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we are the church, to the key, to the door, to the cosmos

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we found this record the other day at a thrift store right next to another group with the same name but a less interesting cover. apparently, the uplifters was a popular group name for late 70s.

if you look at this record and the first thing that comes to your mind is spaced out disco funk with a religious message then you're only half way there. there's hints of proto prog rock, new age spiritualism and organic compositions of flutes, bells and birds. 

if jesus was a long haired hippy living in the peace and love age of san francisco's 60s counter culture, this is probably the record he'd have chosen for his laser show.

a perfect soundtrack to the first day of spring too 

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without a doubt one of the wildest jazz albums we've ever heard. this long lost collaboration between benny hall (on sax), cedrick evans (on fender rhodes) and morris douglas (on drums) was a rare and historic keystone in the world of experimental free jazz.

marking the earliest examples of middle eastern influenced horn playing with ethnic keyboard arrangements and off kilter drum play, this album was a brash expostulation of left-field jazz with extreme fervent anti-pop overtones that the september 1969 new york times referred to as "a social disturbance"

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before sex tapes were all the rage, 60s couples not only had to share their reel to reel films still in the projector, but they had to provide suitable audio records to go with the visuals when "leaking" the material to their potential audience.

this record came from clay banks wisconsin and features 12 special sound effects (well let you guess what that is) and 12 orchestral sounds that are meant to compliment the bedroom romp you're witness on your home projected screen. 

what was particularly disturbing (for us) was that the record starts and ends with a rather folkish guitar solo that's hummed by, what we can only guess, to be the misses on the cover.

if anyone has the tape, please e-mail us

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it's time to put the chairs on the tables and declare our image office closed for yule- but we did want to leave our viewers with our pick for christmas album of the year-

this 1977 dutch album titled 'speel mee me sinterklass: muziek en kinderactiviteiten' (play along with santa claus: music and children activities) was meant as a kind of how-to activities record that gave adults ideas, music sing-alongs and games to perform and engage in during the christmas holidays.

gift opening sing-alongs, slow-routine holiday clapping and various christmas stories to re-enact prove to be the perfect formula to keep you warm and well throughout the winter holidays. 

happy holidays and see you all next year

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the back says 'tomorrow's sounds for today. outer music for your underwater home or moon based lifestyle'. 

the 50s and early 60s were opportunistic for advancements in space exploration thanks to the space race and the popularity of science fiction in the mainstream media; from books by authors like arthur c. clarke, robert heinlein and isaac asimov to films like forbidden planet, the day the earth stood still, creature from the black lagoon or invasion of the body snatchers. 

this type of forward thinking spawned new architecture and design known as the space age and it only seemed fitting to soundtrack the times with appropriate futuristic music that came to be known as space-age pop.

this album was originally recorded for disney's inside outer space programme, but due to the unsettling and haunting sound, never used and instead, selections were used for the 1964 new york world's fair.

more recently, the music was licensed for a yugoslavian children's science tv programme in 1987. below are some screenshots from the show

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here it is at last. the long-considered-lost french horrortica soundtrack of the late 60s. music to a film too bizarre to have existed. music by a band too odd to have been requested. a band that had to invent it's own clients of filmmakers to get their music heard.

the personnel behind the project were a parisian trio of sound alchemists named amaury gauthier, julien renault and rémy bertrand, who were also noted library musicians. 

enlisting the help of an upcoming theater actresses from lyon named océane thierry, and sound designers inès mayeaux and roland delaurier, the group began to cook up the euro-pop trash equivalent to a manson family like gothic soundtrack directed by jess franco at the chateau de vaux le vcomte.

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released at the heels of a major political uprising, this little known turkish group's 1976 self-titled on turkuola was well ahead of it's time. combining psych-folk-funk, anatolian rock, space age and balkan soul with fuzzed out-distorted guitars and 60s psychedelic western rooted arrangements.

unfortunately, another well known singer was smashing new sonic ground and quickly overshadowed the group with her radical politically outspoken prose and musical gestures. within a few months, the album was shelved as the political situation climate began to deteriorate. 

original copies of this album can now fetch for more than $15,000 on the black market as not even cassette tapes of the group have survived 

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soundtrack to the polish new-wave surrealist film 'zawieszone zdjęcia' (suspended images) from 1971 by krzysztof janiczek, hailed as one of the most enigmatic composers in 60s/70s european cinema.

janiczek was known for his unique experiments with jazz, pop, rock, orchestral and electronic music, making him an early patron of the polish new wave and a key exponent of the development of conceptual polish experimental music.

unfortunately, his extensive portfolio has remained unreleased and untravelled (like many of the original socialist era polish films)

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another record from the north carolina based surf rock group 'amarillo' who were previously featured here. this is a sonically ethereal instrumental record with heavily groove-based production and stripped down arrangements that plays out like the soundtrack to a head-damagingly surreal americana road film.

crazy low, sensious, sleezy sax over fast pulsed drum rhythm sections mixed with exotic, melodic guitar riffs to create swirling psych atmospherics and jazzy percussions. 

this was released by the french label hit parade in 1991

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continuing with the tradition of 'sweet sweetback's badassss song' and culminating with 'shaft' and 'superfly', 'hard biter' was a little known blaxploitation cop drama from 1974. the film was only shown for 3 weeks in 6 theaters before disappearing into obscurity.

fortunately, the soundtrack survived- released in limited 300 copies of lively melodic jazz on piano, trumpet, double bass and drums. also included are short music cues and long narrations over a plethora of wah-wah guitars and marvelously understated rhythm sections. 

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a hard boiled rampage through the rare-as-hen's tooth mid-70s british cop drama soundtrack by eugene browne (an obvious alias). the music accent is firmly on the funk with wild driving rhythms, vibrant horn sections and blazing guitar work to ensure that widescreen vitality.

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combining niche genres such as lesbian vampirism, czech witchcraft and eastern european folklore- zednka vasek's hadí jed (the serpent's poison) was the quintessential underground record that disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared- quickly becoming one of the most sought after albums amongst collectors of progressive rock.

according to the sleeve notes, the album is based on a stage play (with the same title) rumored to have been a true ghost story about a girl searching for her father only to find out he was the devil and she was, in fact, a witch. the story was later adopted for the screen twice, once in 1967 for a czech new wave film, and later in 1977 for a yugoslavian horror film (both with the same title).

despite the album being credited to zednka vasek, we're told the true identity of those responsible could have had something to do with renowned czech blues guitarist lubos andrst.

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heavy psychedelic rock album from brasil, os praianos folgados (the beach slackers) was one of the least known tropicalia bands of the early 70s utilizing whimsical psychedelia, found sound environments, fuzztone guitars, go-go baselines and orchestral pop into a wildly inventive and maddening trip. 

the group was almost entirely made up of studio musicians who only seemed to issue this one record (at least to our knowledge) creating their own sound deeply rooted in american psych-funk. imagine if os mutantes and funkadelic got together with goblin for a one night recording session and you might just start to get an idea of what we're talking about here. 

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a short demo reel produced by the 'computer image corporation' in the early 70s

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this is a really weird record put out by the national rifle association of america in the early 80s and narrated by a very monotone and indifferent asian lady named cynthia wong.

the backside reads as follows:

this is the golden rule of gun safety. a "safe direction" means that the gun is pointed so that even if it were to go off it would not cause injury. the key to this rule is to control where the muzzle or front end of the barrel is pointed at all times. common sense dictates the safest direction, depending on different circumstances.

for example, if you are outside, it is generally safe to point a gun up or down (at the same time). However, inside your home, some judgement is involved. if you are on the bottom floor, don't point the gun up since a shot could go through the ceiling to a room above. if you are upstairs, don't point the gun down, since a shot might penetrate the floor. regardless of where you are, always be aware of where the gun is pointing and what is beyond. naturally, safety demands that a gun never be pointed at another person or your head.

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ballads dominated the girl-pop scene in ’60s japan, but few come close to the intensity and melodrama of noriko asano's 'shōjo wa futatabi sore ni aru (the girl's are at it again) released first on a small independent label called toka records then later distributed by columbia in 1969.

lyricist kanji sudo remembers that the label was adamant that the record was much too dark for noriko asano's image. up until the release, noriko was marketed as a cute girl-next-door youngster whose immense voice was kept at bay by the label’s very pop song choices. despite the lack of confidence in the record, “the girl's are at it again” was released in june of 1968, with a much more sultry and grown-up noriko nude on the sleeve. by september of that year it had reached #1. “noriko-chan” was back in the spotlight. 

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pastoral folk-songs, ballads, nursery rhymes and poetry by alice walker from 1972. the concept here is a retelling of classical children stories from around the world with a more soundtrack-type quality; often bringing out a naive yet sinister quality to each song.