Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Rioters v. Music

There have been a load of riots in England, starting in London. As well as throwing things at policemen, the rioters have done a fair bit of breaking into premises and stealing things. And burning places down. One place that was burned down was a warehouse holding the stock of PIAS, the UK's largest distributor of independent music. Many record labels will have seen their stock completely destroyed, leaving them in a legal quagmire as to where liability lies and whether anyone is going to stump up cash to cover the cost.

There is a list of the record labels affected here.

On Facebook, someone asked for recommendations of stuff from these various labels that someone might want to buy as a way of helping them out – or panic buy now because they may not be available again for some time when shop stocks run out. I seem to have acquired a load of records from the Finders Keepers label. Looking at their website, these are ones I recommend highly to discerning music aficionados:

Jane WeaverThe Fallen By Watch Bird (amazing contemporary avant folk)
v/a – The Sound of Wonder (Pakistani pop music. Like classic Bollywood tunes, only from Pakistan)
Ersen – Ersen (Turkish psych rock)
v/a – Welsh Rare Beat vol.2 (delightful Welsh eclectica, mostly of the psych rock and avant folk bent)
SeldaSelda (awesome Turkish folk electronic rock)
Lubos Fisher – Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (fascinating soundtrack to obscure Czech film)
v/a – B-Music Cross Continental Record Raid Road Trip (beat music and stuff from around the world)
Jean-Claude Vannier – L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches (weirdo French music from the guy who did Melody Nelson with Serge Gainsbourg)
v/a – Bearded Ladies vol. 1 (eclectic folk ladies old and new selection)
v/a - Welsh Rare Beat (see vol. 2)

Just in case you think I am one of those people who likes everything I hear, I do actually have several other Finders Keepers records that I feel are somewhat less than essential. I am not going to list them here, because for all that I am a bit underwhelmed by them they may well be other people's cup of tea.

More on that PIAS fire, including things you can do to help keep independent music alive

An inuit panda production

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