More Random Vinyl

In Sydney on a working holiday, managed to snaffle a Record Store Day copy of the mono 'Saucerful Of Secrets' that I missed out on in my local shop. Thanks Hum in Newtown, Sydney.

Random Vinyl post # 2, Kraut, Eno and related and more.

I've collected a whole bunch of vinyl over the past few weeks, mainly 2nd hand and all pretty good stuff.

One afternoon week before last, after a particularly tiring teaching day and needing to kill a bit of time before I picked up my son up from school, I ventured into a neighbourhood antique and collectables store that has a large selection of old vinyl. I'd been through the racks maybe 3 or 4 months ago and didn't find a whole lot. Couldn't believe my luck this time. I walked out with 12 albums and paid probably way too much, but it was one of those days…I don't drink or do drugs…so…

Firstly here are the Krautrock band/solo and related records I managed to find:

Klaus Schulze (Germ pressing), Kraftwerk (Aus pressing), Tangerine Dream's Edgar Froese (Aus pressing), Cluster (Germ pressing), Robert Schröder (Germ pressing on Klaus Schulze's label) and Neu's Michael Rother (Germ pressing)

Next up we have Rick Wright's first solo album 'Wet Dream'. It's an Aus pressing, but as can be seen it is a gold stamped promo copy. Long time Floyd fan, but hadn't managed to ever hear Rick's first album, it was out of print for a long time. It's pretty literally "yacht rock" for much of it, kind of the more mellow end of mid 70s Floyd, with more saxophone. It's not without it's charm, but a tad too easy-listening. I do love Rick's soothing voice. 

Some Eno and related up next.

Eno's 'Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)' which is a really nice mid 70s German pressing. Eno's 'Another Green World' (Aus pressing). Then we have a couple of Eno produced gems from the 70s; Harold Budd's 'The Pavilion Of Dreams' (Jap pressing) and Laraaji's 'Day of Radiance' which is the 3rd in Eno's Ambient series.

Finally, the loser of the bunch, SPK's 'Gold and Poison'. SPK were an Australian/UK outfit from the late 70s/early 80s, creating influential post-punk industrial and electronics. Their first 3 or so albums are essential records in that area of music, but this one from 1988 seems like a blatant attempt at commercial dance-infused pop. It's rather horrible, but I must admit to not listening to side 2. Founder member Graham Revelle was soon to move to the US and is now a successful score composer in Hollywood. Oh well, 11 out of 12 is not bad and they were all in fantastic shape.

This last Friday, again after teaching I went into the record store that I work in sometimes to check out what new pressings and second hand stuff the boss had got in. First thing I saw in 2nd hand rack was Nina Hagen's 3rd album which has been a long time favourite via friends records and cassette dubs, but I've never actually had my own copy. Now I do.

Nerdy I know, but this KISS album is my favourite from them (sue me). Now, I still have an original pressing that I bought back in the mid 90s with the mini poster, to replace my original copy I got upon release in 1981, but parted with with most of my KISS collection for some dough when I was a struggling student. However I wanted to get a complete copy with all the inserts which includes a KISS Army application form. This one had that form and I didn't notice until I got it home, but it had 2 mini posters in it. It's a sale bin copy as it's been hole punched (both posters have a hole), but everything is intact and in not bad shape. 

I bought some new vinyl too, the Broadcast/The Focus Group collaboration on Warp records. Beautiful stuff, RIP Trish Keenan.

Finally yesterday, the family went on an outing to a little town about 1/2 hour drive away that has a great bunch of 2nd hand shops and a weekly street market.

I couldn't believe my luck with getting the original 1973 Ohr Records, quadraphonic copy of Tangerine Dream's 'Atem'. It was in a rack without a price on it, I took it up to the counter and asked, the guy umm and ahh-d about it, because going by some of the other overpriced records, I figured the guy did his 'research'. I was expecting a big price, but he gave it to me for $15. Was well chuffed.

 Another Antique/collectable shop on the other side of town has had this one for a while, overpriced, but I wanted it. Interestingly I think the reason it was not sold is that it was placed in the W section for 'Why' rather than D for 'Discharge'. Original print/pressing. Amazing punk record.

Phew. 

Random Vinyl Post # 1. 7 inch goodness.

As a music fan of various styles and a penchant for vinyl (and most formats to be frank), I've collected since I was a kid of about 9 or 10. During that time, LPs on vinyl as well as CD and even cassette were the main items. In addition, I have a bit of a soft spot for 7" vinyl as well, either singles or EPs. I haven't counted, but I reckon I have about 350 or so 7 inches. Vinyl generally, but I think 7" in particular have this strange ability to shift time and space. When you pick them up, compared to when they came out, where you were when you got them, compared to where they came from. I say that about 7" because they are more likely to be about a certain time, whereas an album can have multiple pressings and reissues. So anyway here's some of my favourites from my collection.

 On the left was something I found at a Refuse/Recycle store in my hometown for 20c about 11 years ago. I'd been a Scott Walker fan for a good few years by that stage. This was a rare, obscurity from around 1958 when he was still known as Scott Engel. On the right, an EP I bought in an auction for $8 later the same year.

An unissued single at the time (1966) by BBC Radiophonic Workshop pioneer Delia Derbyshire and in collaboration with songwriter and singer Anthony Newley. This was released by the good folks at Trunk Records in 2014.

At some point in the 90s I decided I wanted to try and collect as many of the 'Nuggets' garage-psych singles that I could. I never really got very far getting proper original singles, it was often easier getting some of the excellent compilations.

But here's a few I did get. Quality not quantity. I got the Strawberry Alarm Clock from a vinyl trader back in 1998 for $8 and the two Seeds records around the same time for a similar price. 

There was a guy in the north of my homestate who would often set up a stall at Record fairs under the name Token Records, and he specialised in 7" vinyl. I had been a confirmed Elevators/Roky fan for a number of years and recall reading about Roky's first solo recording after being released from the Rusk Mental Hospital, I think I ready about it in Nick Kent's collection of articles called 'The Dark Stuff'. By the description of it, a 7" single of 'Two Headed Dog'/'Starry Eyes', it was a much rawer, out of control version of both songs than what was later recorded and released in the early 1980s. 

I had to hear it. In late 1997, there is was at a local record fair at Token Records stall. It was $35, but I had to have it. I believe it is not a large pressing and super rare.

The other little oddity includes something I posted as my Thursday song of the day and is a one sided flex disc that a friend of mine gave me back in the mid 90s and I believe was promo freebie that came with NME in the UK in 1978.

A little collection of KISS 7" with picture sleeves I've accumulated over the years.

'Magic Touch'/'Save Your Love' is a French copy, 'Star Trax' is an Australian exclusive 4 track EP, this one is the slightly rarer one that was withdrawn and replace with one with KISS' proper logo.

In pretty shabby shape, but I finally managed to find a "picture sleeve" version of the 'I'/'The Oath' single back in the mid 2000s I think. And the thing on the right is again an Aus exclusive, officially licensed release from 1998, this is the translucent red vinyl version. A thing of visual and aural beauty.

Some metal singles from 1980/81 with picture sleeves. Some real time and space travel here. 

The Ozzy one came out in 1981 and is an British copy. I got it in my childhood/teen home town of Burnie from a second hand shop in about 1985, for probably $1.00. I recall there were a bunch (maybe 30 issues) of really early Kerrang magazine for very little and I grabbed a bunch of them too. A headbanger from the UK had bought a stash with them and dumped them at this shop. I don't have any of those anymore unfortunately. 

The Motor HeadGirl School EP single came out in 1980. I found it in a second hand shop in Norwich UK in 2006 for 3 pounds. 

The Judas Priest one was of course a 1980 single, this is an Aussie pressing, I was working in a CD and Coffee shop back in 2005. For some reason someone bought in a bunch of second records that just sat up in the upstairs store room because we didn't really do vinyl. I think the plan was to maybe get into that. Anyway I said I'd take custody of the Priest single, and got it for $5. The owners of the business wanted to retire and the shop closed a little later.

One of my prized possessions. Not really that rare I don't think, though I've never seen another copy. These guys were (occasionally still are when they do the odd reunion show) a great Melbourne based hardcore/punk/thrash crossover band. This is a lovely little 3 tracker that was a formative record in my teens. I got it in a mainstream record shop (that was managed by a guy who would get in a lot of metal and punk on import because us teen metalheads would frequent there…not many choices in Burnie at the time…less now. Don't remember how much it was, but it can't have been much because I was a broke 15 year old and I recall I bought it on a whim. 

The Way Of The Weird post 6

A collection of posts about the strange, the unusual, the experimental and the odd in a variety of musical genres.

Alexander Spence- “Oar”
(Columbia 1969)

I came to Moby Grape quite late in the scheme of things, certainly way after their most active period (1966-69). I was initially drawn to them via a couple of ways. Firstly their slight geographical and cultural association with Love, whom I'd already admired by the early 1990s. Secondly, like Love's leader Arthur Lee, I'd been reading about Alexander 'Skip' Spence as a psychologically/psychedelically damaged artist, spoken about in the same kind of articles that also mention Syd Barrett, Peter Green and Roky Erickson in similar light.

Admittedly I was drawn to investigate these artists having a naively romantic notion about the 'mad genius'. As my own knowledge about and empathy towards mental illness evolved I appreciated these musician more than just 'crazy' people that made music, but people that made music who happened to have a mental illness. Their illnesses somewhat informed or 'filtered' their music making it quite unique and that in itself is what made it appealing ultimately. There is a 'realness' to this music. There is no real pretence here, a lot of the constructed facade is dropped due to the need to work hard to be at least somewhat coherent, coherent in the context of popular musics' norms and conventions.

Skip Spence was one of five very talented musicians and writers in Moby Grape, a group that were associated with the burgeoning 'psychedelic' scene on the West Coast of the USA.
Generally speaking though, I found them a little too “sunshine pop” for my tastes. It's very well constructed pop, with a bit of an edge. But within the context of the psychedelic scene, with groups like Love and with Texans 13th Floor Elevators and The Red Krayola, they were quite light.
That is, with the exception of Spence's material. His music had a somewhat whimsical, bawdy and occasionally darker feel to it. The track 'Seeing', particularly in it's early demo form as 'Skip's Song' (available on the “Vintage: The Very Best Of Moby Grape” compilation from 1993 was my gateway to Skip's more transcendent musical moments.

As the story goes
Spence began doing acid and hanging out with a woman supposedly steeped in black magic. Whilst working on their second album in New York, Spence attempted to attack his Grape band mates with a fire axe. He was apprehended and spent 6 months incarcerated in a mental health facility.
He emerged and drove immediately to Nashville to record is solo album 'Oar'. And it was truly a solo album, he played, drums (having been an early drummer for Jefferson Airplane), bass, guitar and performed vocals himself. Spence's fragile state, combined with the slightly disjointed feel that doing all the instruments oneself, created a somewhat queazy, slow moving, delirious and singular vision. There is a country twang to a lot of the record, perhaps due to the location it was recorded in. You'll also hear some electric folk, early blues and the more psychedelic end of rock. But it's really none and all of those things at once. These are evocations of a troubled soul with a broken voice, attempting to enjoy life, love, sex and freedom, yet displaying evidence of having been denied of all these things.
Key songs; the poppy opener 'Little Hands', the radio-play theatrics of 'Book Of Moses', the ribald 'Dixie Peach Pomade (Yin For Yang)' – supposedly the masturbatory lubricant of choice for inmates of Bellevue Hospital and the closing 9 minute epic free droney piece 'Grey/Afro'.

And following the sessions for this album (which did garner some other available outtakes) that was pretty much it for Skip as a solo artist. He contributed a couple of tracks to later Grape albums. He also released the fantastic 1999 single 'All My Life (I Love You)'/'Land Of The Sun', the latter track originally recorded in 1996 for the X-Files spinoff compilation 'Songs In The Key Of X', but ultimately rejected. That same year he passed away after many years of mental health issues, drug abuse and homelessness, just shy of 53 years. I'd recommend checking out the Sundazed Records reissue with the outtakes tacked onto the end and some excellent liner notes and informative essay material that delves further into creation of this fascinating record.
Despite the above 'Oar' tracks being personal standouts for me, it really is a body of work, created in just 6 days, almost like his life, or at least his sanity depended on it.

 

1. Little Hands

2. Cripple Creek

3. Diana

4. Margaret/Tiger Rug

5. Weighted Down (The Prison Song)

6. War in Peace

7. Broken Heart

8. All Come to Meet Her

9. Books of Moses

10. Dixie Peach Promenade (Yin for Yang)

11. Lawrence of Euphoria

12. Grey/Afro

The Way Of The Weird post 5

A collection of posts about the strange, the unusual, the experimental and the odd in a variety of musical genres.

Scott Walker - “Tilt”
(Fontana 1995)



It was 1995 and I was working on sound design as a freelance designer for another media artists' video installation. At one time during the process we got to talking about music and what we were both currently listening to and decided to make a tape trade. Although released in 1989 and I purchased it in early 1990, Godflesh's “Streetcleaner” was still a key album for me, very influential and something I had begun listening to again around that time. I dubbed it to cassette and gave him a copy. With no real explanation or context, in return he gave a me a cassette with the words ' Scott Walker – “Tilt” ' written on the label in ballpoint pen.

That cassette changed my music listening life and “Tilt” soon became one of my favourite albums of all time and Walker one of my favourite artists. With the opening track 'Farmer In The City', I was initially struck by the dark droning strings, but then came the sonorous tone of a voice singing 'Do I hear 21' and the repeating of '21, 21, 21'.
What was this? Why had he given me this? This was an odd voice, I couldn't tell if I disliked it or adored it for it's utter originality, especially within my range of listening at the time. I hadn't heard this voice before. Except that I had.

Eventually I made the connection that this was the person who had sung 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore' and later 'No Regrets' as the lead vocalist in the Walker Brothers. But this album was a different kettle of fish altogether. This record had a profound effect on me and made me backtrack and discover earlier works after I secured my own proper CD copy. I believe the next thing I got was 1984's “Climate Of Hunter”, which was indeed the previous release (Scott has since become a tad more prolific with lesser gaps between releases) and then the final Walker Brothers release “Nite Flights” from 1978, which contained 4 Scott originals that showed the path he would travel subsequently. I have pretty much everything Walker has done now!

Interestingly from the point of “Tilt” onwards, Scott's albums have become more abstract, stranger, more challenging, including his recent collaboration with Sunn O))) “Soused”. Maybe it is because it was 'my first', but “Tilt” remains the pinnacle for me. And not in the least to slight what came after, but with “Tilt” the balance was just right. It is a wonderful combination of symphonic pop, industrial, neo-classical and electro-acoustic experimentation, with a wholly original voice vocalising some impressively abstract but still emotive poetry. Beginning with the orchestral drama of 'Farmer In The City' and ending with the sparse voice and single guitar of 'Rosary', this album is a journey.

Rather than go through it song by song, it really is something you should experience yourself. I know it's not for everyone, but it's for me. Not sure how he felt about “Streetcleaner”, but I want to sincerely thank David for giving me “Tilt”, it's hard to believe its been 21 years. I guess that is quite apt. And thank you Scott for travel your distinctive path.



1. Farmer In The City
2. The Cockfighter
3. Bouncer See Bouncer
4. Manhattan
5. Face On Breast
6. Bolivia '95
7. Patriot (a single)
8. Tilt
9. Rosary

For more info, I highly recommend the excellent 2006 documentary “30 Century Man” by Stephen Kijak. Although there has been a number of releases since that time, it still gives a great historical overview of how he came to be at the musical place he is situated at now.

The Way Of The Weird post 4

A collection of posts about the strange, the unusual, the experimental and the odd in a variety of musical genres.

Celtic Frost - “Into The Pandemonium”
(Noise International 1987)



Having evolved into an appreciator of certain factions of extreme metal and then taking some plunges into stranger and more experimental realms, this record was a natural and held an appeal to me from the get go. I'd already become a tried and true Voivod fan and had become aware of their label mates Celtic Frost via the earlier “Morbid Tales” and the penultimate release “To Mega Therion”. I was impressed with their sludgy take on doom and thrash metal. But then I started reading Xavier Russell's glowing reports in Kerrang of the new weird direction they were taking with the new record. A friend of mine got hold of the record about 3 months after it was released and gave me a cassette dub. It had all the ingredients that made the earlier raw stuff great, but with a new layer of experimentation that the early records only hinted at. And it worked, it really did.

Gothic atmosphere without it being a 'goth' album, doom and thrash infused metal without it being either of those things, orchestral without being overly proggy and the best production to date from them, without being overly slick or polished. The combinations of all these elements gelled really well. Pretentious? Moi? Nah, I think this band always had this in them, it was just the first time they were afforded the opportunity to do it right. Choice cuts; “Sorrows Of The Moon”, the single “I Won't Dance” and the epic “Rex Irae (Requiem)”. We are also treated to the sample/drum machine piece “One In Their Pride” and the superb Wall Of Voodoo cover “Mexican Radio” along the way.
What came before and what came after all had their moments, (even one or two tracks on the misguided glammy follow up “Cold Lake”), but “Into The Pandemonium” stands as their masterpiece.



(Please note: the above post contains “Tristesses de la Lune” replacing “Sorrows Of The Moon”, the former being the strings and voice only version of the latter and did not appear on the initial release of the album)

Original vinyl release:
Side A
1. Mexican Radio
2. Mesmerized
3. Inner Sanctum
4. Sorrows of the Moon
5. Babylon Fell

Side B
1. Caress into Oblivion
2. One in Their Pride
3. I Won't Dance
4. Rex Irae (Requiem)
5. Oriental Masquerade

For more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Pandemonium

The Way Of The Weird post 3

A collection of posts about the strange, the unusual, the experimental and the odd in a variety of musical genres.

Cromagnon - “Orgasm”
(ESP-Disk 1969)



This is a record I only came across (pun intended) about 5 years ago. It is the only known release from this obscure experimental US project Cromagnon. They were essentially a duo of Austin Grasmere and Brian Elliot with a large 'tribe' of guests performing on the record as well. I once read an interview with one of these guys and there was some explanation of the process of recording this record, the 'band' as it were and the possibility of more records. Can't track it down right now, but in many ways it doesn't matter. This record is what it is without explanation and stands up on its own. It also sounds pretty unique for it's time and contains proto-versions of different 1980s genres such as Black Metal and Industrial, predating them by a couple of decades. When I heard this album, I was already pretty versed in experimental music and some of the more abstract example of psychedelic music and this record still stood out. There is a wide variety of styles on here and yet there is a wonderful “crazy basement” kind of unifying atmosphere to it. So as a body of work, it is a coherent listening experience. Dare I say “Orgasm” is quite an experience.



Side A
1. Caledonia
2. Ritual Feast Of The Libido
3. Organic Sundown
4. Fantasy
Side B
1. Crow Of The Back Tree
2. Genitalia
3. Toth, Scribe I
4. First World Of Bronze