Just over a decade ago I asked for my P45. I walked out of normal employment.
It was like rolling a very big dice – I had no work to go to, just my
enthusiasm for music, charity shops, jumble sales and anything under the
radar of normal life.
Following my instincts, and with very limited resources, Trunk Records was
born, the slightly odd idea being to issue old music that no one had really
heard before. It’s easy to set up a reissue label, it’s slightly masochistic
to become a label that only puts out unreleased recordings from the past,
but that’s exactly what I had in mind. I’d call it “lost music”, it was not
even music sometimes, but whatever I dug up seemed to entertain a small,
lively crowd of fellow musical daredevils. So I kept digging.
Now, “digging” is a good verb here, whether it’s in a boot fair, climbing
about in someone’s shed or my own mind, it seems to suit the activity. It’s
sonic archaeology, and in many cases the recordings, once cleaned up, can be
of historic importance or of very serious new influence.
And because Trunk operates in an area not controlled or even considered worthy
by the major record labels, licensing costs can be low, making small runs of
these very special records workable, sometimes even profitable.
A decade on, Trunk is still alive, and other like-minded record labels have
sprung up, mining the past, looking at older and stranger places for music
that have never been tapped before. A fellow label based in Manchester
called Finders Keepers is a great example; it is busy bringing out lost
Czech film music, Turkish psychedelics and forgotten folk marvels to a new,
excitable audience. And it’s working, too.
So, to celebrate ten years of existence I’ve compiled a Top Ten list. To make
it easy for myself I’ve just concentrated on the music I’ve tracked down,
dug up, rescued from skips and released over the past decade. One track a
year if you like, which is about right, as most of these records take at
least 12 months to excavate. www.trunkrecords.com
THE THEME TO SCREEN TEST
Right, let’s begin with one of my earliest loss-making releases. Marching
There and Back is the real name of the track, and it’s by Sydney Dale.
It’s massively nostalgic, very hooky, was never commercially available, and
was guaranteed to lose money if I issued it. So I did. I couldn’t help
myself. It offered up a fine opportunity to put a hole in Michael Rodd’s
head.
SKETCHES OF ISRAEL BY MICHAEL GARRICK
This track comes from an album called Moonscape – the rarest British
jazz record ever released. Only 99 copies were made, back in 1964. This is a
beautiful bit of work; ethereal, slightly free, but still very listenable
and sublimely melancholic in parts. I have now guaranteed that more than 99
people can hear it.
INNER SPACE BY SVEN LIBAEK
Another rather large Trunk obsession is the one all about underwater music. I
blame it on old Sundays watching Jacques Cousteau. Well, this subaquatic
recording was discovered in Australia. Just imagine, warm underwater music
made by a Norwegian composer living in Sydney. It’s just got to be good
hasn’t it? Like jazz for sharks and pop for porpoises.
THE CLANGERS MUSIC
This highlights a big Trunk obsession, and that’s good music from outer space.
These knitted ETs come from the most charming sci-fi series yet made, a
Smallfilms production that predates our now common thoughts on recycling,
being nice to people and eating lots of soup. Vernon Elliott’s
astro-classical quintet grows in sound and stature with each new episode of
The Clangers, their first tiny crotchets eventually blossom into a
glorious space symphony.
MY SPECIAL MESSAGE, PENIS
For a long while Trunk Records was just my part-time work. To make ends meet
I’d also help my sister with her soft-porn mail-order business. She was a
very popular topless model, had started a fan club and rude mail was
arriving at her office by the van load. Some of the more curious
correspondence caught my eye, I collected it and a couple of years later I
produced a spoken word album called Dirty Fan Male using these
genuine words of love and sex.
FUZZY FELT FOLK
Naming a genre of sound after a children’s toy seemed like a really good idea
at the time. The name was originally conceived by Martin Green, a fellow
collector and vinyl nerd. He was simply mentioning that most of the folk
music that I hankered after and issued had a naive, strange and dark
quality, a little like Fuzzy Felt Hospital. Serial Killer Folk is another
way of describing it, but then that’s not really for children, and this is.
KES, OPENING AND TITLES
A year after The Clangers I started to chase the music from Kes.
It’s a harrowing movie by Ken Loach with a wondrous pastoral score played by
a killer London jazz lineup. The score was “lost”, until I managed to track
down the composer, John Cameron. He then managed to find the master tape in
his shed. The soundtrack was issued, Jarvis did the sleevenotes, and the
theme still flutters around my head every day.
QUANTUM BY BASIL KIRCHIN
Basil has to be one of our most popular, unpopular composers. An influence on
Brian Eno and the industrial movement of the mid 1970s, Basil broke all the
rules of recorded sound and what to do with it once you’ve got it. He hadn’t
made any albums for years, but after I got in touch with him he kept sending
me bizarre and beautiful music. This is a recording he made using insects,
autistic children, a tram and his singing wife.
KIDDUSH BY HERBIE HANCOCK
A classic example of what Trunk Records is all about. It’s a lost recording,
originally issued by a Jewish charity back in 1968. It’s a Hebrew prayer
ceremony featuring one of the true legends of jazz. When you listen it
sounds all wrong and it’s all so right at the same time. It’s the music that
the world has left behind, rubbished, thrown away, just like the other nine
recordings on this special Trunk list.
TIMEX BY THE MIKE SAMMES SINGERS
Good vocal harmony singing is to die for, especially if it’s about
wristwatches. Mike Sammes and his singers were the masters of this sonic art
and were employed by just about everyone – Streisand, Sinatra, even
Doonican. Tragically, I tracked Sammes down the week he passed away. His
neighbour phoned me and insisted I came to rescue his belongings. When I got
there all that remained were piles of manuscripts and boxes of forgotten
tapes. In among them were all Mike’s period advertising jingles. I put them
all together into a new album of period TV sound called Music for
Biscuits. Apparently it gets played on Saga Radio.
THE ART OF “DIGGING”
Consider digging both in town and way out of town. Don’t be put off by
thinking that every crate in a busy town has been well picked over. This is
a common misconception. And remember, people are often not looking for the
same thing as you. Examine everything quickly but efficiently and carefully,
because vinyl condition is of the upmost importance most of the time. There
is nothing worse than an unplayable record in a nice sleeve. Don’t be
hassled by other diggers trying to move you along quickly. Remain relaxed
and, if needs be, assert yourself – tell them you’ll be ages. Always ask if
the shop – especially if it is a charity shop – has “any more records out
the back”. Buy anything that you have never seen before, as well as anything
that gives you a “funny feeling”.
