The Wantlist - You Were a Melody

29 October 2024

I've never really been one to talk about owning a rare, expensive record. It seems to be the hot topic whenever it comes to any form of collectors item - largely carried out by men above a certain disposable income threshold. Trainers, Pokémon cards, comic books - the list goes on. Collecting itself is a practice with a very old history - in Mesopotamia, collecting practices have been noted among royalty and elites as far back as 3rd millennium BCE (source: Wiki)

So imagine my excitement last week when I noticed that I own two 7" records which can currently sell for over £100 each, yet I paid probably £40 for both.

Welcome to The Wantlist. This is a safe space for the chin strokers, and also one where my 5 social media followers, including my mother, can keep up to date with what is stored within my brown Mukatsuku bag.

I’ve shared music on online radio stations, here in the UK like Limbo Radio, Balamii, Subtle FM, abroad via Rinse France. I've also travelled abroad to share music around Europe, played at festivals and even closed a stage at We Out Here this year. But one of my favourite ways to do it is by writing words on my computer and sharing it on the internet. Well aren't you in for a treat.

The first installment covers 4 modern soul and gospel records, 2 worth quite a bit of cash, and 2 cheap and cheerful.

Let's dive in;

Allspice - Slipped Away

Slipped Away I came across first in 2020. Chris Wheatley played it on a Lockdown Community Radio show when I invited him, Micky and Ali down for a show all about Warm Agency. The second time I stumbled across it was on a Do!! You!!! radio show couple years later - can't remember who played it but I was WFH and noticed this was the second time I was shazaming int. It's not always a song will fully grab my attention, but this was one of those rare songs that did just that - it's what brought me here writing this I suppose. 

To tie the story together nicely, Charlie Bones is on the Warm roster, and one day Micky Brown, also a Warm bandit, had the copy I purchased for sale. It seemed right, at £25 too. The discogs sale history suggests it was a bargain as this and the LP both sold for triple digits not very long before now.

Nu'Ron's - Hurry Up Tomorrow

The second 7" I noticed that's quite expensive on discogs, and in my possession, is one I purchased blindly, not knowing that it would become pricey. I did hope that it would end up that way to be honest. With Slipped Away I already knew it was a spenny record - this one though, there were still new copies available from source when I purchased late 2020 on bandcamp.

Released on Symphonical in 2017, 'The Nu'Rons are a family group consisting of two sets of brothers & cousins. Finding their voice in the local Church singing gospel." 

I purchased this one around the same time Symphonical released their first compilation, The Key To Our Love Vol. 1. It must have been a radio show I listened to or something, cus I bought 3 copies of that and thought the same thing - this is going to be expensive.

Enter shark Kyle. 

I gave 2 copies of the compilation away, 1 to Justin and 1 to Miche - two of my closest counterparts in this DJ game. I had to retract 1 of the gifts though because I'm an idiot and forgot I put a copy for sale on discogs. At £10 profit too my idea was already in fruition. I do still owe JC a record but something tells me the 2nd copy I bought of Ya Farhi Bheek that I gave to him makes up for my idiotic shark behaviour. 

Fast forward 4 years later and the last 7" copy of "Hurry Up Tomorrow" has sold for £138. 

I win.

Cinnamon Sillhouettes - I'll Show You How 

Now out of today's selection I definitely ran out of expensive 7" records to show off - out of the 80 records in my Mukatsuku bag I only have 2 that exceed a triple digit figure. Maybe shark Kyle isn't such a thing after all.

My third choice I think will go in that direction one day. Another slow soulful gospel feel, this time courtesy of Melodies International, a label not that's no stranger in my collection. Any fan of Floating Points will already be thinking there's probably a fat chance this will even reach £50 in value given that I think Melodies and Flo Po are both quite big now so it's probably not been a limited run of pressings - I don't care enough to investigate but would love to DJ discourse about it if you have any info and or are interested in the topic. I say this because when I first started collecting records it was not uncommon for the discogs prices to soar when DJ's played certain records on say Boiler Room or popular Soundcloud / Mixcloud uploads. I'm thinking of MCDE's Dekmantel Boiler Room - or even the London one before that where he plays Juicy Sushi released on Black Cock Records and the Whities guy pulls it up or knocks into it, I cant remember exactly.

I'll Show You How comes courtesy of Cinnamon Sillhouettes. Like all of the music shared in this post, this one reaches low into the gut and will churn the emotions inside you to a point where you have no choice but to surrender. Incredibly beautiful and a record which has very little history to go along with it. Or atleast the history of the band and artists may have been long forgotten due to it being a private pressing of the "late legendary producer, Kearney Barton". 

One to watch. Or one to purchase. Whilst it's cheap. 

Rita Joyce - Dancing Close

Generally speaking, I don’t think anyone who knows me would expect to hear many soft modern soul love songs when they come to spend time w/ me and see me DJ - it’s not a part of my asthaetic. Or that’s what I think anyway. 

Let’s take my counterparts as an example, Justin and Miche. We can throw Pylon Soundz in there too but for purposes of this record lets stick w/ those two scoundrels. I’d argue that they both went down a route where 70's soul music was the forefront of their “sound” for many years. Songs you would generally come to hear during a Floating Points DJ set anywhere, or one of MCDE’s State of Rhythm radio shows on Worldwide FM. It would be more fitting for those two to be writing about 7inch slow soulful records, yet here we are.

Given this style of music, it takes a very special song for me to be interested. And this one does just that.

Always quite partial to a beautiful female vocal, this one is in no part short of that. 

I cannot recall where I heard it first, but it follows that same sound aesthetic. Gorgeous.

That's it for today - there's more on the way though. For now, I'll leave you w/ a mix below which covers a similar style of music, in a way. And seeing as this was inspired by Floating Point's recent Boiler Room, it's a recording of a party that was curated by the man himself, and I believe is run alongside the Melodies International record label.

Speak to you next time.

K