Novelty rhythm 'n blues cut from Slim Gaillard - a jazz performer who was 'accidentally left behind' on the island of Crete by his father at the age of twelve and stumbled into the world of music after training to be a mortician. He also invented his own language called 'Vout'.
Bonkers, over-sexed and misogynistic Frenchman Patrick Abrial was a lot more miss than hit in his time, but this is a cool two minutes of trippy guitar instrumental and some of the funkiest jaws harp ever committed to record. 'Go away, come back' is what you can only imagine he said to most of the girls.
Beaver & Krause were a pair of pioneering experimental musicians who tested the limits and capabilities of early models of the Moog synthesizer in the late '60's. They introduced said gadget to bands like The Monkees, The Byrds and The Doors. This track is taken off their 1970 album 'In A Wild Sanctuary' which also features a track called 'Spaced' - the end of which was the basis for the famous gliding synth soundtrack to the THX logo in cinemas. Another track off the album 'People's Park' was recently incorporated in an excellent mixtape called Purple Brain, for lovers of sonic weirdness and obscure musical marriages.
This re-rub of The Boss has been knocking around the interweb for a while now and garnering a degree of hype in the process. It's with good reason as Trentemoller teases the infectious low-fi groove of the original from the 1982 album 'Nebraska' into a floor-friendly stomper.
The Oil Tasters were three blokes from Wisconsin on drums, saxaphone and bass guitar who ramped out a brand of jumpy, jazz-flecked, humorous and danceable music unlike any of their peers in the early 80's. This cover of Hot Chocolate's 'Emma' transforms the ponderous and mournful original into a kind of celebration of dreams that inevitably go south. Their self-titled album is crammed with great records like 'That's When The Brick Goes Through The Window' and 'I Don't Want To Be (An Encyclopedia Salesman)'. Click here for more background on the band.
Preposterously gifted and funky young family from Oklahoma led by Harold Moore Jr. (aged 10) on guitar and backed up by his sisters Vinita Marie (9) on bass, Denise Marshall (7) on drums and Jacquelyn Marshall (6!) on waw-waw organ. This 1971 LP is a holy grail for funk collectors. Allegedly almost all of the original 300 copy run of the album were damaged beyond repair when they were shrinkwrapped on a meat packing machine in a classic DIY effort that went tits up.
Hypnotic, mantra-funk from the East with strong psychedelic folk undercurrents. Released on the superior vinyl outlet Mississippi Records with not so much as a single (comprehensible) liner note, this album is a bomb wrapped in an enigma.
With shop window displays turning the lurid colour of squeezy cheeze and more cheap tat on sale than you can shake a sweatshop-produced witch's broomstick at, its hard to ignore the fact that Halloween is upon us. Rather than rant on about the rise of this mawkish, consumerist, Americanization of the calendar, we may as well embrace it, if only to dust off records like the 'Monster Mash' and the immortal Ray Parker Jr and get ragingly drunk. Here's a derailed ghost train ride through the darker corners of the psyche, featuring pagan howls, fire-stoking guitar, siren samples etc. courtesy of Quiet Village - AKA Joel Martin and Matt Edwards, whose Fragments Of Fear mixtapes are a must have for Halloween party kitchen atmos.
Psychedelic, self-help, lounge-jazz invented and laid to rest in the duration of one song. D.R. Hooker rocks a brave look post-Manson that is half cultish troubadour, half prophet. Hard to tell whether he's addressing himself or someone else in this song. They're selling hippie wigs in Woolworths man.
Astro-travelling closer to the sought after US69 LP 'Yesterday's Folks' on the Buddah Records label, a gem that successfully melds psych moods with funk, jazz and eastern flavours without being a convoluted crock of shit. This one is ideal fodder for star-gazing, meteorite-spotting and quiching out in gardens. Check the title track for tough breaks, breezy reed pieces and tongue-in-cheek vocals. In fact check out the rest of the album, its a real grower.
Unusual take on the Beatles' original acid anthem 'Tomorrow Never Knows' by this fleeting supergroup comprised of Eno, Phil Manzanera and others. The band only played 3 live gigs in total and its a real bonus that the bassist Bill MacCormick had the foresight to bring a tape recorder to one of the rehearsals. The results are a 'live album' including this cover which craps all over anything Roxy Music happened to be spewing out at a similar time. Also of interest might be Dweezil Zappa's cover of 'Tomorrow Never Knows' which takes things into cosmic, ambient techno territories!? What won't be of interest (except for poor comedy value) is the Phil Collins cover, which is total bilge.
Picked up this little doozy of a seven inch in San Francisco a while back. Not much info on the band, but they made an album that seemingly faded into total obscurity soon after release. This is an uplifting number with excellent lyrics and a loping guitar phrase that have you yearning for more, especially when the song steps up a gear in the final moments just before fading out. "In a little while we will discover little ways to help each other face the day." Indeed.
Apparently Jim Morrison watched this one-gloved garage outfit intently during their shows in downtown L.A. during 1966. Music Machine were classed as a one hit/no hit garage band but this cheeky B-side to their only hit 'Talk Talk' (a raging proto-punk belter) shows a depth of songwriting and musicianship not reached by most Nuggets-era tomfoolerers. "Now's the time to break your leash and show the world your apron strings have come untied." A call to arms for girls all over the world to embrace the hedonism of the era.
