Sparks - Kimono My House

1974, Island Records, ILPS 9272

A1: This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us
A2: Amateur Hour
A3: Falling In Love With Myself Again
A4: Here In Heaven
A5: Thank God It's Not Christmas
B1: Hasta Mañana Monsieur
B2: Talent Is An Asset
B3: Complaints
B4: In My Family
B5: Equator

Kimono My House is the 3rd album for Sparks, but was the first of a trio of albums they made for Island Records in the mid 1970s when the brothers Ron and Russell Mael had relocated from Los Angeles to the United Kingdom, with a band they put together using British musicians.

This particular vinyl copy of the album was given to me a few years ago by a friend who had bought it in a car boot sale. The condition of the record is practically mint, both the record itself and the packaging. I don't think the record had even been played before. It just goes to show that there are excellent finds to be had at car boots, in charity shops, and the like.

This album is a classic. I already owned a copy on CD, but it was a real treat to hear it as intended on vinyl. The first track is Sparks' best known song, the fantastic "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us", a song that I never tire of hearing. I recall when the single came out, we thought, "Wow, what was that?" as Russell Mael's falsetto vocal performance and rapid lyric delivery was something quite special, and not like anything we'd heard before. Add to that the Top Of The Pops appearances during which Ron Mael on keyboards just looked bizarre, not just his appearance, all dapper with Chaplin-esque moustache, but also in his facial expressions which made it appear that he'd rather be anywhere else at that moment in time. They were certainly an act that caught the attention!

"This Town..." finishes and immediately "Amateur Hour" starts up. Those two songs just sound right together. "Amateur Hour" was another single and discusses teenage urges and fumblings, warning that to be accomplished sexually is something that has to be worked at, that "It's a lot like playing the violin / You cannot start off and be Yehudi Menuhin".

This is one of the reason I love Sparks so much. Their humour, witty lyrics, word-play, wicked observations and view of the world. And they aren't just lyrically brilliant, the tunes are first class too, with a lot of interplay between vocal lines and instrumental riffs and motifs. Ron Mael, Sparks' principal song smith, must be one of the finest composers that popular music has ever seen.

"Falling In Love With Myself Again" is typical of Sparks' sometimes absurdist humour. Sparks would later return to the theme of such narcissistic tendencies on their 2002 album Lil' Beethoven with the song "I Married Myself" - I guess it could be seen as a sequel to "Falling In Love With Myself Again". (In 2004, I saw Sparks play a show at London's Royal Festival Hall as part of the Meltdown Festival as curated by Morrissey, where they performed both albums Kimono My House and Lil' Beethoven in their entirety - I remember Russell's comment that we should "compare and contrast").

"Here In Heaven" is a tale of two lovers who have made a suicide pact, told from the viewpoint of the only one of the pair who had actually gone through with the act. Who else but Sparks could write and deliver a love song with lyrics: "Up here in heaven without you / It is hell knowing that your health will keep you out of here / For years and years and years"?

"Thank God It's Not Christmas" - an anti-Christmas song... Brilliant! As anyone who has worked in retail will know, having listened to endless loops of festive music at that certain time of year, a song with this sentiment is awfully appealing.

Side Two kicks off with "Hasta Mañana Monsieur", a Russell and Ron Mael joint composition celebrating wordplay, and which is also the source of the album's title. Considering at the time this record came out Sparks were popular with a pre-pubescent and young teenage audience, you have to wonder what these fans made of lines such as "You mentioned Kant and I was shocked / You know where I come from, none of the girls have such foul tongues".

"Talent Is An Asset" is the story of child genius Albert (Einstein?) and his over-bearing family. One has to wonder if this song may be partially autobiographical, the brothers Mael having been child actors/models. "Complaints" and "In My Family" are quite straightforward Sparks songs with no apparent hidden agendas, depths nor meanings, but are beautifully composed vignettes all the same, the latter delivering the delicious line "Gonna hang myself / From my family tree".

The album closes with "Equator", on which Russell really pushes himself vocally with the piece finishing with some acapella, almost scat-style singing.

Of course, CD editions contain bonus tracks: the single b-sides "Barbecutie" and "Lost And Found", plus live tracks on later CD reissues, but really the essence of the album is provided by the 10 songs on the original vinyl record. It's perfectly formed as it is. Standout tracks? All of them! They are all brilliant, the album flows naturally from one song to the next, they got everything right with this record, the tracklisting, the running order, the lyrics, the music, the quality of the musicianship. All is absolutely first class.

Bureau B's Record Store Day 2013 12" EP releases

LLOYD COLE & HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS - NNNNeonLLLLights
ROEDELIUS SCHNEIDER - Well Sustained / Schlummer
2013, Bureau B, MS976516 BB135

QLUSTER - Am Horizont
SCHNEIDER TM Bimanual Complexity (Gebrüder Teichmann Togo Mix)
2013, Bureau B, MS976526 BB136

JUNIOR ELECTRONICS - Mr. Mercator
MOEBIUS & TIETCHENS & JUNIOR ELECTRONICS - Herrlichkeit (Ken Charlton) / MOEBIUS & TIETCHENS - Tiefland
2013, Bureau B, MS976536 BB137

Bureau B is a German record label specialising in largely instrumental, electronic, experimental and avant garde music. Some of it you might want to call "krautrock", just so as to give it a label, but that rather lazy umbrella term doesn't necessarily seem to fit all the styles of music, especially more introspective instrumental ambient works where the "rock" element is quite irrelevant.

For Record Store Day 2013, Bureau B released a trio of double A-side 12" EPs, all similarly packaged in sleeves bearing the same design (note the subtle changes in colour between the different releases) and with the records being pressed on white vinyl. (I've said it before already, what IS it with white vinyl? Surely, the most boring of vinyl colours, outside of traditional black.)

Moving quickly onto the first of these three EPs. Put all thoughts of the similarly titled Kraftwerk song out of your head, "NNNNeonLLLLights" is an original composition, an outtake from the recording sessions for the Lloyd Cole and Hans-Joachim Roedelius collaboration Selected Studies Vol. 1. It's a minimalistic semi-ambient piece with background electronics overlaid with tuned percussion (marimba or xylophone or something similar) giving the track an oriental flavour. Roedelius must be one of the most prolific musicians in the avant garde, and he appears also on the other side of this record teamed up with Stefan Schneider as Roedelius Schneider. The first of their two pieces here, "Well Sustained" features more tuned percussion, and various electronic sounds and effects over a simple electronic pulse of a bassline. Gradually a melody emerges as various sounds drift in and out of the mix. I think there's even a guitar in there somewhere. All in all it's quite a hypnotic brew. "Schlummer" is of similar construction although with acoustic instruments such as piano being more prominent, and perhaps, I fancy, a little acoustic guitar being strummed too. The layers build up over a simple walking bassline to create a musical tapestry.

The second of these Record Store Day releases from Bureau B is the longest clocking in at 21 minutes (that's half an album). On one side we have "Am Horizont" by Qluster. A distinct entity apart from Kluster and Cluster, Qluster with a Q is Hans-Joachim Roedelius (him again!) and Onnen Bock. "Am Horizont" is a slowly developing but quite sumptuous piece beginning with an electric piano motif overlaid with various electronic and percussive sounds coming in and out of the mix. It's a very atmospheric and laid back piece; it's so relaxing that it is almost soporific, but I mean that in a good way; it's quite a beautiful piece of music. The other side of this disc is Gebrüder Teichmann's remix of Schneider TM's "Bimanual Complexity". On first listen this is quite a strange piece. While still minimalistic it's more lively than the piece of the other side of the record with a drum machine beat overlaid with a variety of strange and bizarre electronic sounds and samples. The original track is taken from the Schneider TM (a.k.a. Dirk Dresselhaus) album Construction Sounds. According to  Bureau B, "The album is what results when a delicate musician has to live amidst Berlin's construction noise for eight years, during the time when the former working class district of Prenzlauer Berg was transformed into a neighborhood for higher-income earners. Dresselhaus recorded the sounds and patterns produced by the construction workers and combined these moments with the electronic recordings that he made during this period..." With that little piece of knowledge, all the sounds of drills, breaking glass, power tools, assorted bangs and crashes, etc, make sense.

The third of these records features Junior Electronics on one side. Junior Electronics is in reality Joe Watson, a musician and sound engineer from Brighton in the UK, best known for his keyboard duties with Stereolab. The music here is quite different from the other pieces on this series of Bureau B Record Store Day releases and is quite poppy in nature. Not only is it not German, but here we have vocals too. "Mr. Mercator" is a jolly little romp of a tune. It's a piano-led piece, with a traditional sounding bass and drums in the background, along with the requisite electronics, of course. The other track on this side of the record, "Herrlichkeit (Ken Charlton)", is a Moebius & Tietchens piece that has been reworked by Junior Electronics inasmuch as he has put vocals onto it. Thankfully it is quite brief. I don't know who "Ken Charlton" is, and I feel like I am not being included on the artist's in-joke. This is easily the most throw-away piece on these three discs and is probably best forgotten. Onto the other side of this record and we have Moebius & Tietchens' "Tiefland", a track which takes a while to get started and appears initially to be a series of sound effects. Although a simple rhythm of sorts emerges from the random bleeps and bloops the piece doesn't really progress much beyond being a series of sound effects. Apparently it was an album out-take. It may have been better left on the cutting room floor.

So, to sum up, without a doubt the best of the bunch is the Qluster/Schneider TM disc; this is the one that I have had on the most frequent rotation. The disc featuring Roedelius Schneider is also well worth a spin or two, but less so on the Lloyd Cole & Hans-Joachim Roedelius side. As for the Junior Electronics/Moebius & Tietchens disc, you should probably give that one a miss.

Although these were Record Store Day 2013 releases, each limited to 500 copies, Tapete Records still have some left in stock at the time of writing, if any of them take your fancy.

P.S., there WAS actually a fourth Bureau B white vinyl 12" release for Record Store Day, but it was a separate entity from these three releases - it was by a single artist on both sides of the record and had its own cover art rather than the generic Bureau B design as on the above three records. However, I'm going to deal with this other record in a separate blog post.

The Cars picture disc singles

The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl b/w Moving In Stereo
1978, Elektra Records, K 12301

As above - removed from PVC sleeve - notice the discolouration
to the parts of the record which were exposed to the light

As above - the B-side of the record and a rather uninspired image, basically an oversized record label

The Cars - Just What I Needed b/w I'm In Touch With Your World
1979, Elektra Records, K 12312

The Cars - Let's Go b/w That's It
1979, Elektra Records, K 12371 P

The Cars - Double Life b/w Got A Lot On My Head
1979, Elektra Records, K 12385(P)

The Cars - Shake It Up b/w Cruiser
1982, Elektra Records, K12583P (1st version)

The Cars - Shake It Up b/w Cruiser
1982, Elektra Records, K12583P (2nd version)

My first ever picture disc record purchase was "Just What I Needed" by The Cars (the blue one), purchased in 1979. A friend at school talked me into buying his copy of their first single, "My Best Friend's Girl" which was also on a picture disc featuring the same design in a different colour scheme. The way he explained it to me was that they'd be more valuable as a pair. Of course, after that I had to buy subsequent Cars picture disc singles as they became available, just to complete the set.

The final two picture discs - those featuring the orange and pink cars - are actually the same single released in 1982. For some reason Elektra records had decided to release it in two colour versions. Probably so people like me who'd been trying to collect them all would have to buy two copies of the same record. The content of the records - and the catalogue number - are identical.

The whole set of 7" Cars picture discs ... I think...

I always quite liked the simplicity of the design. It was quite clever how a letter "A" was incorporated into the car's design to denote the A-side of the record, and also that the exhaust output was the record's centre hole. However, I always thought they copped-out on the flip-side of the disc as it could have had another image but Elektra Records just opted for a giant label on the b-side of each record in the series. One thing I've only just tonight noticed is that the sides of each record are referred to not as A-side/B-side or Side 1/Side 2 but as the "off side" and "near side" - a motoring metaphor that I'd not picked up on before.

However, to get finally to the reason I've compiled this blog post, what I'd like to know is: Do I have a complete set of these Cars picture disc singles or were there other releases also featuring this design?

The Cars - Since You're Gone b/w Best Friend's Girl / Let's Go - 12" single
1982, Elektra Records, K 13177PT (side A)

The Cars - Since You're Gone b/w Best Friend's Girl / Let's Go - 12" single
1982, Elektra Records, K 13177PT (side B)

I do also have a 12" picture disc single by The Cars, "Since You're Gone" backed with previous singles "Best Friend's Girl" and "Let's Go", but this release departs from the car design as seen on the 7" singles.

Note that the first single, "My Best Friend's Girl" has suffered from some discolouration over the years, and that the PVC sleeves haven't always survived too well.

If anyone has any further info, please leave a comment below.

BEAK> - 0898 / Welcome To The Machine

2013, Invada Records, INV120LP

A: 0898
B: Welcome To The Machine

This is another Record Store Day 2013 release, and comes relatively hot on the heels of BEAK>'s previous single release, "Mono"/"Kenn". BEAK> are an underground supergroup of sorts, comprising of Geoff Barrow (Portishead), Billy Fuller (Fuzz Against Junk), and Matt Williams (Team Brick). Their working method in the recording studio is unusual, recording everything as it happens live in one take without resorting to any overdubs or repair.

"0898"/"Welcome To The Machine" is a single record released on 10" white vinyl. (What is it about white vinyl these days? There seams to be an over-abundance of the stuff. I seem to have bought more records recently pressed onto white vinyl than I have on traditional black vinyl.) The timings of the two tracks would have allowed them to have fitted onto a 7" single, although I guess 10" appeals more to the collectors, and also considering that "Welcome To The Machine" clocks in at nearly 6 minutes sound quality may have been compromised on a 7" disc.

"0898" is driven by the bassline carrying the main melody over a simple 4/4 motorik drum beat, whilst an almost out-of-tune sounding synthesiser contributes a sense of unease to the proceedings. The vocals are low-key and have a mumbled quality to them, almost as if the singer would really rather be doing something else, anything else other than do the vocals. This might sound as if I'm criticising, but I'm not because strangely it all works. I guess it's all part of the BEAK> trademark sound.

The b-side, "Welcome To The Machine" is a cover version of a song from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album, and is arguably the better of the two songs on this release. It features an appropriately machine-like bass and drums, with more of the "unsettling" synths sprinkled over the top. Again the vocals are low in the mix and "mumbled" - I don't think BEAK> really want us to be able to hear each and every word, it's more like they are using the human voice as yet another instrument in their arsenal. It's all a part of their experimental/kraut-like approach to making music.

This release was limited to 1,000 copies. I believe that Invada Records still have some left over from Record Store Day for sale on their website if you'd like to snap up a copy.

Tom Verlaine - Cover

1984, Virgin Records, V2314

A1: Five Miles Of You
A2: Let Go The Mansion
A3: Travelling
A4: O Foolish Heart
B1: Dissolve/Reveal
B2: Miss Emily
B3: Rotation
B4: Swim

I was thumbing through my record collection yesterday and stopped at this all-but forgotten LP (at least by me, anyway), Cover by Tom Verlaine. I originally bought it back in 1984 having heard Verlaine interviewed on the radio with a couple of the songs from the album being played. I didn't really appreciate who he was, although obviously I was aware of the band Television and had heard their supposedly seminal Marquee Moon, an album which never really made an impact on my consciousness. However, this solo outing for Verlaine, I absolutely loved and it was in frequent rotation on my turntable for quite a few years. Cover is actually Verlaine's 4th album of 10, but I confess I've never gotten around to listening to anything else by him.

"Five Miles of You kicks" off side 1 with a barrage of chiming guitars and a strong well-rounded bassline from former Television colleague Fred Smith. Verlaine's unassuming vocals are instantly recognisable from his Television days. My favourite part of this song is the guitar solo, which always feels somehow devastating and unexpected - no matter how many times you've heard it before. "Let Go The Mansion" is a nice little piece with sparse verses - just Verlaine's vocals with some minimal guitar riffs and keyboard, before a more confident chorus kicks in. Things take off a notch with "Travelling" with its intro of crazily scraped strings on a fuzzed-out guitar, funky bassline and chugging rhythm guitars. "O Foolish Heart" slows down the tempo again, over a simple drum machine backing and on a chorus played on what sounds like a cheap 1980s Casio keyboard, Verlaine croons "O foolish heart / Silly thing / You hear any old toon / And you sing ... you sing". Simple lyrics but ever so catchy. What with these, the jazzy guitar solo, and the aforementioned Casio keyboards, it sounds like a recipe for a 1980s song that could not stand the test of time, but somehow manages to still sound fresh all these years later.

Side 2 opens with "Dissolve/Reveal", a tapestry of little guitar riffs and keyboard parts which combine together with increasing complexity towards the songs end. It's "math rock" before anyone ever thought of the term. And just for good measure a thunder sound effect is thrown into the mix. The song contains another gorgeous twangy/trebley/jazzy guitar solo from Verlaine - I'd quite forgotten how good his playing was. "Miss Emily" begins with more of that scraped string sound and then chugs along nicely with a driving bass, layers of chiming guitars and a strident fuzz guitar solo. "Rotation" is underpinned by a lazy jazzy riff, washes of keyboards, and features another - short but sweet - guitar solo, upon which I can't decide if Verlaine is playing slide or else using the guitar's vibrato arm to create a pitch-shift - it has a glorious pedal steel effect to it. Bringing the album to a close, "Swim" starts with Verlaine's spoken-word recitation of an excerpt from his "I Am Daylight" monologue from 41 Monologues over a minimal background of a simple guitar line and drum beat before the song itself begins. And quite lovely it is too with the repeated chorus of "I could swim / I could swim / I could swim in your love / In your love / In your love / I could swim in your love..."

Throughout the record are Verlaine's slightly nerdy, not altogether confident sounding vocals, which work beautifully with the instrumentation and the lyrics themselves.

Although I've owned this record on vinyl since 1984, someone gave me a CD copy of it about 15 years ago (I didn't have a record deck at the time). For some reason Virgin Records decided to use the extended 12" single version of "Five Miles Of You" in place of the original album version, but - on my copy at least - the song is abruptly and rudely cut off at the 4:20 mark over a minute before it was due to finish. To me, this managed to spoil the whole release. I couldn't tell you if this problem is common to this CD release or if just mine was faulty, but I can't believe the record company would have been content to release the CD in this condition. Surely someone would have listened to the final masters before reproduction?

I've really enjoyed revisiting and listening to this record again. I'll try not to leave it so long before I give it another spin. By the way, I have no idea why the album is titled Cover, it's not as if it contains any cover versions, but - on the subjects of covers - the cover artwork is worthy of note featuring a photo looking down at Verlaine who is holding onto a street lamp while standing on a road traffic island at a street junction (somewhere in UK). The photo makes it look almost as if he is sailing a small yacht - a theme that is reinforced by the car turning at the same junction and which has a windsurfing board strapped to its roof. This has to be the best record art featuring the performer on a street crossing since Abbey Road!

Gary Moore - Back On The Streets

1978, MCA Records, MCL 1622

A1: Back On The Streets
A2: Don't Believe A Word
A3: Fanatical Fascists
A4: Flight Of The Snow Moose
B1: Hurricane
B2: Song For Donna
B3: What Would You Rather Bee Or A Wasp
B4: Parisienne Walkways

Released in 1978 Back On The Streets was the second solo album from Irish guitarist Gary Moore. Now, despite being a guitar player myself I am always somewhat wary of solo albums from guitarists. I'm not very fond of records full of technical guitar playing, often performed at the expense of actual songs. The likes of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani leave me absolutely cold. Widdle widdle widdle widdle widdle... you get the picture?

However, I've always been a fan of Thin Lizzy, and as this album contained considerable input from Moore's Thin Lizzy band mates, bassist/vocalist Phil Lynott and drummer Brian Downey, I had to track down a copy and give it a whirl. Thankfully, this is NOT an instrumental guitar album although it does contain some tasteful and quite listenable instrumental pieces. Moore himself lends his own vocal chords to most of the songs, but Thin Lizzy frontman and bassist, the legendary Phil Lynott, almost steals Moore's thunder with his vocal performance on "Parisienne Walkways" and "Don't Believe A Word", the latter song upon which Moore and Lynott alternate lead vocal parts. "Don't Believe A Word", of course, was previously recorded by Thin Lizzy but the version here on Back On The Streets is a slower bluesier interpretation. Lynott later revealed that this was how the song was originally conceived, and indeed Thin Lizzy played the slower version on their final "Thunder and Lightning" tour. (I'm talking the originally Thin Lizzy, not the re-formed band of recent years). 

Gary Moore sings lead on another Lynott-penned track, "Fanatical Fascists", a punchy rocky number that could have been a Lizzy song. However, to my own surprise I found that standout tracks for me were the instrumentals, both with bad puns in the titles, "Flight Of The Snow Moose" and "What Would You Rather Bee Or A Wasp" upon which Moore is able to demonstrate his guitar virtuosity. I needn't have worried about listening to a lot of widdling, both these pieces are quite tastefully musical and well constructed, with "Snow Moose" having a beautiful acoustic intro.

I can imagine this album is quite an interesting one for the collector because there are a fair number of different versions of it. Soon after this record was released Gary Moore and Phil Lynott had a spectacular falling out which resulted in Lynott's vocals being removed from the songs he sang on the album and being replaced with Moore's own. So there is one release of the album containing Phil Lynott singing and another with Gary Moore as the sole vocalist. To confuse things further, certain editions had an additional song, "Spanish Guitar", whilst certain CD editions contained the tracks in a completely different order. And then there was the Gary Moore compilation album of the same title. Talk about confusing! The record I have, however, appears to be the original vinyl release complete with Phil Lynott on vocals and bass where it matters.

Following this album Gary Moore made some heavier rock albums, then with the release in 1990 of "Still Got The Blues" he turned his back on his rock career and devoted himself exclusively to the blues. Sadly, he passed away following a heart attack in early 2011. Phil Lynott had much earlier passed away on Christmas Day 1985. This album is an interesting and thoroughly entertaining snapshot into both of their careers.

The cover artwork, by the way, shows Gary Moore supposedly being released from notorious London prison Wormwood Scrubs. We can overlook his dubious fashion sense (that white jacket and those white shoes) as it was the 1970s, after all!

The Old Grey Whistle Test sessions in the videos below show "Gary Moore & Friends" playing songs from Back On The Streets and also feature Scott Gorham on guitar and Cozy Powell on drums.

Dub Syndicate - Tunes From The Missing Channel

1985, ON-U Sound Records Ltd, ON-U LP 38

A1: Ravi Shankar Pt.1
A2: The Show Is Coming
A3: Must Be Dreaming
A4: Over Board
A5: Forever More
B1: Geoffrey Boycott
B2: Wellie
B3: Jolly
B4: Out And About

This LP was a purchase I made about four years ago based solely on a friend's recommendation. Dub Syndicate are basically a project of producer Adrian Sherwood and Style Scott, former drummer with Roots Radics and Creation Rebel, plus of course a whole bunch of friends and session musicians. Stylistically, while it owes much to reggae and dub, this album back in the mid 1980s was pushing the envelope of the whole genre. Drums and percussion are featured prominently, which should come as no surprise seeing as one half of the nucleus of Dub Syndicate is a drummer.

Predictably enough, side 1 opener, "Ravi Shankar Pt.1" features a (faux) sitar melody line which sound surprisingly effective over a dub bass backing and what sounds like a motorbike being kick-started into action. "The Show Is Coming" features spoken vocals courtesy of Fats (so it says on the record cover) and has a much more urgent beat, a staccato bass guitar solo, and the repeated refrain "something nice is going to happen to your ears" which could be subtitle to this album. The next track, "Must Be Dreaming", slows things down again and showcases a lazy melodica courtesy of Doctor Pablo. "Overboard" is of a more experimental nature and features former Public Image Ltd member Jah Wobble providing one of his signature repetitive basslines plus he plays keyboards here too. For the most part Tunes From The Missing Channel is an instrumental record; other than the previously mentioned "The Show Is Coming", the only track featuring vocals is side 1 closer "Forever More", a stripped back dub affair which allows Bim Sherman's vocals to sit prominently in the mix.

Side 2 opens with Dub Syndicate's tribute to a legendary Yorkshire cricketer. "Geoffrey Boycott" is an uptempo little number with a simple but effective synth hook. "Wellie" (featuring a second ex-member of PiL, Keith Levene on guitar) is another synth-led piece which unfortunately makes no great impact on the listener, while "Jolly" at least manages to live up to its name being indeed a jolly little tune. I don't feel that side 2 really takes off until the final track, "Out And About", which manages to recapture the vibe established by side 1 before the whole record comes to an end.

I feel that Tunes From The Missing Channel is most definitely a record of two halves. You listen to side 1 and think, "Wow! that's amazing!", then flip it over to side 2... which isn't bad, but then again isn't astonishingly great or particularly groundbreaking. Additionally, on side 1 the tracks either segue into one another or else have no silence between them and so effectively create one seamless piece of music that takes up the entire side of the record. Side 2 has definite track breaks and it feels like these are the not-so-good tracks, those which may have been b-sides on a single record.

All in all, Tunes From The Missing Channel is a very enjoyable album for fans of reggae and dub music, but a couple of lacklustre tracks on side 2 stop it from being a truly great album. If only side 2 had been up to the standard of side 1 it could have been a classic!

Wind - Sleep 10" EP

2012, Jansen plateproducksjon, JANSEN 020

A: Throwing Stones
B: Cathedral

I took a chance on this record after having read a review by Julian Cope on his website in November 2012. I love reading Cope's reviews, if I can understand them with his various obscure references, although on a few occasions I have searched online for music he has reviewed and found it to be, quite frankly, unlistenable. But I was intrigued enough by his review of this record by Norwegian trio Wind to track down a copy, which I ended up ordering online from Shiny Beast. It was a little costly, but when I received the record and was first able to listen to it properly on 10" white vinyl (record label Jansen plateproduksjon seem to favour white vinyl for some reason) I decided it was such a good record that it was worth the price.

The EP contains just two pieces - one extended track on each side - having a total playing time of around 20 minutes (which is why I am referring to it as an EP rather than a single). The songs are two slices of melancholy psychedelia, perhaps mixed in with a dose of ambience. These are very atmospheric recordings, at times it seems hard to believe it's just three guys creating this gorgeous blanket of sounds with a standard set of instruments: drums, bass, guitar and synth. The music is never over-stated or in your face, rather it is mesmerizing and sensitive.

Without wanting to sound patronising, I was quite surprised to find out how young these guys are (check out their photo here to see what I mean) because their music is so mature and thoughtful.

The cover, by the way, features a photograph of one of Dutch artist Theo Jansen's incredible wind machines, or Strandbeests, as he calls them.

Themes For Action

2013, Network, 7954006

A1: Man In A Suitcase
A2: The Saint (1966 main title)
A3: The Prisoner
B1: The Saint (1968 main title)
B2: Danger Man (1960 main title)
B3: Danger Man (1964 main title)

Here's a Record Store Day find that I didn't have written down on my list before the event, but I saw this in the shop and just had to grab a copy. It's a 7" record playing at 45rpm recorded in mono and with six tracks on it. Some would call it an EP, but these tracks are so short that the combined length of the record is less than most singles. That is to say, there's nothing "extended" about it.

The record contains the themes for 1960s ITC produced cult classic TV shows, Man In A Suitcase, The Saint, Danger Man and The Prisoner from legendary composers Ron Grainer and Edwin Astley. The first two tracks on each side of the record are quite short at about 20 seconds a piece, with the third title on each side being a longer piece and all the more satisfying for the listener. Quite frankly, the music for Patrick McGoohan's masterpiece The Prisoner is worth the record price alone.



Fantastic stuff!

Permanent Clear Light - Higher Than The Sun

2012, Regal Crabomophone/Fruits De Mer Records, Winkle 7

A: Higher Than The Sun
B: Afterwards

If you're one of the few vinyl junkies that does not already know about Fruits De Mer Records may I suggest that you check them out soonest? FdM specialise in psychedelia, progressive rock, krautrock, R&B, acid-rock, spacerock - and - more importantly they make these releases available exclusively on limited edition vinyl. Many fans of the label are subscribers and buy every release. Nearly all releases sell out quickly, with earlier records from the label sometimes turning up on eBay and changing hands for quite staggering prices.

Most FdM releases are cover versions, that is to say reinterpreations of classic songs by modern artists and a few other legendary and semi-legendary acts such as The Pretty Things and The Bevis Frond. However, a handful of original songs have been released on FDM's Regal Crabomophone imprint.

Released in the latter part of 2012, "Higher Than The Sun" is an original song from Finland's finest psychedelic three-piece, Permanent Clear Light. The song lives up to its title and delivers magnificently to lift the listener higher than the sun as best it can without assistance from substances. It is the perfect psyche record, laid back and dreamy with swirling synths and a cosmic guitar solo. On the B-side of the disc the band tackle Van Der Graff Generator's "Afterwards" and manage to put their own stamp on the song quite nicely.

I also should mention the sumptuous packaging of this single, which goes to illustrate the care and attention to detail that FdM put into its releases. The record sleeve is like a mini-album cover rather than the usual single "bag" (as the industry refer to them). It is printed on high quality board stock, and even has a spine printed with the artist, title and record label details, just like you'd expect on an LP record. The artwork on the cover in this instance is a 3D image of the sun courtesy of NASA and a pair of red/blue lensed 3D glasses is included with the record inside the sleeve, along with a fold out poster of the 3D cover art. The record itself sits in an inner sleeve (nice to have one of those on a single!) and is pressed on coloured vinyl. My copy is a bright yellow/orange colour, but I know that a translucent lilac was also available. I think I prefer the colour of the copy that I have; it fits in better with the artwork and theme of the record's title track. But whatever... I told you it was a sumptuous package.

I believe that FdM quite remarkably still have a few copies left of this single. If you like psyche music, I can't recommend it heartily enough, so get yourself over to the FdM website and order yourself a copy.

Permanent Clear Light, by the way, have just released their debut album, "Beyond These Things". At the moment it is available on CD and as a download, but I am holding out on buying a copy so far as I have heard whispers from PCL guitarist Markku Helin that a vinyl edition may be in the pipeline. The album includes a version of the song on the single reviewed here, the album version being titled "Higher than the Sun - Astral Travel" so I'm hoping it's an extended version with added psychedlic elements!

The Conny Plank re-Work sessions

2013, Grönland Records, 12GRON123

A1: Eurythmics - Take Me To Your Heart (Popnoname Remix)
A2: Moebius & Plank - Infiltration (Walls Remix)
B1: NEU! - Für Immer (Eye/Boredoms Remix)
B2: Eurythmics - Le Sinistre (Kreidler Remix)

This was a Record Store Day purchase. It's a 12" EP featuring four tracks that have been reworked by the late legendary German record producer and audio engineer, Conny Plank. This was on my list of records to look out for on Record Store Day last month. I was referring to my list whilst asking the proprietor of Tangled Parrot in Carmarthen, Wales, which titles he had in stock. Seeing the list in my hand he commented that he had the Conny Plank record in stock and did I want it. "Oh yes please," I answered and grabbed the record as he passed it over and added it to my growing pile of purchases without actually looking at it.

When I got home, I saw that the Conny Plank record contained two songs by The Eurythmics. Had I seen this in the shop I probably wouldn't have bought it as I am no particular fan of The Eurythmics, not being overly fond of Annie Lennox's voice (and if you ask why, just listen to "There Must Be An Angel". I really can't be dealing with that kind of over-the-top singing with too many notes crammed in to each syllable).

However, on playing the record and listening to it several times over, it soon became the favourite of all my Record Store Day purchases. The Eurythmics tracks are both excellent, Lennox's voice is nicely understated and they fit in nicely with the two more "krautrock" style pieces. The version of "Für Immer" by NEU! (one of my very favourite acts) feels as if it has been broken down into its component parts and then re-built in an enirely new shape. And why not? If I want to listen to the original version, I can always play "NEU! 2". "Infiltration", the Moebius and Plank piece (Conny Plank himself along with Dieter Moebius, best known for his work with Cluster and Harmonia) feels like it's going to be a weird ambient instrumental piece to start with but soon develops into the most incredibly hypnotic "kraut" vibe.

So yeah, it's a great record and one which I'm so pleased that I bought. It's just as well I didn't see the tracklisting when I was in the shop as my Eurythmics prejudices would have gotten the better of me. I now think that perhaps I've judged them too harshly and that I should discover more of their non-hit single work.

An introduction - my life of record collecting

My name is Gavin Wilson. I am no stranger to the world of blogging, and as such have been running the world's first and longest running guitar blog. As you might guess from that, I am a guitarist and a musician recording under the name of Spurious Transients. Earlier this year I signed a recording contract with nanoBOX records and I am currently engaged in recording my first album. It's always been my ambition to release my own record. Whilst a CD release would be nice, I would really like to have my work released on vinyl.

There's just something about vinyl. As a medium for music it has to be the ultimate. Downloads have no soul - it's like you're just downloading music as software rather than an artefact in its own right. CDs are not a lot better. I don't think the CD ever succeeded as a replacement for the vinyl record, as the propanganda tried to tell us in the 1980s. If anything the CD was a replacement for the audio cassette, complete with plastic boxes, titchy artwork, and even recordability.

Vinyl offered the real musical experience. The covers were works of art in themselves. You had inner sleeves with lyrics and/or other information. Then there was the whole craze for coloured vinyl records, picture discs, shaped discs. Sure, it was all marketing, but it made the vinyl record so much more collectable, so much more tactile as an object, and - damn it - so much more FUN!

I remember first walking into record shops in the late 1970s, soon after the punk explosion, just when mainstream vinyl started getting really interesting. There were records all over the walls, 7" singles and 12" LPs, colour vinyls, picture discs, and racks full of all sorts of records. It was incredible just to browse through them all and drink it all in. I remember when I first discovered the 12" single. The concept of it just blew my mind... it's a single but on a 12" record! I thought the idea was madness to start with, but I soon discovered the potential behind the format. I just loved hanging out in record shops back in those days, they were the coolest places. Come the CD age, all the atmosphere had gone.

I've been collecting records since the later 1970s. In the 1980s I gave in to the lure of the CD - I'd moved away from the family home and it was quite frankly easier to build up a new stereo system with a CD player - it was more for convenience than anything else to start with (which ties in neatly with my cassette analogy). I now have a collection of hundreds of CDs - I've not counted them to be honest, I think there must be way over 1,000 - but more recently I've gone back to buying vinyl records again. I think that came about, ironically, because of the dreaded iPod! I'd been importing all my CDs into iTunes to play on the iPod, and then I turned my attention to vinyl records that I had never re-bought on CD and I started converting those over to MP3s via a turntable with a USB connection. Then I actually started buying a few limited edition vinyl records, playing them once and converting them to MP3s, perhaps burning off a CD copy as well.

But now I'm finding I like to buy most of my new music on vinyl - and I like to listen back to it on vinyl as well rather than digitising it first as I had been doing for the iPod. To my ears I just prefer the sound. Of course, my re-kindled interest has been bolstered by limited edition vinyl-only releases such as those of the excellent Fruits De Mer label.

I think part of the reason I was swayed by CDs in the late 1980s was that in the 1970s and 80s vinyl records were churned out in their thousands, but quality control was very poor. I seemed to be forever taking records back to the shops because they were warped, or they skipped, jumped, or were scratched. Today, vinyl manufacturers seem to have gotten their act together. The best quality virgn vinyl is no longer only reserved for classical music only with "popular" music being pressed on inferior recycled vinyl. We now get decent quality vinyl, better pressings, proper quality control - all no doubt because vinyl is now more "niche" with some titles being pressed in very limited editions from as low as 100 copies up to say 2,000 copies.

So, if you've read through all this rambling, I thank you for your perserverence and patience. On this blog I want to share with you some of my vinyl purchases. I shall review records, and share with you recommendations of cool records that are out there. I'm also going to be dipping into my record collection and looking at some long forgotten gems and a few classics too.

I expect I'll even include the occasional CD too, as much as I'd like to focus on vinyl 100%.

Please stay tuned for more...