I went to a record fair yesterday and spent more money than I had really anticipated. I went with the intention of only buying things I actually WANTED, rather than just things that looked cool and/or funny were stupidly cheap.

But as ever, my hunter-killer record buying instincts got the better of me and I picked up an absolute haul of stuff I WANTED at bargain prices.

Hopefully I’ll be able to knock out a few quick updates this week with some words on some of the stuff I bought, starting with;

Jesus, God, Holy Mackerel – Edan’s 'Beauty and the Beat' is FANTASTIC! Maybe people have made records like it before, I don’t really know, my knowledge of contemporary hip-hop probably isn’t all that great, but it’s the first hip-hop thingy I’ve heard in years that incites an immediate "wow, that’s awesome!" reaction. The music is so warm and fuzzy and dense and intricate with so many beautiful samples and noises, but it’s totally NOT the tedious, bong-jockey, beard-hop fodder I was expecting – it’s really lively and wired and to the point, and Edan’s rapping is fast and quite harsh, delivered with an almost early Wu-Tang kinda flow. And – Praise the lord! Finally! - It’s a hip-hop album that’s only about 40 minutes long, and is completely lacking in meandering filler tracks, self-indulgent guest spots and general pointless bollocks – pretty much every second on here has something cool going on, and feels vital.
Even better than that though, it somehow manages to be totally influenced by ‘60s psychedelia as well! The way he samples vocal melodies and weird, ambient noises from old psyche records is just... masterful. Given my well-known proclivities in such a direction, I nearly exploded with joy. The psyche thing isn’t obvious at first, but by the end it’s become so prevalent that I followed this album by sticking on the first side of the Chocolate Watch Band’s ‘The Inner Mystique’ (another great record fair purchase), and it sounded like a direct continuation... wow!
Unfortunately, the promo copy of the album is marred somewhat by having a mean sounding man announcing "this is a promotional copy! For press purposes ONLY!" inserted into the mix every minute or so. What a fiendish device – a million times more effective than any copy protection software or edited mixdowns... it means you can hear the album in it’s entirety and appreciate how rad it is, but it’s basically like watching a great gig from over a bouncer’s shoulder. I would suggest the people who thought it up should be killed, but then they’d be entirely justified by saying in return that cheapskate scum like me who defraud independent record labels and artists by buying marked down promo CDs should also be killed – so fair enough. Goddamnit, I’ll probably have to buy a proper copy now!