The Wonder Years

Jeez Wayne! If it wasn't for the cuz and his commitment to the cause, I would have totally forgotten this blog was a thing!

Since the last time I posted I've had another kid, gotten rid of sooooo many records in exchange for haircuts, and sworn off all record shops.

In saying that, I made a trip to Real Groovy the other day on a business trip and pulled out about 50 records to listen to, panicked - and ended up getting these and regretting them.

Sound Stage 7

I'm always bummed that I am the wrong age to have capitalised on the library record phase. By the time I'd figured out what they were - every 90's hip-hop producer had travelled to Japan and bought them all. So, this is the closest thing I've ever found to one. And, there's some sampleable moments on it. The sucky thing is that I had multiple volumes and bought this one instead of volume 16 which had a sweet disco loop on it. That's what you get for going record shopping on an empty stomach.



Robin Trower - Twice Removed From Yesterday

I have a new criteria for buying records. I usually buy stuff to sample (open drum breaks, solo instruments, funkeee loops), but I've now expanded my tastes to stuff that just sounds good. That looks obvious typing that - but I've found that albums like this were made in an age where drums were recorded so far in front of the mix, guitars were warm and distorted, and everything just sounds cool. I don't think I could sample this, but I could certainly put it on and wear a pair of sunglasses inside at night.



Phoebe Snow - Never Letting Go

There are a few artists whose records I will always buy: The Peddlers, Deodato, Bob James, Phoebe Snow and J.J Cale. The interesting thing about this album is that my Mum is a huge Phoebe Snow fan and has a lot of her albums from the 1970's - but not this one. In fact, I had no idea this album existing. Imagine my surprise to find this album, find that it has amazing orchestration, and a Paul Simon cover. Neat alright.



The Friends of High Distinction - Highly Distinct

I'm not going to lie. I bought this album for the intro, which is the vocalists playing around with the echo function on some piece of outboard equipment that probably cost as much as a house back then. Pretty sweet. But, there are some joyful ditties on this one and it'd be so cool to be given access to the vaults to bring out the stems of this album. The drum sound is so beautiful: The snares are crisp, the kick drums pierce through all the bullshit, and even the toms sound good. These fullas have a great album in Grazin' which has been sampled by (if I'm not mistaken) Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson. Worth a lazy $5 if you see it.





More to come. Thanks for having me.