Parliament - Rhenium

Anyone for some psychedelic funk/soul accompanied by bagpipes,yodeling,harps, jews harp,steel guitars,doo-wop,choirs and the genius of Eddie Hazel ? This is an early 90s' issue of Parliament's debut album "Osmium" with three non album singles added and renamed for some strange reason "Rhenium". "Osmium" was not surprisingly ignored on release in 1970 and has since been sampled to death by De La Soul and others.Although often labeled as a funk classic this skips across so many genres its beyond labeling and it doesn't ever sound like a band trying out different badly fitting outfits as it all works well together,retaining a sort of playful feel throughout probably due to the production of George Clinton .

Hard to pick highlights as I love it all even the ,probably intentionally, dumb nursery rhyme lyrics to "Funky Woman" - sample - "She threw them in the sink , the sink began to stink ....... Funky Woman " and "She threw them in the air , the air said this ain't fair"....... Funky Woman" all with church organ and some mean guitar playing. It even has a sort of come down track at the end, "The Silent Boatman" ,this is the one with the bagpipes.

Wiki here. Definitely one for the collection Here .

Good excuse too for a bit of this ......

Cult TV Classics

As far as I can tell this contains all the original versions of some classic TV theme tunes from the 60s' and 70s' most of which will be instantly memorable to many even if some of the actual shows themselves haven't been seen since the reign of Margaret Thatcher although a quick scan through the current TV listings will probably show, in the UK at least , that a fair few of them are still showing on ITV 8 or Bozo + 3 or one of many other such mind sapping channels. Okay a few veer towards the genre that lads mags of the mid 90s' seemed to want foist on an impressionable readership , "Lounge Music", but that shouldn't detract from the buzz you may get as your brain opens up long forgotten memory cells as you hear the theme tunes to "Joe 90", "Tomorrow People","Batman" and ,cliche ahead ,the stirring "Thunderbirds"once again. As this is ripped from a tape the quality seemed to drop a tad over the first few tracks but they are both still very much listenable as is the rest of it apart from the pointless Joe 9o remix.

Warning: Over exposure to the theme tune to Robinson Crusoe may induce those of a certain age to regress to a state of childhood and hanker for mornings in front of the telly during school holidays , or maybe it's just me.

1. Man from U.N.C.L.E.
2. Mission: Impossible [The Plot] - San Diego Symphony Pops, Lalo Schifrin
3. Mission: Impossible - San Diego Symphony Pops, Lalo Schifrin
4. Captain Scarlet "The Mysterons" - Barry Gray Orchestra
5. Captain Scarlet - Barry Gray Orchestra
6. Danger Man (High Wire)
7. Mannix - San Diego Symphony Pops, Lalo Schifrin
8. Batman
9. Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
10. Tomorrow People - Dudley Simpson
11. Stingray - Barry Gray Orchestra, Gary Miller
12. March of the Oysters - Barry Gray Orchestra
13. Aqua Marina - Barry Gray Orchestra, Gary Miller
14. Saint
15. Hi-Jacked [Joe 90] - Barry Gray Orchestra
16. Joe 90 - Barry Gray Orchestra
17. Avengers
18. Parker, Well Done - Barry Gray Orchestra
19. Thunderbirds - Barry Gray Orchestra
20. Joe 90 Remix - Barry Gray Orchestra

Wallow in nostalgia HERE

Derek And Clive (Live)

I remember copies of this being passed around at school where this blast of 70s' filth from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore was greatly appreciated.Probably due to the amount "Fucks" , "Cunts" , "Wanks" and general schoolboy level of humour contained within as two pissed up comedians make up bizarre stories and scenarios off the top of their heads. Many of it still makes me chuckle now, but the stand outs are "This bloke came up to me" ,"Blind" and "Top Rank". Oh and the track "Bo Dudley" was sampled by A Guy Called Gerald for the still awesome "Voodoo Ray". Wiki here. If easily offended stay away from HERE

Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers - 23 Great Recordings

Another tape from the box is this compilation from Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers released in 1990 covering his most commercially successful period on the Berkley label from 1974-1980. Many people probably know Jonathan Richman as the guy who pops up now and again singing to accompany the plot, once up a tree , in "There's Something About Mary".

A Velvet Underground influence is quite evident on the earlier tracks , this was a guy who left home at fifteen to go to New York to meet them and had John Cale produce many of their early demos which were eventually released as the classic album "Modern Lovers" ,from which many tracks make up the the first side of this compilation including "Roadrunner","She Cracked","Pablo Piccasso" and the anti hippy/stoner "I'm Straight" .

By the time Punk and New Wave were exploring and expanding on the territory laid down on these early recordings , Jonathan Richman had moved on to a more mellow sound accompanied with more whimsical lyrics with songs about Abominable Snowmen,Roller-coasters and Ice Cream Men which have a kind of laid back charm to them but unfortunately probably influenced a number of god awful fey indie type dross in the past but lets not hold that against him. Wiki Here. 23 Great Recordings Here .

John Peel Sessions - Radio Daze

Did have some vinyl lined up to record today but found out needle/cartridge is completely knackered . Nearest Hi Fi shop only gets them in on order so they've lost a sale there and ordered myself one online at a cost of £50 (Rega Bias 2 cartridge to go with Rega Planar 3 turntable if your interested ). Shame as I was looking for an excuse for a drive in the snow (it's a national disaster in the UK if all our media are to be believed ) and a visit to a Hi Fi shop which I haven't been to in years. Was sort of getting into Hi Fi a few years back and have had the same set up for the past 10 years which does me just fine and probably many years to come and won't ever feel the need to get some sleek looking and unnatural sounding box from a local washing machine/plasma telly/laptop/ipod docking station megastore . Having said all that I probably listen to most of my music through the computer or ipod now but every now and again its good to experience the warmth with a little crackle and pop of vinyl.

Anyway vinyl off limits so having a bit of a dig through the tape box and first out is a compilation of Peel session tunes given away with Vox magazine in May 92. Not much else to say apart from although this is made up the more popular end of artists featured on his show much like the much missed John Peel show itself you will probably love some of this( for me most of it) and hate the rest (for me Babes In Toyland who were probably flavour of the month at the time).

1 The Cure - 10:15 Saturday Night

2 Madness - The Prince

3 Happy Mondays - Mad Cyril

4 Babes In Toyland - Catatonic

5 Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?

6 Chicken Shack - I'd Rather Go Blind

7 The Undertones - Love Parade

8 Billy Bragg - A13

9 Syd Barrett - Love Parade

10 The Only Ones - The Beast

11 The Fall - Return

12 PJ Harvey - Water

13 The Inspiral Carpets - The Beast Inside

14 The Birthday Party - Big Jesus Trash Can

15 The Damned - Neat Neat Neat

Radio Daze here. Go here for a listen to some great Peel shows (festive 50s and more).

The Gun Club - Fire Of Love

A quickie today featuring The Gun Club's debut. Finding it incredible that this was released in 1981 , the year of Adam & The Ants , The Human League and other horribly dated 80s' acts many still going or reformed and playing Pontins this summer probably . The Specials an honorable exception of course . But this is something else , sounding as though it could have been released anytime in the past 30 years and showing how waaay ahead of their time they were. A perfect mix of blues, punk,garage,rockabilly ,sex ,drugs 'n' voodoo. A few Gun Club albums were reissued and expanded at the end of last year and "Fire Of Love" was frustratingly not amongst them . Try here . Wiki here.

Sun Dial - Other Way Out

Remembered reading glowing reviews in the music mags for this slice of psychedelia upon its release in 1990.Probably mentally put it on a list of "wants" , a lot harder in those days tracking down all that vinyl,Cd's and tapes you just had to have ,involving actually having to go outside and stepping foot in a shop if you couldn't get it on mail order, if you had the loot that is .Stumbled across a link for it earlier last year and finally got round to actually hearing it and realised I had made a BIG mistake in choosing to buy something like a Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine or a Lush album over this .Track names like "Exploding In Your Mind" and "Magic Flight" give a good indication of the sounds contained within . Although the whole album sounds as though it has been steeped in Hoffman's finest ,which is absolutely fine by me , it's still shot through with incredible guitar playing courtesy of Gary Ramon.Veering from a touch of the old fuzzbox to wah wah style wigouts to soothing reverby acoustic and to these ears I'm sure I can detect a bit of trash/garage thrown in too. A real gem this one and regret not making a note of the blog I got it from . Have also found out from Wiki here that they have a new album out later this year also coinciding with the reissue of previous releases , hope they tour as well . Microdots at the ready and Other Way Out here. And then buy the reissues or this or maybe this.