Customer Reviews

Re/Search: Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 1

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INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC is one of those CD coms that you don't want to miss. Bob Peck's SWEET 16 is reason enough to buy this CD. The Perry & Kingsley moog track is outer space beauty and the Kali sitar song at the end is mystical magic. Wonderful compilation of music you will never hear (or see) anywhere else... END

This is a compilation of oddball songs from some mostly rare albums from the '50s and '60s. All the songs come from the same person's record collection, and they have been transfered directly from the albums to CD. Some of the albums are rather worn out, so you can hear scratches on most of the songs here. But somehow that justs adds to the charm, like someone invited you to their house to listen to their old records. All the songs here are pretty strange, with 9 of the 13 tracks being instrumentals. The songs with lyrics are comedy songs, with the exception of Kali Bahlu's "A Cosmic Telephone Call", which a bizarre 11 minute recounting of a telephone conversation she had with Buddha(!). The instrumentals include guitar instrumentals, sound effects instrumentals, xylophone instrumentals, sitar instrumentals, percussion instrumentals, Moog instrumentals, accordian instrumentals and whistling instrumentals. This CD is a lot of fun, and it should appeal to fans of "cool and strange" music.

You've just had a great first date with that special someone-- dinner or a movie. Things are really going well, and now you're back at your apartment, setting a romantic mood.... Put this CD on and see how your date reacts. Does he/she look oddly at you as Buddy Merrill's speeded-up guitar plucks out "Busy Bee" on the first cut? Do the synthesized farts and beeps on Dean Elliot's "Lonesome Road" upset him/her? And what reaction to the 6th cut, the absolutely indescribable "Up, Up & Away" by Rajput & The Sepoy-- a sitar classic that causes the strongest of men either to wince or to giggle? If your date is still there after all this, you've found a keeper: open-minded enough to put up with incredibly strange music and with someone who plays it with pride.

Read the RE/search book (available over there in the book section) that goes with this to really get the full effect of these completely bizarre selections. This is part of your EDUCATION, bunky....

This corollary to the first "Incredibly Strange Music" book by the fine folks at REsearch is the best type of subversive music there is. Just put it on at a party as background music, and within minutes, people are looking around, faces screwed up as if someone let loose the worst onion-dip fart in history, and saying, "What the hell IS this?" That is, if they're "normal" and have a short sense of humor. The rest of us weirdos will dig this collection of '50s and '60s goofballs just fine.
Some of the tunes are flat-out cool: the cheesy sitar of Rajput & the Sepoy going "Up, Up & Away"; Buddy Merrill's "Busy Bee" guitar romp through Rimsky-Korsakov's flower patch; Fred Lowrey's whistled "William Tell Overture"; Jo Ann Castle's proto-speed-metal accordion tune "Tico Tico"; and Dave Harris' twisted "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals," obviously influenced by the even more twisted Raymond Scott. Only once -- the 10+ minute last cut, Kali Bahlu's "A Cosmic Telephone Call" -- does the disc get really incredibly strange and beyond the the most far-out boundaries of what's really weird.
And if you're not careful, you may learn something. Listen to "Swan's Splashdown," the colorful cut by electronic music pioneers Perrey & Kingsley, and you'll suddenly realize where Smash Mouth got its career from, starting with "Walking on the Sun." Or listen to the ultra-corny "Mister Hot Rod" by The Scramblers, then trace a line directly to Jonathan Richman's mid-'80s style (especially "Double Chocolate Malted"), from the vocal style down to the spoken patter. Both times, it's as if you've tapped a secret alternate history of rock'n'roll. Who needs "normal"? Welcome to the society, bub!

For those who enjoy the Outsider music scene, this album is truly a 'must have' item in their collection of Outsider music. All thirteen tracks are of their own unique gems. Bob Pecks 'Sweet 16' and Katie Lee's 'Will To Fail' are sure to please. If you do pick this album up don't forget to purchase Re/Search: Incredibly Strange Music, Vol. 2 by Various Artists. It is another that will surely please.

I love this book. Lots of anecdotes about all kinds of forgotten music from the 1950's-1970's. Tons of great obscure stuff, records that I would never think existed. But this book (and the volume 2 companion) are more than just about the music. They're about the music and the people who collect them. Both books are filled with interviews with various record collectors of varying backgrounds so a lot of ground is covered. The other thing is that since most of this music won't be re-released on cd, there's a strong emphasis on vinyl. I guess these books were from the early 1990's so there's still a bit of backlash against the new CDs that were available. Regardless, these books document some great music and is a great read. A nice spotlight for the underground record collectors scene.