Recommendations - DECEMBER 2009

CHA CHA CHA

I bought this as I’d never seen such amazing legs on a cover. It’s also one of the most beautifully produced albums sleeves I’ve ever seen in terms of the reproductive techniques and colour overlaying. Musically it possibly sucks but this has remained at the front of the Trunk pile for weeks now. I always knew I was a record man, I’m now a leg man too, especially if they’re on records.

THIS EXOTIC ALBUM

Written by Michael Magne, this must be one of the first album sleeves to feature a 3D sticker thing, picturing a pair of hands playing the bongos. How cool is that. And what a magnificent beast of an LP, all classic weird exotic numbers about beaches and coconuts and that, all played in the oddest fashion, with weird SFX, bird calls, screams, shrieks, it’s more a Halloween album that a summery exotic album, which is why I listen to it in December.

I KNOW WHAT HE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS

Yes, I want a record. With bosoms on the front. But really, the best thing about this is the festive coloured wax it was pressed in, all holly green and santa red. Very clever indeed.

BURL IVES SINGING ABOUT ANIMALS

Horses from Demerera, Whales that eat pork chops, numbers about cats, ponies and crocs too. Yes, this is wild baby, wild. Strangely enough I met a Pomeranian dog yesterday called Butters. There’s no song about it on this album, but there might well have been.

SCIENTIST AND VAMPIRES

The title of this album is just waaaaaaaaaaaay tooooooo long to be repeated here, but I remember this album quite well from the past, and started listening once more in October (Halloween again), and I’m still listening. There is a great fidgety number on this album which is so simple it makes me a bit sick.

MOON WIRING CLUB

This works somewhere along the lines of that Antique Beat by the Clerkenwell Kid. It’s a very interesting record (well it’s a CD but it exists in physical form which still counts) with even more interesting artwork if you ask me. It’s like spooky children’s books and old sweet wrappers all together at the same time.

A BRIAN CLOUGH RECORD

There was I in a record shop, which just happened to have a sports records box. It’s not often you come across one of those so I dived in and swam about in bad hairdos and hairdon’ts for a few minutes, only to resurface clutching this remarkable little fabulous thing. Brian singy-talks on this record and it is awful, but it exists, which is joy enough. All I have to find now is my old Notts Forest mug, but I think my mum threw that out in about 1984.

THE STUDIO G FORGOTTEN ALBUM

No surprise that this little feller has been left out in the cold. He looks rubbish, and musically he is most of the time. Except that is, for the track that is called something like funny rock, or rock funny. I was put onto this by Andrew from Superthriller, and he played it on my radio show. I then thought to myself I needed a copy real bad, and then as soon as that thought was gone I really couldn’t be bothered to even start looking. Then a copy turned up down the road for three quid and against my better judgement I bought it. And I still can’t remember the exact name of the good track.

ROCK, GENTLY

Way before he told everyone he was a homosexual, the fabulous Rock Hudson made quite a camp record. This was after all the camp films he’d made with Doris. What I like about this session is the use of the Stanyan Strings, Rod McKuen’s default violin posse. Here they supply Rock’s withering vocals with a strangely aggressive accompanyment, turning his edgy voice into something sour and strangely attractive, a little like the lemon sucky bit after tequila and salt.

PEREZ PRADO TWIST

This came form the same box as the Cha Cha Cha leg one, and it’s one of those very annoying all the tracks sound the same kind of records, made worse by Mr Prado’s trademark growl / howl at the end of each track. However there is one slight saving grace, and that’s a version of Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White that’s played in a very peculiar way, so peculiar in fact that it sounds like it’s a cut-up, either that or a broken mic was used in the original recording.

UNA BELLA GRINTA

Duba, the bloke who runs Cinedelic came over a month or two ago. He left a copy of this with me, it’s superb early Italian swinging jazz with a waltz thrown in for good measure. It is possibly the best cinematic jazz I have heard all year and it seems to get better every time you listen. It’s also very well repackaged. So well done everyone.

A MUSIC AND MOVEMENT RECORD I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT

Derek found this. He’s great.

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM AFRICA

Made by an 11 year old piano player, this is a mad slice of strange tourist recording. It includes his version of the Schubert improvised thing, and more interesting for me a lullaby which would keep most people awake and sweaty, followed by a good piece of wierdy jazz that’s not a million miles form the King Sunny Ade sound of the early 80s, but without the electronics. The flower on the front of this record scares me slightly, it’s more like a triffid that a welcoming African bloom.

THE YURI GELLER ALBUM

His musical timing is sublime, which makes this hilarious album even more hilarious. I started listening to this because I had to write it up for Mojo. At the same time I started to investigate Geller on line and came across the marvellous James Randi and his endless quest to show up Geller as a fraud. The Jonny Carson Show with Yuri is really worth looking at, so are the numerous other Randi revelations. As for the music, it really is a unique self indulgent mad thing, and his lyrics are quite extraordinary too. The Day, his apocalyptic number is a great example. Apparently it’s a day when yellow turns to red. And green turns to purple. Now that’s a bad day.

WIDOWS

Believe it or not this large slice of 1985 TV nostalgia was released on a 12”, which is total madness if you ask me. The main theme by Gerard Kenny is unbelievably bad (as is the leather jacket and tee shirt combo he sports on the back), but this does have a very short bit of Stanley Myers on it which is alright. I used to fancy one of the Widows, I think it was the old one on the right. More importantly this came from the now legendary Mike Read record collection sale. I got this from one of the buyers who was there and actually bought some things. Apparently this 12” was one of the better pieces up for grabs.