The Shirehorses – The Worst Album in the World…Ever & Our Kid Eh

Do you remember when Mark Radcliffe had the graveyard shift on Radio 1? He used to play some good music (did you know it was Mark Radcliffe who discovered White Town – Your Woman?) and have poetry reading and stupid banter. I sometimes used to record the show on cassette, and loved it when they used to do silly cover versions. I think my favourite will always be Gazebo – Lardy Boy.

Later, when they sold out onto the Breakfast Show, they started churning out these cover versions pretty quickly, and their popularity grew to an extent which facilitated a cd release of the songs. Crappy versions of late-90s britpop. It’s Friday!

Our Kid Eh

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2y5mjsk4

Andre Popp & Pierre Fatosme – Elsa Popping and her Pixieland Band – Delirium in Hi-Fi

I have been waiting for this album for a long time. I never really thought I would manage to find it on vinyl, since it was pressed in 1957, but then I didn’t realise there was a 1987 re-press.

Andre Popp was the son of a church organist, he was a Frenchman and he went on to do loads of boring easy listening music. Luckily, before penning the awful ‘Love Is Blue’ he recorded an album with Pierre Fatosme for Columbia’s Adventures in Sound series. The series presented exotic, worldly music on LP, and straddled the stereo revolution.

Add N to [X] – Avant Hard

Add N to [X] were way before their time. It’s like they predicted the boredom enduced by track after track of soulless electro in 2009. They were on more of a live vibe, with a pile of retro synthesizers, live drums (sometimes two live drummers!) and strong concepts for songs, videos and artwork.

There might not be much in the way of sub-bass convulsions but the lively drumming, imploding synths and strange vocal stylings of Ann Shenton add something much more lasting – character. There’s strong sexual overtones, from ‘Metal Fingers in My Body’ to ‘Plug Me In‘, which both have sexually-explicit videos:

Alice Coltrane – Ptah the El Daoud

This week some of my ebay purchases started arriving. Yellow Magic Orchestra, Mogwai, Camel, Dead Kennedys; it’s exciting stuff. It feels great to be buying records again, I don’t know why I stopped for so long. Next month I might even be able to afford some new needles and cartridges so I can actually listen to them! I’m thinking it might be worth investing in some concorde cartridges.

Today I picked up Alice Coltrane – Ptah the El Daoud from the post office. A worn-out, battered gatefold sleeve with an immaculate, hardly-played LP inside. It also has a pretty cool cover –>

Camel, Manual & Sonic the Hedgehog – Music for May

This month I have been buying records again. I got some bargains on Ebay which I am going to share with you.

Camel – I Can See Your House From Here

http://rapidshare.com/files/72038525/CAMEL_I_Can_See_Your_House_From_Here.rar