Michal Turtle

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shadowplay
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Michal Turtle

Post by shadowplay » Tue May 15, 2018 7:10 am

Long shot but faint heart never won fair maiden.

I absolutely love the releases on Music From Memory and over the past year or so they've released a couple of compilations and a 12' by lost postpunkfunkfourthworlder Michal Turtle. I have absolutely loved the records and at the same time been quite frustrated with myself in not discovering his 80's record Music From The Living Room which rather maddeningly I was pretty much standing right next to when I h]bought other Shout label records by the likes of Shoc Corridor, Headhunters and The Lucy Show.

I thought about doing one on Phantoms Of Dreamland but now there's a few records out I thought I'd give it a go.

Michal was an Englishman who now lives in Switzerland who recorded most of his music at home, often just on a portastudio which somehow still sounds fantastic and made a living playing in orchestras and it's a real shame it's taken this long for it to find a wider audience. He's hard to pin down but he tends to work out of a broadly fourth world territory and reminds me of everything from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts to, Jon Hassell, to Hula, to A Certain Ratio, to A Primary Industry, to 23 Skidoo, to Shoc Corridor, to Maximum Joy, to Material, to Cabaret Voltaire, to Clock DVA, to Japan, to Allez Allez, early 70's Miles Davis, to ECM, to Grace Jones and on and on.

He's an odd one, on the one hand he definitely owns a fez and surely wears his bass just under his chin but on the other hand his music is often deeply in the shade and prone to taking unexpected very post punk swerves.

Full stream ahead matey!

Phantoms Of Dreamland 2X12 compilation.

Return To Jeka 1X12 compilation

Are You Psychic? / Astral Decoy 12'. This is from fucking 1983 and yet it could be brand new. Magical!

D

P.S. Music From Memory is indeed a brilliant label and a really good first dip would be
Uneven Paths: Deviant Pop From Europe 1980​-​1991, check out the track by Violet Eves if you've only got time for one, or add in Lost Gringos if you have time for tea for two.
Are you loathsome tonight?

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Re: Michal Turtle

Post by Jaguar018 » Tue May 15, 2018 11:24 am

I feel like you have to have been in the deep end for a while to really appreciate most of this.

Maybe it's just me, but going into this comps and artists while you're still wet behind the ears will just lead to confusion.

I like some of it, but I feel like I don't have some of the essential sonic foundations to appreciate it all the way.

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Re: Michal Turtle

Post by shadowplay » Tue May 15, 2018 9:42 pm

Jaguar018 wrote:
Tue May 15, 2018 11:24 am
I feel like you have to have been in the deep end for a while to really appreciate most of this.

Maybe it's just me, but going into this comps and artists while you're still wet behind the ears will just lead to confusion.

I like some of it, but I feel like I don't have some of the essential sonic foundations to appreciate it all the way.
Thanks for checking itnout and taking the time to reply. It's possibly not for everyone but I think it's really approachable and full of absolute gems.

As for the compilation angle, the Michal Turtle material is nearly all unreleased so sweeping it all into compilations makes a lot of sense. The Deviant Pop one is just a great listening compilation filled with great songs you'd probably have to be far off road to know. I've been out in the deep end for a long time but I only owned a handful of tracks off it and they've pretty much picked the right tracks off those and off the other artists I've run down after hearing their track.

I don't really buy back catalogue or at least I'm all back catalogued up but one of the really great recentish trends has been the release of music by long lost bedroom artists and much loved cassette releases finally getting a new life on a more civilised format.

D
Are you loathsome tonight?

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