Almost took me the entire first month of 2019, but as I’ve been saying all week…better late than never. Here are the top 5 45s I dug up in 2018.
Johnny & The Expressions – Now That You’re Mine
Maybe the most busted album I’ve ever purposely bought is also one of the sweetest. I picked this up at the Smorgasborg Record Fair in DTLA, when Hector Waluyo came over to Endo’s booth to play a few things with hopes of trade. Pretty much from the first notes that played I knew I wanted this one for myself. Endo thankfully passed and so a period of time later I made my way over to Hector’s booth, got a few other choice selections but made sure to ask about this one, which turned out to be much more reasonably price than I initially expected, solely due to the condition. At some point I’ll “mint up” and get a clean copy, but there’s a part of me that actually kind of loves how scratchy this 45 is, it almost makes it sound a little sweeter.
Cold Fire Inc. – I’m Gonna Love You Anyway
Picked this one up at the Bubba Thomas’ Record Collection sale at Rappcats, though that wasn’t the first time I had run into it. I first heard this at Groove Merchant, when Cool Chris played it for a British gentleman who had apparently heard it earlier and was listening to it for a second time as he made final decisions. The mellowness of the track was really distinctive and it wasn’t long before I was using my best Jedi Mind Tricks to convince the bloke that this was not the 45 he was looking for. Despite these efforts, he ended up buying it and I was left to search for it online with absolutely no avail. When Egon posted some pictures of the upcoming sale and noted that he had multiple copies of this, I almost jumped through the roof.
Like most of the 45s on this list, I got this one at a Rappcats Pop-Up sale, which was where I spent most of my record budget this past year. In this case, this one was dug up at the legendary Craig Moerer’s sale, which was every bit as amazing as it was advertised to be. The first thing that drew my attention was the distinctive Scorpion art on the label, but then I saw the name of the group, “The Fabulistics” though spelled with a apostrophe on the “S,” which is clearly a grammar mistake (unless they meant it was really the Fabulistic and this was their “Absence?”). But with a name like the Fabulistics, the song was almost guaranteed to be good, and damn is the song good. Vocal on the A-side, Instrumental with saxophone taking the place of the lead singer on the flip, both absolutely fabulous.
This is one that I may very well have passed by a couple times while at Rappcats. Egon had a couple of boxes of 45s from Iran and knowing pre-“revolution” Iran was a swinging place, there’s likely a large amount of heat to be found therein. But I don’t know how to read Farsi, and there’s only a few artists who I even know, so it was a bit of a crap shoot to figure out which ones to get. I heard Cut Chemist play this 45 on his Stable Sound radio show, and lucky enough for me, he also happened to post a picture of the funky 45 on his IG, which allowed me to sort out what the release was via a search of discogs. Also lucky for me when I did find it, there was a picture sleeve posted and thus the picture was firmly planted in my head in case I ever saw it again. While most of the Rappcats sales were for particular dealers, at one of the rare times where Egon brought out a few recent collections he had acquired, he also brought back out the boxes of Iranian 45s and this time around Shamaizadeh’s funky “Hard Groove,” was right there waiting for me and I was not gonna let that chance slip on by. Big thanks to my friend from KALX Berkeley days, Ponnie, for telling me more about the artist and about the groovy flip side “Hamumi,” (a track that I played in the Melting Pot Radio Hour rundown of vinyl I dug up last year).
The Significants – One Kindness Deserves Another
Yet another one that came to me via a Rappcats Pop-Up sale, in this case DJ Shadow’s third storage sale. This track is one that I actually ran into at his first sale. It was actually the first time I’ve been able to really have a conversation with Josh, and perhaps not surprisingly it revolved around our mutual friend, the dearly departed Matthew Africa. I’d asked about this 45, wondering what it sounded like and when Shadow put the needle to it, it immediately reminded me of the “Soul Boulders” that Matthew loved. Shadow mentioned how much he missed Matthew, and how they used to take great delight in playing weird, random things for each other. That first time around, I didn’t have nearly enough money for what was one of the more expensive 45s on display. When Shadow came around again in 2017, I made a decision to grab a different rare 45, that Symphonic Four one that I was in this position in last year’s list. But this time around, he brought another copy, one that wasn’t in quite as good shape, and thus was a little cheaper, and the stars aligned where I had enough money to finally get this marvel. I have to agree with Josh’s assessment that first time he played, it is definitely one of the most distinctive sounding “sweet” soul songs I’ve heard. Truly holds a special place in my collection, not only because it originally came from Shadow’s, but also because of how it links up with the memory of a dear friend, who turned me on to so much beautiful music.