Serge Gainsbourg - Du Jazz Dans Le Ravin
Superb compilation of early Philips discs that catalogue M. Gainsbourg's flirtation with jazz. A mixture of straight-ahead, bebop and mordant crooning with the odd noirish rock n' roller thrown in. The recordings are flawless and although it's a world away from his later albums I love this as much as L'Homme a Tete De Chou or Histoire de Melody Nelson. The standouts for me are the melancholic languor of Machins Choses (I suspect Tindersticks soiled themselves when they first heard this) or the arse-kicking instrumental closer, Wake Me At Five.
Stock, Hausen & Walkman – Organ Transplants / Hot Air / 1996 / Out of print
Baffling, Dadaist hokum from collage picadors S,H&W. Incredibly, this was Rough Trade's album of the year back in 1996, I recall Nigel miming playing an imaginary organ and replying 'fat organ cut-ups' when I asked him how it sounded. An accurate assessment it turns out – imagine going through the bargain bins or racks in charity shops and buying all of those dreadful Klaus Wunderlich or Mrs Sodding Mills organ records and stitching snippets together into a coherent, and at times almost groovy, whole. Sheer daftness but genuinely great at the same time, it could almost pass for Esquivel-ish easy listening if it wasn’t so mischievous. In a properly ordered universe this would be the soundtrack to America's Funniest Home Videos.
