Dusty Tracks Part 1

Some people (well, Rol) claim that I am some sort of international man of mystery. I'm not really but I play along with it.

Someone who really is mysterious is the entity known only as JWA, a regular reader and underrated punster whose corporeal form appears to exist in both Sweden and the USA at exactly the same time. Other than that I know nothing about their identity.

What I do know though is that JWA is extraordinarily thoughtful and generous. They recently sent me a copy of a box set called "Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World’s Music" released by the Dust-to-Digital label. As the name suggests Dust-to-Digital specialises in restoring and reissuing vintage recordings and we have featured tracks from its great catalogue a number of times here over the years.

"Excavated Shellac" includes 100 tracks from 89 countries over four CDs, all of which were originally recorded between 1907 and 1967. It comes with a fascinating 180 page book that discusses not just all the tracks themselves but the history of recorded music in different parts of the world. I can't possibly thank JWA enough for the gift.

Today we have two tracks each from Discs 1 and 2 for you to tap your toes to. They hail respectively from Mozambique (1953), Serbia (1927), Jamaica (1937) and Tahiti (1936).

"O Ta Nikona" - Enosse Kuhanya Muni

"Jeleno, Momo Jeleno" - Šule Radosavljevič-Šapčanin

"Perseverance" - Count Lasher

"Haere Roa Roa" - Tamari Tahiti

We'll be back with some selections from Discs 3 and 4 later in the week. In the meantime here is a song that celebrates Dust-to-Digital's mission (although you would probably need to replace "Rockin'" with "Capturing rare and unusual recordings" for it to be completely accurate).