Massive Vinyl Haul – November 2015
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I spent Thanksgiving week visiting a friend up up in Oakland and Berkeley. Amidst endless flurries of chit-chat, bickering, bartering and stuffing our faces, we hit up a bunch of record stores, including both Amoeba locations in Berkeley and San Francisco, plus Aquarius, Econo Jam, 1-2-3-4 Go!, Rasputin, Stranded and others I can’t remember the names of. After scoring a couple of the Recollection GRM titles of vintage electronic music at Lou’s Records down home in North San Diego County, I got bit by the evil collecting bug and decided I just had to “gather” more of them, thus the stack of five in the photo above. including Bernard Parmegiani’s De Natura Sonorum, the Traces Two comp, Beatriz Ferreyra’s GRM Works and Pierre Shaeffer’s Le Triedre Fertile. Another electronic work from Angus Maclise, New York Electronic, 1965, rounds out the acquisitions in that genre.
Next up comes two releases from the early ’70s hippie cult, the Source Family: Kohoutek from Father Yod and the Spirit of ’76, and Savage Sons of Ya Ho Wa by Ya Ho Wa 13. Then we’re treated to a warm serving of Krautrock in the form of a giant Harmonia box set, two classics from Can, Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi, and a curious album of avant improvisation called Einstieg from Gruppe Between, who I’d never heard of before. Seems intriguing.
The third batch starts off with The Girls, a bunch of noisy punks from late ’70s Boston that I’d never heard of before. Stranded was playing their record, Punk-Dada Pulchritude, and I heard it, liked it and bought it on the spot. In a similar vein is no wave pioneers China, who are caught transforming into Mars on–you guessed it–China to Mars. Following that is one of avant-garde composer Francois Bayle’s electronic masterpieces, Les Coleurs de la Nuit, which should have been included in batch one, but wouldn’t fit. Next, we have the dissonant minimal guitar symphonies of Glenn Branca’s Lesson No. 1, a little dance funk courtesy of Liquid Liquid, ending up with some angular avant rock from Indiana’s MX80 via a reissue of their classic album, Hard Attack, from 1977.
Batch four starts off with ’90s British shoegazers Lush and a first-time vinyl reissue of their Ciao! best-of comp. Luckily, 1-2-3-4 Go! held it for me, because it was pretty much sold our everywhere on Black Friday–probably because of the recent news of their upcoming reunion. Next up is a demo called 00/85 from an obscure DC hardcore band called Bells Of that Rich Jacobs released, on his Move label, followed by the brand-new Excavated Shellac: Reeds comp, which features early 20th century musicians from around the world playing reed instruments on 78 rpm records. This batch is rounded out by three compilations of vintage Thai pop, morlam and luk thung called Thai Beat A Go-Go and The Sounds of Siam volumes one and two.
Last but not least comes batch five, courtesy of a mail order from Eclipse Records, brandishing not one but two copies of the Sun City Girls’ psych improv ethno classic, Torch of the Mystics, followed by a little comedy follk from SCG member Alvarius B on his Chin Spirits 10″. Next up, we have another comp called Dengue Fever Presents Electric Cambodia, which features a bunch of vintage Cambodian rock cuts from the 1960s and early ’70s that will pierce your eardrums in the most pleasant way. For a complete change of pace comes music scribe Byron Coley’s spoken word record, Dating Tips For Touring Bands, in which he recites poetry praising Captain Beefheart, Jack Rose and other music and art luminaries, plus plenty of personal tales from the wild side. Rounding out this massive haul is a reissue of Ellen Fullman’s legendary Long String Instrument album from 1985, which is built upon the most sublime string scraping drones via her room-length long string instrument amplified with wooden box resonators. I guess you could say this haul is going to keep me busy for quite some time!
Words and photos ©2015 Arcane Candy.
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