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Search Result for Label MUNSTER RECORDS
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LP
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MR 329LP
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LP version with a 12-page full-color booklet with extensive notes and unseen photos. "With only six singles released between 1965 and 1966, and from an apparently remote place such as Lima, Peru, Los Saicos created a raw, wild and visceral sound, the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the garage rock that was coming out of the U.S. Northwest at the same time. Theirs is the same DNA shared by The Sonics, The Cramps and Black Lips. This release compiles all their recordings and tells their amazing story. This snarling maelstrom of nihilism was cut in Lima when the rest of the world was wetting itself over The Beatles, direct links to both The Stooges and The Cramps here and several more equally-enthralling combos. The latter spawned several generations of individuals who would dig deep to previously (mostly) unheard seams of music and other forms of culture that have since become part of the mainstream fabric. Another strong case of the same kind of happenstance to my mind is that which preceded the much-vaunted 'punk' explosion of the '70s. The unhinged nature of the song titles is one thing, but after you become acclimatized to the inherent strangeness, other aspects become apparent. The rhythms and the way the guitars chime and twang to offset the howling are no mere approximations or interpretation. Chemistry is by far a more important factor in the gestation of sound than proficiency or ability. There's a point where nature takes over and in kicks the call of the wild. The individuals have no other option than to just go with it. I don't know about you, but I have an intense dislike of artists that are nothing more than a modular, cookery book approximation of what somebody reckons might be a hipster record collection. This is decidedly not a case of that. Primitive to the point of primordial, Los Saicos are an important benchmark. Not were. Who ever thought there could be a combo out there in Peru that would make The Sonics sound like Simon and bloody Garfunkel? There is quite possibly some other music out there, someplace, that could well make us re-address this consideration, but until then, cherish this short course of Saicotherapy." --Lindsay Hutton
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2LP
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MR 320LP
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Gatefold double LP version. Olympic were given their name in 1963 while they were regularly performing at one of the "hippest" venues in Prague of that time, the music club Olympik. They were no newcomers, though. Since the late 1950s they had been playing in legendary rock'n'roll groups like Sputnici, Samuels, and later Karkulka. In June 1963, the Big Beat Quintet -- an offspring of Sputnici featuring three future Olympic members -- had even recorded one of the first genuine rock'n'roll singles for the Supraphon label. But the actual launch of their unprecedented professional career was November 11, 1963 when Olympic debuted as the house band for the first rock'n'roll musical "Ondrá? podotýká" at the renowned Semafor Theatre. This early line-up comprised about seven musicians, including a saxophonist. In the spring of 1964 Olympic entered the Supraphon recording studios for the first time, and they instantly made Czech music history again. The resulting "big beat" series of 7" singles was released in collaboration with the popular Mladý svet (trans. Young World) magazine, with Olympic backing top Czech vocalists on four records out of five, including Eva Pilarová and Karel Gott. Olympic initially continued to work for Supraphon as a backing band on several singles whenever the fashionable rock backbeat was required. Yet for themselves they had chosen another pioneering path: instead of slavishly performing cover versions of Western hits like the majority of other Czech beat groups, they began to write and sing their own songs with Czech lyrics. In 1967, the group was offered to record the first-ever Czechoslovak profile beat album. The recording sessions took place between January and October 1967, and the LP was released in early 1968. The second Supraphon album, Pták Rosomák (trans. The Bird Wolverine), was recorded in December 1968 and January 1969. Apart from loads of hip psychedelia, it also included earlier hits like "Krásná neznámá" and the title-track, and again it was an enormous success on the domestic market. Later that spring, the bassist and main lyricist quit the group. He was replaced by Jan "Papírek" Hauser. The band revisited France to work on a new record but it was eventually cancelled (it remained unreleased until 2011). After considering emigration at first, Olympic returned to Prague in August 1969, in spite of the cheerless political situation. Since they weren't a band with many "offending" messages or with an overly rebellious attitude, the communist censors let them carry on. "Kufr" was a hit in late 1969, and even bigger hits followed in 1970 in the form of more pop-oriented songs. Jedeme, jedeme (trans. "Riding On, Riding On") was their third album for Supraphon, recorded in September 1970. It contained fresh versions of several songs originally written for the previously-cancelled French LP, and it shows a slight shift towards progressive rock. Compiled and annotated by Luká Machata.
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7"
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MR 7255EP
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Two covers by Destroy All Monsters vocalist Niagara backed by a band including Dan Kroha (Gories, Demolition Doll Rods) and Jeff Meier (Rocket 455, ex-Detroit Cobras).
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CD
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MR 320CD
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Olympic were given their name in 1963 while they were regularly performing at one of the "hippest" venues in Prague of that time, the music club Olympik. They were no newcomers, though. Since the late 1950s they had been playing in legendary rock'n'roll groups like Sputnici, Samuels, and later Karkulka. In June 1963, the Big Beat Quintet -- an offspring of Sputnici featuring three future Olympic members -- had even recorded one of the first genuine rock'n'roll singles for the Supraphon label. But the actual launch of their unprecedented professional career was November 11, 1963 when Olympic debuted as the house band for the first rock'n'roll musical "Ondrá? podotýká" at the renowned Semafor Theatre. This early line-up comprised about seven musicians, including a saxophonist. In the spring of 1964 Olympic entered the Supraphon recording studios for the first time, and they instantly made Czech music history again. The resulting "big beat" series of 7" singles was released in collaboration with the popular Mladý svet (trans. Young World) magazine, with Olympic backing top Czech vocalists on four records out of five, including Eva Pilarová and Karel Gott. Olympic initially continued to work for Supraphon as a backing band on several singles whenever the fashionable rock backbeat was required. Yet for themselves they had chosen another pioneering path: instead of slavishly performing cover versions of Western hits like the majority of other Czech beat groups, they began to write and sing their own songs with Czech lyrics. In 1967, the group was offered to record the first-ever Czechoslovak profile beat album. The recording sessions took place between January and October 1967, and the LP was released in early 1968. The second Supraphon album, Pták Rosomák (trans. The Bird Wolverine), was recorded in December 1968 and January 1969. Apart from loads of hip psychedelia, it also included earlier hits like "Krásná neznámá" and the title-track, and again it was an enormous success on the domestic market. Later that spring, the bassist and main lyricist quit the group. He was replaced by Jan "Papírek" Hauser. The band revisited France to work on a new record but it was eventually cancelled (it remained unreleased until 2011). After considering emigration at first, Olympic returned to Prague in August 1969, in spite of the cheerless political situation. Since they weren't a band with many "offending" messages or with an overly rebellious attitude, the communist censors let them carry on. "Kufr" was a hit in late 1969, and even bigger hits followed in 1970 in the form of more pop-oriented songs. Jedeme, jedeme (trans. "Riding On, Riding On") was their third album for Supraphon, recorded in September 1970. It contained fresh versions of several songs originally written for the previously-cancelled French LP, and it shows a slight shift towards progressive rock. Compiled and annotated by Luká Machata.
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7"
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MR 7253EP
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The first demo from 1981 of Las Chinas, an all-girl band from Madrid. Spanish new wave pop at its best.
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7"
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MR 7254EP
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Two tracks by The Fuzz, a new Memphis band made up of Harlan T. Bobo, Jack Oblivian Yarber, Bruce Saltmarsh, and Jeff Dutton.
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LP+MAG
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MR 288LP
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Zona Especial Norte (this was the code denomination that Spanish Guardia Civil and police gave the conflictive Basque region back in the 1980s) was a split album shared by RIP and Eskorbuto, two of the wildest and more radical punk bands from the Basque Country. The original record, released in 1983, was out-of-print for two decades and is one of the most sought-after LPs of the era. Munster Record's 2008 reissue quickly sold out, and now 30 years after its original release, the label (together with Spansuls/Lollipop, owner of the masters and rights) brings back in print this influential record -- a true sonic reflection of those difficult, tense, crude and rough years. This special reissue consists of a colored vinyl 12" accompanied by a 20-page fanzine full of pictures (many unseen), with fantastic liner notes by Roberto Moso, singer of Zarama, written in Spanish and English.
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CD
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MR 327CD
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Munster reissues the third Lyres LP, originally released on Ace of Hearts, from 1988. "Anyone following the career of Lyres for any length of time throughout that mid-to-late '80s period would doubtless be interested in the ongoing personnel shuffles that were taking place around this time. 'What really happened,' Jeff Conolly explains, 'is that we had to totally re-group the line-up with each LP because people instantly discovered that it was nearly impossible to go professional and maintain a living and do the kind of not-sell-out music we did at the same time. Our special Murphy drummer would leave and then re-join many, many times, and then we started getting robbed on tour a lot, and many nice things were lost to us... After the tour van got busted into in Amsterdam in May 1987 we had to get a new guitar guy to go along with our new rhythm section. At this point there was very little 'connection' with the original concept or sound of the 1979 group which had been founded on being aspiring amateur musicians.' Although one or two of USA's then modern garage-type bands were beginning to make some inroads beyond a cult-only success, particularly overseas, it was nearly always accepted as a given that playing this type of unfashionable music could only ever result in rather limited dividends, commercially speaking. But successful or otherwise, Lyres can be seen as purveyors of a rich stream of powerful music, distilled from an amalgam of influences, injected with unusual verve and vitality, and presented in a wholly authentic, provocatively different way from all other groups. Of the many startling 'Conolloid' creations, self-penned, or imaginatively reinvestigated, one wonders often how Lyres came up with such radical reinterpretations of songs such as Dave Dee and company's life-affirming piano ballad 'Here's a Heart.' 'I started buying original UK freakbeat records beginning in the early 1980s when they were still relatively affordable,' states Conolly. 'I liked that weirdo USA Fontana Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich LP that had a ton of their hits on it, and I finally realized that their recording of 'Here's a Heart' had the special charming majick. On one of our trips to Paris I crashed with Carolyn and Stiv [Bators -- ex of U.S. punks The Dead Boys] and we discovered that we were both nuts about 'Here's a Heart.' I had bought myself a nice and reasonable DDDBM&T EP souvenir that afternoon at USA Records and we played it at Carolyn's and me and Stiv sang with it a lot. We kinda agreed to record it in one way or another, and later in January 1988 Stiv was in NYC and he came down to sing it with me live for the album #3.' With any kind of success, whether musical or otherwise, there also comes with it a certain degree of pressure, and so it was no different for Conolly and Lyres. 'All of a sudden I had to figure out a 'new' kind of Lyres sound and matching style/material to go with it,' says Conolly. 'And I had to do it real fast, so I started coming up with junk that was sort of like the very expensive but cool records I had been acquiring and sort of investigating, these freakbeaty records, which accounts for our trying to sort of figure out John's Children in 1987 and 1988.'" --Lenny Helsing
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LP
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MR 327LP
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Gatefold LP version. Munster reissues the third Lyres LP, originally released on Ace of Hearts, from 1988. "Anyone following the career of Lyres for any length of time throughout that mid-to-late '80s period would doubtless be interested in the ongoing personnel shuffles that were taking place around this time. 'What really happened,' Jeff Conolly explains, 'is that we had to totally re-group the line-up with each LP because people instantly discovered that it was nearly impossible to go professional and maintain a living and do the kind of not-sell-out music we did at the same time. Our special Murphy drummer would leave and then re-join many, many times, and then we started getting robbed on tour a lot, and many nice things were lost to us... After the tour van got busted into in Amsterdam in May 1987 we had to get a new guitar guy to go along with our new rhythm section. At this point there was very little 'connection' with the original concept or sound of the 1979 group which had been founded on being aspiring amateur musicians.' Although one or two of USA's then modern garage-type bands were beginning to make some inroads beyond a cult-only success, particularly overseas, it was nearly always accepted as a given that playing this type of unfashionable music could only ever result in rather limited dividends, commercially speaking. But successful or otherwise, Lyres can be seen as purveyors of a rich stream of powerful music, distilled from an amalgam of influences, injected with unusual verve and vitality, and presented in a wholly authentic, provocatively different way from all other groups. Of the many startling 'Conolloid' creations, self-penned, or imaginatively reinvestigated, one wonders often how Lyres came up with such radical reinterpretations of songs such as Dave Dee and company's life-affirming piano ballad 'Here's a Heart.' 'I started buying original UK freakbeat records beginning in the early 1980s when they were still relatively affordable,' states Conolly. 'I liked that weirdo USA Fontana Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich LP that had a ton of their hits on it, and I finally realized that their recording of 'Here's a Heart' had the special charming majick. On one of our trips to Paris I crashed with Carolyn and Stiv [Bators -- ex of U.S. punks The Dead Boys] and we discovered that we were both nuts about 'Here's a Heart.' I had bought myself a nice and reasonable DDDBM&T EP souvenir that afternoon at USA Records and we played it at Carolyn's and me and Stiv sang with it a lot. We kinda agreed to record it in one way or another, and later in January 1988 Stiv was in NYC and he came down to sing it with me live for the album #3.' With any kind of success, whether musical or otherwise, there also comes with it a certain degree of pressure, and so it was no different for Conolly and Lyres. 'All of a sudden I had to figure out a 'new' kind of Lyres sound and matching style/material to go with it,' says Conolly. 'And I had to do it real fast, so I started coming up with junk that was sort of like the very expensive but cool records I had been acquiring and sort of investigating, these freakbeaty records, which accounts for our trying to sort of figure out John's Children in 1987 and 1988.'" --Lenny Helsing
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LP
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MR 328LP
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Lost Lyres compiles seven tracks from Lyres recording sessions that took place in summer 1980 plus another five tracks recorded at the same time as their first album, On Fyre (1984). "Perhaps one reason why Lyres didn't set the world's charts alight, and enjoy the kind of success some other groups attained, was that they weren't quite as easy to pigeon-hole as some. It's also true that Jeff Conolly refused to let the group be molded by anyone who would try and turn them into something which they didn't feel real and honest about. 'I allow for one thing about the group DMZ/Lyres,' Conolly states matter of factly, 'no manager -- self managed.' And whether any given record release was a success or not, it wasn't going to alter the fact that here was a group with a righteously original take on old school beat-rock and, regardless, they would do their own thing. Jeff's unique songwriting craft would also continue to propel them forward. 'I don't know which came first, the song, music, title or just fear of having to come up with something,' he reveals today, 'but that's where the 'record collecting' could once-in-awhile be of some help, certain things to keep your mind functioning and to 'be interested' in... The thing that you had always loved which had now turned into this 'job' nitemare...' And what of others who had gone before who had also tried to make a decent fist of things largely on their own terms? 'Some of these tune-smiths can really crank them out,' reasons Conolly, 'but even a Ray Davies will break down on his own and then what? Turn the corner and 'go soft' with nostalgia or 're-invent the wheel' with whatever.' One can easily surmise that this would not be something that Jeff Conolly would be happy to go along with at all. Fans of Lyres both old and new will be delighted to learn that some of the best of the group's early magic has been finely sifted and duly selected for inclusion on this here very collection which, hopefully, you are digging pretty big on right around now!" --Lenny Helsing
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