Our local second-hand record shop has a couple of boxes tucked away in the corner containing CDs that are priced at £1 each or £5 for 10. Once a month or so I pop in for a rummage. Sometimes there's only trash, but sometimes there's treasure.
Last week's visit yielded treasure with a capital T. Someone who either sends or receives promo CDs had dropped a load off and in a matter of moments I had picked out six albums that I definitely wanted. This put me in the position of needing to find four more in order to reduce the overall price.
That in turn gave me the freedom to select artistes and albums I knew nothing about - there was nothing to lose and £1 to gain. So that is what I did. One of the four I chose had no information on either the cover or the CD itself It looked like this:
I was delighted to discover when I got home and slipped the disc into my CD drive that I had acquired the self-titled debut album by Melt Yourself Down, who have described their music as "Nubian inspired party-punk music". I don't know what if anything that means but if you think Pigbag meets Omar Souleyman then you'll have a rough idea. Anyway, it is a rather splendid racket that I imagine may sound even better live.
The album came out in 2013 and you can find it and the 2016 follow-up "Last Evenings On Earth" on their Bandcamp site. The Melts have since released a couple more albums but they are on Decca so you'll have to go to less reputable websites to find them.
A great find, particularly considering it was technically free. I'm a big fan of Pete Wareham, having followed him through Acoustic Ladyland, Sons of Kemet, the magnificent Polar Bear and The Melts. Looking forward to finding out what the remaining 9 CDs of your haul were.
It was quite a haul. The six I wanted were the most recent albums by Tamikrest, Jane Weaver, Josephine Foster, Vanishing Twin, Monsieur Doumani (a Cypriot psychedelic folk ensemble who I saw live a couple of years back) and the first new album in over 25 years by X. I'll put the other three random ones in a post for you next week.
Ooh, the excitement of picking up CDs you know absolutely nothing about - the promise! Great stuff. It takes me back to rummaging about in the basements of branches of the Record & Tape Exchange in the hope of finding similar Treasure. I think it was either the one in Notting Hill Gate or Camden that used to do these sort of lucky dip sealed bags of singles for a few quid or whatever it was. The excitement was almost too much, sadly the disappointment on opening the bag and playing its contents often was too!
I remember those lucky dip bags. At least one of the branches used to do them with albums as well. As you say, the anticipation was usually the best thing about them.
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The first album I bought solely because I liked the cover was Moonflower
ReplyDeleteNot to shabby
ReplyDeleteA great find, particularly considering it was technically free. I'm a big fan of Pete Wareham, having followed him through Acoustic Ladyland, Sons of Kemet, the magnificent Polar Bear and The Melts. Looking forward to finding out what the remaining 9 CDs of your haul were.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite a haul. The six I wanted were the most recent albums by Tamikrest, Jane Weaver, Josephine Foster, Vanishing Twin, Monsieur Doumani (a Cypriot psychedelic folk ensemble who I saw live a couple of years back) and the first new album in over 25 years by X. I'll put the other three random ones in a post for you next week.
DeleteOoh, the excitement of picking up CDs you know absolutely nothing about - the promise! Great stuff. It takes me back to rummaging about in the basements of branches of the Record & Tape Exchange in the hope of finding similar Treasure. I think it was either the one in Notting Hill Gate or Camden that used to do these sort of lucky dip sealed bags of singles for a few quid or whatever it was. The excitement was almost too much, sadly the disappointment on opening the bag and playing its contents often was too!
ReplyDeleteI remember those lucky dip bags. At least one of the branches used to do them with albums as well. As you say, the anticipation was usually the best thing about them.
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