La Belle et le Bête (1982)

La Belle et le Bête (1982)- Bill Nelson When I first picked up this record, I thought it was the soundtrack for the Cocteau film (one of my all-time favourites), which would have been great on its own. It was even better though, it turned out to be the electronic soundtrack of a stage interpretation of the Cocteau film from a theatre in Yorkshire in the 80s. I don't know if that sounds incredible or terrible or both. I want to see that play, that's for sure. From the back cover: "The Yorkshire Actors Company, under the direction of Andy Winters, have transformed this cinematic tour-de-force into a densely enigmatic stage production. Although performed without recourse to filmic tricks, sets or elaborate lighting, the play manages to convey the conflicts and contrasts between the 'other-worldliness' of the Beast's castle and the squalidness of Beauty's family life. The result is a kind of 'human cinema' where gesture, dialogue and music alone replace the elaborate mechanics of the film world." Yes, "human cinema", aka theatre.    It also has a very long list of every synth, mixing desk and tape machine used in the recording. I won't bother to type them out here, but if anyone seriously does want them, just ask in the comments. I can't actually remember what tracks these samples are of, it doesn't really matter, the whole thing is much of a muchness. (Even though I like it)

Coming up soon

Incense and Oldies (1970)

Incense and Oldies- Buddah Records 1970
This record terrifies me. I bought it because I thought it was a compilation of Motown/Phil Spector songs, and it was 20p and had an interesting cover. It is a compilation of Shangri-Las and Dixie Cups songs, but there's a man in between the songs doing sort of inspirational mediation speeches that are vaguely related to the titles and make no sense whatsoever. I guess you're supposed to meditate to Leader of the Pack or something. The man is creepy whatever the aim.

Moog!- Claude Denjean (1971)

Moog! by Claude Denjean 1971 (Decca)

This one is covers of popular songs of the 60s done on a Moog by some Dutch guy. Pretty much as you’d imagine. I couldn’t resist the exclamation mark, and the promise of a “phase 4 stereo spectacular”, I think it cost me 50p. 50p well spent.

Jukka Tolonen (1979)

  I got this from the bargain box in Reading Oxfam about 5 years ago. I think you got 6 for £5 or something. I just thought "hmm, Finnish hippy, wonder what that sounds like". (Jukka is Finnish for John). It turns out to be some very pleasant light guitar jazz. I could imagine it as the soundtrack to a cooking show. Well done, Jukka Tolonen.

Radiophonic Workshop 21 (1979)

Here's an actual credible record. I bought this in a charity shop in Cambridge. That's where you would expect to find a Radiophonic Workshop album. I like to imagine some academics having a tweedy fondue party in the 70s and listening to this. Like Abigail's Party, but with more Hegel and elbow patches. It's celebrating 21 years of the Radiophonic Workshop, and features a lot of their tv soundtrack work. I also have the photographic filter they use on the cover, it came in a big box of cheesy 70s filters I was given and a surprisingly uncheesy book about how to use them. I need to find excuses to use it more often.

TV favourites (1975)

TV Favourites- Happy House Records/Damont Records- UK - 1975

I got this for 20p at a charity shop thinking it would be fun to have all these kid's show theme tunes. It turned out that it wasn't the actual tv versions of the songs, it's one of those shoddy cover singers albums that were everywhere in the 60s and 70s. And this is a particularly craptastic example.   The versions of the Rupert, Wombles and Magic Roundabout theme songs sound pretty much like the real thing, but the Dr Who and Pink Panther ones are just bizarre. The first time I listened to it, I fell on the floor in hysterical laughter. My housemate came in to see what the fuss was about and ended up in hysterics himself. Someone tried to play the Dr Who and Pink Panther music on a cheap synth (and in the case of Dr Who, on a slide whistle).