Records I Can't Afford

So many records, so few dollars. Just looking through my Discogs wantlist and it's a depressing sight - some have been there for years and will probably never be acquired. Damn you disco diggers! Anyway, we can at least try and enjoy some of the tunes as woeful mp3s or crappy bootlegs and dream of someday striking oil or inheriting a 600 acre estate from a long lost relative.

First up is an aquatic gem from Richard Schneider Jr's first of only two albums. If you were commandeering a submarine into the far reaches of the galaxy you'd probably be listening to either this or John Forde. I can't help hearing Forde's vibe in Schneider's music and vice versa - I wonder if 'John Forde' was actually just one of old Richie boy's side projects where he experimented with falsetto and a bit less acoustic guitar. Chilling on the beach or exploring the cosmos, it's beautiful music.

Richard Schneider Jr. - Samba-Trip

This Rare Function nugget is a pricey little beast of a 7" but it's inferno-grade hot. Sitting pretty in 1976, there's none of the disco glam or zazzle to sugar coat it, it's just a proper live soul jam. Horns blasting and black people having bubbly background conversations, talking in that way that somehow makes a track 15 times funkier, saying stuff like "yeah c'mon dig it mmm ohhhh baby yeah mama get down" and such. The stuff people like Quantic worship.

Rare Function - Disco Function

Ah Space Art, you clever Frenchies. Welcome To Love is such a gorgeous robot balad. It's got an air of longing and sorrow that's very special. I think it's about two computers who are in love but are somehow incompatible - an IBM and an Apple Macintosh doomed to be kept apart because of their interface differences and programming heritage, despite both having a heart of 0s and 1s. How poignant.

Space Art - Welcome To Love

Chris Craft's only album is a curious rarity and an ahead-of-its-time obscure jewel. It's a synthtastic journey around the stranger regions of the cosmos with rich electronic textures and loads of melodies floating around. The title track is a bit dark and sits in a more upbeat range and would be a bit more suited to an interplanetary dance floor with some of these dudes carving it up.

Chris Craft - Discosmic Dancer

So if anybody wants to buy me any of those that would be just great :)