What we listened to last night

A night of amazing sounds at Dreamhouse Records!

What a brilliant night that was. Thanks so much to everyone who came down to Dreamhouse Records last night and made the inaugural meeting of The Really Strange Record Club such a special evening. It was fabulous meeting everyone, and the range of music you all brought with you was truly extraordinary.

As promised, here’s a recap of what we listened to…

Phil kicked off the evening with a couple of 12” singles by Fetus Productions, from the Auckland post-punk scene of the early 80s. These proved to be an apt opener - the industrial textures and avant electro-pop made for a compelling mix; a huge tip for anyone thinking of starting a reissue label.

Tom followed up with the first side of Cardiacs’ 1989 opus On Land And In The Sea - a fascinating mix of epic prog songwriting with some distinctly late-80s electronic textures.

Simon switched things up with four cuts from the truly astonishing Electro-Pops of Beatles 80 by the trio of Nobuyuki Shimizu, Yasuaki Shimizu and Masanori Sasaji. Describing this as an album of Beatles covers in a YMO style only gets you halfway there - this record has to be heard to be believed, if only for the way their Day In The Life cover manages the amazing trick of making the John bit sound cheery and the Paul bit doomy.

Marc brought along literally the heaviest record of the night - :zoviet-france:*’s Mohnomishe from 1983, housed in what appeared to be a wooden sleeve. But the proto-IDM groove of the track he picked out for us felt at least a decade and a half ahead of its time - a truly incredible find.

Mike reminded us of the crucial role Sonic Youth have always played as a gateway drug to the weirder stuff with some selections from 1990’s all-timer Goo. The songs still sound anthemic, the playing still sounds truly out there - a classic.

Gareth took us on a whistle stop tour of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, courtesy of the debut 7” of London’s Praying Mantis and first two 7” singles from Derbyshire’s Witchfynde. Packed with all the soloing you could possibly want from a metal jam, these - to put it succinctly - rocked.

Things took a sharp turn into leftfield with Josh’s selection of 7”s, starting with Cindy & Bert’s borderline-inexplicable Der Hund Von Baskerville - a cover of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, with new German lyrics faithfully recounting the story of, er, The Hound of the Baskervilles. This was swiftly followed by Negro Terror’s righteously re-appropriative Screwdriver cover Voice of Memphis, and Mary Monday’s unjustly forgotten banger I Gave My Punk Jacket To Ricky.

Johnny brought us perhaps the most enigmatic 7” of the evening - Mo Zancettes by the fabulously-named Manfred Romance, who 6/8 groove was as charming as the sleeve artwork.

Paul blew the roof off with the final selections of the night - starting with a cut from Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes’ remarkable Ame Debout LP featuring one of the most astonishing vocal performances I’ve heard in years. This was followed by Andrea Beton’s Suché Lúky from Punctum Tapes’ Liptov compilation - which gave us our first actual electronic beat of the night! - and then finally a slice of glorious chaos from Stolen Car, by the incomparable master of the avant-garde cut-up, Carl Stone.

Finally, I played Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In Her Mouth, a surprising avant-pop moment from Ireland’s experimental theatre company of the early 80s, Operating Theatre.

All in all, an incredible night. Special thanks to Jon from Dreamhouse, who as well as hosting us in his beautiful shop, manned the bar AND was on needle-drop duties all night.

And yes - we’re happy to confirm that there’ll be a follow-up night in the near future - stay turned for the date, which we’ll be announcing soon.

In the meantime, thanks again to everyone who came down - tell your friends to subscribe here, follow us on Instagram, and we’ll meet again very soon…

Matt