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Rachel

@thameschoral.bsky.social

Record accumulator and general flâneuse…

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Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · 3d ago

So… picked up a large bag of tapes today. The majority appear to be blank and unused, and those were the ones I wanted. But there were many others. Not sure what to do with these… any Danny Baker fans out there who want to relive the 90s? Free to anyone who can collect. Could be scrubbed, I guess.

A huge pile of audio tapes with various recordings though bizarrely, most of it seems to be recordings of Danny Baker off the radio.
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · 4d ago

Bought a bunch of random, mostly shrink-wrapped CDs from the charity shop earlier. Mostly stuff from the margins and outer limits. Enjoying this. Love the gatefold image.

Zoj. Fil O Fenjoon. On the sleeve of this CD we have a photograph of the two band members represented a small knitted dolls. They also have knitted instruments.The gatefold of the CD has black-and-white photographs of the two musicians. The first one on the left is holding a string instrument of some sort with the words. This machine kills fascists written onto it on the right hand side. There is a person with a beard holding two drum mallets.
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · last wk.

A pocket full of tapes from yesterday’s stroll around Brixton. Listening to top middle first which is Mansour Tehrani. Iranian songs, probably pre-revolution but I can’t find any information on this release.

Five Indian and Iranian tape cassettes.
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · last wk.

On Sunday doing Sunday things. Which begins with coffee and the Advent Heralds. The title translates as God is a Good Mother. Five vocalists with guitar, bass and some hand percussion. Simple and very lovely. From 1977.

Advent heralds. LP from 1977 brown and white cover showing photographs of the seven members of the Heralds. The title is God is a good mother Highway to heaven volume four.
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · last wk.

Wrapping up this Saturday with a Van Morrison bootleg from 1984. The sound quality is… ok. Just about. It is almost exclusively repertoire from the period plus, weirdly, an instrumental version of Moondance. Summertime feels rushed, as it often did, but you do get a different roster of authors.

Van Morrison Band. Mr. Thomas presents live. Frankfurt February 1984. The sleeve is white with black text. paste on pages. The text is primarily the lyrics to the tracks as they are performed on the record the rear of the sleeve cover side three and side four there is no other information there is no record label.
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · last wk.

One for the true heads. Joel Andrews, Violet Flame. Private, new age jazz harp. The record label is stamped “Django Cheapo”, Django (or so I believe) being a Portland record store that once branded their bargains so. Hence the large 3 on the front. How times change, now much more sought after.

A plain white sleeve with a drawing in chalk or pencil of a burning flame, though to be honest it looks a bit more like hair than it does fire.
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · last wk.

I buy far more books in any given week than I could ever realistically read… but I generally find peace with this. I loved Wilson’s viral review and the long introductory essay to her now famous translation is really interesting. The Emezi and the Perry are both signed first editions… 1/-

A pile of recently acquired books sat on the corner of the sofa. Details of each are covered in the thread. HELEN OF NOWHERE MAKENNA GOODMAN Bookish LUCY MANGAN Black and British David Olusoga THE ODYSSEY HOMER Translated by EMILY WILSON Edwardians SACKVILLE-WEST Akwaeke Erhezi, You made a Fool of death with your beauty Melmoth, Sarah Perry MICK HERRON CLOWN TOWN RINGS AROUND LONDON Wayne Asher
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · 2w ago

I took a chance on this as it was only a fiver and a quick google suggested Jorma Whittaker could be interesting; and yes, it is ok. But Christ on a bike, that vinyl does not improve anything! I live for the day when artists, labels, and marketing wonks just get over the urge to keep doing this.

Jorma by Jorma Whittaker. A very simple sleeve design of a silhouetted head in front of a sun, eclipse like. God awful yellow and black splatter vinyl. When oh when will we stop infantilising everything in this world. Fuck this shit.
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · 2w ago

Thorn Wych. Homemade wooden instruments, bowed and scraped; percussion that sounds a little like Bone Machine. Vocals are inspired by Indian devotional singing. The sleeve captures the ambiance of this recording perfectly. Beguiling/sinister.

Thorn Wych. Aesthesis. On the sleeve we see a young woman kneeling on a sofa. She’s playing a home-made wooden instrument that looks a little like a cross between a guitar and a sitar and she’s playing it with a bow. The photograph is sepia in tone and degraded. Her eyes are scratched out.
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · 2w ago

Brighton has a knack of revealing the strangest and most beautiful records. Take this one by Rory Salter. He improvises a soundtrack to a remembered “instinctive and very impulsive” walk through Wiltshire. The drawing on the cover is the Hackpen White Horse.

I’d walked from Swindon to Avebury and back, which is about a 2t-mile round trip. Id been a muppet and did the whole thing down the A436ı, which is not a road suitable for walking on —there was a lot of jumping into the hedges to avoid lorries. Turned out, there was a really nice walk across the fields I could have done instead. But maybe that sums it up quite well. Instinctive and very impulsive. The day following, I was at home and recorded it in single takes, improvised and straight to the tape. There was a good deal of significance for me in walking to the stones, passing the Hackpen Horse, being in the landscape and dealing with some brain rot after being stuck in a house, anxious and depressed. There was a sense of freedom and detachment. It was all about the materials of the earth and the body and fucking the brain off for a bit-just wanting to move between places. I dunno, it's all very cliché. Rory Salter
Rachel@thameschoral.bsky.social · 2w ago

This is a beautiful book under any circumstances, yet all the more wonderful for once being in the library of the late Raymond Briggs. His books are now being re-homed via @oxfamgb.bsky.social in Hove. I believe these to be his post-its marking his selections.