Vile Charity Shop Harridans - Pt 4 (A New Hope)

The tide is turning.

Ive had 2 positive encounters in the last week with charity shop workers that has changed my views and made me realize human nature isn't completely fucked in this day and age.

The first was with the man running the YMCA shop in Ramsgate High Street. I popped in there briefly after work a few Fridays ago and picked up some random reggae 12"s that were lying in between some random charity shop fodder. Not in the best condition but still nice to find given the records that were sandwiching them for 50p each.

Dennis Malcolm - So Many Ways
Foxy Brown - Fast Car
Lord Creator / Me-You And The Crew - Creation Medley / Creating Dub
Ray Mondo & Samantha Rose - Book Of Rules / Easy Loving
Pat Kelly / Dean Frazer - Whiter Shade Of Pale / Youth Sax

As i was leaving the shop i asked the man if he had any other records to look through. Immediately he said he had loads out the back and i could come back anytime and ask for him and he'd let me have a look through them. I went back the next day and sure enough he let me out the back and i spent about 30 mins looking through what he had. It wasn't very good but i spent another £6.00. As i was leaving again he said that he had a couple of storage containers full of 1000's of records and i should pop back in the new year and he'd bring some more in for me. Result!

The second encounter was the week after the first as i did my monthly circuit of my areas charity shops. It was a very good day for digging (possibly my best ever) as every shop i went into had a couple of bargains waiting for me.

In the Sense shop at the top of Margate High street these greeted me all in stunning condition for 3 for a £1.00:

Gary Numan – Berserker
Bushido - Among The Ruins
Maxtrack Orchestra - Another Day
Brandy - What About Us
Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl
Newtrament - London Bridge Is Falling Down
Colm III - Take Me High
The Gap Band - Beep A Freak

A bit further down the road i pulled a couple of sealed Motown LP's out of another shop but the real gem i only noticed as i was leaving. A boxful of classical LP's yielded one of the best finds of my year. Now i've had a few of these in the past cheap (a white label copy for 10p and label copy for 50p) but never locally and i definitely wasn't expecting it from the box it was in as it was the only record of its style in the shop. D-Livin - Why is the name of the tune and it seems to have gone up in price since i sold my last copy for £25.00 a year or so back. Ive chucked this one up for £50.00 for starters and its still cheapest copy around!!

So onto Cliftonville and into a shop id only noticed the previous time id gone by. The 2 middle aged women manning the till were very friendly and after i looked through the same pile id gone through the time before and cracked a few jokes i noticed about 5 boxes of records next to the counter which i asked if i have a look at. No problem said the women as they got their coats on to go for a sly fag outside. 4 of the boxes were filled with the same old tat as you see time and time again but the last box had some assorted 12"s in pretty good nick so i pulled out all the ones that looked interesting. From the track titles and artwork i gathered that 3 of them were reggae records (2 of which were on coloured vinyl) so they went straight into the yes pile along with a few more random things. The women came back and we chatted a bit about vinyl and i obviously asked if they had any more out the back. Not out the back they said but 1000's more in storage. I bit the bullet and offered my services to sort the records out for them as they needed records cleared out of the shop that wouldn't sell. Well that's pretty easy for me as i pretty much know if the record is run of the mill pap and 90% of the stuff i looked through would fit into that category. They seemed more than happy for me to do this so numbers were exchanged and hopefully in the new year i can go back and look through the rest of what they have. Result!

Back to the reggae 12"s. When i got home and investigated them it seems that the Creation Rebel one is a seriously rare roots reggae tune from 1979 which routinely goes for £50.00 + on eBay.

Creation Rebel - Beware / Natty Conscience Free
Dennis Pinnock - The Feeling / Saturday Night Feeling
Freddy Clarke / The Internationals - My Star Attraction / Crucial Dub

Vile Charity Shop Harridans - Pt 3 (Justice Is Served)

A breaking news update which greatly brightened my day and to a lesser extent made my Christmas.

Walking along the mean streets of Cliftonville this morning i passed the charity shop where i was barred from entering last month by the most foulest of crones. My eyes lit up as i saw the shop completely cleared out of all its stock and lying empty.

Now i can only dream of this Beelzebub being visited by the police or taxman and being carted away screaming to face some hard time for crimes against common decency. I still can hear her clearly saying that she "i make enough money for charity already". Obviously not enough. Beeeeatch!!

Insomnia - Nostalgic

The infamous stamped white label.

Back in the late 80's and early 90's bedroom producers churned records out by the 1000's. The arrival of cheap samplers, cheap home computers (Amiga and Atari ST to name two) and the burgeoning rave scene and the enthusiasm that went with it helped catapult countless non-musicians music into the psyche of raving hordes. I say non-musicians as on a parallel to the earlier punk movement which predated the rave moment by roughly 10 years you didn't need to be able to read or play the music to enjoy success. All that was needed was a good ear, a creative mind, a little bit of money to get your record pressed and the ear of a few DJ's to get your tunes played out.

I stumbled on the above white label probably back in 1996 or 1997 when i was first starting to really travel to London to dig in the dusty basements of the famous Music & Video Exchanges spread through the capital. I remember clearly pulling this record out of the Notting Hill basement for either 50p or £1.00 just because it looked old and could be an old breakbeat record. When i got home i got evil looks from my friends as they immediately recognised the tune from their old 1992 rave tapes. Ive since only ever found 1 other copy cheap for about £5.00 with a full release label which i think i swapped at the time for another rare record i was after.


















So to Insomnia. Who were they? From the label and the 2 other records (although the Nocturnal Grooves E.P. could potentially be another Insomnia) they released back in 1991-2 we can ascertain their names were C. Rossi and J. Holloway and that their engineer was John Gould. We can also locate them to central London by the 071 telephone code. Now if i had more time it would be worth trying to track them down to see if they had a spare box of this record lying around as it currently goes for £50.00 + in mint condition. But alas like many other producers of this era they are lost to the sands of time leaving only their music as a legacy.

Have a listen to the record below. It ticks off virtually every element required for a classic breakbeat tune. Piano. Check. Huge bassline (you may not get this from the YouTube link but believe me the bass on this record is insane). Check. Strings. Check. Tough breakbeats. Check. Female vocals. Check. Ragga vocals. Check.

Now everyone time to raise your hands in the air and blow that whistle!

Insomnia - Nostalgic


PS The A-side is pretty good as well.

Vile Charity Shop Harridans - Pt 2 (This Time It's War)

Following on from the last rant about charity shop Hitler's it was just an hour after the encounter in the previous post that me and my digging partner Matt found our way by the wonders of public transport to a not so delightful town called Cliftonville. Now Cliftonville (often known as Kosoville or Foreign-nation street round our ways) is a not so delightful small town which borders the also quite horrible Margate. Long gone are the glory days (not sure when they were exactly anyway) and the main drag of Cliftonville consists now of regional takeaway shops, furniture removal shops, Happy Shopper style supermarkets and most importantly a shit load of charity shops.

Now I'm not going to name the charity shop this encounter describes mainly as if you ever find yourself in it i want the hag who works there to surprise you with her evilness. I'd had a previous encounter with this harpy 6 months previously where she had accused me of trying to steal some records (please disregard the contents of pt 1 lol) which i obviously had not done. On that instance i think i called her a cunt in front of the whole shop and walked off.

We were on the other side of the road when i spotted the lights of this charity shop on (on previous times me and my digging partners had not been able to go in as the shop was closed). We crossed the road and the signs looked promising. I walked up to the door hoping it would be unlocked. It was. The door opened and a cry came out from inside

"We're shut".

I looked at my phone clock. It was 12.20pm. I peered inside and saw the venomous creature sitting down drinking a cup of tea.

"Oh I'm sorry" i said "Its just that all the lights were on and the door was open".

"We're shut" the reply came back.

I was annoyed.

"Oh .. didn't you want to make any money from us" i sarcastically shot back.

She staggered onto her devil like hooves and strode towards the door and uttered the words that marked her out as a desperately poor human being.

"I make enough money for charity already" she bellowed and went to close the door.

Now on hindsight i should have retorted with something like "Prove it" or "Charity never ends" but with a degree of inevitability all that would come out was

"Well fuck you, you fucking bitch"

Walking down the road it occurred to me that i would have been a hero to diggers worldwide if i would have forced my way into the shop at that point and started perusing as normal. Surely she would have been forced to call the police at that point to evict a potentially paying customer from her charity shop.

Here's to next time. I cant bloody wait!

Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of The Canyon

Released in 1970 a year before her most critical success the introspective and deeply personal Blue, Ladies Of The Canyon perhaps paved the way as its popularity enabled Roberta Joan Anderson - stage name Joni Mitchell to stop touring for a year to spend time writing and painting (the painting you can see above on the record sleeve is one of several Joni did for her LP sleeves).

Back to Ladies Of The Canyon. The canyon in question was Laurel Canyon in California. In the 1960's it housed the cream of counterculture west coast American singers with residents including Frank Zappa, The Byrds, Neil Young and Love. This fertile breeding ground inspired a generation fed up with the mass produced pop of the late 60's and Joni's close association with Crosby (Crosby brought Joni to California after being amazed by her talent after walking into a bar in Florida), Stills, Nash (one of Joni's lovers) and Young greatly influenced her sound slightly away from her earlier folk period and before the more introspective and experimental jazz sound that formed her later output. They also provided background vocals on this record and Graham Nash wrote "Our House" at this time as an ode to Joni.

The album spawned a number of hits most notably "Woodstock" and "Big Yellow Taxi" but the track i want you to hear is the title track "Ladies of the Canyon". If its lush harmonies and beautiful imagery don't make you smile and remind you of glorious summer day then i suppose nothing will. Wrap up warm!

Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon

Vile Charity Shop Harridans - Pt 1

There is a crime committed in this story. But under the circumstances totally justified.

Charity shop digging. The art of searching for good shit amongst the general SHIT of a charity shop. My field of expertise is vinyl. Using the golden rule: If you've never seen the label before and it looks interesting - Buy It Anyway (and of course using the wonders of Internet phones as a back up) i have a pretty good success rate with my areas charity shops.

For the last 6 months or so i check my immediately local shops roughly once a week and then once a month on a Saturday do a tour of all the shops in my triumvirate of local towns.

Rewind to last Saturday. Nothing much going on. Phone call made to my friend Matt (a local DJ and producer) and a time is set to meet up and start our tour of duty. The first couple of shops are bereft of vinyl and it is only when we head a bit further out that a few random record are purchased (an old Prelude disco 12" and a Gladys Knight and the Pips LP from 1973 in good nick). Just before we catch the bus to the next town we pop into another shop in town and bingo what do we have here. Next to the old and unmoved stack of vinyl that we have gone through many times before is a large cardboard box of 7" records. On closer inspection it doesn't look good. The records are virtually all without sleeves and the condition is generally not very good. Nonetheless out the records come and are split between us to look through. The quality of the records generally matches the condition but i manage to pull out an old Stax 7" and look over at Matt and he is holding a record with a drawing of a fist on the centre label asking if i know what this as it looks interesting. I immediately recognise the label and the small logo in the bottom left that reads - PAMA (turns out it was this record). I immediately tell him he's a lucky git and he better be taking that as its vintage reggae.

Suddenly our quiet perusal is interrupted by the most foulest of all creatures that reside in a charity shop. The middle aged female manager. Old ladies you can wrap round your finger. Young woman you can flirt with or act dumb. Men are no problem. But theres something about bored semi-retired middle aged women that think they personally own all the shops stock that turns my stomach.

"What are you doing" she nearly crys out.

"Erm just looking through some records" I say (In hindsight maybe a more menacing opening would have been better like "We're from the Charity Shop Siphoning Agency, just checking you're not skimming the profits") but unfortunately my honest answer wasn't the best of choices.

"You shouldn't be looking at them records"

"Oh. Why not?"

"My man has been through them yet" This refers to the so called "expert" some Charity Shops have who go through the donated records to in effect take the best ones for themselves and leave the dross for the general public (am i being too cynical here?).

"Oh. Well sorry but how were we to know this. The records are on the shop floor so we thought they were for sale"

Not wanting to argue anymore she started grabbing the records back and putting them back into the box. I thought it was wise to mention that the records weren't in very good condition anyway (as i said before most were without sleeves).

The reply that came back summed up the sheer witch like evil stored in these odorous crones

"Good!"

So on that note i nodded to Matt. He stashed the 7" he found in his coat and we exited post haste.

Moral of the story? I doubt it!

PS I went back in there this week and spent some money. Im not a complete cunt!

Another successful mission

It was a quiet afternoon at work. Nothing much happening. My mobile sat silently in front of me propped up against my second monitor.

Brr ring Brr ring (well not exactly that noise). The caller name pops up on the screen. Dave Shop.

I smile as this is normally good news. It turns out to be very good news. For those of you that don't know Dave is my regular (for the last 12 years) record dealer. Ive spent more than i care to remember in his shop and also am one of the lucky few to on certain occasions to get access to his house to look through record collections before they are brought to the shop.

It turns out that he is picking up some records from a guy i know who used to work in another local record shop. I know immediately that these records will be firstly unplayed and secondly rare as i've had the good fortune to buy 1000's of records from this source in the past. Theres a catch. The records will be in the shop the next morning.

I have work the next day. Shite. A hasty email is sent off requesting holiday and i'm then i'm free. All i have to do is get to the shop before 10.00am to beat off the other regular record buyers before they get their mitts on the tunes.

Luckily i'm there early and even before Dave and help carry the records into the shop. The other record hunters turn up and i've already taken 90% of all the 12" and virtually all the dance LP's leaving them to fight over the indie, rock and 7"s. Job well done. And i'm £223 skinter. And probably 223 pounds heavier as i struggle out the door with 2 record bags, a full record carry case and one plastic bag full of vinyl.

So what did i buy? Well ill post a full list shortly but to cut a moderately long story short it turns out my choices are spot on as usual (special thanks goes out to my Internet phone once again) and a good profit is guaranteed with the addition of some nice gems to my own collection.

02/12/08
Ok heres the list -

Stuff for sale:

Moodymann - Black Mahogani II
Moodymann - Black Mahogani
3 Chairs - Three Chairs 3
Moodymann - Silence In The Secret Garden
Moodymann - Forevernevermore
Moodymann - Mahogany Brown
Moodymann - Silence In The Secret Garden
Rick Wilhite, Kenny Dixon Jr. & Theo Parrish Present Three Chairs* - Three Chairs
Norma Jean Bell - Dreams / Mystery
Moodymann - How Sweed It Is
3 Chairs - Three Chairs 2
Jill Scott - Slowly Surely (Theo Parrish Remix)
Moodymann - In Loving Memory
Moodymann - Long Hot Sex Nights / The Dancer
Moodymann - Don't Be Misled!
Rick Wilhite - What Do You See?
Moodymann - Don't You Want My Love
Moodymann - Amerika
Norma Jean Bell - One Of Those Nights (Late Night Mix)
Norma Jean Bell - I'm The Only Queen
Kenny Dixon Jr. - Don't You Want My Love
Moodymann - Analog:Live
Andrés - Untitled
Moodymann - Shades Of Jae
Moodymann - Nmywagon
Jello - Lungbone EP
Michael Jackson - Is It Scary (Deep Dish Remixes)
Moodymann - U Can Dance If U Want 2
UNKLE - Berry Meditation
Thom Yorke - The Eraser Rmxs
Broadcast - Haha Sound
Niobe - Voodooluba
Antony And The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
Antony And The Johnsons - The Lake
Michael Gira - Songs For A Dog
Laurent Garnier - Astral Dreams
UR* - Presents The Return Of Acid Rain "The Storm Continues"
Glenn Underground - Secrets Of C.V.O. EP
Glenn Underground - C.V.O. Elements EP
Boo Williams - 12 Tribes
Dave Clarke - The Wolf
Home Video - Citizen EP
Samim* - Heater
DJ 3000 - Drumë EP
Woody McBride - Comedy:Tragedy
DJ Apollo - Trainwrecker
Various - The Mile High Guy
London Elektricity - The Strangest Secret In The World / The Mustard Song
Jerome Sydenham & Dennis Ferrer - Kòkò / Jehlaz
Romanthony - Hold On
Planetary Assault Systems - Planetary Funk Vol. 4
D-Train / Teddy Pendergrass - Keep On (Dub) / The More I Get, The More I Want
Home Video - That You Might
Shazz + StGermain* Feat. Derek Bays - Muse Q The Music
Congos, The - Congo Man (Carl Craig Edits)
Arc-En-Ciel - The Juice
Yoshinori Sunahara - Journey Beyond The Stars
Native Element - Brazil Minus Six
Cyrus - Enforcement
Dave Clark* - Red 2
Nova Nova - Ex EP
Moodymann - Dem Young Sconies / Bosconi
Recloose - So This Is The Dining Room
Recloose - Spelunking EP
Porter Ricks - Port Of Nuba / Nautical Nuba
Mutts, The - C'mon, Come Up, Come In / Excited
Algoritmo - Indus EP
Nuyorican Soul - It's Alright, I Feel It
Scan 7 vs. Scan X - Final Destiny / Transit
UR* - Actuator
Cybotron - Clear
Martian, The - Cosmic Movement / Star Dancer
Martian, The - Journey To The Martian Polar Cap
Basic Channel - Q 1.1
David Spaans - 3D Bingo


And heres what i kept for myself:

Wamdue Project - Resource Toolbook Volume One
Carl Craig - The Album Formerly Known As...
Aquanauts, The - The Titanic EP
Remote (5) - The Swarm
Chaz Vincent - Dream Zenith
Various - NSC 1-4
DJ Sneak - EP
Theorem - Mantra One
Marl Chingus - 6 Months Earlier
Fusion - Never Forget It
Urban Tribe - Eastward
Jaydee - Plastic Dreams
Leftfield - Song Of Life (Remixes) / Release The Horns
Kurtis Blow - The Breaks
Bad Company - Inside The Machine (Album Sampler)
Elegia - I Am Not Worried Anymore... A Deal With God
Yanu - Volume 1 EP
Aux 88 - Aux Quadrant
UR-043 - Condition Red
Logic - The Warning / The Final Frontier
Various - Acid House For All. 1
Cyrus - Inversion
Mark Taylor (2) - Vintage Future
DJ ESP - I Like To Get Down
Urban Tribe - D-2000
Nuyorican Soul - Mind Fluid
Brian Harden - The Nubirth Project (Vol. 2)
Kid Acid vs. DJ ESP - Shagadelic
Jeff Mills - Metropolis
Various - Post Detroit Techno
Dave Clarke - Red 3
Porter Ricks - Nautical Dub (Tidal Mix) / Port Gentil
Substance - Scent / Relish Sessions
Various - Geology - A Subjective Study Of Planet E - Volume Two
Callisto - The Paradigm EP
Norma Jean Bell - I'm The Baddest Bitch (Remixes)

Plus a red/white coloured 12" by a band called Isis and a one sided 12" by Athlete which arent on discogs yet.

Its been nearly12 months now and so far i've managed to sell 49 of the 12"s and 8 LP's to make back £719.0o so im well in profit now and still have 18 more records to sell.

Don't You Love It When A Plan Comes Together

3 unknown records. Unknown 3 in particular.

I'd had the mix for 2 years on mp3. DJ Premier live on W.B.L.S. Radio from sometime in 1994 cutting and scratching up some of the finest mid 90's hip hop records id never had the pleasure of owning (yet). With the help of a few people i'd identified quite a few of the tracks but there were 6 that were still eluding me. I made some sound clips and posted on a few music discussion websites earlier in the year. The replies were few but 3 of the tracks were id'ed and i purchased the ones i could and put the others on my evergrowing wants list. The final 3 would be tough i thought to myself and then other things got in the way and they were briefly forgotten.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had joined a new Hip Hop website recently called DWG (Diggers With Gratitude) and the guys here seemed to know their shit. I dug out the link to the clips and wrote a short post to see if anyone could help me. I was particularly after unknown 3.

10 minutes later i had ordered and purchased the record. You see the main thing about hunting records down is actually knowing what they are. Ive had a few websites over the years dedicated to identifying unknown records that really need a place in my collection from old mix tapes i have. Many times a track is id'ed and i think back to all the record shops i've been in and recall seeing the track more times than i want to remember.

The reply to my post on DWG had been 5 minutes in arriving. Its simply read:

1. The Edge - Do Ya Dirt
2. Brother Arthur - Watcha Gonna Do?
3. Justice System - Dedication To Bambaataa

I instantly jumped on discogs (no time to type my thankyou's yet) and searched for the records to see what was up for sale.

1. The Edge - Do Ya Dirt turned out to be this. 2 copies for sale at $30.00 and $45.00. A good track but one to go on the wants list for the time being

2. Brother Arthur - Watcha Gonna Do? turned out to be this . No copies for sale and looking at the 39 people who had it in their wants list not an easy one to find. Which made the mint copy that sold on discogs on the 29/07 for £10.00 a bit of a bargain. Another one for the wants list.

3. Justice System - Dedication To Bambaataa was my next call and it popped up on a few releases. In chronological order - A double LP from 1994 and more importantly a promo 12" and a regular full release 12" from 1995. 3 copies of the full release 12" were the only ones up for sale. Two near mint copies from England for £6.00 and £6.99 and a sealed copy for $9.99 from a seller id bought from before. Not wanting to trust that the English copies were over graded i plumped for the sealed copy and prepared to cringe at the ridiculous pound to dollar exchange rate.

I could only find a pic of the promo 12" but the tracks are exactly the same on the full release. Boasting production from Diamond D and The Beatnuts on the remixes and containing the original LP version to boot a fan of mid 90's hip hop can't go wrong.

I managed to locate a clip on YouTube of the original LP mix but when i receive the record through the post i will try to upload the mix i wanted id'ing as it is better in all aspects. What you have here is a super jazzy beat with MC's reminiscing about the early days of hip hop in the late 70's and 80's and paying tribute to one of the pioneers of this old school age - Afrika Bambaataa. An age where violence was put on hold and all the mattered was finding that rare breakbeat to spin to the crowds, pulling the best breakdance move or coming up with best rhymes to rock the party. At the height of the gangsta rap movement of the 90's this record not only bucked the trend but harked back to better days. Enjoy.

Justice System - Dedication To Bambaataa

Thanks to the knowledgeable guys at DWG for being so on the ball.

Fingers Inc - Never No More Lonely

Fingers Inc were arguably the first house music super group and this their first LP dropped into the UK's (and the Rest Of The Worlds) consciousness in February 1988 by way of a small independent UK label from Luton - Jack Trax. Primarily known for its series of Jack Trax compilation albums which collected together hard to find (and expensive at the time) imported house records mainly from Chicago where the house scene was going stratospheric this LP was in hindsight a major coup for the label being the first and only LP from Fingers Inc - comprised of Larry Heard (Producer) and Robert Owens and Ron Wilson (Vocalists). In reality it was most likely the massively expanding UK house scene and with it the certainty of getting paid that led Fingers Inc to sign the deal. They had badly been burned 2 years before after their first single - Mystery Of Love sold 30,000 copies making the DJ International label rich but apart from a their advance payment the group saw no more money from the deal and even had to record a follow up single to leave their contract.

The album contains many classic moments including the monumental Can You Feel It, Bring Down The Walls (taken from various Mr Fingers 12" on the Trax Record label) and spacey deep house anthems like Distant Planet but the track i have chosen to highlight is Never No More Lonely. Featuring Robert Owens on lead vocals this is a classic love song (aren't all songs in a way about love) about a man finding his one true love and being saved from loneliness. All the right ingredients are here. A tough 808 beat, an elastic sounding bass line, deep synths, beautiful deep strings (check them out at the 2:25 minute mark) and a catchy piano after the halfway mark which leads leads the track out. Put this together with Robert Owens joyous lyrics and there you have it a deep house masterpiece.

Apart from the album which goes for around £25.00-30.00 in mint condition this track was released on a very rare 12" (£50.00+) and the fifth Jack Trax compilation (£10.00) making it fairly accessible but hard to get a loud pressing to play in clubs.

Fingers Inc's association with the Jack Trax sadly went pear shaped after a few more 12" were released when against Larry Heard's wishes they released a follow up LP of instrumental versions of his biggest tunes but thankfully the UK had been already turned onto deep house with this classic release.

Fingers Inc - Never No More Lonely

Curtis Mayfield - Now You're Gone

1971 was a good year for music. James Brown and the JB's were refining the essence of funk, Led Zepplin were creating riffs left right and centre and Lee Scratch Perry was tweaking the controls making dub reggae a new viable genre.

Curtis Mayfield was in his second year apart from The Impressions on his newly created independent Curtom label. His eponymous LP was released the year before and when this his new LP - Roots hit the shops he was only a year away from penning his most critical and commercial sucess of his career the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film - Super Fly.

With his trademark falsetto vocals and his hard hitting social commentary lyrics this album is a far fly from the bubblegum pop of the time. None more so than the track Now Your'e Gone - an ode to a lost love. Sit back and enjoy "The Gentle Genius" as he was named. A real master at work.

Curtis Mayfield - Now You're Gone

Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Chances are that you would have heard this track before but you just don't know it by name. Surprising because the LP from which the track comes from was in fact the first LP to be ever certified a "Platinum LP" and has sales of over 25 million to date.

Iron Butterfly were a San Diego based band formed in 1966 releasing a debut LP, "Heavy" in early 1968 and then this their second LP "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" in July 1968.

The song i want to talk about is the title track which the LP was named after. Clocking in at 17 minutes and 5 seconds long the song is famed for its droning bass and guitar riff and one of the first extended drum solos in recorded rock music. Very different to the jazz drum solo's which pre-date rock music this drum solo is more tribal and very psychedelic. Also another important component is an extended polyphonic organ solo which ties the guitar and drum sections together.

There are actually very few vocals (only at the beginning and near the end of the record) but even these have a story to play. Most common of the stories is that the track was called "In The Garden Of Eden" but singer Doug Ingle was drunk at the time of rehearsing the song and slurred the words which drummer Ron Bushy wrote down phonetically. The next day the band decided they preferred "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" better and stuck with it.

Probably the most important aspect of this song and album is that it is seen (along with various other bands) as the point that psychedelic music evolved into to the "Heavy Metal" sound that began in the late 60's and early 70's

I'm not going to upload a full mp3 of the track due to the length of the track but i found it on YouTube (split in 2 half's) so here are the links for you to have a listen. If you're a film buff you will recognise the song from a very famous mid 80's film. Let me know if you can get it.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Part 1
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Part 2

To Know Or Not To Know

Just got off the phone to my main record dealer from Canterbury. I went there on Saturday and had an average digging session. Found some cheap 12" in the local Oxfam and then saw him and bought some nice reggae re-issues and some original late 60's/early 70's rock and folk rock which i knew i would be able to sell on. The phone call went along its normal route of asking if he was ok and then checking to see if he had any new stuff in or was going on any interesting calls. Alas there was no new stuff and goodbyes were just about to be said before he mentioned that in a hall just behind his shop on the very day i was there on Saturday two women had brought a load of records to sell at a jumble sale. Some lucky buyer had stumbled on them and proceeded to buy masses of their stuff (singles for 25p and LP's for £1) and this stuff was a goldmine. One single he mentioned normally sells for £650!!! The buyer clearly didn't clean the women out as they did a boot fair on the Sunday and people were still finding gems.

It got me thinking along the lines of did i actually want to know this news. Or was i happy be oblivious to the fact that someone else had the luck for once. Ive had my fair share of luck where digging in the crates is concerned but it still irks me when someone else beats me to the loot. With certain records becoming rarer and rarer finding them is like winning the lottery. Think 200 copies in the world then take out the copies that are unplayable or smashed. Then take out the copies in private hands that will never be sold. Doesn't leave at lot.

Population of the world = 6.7 billion / 100 surviving copies of a record.

By any calculations they are not good odds.

My conclusion is i would rather know if only for the fact it may spur me on to new levels of digging where no stone is left untouched. Door to door vinyl enquiries anyone?

Here We Go Again With The Funky Intro

I'm not very good at introductions but i suppose i better try and let you know who i am and what i have in store for this blog.

My name is Ben and im from a small town on the South-East coast of England. I work for a large pharmaceutical company and in my spare time i like to play football, tennis and golf. My main love in life is music of all kinds and i have been collecting vinyl since i was in the 6th form at school way back in 1995 (it did help that there were 2 second hand music shops literally metres from the school). I got into hardcore in late 1993 and that was my first love for many years progressing from the more happy side into drum and bass. I was fortunate to hang around with a few mates who were local DJ's in my formative buying days and they also got me hooked on techno, house, garage and hip hop. From there it was a short step to travelling to London to grab cheap records and start buying up collections of DJ's who were giving up.

Its 2008 now and i have managed to amass a collection of over 10,000 records in virtually every genre going. Its my aim in this blog to educate you with some lesser known gems of all the styles of music i like so expect some classic Breakbeat, UK Hip Hop, Dub Reggae, Acid House, Detroit Techno and even some Funk in the forthcoming posts. Ill also keep you informed with what i have been finding in the crates and maybe air some of my general thoughts on life.

House Music All Night Long

I've been buying a lot of house music recently. Why? Well for one its easier to find than the remaining bits of hardcore im still looking for (numerous as they are) and for two there are so many decent house tunes that can be picked up for literally nothing it seems rude not to.

I'm looking for real house not any of the myriad of styles that have come into existence since the mid 90's. So no Handbag House, no Scouse House, no Funky House, no Hard House .... the list goes on.

Real house is not about drum rolls, ridiculously un-funky basslines or rave style stabs. Its about a groove. A 4/4 beat, a bassline, some strings and if you're feeling frisky some vocals is all you need. Thats what Larry Heard created his legacy on and if it was good enough for him its good enough for me.

Last month i ventured to London and checked out the Music & Video Exchanges (which i try to do at least a month). In the basement of Greenwich MVE i stumbled across amongst others a stash of early 1990's Italian records. For 25p each i really couldn't say no especially after i tapped a few into my phone (the wonders of Internet phones and discogs) to check if it would worth taking them to sell on.

One caught my eye for 2 reasons. Firstly the picture on the back of 3 Italians draped over some Bose speakers looked particularly retro and secondly one of the artists involved was Leo Anibaldi (if you know your techno then say no more).


Blue Zone - Dreams (Extended Mix) - Blue Village (Italy) - BV 3008 (1991)

Forget the A side as that contains two run of the mill jazzy deep house numbers. The real winner on this E.P is the B side. Starting with a solid bass kick it is quickly joined by a viciously strong bassline slightly reminiscent of Mr Fingers - Can You Feel It and the classic "I'm A Real" male vocal sampled from Satoshi Tomiie's and Roberts Owen's masterpiece - Tears, before some strings are added.

This continues for a while before the Robert Owens vocals fade out and another vocal comes into the mix - one of the all time classic and popular sampled accapellas - C'hantal - The Realm. If you don't know this you would have heard it sampled on at least 2 dozen other records ("Sensations Of The Mind" "The Ultimate Seduction" "Wrong Is Right").

Once this vocal has run its course theres time for yet another accapella of unknown origin (although i do recognize parts of it) and a short breakdown with some delicate breakbeats before the track is dragged back to the incessant bassline and kick drum.

Overall not a very original track for its use of vocal samples but it really does the job and gets you in a groove from the off. Judging by discogs not many people know about this track and i managed to pick up a mint spare copy for under £5.00

Blue Zone - Dreams (Extended Mix)