(Scroll down to the foot of the feature for the Dom Thomas mix track listing and details of the upcoming Finders Keepers albums that they are taken from.)
Finders Keepers: A Quietus Mix by theQuietusNow in its sixth year, Finders Keepers Records has recently hit a very purple patch indeed. A joint venture between Andy Votel and Dom Thomas in Manchester and Doug Shipton in London, FK made its name reissuing L’Enfant Assassin Des Mouches the lysergic vision of Jean-Claude Vannier, Serge Gainsbourg’s string arranger on the incomparable Histoire de Melody Nelson. Since then it has released a bewildering number of compilations in genres that run from the tantalizingly exotic to the downright unhinged. From proto-feminist Czech OSTs, Lollywood Pakistani pop, German library music, Hungarian Communist funk and Anatolian pop, they provide a purchase hold on genres that would otherwise be out of reach to most. I like to think of this trio of crate diggers searching through old record shops in Istanbul, Tokyo and Budapest for me because I don’t have the money to do it myself. <a href=” http://thequietus.com/articles/04122-finders-keepers-doug-shipton-andy-votel” target=”out”>Check out this tQ feature for the history of the label and our selection of top albums from their vaults.
Recently they have added some other killer releases to their roster.
Various Artists Pomegranates
This 16-track compilation of Persian psych, Farsi funk and Gulf folk of the 60s and 70s is not only a hellaciously boogieful album but is in a way a postcard from a different society and way of life altogether. These rich love songs which represent a clash of various Persian traditions and a modern Western influence that was rapidly flooding Iran under the guiding hand of the Shah, speak of happier times; they certainly suggest an enviable musical culture which no longer exists. It’s all killer but I’ve never left ‘Helelyos’ by Zia out of the DJ box since first hearing it.
Zia Atabi has been described as the “Iranian James Brown” and on this track you can hear what appears to be an afrobeat groove but in fact belongs to the Bandari tradition of southern Iran, specifically the Persian Gulf and Bandar-e Abbas.
Sam Spence Sounds
Just when you think there’s no way that there can be any more early adopter synthesizer geniuses for crate diggers to introduce us to, there are always a couple more lurking in the shadows. Like the recent killer compilation re-introducing Bruce Haack to the world on Stones Throw, FK are responsible for beckoning the unlikely MOOG mangler Sam Spence out of the shadows and into our front rooms.
Sam Spence may not have the rep of, either Wendy Carlos or Delia Derbyshire but that’s not to say that he didn’t start off his career studying in Europe in order to make ‘serious’ music before getting swept up in the Elektronische wave that swept Germany in the late 60s and early 70s. He may have abandoned nearly all of this grounding when he returned to America to score documentaries for the NFL but FK concentrate on his proto-techno, psychedelic synth salad days.
Exploding Disco Inevitable mixed by Dom Thomas
I’m not sure what’s happening on this record but it’s fucking mental. It’s a mix of buzzing psychedelic world/whirled/whorled music with giant beats mixed by Dom who did us the FK mix but for his Brutal Music imprint. He describes the mix as containing denizen funk, proto house, psyche rock and who are we to disagree. In fact let us just say that on top of that it also contains what appears to be some Bollywood broken beats, Nico and a harmonium and the Turkish version of Aphrodite’s Child!
Horrific Child aka JP Massiera (Maledictus Sound) L’Etrange “Monsieur Whinster”
If, like The Quietus, you were introduced to the work of this multiple personality, acid-fried, pop prog, “French Joe Meek”, Jean Pierre Massiera, via Finders Keepers’ Midnight Massiera album, then you’ll be pleased to know there’s now this bizarre disc as well. In the same way that JPM’s earliest solo release, the Ivresse Des Profondeurs 7", was designed to act as a calling card for all that his SEM studios could achieve, by the mid 70s all of his technological trickery could barely be contained on this one mind-boggling album, which sits somewhere between Fantomas, BBC sound effects library disc, a Goblin soundtrack, Brainticket and the avant garde work of Ennio Morricone.
Les Frisson Des Vampires Musique Par Acanthus
It’s odd to find a film where the kitsch and/or style value matches the outstanding quality of the music that soundtracks it but The Shiver Of The Vampires by French auteur Jean Rollin is one such.
One of the most underrated and misunderstood directors to emerge from the rising smoke of the 1968 Parisian social explosion, Jean Rollin – a director with early links with the Paris underground, The Letterists, The Surrealists, improv theatre and the free-press – is best known for his films in the fantastique genre, producing the first French vampire film (Le Viol Du Vampire, 1968). To celebrate the launch of their new Rollinade series, documenting some of the finest musical moments of the director’s career as an avant-gardener, counter-culture vulture and Gallic vamp-tramp, Finders Keepers Records have unleashed the entire unreleased soundtrack from the ultimate French vampire hippy flick Le Frisson Des Vampires on CD, a veritable limited edition 5 track 7" EP of drum heavy Gallic hard-bop and risqué acidic folk.
Combining lounge, shagadellic late 60s pop, arboreal prog by Acanthus, this is an OST that is as exciting as it is giddy. The split in aesthetic can be seen by the difference between the title sequence below and the (not exactly work friendly) trailer below that.
The Fallen By Watch Bird by Jane Weaver
And of course one of our favourite new albums of the year is on FK as well…
Finders Keepers 2010/2011 Mix
1. Ilaiyaraaja – ‘Disco Sound’ (taken from the forthcoming compilation Sola Sola)
Kollywood legend ‘The Maestro’ Ilaiyaraaja blazed a trail through the Tamil film industry with his unique brand of electronic pop funk. With over 900 film scores under his belt and a career spanning 30-years The Maestro’s prolific output is up there with the likes of R.D. Burman and M.Ashraf.
2. Klaus Weiss – ‘Time Signals’ (taken from the forthcoming compilation Weiss Label)
Forthcoming germanic minor beat heavy proto technoid hip-hop from drum crazy legend Klaus Weiss of ‘Niagra’ fame…
3. Jacky Chalard – ‘Superman Supercool’ (taken from the Discomaxi 12" Cache Cache 02)
"Cache Cache" The phrase that the French use for the game Hide And Seek and the fitting title for a new European record label dedicated to seeking out shyly excitable pop music from the not too distant past. A new home for elusive would-be dance-floor classics and misplaced cosmic-pop from the late 70s 80s and 90s, Cache Cache Records explores the outer-reaches of modernist pop’s global legacy celebrating the skewed influence of Disco, Electro, Post Punk and Hip-Hop. From far-flung Pseudo Electro to Denizen Disco and Rapsploitation, Cache Cache thrives on hybridia, misplaced trends and the global regurgitation of custom-built dance-music joining the dots between the key genres of the digital age with a heavy emphasis on the dancefloor, a DIY funk aesthetic and futurist-pop sensibilities. The word "Cache" – a term also used in computer science for a component that transparently stores lost data – befits our labels modus operandi twice-fold liberating hibernating pop-oddities from within production libraries, under the populist radar and behind past political wonder-walls. With a global community of some of the most respected wax-addicts within the incognito Cache Cache network our agents are now on the prowl… Coming – Ready Or Not.
4. Jean Claude Vannier excerpt (exclusive track appearing on forthcoming David Holmes compilation)
David Holmes’ compilation for FK is arriving early 2011. "Expect the unexpected", says Dom.
5. Fusioon – ‘No Hay Habitacion’ (taken from the forthcoming compilation Absolute Fusioon)
Belter’s most well preserved freak-rock quartet. The "Spanish Goblin" cultivate their house sound by flipping percussive quasi pop structures with sound effects and erratic hammond stabs with whinging guitars.
6. Sroeng Santi – ‘Dub Fai Kui Gun’ (taken from the forthcoming compilation Thai Dai)
_Jaw Dropping doppelganger Sab-Jam from Sukothai psych-rocker Sroeng Santi. Iron Man meets Yama Yama on this original composition by a musical all-rounder who produced a string of Thai hard rockers until his freakish death in 1982. Backed with an equi-disfunctional slice of outsider punk-funk complete with bottles & bells breakdown this tidy compacta 45 provides a freak-preview of our forthcoming Thai Dai comp of Far-Eastern esotericism._
7. Little Mermaid excerpt (taken from the forthcoming soundtrack Mla Morska Vil)
8. Jean-Pierre Massiera – ‘Radio Galaxia’ (taken from the US exclusive B-Music compilation Radio Galaxia)
9. Alexander Gradsky – ‘Romance For Lovers’ (taken from forthcoming David Holmes compilation)
10. Acanthus – ‘La Cite Rouge’ (taken from the soundtrack album Le Frisson Des Vampires)
11. Nhid Akhtar – ‘Life Is Dance’ (from the forthcoming Lollywood compilation Life Is Dance)
Forthcoming follow up compilation to ‘Sound Of Wonder’, postponed until 2011 due to the current tragic events in Pakistan.
12. Jean-Claude Vannier excerpt (exclusive track appearing on the forthcoming album Londres, Paris, Sofia)
Brand new record by JCV, reminiscent of the seminal Histoire De Melody Nelson, JCV takes over lead vocal duties from the ever present spirit of Gainsbourg.
13. Popera Cosmic excerpt (taken from the forthcoming album Popera Cosmic)
Guy Snornik and François Wertheimer’s incredible space rock opera forthcoming on FK.
14. Ilaiyaraaja/S. Janaki – ‘Kanavu Onru Thonrudhe’ (taken from the forthcoming compilation Sola Sola)
The dude in the main picture for this feature is Kamal Haasan who features on the Sola Sola comp. Check out the classic YouTube below…
More from Finders Keepers here and more from Dom Thomas here.
