Hills & Dales Pt III

The fifth and final opp shop we visited was one I've had a lot of luck at previously. Last time I was there I picked up about a dozen Dead Kennedy's, Sex Pistols, The Clash and other Punk records. The time before that I found a stack of old French Pop with some ill drum breaks, so I had high hope.

By this stage the kids were over it, we were all grumpy and ready to head home (via Burger Fuel) and opp shopping seemed like the last thing we wanted to do. With the opp shop due to close at 4:00pm and us on the other side of a few busy roads away, it was going to be a mission to get there on time. But I was determined because I knew there had to be some scores to be had. Here's what I got:


Otello Profazio - Calabria

Sometimes you find a big chunk of a certain type of record - obviously some German guy died and so there'll be 100 German records in a row. In this instance it was Italian records. I'm not too up on anything Italian except porn soundtracks so I didn't know what to pick up. I thought I'd give this a go. It's pretty crap.

Instructional Record - Let's Disco!

After reading that fellow Dollar Brander Crispy King has a soft spot for Disco, I thought I'd pick this up and see if I could learn a few dance steps. Pretty great Australian accent on side one and some disco classics on the flip side. Was pretty stoked with this.

Various - Vetrina Di Hit Parade Vol 8

I usually have a lot of luck with records that look like this. The breaks or loops seem to flow thick and fast. I thought if I could strike it lucky on this crazy record, I might have some great samples to make 90's style hiphop. From memory I got a few good samples of this which I'll post up another day. Stoked.

Kimera - O?era Express

Would you pick this up? I had to. The cover is absolutely ridiculous. I was expecting some sort of cheese ball opera/pop tunes and some screeching Asian lady. Turns out I was right. The interesting thing about this is that the London Symphony Orchestra was roped into playing on this. Obviously times were tight that year.

Boney M. - Nightflight To Venus

I'm a Boney M. fan. They're one of my guilty pleasures. It all starts from when my step dad used to blast the shit out of them on his Alpine car stereo. From then on I always liked their music. Their band is ridiculous. The lyrics, well who cares? The bassist plays like their life depends on it and it's just good quality disco. I dunno if this is a Dan-Fact, but: The same team who wrote and produced this (F.Farian) can be found on the back of Milli Vanilli records. Interesting because it's interesting.

Junior - Mama Used To Say

I'm not going to lie; I picked up this 7" in the hopes it'd have something to entice Brother -M to part with something in his collection. A little swap fodder if you will. I think the era might be a bit late for his tastes. It's pretty dope in my opinion. And ol' Aloe Blacc on the cover there is macking it with the drawn-in glass.

The Platters - Volume Two

No matter how many times I get burnt, I keep buying Platters records. Why? They're never any good. In fact, I think I've got the only good one in my collection already which has my favourite song: "I Only Have Eyes For You". I don't know why, but I just keep buying their records and being disappointed. Do you guys have any similar artists that you do that with?

Yoga - Yoga

That's not the correct title, but it's in another room and I'm on a roll with the typing. What I can tell you about this is it seems to be from the same family as Benediction Moon. I thought I better pick it up just in case someone has a penchant for New Zealand accents telling you to "feel your body lighten, breath by breath". Nice one. If I can get rid of it, the cover is worth it to keep it.

Sonja Herholdt - Harlekyn

Hey crazy lady. You're either going to be screeching over some huge drum breaks and horn parts or you're going to let me down with 80's MIDI cheese. I was kidding myself when I bought this. Bit of a waste of 20c, but it was worth it to risk it.

Various - Hits '89

I picked this up for the Holiday Makers song - one I hadn't heard before and I'm reading a bit about them at the moment. Anyways, the record is pretty craphouse. But I wanted to point to things out to you on the back cover that gave me a laugh:

1) "To Jon, Happy Easter. Have this record with a picture of Prince butt naked being the absolute fruitcake that he currently is in 1989". So funny. 2) Hey BMG, Y U No count properly? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 7, 6. That's new to me.

Peter Thomson - Golf

I'm a sucker for spoken word records. I always say "I'll use some of the excerpts in a beat and it'll be real funny". But I never, ever do. Thus, my spoken word collection weighs a tonne and has been of zero use to me. This is great. I especially like the mental image I have of some poor sap out on the greens with his portable radiola going "Dammit! What did he say?" and having to put the needle back a few bands to get that instruction right. Things were pretty hard in the olden days, no?

Various - Viva Italia

I had the same theory with the other Italian record with this one: Italian people are some smooth dudes. Great dress sense, their food is amazing, culture is pretty incredible. Surely their music will be a treasury of fine music, right? Right? I like to think of this as a record of music to be played at Silvio's Bunga Bunga parties. Picture how bad that music would have to be and you have an idea what this record is like. I say record because I realised it only had one of them in the sleeve and I wasn't at all bummed.

The Klaxons - Clap Clap Sound

I bought this because it said "The Klaxons" and I was interested to see what the OG Klaxons sound like. Turns out they sound pretty shit.


So there you have it. I was feeling pretty happy with myself. I came home with a bootload of records. I felt all my moaning last week could be undone now and all was right in the world. That was until I was sent down to the Salvation Army do drop off a couple of bags worth of old clothes to donate. The Salvation Army shop: Site of my recent troubles. The symbol of all that is wrong in the world of record digging in Whakatane. I packed the car, drove down and held my breath. Tune in on Friday to see what happened.