I picked up the cd of this album in an incredible record shop in Melbourne that I'll almost certainly never visit again, since I have no idea what it's called or where it is, and I live on the other side of the planet. It's a shame because it was a great shop and I felt like I'd barely begun spending money in there before I ran out of cash.
I was studying in Australia for a year and most of that had passed without me visiting Melbourne, so some friends and I skipped the last week of classes and drove down there (no wonder my grades suffered). I had an afternoon to myself so went out in search of record shops and found this very cool one, half underground on a side street somewhere. They had some great records and cds, both ones I was after and ones I'd never heard of. This album fell into the latter group, but the sticker on the front told me it was a collaboration between Dan Gallucci (of Modest Mouse and The Murder City Devils) and a guy called Sean Reveron. I asked to have a listen in the shop (something I don't often do) and was pleased by what I heard. There were elements of every genre I can imagine; mostly hip hop, but hints of punk, indie, electronica, ragga; some tracks were laid back, others aggressive. The songs 5+1 and Treason caught my ear and I decided to buy the cd, along with a small stack of other bits.
Fast-forward seven or eight months and I was in Paris just after New Year, again with an afternoon to spare. I went into the mammoth Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees (needing a break from culture) and found their New Year sale had just begun. Their New Year sale was incredible - pretty much everything in it was €5 (about £3.35) and there were countless awesome cds in boxes everywhere for dirt-cheap. I was in a wonderland and ended up buying about 20 or so cds. I also eventually found a few boxes of records for €5 each and picked up a couple of LPs. This record was in there, and £3.35 was certainly cheap enough to justify a vinyl copy, so I bought it too. I thought the basket (yes, a basket of cds!) I had was full, but some people were buying huge numbers of cds and dvds. Clearly January sales are a big thing in France.
Anyway, the record is ace. There are a few songs that don't stand out as much as others, but the good songs are really strong. Treason with Spencer Moody (from MCD) on vocals and Document are the highlights, the latter of which has made it onto many mixtapes I've made. 5+1 has this great piano part that kicks in after the intro and really makes the song. There's not a huge amount of hip-hop in my collection, but I have a lot of time for dirty, alternative hip-hop like this.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.35 new
Bought: Virgin Megastore, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
