Mix: You Really Would

Here's something to keep the wheels spinning... I made this mix for the summer Waxidermy CD-R swap and figured I'd offer it up here as well. Perhaps some familiar faces, and a few very obscure seven inches and random 1-trackers. All of this stuff appeared out of nowhere in late spring-early summer and just fell together nicely as a weird mix-tape loop that absorbed my mental currents for a month or two. Hope you like it. Here's a track list:
1. A Wave - Woo
2. Measurement - Pat Madden
3. Take Me Home - Bert Keeley
4. Anthony Burgess - Bing Selfish & the Ideals
5. Have You Ever Had That Feeling? - Jim Hansen
6. It's Over - Gatsby
7. Misty - The Estate
8. Anybody Home - Dennis Soares
9. Dogs - Glenn Phillips
10. Fear of Flying - Jenny MacGregor
11. Where Are You? - Tim McKenna
12. Searchin' - Charmer
13. Universal Person - Grand Canyon
14. A Simple Thought - Greg Todd & the Jacks
15. Try Baby - Pat Madden
16. Diamond Love - Philip John Lewin
17. Tots in the Way - Ice Skates with Arms
18. The Stars are Bright - Benny Cook
19. A Job Well Done - Jo Ann Stokes
20. The Cleaner - Woo

Wild band feature coming up this week... stay tuned. Best, JDF

Yin & Yang

Easily one of the coolest discoveries of 2008 had to be this completely unknown private press LP of mixed performers folk and rock music. To say it is mysterious is sort of an understatement, as it's discoverer found it in the back of a Ram Dass 'Love Serve Remember' box-set with nothing but a painted paper sleeve covering it. Posted info and mp3s on a renowned record forum warranted no further info, other than that it was probably from 1971 based on the Matrix numbers, and judging by the sounds a commune project LP - and a very good one, at that. I've entertained a lot of these types of LPs and few are this rich in atmosphere, musical quality, proper arrangement as a playable-through album (think Context '70) and a unique and individual vibe that you actually remember distinctly as its own. Yin & Yang is a perfect mixture of tender wasted folk with a sly druggy smile, mellow pastoral rural rock, sound experiments, poetry, nature sound effects, and some beautifully dark instrumentals. The record really really grew on me the more I played the sound-files, an amazingly deep post-lysergic mossy candlelit aura creeping around the room each time I came back and got better acquainted with the voices within. And the progression from light to dark was equally intriguing... the album begins with an almost suspiciously cheery folk song about sunshine, and ends in an otherworldly vocal harmonization that follows a haunting version of the Arabian Dance from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker! There is a real magic here, even on their one cover of a Gordon Lightfoot song ("Early Mornin' Rain") a completely spaced out spell gets cast over the material, it sounds like they lived it. I hope this post reaches some of the members involved with this project... It's hard to say because I have no names to post, and I'm not even sure if Yin & Yang is the album name proper or just the names that appear in place of A and B sides. The songs are tagged in the files, but here is the track-list anyhow in case that might trigger in a search engine. There was some speculation that this might be from a commune associated with Ram Dass, but it seemed less likely according to another source. In any case, if you have any information about this record please drop me a line. Otherwise, enjoy! And a huge thanks to Tyler for finding this and graciously letting me share it here. It is really special.


Then You Have Loved


Om


Early Mornin' Rain

Track-Listing:
Yin
1. Ocean
2. Mister Sun
3. Two Guitars & Flute
4. Then You Have Loved
5. Maids When You're Young
6. Instrumental
7. It's a Beautiful Day
8. Ocean

Yang
1. Birds
2. Rama
3. Harmonics
4. A Poem on How to Write a Poem
5. Early Mornin' Rain
6. Arabian Dance
7. Om

Pat Madden - Self-Titled

My first official musical-content post comes from this mysterious LP that surfaced on the collector circuit but a few months ago, and has been delighting my ears since then. I chanced into a copy and was surprised that it wasn't just a 1-tracker, as I had suspected, but a truly solid late night female folk-rock LP with a strong backing band that alternated between lo-fi roadhouse grooves and tender acoustic confessionals. The standouts were almost unanimously the several truly stunning solo tracks where Pat's beautiful voice and aching guitar work shone through, however almost more importantly the record played solidly from front to back and was arranged like a proper album - with all original songs to boot! All of this of course had me scratching my head as to who Pat Madden was, and why this LP was so obscure in such a raked over field of half-baked private press folk records and tired 70s rock amalgams. I could find nothing on the woefully generic sounding "Calypso Records," and despite a lengthy search came up empty as far as Madden herself was concerned.

Madden's Musical Cohorts

There was no location listed on the back, and the band member names were all astonishingly common. So here I am left with a dead-end search, and a cry to the inter-web universe: Pat where are you? To casual listeners, I hope you enjoy... I think the record has a great swampy hippie trailer-park atmosphere and an earthy production quality that fits the material nicely... If nothing else "Measurement" is an otherworldly femme-psych moment and should be comped! All the best, JDF


Measurement

Welcome.

Hi. Some of you might remember, "And then the chimney spoke...", which died sometime a few years ago. And then there was silence. I bought alot of records though, and chased down some more interesting artists. I feel the need to share. And while the chimney was an entertaining, and very addled experiment, I feel like I'm much better equipped now to do something more akin to actual journalism (haha!). My hopes for this blog are to disseminate musics of unknown, obscure, and truly buried artists. No reissued stuff... nobody with a website... in some cases, no one with a bloody phone number! I've got some cool interviews in the pipes, a few band features, a load of mysterious stuff I haven't been able to figure out, and hopefully much much more. In most cases everything is coming from a direct rip of stuff from my own collection, or possibly of a close friend's. If you the artist, is not happy with this, please get in touch. I'd probably love to talk to you whether you're pissed at me or not! Lots of love, JDF