Having written about Vinyl Hunter-Gatherer activity over the recent holiday period, it seems fitting to share a selection of the LP haul gifted by Vinyl Connection’s old mate.
In the international section we have entrants from Jamaica, England, Ireland and the USA, representing their countries with a smorgasbord of musical styles: Reggae, British Ska, Folk and Soul. Three cheers for diversity!
Batting for the home team, we are mostly in the zone of good honest Aussie rock. Except for the kookaburra LP. I expect requests for a review of this one to flood in.
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Shopping experiences are different these days, aren’t they? Once, the only way to acquire something was to seek it out, either by going to the shops or by ringing around to locate the desired item… and then going to the shops. Sure, there was some mail-order, but active ‘going and getting’ was the default setting. This meant that once you arrived at your retail destination, you got to buy the thing, grab it in your hot little paws, and take it home to play with immediately.
Contrast that with on-line purchasing. It is eleven o’clock in the evening and you suddenly discover a wild enthusiasm for, say, some new electronic music. Crank up the laptop, punch in a few search terms and before you can say ‘credit card’ you’ve found, carted, bought and paid for an exciting new CD or LP. Except you haven’t got it. The business has your money in the flicker of an eye but after that it’s in the hands (or feet) of Hermes and his seemingly extremely recalcitrant assistants.
Flushed with excitement after seeing Tangerine Dream twice in a week, first live at the Melbourne Town Hall and then at ACMI in front of the film Sorcerer, Vinyl Connection was once again deeply in thrall to the veteran German band’s brand of electronic wizardry. Vague though the details now are, there was a point (probably quite late at night and possibly after a couple of glasses of the Coonawarra’s best) where acquiring more TD seemed imperative. The above procedure was followed exactly. But what with Christmas, New Year holidays and the fact that most of Australia Post must be down the beach, the purchases only arrived yesterday. Are they a 2014 or 2015 acquisition? Last year, clearly. Otherwise it would look like I was gobbling up dozens of albums a week. That would be most dreadfully misleading.
This last scenario was repeated almost exactly with a Popmarket purchase of some Flaming Lips related vinyl. Except this one took even longer – about five weeks as I recall. Talk about delayed gratification…
Note arty reflective self-portrait. Entirely intended of course.
Now if only I wasn’t required to work, I could settle back and listen to them all.
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Now the season of holiday frivolity is over, it’s back to business. Coming very soon, a European visit for an influential American album.
vinylconnection.com.au 
`The Flaming Lips – Soft Bulletin’ is a bit of a modern prog (or rather prog-related!) classic! Worth it for `Feeing Yourself Disintegrate’ alone…and darned if the middle of `The Spark That Bled’, starting with the line “And it seemed to cause a chain-reaction…” doesn’t take off in an Anderson/Howe strut?! Maybe just me…
I’ve been on a bit of a Tangerine Dream bender as well, my friend, picked up about a dozen CD’s of theirs from the late 80’s onwards of titles of theirs that I’d missed…which has been very hit and miss….but that’s part of the adventure!
I think owning even poor albums from artists is absolutely fascinating!
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Absolutely with you on “The Soft Bulletin” Michael. One of the last great albums of the 20th Century perhaps? I’d like to write about it sometime. And the Electric Wurms too – electronic/progressive and recent!!
Yes, it’s hard to cull mediocre albums from bands you revere. Or even not acquire more! With those TDs, I did think of consulting you first, but… well, see above.
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With Tangerine Dream, I prefer to delude myself that I’m `exploring the evolution of their sound’!
Soooooo many releases as they’ve progressed (or re-gressed?!) through the late 80’s through to today, it’s so hard to follow them all. The ones you’ve shown above are not any of the ones I’ve got, but looking at the style of the covers, they’re definitely part of the same series of a few more I have on the way. Of my recent TDream acquisitions that have arrived in the last month, I’ve picked up `Le Parc’, `Turn of the Tides’, `Melrose’, `Destination Berlin’ (urgh, bland-a-rama!), `Goblins Club’, `Lily on the Beach’ and `The Dream Mixes’ all for a few dollars each, and they’ve been quite a fascinating mixed bag of frustrating/uninspired/inconsistent/occasional nice surprises. Needless to say, I can’t wait to pick up some more!
I don’t know that Electric Wurms one, but I have a feeling it sounds a little like this absolute beauty from 2014, was in my top 5 releases of last year as well:
http://electricorange.bandcamp.com/album/volume-10
Pure inspired Krautrock with the proper exploratory atmospheres the vintage masters delivered…or something like that.
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Ah, your mate gifted you a fine US entrant, “Songs in the Key of Life”… I defy anyone not to tap their feet during “Sir Duke”…there’s not much from Wonder after that album release that I like. And I hope you won’t think any less of me when I say that I am clueless about Tangerine Dream!
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With you on Mr Wonder. The 2LP set originally came with a bonus 7″ single. I am chastened to report that I actually texted my friend and asked him whether this addition might be kicking around at home somewhere. (Pause for sighs/titters).
I will write about my discovery of Tangerine Dream sometime soon-ish. And Klaus Shulze too (the other giant of Deutsche Elektronische Musik. I committed to the latter post after coming up with the title: “Klaus Encounters”. You’d read that, wouldn’t you?
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But of course!
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I regularly enjoy your posts. I recently unexpectedly recovered a bunch of my old 45s from my folks’ house. The collection includes the Songs in the Key of Life bonus 7″ single. I no longer have the LP unfortunately. Anyway, it looks to be in pretty good shape. I’d be happy to gift it to you (literal gift – no charge) — it should be reunited with its original host. All I’d need is an address to which to mail it if you were interested.
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That is an extremely thoughtful and kind offer, VotF.
As I we reside in different hemispheres (notwithstanding the poetic resonance of Virginia and Victoria), let me see if my mate can locate the 7″ in his ‘box at home’. He’s a little closer (about 16,000 km).
I’ve excised your email and will keep you posted. Thanks again.
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Sounds good. But do keep me posted, as I sincerely have no qualms about putting it in the post from here in the land Up Over. I’d honestly much rather see it joined with kin than continuing to live a lonely orphan’s life with me.
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The Soft Bulletin. Wonderful, wonderful album. Worth the wait, that one.
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Is this the point where I own up that, despite having a perfectly perfect copy of Soft Bulletin on CD, it was getting this on the black stuff that drove the order?
Folks, that’s how good it is.
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That seems perfectly reasonable. It’s one that I plan on getting on vinyl at some point – replace my CD copy (the fact I have the CD is why I haven’t bought it yet – so many others to buy!)
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