we cheer each other up

A long time aural appreciating friend and I have gone hunting in our record collections. Now, we have never been in each other's rooms (him living in Britland and me living in the desert), so we have sent each other pictures of the lay out of our record collections. Here is his room (I do not condone the act of stacking vinyl vertically, but he is space challenged, so I will let it slide, THIS ONCE):Here is my bedroom, and then I have some vinyl that has migrated to the office/studio/guest room:

We have designated numbers to the stacks/crates and we tell each other what to go hunting for. For example, Steven will tell me to go to Crate 5, 12 records in from the left. 

Steven's first hunt landed him with TTC - Danser EP from Big Dada, nice!!

My first hunt landed me with the classic vinyl that you should be able to find in any good record store, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. 

Now the deal is we have to listen to at least 1 track from each side, if not the whole record. I started the process of trying to hone my vinyl collection awhile ago and have been extremely unsuccessful. This lil' game of ours should help that out. Now, although this is a Greatest Hits, the vinyl is mint, and let's face it, I think this is kind of a must have vinyl, if you don't have all, ALL, of his albums on vinyl. I, unfortunately, do not.

Steven's second hunt brought him to Greenhouse Effect VS. Radiohead vinyl. It's pretty. Anyone know what Blueprint has been up to lately? 

My second efforts uncovered my second favorite female vocalist, Rickie Lee Jones and her self titled album. Probably her most popular song, Chuck E.'s In Love starts off the album and continues in greatness all the way through. This album is definitely not leaving my collection.

Steven had to open up his 3rd pick, a 12" from Evolver-State of the Union from the label, Botanica Del Jibaro. 

My 3rd pick was a perfect choice to end this week with, the late, great J Dilla and his Shining Instrumentals double LP. Rest In Power Dilla, we miss you. If you haven't downloaded it yet, make sure to get the Suite For Ma Dukes EP from Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on iTunes. All proceeds go to Ma Dukes, and it is quite beautiful. 

Up next for Steven, is the 3 LP Hello Everything from Squarepusher. Lucky bastard.

I had quite a change up in the 4th round, TSOL's Change Today? LP. The copy I have is near mint, including the lyric sheet insert. I listened to the whole album and enjoyed it thoroughly, despite the drastic change up. I am not sure, but I hope I have some more TSOL. This album isn't going anywhere, unless it's for a pretty penny. Make that a lot of pretty pennies.

After Steven had much enjoyment from his long playing Squarepusher album, he got another dose of electronica from North Manchester Bedroom Allstars. Here's what forcedexposure.com has to say about this release, "Third 12" release by the NMB Allstars crew. The North Manchester Bedroom Allstars is a transient association of humans who own bedrooms in North Manchester. The bedroom is often the site for unequalled creativity and experimentation in sound, graphics of metaphysical nature. The output of NMB is not controlled by format, media or time. Thunderous, oppressive, heavy, scrawling and terrifyingly dark electronics. It's not that they are secretive, they just want to be left alone!" 

My 5th pick was an interesting one, a hippy delicacy from Palo Alto, 1975. Christening for Listening-A Soundtrack for Every Body. A paragraph on the back states, "Christening for Listening is unique in that it is original music composed in a style suggested intuitively by the plants' own biorhythms, and is particularly sensitive and applicable to the needs of these serence green neighbors. Our recent research involving GSR polygraphs and Kirlian photography demonstrated "that the most consistent, significant degree of positive affective response was found to relate to music that was in harmony with plants' slower tempo of movement." Put less scientifically, the plant dug this music-and it showed up dramatically in the measurements." 

"ABOUT THE COVER: This is a Kirlian photograph of a leaf, taken by a process that produces pictures shot in total darkness, without using a lens. It shows the electromagnetic energy field, or body, that surrounds and permeates the physical body of all living things. This technique can be used as a diagnosed aid in determining the physical or emotional state of the subject-in this case, the response of the total body to music." The first side is very minimal with only a Rhodes. The second side gets a bit funkier with the addition of an electric guitar, bass, some flutes and on one track, horns and drums. The first side reminded me a lot of the artist Eluvium. The second side was quite decent. I'm actually going to keep this interesting find.

My 6th choice is the incredible, one and only, Ella Fitzgerald singing the Gershwin Song Book. I mentioned earlier that Rickie Lee is my 2nd favorite female vocalist, well, Ella is the first. Lovely that I am listening to them both today, and by random odds.