COSEY FANNI TUTTI - ART SEX MUSIC (Faber & Faber 2017)

This is the autobiography of Cosey Fanni Tutti (born Christine Newby in Hull U.K in 1951). Music fans will probably only know her as being the guitarist in Throbbing Gristle (the original 'industrial' band, active from 1976- 81). Perhaps those with more knowledge of obscure music will be aware that, with her partner Chris Carter, she has released a wealth of recordings over the last few decades that are seen as groundbreaking in the field of electronic music. Those who have researched further might also know that from 1969 - 1976 she was a key member of the performance art group Coum Transmissions.

However, not being very aware of her career since TG, I was astonished to learn from this book that she has produced an incredible amount of art in so many mediums (installation, performances, actions, lectures, paintings, collages etc), & is highly regarded in the art world, regularly receiving invites to exhibit in prestigious galleries & art spaces all over the world. She has had no formal art training, but has got to the point she's at through total devotion to being creative, constant hard work, genuine talent & original ideas.

This book is the story of someone with a real artist's spirit & passion. She has produced such an immense body of quality work that reviewing this book is a daunting task. There's just so much ground covered in the story, unlike many other art & music biographies where entire chapters are just taken up with people loafing about,getting off their face on drugs, or doing next to nothing. Cosey has been constantly creative since 1969 (with only a few short breaks due to illness), & the narrative moves at a fast pace in order to keep up with all the projects she's working on at any one point. Every page is full of her creative projects. As well as all that, she also manages to write about her feelings, ideas, relationships, key points in her life etc. I have read dozens of artist's biographies, but I have never come across one that just has so much in it as this one.

As all good biographies should, it starts with childhood (earliest memories etc), & works comprehensively through that in a well-ordered chronological way. This was the only part of the book that I found slow-going, as it seems she had a very uneventful childhood (normal working class background) & showed no signs of the incredible outpouring of creativity that would happen later. What this part of this book does establish though is the fraught relationship she had with her strict & domineering father (after Coum Transmissions notorious 'Prostitution' exhibition at The ICA in 1976, & the resulting tabloid furore, Cosey's father cut her out of his life, & she lost all contact with her parents).

Her late teenage years were probably typical of many young people of that era (going to see bands, some experiments with LSD etc). Then in 1969, she met Genesis P-Orridge, moved into a commune with him, & started the Coum Transmissions project. The story of Coum Transmissions is worthy of an entire book in itself (read Simon Ford's 'Wreckers Of Civilisation' book for a comprehensive history of Coum Transmissions & TG). Active from 1969 -1976, they started as a witty, bohemian, hippy street theatre & improvised music group, then moved into getting Arts Council grants, becoming 'accepted' in the performance art world, and even representing Britain in international arts events all round the world.

What's notable in Coum's early commune days is how much old-fashioned sexism still existed, no matter how 'liberal' & 'progressive' the hippies claimed to be. Cosey went out & worked at a full time job to fund their activities, then came home & did all the cooking & cleaning. Meanwhile, the menfolk sat on their backsides all day, pontificating & being 'artists'.

Most journalists who write about Coum Transmissions focus only on their final few years, when their performances had become really 'transgressive' (& at that point I do have to wonder, despite the intellectual rationalisations, if it was really just shock for the sake of shock). However, in the early 1970s Coum Transmissions were producing some wonderful pieces of performance art, that must have been amazing to witness.

The true story of Coum Transmissions is difficult to unpick now, as Genesis P-Orridge (being the shameless self-publicist that he is) now wants to claim that everything about Coum was his idea. However, Coum Transmissions was a collective, involving many people, & despite all the meticulous research Simon Ford put into his 'Wreckers Of Civilisation' book, many key members of Coum don't get mentioned & weren't interviewed (some research. I have done revealed that many ideas that GPO claimed as his own actually came from other members).

Though not overtly stated in her book, I end up feeling that Cosey was a far more important figure in the development of Coum than GPO is prepared to give her credit for. I think she provided that essentially female / instinctive approach that came to characterise a lot of Coum's performances.

From the beginning of Coum Transmissions, Cosey starts keeping a diary, & has written a daily diary ever since. From that point, the diary forms the basis of this book's format. Every few pages there's a brief excerpt from her diary, followed by her extrapolating on the events mentioned. The fact that she has scrupulously written everything down means that her memory is untainted, and isn't subject to the historical 'revision' that other players in this story are guilty of.

After Coum, the book moves on to the original incarnation of Throbbing Gristle. This only takes up a small section of the book, and I commend it for that. Cashing in on the corpse of TG always guarantees an audience & big money, & it's to her credit that Cosey hasn't taken this easy route, & made TG the major selling point of her book. TG have been written about, discussed, analysed & intellectualised to death now, and after Simon Ford's 'Wreckers Of Civiisation' book, no more pretentious waffle is necessary.

What Cosey does provide (that's severely lacking in other versions of the TG tale) is a very human & personal account.

At this point, one needs to mention Cosey & GPO's relationship, as despite the nonsense GPO regurgitates about the 'reasons' why TG split up, the real reason was Cosey leaving him to start a relationship with Chris Carter, on top of which were all the tantrums & insufferable behaviour that GPO inflicted on the other band members until they could stand it no more.

What is striking right from the start of their relationship is how it bears all the hallmarks of an abusive relationship. A lot of it is more subtle in the beginning - psychological manipulation, guilt-tripping, tantrums, & mental bullying. It's only at the very end of their relationship (after she's told GPO that she's leaving him) that the violence starts, but when it does it's very extreme - trying to strangle her, coming at her with a knife (thankfully he was disarmed by a member of Coum Transmissions), & at one point even throwing a concrete block at her head.
As is symptomatic of many abusive relationships, Cosey (in her original diary excerpts) feels guilty & blames herself for his terrible outbursts.

Throughout the TG years (& for some years following) Cosey worked as a porn model & striptease artist. Her reasons for this were not just financial, but also to challenge herself, and to use her magazine photos as a basis for her art. Some people have been cynical about the artistic 'rationalisation' for her porn work, but she has always been thoroughly consistent & coherent in her explanations of this, & has since used these magazine photos as the basis for many art exhibitions throughout the world. Back in the 1970s, doing this kind of work was seen by feminists as 'colluding with the enemy', whereas today's third wave 'sex positive' feminists have embraced Cosey's work.
The sections in which she writes about her work as a porn model & stripper are a fascinating insight into the behind the scenes world of the 1970s British porn industry. It was run on a much smaller scale (& seems much more innocent) than the global hyper-corporate porn industry of today.

After the 1981 TG breakup, Cosey continued to be creative, either solo or in collaboration with Chris Carter. The amount of musical, visual & performance projects she was involved in is astonishing.

Finally, we have the reformed TG (active from 2003 -2010). This wasn't a full time project, as the members were living in different parts of the world & had their own projects going. However, they did sporadically get together to play gigs, record albums, make installations etc.
This section of the story is infuriating, as GPO consistently screws everybody about, breaking contracts, cancelling gigs, making outrageous demands at the last minute, throwing tantrums, not turning up at recording sessions etc. It's all very 'Spinal Tap', except it isn't funny. Unlike the first incarnation of TG when they were a self-managed cottage industry, this time round they're having to deal with big business & 'proper' management, where these kind of childish actions can result in lawsuits for breach of contract.

You are left wondering why the other three put up with him (after all, he certainly wasn't the 'talent' in the band). At times, you wonder if his only intention in getting involved was to sabotage it for the other three members (due to some petty vendetta he's never got over).

Actually, it seems GPO's only motivation was money. He wasn't prepared to put any work into the project, but just wanted to collect the cheque at the end (& was constantly conniving to demand more money). All the workload fell on the other three members. They would work in the studio for months & Gen would hardly ever turn up. At one point, a TG project was instigated, involving building a huge interactive sound sculpture. Chris, Cosey & Sleazy worked on this for months. Gen's 'contribution' took only 5 minutes of his time (reading out a lyric written by somebody else). As TG work as a democratic collective, this meant that he got an equal share of the profits, for doing next to nothing.

On the eve of some European gigs, Gen throws one final tantrum & leaves TG. dumping all the contractual obligations (& resulting financial losses) on the remaining three members. Cosey, Chris & Sleazy carry on as X-TG, but this comes to a halt later in the year after Sleazy's death.
Cosey & Chris work to create a memorial album for him by continuing a recording project the three of them had started as X-TG. It was Sleazy's idea to cover Nico's 'Desertshore' album, with different guest vocalists on all the tracks. Despite their overwhelming sadness at the loss of a loved friend, Cosey & Chris work to finish the project, as a tribute to Sleazy. As it nears completion, Gen then tries to sabotage it's release, making all sorts of false claims, & getting solicitors involved.

The only thing that's positive throughout the whole infuriating reformed TG saga is to read of the warmth & friendship between Cosey, Chris & Sleazy. There's a real love & ability to create together between these three people, sadly ruined so many times by GPO's selfish & destructive behaviour.

However, what shines through in this book is that, despite whatever hardships & frustrations, Cosey is always creating, always coming up with new ideas, & never resting on her laurels. It's rare to read of somebody who is such a pure artist.

Her writing style is clear, straightforward & engaging. When writing of the motivations behind her art, it's refreshingly simple & doesn't require a degree in 'art bollocks' to understand it. She never references highbrow theories or name-checks obscure artists that only the 'learned' have heard of. What she creates is based simply on instinct, emotion, & personal experience, & explanations are given succinctly in plain english.

This is an amazing book that has been a joy to read (& leaves my head buzzing with creative ideas & possibilities).





  

KAWABATA MAKOTO - INUI 3 (C.D) (VHF, 2000)

I have fallen in love with this C.D. How did this happen ? There is no simple answer. Music & love contain elements of mystery that we can never explain. The process of falling in love is always an enigma. Sometimes it occurs instantaneously. At other times, it blossoms slowly & imperceptibly, before eventually coming to conscious awareness. In the case of this C.D, it was the latter. It took a number of listens till it worked it began to work its magic on me & I could really feel the power of this music. The more I listened, the more it resonated with something deep in me.

On the first few plays, it came across only as pleasant, albeit very strange, 'background music'. As I had yet to tune in to it's structures, the music seemed formless & undemanding (perfectly matching the idea of 'ambient music') -  something I could have on whilst reading a book or doing some household task. The music didn't grab my attention. Instead, it was just 'there', & was hard even to focus my attention on. However, after each play, I would find myself wanting to play it once more straight away. There was something in me that desired to keep listening to it over & over again.

After a few more listens, I began to 'get' it, & start to feel the astonishing magic of this music. It slowly changed from being mere 'background sound' to being something that I could immerse myself in, & be transported by. With each subsequent listen, the music felt more & more powerful.

I have sometimes wondered why I didn't fully 'get' it on the first few listens. Of course, that doesn't really matter, as many music lovers will have had the experience of growing to love an album that didn't fully register with them on the first few plays, or that somehow sounded or felt 'different' at first.

Perhaps there were a number of surprises I had to get over before I could really feel the power of this music. The first surprise was the length of this C.D. When I stuck it in my player, I was gobsmacked it was only 39 minutes (about the length of an old fashioned vinyl L.P), as Kawabata usually utilises the maximum length afforded by C.D technology, every other C.D I've heard from him being about 70 minutes long.

On playing, time itself seemed to be going at a different rate. The 4th track especially, at 14 minutes, never seemed to be as long as that. This is of course, a testament to the power of the music. Nothing drags, or gets boring, and even a long piece can appear to go by quickly, as you are transported into some eternal present time & the normal passage of minutes & seconds ceases to exist.

The second surprise was the variety of musical textures. Even though I'm familiar with Kawabata's recordings, there is a lot of sounds on this that I haven't heard on any of his other recordings, such as kemenje (a traditional turkish bowed instrument), zurna (a wind instrument from Eurasia), bowed sitar, & even 'water'. One track features a striking use of space & silence (as counterpoint to the instrumental sounds) - space & silence being two elements that I haven't come across on any other Kawabata release.

Even the two tracks that were underpinned by drones (drones being a common musical tool Kawabata uses) seemed very different to other tracks I've heard by him. After a few more listens, those two tracks seemed less strange (& fitted more neatly into Kawabata's overall musical output), but at first they sounded remarkably different to anything else I'd heard by him.

The first track - 'Mou' (9.56) is built atop a simple electronic drone, which subtly changes in timbre, tone, & emphasis. Violin, kerenje & zurna are added. Whilst the playing of each of these instruments is very rudimentary, I see this piece as an exploration of different musical textures. Each of these instruments has a very different sound, and the contrast between them results in none of them clashing, or fighting for the same sonic 'space'. Instead, each instrument can be focused on individually by the listener. This awareness of musical 'colour' is one of Kawabata's great skills, & this can be compared to a great piece of abstract painting in which, even though there may be no obvious 'form', the interplay of the various elements (in terms of colour & shape) is very complimentary & satisfying.

The second track - 'Meii' (11.02) features sarangi, percussive drum & gong sounds, some occasional faint electronic tones, & apparently 'water' (though I can't hear it, but I presume it's being used somehow). The use of space & silence in this track is masterful, reminding me of both Japanese painting, & also a few pieces by Nurse With Wound (who are also masters of the use of space & silence). Even though this track is very freeform. that incredible use of space & silence really marks this out as a musical masterpiece.

The third track - 'Shi' (3.46) just consists of a simple plucked bouzouki motif (apparently backed by cello, organ & vibe, but all so faint you can hardly hear them). Despite it's simplicity & brevity, this is a gorgeous piece, that feels profoundly emotional & heartfelt.

Finally, the fourth track - Kan' (14.09). Even though I love the last three tracks, this final track takes the music to an even higher level. This is an astonishing piece which feels to me like some kind of musical nirvana.
The track starts with a very pleasant buzzing noise, with occasional faint 'chirpings' in the background. This continues confidently for a few minutes, then atop of it sweeps in a beautiful multi harmonic wall of bowed sitar tones. There are so many harmonic layers to this that the mind can't simultaneously take them all in. There even appears to be a deep bass layer that sounds a bit like bagpipes. Despite this being more or less one constant tone / note, these different harmonic layers seem to gently change in individual emphasis. Whether this is down to mixing, or down to just the inevitable results of trying to hold a constant tone on an acoustic instrument, I don't know. However, those with an ear for subtleties of tone will notice these very gentle shifts.
Despite this track being 14 minutes long, it just seems to fly by. This is a truly astonishing piece of music, and is the best solo piece I've heard from Kawabata so far. Listening to this, I am taken out of my everyday existence, and transported to some beautiful other world. It feels very earthy & primal, yet when I listen my mind conjures up images of distant nebulas & the vastness of space.

Overall, this is an amazing album, on which I can't fault a single second or single note. This is as close to musical 'perfection' as perhaps it's possible to get.

ADVENTURES IN RECORD BUYING No 1 - THE PSYCHOMETRY OF VINYL DAMAGE

One of the numerous problems with the 'Rare Record Price Guide' grading system (adopted as a universal 'standard' by all U.K sellers & record lovers) is that it works from the assumption that the deterioration in condition of any records always occurs in an incremental way (first of all you get very faint surface marks from general handling - taking it out of the sleeve & placing it on the record deck; then more noticeable surface marks build up from repeated plays; then after even more plays the record starts to get scratches - first light ones that cause faint distortion, then heavier ones that cause clicks & pops: then it starts to get severe scratches & deep scores that cause jumps; then finally the dog bites a whole chunk out of the record, leaving it totally trashed).

The assumption is that the damage to vinyl  always fallows that set incremental pattern, & that ultimately, given enough plays, all records will deteriorate from Mint to dog-bitten in the same predictable way. According to this theory, the grading of any record can be accurately given as a fixed point somewhere along the scale.

However, in reality there are just far too many variables - the way individuals treat their records, whether or not the equipment they use (stylus etc) damages the record, & patterns of playing (e.g - the difference between people who play each side from start to finish, as opposed to people who jump about from track to track, often knocking the needle in the process). Some people can trash a record within three or four plays, whereas other owners can play an album a hundred times, & other than some inevitable handling marks, there won't be a single scratch.

As a result, so many second records I buy just don't easily fit into any of the gradings, as the damage to them hasn't followed the set pattern. There are albums where the vinyl is still incredibly shiny & there's next to no surface marks (indicating that it's probably only been played three or four times). However, there's long thin scratches running across several tracks, suggesting that on the few times it has been played, somebody's been extremely careless & knocked the needle, sending it flying across the vinyl surface. There's albums where one track has obviously been played to death, but every other track has been left almost untouched (or perhaps one side has been played far more than the other - this is more noticeable with singles). There's albums that are almost Mint, but have one really bad deep scratch (suggesting a possible accident on it's first playing, after which the owner decided never to play it again).

There are even albums that have unique, & completely unclassifiable forms of damage (such as a U.K Subs album I picked up, which was in lovely condition, except for the fact that the last track on one side had a wavy 'up & down' scratch running around the entire circumference, as if the owner hated that track so much that they'd deliberately scored it with a sharp object to render it unplayable).

A wise record dealer once said (in an article in 'Record Collector' magazine) that buyers should be wary of  anybody selling records who resorts to such easy one or two word gradings (e.g - 'Excellent', 'Very Good' etc) because, as I have already pointed out, the condition of so many records just doesn't neatly fit into any of these incremental gradings. His suggestion was that a good dealer should be able to give you a more detailed description of condition (e.g - 'Side One has a lot of light surface marks, but no noticeable noise on playing. Side Two  looks excellent, other than a 1 centimetre scratch on the second track, which causes a bit of crackle & an occasional loud pop').

However, the point of this article is not so much to find fault with the RRPG grading system (or to suggest an alternative). Instead, moving on from my observations that so many records don't fit any easy grading categories, I want to suggest that, after decades of obsessively hunting down & buying second hand records, a form of psychometry comes into play, where one can  guess what sort of person owned the record, based on the type of damage to the vinyl.

Several categories I have come up with are as follows ~

(1) THE FIDGETER  The Fidgeter bought a lot of indie & dance music albums back in the 1990s. Apart from when he first bought a new album, he could never play an entire album's side from start to finish. Instead, he would constantly be leaping up (especially when he was stoned & had his mates round) going "No. That's not the track I want.. There's a better one. Hold on ...".  Then he would try to lift the needle onto another track. However, given the fact that he didn't have a lever to lift the needle up properly, & given that he was stoned & excited, the needle would invariably go flying across the vinyl surface (with that excruciating scratch noise that those of us who spent time with any Fidgeters back in the 1990s grew to expect every two minutes).
The Fidgeter had a lot of records though (he was, after all, a big music lover), so no individual album was played more than perhaps a dozen times. As a result, all his albums remained shiny with not too many surface marks. However, every single one of them is scarred with these long thin scratches caused by knocking the needle in a fit of marijuana induced excitement.

(2) THE OLD MAN. The Old Man collected easy listening records back in the late 1960s / early 1970s (often on the Studio 2 Stereo label). To his credit, The Old Man took exceptional care of his records (unlike The Fidgeter, he probably played  each side straight through without jumping up & sending the needle flying). He never put his fingers on the vinyl. and probably had a state of the art record deck & good stylus. As a result, his albums are all in immaculate condition.
However, he had an obsessive need to 'catalogue' his records, & often in the top right hand corner of the front cover, he's added a large sticker on which he's written a number, or even worse, used one of these 1970s 'label makers' that printed sticky labels on thick plastic with raised lettering (which are impossible to get off without severely damaging the record cover). He may also have written in biro pen (in very small neat writing) notes on individual tracks on the back cover ('Fast Tempo', 'Slow Tempo' etc).

(3) THE SAMPLE HUNTER. The Sample Hunter is a D.J or dance music 'producer', who buys loads of cheap second hand L.Ps from many eclectic genres, in a search for 'samples' & 'breaks'. In theory, records owned by The Sample Hunter might be very hard to spot, as with him buying second hand albums (& not really caring about condition), this means that a lot of albums that pass through his hands might already have had a lot of wear & damage.
However, those of us with a keen eye, & knowledge of vinyl, will be able to spot the difference between any original wear on the vinyl, & that inflicted on it by The Sample Hunter. The Sample Hunter will have a top range record deck, with a very sharp thin stylus. Therefore, any scratches  he inflicts will be thinner & finer looker than any scratches that may have existed prior to him getting the album (especially with 1960s / 70s albums, when people used thick & heavy styluses).
The Sample Hunter buys cheap albums in bulk (at car boots & charity shops), & has no respect for them. He gets home, throws them on his record deck, and in his impatient hunt for 'samples' & 'breaks', can't listen to an album all the way through. Instead, just like The Fidgeter, as soon as he gets bored, he'll just knock the needle forward, leaving the same kind of long thin scratches as The Fidgeter does. Having just picked up several dozen L.Ps at a car boot, he isn't going to devote the requisite forty minutes listening to each one. It's really a quick 'skim over' in each case, then on to the next one.
Another telltale sign of The Sample Hunter is circular scratches (i.e - white scratches that follow the circumference of a record). This is obviously where they've played one segment over & over again, or tried some D.J 'scratching' on it. No matter how trashed a record is, it is only The Sample Hunter who puts these kind of scratches into a record.
Once they've searched for samples, The Sample Hunter will sell all these records on to a second hand record shop. Heaven forbid that they should actually clean them first (as in their attempts as 'scratching' & their general disrespect for the vinyl. they tend to cover the record surface with grubby fingerprints). Apart from top D.Js, most dance music record buyers seem to have no knowledge about cleaning vinyl (or just the fact that touching the vinyl leaves dirty fingermarks). Dirty fingermarks are also a sign that an album has been 'got at' by The Sample Hunter.

(4) THE INDIAN FAMILY. Obviously this only applies to Indian albums. Whereas Indian Classical albums usually are in immaculate condition, Bollywood albums from the 1960s /70s are often in very poor condition (something you get used to as a Bollywood collector, though occasionally old Bollywood do turn up in beautiful condition). I imagine this is a combination of having really cheap record decks back in the day, and just loving the music - playing it again & again, while the children danced up & down, making the needle jump.
Interestingly, no matter how trashed a Bollywood album is, they're always devoid of dirty fingermarks. Either Indian families had extremely clean hands, or else they at least knew enough about vinyl to not put their fingers on it.

(5) DODGY DEALINGS ? This is one I've never worked out what the story is. With a lot of the better end of easy listening albums from the late 1960s /early 70s, a lot of records I've picked up in that genre will be in more or less Mint condition, apart from one very straight thin scratch right across the first track on Side One (& ending abruptly right at the end of the track)
Apparently, back in those days, record shops would often deliberately damage stock they couldn't sell, then return it to the supplier for a refund. Given that I've come across so many albums from that era that have that same precise scratch on the first track, I wonder if it is a result of record shops deliberately damaging albums ?

(6) WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO THIS ? Like the previous entry, this one also is an enigma. There are some records that are in such bad condition, that you are left wondering what the owner could possibly have done to have got it like that. Even if I'd spent 6 months daily throwing it like a frisbee for my dog to fetch, it wouldn't have ended up as trashed.
The ne plus ultra of this came with a bunch of 1970s singles (Mungo Jerry etc) that I picked up dirt cheap from a charity shop. They smelled a bit funny, & on cleaning them I noticed that a thick brown substance was coming off onto the cleaning cloth. I did genuinely wonder if somebody had once had a shit on these records, and then rubbed it  deep into the vinyl surface.

(7) THE 1970S PARTY GOER. This applies mainly to 7" singles from the early 1970s (& interestingly, primarily reggae hits from the early 1970s). Worried that they records they brought to a party might get muddled up with other people's records, the owner wrote their name on the label (in the same universal 'girly' handwriting).
The name on the label is always 'Sharon' or 'Stacey', leading me to conclude that either Sharon or Stacey were very common girl's names back then, or else there was one Sharon / Stacey who owned millions of records (& multiple copies of each single).
Sadly, because these records were brought to parties, they're often trashed, as I imagine people jumped up & down, making the records jump, and / or records were quickly & clumsily pulled off in order to put on the next one.

GREAT SECOND HAND RECORD SHOPS No 3 - BIG APPLE RECORDS, NOTTINGHAM

Here in Nottingham, we are so lucky to have three great second hand record shops (in fact, we have a total of four second hand record shops altogether, but one of them isn't really worth bothering with unless you're into 'classic rock' albums).

I have previously written about Rob's Records & Anarchy Records, two Nottingham second hand record shops which are my equal favourite second hand music shops (out of all the record shops I visit throughout the U.K).

Big Apple Records is a shop I don't visit as much as the other two, primarily because it doesn't tend to stock  the unusual & offbeat genres that interest me.  However, it is still a great second hand record shop, and I'm always glad when I pop in there (even if I don't buy much).

The shop is situated in the West Side Arcade, in Nottingham's city centre. It has been at this location for about six years. Prior  to this it was in a different city centre shop for 10 years, then it shut down for a couple of years, before finding these new premises.

It tends to cater for the more 'old-fashioned' record collector, specialising in certain genres, such as 1960s albums, The Beatles, psychedelia, reggae etc. Having said that, there are some surprises in the sections. The shop will often get in a huge collection of really rare stuff in the 'Punk' album section - dozens of obscure Sex Pistols or Damned rarities & bootlegs (though the 'Punk' 7" singles section is the same bog standard stuff that fills up most 'Punk' sections these days - the usual & predictable Punk / New Wave singles that made the charts - Sham 69, Toyah, The Skids etc. It seems that rare or interesting punk singles just don't turn up in second hand record shops anymore, but I suspect this has a lot to do with people being able to sell the more 'offbeat' & valuable  stuff on the internet). There's also, rather curiously, a well-stocked section for grindcore & hardcore punk albums, and this is one of the few second hand record shops I've come across that does this.

Being into original 1950s rockabilly, I like this shop a lot, as there's a really good selection of albums, old 7" singles & p/s e.ps in this genre. In fact, anybody who's into 1950s / 60s picture sleeve e.ps (in any genre) will find a good section of these here.

Having said all that, I don't actually buy a lot in this shop. It's biggest failure for me is that it's too hooked into  those classic 'collector's' genres (variations of western rock & pop) & there's a total absence of  all the 'miscellaneous' stuff that interests me (ethnic music, spoken word, sound effects, comedy etc). I did recently get a couple of great Indian classical albums in there, but they tend not to stock that kind of thing (& when they do, they're probably only selling it off some tenuous 'connection' to late 60s psychedelia).

However, despite not buying much in there (due to personal tastes), there's still a lot I would commend about the shop.
There's tons of obscure albums from the late 1960s (psychedelia etc), a lot of which just doesn't turn up in other shops, & which normally you would have to go to a record fair to find. As for prices, it's hard for me to comment, as I'm not an expert on the value of these kind of rare 1960s L.Ps. However, with the kind of records I buy in there (such as punk, early 1960s instrumentals, & rockabilly), I've always felt they've been fair & reasonable prices, a  bit less than you would pay at a record fair or a more upmarket 'collector's' shop.
The grading in the shop is refreshingly honest. I've never pulled out a record there described  as 'Excellent Condition' & thought 'Who are you trying to fool ?' (a complaint I have in many other second hand record shops). Some rare albums are even graded  (when appropriate) as 'a bit battered', and are priced down accordingly. I appreciate that honesty, and it is a rare thing among second hand record sellers.

The owner, Steve, is a little .... shall we say ... 'eccentric', but comes across a nice bloke, who is always cheerful & will always be helpful (such as allowing you to check anything by playing it on the record deck) & doesn't harangue you to buy things.

Overall, even though it doesn't stock as much of the kind of records I buy as other shops do, this is still an excellent second hand record shop, that's well worth a visit.







 

TYPES OF CRATE DIGGERS No 1 - THE 'ONE AT A TIME' MAN

This will be the first in a series in which I categorise & elaborate on, the different types of 'crate diggers' (i.e - people who hunt through boxes of second hand records in charity shops, car boot sales etc). Please note that in these articles I am talking about scenarios that involve records being sold very cheaply (e.g - old fashioned charity shops that price all the albums at one low 'standard' price - 50p or a pound or whatever) & where records aren't sorted or priced according to 'rarity' or how 'collectable' they are. Therefore, some forms of  record collecting behaviour (such as taking a very long time examining the condition of an individual record) that would make sense at a record fair or expensive record collector's shop (where you might be paying a  lot of money for one record) just come across as really anal & mean spirited when transposed into the world of ultra cheap (50p/£1) records.

The type of crate digger I will write about today is what I call The 'One At A Time'  Man (& yes, it always  is a man, & a man of a certain age - in his 50s or 60s). This type of crate digger is the worst pain in the arse for anybody who wants to flick through a box of records. Normally, at a car boot or charity shop, if you spy a box of a few dozen L.Ps, & somebody's going through them, you know that the box will be free to look at in a few minutes. You can casually browse through some other stuff, & very shortly the person flicking through the box will be finished, and then you can get in & browse through to your heart's content.

Not so with The 'One At A Time' Man. God knows how long he's been going through that box before you even got there, but even if when you arrive, it looks like he's getting to the end of the box, you can still abandon all hope that you'll ever get a chance to flick. On one occasion, there was one of these men half way through a box of albums at a car boot. I decided to have a look round the adjoining stalls then come back. He was still in that box of records. I then went round the entire car boot (& this was Nottingham's biggest car boot sale, & I went through about fifty boxes of albums). When I came back again, he was still going through that same box of a few dozen albums.

Waiting for these people to finish can also lead to you feeling really awkward, as you end up just hanging about, which makes you look a potential shoplifter. Having worked in a charity shop, I know that people who hang about for inordinate periods of time are very likely to be shoplifters (waiting for the moment when the till assistant goes backshop, so they can steal something & run off).

The other week I was in a charity shop & there was a 'One At A Time ' Man in the record box. I looked through all the clothes, and he was still there. I then went through all the books, and he was still there. I went through all the c.ds, the videos & dvds, & even went through all the clothes again, and he was still at it. leaving me nothing to do but hang about in the middle of the shop, imagining that I had a huge neon sign above my head saying "Watch Out ! Potential Shoplifter!"

He just kept pulling out this one album (the soundtrack to the BBC 'Colditz' TV series), taking it out of it's sleeve, looking at it's condition, putting it back in it's sleeve (which he struggled to do, as it had one of these old fashioned polythene lined inner sleeves), putting the L.P back in the box, flicking through a few more L.Ps, then going back & pulling the 'Colditz' album again, & going through the whole process once more.

Eventually, he got it out one more time, & then spent an eternity poring over the vinyl's condition, rubbing his finger over every tiny speck to see whether if it was a dust particle or a one millimetre surface mark. Even standing a few paces away, I could tell this album was in excellent condition (& at 99p was a bargain).

I'd now been hanging around in the shop for about 15 minutes, (& had long since run out of stuff to look at), & there he was still fiddling around with this one bloody L.P (& goodness knows how long he'd been at it before I'd even got there). All this time waiting to get into a box of records that I knew from experience would probably take me only about a minute to flick through.

There's an unwritten code of good  etiquette  & consideration for other record hunters, which is, when going through a box of records, if you come across something that you think will require some time to examine - do not stop & do that  half way through flicking. Instead, pick out the records that 'require examination', place them on the side of the box, finish going through the box, then stand away from the box (thus leaving it free for someone else to look at) & then examine all the records you've picked out for 'possible consideration', perhaps popping some of them back in the box once you've looked at them.

However, this dreadful old man had clearly not finished going through the records. He had left a gap between the albums at the point he was 'up to'  so any attempt by me to barge in would have been met with the inevitable 'I haven't finished looking at these yet'. Also, he was holding this bloody 'Colditz' album right over the box as he examined it (sometimes even placing it flat on top of the other records) making it impossible to get in there.

Eventually I could stand it no more. Partly to alleviate my awkward feelings of hanging about the shop so long doing nothing (& to therefore signal to the staff that I was not a potential shoplifter) & partly out of my frustration at this man's anal & inconsiderate behaviour, I just started loudly having a go at him - "Look mate, just buy the bloody thing. It's only 99p, and the money's going to charity". "But I like to look at the condition of records first, before I buy them" he replied, looking like I'd hurt his feelings. "So do I" I said, "but it only takes a few seconds to look at the condition of each side. How much time are you going to devote to looking at the condition of a 99p record ? If you enjoy looking at the condition of records so much, then just buy it, then you could take it home, & have a great Saturday night in, staring at the vinyl for hours & rubbing your fingers over it." (at this point, I could hear the shop assistants laughing). After that, I just gave up on waiting, & left the shop.

While this is only one anecdote out of many, I'm sure most seasoned crate diggers will have come across this kind of character, and like me, will have ended up pulling their hair out in frustration at the eternity these people take to go through a few dozen albums.

The reason I call these people 'One At A Time' Men is because of a unique peculiarity of the way they go through a box of records. Most of us can flick through records very quickly. I don't mean the physical action per se, but instead that mental process that allows us, in a split second, to decide whether or not an album is worth stopping to look at. We build up a 'memory bank' that works instantaneously, allowing us to immediately recognise an album that we know we're not interested in (for instance, charity shop staples such as Jim Reeves or James Last, or perhaps certain genres that don't interest us - for instance I tend to 'flick past' classical records or 1980s pop & heavy metal).

This 'instant recognition' (followed by the 'flicking past' action) works so quick it takes less time than it would even take to read the album's title. If you're a long time crate digger, you probably only give about a second or less to each L.P before flicking past it to the next one (especially in charity shops, where chances are you're lucky if you'll find a single L.P that interests you). Likewise, if there is anything good / interesting in any of these boxes of records it will instantly leap out at you, no matter how fast you're flicking.

Not so for The 'One At A Time' Man. They'd don't 'flick'. Instead, every single bloody L.P has to be  individually lifted up & stared at, slowly reading the title, & often looking at the back sleeve, before putting it back down again, & moving on to the next one. This is why I call them 'One At A Time' Men They can't 'flick past' one single bloody album. Every single record has to be stared at, pulled out & examined.
Do the maths here. Even if somebody just devoted 30 seconds to looking at each album, that means it would take them a whole hour to go through a box of 120 L.Ps (probably the amount in the average charity shop's carboard box). Ask yourself - how long would it take you to flick through ten dozen L.Ps in a charity shop, and the answer is probably two or three minutes (at most).

I'm all for musical eclecticism. I buy music from so many genres & so many different eras, but in truth, it's only very rarely in a charity shop that they'll be a load of records where anything is worth more than one second's attention of  your flicking time (on a few extremely rare occasions, an unusual or 'speciality' collection has come in, but even on those very rare occasions, I can still get through these much quicker than The 'One At A Time' Man takes to go through a load of bog standard Jim Reeves & James Last L.Ps).

So, what's going on mentally for these 'One At A Time' Men (as they can't possibly be so musically eclectic that every single album in a box of bog standard charity shop L.Ps is of so much potential interest to them that each L.P requires so much of their time) ? I have two possible theories to explain their behaviour.

My first possible theory is that they've just been out of the 'Record Hunting' loop for so long that the 'Instant Recognition' mental ability that I described earlier just doesn't work for them. Maybe they've long since got rid of their record collection (or stuffed it in the attic / garage) & this is their first foray in decades into the world of record hunting. Maybe they just haven't kept up with music for decades, and that's why every single album is some kind of strange enigma to them, that needs to be picked up & examined carefully, in order to familiarise themselves with it & take it in. They're like people who've just landed on an alien planet, where everything is new & strange & requires their attention.
Confronted with each L.P, they need to slowly go through their 'memory banks' to search  for some shred of recognition. I sometimes wish there was a device by which one could monitor & hear their 'inner dialogue' as they painstakingly pore over each album.
I imagine if you could hear it, it would go something like this -
"Now, let me see. .... What's this album ? ..... Who's that bloke on the cover ? .....  I'll read the title here .... 'Paul Young - No Parlez' .... No, that doesn't ring any bells .... Who was he ? .... Let me think now .... No, I don't remember him .... Perhaps if I look at the back sleeve, I might recognise a song title .... Let's have a look .... I need to put my glasses on now ..... Where are my glasses ? ..... Oh, there they are .... Now, let's see .... 'Wherever I Lay My Hat, That's My Home' .... Now that was a hit, wasn't it ? .... But who did that originally ? ..... Let me think now .... No, I can't remember .... It was some Motown artist, wasn't it ? .... but no, I can't remember .... Anyway, what's this next L.P ? ..... Let's see .... It's a Jim Reeves one .... Now, do I like Jim Reeves ? .... Let me have a think about this ...... hmmmm .... Yes, I think I do like Jim Reeves ...... Now, what was the name of his big hit ? ..... Let's have a look at the back cover ...... No, it wasn't any of those ..... Now, what was the name of that song he had ..... Let me think ... etc"

My second theory (which is somewhat related to the first) is that these men don't have any intention of buying anything (they might not even have a record deck anymore). Instead, they view the box of charity shop records as  the equivalent of a 'museum exhibit' that they can happily hog for an hour or two, as they take a trip down memory lane (especially as, being men of a certain age, most of the albums in there are L.Ps from 'their era'). So they happily whittle away an hour or two staring at the back covers of Jim Reeves L.Ps, trying to remember what his 'Big Hit' was ('something about a dog, wasn't it ?').Then they'll toddle on home & tell 'the wife' all about it, how they spent a 'an enjoyable two hours reminiscing' whilst going through a box of old L.Ps, and how they were completely bewildered by the fact that, all the while they were doing this, there was a young person standing right behind them, coughing loudly & going bright red (as if they were frustrated  about something, but goodness only knows what they could have been frustrated about).

GREAT SECOND HAND RECORD SHOPS No 2 - ANARCHY RECORDS, NOTTINGHAM

Located at 209 Mansfield Road (about 10 minutes walk from Nottingham city centre), Anarchy Records is a fantastic second hand record shop, & along with Rob's Records (see my previous article), ranks as my equal favourite of all the second hand record shops I frequent throughout the U.K.

The shop originally opened circa 2004 in a different premises a few doors further up the road. Around 2010, it went through a difficult patch involving problems with the rent & the lease, & it shut down a couple of times. At one point, the shop & all it's stock  was sold to a person who turned out to be an absolute crook. After a short period of running the shop, this crook grabbed all the best stock, & did a runner (leaving the original owners with a huge bill, as it turned out he hadn't signed over the lease & the rent to himself, which meant the original owners ended up being held responsible for paying all the arrears).

However, after these chaotic few years, the shop opened again circa 2015 (with its original owners), & has been happily serving Nottingham music lovers ever since.

There are many things that make this shop great. First of all, there's the fact that it's not just a record shop. Though records are it's primary stock (& the majority of what fills up the shop), it also caters to collectors of  other 1960s /70s 'cult' items & oddities - pulp paperbacks, music biographies, film books & magazines, obscure films on dvd & old 'big-box' video, kitsch 1960s /70s ornaments, small pieces of furniture, & a few items of retro clothing & band T-shirts.

When they had the previous shop (a few doors up) there was a basement or all this additional stuff, & there was a lot more  of it. However, in the new premises (despite not having a basement) there's still a surprising amount of all this 'other' stuff. The shop is a great example of how you can get a lot of stuff out, without the shop becoming chaotic, & customers having to climb over boxes of tat etc. If you visit the shop, you'll be amazed at how how much great stuff they've managed to get into such a small space.

The second thing that makes this shop great is the diversity of record stock. Too many second hand record  record shops just focus exclusively on western Pop & Rock genres from the last few decades, &  don't stock other kinds of records (jazz, comedy, spoken word, sound effects, novelty records, children's records, world music etc). Anarchy records has good sections for all this other stuff. A lot of it is in a big section called 'Weird & Silly', which, along with the 'World Music' section, is the section that most appeals to me. If, like me, you have very eclectic musical tastes, & appreciate vinyl 'oddities', you will love Anarchy Records.

There's a great variety of records in the shop, & the owners seem to go out of their way to look for unusual & offbeat stock, so even in the more straightforward genre sections, you will often find odd records you've never seen before.

Unlike some second hand music shops that tend to specialise in one format over another, here there's a good mix between vinyl albums, C.Ds, 7" & 12" singles.
There's a large stock of 7" singles. In most second hand record shops, I don't bother looking at the singles, as I'm more of an album lover, & usually the singles section will just be hundreds of bog standard chart records from the 1960s -90s. However, Anarchy Records is a lot more selective about the kind of 7"s they stock, & the 7"s are all from more specialist & unusual genres (divided into sections) - soundtracks, world music, punk, jazz, reggae  etc (& of course 'Weird & Silly').

There's a 'New In' section for all the music formats (albums, C.Ds, 12"s & 7"s), where new stock is put out, residing there for about a week before being placed into their respective genre sections. This means that regular customers don't need to  root through everything each time they come in, but instead can just go straight to the 'New In' section.

The last thing that makes this shop great is the prices. Prices are very good, & are a lot less than you would pay almost anywhere else (other than an old-fashioned charity shop or car boot where all albums are a pound).  Most weeks I get some fantastic albums in there, & they are rarely more than two or three pounds.  The shop doesn't tend to have major expensive 'rarities' (i.e - albums that are in the Record Collector Price Guide for 'Big Money'). I've only ever twice seen any albums in there that were more than £10.  However, there's still loads of very unusual records, which even though they may not have an 'official' high price, are still incredibly rare (after about 30 years of collecting obscure records, I can still find things in this shop, which I've never come across before).

Trying to be objective, I wondered  if there was anything I could be 'critical' of.  However, after much thought,  I realised that there wasn't a single aspect of this shop that warrants any criticism. I can't fault it in any respect, & that is a very rare thing for me to say about any second hand record shop.

Anarchy Records is a wonderful shop, which has served me well over the years, I've had so many great record finds there (all of which have been at the best prices), & also tons of other stuff (books, dvds, videos etc).

This is one of the two best second hand record shops I've ever found, & I hope it continues for many years to come.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE COSMIC INFERNO - JUST ANOTHER BAND FROM THE COSMIC INFERNO (Important 2005)

Taking account of the diversity of styles that AMT can play in (& that many of their albums contain a number of different styles, varying from track to track), this c.d is remarkably straightforward to categorise, being essentially two very long 'hard rock' pieces.

Of course, AMT's version of hard rock still sounds significantly different from the rock bands that have obviously influenced them. Even when the individual elements of a track all sound familiar (such as the first track here, which is a built on a 'classic' sounding blues-rock riff ). many things about their playing, their approach, & their recording techniques end up giving their 'rock' tracks a unique edge.

First of all, there's the production & mixing, which is odd in that drums & bass are often very low in the mix, whereas guitars are extra loud. (if there's a good rhythm guitar track, you pick up the rhythm more from that than you do from the drums & bass). Sometimes I wonder if this peculiar mixing is just bad recording practice &/or the limitations of lo-fi home recording technology (perhaps they don't have enough microphones to mike up a drum kit properly ?), but after hearing so many albums by them, I'm more convinced that this is actually the sound that they want to get.

Then there's all the synth splashes & whooshes. When they play 'spacerock' (in a Hawkwind style) synthesiser noises are to be expected, & are par for the course. However, hearing these spacerock style synth sounds on other kinds of numbers (such as Black Sabbath style 'rocking out') is very unusual, & again contributes them their unique sound.

Finally, what makes AMT very different from other 'rock' bands is their approach to structure. In the case of this c.d, it's not just the sheer length of these tracks (none of the rock bands that have influenced them ever made tracks this long). It's also the relentlessness of everybody's playing that creates a different kind of structure.
The two tracks here don't 'build' or go through any changes. Instruments neither drop out nor drop back, & nobody 'takes a solo'.(in fact, as regards Makoto, he's effectively playing a 'solo' through the entire length of each track).
Tracks just start with everybody playing, & they carry on in that groove till the end, with really no variation in texture (the only thing that really differentiates any point in a track from any other point is just what the lead guitar happens to  be doing at that point). As such, the two tracks really are just unrelenting blocks of sound (though there are simple melodies, repeated riffs & distinct rhythm, so this is still clearly 'rock' music & not just 'noise').

This relentless approach is obviously the one they want to take, & is very much their signature style here. It's not an approach that I have any problems with per se. This is often how they play at gigs, & there are many great AMT albums where they're  playing like this.
The only issue for any track with that approach is is the question of whether or not it's a good track. Results are all that matter.

The first track - 'Trigger In Trigger Out' (20.17) starts with about 30 seconds of ambient sounds, then a fantastic blues rock riff kicks in, & straight away the whole band are up & running on a fast number, locking into a groove & not letting go of it. Makoto's lead guitar is there right from the start, & is fantastic throughout the whole track. The drumming is great on this track, never losing the rhythm, but peppered with a lot of interesting fills. The bass is doing some really good melodic runs, and it's just a shame that both the bass & the drums aren't a bit more clear & louder in the mix (though I've certainly heard many other AMT recordings on which drums & bass are a lot more submerged & muddy than this).

Despite the relative quietness of the bass & drums, this track still hits you viscerally as much as any great rock track (especially due to that great rhythm guitar riff). It sounds exciting & makes you want to bang your head.

The track never goes off the rails or into 'noise freakout' territory, & only slightly speeds up in the last few minutes, to head for the big climax. I'm amazed at the intensity of everybody's playing over such a long track  (especially the drummer who is fantastic from start to finish).

The only thing I don't like on this track are the very occasional burst of vocals (through a lot of echo & reverb). Thankfully though, there's not much of them. Maybe they add a bit of variety to the track, but due to  everybody's relentless playing, there just doesn't see to be any 'space' for them to fit in.
However, apart from that, this is a great track, with really impressive & inspired playing from everybody.

The second track - 'They're Coming From The Cosmic Inferno' (43.50) I found disappointing. It's more or less doing what the first track did, but just doesn't sound as good (& goes on far too long). Breaking it down to it's individual elements, it consists of all the same things (again with a short ambient start) but lacking the great blues rock rhythm guitar.

I don't know if the tracks were recorded in the order they are on this c.d. If so, I wonder if perhaps they just exhausted themselves after the first track, Apart from Makoto's lead guitar, none of the rest of the band's playing sounds nearly as inspired as the first track. There's something lacking from this performance. It sounds like they needed a 40 minute track, & knocked one out, but didn't have anything good to build it from.

Everything just becomes monotonous & repetitive. While the drumming on the first track was great, with some interesting & intricate fills, here it's just a relentless 'thud ... thud ... thud' (albeit perfectly in time). However, that dull as dishwater drumming just starts to become headache inducing after ten minutes (1). The drums are louder on this track than they were on the first track, and I really wish it was the other way round.

Generally on albums, the pacing of tracks follows a general principle. If the first track is great, that's still just an 'opener', and the next track should be even better. Perhaps a different dynamic might have to apply to an album that's just two very long tracks.

However, this album's problem is after a great opening track, the second (& significantly longer) track is just a let down, especially as it comes across as just a very third rate version of the preceding track. Perhaps if there had been a differently style of track at this point, it would have made for a better album.

Of course, all this is just my opinion. I'm sure that there are people who love this album, and I'm sure there will be glowing reviews of it elsewhere on the internet. I am a huge AMT fan, and I hate to give them a bad review, but I have to be honest. Despite loving the majority of what I've heard by them, occasionally I will hear an album by them that disappoints me, and this is one of them.


Notes

(1) I had to laugh when I saw some reviewer referring to the monotonous thud on this track as a 'krautrock rhythm'. Given the vast diversity of bands & musics that  are now grouped together under the retroactive umbrella term 'krautrock', the notion that there is some singular & definitive 'krautrock rhythm' is absurd. (of course, if that reviewer had been even more  hip, he could called that awful thumping 'motorik').
Far too often, I see  the term 'krautrock'  used as cliche (& usually a false comparison) by people reviewing AMT albums. AMT could probably just blow their noses, & you could guarantee that some dreadful hipster somewhere would call it 'krautrock' sounding.

KAWABATA MAKOTO - HOSANNA MANTRA (C.D) (Important 2009)

This album's concept is that it is music 'inspired by' Popul Vuh's 1972 L.P 'Hosianna Mantra'. It was originally released as a vinyl album in 2006, consisting of two long tracks. The first 200 copies came with a bonus 7", containing two more shorter pieces of music.
This C.D release compiles these four tracks into a very satisfying & unified album.

As for it's musical relationship to the Popul Vuh L.P, the phrase 'inspired by' allows Kawabata, as an artist, free reign to take that 'inspiration' into whatever musical realm that leads him to. None of this actually sounds like anything on the Popul Vuh album. At a few points, it made me think of a couple of other Popol Vuh albums - 'In Den Garten Pharaos' & 'Sei Still Wisse Ich Bin'. It doesn't  sound like those albums either, but it's just that at points there's a similar feel & aesthetic.

Popol Vuh's 'Hosianna Mantra' features very different instruments than this album, it being mainly centred around piano & female vocals, whereas Kawabata's album features stringed instruments. & only has very faint vocals on one track.

I wondered if perhaps Kawabata's album was intended to be, if not a soundalike, at least 'in the spirit of' the original Popul Vuh album. However, after listening to the two albums back to back, the music on each just felt very different to me. To my ears, the only thing the two albums have in common is that both of them could be categorised under the very wide umbrella terms of  'progressive / experimental' & 'mellow' (though out of the two albums, Kawabata's one is much more mellow than the Popol Vuh one).

Perhaps the only real 'connection' is that,  I think it's reasonable to assume that, if you like Popul Vuh, you'll probably like Kawabata's album (& vice versa).

As listeners, we don't actually need to make any 'sense' of what the possible connection between these two albums is. Kawabata is obviously following the transmissions from his own musical cosmos, and that 'inspiration' has led him to make this music. We only need to appreciate that music on it's own terms.

Taken on it's own terms, I found the music on this album to be astonishing. That word 'astonishing' came into my head on the very first listen to the C.D, and after numerous subsequent listenings, I still feel that's the most appropriate word.

There are three things that astonish me about the music on this album ~

(one) The music is so gorgeous & soothing. It is a creation of great beauty.

(two) It is such a unique sonic vision. After more than three decades of actively seeking out the most obscure & original music, this still sounds to me like nothing I've ever heard before. After all this time, it's wonderful to be able to hear something that still sounds 'fresh'. The only thing it remotely makes me think of of is some other Kawabata  albums, but that in itself is a sign that, even if only to my ears, Kawabata inhabits a unique musical universe.

(three) According to the sleeve notes, this album was recorded in a mere two days, & consists only of 'electric guitar, bouzouki & sitar' (though, as I said, there is also some vocals on one track). This is a 'home recording'. I've never really known what Kawabata & Acid Mothers Temple's recording facilities are, but from having listened to a lot of their albums, I can only presume it's nothing fancy.
One of the reasons this album astonishes me is that, with a mere three instruments. Kawabata manages (in just two days) to create something that has as much depth & variety of texture as any Popul Vuh album (who had access to a vast range of instruments, & would have spent weeks in the studio making any of their albums).
This shows that Kawabata has a real musician's soul, with an incredible ear for timbre, texture , counterpoint & musical 'colour'.

In fact, if I hadn't read the sleevenotes, I probably wouldn't have guessed what the instruments were. The unique style of playing & processing the sounds makes it very difficult to recognise what instruments are being used.
The bouzouki shimmers with harmonic overtones (like a 12 string guitar), the sitar is mainly bowed (& therefore sounds more like a sarangi), and the electric guitar is  played with a metal slide through effects, giving it a constant tone, again full of rich harmonics (& if I wasn't familiar with that particular guitar sound through seeing Makoto & AMT live on many occasions, I might have just assumed this sound was coming  from some form of keyboard or synthesiser).

Playing is generally very restrained (& all the better for that), & despite the depth & variety of textures, most of this could still be classified as 'minimalist' music. In fact, the segments I like best on this album are when there's only one or two layers of sound. This album never gets 'cluttered' (at the very most, perhaps four layers at a few points) but I think the best passages are the most 'minimal'.

The first track 'Scarlet Phenomenon' (20.11) is built on that wonderfully processed sliding electric guitar tone that I previously mentioned. A beautifully shimmering stringed instrument (presumably bouzouki) shortly enters, playing a repeated motif.. After about 12 minutes, some bowed sitar comes into the mix, adding some subtle deep bass sounds. There's a graceful shift in the mix, as the electric guitar drops out & the bouzouki layer slowly returns, this time played back in reverse. This track is musical heaven for me, & is so lovely it brings tears to my eyes.

The second track - 'Hosanna Mantra' (19.29) starts with a deep multi-harmonic drone (that I presume is bowed sitar). It reminded me of something from Sheila Chandra's 'ABoneCroneDrone' album, to the point where I actually expected her voice to come in after a few minutes. Another layer of more melodic bowed sitar is added, plus an occasional  short 'twang' of high pitched sitar. There's a faint 'thud' at some points, of what sounds like a tympani drum (but almost certainly isn't).
Another wonderful track, which I could listen to again & again, & never tire of it.

The third track - 'Door Of Your Enigma' (7.04) starts with backward bouzouki (again sounding like a shimmering 12 string guitar) with some very faint abstract folky sounding vocals. Shortly into the track, I'm not even sure if the bouzouki is backwards or forwards (I think there might be two layers ?). There are occasional notes from what sounds like a keyboard or synth (but obviously isn't, given the list of instruments used).There's an air of 'mystery' about this track, that I really like.

The final track - 'You Are All Of My Love' (7.08) is just one layer of a stringed guitar instrument (whether it's the bouzouki again,or untreated electric guitar, I don't know)  playing an intricate piece that sounds like a jazz or classical guitar number. It suffers a little bit from some distortion on the recording at a few points, but is otherwise a wonderful way to end this album.

Taken as a whole, this is a fantastic album (even the cover art is perfect). I am so happy I bought this, My assessment can be summed up in the one word I used earlier. This is an astonishing album. 

            

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O - GLORIFY ASTROLOGICAL MARTYRDOM (Important 2008)

In theory, this could be the be the AMT release that's the easiest to review, & certainly the easiest to 'categorise'.
One could just say 'It consists of two long rock tracks, followed by a throwaway sounding short & messy rock piece', & that would be a 100% accurate review. Unlike some AMT releases, there's no diversity of styles between the different tracks, no unusual instruments or ambient sections, & no experimental elements in the mixing & production. Each of the tracks sound like they could be perfectly reproduced in a gig by their five piece lineup (2 guitars, bass, drums & synth) & I imagine it's just a straightforward real time live in the studio recording, in which individual instrument levels were set, & nothing was significantly changed in the subsequent mixing & production (other than overdubbing a few extra layers of lead guitar).

Of course, the word 'rock' covers a wide range of styles, & even when AMT are 'rocking out', they often don't sound like any other rock band (I can't imagine fans of 'classic rock' liking this album). Therefore, a description of each of the tracks is necessary.

The first track - 'Phantom Utopia Of Suicidal Star Warriors' (21.49) is slow & grinding, based on a single sustained, repetitive & distorted chord which drones away. The mix emphasises this droning chord, & Makoto's lead guitar. Like many AMT tracks, drums are very low & muddy in the mix, and the bass is a distant rumble. Their trademark synth whooshes & splashes are almost non existent on this track (you can occasionally faintly hear them, but they're buried under the barrage of guitar sounds). This kind of mix is why I think tracks like this are better heard when you see AMT in concert (when you can really hear the drums & bass). After a while, this track goes into the inevitable 'freakout' territory, the rhythm breaks down, and there's lots of screeching & droning guitar, before eventually returning to the original grinding riff.
It's an odd track in that, whilst they're clearly playing some form of 'rock' music, the overall effect (due to the relentless one chord drone, muddy production & mixing, & extreme lead guitar sounds) is more like listening to 'noise' music. I know there's some 'noise' / rock crossovers ('noise' aesthetics applied to rock instruments) but I'm not au fait enough with all these microgenres of underground music to know what that particular genre is called ('stoner rock' ? 'doom' ? 'sludge' ? I don't know, & I don't care).  


The second track - 'Cosmic Soul Death Disco' (28.42) has a fantastic Led Zeppelin style blues-rock riff which I love. The mix here sounds a lot better & clearer than the first track. The synth is up in the mix, and Makoto's lead guitar sounds sharp & clean. Throughout this track, Makoto's lead playing really lets rip & he sounds incredibly inspired, firing off all the great screeches & wails that we love him for. This track is a great showcase for his lead guitar. The first segment of this track is really tight, and that riff is glorious -  I just wanted it to go on forever. At some points, there's some gruff vocals going through effects, & it's a bit like The Butthole Surfers (circa 'Hairway To Steven') when they also started combining Zeppelin / Hendrix style riffs with crazy vocal effects & wild lead guitar. About a third of the way in, the track accelerates in tempo, getting faster & faster. You keep waiting for it to derail & go into 'freakout' territory, but miraculously it doesn't (& all the better for it). The music builds to an incredible speed, but doesn't lose the plot. This track is really good, but again would sound much better in a live situation (with louder drums & bass).

The final track - 'Stargate Of The Hell' (5.00) just sounds like a bad & messy version of the previous track. It's reminiscent of the kind of tracks you used to get at the end of albums, when a band had obviously finished their scheduled tracks, had a little bit of studio time left, and said 'Let's just bash something out'. Thankfully though it's only 5 minutes long.

I don't listen to this c.d often, as there's lots of AMT albums I like a lot more. I love the second track, but the first & third tracks just aren't my cup of tea. Maybe these kind of tracks would sound much better in a live situation. Perhaps at concert level volume you would get the full effect, but on c.d, these tracks come across to my ears as just sludgy noise.

Music is ultimately about personal taste though. AMT can play in a very wide diversity of styles, & how much you like any of their releases depends on how much you appreciate each of those particular styles.
If you're a fan of that grinding 'noise' / rock crossover (whatever the hell that genre is called) you'll probably like this c.d a lot more than I did.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O - ABSOLUTELY FREAK OUT (ZAP YOUR MIND) (Double C.D) (Static Caravan / Resonant 2001)

This was the very first Acid Mothers Temple I bought, way back in 2001. Earlier that year, I'd read an article about them by Julian Cope in 'Mojo' Magazine'. It was one of these music articles that was severely lacking in facts, but instead was just a long string of ridiculous metaphors & gibberish.

That overly metaphorical approach.is something I hate in music writing. A good metaphor or poetic turn of phrase can certainly add some spice to a piece of writing.  However, if you're trying to introduce readers to a particular band or particular album, before you get carried away with flowery metaphors (e.g - 'imagine a one-legged Johnny Cash on acid playing jazz with Throbbing Gristle underwater in Albania' or 'listening to this music is like flying on a magic carpet through silver tomato bushes while 1000 glam-rock leprachauns dance the can-can'... etc ) I think it's necessary to provide certain basic facts first, e.g - is this a real band that play instruments or is this music created entirely by samples on a computer ? How many people are in the band & what instruments do they use ?  Is the music structured, melodic & rhythmic, or is it free-form & abstract ? etc. These facts don't necessarily need to be spelled out directly, but a good piece of music writing should allow the reader to ascertain them. The absence of these basic facts (as points of reference) just makes any metaphors meaningless.
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This article gave me no real sense of anything about the band. I didn't even know how long they'd been going for. I was left  with the impression that they were some long lost & obscure band from the late 1960s, who were possibly still making albums. As for the music itself, these stupid made it impossible for me to  imagine what they might actually sound like, other than it was very 'psychedelic' (which can mean almost anything these days) & also very 'strange'. My curiosity was piqued, as 'psychedelia' & 'strangeness' are two musical strands that very much appeal to me. However, I just presumed they were so obscure I'd never get a chance to hear them.

Despite this dreadful article giving me no real musical clues, the pictures of the band made a huge impression on me. They looked so otherwordly & fascinating, like a commune of wizards who lived in a cave in the mountains.

A few months later, I was amazed to see photos of this band on a gig poster. AMT were very much alive & kicking (despite me being left with the erroneous impression that they were some 'relic' from the late 1960s), and were coming to play a gig in my home town (Nottingham U.K) , Wow ! I  had to see this, despite still having no real sense of what they might sound like.

This turned out to be the greatest gig I've ever seen by anybody. Not only were AMT amazing, but Julian Cope himself was present, & joined them on stage for their last few numbers. There's something wonderful about going to see a band without knowing what to expect, & then having your mind blown. These elements of glorious 'surprise' can never be had again (for instance,the point in the gig where they stopped playing their instruments, the bass player started doing throat singing, & then the band went into an acappela rendition of a french folk song - I could never have expected that !).

I'd hate to be a 'hipster'. Hipsterish people are just far too musically informed that there's no elements of 'surprise' left for them. Especially in this internet age, I doubt if any of these 'hipsters' go to see a band without first thoroughly familiarising themselves with said band's back catalogue.
They also ruin your enjoyment of music by their constant finding of obscure 'comparisons'. No matter how original & unique you find any music, they can always tell you that it (allegedly) 'sounds like' somebody else (e.g - 'This really reminds me of The Savage Puddings'. 'I've never heard of them. Who are they ?' 'You should check them out. They were a band that were active in The Bolivian underground bebop / sludge disco fusion scene of the early 1980s, & they made all their music with pencils').

Unfortunately, I had very little money on me that night, & wasn't expecting there to be a merchandise stall (with lots of c.ds & albums). I couldn't afford to buy anything then. However, thankfully we had a really 'hip' music shop in Nottingham (now sadly shut down). There was a few AMT c.ds in there (including this one) that I bought shortly afterwards.

I've subsequently bought loads more AMT c.ds, either through Amazon or at AMT gigs. After that first gig, they went on to become more or less my 'favourite band', & I've seen them another three times since. After buying a few more of their c.ds, I filed this one away & haven't listened to it for years, as I'd since got loads more of their c.ds which I enjoyed listening to much more than this one.

However, I dug this one out for the sake of this review, & after listening to it again, I felt it's not nearly as one-dimensional as I'd previously assumed. My memory of it was that it was all 'noise freakouts', one of AMT's styles that I can only take in small doses. I thought I could just sum it up as "a double c.d that's the quintessential AMT 'Noise Freakout' release", but' after listening to it again, I realise that it's far more of an 'experimental' album (so perhaps the correct accolade would be - 'it's the quintessential AMT experimental release').

None of this sounds like the kind of thing that could be reproduced live. There's lots of jump cuts, fiddling about with the settings on analogue echo effects, playing tracks backwards, abstract & freeform sections etc. I think my earlier disappointment with this is that it just didn't have any of the great psychedelic rock style that characterised that first gig I saw by them.

In many ways, this is a continuation of the 'Musique Concrete' approach  of their self-titled first album, I just happen to prefer the first album to this one, though that's just personal taste.
This is still a  key AMT release to have.  It's an amazing fusion of psychedelia, musique concrete, avant-garde, & electronics that doesn't really sound like anybody else (despite what the hipsters claim).

Listening to it, you can sense that they were absolutely determined to make something very 'different', & explore new ways of recording & structuring tracks. It sounds inspired - as if this is totally the album they needed to make at this point, & they put their heart & soul into it (as opposed to some of their other 'experimental' albums, that sound like they've just gone into their studio for a few hours, noodled about, then given the recordings to some small label who wanted to release a c.d by them). There's a real intensity & determination infusing these recordings.
Even at it's most freeform & abstract (i.e - the majority of this album) it doesn't sound like they're just 'noodling'. It comes across that they know exactly what they want to do on each track, & manage to pull it off. No matter how 'out there' it gets, you can tell that there's a real sense of musicality at work here - an ear for variety of texture & timbre.

Most of this is 'difficult' listening, which is why I don't listen to it a lot,. Unlike a lot of AMT albums, that I could play to my friends, I don't know anybody else who might like this. In order to appreciate it, you need to have an ear for the avant garde. This album is so extreme that so far it's been a solitary pleasure, & I really don't know  who I could possibly 'recommend' it to.

I'm not going to break it down track by track, especially as each track consists of a list of different titles  (as they're obviously a number of separate pieces  pasted together). Unlike most AMT albums, I think this has to be taken as a 'whole', & not broken down piece by piece.

Despite the majority of this album being 'difficult' & extreme, there are some moments of  beauty. The second track on the first disc has a gorgeous shimmering  wall of Indian stringed instrument  (possibly tambura) that goes on for a long time before hitting a wonderful section of backwards drums & extremely trippy keyboard  (this track is very much in the vein of ' Hyper Nebulous Meditation' from the 'Wake To The Dawn Of Another Astro  Era' c.d).  The first track  on the second c.d  is built on a series of lovey psychedelic loops. Other than that though, this album is extremely demanding listening, and I rarely find myself in the 'right mood' to listen to it.

I like that it exists (it's a unique sonic document). I like that I have it -  I'm a huge AMT fan, and this is one of their 'key' releases. If you're also an AMT fan, this is probably one you should own.
However, unless your regular listening habits include noise & avant garde music, this might not be one that you want to listen to often.



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ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE - WILD GALS A GO-GO (Riot Season / Swordfish 2006)

AMT c.ds almost never turn up in U.K music shops (at least not in the cities I go to), no matter how 'independent' or hipster-orientated the shop in question is. I can only presume that the tiny labels that put out AMT releases just don't have adequate distribution. Almost all the AMT c.ds I've got have either been bought at their gigs, or more recently I've been buying a lot of them through Amazon. I don't buy them randomly. As much as I'm a huge fan, I'm aware that some of their releases I'm not going to like as much as others, so I try to read as many reviews as I can, & if possible listen to their albums on Youtube in order to determine which ones I want to buy.

However, on a recent trip to Birmingham to check out the music shops there, I came across this c.d in Swordfish Records - a great little shop that also runs a label (this release appears to be a collaboration between the Swordfish label & the Riot Season label). It's a very early AMT album, first released in 1999 on AMT's own label, & this re-release is from 2006.

I bought this on sight. After all, it's so rare to find an AMT album in a shop, and who can resist that cover art ? It's one of their best ever album designs.

The concept behind this album is that it's a 'soundtrack' for an imaginary film. A good concept, but I found this album to be a disappointment.
Taking it at face value, as alleged 'soundtrack' music, this is more like abstract incidental music (that might accompany a strange dream sequence or druggy segment) as opposed to the kind of soundtrack music where tracks can stand up in their own right, even when divorced from the visuals (for instance the soundtrack to 'The Wicker Man' or the great soundtracks Goblin made for Dario Argento's films).
There are some films you watch where you want to go straight out & buy the soundtrack album, and others where the music just isn't strong enough to make an impression on you (as a purely audio experience), and if this film actually existed the 'soundtrack' would definitely fall into the second category.

Like many AMT albums, it sounds like they could have knocked this whole thing out (including the mixing & production) in an afternoon. While I have no objections per se to this 'one-take improvised' approach (& have even been in a band that recorded that way) it's not always going to result in good music, and I think that's the problem here. This just doesn't sound like it was an inspired recording session (with good ideas for tracks) & I think it just should have been shelved & not released, especially considering that AMT don't spend much time or money on recording (almost everything they release is a home recording). They could have easily put this session in the can (at no loss) & recorded a better album the next day.
That is of course only my opinion, and as with every AMT c.d, there are some people who really like this. Almost every AMT c.d on Amazon gets four or five star reviews (& is often described as 'essential'). As a fan, I try to be ruthlessly critical & objective. Any band who put out as much as AMT just can't be consistently making c.ds that are worthy of four or five stars. Their 'success' rate is surprisingly high though. Out of the forty or so albums I've heard by them, there are a lot of great ones. However, there are quite a lot that are really three star ('average' albums) & so far I've only heard one ('in Search Of Lost Divine Arc') that falls below that three star threshold & enters the realm of being a 'bad' album.

This isn't quite at the level of being a 'bad' album. However, there are a couple of bad tracks, & overall it's all just mediocre & doesn't ever amount to anything.

The first track - 'Reverse Of The Universe 1' (6.55) has a horrible one note drone (sounding like a cheap casio keyboard) backed by some acoustic guitar clanging through echo, and that's all this track consists of. It had me running to turn the volume down, as that horrible drone made me think the upstairs neighbours were going to run down & knock on my door, assuming that perhaps my fire alarm had gone off. This is the laziest track I've ever heard by AMT.

The second track - 'Space Bambino' starts promisingly - some lovely acoustic guitar (reminiscent of early Pink Floyd) & nice abstract echoing female vocals. After a few minutes though, I found myself getting bored by it. It doesn't change, develop or 'become' anything. Again, it's that failure of the 'one-take improvised approach. There's the potential of a good track here had it been worked on & developed more.
After about three minutes, it cuts jarringly into a noisier piece (which sounds like an entirely different track just pasted on) - a funky drum pattern, tightly played distorted rhythm guitar, and a crunchy synth sound (that made me think of a locust eating it's dinner). All the layers sound like loops, and overall this sounds like a 'techno' track. To my ears, this was headache inducing.

The third track - 'Sweet Juicy Lucy' (7.06) has a minimal drum rhythm & chiming guitar, both of which are reminiscent of Can, & some spoken female vocals which sound like they might be in French. Later in the track, there's a layer of treated abstract high-pitched female vocals.
This is potentially a good track, but as with some AMT tracks, there's one layer in it that's just clutter, & you just wish had been taken out in the final mix. In this case, it's a horrid keyboard sound (like the 'organ' setting on the cheapest casio keyboard) droning away repeating three or four notes without any panache or style. It sounds like someone who's never played keyboard before, but has found a few notes that are in tune with the guitar, and is just randomly alternating between them. Ouch ! That keyboard ruins this track.

The fourth track - 'Mammary Intercourse' (6.28) was described by one Amazon reviewer as being 'like a Hawkwind album being played backwards', & that's the perfect description (if you wanted to be more precise, I would say - one of the rockier tracks from 'Space Ritual' being played backwards). This is like a lot of AMT's 'noise freakout' tracks, except that it's lacking Makoto's wonderful wild lead guitar, & instead is mostly crunchy synth noises.

The fifth track - 'Hare Hare Hallelujah' (18.23) just meanders about for the first half, with everything going through a lot of effects. There's some tabla & abstract female vocals (accompanied by faint guitar & synth squidge) which sound good, but don't really 'go' anywhere. Once again I feel that, with a bit more work, this track could have been developed into something better.
About half way through, a drum rhythm comes in, & then the track goes into spacerock territory. However, it's a lot more muted & milder than AMT's usual spacerock tracks, and it sounds like listening to spacerock underwater. There's some good jazzy keyboard, but this track is lacking Makoto's fantastic lead guitar (which always elevates their rockier & noisier tracks).

The sixth track - 'Goodbye Ice Cream' (14.27) meanders about for the first few minutes, with acoustic guitar, synth & abstract female vocals. This section sounds a bit like the intro to Hawkwind's 'Space Is Deep'.
It then goes into a minimal rhythmic track, topped with a rather good slide guitar motif (& the usual AMT synth squidges). For the first time on the album. there's some (very quiet) male vocals. Though this is quite pleasant listening (& is my favourite track on this album), like many of the other tracks, it doesn't change, grow, or develop, and after a while it outstays it's welcome.

The final track - 'Reverse Of The Universe 2' (6.09) is more or less the first track again (chugging echoed acoustic guitar & a one note drone) & sounds like the band just needed a 'filler' track to make this up to the required length.

In the light of everything I've just typed (in the track by track descriptions) I'm very tempted to revise my previous assessment that this "isn't quite at the level of being a 'bad' album". I've certainly made it sound 'bad'. It's just that it isn't consistently bad from start to finish. There are some segments of this album that are okay, but even these segments are nothing special, and there's numerous AMT albums on which you can find much better versions of these kind of tracks.

If the music had lived up to the fantastic cover, this would have been one of the best AMT albums ever. However, it's just a shame that such wonderful cover art was wasted on such a mediocre & uninspired sounding album.

GREAT SECOND HAND RECORD SHOPS No 1 - ROB'S RECORDS, NOTTINGHAM

Rob's Records (situated in Hurts Yard Nottingham) is one of my two favourite second-hand record shops. After 35 years of crate-digging, involving travelling all over the U.K, I still think Rob's Records can't be beaten. It's a very rare occasion that I go in there & don't have an amazing find (at a great price), and being a collector of some very obscure genres, it will often be something that I would have had no chance of finding in any other record shop. Far too many second hand record shops just focus exclusively on western 'Rock / Pop' from the last few decades, and don't cover other fields, such as jazz, classical, folk, or the whole gamut of what sometimes gets filed as 'miscellaneous' - ethnic recordings, spoken word, comedy, sound effects etc. Rob's Records is great in that it has huge, well-stocked sections of all these 'other' kinds of records.

Rob's Records is often described as 'a Nottingham institution'. It has been here since 1980 (a few years before I moved here). About seven years ago, it moved to a shop one door up, more or less the same size, & so kept the same layout. Regular customers didn't really notice a change when it moved - thank goodness. 'If it isn't broken, don't fix it' as they say.
The only thing I've noticed significantly changing over the last few years is that almost all the 7" singles have disappeared, & the focus of the shop is almost entirely on L.Ps. That's fine for me, as I'm almost exclusively an album buyer. I think there might well be a large stock of 7" singles, but there just isn't the space to put them out, as the shop is absolutely overflowing.

As well as being described as 'a Nottingham institution', there are many other descriptions you hear of this shop, usually involving the word 'chaos' (e.g - 'a shrine to chaos', 'a temple of chaos'). It's not that records aren't meticulously sorted into genre sections (in fact, in that respect, it's very good). It's just that the shop is so overflowing with stuff that sometimes it's hard to get to any particular section. Often it involves stretching over several boxes of stuff on the floor, in order to flick through any particular section. Often there are crates of records sitting on top of sections (worryingly probably causing damage to sleeves & warping the records) that you have to move first in order to get to what you want to look at.
When he moved to the new shop about seven years ago (involving shutting down for a few weeks), at first customers were pleasantly surprised that all that chaos had gone. However, it wasn't long before that chaos crept back in to the new premises, & after a couple of years, the new shop was just as chaotic as the old shop. it's absolutely crammed with records (which is great) and 'Excuse me. Can I just squeeze by you here ?' is a commonly heard refrain from customers.

The owner, Rob Smith, is your ideal second hand record shop manager. He never harangues or hassles you to buy things. He's always cheerful, and never grumpy (unlike some second hand record shop managers, who  are like Bernard Black of the TV comedy series 'Black Books'). He's made it his business to know what his regular customers buy, and if I pop in, he might say to me something like 'You might want to look in the Jazz section - there are some interesting instrumental L.Ps just come in that you might like'. Other than that, he leaves you to it., and when you buy something he's incredibly courteous (referring to you as 'my dear sir').
Despite looking like a scruffy old man (I think he's about 60 years old, complete with classic moth-eaten Ronnie Corbett jumpers)  Rob Smith has a second career as a big name Northern Soul D.J, and has a schedule that would put any young raver to shame. Most nights, he's out till the wee hours of the morning spinning discs at Northern Soul events all over the U.K.
He's also a walking encyclopedia of music. Pull out an album of any genre & ask him about it, & he usually be able to tell you something about that album or the artist. If somebody comes into the shop & asks for a particular album or single, he'll know if he's got it or not, and knows exactly where it is (despite all the chaos). If you ask if he ever gets in certain albums, he doesn't bullshit you with the lazy stock reply - 'Yes, we get that in from time to time, so keep coming back'. After decades in the business, he knows what the likelihood of certain records turning up are & how frequently they do, and will give you an honest reply (sometimes being prepared to admit  'No, we never get copies of that here').

Goodness only knows where he gets his stock from, but every week loads of stuff turn up in that shop that I've never seen before & never knew existed. I can only presume that he's got some deal with 'House Clearance' companies, as every week  huge record collections (often containing rare & valuable albums) turn up in his shop. I can't believe that people have just come in the door & sold him this stuff, as I very rarely see anybody coming in & trying to sell him stuff. When he had his first shop (before moving) I used to sometimes see people coming in trying to sell stuff, at which point he would pull his 'dealer face', grimacing, whilst saying 'It's not really what will sell here' and then offering them a pittance for it.

Whilst this approach may not be good for the seller, it's wonderful for the buyer. One thing you can't complain about in Rob's Records is the prices. Whenever I flick through the 'Rare Records' section (which is usually 'classic rock' from the late 6Os), albums are significantly lower than the 'book price'. I think he just gets so much stuff in that it's priced to sell quickly, so he can clear space & get more stuff out.
He wants stock to shift quickly, and he told me recently (with regard to a lot of the 'jazz' & 'miscellaneous' albums) that he'll tend to put it out at 'full price' (still very low - 3 or 4 pounds usually at tops), but if it doesn't sell after a few weeks, it just goes in one of the '£1' sections. There are huge sections in the shop of albums that have been knocked down to only a pound (& a lot of them are great albums, not the usual 'charity shop rejects' type albums that other record shops would have in their 'cheap' section), As a result, you never need to avoid Rob's Records if you've only got two or three pounds in your pocket. There's still loads of stuff you can buy. I've found many of my most treasured record finds in Rob's Records, and only very rarely have any of them been more than £3.

Every record buyer in Nottingham has their own 'defining story' of the chaos & craziness that is Rob's Records. Two anecdotes of my own that come immediately to mind are ~

(one) Finding a half-eaten sandwich lodged between albums in the middle of the 'New In' section.  It looked like that sandwich had lain there for weeks, and I can only presume that Rob Smith himself was the eater of said sandwich, and had got distracted when a customer came in.

(two) A couple of years ago I asked him if he still had videos.for sale. As there was no other customers in the shop at that point, he took me into some kind of warehouse a few doors up from the shop. Despite being a customer almost 30 years, I never knew this warehouse existed (& I've not met anybody else who's been in it)..
There was a mountain of videos just inside the doorway, & I bought quite a few. As I peered further into this warehouse, I saw a huge backroom in which there were tens of thousands of albums being sorted out by 3 or 4 skinny young hipsters, none of who I'd ever seen before in the shop (maybe they were slaves, & he kept them chained up in this warehouse ?)
The whole scene looked Dickensian. This huge backroom was almost pitch black, only illuminated at a few points by some small spotlights. It had a bare concrete floor, & the wood of the ceiling was all rotting & falling away. There was a distinct sound of dripping water coming from somewhere.

Ever since then I've wondered what was going on there, who these people were, and what was happening with all these mountains of L.Ps. There's always a few hundred albums in the 'New In' section each week, but there's just no room in the shop to put new stock out in vast bulk. If all these albums were ultimately destined for the shop, it would take forever till they all saw the light of day. I would love to get in there again & find out what's going on there, but so far that hasn't happened.

Finally, a mention should be made of the kind of customers you find in Rob's Records, as the customers in any second hand record shop always significantly add to that shop's 'character'. The customer base is split 50 /50 between pleasant & polite young hipsters, & annoying old men. These old men don't appear to be in there to actually buy anything, but instead just to corner Rob & regale him with tales (which I suspect of being utter fabrications) of some amazing 'deals' they've done (i.e - 'I bought such & such a record at a car boot sale for £1. It was in absolutely Mint condition. It's £500 in 'the book', and I sold it to a dealer in London for £300.... blah... blah blah').

There's also the 'loonies'. Every second-hand record  shop attracts it's share of 'loonies', but Rob's Records sees to have the lion's share. In truth,I don't know if all these people are strictly 'loonies', but they just lack any social skills or social awareness. Often. people will enter the shop & just shout 'Rob !', demanding his attention immediately, regardless of what he's doing, &/or whether he's in the middle of serving a customer. I remember at one point, an interview was being filmed with Rob in a corner of the shop (for a documentary on the so-called 'vinyl revival') & still morons were just walking into the shop entrance & shouting 'Rob ! I've got some records I want to sell to ya !''
As regards the 'loonies, the defining moment was a few years ago ago, when a fifty-something woman appeared in the shop doorway & shouted  out -  'Rob ! I'm mentally ill, and I've just had my leg amputated !' in a very happy & excited voice, as if you were meant to say 'congratulations,well done' (& in fact, she appeared to have two fully functioning legs).

So, all in all, if you're prepared to put up with some 'loonies', are prepared to put up with climbing over boxes of records, are prepared to stretch your arms out in order to access some sections, & are prepared to undertake some heavy lifting (moving crates of records in order to get at the ones underneath), Rob's Records is really worth the visit & worth the effort.
When I flick through my own album collection, it's amazing how may of my best finds came from Rob's Records (& very rarely have I paid more than £3 for any of them). The day Rob's Records shuts down will be a sad day indeed.

For a video showing just how crazy & chaotic this shop is  ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMQ_uxZzN-M


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