VERTIGO RECORDS

Gracious! - first two
May Blitz - the second one is a bit better I think
Aphrodite's Child - 666. I avoided this for years, knowing it was Vangelis-related and thinking it would be too new agey.

Colosseum is pretty good but kind of patchy. The Nucleus I've heard is great. Ramases is ok but mostly interesting because it's the 10cc guys.

I definitely want to hear Jimmy Campbell - Half Baked because the title track is really great.

What is it like? The song Half-Baked starts out with that great downer folk vibe but then it starts rocking out. Does the album mostly rock out or is there any more of the mellow baked stuff?

Jimmy Campbell – “In My Room” – I don’t even know if Jimmy’s Half Baked album on Vertigo is rated, let alone under or over or sidewaysdownrated by Mojologically-inclined historians of post-mod squad baroque pop, and I don’t really know if there is anything I can do –singlehandedly- to remedy this situation, nor do I know whether I even feel up to the task. My new motto, when I’m in my cups, is: “Screw it. I’ve got a copy.” Let them eat Badfinger. Or Eric Carmen. Or Al Stewart for all I care. I dig and I dig until I can’t dig anymore. I climb thru windows. I get down on my knees. I go thru the mold and muck of forgotten cellars. I reach out and up. My hands -literally- bleeding to find a piece of that sweet soothing sound that my dreams are not only infested with, soaked in, trembling within, but that my very soul requires to make light of the fear-crazed eyes I have seen in the past. In hospital beds. On the streets. In the mirror. “In My Room” is great. And not to be confused with Fatty Sandbox’s pity party of the same name.

Fairfield Parlour's Home to Home (basically the third Kaleidoscope album, and really good) was on Vertigo, but I would guess it was only a UK release.

I FUCKING LOVE BABE RUTH, but i don't think they were on Vertigo. amg says they were on Harvest or One Way. i think they might need their own thread soon.

i also have that Fairfield Parlour album, but am totally torn. at first i thought it was too cute, but the more i listen to it, the more it grows on me.

and i listened to "This is Gracious" today and IT'S FUCKING AMAZING. the first song suite (20minutes long) has everything i've ever hoped a song would have. weirdo sound effects, gnarly blood pumping heavy proto-metal, proggy chops, folk, funk, organ, choirs.

walter, did you DL that High Rise from that grammy.ru link i gave you? it's really heavy and pretty rad. the singer does sound a lot like jim morrison though. anyways, you can find a ton of these albums at that site

anyways, you need to click the individual songs >> and then right click the floppy disc icon and save to desktop. it'll save as a php document, but then change the extension to mp3 and it should play. it's sorta convoluted, but it works and they have tons of great shit on there.

"In my box" is proto-Wire. You check this.
"I will always feel the same" is a 'hit ballad' that sounds like it was recorded in half an hour and the singer sounds arsed. In a good way.

"Paper Plane" is great, the rest you can have.

Suspiciously cheap.

Suspiciously non-gatefold sleeve.

Suspiciously brand new pressing.

Sounds fine, though. I did have the orig, but on the 'spaceship' label. Note: Ruckzeug had two false endings on the one I had, one on "Suck it and see" compilation, and none on this new version.

Apart from the black sabbath albums, which are obv k-classic, It's a bit spotty, just like deram nova & harvest, but perhaps a bit better overall? "Gracious!" and Cressida "Asylum" are my favourites.

just started listening to the Tudor Lodge album and so far, it's pretty fucking rad. if the only vocals on it were that high pitched, super vibrato, folky, female singing voice, i probably wouldn't love it. but the close male/female harmony singing really is great. it gives it a nice soft-pop free design type sound.

there really are a lot more records on the label than i realized. Stormy gave me a copy of Buffalo's "Volcanic Rock" that's pretty thudtastic. i've said it before, but early soundgarden sounds exactly like this record.

so, is the difference between these stickers when the label stopped being called vertigo swirl and started being called vertigo spaceship (or however people refer to them?)

Mark, I'm pretty sure non-gatefold means it's a repro/counterfeit. I have the same record and it is gatefold, seems unlikely that there would have been a different edition.

(xpost)

now if i could only get the Juicy Lucy & Gravy Train albums.