Slim Harpo - Shake Your Hips (1966)

01/04/2022

Hola Soundheadsamundo!

Just taking a break from writing my 3rd book, provisionally titled ‘Coloured Vinyl – The not so clear and present danger to fan’s expectation and Black Holes in my mind’
It’s a page turner, trust me.

So…
The weekend is here, and there’s some shimmy-shake afoot!
Slim’s greatest A -sider bar none goes straight to the hips (naturally) with a boogie bound harp and skiffle stick shuffle all wrapped up with some ace in the hole slidin’ geetar.
His angel from the wrong side of the tracks sweet trill tempts you into a voodoo haze and before you know it, you’re gone man, solid gone!

A wealth of my all time faves are stamped with the Excello trade mark, but this one is top of the hit parade.

And the Stones did a very fine job of it on Exile, with Mick matching Slim’s harpness mighty fine.
Jagger is actually a very underrated harp slinger by the way… just so you know.

You heard it here, folks!
Now it’s up to you to put down that 7 and 7 and get shakin’

Boogie chillin
RH X

The Eyes - When The Night Falls (1965)

18/03/2022

Aloha Soundheads!

Get yer ears around The Eyes!

Packed with great sound effects and the spook up to 11, this freakbeat freakout comes from one of the very best.

Not a million miles away from other offerings from The Creation, The Eyes had a great grasp of the aural action painting.
Jittery and jabby guitar finds its place amongst all the ghost pattern drumming and a harp that bays like a wolf on the tundra.

A stunning vocal from Terry Nolder is the very cherry on top and this, my freakiest of freak friends, just is possibly one of the most infectious freakathons to ever find its way out of Ealing.

Snap to it ladies and gents, put on all your best white strides and a bold stripy rugby top with a massive eye on it ( standard EYES uniform ) and get yourself an ice cold vodka chill for this icy thrill.

Have wonderful weekends!

Far fucking out,
RH X

Keith Shields - Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness) (1967)

11/03/2022

So my dear Soundheads, another week and another wax wonder

It’s 1967 and another obscurio Decca 7” that sadly failed to make anything of a dent in the nation’s conscious mind and most copies probably ended up being melted down or in a skip.
A cover of Donovan’s Hey Gyp but this time, it’s fucking groovetastic.
What a weird slab of freakbeat from a man who previously covered The Wonder Of You and looked like he sold Formica furniture.
At the weekends, one can imagine he wore a crushed velvet dinner suit and bow tie whilst knocking out the hits at chicken in the basket rave-ups across the UK to a crowd of non-believers, who may have bestowed their critique upon him as “having a nice voice”

I absolutely adore this track.
I shouldn’t be so flippant about our Keith, because he really did have a great voice and it really is a fantastic version.
It’s not generally known what arose at this session.
Produced by Hilton Valentine of The Animals, who I would suggest most likely played the fantastic guitar licks, but that’s not gospel so don’t quote me on it.

The staggered breaks in this make it, it verges on rocking then stops, then rocks out again and goes all for leather at the end.
Another buried gem that deserved much better.

I think a couple of vicious Gibson cocktails will get you to move the sofa across the room and you can get on down to this frugtastic rug runner.

May Peace be of your world and the weekend be your escape from this fuck awful news

Love
RH X

Marvelettes - I’ll Keep Holding On (1965)

04/03/2022

Welcome you lovely Soundheads

Firstly, this goes out to ALL the people that are suffering at the hands of oppressive regimes around this world, but especially the citizens of Ukraine and indeed, the innocent peace loving people of Russia.

“You only have power over people as long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power – he’s free again.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

KEEP HOLDING ON!
KEEP PROTESTING!

It’s hard to wax lyrical right now about singles and whatnot, so please forgive me if this has an air of bleakness this week.
I hope this isn’t going to be a common occurrence.

This earlyish classic period Tamla stepper featuring the absolutely beautiful voice of Wanda Rogers marks a more traditional sound of Motown on The Marvelettes, away from the more bubblegum stylings of Please Mr Postman.

Berry Gordy always kind of picked them up and put them down again, and the soon to be appearance of Diana Ross pretty much sealed their fate to always playing second or even third fiddle to The Supremes.
Which is a very great shame.
There’s some classic Supremes tunage, don’t get me wrong… but it’s well noted that Gordy became fixated with Ross and the other Motown “girl groups” suffered because of it.

Illness, drug problems and emotional problems within the band didn’t help their cause, line up changes became common and they drifted very much towards the outside of the Motown clan, only really getting another hit with Don’t Mess With Bill.

But!
This here beauty alone seals the deal on how fantastic they actually were and should be regarded amongst the very best of the motor city soulers.

A treat for the Northern Soul clubs for years to follow, who took them to their hearts and many a leg shuffle, hip sling and twist has been shared over this slab of joy.

Raise your glasses to hope and peace you beautiful souls!
And if you can do it, have a little stepping shuffle yourself.

Peace Out!
RH X

23 Skidoo - The Gospel Comes To New Guinea (1981)

25/02/2022

Welcome welcome welcome Soundheads!

This week’s momentous choice is one of such wonders, such dark hypnotics that it still astounds me that this is 1981, The Skidoo have absolutely nailed their groove and will exploit it for the next year with this single ( coupled with Last Words ) and the monumental Seven Songs album.
Then almost overnight, they’ve split and The Turnbull brothers with Fritz Catlin reduce it ( in the cooking sense ) via the absolutely vital Tearing Up The Plans single to a disturbed near silence of ambient gamelan with The Culling Is Coming album.
TUTP could easily fit as SOTW… maybe it will soon.

Anyhoo, on with bizness.

That bass growling at the start and the explosive drums (more on those in just a sec) hold down the sea of tape loops, distant chants, erratic static scratches and ambient drones for such an epic ten minutes, that you feel you’ve just witnessed a ritual of true voodoo.
Absolutely astounding slab of majesty.

Now those drums…
If that’s not the birth of Drum and Bass right there, esp from the rolling dark experimentations stable of Photek, Source Direct or J Majik, then I’m a monkey’s uncle.
Of course, there’s plenty of prime 70’s era Miles electric funk in there too.

Obviously influenced by the back to the start brooding off-funk dystopia of A Certain Ratio, the Skidoo boys hung their combat boots with the likes of Cabaret Voltaire and TG when it came to camouflage soundscaping.
The jungles and river of Apocalypse Now’s mostly unused soundtrack by The Rhythm Devils skulk in the darkness, but this has the stealth to never get out of the boat until it reaches its quarry.

Pretty much THEE post punk funk single.
The venomous snakes of rhythms hang from the trees and wait for their victims.

Playing it once isn’t enough… Fuck You GI

With Love
RH X