All reviews by Milan

Pino Manci Sings Borriquito an Other International Hits Pino Manci Sings Borriquito an Other International Hits

What can be said about Pino Manci? When entering his name on Google you get the reply “Did you mean: Pino Manic?” So all we know is the little information that is offered on the cover. Pino led a combo in the Safari Room at the Kyalami Ranch, South Africa. The repertoire that made it […]

Purnima Thakur - Miloongi Ghanta Ghar Ke Tale Purnima Thakur - Miloongi Ghanta Ghar Ke Tale

Here’s a good synth-bass, tabla, rhythm box, banjo, sax, accordion and female vocals combination from India. Music is composed by Charanjit Ahuja and this stuff was released in 1980. It sounds like it could have been from anything between 1958 to 2020. Certainly not something you hear every day. There are four songs on […]

Reggae Beat Reggae Beat

Okay, the music on this Indonesian reggae record might not be all that good, but hey, how often do you stumble into Indonesian reggae? The accompanying track, called Reggae Beat, is actually quite charming. Especially the flute parts are rather exotic, with a gamelan scale that blends in nicely. The organ sounds pretty spaced out […]

Stratos 1 Stratos 1

I wish I knew exactly where these guys came from. I always like it when a record has you looking at the world map for cues (and when it gives you an urge to travel). Anyway, they are from one of “the islands” and what they do is way cool. And loud. Six party tracks […]

Swinging Stars - Party Time Swinging Stars - Party Time

After a fire destroyed their popular club The Green Grotto along with all their equipment, the Swinging Stars from Dominica quickly came back on top again. It’s hard to imagine they had ever been better than on this record from 1978 because it’s really superb Cadenze in a jam mode, with excellent guitar and keyboard […]

Sylvain Marc and Del Rabenja - Madagascar Now/Maintenant/'Zao Sylvain Marc and Del Rabenja - Madagascar Now/Maintenant/’Zao

I don’t know very much about Madagascar, apart from the fact that it’s flora and fauna is unique due to the separation of the Island from the African mainland in ancient times. Also, I understand the language Malagasey is amazingly enough of the Malayo-Polynesian family and bears resemblance to the language of Borneo. With all […]

The "Easy Listening" Group - Vol 1 The “Easy Listening” Group - Vol 1

The messages on the sleeve of this record are somewhat confusing. First, the front promises us “easy listening” and adds a logo saying we are dealing with “background music” (or “BGM”). The back adds to the titles classical indications what style and tempo they are in. So we have scherzoso, moderato but also tempo di […]

The Dancing Machine The Dancing Machine

Obscure record offering borderline amateur renditions of okay seventies material. What’s nice about the recording is the ridiculously upfront percussion and the Curtis-wannabe falsetto singing. Even tracks like Get Dancin’ and I Got the Music In Me manage to transcent their originals ’cause of the strange mix, albeit barely. Most tracks are winners if you […]

The New Volkswagen Transporter The New Volkswagen Transporter

 
This record was given to the new owners of Volkwagen Transporters back in 1980, promising them “technical impressions” of the van in question. Apparently, people who were into this particular Volkswagen van were heavily interested in abstract musical interpretations of the insides of their car, or so the people from the marketing department assumed. So how does […]

The Nifty Levites with Raymond Smolover - Edge of Freedom The Nifty Levites with Raymond Smolover - Edge of Freedom

Cantor Raymond Smolover apparently wasn’t an unimportant figure in the Jewish music scene in the states, having produced and written (comic) opera’s and also teaching singing and vocal training techniques to many. Here’s a curious record he did with the youth choir The Nifty Levites for the Bell label, called “Edge of Freedom, a folk/rock […]

The Night Shift - Jazz Class with Art Stone The Night Shift - Jazz Class with Art Stone

 
I don’t know if the dance instruction label Statler catered to strip joints, but that would explain a thing or two about this record. Music is far from jazz. It contains 17 raunchy instrumentals by the group The Night Shift and the “free” instructional flyer that comes with it must be seen as totally random (as […]

The Panbers - Volume 1 The Panbers - Volume 1

Here’s an Indonesian psychedelic record with lots of fuzz grooves, some sound effects, borderline psychotic vocals and a totally wacked out use of the English language. The band consists of drums, bass, guitar, organ and vocals and it is one of those records that make you realize how endless the sound possibilities are for a […]

The Singers - S/T The Singers - S/T

This little 10″ record by the all girl band The Singers is one of the most entertaining pieces of vinyl I own. Everything is right about it. One side has covers of tunes as Bang Bang. The other side has the Indonesian blend of pop and Krontjon music. The western side has a lot more […]

The Sound of Taiwan's Tribesmen The Sound of Taiwan’s Tribesmen

Who are these tribesmen the cover speaks of? A record that raises many what, why and when questions.The confusing juxtaposing of Taiwanese villagers and the African savanah is smoothly continued on the record itself. Taiwanese melodies have been given the Daktari treatment with exotic electronic melodies backed by wah wah and cool percussion. “African” grunts […]

Tom Hamilton, J.D. Parran, Rich O'Donnell - Formal & Informal Music Tom Hamilton, J.D. Parran, Rich O’Donnell - Formal & Informal Music

Here’s an experimental record from 1980, featuring the side long “Formal and Informal Music.” It’s performed by three musicians and led by the electronics guy Tom Hamilton. I can best describe it as an oscillating electronic bee-hive with beautiful woodwind solo’s by J.D. Parran and percussion by Rich O’Donnell. Especially the flute segment is amazing, […]

Tuca - S/T Tuca - S/T

This Brasilian album from 1968 is suprisingly unknown and probably pretty rare. You wonder for what reason since it’s such an excellent bossa nova record. Tuca displays a nice feel for understatement in her voice and although a portion of the material is in a breezy mood, the blackness of the cover can be felt […]

Various - Cumbias Y Gaitas de Colombia Various - Cumbias Y Gaitas de Colombia

Housed in an incredibly nice cover with a unique pre-historic Flinstone vibe (the drum, the model, the hair…), this record contains several outstanding cumbias. I thought the following cumbia (eh, or Gaita?) from this record is a nice one to post because it features a great hot-jazz guitarist who at one point goes out of […]

Various - Sensazioni Various - Sensazioni

The Italian Phase 6 series might have had one of the coolest strings of sexy covers ever. This one is an absolute favorite of mine. The typefont, the angle, the color of the sky, the choice of model, the negligent position of her bikini. One can almost smell the hot herb-filled air of Italy’s coast […]

Victor Tschoutschkov and Georgi Genkov - All over the world Victor Tschoutschkov and Georgi Genkov - All over the world

 
“Suite from the original music of the seven coproduction films of the Bulgarian and Hungarian red cross societies.”
Composers Victor Tschoutschkov and Georgi Genkov did an excellent job on this soundtrack for several Red Cross documentaries and educational films from the sixties. This is something of a politically correct Mondo affair where director Gyorgy Karpati took his […]

William McCauley - Ontario William McCauley - Ontario

This is a nice little obscure 7″ flexi record containing the soundtrack to a film called “Ontario”. I guess it was a promotional documentary of sorts from around 1970, highlighting this and that of the province. Films like that usually ooze loads of period charm and you often wonder where all the nice tunes went […]

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