All reviews by Milan

Al Collie and the VIPS - The First of May Al Collie and the VIPS - The First of May

Al Collie and the VIPS was the houseband of “the IN spot in Nassau, the swinging Buccaneer Lounge at the Flagler Inn Hotel on beautiful Paradise Island.” The band played the typical mix of Calypso, almost-reggae and soul that features on so many private hand-out records from countless “In spots” on the Islands of the […]

Alojz Bouda - Synthesizer Sound Alojz Bouda - Synthesizer Sound

This is a totally common record from Slovakia that has pretty bad synthesizer pop tunes. One track is insane however. It’s the track that’s called Random and according to the sleeve, here Alojz explores the possibilities of the synthesizer playing on it’s own. I wish the synthesizer had played on it’s own for the entire […]

Baligh Hamdi featuring Magid Khan - Indo Arabic Variations Baligh Hamdi featuring Magid Khan - Indo Arabic Variations

The idea for this record occured when Baligh Hamdi, famous Egyptian composer, heard the excellent sitar player Magid Khan when Khan visited Cairo. Hamdi had been expanding the horizons of Egyptian music by incorporating organs, electric guitar and saxes since the late fifties and this proved to be a new challenge. The resulting album, with […]

Baligh Hamdy - Gada Baligh Hamdy - Gada

Baligh Hamdy is a composer well known for his work with Egyptian super star singer Oum Kalsoum and Hamdy’s wife, Algerian born Warda. Here’s a real oddity from his hand, an EP with a rather daring silk screened cover (daring considering it was released in Egypt in the sixties). This mini-album has 6 beautiful instrumental […]

Baquen! - Sensational Sound of Screen Music Baquen! - Sensational Sound of Screen Music

It took me a while before I noticed the pink female torso holding a gun underneith Sean Connery’s posterized face. The lack of priorities and absence of focus on this cover is somehow exemplary for the record itself. Some cool and some uncool tunes have been treated by the strange combo of drums, flute, oboe, […]

Bell System - Youth Radio Commercials Bell System - Youth Radio Commercials

Hidden in a nice pile of odd 45’s found at the Amsterdam fleamarket, was this green, square flexi record. I really don’t know why this made it to my house, must have been dirt cheap. Anyway, I’ve been very happy with this piece of advertisement history ever since. The 5 ads that are on it, […]

Bojan Adamič - Maškerada Bojan Adamič - Maškerada

This is the soundtrack to the Slovanian film Maškerada (Boštjan Hladnik). The film was made in 1971, but was banned and only shown years later in 1984, apparently due to the explicit sex scenes that it contains.  
Anyway, the tripped out psychedelic “song” Hippy on the A-side of the 45 is quite spectacular. It has a great funky garage beat, wild soaring hammond, […]

Carlos Fariñas - Aguas Territoriales Carlos Fariñas - Aguas Territoriales

The side long piece Aguas territoriales has a very cool concept that is executed perfectly. We start off with the sound of dripping water. Every minute or so the Cuban composer Carlos Fariñas adds another electronic effect to it, progressively rendering it unrecognizable untill it sounds as the score for some scifi flick. Halfway into […]

Eric Siday - Musique Electronique Eric Siday - Musique Electronique

I wrote a little review on J. Matthews’ Electronic Music a while ago on this site. Here’s another very cool one that comes in the same pre-1968 library format, 78rpm microgroove. This one has the same title, be it in French, but it is 5 years earlier, from 1960. It’s by Eric Siday, an English […]

Experiência - Passo a Passo Experiência - Passo a Passo

I bought this LP in Lissabon some eight years ago. I’d never seen it before or since. Rock is not my expertise, but it seems to me this is a record that should be better known. I’m afraid it’s really rare though. They play folk-funk with some latin-rock influences, cool percussion in the mix. It […]

Francis Bebey - Un Petit Ivoirien Francis Bebey - Un Petit Ivoirien

Cameroon born novelist, poet, musicologist, historian, radio DJ and multi-instrumentalist Francis Bebey (1929) conjured up this relatively unknown record for Ozileka Records in 1979. If you’re familiar with his classical guitar work, this stuff may come as a suprise. Deploying an assortment of synthesisers, the tunes range from feather-light afropop to very exciting grooves. One […]

Fuat Saka - Ayrılık Türküsü Fuat Saka - Ayrılık Türküsü

With it’s use of delayed percussion, eastern scales and jazzy ney (flute), this folk pop album manages to create a nice psychedelic mood, despite the release date (1984). The 10 songs featured on it are very contemplative, sung with a dark brooding voice, but still there’s a drive to the music, not in the […]

Funky Sounds from Central Africa Funky Sounds from Central Africa

I guess this is the kind of record that would scream “grab me” even to the most casual of record browsers so I feel extra lucky it fell into my greedy hands. This is a very rare compilation released in the Netherlands by some forward souls at Philips. The bulk of the 12 tracks, although […]

Infinite Love Experience - Love Will Never die Infinite Love Experience - Love Will Never die

I’m guessing these guys were from the Dominican Republic, since the back cover has an advertisement for a Dominican disco album, but I’m not sure. The cover is as vague as can be, with many typ-o’s and bold stickers to re-arrange the tracklisting. Luckily the music is quit good, with a typical island mix of […]

J. Matthews - Electronic Music J. Matthews - Electronic Music

The moment time travel will be made available to the general public, this is the kind of record I will be ordering, in retrospect, from 1965. Those who love vintage record oddities will agree this disc has a lot going for it. First, the very format is peculiar. It’s a 10” microgroove record, but it […]

Jean-Pierre Decerf and Gerard Zajd - Out of the Way Jean-Pierre Decerf and Gerard Zajd - Out of the Way

This record strikes me as being very odd. It sounds so contemporary, you almost suspect it’s a hoax by some sample dudes from 2006. But it’s not. It’s on the French Cam, so it’s probably from the beginning of the eighties. There are several stand out tracks, with subdued electronic beats, percussion and sound effects, but the […]

Jurriaan Andriessen - Hardware Software Jurriaan Andriessen - Hardware Software

Louis Andriessen, the well known anti-elitist Dutch avant garde composer, has always been boasting about the fact that he incorporates popular music in his work and that he cuts through high and low culture. But the fact is, nobody on the street would be able to wistle a Louis Andriessen tune (maybe apart from his […]

Los "TEEN-AGERS" Los “TEEN-AGERS”

The title of this record immediately reveals a certain insecurity on the part of the producers as to what exactly they were marketing here. You wonder why Los is cursive, why “TEEN-AGERS” is between quotation marks, and why there’s a dash between TEEN and AGERS. These kids sure look like teenagers. They even live up to the […]

Masao Hiruma/Testpattern - Apogee and Perigee Masao Hiruma/Testpattern - Apogee and Perigee

This excellent robot cover houses a record that is a fake soundtrack to a non-existant animation film about the space adventurs of the robots Apogee and Perigee and their android dog, creations of the mad professor Persec, and their fight against a totalitarian society. Almost all tunes are anoying to a point that they are […]

Paulo de Carvalho - Não de Costas Mas de Frente Paulo de Carvalho - Não de Costas Mas de Frente

I’ve had this record for some years now and had filed it away with the mental note that it contained some nice songs. Now that I listen to it again I must say it’s really good. Side one suffers from some uneven tracks but side two is nice all the way. A quick internet search […]

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