Blues Monday

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Slim Harpo. And also Ms Phoebe Snow, with a song that isn't a tribute to Slim but which we are going to pretend is for the purposes of this post.

"Buzz Me Babe" - Slim Harpo

"That Ain't Your Business" - Slim Harpo

"Harpo's Blues" - Phoebe Snow

Gathering Winter Newell

Earlier this week that Rol of My Top Ten fame featured The Cleaners from Venus in one of his celebrity tributes - David Bailey as you ask. This got me reminiscing about the period in the early 1980s when I lived in Wivenhoe just round the corner from Mr Cleaner himself, Martin Newell.

Back in those days Martin was only releasing music via the medium of home-made cassettes - apparently the most time-consuming part of the production process was colouring in the black and white photocopies that served as the cover sleeve - and I would pop round and buy them whenever he had a new one.

I still have a handful of those cassettes and I dug out this one from the winter of 1983 as it is vaguely seasonal. By this time Martin had worked out that you could speed up the production process considerably by just printing the covers on coloured paper.

Here are both sides of the single. The sound quality isn't brilliant but as they are taken from a cassette that is nearly 40 years old its a miracle you can hear anything at all. If you listen right to the end of "When Fire Burns Dreams" you will understand the relevance of today's video.

"When Fire Burns Dreams" - Martin Newell

"Amateur Paranoiac" - Martin Newell

Off Colour Remarks

The first album picked up on my recent weekend in Germany to feature here was recommended to me by the proprietor of Far Out Records in Duisburg. He knows his stuff.

"Monarchie Und Alltag" was the 1980 debut album by Fehlfarben, a band from Dusseldorf whose name means something along the lines of "off colour". It is widely considered by the local music critics to be one of the best ever German language albums. They know their stuff too. It's a cracking record.

The year after "Monarchie Und Alltag" was released the lead singer and main songwriter Peter Hein left the band to return to his full time job at Xerox. There is probably a metaphor in there somewhere.

"Militurk" - Fehlfarben

"Paul Ist Tot" - Fehlfarben

Fehlfarben broke up in 1984. The original line-up first reunited in 2002 and have got together to tour and release an album every so often since then. The latest - "?O??" - came out a couple of months ago. Here's one of the tracks. They are still sonding pretty good.

Ankst In Your Pankst

After last Friday's post featuring Heather Jones we are sticking with the Welsh language music today, but for a very good reason.

Ankst Musik is a Welsh record label that has been running since 1988. In 1998 they released a 40 track compilation called "Radio Crymi Playlist" to mark their first ten years. There are some pretty well-known names on there - the Gorkis, the Super Furries, the Catatonias and best of all the mighty Datblygu.

As their Xmas charity fundraiser this year Ankst have made the album available again as a download for a limited period only. All proceeds go to the Osborne Trust, the only national charity dedicated to supporting the children of a parent with cancer. For just £8 you'll be supporting a very worthwhile cause and getting a lot of excellent music. Like this. 

"Sega Segur" - Ffa Coffi Pawb

"Bukowski" - Rheinhallt H. Rowlands

And here is some more chirpy Welsh music connected to Christmas and children.

 

Get Together With Heather

Whatever the weather it's a good time for Heather. Heather Jones that is, the Grande Dame of the Welsh language music scene for many years now. 

Here are a couple of tracks from her greatest hits album "Goreuon". "Nos Du" also featured on the first of those Welsh Rare Beat compilations that Andy Votel's lot put out 15 years or so back.

"Nos Du" - Heather Jones

"Syrcas O Liw" - Heather Jones

Other Heather Joneses are also available. They aren't as good though.

The One That Got Away

I'm back from my long weekend in Dusseldorf and surrounding areas. Very nice it was too, and a success on the music front. Thanks to the proprietors of Rainking Records in Dusseldorf and Far Out Records in Duisburg I managed to pick up this little lot for a mere €20 in total:

You will no doubt be hearing from some of them in the weeks to come, but today I don't want to talk about the records I bought but one that I didn't. Tucked away in the €2 vinyl box in the back room of Rainking I found this:

Being the fool that I am - and having been stung more than once before by records whose content doesn't match the great covers - I decided to pass on it. Suffice to say I am regretting that decision. 

Extensive research (i.e. Google) reveals that Framerowie were married couple Zofia and Zbigniew Frankiewicz, they hailed from Łódź and had a successful career during the 1960s and 1970s. This album - and I am not going to try to spell it - came out in 1972.

Unfortunately their career came to a sad ending. According to one of the darker Discogs entries I have read: 

"In 1980 Zofia decided she'd had enough of this life and decided to leave her husband and emigrate to her daughter, who lived in New York. She wanted to start a new life when she was 42 years old. Without luck and fell into poverty and depression. She begin sipping antidepressants and sleeping pills. The heart could not stand and died of a heart attack in 1983".

Let's remember them in happier times.

"Te Jesienne Rozstania" - Framerowie

Love And Haiti

Very quick post this morning. In an hour or so I'm off to Dusseldorf for a long weekend. If I can't find some decent music to bring back for you all from there it is probably time for me to hang up my bargain bin boots. 

To tide you over until I return, here are some super sounds from Haiti. Both from the album "RAM III: Kite Yo Pale", originally released in 2001 but reissued last year and available on Bandcamp for a mere $7.

"Marassa Elu" - RAM

"Tout Nasyon" - RAM

Feed RAM some jam and this is what you get.