What we listened to last week (September 2023 edition)

A full report from the third meeting of the Really Strange Record Club.

What a night! It was a capacity crowd for the third meeting of the Really Strange Record Club, as Dreamhouse Records filled with old friends and new eager to hear some truly out-there sounds. It was probably also the widest and wildest range of records we’ve listened to at an event yet.

Josh opened with a pair of 7-inches that had a distinctly local flavour - Football, Football by Orient FC (1974), and Fantastic’o by The O’s & The OK Band (1978) - two songs by our local club Leyton Orient, the latter released in the run-up to their epic FA cup showdown against Arsenal. These took us straight back to an era where teams recorded songs about how good they were at football - a tradition that’s long overdue a comeback in my book. Josh closed his slot with Stelvio Cipriani’s absolutely slapping theme to La Polizia Sta Guardare (1973), and if this hasn’t been sampled already by a hip-hop producer somewhere, it can only be a matter of time.

Phil kept the Leyton vibes going with Bark Psychosis’ epic 21-minute odyssey Scum (1992) - a truly intense slow-burn of a record. Bark Psychosis were from around these parts, and were among the first to receive the designation of “post-rock” by Simon Reynolds when he coined the term; if that doesn’t make your heart swell with local pride, nothing will.

Paul took the reins with an excerpt from Philip Glass’s classic Glassworks (1982) - an attempt to sell the minimalist maestro to a pop audience, but that remarkably manages to distill the essence of his work very successfully into bitesize chunks while boasting some of the heaviest bass we heard all evening. This was followed by a banging cut from Aby Ngana Diop’s Liital, recorded in Senegal in 1994 and given a global release twenty years later by Awesome Tapes From Africa; both the breaks and the vocal go hard on this one.

Dario stepped up next to play a track from TKZEE’s Halloween (1998) - an irresistible mix of rap and kwaito from South Africa that got everyone’s heads nodding.

Erin brought one of the “has to be heard to be believed” records of the night - Dynamite With A Laserbeam: Queen As Heard Through The Meat Grinder of Three One G, a 2002 compilation comprised entirely of grindcore covers of Queen songs. We loved all 56 seconds of The Locusts’ compressed but surprisingly reverent take on Flash’s theme, before listening to Simian Mobile Disco’s Sick (2005), a heavy slice of nihilism from their debut 7-inch.

Chris treated us to a trio of tracks from that fascinating moment in the early 2000s when hip hop and IDM were interacting in all sorts of unusual ways. He billed Buck 65’s Lil’ Taste of Poland (from Man Overboard, 2001) as “medieval hip-hop” and wasn’t wrong; this was followed by Boards of Canada’s remix of cLOUDDEAD’s Dead Dogs Two from 2003, and then finally Object Beings’ Attack of the Post-Modern Pat Boones from 2000 - undeniably the best title of the night.

Simon dug deep into his archive of Japanese records with very little internet footprint to bring us three tracks from Itsuroh Shimoda’s Love Songs And Lamentations from 1973 - a psych-folk record that effortlessly moved through multiple styles (including doo wop) in a loose, jammy haze. A terrific deep cut that deserves more attention.

Mark brought possibly the first ten-inch we’ve had at the RSRC in the form of Dark Ducks’ Echoes of Alpen Chorus. The date on this one was unclear; Dark Ducks were a Japanese male chorus group who recorded throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, and here we had some impressive yodelling combined with some tight vocal harmonies. He then took us on a wild left-turn with Alan Jefferson’s Galactic Nightmare, an utterly charming and also totally epic homespun synthesiser tribute to War of the Worlds painstakingly recorded between 1979-1985 in a Bedroom in Hull. A delightful labour of love.

Nick brought along an absolute classic of the kankyo ongaku Japanese environmental ambient scene - 1984’s Air In Resort by Hiroshi Yoshimura. This record was released by Japanese fragrance powerhouse Shiseido to promote a new perfume, drops of which were added to the record. This had an unintentionally corrosive effect, meaning all copies of this record have considerable surface noise; I was keen to smell the record, but the fragrance on Nick’s copy has long since faded. The delightful combination of birdsong, field recordings and gentle DX7 chimes still sounds blissful nearly 40 years later, and had a truly tranquil effect on the room.

Johnny brought along a 7-inch he had no recollection of buying and had never listened to before, making this in effect a premiere. Luckily Bags’ Disco’s Dead turned out to be a prime slice of lo-fi punk rock from 1979 (even if we might dispute the title). He then treated us to the funky flute sounds of Harold Alexander with a cut from 1974’s Raw Wood - undeniably the smoothest sounds of the night.

I brought along a couple of deep cuts from The Human League. First was the opening track from 1979’s Dignity of Labour EP, a Harmonia-via-Throbbing Gristle sequencer jam that still sounds incredible; it boggles the mind to think that seven years later they were recording soul ballads with Jam & Lewis. Then we heard Love Me Madly from 2001’s massively underrated gem Secrets, which combines pop songwriting with a raw buzz and attitude that Erin aptly compared to Alec Empire.

Mark stepped back up to close proceedings with possibly the most extraordinary record of the night - English With An Accent, a 1974 curio from the BBC which, as the title implies, features an array of non-native speakers speaking English - a relic from a more anglo-centric age that also testifies to the bizarre range of records and cassettes released by the BBC over the years. According to the sleeve, the contributors were encouraged to speak “off the cuff”, and I suspect the producers were as delighted as we were by the Dutch gentleman’s incredible anecdote about a drunken acquaintance who mistook a pig sty for his house. A boutique Record Store Day reissue must surely be imminent.

All in all, an incredible night - thank you to everyone who came down, it was truly wonderful to see so many of you there. And special thanks as ever to Jon of the wonderful Dreamhouse Records for hosting this madness. Stay tuned for details of the next one…

Matt