Thursday, August 4, 2011

TWO YELLOW 7"s FROM MISSISSIPPI RECORDS
El Hadrmy - Kamlat/La Mone 7" - Mississippi Records
El Hadrmy - Kamlat/La Mone 7"
Info about this release is scarce and the sleeve being a facsimile of the original, there is very little for the English speaker to read. I think it was originally released around 1970 and was the ONLY record every pressed in the West African country of Mauritania. (There's no entry for Mauritania over at Radiodiffusion so it must be true...). These recordings come from the Western Sahel region of Africa and share many of the qualities I -- as a lay person -- associate with music from that area of the world. Tinariwen are from the neighboring country of Mali, for example. Both sides feature spry, wah-wah guitar, relatively spare arrangement and propulsive, mid-tempo rhythms. The guitar work is really out-of-site on this record, free and expressive without getting away from the rest of the band. Both tracks are excellent, this is a must for fans of African music, however casual or hardcore.

Count Vertigo - I'm A Mutant/X Patriots 7" - Mississippi Records
Count Vertigo - X Patriots/I'm A Mutant 7"
A long-out-print and very rare piece of the Portland punk puzzle from 1979, I think the factoid is that an original copy was the most expensive Portland record ever to be sold or something like that...
Released the same year as the Wipers' first LP and a year before the Rats', the Portland punk sound is in full effect on Count Vertigo's one and only release. This is some dark, angry stuff (we don't call it Doom Town for nothing, kids), the lyrics shouted loud and clear with the same kind of forceful-yet-despairing delivery that Greg Sage favored (reminds me a little of Eat Skull, too) and the band pummeling away in the hard-edged New Wave style of the Rats. I guess these guys got on Sage's bad side, so maybe small-town politics had to do with why this band, and the related Ice Nine, were so short-lived because they seem otherwise to have a lot going for them. Both sides are totally solid late 70s/pre-hardcore punk, angry and catchy.

Both are $5 each, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order!

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