It is one of the trademarks during late 60’s and 70’s : the Afro haircut was worn as the assertion of an identity, the symbol of the strong link with Africa. The famous slogan: Black Is Beautiful. A century later, this assertion remains very present on LP artworks. For political reasons, for aesthetic views, for trendy questions also… Back to certain pics which had participated in the history of the music.

A possible soundtrack…
We People Who Are Darker Than Blue by Curtis Mayfield

At Pourville, the beach where Jean Rollin ended most of his film

Andy Votel, appart from being a great DJ (check him when he’s in town, always worth it!) and a serious vinyl addict, is also at the head of forward thinking label Finders Keepers! Check and share the story of one of the busyest guy in the record bizness!

 
 
 

When did you start digging records?
Records were a forbidden fruit when I was very young, I wasn’t allowed to touch my parents records at all. But almost overnight they switched to cassettes (K7) and the records went in a cupboard. When I was around 8 years old my folks divorced and the records became plastic orphans! One day I took the LPs and did silly experiments like gluing toy cars to them and playing them backwards or painting them with Tippex or making loops by taping a lolly stick to the platter to make the needle jump, after that I used to ask everyone i knew if I could have their old records. Once I got a bin bag full of ex jukebox records including some early rap like Rhythm Talk by Jocko. I instantly identified with early hip-hop being about record abuse and from then it snowballed. I’m not entirely sure that I even liked music at this point.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
My dad had a flat that he rented out. One day a tenant skipped town and left his records behind. There was The Misfits, The Brothers Johnson and The White Album. I think that awkward mix has contributed to my eclectic taste. My first self-funded purchases were hip-hop albums but i almost instantly started buying the original samples… Cymande and Mandrill marked one significant early shopping trip in Manchester. Records were the absolute cheapest form of entertainment. I practically lived on car boot sales in my teens, but i grew up in a very white middle class area so the best i could muster was Funkadelic, George Macrae, James Brown, Bill Withers but i also saw expensive folk and easy listening. I learned to DJ using old turntables and speakers rescued from the tip / dump. Then started DJing at the school discos.

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
Not one in particular, I would say 1972… but pop music progressed at irregular rates in different countries so it’s pointless reading dates any more. People used to be obsessed with dates but its all changed. I have a few specialist subjects now, Post 68 French concept albums, Turkish pop, female punk, i’d like to add Italian library to that list but it’s becoming progressively unaffordable. There’s no punk attitude in antique collecting.

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yes, it’s the only thing that keeps me out of the pub. Record digging is like smoking a cigarette for me, it makes me feel secure.

What was your first release on Finders Keepers?
Jean Claude Vannier’s – ‘L’enfant Assassin Des Mouches’ in 2005. Although I did a compilation called Finders Keepers a few years prior to starting the label… and the same people who run Finders Keepers also did a compilation called Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word at exactly the same time. I previously started Twisted Nerve Records in 1997.

Jean-Claude Vannier
Les Gardes Volent Au Secours Du Roi

Why did you choose this name: Finders Keepers? A kind of double hat?
It’s obviously based on the popular phrase (Finders Keepers – Losers Weepers) but i’m never sure how well that translates globally.
I was a rapper in my teenage years and this was the title of one of our tracks. Boney Votel (Mark Rathbone) and myself basically rapped about digging for records and not much else. There was a bit of arrogance with the age and culture, now I guess the label should be called Finders Sharers but it doesn’t have the same ring to it does it? To be honest none of us have the physical space to “Keep” anything anymore.

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
Well our slogan is “Making Global Sound Local” so I guess that means putting very obscure music in a palatable context (or making it widely available). I decided at an early age to simply stop buying English or American records just as a form of discipline and this turned into a bit of a religion. There was a time quite recently where there was a lot of xenophobia in pop music. For example The annual English TV coverage of The Eurovision song contest was borderline racist year after year. Even since the label started the climate is a lot different, people have alway loved Brazilian (Portuguese) and French language music, but releasing Welsh and Hungarian music 20 years ago seemed insane to some people. The other phrase is “Making Old Record Feel Young” which is also about recontextualising old records (old records that actually sound more progressive than most modern music).

How do you decide on the choice of reissues?
We are at our most successful when we find a recording that is like nothing else in your collection, which is increasingly difficult but very rewarding. People think we make up these absurd genres for fun (Krautsider / Welsh Rare Beat / Turk Jerk) but we genuinely search for records that are free from any pigeonholes. Obviously there is a stylistic thread that involves loud drums, fuzz guitar, primitive electronics and female vocals but as the label gets older these kind of trends, alongside rarity or dance-floor compatibility, become irrelevant. One thing we are passionate about is not physically manufacturing records that are already available which is why we mostly release very rare records by default or totally unreleased master-tapes that have never been pressed before, in this sense we are not technically a re-issue label anymore.

Ten years ago, you did a lot of reissues about Anatolian scene in the 70’s. What motivate this choice ? And what was for you the most amazing artist?
For me ‘Selda’ was by far the best record to come out of that scene. She was well respected by the younger community and all the best musicians assembled to help her create that amazing first LP. I naturally always gravitate to female musicians and there are far less female composers in the the domains of Eastern music (as well as electronic music or library music) but she was special and much more important than the many female pop singers who followed. The synth and saz combination was the huge cherry that tilted the cake. When I first heard Turkish music I was blown away by the incredible FUZZ, it was much bigger than that of Big-Jim Sullivan or Micky Karoli from Can but then I realised it was actually a Saz and not a regular guitar so I was hooked. We also admire that the music scene was in no way reliant on the Western major labels, it was genuinely independent which is rare (even Greece, Pakistan and Israel had labels like EMI and CBS attempting to control the market). We managed to meet all of our heroes in Istanbul within 12 months and they all agreed that it was the first interest they had had from the West EVER! We could have released 50 further Turkish albums but the trend went through the roof and the bootleggers started chasing all the trophy titles and spoiled things a bit. We try not to repeat our selves too much, but i still buy for personal use. About twice a year i do a 5 hour Turkish-only DJ set just to flex that muscle.

Mustafa Ozkent
Burçak

You have released also such iranian productions, recorded at the same period. An objective link between those two scenes?
In some rare cases the same songs have come out in both Turkey and Iran, but its mostly the Arabesque stuff as opposed to the Anadolou pop. The main thing with the Persian records were that they were forbidden and often destroyed. The Iranian records have a more bitter-sweet story surrounding them and from my perspective they are more soulful whereas the Turkish stuff is more psychedelic and funky. Googoosh is quite possibly my favourite female recording artist of all time.

And was it difficult to obtain rights for those Lps ? How did you find all the people who owned rights?
Since the start of FK Doug and Myself have always had a wish-list and schedule that would keep us going for the next 5 years so we have never needed to bring other compilers on board. The two exceptions are Chris Menist and then Mahssa who runs the Finders Keepers office in Los Angeles, both of these people are mad vinyl junkies but understand the very important fact that it’s more important to connect with human being as opposed to pieces of plastic. Mahssa is Iranian and her family is part of the Iranian community diaspora in L.A. – The label owners were family friends.

Another part of F. K. catalog is more focused on early electronic stuffs, another global movement, like psychedelic. What is the unity between all those productions, from Lollywood soundtracks to T.R.A.S.E. (Tape Recorder And Synthesizer Ensemble)?
The Lollywood and Kollywood scenes were the poorer cousins of the huge Bollywood industry, so instead of huge orchestras they had to experiment with studio trickery, tape sampling and synthesisers. A lot of those ancient sounding strings are re-cycled off other old tracks which is why you find mono strings agains stereo synthesisers, it’s better if you don’t analyse it but there is a direct common thread between Massiera, Joe Meek and Ilaiyaraaja… in fact there is no difference apart from language, the indigenous influences are arguably the smallest detail. TRASE was a teenage synthesiser inventor, and an uncompromised one-man-band who worked on a pocket-money budget in a home studio… and there lies the unity.

You became one of the experts of French free jazz band avant-garde music developed in France. How can an Englishman dare?
It might sound a bit silly but I very rarely buy American or English records, I much prefer records manufactured in smaller economies. It’s really just a matter of paper and plastic. America has some of the greatest diggers in the world, living in Europe i’ll never be able to compete with people like Dante Carfagna, Johan Kugelberg and Egon on their own turf so I don’t bother. When I got interested in Free Jazz this became difficult so i turned to labels like BYG Actuel, Palm and Futura and then got a bit obsessed. I love the fact that bands like The Art Ensemble added the words “Of Chicago” so they could get gigs in Paris, i believe that France and the Pan African festivals played a huge role in free-jazz providing an appreciation that was not available in America and an unrivalled first hand inspiration for French musicians. I came to these records with French pop knowledge. I first heard Gilson because he worked with Gainsbourg’s drummer Pierre Dahan. I first heard Tusques because of his Jean Rollin films. AEOC via Fontaine. Also France’s history in musique concrete lead to the best electronic jazz music albums like Jacques Thollot and François Jeanneau (from Triangle). In a way French records have taught me about American music. You can also learn a lot by looking at all the people who Don Cherry has worked with on a global scale without having to buy American pressings

Googoosh
Talagh

What about your collaboration with cult producer Jean-Claude Vannier? And François Tusques?
When i was younger Vannier resembled The French David Axelrod, a few years later Tusques was like a French Mal Waldron. Axe and Waldron were staples of my teenage record collection, so after buying all their records I upgraded to French models. ‘L’Enfant Assassin Des Mouches’ is my favourite album of all time, it was the first record that Finders Keepers released and remains a benchmark for all of our records. He has also become a close friend. It feels like our relationship with Francois might go the same way.

In fact, do you believe this eclecticism of editorial line is a part of your force, of your identity?
Yes, I really don’t understand why people create specialist labels. It seems too calculated, too business-like.
The beauty of an independent label is you DON’T have to act like that. Our goal is for Finders Keepers to stand up as its own record collection which covers a lot of musical bases and hopefully for no two records to sound the same. I also think some FK records, like L’enfant Assassin Des Mouches and Holy Mountain, are almost like entire record collections in just one release. I love the way jazz labels like Futura and BYG randomly released experimental rock LPs like Gong, Ame Son or Jean Guerin’s ‘TACET’.

What is the Finders Keepers LP you are prouder? why?
The eclecticism makes this difficult so i’m proud for different reasons. I’m instantly proud of any album that was previously unreleased, that’s especially gratifying and life affirming for the label. Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders soundtrack and the Czech releases that followed are really important. Selda ticked a lot of boxes. Belladonna and Holy Mountain were both holy grails for the label and it took us 10 years to release them so i’m still very proud of them. We have lots of grails coming out in the next 18 months.

Most of your previous reissued LP’s are sold out. Do you plan to repress them?
Yes. There are just 1 or 2 artists that decided to double their fee so we had to let them go to other labels. And there’s even a couple of bootlegs of our FK albums out there!

Martial Solal
Electrodes

You work to release some tapes (K7). On one hand, we can consider that it is still about the vintage mode, on another hand, we can however consider it is the possibility to hear of the other unpublished sounds … Do you feel there is a specific market for that? And don’t you believe there is a kind of irony to publish K7 on vinyle in 2015?
The compact cassette was a great format for all types of DIY music from post-punk to PINA and allowed people to release music without too much financial speculation. If it wasn’t for the cassette a lot of music would have remained in the minds of constipated genius’. Most people we licence cassette masters from comment on how they always wanted to make vinyl but it was unaffordable or they couldn’t get a record deal to pay for it. My friend owns a successful cassette duplication company near my house, he has lots of vintage dead-stock raw material from all over the world, its a treasure trove. I sometime s DJ with cassettes fro special occasions.

Do you still discover a lot of unearthed obscure records these days? Where (on line, record dealers, flea markets…)?
Yes. I try not to buy records that are well known at all and don’t really buy records that Doug or any of my friends have. I’m aware that I have more records than i’ll ever get chance to properly listen too so there has to be certain disciplines. I rarely use dealers or boutique shops unless they are friends who are willing to trade, i don’t do much digging in the UK but i buy records every time i travel and mostly from that specific country. I much prefer messy unorganised shops to showrooms. The best place to dig is other peoples houses, or artists collections (including master-tapes). I also enjoy finding records in my own house, its always a good party trick!!!!

You had published many compilations, selections… Is it harder to sell this kind of issues today ? How do you think the market has evolved on these compilations?
Compilations belong with mix-tapes. They are an important staple in the history of record digging but are now virtually impossible to do legally without losing money, the accounting process is also a long-haul commitment. I was brought up with Ultimate Breaks And Beats and later compilations like The Folk Funk Experience and Nuggets Of Funk shaped the way i continued to buy records. Regardless of legitimacy I still have A LOT of respect for the people behind those releases but sadly that era has passed. I agree that the process has evolved a hell of a lot. I regard the process of finding the artist and knowing their story first-hand as an integral part of collecting in 2016… diggers who release compilations without getting the rights are not doing the full job. Anyone with money can find records in the internet age… now it’s all about the social aspect… in my opinion. From a buyers point of view i think the age of the “tastemaker” has faded along with DJ worship, as a record seller i know that people are no longer comfortable buying into another persons opinion/taste, they prefer to find an original artist and focus on the work as intended… and probably make their own compilations, so FK caters for this need. Today compilations really have to have a very strong concept, or focus on a particular studio or small label or micro-genre. Various Artists DJ friendly pic ‘n mix comps simply don’t sell enough to cover costs.

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
I am very persuasive and always willing to visit people to share our enthusiasm. In the early years people were sceptical… many artists thought we were ridiculing them but when they look at our website and discography they begin to understand that we have very solid relationships with over a 100 artists. The only time when things have not run smoothly is when middle-men or major-label execs have tried to position themselves in the deal. Holy Mountain took ten years to release after Abkco had said NO five times… I just kept asking and asking like a child and offered to send them flowers. They have since thanked us for giving them the impetus to retrieve the masters. Some people just say YES so I’ll go away!

Mehrpouya
Soul Raga

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
Yes, when teenage clothes shops are selling £30 180g re-issues of classic records that are already available in charity shops you know you are at saturation point. The fact that small labels who have always been faithful to the vinyl format can’t get any records made for 4 month leading up to Record Store Day because of Ghostbusters coloured vinyl picture discs proves that we are at crisis point. I have known new artists that insist that their music has to be on vinyl, later to find that they don’t even own a record player themselves. I think it’s important to think responsibly when mass producing vinyl. Projects should be era-specific and genuinely unavailable before people add to the pollution. 180g virgin vinyl doesn’t really suit what my kids are taught at school about recycling and protecting the environment.

Price for rare records go crazy these days. What do you think of this trend?
Vinyl used to be a punk gesture, a throwaway creative format which matched table-topping at buying clothes from thrift stores. Now it’s got more in common with antique dealing. The culture has been gentrified. Sadly i’m addicted to vinyl so i sometimes have to pay through the nose to complete circles that I opened 10 years before the gold-rush… and with this i often think i’m contributing to the problem. But I’m also not going to sell my rare doubles for half the price of everyone else am I?. Its a catch 22.
I know alot of people who have been in this game for 20 years plus, many of whom initiated niche-buying trends in Punk, Library music, Iranian 45’s, dance-floor psych, folk funk, Krautrock and paved the way for further generations of collecting – sampling – and influencing modern music… but nowadays they can no-longer afford to be part of the game. There’s no respect. MAny of these new vinyl antique dealers push the prices up for fun from the comfort of there well paid 9-5 jobs… they remind me of The Duke Brothers in Trading Places. It’s in danger of becoming elitist, less creative and eventually a bit lonely.

What are your next releases?
Unheard out-takes from Jean-Claude Vannier’s ‘L’enfant Assassin Des Mouches’ 1972 session with different arrangements and extra instrumentation. A totally unreleased electronic jazz soundtrack by Swiss composer Bruno Spoerri about Zurich’s Red Light District. The incredible unreleased score to Jess Franco’s Les Demons recorded by French Library cognoscenti. Unreleased Buchla synthesiser exhibition performances by Italian American composer Suzanne Ciani. A comprehensive collection of Italian soundtrack work by trio Frizzi/Bixio/Tempera who recorded with Goblin musicians under the name The Magnetic System. Some mesmerising unreleased new age synth explosions from a Hungarian animation soundtrack. An entire LP of unreleased electronic / mechanical / folk from the UK 1983 version of The Moomins. Some very rare François Tusques music. Some unknown electronic Don Cherry soundtracks…. And a particular unnamed Gainsbourg/Vannier holy grail x 2!!!!

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
There are so many but it’s probably best to keep them a secret, there’s much more competition now. I’ve been speaking to Francois Wertheimer for almost 10 years trying to release his Popera Cosmic LP, I came to visit him in Paris and he signed our contracts… unfortunately another well known French re-issue label also cut a deal with Guy Skornik (the co-writer) for the same record at the same time so we were stuck in checkmate! For a small fraction of time the music was almost liberated, but I think it might have slipped back into the clutches of a major label now… i really hope not. I think you’d agree that Finders Keepers is a good home for that record. If you don’t know Popera Cosmic well Finders Keepers are trying to Make It Local.

http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/

Check The Andy Votel’s Top5

Finders Keepers Radio Show Psychedelic Soul Special

Photo by Xavier Popy

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. This month, Bernard Ducayron from Le Souffle Continu, record shop and label, talked about his passion: music, from noisy impro to acoustic electro.

When did you start digging records?
My brother gave me Led Zeppelin’s “In Through The Outdoor” as a christmas present when I was thirteen, that was a shock ! I started digging / buying at sixteen.

What LP’s did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
As a kid, I was really into the hard rock/heavy metal scene, there was this NWOBHM (new wave of british heavy metal) thing at the time, I remember buying early Iron Maiden singles at Prisunic, then discovered Jukebox record store where you could find Kerrang magazine the bible for any heavy metal kid and all those crazy priced imports ! in the mid-eighties, Jukebox opened a second store dedicated to the more psyche / garage / acid sounds ; that’s the place where I discovered and dived into The Stooges, Velvet, the Real Kids, early Spacemen 3 stuff… the Stooges “Fun House” & MC5 opened the free jazz “Autobahn”, Sun Ra, Coltrane, Sanders, Ayler, I had to sell most of my heavy metal records then to get some money to buy second hand records. I still listen to most of these records.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
I don’t have a particular style, I mean when you grow up with music you get more and more open minded, I can listen to Eric B & Rakim, Peter Brötzmann, Black Sabbath, Funkadelic, Faust or Throbbing Gristle with the same pleasure!

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
I am still visiting record shops of course when I’m travelling and as a record dealer there’s something very special, a real pleasure in buying a record in another record store, but that becomes very rare as I don’t have much free time left.

Why did you choose this name, Souffle Continu, for your Record Shop and now for your label ?
Souffle Continu is the french word for circular breathing, a technique used by the Aborigines when playing the didjeridoo and some fantastic free jazz blowers like Evan Parker ; there’s also a meaning of resistance towards the decline of the record industry, we started the shop in 2008, we keep on breathing, fighting the good fight…

Until two years, you were more focused on CD, with only a few LP’s. Why did you decide to switch for only, more or less, vinyls?
We started eight years ago with 70% of CD because many of our customers at that time that were between 40 and 60 years old switched to CD in the mid-90’s and sold their entire vinyl collection! Most of them didn’t want to go back to vinyl. But the ever better evolving quality of downloads is slowly killing the CD format. You can easily resell your CD’s, or give it or even throw it so what’s the point of buying a CD when you can go for high quality downloads? As well, CD have never replaced the feeling of the vinyl, the sound, the artwork even the gesture of changing the side. All this leads to more and more vinyl production, and many new records are only available on vinyl format, so customers are naturally returning to the vinyl format because true lovers do not download!

You released at first 3 Heldon 45’s on Souffle Continu Records. Why this choice?
Richard Pinhas is a key figure in the french electronic underground and we’ve been friends for a long time. He had already signed reissues contracts on Heldon LP’s with Wah Wah & Superior Viaduct when we started the label and we loved those singles, they were unavailable for years so we thought we could start the label with this cool 7’’ format ; we did 700 of each and these are almost sold out now.

Red Noise
Sarcelles, c’est l’avenir

After a year and half, you have added ten references. Why this urgency? To build a real catalog? And who are your buyers?
We have been thinking and working on the label way before its effective start last year, so we had more than ten titles signed at the very beginning, and yes we want to build a real catalog, it’s easier to work with foreign distributors when you have upcoming titles announced. We have buyers from all around the world, a big part in the US, England, Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia and Japan ; sadly french customers only represent 10% of the sales even if at this point we have only reissued french artists!

What could be your editorial/esthetic line?
Our esthetic follows our tastes which ranges from free jazz to improv’, cosmic prog to kraut, industrial to electro acoustic.

How do you decide on the choice of reissues?
At this point we’ve been reissuing much needed and wanted records made by friends and artists connected with our activities as a record shop ; the rarity of a record is definitely a decisive point of choice but of course it comes after the music interest which is very decisive.

You released few great references (as Bernard Vitet ‘La Guepe’ or Red Noise LP) from Futura, the cult label of Gérard Terrones. How do you work with him for the reissue’s choices ? What could be the next LP’s?
Gérard is really connected to our activities, however is a tough guy that doesn’t want to look at the past ! We suggested him to go for the Red and Son reissue series on vinyl almost five years ago, but he never believed that could work even if the counterfeists on some of these recordings exists ; finally after years of discussions he allowed us to do the job ! We suggested a list of titles and he came back with what he felt was ok ; for some reason he didn’t allow the Theatre du Chêne Noir “Aurora” or “Perception” for exemple. The next LP’s in the Futura series are Triode, Horde Catalytique Pour La Fin & Travelling.

Each LP comes in an edition of 500 for the standard version and 200 for the limited version. Why did this double issue? And don’t you believe you could put on a market more than only 700 copys?
We made 1000 of the first three LP’s, Red Noise, Mahogany Brain & Semool, 700 black and 300 colored and we still have some stock on these, not that much but we thought the interest would be bigger. Then we did 1000 for the two Heldon live recordings, those are now sold out but they were launched for Record Store Day which make sells easier, so we’ve made 700 of the two latest ; maybe we were a bit shy as Tacet is almost sold out now in 6 weeks time. We will adjust the quantities depending of each release in the future.

You organize monthly, even more, meetings & events with musicians (signatures…). This aspect, I mean live music, seems to be important for yours aesthetics views. Do you believe a part of the music you like are strongly connected to live (think about free for instance)?
When we started the shop’s adventure more than seven years ago, we wanted a lively place, not just a new record store ; as said before our activities are strongly connected with musicians and producers. I remember how happy we were to welcome Pauline Oliveros for an instore 9 months after the grand opening of the store. We’ve had Archie Shepp, Jean-Jacques Birgé, Saul Williams, Serge Teyssot-Gay, Joelle Leandre, Jac Berrocal, Michel Bulteau, Jacques Coursil to name a few. One of the highlights was Simon Finn playing in front of 15 people like if he was in front of a sold out crowded venue and François Bayle for his 80th birthday explaining how he wrote some of his musical pieces and the birth of the GRM, that was fantastic! And yes Free is definitely a live music.

There are more and more reissues of old LP’s, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
The reissue market is getting really crazy but there are so many needed reissues you know! People cannot go for 500 € originals and the reissues comes for 20/25€. The pollution comes from majors now, who the hell needs the complete Van Halen recordings boxsets or Edith Piaf ! The prices are going pretty crazy too since the dollar / euro rates are almost even, new records are definitely too expensive.

Heldon
Baader Meinhof Blues

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
No, not yet in our short lived experience as a label!

What are your next releases ?
Next we have Triode, Travelling & Horde Catalytique Pour La Fin due mid-January 2016.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
I don’t have a holy grail as I’m not a completist, but I’d be really happy to reissue some of the works of Kevin Martin with his past projects as God, Ice or Techno Animal ! He is definitely one of the best musician/producer of the last decades in my opinion.

http://www.soufflecontinu.com
 

Schizo
Le Voyageur