WE GOT POWER!

WE GOT POWER! Melbourne power trio POWER have unleashed their debut LP, Electric Glitter Boogie, on the estimable Cool Death label and it’s a ripper! Claiming influence from the likes of the Stooges, T-Rex, Coloured Balls and Hawkwind, these guys emit a raw brand of boogie-punk with awesome, screeching vocals and killer angular guitar riffs (think Greg Ginn or X-Aspirations: think good things). And the packaging is something to behold: a swish gatefold with a textured sleeve a la Aztecs/Coloured Balls. It’s no mere record-collection regurgitation, though: POWER have the songs to match, making this sound their own. On the shelf now at R & R and it’s the friggin’ ALBUM OF THE WEEK.

More Australian rarities in… THE TWILIGHTS’ debut from 1966, featuring Glenn Shorrock & co. – we have the 1969 edition on Music For Pleasure, and it’s a fine slice of ’60s beat-pop; the sole LP from 1979 by MANTECA, a Perth-based soul/jazz/funk outfit – there’s a smokin’ cover of Herbie’s ‘Watermelon Man’ in there; and lastly, the very rare PIP PROUD one-sided EP from 1996, Matilda You Fiend, featuring various Melbourne musos and a grab-bag of artwork/lyrics inside. Choice!

SCHAWKIE ROTH!

This week’s find: SCHAWKIE ROTH (yes, remember that name!)’s You Are The Ocean LP from 1981. It’s essentially a New Age album, but what a beautiful disc it is. Eschewing the cliches of the genre, its mixture of zither, bamboo flute, harp and cello creates an awesome world of sound which will appeal to fans of Alice Coltrane and those in the higher echelons of spiritual jazz. Definitely something which would have slotted in nicely into Light In The Attic’s I Am The Center 3LP set from a couple of years ago. Always good things to discover…

REDD KROSS – THIRD EYE

Finally reissued for general consumption: REDD KROSS’s fantastic 1990 LP, Third Eye. Their first for the Atlantic label, it saw the brothers McDonald vying for the same apex of punk-infused bubblegum power-pop sound they’d reached with 1987’s ace Neurotica LP, but with bigger production and bigger hooks. It really is a gem in their catalogue. Every home needs a copy of this, and the good folks at Blank Records (it took a label from Sydney, Australia to get this back into circulation!) have done an excellent job.

AUSSIE REISSUES ON BLANK…

Got some great Australian reissues just in on the Blank label: JOHN SANGSTER’s The Trip and The Joker Is Wild LPs (’60s rarities from this Australian multi-instrumentalist renaissance man); CARRL & JANIE MYRIAD’s Of All The Wounded People LP (fantastic Melbourne rarity from ’72 – for fans of Trees, Mellow Candle, etc.); BUSTER BROWN’s sole LP from ’74, featuring AC/DC and Rose Tattoo folks; and THE SUNSETS’ Hot Generation Soundtrack Sessions LP (killer ’60s surf rarities from Down Under). Phew!

Some Aussie obscurities and classics of yore on the shelf this week… the COLOURED BALLS’ classic 1973 ballbreaker, Ball Power, a magnificent slab of boot-stomping proto-punk (orig. 1973 EMI press); SONG OF ARN, a unique and strange Australian hippie spoken-word 2LP set from 1973 – foldout cover and produced by the one and only Col Joye!; THE GROOVE’s sole self-titled LP from 1968, a great slice of Melbourne R & B; and last, ALEPH! Featuring ex-AC/DC drummer Ron Carpenter, this prog band released the Surface Tension album in 1977, recorded at Alberts, of course…

BLUE NOTE VINYL

Some very nice slabs of Blue Note in the shop right now…

NURSE WITH WOUND LIST…

Lotsa goodies from the legendary, the one and only NURSE WITH WOUND LIST on the shelves at R & R right now. Now and always, in fact. This iconic list of oddball recording artists, originally itemised by Stapleton & co. in the sleeve notes of NWW’s debut LP in 1979, remains a constant source of fascination (and let’s give the gent credit: this is WAY before the digital era where research and listening is a keyboard stroke away). Here’s but a sample of said goods: LARD FREE, MAGMA, GILA, SAND, WOLFGANG DAUNER, ALCATRAZ, EILIFF, ANIMA SOUND, IGOR WAKHEVITCH…

 

Just arrived: all the classic albums from POPOL VUH. One of the major players in the Krautrock scene, the band, headed by the estimable Florian Fricke, made their name with a series of kosmiche soundtracks to a number of Werner Herzog films. Combined with their stand-alone studio LPs, they rank as one of the great catalogues of the German scene of the ’70s. We have copies of all their classics as lovely, strictly limited high-quality reissues, on the shelf NOW.

Some local truth from a bunch of drunk c*ntz…

Look what just landed on the shop floor – three unreal local releases…

The debut longplayer from Adelaide/Melbourne trio TERRIBLE TRUTHS on the Bedroom Suck label. Great post-punk happenings here, sounding like they shoulda recorded for the Rough Trade label circa 1979 – ’81 (think Slits/Raincoats/Pop Group/Scritti or thereabouts). Angular, rhythmic, melodic: a great combo.

The second album from Melbourne scum-punks the DRUNK MUMS, Gone Troppo. Unlike the George Harrison LP of the same name, this is not only listenable, but worthy of repeated spins. They’ve written GREAT SONGS. Some of this brings to mind the Cramps, some of it Brian Jonestown, some of it lends an obvious air of Stooges damage, but mostly this goes to show that DRUNK MUMS have really developed into a killer rock & roll outfit. An unconditional recommendation!

Lastly, but certainly not least is the latest and greatest from Melbourne quartet, CUNTZ, Force The Zone, on Homeless Records. And it IS their best yet: these scuzz-punkers stew up a brew of Venom P. Stinger, Flipper and the speed-induced psychosis of Mark E. Smith into a highly palatable soup of no-effin’-around PUNK ROCK. They’re definitely worth your time and trouble, and from what we hear of their latest exploits on their current US tour, they’re a whole lotta trouble indeed. Get real, get CUNTZ.