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From a nonchalant look at the tracklisting you can guess that his has a high underground content that wonders around the dub, psychedelic, electronic, world and general cosmic areas. The opening ten minutes/five tracks are crammed with all this and you need to prepare yourself for the steel pan version of ‘The World Is A Ghetto’ by Amral’s Trinidad Cavaliers. All this so early on, you begin to be amazed and wonder at what sort of label Finders Keepers Records is?

Well you might think it was some sort of West Coast 60s-70s trip out jazz-hop groove with a load of European exiles; but you’d be wrong. Based in London, these guys have spent the last 4 years re-releasing some underground greats and The Gaslamp Killer (aka William Benjamin Bensussen) has picked and mixed some of the best tracks. These include, a set from their very first release by Jean-Claude Vannier that’s some sort of TV theme set in the 60s, followed by ‘Sitting Target’ (Main Theme) by Stanley Myres (after the only bit of scratchin’) and for hip-hop jazz heads, Omega ‘Kergeskezu Favagok’ is probably the best ‘find’

An evening of Finders Keepers is definitely something to work on and this is a great 101 instruction. For world psych-out, it’s Ersen’s ‘Gunese Don Cicegem’ and B-Music - Cross Continental Record Raid Road Trip must be a hell of an album as not only has it got the aforementioned The World Is A Ghetto’ on it, there’s Pierre Cavallii’s ‘Un Soir Chez Norris’; surfice to say this Norris is as much of a hip-cat as funky soul brother Mustafa Özkent and there’s even a bit of surf guitar for you (The Stylers) plus, fans of Jonny Trunk will admire ‘Dance Of The Vampires’ for its comedic sub-Klanger references.

Gaslamp’s technique is to twin or triple up tracks that are mostly at odds with each other but he’s managed to keep it impressively/strangely coherent and flowing; nearly al a Joris Voorn but he’d never ‘pair’ up Mustafa Özkent ‘Zeytinyağlı’ (another big tune) with Susan Christie as the meat in the sandwich with ‘Man With A Typewriter’; who are Jiri Slitr & Jiri Sust?

If you’re a fan of The Strange Dreams Of Paul White and/or Andy Votel’s emphasis on prog/Arabic/soundtrack obscurities and the whole West Coast Prefuse73, Flying Lotus, Daedelus beat crews, The Gaslamp Killer and this album are essential. And what with the news of that other hero of the West Coast (Peanut Butter Wolf) compiling and mixing a back to the old skool hip-hop album (review coming HERE soon), it just goes to show that the compilation mix-tape format is still very necessary and both are very recommended.

Reviewed: V/A - All Killer: Finders Keepers Records 1-20 Mixed By The Gaslamp Killer (Finders Keepers Records / Twisted Nerve) Cat. No: TN088 Release date: May 2009
Tracklisting:
1-1 Luboš Fišer - The Sermon
1-2 John Hill - Europa
1-3 Jan Jankeje - South Indian Line
2-1 Spectre - Arkham
2-2 Chris Harwood - Wooden Ships
2-3 Susan Christie - Paint A Lady
2-4 Jean-Jacques Dexter - Be Quite
3-1 Amral’s Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Drum Orchestra - The World Is A Ghetto
3-2 Jean-Claude Vannier - Les Garde Volent Au Secours Du Roi
4-1 Jean-Claude Vannier - L’Enfant La Mouche Et Les Alumettes
4-2 Jean-Claude Vannier - L’Enfant Au Royaume Des Mouches
5-1 Stanley Myers - Sitting Target Main Theme
5-2 Stanley Myers - Solitaire
5-3 Omega - Kergeskezu Favagok
5-4 Sevil And Ayla - Bebek
6-1 Zafer Dilek - Yekte
6-2 Yamasuki - Kono Samourai
6-3 Sarolta Zalatnay - Hadd Mondjam El
6-4 Yamasuki - Yama Yama
6-5 Selda - Yaylalar
7-1 Ersen - Güneşe Dön Çiçeğim
7-2 Pierre Cavalli - Un Soir Chez Norris
8-1 Vampires Of Dartmoore - Dance Of The Vampires
8-2 Sarolta Zalatnay - Egyser
8-3 Mustafa Özkent - Burçak
9-1 Sarolta Zalatnay - Zold Borostyan
9-2 The Stylers - For You
9-3 Mustafa Özkent - Silifke
10-1 Mustafa Özkent - Zeytinyağlı
10-2 Susan Christie - Europa (Poetry)
10-3 Jiri Slitr & Jiri Sust - Sugar Stealers
10-4 Jiri Slitr & Jiri Sust - Man With A Typewriter
11-1 John Hill - Amalthea
11-2 Ersen - Zalım
12-1 Bruno Spoerri - Les Electroniciens
12-2 Jiri Slitr & Jiri Sust - Girlies, Girlies

Links:
www.thegaslampkiller.com
www.myspace.com/thegaslampkiller
www.finderskeepersrecords.com