playing one night before practice when we went to pick him up. I didn’t like it and have given them no credence since that initial listening.

Looking back I think there were two reasons why I didn’t connect with it, the first was that it just wasn’t my thing at the time and the other was, I think, that the album he was playing was a soundtrack to a film and nothing much happened, it seemed rather bland and dull to me. Regardless, I bought Ricochet and thought I’d give it a go. I’m glad I did. I’ve just listened to it and absolutely love it. Repetitive instrumentals? Yup, very much my thing nowadays. It will definitely get a lot more plays and I’ll look out for some more of their albums now. I must have passed over dozens of them by now but not anymore.

 

Next was ‘Naked’ by Talking Heads, it was £3.50 (as was Tangerine Dream above) and I’m trying to get sall the Talking Heads albums on vinyl so this was a must really. Especially at that price. I believe it was the last Studio album before they broke up.

1. “Blind” – 4:58
2. “Mr. Jones” – 4:18
3. “Totally Nude” – 4:10
4. “Ruby Dear” – 3:48
5. “(Nothing But) Flowers” – 5:31
6. “The Democratic Circus” – 5:01
7. “The Facts of Life” – 6:25
8. “Mommy Daddy You and I” – 3:58
9. “Big Daddy” – 5:37
10. “Cool Water” – 5:10

The thing I have to point out is that I am still at the first stall, which, on the face of it, suggest I went vinyl buying crazy, but I didn’t, well, not too crazy anyway, I just found lots of things I liked straight away.

There will be more when I get to writing part 2 later.

This way lay madness – the 7″ Single

I had a sudden impulse to but some 7” singles. I’m not entirely sure what brought this on other than a few items on an ebay search filter for ‘LP’ sneaking through and capturing my attention. I have had little or no interest in 7” singles since I was about 16, when they were the only affordable way of buying music. I had no means of income so what little I was able to scrounge up would rarely be enough for an album so it was only singles that were really in my price range. I did manage to obtain a few albums, but not that many really, I think around that time I had about 20 or 30 at most which probably took me years to accumulate.

So I saw this bundle of 80 singles which worked out at £0.375 each and thought I’d pop a bid on them, expecting to be outbid, but you never know, perhaps nobody else wanted them. Which is exactly what happened, my opening bid was the only one. So what did I buy for the princely sum of, near enough, 3 for a £1?

Well, obviously there were some items that I wasn’t that interested in but these were outweighed by those that were of interest, and some of those that weren’t of interest might very well be, once I’ve had a listen to them.

Here is a list of what is on its way to me next week with a few comments:

1) Siouxsie And The Banshees – 1980 – “Christine” – pic sleeve
– I had this one when it came out and really liked the lyric in particular – “Christine, the strawberry girl,Christine, banana split lady, Now she’s in purple, Now she’s the turtle, Disintegrating, Christine, Christine” – I’m not saying they make any sense, but I do like them.
2) Siouxsie And The Banshees – 1985 – “Cities In Dust” – pic sleeve
3) Transvision Vamp – 1989 – “Baby I Don’t Care” – pic sleeve

4) The Toy Dolls – 1984 – “Nellie The Elephant” – pic sleeve
– This was played all the time at a place I used to work, I would hear it every single day. I’m not sure if I hate it or not.
5) Captain Sensible – 1983 – “Glad It’s All Over” – pic sleeve
6) Atomic Rooster – 1970 – “Tomorrow Night” – plain sleeve
7) Various – 1994 – “Nasty Vinyl Sucks” EP (Germany) – pic sleeve

8) Kenny Everett – 1983 – “Snot Rap” (Sid Snot) – pic sleeve
– I definitely hate this

9) The Vapors – 1980 – “Turning Japanese” – pic sleeve
– I never had this single but it’s a great little song and reminds me very much of 1980 when it was released.

10) The Stranglers – 1985 – “Let Me Down Easy” – pic sleeve

11) The Stranglers – 1981 – “Golden Brown” – pic sleeve
– Well I love the Stranglers and have several of their albums so this is a bonus really

12) Bow Wow Wow – 1982 – “I Want Candy” – pic sleeve
– Not my favourite of theirs, that would be either ‘Wild in the country’ or ‘C30,C60,C90” but in the early eighties I very much had a thing for Annabella Lwin, which is reason enough to have it.

13) The Ramones – 1980 – “Baby I Love You” – pic sleeve
– Speaks for itself, it’s the Ramones, how could I not want it?

14) Ian Dury and The Blockheads – 1979 – “Reasons To Be Cheerful part 3” – pic sleeve

15) Ian Dury and The Blockheads – 1978 – “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” – Pic sleeve
– I had both of these at the time, although the former I had on 12” rather than 7”, no idea what happened to it but I’m glad to have it again. The Barney Bubbles covers are brilliant as well.

16) XTC – 1979 – “Making Plans For Nigel” – plain sleeve
– Had this as well, and I’m getting more and more into XTC of late, more than I was back in the 70’s and 80’s, I don’t think I appreciated what they were about at the time.
17) The Jam – 1982 – “Beat Surrender” – pic sleeve
18) The Jam – 1977 – “All Around The World” – plain sleeve
– Nice to have
19) Tubeway Army – 1979 – “Are Friends Electric?” – pic sleeve
20) Gary Numan – 1987 – “Cars (‘E’ Reg Model)” – pic sleeve
21) Gary Numan – 1980 – “We Are Glass” – plain sleeve
– Also Nice to have

22) Nick Lowe – 1978 – “Little Hitler” – pic sleeve
23) Nick Lowe – 1978 – “Cruel To Be Kind” – plain sleeve
24) Nick Lowe – 1978 – “I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass” – plain sleeve
– I always rather liked Nick Lowe, I think because he was on Stiff Records, and so was Ian Dury. The only one of these I didn’t know was ‘Little Hitler’, which I just listened to and I think it’s the weaker of the three, but it was an expression one doesn’t hear so much anymore, so that’s interesting. There can’t be many singles that reference Hitler in the title.

25) Squeeze – 1978 – “Goodbye Girl” – pic sleeve
26) Squeeze – 1979 – “Cool For Cats” – pic sleeve
27) Squeeze – 1981 – “Labelled With Love” – plain sleeve
28) Squeeze – 1981 – “Is That Love” – pic sleeve
– I liked Squeeze and had a pink 7” version of ‘Cool For Cats’, I may have had ‘Up the Junction’ as well, but, much like XTC, I didn’t really appreciate how good they were as songwriters.

29) Elvis Costello & The Attractions – 1981 – “Good Year For The Roses” – plain sleeve
30) Elvis Costello & The Attractions – 1978 – “Radio Radio” – plain sleeve
31) Elvis Costello & The Attractions – 1979 – “Oliver’s Army” – pic sleeve
32) Elvis Costello – 1980 – 4 track EP “New Amsterdam” – pic sleeve
33) Elvis Costello – 1989 – “Veronica” – pic sleeve
34) Elvis Costello & George Jones – 1979 – “Stranger In The House” – pic sleeve
– Happy to have these Elvis Costello singles, his early period is what I favour most.

35) Toyah – 1983 – “Rebel Run” – pic sleeve
36) Toyah – 1981 – “I Want To Be Free” – pic sleeve
37) Toyah – 1981 – “Thunder In The Mountains” – pic sleeve
38) Toyah – 1981 – 4 track EP – “Four From Toyah” – pic sleeve
39) Toyah – 1981 – 4 track EP – “Four More From Toyah” – pic sleeve (with free flexi disc)
40) Toyah – 1982 – “Brave New World” – pic sleeve
– I had a single by Toyah titled ‘IEYA’, which I thought was great, and still do, but it’s not in this lot, which is a shame. I did see her performing on a Top Of The Pops repeat the other week, I think it was ‘ I Wanna Be Free’, it was awful.

41) Adam And The Ants – 1980 – “Kings Of The Wild Frontier” – pic sleeve
42) Adam And The Ants – 1978 – “Deutscher Girls” – pic sleeve
43) Adam And The Ants – 1980 – “Car Trouble” – pic sleeve
44) Adam And The Ants – 1980 – “Ant Music” – pic sleeve
45) Adam And The Ants – 1978 – “Young Parisians” – pic sleeve
46) Adam And The Ants – 1980 – “Dog Eat Dog” – pic sleeve
47) Adam And The Ants – 1981 – “Stand & Deliver” – pic sleeve
48) Adam And The Ants – 1981 – “Prince Charming” – gatefold pic sleeve
49) Adam And The Ants – 1982 – “Goody Two Shoes” – fold out poster sleeve
50) Adam Ant – 1982 – “Friend Or Foe” – pic sleeve
– I’ve written before about Adam and The Ants, in particular ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier”, which you can read about here: https://wordpress.com/stats/day/verian.wordpress.com if you’d like to. I think their/his early work in particular is rather underrated.

51) The Boomtown Rats – 1977 – “Mary Of The 4th Form” – pic sleeve
52) The Boomtown Rats – 1977 – “Looking After No.1” – plain sleeve
53) The Boomtown Rats – 1980 – “Banana Republic” – pic sleeve
54) The Boomtown Rats – 1978 – “Like Clockwork” – company sleeve
55) The Boomtown Rats – 1978 – “Rat Trap” – pic sleeve
56) The Boomtown Rats – 1979 – “I Don’t Like Mondays” – company sleeve
– There was a point where I really liked the Boomtown Rats, probably shortly before ‘I don’t like Mondays’ became a mega hit but I remember being disappointed at some point and thinking that their song quality control was somewhat lacking. Maybe I expected hit after hit and, when that didn’t happen, became disillusioned with them, but these singles are probably the best of them, so that’s good.

57) The Police – 1981 – “Spirits In The Material World” – (Italy) pic sleeve
58) The Police – 1978 – “So Lonely” – pic sleeve
59) The Police – 1986 – “Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86” – pic sleeve
60) The Police – 1979 – “Walking On The Moon” – company sleeve
61) The Police – 1980 – “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” – company sleeve
62) The Police – 1980 – “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” – pic sleeve
63) The Police – 1981 – “Invisible Sun” – pic sleeve
64) The Police – 1981 – “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” – company sleeve
65) The Police – 1980 – “The Beds Too Big Without You” – pic sleeve (blue vinyl)
66) The Police – 1983 – “King Of Pain” – pic sleeve
67) Sting – 1991 – “Mad About You” – pic sleeve
68) Sting – 1993 – “Seven Days” – pic sleeve
– I loved The Police and had all the singles that were released from the first two albums, and ‘Fall Out’, which was their first single (although I may have had the 1979 re-issue rather than the 1977 original). I didn’t dislike their next albums, I just wasn’t as keen on them as the first two and I’m still not. If they had any kind of edge, I think it was lost  on ‘Zenyatta Mondatta’ and everything that followed it.

69) Blondie – 1978 – “Heart Of Glass” – company sleeve
70) Blondie – 1978 – “Sunday Girl” – pic sleeve
71) Blondie – 1979 – “Dreaming” – pic sleeve
72) Blondie – 1979 – “Union City Blue” – pic sleeve
73) Blondie – 1980 – “Atomic” – company sleeve
74) Blondie – 1980 – “Call Me” – pic sleeve
75) Blondie – 1980 – “The Tide Is High” – pic sleeve
– Love, love, love Blondie. From the first moment I heard ‘Denis’ I’ve loved them, which would have been 1978 I guess. I still rate ‘Parallel Lines’ as one of the very best albums ever made.
76) Kraftwerk – 1974 – “Autobahn” – company sleeve
– Good to have
77) Viva Youth – 1985 – “Fight Back (anti heroin song)” – pic sleeve (France)
78) Sting with Eric Clapton – 1992 – “It’s Probably Me” – pic sleeve
79) Fluffy – 1996 – “Nothing” – pic sleeve
80) The Baby’s – 1977 – “Isn’t It Time” – plain sleeve
– These last 4, no idea, other than that I will probably hate the Sting & Eric Clapton single.

As you can see from the following pictures, they aren’t perfect copies, but I don’t mind at all, it’s more about finding something I’d lost than anything else, and for not a lot of money, which is great. I’m really looking forward to them arriving so that I can have a 7” Single session, should be fun.

This weekends UK Record Fairs – 17th June 2016

Here’s your weekly reminder of what’s coming up this weekend in the world of Record fairs. Friday 17th LONDON – Old Spitalfields Market, Commercial Street, E1 – Eric 0207 24…

Source: This weekends UK Record Fairs – 17th June 2016

Preparing vinyl for sale.

Some years ago I did sell off a lot of my vinyl, as many people did at that time. I glued any covers back together, gave the record a wipe and made sure there was no dust on the covers, then I would send them out in proper mailers. I feel I did too much. I was browsing eBay earlier and, apparently, this is the correct way to treat vinyl records.

If I’d known I could have saved myself a lot of bother.

That Special Record – Update

I mentioned a little while ago that I had subscribed to the vinyl service – That Special Record – and yesterday I opened the first package from them.

It’s a double vinyl from ‘The Gods Planet’ titled ‘LP2’. Here is how it is described by one site:

Nietzsche once said: “I would only believe in a God who could dance”. The 2nd The Gods Planet LP, simply titled LP2, is ample proof that you can trust in Claudio PRC and Ness to make you dance. Built upon pieces of music purposely made for a live presentation at Paris´ well-regarded Concrete club, it sees the Italian duo of techno producers applying a willingness for inner and outer discovery, and a more human outlook to the brand of thoughtful, detailed, yet emotional and powerful productions, which they have built their name upon. New machines, techniques and skills are dexterously applied to the foundations displayed on the 1st album, from 2013, making it more direct and overtly danceable, not as experimental but certainly as explorative as before. It is the sound of two artists further more at ease with their standing in the scene, taking stock of their surroundings, before further ventures into the unknown, but still as interested and skilled as ever in telling stories. And what´s presented here is a compelling story of self-discovery woven into Claudio and Ness´s vision of techno and house music.  

This is quite possibly true, I really haven’t had a chance to listen to it properly. The main question that arises is, do I like it and do I think that my money was well spent. Early indications on whether I like it are good, that’s as much as I can say on it for the moment, at least until I’ve had a chance to have a proper listen and to have lived with it for a little while.

It’s double black vinyl and as well as the note you can see in the image there was a separate inner sheet with a bit more information on. The track listing is:

A1 – The Gods Planet – Landing
A2 – The Gods Planet – In the Maze
B1 – The Gods Planet – New Dawn
B2 – The Gods Planet – Ascending
C1 – The Gods Planet – Nightfall
C2 – The Gods Planet – Glimpse
D1 – The Gods Planet – Fast Shadow
D2 – The Gods Planet – Time Machine
D3 – The Gods Planet – The Golden Age (Vinyl Edit)

Now, as for price, I paid €28,00, I’ve seen it priced online at €14,99, however, there was €7,98 shipping to add to that and that was not for international. I’ve written myself a little questionnaire to make it easier to clarify my thoughts.

Would you have chosen this album if you had stumbled across it yourself? :
I don’t think so, but I did know what I signed up for and I don’t dislike the album, though I do find it a little one dimensional musically. I am wondering how often I will be moved to play it in the future, I suspect it will be rarely.

How was the service provided, from a delivery perspective? :
No complaints there, it was well packaged, arrived in one piece and the album was already in a protective plastic sleeve, which is handy as it saves me using up one, although they are only 10p each it’s still good.

What are your thoughts on the price you paid? :
I found the album at €14,99 online, which suggests that this is the retail price or thereabouts, so the rest of my subscription went on what? Post, packaging, a plastic sleeve and a leaflet, which is €13,01. I don’t usually deal in Euros so I have to convert to £ for me to really get a sense of it, so we are looking at £21.87 for the subscription, £11.71 for the album and £7.94 for the rest.  When I look at it in those terms it does seem much more reasonable to me and, depending on the length of your subscription you can get the overall price down to €23,00 (£17.97).  That £7.94 for the rest though, it feels a little high to me but I guess I am paying for only having a month on month subscription.

Are you going to renew your subscription? :
I already have. I’m in for next month because I was really interested in some of the previous releases and, while this first album may not be exactly what I was hoping for, ‘That Special Record’ have built up a month on month list of releases that make it worth continuing to see what I get. Also, jumping back to price a moment, there is the curation aspect which I accept attracts a fee and is a portion of that £7.94 over and above the cost of the album.

More info on this subscription service can be found at http://www.thatspecialrecord.com/

Here is a track from ‘The Gods Planet’ – ‘LP2’

Let me know what you think.

Oh, one other thing, I do get a nice e-mail every weekday with a recommended album on it, you can sign up for that yourself as it’s free.

The Beat/P.I.L – O2 Academy, Oxford

I am not really in great physical shape at the moment so attending a gig was very much not something that I would have chosen to do last night, but I bought a ticket months ago and I did not want to not go and then regret it later, so I went. Public Image Ltd were headlining with support from The Beat.

The O2 is about 25 minutes from where I work and there is a nearby car park so it wasn’t difficult to get to, I just needed to work late so that when I set off for the gig I wasn’t stuck in rush hour traffic. I arrived just before 7PM, which is when the doors opened, but decided to avoid the building queue and sit in Subway across the road with a Ham & Turkey sub on wheat bread, it’s the lowest fat one they do. I took a photo of it, don’t judge me.

I wandered over at about 7:30 and found the place to be pretty empty so I walked to the front and hung about 5 people back from the stage, which would turn out to be fortuitous as the heat in the place when it filled up was massive and I’d accidentally chosen to stand right under the air conditioning, which they put on at 8:45, by then it was a little late but it was better than not being on at all.

The beat were really very good, full of energy, getting the audience to join in and happily playing the songs the audience wanted to hear. I did take a couple of minutes to get my phone out and record a song, which shows my proximity to the stage as well.

Frontman Rankin Roger introduced his co-vocalist as Rankin Roger Jnr, which is nice. They did about an hour and it was really enjoyable, despite the heat.

At 8:50 P.I.L took to the stage and, being entirely truthful, it was a little bit of a disappointment. Perhaps this is my own fault as I love P.I.L and maybe I was expecting more than I should have, but the sound was a bit muddy, the levels on the vocal often made it unintelligible (which sometimes it’s supposed to be, but when it’s not, it shouldn’t be). I stood in the same spot for 4 songs but then had to move further back as space was getting tighter and, as previously mentioned, I’m not in the best of shape to deal with that at the moment.

I did do a quick snippet of ‘This is not a love song’, which is below, and listening to it back this morning, it sounds better on the video than it did being there. John Lydon, as he does nowadays, read the majority of his lyrics and still forgot some of them, or more likely lost his place. It was song after song with almost nothing in-between and I felt at times like I was present at a practice session and felt that they weren’t really up for it and were going through the motions somewhat. I could be entirely wrong about this and it may have been me projecting how I was feeling on to the band. Oh, the video is the wrong way up, bloody phone (because it can’t possibly be my fault! It’s been corrected in youtube, so that’s better)

I was still enjoying the gig but I had to leave early as it was all getting a bit too much for me to deal with and I had over an hour still to drive home.

I did try and take a few pictures of P.I.L but they were bloody awful so I quickly gave up.

I was glad I had the opportunity to see P.I.L. live and do wish I had been in finer fettle and could have stayed until the end.

Well nobody told me: Roxy Music

Whenever I’ve had cause to think of Roxy Music the tracks that are at the forefront of my mind are things like Avalon, More Than This, Jealous Guy, Angel Eyes or Dance Away. These are the ones that were current when I started to really take notice of music and it started meaning something to me. While they are perfectly fine songs they were never going to interest me on any other level than them being something I could whistle to, though probably wouldn’t. I had little idea of what they were as a band before the 80’s. I had seen things like ‘Do The Strand’ on the Old Grey Whistle Test repeats, but my judgement was already set.

I was watching a you tube video where folks were showing their record collections and a ‘Highly Recommended’ was ‘Music For Pleasure’, their sophomore release from 1973, so I decided to give it a streaming music service listen and was genuinely surprised by what I heard.

I have read some reviews from back when it was released and they are, on occasion, far from complimentary but I’ve had the benefit of hearing over 40 years of music since this album was released and heard how music has changed, pioneered, progressed and so, listening to ‘Music For Pleasure’ for the first time I have many more reference points than the reviewers of the day would have had. I can hear the Prog, the Krautrock, the experimentation and the Pop and it is a wonderful mix that gives little indication of the lounge act I felt they became. Perhaps Brian Eno was a catalyst as he left the band after this album and it was a few more albums later before I feel they drifted off the path upon which they had been set (which I only comment upon because I’ve been listening to most of the back catalogue of late).

I found a few albums for sale so thought I’d pick them up for £22, here they are, all six of them:

That’s 3.66 each. I received them yesterday and they are in very good, playable condition. Very pleased with that and finding myself really liking early Roxy Music, which is something I never would have thought would happen as I was really very biased against them until now but damn this stuff is good.

Well that’s just stupid

Stuff waiting

I mentioned before that I’ve been off work for a couple of weeks, I’m on the mend now though. I received a picture of what has arrived from various places during my absence. I don’t know what’s in all of them. 

THE WORST MADE SLIGHTLY BETTER: MANOWAR (7)

I really don’t know much about Manowar, but I do know this cover. It’s, well, I don’t have the words really, it’s, erm, fabulous? I had a go at a re-design for this one, nice and simple look. I spent most of the time creating the blank cover which is a Joy Division album of mine that I grunged up.

 

 

THE WORST MADE SLIGHTLY BETTER: The Faith Tones (6)

Well, The Faith Tones have been a bit of an internet sensation, just because of this album cover, such amazing hair, why did this style ever go out of fashion? There has been rather a lot of debate as to whether it was a real recording and cover, or if it was just a photoshop creation. I fall on the side of real. So, here we are at the 6th album re-design, again fairly minimalistic, but the original is so amazing it’s hard to really improve upon it. I had a try at it though.

Below, it is said, is the title track from the album.

THE WORST MADE SLIGHTLY BETTER: ORION (5)

This next re-design of terrible album covers is rather famously bad and always turns up. I actually saw a copy in my local record store and I really do wish I’d bought it, but I didn’t, it would have been an Irony purchase, I’d have only ever played it once, if that.

This is by far my favourite of the ones that I’ve done and it took the least amount of time, but, for me, it really works and I have no doubt that if I saw it in a rack of used vinyl it would peak my curiosity and I’d pick it up to see what it was.

That’s all I have for now but may do some more if I feel up to it. I’ll even take suggestions!

You may not agree that the re-designed covers are better than the originals and, again, I am not the greatest at photoshop, but I’m rather pleased with them.

Update: I found a video clip of Orion and then remembered I’d heard him before, he sounds a lot like Elvis, and there was a time when a lot of people thought it actually was Elvis releasing records under an assumed name. Here he is:

The album is on Apple Music and it’s actually a pretty good listen, he was much better than the album cover suggested.

 

THE WORST MADE SLIGHTLY BETTER: JEFF (4)

This chap doesn’t have a second name, in the same way Elvis was known by only one name, so was this fellow, Jeff. Presumably the reason for the terribleness was mostly down to the prosthetic hand, but I’ve left that in. I’ve no idea what the music is and presume Jeff didn’t play saxophone, but that’s the design that came to me and I stuck with it.

 

 

THE WORST MADE SLIGHTLY BETTER: Eduardo Davidson (3)

So here we are at number 3 in the album cover re-design of some of the worst album covers ever. Now it’s quite clear that on the original album cover Eduardo is just too damn sexy, so I’ve toned that down a bit for more conservative minds.

 

The Worst Made Slightly Better: Heino (2)

Number 2 in the terrible album cover re-design is by Heino, although despite it always turning up as terrible, I actually quite like the oddness of the original.

Have I made it better? I’m not actually 100% sure about that.

The Worst Made Slightly Better: Jayson Lee (1)

I’ve been unwell for about ten days and as a result have not been able to make my way to work. This has left me almost terminally bored so I set myself up in a super comfy position with a graphic tablet and did a little photoshop work. I don’t claim to be an expert at it, however, I did feel that some of those covers that repeatedly appear categorised as ‘The Worst’ could do with a re-design.

I’ve seen a few classic albums re-designed in a different style and they are fabulous, a way higher standard than I can achieve, but the basic materials I’m working with are so bad that it doesn’t take so much skill to improve them, or at least I think I have managed to do so.

The first is by Jayson Lee, here it is:

I like minimalism and I do love those old graphic designs on Jazz albums, so I’ve tried to emulate that somewhat. Anyway, here is Jayson Lee re-imagined.

Well, if I was crate digging I’d pick it up to have a look.