THE DOLLAR BIN PROJECT Vol.1!

I spend an awful lot of time in second-hand shops (call them charity shops if you're from the UK, Thrift stores if from the US, we call them op-shops down here in OZ) and I regularly pick up oddities which occasionally contain some gold. Often, there's one song that's killer and the rest is pretty average. For a while now, I've been thinking about turning these cool obscure tracks into compilations by converting the vinyl into CD quality files.

Watch this space, some cool stuff will be posted.

Recent crate digs (Sept 2010)

Here's a sample of my recent purchases in various places around the awesome city of Melbourne.  I had to include a couple of local groovers at the very least. Australia has such a thriving scene after all (I'm not being sarcastic by the way). So what have got here? As I said, a couple of local gems, one of them being the 70's Melbourne blues act Chain (this is their magnum opus Towards The Blues) and the other a double LP by THE Down Under jazz maestro Don Burrows. I have to say I was surprised at how great this LP is. Some magnificent flute work and nice bossa grooves throughout. Even the (sparse) vocals are pleasant. Well worth picking up if you live down this way.
The rest are pretty much all funk/jazz LPs except perhaps for the FABULOUS Nino Nardini/Roger Roger LP titled Jungle Obsession. This obviously is a reissue as finding an original press of this would mean spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Mind you, this is a numbered reissue (1000 pressed) so it's kinda special. The music is faultless, needless to say. A great library record.
Another weirdo record I picked up by accident was this Uruguayan LP called Maranata. I got sucked in by the record cover which strangely reminded me of a John Sangster LP. In fact, this is a Phase 8 recording by a bunch of self-taught moustachioed Uruguayans. Very funky stuff, heaps of cool keyboards and organs and a surprise cover version of Gainsbourg's Je T'aime..Moi Non Plus.
A few funk LPs here too, starting with Osibisa's second LP Woyoya (nice US press). Osibisa is one of the most underrated African funk bands ever. Their 1st LP is the fucking BOMB. Still I'm not quite sure why they're not more popular than they are. I also found a cool Graham Central Station LP called Mirror whose front cover has a mirror (almost the same artwork as Uriah Heep's Look At Yourself). Some interesting tunes but nothing too intense. A pretty intense LP however was found in Brute Force's eponymous album. They were a bunch of students at some black University in Ohio who decided to get together to make classic music. Their history is pretty sketchy to say the least!  I first heard their top track The Deacon on the incredible 4 CD Boxset compilation What It Is! Funky Soul & Rare Grooves.
Bob James is a perennial favourite of diggers and quite easy to get. This is LP 2 with the now famous reworking of Take Me To The Mardi Gras, a Paul Simon tune which was sampled by Run DMC, but you knew that already...
Finally a KILLER LP. I dicovered this reissue label only recently but it's well worth the trouble. The label is based in Minneapolis and is called Secret Stash. They specialise in rare grooves as exemplified by this LP of Soviet Funk. I shall purchase more of their stuff soon. Their website has awesome clips about their releases.    

Mandu: To The Shores Of His Heaven (1974)

Here's a rare album if I've ever seen one. A couple of weeks ago I was digging through some crates at a flea market in Melbourne and stumbled across a copy of this 70's epic. Not cheap though! It's the only time I had ever sighted this LP on vinyl so I had to grab it straight away. I did bargain with the seller and he was nice enough to throw in Larry Coryell and Bob James LPs  as part of the deal. Mandu (apparently it's pronounced Marn-doo as there is an accent on the "a") was a singer-songwriter who appeared as a guest vocalist on a couple of Lobby Lloyd LPs before recording his sole opus, the almighty To The Shores Of His Heaven. Mandu came down to Melbourne from his native Queensland (can you imagine what cultural wasteland QLD would have been in the 70's?) in order to score a recording deal. The LP is an infectious funk-folk epic with hints of Tim Buckley and Terry Reid. Those familiar with the "River" LP will understand. Aztec records, the Melbourne based reissue label who reissued this a couple of years ago on CD, describe it blessed with the same tones gracing Astral Weeks, the Van Morisson masterpiece. The opening cut, the eponymous track is one of the most impressive opening songs I have heard. This LP is great and a welcome addition in my collection of Australian rarities.

New turntable: Thorens TD125 Mkii

This weekend I finally got to pick up my new record player. When I say new, I mean most recent one as this baby is 25 years old at the very least. A few weeks ago, I walked into this local vintage audio store for the first time. I take a walk around and marvel at the various amplifiers, receivers and turntables around. There's junk absolutely everywhere. As I leisurely discover the shop, my eyes fall upon this machine. I didn't think I would buy a new record player but this was too good to turn down. It's a fantastic piece of gear and finally I can enjoy records properly. When you love records as much as I do, a top TT is a must. The first record I played on this M.O.N.S.T.E.R was a Penguin Cafe Orchestra LP. Lovely sounds for a spring afternoon.

Oh, and this thing weighs 17 kgs!!!

VARIOUS ARTISTS- That Summer! (1979)

This compilation of punk/post-punk acts from the late 70's is rather like a greatest hits of the best songs of that period. When I stumbled across this record at Egg Records in Brisbane last weekend, I did hesitate before buying it as I already own all of the songs on various other LPs. The $7 price-tag was however enough to convince me to snatch this wonderful comp. The sequencing of the tracks is quite well done too. There are bona fide classics of the post-punk era on this. Let's just name Teenage Kicks by the mighty Undertones or Sex & Drugs & Rock'n'Roll by Ian Dury (which kickstarts this LP very aptly). The songs are all great and the artists themselves are pretty faultless too (Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, The Ramones etc...). Also worthy of note are two of my favourite tracks of just about all time (I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass from Nick Lowe's superlative Jesus of Cool and Spanish Stroll, the ultimate NYC anthem by now-deceased Willie Deville of Mink Deville). This is an absolute no-brainer, a fabulous Saturday night party record or maybe a great hangover cure, who knows?

listen to Spanish Stroll & Nick Lowe's Bomb

VARIOUS ARTISTS- Pomegranates (2009)

Here's a compilation by relentless groove diggers Finders Keepers which I bought recently (last weekend) after a visit to one of my fave record stores in Melbourne (the quite awesome Northside Records in Gertrude Street). I'd been contemplating getting this comp but after listening to a few tracks on the store turntable, I was sold in two secs. The double LP is a collection of ultra-groovy psych and funk tunes from Iran. The liner notes are intriguing and deftly written. The choice of songs can only be described as impeccable and extremely well-sequenced. Of course I haven't got a clue what they're singing about but who cares when the music's that funky? Finders Keepers is really a fantastic label and one can only imagine what treasures they may be busy excavating in the near future.


Listen to the impossibly funky Soul Raga by Mehrpooya

Here's the Finders Keepers blurb about this LP:

It's no accident that the phoenix is an exalted moral, mythical, and figurative symbol in Iran. Like the phoenix, Iranian culture is in constant flux and, at times, elusive, with its existential wavering and blurred panoramas. Most of contemporary Iran's artistic and creative leanings, its grapples with history and identity, are loosely and mystically conjoined and contested in memory. Iran is marked by the complex interplay of diverse constituencies, philosophies, and influences: ethnic, religious, political, geopolitical and historical. The glorification of pre-Islamic antiquity (in search of authentication) marked the socio-cultural attitude of a bygone era and is witnessing revival in the present day. The discordant reality of eastern traditions complicated by the rampant confusions of modernity has become a norm in Persian dialogue, not to mention revolution, exile, and diaspora. Like many other countries, the Sixties and Seventies were a time of tumult in Iran, bringing growth (via petrodollars) and freedom (under the banner of socioeconomic development) while exacerbating inequalities within the country.

The music and voices that blossomed during those decades exemplify the turbulence and excitement of the age. It is worth recognizing these 'left out' and 'lost' artists individually and as a group in the global happenings of 60s/70s psych, rock and folk, while exploring their influence and relevance to the present day. Is it possible that there is a genus of delectable sounds and fetching images that almost exclusively reside in the elbowroom of memory and nostalgic 'yesteryear' storytelling? Little consideration has been given to the correlation of these sounds and stories within the universal psychedelic phenomena: parallel to the shared stylistics of British and American players, and the radical politicking of their Turkish and Korean counterparts.

This collection endeavors to re-contextualize these songs from the realm of reminiscence, nostalgia, and memory into a specific and accessible narrative to share and relate within the universal musical gamut. It is for aficionados, the curious, and collectors alike. We hope that Iranians around the world will rediscover these songs. This collection is, in some sense, dedicated to a generation in self-imposed mental exile, due to years of war and catastrophe; decades of lies and bombs; a fundamentalist theocracy of reformist shams; addiction; isolation and alienation; unemployment, and inflation. These are voices and stories that may again prove relevant to a psychologically damaged and spiritually corrupt society, a society whose discontents recall the latter years of the Shah's rule.

The recordings excavated here are highly sexual musings, voluble love songs, and simple folk tunes. In many of these songs, there are subtle voices of political protest. Here is a personal best, a handful of artists and diversely stylized songs, presented on Finders Keepers.

MIXTAPE#2. We Did It Again (Prog, Psych and Acid-folk ditties)

KAHVAS JUTE- Free
AIR -Playground Love
SOFT BOYS- Kingdom Of Love
GURU GURU- Stone In
KRAFTWERK -Showroom Dummies
BILL FAY- Screams In The Ears
DUNGEN - Festival
MELLOW CANDLE- The Poet & The Witch
FAIRPORT CONVENTION-Meet On The Ledge
FRANK ZAPPA- Peaches En Reagalia
SKIP BIFFERTY- Come Around
COMUS -Song From Comus
THE SOFT MACHINE- We Did It Again
TERRY REID- Dean
ESPERS- Mansfield and cyclops
JAN DUKES DE GREY- Mice And Rats In the Loft