get down on it!

Following receipt of the RSAG album, Organic Sampler, and having listened to it a number of times, I can now tell you what I initially suspected about it. It’s brilliant. It has the same edginess to it that the live shows do. It’s the bee’s knees and the dog’s bollocks all mixed in together and appearing as one giant mutated organic form. It reminds me of Talking Heads in places, Was Not Was in other places and like stuff I’ve never heard at all, in other places.

In terms of new vinyl coming my way it’s been a slow few days. I picked up a couple of things in the last while but never got round to writing about them.

There have been very rich pickings on the second hand vinyl front. There was a deluge of second-hand stuff into Oxfam on Georges Street today. At one point myself and about five others were acting like some humanitarian packages had been dropped in to the shop. There was a bit of pushing and shoving between us in order to get what we need to survive. As it turns out the crush between people need not have happened. We were all after very different stuff. It truly is the case that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Or one man’s Prefab Sprout is another man’s James Last. I was looking at the shit records other people were picking and sniggering to myself. I imagine that they were doing the same when they saw I had the following:

Fables of the Reconstruction – REM
This is the third studio album from REM and was released in 1985 on IRS Records. Along with Murmur and Reckoning this charts the earlier sound of REM. It certainly bears little resemblance to the most of the albums that followed. I like it exactly because of that. I’m a big fan of the first three albums but that said I also like most of the stuff that followed. Actually that’s a bit of a fib, the only ones after this that I like are Document and Green.

Love and Dancing – The Human League
This is the famed collection of 12” remix instrumental versions of the Dare album. I already have it a couple of times so I gave this copy to a mate. It turns out he already has it so he’s giving it to someone else. It’s a gift that just keeps giving. Super.

Steve Mc Queen – Prefab Sprout
I had this on vinyl and then it disappeared. Thankfully I now have it again. This is without doubt the best Prefab Sprout album ever, which in real terms isn’t actually saying much because all their other ones are pretty bad (except maybe ‘Swoon’). It includes some of their best ever tunes such as ‘When love breaks down’ and ‘Faron Young’.

Duel – Propaganda
This is taken from their album ‘A Secret Wish’ released on Trevor Horn’s ZTT label in 1985. The band themselves hailed from Dusseldorf in Germany and included amongst them an ex-member of Die Krupps. This was their only tune worth talking about and I bought it today in a fit of nostalgia. As it turns out, it’s not as good as I remembered it. Oh well.

Sidewalking – The Jesus & Mary Chain
This little seven inch was hidden amongst a load of albums. I always took JAMC with a pinch of salt and never bought into the wall of sound shit that they peddled. This same marketing technique is currently being used by Glasvegas. Put simply, some Phil Spector style production and some whining Scottish vocals does not equal great music. It usually equals something bad. This wasn’t always the case with JAMC. They did release some good tunes in the course of their early years but these truly were few and far between. ‘Sidewalking’ which featured on the ‘Barbed Wire Kisses’ album is one of the few that’s good.

The Story of Tron – Readalong adventure
This seven-inch was released by Walt Disney Productions in conjunction with Buena Vista Records back in 1982. It is a seven-inch piece of vinyl with an accompanying 24-page illustrated booklet. It’s a reminder of the type of merchandise that would be released in conjunction with movies back in those days. The wonderful innocence of a record and story that you would read along to is probably not something that today’s kids would be interested in. I have a passion for this kind of tat so I’m delighted with it.

I also bought a new seven inch release from an Icelandic songstress, Emiliana Torrini, which happens to be very nice. The b-side has a remix by Manasseh.

I hit the bargain basements in some record stores and unearthed the following seven inch gems for minimal cash. 'Out come the Freaks' by Was Not Was was the first up. It's an old eighties tune by a bunch of mad dudes led by the Was brothers. Next out was Quadrophonia by Quadrophonia. This brought back memories of a dance off between myself and a bloke called Stef years ago. It's fair to say that Stef won the dance off but he also introduced me to a lots of rave and breakbeat music. Another find was 'America: What Time is Love' by The KLF. The last two were for the wedding collection of seven inches that I'm building. Two dancefloor classics in 'Tainted Love' by Soft Cell and 'Get Down On It' by Kool & The Gang.