Electric Eclectics

Added three more classic albums to my library!

First I spotted Moog: The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman at a flea market.

If you’re not familiar with the album, it’s got some great Moog tunes, including a track that Beck sampled on his album, Odelay.  The first few seconds of the track should be instantly familiar.

Here’s “The Moog and Me.”

Next up I found a copy of a double LP Underworld album missing from my vinyl collection at a great price (and in the States, no less) so I couldn’t resist ordering it.

Beaucoup Fish came out in 1998/99 and includes both cerebral headphone tunes (such as “Winjer”) and floor-stomping concert-encore anthems like “Moaner.”

But I saved the best for last.  I’ve been on the look out for modal and more downtempo works by Miles Davis as I better acquaint myself with his catalog.  In a local record shop I passed a repressing of an album called In a Silent Way.

The title had “ambient” potential so I went home and looked it up.  Ten minutes into side B I was tracking down a mint first pressing on the Web.

Astonishingly, I found a man who had purchased a copy in 1969 when it came out, played it for a few minutes on his turntable, and then shelved it for 43 years because he thought it was, “boring!”

Have a listen to the title track from side B.

And watch for the funky little bass line that creeps up on you at 08:18.  I think that was the moment when I smiled and said, “it will be mine.”