Recommendations - SEPTEMBER 2014

This Italian stupid thing

Terrible but weirdly hip 80s glasses on the front and back, terrible but weirdly hip 80s music on the wax, but only some of the time. There are moments where this is unlistenable and possibly always will be.

Love American Style

This is a soundtrack I waited years to find. It’s possibly the campest LP ever to feature on this on-going list of records, so I’m wondering if Love American Style was a gay thing masquerading as a hetero thing back in the mid 1970s. Musically I’m not sure if I like it yet, so it’s being heard only a small bit of some of the time.

Pinky Record 1

Some of the best sexy grunting I have ever heard is on this rare record. This is only played when I am alone as my kids would ask weird questions and so would Mrs Trunk. To the uninitiated these records were only for sale in Japanese sex shops, and yes, feature absolutely stunning cover art and musically have sort of jazzy easy listening thing going down with lots of very professional grunting and oooing and that. It may sound weird but there is a kind of narrative too. I issued this as a 50p Friday download a couple of weeks ago. No complaints so far

This Japanese Crazy Man

Even though these days everyone knows the price of everything and there are very few sleepers, I recently found this. It was a mere £5 (possibly more than its true worth) and features a crazy Japanese solo artist doing really bizarre and slightly obsessive covers of Bacharach classics, such as South American Getaway. Some of the time he manages to make them into abstract oddities which I really like a lot.

Lena Platonos

I came across this groovy Greek artist when I bought the Into The Light Compilation. The best way to describe her is as the Greek Annette Peacock. Anyway, this absolute monster came out, issued by a strange German art label. And what a monster it is, sublime simple 808 lines with her spoken word over the top – if only book at bedtime or for that matter book of the week on R4 was as well thought out as this. It’s the nearest thing to musical smack I’ve come across in some while, apart form the pinky record, and the Japanese crazy man, and the Pinky Winters

Pinky Winters

Could easily be the name of a slightly perverted bloke, but no, this is in fact a 50s vocalist with one of the most sublime voices I have heard. I’ve always been a sucker for superb lady singers, but often it’s the incredibly obscure torch song singers that light the biggest bonfires under my musical arse. Carol Crevelling is another example of such a situation.

Odd Dutch Kids Thing

Yes I had never encountered this Dutch record pressed in the UK and made for kids before. I also had and still have no idea why or how it came to be. It is a cute mindboggling little thing, with watery thoughts running through it. Unusually, I bought this from an email, you know, the sort of email you get from ticking a box on a record website that means you get update emails when new dope shit is available. To add to the confusion, this Dutch electronic thing made for British children came from Sweden.

Hip Priest

Bought an original of Hex Enduction Hour recently as it was quite cheap for a Fall first press, and have been annoying myself with my terrible Mark E Smith impersonations since. If you didn’t know it, this classic oddball Fall cue was used in Silence Of The Lambs. The pervy murderous tranny man listened to it a lot. He listened to that Goodbye Horses track too, which also appeared on a Recommendations list but donkeys ago.

LP By Verna Lindt

Possibly named after that chocolate that goes a bit slimey when you eat it, this is a most excellent if not slightly oddball mess of a record, with a sort of light electronic dependency which makes tracks like Underwater Boy very interesting indeed.

The Zagreb Jazz Quartet

This LP was bought from Spitalfields Record Fayre. There were loads of classic American jazz LPs for sale but all on UK pressings which is always a joy to see and hear. This was in there, and about four people (including Joel Martin and Cherrystones) all said buy it. So I did. Great advise. Great record. Great Jazz. Great looking quartet.

More stupid funny library music:

Yes, bought some more library music, Italian, quite interesting, found a track names after a really excellent middle-eastern chick pea dip which is really rocking my very small world. All very confusing though as it has the artwork from a Vedette LP, but the label says Spider and the tracklistings match up.

Another Sex Record

Appropriately, this is ten inches big. It is also a bizarre lesson in oral sex, presented in very much a Joy Of Sex fashion. So much so you can imagine the voiceovers (there is a man and woman) both being a touch on the naturally hairy side. Instructions on this record include sex words I have never heard of. This record was sent in to me by a Trunk collector. The B side would get you locked up these days.

More Weirdy Kids stuff

This was also sent in by a Trunk person, in fact it was Drew Mulholland, who was the first person ever to contact me when I started the label way back on the day that The Super Sounds Of Bosworth came out. I’m still in touch with him and he dug out this 33rpm 7 inch from a cupboard in a Scottish University. Nice work Drew, nice work.

Some Kurt Weill

Everyone needs something Weill in their life. I bought this because I’d not seen it before and I liked the look of the singer on the front. I did some digging about and found out that her name before she changed it was Lilly Klot. She was born in Whitechapel and played Nancy in Oliver! when it first exploded on the London stage. Oddly enough she was Lionel Bart’s neighbour when they were growing up as kids. He recognized her when she turned up for the audition.

Moogies Bloogies

Yes the unreleased Newley / Derbyshire single. This is one hell of an infectious earworm, so much so that I have not been able to stop it rattling around my brain. I’ve been waking up every morning singing it, and my now kids sing it at odd times too. What have I done.

Tornado By The Jiants

Rockabilly is still knocking at my door. I used to listen to it when I was about 14 but never really got it – I still have my Ace Rockabilly comp that I bought from Elephant Records in Aldershot sometime in the 80s. I get it now. This is a very interesting record – I bought it as I heard Weatherall play it out the other night and asked him what it was. It seems to be the link between Rockabilly and Garage. The bloke selling re-pressed multi-coloured copies on ebay is the piano player from the band. I bought a copy from him and he sent me another free with a tornado and scribbles all over the wax in sliver pen. How rock and roll is that?

The Feedback

Never thought anyone would ever issue this, very hard to license from major labels, especially Italian major labels. Anyway, someone (Schema) now has and aren’t we lucky. It’s the amazingly odd and legendary avant-garde long player by Mr Morricone and his gruppo. Just like a spaghetti western score but with the sort of drums hip hop people go mental for. I’ve got slightly annoyed recently that loads of people are issuing records and turning them into over produced tip on sleeve heavyweight thingies when the music isn’t necessarily worth celebrating all that much. The packaging is almost more important that the music. This, however, is deserving of such high-end treatment, but didn’t get it. I’ll shut up now.