long players galore

I came into possession of three albums over the last couple of days. All shiny and new in their sleeves and waiting for a rinse out on the turntable. Two of them came courtesy of the shindig I had in the back garden the other night. In order to guard against the inclement weather, a friend offered a gazebo that was in their house. Rather than it being one of those fold-up crappy jobs it turned out to be a full blown marquee about 10 metres long. It was a bit of a bollix to put up in the rain but the resulting structure was the business. It fully covered the garden shed housing the sounds as played by Galafari, The Mullet and grandpa Naphta. It was a roaring success by my unexacting standards. Anyhow, I was gifted two sweet albums on the night. The first is by Mulatu Astatke and is called Ethio Jazz. Astatke has also featured in the Ethiopiques series of albums released on the Buda Musique label. If you haven't checked out a bit of Ethiopian Jazz from the 1960's and 1970's then you simply haven't lived. These dudes know how to funk it up big styles. I was going to tell you to go and check Ethiopiques out this weekend at the Festival of World Cultures in Dun Laoghaire but the gig is sold out. Ah well!

The other album that I was gifted is by Innocent Youths and is called 'Earth, Roots & Water'. As you might guess by the name of both the album and the band, it's a reggae album. Not just any reggae album though. It was released in 1977 on the Toronto based Summer Records. The original pressing is as rare as hens teeth so luckily they went and repressed it earlier this year. Its available once more, courtesy of the people in Light in the Attic. Its reminiscent of The Lovejoys in parts and is dub-space-tastic in others. Once again its a rare sonic treat.

The last album for today is one that I've been meaning to get for bleedin ages. I picked up the Neon Neon 'I lust you' seven inch ages ago and I meant to go and buy the album, Stainless Style. It was only when I saw that they're playing in Tripod on the 4th of November that I thought I'd better follow up on my earlier plans. It's a nicely packaged piece of vinyl and although I've only listened to it once, it reeks of eighties synthesiser pop. To some people that might be a bad thing but to me that's just great. I'm loving it. I might just have to go and see them play.

Finally, I bumped into Exile Eye yesterday and Sie Milligan today and both told me about a short tour they're embarking on to promote Exile's new Melodica Deathship project. They're playing the Bierhaus in Galway on the 21st August, the Pavillion in Cork the following night, The Trinity Rooms in Limerick the night after and wind their way back to Anseo here in Dublin on the 25th August. And they're doing the whole journey on miniature bicycles. Actually that's a lie.