Monthly Archives – January 2006

Chris Korzen – Nirvana For Home Use

Total homemade one here. Chris put this out in the mid eighties on the Playfull label. The track that gets me everytime is “Nirvana”. Sounds like The Beach Boys with a total real person vibe to it, it’s really catchy. This is definitely one of those records that straddles the line between being cheesy with […]

Nino Nardini – Musique Pour Le Futur

Nino Nardini (great name isn’t it?) recorded “Musique Pour Le Futur” for the Crea Sound library imprint in 1970. This record is not at all like this composer’s better known funky exotica outings. Instead of sleazing it up, Nino is bleeping away in the Forbidden Planet / egghead labcoat electronics idiom here. When he gets […]

Lokomotiv Konkret

Mind numbing Sweedish free jazz with electronic accompainiment. That’s Claes Sweger’s business card taped to the cover. He must have given this record to the transvestite i purchased it from.

Emmett Frisbee – Sound Paintings

“Emmett Frisbee used to travel the country entering Hoagy Carmichael look-alike contests. He was never a winner, though once he was one of the ten finalists. Discouraged, penniless and having turned vegetarian, Emmett decided one Thanksgiving over his bowl of cold oatmeal to make music his career. Life took an immediate upward swing. Today, Emmett […]

Gary Kail – Zurich 1916 (Creative Nihilism)

A very personal musique concrete tour-de-force subtitled “Creative Nihilism – Studies in musique concrete 1979-1983” (Iridescence 1984), Gary Kail’s magnum opus brings to mind the recordings of the LAFMS and other bedroom tape-splicers of the pre-digital era. The first record consists of Gary’s solo explorations, while the second one contains collaborations of his with other […]

Mushroom Ceremony of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico

Great record of field recordings that I’m happy to have finally recently acquired. It’s of an Indian woman sitting around eating mushrooms with her friend. Her friend seems much more helpful than mine was the time I ate mushrooms. We put them on cold pizza & sat around drinking tea & listening to a Zombies […]

Mobius & Plank – Rastakraut Pasta

Crazy electro-reggae, which sounds kinda scary, but everything is right about this lp. It’s hard to explain, but it really does sound like all of the goodness you could hope to expect from Cluster playing strange reggae and stuff. Such an awesome record! [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Sounds Of Self-Hypnosis Through Relaxation

There’s a lot of words I would use to describe the folkways catalog. But sexy is not one of them. Despite being a rather handsome man himself, Mo Asch resisted the allure of the sexy. And this is probably a good approach for recording the music of indigenous peoples. The Murat musicians of North Borneo […]

Hunt’s Determination Band – This is Determination Problems

Here’s a private press disco funk lp outta Michigan on the small Ear Wax label. My two favorite tracks on this one are “I got my nut” and “where the funk come from”. I like this typo in the liner notes also- “It’s an unbelievable experience to watch heard these men work”. Some ebay seller […]

Bob Hadley – Raven

Aside from one vocal track, the rest of this record is an excellent instrumental guitar lp that would fit in nicely on the Takoma label. Killer slide guitar and fingerpicking stuff here. You gotta love the homemade art thats taped on the cover of this private pressing.

Master Wilburn Burchette’s – psychic meditation music

This record consists of two 18 minute cosmic new age tracks entitled “yin” and “yang”. From the liner notes: Observe and become aware of the music as a flow of pure feeling. Allow the music to touch you so that you may feel and become aware. Let it penetrate to your psychic self. DO NOT […]

Mario Nascimbene – Major Library 6074

Not a bad library if funky jazz is your thing. Nascimbene was an Italian soundtrack dude who did his fair share of libraries as well. He does all the tracks on the b-side of this record (most of which found their way onto the first Cinemaphonic Soul compilation). Mario Nascimbene – Gramercy Park

Ennio Morricone – April Orchestra Vol. 1

If you’re reading this site you’ve probably at least heard of Ennio Morricone, without a doubt the most well-known Italian soundtrack composer. You may not be aware of the fact that he also did a few not-available-to-the-public library records during the height of his career (or maybe you are. sorry.) Poligoni sounds like Donald Duck […]

Daniela Casa – America Giovane 2

Here’s a jazz/psychedelic library from Italy on the very scarce Leo label. “America Giovane” means “young America” in Italian, so my guess is this was their take on the “scene” in the US during the early 70s. The cover art on this one is great. Faceless teens hanging out at Inspiration Point™ (perhaps?) as the […]

Cozy Eggleston – Grand Slam

Heres a rare private press funky jazz record outta Chicago circa the late sixties. Cozy on tenor backed up by just a drummer and an organ player so its pretty stripped down. Has a smoky nightclub feel to it for sure. Killer stuff!

George Cromarty – Grassroots Guitar

I love this record! From 1973 on Thistle records this record is comparable to John Fahey. Thirteen acoustic finger pickin instrumentals and one vocal cut at the end called “little children” that reminds me of a heartfelt Nick Drake tune. Great stuff. George Cromarty: “Little Children”

The Soul Cop – too many nites

Heres an oddball private soul record from 1976. I’d say its about half good and half mediocre. Worth the price of admission for the cover though, the soul cop with a lollipop!

Nancy Dupree – Ghetto Reality

Absolutely compelling music made by little black school children. I often see this described as a “funk record”, but I feel that is somewhat misleading and probably has some people expecting a Jackson 5/Sylvers type thing, which it isn’t. What we do have here is far more interesting. Just Dupree on piano & the kid’s […]

Steve Halpern – Christening for Listening

Kind of a confusing record ’cause there are two nearly identical versions, but one is missing the best track “Something For Every-Body Suite”. For the most part though, both versions are almost identical to Halpern’s classic “Spectrum Suite”, which can surely be found in a dollar bin near you. Confused? OK, so here is the […]

Craig Kupka – Modern Dance Vol.1

This lp was my introduction to Kupka, and it’s still my favorite of his records. First heard it on a mix Anthony Pearson sent me (god, I hate it when people name drop like that) and it really blew my mind. The following are Anthony’s notes on the track.. I met this guy recently and […]