Recommendations - MARCH 2010

Pigmaliao 70

This is the soundtrack from one of those mental novellas from Brazil. Great music, really bad music, but together making an interesting trip through terrifying south American soap opera TV.

Martial Solal plays Michel Magne

Mr Iueke was raving about this a few years ago. Like really raving about it, but he was a bit tipsy at the time, although thinking about it I may have been the one who was tipsy. Anyway, he was raving about everything he was playing that night. Well he was right as it’s well worth raving about. The best way for me to describe it is jazz but played in a sort of avant garde soundtrack way. So just as you think you understand it you don’t. Also, according to Iueke, this is the first time J C Vannier was involved in a record. That may well be right, that may be wrong, but to be honest I don’t care. I bought this in Hastings. I was quite excited, then I realised when I got home that I already had it on a French CD, but this has the better cover.

The Jack Palance Record

Creepy beyond creepy this one, especially the track Hannah, which if it were being sung by a non super duper film star villain of the mid 50s and 60s could quite easily be misinterpreted as a well dodgy serial killer stalker type recording, and would possibly get you followed for a bit, or better still just taken off the streets. Incidentally Jack real name was Volodymyr Palahniuk. Good job he changed it really.

The Heath Brothers album

Never had this, never really found an original one cheap enough. But when this unusual French pressing came my way it seemed a good price and so I bought it. And now I have it I realized it’s basically a mighty fine major work of an album. Like a really big major one. And with loads of good drums and fine rhythms and lovely bits all over it. And I wish I’d bought an expensive one all those years ago because it would have paid me back by now.

Eden’s Island

Of all the exotic records out there, this is the BIG one. It turns up on line every now and again, sells for daft money and is normally in shit condition, with seam splits and overly worn vinyl. And I’ve never seen one for sale in the UK. Well I found myself in JB’s little shoppe in Hanway Street and I asked Bill if he had anything “interesting” behind the counter. He said “yeah” and pulled this out. I wet my knickers. An unplayed one! So I bought it. And then went to dry off somewhere private. It really is a magic accidental cosmic hippy bonkers concept album like no other. And even though I rarely if ever go on about mono or stereo copies of albums as I don’t really give a fig, this is a stereo. Apparently, according to Bill in JBs shoppe, Eden lived below the H on the Hollywood Hills. I thought he lived in a cave and in trees some of the time too.

Cellotape and Scotchtape

Lots of sparse interesting rhythmic things all played in a most unexpected fashion. Good title, good artwork, just good in general with a bit of a free twist going on at the same time. Like a bloke yelps every now and again. I listen to this late when all have gone to bed.

The Great Escape

Me and Bert watched this recently, and Bert has now become quite obsessed. So we have to listen to this score a lot now, and apart from the classic theme, it is full of some quite lovely passages. I threaten Bert with the cooler now if he’s naughty.

Nico’s Chelsea Girl

An old girlfriend of mine used to have this album. She was bit mental Anyway, over the last year I have been pining for a copy, almost getting distant withdrawals a bit like Nico would have got from her various drug habits. Trouble is it’s hard to find an original British copy. It came out in America in 1967 and then only in the UK in the early 70s, on the Polydor Standard label, which makes it look a bit like a repress, when it sort of isn’t. And there are horrid bootlegs all over the place at the moment which makes finding a proper one even harder. This proper one turned up with an old £4 sticker on it and it’s one of those really bad stickers that won’t come off. Musically everyone should know this album, it’s beautifully miserable, maudlin, perfectly pitched and has some sublime string parts. I could go on about it nearly forever, but I’d rather finish with the fact that Nico tragically fell off her bike in Spain.

Thomas

My son Bert’s best mate is called Thomas. That has nothing to do with this album at all, which is a soundtrack to possibly something set on a stage. It has one track on it which I can play over and over again, all whispy and weird at the same time.

SONNY’S CRIB

This is a rare Blue Note album. I don’t own it, but I do have the CD. I’ve never really taken to it, but Mrs Trunk now has, which is completely unexpected. I now have to keep this album near the music trolley at all times as Mrs Trunk finds it musically as refreshing as a Gin and Tonic. She’s off booze at the moment but is happy to drink down this whole album early each evening. We’re now also looking for a musical alternative to crisps, so she has something to snack on after the album.

Rah

You can’t beat a bit of classic beatniky jazz. I grew up with this Mark Murphy album, and it was one of the first jazz LPs I ever bought, and it’s helps that it has a Sound Of Music cover version on there. However I’ve never located a British pressing, which is different as it has a white cover, and not an orange one. The white one also has an extra track. I might have written about this record before as I love it so much.

Heart Of Glass

There are these Popol Vuh nights at Shorditch church at the moment. The bloke who organises them asked me to do an OST Show just based on Popol Vuh. No worries I said without sounding too Australian. I played lots of Popol Vuh soundtracks and have started listening to things I was fairly unfamiliar with, like this one. I’ve not seen this film. Apparently it’s all about a small town where the glassworks shut and the town starts turning all bad and sad. A bit like when Starbucks opens on your street. I talked about this last night with Stuart who is a writer. He says everyone in the film has been hypnotised. I will be up the DVD shop later I reckon. Stuart also told me that Shorditch Church is in Oranges And Lemons.

Rags

Interesting this, it’s a sort of soundtrack to a film all about the clothing industry – sweatshops in particular. There’s a track about a prostitute on this too, but I’m not too sure she’s wearing any clothes. Lindsay Cooper is the artist here, and she’s well worth looking up. Weird connections with all sorts of important people and bands and the bassoon.

The Second Jumping Jacques Album

I’m really not sure if this is actually the first or the second JJ album, but it’s the second one I have bought. I’ve listened to it a bit, and it sounds just like the other one I have, except there doesn’t seem to be one of those really mental ones on there that makes you think you’re playing the album at the wrong speed. At the moment it’s an alright album this one.

Angel Eyes

This is a rare Duke Pearson jazz album that looks like an easy listening album. Basically it has a very pretty girl on the front, and a pretty typeface. It couldn’t look less jazz. But it’s actually a killer trio session from 1961 that is way ahead of things for that era, but was only pressed in the UK in 1968. It’s the sort of album you wish to find overlooked or misplaced in an easy listening section of a shop but you never do. I have hoped along these lines for many years, and have not enjoyed seeing this record sell for lots of money on line. And then I found one in a jazz collection and the bloke thought it was an easy listening record. It gave me the same feeling that I had yesterday when I found a fiver on the floor of the Stoke Newington library. This record has an odd, laid back magic that only reveals itself after several listens. Apparently the Japanese have made one of their paper sleeve editions of it now. And yes I know I’ve already scanned Jack’s eye above, and now I’ve scanned her one too.

Kenny Graham plays Moondog

Does it really get any more interesting than a maverick British jazzer playing cover versions of Moondog in 1956, all engineered by Joe Meek in short trousers. I thought not. Well this incredible, exotic and extraordinary album is now available on Trunk Records. It’s not been available since 1957 and I really can’t understand why.