Unique (?) Deroy Sound Services Acetate

Found another of these custom cut "Tape to Disc" records (my third) but before you get excited read the label:

No long lost lo-fi acid folk or garage rock nor spoken word oddness, it's simply a recording of the Wedding of Michael Stewart Vernon to Patricia Alice Turner on Saturday August 29th 1964 at Hazel Grove Methodist Church.

And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm glad this 12" LP survived and I'm happy to own it and preserve it in as listernable as it'll probably ever get quality on our Archive.org account.

Nothing much else to say about the record. The recording quality is quite good for what it is, however Miss Turner perhaps should have been a little closer to a (the?) microphone.

Plain white card sleeve, no inserts and no writing at all on the b side label.

Have a couple more of these one-off acetate LPs them being a 12" LP containing an amateur production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" and a 10" LP of a 1972 hymn service. I won't be uploading either of them as they're not very interesting.

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://archive.org/details/WeddingHazelGrove1964

10 Favourite Albums: #3 Glen Campbell "Reuinion: The Music of Jimmy Webb" (Capitol 1974)

A great country-tinged soft rock LP and probably the most consistant album that either have yet to lend their talents to.
I wrote a couple of hundred words about this LP and then discovered a much better review on Allmusic.com. Knowing most of you wouldn't bother to follow a link I'm gonna reproduce the whole thing right here instead:
It doesn't really matter if Glen Campbell was Jimmy Webb's best interpreter or if Webb gave Campbell his best songs -- in other words, it doesn't matter who helped the other more -- because it doesn't change the essential fact that the duo fit each other so naturally. Webb's intricate, idiosyncratic compositions sounded warm and accessible in Campbell's hands, while the songs revealed Campbell's musical range and ambition. Other singers had big hits with Webb's songs and Campbell made tremendous music with other people's songs, but there was something special about their collaboration that was evident on their big hits of the '60s: "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "Where's the Playground, Suzie?." These songs provided the background for Reunion, the 1974 album where Campbell and Webb reunited for a set of Webb songs. Well, that's not exactly accurate, since Webb never produced or arranged the hits Campbell had in the '60s, and the record isn't entirely written by Webb, since it features Susan Webb's "About the Ocean" and Lowell George's "Roll Um Easy" (here retitled "Roll Me Easy"). So, this marks the first time that Webb arranged a full album of Campbell's, along with providing the majority of the songs, a move that in many ways made this closer to a Jimmy Webb record than a Glen Campbell LP. Certainly, it favored Webb's idiosyncrasies, particularly his elliptical songs with winding melodies and no straightforward songs. Not a song here outside of "Roll Me Easy" announces itself as a potential single (which very well may be why this tremendous song was added to the play list, particularly as the first single, since it might be the easiest way into the record for most listeners). Since most of the songs share a similar easy mid-tempo pace and have similar lushly interwoven arrangements, it's not necessarily the most accessible of Campbell's records; it doesn't set out to alienate, it's just that Webb's songs and arrangements call for close listening, which is precisely why it's an album beloved by Campbell/Webb connoisseurs. So, it's not entirely surprising that the record didn't make much of an impression, certainly nothing close to their big hits of the '60s, but rather that it's become a cult item, with some fans regarding it among Campbell's best work. And, in many ways, they're right. Reunion has a quiet power that grows with repeated listenings since it does indeed showcase Webb at his best as songwriter/arranger and Campbell as an interpretive singer. But this is very much a record for the dedicated, those that are already convinced of the strengths of both men, because it reveals its gifts slowly, and even when they're out in the open, the songs are so delicately, if exquisitely, crafted they're best appreciated by listeners with an eye for detail. Those listeners will surely find Reunion among Campbell's best work, and it is certainly among his most consistent and ambitious records, but it's just a little too reserved to play to an audience outside of the already converted.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine @ http://www.allmusic.com/album/reunion-the-songs-of-jimmy-webb-mw0000014718 (Opens in new tab/window)
As mentioned at the end of the Skatelites post EMI managed to right royaly screw up the CD edition of this album. How? Well firstly they choose to add Glenn and Jimmy two most famous (and admitadly rather good) collaborations to the track listing, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Witchita Lineman". Which was a case of "OK fair enough" after all let's be honest the whole reason that major labels (and record labels in general) exist is to make maximum profit by capitalising on their assests (the artists) and if you've got a moderatly obscure release by two of your major 60's signings you're toying with rereleasing why not add their two best known songs?
However the stupid bastards placed the tracks at the beginning of the album meaning it now opens with 2 tracks recorded a good 5 years before the rest of the LP, thereby destroying the flow of the 10 original tracks and giving people (including my mate Martin who is mentioned in both the previous posts) the impressing that this is infact a compilation. Also, one wonders why they didn't go the whole hog and add those other two equally classic collaborations "Galveston" and "Where's the Playground, Suzie?"? I mean why be so half hearted?

10 Favourite Albums: #2 The Skatalites "Herb Dub - Collie Dub" (Jigsaw 1975)

When attempting to compile this list this was one of the first nominations I came up with. However my friend Martin upon hearing it described it as "nothing special". Maybe he had a point but this really isn't an LP to listen to if you're expecting Lee "Scratch" Perry madness or Etherealites type heaviness. The opening two tracks are IMO the weakest which doesn't really help my case.
Opening track "Roots Dub" is a pleasant enough 3 minutes or so of mostly horn-led scuzz while "Whispering Dub" fails to erase folk memories of this 70's novelty oddity:

Things do pick up however with the more minimal sounding track 3...

While I'm not going lay claim that this record is breaking any sonic boundries it was the way into dub music for a 24 year old novice who's only real experience of reggae had been his Dad's vinyl copies of Bob Marley's "Exodus" and "Live At the Lyceum". I think it's the records overall melodic nature that made it so appealing to me, after all ever since I starting finding it in charity shops (20+ years ago) I have long harboured a fondness for easy/lounge/musak and as background music this LP works brilliantly
Side 2 opens with "Dumboo Dub", another track that makes the albums ska routes explicit and is perhaps for me the albums highlight.

The next track, "African Dub"is for me spoilt somewhat by it's overly loud drum track but is probably the most out there thing on the album.
I love the muffled sound of the album's title track, or was it just fluff on my stylus? Either way it's another hightlight...

...While the closer "Kimble Dub" is once again tuneful and makes for a nice album closer.

Next time: How to right royally fuck up a classic album's CD reissue...

10 Favourite Albums: #1 "Weird & Wonderful Natural Sounds" (BBC Wildlife Magazine 199?)

Inspired by a recent pub conversation about a previous pub conversation I have decided to do something I promised myself I would never ever use this blog for: That being using it to show the 3 or 4 people who stumble across this thing every month what good taste in music I have...

I found this cassette in Hyde Willow Hospice Shop about 3 years ago, paid my 25p and took it home to languish on the shelf until I bothered playing it a month or so later.

Big mistake.

Like many a British charity shop scavenger (and even after my most recent attempted vinyl cull) I still have literally dozens of BBC LPs, 7"s, Cassettes, CDs and a couple of 12" of variable quality and interest lurking in the, often lesser loved, corners of my collection, heck I even already have the odd BBC wildlife sounds LP (this one, this one and this one for example), but this one is something else.

This is one of the few recordings I own where I can't really make any audio connection between anything else in my collection, sure it's a magazine freebie (cheapie?) but that don't stop it being in my opinion the greatest nature recording album of all time. Yes, even better than the marvelous and rightly famous Smithsonian Folkways: Sounds of North American Frogs LP from 1958.

Of course that is also a problem in that I am piss poor at descriptive writing (I shalt never be no Lester Bangs) and as this album has no Google footprint whatsoever it's impossible for me to find the actual mp3s for your enjoyment. Sorry about that.

However while my next review will come complete with sound and video clips you'll have to make do with me telling you that with tracks averaging out at a hypnotic 1min 20sec (bare in mind many sounds heard are 3 to 5 second cycles) this often very odd album is one to let wash over you.

Lastly the people I was with accused me of being deliberately obscure and arcane for the sake of trying to be different. Bullshit. Just because this was the first album to come to mind when choosing my faves doesn't mean it's necessarily my all time favourite. Having already chosen the other 9 records for this list I can guarantee that most readers will have heard, or at least be aware of, a good 70% of the artists featured.

Next time: My considered defense of "nothing special"