Conch Records

Date

March 02 2012

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LOCAL VINYL: She's So Rad - In Circles LP (FROM THE CRATES)

Written By 1 - March 02 2012

Out next week, to pre-order please contact us at info@conch.co.nz

Described as (Sunday Star Times, NZ) ‘warm clouds of distortion and feedback cloaking every sound and gorgeous hazy melodies that swirl around you like smoke’. 5/5 stars

In Circles is finally given the treatment it deserves, this is a limited edition 12” pressing of what is to become a future classic lo-fi New Zealand album. This album sounds it’s best on vinyl, there is no doubt that the washed out distorted guitars and drums were made for vinyl. From The Crate Records delivers this record as is should be heard and seen, this boutique pressing was manufactured by Bill Smith Custom Records, a family owned business in El Segundo, California. The artwork has been re-worked specifically for vinyl, right down to the finest detail that includes a one page insert with new artwork.

About the album... Recorded at multiple locations in Auckland, from the fanciest of recording studios to makeshift vocal booths in bedroom closets; with cellphone recorded pianos, and featuring musicians ranging from high school colleagues to IT programmers, ex flatmates, brother-in-laws and even a record spinning Texan cargo loader - In Circles, the debut album from award winning producer Jeremy Toy as She’s So Rad, is one expansive affair.

Drifting between gorgeously bruised, camouflaged pop songs coated with layers of washed out guitars and effects, and purposefully lo-fi beaty gear that references golden era hip hop while sounding modern enough to be tagged chillwave, In Circles is both economic and profoundly satisfying.

Appropriately enough it begins with Iceblock, a track that was originally recorded in Jeremy’s home studio in 2009. Making a splash on the b-Net network and also attracting the attention of Round Trip Mars, it became the catalyst for the direction of She’s So Rad with its irresistible lo-fi, hazy indie rock sound. From that exceptional entrance, every song is treated differently; with guitars from the 60’s, synthesizers from the 70’s, drum machines from the 80’s and samplers from the 90’s. Melding everything together, the album was processed through two quintessential ‘shoegaze’ delay/effects units, and an old Yamaha 4 track cassette recorder that was purchased at a thrift store in Vancouver, giving the whole affair a whiff of 1990’s garage rock.

Far from idle, elsewhere during the writing and recording of In Circles, Jeremy has been working with Sami Sisters on their debut album, Julien Dyne on his sophomore release for BBE, engineering for Ladyhawke on her first remix, as well as programming drums and playing bass for Liam Finn.

LINKS: www.shessorad.com Purchase the CD version here

Date

February 29 2012

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Feiyue Shoes Back In At Conch

Written By 1 - February 29 2012

We have managed to get Feiyue shoes back in stock.  Feiyue shoes were traditionally a Chinese martial arts shoe but have since been adopted as an alternative to the Converse / Vans style of sneaker. Due to its original use as a martial arts shoes they feature flexible and spongy soles perfect for everyday use.  They come in Black & White as well as High & Low Cut versions.  Check below for the range of styles.  To inquire about availability please contact us at info@conch.co.nz All Black - High Top Sizes: 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 All White - High Top Sizes: 8 / 9 / 10 /11 Black High Top - (Logo & Arrows) Sizes: 8 / 9 /10 /11 White - High Top - (Logo & Arrows) Sizes: 8 / 9 / 10 / 11  Black High Top (Arrows) Sizes: 8 / 9 / 10 /11 White High Top (Arrows) Sizes: 8 /9 /10 /11   Black Low Top - (Arrows & Logo) Sizes: 8 / 9 / 10 /11   White Low Top - (Arrows & Logo) Sizes: 8 /9 / 10 /11  

Date

February 29 2012

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Greg Wilson Talks via Dubdotdash

Written By 1 - February 29 2012

Peter McLennan of www.dubdotdash.blogspot.co.nz covers the Greg Wilson Q&A held at Conch Records last night.

Big thanks to the British Council, Murry Sweetpants, Chris Reed & everyone who made this happen.  Check Greg Wilson out this Friday the 2nd March at The Nathan Club, tickets available from Conch Records or www.iticketexpress.co.nz

"Last night Conch Records hosted a session with legendary UK DJ Greg Wilson, talking about his DJ career, his approach to edits, and showing us how he worked a Revox B77 reel to reel. It was a fascinating talk, and he has some amazing stories.

Like how he taught Fatboy Slim to scratch. That story was funny as hell. Dated back to 1983, when Greg was doing a tour round the UK called the Hacienda revue, and it stopped off in Brighton. There was this enthusiastic kid called Quentin (aka Fatboy Slim/Norman Cook) who was hanging round the DJ decks asking questions, so Greg showed him the basics of scratching.

Fast forward a few years to Beats International hitting big with Dub be good to me, and Greg is reading an interview with Norman Cook of Beats  International, and he cites his influences as Grandmaster Flash and Greg Wilson. Greg goes, what the heck's that about? He asks an old mate of his (Kermit from Black Grape/Ruthless Rap Assassins), and they remind him of that moment back in 83. Greg tells it way better than I do." 

When  Greg got onto the internet, about 15 years ago, he noticed all the various dance scenes being documented, but black culture wasn't being included. He talked about that black culture in the UK going back to the 50s and 60s, even earlier with US GIs coming over to England, bringing jukeboxes with them. The dance scene there didn't start with a bunch of DJs coming back from Ibiza and suddenly inventing dance culture.

He mentioned that some folk say the northern soul scene led into rave, but he noted that there was a 7 year gap between the Wigan Casino closing and rave hitting in 88. Discussing his edits, he said he's rubbish, technically, but he's got a mate who is really good at all that technical stuff. He put Greg onto a program that he said was prefect for Greg, called Acid, which was ideal for making loops, the basis of a good edit. He talked about black music from the UK not being taken seriously in its country of origin, as it wasn't American. He namechecked a handful of UK acts, like Cymande and Freez.

He talked about the New York hiphop scene. I asked him about Afrika Bambaata, who used to go downtown to the record pools to get records that no one else in the Bronx had, and wanted to know how Greg went about getting records that were exclusive.

He answered by going into a story about the northern soul scene, which thrived on DJs scoring exclusives that no one else had, using an example of a record DJ Ian Levine found. The rumour went round that he had discovered this amazing, rare record called Theres a ghost in my house and was going to play it that weekend. And he was right, says Greg, it was an amazing record, and later went on to be a chart hit in the UK. But on the way home from the casino at the end of the night, some folk had stopped off at a service station (gas station) to get a feed, and they were flicking thru the record stand in there. EMI put out these cheap compilations for a pound (records were 3  pounds then) called Music for pleasure, and on the track listing was Theres a ghost in my house. He wanted to highlight that kind of exclusivity that riddled the northern soul scene, as he said he was not interested in it at all. He wanted to popularise the tunes he found, share his discoveries with everyone.

Greg talked about when he got into DJing at 16, he bought a book by a famous UK radio DJ named Emperor Rosco, called Emperor Rosco's DJ Book, and in the back were the addresses of the record companies. Greg wrote to them all and started developing contacts to send him the latest records and US imports, getting on their promo lists.

Greg pointed out that these record promo lists started in 1971, predating the arrival of the much-trumpeted record pools started by David Mancuso and co in NYC by 4 years. He talked about with his current approach to DJing, he is always "looking for the balance between the past and the present." He mentioned DJing off laptop, but had reintroduced the Revox reel to reel in his DJ setup. One way he uses it is to drop sound effects and samples into his mixing. He also uses it in the Jamaican dub style, dropping the reel to reel into record, then feeding it back into the mix, creating a live tape delay effect. So, does he still make edits on tape? For the romance of it (as he put it)? "Madness! No!" He uses a computer, much easier say to make a 16 bar loop - he only has to edit it once, then enter repeat 15 times and it's done. He talked about when he got back into DJing, after a 20 year break, which was on the back of an old mate of his, Kermit, playing him the first Black Grape album, and asking what he thought of it. Greg could hear where the edits needed to be, so he learnt digital editing using a system popular in radio, called Sadie. He finished with a quick demo of the Revox, how to chop up tape and find the edit points. It was a very entertaining few hours. Big thanks to Conch Records, Murry Sweetpants, the British Council, and everyone involved in making it happen. Go see Greg Wilson 1st March at Debajo, Queenstown, and this Friday night at the Nathan Club, Britomart, Auckland.

Date

February 29 2012

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Wendy Rene - After Laughter Comes Tears (LIGHT IN THE ATTIC)

Written By 1 - February 29 2012

 
Complete Stax & Volt Singles + Rarities 1964-1965

 

Available on CD here & 2LP here

Tracklist & Soundclips:

1. Bar B Q - Wendy Rene
2. Gone For Good - Wendy Rene
3. Your Love Is All I Need - The Drapels
4. After Laughter (Comes Tears) - Wendy Rene
5. I Wish I Were That Girl - Wendy Rene
6. What Will Tomorrow Bring - Wendy Rene
7. Wondering (When My Love Is Coming Home) - The Drapels
8. Deep In My Heart - Wendy Rene
9. Give You What I Got - Wendy Rene
10. Crying All By Myself - Wendy Rene
11. Crowded Park - Wendy Rene
12. Last Love - Wendy Rene
13. Love At First Sight - Wendy Rene
14. She's Moving Away - Wendy Rene
15. He Hasn't Failed Me Yet - Wendy Rene
16. Please Don't Leave Me - The Drapels
17. The Same Guy - Wendy Rene
18. Young Man - The Drapels
19. Can't Stay Away - Wendy Rene
20. First Kiss - Wendy Rene
21. Reap What You Sow - Wendy Rene
22. Young And Foolish - Wendy Rene

It’s been a long time coming, but After Laughter Comes Tears is the first ever anthology of southern soul legend Wendy Rene, whose classic, organ-driven “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” has been covered or sampled by everyone from Wu Tang Clan (“Tearz”, from 36 Chambers) to Alicia Keys (“Where Do We Go From Here”), Lykke Li and El Perro Del Mar. “If I could sing like anyone,” said Lykke Li, “It would be her.”

Born Mary Frierson in Memphis, Tennessee, home of Stax Records, Wendy Rene was christened by Otis Redding on signing to Stax as a teenager in 1963. Back then, she and brother Johnny Frierson, both singers at the Church of God In Christ, were determined to make it in music. Forming singing quartet The Drapels with two friends, they took the bus to 926 E. McLemore Avenue, auditioned for Stax co-founder Jim Stewart, and won a deal on the spot. “As soon as we finished with the Drapels’ songs and [the rest of the band] were going to the bus stop, I showed Mr. Stewart my songs,” recalls Rene. The result? Stewart found two acts in one, and Mary had two contracts with Stax.

Both Drapels and Wendy began recording with the greats – that’s The MGs on the group’s “Young Man”, Booker T. Jones playing organ on “After Laughter” and Steve Cropper playing guitar on the dance craze-inspired “Bar-B-Q”, the success of which caused Wendy – then a teen bride – to leave school.

The Drapels dissolved almost as quickly as Wendy’s first marriage, partly due to the attention lavished on youngest member Wendy’s solo career. But a real hit eluded the singer, and in 1967, with a growing family with second husband and Stax employee James Cross, Wendy decided to retire from the business. “I wanted a baby to hold and coochie-coo to, and I didn’t want to miss any more time away from my kids,” she says.

Wendy was due to perform one last show with Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays, but changed her mind at the last minute. It was an auspicious decision – that weekend, Redding and four Bar-Kays died when their plane crashed in Lake Monona.

Mary mourned her friends but not her music career. She taught harmony to her children and she sang in church, not in the studio. Then, in 1993, something strange happened – a friend of her son heard Wu Tang Clan’s “Tearz” on the radio. As new generations of artists have rediscovered Wendy Rene’s work, they have touched her life in various ways: Alicia Keys’s remake of “After Laughter…”, “Where Do We Go From Here”, for example, helped pay for her current home. Keys tried to meet up with Rene when she played in Memphis. “I wasn’t able to do it,” says Wendy, revealing little.

In September 2010, Wendy Rene returned to live performance, albeit very briefly, playing a set at Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans. It was to be a bittersweet occasion – Wendy’s beloved brother Johnny had died suddenly in June 2010 and performing brought back a flood of memories. “I was so choked up I wasn’t able to perform like I wanted,” she admits. Though her career was brief, Wendy Rene left behind a thrilling catalogue of classic soul. Here, Light In The Attic gives it the archive treatment it richly deserves. Listen, delve and enjoy.

Date

February 28 2012

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Wax Poetics 10th Anniversary: Issue 50 - Prince / Frank Ocean

Written By 1 - February 28 2012

Prince / Frank Ocean

Available Here

In December of 2001, Wax Poetics debuted its first issue to a small following of record collectors and “beat diggers.”  Ten years later, Wax Poetics has carved out a niche for itself in the world of music journalism and expanded its audience to a worldwide congregation of music lovers.

Issue 50 marks our ten-year anniversary and does so with one of the most iconic musicians in the history of African American music, the one and only Prince.

We’ve also done a full redesign, making the magazine slightly larger—8 × 10.5 inches—and we’ve embraced a new  paper stock. Wax Poetics will look a bit different on the newsstand, with a new mark making its debut in place of our old logo, but the magazine will continue to be a collectible objet d’art, something to be saved on your shelf as a musical  reference manual, not recycled like other mags.

Wax Poetics has also returned to its roots as a journal and is back to being quarterly. The new price reflects not only radical changes in the publishing industry and the economy, but also the guarantee of continued quality from the paper stock to the writing and photographs. We vow to keep Wax Poetics in print as a tangible entity, bucking the trend of ridding our culture of old-school reading products.

Join us as we embark on our tenth year of celebrating the unprecedented and untouchable African American musical tradition!

In the Issue: Prince, Frank Ocean, Larry Graham, Morris Day, Toro y Moi, DJ Quick Record Rundown, Blood Orange, Questlove on Prince, Jesse Johnson, Madhouse, The Family, Grand Central, and 94 East Re:Discovered.
 
To order back issues please contact us at info@conch.co.nz

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