What’s your dream soundtrack? Do you have a specific playlist for naps? Have you ever given it any thought? If you haven’t, by all means necessary, do not consider CBS Special Products’ 1966 sleeper, Music to Dream By. Filled with a slew of Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, and Guy Mitchell’s of the time, Music to Dream By was a “Collector’s Album of All-Time Dream Hits” compiled specifically for the GE company and their “famous” Sleep-Guard Blankets. Blankets… yup, you read that correctly. This here is a bona fide blanket record, and it will put you to sleep faster than a mashed potato sandwich. Proceed with extreme caution.
Monthly Archives: November 2018
Themes for African Drums
Themes for African Drums sounds exactly like one would imagine by one, the title, and two, the striking cover. So I’ll admit, it was in fact this forceful cover art coupled with year of release (1959) that prompted my immediate attention on money, but what I found was that the music within requires more than just a few modestly casual spins. Rhythm and horns, kids… rhythm and horns. The Guy Warren Sounds would release only one other record throughout their career, a French 7″ featuring two of this albums’ tracks, Waltzing Drums and Blood Brothers. Now, I can understandably see how this collection of 8 tracks could be considered a novelty, or theme record, but I speak from experience when I say, this makes for some damn good dinner music.
Green Village
50 years in the making (not really, but sort of), this recent (as of late last month) behemoth of a celebration to The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society comes with everything you see here, and if you were one of the lucky first 1000 to preorder, you received a limited 7″ for Time Song, b/w The Village Green Preservation Society (Preservation Version). If you’ve got the space, this fully-loaded box of essential goodies is a Kinks lover’s dream.
Coffee Time
What coffee-loving, record-spinning, speed-freak doesn’t need this album, am I right?! Leave it to Morton Gould and His Orchestra for taking the mundane and creating a soundtrack for it. It’s like Music to Dream By (aka How to Destroy Your Needle), or Music for Faith and Inner Calm, both of which actually exist. What exactly songs like Jamaican Rumba, Besame Mucho, and Mexican Hat Dance have to do with my morning, coffee-drinking routine, I’ll never know, but this record came (mildly) recommended from a guy who (basically) knows nothing about good music, so, it was worth the $1 spin. #sniff
SST Back
Like countless labels before it, and many after, SST Records (owned by Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn) offered specially priced compilations showcasing their label’s talent, aiming at nothing more than to spread their goods, and take your money. With a special list price of only $3.39 ($7.99 today after the inflation adjustment), cheapskaters could further explore the likes of Saccharine Trust, the Meat Puppets, the Minutemen, and even Tom Troccolil’s Dog for next to nothing. The comp series was called The Blasting Concept, and you’re looking at the back of Volume II.
Ecstasy
I didn’t find this album to exactly portray its title, but I was nearly 25 years away from the release of Otto Cesana & His Orchestra’s 1955 Ecstasy, so really, what the hell do I know? Sounding immediately like a heavily orchestrated series of montage scenes for mid-century silver screens, this easy-listening-mood-setter is actually a comp comprised of two 10″ records titled Ecstasy, and Sugar and Spice. If you’re looking for a wistful, easily ignorable bed of hopeful mood music, consider a bit of Ecstasy.
Pines
Question: What would a soundtrack to a dramatic thriller composed by master vocal manipulator and genre-bending pioneer sound like? Answer: Well, if you’re talking about the potent Mike Patton, it would sound exactly like The Place Beyond the Pines (Music from the Motion Picture). Ominous, foreboding, dismal, with a hint of underlining grim, this 2013 soundtrack makes it eerily clear that any place beyond the tree line is about as uneasy and unsettling as anything imaginable. Now, I just hope the film holds up to this record.
The Voodoo That You Do
So, Voodoo Suite Plus Six All-Time Greats somehow jumped into my Discogs Wantlist. I don’t remember if it was the cover, another Perez Prado discovery, or if I read somewhere online about the off-shoot Space Age Pop and Exotica records worthy of hunting down, this being one of them. I’m not sure if any, or all of these are true, but it really doesn’t matter. I was willing to shell out $15+ (before shipping) for this gem, but stumbled across it the other day for a cool $1. The Wantlist is shrinking, one cosmic, dollar bin, Space Age Pop find at a time.(Don’t) Skip Kenton
I should have started with cleaning this very dingy, 60+ year-old 10″ of classic, mid-century Jazz greats featured, and showcased by the late, great Stan Kenton (and His Orchestra). I think track one alone, Art Pepper featuring Art Pepper on alto sax, must have skipped a total of six times. My fault for not following the rules: Step 1) Clean. Step 2) Enjoy. Anyway, simply titled Stan Kenton Presents, this little 10″ is getting a duplicate if I can’t clean the 60 years off ‘er, because this is an essential listen, in unskippable form. Another $1 find, kids!
Sofa King Groovy
Skipping or not, a 10″ Latin jazz EP by Perez Prado and His Orchestra is always worthy of your $1. Titled Mambo By the King, this 1953 release featured a sister, pressed as a 12″ (which also contains four additional tracks). This, slightly shorter version still manages to contain some of Prado’s well-known, and unforgettable classics (Perdido, Cuban Mambo, and Mambo Jambo come to mind). Released the same year as his famed Havana, 3 A.M., By the King was one of the many (extremely cheap, yet skippable) gems I recently found in the bargain bin at my local hut. Let the fun begin.
The Prudent Groove 