Felix NEill

Finders Keepers is a super cool record label which specialises in "introducing fans of psychedelic / jazz / folk / funk / avant-garde and whacked-out movie musak to a lost world of undiscovered vinyl artifacts from the annals of alternative pop history.

"Catering to record collectors and DJ-producers alike with a huge emphasis on sample friendly soundscapes, rocksteady back-beats and primitive electronic experimentalism. Discerning purveyors of the bizarre and abnormal should expect the Japanese choreography records, space-age Turkish protest songs, Czechoslovakian vampire soundtracks, Welsh rare-beats, bubblegum folk, drugsploitation operatics, banned British crime thrillers and celebrity Gallic Martini adverts... presented on CD, 7" and traditional black plastic discs in authentic packaging...

"Manc-based vinyl-vulture, recording artist and record producer Andy Votel enlists the skills of fellow B-Music DJ and designer Dominic Thomas and Delay 68's Rare Disc Detective Doug Shipton to form a team of psychedelic librarians and cosmic-pop-quiz-elitists to run their new Twisted Nerve distant sister-label, leaving no progressive pebble unturned or record collection un-rifled."

These guys have unearthed some truly staggering and unbelievably exciting stuff in the few years they've been operational and I heartily recommend that you go and have a look at their website. Everything is packaged and presented with real love and the quality control is beyond belief.

One of my favourite strands of theirs is the "Lollywood" soundtrack material recorded in the EMI studios in Lahore, Pakistan, before the Western influences were deemed increasingly culturally unacceptable. For clarification, if Bombay is equal to Bollywood, then Lahore equals Lollywood.

"Commonly, ignorantly but understandably lumped in with its wealthy not-too-distant cousin, Bollywood, Lollywood was inspired by, but often overshadowed by its posh and well-traveled relative. Following the simplistic Bombay + Hollywood = Bollywood name game (that would in later years spawn Nollywood in Nigeria), Lollywood's Lahore based film industry was a profitable and vibrant one that found great success in the modest boundaries of its own country but was seldom savoured outside Pakistan. However, the hugely important musical business spawned a bi-product that was viewed as a potential earner for international entertainment industry, EMI, which allowed talented musicians to create ambitious music with world class mediums at their disposal, which throughout the 60s and 70s ranged from fuzz-guitars, space-echo machines and American and European synthesizers, but, due to the composers indigenous roots, rarely a drum-kit. Here you'll find fuzzy, scuzzy, twang-happy, spaced-out and funked up urdu-grooves complete with harmonium melodies and driven by some of the most random factor, freakish, finger-numbing, percussion that the South East Asian mainstream has ever had to offer. Above all, Lollywood soundtracks sound RAW! Re-imagine some of the most action packed Bollywood productions (which Lollywooders actively did) then fire the make-up department, take away the special effects budget and then improvise. The lack of gloss on a dusty Pakistani mini-LP makes for truly experimental Eastern Pop music."

Have a listen to Dama Dam Mast Qalandar (The Sound Of Wonder) and you will be, as I am, transported and delighted. Those English lyrics written in a second language are among some of the finest I can recall hearing, like, ever:

"Get together, don't be lonely
Life is a game of few days only
What is happiness and what is sorrow?
Don't think, sing with me
Die with me, Humanity"

Combined with those big fat Moog lead lines and the clatteringly funky backing, this is truly magical shit.

Download then go and buy something.

320 Kbps.

Expired.