Monday 16 November 2009

Oriental International Brothers Band Of Imo State



Yes !
A lovely find ....!
This beauty revealed itself whilst I was rooting through the bric-a-brac shop down the road from the mythical wonderland of Deptford Market.
I know almost nothing about the band, there's a limited amount online, I found one piece that detailed their sound as innovative due to it's fusion of Congolese elements with more traditional Nigerian Afrobeat, which sounds about right (I'm no expert on this though, eh)--
I was really surprised to dig up a later rerecording of the title track on youtube:



jesus England is cold.
And as the UKs just kicking into another stinking orrible winter, and as today I've got nothing better to do (one of the many joys of being a layabout) I've decided to upload the whole LP (all 2 tracks of it) in glorious 320 kbps

here:

Nwanne Awu Enyi 320.mp3

Amaghim Onye Bu Onye 320.mp3

Tuesday 10 November 2009

Up The Monto




As a kid I endured occasional holidays in Dublin in the company of my deaf, aggressive and endearingly alcoholic grandparents. The last time we stayed the mad bastard Grandpa McQuaid put on a cow's tongue to boil (as some sort of meaty treat for me and my sister) then went and got shitfaced for 14 hours. During this time the tongue and the pot it was in caught fire and began to billow thick clots of killer smoke through the house. The first I knew of it was my sister dragging me hacking and choking out into the garden whilst the fire brigade were called. Great days.
My last memories of gramps revolve around watching him through the rear window of our retreating taxi. There he was, one hand raised in an orators style, the other deathgripped on a can of guinness, unleashing an epic stream-of-consciousness chant of abuse like a pissed wizard. He seesawed breathtakingly from the inventive to the incomprehensible until we disappeared over the horizon. A true gentleman of the bottle.
I think this, alongside a few other special moments (gran's gin fuelled motorway U-turns spring to mind), contributed to my general aversion to Irish trad music. Which is a shame because Charity Shops are fucking packed with paddy gold. Had I not married a Dubliner I probably would have gone on in ignorance of these bangers from my forebearers-- so it's with a big debt to the missus, who got one of these from a flea market and inspired me to find the other two, that I present some tradfolk gems--

The Chieftains - Pride of Pimlico

I picked this up, on Chieftains 10, in Cancer Research in Islington and I've been playing it ever since.
I've played it at the Charity Shoppe night, at hip hop nights and at house nights, and everytime it's smashed it. I think it's as close as Irish folk is going to get to techno -- a bodhran, an excellent vocal and a drone halfway through. I love it. I wish there was a longer version-- if anyone knows of one please let me know !

The Dubliners - Monto

Totally raucous, rude and compulsive. This version is taken from a performance at the Albert Hall. If you can track down the footage of this gig you'll see that Luke Kelly, the lead vocalist, literally has no face- just ginger mane, gleaming eyes and a roaring mouth, like a saucy Mr Tumnus.

Paddy Reilly - The Movin Along Song

No Irish set would be complete without the melancholic. This is a sad and quite beautiful song composed by the great Euan MacColl, with (if I may be serious for a moment) some powerful interplay of traditional melody with modern concerns.
Check the cover of the record this is from--



There's not been much of an attempt to jazz up the town that Paddy loves so well on that shot-- Its pretty much the antithesis of hard sell-- Gasworks, skips, tenements, rain. Good man.

Monday 9 November 2009

Digital Hardcore goes POP


Nothing beats the peverse joy which accompanies finding a gabba LP in a charity shop. Like seeing a chubby nazi pop up on Question Time, or watching a dog eating its own poo, it's unpleasant, but strangely enjoyable.
So I got a rush of icky excitment upon coming across a Shizuo vs Shizor Digital Hardcore LP this week, buried amongst the grimey tat in the junk shop near Hackney Downs station. For those of you sleeping at the back, Digital Hardcore was set up by Alec Empire in the mid 90s, Alec Empire being the mastermind behind videos like this MTV-banned clip:




To be fair theres nothing on Shizuo vs Shizour that tops the genius of Revolution Action (but what would eh ..?) but it does have a few belters---
The B side opens up with New Kick which comes on quite pleasingly like the Prodigy made by friendly feral 9 year olds

Shizuo vs Shizor - New Kicks 320.mp3

After another 40 minutes of industrial cocking about (which you'll have to hunt the album down to hear), Shizou settles down with a queasy Blondie cover, which made me feel a bit oily and a bit stalk-y.

Shizuo vs Shizor - Blondo 320.mp3

mmmmmmmmmm

Oh God, not another new Blog site...

There is something special about the music you can find in Charity Shops. For some people, hunting down weird and wonderful records that only cost a pound or two becomes an obsession of sorts. The Charity Shop record collector is a different breed to your average collector, who might spend hours on E-Bay bidding for that rare Bowie 7" only released in Japan, or who might get up at 5am to scour record fairs for that elusive Herbie Hancock album.

While you may stumble across the odd financially valuable item in the corner of your local Scope store, collecting music from Charity Shops really isn't about that. A lot of the time I buy things simply because the cover looks amazing (watch out for a post on that coming up) or because it looks like the musical treats on it appear to be something magical that I have never heard before. Sometimes the cover is naff, the record is worth nothing, it may even be pretty scratched or have a large brown stain on the front but I know it's a dance floor smasher that will go down a treat when I play it at the weekend.

A lot of the fun in Charity Shop collecting is actually listening to your purchases when you get them home to see what they sound like. Obviously sometimes you do get it completely wrong but over the years your eyes become well trained at spotting what could sound interesting, just by glancing at the cover.

Earlier in the year an opportunity arose for us both to start actually playing our rather large Charity Shop vinyl collections out in public. We are both DJs playing out regularly in London but figured that the crowds we usually play to probably wouldn't appreciate a bit of Tina Turner or a big band cover of a horror movie theme suddenly dropped in the middle of a Techno or Ragga set (John & On is resident at large weekly Techno / Electro night, Always Fridays at The Egg and Nasty Mcquaid is resident DJ for Off Modern at Corsica Art Studios and Best Before at Dalston Superstore, alongside running the bashment/ UK Funky/ bassline night Young Money Millionaires). Hence our Charity Shoppe night at The London Fields pub was born...

The Charity Shoppe Manifesto:


- All records played must have cost £1.99 or less and been found in a Charity Shop or Flea Market.


- Punters are encouraged to bring along their own charity shop finds to play.

- There are no boundaries to the genres we cover in one night.

- No records are played for the purpose of being ironic.


That last point could probably be expanded upon... Basically, all the records we play, we love! The night is a celebration of Pop Music in all its forms so we ask people to please leave their pre-conceived ideas of what is, "cool", and what is not at the door.
In the words of Edwin P. Whipple:

“Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment”.

So, if you do happen to hear one of us playing Queen or The Bangles soon after playing some obscure Disco or Ragga 12" be assured that we hold good Pop Music in as high regard as any of the great underground music that we play!
Anyway...

On the Blog we will be posting up some of our best and most interesting finds, not only of the musical variety, but also pictures of some of the other fantastic objects / clothes etc you can find in your local charity shop. We will also be sharing with you some of our favourite shops around the UK as well as or own and other people's mix tapes.

I'm off to
listen to my new Russian Folk songs 12" I picked up recently...