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Sexy São Paulo
It’s interesting to learn that nutty new wave haircuts, goofy glasses and quirky grooves weren’t the sole domain of the early-80s North American and UK post-punk scenes – Brazil had it’s share of stylishly shaded art hooligans bouncing to their own bent beats. With the unexpectedly delightful 80s São Paulo scene comp The Sexual Life Of The Savages , Soul Jazz sheds some light on the suspender-enhanced dark wave damage of Cabine C , the hiphop-inspired rattle of Gueto , the skewed punk-funk of the Patife Band and the sensational electro sizzle of Fellini , who really need to have their stunning 1985 debut, O Adeus De Fellini, reissued.
Sun Ra’s Beauty
For some reason, 1979 was a very busy year for recording in the Sun Ra omniverse. He released at least six albums (maybe more) on his own Saturn label alone. The UK-based Art Yard imprint has just reissued two of the best, Media Dream – documenting his electro-tweaked quartet performances in Italy during 77-78 – and the amazing Sleeping Beauty, featuring the majestically funky title track recorded with the 28-strong version of the Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra . Both LPs are beautifully mastered on heavyweight vinyl (no CD release has been announced), and the pressing is said to be a very limited run. Grab ’em quick.
Bold Blendcrafters
Hiphop headz with a taste for MF Doom dementia really need to check out the the new Melody 12-inch EP (Up Above) by the Blendcrafters , aka Jurassic 5 ‘s DJ Nu-Mark and pal Pomo . While Doom fires up the remix of Melody from the Blendcrafters’ widely slept on debut, the real heat is on the flipside with Nu-Mark’s retouch of Eddie Harris ‘s Bold And Black, featuring Wrecking Crew bass master Carol Kaye adding some more rumbling bottom end to the track’s block-rocking beats. Nice.
Rockabilly unknowns
For serious collectors of rockabilly recordings, the term “obscure” doesn’t refer to relatively small pressing runs of, say, 50 to 100 copies. That’s a fairly common record. We’re talking maybe six known copies, where one of the lucky owners buys up and destroys the other five. The folks at Norton Records , being rockabilly collectors themselves, know the mentality too well and have created the Kicksville series of unissued acetate comps to feed the collector need for progressively rarer recordings. The just-released Volume 3 in the series comes packed with early demos from the great Benny Joy , early Elvis impersonator Ral Donner and future surf king Gary Usher . Audiophiles won’t be impressed with the sound quality – but considering that the source is often a one-off lacquer press, this is a remarkable document of lost recordings you won’t hear anywhere else.