Records Records Records

Record Store Day.......

Well then, the dust as settled lets start with not quite record store day release from Polytechnic Youth / Horror Pop Sounds, courtesy of Norman Records ( who were excluded from the great event ). In the time it took me to actually get one of the 100 copies of the split XAM Duo / Au Fait singles, it sold out. Bonkers.
Regardless, a thing of loveliness - heavyweight clear, lathe cut.

The XAM Duo track is all minimal and motorik with vocoder voices and ping pong balls, while the Au Fait track is trippy and woozy with almost there vocals. Bottom line, if you like the kind of thing both labels put out, you'll love it, should you even be able to now get a copy.

Onto Record Store day itself. This year Cumbria once again has an indie record store, The Vinyl Cafe in Carlisle and it's a very worthy successor to the late lamented Pink Panther. All things being equal we'd have been there at the crack of dawn with everyone else, but the previous night was a pretty late one having trekked down to Kendal to see The Unthanks. So it was well into the afternoon by the time we made it to Carlisle. All I can assume is that no-one else in Cumbria shares my taste in music, as I was delighted to find the three things I was most looking for : The Bardo Pond - Curanderos Lp, Suzanne Ciani - Fish Music 7" and Valerie 7". 

Bardo Pond always deliver in spades for Record Store day, Curanderos is a track a side monster. Two lengthy jams that could easily sit anywhere between Amon Duul and Amon Duul II. Awesome, but not for the faint hearted.

The Suzanne Ciani 7" is a single sided one track affair, a very early piece from 1977 used as an infinite loop in a shopping mall aquarium. It's prime Buchla noise that owes more to the Radiophonic school of proto-electronica than her later new age work. To my ears it could have come straight from the Logan's Run soundtrack.

If I was pinned down to making a top ten soundtracks list, then there is no doubt that Lubos Fiser's gorgeous Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, would be in the top tow or three. It's just a beautiful piece of work and while it works perfectly in the movie, it stands on it's own as a listening experience like few others. This 7" adds alternate takes of and edits and is more than worthwhile picking up as a download from Finders Keepers, should you not have been able to get a copy of the 7".

And finally, though not a record store day release, Waves by Dalham needs a mention. Released by Norman Records on their own Public House Recordings, it's an intoxicating mix of grainy lo-fi synths that wouldn't be out of place on your favourite Ghost Box album and the kind of abstract poly rhythms that you'd expect to hear on a Burial track. Burial or Actress is a good reference point, just transplant their urban paranoia into the edgelands where city and country overlap and you have Waves. Like it, a lot.