So even before I owned a turntable I have been picking up singles. Not a lot mind you, usally limited edition things that my favorite bands would put out, like Radiohead. Since actually purchasing a turntable I have been really addicted to the cheap price and novelty of the format. There is something that hits me with the 7″ format, something about the fact that the band wanted so much for you to hear a certain song they went to the trouble of making a special release of that song. Now I know there is a marketing aspect to this as well, labels know there are many nuts like me that will pay for a song to whet my appetite before the full length comes out, make it a colored vinyl or picture disc and I cant help myself. I must have it. But, while some of the single I have fall into that category many others fall into the “its only a buck and I don’t know the band” or “”reckless”:http://reckless.com put a description on it that sounds interesting, and its only a few bucks”
While they are cheap the value is off-set by the fact that you have to sit by the table and flip the record over every 2-5 minutes, and so its means complete attention. I usually dont have time during the week to really give singles a fair spin, but sundays are very low key days for us, a perfect day to sit down with a few weeks of 7″ bin scouring and play a short set of singles. I started calling sundays “seven-inch sundays” because it had a nice ring to it. Now short of spinning at a club, which is a far off dream for me (a friend of mine john actually spins soul/r&b 45’s at the hideout and i could never pull something like that off..at least not for a long while…my collection is not nearly large enough…not like johns) I figured what they heck I have this blog, and I need practice writing why not do a podcast thing. Here we are, the first installment of “Seven-inch Sundays”.
This week the record falls into that “it was only a buck” (literally) categories. The math equations on the one side caught my eye:
and here is the flip side equally interesting:
What kind of music could be on a 7″ with math on the cover. Could it be math rock, or electronica? No players or instruments listed. Well the moment of truth came, the needle hit the groove and low and behold, jazz. Really good jazz. track one called Bilkamenjo starts of with a nice sax riff, further elaborated on by another sax while the drums start to find a place. Less then a minute in a guitar joins and the drums really get going. and for the next 2 minutes each instrument hops on and off the main theme independently of each other, building up a cathartic wall of sound. A wall that suddenly drops out to silence for a long enough period that I though it was the end of the track. Fooled I was, suddenly i hear that opening riff again and quickly they try to reach the level they had just drop from, bringing the piece to a close.
There are 2 tracks on the first side and the next is called Smiley (excerpt). This starts off smooth, 2 sax’s swelling on harmonized notes. They move onto 2 melody lines that work off each other and at times come to getter for some great doubling. Suddenly the guitar breaks into for a few bars before the horns come back. Definetly a tease, I will have to look for the full song somewhere.
The flip side is occupied by one full piece called Wierd Clowns. A lamentful soundinng piece opened with a solo horn and dull somber plucked guitar. Creeping up in the background the funeral procession trudges through. A lot more reserved then the first side but equally as beautiful.
Since I was curious I did a google search on the name and came across this link where this 7inch is listed on this artists discography. Very intersting.
As a disclaimer, I make no money off this blog. These posts are purely fun. If you are in the band that I have put up here and dont want to be here. Post a comment or email me “cinchel @ gmail dot com” . No hard feelings, I will understand. Thanks
