Released on the Czech Supraphon label, “Night Club 68” features not only a way cool mod pop art LP cover, but a nice sampling of the groovy young sounds from hip Prague nightspots. Pavel Sedlacek opens the proceedings by covering a couple of UK beat pop hits — his version of The Move’s “Flowers In The Rain” stays pretty faithful to the original, as does his cover of the Beatles’ “Penny Lane,” where he’s backed by The Rudolph Roel Orchestra.  Ferdinand Havlik and his Orchestra are up next with a couple high energy groovy go-go tunes.  “My Beat” would definitely get the mini-skirted denizens at Club ‘68 up and on the dance floor in no time.  Pavel Novak and his Vox Group check in with three tunes, showing that he’s an adept student of UK-flavoured beat pop.  In addition to bits of fuzz guitar tossed into the mix in “It Was In Vain,” we get to enjoy Pavel’s difficulty in pronouncing the letter “V,” transforming the song title into “It Was In Wain.”  The Framus Five open side two with a couple of slow, bluesy soul numbers that are perhaps a bit too slow for their own good, which is why I didn’t bother including sound clips here.  The Gondolan Brothers step in with a nice, jazzy number called “Neday,” complete with scat vocals and a violin solo (!).  The Flamengo Group present the LP’s sole step towards heavy psych rock territory on their one contribution.  “The Way For Horses” features a guitarist banished to the right speaker who’s managed to acquire a wah pedal, and he’s definitely gonna use it.  The Slava Kunst Dance Orchestra, featuring the Lubomir Panek Singers & Swingers, finish up our nightclub experience with some upbeat groovy sunshine pop cheese, particularly on their version of Leonard Bernstein’s “America.”  All in all, an entertaining night’s excursion behind the Iron Curtain.

Dan Satch has quite the mysterious background, not much is known about this particular gentleman or his band. Originally from Nigeria and presumably from Aba, according to the back cover of Ikoro’s 70’s Special, “Dan Satch Joseph was a seasoned trumpeter and arranger. He started playing the trumpet in 1959 and was the trumpeter leader of Bobby Benson & his Jam Session Band until 1961. In 1962 he made the move to Aba and formed the Atomic “8? Dance Band.” He’s released some 45s and a 10” album including an LP with Mary Asi Usuah, although there’s seems to be some confusion about his name. The 10? credits him as Dan Satch Joseph while the later (LP) credits him as Dan Satch Ekpe. He has also been confused with Ferdinand Dan Satch Emeka Opara, who was the co-founder of the Oriental Brothers Band. The Atomic 8 band were a more traditional based Highlife dance band where as the Oriental Brothers were a more guitar based Highlife band. It only seems natural to assume the relation of the two, since Ikoro’s Special was recorded in ‘69 and the Orientals were founded in ‘71, both bands were from different areas, the Atomics were based in Aba, while Dan Satch Opara hailed from the Owerri area.

Former conga player Sonny Akpan who left the group to play with the Funkees, confirmed that Dan Satch Joseph came from Akwa Ibom and the actual vocalist singing on Woman Pin Down is Mohammed Ahidjo, who later became the lead singer with the funkees as well. Woman Pin Down was a record I seeked for quite sometime and I was able to ease my mind once I finally got my hands on it. This is the perfect example of West African Highlife at it’s finest, I hope this track moves you just as much as it did me.

Here is a German compilation LP from 1991. It was the first release on the Hausmusik label and was limited to maybe 200 copies, all numbered on the front cover. The covers are all handpainted and handcut with different cut locations giving views of different pictures. It comes with no less than seven inserts and the cover just folds open into a gatefold, but with no inner to the gatefold, if that makes sense? A really varied line up of groups ranging from gentle folk to hardcore punkish stuff. Interesting.

I'm pretty sure I originally bought this because it had a rather crudely hand decorated back cover with ancient pictures of school girls and a birthday inscription of some sort. It was in rough shape so I probably justified the purchase by telling myself I could always give it to a friend who I tend to give things like that to. I really only need the weakest of excuses to buy junk, especially record junk. And besides, I'm sure it was just one more dollar among the 6 other dollars I'd be standing in line to waste anyway. I think it actually took me a few days to even look at it once I got it home. But when I finally did I realized the track list looked promising. Better than promising even. Wait, a High School battle of the bands full of soul covers? Huh? Really? Where did I get this? By the time it finally hit the turntable it was instantly crystal clear that this was something special. I mean, lord have mercy. These kids are just absolutely KILLING IT.

Sorry to be so vague on the above details of this story. I've had to piece most of this together after the fact as I actually fell out of my chair stone dead after hearing the Dynamic III track for the first time. They somehow brought me back but things have been a bit hazy ever since.

Dynamic III: "Fantastic II"

Ravenettes: "Nowhere To Run/Do Right Woman"

Majestics: "Gettin' Ready/What Love Has Joined Us Together/My Girl"

There is something that is kind of appealing about this country/gospel LP. Jim Gill runs through a bunch of styles (often within the same song) and the band is pretty tight. There is definitely some cool, smart and humorous songwriting going down here and often that's a tough thing to find on gospel LPs. From 1979 on the Star Song label out of Pasadena, TX.