Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements

My favourite album by Stereolab, one of my favourite bands. It brings together the band's love of krautrock, 60s garage and easy listening, whilst striking the perfect balance between experimentation, repetition, melody and marxism (probably) - managing to be both derivative and innovative.

It's also housed in one of my favourite record covers, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that the band like to wear their influences on their record sleeves too - I picked this up from King Bee Records today, "Hi Fi Sound Stereo Test Record" from 1974.

Even the track names (or "tests" as the album calls them) could be Stereolab titles. my favourite being side one, test 2: "Lateral modulation for determination of tracking pressure in conjunction with bias correction".

Lovely.

Record Store Day 2011

So, another year, another successful record store day, but the question is – what next? Looking at the number of people queuing up outside record shops, and the number of exclusive records that were release for the day, it did remind me a bit of valentines day – a lovely sentiment, but surely people should be making the effort all year round. It’s all very well people spending a heap of cash on records one day a year, but that alone isn’t going to keep the independent record stores afloat. And as for the artists and labels – much as I love them making these exclusive releases to celebrate Record Store Day, surely EVERYTHING they release should be exclusive and a little bit special. If not, why are they bothering to make or sell music?

The queue outside Piccadilly Records - Saturday 16 April 2011. 7:20am

Anyway, cynicism aside, I did pick up some good stuff although I missed out on a couple of things I really wanted (Suede 7” and the Far Out Psych 7” box set). I must get there earlier next year; I hear that some people started queuing at midnight, so I think I’ll start queuing the day before at about 5pm - whilst the shop is still open.

So, here’s the lovely records I picked up :

Arp – Pastoral Symphony remixes 12”

Franz Ferdinand – Covers 12” EP (Debbie Harry, Stephen Merrit, LCD Soundsystem, ESG and Peaches all covering FF songs)

KORT – Please Don’t Touch 7”

Yeasayer – End Blood 7”

Clinic – Ladies Night 10” EP

Mute Records’ Vorwarts LP&CD

Some were even on lovely coloured vinyl. Mmm mmmm

The couple in front of me each bought a copy of the Radiohead 12” – the last 2 in the store – I presume this was either to sell one on ebay, or they were hedging their bets about the long term prospects of their relationship and didn’t want the headache of sorting out who owns which records at some future date.

Nice to see so many of the records already going for a fortune on ebay too – I’m sure that will do wonders for the independent record stores.

Oh, and I also got this excellent bag, which came with a free mix CD (or was it a mix CD with a free bag?). I think it sums up the day quite well.

Holy Ghost! this is good

Now, I like this a lot.

Missing LCD Soundsystem already? This 80s tinged disco-rock from James Murphy's DFA label might help fill the void.

Listen: Holy Ghost on Spotify

Two songs from The All Seeing I, plus a letter from Phil Oakey

A couple of songs from the wonderful soap opera album that is "Pickled Eggs and Sherbet" - an album that embraces multiple generations from the Sheffield music scene.

Yuri Gagarin might have been the first man in space, but he never told the story quite like this....


...but this is Phil Talking, with a letter on returning to earth - "now everyone's a rocket man, as long as it's served with a balsamic dressing"


And, here's Walk Like a Panther - Tony Christie's sequel to Is This The Way To Amarillo...